This research examined the genotoxic activity in the seawater of Asin Bay (Gulf of Gulluk) located in Mugla, Turkey, Aegean coast of Turkey. Genotoxic activities of 66 raw samples, taken from 17 different stations in the spring and summer seasons of the year 2013, were determined by using in vitro mutagenicity assay SOS chromotest with Escherichia coli PQ37 strain bacteria activities. In the applied procedure, β-galactosidase (β-gal) activity, alkaline phosphatase (AP) activity, and different solvent controls were taken into account to generate reliable results in terms of the corrected induction factors (CIF) used as a quantitative measure of genotoxic activity level. The SOS chromotest procedure was simply and rapidly performed as an early assay to explore for whether a potential genotoxic activity was presence in the in the seawater of Asin Bay (Gulf of Gulluk) with no special measuring devices except a microplate reader. The implemented assay was successfully completed within only 24 h including the revival of the bacteria. The results showed that 11 samples (%17 of total) were close to the threshold value of 1.5. The findings of this study clearly revealed that the seawater of Asin Bay (Gulf of Gulluk) had no potential genotoxic risks in terms of the organisms in marine ecosystem, since all of the calculated CIF values were determined to be below the threshold level. It was concluded that according to the SOS chromotest results, the levels of potential genotoxic agents were found to be under the limits for the offshore fishery.


In 1981 the U.S. Geological Survey conducted a high-resolution, 12-channel seismic-reflection survey offshore of Charleston, South Carolina, to study young faults that may be earthquake sources. We collected data along 24 profiles, totaling about 600 km, with shotpoints at 10-m intervals. The Helena Banks fault zone (HBFZ) was crossed by 13 high-resolution profiles which, combined with 5 conventional 64-channel profiles acquired in 1979 across the fault zone, provide greater definition of this structure than any similar feature along the Atlantic seaboard or continental margin. The HBFZ trends N66°E and is about 110 km long (the same trend as the underlying Kiawah Triassic(?) basin); it comprises several segments 10–40 km long that trend between N68°E and N77°E, with a mean of N72°E. The left-stepping echelon pattern of the segments (connected by normal faults observed on two profiles) in the HBFZ suggests slip could possibly be left lateral despite high-angle reverse separation (mean fault dip 70° ± 5°) of Coastal Plain strata seen on the individual reflection profiles. Aeromagnetic data constrain the maximum ratio of horizontal to vertical slip from about 10:1 to 100:1. Our interpretation is consistent with the present-day, northeast-trending, maximum horizontal compressional stress field; however, the reflection data cannot independently prove that the main sense of motion on the HBFZ is strike slip. Examination of vertical separations on six segments across the HBF indicates a linear increase with depth of 51 ± 12 m/km which is similar to 36 m/km and 48 m/km reported previously as measured on multichannel seismic-reflection profiles crossing the Gants and Cooke faults, respectively, on land in the meizoseismal area of the 1886 earthquake. We interpret these results to indicate that, as a first approximation, the stress field did not vary significantly in direction or magnitude from Late Cretaceous time to Pleistocene time (and likely to the present) in the Charleston region. The trend of the HBFZ as mapped by the reflection profiles follows the narrow Kiawah Triassic(?) basin, which was delineated by the second vertical derivative of total magnetic intensity. Several reflection profiles indicate that the HBFZ is a compressional reactivation of an extensional Triassic(?) fault zone bounding the basin.


The labor market "quality" of immigrants is a subject of debate among immigration researchers, and a major public policy concern. However, traditional methods of measuring human capital are particularly difficult to apply to recently arrived immigrants. Many factors that have a negative effect on entry earnings also increase either the incentive or the opportunity for faster human capital investment and earning growth. In addition, many country-of-origin acquired skills that are not immediately valued in the U.S. labor market are useful to the acquisition of U.S. skills. Thus entry earnings are not a good measure of the stock of immigrant human capital. This article presents a model of immigrant human capital investment and, using 1970- 1990 census data, presents strong evidence of a systematic and important inverse relationship between initial immigrant earnings and subsequent earnings growth. This result – which persists even after accounting for differences in the immigration flows from different countries, sampling error, and the effects of emigration – is fundamentally different from both earlier cross-sectional estimates and more recent pooled models that constrain cohort growth rates to be equal. Although our model provides theoretical support for an inverse relationship only when source country human capital is held constant, faster earnings growth for low-entry-earnings immigrants is found empirically even when age and education are not controlled for. The immigrant human capital investment model presented here explores general principles that may apply to other labor market transitions that involve skill transferability – including occupational change and labor market reentry.


Despite the architectural separation between intradomain and interdomain routing in the Internet, intradomain protocols do influence the path-selection process in the Border Gateway Protocol (BGP). When choosing between multiple equally-good BGP routes, a router selects the one with the closest egress point, based on the intradomain path cost. Under such hot-potato routing, an intradomain event can trigger BGP routing changes. To characterize the influence of hot-potato routing, we conduct controlled experiments with a commercial router. Then, we propose a technique for associating BGP routing changes with events visible in the intradomain protocol, and apply our algorithm to AT&T's backbone network. We show that (i) hot-potato routing can be a significant source of BGP updates, (ii) BGP updates can lag 60 seconds or more behind the intradomain event, (iii) the number of BGP path changes triggered by hot-potato routing has a nearly uniform distribution across destination prefixes, and (iv) the fraction of BGP messages triggered by intradomain changes varies significantly across time and router locations. We show that hot-potato routing changes lead to longer delays in forwarding-plane convergence, shifts in the flow of traffic to neighboring domains, extra externally-visible BGP update messages, and inaccuracies in Internet performance measurements.


This paper surveys AR (Augmented Reality) technology from various perspectives and it contains all the researcher needs to know when he starts searching in that topic. We present the ideal characteristics which realize an ultimate AR system. Basic components of AR system containing output components (vision, audition, touch, smell and taste), input components (video camera, tracking, registration and interaction interfaces) and software (the most commonly used toolkits) are highlighted in a great detail. Applications involving medicine, learning, manufacturing, annotation and robot path planning are also discussed. Finally, registration problem which is the greatest impediment faces most of AR applications is showed with some previous solutions.


Abstract Teaching practices in natural settings such as activity-based intervention (ABI) are suggested as alternatives to be used in effective early childhood education. As a multidisciplinary model, ABI consists of four components, which are choosing activities according to the child's interests; teaching generalizable goals embedded in routines and planned activities; and using before and after behavior stimuli which have natural and meaningful relations with behaviors. The benefits of using ABI within instructional settings include providing children with multiple-practice opportunities; teaching the target skill within the framework of daily routines without further need for any extra activity; focusing on children's interests and intrinsic motivation; and enhancing the level of success in educational settings. Considering these advantages and benefits, one can state that practices based on activity-based intervention can be used effectively for children with developmental disabilities from various age and disability groups. This article included descriptions and examples of activity-based intervention. Key Words Children with Developmental Disabilities, Naturalistic Instruction, Activity-Based Intervention, Early Intervention. There are many research findings on the effectiveness of techniques based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) such as direct instruction, errorless teaching, and discrete trial teaching to teach children with developmental disabilities (with mental retardation and/or autism) for various concept and skill teaching (Alberto & Troutman, 2006; Tekin & Kircaali-Iftar, 2004). Some of the targets for teaching children with developmental disabilities are teaching new skills, increasing or decreasing the acquired behaviors, and maintaining and generalizing the acquired behaviors (Kircaali-Iftar, 2007). However, research shows that in most of these ABA based techniques, learning usually happens during the acquisition (becoming able to do what could not before) phase. The lack effectiveness on the other phases of learning which are fluency (perform the behavior fast and easy), maintance (performing behavior after the instruction), and generalization (performing behavior in different circumstances) is apparent (Alberto & Troutman, 2006; Kerr & Nelson, 1998). By using ABA based techniques, skills are taught with adult guidance and within highly structured instructional arrangements. This is considered as the resource for the limitation that is mentioned above. In order to overcome this limitation, various techniques have recently been suggested in the literature that could be implemented in natural settings as an alternative for practitioners and researchers (Engelmann, 2003; Newman, Needelman, Reinecke & Robek, 2002; Schug, Tarver & Western, 2001; Wolery, Ault, & Doyle, 1992). In teaching techniques which are used in natural environments, teaching aims to be realized in the natural setting and to be systematic (Bricker, Preti-Frontczak, & McComas, 1998; Kurt & Tekin-Iftar, 2008; McBride & Schwartz, 2003). Besides, it is also mentioned that teaching techniques which are used in natural settings are more appropriate for inclusion environments and for parents to teach new skills to their children in their daily routines (Bricker, et al., 1998; Woods, Kashinath, & Goldstein, 2004). Instructional techniques in natural settings are used more often for the education of individuals with developmental disabilities. Instructional techniques that are used in natural settings that are stated in the literature are incidental teaching, naturalistic time delay, mand-model, milieu teaching, transition-based teaching, and activity-based intervention (Allen & Cowan, 2008). In this study, ABI will be approached from the above instructional techniques that are used in natural settings. Activity Based Intervention (ABI) As a multidisciplinary model, ABI was first used by Diane Bricker and her colleagues at the University of Oregon (Bricker et al. …


We introduce a new type of multi-resolution image pyramid for high-resolution images called sparse pdf maps (sPDF-maps). Each pyramid level consists of a sparse encoding of continuous probability density functions (pdfs) of pixel neighborhoods in the original image. The encoded pdfs enable the accurate computation of non-linear image operations directly in any pyramid level with proper pre-filtering for anti-aliasing, without accessing higher or lower resolutions. The sparsity of sPDF-maps makes them feasible for gigapixel images, while enabling direct evaluation of a variety of non-linear operators from the same representation. We illustrate this versatility for antialiased color mapping, O(n) local Laplacian filters, smoothed local histogram filters (e.g., median or mode filters), and bilateral filters.


