It is the biggest treasure hunt in history with contesting nations involved in a headlong race to locate the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. 4500 years ago, a magnificent golden capstone sat at the peak of the Great Pyramid of Giza. It was a source of immense power, reputedly capable of bestowing upon its holder absolute global power. But then it was divided into seven pieces and hidden, each piece separately, within the seven greatest structures of the age. Now it's 2006 and the coming of a rare solar event means it's time to locate the seven pieces and rebuild the capstone. Everyone wants it - from the most powerful countries on Earth to gangs of terrorists ...and one daring coalition of eight small nations. Led by the mysterious Captain Jack West Jr, this determined group enters a global battlefield filled with booby-trapped mines, crocodile-infested swamps, evil forces and an adventure beyond imagining. 'More action, hair-raising stunts and lethal hardware than you'd find in four Bond movies. Reilly is the hottest action writer around' - "Evening Telegraph".


Abstract As China's active assertion of its claim to the Senkaku/Diaoyu Islands has increasingly crowded the surrounding waters and airspace with military and paramilitary forces, the risk of a Sino–Japanese crisis has reached unprecedented heights. Neither side wants conflict, but the increased frequency and proximity at which vessels and aircraft encounter one another means that overall risk has grown proportionately. Were a miscalculation or even an unintended low-level incident to occur, de-escalation would hinge on each side's respective internal crisis management capabilities and political leaders' ability to communicate expeditiously. This article analyzes China's side of the ledger. Specifically, it assesses the extent to which institutional reforms since the 2001 US–China EP-3 crisis have ameliorated longstanding weaknesses in China's crisis management capabilities and its ability to communicate via hotlines with Japan. While significant issues and obstacles to further urgently needed improvements remain, with the establishment of a Central National Security Commission (CNSC) and other recent reforms, Beijing may finally be achieving modest improvements. Bilaterally, however, no Sino–Japanese crisis hotline exists to date.


In this paper, we study a kernel extension of the classic possibilistic c-means. In the proposed extension, we implicitly map input patterns into a possibly high-dimensional space by means of positive semidefinite kernels. In this new space, we model the mapped data by means of the possibilistic clustering algorithm. We study in more detail the special case where we model the mapped data using a single cluster only, since it turns out to have many interesting properties. The modeled memberships in kernel-induced spaces yield a modeling of generic shapes in the input space. We analyze in detail the connections to one-class support vector machines and kernel density estimation, thus, suggesting that the proposed algorithm can be used in many scenarios of unsupervised learning. In the experimental part, we analyze the stability and the accuracy of the proposed algorithm on some synthetic and real datasets. The results show high stability and good performances in terms of accuracy.


Since the financial crisis of 2008, the U.S. private sector has been deleveraging rapidly. During such a major macroeconomic trend, government programs to support large-scale infrastructure development are often considered an effective economic policy response with respect to employment, economic growth, and achieving low project costs. But since the U.S. government entered the financial crisis with relatively large deficits and outstanding debt, the extreme fear of indebtedness that characterizes an "age of deleveraging" in the private sector is now constraining public-sector policymakers as well. This article outlines a limited and pragmatic approach to U.S. government support for the capitalization of infrastructure projects. The approach, based on utilizing project finance loan guarantees, seeks to provide a practical framework to address the issues that any new spending proposals face in the U.S. as a result of due to the highly contentious debate about the level of U.S. deficits and national debt. The first part of the article briefly summarizes the relevant features of the fierce current debate in the U.S. about government debt, deficits, and overall economic policy. The next and most fundamental part outlines why partial loan guarantees of infrastructure project finance debt (a type of financial public–private partnership (PPP) between government and private-sector lenders) might be especially effective as a "middle ground" to defuse, or avoid, some of the budget debate issues. This part includes subsections that briefly discuss how the partial guarantee mechanism can help ensure long-term debt management, control risk, assess cost, and add to transactional efficiency, as well as how a guarantee program can be managed with respect to overall debt capacity utilization and political issues. The final part of the article contains some brief observations about intrinsic elements of the potential usefulness of a U.S. loan guarantee program for infrastructure, even when it is subject to multiple constraints.


In recent decades, considerable progress has been made towards understanding the genetic, environmental, and immunological factors that contribute to the development of airway disorders. Current therapy for airway disorders has not advanced at the same pace as our increased understanding of the underlying causes of disease and is far from being ideal. This special issue places emphasis on the most relevant research into the pressing aspects of airway disorders including airway inflammation, tuberculosis, viral infection, and potential therapies.

Dietary changes due to our modern lifestyle have increased our susceptibility to inflammatory diseases such as airway inflammatory diseases. The Western diet (characterized by a high intake of omega-6 fatty acids and low intake of omega-3 fatty acids) is associated with unwanted proinflammatory effects and metabolic syndrome (including increased amounts of glucose and triglycerides circulating in the blood). On the other hand, diets rich in omega-3 fatty acids are associated with beneficial effects such as anti-inflammatory effects. Physical activity, another health related factor correlated with human lifestyle, can modulate the immune system with increased activity causing beneficial effects on systemic inflammation as well as overall health. To determine the effects of exercise and a high fat diet, S. P. Kurti et al. provided healthy volunteers with a high fat meal. Individuals were, next, randomly assigned to either a bout of moderate exercise or a rest period. Subjects were then tested for pulmonary function and samples were taken to determine the subjects metabolic and airway inflammatory states. The results demonstrated similar increases in dyslipidemia and markers of airway inflammation at 2 and 4 h after the meal regardless of exercise. These data led the authors to suggest that "it is necessary to develop other strategies to reduce the postprandial inflammatory burden on the airways that is present in asthmatics" and possibly in patients suffering from other airways inflammatory disorders.

Acute inflammation is generally self-limited. However, if acute inflammation fails to resolve, chronic inflammation can persist. The innate and adaptive immune systems, as well as structural cells, modulate the length and intensity of inflammatory responses. As cited above, lipids mediators, derived from the omega-6 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) including leukotrienes (LTs) and prostaglandins (PGs), are potent enhancers of innate and adaptive immune activity and are implicated in numerous inflammatory disorders. On the other hand, lipids mediators, derived from the omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), including resolvins, maresins, and protectins, dampen inflammation and promote resolution. J. R. de Oliveira et al. demonstrated the effect of aspirin-triggered-resolvin D1 (AT-RvD1, the R carbon 17 epimer of resolvin D1) on bronchial epithelial cells (BEAS-2B) stimulated with IL-4, a Th2 cytokine involved in the modulation of allergic airway inflammation such as asthma. AT-RvD1 blocked the IL-4-triggered activation of bronchial epithelial cells. AT-RvD1 exposure, signaling through the ALX/FPR2 receptor, led to decreased CCL2 (involved in eosinophilic inflammation) and CXCL-8 (involved in neutrophilic inflammation) protein levels and downregulated both NF-κB and STAT6 pathways. In addition, AT-RvD1 decreased SOCS1 and increased SOCS3 RNA levels. These results suggest that AT-RvD1 can inhibit the neutrophilic and eosinophilic airway inflammation associated with asthma.

