The most dramatic change in American society in the last forty years has been the explosive growth of personal rights. This "Rights Revolution" is currently under attack by both mainstream conservatives and intellectual liberals as undermining traditional values of community. In replying to the critics, Samuel Walker details the history of the rise of rights in American society, from the birth of the civil rights movement to today, and provides a spirited defense of its success in actually enlarging and enriching our sense of community in the USA.


The slope of the yield curve has achieved some notoriety as a simple forecaster of economic growth. The rule of thumb is that an inverted yield curve (short rates above long rates) indicates a recession in about a year, and yield curve inversions have preceded each of the last six recessions (as defined by the NBER). Very flat yield curves preceded the previous two, and there have been two notable false positives: an inversion in late 1966 and a very flat curve in late 1998. More generally, though, a flat curve indicates weak growth, and conversely, a steep curve indicates strong growth. One measure of slope, the spread between 10-year bonds and 3-month T-bills, bears out this relation, particularly when real GDP growth is lagged a year to line up growth with the spread that predicts it.


When a giraffe (Giraffa camelopardalis) lowers its head to drink, blood could enter the Jugular vein from the Inferior vena cava or regurgitate from the Jugular veins into the cranial veins. We investigated the anatomy of Jugular valves in giraffes to establish if they could prevent either of these regurgitations. Jugular vein length and intervalve distances of 396 valves (192 left, 204 right) were measured in 60 veins from 25 adult (11 males and 14 females) and five foetal giraffes. The average number of valves in the left Jugular veins was 6.4 ± 2.7 (mean ± S.D.; range = 2-13) and in the right was 6.8 ± 2.1 (range = 3–12). Male giraffes had 7.3 ± 2.7, females 5.9 ± 2.1, and foetuses 7.0 ± 2.1 valves per vein. None of these differences was statistically significant (t-test; P > 0.05). Most valves (88%) were bicuspid in structure. Their position in the veins was Irregular. Most (36.1 %) were located in the first 500 mm of vein. The relative distribution of foetal valves was not significantly different from that in adult giraffes (&khgr;2 = 0.274, P > 0.05). We concluded that the main function of the Jugular vein valves is to prevent regurgitation of blood from the Inferior vena cava and right atrium Into the Jugular vein and that the number of valves is fixed in utero.


: Achieving lower morbidity and higher survival rates in the treatment of childhood leukemia has been a paradigm of success in modern oncology. However, serious long-term health complications occur in very large populations of childhood leukemia survivors, in the case of both acute lymphoid leukemia and acute myeloid leukemia (AML). Additionally, 15% of acute lymphoid leukemia patients have treatment failures, and rates are even higher in childhood AML. In the last decades, as a result of well-tested experiments that statistically analyzed treatment cohorts, new agents have emerged as alternatives or supplements to established treatments, in which high survival and/or less morbidity were observed. This review provides an overview of better practice in the treatment of childhood leukemia.


Several episodes of airborne mineral dust transported from the Saharan deserts were observed at Sal Island, Cape Verde for 2–28 September 2006 during the NASA African Monsoon Multidisciplinary Analyses (NAMMA) field experiment. Dust particles were mixed with marine background aerosols when the dust layers descended into the marine boundary layer. A new method is developed to derive the optical properties of dust when mixed with maritime aerosols. The derived single scattering albedo and mass scattering efficiency differed significantly between two selected cases leading to differences in their direct radiative effects. Back‐trajectory analyses suggest that the two cases were influenced by dust particles originating from different source regions over North Africa. This stresses the importance of resolving dust optical properties in sub‐regional scales to attain a better assessment of the role of airborne dust on the climate system.


A compelling portrait of rock's greatest guitarist at the moment of his ascendance, Stone Free is the first book to focus exclusively on the happiest and most productive period of Jimi Hendrix's life. As it begins in the fall of 1966, he's an under-sung, under-accomplished sideman struggling to survive in New York City. Nine months later, he's the toast of Swinging London, a fashion icon, and the brightest star to step off the stage at the Monterey International Pop Festival. This momentum-building, day-by-day account of this extraordinary transformation offers new details into Jimi's personality, relationships, songwriting, guitar innovations, studio sessions, and record releases. It explores the social changes sweeping the U.K., Hendrix's role in the dawning of "flower power," and the prejudice he faced while fronting the Jimi Hendrix Experience. In addition to featuring the voices of Jimi, his bandmates, and other eyewitnesses, Stone Free draws extensively from contemporary accounts published in English- and foreign-language newspapers and music magazines. This celebratory account is a must-read for Hendrix fans.


Photons from sunlight with energy slightly higher than that of the band gap of silicon create electric current within a photovoltaic (PV) cell. However, many photons from sunlight have either insufficient or excess energy. This study was conducted to find the effect of different photon transmission mediums on the temperature and voltage output of photovoltaic cells. Two different photovoltaic cells were tested under a 20-watt halogen lamp with 6 transmission mediums: 5% NaCl solution, 5% sugar solution, deionized (DI) water, canola oil, extra virgin olive oil (EVOO), and the control (air). It was hypothesized that the mediums with higher specific heats would result in relatively lower temperature increases, maintain higher voltages and have increased efficiencies compared to the mediums with lower specific heats. The voltage drop for EVOO, canola oil and air were higher than that of the aqueous solutions such as 5% sugar solution, 5% NaCl, or DI water. The results show an estimated increase of 5-6% in the performance of conventional photovoltaic cells by simply placing a layer of aqueous solution above the PV cell.


This paper uses data from a survey of 710 Michigan farm families who actively sought assistance in transitioning from farm to off-farm employment during the period of 1986 to 1988. Respondents were divided into three transition groups depending on the degree to which they depend off-farm income. The three groups represent farm households that have completely transitioned out of agriculture, largely transitioned out, and those who are still primarily dependent on agriculture. Results reveal that 33 percent have made a complete transition, 48 percent are part-time farming, and 19 percent are full-time farming. Those practicing part-time farming were found to have higher incomes than those who completely quit farming and those full-time farming. Education, application of skills to off-farm employment, and the gender of household members seeking employment assistance were found to be significant factors in the ability to transition out of farming. Allocation of family labor was also found to be important--those who have made the greatest economic recovery most often had two family members working off-farm in 1990.


A summary of responses to a questionnaire sent to bridge designers and owners in the United States, Great Britain, Europe, Japan, and Canada is presented. Features of the response include overall geometry of the structures, such as radii and span lengths. Other information, such as bearing design, diaphragms and special construction considerations, is also considered. Empirical equations are fitted to the data to define the enclosed area of box and area of bottom flange plate at supports of continuous spans. Specific details as to stiffening and the influence of fatigue are discussed. This paper provides a summary of many of the aspects involved in the design of curved box girders, with the intention that this information will aid in the development of future designs when this category of structure is selected.


Current understanding of rolling contact fatigue is reviewed. The stress developed in the subsurface as a function of loading conditions, along with the resulting microstructural changes are described. Focusing on the dissolution of hardening phases and the occurrence of recovery and recrystallization, the relationship between load and microstructure evolution is analysed in terms of component life. The role played by inclusions and intermetallic particles, as well as primary precipitates, is outlined. The complexity of rolling contact fatigue is explained in terms of the many factors influencing it, which makes difficult to generalise its fundamentals. The importance of the choice and suitability of computational techniques employed to simulate it is highlighted, along with the available characterisation techniques. A variety of modelling techniques is presented. Empirical models have been an aid in predicting rolling contact fatigue, especially when combined with statistical approaches, but fail in addressing the fundamentals of the phenomenon, particularly at submicron scales. Micromechanics modelling is useful in understanding the spatial distribution of stresses and the evolution of damage, but fails in finding strategies for controlling it. The need for models able to relate rolling contact fatigue with microstructural evolution is described, available computational tools and mathematical models are reviewed, and a new irreversible thermodynamics approach linking the phenomena across the scales is proposed.


The Eurosystem has been pursuing a crisis management policy for more than four years now. This policy aims primarily at maintaining financial stability in the euro area by providing vast liquidity support to commercial banks that are operating in nationally segmented banking systems. As a side effect, the national central banks substitute money market operations for cross-border capital flows. The national central banks are thus increasingly engaging in substantial balance-of-payments financing, and financial risks are being shifted from investors to European taxpayers via the Eurosystem. Symptomatically, this shows up in exploding TARGET2 positions in the national central banks' balance sheets. The longer this process continues, the stronger the centrifugal forces become that ultimately might break up the single currency. Instead of a fiscal union, a euro-area-wide regulatory approach is required. In addition to establishing a uniform scheme for banking regulation, supervision and resolution, we recommend that contingent convertible bonds (CoCos) be introduced to provide a major source of refinancing for the banking industry. Since CoCos cannot be introduced overnight, national and European banking resolution funds would be needed in the short run. These funds would not rescue banks but they would kick in as soon as a bank's equity is depleted in order to wind up failing banks in a systemically prudent way.