Transient Stability Assessment (TSA) is the process in which the stability of a system is characterized qualitatively or quantitatively. The TSA algorithm presented in this paper is derived from the well-established Single Machine Equivalent (SIME) method and can thus be categorized as a hybrid direct-temporal method. The novelty of the proposed algorithm is that it derives a Transient Stability Index (TSI) with a single TimeDomain (TD) simulation for both stable and unstable cases. The resulting TSI is uniform in units and linear around the instability point. Results are reported for two sample power systems of 9 and 36 buses. The proposed algorithm has also been successfully employed to speed-up a Critical Clearing Time (CCT) determination algorithm.


We study exchange rate determination in a 2-country model where domestic banks create each economy's supply of domestic and foreign currency. The model combines the UIP-based and monetary theories of exchange rate determination, but the latter with a focus on private rather than public money creation. The model features an endogenous monetary spread or excess return in the UIP condition. This spread experiences sizeable changes when shocks affect the relative supplies (of bank loans) or demands (for bank deposits) of the two currencies. Under such shocks, monetary effects dominate traditional UIP effects in the determination of exchange rates and allocations, and this becomes stronger as domestic and foreign currencies become more imperfect substitutes. With these shocks, the model successfully addresses the UIP puzzle, and it is also consistent with the Meese-Rogoff and PPP puzzles.


Extracted from text ... The patient, a 44-year-old woman
from Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital,
was a para 5 gravida 5 post-menopausal
woman, who had breastfed her children for
2 years in total. She was not on hormone
replacement therapy.
The patient was being treated for a
pseudotumour of the right orbit as the
computed tomography (CT) scan demonstrated
a large right retrobulbar mass, as
well as meningeal thickening. To ascertain
a primary cause for the above picture, a
mammogram (MMG) was done. The
MMG demonstrated extensive bilateral
patchy spiculated densities with associated
amorphous microcalcifications, and axillary
nodes (Figs 1 and 2).
Ultrasound (US) ..


Chemists working with small molecules are under enormous pressure to be able to reliably predict how biological systems in particular and the environment in general will respond to the deployment of the corresponding compounds as medicines, cosmetics, or in other manufactured goods. To be specific and robust, any such prediction must be based on an implicit or explicit mathematical model of how chemical structure relates to biological activity—i.e., on some postulated quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR). Such models are necessarily limited in how broadly they can be applied. Their applicability domain depends on the structural diversity of the data set used, but also on the descriptors used to characterize how that structural variation relates to the activity in question. In principle, descriptors based on the molecular interaction fields produced by atoms distributed in three‐dimensional (3D) space should be the most general of all, but finding suitable conformations and alignment is a challenge. One way to obtain these is by taking the structure of the macromolecular target into account as well, as is done in scoring ligand/receptor complexes for virtual screening. Unfortunately, the available docking tools are generally not up to the task. Here, we share some personal observations and opinions on two possible ways to address this shortcoming: implicitly, by iterative rescoring of docked poses obtained using derived 3D QSARs; and explicitly, by evaluating ligand interaction fields with respect to target atoms rather than against generalized probe atoms. © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper introduces a new approach for the automated detection of buildings from monocular very high resolution (VHR) optical satellite images. First, we investigate the shadow evidence to focus on building regions. To do that, we propose a new fuzzy landscape generation approach to model the directional spatial relationship between buildings and their shadows. Once all landscapes are collected, a pruning process is developed to eliminate the landscapes that may occur due to non-building objects. The final building regions are detected by GrabCut partitioning approach. In this paper, the input requirements of the GrabCut partitioning are automatically extracted from the previously determined shadow and landscape regions, so that the approach gained an efficient fully automated behavior for the detection of buildings. Extensive experiments performed on 20 test sites selected from a set of QuickBird and Geoeye-1 VHR images showed that the proposed approach accurately detects buildings with arbitrary shapes and sizes in complex environments. The tests also revealed that even under challenging environmental and illumination conditions, reasonable building detection performances could be achieved by the proposed approach.


A methodology for processing spectral images to retrieve information on underlying physical, chemical, and/or biological phenomena is based on evolutionary and related computational methods implemented in software. In a typical case, the solution (the information that one seeks to retrieve) consists of parameters of a mathematical model that represents one or more of the phenomena of interest. The methodology was developed for the initial purpose of retrieving the desired information from spectral image data acquired by remote-sensing instruments aimed at planets (including the Earth). Examples of information desired in such applications include trace gas concentrations, temperature profiles, surface types, day/night fractions, cloud/aerosol fractions, seasons, and viewing angles. The methodology is also potentially useful for retrieving information on chemical and/or biological hazards in terrestrial settings. In this methodology, one utilizes an iterative process that minimizes a fitness function indicative of the degree of dissimilarity between observed and synthetic spectral and angular data. The evolutionary computing methods that lie at the heart of this process yield a population of solutions (sets of the desired parameters) within an accuracy represented by a fitness-function value specified by the user. The evolutionary computing methods (ECM) used in this methodology are Genetic Algorithms and Simulated Annealing, both of which are well-established optimization techniques and have also been described in previous NASA Tech Briefs articles. These are embedded in a conceptual framework, represented in the architecture of the implementing software, that enables automatic retrieval of spectral and angular data and analysis of the retrieved solutions for uniqueness.


The subject of this experimental report is the application of nano particles in petroleum refinement. Sulfur removal from petroleum using mixed bed which contains nano molybdenum oxide and nano cobalt oxide, each of them in 50 volume percentage, is considered in this study. The properties related to the process characterization which is defined as X factor and pressure drop, are evaluated experimentally. The increase trend is obviously obtained however there are different curve slopes from beginning to the end. The results show the changing in diameter from 2 cm to 2.5 cm increases the value of X factor for about 0.2%, while the increase in bed diameter from 3.5 cm to 4 cm increases only 0.05%. This may relate on the poor distribution of oil in higher diameter of bed.


International development ethics is moral reflection on the ends and means of societal and global change. Who should engage in this activity and how should it be done? Should only citizens of a given nation reflect on, and morally evaluate, that country's development goals and strategies? Or do foreigners have a contribution to make as well? Crocker answers these questions by first briefly discussing and critiquing the context within which these questions are frequently debated, namely the ethnocentrism/anti-ethnocentrism and particularism/universalism controversies. He explains the distinction between social insiders and outsiders arguing that in development ethics there are advantages and disadvantages to being both. He urges development ethicists to cultivate a mixture of insider/outsider perspectives, beginning and ending in their own groups, but learning from and benefitting others in the process. Crocker concludes that international and regional progress are closely interrelated. Universalists and ethnocentrists must converge to "think and act globally, regionally, nationally, and locally."


From the Publisher:
Metrics and Case Studies for Evaluating Engineering Designs considers four principal metrics for system design:. Design Difficulty - Some projects do not immediately reveal their complexity. Taking some time to assess the true intricacy of each situation at the outset allows you to plan appropriately from the beginning. Required Resources - An accurate understanding of the materials and personnel needed to fulfill your goals is another keystone of good planning. Systems Engineering Efficacy - As projects get more sophisticated, the impact of systems structure becomes more and more important for success. Developmental Environment - Both technology and organizational politics affect the progress of any project. Knowing your environment allows you to identify risks before they endanger your project. Metrics and Case Studies for Evaluating Engineering Designs applies these metrics to 30 real-life case studies. Drawn from the authors' experience in industry and teaching, each case illustrates one or more of the essentials in action. Moving from simple to complex systems, the book shows how readers can apply these theories to develop individual metrics tailored to their own organizations. This common-sense approach does not require readers to understand complicated mathematics or statistical models. The authors' straightforward style makes this book ideal reading for executives in business and government who need to evaluate complex programs without having a heavy technical background. Students in all engineering disciplines can also benefit from this practical, inventive guide.


We analyze the vertical distribution of the resolved stellar populations in six low-mass (Vmax = 67–131 km s-1), edge-on, spiral galaxies observed with the Hubble Space Telescope Advanced Camera for Surveys. In each galaxy we find evidence for an extraplanar stellar component extending up to 15 scale heights (3.5 kpc) above the plane, with a scale height typically twice that of two-dimensional fits to Ks-band Two Micron All Sky Survey images. We analyze the vertical distribution as a function of stellar age by tracking changes in the color-magnitude diagram. The young stellar component (≲108 yr) is found to have a scale height larger than the young component in the Milky Way, suggesting that stars in these low-mass galaxies form in a thicker disk. We also find that the scale height of a stellar population increases with age, with young main-sequence stars, intermediate-age asymptotic giant branch stars, and old red giant branch (RGB) stars having successively larger scale heights in each galaxy. This systematic trend indicates that disk heating must play some role in producing the extraplanar stars. We constrain the rate of disk heating using the observed trend between scale height and stellar age and find that the observed heating rates are dramatically smaller than in the Milky Way. The color distributions of the RGB stars well above the midplane indicate that the extended stellar components we see are moderately metal-poor, with peak metallicities around [Fe/H] = -1 and with little or no metallicity gradient with height. The lack of metallicity gradient can be explained if a majority of extraplanar RGB stars were formed at early times and are not dominated by a younger heated population. Our observations suggest that, like the Milky Way, low-mass disk galaxies also have multiple stellar components. In its structure, mean metallicity, and old age, the RGB component in these galaxies seems analogous to the Milky Way thick disk. However, without additional kinematic and abundance measurements, this association is only circumstantial, particularly in light of the clear existence of some disk heating at intermediate ages. Finally, we find that the vertical dust distribution has a scale height somewhat larger than that of the main-sequence stars.