The immunoglobulin E (IgE) can be produced by body upon exposure to allergens such as pollen and is associated with allergic disorders such as atopic dermatitis (eczema), urticaria, asthma, and others. IgE can bind to mast cells through high-affinity immunoglobulin (Ig) E receptors (FceRI). Upon re-exposure, the binding of the allergen to IgE present on mast cells/basophils leads to degranulation and the release of proinflammatory mediators such as cytokines, leukotrienes, chemokines, and proteases involved in the modulation of the pathophysiology of allergic diseases. Omalizumab is a recombinant humanized monoclonal antibody that prevents IgE from interacting with the FCɛRI on mast cells/basophils thereby blocking the release of soluble proinflammatory mediators. In an in-depth review, A. D. Yalcin describes our current understanding of the effectiveness of omalizumab in several diseases such as hyperimmunoglobulin-E syndrome, eosinophilic gastroenteritis, mastocytosis, pruritic bullous pemphigoid, nasal polyps, atopic dermatitis, chronic urticaria, and others.

Tuberculosis is a global public health problem with an enormous social impact. Upon interaction with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the immune system releases a number of cytokines (such as IFN-γ, IL-4, and IL-17) which are secreted by specific immune cells (Th1, Th2, and Th17 helper T cells, resp.). Th1 and Th17 cytokines provide essential signals for the control of M. tuberculosis infection while Th2 cytokines antagonize the protective effects of Th1 and Th17 cytokines and result in unregulated M. tuberculosis infection. Higher concentrations of IL-17 and IFN-γ are found in bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG) vaccinated and clinically cured tuberculosis patients compared to those patients with active infection. In contrast, infected patients display higher concentration of IL-4 than the other groups. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) also play an important role in M. tuberculosis infections. They regulate immune responses by limiting the extent of the immune response; however, this activity may also facilitate chronic infection and block microbial eradication. M. V. Silva et al. isolated peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from three groups of volunteers, healthy individuals with no history of tuberculosis but with a positive tuberculin skin test (healthy control), patients with clinically cured pulmonary tuberculosis (TB-treated group), and patients with active pulmonary tuberculosis (TB-active group). The isolated PBMCs were stimulated with mycobacterium antigens extracted from M. bovis (bacillus Calmette-Guerin (BCG)) and characterized the CD4+ T cells as Th1 (T-Bet+ and IFN-γ+), Th2 (GATA-3+ and IL-4+), Th17 (RORγT+ and IL-17+), or Treg (using CD25 and FoxP3 to distinguish subtypes). The results as described by the authors demonstrated that the active TB patients showed a global reduction of T helper cells but a ratio favoring Th2 and Treg populations, whereas cured TB patients display increased subpopulations of CD4+ T cells (Th1, Th2, Th17, and Treg), although Th1 and Th17 cells predominate suggesting that changes in the repertoire of mycobacterium-specific Th cells are associated with clinical cure after treatment of pulmonary tuberculosis.

Viruses such as rhinoviruses, paramyxoviruses, coronaviruses, and influenza viruses are major causes of human respiratory tract diseases. Respiratory viruses damage lung structural cells and trigger a host inflammatory response inflammation that can lead to further tissue injury. Severe injury to lung epithelial cells lowers the efficiency of alveolar gas-exchange processes and can result in hypoxia, respiratory failure, and death. Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) is a major cause of bronchiolitis and severe acute respiratory infections and may become lethal. Risk factors such as low gestational age, low birth weight, and malformations correlate with the chances of severe RSV infection in the airways. There is no specific treatment for RSV infection making the understanding of the genetic and immunological factors critical for the development of future therapies. In this issue, S. Vandini et al. review critical aspects of RSV infections including environmental and host factors influencing virus activity, the elicited immune response, and the actions of nonimmunological factors. In addition, they provide information regarding animal models of RSV infection and their limitations.


We report here an experimental investigation for establishing and quantifying a link between the growth and decay characteristics of fiber Bragg gratings. One of the key aspects of our work is the determination of the defect energy distribution from the grating characteristics measured during their fabrication. We observe a strong correlation between the growth-based defect energy distribution and that obtained through accelerated aging experiments, paving the way for predicting the decay characteristics of fiber Bragg gratings from their growth data. Such a prediction is significant in simplifying the postfabrication steps required to enhance the thermal stability of fiber Bragg gratings.


Summary Background A visceral fat area of more than 100 cm2 as measured by computed tomography (CT) at the umbilical level has been included as a criterion for obesity in all the proposed criteria for metabolic syndrome. However, CT cannot be used frequently because of radiation exposure. We evaluated the usefulness of measurement of the serum levels of nitric oxide (NO), instead of CT and the waist circumference, as a marker of abdominal visceral fat accumulation. Material/Methods The study was carried out in 80 subjects. The serum levels of NO metabolites (nitrate/nitrite) were measured using the Griess reagent. Results Simple and multiple regression analysis revealed that the serum levels of NO metabolites showed the greatest degree of correlation with the visceral fat area (r=0.743, p<0.0001), and corresponded to a visceral fat area of 100 cm2, as determined using the ROC curve, was 21.0 μmol/ml (sensitivity 88%, specificity 82%); this method was more sensitive than the waist circumference for evaluation of the visceral fat accumulation. Conclusions Measurement of the serum levels of NO metabolites may be a simple, safe, convenient and reliable method for the evaluation of visceral fat accumulation in clinical diagnostic screening.


ABSTRACT Literature data on the influence of concrete cracks on corrosion propagation of reinforcing steel are contradictory. This might be due to very different exposure and test conditions but also to a lack of time-resolved data in cyclic wetting–drying exposure. Here, the influence of the environmental conditions on the corrosion rates in cracked concrete is studied experimentally. The results show that the corrosion rate in cracked concrete depends on the duration of wetting and drying phases and the relative humidity (RH) during the drying phase. The lower the ambient RH in the drying phase, the faster the cracks dry, which depresses the corrosion rate in the periods between the wetting events. A model is proposed to estimate corrosion rates in cracked concrete cyclic wetting/drying exposure.


The increasing deployment of sensor network infrastructures (in a variety of applications, ranging from environmental monitoring, "Smart Cities", energy demand forecasting, social media analysis to emergency response) has led to large volumes of data becoming available, leading to new challenges in storing, processing, analysing and transferring such data. This is especially true when data from multiple sensors is pre-processed prior to delivery to users. Where such data is processed in-transit (i.e. from data capture to delivery to a user) over a shared distributed computing infrastructure, and due to the increasing availability of software defined networks, it is necessary to provide some Quality of Service (QoS) guarantees to each user. This talk provides: (i) scenarios of applications that have these types of characteristics; (ii) a computational architecture for supporting QoS for multiple concurrent scientific workflow data streams being processed (prior to delivery to a user) over a shared infrastructure. The architecture is used to demonstrate how a streaming pipeline, with intermediate data size variation (inflation/deflation), can be supported and managed using a dynamic control strategy at each node. Such a strategy supports end-to-end QoS with variations in data size between the various nodes involved in the workflow enactment process.