Objectives To assess the quantity and variety of pharmacy interventions, to measure the quality of patient information on the prescription and to identify problem areas, all within specific paediatric clinics. If necessary, to implement changes to improve prescribing and reduce the need for pharmacist interventions, which in turn should reduce waiting times and improve patient experience. Method No clinical standards or guidelines currently exist relating specifically to paediatric outpatient prescription requirements, however the Trust's policy for prescribing medicines should be adhered to where relevant. Data were prospectively collected using a piloted form, by the screening pharmacist, for all paediatric and A and E outpatient prescriptions during a 1-week period. The data were then broken down into the five main clinic groups and each standard looked at individually to identify areas for improvement. Results 158 outpatient prescriptions were dispensed during the study period, with a total of 314 items. 53% (166/314) of items prescribed required a pharmacist intervention, however only 7% (23/314) required the prescriber to be contacted. The majority of the queries were resolved by communicating with the patient or carer. 40% (63/158) of prescriptions did not have a documented allergy status, 30% (15/50) no patient weight where appropriate and 5% (8/158) no date of birth. Prescriptions from A and E were most likely to require pharmacy interventions; 82% (38/48) required a pharmacist intervention, 77% (27/35) had no allergy documented and 64% (7/11) had no weight documented when this was necessary for dosing. There were a number of limitations to this audit. Limitations include data collection over a restricted time period, and potential bias from different pharmacists carrying out the data collection. Conclusion Paediatric outpatient and A and E prescriptions at St Mary's Hospital are not meeting the set standards. The focus for improvement needs to be in paediatric A and E, where prescriptions are often lacking in patient information and pharmacists most frequently have to make interventions. This is probably because that the paediatric A and E prescription is different from the other outpatient prescriptions and does not have an allocated space for the prescriber to document the weight and allergy status. As a result of this audit, the A and E outpatient prescriptions will be amended; results of the study will also be fed back to the paediatric doctors.


Climate warming is predicted to have large effects on insects, yet several data shortfalls, including distributional information, impede effective conservation strategies. Knowledge of species distributions is a critical component for assessing conservation need but is often lacking for endemic or rare taxa, especially invertebrates. One approach to better inform this gap is by using species distribution modelling (SDM) to predict suitable habitat and guide field surveys. Here, we combine the predictions of two machine learning algorithms, maximum entropy and Random Forest, to estimate the current and future distributions of two endemic dragonflies of the Ozark‐Ouachita Interior Highlands region in the southcentral United States. Current suitable areas predicted by both algorithms largely overlapped for each species, but different environmental variables were most important for predicting their distributions. Field validation of these models resulted in new detections for both species showing their utility in guiding subsequent field surveys. Future projections under two climate change scenarios support maintaining current suitable areas as these are predicted to be strongholds for these species. Our results suggest that combining outputs of multiple species distribution models is a useful tool for better informing the distributions of geographically limited or rare species.


A comparative reference guide to Shakespeare's grammar, based on a complete revision of an extremely elderly but still much-cited volume, Abbott's Shakespearean Grammar, first published in 1869 and still regarded by default as an essential component of Shakespeare research. This volume meets the identified need for an authoritative and systematic grammar of Shakespeare which takes account both of current linguistic developments and of the current state of knowledge about Early Modern English and enable editors and readers both to understand and to contextualise Shakespeare's use and manipulation of language, i.e. to locate it in the context of other writings in Early Modern English.'Should be an essential reference tool not only for Shakespeare editors but for university and school teachers' ' Professor Ernst Honigmann, editor of Arden 3 Othello'...should become part of every reader's, and certainly every teacher's, arsenal of central reference books' - Ruth Morse, Shakespeare Survey


Blubber biopsy samples from eastern North Pacific killer whales Orcinus orca were ana- lyzed for fatty acids, carbon and nitrogen stable isotopes and organochlorine contaminants. Fatty acid profiles were sufficiently distinct among the 3 reported ecotypes ('resident,' 'transient' or 'offshore') to enable individual animals to be correctly classified by ecotype and also by mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) haplotype. Profiles of PCBs also enabled unambiguous classification of all 3 killer whale ecotypes, but stable isotope values lacked sufficient resolution. Fatty acid, stable isotope and PCB profiles of the resident and transient ecotypes were consistent with those expected for these whales based on their reported dietary preferences (fish for resident whales, marine mammals for transients). In addition, these ecotype profiles exhibited broad similarity across geographical regions, suggesting that the dietary specialization reported for resident and transient whales in the well-studied eastern North Pacific populations also extends to the less-studied killer whales in the western Gulf of Alaska and Aleutian Islands. Killer whales of the same ecotype were also grouped by region of sample col- lection. The mean stable isotope ratios of various regional groups differed considerably, suggesting that the prey preferences of these North Pacific killer whales may be both region and ecotype spe- cific. Furthermore, 3 specific ecotypes of killer whales were found to have measured stable isotope values that were consistent with dietary preferences reported in the literature. Finally, although the offshore population had blubber fatty acid profiles implicating fish as its primary prey, contaminant and stable isotope results were equally congruent with predation on marine mammals.


The gut is an important organ for the immune system. Microbes and immune cells interact directly or via epithelial cells. Both TH17 and Treg cells mature in this environment. The composition of the microbiota has an important influence on the immune homeostasis. Influencing the immune system via the microbiota has been a challenge for scientist and clinicians for several decades. Especially atopic disorders like asthma and eczema have been subject to prophylactic trials with probiotics, with disappointing results however. We hypothesized an important role for bacterial species in the immune regulating effect of probiotics. We tested a large number of gut derived lactic acid bacterial strains for there in vitro immune regulating properties using several techniques. All known subsets of CD4+ T cells (TH1, TH2, TH17 and regulatory T cells) could be induced by these bacteria, showing that probiotics can direct the immune system in different directions. These findings show that careful selection of a strain prior to clinical application is needed in order to select the appropriate strain for an immunological purpose. Some strains show to be potent inducers of functional FOXP3+ regulatory T cells (Treg). These Treg are induced de novo from CD25- T cells, without a dependency on IL-10. The effect of strains showed to be donor dependent, which implies that different strains will be beneficial for each individual. The effect of probiotic supplementation has been shown by others to be most effective early in life. We hypothesized that the neonatal naive immune system is more prone to produce Treg than the adult counterpart, resulting in immune regulation rather than immune activation. In order to test this, we compared cord blood (CB) and adult peripheral blood (APB) derived naive T cells after activation with anti-CD3. Indeed, CB T cells became FOXP3+ more easily than APB T cells. This effect was critically dependent on the interaction between antigen presenting cells (APC) and T cells; removal of APC from the cultures reduced the effect. Moreover, blockade of the interaction between the molecules programmed death (PD)-1 and its ligand PD-L1 expressed by T cells and APC respectively significantly reduced the induction (of differentiation to) of FOXP3+ Treg. The ability to differentiate into TH17 cells is affected in CB as well; anti-CD3 activation of APB cells induced IL-17 producing T cells, but CB cells were unable to do so. Interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6 and IL-23 are known to positively influence the induction of TH17 cells; addition of these cytokines resulted in more IL-17 production by APB cells, but had no effect on CB cells. Nevertheless, FOXP3+ cell number in CB cell cultures was reduced by these cytokines. This finding shows that another factor affects the possibility of naive T cells to differentiate in either an inflammatory TH17 cell or a regulatory Treg. This T cell intrinsic factor could show to be a future target for directing the immune system towards inflammation or regulation


The hypothalamus plays an essential role in the central nervous system of mammals by among others regulating glucose homeostasis, food intake, temperature, and to some extent blood pressure. Assessments of hypothalamic metabolism using, e.g. 1H MRS in mouse models can provide important insights into its function. To date, direct in vivo 1H MRS measurements of hypothalamus have not been reported. Here, we report that in vivo single voxel measurements of mouse hypothalamus are feasible using 1H MRS at 14.1T. Localized 1H MR spectra from hypothalamus were obtained unilaterally (2–2.2 µL, VOI) and bilaterally (4–4.4 µL) with a quality comparable to that of hippocampus (3–3.5 µL). Using LCModel, a neurochemical profile consisting of 21 metabolites was quantified for both hypothalamus and hippocampus with most of the Cramér‐Rao lower bounds within 20%. Relative to the hippocampus, the hypothalamus was characterized by high γ‐aminobutryric acid and myo‐inositol, and low taurine concentrations. When studying transgenic mice with no glucose transporter isoform 8 expressed, small metabolic changes were observed, yet glucose homeostasis was well maintained. We conclude that a specific neurochemical profile of mouse hypothalamus can be measured by 1H MRS which will allow identifying and following metabolic alterations longitudinally in the hypothalamus of genetic modified models. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In Signifying the Local, Jin Liu examines contemporary cultural productions rendered in local languages and dialects (fangyan) in the fields of television, cinema, music, and literature in mainland China.


