A rapidly growing share of global agricultural areas is devoted to the production of biomass for non-food purposes. The expanding non-food bioeconomy can have far-reaching social and ecological implications; yet, the non-food sector has attained little attention in land footprint studies. This paper provides the first assessment of the global cropland footprint of non-food products of the European Union (EU), a globally important region regarding its expanding bio-based economy. We apply a novel hybrid land flow accounting model, combining the biophysical trade model LANDFLOW with the multi-regional input–output model EXIOBASE. The developed hybrid approach improves the level of product and country detail, while comprehensively covering all global supply chains from agricultural production to final consumption, including highly processed products, such as many non-food products. The results highlight the EU's role as a major processing and the biggest consuming region of cropland-based non-food products, while at the same time relying heavily on imports. Two thirds of the cropland required to satisfy the EU's non-food biomass consumption are located in other world regions, particularly in China, the US and Indonesia, giving rise to potential impacts on distant ecosystems. With almost 39% in 2010, oilseeds used to produce for example biofuels, detergents and polymers represented the dominant share of the EU's non-food cropland demand. Traditional non-food biomass uses, such as fibre crops for textiles and animal hides and skins for leather products, also contributed notably (22%). Our findings suggest that if the EU Bioeconomy Strategy is to support global sustainable development, a detailed monitoring of land use displacement and spillover effects is decisive for targeted and effective EU policy making.


This article addresses the subtle yet turbulent "duty wars" currently raging with respect to the conceptual nature of duty in tort law. The scholars have thus far divided principally into three camps, and the courts have increasingly been taking their cue from this scholarship and altering their previously settled notions of the duty element. The main dispute has been over the role of foreseeability in the duty analysis. This article critiques the principal approaches taken in the literature, demonstrating, for example, why the vision of duty articulated in the new Restatement (Third) of Torts and represented by one of the scholarly camps – "purging" foreseeability from duty – is incoherent. The article develops the framework for a different, positive conception of duty, a policy, not obligation, centered view, but in which foreseeability is itself a normative policy subelement different in nature from the sort of foreseeability that underlies the jury's breach and proximate cause findings. The methodological insight that engenders this conception concerns the "self-reflexive" nature of the court's engagement with questions of law, in particular the duty question. While the community asks the first-order question what is the obligation we owe or should owe one another, the court self-reflexively addresses the higher-order questions of how it should rule on the duty issue, and what will be the impact of its ruling on the community and society. At those times, courts implicitly, and sometimes explicitly, speak of themselves and grapple with the judicial system's institutional role, legitimacy, and limitations. Appreciating the court's self-reflexive character enables us to show why, as an analytic matter, the inclusion of foreseeability in the court's duty analysis does not usurp the jury's role. This insight also grounds the new argument presented in this article for why duty arises from policy rather than obligation.


The key to Black-Box Optimization is to efficiently search through input regions with potentially widely-varying numerical properties, to achieve low-regret descent and fast progress toward the optima. Monte Carlo Tree Search (MCTS) methods have recently been introduced to improve Bayesian optimization by computing better partitioning of the search space that balances exploration and exploitation. Extending this promising framework, we study how to further integrate sample-based descent for faster optimization. We design novel ways of expanding Monte Carlo search trees, with new descent methods at vertices that incorporate stochastic search and Gaussian Processes. We propose the corresponding rules for balancing progress and uncertainty, branch selection, tree expansion, and backpropagation. The designed search process puts more emphasis on sampling for faster descent and uses localized Gaussian Processes as auxiliary metrics for both exploitation and exploration. We show empirically that the proposed algorithms can outperform state-of-the-art methods on many challenging benchmark problems.


Single-stranded positive-sense RNA viruses commonly rearrange host cell organelle membranes into neo-organelles which are involved in virus replication and assembly. These organelles serve to concentrate viral and host factors as well as to conceal viral RNA replication activities from host cell surveillance. To date, many virus-induced membrane rearrangements have been studied by targeted electron tomographic (ET) imaging of specific viral structures at timepoints of known interest. However, the broad cellular context within which these membrane modifications occur and how they change over time are not well understood. A question spanning many virus families is the morphological mechanism of formation of membrane rearrangements. Additionally, it is largely unknown how the membrane modifications affect the morphology of the organelle of origin. In this study, we address specific questions about virus-derived organelles induced by two positive-sense RNA viruses: the coronavirus mouse hepatitis virus (MHV) and the alphavirus Venezuelan equine encephalitis virus (VEEV). Utilizing serial sectioning and montage imaging for ET, volumes representing approximately 10% of virus-infected cells were imaged and detailed organelle analysis was performed. Using MHV-infected cells, we demonstrate that coronavirus-induced double-membrane vesicles (DMVs) are formed by budding from the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) and are trafficked to lysosomes for degradation. The ER remains largely morphologically normal early in infection despite the presence of hundreds of DMVs; however, late in infection, virus envelopment in the ER lumen leads to loss of cisternal morphology. For the alphavirus VEEV, we analyze the structure and origin of virus-derived cytopathic vacuoles II (CPVII). We identify four distinct morphological forms of CPVII and provide evidence that all four forms are derived from the Golgi apparatus. Additionally, a protocol is outlined for a newly-developed method for improved cell ultrastructure during genetically-encoded peroxidase tagging of membrane-proteins. This method is also amenable to ET. Overall, this work provides morphological cellular context for virus-induced membrane rearrangements from two families of positive-sense RNA viruses. Analysis of virus-host cell interactions from this large-scale ultrastructural perspective has the potential to lead to new approaches and strategies to combat current and future viral diseases.


This study presents a novel design for a two-axis scanning device driven by lead-zirconate-titanate (PZT) ceramic. The proposed device consists of a scanning mirror and a Y-shaped piezoelectric actuator. The scanning mirror was fabricated using an MEMS process involving three masks. Experimental results show that the fast and slow frequencies at resonance are 25.0 kHz and 0.56 kHz, respectively. The optical scanning angles are 27.6° and 39.9°. The power consumption of the device is 13.4 mW at a driving voltage of 10 V. This study also develops a laser projection module integrated with the scanning device. The module can project a 2-D image at a resolution of 640 x 480.


ABSTRACT This paper analyses recent shifts in urban sustainability discourse and practice through a critical review of the historical development of the concept from the 1970s through to the global economic crisis in the 2007 and its fragmentation into the 2010s. Using this periodisation, the paper shows how the content of urban sustainability discourse has changed. First, it illustrates that the dominant assumption of sustainable cities' discourse was to utilise economic growth to ecologically modernise urban environments. Second, it examines how the global economic crisis has intensified this fix and led to a new, even narrower emphasis on the techno-economic value of those aspects of urban environment that have economic and market potential. Third, it analyses the fragmenting of sustainable cities' discourse into a set of competing logics that reflect this narrower agenda. This paper argues that the sustainable city has been absorbed into these new logics that are much more narrowly techno-economically focused and are squeezing out traditional concerns with social justice and equity.


Ever since the Physiocrats and Adam Smith, mercantilism or 'the mercantile system' have been described as the opposite of classical political economy. This view is very much brought into question by the current book. It argues that the sharp distinction between mercantilism and 19th century laissez-faire economics has obscured the meaning, content and contribution of the former. This book presents a full-scale account of the development of mercantilism as a trend of economic thought during the 17th and 18th centuries. Instead of accepting existing interpretations, it begins with the most fundamental questions: What was mercantilism? Did it have a central message? Was it really a coherent school of thought? A central theme of the book is its critique of narrow definitions of its subject. Mercantilism must be understood as a series of written texts appearing in a particular political and economic context, rather than as an all-embracing system of economic thought. Within this context a language and vocabulary of economics was developed that was an essential precondition for the subsequent growth of economic thought and knowledge. In this sense mercantilism was much more modern than has been previously appreciated.


A unique feature of the Atlantic Ocean is the presence of regions in the Labrador Sea and Nordic Seas where surface water can convect and sink to deep levels. This process of deep water formation and the related northward transport of warm surface water are components of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC), which annually transports in excess of 1 PW of heat northward through the northern subtropics. Between 26°N and Greenland much of this heat flux enters the atmosphere where it is then transported eastward by the atmospheric circulation and is responsible for the mild U.K. and European climate. Coupled models suggest that one of the consequences of anthropogenic climate change will be a slowing of the AMOC and an alteration of the ocean's role in climate (e.g., Cheng et al. 2013). Observing, quantifying, and understanding the detailed mechanisms controlling AMOC variability, its present circulation, and past behaviors, and the extent to which changes in the AMOC are predictable all remain preeminent scientific challenges for the twenty-first century.


This paper describes the development of a model of an anesthetic circle system. The different components of the model are validated by a series of experiments. The results of these experiments show that the simulated system closely follows the actual system. The mathematical model is used for controlling the gas concentrations during inspiration, both within the time frame of an individual inhaled breath, and between breaths. A PI controller is used to get an indication of the problems to be expected in predictive control. The dominant problems are the discontinuities in the control signal and the stiction in the mass-flow controller valves. The discontinuities in the control signal arise because control is only applied during inhalation, which results in an unsatisfactory transient response, but the rise time can be improved by including a feedforward component in the controller. Stiction occurs because the valves are closed during expiration which results in delayed opening on subsequent inspiration. A range of methods were considered for overcoming stiction, and the most effective approach was found to be adding a strong pulse to the control signal at the start of inhalation


In this paper, we show that our proposed hybrid optoelectronic correlator (HOC), which correlates images using spatial light modulators (SLMs), detectors, and field-programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), is capable of detecting objects in a scale and rotation invariant manner, along with the shift invariance feature, by incorporating polar Mellin transform (PMT). For realistic images, we cut out a small circle at the center of the Fourier transform domain, as required for PMT, and illustrate how this process corresponds to correlating images with real and imaginary parts. Furthermore, we show how to carry out shift, rotation, and scale invariant detection of multiple matching objects simultaneously, a process previously thought to be incompatible with PMT-based correlators. We present results of numerical simulations to validate the concepts.