Protest movements have been galvanized recently by social media and are commonly, and somewhat hyperbolically, referred to by mainstream media as "Twitter revolutions." This article identifies social media as a battleground for disseminating contending versions of reality, not only during Twitter revolutions, but also in their aftermath. Articulating the enduring impact of popular social movements and examining how protestors and governmental supporters contest their meaning over time, the article studies the digital traces of the Gezi Park protests in Turkey (2013) after the mobilization dissipated. The digital traces of protests act as critical digital artifacts of contestation with actors on both sides (pro- and anti-AKP [Justice and Development Party] government in Turkey). These digital traces are reanimated by both actors to build support, assert truth claims, foster identity/community, and/or demand recognition. The article deploys content and multimodal analyses of texts and images on Twitter, shared through hashtags on the protests when the protests' alleged leaders faced trials (2018‒2019).


We present MorphNet, an approach to automate the design of neural network structures. MorphNet iteratively shrinks and expands a network, shrinking via a resource-weighted sparsifying regularizer on activations and expanding via a uniform multiplicative factor on all layers. In contrast to previous approaches, our method is scalable to large networks, adaptable to specific resource constraints (e.g. the number of floating-point operations per inference), and capable of increasing the network's performance. When applied to standard network architectures on a wide variety of datasets, our approach discovers novel structures in each domain, obtaining higher performance while respecting the resource constraint.


How would society react to "the Watcher," a technology capable of efficiently, unerringly, and immediately reporting the perpetrator of virtually every crime? This Essay treats that speculative question as an opportunity to explore the relationship between governmental surveillance and criminal justice. The resulting argument is unabashedly fictional but draws attention to pressures that may influence the real world. For instance, the Watcher casts doubt on perfect surveillance's ability to improve the law, supports judicial attentiveness to substantive law when reviewing rules of investigation, and suggests that legislative control might displace prosecutorial discretion. The Watcher also draws attention to the relationship between surveillance and regulatory intricacy, as well as to ways of preserving human mercy within automated criminal justice.


Patient portals are used as a means to facilitate communication, performing administrative tasks, or accessing one's health record. In a retrospective analysis of real-world data from the Swedish National Patient Portal 1177.se, we describe the rate of adoption over time, as well as how patterns of device usage have changed over time. In Jan 2013, 53% of all visits were made from a computer, and 38% from a mobile phone. By June 2020, 77% of all visits were made from a mobile phone and only 20% from a computer. These results underline the importance of designing responsive patient portals that allow patients to use any device without losing functionality or usability.


In this essay we explore the implications of human capital and search behavior for both the interpersonal and life-cycle structure of inter-firm labor mobility. The economic hypothesis which motivates the analysis is that individual differences in firm-specific complementarities and related skill acquisitions produce differences in mobility behavior and in the relation between job tenure, wages and mobility. Both "job duration dependence" and "heterogeneity bias" are implied by this theory. Exploration of longitudinal data sets (NLS and MID) which contain mobility, job and wage histories of men in the 1966-76 decade yield several findings, among others: 1. The initially steep and later decelerating declines of labor mobility with working age are in large part due to the similar but more steeply declining relation between mobility and length of job tenure. 2. Given tenure levels, the probability of moving is predicted positively by the frequency of prior moves and negatively by education. The inclusion of prior moves in the regression reduces the estimated tenure slope because it helps to remove the "heterogeneity bias" in that slope. 3. The popular "mover-stayer model" is rejected by the existence of tenure effects on mobility. 4. Differences in mobility during the first decade of working life do not predict long-run differences in earnings. However, persistent movers at later stages of working life have lower wage levels and flatter life-cycle wage growth. 5. The analysis calls for a reformulation of earnings (wage) functions. Inclusion of tenure terms in the function permits separate estimates of returns to general and specific human capital after correction for heterogeneity bias. A rough estimate is that 50 percent of life-time wage growth is due to general (transferable) experience and 25 percent each to firm-specific experience and inter-firm mobility.


The effects of temporal and spatial smoothing of wind forcing were evaluated in a model simulation of the tropical Pacific Ocean variability during the onset phase of the 1997/1998 El Nino. A total of 16 experiments were performed using the NASA scatterometer wind data smoothed at time intervals from 1 to 30 days and on spatial scales from 1° to 10°. A major effect of the temporal smoothing of winds is to warm sea surface temperature (SST) by reducing the energy input for vertical turbulent mixing. When the daily wind forcing was replaced by the monthly average, the mean SST increased by 0.5° to 1° over most of the tropical Pacific. The spatial smoothing of winds is not as effective as the temporal smoothing in causing SST warming, but it has a more severe influence on dynamical ocean response for smoothing scales above 5°. The onset of the 1997/1998 El Nino can be successfully simulated using the wind forcing averaged to monthly intervals and 2° squares. For climate models the spatial smoothing of wind forcing on scales larger than the width of the equatorial waveguide is a more serious limitation than the temporal smoothing on scales up to 1 month.


MCSA/MCSE 70-411-R2 Web-based learning and exam preparation MCSA/MCSE Administering Windows Server 2012 R2 uCertify Course and Labs is an easy-to-use online course that allows you to assess your readiness and teaches you what you need to know to pass the Microsoft 70-411 exam. Master all of the Microsoft 70-411 exam objectives in the framework of MCSA/MCSE interactive eBook. The interactive eBook includes informative text, tables, step-by-step lists, images, interactive exercises, glossary flash cards, and review activities. The course comes complete with extensive pre- and post-assessment tests. In total there are over 400 practice questions. The award-winning uCertify Labs help bridge the gap between conceptual knowledge and real-world application by providing competency-based, interactive, online, 24x7 training. uCertify Labs simulate real-world hardware, software applications, operating systems, and command-line interfaces. The 70+ labs are supplemented with videos demonstrating lab solutions. Students can feel safe working in this virtual environment resolving real-world operating system and hardware problems. All of the content-the complete eBook, the practice questions, the exercises, and the labs-is focused around the official Microsoft exam objectives.


Independent judiciaries prevent democratic reversals, facilitate peaceful transitions of power, and legitimate democracy among citizens. We believe this judicial independence is important for citizen-level judicial confidence and faith in democratic institutions. I challenge this and argue that citizens living under terror threats lose confidence in their independent judiciaries. Terror threats lead citizens to enable the state leader to provide counterterrorism for their security, which has important implications for interbranch relations between the executive and the judiciary. Citizens lose confidence in independent judiciaries that provide due process for suspected terrorists. I test my argument with mixed effects models that incorporate the Global Terrorism Database and four waves of European Values Survey. The analyses demonstrate the negative effects of terror threats on judicial confidence when interacting terror threats with measures of judicial independence. My findings have important implications for the study of democratic confidence and the liberty-security dilemma.


The uncertainties associated with the wet removal of aerosols entrained above convective cloud bases are inves- tigated in a global aerosol-climate model (ECHAM5-HAM) under a set of limiting assumptions for the wet removal of the entrained aerosols. The limiting assumptions for the wet removal of entrained aerosols are negligible scavenging and vigorous scavenging (either through activation, with size- dependent impaction scavenging, or with the prescribed frac- tions of the standard model). To facilitate this process-based study, an explicit representation of cloud-droplet-borne and ice-crystal-borne aerosol mass and number, for the pur- pose of wet removal, is introduced into the ECHAM5-HAM model. This replaces and is compared with the prescribed cloud-droplet-borne and ice-crystal-borne aerosol fraction scavenging scheme of the standard model. A 20 % to 35 % uncertainty in simulated global, annual mean aerosol mass burdens and optical depth (AOD) is at- tributed to different assumptions for the wet removal of aerosols entrained above convective cloud bases. Assump- tions about the removal of aerosols entrained above convec- tive cloud bases control modeled upper tropospheric aerosol concentrations by as much as one order of magnitude. Simulated aerosols entrained above convective cloud bases contribute 20 % to 50 % of modeled global, annual mean aerosol mass convective wet deposition (about 5 % to 10 % of the total dry and wet deposition), depending on the aerosol species, when including wet scavenging of those entrained aerosols (either by activation, size-dependent impaction, or with the prescribed fraction scheme). Among the simula- tions, the prescribed fraction and size-dependent impaction schemes yield the largest global, annual mean aerosol mass convective wet deposition (by about two-fold). However, the prescribed fraction scheme has more vigorous convective mixed-phase wet removal (by two to five-fold relative to the size-dependent impaction scheme) since nearly all entrained accumulation and coarse mode aerosols are assumed to be cloud-droplet borne or ice-crystal borne, and evaporation due to the Bergeron-Findeisen process is neglected. The simulated convective wet scavenging of entrained ac- cumulation and coarse mode aerosols has feedbacks on new particle formation and the number of Aitken mode aerosols, which control stratiform and convective cloud droplet num- ber concentrations and yield precipitation changes in the ECHAM5-HAM model. However, the geographic distri- bution of aerosol annual mean convective wet deposition change in the model is driven by changes to the assump- tions regarding the scavenging of aerosols entrained above cloud bases rather than by precipitation changes, except for sea salt deposition in the tropics. Uncertainty in the seasonal, regional cycles of AOD due to assumptions about entrained aerosol wet scavenging is similar in magnitude to the esti- mated error in the AOD retrievals. The uncertainty in aerosol concentrations, burdens, and AOD attributed to different assumptions for the wet scav- enging of aerosols entrained above convective cloud bases in a global model motivates the ongoing need to better under- stand and model the activation and impaction processes that aerosols undergo after entrainment into convective updrafts.