Methods of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) have matured, over the last 30 years, to a stage where it is possible to gain substantial insight into fluid flow processes of engineering relevance. However, the motives of fluid dynamic engineers typically go well beyond the level of improved understanding, to the pragmatic aim of improving the performance of the engineering systems in consideration. It is in recognition of these circumstances that the present thesis investigates the use of automated design optimisation methodologies in order to extend the power of CFD as an engineering design tool. Optimum design problems require the merit or performance of designs to be measured explicitly in terms of an objective function. At the same time, it may be required that one or more constraints should be satisfied. To describe allowable variations in design, shape parameterisation using basic geometric entities such as straight lines and arcs is employed. Taking advantage of previous experience in the research group concerning cavitating flows, a fully automated method for nozzle design/optimisation was developed. The optimisation is performed by means of discharge coefficient (Cd) maximisation. The objective is to design nozzle hole shapes that maximise the nozzle Cd for a given basic nozzle geometry (i.e. needle and sac profile) and reduce or even eliminate the negative pressure region formed at the entry of the injection hole. The deterministic optimisation model was developed and implemented in the in-house RANS CFD code to provide nozzle shapes with pre-defined flow/performance characteristics. The required gradients are calculated using the continuous adjoint technique. A parameterisation scheme, suitable for nozzle design, was developed. The localised region around the hole inlet, where cavitation inception appears, is parameterised and modified during the optimisation procedure, while the rest of the nozzle remains unaffected. The parameters modifying the geometry are the radius of curvature and the diameter of the hole inlet or exit as well as the relative needle seat angle. The steepest descent method has been used to drive the calculated gradients to zero and update the design parameters. For the validation of the model two representative inverse design cases have been selected. Studies showing the behaviour of the model according to different numerical and optimisation parameters are also presented. For the purpose of optimising the geometries, a cost function intended to maximise the discharge coefficient was defined. At the same time it serves the purpose of restructuring geometries which have controlled or eliminated cavitation inception in the hole entrance. This is identified in the steady-state mode by reduction of the volume of negative relative pressure appearing in the hole entrance. Results of cavitation control on some representative nozzle geometries show significant benefits gained by the use of the developed method. This is mainly because the developed model performs optimisation on numerous parametric combinations automatically. Results showed that, by using the proposed method, geometries with larger Cd values can be achieved and the cavitation inception can, in some cases, be completely eliminated. Cases where all the parameters were combined for redesign the geometry required less modification to predict larger Cd values than cases where each parameter was modified individually. This is an important result since manufacturers are seeking improvement in the performance of products resulting from the least geometry
modifications.


Abstract The planetary boundaries concept has profoundly changed the vocabulary and representation of global environmental issues. We bring a critical social science perspective to this framework through the notion of societal boundaries and aim to provide a more nuanced understanding of the social nature of thresholds. We start by highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of planetary boundaries from a social science perspective. We then focus on capitalist societies as a heuristic for discussing the expansionary dynamics, power relations, and lock-ins of modern societies that impel highly unsustainable societal relations with nature. While formulating societal boundaries implies a controversial process ‒ based on normative judgments, ethical concerns, and socio-political struggles ‒ it has the potential to offer guidelines for a just, social-ecological transformation. Collective autonomy and the politics of self-limitation are key elements of societal boundaries and are linked to important proposals and pluriverse experiences to integrate well-being and boundaries. The role of the state and propositions for radical alternative approaches to well-being have particular importance. We conclude with reflections on social freedom, defined as the right not to live at others' expense. Toward the aim of defining boundaries through transdisciplinary and democratic processes, we seek to open a dialogue on these issues.


The high unemployment rate amongst nationals in United Arab Emirates (UAE) has
generated the development of the 'Emiratisation policy', a drive to nationalise the UAE
workforce. This quota-based mandate is considered a 'positive discrimination' policy
since ethnicity markers are applied. The process of 'Emiratization' has generated a
heated public debate as organisations attempt to develop best practices across industries.
This research explores the process of implementing Emiratization in two financial
organizations in the UAE.
The extant literature on implementing positive discrimination policies is however very
limited, with an individualistic, quantitative and experimental focus. When a more
social and organizational approach has been taken, it has been to look into stereotyping
and similarity-attraction paradigms to explain work-related outcomes. Such research
takes the policy as a given, concerned with its output and rarely considers the process
through which the policy is understood, co-constructed and implemented over time and
its impact on working practices. A more practice-based perspective is therefore required
to explore the working practices and the practical and 'hidden' knowledge that supports
them to better understand policy implementation processes. This research aims to
address this gap by exploring the common practical (mis)understandings on
Emiratisation developed over time among different stakeholders -employees of two
financial organizations in the UAE as well as public actors- and their impact on the
'mediated array of human activity centrally organised around [them]' (Schatzki,
2001:2).
The research was designed as a longitudinal qualitative study conducted over a period
of three years. The data corpus consists of 54 in-depth interviews, more than 30 hours of
observations, 2 Emiratisation conferences, 4 consultancy reports, 6 annual reports and
online resources.
The thematic, narrative and dialogical analysis of the data corpus illustrates the ongoing
interaction between public narratives, intersubjective (mis)understandings between
national and non-national employees and organizational working practices when
implementing the policy. In public narratives, Emiratisation is portrayed both as an
employment opportunity as well as a strategy to replace expatriates. This tension and
the (mis) understandings it generates is reproduced at organisational and intersubjective
levels and informs the development of distinct working practices in both organizations.
The study provides new insights into the process of implementing positive
discrimination policies in organizations through the practice lens, highlighting the
emergent nature of policy implementation, grounding it in everyday knowledge and
action. It also offers a rare opportunity to capture in situ how Emiratisation 'becomes' a
practice.


Abstract Two centuries ago, Asia delivered over 60 percent of world production; in the middle of the 20th century it was less than 20 percent. Currently, it is twice as large and this share is still increasing, above all but not only, because of China whose production is still growing at a rate twice as fast as the world average. China is trying to maintain high economic dynamics, inter alia, through investment external expansion. This aim is to be served, among others, by the infrastructure project, drawn up with enormous verve, known as the New Silk Road, which the Middle Kingdom addresses to 65 countries on three continents. While some hope for accelerating their own economic growth, others warn against the risk of becoming dependent on China. The article analyzes these challenges, pointing to the desired directions of irreversible evolution globalization by giving it a more inclusive character, which is also strongly emphasized by the Chinese authorities in their official enunciations.


A subspace identification method is proposed as inverse dynamic analysis on examination of real structure behaviour with actual loads and noise-contaminated input/output data. The change of dynamic parameters (stiffness, damping) may be related to the structural history (erosion, friction, fatigue, damage, cracks) and cause the decrease of reliability and serviceability or result in structural collapse. When structural damage is small or hidden inside the structure, its detection cannot be done visually. Vibration monitoring is proposed as a useful and nondestructive dynamic parameter evaluation tool. Some tests on real, impulse loaded models have been conducted and data are procured. It is assayed how damage occurrence or decrease of structural system integrity will lead to the change of the dynamic characteristics. Special software is developed for experiment monitoring, determination of relevant mechanical characteristics and damage localization. Experimental results are used in the software both as an complete data set (number of the acceleration sensors equal to the dof) and as an incomplete data set (number is less than dof). In the latter case missing data are iteratively computed. Benefits and drawbacks of the subspace iteration method are emphasized. However, some unsolved topics are left for investigation.


We investigate the lateral shift of a TM-polarized light beam reflected from Otto configuration under grazing incidence. It is found that the lateral shift is strongly dependent on the thickness of the air-gap layer. By employing the pole-null representation, we demonstrate that the lateral shift is closely related to the null of the reflection function. The numerical simulations for a Gaussian beam are performed to demonstrate the validity of our theoretical analysis.


This study covers the design, synthesis, characterization, and cytotoxic activity of a series of uracil C-Mannich bases. Among them, one hybrid compound (1), a molecular combination of the potential antimetabolite substituted uracil and nitrogen mustard, having potential alkylating capability, was prepared as a Mannich base. The other compound was synthesized with the replacement of chlorines in the ethyl chains with hydroxyl groups for testing for anticancer activity. Some of Mannich bases having several amino groups with different pKa values were also synthesized and investigated in terms of cytotoxic activity. Their chemical structures were confirmed by means of their UV, IR, 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and MS data. Compounds 6 with diethylamine and 8 with piperazine are reported for the first time in the literature and compounds 1, 4, and 5 containing nitrogen mustard, pyrolidine, and diethanolamine, respectively, as amine function are reported for first time with detailed spectral data herein. Morpholine, piperidine, and dimethylamine were used in Mannich reactions for the synthesis of compounds 2, 3 and 7. We assessed their biological activities using MTT assays on 3 human cell lines: HeLa (cervix adenocarcinoma), MCF7 (breast adenocarcinoma), and A431 (skin epidermoid carcinoma). While compounds 2-8 have the potential to deaminate, forming ortho-quinone methides, which would be capable of alkylating cellular thiols, compound 1 has the potential to give aziridinium ion for nucleophilic alkylation. Our results are discussed in terms of the significance of these compounds in pharmaceutical use.


Texts from the web can be reused individually or in large quantities. The former is called text reuse and the latter language reuse. We first present a comprehensive overview of the different ways in which text and language is reused today, and how exactly information retrieval technologies can be applied in this respect. The remainder of the thesis then deals with specific retrieval tasks. In general, our contributions consist of models and algorithms, their evaluation, and for that purpose, large-scale corpus construction.

The thesis divides into two parts. The first part introduces technologies for text reuse detection, and our contributions are as follows: (1) A unified view of projecting-based and embedding-based fingerprinting for near-duplicate detection and the first time evaluation of fingerprint algorithms on Wikipedia revision histories as a new, large-scale corpus of near-duplicates. (2) A new retrieval model for the quantification of cross-language text similarity, which gets by without parallel corpora. We have evaluated the model in comparison to other models on many different pairs of languages. (3) An evaluation framework for text reuse and particularly plagiarism detectors, which consists of tailored detection performance measures and a large-scale corpus of automatically generated and manually written plagiarism cases. The latter have been obtained via crowdsourcing. This framework has been successfully applied to evaluate many different state-of-the-art plagiarism detection approaches within three international evaluation competitions.