This thesis explores how U.S. newspapers framed the death of Captain America. Specifically, the presence of various frames and their classifications was determined via a content analysis of 139 newspaper articles. Additionally, this thesis explores relationships between frame substance and other frame classifications. Generic/recurring frames were more prevalent than issue-specific/recurring frames. Frames tended to be episodic more often than thematic. Frames were also most likely to be neutral in valence, though differences from this overall trend emerged in some individual frames. Frames tended to be ambiguous rather than substantive. No relationship emerged between frame substance and the classification of generic/issue-specific frames, nor did one emerge between frame substance and the episodic/thematic frame classification. However, frames possessing negative valence were more likely to be ambiguous than frames possessing positive valence. Implications for framing theory and the news coverage's treatment of Captain America's death as an indicator of post-9/11 American identity are also discussed. Limitations of this study and opportunities for future research are acknowledged


We summarize and discuss the results of our second-harmonic generation experiments in titanium-indiffused lithium niobate optical channel waveguides. The wave-vector mismatch in the nonlinear wave interaction was varied with temperature tuning around the second-harmonic resonances. Fundamental depletion and second-harmonic tuning curves show a strong power dependence, which is an indication of an intensity-dependent wave-vector modification of the interacting modes. This nonlinear refractive effect (which is called cascaded nonlinearity) is characterized with interferometric measurements of the resulting nonlinear phase shift of the fundamental. Large nonlinear phase shifts (>2π) appear in regions of low fundamental depletion (<10%) because of a nonuniform wave-vector mismatch along the waveguide. At resonance a maximum fundamental depletion of more than 90% was observed. All the measured results are explained well theoretically with a coupled-mode model that has proved to be a reliable design tool for fabricating waveguide devices for applications of the cascaded nonlinearity.


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Background: Although outcomes for children and young adults with T-ALL continue to improve, relapse on therapy continues to be a major cause of treatment failure. COG AALL0434 is a phase III study for patients with T-ALL that used a standard 4-drug induction followed by response-based risk stratification at Day 29 with Intermediate and High-risk patients randomized to receive or not receive six 5-day courses of nelarabine during consolidation, delayed intensification and maintenance. All patients are also randomized to receive either Capizzi or high-dose methotrexate during interim maintenance and all patients except those who were Low-risk received cranial irradiation (1200 cGY for CNS1 or 2 and 1800 cGy for CNS3). Risk stratification incorporates MRD detection by flow cytometry at Day 29 using the following cutoffs: Low-risk 1%. Recently, the immunophenotype has been associated with a particularly poor outcome in T-ALL, a finding that requires confirmation in a large prospective trial using contemporary therapy.

Methods: 1144 children with T-ALL enrolled on COG AALL0434 between January 22, 2007 and June 30, 2014 were categorized at the time of study enrollment as ETP (n=130; 11.3%), Near-ETP (ETP but with elevated CD5; n=195; 17%) or Not-ETP (n=819; 71.6%) by flow cytometry. MRD was assessed by 8-9 color flow cytometry at Day 8 in peripheral blood (PB) and Day 29 in bone marrow (BM). Flow cytometry to characterize ETP status and MRD was performed in a single central laboratory. Event-free survival (EFS) and Overall survival (OS) were estimated by Kaplan-Maier curve analysis.

Results: Despite significantly higher (P 25% blasts by morphology at end induction) for ETP (7.8%) and Near-ETP (6.7%) than Not-ETP (1.1%), all 3 immunophenotypic groups showed excellent 5-year EFS and OS that were not statistically different: ETP (87.0%; 93.0%), Near-ETP (84.4%; 91.6%), and Not-ETP (86.9%; 92.0%). In all 3 groups, most events occurred within 12 months from diagnosis and plateaued after 2 years, although events generally occurred earlier for ETP and Near-ETP than Not-ETP. There were no relapses in ETP patients later than 12 months post diagnosis. Initial white blood cell count (WBC) greater than 200,000/microliter was seen in 9.6% of ETP and 30% of Not-ETP/Near-ETP (P 0.01% was associated with inferior EFS (76.3% vs. 89.0%; p=0.0001) and OS (86.6% vs. 93.8%; p=0.0008) for the total cohort and was detected in 81.4%, 64.8%, and 30.5% of ETP, Near-ETP and Not-ETP patients, respectively. Interestingly, there was no difference in EFS or OS for Day 29 MRD 1.0%. Day 29 MRD >0.01% was also associated with inferior EFS (76.6% vs. 90.8%; p=0.0001) and OS (84.3% vs. 94.0%; p=0.0064) in Not-ETP and inferior EFS (80.2% vs. 94.0%; p=0.0073) in Near-ETP, but no difference was seen for EFS or OS in ETP. Day 8 PB MRD > 0.01% was associated with inferior EFS (80.3% vs. 92.0%; p=0.017) but not OS and lost significance in the subset having Day 29 MRD < 0.01%, suggesting Day 8 does not add prognostic information to Day 29 MRD.

Conclusions: AALL0434 is the largest study of T-ALL ever conducted and shows excellent outcomes for T-ALL. In particular, ETP is found to have an outcome identical to non-ETP patients. WBC count > 200,000/microliter is associated with inferior outcome in non-ETP T-ALL. BM MRD > 1% at Day 29 is able to identify a subset of non-ETP T-ALL patients having inferior outcomes. PB Day 8 MRD does not provide unique prognostic information.

Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.

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OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the effectiveness of dog-appeasing pheromone (DAP) in reducing fear and anxiety in puppies and its effects on training and socialization.

DESIGN
Randomized, controlled clinical trial. ANIMALS-45 puppies between 12 to 15 weeks of age at the time of inclusion.

PROCEDURES
Puppies enrolled in puppy classes were randomly allocated to 1 of 4 groups: 2 large-breed groups (1 DAP and 1 placebo group) and 2 small-breed groups (1 DAP and 1 placebo group). The investigator, trainers, and owners were unaware of treatment allocation throughout the study. Classes lasted 8 weeks, and owners were asked to complete a questionnaire before the first lesson and at the end of each lesson thereafter. Data collected included amount of learning and degrees of fear and anxiety for each puppy. Follow-up telephone surveys of owners to obtain information on subsequent socialization of puppies were performed at 1, 3, 6, and 12 months after the classes ended.

RESULTS
Dogs in DAP and placebo groups were significantly different with respect to degrees of fear and anxiety; longer and more positive interactions between puppies, including play, were evident in dogs in the DAP groups. Data from follow-up telephone surveys indicated that puppies in the DAP groups were better socialized and adapted faster in new situations and environments, compared with puppies in the placebo groups.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
When compared with a placebo treatment, DAP was useful in reducing anxiety and fear in puppies during puppy classes and resulted in improved socialization.


With the wide deployment of public cloud computing infrastructures, using clouds to host data query services has become an appealing solution for the advantages on scalability and cost-saving. However, some data might be sensitive that the data owner does not want to move to the cloud unless the data confidentiality and query privacy are guaranteed. On the other hand, a secured query service should still provide efficient query processing and significantly reduce the in-house workload to fully realize the benefits of cloud computing. We propose the random space perturbation (RASP) data perturbation method to provide secure and efficient range query and kNN query services for protected data in the cloud. The RASP data perturbation method combines order preserving encryption, dimensionality expansion, random noise injection, and random projection, to provide strong resilience to attacks on the perturbed data and queries. It also preserves multidimensional ranges, which allows existing indexing techniques to be applied to speedup range query processing. The kNN-R algorithm is designed to work with the RASP range query algorithm to process the kNN queries. We have carefully analyzed the attacks on data and queries under a precisely defined threat model and realistic security assumptions. Extensive experiments have been conducted to show the advantages of this approach on efficiency and security.