An investigation was undertaken to identify and develop a practical method for improving the lift to drag ratio (LID) of the contemporary windsurf fin. It was established that the contemporary windsurf fin is at an advanced stage of evolution and that a fundamental reworking of the design is required to attain significant L/D gains. In particular the symmetrically foiled cross-section (required for equal performance on each sailing tack) limits the performance potential of the device. The benefits of using camber in the design of lifting sections for high lift and low drag are well known. Traditional variable camber lifting surfaces utilise leading and trailing edge flap technologies to vary the geometry (camber) of the cross-section. However, this method for generating variable camber is not considered to be suitable or practical for the windsurf fin, primarily due to the increases in drag associated with conventional flaps. An alternative approach for developing a variable camber windsurf fin is therefore considered. It is proposed to use hydroelastic tailoring techniques to realise a reversible and finitely
variable camber cross section for the fins used in the sport of windsurfing. The camber in the cross-section is invoked by the pressure differential acting on the two surfaces of the fin when it is at an incidence angle to the freestream. The magnitude of the camber is adaptive and
responds passively by design, material usage and sailor input. As part of the preliminary investigation a computer based analysis tool was developed to perform the two dimensional investigation into the coupling effect between the fluid flow and the hydroelastically tailored cross section. Based on the outcome of this work a prototype
windsurf fin employing a hydroelastic cross section was fabricated and tested. Results from this preliminary investigation establish the potential for using a hydroelastically tailored cross-section to significantly increase the L/D performance of a windsurf fin of
nominal surface area (when compared with contemporary designs).


Summer monsoon precipitation provides a valuable support to the livelihood of the people live in Southeast Asia where the population density is very high. But monsoon precipitation shows high variation in seasonal and yearly time scales affecting daily life of the people in the regions such Indo-China Peninsula where most of the countries depend on agricultural economy. Tropical cyclones (TCs) and westward-propagation disturbances (WDs) are some of the major summer precipitation providing weather systems of this region. Pacific-Japan (PJ) teleconnection is a meridional teleconnection pattern which dominate the summer in Western North Pacific (WNP). TC locations were identified by TC best track dataset and WDs were detected subjectively using reanalysis dataset. PJ pattern timeseries is represented as 1 principle component seasonal average of relative vorticity at 850 hPa. High interannual and interseasonal variation of occurrence frequency was observed in Indo-China Peninsula which is not understood well enough. TC occurrence and genesis showed increasing trend in PJ pattern whereas it is negative for WDs. TCs and WDs have positive correlation with landfall in Indo-China Peninsula.


Recently, an increasing number of visualization systems have begun to incorporate natural language generation (NLG) capabilities into their interfaces. NLG-based visualization systems typically leverage a suite of statistical functions to automatically extract key facts about the underlying data and surface them as natural language sentences alongside visualizations. With current systems, users are typically required to read the system-generated sentences and mentally map them back to the accompanying visualization. However, depending on the features of the visualization (e.g., visualization type, data density) and the complexity of the data fact, mentally mapping facts to visualizations can be a challenging task. Furthermore, more than one visualization could be used to illustrate a single data fact. Unfortunately, current tools provide little or no support for users to explore such alternatives. In this paper, we explore how system-generated data facts can be treated as interactive widgets to help users interpret visualizations and communicate their findings. We present Voder, a system that lets users interact with automatically-generated data facts to explore both alternative visualizations to convey a data fact as well as a set of embellishments to highlight a fact within a visualization. Leveraging data facts as interactive widgets, Voder also facilitates data fact-based visualization search. To assess Voder's design and features, we conducted a preliminary user study with 12 participants having varying levels of experience with visualization tools. Participant feedback suggested that interactive data facts aided them in interpreting visualizations. Participants also stated that the suggestions surfaced through the facts helped them explore alternative visualizations and embellishments to communicate individual data facts.


STUDY OBJECTIVES
Preterm birth (PTB) is a major public health priority and the most common adverse pregnancy outcome. Several risk factors have been identified, but a gap in the understanding of the underlying etiology of PTB persists. Poor sleep quality is a correlate of adverse health outcomes. Therefore, we evaluated whether sleep quality during pregnancy was a clinically relevant risk factor for PTB.

DESIGN
Observational.

MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS
Participants included 166 pregnant women (mean age = 28.6 ± 5.5 years). Self-report questionnaires, including the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), were administered at 14-16, 24-26, and 30-32 weeks gestation. Logistic regression models were used to evaluate whether sleep quality was associated with preterm delivery. Poor sleep quality was a predictor of preterm birth, with the largest effects in early pregnancy (14-16 weeks) (OR: 1.25 95% CI [1.04-1.50], P = 0.02) and more modest effects in later pregnancy (30-32 weeks) (OR: 1.18 95% CI [0.98-1.42], P = 0.07). With every one-point increase on the PSQI, the odds of preterm birth increase 25% in early pregnancy and 18% in later pregnancy.

CONCLUSIONS
Poor sleep quality, in both early and late pregnancy, is associated with an increased risk of delivering preterm. Currently the specific pathway(s) through which disturbed sleep contributes to PTB are unknown. We suggest that poor sleep may contribute to increased risk for PTB both independently, as well as in conjunction with other established risk factors, such as stress.


Introduction: Healthy behaviors are influenced by physical, social, and personal activities of people. Self-efficacy is one of the effective factors influencing health promotion behaviors. This study aimed to examine the Self-Efficacy and Health Promoting Behaviors among Women of Reproductive ages in Shiraz during 2013. Materials & methods: In this crosssectional study, 392 women (15-49 ages) of Shiraz selected thorough multiple stage cluster sampling in 2013 were interviewed. In order to gather information, a questionnaire consisting of personaldemographic question, health promotion behaviors, general self-efficacy and social support was utilized. To examine the association between variables, Independent sample T-test, ANOVA, Pearson correlation, and Multiple Regression were performed. Findings: the study indicates that mean and standard deviation of age is 30.91 ± 8.89. Most of women (79/6%) have moderate and high level of self efficacy. In general, Mean and standard deviation of health behavior of women is 53/69±12.82 (in 0-100 scale) which varies in different groups. Study in field of Health, self-efficacy, Marital Status and Social support show a significant relation with healthy behavior. Among age, the marital status, employment status, experience of some particular diseases, the study in areas of health, classical identity, Social support, education and the use of communication media, Self-efficacy indicates the most significant factors affecting health related behavior. Discussion & Conclusions: Self-efficacy is the most significant factors affecting pursue of health related behavior and Life-style. Thus, executors should pay attention to the importance of social-psychological dimension, consideration to promotion selfefficacy increase cultural programs in planning of health care system promoting awareness of people.


A specimen of Opalinus clay from Mont Terri has been subjected to stress testing over a period of 532 days. Testing was undertaken by changing either (or both) of the axial and confining stresses in sharp steps followed by periods of between 4 and 82 days during which time the specimen was allowed to adjust to the new stress state. In this way, the drained consolidation, creep and rebound behaviour of an Opalinus clay specimen was examined. The test material was subjected to a maximum average effective stress of 38.3 MPa.
Volumetric strain data for both volume change and porewater displacement measurements indicate a small inflection in the standard geotechnical plot of void ratio against the logarithm of average effective stress at a value between 20 and 22 MPa. The negative slope of the consolidation curve (α) based on volume change measurements exhibits a general trend of increasing magnitude as effective stress rises. Even though the data do not exhibit the sharp increase in α indicative of classic virgin consolidation behaviour, it would appear that plastic yielding is occurring at an average effective stress below 20 MPa. Analysis of net porewater flow measurements suggest original interstitial fluid was not expelled from the specimen until average effective stress exceeded 20 MPa. Given the data available, an estimate for the preconsolidation stress in the region of 20 to 25 MPa seems reasonable.
As effective stress rises the duration of the strain transients lengthen. As the induration state of the mudrock increases, strain traces are characterised by less well-defined transients, indicative of time-dependent plastic yielding at high effective stresses. The volumetric strain data for both volume change and porewater displacement shows similar transient behaviour. These results give an average principal strain ratio of 0.252, suggesting the material is either mechanically anisotropic or behaving as a non-ideal elastic medium.
Specific storage values derived from porewater displacement measurements show a general decreasing trend with increasing average effective stress and are in the range 1.5 to 12.5 × 10-6 m-1. Data from volume change measurements are less sensitive to changes in effective stress and are in the range 1.2 to 17.5 × 10-6 m-1.
Elastic constants derived for undrained quantities are significantly higher than those for drained conditions by approximately one order of magnitude. Data suggests there is a transition in behaviour centred around an average effective stress of approximately 20 MPa.
Analysis of creep curves can be broken down into three distinct responses. The Lemaitre model, as applied to Opalinus clay by Boidy (Boidy et al., 2002), was applied to the current test data. However the published model parameters failed to adequately fit the current data. Minor alteration of these parameters enabled modelling of the longer-term volumetric responses to be undertaken. The Lemaitre model did not predict the initial stage of creep very effectively. A much slower response time was seen in the current data, which was absent in the work by previous researchers.
A power-law creep model was established. In general the fit was adequate for the volumetric strain observed, although these data exhibited some noise. In contrast, the fit of the axial strain data was not adequate and even the subdividing of the data into the individual creep stages failed to give an acceptable fit. A combination of power-law for the initial response and Lemaitre for the longer response may achieve a better prediction for this test stage.
A numerical simulation was run using the 2-dimensional coupled flow and deformation code STAFAN. Two phases of the testing were modelled separately. During Phase 1, the model was used in an attempt to fit the creep data. A reasonable fit was made to the first step axial strain data, but the extrapolation to later stages showed a progressive deviation from the data. In addition, the model made poor predictions for the radial strain and porewater flow data in all steps. These observations indicate that both the assumptions of linear elasticity and isotropic deformation are probably invalid for this specimen.
During the second phase of testing, the axial and confining stresses were raised synchronously in a series of seven 4 MPa steps. In view of the results of the Phase 1 modelling, it was decided to treat each step of Phase 2 as a separate test and to use the model to parameterise the changing state of the specimen. Young's modulus was significantly lower than those derived from volume and porewater displacement measurements, which can be explained by the over prediction of radial strain due to the simple linear-elastic assumption in the STAFAN model.
It has been shown that the linear elastic deformation model is not a good analogue for the behaviour of this specimen. There are clear indications of non-linear responses to stress changes in the data and it seems likely that some form of viscoelastic or viscoplastic model should be adopted. In addition, the axial and radial strain responses would seem to be anisotropic, bringing further complexity to the model that should be employed.