Normal incidence measurements of single-layer gradient refractive-index antireflection films, produced by a chemical etch-leach process on glass sensitized by a phase-separating heat treatment, indicate very low reflection over a broad wavelength regime, 0.35–2.5 μm. First-surface measurements of the reflectance of the gradient index films have now been made, in the visible regime, at off-normal incidence (to 70°) using polarized light. These measurements show that significant reflection reduction is obtained even at high angles of incidence—5.7% reflectance from the filmed glass at 70° compared to 16.4% for the unfilmed glass. Furthermore, although the films exhibit a weak wavelength dependence at high angles, they continue to be effective over a broad spectral region. The optical properties observed are in good agreement with computations based on a gradient refractive-index film with a step at the air-film interface. The optical properties of the film offer considerable advantage over conventional interference films in many applications.


Mass spectrometry is a fundamental tool for discovery and analysis in the life sciences. With the rapid advances in mass spectrometry technology and methods, it has become imperative to provide a standard output format for mass spectrometry data that will facilitate data sharing and analysis. Initially, the efforts to develop a standard format for mass spectrometry data resulted in multiple formats, each designed with a different underlying philosophy. To resolve the issues associated with having multiple formats, vendors, researchers, and software developers convened under the banner of the HUPO PSI to develop a single standard. The new data format incorporated many of the desirable technical attributes from the previous data formats, while adding a number of improvements, including features such as a controlled vocabulary with validation tools to ensure consistent usage of the format, improved support for selected reaction monitoring data, and immediately available implementations to facilitate rapid adoption by the community. The resulting standard data format, mzML, is a well tested open-source format for mass spectrometer output files that can be readily utilized by the community and easily adapted for incremental advances in mass spectrometry technology.


Abstract The phenomenon of artists drawing on their own and other archives is not a new one, but over the past few years there has undoubtedly been a significant increase in attention, among both artist and art historians, given to the archive as part of the creative process, as well as to archive practice. Archives have also become contested territory, caught up in discourses about the nature of museums and individual anxieties about the significance and preservation of documentation. From an archivist's point of view, archives have a positive and fertile role as both a resonant collective memory resource and a site of creative regeneration through revisiting the traces of earlier ideas and actions. Archive theory also emphasizes the importance of context in the assessment of the meaning of a document within a body of archive material. Consideration of the archives of Prunella Clough and Helen Chadwick within this wider context of archival theory and practice reveals in both cases a distinctly archival attitude to the documentation of the creative process, one which provides a rewarding insight into their work.


This thesis is concerned with population models by using integral equations. These equations al'e formulated by using concepts of the continuous time delay (bounded and unbounded), concepts of population history, concepts of birth of new offsprings and concepts of survival of each individuals. The thesis consists of four parts. The first part deals with formulation of the integral equations for population dynamics. This part starts with the introduction of the integral equation models for population dynamics. Then, the rest of the first part will discuss the issues of time delay, formulation of the birth rate, the issues of population history and the formulation of survival rate. The second part will cover the topics about the linear equations. This part will deal with the assumptions of the linear equations, the relationships with Volterra integral equations, the reducibility of the integral equations (unbounded delay) to systems of ordinary differential equations and the asymptotic stability of zero solutions of the linear integral equations. The third part concerns only global stability of zero solutions of the special forms of the integral equations by using Lyapunov functionals. Finally, the fourth part is devoted to the analysis of the nonlinear integral equations I formulated in the beginning of this thesis. This part is concerned with the assumptions of the equations, the steady states and local stability of the steady states. This part will also consider the analysis of an example, its steady states, the local stability of the steady states, the construction of the periodic solutions and the numerical solutions.


We demonstrate the digital electric field induced switching of plasmonic nanorods between 1 and 0 orthogonal aligned states using an electro-optic fluid fiber component. We show by digitally switching the nanorods, that thermal rotational diffusion of the nanorods can be circumvented, demonstrating an approach to achieve submicrosecond switching times. We also show, from an initial unaligned state, that the nanorods can be aligned into the applied electric field direction in 110 nanoseconds. The high-speed digital switching of plasmonic nanorods integrated into an all-fiber optical component may provide novel opportunities for remote sensing and signaling applications.


This paper outlines how Islamophobia is being understood in British research and policy, by concentrating on three interacting domains. Firstly, it is shown that the category of Islamophobia has journeyed inwards from margins of equality debates. Previously deemed to be an outcome of a religious – and therefore voluntary – identity category, Islamophobia is increasingly placed in the same register of antisemtism, racism, sexism and homophobia, etc. This is not an uncontested development, but the semantic incorporation has had significant implications for statutory policy and equality legislation more broadly. Secondly, the way in which Islamophobia is recorded naturally depends on the methodology that is adopted. In some cases the scale of Islamophobia in Britain is shown to be increasing, especially in cross-sectional attitude surveys, something that is less clear in longitudinal research. In other cases the scale of Islamophobia is measured by recorded incidents (e.g., reported to the authorities), and this gives us a more 'event driven' analysis. The challenge is to bring these approaches together, and here several innovations will be discussed. Finally, but related to each of the first two points, there is a question as to how in Britain non-Muslim equality actors have responded to concerns about Islamophobia. In some instances we can observe a profound disjuncture where Muslim complaints of discrimination are deemed incompatible with other groups' appeals to equality. Muslim actors have nonetheless sought out solidarity in some distinctive ways that perhaps contributes to a distinctive approach.


Aluminum-copper (Al-Cu) alloy B206 is a high strength and ductile alloy showing promise for use in automotive suspension components. Incorporation of lightweight B206 alloy in automotive suspension components may significantly reduce overall vehicle weight and increase the vehicle's fuel efficiency. However, one of the major factors inhibiting the use of B206 is its high susceptibility to hot tearing during casting. Hot tearing is a complex phenomenon attributed to alloy solidification, microstructure and stress/strain development within a casting. Numerous methods (e.g. preheating of mold, grain refinement, elimination of sharp corners in a component) help to reduce the occurrence of hot tears in castings, but the underlying mechanisms responsible for hot tearing remain ambiguous. This research aims to advance the understanding of the mechanisms responsible for hot tearing in B206 Al alloy.

In this research, the conditions associated with the formation of hot tears in B206 were investigated via ex situ and in situ methods. Titanium was added in three levels (i.e. unrefined, 0.02 and 0.05 wt%) to investigate the effect of grain refinement on hot tearing. Ex situ neutron diffraction strain mapping was carried out on the three B206 castings to determine casting strain and stress. Further, in situ techniques were used to establish the onset temperature and solid
fraction of hot tearing in B206 and to improve the understanding of microstructure development in B206.

The results indicate that titanium additions had a significant impact on the hot tearing susceptibility of B206, by effectively reducing grain size and transforming grain morphology from coarse dendrites to fine globular grains. Further, thermal analysis suggested that grain refinement delayed the onset of dendrite coherency in B206 and therefore enhanced the duration of bulk liquid metal feeding for the refined casting conditions. As a result, the interactive effects of such factors resulted in a more uniform distribution of strain, and subsequent higher resistance to hot tearing for the grain refined castings. Finally, in situ analysis determined the onset solid fraction of hot tearing in B206 and provided an understanding of the role of microstructure on hot tearing in B206.


Much progress has been made in recent years towards a set of recognition criteria for river discharge variability in river channel deposits, and thus sedimentary proxies for precipitation variability. Despite this progress, there is currently no consensus on how different styles of discharge variability are reflected in river sedimentary records, and whether variable-discharge river records from different climate types can be distinguished. Herein, river discharge and precipitation variability in the Paleogene is investigated using associations between river channel and floodplain deposits across the Paleocene–Eocene boundary from the Paleocene upper Nacimiento Formation and the early Eocene San Jose Formation in the San Juan Basin, New Mexico, USA.The succession is identified as deposits of variable-discharge river systems based on shared channel-deposit characteristics with modern and ancient variable-discharge river systems and the proposed facies models, in addition to alternations of poorly drained and well-drained floodplain deposits and/or slickensides indicating alternating wet–dry cycles. A long-term stratigraphic trend toward increasingly well-drained floodplain deposits is also observed and hypothesized to indicate successively more arid conditions from the Paleocene into the early Eocene. Comparisons with modern rivers from various climate zones suggest a long-term shift from a monsoonal climate in the Paleocene, to a fluctuating subhumid climate, ultimately leading to semiarid to arid conditions in the early Eocene. These observations suggest that floodplain deposits may be a better indicator of ambient climate, whereas channel deposits are records for frequency and magnitude of high-intensity precipitation events. Therefore, the existing facies models for variable-discharge rivers that consider only channel facies may not capture critical information needed to make accurate interpretations of paleoclimatic conditions. This study also adds to a growing body of evidence from geologic records of mid-latitude Paleogene river systems suggesting increases in the magnitude or variability of river discharge coinciding with established climate perturbations.