Next Generation Science Standards identifies the science all K-12 students should know. These new standards are based on the National Research Council's A Framework for K-12 Science Education. The National Research Council, the National Science Teachers Association, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Achieve have partnered to create standards through a collaborative state-led process. The standards are rich in content and practice and arranged in a coherent manner across disciplines and grades to provide all students an internationally benchmarked science education. The print version of Next Generation Science Standards complements the nextgenscience.org website and: * Provides an authoritative offline reference to the standards when creating lesson plans * Arranged by grade level and by core discipline, making information quick and easy to find * Printed in full color with a lay-flat spiral binding * Allows for bookmarking, highlighting, and annotating


This article focuses on the number of support points in the optimal design class for multi-exponential regression models. A special design setup is proposed which allows different starting points for each subject. It serves as a useful tool when subjects have different timelines and offers more flexibilities compared to the usual clinical designs. Autocorrelated covariance structure is accommodated to address the correlations among different observations for a single subject. The upper bounds of the cardinality of design support have been determined for one-compartment PK model and bi-exponential model.


Objective To estimate the effect of adding exercise classes, spinal manipulation delivered in NHS or private premises, or manipulation followed by exercise to "best care" in general practice for patients consulting with back pain. Design Pragmatic randomised trial with factorial design. Setting 181 general practices in Medical Research Council General Practice Research Framework; 63 community settings around 14 centres across the United Kingdom. Participants 1334 patients consulting their general practices about low back pain. Main outcome measures Scores on the Roland Morris disability questionnaire at three and 12 months, adjusted for centre and baseline scores. Results All groups improved over time. Exercise improved mean disability questionnaire scores at three months by 1.4 (95% confidence interval 0.6 to 2.1) more than "best care." For manipulation the additional improvement was 1.6 (0.8 to 2.3) at three months and 1.0 (0.2 to 1.8) at 12 months. For manipulation followed by exercise the additional improvement was 1.9 (1.2 to 2.6) at three months and 1.3 (0.5 to 2.1) at 12 months. No significant differences in outcome occurred between manipulation in NHS premises and in private premises. No serious adverse events occurred. Conclusions Relative to "best care" in general practice, manipulation followed by exercise achieved a moderate benefit at three months and a small benefit at 12 months; spinal manipulation achieved a small to moderate benefit at three months and a small benefit at 12 months; and exercise achieved a small benefit at three months but not 12 months.


This thesis considers the phenomenological experience of e-reading (reading on an electronic screen) as a way-in to discussing wider issues of technology and our encounter with objects in our environments. By considering the resistance shown toward reading on iPads and Kindles in popular and academic discourse as a source of valuable "folk phenomenological" report, this thesis hopes to shed light on both the particular engagement of portable e-reading and the general experience of embodied encounters with artefacts. The first chapter will consider the shortcomings of contemporary definitions of technology and aims to provide its own definition commensurate to the task of describing the intimate and very human encounter with equipment, an encounter which will be described as "technological." In the second chapter an ontology (begun in the background of the first) will be developed which primarily considers our encounter with things that are as embodied as ourselves. This ontology sees evolution as an epistemological concern, with every evolutionary act occurring as a response to environmental pressures and producing a knowledge of that environment. This knowledge, it will be argued, in light of conclusions drawn from an engagement with Object Oriented Ontology, can be tested only via repeatable successful action with that which might be known. Such evolutionary concerns, it will be further argued, are equally applicable to our artefacts. The third chapter will focus on metaphor and critical theory to consider how ereading in particular might function as a material metaphor, enabling productive thought. It will conclude with readings of three texts which put the language of all three chapters to work. This thesis draws on several fields, including Critical Theory, Cognitive Neuroscience, Evolutionary Epistemology, and Philosophy, the bringing together of which is intended to be of use to the still emerging Digital Humanities and the work's home discipline of English Studies as it gets used to the substantial alterations in the substrate of its object of study.


Mobile devices are becoming essential for today life. In developed countries, about half of the people have a smartphone, resulting in millions of these electronic devices. Android is the most popular operating system for smartphones and other electronic devices such as tablets. Hence, for network administrators, it is essential to start managing all the Android based devices. SNMP is the de facto standard for network administration, where agents that are running in managed devices are polled by management stations. Some primitive tools have already been developed to transform an Android device as a basic management station. However, so far, there is no SNMP agent for this operating system. In this paper, we develop the first SNMP agent for Android. We also propose an SNMP benchmark to study the SNMP traffic that can be supported by our SNMP agent over some real and actual Android devices. The results obtained show that it is realistic to integrate mobile Android devices in network management systems since they can handle a high number of SNMP requests in a reasonable period of time.


How to Build a Digital Library is the only book that offers all the knowledge and tools needed to construct and maintain a digital library, regardless of the size or purpose. It is the perfectly self-contained resource for individuals, agencies, and institutions wishing to put this powerful tool to work in their burgeoning information treasuries. The Second Edition reflects new developments in the field as well as in the Greenstone Digital Library open source software. In Part I, the authors have added an entire new chapter on user groups, user support, collaborative browsing, user contributions, and so on. There is also new material on content-based queries, map-based queries, cross-media queries. There is an increased emphasis placed on multimedia by adding a "digitizing" section to each major media type. A new chapter has also been added on "internationalization," which will address Unicode standards, multi-language interfaces and collections, and issues with non-European languages (Chinese, Hindi, etc.). Part II, the software tools section, has been completely rewritten to reflect the new developments in Greenstone Digital Library Software, an internationally popular open source software tool with a comprehensive graphical facility for creating and maintaining digital libraries. As with the First Edition, a web site, implemented as a digital library, will accompany the book and provide access to color versions of all figures, two online appendices, a full-text sentence-level index, and an automatically generated glossary of acronyms and their definitions. In addition, demonstration digital library collections will be included to demonstrate particular points in the book. to access the online content please visit, http://www.greenstone.org/howto *Outlines the history of libraries-- both traditional and digital-- and their impact on present practices and future directions.*Written for both technical and non-technical audiences and covers the entire spectrum of media, including text, images, audio, video, and related XML standards.*Web-enhanced with software documentation, color illustrations, full-text index, source code, and more.


Flavonoids are physiologically active substances that regulate many functions in plants and animals. Despite many years of research, interest in these substances continues unabated, and the market for flavonoids in the health industry keeps growing. In South Trans-Urals, the research team behind this paper discovered a significant fluctuation in the accumulation of flavonoids in many local plants. Significant differences were later discovered in the accumulation of physically and chemically similar flavonoids and organic substances; differences were observed between specific compounds within local coenopopulations as well as between spatially isolated populations. This research applied high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) to identify the significant differences between single chromatograms in terms of the following features: (1) the number of identifiable substances (chromatographic peaks); (2) peak elution times; (3) peak areas indicative of the substance-specific concentrations in the extract. The diversity of specimens and groups was described in terms of the fingerprint concept to underline the strong "specificity" of chromatograms. However, the accumulation of flavonoids and the concentration of copper, zinc, and other metal salts in the soil were in an unstable correlation. In other words, descriptive statistics failed to identify any environmental factors that clearly regulated the accumulation of flavonoids in the field.