The second part introduces technologies that solve three retrieval tasks based on language reuse, and our contributions are as follows: (4) A new model for the comparison of textual and non-textual web items across media, which exploits web comments as a source of information about the topic of an item. In this connection, we identify web comments as a largely neglected information source and introduce the rationale of comment retrieval. (5) Two new algorithms for query segmentation, which exploit web n-grams and Wikipedia as a means of discerning the user intent of a keyword query. Moreover, we crowdsource a new corpus for the evaluation of query segmentation which surpasses existing corpora by two orders of magnitude. (6) A new writing assistance tool called Netspeak, which is a search engine for commonly used language. Netspeak indexes the web in the form of web n-grams as a source of writing examples and implements a wildcard query processor on top of it.


Aim and background: The present study has been performed to design a guideline for acute pain management after orthopedic surgeries, and also this study has a role in improving patient satisfaction and quality of life, and at the same time aiding hospital to reach a higher level of available pain control service. Materials and Methods: In this study which is a developmental research, first of all the databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, Cochrane, Scopus, Elsevier, and Springer were searched on the key words such as Orthopedic Surgery, Acute Post-Operative Pain, Acute Pain Management, and Post-Operative Pain Management in the last five years. Articles in the form of Clinical trial, systematic review and meta-analysis about acute pain control after orthopedic surgery, with high quality were entered into the study. The evaluation of quality of articles was done by Jadad Score questionnaire, which is one of the most reliable questionnaires in the world for evaluating the quality of articles. Articles receiving a score less than 4 were excluded from the study. The clinical care guideline was designed based on Stetler model in evidence-based approaches. Findings: Seventy seven articles in the field of analgesia after orthopedic surgery were selected. Within these articles, 51 with a score> 4 according to Jadad questionnaire were assessed in the expert panel sessions. Three sessions were organized and finally the guideline was approved by the members attending the sessions. conclusion: Multi-modal approach to pain management after orthopedic surgery, is one of the most valid protocols based on recent evidence. The Preemptive dosing of analgesic drugs, particularly non steroidal antiinflammatory drugs such as Celecoxib, was especially effective in the articles.


Compiler-compilers are tools that generate substitutes for hand-written compiler components from high-level formal specifications. Such tools exist for lexical, syntactic and semantic analysis, optimizers and code generation. The established benefits are reduced development time and increased confidence in the correctness of the resulting software. This thesis presents a generator for type checkers. Given a description of the type system by typing rules, the generator yields a type checker that constructs proofs using the typing rules. Unlike earlier approaches, we derive suitable notions of proof and typing rule from an analysis of type systems and from corresponding constructs in mathematical proof theory. The approach thus respects the structure and intention of the typing rules, rather than expressing the rules in some pre-existing formalism. The given applications comprise type checkers for imperative, object-oriented and functional languages, including ML type inference. The typing rules for these checkers directly represent those found in the literature. They naturally describe the typing of single language constructs and they can be re-used in different checkers. We use the generator to develop the language Saga for generic programming. Generic programming has become a standard approach to creating reusable and reliable software, particularly through the wide-spread use of the C Standard Template Library (STL). Existing C compilers cannot type-check generic algorithms before instances are generated, hence errors manifest themselves only when the algorithms are used. Saga overcomes this problem by a novel language design that enables generic algorithms as found in the C STL to be type-checked such that the correctness requirements stated in algorithm interfaces are obeyed and instantiation never fails. It therefore turns the aims of the earlier proposal SuchThat into a concrete language design.


Nordic cooperation on foreign and security policy has gained renewed attention in recent years. Changes in the Nordic states' immediate security environment after the Ukraine crisis, as well as growing global uncertainty, have turned foreign, security and defence policy into a focal point of the Nordic agenda. Nordic foreign and security policy cooperation is characterized by informality, as it takes place outside of the institutional Nordic structures. This report assesses the current state of this cooperation by opening up structures and formats within which the informal cooperation takes place. The report then discusses future prospects for, as well as constraints on, deepening the cooperation from different angles, including agenda formation, institutional complexities, Nordic cooperation in multilateral contexts and bilateral Nordic relations. Defence cooperation forms a separate sub-field of Nordic cooperation, as it has its own unique structures and practices. The report takes a look at developments in Nordic defence cooperation, at both the political and the military level. Nordic foreign and security policy cooperation is based on commonality and trust. It enjoys a solid legitimacy among Nordic populations and politicians alike. The informal nature of the cooperation is perceived as one of its strengths. Nordic countries have significant potential for deeper cooperation and for obtaining a stronger voice. However, there are various drivers and considerable differences between the Nordic states in security political solutions, institutional affiliations, priorities and levels of commitment. These impose dividing lines and limitations on the cooperation that are hard to overcome. This publication is part of the implementation of the Government Plan for Analysis, Assessment and Research for 2017 (tietokayttoon.fi/en). The content is the responsibility of the producers of the information and does not necessarily represent the view of the Government.


How might we emerge sustainable innovation value within complex systemic transformations?

Researchers observe that "innovation occurs through the combination and recombination of information and knowledge that are old and new" where "innovation is thus an emergent process" (Cooke, 2013). However, emerging innovation in a sustainable manner – whether within markets, communities or organizations – is increasingly viewed as being related to the processes of learning (Harkema, 2003) within complex–adaptive systems (Carlisle & McMillan, 2006), collaboration within multi–stakeholder environments (Sorensen & Torfing, 2011), and value co–creation (Romero & Molina, 2011).

And yet, the innovation initiatives entrusted with emerging sustainable innovation value frequently experience challenges in cross–industry settings – including lack of adoption by the key stakeholders in the natural resource management practices (Shiferaw, Okello, & Reddy, 2009), healthcare organizations (Cresswell & Sheikh, 2013), and policy environments (Douthwaite, Keatinge, & Park, 2001). Innovation is posited to be further complexified by the team climate and performance (Gonzalez-Roma, Fortes-Ferreira, & Peiro, 2009), and the multi– dimensional aspects of enabling adoption (Pichlak, 2016).

To respond to the outlined concerns around the feasibility of emerging new value through innovation processes, we introduce Design for Emergence – a practical, applied design methodology intended for multidisciplinary teams and practitioners – to enable flourishing futures and increased resilience across systemic scales (Bergstrom & Dekker, 2014), human psychosocial contexts (Matin & Taylor, 2015) and social support systems (Sippel et al., 2015; Almedom, 2015). We introduce tools and methods for building social coherence (Antonovsky, 1987; Keyes 1998) across systemic scales and levels of analysis (Marr, 1982), with the goal of easing the stressors within 'liminal spaces' (Van Gennep, 1906; Turner, 1987) to impact desirable future outcomes and enable individual and organizational transformational journeys.

The Design for Emergence is positioned as a meta–design modality comprised of three core components: 1) Design for Adoption, 2) Design for Resilience, and 3) Design for Transience. Each component is a general purpose meta–design modality with specific canvasses, intended to simplify practical use of theoretical concepts within diverse, complex innovation environments requiring multi–stakeholder collaboration and delivery of broad cross–scale impacts.

Recognizing that the intrinsic and continued participation of key stakeholders is essential for the success of innovation initiatives, as exemplified in co–innovation (Lee, Olson, & Trimi, 2012), the Design for Adoption eases this process by leveraging motivational theory to support both initial and ongoing stakeholder engagements (Pink, 2009).

To maintain energy throughout the implementation phase of an innovation initiative, the Design for Resilience leverages methods for managing liminal journeys (Van Gennep, 1906; Turner, 1987), and uses the 'Sense of Coherence' (SoC) mechanism (Antonovsky, 1987; Keyes 1998) to enhance resilience of the communities, organizations and stakeholders involved.

As an innovation initiative nears completion, researchers observe that a change in the underlying value perceptions acts as a stressor (Cullen, Edwards, Casper, & Gue, 2014). To re–imagine the value propositions within the enclosing ecosystem and re–orient stakeholder value–perceptions, the Design for Transience maps how value perceptions change through the levels of analysis (Marr & Poggio, 1982), and leverages the 'three horizons' foresight method (Curry & Hodgson, 2008) for exploring the evolution of value perceptions from the experienced present to a perceived future.

A key objective is to be able to leverage practical tools to pivot value perceptions within market changes and complex ecosystemic transformations – to articulate value–propositions that enhance collaborative potential and create alignment with the key stakeholders, customers and communities in a way capable of enabling emergent innovation.


Since the advent of Next Generation Sequencing (NGS) technology, the
amount of data from whole genome sequencing has been rising fast. In turn,
the availability of these resources led to the tapping of whole new research
fields in molecular and cellular biology, producing even more data. On the
other hand, the available computational power is only increasing linearly.
In recent years though, special-purpose high-performance devices started
to become prevalent in today's scientific data centers, namely graphics
processing units (GPUs) and, to a lesser extent, field-programmable gate
arrays (FPGAs).
Driven by the need for performance, developers started porting regular
applications to GPU frameworks and FPGA configurations to exploit the
special operations only these devices may perform in a timely manner.
However, applications using both accelerator technologies are still rare.
Major challenges in joint GPU/FPGA application development include the
required deep knowledge of associated programming paradigms and the
efficient communication both types of devices.
In this work, two algorithms from bioinformatics are implemented on
a custom hybrid-parallel hardware architecture and a highly concurrent
software platform. It is shown that such a solution is not only possible
to develop but also its ability to outperform implementations on similar-
sized GPU or FPGA clusters in terms of both performance and energy
consumption. Both algorithms analyze case/control data from genome-
wide association studies to find interactions between two or three genes
with different methods. Especially in the latter case, the newly available
calculation power and method enables analyses of large data sets for the
first time without occupying whole data centers for weeks. The success of
the hybrid-parallel architecture proposal led to the development of a high-
end array of FPGA/GPU accelerator pairs to provide even better runtimes
and more possibilities.