Quantification of total phosphorus (TP) loads entering a lake or reservoir is important because phosphorus is most often the limiting nutrient in terms of algae growth, thus phosphorus can control the extent of eutrophication. Four methods for assessing the annual tributary phosphorus loads to two different Virginia reservoirs were analyzed, three methods that use tributary monitoring program data and one that uses land-use and rainfall data. In this project, one tributary has been extensively monitored for many years and served as a control on which the other methods were tested. The key difference between this research and previous studies is the inclusion of flow-weighted composite storm sampling instead of simple grab sample analyses of storm flow. Three of the methods employed flow stratification, and the impact of the base flow separation point was examined. It was found that the Regression Method developed in this research was the least sensitive to the base flow separation point, which is a valuable attribute because a wrong choice will not significantly affect the estimate. The Monte Carlo Method was found to underestimate the TP loads. The amount of rainfall impacted the accuracy of the methods, with more error occurring in a year with lower precipitation.


A new simple experimental set-up both for on-wafer and in-package electrical and electro-optic characterization of electro-optic devices up to 40 GHz is presented. The technique makes only use of a conventional network vector analyzer (NVA) and of a calibrated high-speed photodetector. The electro-optic transmission coefficient is simply deembedded from the electrical S21 using the detector calibrated responsivity. The RF calibration of the set-up implements the RSOL technique. The results obtained are shown to be comparable with the ones given by commercially available instrumentation, both in terms of accuracy and repeatability. The frequency bandwidth is only determined by the NVA bandwidth provided that the photodetector RF output is well above the NVA noise floor. Firstly some comparison with commercially available instrumentation up to 40 GHz on in-package device will be shown to validate the technique, after that, results concerning both in-package and on-wafer devices up to 40 GHz will be reported.


Recent advances in Capsule Networks (CapsNets) have shown their superior learning capability, compared to the traditional Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). However, the extremely high complexity of CapsNets limits their fast deployment in real-world applications. Moreover, while the resilience of CNNs have been extensively investigated to enable their energy-efficient implementations, the analysis of CapsNets' resilience is a largely unexplored area, that can provide a strong foundation to investigate techniques to overcome the CapsNets' complexity challenge.Following the trend of Approximate Computing to enable energy-efficient designs, we perform an extensive resilience analysis of the CapsNets inference subjected to the approximation errors. Our methodology models the errors arising from the approximate components (like multipliers), and analyze their impact on the classification accuracy of CapsNets. This enables the selection of approximate components based on the resilience of each operation of the CapsNet inference. We modify the TensorFlow framework to simulate the injection of approximation noise (based on the models of the approximate components) at different computational operations of the CapsNet inference. Our results show that the CapsNets are more resilient to the errors injected in the computations that occur during the dynamic routing (the softmax and the update of the coefficients), rather than other stages like convolutions and activation functions. Our analysis is extremely useful towards designing efficient CapsNet hardware accelerators with approximate components. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first proof-of-concept for employing approximations on the specialized CapsNet hardware.


Mantle xenoliths from the Sierra Nevada, California, USA, sampled a vertical column (60–120 km) of lithosphere that formed during Mesozoic continental arc magmatism. This lithosphere experienced an anticlockwise P‐T‐t path resulting in rapid cooling that effectively "quenched in" features inherited from earlier high‐temperature conditions. Here we combine new mineral chemistry data (water, trace element, and major element concentrations) with mineral crystallographic preferred orientations (CPOs) to investigate the relationship between melt infiltration and deformation. The peridotites record a refertilization trend with increasing depth, starting from shallow, coarse‐protogranular, less‐melt‐infiltrated spinel peridotite with strong, orthorhombic olivine CPO to deep, fine‐porphyroclastic, highly melt‐infiltrated garnet peridotite with weak, axial‐[010] olivine CPO. In contrast to the observed axial‐[010] CPOs, subgrain boundary orientations and misorientation axes suggest the dominant activation of the (001)[100] slip system, suggesting deformation under moderately hydrous conditions. After accounting for effects of subsolidus cooling, we see coherent trends between mineral trace element abundance and water content, indicating that melt infiltration led to an increase in water content of the peridotites. However, measured olivine and pyroxene water contents in all peridotites (5–10 and 30–500 wt ppm, respectively) are lower than that required to promote dominant (001)[100] slip system observed in both natural and experimental samples. These results suggest that deformation occurred earlier along the P‐T path, probably during or shortly after hydrous melt infiltration. Subsequent rapid cooling at 90 Ma led to water loss from olivine (owing to decreased solubility at low temperature), leaving behind a deep arc lithosphere that remained viscously coupled to the Farallon slab until the opening of the slab window in the late Cenozoic.


Water scarcity is an increasing problem in many parts of the world and the management of water has become an important issue on the political economy agenda in many countries. As water is used in most economic activities and the allocation of water is often a complex problem involving different economic agents and sectors, Computable General Equilibrium (CGE) models have been proven useful to analyze water allocation problems, although their adaptation to include water is still relatively undeveloped. This paper provides a description of an integrated water‐focused CGE model (STAGE_W) that includes multiple types and uses of water, and for the first time, the reclamation of wastewater as well as the provision of brackish groundwater as separate, independent activities with specific cost structures. The insights provided by the model are illustrated with an application to the Israeli water sector assuming that freshwater resources available to the economy are cut by 50%. We analyze how the Israeli economy copes with this shock if it reduces potable water supply compared with further investments in the desalination sector. The results demonstrate that the effects on the economy are slightly negative under both scenarios. Counter intuitively, the provision of additional potable water to the economy through desalination does not substantively reduce the negative outcomes. This is mainly due to the high costs of desalination, which are currently subsidized, with the distribution of the negative welfare effect over household groups dependent on how these subsidies are financed.


Introduction In England, 80% of HIV diagnoses are in sexually transmitted infection (STI) clinics. Since 2009, Public Health England offered testing for recent HIV infection. Aim To estimate HIV incidence among STI clinic attendees in 2012. Methods The AxSYM avidity assay, modified to determine antibody avidity, was conducted on aliquots of newly diagnosed persons and results linked to the national HIV database. An incident case was defined as avidity <0.8, no antiretroviral treatment or AIDS and viral load ≥400 copies/mL at diagnosis. The number of persons tested for HIV was assessed using the Genitourinary Medicine Clinic Activity Dataset. We estimated and adjusted for a 1.9% (95% C.I. 1.0%–3.4%) false recent rate and used 202 days as the mean duration of recent infection to calculate incidence rates. Results Of 212 STI clinics in England, 150(71%) submitted specimens for recent infection testing, comprising 3,930 persons newly diagnosed; 50% were MSM. The number of HIV tests/diagnosis was 210 for all clinic attendees, 38 for MSM, 403 for all heterosexuals and 46 for black African heterosexuals. HIV incidence was 0.15% (95% C.I. 0.13–0.18%) for all attendees, 1.22% (95% C.I. 1.07–1.42%) for MSM, 1.41% (95% C.I. 1.21%-1.66%) for MSM in London, 0.03% (95% C.I. 0.02–0.04%) for heterosexuals and 0.13% (0.05–0.22%) for black African heterosexuals. Discussion/conclusion Testing for recent HIV infection combined with routinely collected clinical data provides robust and timely national estimates of HIV incidence. HIV incidence among MSM and black African heterosexuals attending STI clinics was 40 and nine times higher respectively than among all heterosexuals, and exceeds the WHO-defined elimination threshold of 0.1%.


The aim of this paper is to create a ranking of the Ministries of Economy and Finance on transparency and disclosure of economic and financial information that Latin American countries have at an online level. Our methodological proposal is a questionnaire and indices on the transparency of informative disclosure in a financial and economic context. The questionnaire provides information on the websites of each ministry between September 2008 and September 2009. The application of the indices gives the following results: the Ministries of Mexico, Argentina and Brazil were the most valued or transparent, and the Ministries of Cuba, Panama and Dominican Republic were the least transparent in the disclosure of information.


Purpose The threat of isolation from mainstreamed economic, cultural and civic life is a driving force behind policy initiatives which promote and fund the research, development and deployment of ambient intelligence for older people. The European Commission (EC) invests heavily in research programs developing new information and communication technologies (ICT) to enable older people to successfully carry out their activities of daily living1,2. However, the question arises whether these new ICT methods designed for older people are addressing the fundamental issue of e-inclusion. The MonAMI approach hypotheses that when ICT services designed for older people employ mainstreamed devices, and if older people accept and use these ICT solutions, this will facilitate their inclusion into the information age. Method The Mainstreaming of Ambient Intelligence (MonAMI) project is developing ambient intelligent services based on open source technology which can be used with mainstreamed devices (e.g., web browser, mobile telephone, touch screen). Services include monitoring and alert systems which allow users to check, control, and be notified of the status of their home environment (e.g. opening and closing doors, turning on and off lights) through an accessible user interface. MonAMI services also include a range of functionalities which allow caregivers to remotely monitor the safety of their loved-ones, such as a presence alert which sends a notification to caregivers if the vulnerable person is out of a 'safe range'. Two rounds of pilot testing were conducted in six laboratory settings across Europe. Older and disabled users were invited to try out the MonAMI services in a controlled environment, during which they were interviewed about their previous use of mainstream ICT and whether they felt that MonAMI services could help them in various domains of their every-day life. A planned 'living lab' evaluation will be conducted in 2010. Older people with at least one disability will have MonAMI services installed in their home for a minimum of six months. Before the installation of the services, each participant and their caregivers will be interviewed individually to establish their baseline level of ICT-use and then a second time to assess any changes. Results & Discussion The literature demonstrates3,4 that older people more readily adopt ICT which resemble devices they are already familiar with (e.g. telephone, television). The development of MonAMI services incorporates this ideology and responds to justified criticism of earlier ambient living 'solutions'; blaming poor uptake-levels on the design of ICT services and devices which is yet to fully appreciate the complexity of older people's needs5,6. The results of the pilot tests demonstrated that compared to non-users, older people who previously used email and were generally enthusiastic about trying new technologies perceived that MonAMI services could be useful in controlling their physical home environment and meal preparation. The presentation will include lessons learned from these pilot tests and possible solutions for improving the adoption of ambient solutions by older people with little or no experience with ICT.