The dynamic properties of the capsid of the human papillomavirus (HPV) type 16 were examined using classical molecular dynamics simulations. By systematically comparing the structural fluctuations of the capsid protein, a strong dynamic allosteric connection between the epitope containing loops and the h4 helix located more than 50 Å away is identified, which was not recognized thus far. Computer simulations show that restricting the structural fluctuations of the h4 helix is key to rigidifying the epitopes, which is thought to be required for eliciting a proper immune response. The allostery identified in the components of the HPV is nonclassical because the mean structure of the epitope carrying loops remains unchanged, but as a result of allosteric effect the structural fluctuations are altered significantly, which in turn changes the biochemical reactivity profile of the epitopes. Exploiting this novel insight, a new vaccine design strategy is proposed wherein a relatively small virus capsid fragment is deposited on a silica nanoparticle in such a way that the fluctuations of the h4 helix are suppressed. The structural and dynamic properties of the epitope carrying loops on this hybrid nanoparticle match the characteristics of epitopes found on the full virus-like particle precisely, suggesting that these nanoparticles may serve as potent, cost-effective, and safe alternatives to traditionally developed vaccines. The structural and dynamic properties of the hybrid nanoparticle are examined in detail to establish the general concepts of the proposed new design.


Volitional exploration and learning are key to adaptive behavior, yet their characterization remains a complex problem for cognitive science. Exploration has been posited as a mechanism by which motivation promotes memory, but this relationship is not well-understood, in part because novel stimuli that motivate exploration also reliably elicit changes in neuromodulatory brain systems that directly alter memory formation, via effects on neural plasticity. To deconfound interrelationships between motivation, exploration, and memory formation we manipulated motivational state prior to entering a spatial context, measured exploratory responses to the context and novel stimuli within it, and then examined motivation and exploration as predictors of memory outcomes. To elicit spontaneous exploration, we used the physical space of an art exhibit with affectively rich content; we expected motivated exploration and memory to reflect multiple factors, including not only motivational valence, but also individual differences. Motivation was manipulated via an introductory statement framing exhibit themes in terms of Promotion- or Prevention-oriented goals. Participants explored the exhibit while being tracked by video. They returned 24 hours later for recall and spatial memory tests, followed by measures of motivation, personality, and relevant attitude variables. Promotion and Prevention condition participants did not differ in terms of group-level exploration time or memory metrics, suggesting similar motivation to explore under both framing contexts. However, exploratory behavior and memory outcomes were significantly more closely related under Promotion than Prevention, indicating that Prevention framing disrupted expected depth-of-encoding effects. Additionally, while trait measures predicted exploration similarly across framing conditions, traits interacted with motivational framing context and facial affect to predict memory outcomes. This novel characterization of motivated learning implies that dissociable behavioral and biological mechanisms, here varying as a function of valence, contribute to memory outcomes in complex, real-life environments.


Of the 108,580 persons released from prisons in 11 States in 1983, representing more than half of all released State prisoners that year, an estimated 62.5% were rearrested for a felony or serious misdemeanor within 3 years, 46.8% were reconvicted, and 41.4% returned to prison or jail. Before their release from prison, the prisoners had been arrested and charged with an average of more than 12 offenses each; nearly two-thirds had been arrested at least once in the past for a violent offense; and two-thirds had previously been in jail or prison. By yearend 1986 those prisoners who were rearrested averaged an additional 4.8 new charges. An estimated 22.7% of all prisoners were rearrested for a violent offense within 3 years of their release.


Background: Activities of daily living (ADLs) refer to the ongoing behaviors that occur on a daily basis. Such behaviors include eating, cooking, bathing, social interactions (such as leisure activities, attending school or work, or assisting with chores), and other activities that one might routinely expect an individual to perform or participate in. Some of the major ADL tasks include personal hygiene, toileting, dressing, and eating. Researchers have documented delayed self-care performance in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parents report their child to have difficulties with feeding and toileting in particular. Objective: This qualitative pilot study endeavored to understand the difficulties faced by the parents of children with ASD in conducting their children's ADL. Study Design: Qualitative descriptive study was chosen for the research. Methods: The qualitative descriptive study included participants (n = 20) whose children were primarily diagnosed as ASD. Convenient sampling method was used for study sample calculation. The study included parents of children of age group between 5 and 9 years (mean ± standard deviation [SD]: 6.9 ± 1.57 months) with intelligence quotient of ≥80%. The study was conducted in a tertiary care hospital. The parents (fathers = 9 and mothers = 11) were given a semistructured questionnaire to understand difficulties faced by the parents of children with ASD (mean ± SD: 5.56 ± 33.6 months). Results: According to the study, it was observed that most of the parents have reported that their child had maximum difficulties in eating, followed by brushing and grooming and least for toileting. This study also found the priority list of difficulties in ADL. It was noted that early and proper training of the child gives good results in managing a child with ASD. Many parents reported that early training is beneficial. Conclusion: The outcome of this study shows the hierarchy of difficulties in ADL reported by the parents of children with ASD. This study also found that early ADL training gives good results in managing child with ASD.


Bafra, Arda Karnil. M.S.E.E., Purdue University, December 1994. Image Processing and Computer Graphics Algorithms for Surface Rendering from MRI Data. Major Professor: Okan K. Ersoy. The reconstruction of objects in three dimensions, from two-dimensional MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) slices is a powerful tool for better understanding of anatomical structures. In this work, a combination of image processing and computer graphics techniques has been used to develop the required algorithms for surface rendering of anatomical structures from MRI data. Surface rendering is performed in two stages. In the first stage, image processing techniques have been used to develop the required algorithms for the extraction of the data, which is then transferred to a computer graphics environment. The proposed algorithms are for successive automatic segmentation using Markov Random Fields or simple amplitude thresholding where possible, automatic starting point finding and boundary extraction, B-spline interpolation, matching and aligning the data. The last three steps, which are interpolation, matching and aligning the extracted data serves as a preparation stage for the computer graphics environment and have been developed considering this second stage. Then, the data is converted to a computer graphics data transfer format and transferred to a graphics hardwardsoftware environment. In this stage, where the success depends very much on the success of the first stage, the required computer graphics techniques such as B-spline surface/curve fitting, skinning, texture mapping, rendering, and animation are investigated for a more realistic and accurate surface rendering of anatomical structures.


The interaction of ultrashort laser pulses with krypton clusters at intensity up to 1.3×1018 Wcm−2 has been investigated. Intense Kα and Kβ emission from krypton at 12.66 and 14.1 keV, respectively, has been observed using conventional solid state x-ray detectors. The measured x-ray spectra have broad bremsstrahlung continuum reaching to photon energies up to 45 keV, with evidence that approximately 10% of electrons that are heated to very high electron temperatures, which is consistent with a two-temperature electron distribution. This is ascribed to the presence of a hot electron population, similar to that found in laser–solid interactions. The highest laser energy to x-ray conversion efficiency observed is 9.2×10−7, which is equivalent to 45 nJ x-ray pulse energy from the 12.66 keV krypton Kα transition.