The purpose of this paper is to investigate the link between the empowerment of rural women and sustainable development. Women account for about half of the world's population. However, despite decades of development and a push for democracy and good governance globally, women still remain among vulnerable groups in the world living in abject poverty and lacking access and control over resources. For instance, even though women constitute the majority in food production, only 20% of them own arable land globally. Even with the high population, their participation in public leadership, decisions and policymaking largely remains extremely skewed towards men. For that reason, some international agencies have strongly addressed themselves to the plight of women, working towards more gender equity. Thus, the only assured pathway to development sustainability is to ensure consideration of both women's and men's voices and interests as well as having parity in the allocation of resources and opportunities. This paper entails a descriptive study whose data was collected from 100 respondents using a questionnaire. Both women and men were sampled to avoid any biases. The study findings indicated that; women were the majority in the informal sector with 86% compared to men who accounted for only 14%. However, despite their heavy presence in the sector, their educational status was very low with only 78.2% having attained primary school education, whereas the men had higher educational achievement with 76.9% having attained a secondary school education. In spite of the traditional strategies of empowerment adopted by the government and the private sector, the study established that women had their preferred strategies to empower themselves. For example, they valued the availability of saving cooperatives (95.4%); having a safe working environment for their business (95.4%); getting family support in doing business (91.5%); equitable access to relevant and timely information (95.4%); having facilities like table banking (95.4%); having training on decision-making (91.5%) and having access to credit facilities (90.8%). Therefore, the involvement of women in policy and decision-making on issues of their empowerment is critical in order to adopt and implement their voices and interests. Without women's involvement and engagement, the realization of sustainable development cannot be attained.


A field study to document the use of pesticides in Mindanao and its health impacts using the Community-based Pesticide Action Monitoring (CPAM) process was conducted from 2015 to 2016. A total of 57 plantation workers from banana and oil palm plantations and residents from surrounding villages were interviewed. The report discloses the workers' lack of safety training in handling pesticides, the lack of facilities and personal protective equipment, and the prevalence of pesticide-related illnesses among workers and their households. Plantation workers and surrounding communities are also exposed to aerial spraying.


PURPOSE
Recent studies suggest that exchange of macrophage phenotype (M1/M2) in adipose tissue is associated with chronic low-grade inflammation in obesity. M1 macrophages enhance a chronic inflammatory state in adipose tissues, whereas M2 macrophages inhibit it. Although exercise training might inhibit pro-inflammatory cytokine gene expression in adipose tissue, it remains unclear whether exercise training affects the phenotypic switch of macrophage polarization in adipose tissue. Therefore, we inveStigated the effect of exercise training on the macrophage phenotypic switch in adipose tissue in high-fat-induced obese mice.

METHODS
Male C57BL/6 mice were divided into four groups; normal diet (ND) control (n=7), ND exercise (n=7), high-fat-diet (HFD) control (n=12), and HFD exercise (n=12) groups. All exercised mice ran on a treadmill at 12-20 m/min for 60 min/day for 16 weeks. Tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-alpha, interleukin (IL)-6, F4/80, monocyte chemotactic protein (MCP)-1, CXCL14, inter-cellular adhesion molecule (ICAM)-1, vascular-cellular adhesion molecule (VCAM)-1, CD11c, CD163 and toll-like receptor (TLR)4 mRNA expressions in adipose tissue were evaluated by real time-RT-PCR.

RESULTS
In HFD mice, exercise training did not induce loss of body or adipose tissue mass, exercise training nevertheless markedly inhibited TNF-alpha and F4/80 mRNA expression in adipose tissue. The exercise training attenuated HFD-induced increase in ICAM-1 mRNA expression, but not MCP-1, CXCL14 and VCAM-1 mRNA expressions. In addition, increased CD11c mRNA expression, which is a M1 macrophage specific marker, with HFD treatment was attenuated by exercise training. In contrast, although the mRNA expression of CD163, a M2 macrophage specific marker, in adipose tissue was significantly decreased by HFD, the exercise training significantly increased its expression. Also, the higher mRNA expression of TLR4, which induces pro-inflammatory cytokine production after fatty acid recognition, was strongly inhibited by the exercise training in HFD mice.

CONCLUSION
Exercise training might induce the phenotypic switching from M1 macrophage to M2 macrophage in obese adipose tissue besides inhibiting M1 macrophage infiltration into adipose tissue. Therefore, chronic exercise might contribute to inhibit inflammation in adipose tissue via down regulation of TLR4.


We develop a new algorithm that uses guided-wave energy in distributed acoustic sensing (DAS) records to identify microseismic events originating within or very close to a shale reservoir. Guided waves are dispersive waves that propagate in a low-velocity layer bounded by two high-velocity layers. This is a geologic structure that is seen for some shale reservoirs, most notably the Eagle Ford. Only microseismic events originating within or close to the low-velocity layer will excite significant guided-wave energy, which can be observed in DAS records. We confirm the relationship between guided-wave energy and event depth relative to the reservoir by using synthetic modeling. Given the known velocity structure, we can predict the dispersion curves for guided waves and use them to separate body and guided waves. We demonstrate a method to quantify the amplitude of guided waves in field DAS data recorded directly above the Eagle Ford Shale. Using this technique, we can separate events that originate within or close to the Eagle Ford from events that do not, thus circumventing the large depth uncertainty in a microseismic catalog derived from surface geophones. Our analysis shows that events classified as originating within or close to the Eagle Ford are horizontally closer to the stimulating well than non-Eagle Ford events. This is interpreted as representing different hydraulic fracture geometries in the Eagle Ford compared to its bounding formations, the Buda Limestone and Austin Chalk. The application of our method yields a new catalog that highlights the events relevant to stimulation and production in the target reservoir. It also provides a strong depth constraint that can improve relocation attempts using surface data, enabling a more accurate estimation of stimulated rock volume geometry.


With the recent announcement from the Chinese government that the country's healthcare system was going to undergo reform, Jiamei Dental Chairman Liu Jia wondered what that meant for his 15 year-old dental clinic business. Founded in 1993, Jiamei Dental Medical Management Group ("Jiamei") rode the wave of China's rapid economic development and had become China's largest private dental chain with 84 clinics in Beijing and seven other major cities. But China was changing fast, and Liu acknowledged that Jiamei's ongoing expansion depended on many factors beyond its control, notwithstanding government reform, Jiamei was also faced with pressures from its private equity general partners. The year 2009 was shaping up to be a pivotal one for Jiamei. It had planned to open dozens more clinics during the year. At the same time, Liu was facing stiff competition from regional and international private dental clinic competitors, high-end private hospitals, and now possibly the government. These factors offered new complexities into the expansion plans of this entrepreneurial firm.Learning Objective: Growth strategy of an entrepreneurial business in the face of new government policies and worldwide economic hardship.


University-Industry Partnerships (UIPs) in the field of DRR have produced several innovative tools, services, and advancements in industrial applications globally. However, from the Sri Lankan perspective, the level of UIPs appear to be significantly lower compared to the global context. In Sri Lanka, a country that has suffered a lot from natural disasters such as landslides and floods especially over the past few years, DRR activities are undertaken by the governmental and private sector organizations and volunteers, mostly as separate entities. This could lead to inefficiencies, overlapping of efforts, and also to the reinvention of the wheel. The Universities as Higher Education Institutions have a key role to play in bringing the aforementioned stakeholders together not only to strengthen the work they do by effective partnerships but also to come up with innovative solutions through research and development. The purpose of this paper is to explore how effective UIPs can be created in Sri Lanka to achieve the above by exploring; 1) current status of UIPs in Sri Lanka; 2) barriers to creating UIPs; 3) needs and opportunities for creating UIPs; 4) identifying best practices in creating strong and sustainable UIPs. The purpose will be fulfilled with the use of a literature review and by gathering stakeholder opinions. The research findings revealed that there is a need to develop a policy that addresses the aspects of knowledge diffusion, production, engagement, increasing the exposure of the academia for the industry and capacity building in universities. This is in order to tackle key barriers to creating UIPs. There is also a need for strong and effective leadership initiatives from universities to ensure sustainability of UIPs in Sri Lanka.


We propose to strengthen user-selected passwords against statistical-guessing attacks by allowing users of Internet-scale systems to choose any password they want--so long as it's not already too popular with other users. We create an oracle to identify undesirably popular passwords using an existing data structure known as a count-min sketch, which we populate with existing users' passwords and update with each new user password. Unlike most applications of probabilistic data structures, which seek to achieve only a maximum acceptable rate false-positives, we set a minimum acceptable false-positive rate to confound attackers who might query the oracle or even obtain a copy of it.