Purpose: Head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is commonly treated with radiotherapy, and local failure after treatment remains the major cause of disease-related mortality. To date, human papillomavirus (HPV) is the only known clinically validated, targetable biomarkers of response to radiation in HNSCC. Experimental Design: We performed proteomic and transcriptomic analysis of targetable biomarkers of radioresistance in HPV-negative HNSCC cell lines in vitro, and tested whether pharmacologic blockade of candidate biomarkers sensitized cells to radiotherapy. Candidate biomarkers were then investigated in several independent cohorts of patients with HNSCC. Results: Increased expression of several targets was associated with radioresistance, including FGFR, ERK1, EGFR, and focal adhesion kinase (FAK), also known as PTK2. Chemical inhibition of PTK2/FAK, but not FGFR, led to significant radiosensitization with increased G2–M arrest and potentiated DNA damage. PTK2/FAK overexpression was associated with gene amplification in HPV-negative HNSCC cell lines and clinical tumors. In two independent cohorts of patients with locally advanced HPV-negative HNSCC, PTK2/FAK amplification was highly associated with poorer disease-free survival (DFS; P = 0.012 and 0.034). PTK2/FAK mRNA expression was also associated with worse DFS (P = 0.03). Moreover, both PTK2/FAK mRNA (P = 0.021) and copy number (P = 0.063) were associated with DFS in the Head and Neck Cancer subgroup of The Cancer Genome Atlas. Conclusions: Proteomic analysis identified PTK2/FAK overexpression is a biomarker of radioresistance in locally advanced HNSCC, and PTK2/FAK inhibition radiosensitized HNSCC cells. Combinations of PTK2/FAK inhibition with radiotherapy merit further evaluation as a therapeutic strategy for improving local control in HPV-negative HNSCC. Clin Cancer Res; 22(18); 4643–50. ©2016 AACR.


The CETL in Assessment for Learning (CETL AfL) is an institution-wide CETL in a university with significant long-standing educational development activity. We were therefore impelled to look from the start for alternative ways to do things and we drew on the principles and values encapsulated in our approach to AfL. We regarded educational development as a form of learning and therefore hoped that the approaches we used to help students to learn would also be effective in staff and organisational learning (McDowell, 2006). Some of our principles may seem to run counter to widely accepted logic about development and change. For example, we are more concerned to promote diverse and individual solutions to assessment problems rather than to secure the adoption of 'best practice'. We are concerned about the environment, from physical spaces to regulatory structures, and its affordances for teaching, learning and assessment. Our perspective fits much better with complexity models of change (Trowler, Saunders and Knight, 2003), than with techno-rationalist approaches common in HE. Not everything that we have tried has 'worked' but we have had successes and we are able to challenge some 'myths'. One myth is that staff are so busy that they will only be persuaded to do something if it saves time – not true! Many staff are persuaded by, and are actively seeking, ways to improve things for their students. Another myth is that CETL is just seen as somewhere to get ready funding to shore up existing activities – not true! Many staff value the opportunity to 'be part of something' and 'have like-minded people to talk to' more than access to funding. Experience has to some extent endorsed our approach but we remain self-critical. Is this a diversion, made possible due to the special circumstances of CETL or a contribution to the future of educational development?


CONTEXT
In vitro studies and anecdotal clinical reports have suggested that clinically significant rebound hypercoagulability may occur after discontinuation of oral anticoagulants (OACs), such as vitamin K antagonists and ximelagatran, for venous thromboembolism (VTE).

OBJECTIVE
Assess the extent to which rebound hypercoagulability-related VTE recurrences occur in the 2 months following discontinuation of OACs.

DATA SOURCES
Published, randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of OAC treatment of VTE.

STUDY SELECTION
RCTs of varying durations of OAC treatment of VTE that include VTE recurrence (or extension) data for more than 2 months after discontinuation of anticoagulants.

DATA EXTRACTION
Rates of VTE recurrences (1) while taking OACs, (2) within 2 months of discontinuing OACs, and (3) from > 2 months until the end of the study were extracted along with major bleeding episodes while on OACs. The rate of VTE recurrences possibly attributable to rebound hypercoagulability was estimated by subtracting the VTE recurrence rate after the 2-month rebound period from the rate during the rebound period.

DATA SYNTHESIS
In 20 trials (n = 5822), VTE recurrences were 2.62 times as frequent in the 2 months following discontinuation of OACs as subsequently (1.57% VTE recurrences per month falling to 0.56% per month, odds ratio = 2.62, 95% confidence interval: 2.19-3.14), corresponding to 2.02% of patients with rebound hypercoagulability-related VTE recurrences (1.57% per month - 0.56% per month x 2 months = 2.02%). In the 11 trials with evaluable data from the shorter- and longer-duration OAC arms, total adverse events (VTE recurrences plus major bleeding) over the entire durations of the trials were not significantly different.

CONCLUSIONS
Rebound hypercoagulability accounts for about 2% of patients having recurrent VTE in the first 2 months after discontinuing OACs. RCTs evaluating the efficacy of OACs should include data for at least 2 months following OAC treatment. Increasing the duration of OAC treatment does not reduce the overall adverse events.


A light field is commonly described by a two-plane representation with four dimensions. Refocused 3D contents can be rendered from light field images. A method for capturing these images is using cameras with microlens arrays. A dense sampling of the light field results in large amounts of redundant data. Therefore, an efficient compression is vital for a practical use of these data. In this paper, we propose a displacement intra prediction scheme with a maximum of two hypotheses for the compression of plenoptic contents from focused plenoptic cameras. The proposed scheme is further implemented into High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC). The work is aiming at efficiently coding plenoptic captured contents without knowing underlying camera geometries. In addition, the theoretical analysis of the displacement intra prediction for plenoptic images is explained; the relationship between the compressed captured images and their rendered quality is also analyzed. Evaluation results show that plenoptic contents can be efficiently compressed by the proposed scheme. Bit rate reduction up to 60% over HEVC is obtained for plenoptic images, and more than 30% is achieved for the tested video sequences.


Background: The issue of obesity is an important one because in some communities obesity is perceived in many ways such that it is not recognised as a problem as typified by the black community of Khayelitsha with high levels of obesity and associated diseases but low levels of concern and recognition of the problem. This study aimed to explore this by trying to understand how people think and feel about their obesity in a peri-urban Xhosa community, with a view to improving interventions that will reduce the burden of disease related to overweight and obesity as well as with prevention programmes targeted at obesity as a risk factor.

Methods: A qualitative study was carried out using recorded interviews of 8 purposively selected subjects who are long term Xhosa-speaking residents, 18 years and older, with BMI more than 30 and no Diabetes, Hypertension or Osteoarthritis at Nolungile CHC, Khayelitsha, a peri-urban black community in Cape Town, South Africa.

Results: Interviewed subjects identified various dietary factors for their obesity. These include overeating widely available fatty diets from street vendors, with a perception that cheap food is fatty food. They also attributed their obesity to other factors like poverty and clearly expressed that it is expensive to eat healthily. Other reasons given are a sedentary habit, fear of embarrassment, safety issues and a poor support system regarding exercise. Respondents also differ in their behaviours towards their obesity but generally accept their obesity. Furthermore, they experienced various effects of their obesity. Other than being viewed as affluent and in good health by the community, respondents are aware of effects like compromised daily activities, associated chronic illnesses, dressing difficulties, aging and other negative effects.

Conclusions: A few concepts, in agreement with previous linked studies were identified in relation to the Burden of disease, diet, exercise, socio-economic and perception issues. However, the effects of environmental influence on perceptions and behaviour regarding exercise and diet were found. This seemed to indicate an evolving culture in transition.
Based on these understandings, health intervention should be directed at addressing such local beliefs and behaviour at the community level, with a need for control of environmental factors. Further studies regarding weight loss was suggested.


The saw-scaled viper population studied at Makli, Sindh province, is morphologically typical to that called Echis carinatus sochureki. This is based on both scale and colour patterns. Mean SVL s established as 420.9mm. Females are significantly larger (mean 449.2 mm) than males (mean 347.5 mm) Males have a proportionately longer tail than females. Mean weight of adult males is 48.8 g, and that for females is 82.1g

In saw-scaled vipers that liver comprises about 9 percent of the total weight of adults. However, is size varies significantly through the year. Visceral fat deposits also vary seasonally in both exes, showing an annual pattern of growth and regression which can also be linked to the annual reproductive cycle-particularly in adult females. This study suggests that the annual accumulation of fat in both males and females of saw-scaled viper during one year is probably utilized during the early and middle part of the next year, for three purposes; reproduction during fall, for hibernation, and for sustenance during the typically generally widespread and important period of food shortage or these snakes after they emerge from their period of winter torpidity

The species of viper produces living young. It breeds in fall and bears its young during ** season preceding the first monsoon. The size at which individuals of this species are mature at ** akli is SLV 249mm for females. The average sex ration demonstrated for this species is more positively skewed to the females than most other vipers studied so far.