Calls for greater morality in government and among politicians are a fixture of American political culture. Although there is no lack of opinion on what political morality means and how it might be achieved, few commentators have considered these questions in practical terms. In this major contemporary analysis of the life and work of Hubert H. Humphrey, Charles L. Garrettson examines Humphrey's career to provide an explanatory approach to the application of religious or moral principles to political practice. He does so without reducing this theme to sentiment or cynicism. Humphrey's life and career constituted a striking and often conflicted amalgam of personal idealism and political realism. His ideals came literally from Main Street, America and on them he rode straight to Washington, D.C. to fulfill an exalted and selfless dream of public service. His years there, however, coincided with one of the most significant, tumultuous, and challenging times in American history: the 1960s-a tune not noted for its emphasis on Main Street values. Garrettson perceives a profound irony at the center of Humphrey's life; the very source of strength that brought him his greatest triumph and joy-his role in the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and thus the vice presidency-also brought him his greatest failure and grief--the presidential campaign of 1968 and his vulnerability on the issue of the Vietnam War. Combining biography, history, and theoretical analysis, "Hubert H. Humphrey and the Politics of Joy "is built around essential defining questions: is morality principally a matter of belief or action; or is it instead a consistent, though admittedly tenuous, balancing of both. In testing Humphrey's life and career against these questions, Garrettson provides a necessary exercise in social science and a profound reflection on what it means to be moral in the political world.


The methods developed in the research project "Herbar Digital" are to help plant taxonomists to master the great amount of material of about 3.5 million dried plants on paper sheets belonging to the Botanic Museum Berlin in Germany. Frequently the collector of the plant is unknown. So a procedure had to be developed in order to determine the writer of the handwriting on the sheet. In the present work the static character is transformed into a dynamic form. This is done with the model of an inert ball which is rolled through the written character. During this off-line writer recognition, different mathematical procedures are used such as the reproduction of the write line of individual characters by Legendre polynomials. When only one character is used, a recognition rate of about 40% is obtained. By combining multiple characters, the recognition rate rises considerably and reaches 98.7% with 13 characters and 93 writers (chosen randomly from the international IAMdatabase [3]). Another approach tries to identify the writer by handwritten words. The word is cut out and transformed into a 6-dimensional time series and compared e.g. by means of DTW-methods. A global statistical approach using the whole handwritten sentences results in a similar recognition rate of more than 98%. By combining the methods, a recognition rate of 99.5% is achieved.


Since the groundbreaking efforts of Treynor [11], Sharpe [10], and Jensen [4], portfolios have been evaluated on the basis of how favorable they compare with an expected (or required) rate of return. In Sharpe's scheme, that return is an increasing function of the portfolio's total risk. [k.sub.s] = [R.sub.f] + [SD.sub.p] ([R.sub.m] - [R.sub.f])/[SD.sub.m] (1) where: [k.sub.s] = Sharpe's expected portfolio return [R.sub.f] = riskfree return [SD.sub.p] = portfolio's standard deviation [R.sub.m] = expected market return [SD.sub.m] = market's standard deviation By contrast, Treynor [11] and Jensen [4] limit the portfolio's expected return to systematic risk. [K.sub.TJ] = [R.sub.f] + [COV.sub.i,m] ([R.sub.m] - [R.sub.f])/[VAR.sub.m] (2) where: [K.sub.TJ} = Treynor's and Jensen's expected portfolio return [COV.sub.i,m] = covariance of returns from stock "i" and market [VAR.sub.m] = variance of returns from market For portfolios that are completely diversified, the two methods lead to the same expected returns. Further divergence of opinion emerged a decade later when Hogan and Warren [3] and Bawa and Lindenberg [1] agreed with Treynor and Jensen that only market risk is important but defined that risk as [CLPM.sub.i,m]/[LPM.sub.m] where: [CLPM.sub.i,m] = co-lower partial moment of returns from stock "i" and market [LPM.sub.m] = lower partial moment of returns from market The (intuitive) argument that risk is best measured by the lower partial moment (or semivariance) was empirically tested by Nantell and Price [8]. They found that systematic risk in the equation (3) sense led to required returns not unlike those based on the more conventional definition of market risk: [COV.sub.i,m]/[VAR.sub.m]. Price, Nantell, and Price [9] also compared the two approaches to systematic risk within the framework of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). They reported that how market risk is defined is an unimportant detail only when the investment possesses average risk. For assets with either above or below average risk, the CAPM-VAR model generated a return greater than that produced by the newer CAPM-LPM. In the absence of more recent research, previous studies of expected portfolio returns can be partitioned as follows: [TABULAR DATA OMITTED] It is tempting to develop a downside-deviations-by-total-risk measure if only to "complete" Figure I. However, there are at least four more meaningful incentives. One, the intuitive appeal of the semivariance requires continuing investigation. The one common thread in the post-1960s' studies cited in this paper is the "gut" feeling on the part of the authors that risk has less to do with total deviations than with the negative ones. Two, there is growing evidence that the semivariance more closely conforms to the rule that risk and return are highly positively correlated than does the more common standard deviation. Most recently, Kochman [5] found that the 1-2-3-4 order of four popular proxies for the market portfolio based on the average annual return for the 1965-84 period was duplicated by the semivariance -- i.e., the index with the highest return had the highest semivariance, the index with the second-highest return had the second-highest semivariance, and so on -- but not by the standard deviation where the index with the lowest average return was rated the second-riskiest. A third reason to fill cell 2,2 in Figure I is the reality that the co-lower partial moment of returns (CLPM) in equation (3) is neither obvious nor easily calculated. There is even some disagreement among its proponents over whether the measure should be restricted to returns below the asset's risky mean or below the riskfree rate. Finally, the kind of diversification that makes only systematic risk relevant may be more theoretical than actual. …


Cytogenetically normal acute myeloid leukemia (CN-AML) is one form of a cancer of the blood-forming tissue (bone marrow) called acute myeloid leukemia. In normal bone marrow, early blood cells called hematopoietic stem cells develop into several types of blood cells: white blood cells (leukocytes) that protect the body from infection, red blood cells (erythrocytes) that carry oxygen, and platelets (thrombocytes) that are involved in blood clotting. In acute myeloid leukemia, the bone marrow makes large numbers of abnormal, immature white blood cells called myeloid blasts. Instead of developing into normal white blood cells, the myeloid blasts develop into cancerous leukemia cells. The large number of abnormal cells in the bone marrow interferes with the production of functional white blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets.


Designing new two-dimensional (2D) materials with novel band topologies has continuously attracted intense interest in fundamental science and potential applications. Here, we report a unique 2D Mg2C monolayer featuring quasi-planar hexa-coordinate magnesium and hexa-coordinate carbon, which can be tuned from a metal to a semiconductor. The system has been studied using density functional theory, including electronic structure calculations and molecular dynamics simulations. In the freestanding state, the Mg2C monolayer behaves as a weak metal; however, by increasing the biaxial tensile strains, it can gradually be modulated to a gapless semimetal and then to a semiconductor. The Mg2C monolayer exhibits excellent dynamic and thermal stabilities and is also the global minimum of the 2D Mg2C system, implying the feasibility of its experimental synthesis. With unique band structures, the material may find applications in optoelectronics and electromechanics.

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Elimination of the inner filling electrolyte of classical ISEs to overcome their associated drawbacks is the major driving force for the evolution of solid contact ISEs. Carbon cloth is a cheap and readily available material which can easily replace the existing carbon nanotubes/conducting polymer based solid contact ISEs. The present work is focussed on the fabrication of carbon cloth based solid contact iodide ISEs and their application studies. The electrode exhibits a Nernstian response in the 10−6 to 10−1 M concentration range and a quantifiable non-Nernstian response in the 10−7 to 10−6 M concentration range. A lower limit of detection of 1 × 10−7 M is obtained. A plausible interfacial ion to electron transfer mechanism in carbon cloth based ISEs is illustrated. The electrode shows good sensitivity, selectivity, stability and response time compared to the existing solid contact iodide ISEs. The quantitative recovery of iodide from natural waters and table salt unequivocally establishes the suitability of CC-I-ISE in real sample analysis.