According to Robinson's Cognition Hypothesis of task-based L2 development,cognitively more demanding tasks will lead to the use of lexically and syntactically morecomplex language (Robinson 2001a, 2001b, in press). A different viewpoint is held bySkehan (1998) and Skehan & Foster (1999, 2001), who hypothesize that the moreattention is required for a task because of its cognitive complexity, the less complex willbe the linguistic output. The present research focuses on the relationship between taskcomplexity and linguistic performance in L1 and L2 writing. We report on an experiment carried out among 51 Dutch university students of Italian as a second language. The test included two writing tasks, in which cognitive task complexity was manipulated by varying the number of elements to be described and the required reasoning demands. Pre-existing knowledge of Italian was established by means of a pre-test. In the article, the results and theoretical and pedagogical implications of the study are discussed.


The erbB-2 receptor plays an important role in the prognosis of breast cancer. Amplification or overexpression of the erbB-2 proto-oncogene has been detected in 30% of breast cancers and is associated with poor patient prognosis. The significance of erbB-3 and erbB-4 in breast cancer is not yet known. The discovery of the growth factor heregulin (HRG) has allowed us to investigate a number of biological events that are regulated by erbB-2, -3, and -4 signal transduction. To determine the role of HRG in breast cancer tumor progression, we have developed an in vitro/in vivo model. We transfected HRG cDNA into the estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer cell line, MCF-7, and studied these cells as they progressed from a hormone-dependent to -independent phenotype. The biochemical and biological characteristics presented here demonstrate that overexpression of HRG induces morphological changes in MCF-7 cells as well as erbB-2, erbB-3, and erbB-4 autophosphorylation. MCF-7/ heregulin-transfected cells, which express relatively high levels of HRG, developed estrogen independence and resistance to antiestrogens in vitro and in vivo. This is consistent with a more aggressive hormone-independent phenotype. In contrast with control parental/wild-type cells, estradiol-mediated down-regulation of erbB-2 expression is blocked completely in this particular model system. These results indicate that HRG plays a role in the disruption of ER function. When a transient transfection with an ERE-CAT construct was introduced into these HRG-transfected MCF-7 cells, we observed that the ER was transcriptionally inactive. This suggests that ER signaling is altered in HRG-transfected cells. We observed that overexpression of HRG induces a more aggressive, hormone-independent phenotype that is most likely directly related to the constitutive activation of the erbB-2, erbB-3, and erbB-4 receptor signaling cascade. The data presented here suggest a close cross-regulation between the erbB-2/4 receptors and ER and provide new insights into the mechanism by which breast cancer cells acquire a hormone-independent phenotype.


Amphibian populations occurring at the margin of the species range exhibit lower genetic variation due to strong genetic drift and long-term isolation. Limited mobility and site fidelity together with habitat changes may accelerate genetic processes leading to local extinction. Here, we analyze genetic variation of the fire salamander subspecies Salamandra s. salamandrainhabiting the Outer Carpathian region in Poland, at the northern border of its distribution. Nuclear DNA polymorphism based on 10 microsatellite loci of 380 individuals sampled in 11 populations were analysed to measure gene flow between subpopulations and possible long-term isolation. Mitochondrial DNA control region analysis among 17 individuals representing 13 localities was used to detect the origin of populations which colonized Northern Europe after the last glaciation. Overall, pairwise F ST's and AMOVA test of 'among group' variation showed little differences in the allele frequencies and relatively high local gene flow. However, Bayesian clustering results revealed subtle structuring between eastern and western part of the studied region. Two extreme marginal populations from the Carpathian Piedmont revealed reduced genetic variation which may be attributed to strong influence of genetic drift. Only one mitochondrial DNA haplotype (type IIb) was found in all individuals and suggest that after the Last Glacial Maximum Salamandra salamandramigrated to the North-Western Europe from the single glacial refugium placed in the Balkan Peninsula.


The aim of this study is to describe the experience of time as it presents itself at the place being situated when living with severe incurable disease and receiving palliative care. The empirical data consist of 26 open-ended interviews with 23 patients receiving palliative care at home, at a palliative day care, in a palliative bed unit in hospital or in a nursing home in Norway. A common meaning of a shifting space for living emerged from the analysis and was revealed through three different aspects: (i) Transition from a predictable to an unpredictable time: To live with severe incurable disease marks a transition to a changed life involving an ongoing weakened and altered body with bothersome symptoms making experience of time different and unpredictable. (ii) Transition between a safe and unsafe time: When time is unpredictable, feeling safe is revealed as essential to how time is experienced at the place being situated. (iii) To be in transition from a homely to a homeless existence: In a time of increased bodily weakness, unpredictable ailments and displacements, the sense of belonging to the place is revealed as significant to the experience of time. Not knowing where to be in a time of change is like an existential cry of distress where the foothold in existence is lost. The findings are discussed and interpreted as an embodied experience originating from the passage of time continually affecting life sometimes so fundamentally that it marks a transition to a changed space of life that is reflected in the experience of time.


Land Surface Temperature (LST) is an important parameter in the land surface processes on regional and global scale. The Land Surface Temperature Diurnal (LSTD) cycle of different land cover is an excellent indicator of the surface processes and their interaction with planetary boundary layer. The Kalpana-1 very high resolution radiometer (VHRR) LST product is available with 30 minute spatial resolution and 0.1 degree temporal resolution. A study was carried out with an objective to determine the LSTD parameters directly from K1-VHRR monthly averaged LST observations over Indian landmass. In this analysis, a harmonic function is fitted to LSTD from the K1-VHRR observations, where cosine term describing the effect of sun and exponential term represents decay of LST during nighttime. Using LSTD parameters, one can directly know the temperature amplitude, residual temperature and time of maximum temperature for each pixel. The LSTD parameters fitting accuracy in root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R 2 ) ranges between 0.5–2.5 K and 0.90–0.99 respectively for most of the pixels over Indian landmass. These LSTD parameters may bring new insight for estimation of thermal inertia and also useful in cloud screening algorithms.


National identity is constructed through successive identifications with significant Others. This article discusses the phenomenon of change and continuity in Czech identity. It is focused here on the identification towards the EU, which has become the most significant Other of today in two ways: (a) (change) contributing to overcoming the identity crisis provoked by the drastic changes that occurred between 1989 and 1993 (change of regime, disappearance of the USSR and the break-up of Czechoslovakia), and therefore the subsequent drastic changes in relations with past significant Others: communism, the USSR, and the Slovaks; and (b) (continuity) reaffirming one of the fundamental elements during the national revival in the nineteenth century, democracy, upon which the various identifications towards the EU have been aligned. According to the differing interpretations of what democracy means, and three other criteria of the "levels of Othering," the EU has been "imagined," on the one hand, as an entity where Czechs can flourish in their identity and ensure their freedom and democratic values (positive Other), and, on the other, as an "oppressor" entity which portrays democratic deficit, restricts freedom, and threatens Czech national identity (negative Other).