This study indicates that there is great variation in the kinds of prey categories taken, basically as a class level. Scorpions, Centipedes and mice are the most common prey types eaten. Her prey species I have reported in this study are cockroaches, beetles, lizards, frogs and birds


As results of the rapid development of cities and urban settlements during the nineteenth century as well as changes in conditions and aspects that are affective on development of cities in recent years, urban neighborhoods find especial position in the formation of cities. Besides, concept of sustainable development emerged as a major part of literature review in urban design and planning. There are numerous reasons to apply sustainability concept in urban design and planning that generally can be mentioned as preserving of natural systems and resources, economic prosperity and social equitable communities. In this regards, human must manage their own societies and products particularly settlements. Hence, applying aspects of sustainable development within conventional practice of neighborhood planning is a vital approach to achieving sustainable cities throughout the world. Accordingly, the main aim of this study is concentrated to make clear definition of sustainable neighborhood and clarifying the main factors and principles which are affective to achieve a sustainable neighborhood. The methodology of the research is centered on theoretical technique based on previews studies and documents. Consequently, the research would express main characteristics of a sustainable neighborhood and understanding the fundamental factors and approaches to enhance the level of sustainability concept in urban neighborhoods through increasing the quality of life and achieving sustainable development within cities.


Under current Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) policy, personnel at the rank of Private (Pte) are typically promoted to the rank of Corporal (Cpl) after 4 years of service (YOS). A proposed policy, if implemented, will have this requirement reduced to 3 YOS. This research was undertaken to estimate the cost of the proposed policy change. Using historical data, a workforce modelling approach was taken to forecast the population for the next 10 Fiscal Years (FYs) under the two different policies. The cost of the policy change was then calculated based on the difference in the numbers of personnel at each rank. Several factors were considered, including the current population, population promotion and attrition rates, and future recruiting numbers. The cost of the policy change was estimated at $22.1M for FY 13/14, and averaged $13.4M between FYs 14/15 and 21/22. The long-term annual cost was estimated at $15.3M.


Numerous strategies have been experimented with nationwide in an attempt to reduce the overall number of pedestrian-vehicle crashes, especially in instances where improper crossing or failure to yield was the proximate cause of the crash. Some of these measures include overhead signs, flashing warning beacons, advanced crossing signs, more visible pavement markings, in-street "Yield to Pedestrian" signs, and more recently, in-pavement flashing lights. Pedestrian safety has been a key issue for the City of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, in particular at non-controlled intersections and mid-block crossings. In 2002, the city council gave preliminary approval to implement a pedestrian-actuated overhead flasher system in conjunction with an in-pavement flasher system at the intersection of 1st Avenue NE and 4th Street NE in the downtown central business district. This location is uncontrolled and has several elements that can create conflicts between pedestrians, vehicles, and trains that service local industry. This report summarizes the results from a small-scale study to evaluate the effectiveness of the in-pavement flasher system installed in downtown Cedar Rapids. The installation of in-pavement flashing warning lights at the pedestrian crosswalk at this site has had a net positive effect on the safety characteristics of the location. The results of this study show a marked improvement in motorist compliance with the state law requiring that motorists yield to pedestrians in the crosswalk. The pedestrian and motorist surveys show that both groups felt the in-pavement flashing lights have increased motorist awareness, especially at night. The data indicate the in-pavement flashing warning lights improved the motorists' response to pedestrians in the area, and that the system could be operational throughout summer and winter conditions.


BACKGROUND: Nonsynonymous (NS) mutations in HIV reverse transcriptase(RT) sequence encoding HLA class I restricted CTL epitopes that lead to viral escape from host CTL responses have been described within individuals.The frequency and importance of CTL escape mutation has not been defined at a population level.

METHODS: 351 HIV-1 infected patients, with known HLA class I genotype and RT sequence were studied.Multiple logistic regression models were used to analyse associations between HLA class I alleles and NS mutations in RT sequence compared with the population consensus sequence,which differed from the clade B reference sequence WEAU (U21135) at four sites.

RESULTS: There was a strong association between HLA B51 and the presence of a NS mutation at position 135 of RT, which is an anchor residue of a known B51 restricted CTL epitope (p = 0.0001, OR = 56).In particular, all individuals with the B*5101 subtype had an I to T (79%) or V (21%) mutation at position 135. These mutations are known to markedly reduce B*5101 binding to an epitope.There appeared to be an association with the presence of B7 (p = 0.04,OR = 2) but this was abrogated by adjustment for all putative B7-associated escape mutations at other sites. Hence, NS mutation at position 135 was associated with a compensatory mutation at position 162 of RT. When position 162 (which is within a known B7-restricted CTL epitope) was examined,there was a strong association with B7 (p > 10-8, OR = 7). There was also a weaker association with B51 (p = 0.03,OR = 3) until adjustment for mutation at 135 was made. Conc: These results suggest that the phenomenon of CTL escape mutation of HIV is common and evident at a population level.Furthermore,CTL escape mutation at position 135 of reverse transcriptase may induce compensatory mutations at position 162 and vice versa.As with characteristic antiretroviral drug induced resistance mutations,knowledge of characteristic CTL escape mutations may prove useful in predicting viral dynamics in individuals


Phosphatidylinositol 4,5-bisphosphate (PI(4,5)P2) is an essential determinant in clathrin-mediated endocytosis (CME). In mammals three type I phosphatidylinositol-4-phosphate 5-kinase (PIPK) enzymes are expressed, with the Iγ-p90 isoform being highly expressed in the brain where it regulates synaptic vesicle (SV) exo-/endocytosis at nerve terminals. How precisely PI(4,5)P2 metabolism is controlled spatially and temporally is still uncertain, but recent data indicate that direct interactions between type I PIPK and components of the endocytic machinery, in particular the AP-2 adaptor complex, are involved. Here we demonstrated that PIPKIγ-p90 associates with both the μ and β2 subunits of AP-2 via multiple sites. Crystallographic data show that a peptide derived from the splice insert of the human PIPKIγ-p90 tail binds to a cognate recognition site on the sandwich subdomain of the β2 appendage. Partly overlapping aromatic and hydrophobic residues within the same peptide also can engage the C-terminal sorting signal binding domain of AP-2μ, thereby potentially competing with the sorting of conventional YXXØ motif-containing cargo. Biochemical and structure-based mutagenesis analysis revealed that association of the tail domain of PIPKIγ-p90 with AP-2 involves both of these sites. Accordingly the ability of overexpressed PIPKIγ tail to impair endocytosis of SVs in primary neurons largely depends on its association with AP-2β and AP-2μ. Our data also suggest that interactions between AP-2 and the tail domain of PIPKIγ-p90 may serve to regulate complex formation and enzymatic activity. We postulate a model according to which multiple interactions between PIPKIγ-p90 and AP-2 lead to spatiotemporally controlled PI(4,5)P2 synthesis during clathrin-mediated SV endocytosis.


Ascariasis is a subject of great interest in preventive medicine; its wide-spread distribution and its high incidence in many places, its striking pathological picture and the fact that prevention under certain conditions appears definitely feasible, make it an important and interesting problem in this field of medicine. Whereas infestation with some parasites is the result of eating the flesh of animals infested with larval stages of those parasites and infestation with others results from the transmission of the parasite by an attack from a biting arthropod, ascariasis is essentially a filth disease; it is contracted only by the ingestion of fecal material. Prevention, therefore, may be accomplished by well-recognized methods of general sanitation, and whereas in the other parasitic diseases referred to, special sanitary measures are commonly necessary, in ascariasis it is largely a matter of cleanliness of the community and of the individual.


Purpose The purpose of this paper is to present a case study of the World Health Organization's Global Healthcare Workforce Alliance (GHWA). Based on a commissioned evaluation of GHWA, it applies network theory and key concepts from systems thinking to explore network emergence, effectiveness, and evolution to over a ten-year period. The research was designed to provide high-level strategic guidance for further evolution of global governance in human resources for health (HRH). Design/methodology/approach Methods included a review of published literature on HRH governance and current practice in the field and an in-depth case study whose main data sources were relevant GHWA background documents and key informant interviews with GHWA leaders, staff, and stakeholders. Sampling was purposive and at a senior level, focusing on board members, executive directors, funders, and academics. Data were analyzed thematically with reference to systems theory and Shiffman's theory of network development. Findings Five key lessons emerged: effective management and leadership are critical; networks need to balance "tight" and "loose" approaches to their structure and processes; an active communication strategy is key to create and maintain support; the goals, priorities, and membership must be carefully focused; and the network needs to support shared measurement of progress on agreed-upon goals. Shiffman's middle-range network theory is a useful tool when guided by the principles of complex systems that illuminate dynamic situations and shifting interests as global alliances evolve. Research limitations/implications This study was implemented at the end of the ten-year funding cycle. A more continuous evaluation throughout the term would have provided richer understanding of issues. Experience and perspectives at the country level were not assessed. Practical implications Design and management of large, complex networks requires ongoing attention to key issues like leadership, and flexible structures and processes to accommodate the dynamic reality of these networks. Originality/value This case study builds on growing interest in the role of networks to foster large-scale change. The particular value rests on the longitudinal perspective on the evolution of a large, complex global network, and the use of theory to guide understanding.