We present a class of hybrid classical systems using quantum co-processors and point out that unlike purely quantum computers, such hybrids can be both universal and Turing complete; we introduce such quantum-classical hybrids as "quassical." We discuss the benefits of quassical architectures from a theoretical point of view: for some classes of problems they achieve computational supremacy. From a practical point of view, quassical architectures can also reduce the overhead burden imposed by most error correction schemes and minimize the challenges of interconnecting qubits in a usefully large connection graph. All quantum computing systems are cyber-physical machines and thus quassical to at least a trivial degree but only the more profoundly quassical hybrids can exhibit an optimum problem-solving capability for the amount of quantum resources deployed. Most significantly, quassical architectures advance our thinking past that of seeing quantum machines as simply quantum embodiments of classical ones and can enliven whole new fields of analytical thinking that takes us beyond quantum information science per se into a deeper understanding of the duality between quantum information and fundamental thermodynamics, possibly suggesting unexpectedly useful new technologies.


Many states have benefit programs (e.g., special fund, second injury fund, subsequent injuries fund, special disabilities trust fund) for people with significant pre-existing impairment and/or disability who are injured. Each fund has different rules and regulations. Some of these funds provide benefits to the injured worker, while others reimburse eligible employers and insurers. Physicians need to understand the specific requirements of benefit programs in their states. Evaluating physicians who understand the uniqueness of these programs will be better able to provide valuable services. This article provides insights into one such program, the subsequent injuries benefits trust fund (SIBTF) in California. To be eligible for SIBTF benefits, the injured worker must meet an "overall threshold" and an "industrial threshold" of disability to qualify for benefits. If these thresholds are met, the injured worker may receive additional compensation based on pre-existing (labor-disabling) disability. The pre-existing disabilities can arise from any source, including congenital, developmental, or acquired disease, prior injury, war injury, non- industrial injuries, or prior industrial disabilities.


Abstract Surface acoustic wave (SAW) devices have been used since the early 1990s as critical components in many radio frequency (RF) transmitters and receivers due to their small size, efficient operation, and excellent performance characteristics. In today's wireless applications, the number of passive SAW components used is on the increase. SAW devices are being used in mobile phones and wireless devices as RF resonator filters, intermediate frequency filters, and local oscillators. In addition, SAW devices have recently been defined and used for sensing various measurands, including gases, liquids, ice, and mechanical vibrations. Because SAW devices are so widely used, it is desirable to evaluate the device prior to fabrication, especially in cases where the devices' material and dimensions have a major influence on the performance of the overall system. In this article the authors present the frequency response simulation of SAW devices using MATLAB™. Both equivalent circuit and transmission matrices model have been simulated for three different types of SAW devices: a delay line, a one-port resonator, and a two-port resonator. The results obtained are presented along with the design parameters and models used in the simulations.


In May 1933, Darryl F. Zanuck bought the rights to Nathanael West's Miss Lonelyhearts for Twentieth Century Pictures. By Hollywood standards at least, the novel did not appear to be a very promising acquisition. And with good reason. For one thing, the first printing had sold fewer than 200 copies. Moreover, the initial studio reader's report, submitted on April 26,1933, summed up this "saddist" (sic) novel in the following fashion: This is a book which could not possibly be translated to the screen. Great stress is laid on fornications and perversions, and on disgustingly intimate details which seek to define the psychopathic character but which do little to further the slight plot. The convention [sic] reader of fiction would class this novel as vile and without apparent purpose save to shock (Twentieth Century Fox Studio files, 2-4). It is difficult to know just what Zanuck's interest in Miss Lonelyhearts could have been. He may have wanted to acquire the rights to the title. Or perhaps he was hoping to cash in on its slightly scandalous reputation. If that was the case, then the strategy would eventually backfire on him. It is more likely that Zanuck simply wanted to capitalize on the success of movies like The Front Page (1931 ) and hti Nelly ( 1932), which initiated a cycle of newspaper movies that culminated in His Girl Friday (1940), Citizen Kane (1941), and Meet John Doe (1941). Whatever Zanuck's reasons for buying the rights, the adaptation of the novel shows quite clearly how little interest there was in pursuing the novel's "vile" themes or "slight plot." Leonard Praskins, the man charged with adapting Miss Lonelyhearts to the screen, was fairly successful in eliminating most of its (sad and sadist) "fornications and perversions." In his hands, Miss Lonelyhearts becomes a story about "doing the right thing," of "one man's redemption," of "true love lost and found."' That is to say, West's novel is turned back into the comic strip from which it originally took its point of departure and inspiration. But if these descriptions sound hackneyed, it is too easy to dismiss his adaptation as a mere "hack job." The adaptation of a novel or of any other material into a screenplay is always a complicated affair involving a web of determinants. It is, in the truest sense, a collaborative effort in which writers, producers, and studio executives struggle-sometimes in sync, sometimes at cross-purposes-to give shape to a screenplay through a succession of story conferences, rough drafts, more conferences, and still more drafts before receiving the studio's final imprimatur. What emerges is the result of local pressures (budgetary restrictions, exhibition practices, available talent), generic expectations (prescribed mise-en-scene, plot devices, beginnings and endings), and cracker barrel theorizing on everything from character motivation to projections of "what America wants"-which is in turn shaped by still larger ideological constraints that quite literally make certain possibilities unimaginable. This process is often mystified under the sign of "entertainment," but it is not at all innocent. The disassembly and reconfiguration of certain privileged cultural codes in a persuasive manner is an essential part of any society's ability to respond to shifting historical circumstances and their resulting social pressures. During the difficult years of the Depression, Hollywood was given unprecedented power in this regard. The films it produced were instrumental in providing the ideological groundwork necessary to reimagine the country during a time of crisis. Consequently, the process of honing and refining a screenplay, especially material as recalcitrant as Miss Lonelyhearts, provides an unparalleled opportunity to watch that ideology at work. Praskins's adaptation, in particular, provides us with a guide to the remarkably parochial weltanschauung of middle-class America in 1933, or, rather. …


The Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) is a symmetric block cipher used to encrypt data within many applications. As a result of its standardisation, and subsequent widespread use, a vast range of published techniques exist for efficient software implementations on diverse platforms. The most efficient of these implementations are written using very low-level approaches; platform dependent assembly language is used to schedule instructions, and most of the cipher is pre-computed into constant look-up tables. The need to resort to such a low-level approach can be interpreted as a failure to provide suitable high-level languages to the cryptographic community. This paper investigates the language features necessary to express AES more naturally (i.e., in a form closer to the original specification) as a source program, and the transformations necessary to produce efficient target programs in an automatic and portable manner.


High risk road users present a difficult challenge for behaviour change programs. They continue to engage in risky behaviours despite the ongoing influence of community-wide programs that have often been shown to be broadly effective in reducing the frequency or severity of crashes. There are two broad behaviour change options for high risk road users – increasing the intensity of already-operating programs, or developing and implementing new programs designed specifically to target them. The former approach is based on a belief that high risk road users will ultimately respond to the same behaviour change interventions, but that they are less responsive to current intensity levels. The second approach assumes that high risk road users are somehow immune to current interventions and will only respond to specifically targeted programs. In either case, the challenge for road safety is how best to draw on psychological research and theory to foster the development and implementation of effective programs. Unfortunately, road safety programs are often based on theoretical notions about behaviour and behaviour change that are psychologically naive. In particular, there is an implicit assumption in road safety research and program implementation that all road users have similar psychological characteristics and, more concerning, that they are similar in many respects to the people conducting research or developing and implementing road safety programs. This paper introduces the concept of the road safety pyramid – a way of considering the potential value of behavioural research and theory in a road safety context. It is argued that theoretical development in road safety, behavioural research, and program development and implementation are all hindered by an implicit assumption that the vast mass of road users, and particularly the group engaging in high risk behaviours, has psychological characteristics that are similar in some way to the characteristics of researchers and practitioners. Examples of psychologically naive approaches to behaviour change and behavioural research are used to demonstrate this argument, and the implications of the road safety pyramid for future research and program development targeting high risk road users are discussed.


Relative prices and price stability have a recognized identity in economic theory and economic policy. In the last 50 years it is possible to configure numerous scenarios, according to the relative importance given by Latin American governments to price stability and relative prices. In the current debate, relative prices have been receiving less attention than price stability. Underlying this appears to be the belief that, with inflation low, the dispersion coefficient for variations in the prices of the goods and services included in the consumer price index should decline as well. The present article, in addition to describing the recent evolution of relative prices in a number of the region's countries, shows that this belief does not accord with the facts, identifies homogeneous groups of goods and services at either end of the distribution and raises some questions about the implications of this last finding.


Extracted from text ... Several extracts of the African potato (Hypoxis species) are
used in traditional medicine as anti-inflammatory and antitumour
agents, and recently, extracts based on lipophilic
extracts of Hypoxis rooperi have been introduced into the
market for the treatment of benign prostatic hypertrophy.1, 2
However, the properties of the plant have not been substantiated
and the safety of these extracts has been questioned
and is of serious concern.3
Recently the Medicines Control Council prematurely
terminated a study of the African potato in HIV-positive
patients because of bone marrow suppression.
Nicoletti et al. isolated glycosides from the rhizomes of
some African Hypoxis species4 ..