Abstract Paleosols at Polecat Bench, northern Bighorn Basin, Wyoming, show prismatic structures not previously described in the Paleogene Willwood Formation. Prisms are densely spaced 15–50 mm diameter cylinders with vertical to slightly sinuous paths up to 400 mm long, subangular to rounded vertical faces, and slightly concave to convex tops. Prism exteriors are coated commonly by < 1-mm-thick clay films; exteriors also commonly show knobby and striated surficial morphologies. Prismatic structures are nearly exclusive to thin-bedded (< 1 m thick) compound paleosols composed of red to red-purple sandy mudrock overlying gray to green-gray heterolithic units composed chiefly of fine-grained sandstone. In addition to prismatic structures, these paleosols are characterized by large gray mottles, slickensides, and calcareous rhizocretions which crosscut or more typically follow prism exteriors. The architectural and surficial morphology of the soil prisms suggest strongly that these are pedogenically modified freshwater crayfish burrows of the ichnospecies Camborygma litonomos. At Polecat Bench, an ~ 40 m interval of the Willwood Formation records a transient episode of global warming known as the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). The PETM interval is characterized by a series of predominantly red, cumulative paleosol profiles and increased soil carbonates. Prismatic soil structures and crayfish burrows are rare or absent in cumulic paleosols typical of the PETM, whereas they are locally abundant in red compound paleosols outside the PETM interval. The changes in paleosol morphology and a sharp decrease in crayfish burrows within the PETM interval suggest significantly improved soil-drainage conditions and lower water tables on the Willwood floodplain during the global warming event.


Aspergillus niger is widely used for industrial enzyme production. Knowledge on high-level protein secretion could be useful to improve production rates. We used sequencebased classification methods to identify important properties for successful high-level secretion, which will be used to redesign proteins for improved secretion.


The paper focuses on the role of the National Council of Provinces (NCOP) in the national legislative process. An enquiry into the relevance of the NCOP when processing bills during the Third Parliament has been critical when reviewing this role. The paper studied all the bills processed by Parliament with particular interest in the amendments proposed by the NCOP. The legislative framework in which the NCOP functions was critical to determine whether it enables this institution to adequately fulfill this role. The objective of this paper was to assess whether or not the NCOP fulfills its constitutional role of representing provincial interests in the national legislative process. The paper has uncovered the following regarding the NCOP's role in the national legislative process. • The NCOP role varies according to the different pieces of legislation it is considering. This means that the manner in which it processes and passes ordinary bills affecting provinces will be different from the way it considers those bills not affecting provinces. • The NCOP has thorough consultative process on bills affecting provinces, compared to the superficial role it plays on bills not affecting provinces. More ordinary bills not
affecting provinces have been processed by Parliament; however, the NCOP has
proposed more amendments to the minority of bills affecting provinces. • The electoral system of South Africa has weakened the caliber of delegates in the
NCOP. This has unintended consequences on the strength of the NCOP as an
institution to abide by its decisions or to challenge the National Assembly when there are disagreements. • The NCOP may be misguided about its role at times and not strategically situated to focus on matters of provincial competence. x The paper argues that the NCOP remains relevant and has achieved its constitutional
mandate of representing the interests of provinces. However, more work needs to be done to ascertain a common view of what constitutes provincial interests. Furthermore, the NCOP should confine its scope to matters of provincial competence. Thus the small number of delegates will be focused on the issues that reflect the core mandate of this institution.


Certification of good forest management represents a new approach in the global effort to sustain our diverse forest ecosystems. Sustainability, a central tenet of certification, is a complex concept, best thought of as a goal to be strived for and redefined in the process. Elements of sustainability with which most would agree include: maintenance of ecological functions and biological diversity of the forest ecosystem; assurance that people who inhabit or work in the forest receive a fair share of the income from forest management; and financial returns from forest management and value-added activities that are profitable and competitive with conversion of forestland to alternative uses. Any new idea is likely to be controversial and generate a measure of public uncertainty. This is particularly the case when the idea has major financial implications, advocates a new balance by featuring conservation instead of protection, and signals a shift in emphasis from "command-and-control" regulation of forest use to market-based incentives (Kiker and Putz 1997). The market for certified products is relatively new and small compared with the overall wood trade, there are few brokers, and as yet there are no trade magazines and few product shows. As a result, signals between consumers and producers were at first weak and mixed -- evidence of a truly emerging market. Conscientious consumers are understandably confused. Not many years ago environmental organizations were advocating boycotts on the purchase of tropical woods as a "save-the-rain-forest" measure. In response to pressure, some 200 municipalities in the United States banned the use of tropical woods in public construction. The movement has been even stronger in Europe. Recently, major environmental organizations have reassessed the effect of timber boycotts. Factors considered have included fairness to developing countries and the probability that bans would devalue tropical timber and thus provide additional pressure for conversion of forestland to crops and pasture. The resultant shift to the new, marketbased approach has moved quickly. In 1990 the first forest certification took place, with a teak plantation in Indonesia certified as well managed by SmartWood, a program of the New York-based Rainforest Alliance. The Woodworkers' Alliance for Rainforest Protection in the United States proposed the creation of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) in 1992; the FSC founding assembly was held in late 1993; and the council began to accredit certifiers in 1995 (Viana and others 1996). Although certification was first conceived as a tool for saving tropical forests, representatives from the tropics were quick to point out that logging practices in temperate and boreal forests are, if anything, more destructive than is logging in tropical forests. THE FOREST STEWARDSHIP COUNCIL On a global scale the FSC, which is based in Oaxaca, Mexico, continues to be the leading certification organization. Its goals are to promote environmentally responsible, socially beneficial, and economically viable management of forests through the establishment of worldwide standards for good forest management. The FSC accredits organizations that in turn offer independent, third-party certification of forest operations. There are now six accredited certifiers, and at least five more are under review. More than 16 million hectares have been certified in thirty countries (Table I; Figure 1) (FSC 1999). Certifiers also audit and issue chain-of-custody certificates to added-value processors and retailers to assure that any product sold with an FSC label can be traced back to a well-managed forest. The FSC seeks to have its logo inspire as much confidence among environmentally conscientious consumers as "[U.sub.L] Listed" does among safety-conscious buyers of electrical equipment (Figure 2). FSC certification of good forest management has four distinguishing characteristics. …


We consider random access and coding schemes for sensor networks with mobile access (SENMA). Using an orthogonal code-division multiple access (CDMA) as the physical layer, an opportunistic ALOHA (O-ALOHA) protocol that utilizes channel state information is proposed. Under the packet capture model and using the asymptotic throughput as the performance metric, we show that O-ALOHA approaches the throughput equal to the spreading gain with an arbitrarily small power at each sensor. This result implies that O-ALOHA is close to the optimal centralized scheduling scheme for the orthogonal CDMA networks. When side information such as location is available, the transmission control is modified to incorporate either the distribution or the actual realization of the side information. Convergence of the throughput with respect to the size of the network is analyzed. For networks allowing sensor collaborations, we combine coding with random access by proposing two coded random access schemes: spreading code dependent and independent transmissions. In the low rate regime, the spreading code independent transmission has a larger random coding exponent (therefore, faster decay of error probability) than that of the spreading code dependent transmission. On the other hand, the spreading code dependent transmission gives higher achievable rate.