Resilience of Indigenous identities, life-ways and knowledge is the topic of my doctoral thesis. To enable the holistic unity of Indigenous being, feeling, thinking, and doing to become visible and meaningfully viable to Indigenous and non-Indigenous people within and without the empirically dominated domain of academic positivism, a cosmologically sourced, ethnographically supported turangawaewae or conceptual home-place has been developed. An Indigenous space of meaning to investigate and provoke a discursive continuum of Indigenous resilience that enables resilient Indigenous identities, and the multiple phases they embody to be conceptualised and incorporated, while also embracing notions of Eurocentric resilience and the comparative psychological implications these unearth. To illumine the global process of re-emerging Indigenous identity resilience by exploring how Indigenous people experience the process of personal and collective reconnection to their ancestral Indigenous identities, tikanga Māori, Mana Wahine philosophies, and kaupapa Māori methodologies complete the home-place developed to receive and care for the research collaborators, and question. A place that enables ethical and congruent cultural interpretations of Indigenous identities and the liberation of Indigenous thought, practices, and discourse. This paper traces the developmental terrain of this turangawaewae or conceptual home-place.


Recent advances in the liquid‐phase synthesis of metal nanostructures of different sizes and shapes are reviewed regarding their catalytic properties. The controlled synthesis of nanostructures is based on the colloid chemistry techniques in the solution, which use organic nanoreactors and a variety of stabilizers. Their catalytic activity and selectivity depend on the particle's shape and size, as shown for Suzuki and Heck coupling, hydrogenations, hydrogenolysis, oxidations, and electron‐transfer reactions. The knowledge of a reaction's structure‐sensitivity relationship is important for the rational catalyst design in view of process intensification. Nanostructures can be used per se and in supported form to meet the requirements of an eventual process.


Objective: Previous studies have shown that the cardiovascular risk in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is higher than among the general population. This study assesses the prevalence of cardiovascular events such as myocardial infarction and stroke in RA patients treated with a DMARD or a biologic. In contrast to many studies that use a preselected group of patients this study specifically aims to reflect the typical RA patient with a variety of comorbidities and comedication.
Methods: In this retrospective analysis data from 275 patients who received immunosuppressive RA treatment between April 1994 and August 2016 were evaluated for disease progression, comorbidities, cardiovascular risk factors and scores and occurrence of cardiovascular events. Subgroups were formed according to the leading basic medication. This involved the use of the classic DMARDs methotrexate and leflunomide and the biologics adalimumab, etanercept, rituximab and tocilizumab.
Results: All six basic therapeutics studied achieved a significant reduction in DAS28 (average baseline 4.67) by about one point after 6 months (3.65) and towards the end of observation (3.78). This trend was reflected in the analysis of the erythrocyte sedimentation rate (20.1; 13.1; 15.6 [mm/1h]) and the C-reactive protein level (11.1; 5.7; 6.9 [mg/l]). All three calculated scores for the evaluation of cardiovascular risk increased during the course of the study. The Framingham score rose by 0.9 points, the PROCAM score for calculating the risk of myocardial infarction by 0.4 points. The risk of stroke increased by 0.5 points according to the PROCAM score. During the observation period 13 cardiovascular events occurred, eight of them related to a myocardial infarction, five to a stroke.
Discussion and conclusion: The analysis of rheumatological parameters can prove good efficacy for all six drugs studied. The result of cardiovascular risk calculation is in contrast to this. According to the results of previous studies an optimized cardiovascular risk profile could be expected from the successful treatment of the underlying rheumatic disease. However, the present work cannot prove this tendency. It must be questioned whether the current score systems for the evaluation of cardiovascular risk in RA patients are suitable. Ultimately, none of them are directly correlated with disease activity. Further investigations could be carried out at this point.


This new volume of the "Biopsy Interpretation Series" addresses biopsies of the uterine cervix and corpus (endometrium) in one text. It provides a practical approach to some of the most common biopsy material encountered by surgical pathologists. Normal histology, non-neoplastic conditions, and neoplasia of the cervix and uterine body are covered using current terminology and concepts. Emphasis is on morphologic features and immunohistochemistry in the diagnostic material. Close attention is given to differential diagnoses, including benign mimics of tumors. The book features over 300 full-color images. A companion Website will provide over 2,300 color images, plus a test bank that is ideal for board exam preparation.


We introduce and study the problem of Online Continual Compression, where one attempts to simultaneously learn to compress and store a representative dataset from a non i.i.d data stream, while only observing each sample once. A naive application of auto-encoders in this setting encounters a major challenge: representations derived from earlier encoder states must be usable by later decoder states. We show how to use discrete auto-encoders to effectively address this challenge and introduce Adaptive Quantization Modules (AQM) to control variation in the compression ability of the module at any given stage of learning. This enables selecting an appropriate compression for incoming samples, while taking into account overall memory constraints and current progress of the learned compression. Unlike previous methods, our approach does not require any pretraining, even on challenging datasets. We show that using AQM to replace standard episodic memory in continual learning settings leads to significant gains on continual learning benchmarks. Furthermore we demonstrate this approach with larger images, LiDAR, and reinforcement learning environments.


Many seemingly different problems in artificial intelligence, symbolic processing, and machine learning can be viewed as requiring discovery of a computer program that produces some desired output for particular inputs. When viewed in this way, the process of solving these problems becomes equivalent to searching a space of possible computer programs for a most fit individual computer program. The new "genetic programming" paradigm described herein provides a way to search for this most fit individual computer program. In this new "genetic programming" paradigm, populations of computer programs are genetically bred using the Darwinian principle of survival of the fittest and using a genetic crossover (recombination) operator appropriate for genetically mating computer programs. In this paper, the process of formulating and solving problems using this new paradigm is illustrated using examples from various areas. Examples come from the areas of machine learning of a function; planning; sequence induction; function function identification (including symbolic regression, empirical discovery, "data to function" symbolic integration, "data to function" symbolic differentiation); solving equations, including differential equations, integral equations, and functional equations); concept formation; automatic programming; pattern recognition, time-optimal control; playing differential pursuer-evader games; neural network design; and finding a game-playing strategyfor a discrete game in extensive form.


Big sensor data is prevalent in both industry and scientific research applications where the data is generated with high volume and velocity it is difficult to process using on-hand database management tools or traditional data processing applications. Cloud computing provides a promising platform to support the addressing of this challenge as it provides a flexible stack of massive computing, storage, and software services in a scalable manner at low cost. Some techniques have been developed in recent years for processing sensor data on cloud, such as sensor-cloud. However, these techniques do not provide efficient support on fast detection and locating of errors in big sensor data sets. For fast data error detection in big sensor data sets, in this paper, we develop a novel data error detection approach which exploits the full computation potential of cloud platform and the network feature of WSN. Firstly, a set of sensor data error types are classified and defined. Based on that classification, the network feature of a clustered WSN is introduced and analyzed to support fast error detection and location. Specifically, in our proposed approach, the error detection is based on the scale-free network topology and most of detection operations can be conducted in limited temporal or spatial data blocks instead of a whole big data set. Hence the detection and location process can be dramatically accelerated. Furthermore, the detection and location tasks can be distributed to cloud platform to fully exploit the computation power and massive storage. Through the experiment on our cloud computing platform of U-Cloud, it is demonstrated that our proposed approach can significantly reduce the time for error detection and location in big data sets generated by large scale sensor network systems with acceptable error detecting accuracy.


A neural network-based control system is developed for self-adapting vibration control of laminated plates with piezoelectric sensors and actuators. The conventional vibration control approaches are limited by the requirement of an explicit and often accurate identification of the system dynamics and subsequent `offline' design of an optimal controller. The present study utilizes the powerful learning capabilities of neural networks to capture the structural dynamics and to evolve optimal control dynamics. A hybrid control system developed in this paper is comprised of a feed-forward neural network identifier and a dynamic diagonal recurrent neural network controller. Sensing and actuation are achieved using piezoelectric sensors and actuators. The performance of the hybrid control system is tested by numerical simulation of a composite plate with embedded piezoelectric actuators and sensors. Finite-element equations of motion are developed based on shear deformation theory and implemented for the plate element. The dynamic effects of the mass and stiffness of the piezoelectric patches are considered in the model. Numerical results are presented for a flat plate. A robustness study including the effects of structural parameter variation and partial loss of the sensor and actuator is performed. The hybrid control system is shown to perform effectively in all of these cases.


The aim of this study was to examine the distribution and types of adhesion molecules expressed over endothelial cells and the ligands present on lymphocytes which infiltrate exocrine glands in patients with Sjogren's syndrome. Minor salivary gland biopsies were examined from twelve patients with Sjogren's syndrome and eight normal subjects for the presence of adhesion molecules using monoclonal antibodies and an Indirect Immunoperoxidase technique. There was an increased expression of intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1, CD54) on endothelial cells, lymphocytes, fibroblasts and salivary gland epithelial cells. In addition we documented the expression of endothelial leukocyte adhesion molecule-1 (ELAM-1) on endothelial cells in salivary glands from patients but not the controls. Many of the endothelial cells expressing these adhesion molecules in patients with Sjogren's syndrome had the morphological appearance of high endothelial venules. V-CAM-1 was shown to be present in some of the salivary biopsies from patients with Sjogren's syndrome. Lymphocytes infiltrating salivary glands strongly express LFA-1 (CD11a/CD18) molecules. Some infiltrating lymphocytes, and most monocytes, expressed C3bi-R (CD11b/CD18) and the p150.95 (CD11c/CD18) antigens on their cell surface. The results of this study reveal the enhanced expression of vascular endothelial and lymphocyte adhesion molecules on the minor salivary glands of patients with Sjogren's syndrome. The presence of such receptors and their putative ligands indicate an important role for these molecules in the pathogenesis of Sjogren's syndrome.