In every PC user's life, there's a point when desperate measures must be taken. Some push their PC off a pier or chuck it into a landfill. Others turn their former computing ally into a planter box. But don't give up on your PC yet--help is at hand. This easy to read, accessible book from PC World expert Steve Bass covers the waterfront of PC gripes and gremlins, with fixes for everything from Windows glitches to browsers that won't browse. Each fix is served up in bite-sized portions for quick reading--and even quicker fixing. A revised version of its best-selling predecessor, the 2nd edition offers 50 additional pages and over 120 new fixed annoyances. This reader-friendly book tackles problems related to a wide-ranging number of topics: Windows--King of Annoyances! learn how to kick Windows in the rear, overcome glitches, take charge of the interface, live with the dreaded Service Pack 2Hardware--wake up your DSL, tame your notebook, silence your PC's fan, work wonders with your scanner, and save paperEmail--from Outlook to Eudora! Defeat spam, avoid mailing list hassles, send big files, manage foldersMicrosoft Office--learn workarounds for Word, Excel, and PowerPoint that help you back up the unbackable and automate data entryInternet--shake up IE, stop Flash, outsmart defaults, control Favorites, add the Google toolbar to Netscape Plus, you get access to more than one hundred utilities that will help you squash bugs, enhance your email, untangle a system snarl, and much more. If your PC has ever annoyed you (do we see several billion raised hands?), PC Annoyances is for you. With the flip of a page or two, you can fix that faux pas and have your PC purring again.


We present a logical correspondence between natural semantics and abstract machines. This correspondence enables the mechanical and fully-correct construction of an abstract machine from a natural semantics. Our logical correspondence mirrors the Reynolds functional correspondence, but we manipulate semantic specifications encoded in a logical framework instead of manipulating functional programs. Natural semantics and abstract machines are instances of substructural operational semantics. As a byproduct, using a substructural logical framework, we bring concurrent and stateful models into the domain of the logical correspondence.


The reducer is a very important mechanical part of large-scale rotating amusement devices such as the popular big pendulum. It constantly adjusts the speed during the operation of the device and bears different loads. Due to it is difficult to disassemble after its installation, there is no effective method for the detection or online monitoring. Acoustic emission (AE) technology is an effective tool for condition monitoring and fault diagnosis of rotating machinery. AE tests for the reducer were studied in the lab. The effects of speed change and load change on the AE signals of the reducer are respectively obtained. The filed test on reducers of a big pendulum in the amusement park was carried out. The AE characteristics of the reducer with the movement of the pendulum were analyzed. The results show that AE technology will play an important role in the health monitoring of the reducer on amusement devices.


Serpentinized ultramafic rocks recovered during several recent oceanographic missions (1997-2002) on the Rainbow hydrothermal field and on the Saldanha seamount (36°14'N and 36°34'N, Mid-Atlantic Ridge) often exhibit late-stage carbonatization associated to secondary oxidation effects. These carbonate occurrences, mostly vein-filling aragonite, occasionally form dense webs almost completely engulfing and replacing the serpentinite itself. The 87Sr/86Sr (approx. 0.709) and stable isotope signatures (?13CPDB = 0.2-3.3 ‰; ?18OV-SMOW = 32.2-35.2 ‰) of the carbonate fraction in these serpentinites indicate carbonate precipitation from unmodified seawater, under abiotic conditions, and very low temperatures, close to bottom-water temperatures measured at the sampling stations. These analytical data imply that, unlike the serpentinite-hosted carbonate chimneys in the Lost City hydrothermal field (Ludwig et al., 2006), the vein-filling aragonite in the Rainbow and Saldanha serpentinites has a non-hydrothermal, low-temperature seawater origin.


Ethical decision-making by mediators is, of necessity, contextual in nature. When mediators are confronted with an ethical dilemma such that they must choose between two or more 'right' or 'good' but contradictory courses of action, they must take numerous case-specific factors into account in arriving at a decision that they can justify. This article identifies some of the factors which mediators might take into account in deciding what is the 'ethically fitting' course to be followed. It provides detailed discussion of three factors which impact ethical decision-making by mediators. They are: the objectives and values given priority in mediation; the approaches or models of mediation chosen by a mediator; and the standards of conduct to which mediators are subject. In discussing these factors, attention is given to the debate concerning the appropriateness of evaluative mediation. Attention is also drawn to the difficulty involved in drafting standards of conduct for mediators. The focus of the discussion about mediator standards of conduct is upon Australia's National Mediator Accreditation Scheme Practice Standards. As with most mediator standards, inevitably they provide no more than a set of core principles or values which form a framework for ethical decision-making by mediators.


The upcoming reconfigurable video coding (RVC) standard from MPEG (ISO/IEC SC29WG11) defines a library of coding tools to specify existing or new compressed video formats and decoders. The coding tool library has been written in a dataflow/actor-oriented language named CAL. Each coding tool can be represented with an extended finite state machine and the dependencies between the tools are described as dataflow graphs. This paper proposes an approach to derive a multiprocessor execution schedule for RVC systems that are comprised of CAL actors. In addition to proposing a scheduling approach for RVC, an extension to the well-known permutation flow shop scheduling problem that enables rapid run-time scheduling of RVC tasks is introduced.


The radical black left that played a crucial role in twentieth-century struggles for equality and justice has largely disappeared. Michael Dawson investigates the causes and consequences of the decline of black radicalism as a force in American politics and argues that the conventional left has failed to take race sufficiently seriously as a historical force in reshaping American institutions, politics, and civil society. African Americans have been in the vanguard of progressive social movements throughout American history, but they have been written out of many histories of social liberalism. Focusing on the 1920s and 1930s, as well as the Black Power movement, Dawson examines successive failures of socialists and Marxists to enlist sympathetic blacks, and white leftists' refusal to fight for the cause of racial equality. Angered by the often outright hostility of the Socialist Party and similar social democratic organizations, black leftists separated themselves from these groups and either turned to the hard left or stayed independent. A generation later, the same phenomenon helped fueled the Black Power movement's turn toward a variety of black nationalist, Maoist, and other radical political groups. The 2008 election of Barack Obama notwithstanding, many African Americans still believe they will not realize the fruits of American prosperity any time soon. This pervasive discontent, Dawson suggests, must be mobilized within the black community into active opposition to the social and economic status quo. Black politics needs to find its way back to its radical roots as a vital component of new American progressive movements.


The aim of this study was to explore the diversity of fermentative yeast species in a non-vineyard and vineyard environment, and exploit their oenological potential. For this purpose we collected plant and soil material in the vineyard (located in Crnice in Vipava Valley) planted with Vitis vinifera L. and in the forest (forest in Vipava Old Castle), and by using a selective medium with high ethanol and sugar content we managed to obtain 35 isolates. By sequencing the D1/D2 domain of the 26S rDNA we identified nine different yeast species. The oenological potential of identified yeasts was further investigated by employing a series of tests, such as growth at low pH values, tolerance to ethanol and sulfur, and H2S production ability. Based on the results of these tests we selected four different yeast species for the microvinification of Vitis vinifera L. cv. 'Pinot Noir' grape juice. A commercial strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae Lalvin D47 was also included as a control in the fermentation experiment. Fermentation monitoring was done by measuring daily weight loss and microbiological analysis in the middle of fermentation. For the final wines, sugars were determined and sensorial evaluation performed. Among four tested yeasts, S. paradoxus IVV 32 and Torulaspora delbrueckii IVV 36 appeared to be the most promising for winemaking, but further studies should be carried out.


Some characteristic species of Late Cretaceous radiolarians from central Japan and the world are discussed. With respect to the relation between radiolarian distribution and latitude, Amphipyndax enesseffi Foreman, Theocampe abschnitta (Empson-Morin), Myllocercion acineton Foreman, and Dictyomitra lamellicostata Foreman were restricted to the low to intermediate latitudes. Lithomelissa heros Campbell & Clark, Lithomelissa hoplites Foreman, Theocampe altamontensis (Campbell & Clark), and Stichomitra livermorensis (Campbell & Clark) would tend to be cosmopolitan; however, only in the circum-Pacific region, they were apparently confined to northeastern Asia, northwestern North America, and the Antarctic. The existence of the distribution of the Late Cretaceous radiolarians could be explained by oceanic circulation patterns and it was important in determining Late Cretaceous provincial boundaries of radiolarians.


Currently Linux has the filesystem namespace for mounts which is beginning to prove useful. By adding additional namespaces for process ids, SYS V IPC, the network stack, user ids, and probably others we can, at a trivial cost, extend the UNIX concept and make novel uses of Linux possible. Multiple instances of a namespace simply means that you can have two things with the same name. For servers the power of computers is growing, and it has become possible for a single server to easily fulfill the tasks of what previously required multiple servers. Hypervisor solutions like Xen are nice but they impose a performance penalty and they do not easily allow resources to be shared between multiple servers. For clusters application migration and preemption are interesting cases but almost impossibly hard because you cannot restart the application once you have moved it to a new machine, as usually there are resource name conflicts. For users certain desktop applications interface with the outside world and are large and hard to secure. It would be nice if those applications could be run on their own little world to limit what a security breach could compromise. Several implementations of this basic idea have been done succsessfully. Now the work is to create a clean implementation that can be merged into the Linux kernel. The discussion has begun on the linux-kernel list and things are slowly progressing.


The operation of dynamic processes can be optimized using models that predict the system behavior well, in particular its optimality features. In practice, however, process models are often structurally inaccurate, and on-line adaptation is typically required for appropriate prediction and optimization. Furthermore, it is difficult to identify process model parameters on-line during optimization because of lack of persistent excitation. This paper addresses the modeling issue for the purpose of real-time optimization. It will be shown that the models used for real-time optimization need not be valid as a whole; instead, it suffices that they represent the optimality conditions well. Two types of models are considered, namely, the traditional "plant models" and the tailor-made "solution models". The features of each type, in particular their ability to be adapted using on-line measurements, are discussed and illustrated through a simple car example.