Why do warring parties sometimes end up occupying territories they do not claim while not occupying territory they do? How do they explain this and how can we, from this explanation, understand the logic of occupation at work in these cases? This is the puzzle and the research questions at the center of this thesis. Using a case study of the Karabakh War (1991-94) it seeks to understand the rationale behind the Armenian occupation of previously undisputed Azerbaijanipopulated territories around the contested entity of Nagorno Karabakh (NK). To achieve this objective the thesis considers one of these districts – Agdam – and contrasts its occupation to the lack of a concerted effort to return control over previously Armenian-populated district of Shaumyan, a territory Armenians view as under Azerbaijani occupation. The thesis presents the circumstances and rationales provided by the Armenian leaders for these counter-intuitive policies of occupation they pursued during the Karabakh war. This necessitates examining the prior meanings of these places, the contested and changed significance of Agdam and Shaumyan since the Karabakh war. There are five distinct explanatory accounts of logics of occupation. These are accounts based on 1) military/security needs; 2) political elite-driven decisions, 3) economic gain, 4) psychological and 5) identity-related factors. Process tracing and archival research points to primarily security and psychological rationales for the original actions, whereas economic gain played a secondary role. While these factors remain significant in justifying continued occupation, today they are also strongly augmented by newly-constructed identity markers and political elite-driven considerations. The Logic of Occupation in the Nagorno-Karabakh War: The Cases of Agdam and Shaumyan


The intelligent management and optimisation of radio resource technologies will lead to a considerable improvement in the overall performance in Next Generation Networks (NGNs). Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology, also known as Spectrum Aggregation, enables more efficient use of the available spectrum by combining multiple Component Carriers (CCs) in a virtual wideband channel. LTE-A (Long Term Evolution–Advanced) CA technology can combine multiple adjacent or separate CCs in the same band or in different bands. In this way, increased data rates and dynamic load balancing can be achieved, resulting in a more reliable and efficient operation of mobile networks and the enabling of high bandwidth mobile services. In this paper, several distinct CA deployment strategies for the utilisation of spectrum bands are compared in indoor-outdoor scenarios, simulated via the recently-developed Realistic Indoor Environment Generator (RIEG). We analyse the performance of the User Equipment (UE) by integrating the average throughput, the level of fairness of radio resource allocation, and other parameters, into one summative assessment termed a Comparative Factor (CF). In addition, comparison of non-CA and CA indoor mobile networks is carried out under different load conditions: varying numbers and positions of UEs. The experimental results demonstrate that the CA technology can improve network performance, especially in the case of indoor scenarios. Additionally, we show that an increase of carrier frequency does not necessarily lead to improved CF values, due to high wall-penetration losses. The performance of users under bad-channel conditions, often located in the periphery of the cells, can be improved by intelligent CA location. Furthermore, a combination of such a deployment and effective radio resource allocation management with respect to userfairness plays a crucial role in improving the performance of LTE-A networks. Keywords—Comparative factor, carrier aggregation, indoor mobile network, resource allocation.


Islet amyloid deposition is a pathogenic feature of type 2 diabetes, and these deposits contain the unique amyloidogenic peptide islet amyloid polypeptide. Autopsy studies in humans have demonstrated that islet amyloid is associated with loss of beta-cell mass, but a direct role for amyloid in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes cannot be inferred from such studies. Animal studies in both spontaneous and transgenic models of islet amyloid formation have shown that amyloid forms in islets before fasting hyperglycemia and therefore does not arise merely as a result of the diabetic state. Furthermore, the extent of amyloid deposition is associated with both loss of beta-cell mass and impairment in insulin secretion and glucose metabolism, suggesting a causative role for islet amyloid in the islet lesion of type 2 diabetes. These animal studies have also shown that beta-cell dysfunction seems to be an important prerequisite for islet amyloid formation, with increased secretory demand from obesity and/or insulin resistance acting to further increase islet amyloid deposition. Recent in vitro studies suggest that the cytotoxic species responsible for islet amyloid-induced beta-cell death are formed during the very early stages of islet amyloid formation, when islet amyloid polypeptide aggregation commences. Interventions to prevent islet amyloid formation are emerging, with peptide and small molecule inhibitors being developed. These agents could thus lead to a preservation of beta-cell mass and amelioration of the islet lesion in type 2 diabetes.


Dynamics of outwardly-propagating reaction fronts inspires both fundamental and practical interests. While for the former we can mention in pass supernovae explosions and measurements of laminar flame speeds of reactive mixtures, the latter is relevant to the operation of engines and prevention of spark-initiated hazards such as accidental or intentional explosions. While a pointy-ignited, expanding premixed flame front is initially smooth, it is subsequently gets corrugated by diffusional-thermal (cellular or pulsating) instability. Eventually, with the flame thickness being reduced as compared to the global flame radius, the onset of hydrodynamic instability initiates the continuous production of cascades of cells over the flame surface, which increases the total flame surface area as compared to the respective spherical flame. Hence, the flame accelerates. The present study is devoted to the latter, self-accelerative stage of expanding flame propagation. Based on the logarithmic transformation of Akkerman et al. [PRE 83 (2011) 026305], we develop a self-similar formulation on accelerative propagation of wrinkled flames, describing the relevant dynamic and scalar fields, namely, the velocity and temperature profiles in the fresh medium. We next consider trajectories of fresh gas particles and analyze the possibility of detonation initiation through the heating transfer ahead of the accelerating flame front by the compression waves generated ahead of it. The flame dynamics depends on whether combustion occurs in free/confined, laminar /turbulent environment. While we start with laminar flames in the free space, the analysis is subsequently extended to the turbulent environment. It is reported that an expanding flame front in externally-forced, near-isotropic turbulence exhibit accelerative propagation given by a well-defined power law, with much larger acceleration exponent as compared to that in the laminar environment. The formulation is also extended to confined flames, with a model for flame-acoustic coupling incorporated in the analysis. Specifically, the sound waves modify the power-law flame acceleration based on the average global flame radius, facilitating or inhibiting the transition to detonation, which allows a reconciliation of a discrepancy in experimental measurements of different groups. Finally, we also consider expanding flames in central gravitational field. The independent and competitive roles of hydrodynamic and body-force instabilities are analyzed, and the state of termination of a globally-spherical flame front is estimated. It is demonstrated that while intrinsic combustion instabilities are presumably too weak to trigger the detonation in terrestrial conditions, this effect should nevertheless be accounted along with other phenomena. In contrast, enormous acceleration of expanding flames, with subsequent detonation, can occur at the astrophysical scales.


This report explores triazine herbicide alternatives in corn production given the possibility of restricted atrazine use. We identify three key results: 1) Restricting atrazine application rate to 1.5 pounds of active ingredient per acre would generally not reduce weed control or corn yield. 2) An atrazine ban might not decrease weed control or lower yields provided farmers can manage alternative strategies efficiently. 3) A triazine ban would likely increase costs, labor, and total pounds of active ingredients of substitute herbicides, but would not necessarily decrease weed control.


This volume offers a comprehensive account of how the Nazis conducted the Holocaust throughout the scattered towns and villages of Poland and the Soviet Union. It covers more than 1,150 sites, including both open and closed ghettos. Regional essays outline the patterns of ghettoization in 19 German administrative regions. Each entry discusses key events in the history of the ghetto; living and working conditions; activities of the Jewish Councils; Jewish responses to persecution; demographic changes; and details of the ghetto's liquidation. Personal testimonies help convey the character of each ghetto, while source citations provide a guide to additional information. Documentation of hundreds of smaller sites-previously unknown or overlooked in the historiography of the Holocaust-make this an indispensable reference work on the destroyed Jewish communities of Eastern Europe.


Many experts believe that new malware is created at a rate faster than legitimate software. For example, in 2007 over one million new malware samples were collected by a major security solution vendor. However, it is often speculated, though to the best of our knowledge unproven, that new malware is produced by modifying existing malware, either through simple tweaks, code composition, or a variety of other techniques. Moreover, when buggy code is copied from one program to another program, both original and new programs have to be patched. However, code copying is typically not recorded. Such code reuse is a recurring problem in security. In this paper we propose a fast, scalable algorithm for automatic code reuse detection in binary code, BitShred. BitShred can be used for identifying the amount of shared code based upon the ability to calculate the similarity among binary code. BitShred can be applied to many security problems, such as malware clustering and bug finding. We developed a prototype implementation to evaluate our algorithm. The experimental results show that BitShred is able to detect plagiarism among malware samples and cluster them efficiently.


Background. The validity of the concept of seasonal affective disorder and the causal link to lack of daylight in winter is controversial. There is a need for investigations in large samples of the general population at different latitudes and within general research contexts to avoid selective response bias and sensitization of the population. Methods. During a study of health effects of the air pollution from Russia in a small community at 70° north, a self-administered questionnaire was filled in by 3736 inhabitants, 60·8% of the total population between 18 and 69 years. Three questions concerned depression, sleeping problems and other problems related to the two contrasting seasons with regard to daylight. Results. Twenty-seven per cent reported to have some kind of problem in the dark period. Most frequently reported were sleeping problems during winter, in 19·9% of women and 11·2% of men. Self-reported depression in winter was found in 11·1% of women and 4·8%% of men. Sleeping problems increased with age, while depression was most often reported by middle-aged people. The only other reported problem in winter was fatigue. The adjusted relative risk (RR) for winter depression in women compared to men was 2·5 (95% confidence interval: 1·9–3·2). Very few had problems in summer. Conclusions. In the high north, one-third of the women and one-fifth of the men experience problems with sleep, mood or energy related to season. The prevalence of self-reported depression was surprisingly low in winter considering the lack of daylight.