O'Hearn, Reynolds and Yang introduced local Hoare reasoning about mutable data structures using separation logic. They reason about the local parts of the memory accessed by programs, and thus construct their smallest complete specifications. Gardner et al. generalised their work, using context logic to reason about structured data at the same level of abstraction as the data itself. In particular, we developed a formal specification of the Document Object Model (DOM), a W3C XML update library. Whilst we kept to the spirit of local reasoning, we were not able to retain small specifications for all of the commands of DOM: for example, our specification of the appendChild command was not small. We show how to obtain such small specifications by developing a more fine-grained context structure, allowing us to work with arbitrary segments of a data structure. We introduce segment logic, a logic for reasoning about such segmented data structures, staring at first with a simple tree structure, but then showing how to generalise our approach to arbitrary structured data. Using our generalised segment logic we construct a reasoning framework for abstract program modules, showing how to reason about such modules at the client level. In particular we look at modules for trees, lists, heaps and the more complex data model of DOM. An important part of any abstraction technique is an understanding of how to link the abstraction back to concrete implementations. Building on our previous abstraction and refinement work for local reasoning, we show how to soundly implement the segment models used in our abstract reasoning. In particular we show how to implement our fine-grained list and tree modules so that their abstract specifications are satisfied by the concrete implementations. We also show how our reasoning from the abstract level can be translated to reasoning at the concrete level. Finally, we turn our attention to concurrency and show how having genuine small axioms for our commands allows for a simple treatment of abstract level concurrency constructs.


Because it is partly masked by a phreatic calcrete hardpan (PCH), a rare and poorly known type of rock that can transgress stratigraphic boundaries, there has been ongoing controversy concerning the exact position of James Hutton9s first discovered unconformity on the Isle of Arran in southwest Scotland. The unconformity separates folded Neoproterozoic to lower Paleozoic (Dalradian) metasedimentary rocks from upper Paleozoic red beds. The massive PCH developed in Late Devonian red conglomerate above the unconformity, but it also assimilated some of the underlying basement rocks, thus giving the false impression that the unconformity is at a lower position, as both host materials are almost entirely replaced by calcrete. At Hutton9s discovery site, only a small remnant of the deeply calcretized Late Devonian conglomerate was preserved from erosion prior to being disconformably overlain by lower Carboniferous red conglomerate and sandstone. Thus, there are two unconformities at Hutton9s historical site, but the younger has previously gone unnoticed, and the two red bed successions on each side of the disconformity were previously thought to belong to the same unit.


The growing complexity of VLSI and System-on-a-chip(SoC) designs has made their verification extremely expensive, time-consuming and resource intensive. Formal verification of system behavior is critical to the design cycle due to its ability to isolate subtle flaws and provide high quality assurance. However, its computational intractability limits applicability in practice, rendering the state-of-the-art insufficient to meet the needs of the industry.
In this dissertation, a suite of techniques that are a significant departure from traditional Boolean level approaches to formal verification are presented. The algorithms are based on a top-down, domain-aware perspective of the system by reasoning at the system level and register transfer level (RTL) descriptions. Static analysis of these high level system descriptions using structural information and symbolic reasoning leads to effective decomposition strategies that create tractable portions of the system. These manageable system components can then be verified by deploying efficient Boolean level algorithms. The techniques presented here apply to the actual RTL source code, and are intended to blend seamlessly into the system design cycle.
All approaches using high level static analyis follow a three pronged solution-domain aware analysis, high level symbolic simulation and a decision procedure for the verification task. This work advocates a marked difference in the perspective to formal hardware verification as compared to popular paradigms. The techniques shown here are illustrative of a hardware-aware viewpoint to verification, and argue this case for contemporary verification tasks.
Antecedent conditioned slicing, an abstraction technique for reducing RTL design space is introduced. The reduced RTL can then be model checked. An open source RTL implementation of the USB 2.0 protocol is verified using this technique.
A technique for pipelined processor verification using antecedent conditioned slicing is introduced. An open source Verilog RTL of OR1200, an embedded processor is explained in a detailed case study for verification using this technique.
A static analysis technique is proposed to alleviate the complexity of the sequential equivalence checking problem between system level and RTL descriptions, by efficiently decomposing designs using sequential compare points . A satisfiability (SAT) solver is used as the lower level verification engine. In a case study, sequential equivalence checking between a system level description of a Viterbi decoder and two different RTL implementations are detailed.


Blind individuals have to rely on nonvisual information to a greater extent than sighted to efficiently interact with the environment, and consequently exhibit superior skills in their spared modalities. These performance advantages are often paralleled by responses in the occipital cortex, which have been suggested to be essential for nonvisual processing in the blind. However, it is currently unclear through which pathways (i.e., thalamocortical or corticocortical connections) nonvisual information reaches the occipital cortex of the blind. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging to study blind and matched sighted humans with an auditory discrimination paradigm and used dynamic causal modeling to investigate the effective connectivity underlying auditory activations in the primary visual cortex of blind volunteers. Model comparison revealed that a model connecting the medial geniculate nucleus (MGN), primary auditory cortex (A1), and primary visual cortex (V1) in a bidirectional manner outperformed all other models in both groups. Regarding inference on model parameters, we observed that basic auditory mechanisms (i.e., sensory input to MGN and connections from MGN to A1) did not differ significantly between the two groups. In contrast, we found clear evidence for stronger corticocortical connections from A1 to V1 in the blind, whereas results with regard to thalamocortical enhancement (from MGN to V1 and, in a control analysis, from the lateral geniculate nucleus to V1) were not consistent. These results suggest that plastic changes especially in corticocortical connectivity allow auditory information to evoke responses in the primary visual cortex of blind individuals.


As a business librarian, I have been asked to find data on the economic costs of eldercare responsibilities in terms of lost productivity. I have also helped patrons find examples of workplace programs, ranging from flextime to job sharing, that have been implemented by companies to help reduce this cost. There is no question that the responsibility for eldercare impacts the bottom line. It has been estimated that lost productivity from employees caring for an aging relative costs American businesses $11 billion annually, and in addition, more than 10 percent of working caregivers give up their jobs because of their caregiving responsibilities. (1) This conflict between work and caregiving responsibilities will only become more prevalent with the aging of the population and the corresponding burgeoning responsibility for eldercare. It is interesting to note that this is not just a problem for American workers and employers. One in ten Canadians between the ages of forty-five and sixty-four is simultaneously caring for a child and an aging parent; 83 percent of these caregivers are employed. (2) Eldercare is positioned to become a global issue with the worldwide aging of the population. Business Week coined this demographic trend "the geezer glut" and proclaimed "the graying of the baby-boom generation" as "one of the greatest sociological shifts in history." (3) This article focused on the economic consequences of this demographic change and noted that "[f]rom Stockholm to Santiago, policymakers are seeking to boost private savings in stocks and bond funds" and to "find cheaper ways to provide eldercare." (4) Eldercare is not just an academic topic for management, public policy, and health-care courses. This is a topic that will impact virtually everyone at some point in their lives. Consequently, most academic and public libraries will need to build at least a basic collection of resources on eldercare. This guest-authored column will help RUSQ readers accomplish that task. Additionally, many RUSA members are actively involved in the provision of library services to senior citizens and their families, and RUSA's Library Service to Aging Population Committee played an integral role in drafting recommendations regarding library service to this population for the 2005 White House Conference on Aging. This guest author has personally experienced the challenges of caring for elderly parents. Ms. McCallips has used this experience to sort through the myriad issues relating to eldercare and to identify some of the best core resources on each of these aspects of caregiving. Like many caregivers, she juggles family, caregiving, and work responsibilities. Since 2001, she has served as a library assistant in the Schreyer Business Library at Penn State University's main campus. She provides reference service, delivers course-related instruction, maintains the serials collection, and is responsible for the maintenance of departmental Web pages. Previously, she worked in school and public libraries. She completed a master's degree in library science from the Clarion University of Pennsylvania and is in the process of searching for her first post-MLS position. She has a forthcoming article on advertising Web sites scheduled for publication in the Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship, and she looks forward to active participation in RUSA.--Editor "Each November, as Americans reflect on our many blessings, we observe National Family Caregivers Month and give thanks for the selfless service of family caregivers on behalf of their loved ones in need. The tireless devotion of these Americans brings comfort and peace of mind to our Nation's elderly and to those who are chronically ill or disabled." (5) So begins President Bush's proclamation recognizing the 2005 National Family Caregivers Month. However, caregivers need more than thanks. They need resources to help them care for the ones they love and to care for themselves. …


Background Breastfeeding is known as a key intervention to improve newborn health and survival while prelacteal feeds (liquids other than breastmilk within 3 days of birth) represents a departure from optimal feeding practices. Recent programmatic guidelines from the WHO and UNICEF outline the need to improve newborn feeding and points to postnatal care (PNC) as a potential mechanism to do so. This study examines if PNC and type of PNC provider are associated with key newborn feeding practices: breastfeeding within 1 day and prelacteal feeds. Methods We use data from the Demographic and Health Surveys for 15 sub–Saharan African countries to estimate 4 separate pooled, multilevel, logistic regression models to predict the newborn feeding outcomes. Findings PNC is significantly associated with increased breastfeeding within 1day (OR = 1.35, P < 0.001) but is not associated with PLFs (OR = 1.04, P = 0.195). PNC provided by nurses, midwives and untrained health workers is also associated with higher odds of breastfeeding within 1 day of birth (OR = 1.39, P < 0.001, (OR = 1.95, P < 0.001) while PNC provided by untrained health workers is associated with increased odds of PLFs (OR = 1.20, P = 0.017). Conclusions PNC delivered through customary care may be an effective strategy to improve the breastfeeding within 1 day but not to discourage PLFs. Further analysis should be done to examine how these variables operate at the country level to produce finer programmatic insight.