The hygroscopic growth of aerosol particles present in a boreal forest was measured at a relative humid- ity of 88%. Simultaneously the gas phase concentration of sulfuric acid, a very hygroscopic compound, was monitored. The focus was mainly on days with new particle formation by nucleation. The measured hygroscopic growth factors (GF) correlated positively with the gaseous phase sulfuric acid concentrations. The smaller the particles, the stronger the correlation, with r=0.20 for 50 nm and r=0.50 for 10 nm particles. The increase in GF due to condensing sulfuric acid is expected to be larger for particles with initially smaller masses. During new particle formation, the changes in solu- bility of the new particles were calculated during their growth to Aitken mode sizes. As the modal diameter increased, the solubility of the particles decreased. This indicated that the initial particle growth was due to more hygroscopic com- pounds, whereas the later growth during the evening and night was mainly caused by less hygroscopic or even hy- drophobic compounds. For all the measured sizes, a diur- nal variation in GF was observed both during days with and without particle formation. The GF was lowest at around midnight, with a mean value of 1.12-1.24 depending on par- ticle size and if new particle formation occurred during the day, and increased to 1.25-1.34 around noon. This can be tentatively explained by day- and nighttime gas-phase chem- istry; different vapors will be present depending on the time of day, and through condensation these compounds will alter the hygroscopic properties of the particles in different ways.


Zooming in on automated and semiautomated social actors created to influence public opinion on social media, we employ a novel analytic approach to identify patterns of inauthentic behavior across election campaigns on Twitter. Comparing two recent national election campaigns, the 2016 U.S. presidential election and the 2017 German federal election, we analyze patterns and effects of orchestrated intervention in political discourse on Twitter. Focusing on two main aspects of information flows—scale and range—we find that orchestrated interventions help amplify, but not diffuse, the candidates' messages, mostly failing to reach new audiences in the process. This study adds an information diffusion perspective to a growing body of literature on computational propaganda, showing that although false amplification is quite effective in increasing the scale of information events, in most cases the information fails to reach new depths.


There is a common perception that downtown areas will never attract families and big cities are not the best place to raise children. Particularly the downtown areas of cities been depicted as the place where criminals, prostitutes, drug-sellers, and other dangerous strangers live. People with children are more likely to look for the suburbs to find bigger housing with more affordable prices, cleaner air, richer nature, a slower lifestyle, and safer environment. However, living in the modern suburb is not always easy and cheap, especially for those who need to commute to the central city. Dealing with the long commutes can be stressful and it affects the health, happiness, and well-being of family members. As the number of modern families with both parents in the workforce is rising, the demand to live closer to the workplace is getting stronger and growing. In some parts of the world, more families increasingly want to live in the cities. This trend can be seen in the United States, Japan, Korea, and Canada. Being family-friendly has become increasingly important for modern cities as more millennial generation show the tendency to raise their families in the urban area. Moreover, it is predicted that two-thirds of world's population will live in cities by 2030. To accommodate the growing population, in particular, those with children, modern cities should be developed to suit urban families. But what criteria and qualities make one city more family-friendly than another? What would a family-friendly city look like? To date, the number studies exploring the notion of the family-friendly city has been very limited. Most studies have been focusing on the notion of family-friendly dwellings, family-friendly workplaces, or child-friendly cities. This paper brings together and examines the dominant and recurring ideas about the family-friendly city represented in the relevant literature and current urban practices. This paper also questions whether the concept of the child-friendly city is adequate to create a better environment to raise families in the city.


Synthesis of allenes has been achieved by using palladium-catalyzed hydrogen-transfer reactions. Various propargylic amines, which were readily prepapred from iodobenzenes and propargylic amines by Sonogashira coupling reaction, underwent the hydrogen-transfer reaction in the presence of Pd2dba3.CHCl3/(C6F5)3P catalyst at 100 degrees C in dioxane for 24 h, giving the corresponding allenes in 43-99% yields. Various propargylic alcohols containing a propargylic aminomethyl group, synthesized by the addition of lithium acetylides of N,N-diisopropylprop-2-ynylamine to aldehydes and a ketone, also underwent the hydrogen-transfer reaction in the presence of Pd2dba3.CHCl3 catalyst and (C6F5)3P at 80 degrees C in dioxane, giving the corresponding allenes in 56-92% yields. In the current transformation, propargylic amines can be handled as an allenyl anion equivalent and introduced into various electrophiles to be transformed into allenes under palladium-catalyzed conditions.


Many commonly used treatment effects estimators rely on the unconfoundedness assumption ("selection on observables") which is fundamentally non-testable. When evaluating the effects of labor market policies, researchers need to observe variables that affect both treatment participation and labor market outcomes. Even though in many countries it is possible to access (very) informative administrative data, concerns about the validity of the unconfoundedness assumption remain. The main concern is that the observed characteristics of the individuals may not be enough to properly address potential selection bias. This is especially relevant in light of the research on the influence of personality traits and attitudes on economic outcomes. We exploit a unique dataset that contains a rich set of administrative information on individuals entering unemployment in Germany, as well as several usually unobserved characteristics like personality traits, attitudes, expectations, and job search behavior. This allows us to empirically assess how estimators based on the unconfoundedness assumption perform when alternatively including or not these usually unobserved variables. Our findings indicate that these variables play a significant role for selection into treatment and labor market outcomes, but do not make for the most part a significant difference in the estimation of treatment effects, compared to specifications that include detailed labor market histories. This suggests that rich administrative data may be good enough to draw policy conclusions on the effectiveness of active labor market policies.


Anxiety disorders affect some 19 million people in the U.S. alone, costing $46.6 billion, or one third of the nation's total mental health bill in 1990. Benzodiazepine tranquilizers like the prototypic diazepam are among the most widely used anti-anxiety agents. In addition to their anxiolytic action, they also induce sedation and may impair motor coordination, both of which are undesired side effects when they are used as anxiolytics. Not surprisingly, road traffic accidents may be increased for patients on classical benzodiazepines. In addition, these drugs carry the risk of dependence liability. Benzodiazepines augment the action of the inhibitory neurotransmitter g-aminobutyric acid (GABA) at contact points between two nerve cells called synapses, points at which information is transmitted from one nerve cell to the next. Synaptically released GABA binds to postsynaptic GABAA receptors, thus causing an influx of negatively charged chloride ions into the postsynaptic neuron. This leads to a hyperpolarization and thus functional inhibition of the postsynaptic cell. Benzodiazepines bind to a site on the GABAA receptor which is different from the GABA binding site, thus increasing the chloride current. Benzodiazepines like diazepam bind to GABAA receptors containing the α subunits α1, α2, α3, or α5, most likely in abgabg combinations.


Student internships and work experience schemes provide students with highly authentic learning experiences (Bosco & Fern, 2014). Therefore many university programmes include a job-experience element that students must demonstrate completion of, usually through a report signed by the employer that the student has managed to find work with over their summer break. Auckland University of Technology provides a summer student scholarship scheme that provides contestable scholarship funding for students to work on university specified projects over the summer break. Each scholarship requires 370 hours of project-related work, followed by a summary report. In this presentation we explore a model that extends the summer student scholarship concept as part of a longer term collaboration between university students, academic supervisors, and industry representatives. This extended model brokers real world projects that benefit the wider community through developing solutions to health care problems in collaboration with a local district health board (ADHB or Auckland District Health Board). In this model communication design students apply to form design teams, selected and supervised by university academics, to address design briefs from the district health board's Design Lab. Key aspects of this collaboration include: developing a sense of trust between the university and the district health Design Lab, establishing a supervision team and protocols, and establishing an ecology of supporting resources - including providing students with the work space and infrastructure access to achieve the project goals. The summer student scholarships are designed to be the first step in a long term collaboration that will potentially lead into major undergraduate student projects and post-graduate research. The summer scholarship projects use a Design Based Research (DBR) methodology (McKenney & Reeves, 2018) to address the first design stages of specific health care problems: analysis and exploration, and initial prototype design. The following stages of a DBR methodology (design implementation, evaluation, and redesign) are addressed through subsequent major student projects or post graduate research following agreement with the district health Design Lab after the presentation of the summer student scholarship project outcomes. The scope of the projects aim to explore the potential of wearable and mobile technologies to enhance health care practice and the patient experience (Rich & Miah, 2017). The research questions underpinning the extended student scholarship model are:

In what scenarios can wearable and mobile technologies most effectively enhance health care practice and the patient experience?
What are the design principles that can guide the development of authentic mobile learning collaborative student projects?

References

Bosco, A. M., & Fern, S. (2014). Embedding of authentic assessment in work-integrated learning curriculum. Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education, 15(4), 281-290.
McKenney, S., & Reeves, T. C. (2018). Conducting educational design research: Routledge.
Rich, E., & Miah, A. (2017). Mobile, wearable and ingestible health technologies: towards a critical research agenda. Health Sociology Review, 26(1), 84-97.