Distinct and regular diurnal fluctuations of stage and discharge have been observed in the river Susa during dry summer periods. Examples of the fluctuations are shown and some pertinent characteristics of the fluctuations are pointed out. The effect of various factors contributing to the generation of the diurnal fluctuations are discussed in this paper. It has been found that diurnal variations of the rate of evapotranspiration from riparian zones adjoining the river is the most significant single factor contributing to the fluctuations in the river. The mechanisms by which diurnal variations in the rate of evapotranspiration generate fluctuations in the river are discussed using simple qualitative models of the river-riparian zone.


A case of progressive congenital hypertrophy of the feet was presented. From a diagnostic standpoint, this case was extremely challenging. Local gigantism was excluded from the diagnosis because the deformity was localized to both feet, with all components showing a concomitant increase in size. Furthermore, there was no evidence of neurofibromatosis or arteriovenous fistula formation. Other conditions leading to lower extremity hypertrophy, ie, Klippel-Trenaunay-Weber syndrome and other diseases associated with angiodystrophy, were excluded because of the absence of varicosities and cutaneous angiomas. There also was no evidence of an adrenal tumor or enchondromas. There was, however, a slight increase in the temperature of the left limb and an increase in the amount of vascular channels of the lower extremity, which may relate to an obscure form of angiodysplasia. Furthermore, the patient's mother took thalidomide during pregnancy, which has been shown to cause a large range of limb deformities. The authors believe that it is appropriate to classify this case as an idiopathic form of progressive congenital hypertrophy, localized to the feet of a 25-year-old Caucasian female. The goal of treatment is primarily two-fold. First, progressive narrowing of the forefoot should be obtained through closing wedge osteotomies. Second, multi-stage debulking of the muscle tissue should be performed, with associated skin reductions. The authors believe that this is the first reported case of bilateral muscular and bony hypertrophy of the feet, which was present at birth and continued to increase after the cessation of skeletal growth.


French bean is the most important export vegetable crop cultivated in Kenya. Pests and diseases are the major constrains to its production. The major pests of French beans are bean flies, thrips, and bean aphids. Amongst these pests, thrips are the most notorious and account for 63 – 68% yield loss of fresh marketable pods. Frankliniella occidentalis is the most widespread thrips species which has developed resistance to the commonly used synthetic pesticides. Farmers rely heavily on these synthetic pesticides in order control the thrips and up to sprays of 15 times have been reported per growing season. This act has lead to the contamination of the fresh French bean pods with pesticide residues. The toxicated fresh pods may not be accepted in lucrative markets, more so in Europe. This study therefore, aimed at developing an alternative method of controlling thrips on French beans by use of cultural and botanicals. Laboratory and greenhouse experiments were conducted in two trials to assess the efficacy of botanicals against Frankliniella occidentalis infesting French beans. Field experiments were also conducted in two trials to evaluate the effect of different mulches on infestation and damage of French beans by thrips, and to evaluate the effect of integrating intercropping, mulching and use of botanicals on the infestation and the damage of French beans by thrips. The laboratory and greenhouse experiments were carried out at the International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology Nairobi in a complete randomized design. Field experiments were conducted at the Kenya Agricultural and Livestock Research Organization, Thika, Kenya in a randomized complete block design with five replicates for mulching experiments and three replicates for the integrated experiments. The laboratory results showed that L-Cyhalothrin caused the highest mean percentage mortality of the first instar F. occidentalis followed by Pyrethrum. Neem and Garlic caused the lowest mean percentage mortality. The result from greenhouse experiments showed that the lowest mean number of thrips was recorded on the French beans sprayed by L – Cyhalothrin followed by pyrethrum (soil + foliar), neem (soil + foliar), neem (soil) pyrethrum(soil), garlic (soil + foliar), garlic (soil) and control. The lowest damage score on fresh pods was recorded on the leaves treated with Pyrethrum (soil + foliar) and neem (soil + foliar) while the highest damage scores were recorded on the French beans treated with garlic (soil) and the control. The result from the experiments involving mulching showed that the lowest mean number of thrips was recorded on French bean leaves and flowers mulched with transparent plastic sheets followed by those mulched with dry grass, black plastic mulch, tithonia green mulch and the control. The results from integrated field experiments revealed that maize + dry grass + pyrethrum had the lowest mean number of thrips in flowers followed coriander + dry grass + pyrethrum, dry grass + pyrethrum, French bean a lone, coriander, pyrethrum and dry grass. In flowers the lowest mean number of thrips from French bean plant sprayed by LCyhalothrin followed by maize, maize + dry grass + pyrethrum, coriander + dry grass + pyrethrum and dry grass. The most abundance thrips species identified on French beans leaves was Hydatothrips adolfifriderici followed by Megalurothrips sjostedti while Frankliniella schultzei and F. occidentalis were very low in number. On French bean flowers, F. schultzei was the most abundance followed by M. sjostedti while F. occidentalis and H. adolfifriderici were very few. This study showed pyrethrum and neem pesticides can be used as an alternative chemical management for F. occidentalis on French beans in greenhouses. It also revealed that cultural and botanical methods can be integrated to provide an alternative pest management system. The system involves a combination of pyrethrum + maize + dry grass. However, these methods are not as effective and fast acting as synthetic pesticides, but are safer for the environment and consumers.


The development of Pt-based alloys for oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) is an important subject to enhance the performance of polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) and metal–air batteries. Herein, ORR on Pt alloys with smaller and larger dopants in both Pt-shelled and cored alloys have been extensively investigated from both computational and experimental approaches to rationalize the detailed mechanism. Our density functional theory (DFT) based calculations found that Pt alloying with smaller dopants (Co, Cu, Pd) is thermodynamically stable at Pt-shelled structures and their improved ORR activity originates from ligand and geometric effects. On the other hand, Pt alloying with larger and less reactive dopants, such as Au, thermodynamically favors Pt-cored structure and shows the best ORR activity through ensemble effect of surface dopant. Additionally, our results revealed that d-band center of surface Pt can be correlated to ORR activity for Pt-shelled alloys, but not to Pt-cored ones. The com...


Motivated by the work of Richardson's extrapolation spreadsheet calculator up to level 4 to approximate definite differentiation, we have developed a Romberg integral spreadsheet calculator to approximate definite integral. The main feature of this version of spreadsheet calculator is a friendly graphical user interface developed to capture the needed information to solve the integral by Romberg method. Users simply need to enter the variable in the integral, function to be integrated, lower and upper limits of the integral, select the desired accuracy of computation, select the exact function if it exists and lastly click the Compute button which is associated with VBA programming written to compute Romberg integral table. The full solution of the Romberg integral table up to any level can be obtained quickly and easily using this method. The attached spreadsheet calculator together with this paper helps educators to prepare their marking scheme easily and assist students in checking their answers instead of reconstructing the answers from scratch. A summative evaluation of this Romberg Spreadsheet Calculator has been conducted by involving 36 students as sample. The data was collected using questionnaire. The findings showed that the majority of the students agreed that the Romberg Spreadsheet Calculator provides a structured learning environment that allows learners to be guided through a step-by-step solution.


Successful recovery from a disrupted state to maintain optimal performance is a key feature that a resilient complex engineered system should have. In the engineering design community, the current focus of engineering resilience research is primarily directed toward improving overall system performance in the presence of likelihood failures. Little attention has been given to the study of how the system responds during and/or after the occurrence of a failure event. This paper proposes the use of control theory as a strategy to enable resilient behavior in complex engineered systems. Control theory has various benefits in its application to a resilient engineered system, with the main advantage being its ability to regulate and govern system states, even while the failure is taking place. In the context of implementation within a complex engineered system, such a controller should be designed such that, when a disturbance occurs, the controller should simultaneously be able to take timely action to correct the shift in system performance. To date, the fusion of control theory with engineering resilience has not been explored in-depth by the engineering design community. This paper, thus, presents a resilience modeling and analysis approach using fundamental control theory. The resilience of a power distribution system is employed as a case study to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. The presented study also expects to aid in the concurrent development of resilience functions in complex engineered systems under uncertainty.


Soon after independence, Indian political leadership decided to pursue the attainment of four self-stipulated goals: to attain an improved standard of living through higher rates of growth, to establish a functioning political democracy, to achieve social equality through social re-engineering, and to make a quick transition in making government a servant of the public than being its master as was the case during the previous colonial regime. This book describes the journey from the past to the present in the articulation of these goals, and evaluates the extent to which they have been achieved. This book is based on the belief that there is at work a principle of reciprocal causation between society and government. What society wants becomes a mandate for the government. That government is not a disinterested party and its actions, and failure to act, have an immense impact on the working of society. Premchand asserts that there is no aspect of civic life in India that is immune from governmental actions. This relationship between government and society during the last six decades since independence is intensively examined. India is a land of paradoxes and surprises. The book covers political, social and administrative developments during the last decades to provide perspective on the changing relationship between society and governments at various levels. This is followed by studies of the various ways in which classification systems are used in India today, the urban-rural divide, non-resident Indians as neo-change agents, emerging pattern of classes, and the resurgence of religion in everyday life. The final chapters deal with the vast range of discontents in governance, corruption and its impact on civic life, the myth of law and order, and the emergence of a public voice in policymaking. The work is fair, balanced, tough minded and revealing. It is a must read for specialists, policy-makers, and people worldwide for whom India is a civilization of inexhaustible interest. Instead of trust contributing to the generation of social capital and prosperity there are major walls separating them contributing to a palpable and constant tension in society...There is a collective falsification in believing that discrimination is progressive and morally uplifting.