We study whether quality assessments made by wine experts and by consumers (based on prices obtained at auction between 1980 and 1992), can be explained by variables describing endowments (land characteristics, exposures of vineyards) and technologies (from grape varieties and picking, to bottled wines). However, since technological choices are likely to depend on endowments, the effects can only be identified using an instrumental variables approach. We show that technological choices affect quality much more than natural endowments, the effect of which is negligible.


Folklore has it that the comparatively low proportion of self-employed in Germany is in part due to a habit that might be termed 'stigmatisation of failure': taking a second chance to build one's own firm after failing as a self-employed is said to be much more difficult here than in other countries. This paper uses data from a large recent survey in ten German planning regions to document that 18 percent of today's firm owners founded a firm in the past that went out of business in between, and that 8 percent of people who went out of business with their former firm are actively engaged in starting a new business today. The determinants of such a restart are investigated econometrically. It turns out that both individual and regional factors are important for the probability of taking a second chance: This probability is negatively related to age, attitude towards risk, and the share of persons in the region who failed in the past, while it is positively related to personal contacts with a young entrepreneur and the regional share of nascent entrepreneurs.


Affective computing facilitates more intuitive, natural computer interfaces by enabling the communication of the user's emotional state. Despite rapid growth in recent years, affective computing is still an under-explored field, which holds promise to be a valuable direction for future software development. An area which may particularly benefit is e-learning. The fact that interaction with computers is often a fundamental part of study, coupled with the interaction between affective state and learning, makes this an ideal candidate for affective computing developments.

The overall aim of the research described in this thesis is to advance the field and promote the uptake of affective computing applications both within the domain of e-learning, as well as in other problem domains. This aim has been addressed with contributions in the areas of tools to infer affective state through physiology, an architecture of a re-usable component based model for affective application development and the construction and subsequent empirical evaluation of a tutoring system that responds to the learner's affective state.

The first contribution put forward a solution that is able to infer the user's affective state by measuring subtle physiological signals using relatively unobtrusive and low-cost equipment. An empirical study was conducted to evaluate the success of this solution. Results demonstrated that the physiological signals did respond to affective state, and that the platform and methodology was sufficiently robust to detect changes in affective state.

The second contribution addressed the ad-hoc and sometimes overly complex nature of affective application development, which may be hindering progress in the field. A conceptual model for affective software development called the Affective Stack Model was introduced. This model supports a logical separation and loose coupling of reusable functional components to ensure that they may be developed and refined independently of one another in an efficient and streamlined manner.

The third major contribution utilized the proposed Affective Stack Model, and the physiological sensing platform, to construct an e-learning tutor that was able to detect and respond to the learner's affective state in real-time. This demonstrated the real-world applicability and success of the conceptual model, whilst also providing a proof of concept test-bed in which to evaluate the theorized learning gains that may be realized by affective tutoring strategies. An empirical study was conducted to assess the effectiveness of this tutoring system as compared to a non-affect sensing implementation. Results confirmed that there were statistically significant differences whereby students who interacted with the affective tutor had greater levels of perceived learning than students who used the non-affective version.

This research has theoretical and practical implications for the development of affective computing applications. The findings confirmed that underlying affective state can be inferred with two physiological signals, paving the way for further evaluation and research into the applications of physiological computing. The Affective Stack Model has also provided a framework to support future affective software development. A significant aspect of this contribution is that this is the first such model to be created which is compatible with the use of third-party, closed source software. This should make a considerable impact in the future as vast possibilities for future affective interfaces have been opened up. The development and subsequent evaluation of the affective tutor has substantial practical implications by demonstrating that the Affective Stack Model can be successfully applied to a real-world application to augment traditional learning materials with the capability for affect support. Furthermore, the empirical support that learning gains are attainable should spur new interest and growth in this area.


This paper assesses the impact of dentist remuneration on the incidence of potentially harmful dental x-rays. We use unique panel data which provide details of 1.3 million treatment claims by Scottish NHS dentists made between 1998 and 2007. Controlling for unobserved heterogeneity of both patients and dentists we estimate a series of fixed-effects models that are informed by a theoretical model of x-ray delivery and identify the effects on dental x-raying of dentists moving from a fixed salary to fee-for-service and patients moving from co-payment to exemption. We establish that there are significant increases in x-rays when dentists receive fee for service rather than salary payments and patients are made exempt from payment. There are further increases in x-rays when a patient switches to a fee for service dentist relative to them switching to a salaried one. JEL Code I11.


Abstract Actuopaleontological studies of echinoids and their predators in modern ecosystems can augment our ability to identify and interpret the fossil record of predation. Here, we examine present-day interactions between the spatangoid Meoma ventricosa and the drilling gastropod Cassis tuberosa from a shallow tropical marine habitat (San Salvador Island, Bahamas) to assess the impact of drilling predation on the fossilization potential of echinoids, estimate drilling frequency, characterize drill hole morphology, and evaluate size and site selectivity of predators. Cassids produced recognizable drill holes ranging from 2–14 mm in diameter. A comparison of drilled versus live individuals suggested that predation was size-selective with preference toward smaller prey (p << 0.001), whereas landmark morphometrics revealed no evidence of stereotypy in specific attack site, drill holes were preferentially located on the oral side of the test (85.2%). Although the annual mortality of M. ventricosa attributed to C. tuberosa was 0.021 individuals per m2, the drilling frequency in samples of dead echinoid tests was 96.8%. This exceedingly high drilling frequency most likely reflects the fact that echinoids killed by C. tuberosa—a predator that immobilizes, drills, kills, and consumes M. ventricosa buried in the sediment—have a greater chance of preservation than echinoids that died due to other causes (e.g., fish predation). These results not only suggest that the frequency of drilled prey specimens may greatly exaggerate the importance of certain species of drilling predators, but also indicate that certain predators may play a critical role in enhancing the fossilization potential of their prey.


Abstract Sunoco's 2004 acquisition of El Paso's, New Jersey refinery and Valero's 2005 acquisition of Premcor's Delaware refinery significantly consolidated refinery control in the US Northeast. The Federal Trade Commission investigated both transactions but challenged neither. We examine the FTC's enforcement rationale and test whether these mergers were associated with post-merger price increases in either gasoline or diesel at retail and wholesale. Our findings indicate that the transactions were largely competitively neutral. There was some indication that some unbranded rack prices may have increased after the mergers, but this result was not robust across controls or assumptions. In some other instances, prices in merger-affected areas may have fallen relative to prices elsewhere.


Quantifying the affinities of interactions in biological networks, particularly transient ones, remains a challenge. Maerkl and Quake describe a high-throughput microfluidic platform that allows the measurement of transient and low-affinity interactions and characterize the DNA binding energy landscapes for four eukaryotic transcription factors. In two cases, the binding specificities were used to predict which genes the transcription factors would bind and likely regulate. S. J. Maerkl, S. R. Quake, A systems approach to measuring the binding energy landscapes of transcription factors. Science 315, 233-237 (2007). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Copyright is held by the author/owner(s). UbiComp '13 Adjunct, Sept 8-12, 2013, Zurich, Switzerland. ACM 978-1-4503-2139-6/13/09...$15.00. Abstract Insufficient security and privacy level on mobile devices, have made it difficult to utilize sensitive systems like mobile banking, mobile credit cards, mobile ticketing or mobile passports. Solving these challenges in security and privacy, could provide a potential future for such systems towards better mobility and higher confidence level of end-user services. We address this issue by introducing an open ecosystem for mobile applications on tamper resistant hardware. A transparent integration of security features of such hardware will allow security critical applications to securely store and read data, transfer data to servers and securely communicate with other hardware parts (e.g. touch screen, sensors, etc.). In this research we will investigate variants and analyse trade-offs of integrating such an interface.


Abstract. The chemistry-climate model (CCM) SOCOL has been used to evaluate the contributions of the main anthropogenic factors to the simulated changes of ozone and stratospheric dynamics during the 21st century. As the main anthropogenic factors we consider the atmospheric concentration of the greenhouse gases (GHG), ozone depleting substances (ODS) and sea surface temperature and sea ice (SST/SI). The latter is considered here as an independent factor because the majority of the CCMs prescribe its evolution. We have performed three sets of "time slice" numerical experiments for the years 2000, 2050, and 2100 taking into account all factors separately and all together. The total column ozone increase during the first half of the 21st century is caused by the ODS, especially in the middle and high latitudes of both hemispheres. In the tropics and the extra tropical region of the Northern Hemisphere (NH) the SST/SI forcing plays a very important role in the evolution of atmospheric ozone during the second half of the 21st century. The GHG affect the temperature and ozone mainly in the upper stratosphere and in the lower stratosphere of the high latitudes of the Southern Hemisphere (SH). In the lower tropical stratosphere of the NH, the long-term changes of the temperature, zonal wind and the meridional circulation are controlled mainly by the SST/SI. The strong contribution of the SST/SI to the ozone and circulation changes in the future implies that some differences between the results by different CCMs could be caused by the applied SST/SI rather than by the CCM's deficiencies. We suggest taking this issue into account for the planning of the future model evaluation campaigns.