In the choice of my topic, I unknowingly filched the title of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor's memoirs. I meant to call upon what is awesome and venerable in the law, as I think the good Justice did as well. Majesty is not in our style of democratic informality, in which everything is open to change in the hope of reform. But we are still attached to the formality of procedure and the solemnity of judicial garb designed to maintain respect for the law. We do not need regal magnificence in our judges, but we do require republican assurances that public justice is serious business. Above all, any appearance that the law can be circumvented by private approach or by interested calculation --and this warning is directed to professors--is to be avoided. What happens behind the scenes must stay behind the scenes. Against this intimation of majesty practiced in our time is the movement of thought known as "legal realism." I will argue in my brief that majesty is good and that legal realism is inadequate. Legal realism is not all wrong, but the view that it is enough is all wrong. Legal realism has several modes, but they all declare that something other than, and more powerful than, law is the cause of law. The "realism" consists of seeing through mere appearances and establishing the fact of this more powerful force. Once established, that fact must be published, taught, and spread. Legal realism is expected to bring good to society by its inventors, who quickly become, if they were not from the first, its advocates. It asserts that our law will be better if through clear thinking we dispense with its irrational majesty. This realism is really idealism. In the old days, when philosophy was young, the pre-Socratic philosophers thought that laws were made for the convenience of rulers and nothing good was to be expected from politics. They thought that was realism. In America, advocates of legal realism have arisen from the Progressive tradition, joined now by libertarian conservatives, who claim public good will result from their public unmasking of law. Despite the fact (as they maintain) that no one aims for the public good, they believe it does exist; Socrates was right about that. The sort of thinking our legal realists recommend can be seen in the famous prisoner's dilemma that is the essence of game theory, the most fashionable mode of legal realism. The prisoner's dilemma posits a situation in which a prisoner must choose between defecting from a fellow prisoner and cooperating with him. We do not know whether the prisoner is guilty and should therefore confess his crimes. We do not know whether the law he may or may not have violated deserves to be respected. But the example is not as neutral as it seems. One's sympathies are unjustifiably enlisted on the side of the prisoner by adopting his point of view. From the standpoint of the law, he is defecting from the law instead of cooperating with it by confessing, as is his duty. The example substitutes calculation for duty and is actually about how to evade the law if it is advantageous to do so. It is not unreasonable to question the coherence of such allegedly neutral strategizing. How is it consistent with respect for the law? Shouldn't people believe that two murderers, two rats, should rat out each other? The phrase "rat out" expresses a noble disdain to which murderers are not entitled. It may be objected that respect for the law is due only when the law seems good to us. But if this were correct, people would simply do what is good for them, harmony would result, and there would be no need for law. It appears that law needs to seem good even when it may not be; it needs, as we say, legitimacy. Does legitimacy require majesty to give it authority? I have been speaking so far of "the law," as if law were one whole. Even we in pluralistic America use that expression. Yet the law consists of laws, each of them by itself and not necessarily coherent with other laws. …


That intergovernmental organizations do not operate effectively has long been apparent. Why they fail to do so has puzzled observers, as has the lack of a satisfying explanation of how these institutions actually do work. Using the concept of "engaging," James P. Sewell investigates the development of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The concept of engaging--becoming involved or more involved in a continuing international relationship--permits the author to focus on levels and timing of participation as well as on the participants' motives. Drawing on extensive interviews and on published and unpublished material, his study traces UNESCO's formation and evolution from 1941 to 1972. He considers different forms of engagement, conditions of their effectiveness, and the important role played by political leaders. The concept of engaging provides new insight into several significant questions. How and with what domestic consequences do actors respond to the challenges of an international organization? Why and how do executive managers induce closer engagement in their institutions? Professor Sewell's innovative approach is applicable to the study of all types of intergovernmental organizations. Originally published in 1975. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Insufficient data to guide the authorities responsible for resource allocation and a focus on communicable diseases increase the challenges of care of children with kidney disease in resource-constrained settings like ours. This study was performed with the aim to describe the current spectrum of pediatric nephrology disease in a tertiary hospital in Sub-Saharan Africa and highlight the challenges encountered in their care. A 4-year retrospective review of pediatric renal admissions was carried out and the overall prevalence, disease-specific prevalence and mortality rates were determined. Results were compared with nationwide data. Kidney diseases accounted for 8.9% of pediatric admissions with a prevalence of 22.3 admissions per 1000 child-admissions per year. Nephrotic syndrome, acute kidney injury and nephroblastoma accounted for almost 70% of admissions. The overall mortality was 14.4% with acute kidney injury accounting for 36% of this. Chronic kidney disease was also associated with poor outcome. The spectrum of disease nationwide is similar with a wide variation in disease-specific prevalence between geographic regions. The prevalence of genetic and hereditary conditions was low. The prevalence of pediatric renal disease in our environment is on the increase and associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Late presentation and high treatment costs were limitations to care. Preventive nephrology, training of pediatric nephrologists and strengthening of health insurance schemes are advocated.


Chromium (VI) removal and its reduction to chromium (III) from aqueous solution by untreated and heat-treated Quercus cerris and heat-treated Quercus suber black agglomerate cork granules was investigated. Initial screening studies revealed that among the sorbents tested, untreated Q. cerris and Q. suber black agglomerate are the most efficient in the removal of Cr(VI) ions and were selected for adsorption essays. Heat treatment adversely affected chromium adsorption and chromium (VI) reduction in Q. cerris cork. The highest metal uptake was found at pH 3.0 for Q. cerris and pH 2.0 for black agglomerate. The experimental data fitted the Langmuir model and the calculated qmax was 22.98 mg/g in black agglomerate and 21.69 mg/g in untreated Q. cerris cork. The FTIR results indicated that while in black agglomerate, lignin is the sole component responsible for Cr(VI) sorption, and in untreated Q. cerris cork, suberin and polysaccharides also play a significant role on the sorption. The SEM-EDX results imply that chromium has a homogenous distribution within both cork granules. Also, phloemic residues in Q. cerris granules showed higher chromium concentration. The results obtained in this study show that untreated Q. cerris and black agglomerate cork granules can be an effective and economical alternative to more costly materials for the treatment of liquid wastes containing chromium.


Because of rising data-collection costs associated with in-person surveys, address-based sampling (ABS) is being explored as an alternative to traditional field enumeration (FE). This has led surveys such as the National Survey on Drug Use and Health (NSDUH), which relies solely on FE, to investigate the use of ABS as a potential sampling frame. Before 2009, ABS frames were restricted to the Computerized Delivery Sequence (CDS) file, which the United States Postal Service (USPS) makes available through licensing agreements with qualified vendors. Research based on the CDS has found the coverage of ABS frames for in-person surveys to be sufficient in urban areas but problematic in rural areas. Since 2009, the USPS has also made available the No-Stat file. A supplement to the CDS file, the No-Stat file contains approximately seven million predominantly rural addresses, most of which are not currently receiving mail directly and are not found in the CDS. One component of evaluating ABS for the NSDUH was to explore the potential added coverage and the cost-effectiveness of using the No-Stat file as a supplemental address source. We matched a nationally representative sample of households eligible for the 2010 NSDUH to commercially available versions of the CDS and No-Stat files and found that the No-Stat file provides an approximately four-percentage-point increase in coverage in rural areas without significantly reducing sampling efficiency.


Designing and developing cloud services is a challenging task that includes requirements engineering, secure service deployment, maintenance, assurance that proper actions have been taken to support security and, in addition, considering legal aspects. This is unfortunately not possible by taking current methods and techniques into consideration. Therefore, we require a systematic and comprehensive approach for building such services that starts the integration of security concerns from early stages of design and development, and continuous to refines and integrate them in the deployment phase. In this paper we therefore propose a solution that integrates security requirements engineering and continuous refinement in a comprehensive security development and deployment life-cycle for cloud services and applications. Our approach is focused on iterative refinement of the security-based requirements during both software engineering (development phase) and software maintenance (deployment phase).


Ugitech UGI Phynox is an austenitic cobalt-based alloy with a unique combination of high static and fatigue strength, excellent formability, and excellent corrosion resistance and biocompatibility. Its nonmagnetic characteristic is important for such devices as gyroscopes, chronoscopes, and indicating instruments. It is used over a wide range of temperatures from about –269 °C (–452 °F) to 500 °C (930 °F). This datasheet provides information on composition, elasticity, and tensile properties. It also includes information on corrosion resistance as well as heat treating, machining, and joining. Filing Code: Co-137. Producer or source: Ugitech SA.


Recent models have attempted to reconcile low psychophysical orientation and spatial-frequency discrimination thresholds with relatively broad orientation and spatial-frequency tuning of cortical neurons. These models have relied on the ability of the neurons to convert small stimulus changes into reliable response changes. We have examined this ability in a sample of neurons from the cat's striate cortex. We present here data from two cells that reliably signaled the smallest orientation and spatial-frequency differences. Using receiver operating characteristic analysis, we find that these cells could reliably signal orientation differences of 1.84 deg and spatial-frequency differences of 0.073 octave. We compare these single-cell results to cat and human behavioral discrimination thresholds.


Zebra is a network file system that increases throughput by striping file data across multiple servers. Rather than striping each file separately, Zebra forms all the new data from each client into a single stream, which it then stripes using an approach similar to a log-structured file system. This provides high performance for writes of small files as well as for reads and writes of large files. Zebra also writes parity information in each stripe in the style of RAID disk arrays; this increases storage costs slightly but allows the system to continue operation even while a single storage server is unavailable. A prototype implementation of Zebra, built in the Sprite operating system, provides 4-5 times the throughput of the standard Sprite file system or NFS for large files and a 15% to 300% improvement for writing small files.