ST. BERNARD'S was a small parish that evolved into the congregation that built ST. JOSEPH'S CHURCH on Woodland Ave. near East 23rd St. St. Bernard's began in 1855 as an outreach of St. Peter's Church, as a school in rented quarters on Irving (E. 25th) St. Two years later this was replaced by a newly built school at Irving and Orange streets, where masses were said by priests from St. Peter's from May to November. In 1858 a chapel, dedicated to St. Bernard, was added to the school, and Rev. Anthony Krasny, who resided at St. Peter's, was placed in charge. In 1862 Krasny became resident pastor of this parish. That same year a frame church for the St. Bernard's parish was begun at Woodland and E. 23rd which was designated St. Joseph's. This church was completed in 1863. When the adjacent new school was completed in 1864, the old school and chapel were sold to a private individual, John Raspord, who maintained them as a residence for many years.


Comparative Case Analysis (CCA) is an important tool for criminal investigation and crime theory extraction. It analyzes the commonalities and differences between a collection of crime reports in order to understand crime patterns and identify abnormal cases. A big challenge of CCA is the data processing and exploration. Traditional manual approach can no longer cope with the increasing volume and complexity of the data. In this paper we introduce a novel visual analytics system, Spherical Similarity Explorer (SSE) that automates the data processing process and provides interactive visualizations to support the data exploration. We illustrate the use of the system with uses cases that involve real world application data and evaluate the system with criminal intelligence analysts.


In his description of the boat race in the fifth book of the "Aeneid", Vergil9s comparison of the ships to chariots can be read not only as an allusion to the Homeric model on which the scene is based but also as part of a larger attempt to recast the episode as a contemporary circus spectacle. Like the Augustan circus, Vergil9s boat race offers an image of cosmic and political order. However, beyond its symbolic function the Roman circus also played an active role in realizing the hierarchies it depicted by incorporating its spectators into a unified vision of state and universe. So the boat race too, far from constituting a hiatus in the action of the poem, becomes an instrument for the socialization of those who watch it. The spectacle gives its audience a glimpse of the gods in action and of the leadership of Aeneas himself, whose past accomplishments are reflected in the conduct of the captains. Moreover, the careful organization of internal audiences within the narrative allows every spectator to identify with another figure closer to the center of events and, by extension, invites Vergil9s own readers to see themselves as participants in the scene. Thus Vergil uses the model of circus spectacle to bridge the gap separating his audience from the epic past by restaging that past in a form that both was a part of the immediate experience of the contemporary Roman and also provided a crucial context for the constitution of Roman civic life.


Individuals with higher levels of compulsivity exhibit poorer performance on tasks that require model-based planning but the underlying causes have yet to be established. Here, we sought to determine whether these deficits stem from impoverished action-outcome relational knowledge (i.e. issues building an accurate model of the world) and/or an inability to translate models into action. 192 participants performed a two-step reinforcement learning task with concurrent EEG recordings. We found that representations of task-relevant action-outcome associations reflected in reaction time and parietal-occipital alpha-band power were stronger in individuals whose decisions were more model-based, and critically, were weaker in those high in compulsivity. At the time of choice, mid-frontal theta power, a general marker of cognitive control, was also negatively associated with compulsivity, but not model-based planning. These data suggest that model-based planning deficits in compulsive individuals may arise from failures in building an accurate model of the world.


Motivated by cognitive radio networks, we consider the stochastic multiplayer multi-armed bandit problem, where several players pull arms simultaneously and collisions occur if one of them is pulled by several players at the same stage. We present a decentralized algorithm that achieves the same performance as a centralized one, contradicting the existing lower bounds for that problem. This is possible by "hacking" the standard model by constructing a communication protocol between players that deliberately enforces collisions, allowing them to share their information at a negligible cost. This motivates the introduction of a more appropriate dynamic setting without sensing, where similar communication protocols are no longer possible. However, we show that the logarithmic growth of the regret is still achievable for this model with a new algorithm.


Two soils at the University of Ife (Nigeria) research farm were evaluated for their physical and chemical properties under long-term pasture, bush fallow, and arable cultivation that involved three tillage techniques and two fertility levels. The cultivated plots were adjacent to the fallow plots, which were at least 1/2 ha in size. Differences in soil properties between fallow and cultivated soils were considered to be due to soil changes resulting from continuous cropping. The percentage of water stable aggregates (> 2.36 mm) in the 0- to 15-cm soil depth was highest and more stable under fallow than under bush. Stability values were 95 and 80%, respectively, under grass and bush. About 76% and 80% of these aggregates were destroyed after 5 years of continuous cropping, and 88% after 10 years. Aggregate stability of the cultivated soils ranged from one-fifth to one-third those of fallow soils. The average bulk densities were 1.24 and 1.52 g/cm³ for fallow and cultivated soils, respectively, while the reductions in porosity and saturated hydraulic conductivity were more than proportionate to the increases in bulk density of the cultivated soils. The fallow soils were about four-times higher in organic matter than the cultivated soils, which had an average organic matter content of 0.8%. The fallow soils were also higher in nitrate-nitrogen, exchangeable bases, and CEC than the cultivated soils. Soil deterioration in decreasing order was: Plow-disk-harrow > plow > no-tilage. Fertilizer treatments had no efect on soil deterioration after 10 years of continuous cropping.


Obesity has become a major health problem in humans and companion animals. Although obesity is not common in farm animals, food restriction is often used to maintain low feeding costs and performance of, for instance, pregnant sows and fattening pigs. Food restriction may result in hunger and increased feeding motivation, which are associated with behavioural problems. Knowledge on the regulation of satiety is thus crucial to aid in the control of food intake in humans, and to improve welfare in food-restricted farm animals. Dietary fibres are believed to enhance satiety, but the effectiveness varies with the physicochemical properties of the fibre sources concerned. Therefore, the objective of this thesis was to identify whether and how dietary fibres with different physicochemical properties, such as bulkiness, viscosity, gelling and fermentability, affect satiety in the domestic pig, which was used both as a model for humans and as a target animal. In a study focusing on behavioural measures of satiety, pectin (viscous fibre) was the least satiating, whereas lignocellulose (bulking fibre) and resistant starch (fermentable fibre) were the most satiating fibres tested. In a subsequent study, increasing levels of guar gum, inulin, and resistant starch (all fermentable fibres), when replacing digestible starch, enhanced satiety throughout the day. Resistant starch was the most satiating fibre among all fibres tested, and used, in a subsequent study, to assess possible physiological and molecular mechanisms by which fermentation may affect satiety. Also in this study, resistant starch appeared to enhance satiety based on behavioural observations, i.e. reduced feeder-directed and drinking behaviours during 24 h. As expected, the satiating effects of resistant starch coincided with increased 24 h plasma short-chain fatty acids (SCFA) levels and decreased postprandial glucose and insulin plasma levels. Glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) plasma levels were lower in pigs fed resistant starch, whereas peptide tyrosine tyrosine (PYY) plasma levels were not affected by resistant starch, suggesting that these hormones do not play a role in the increased satiety induced by fermentation. Resistant starch consumption led to downregulation of genes involved in immune responses, and upregulation of genes involved in metabolic processes such as fatty acid and energy metabolism in the proximal colon. Moreover, correlation analysis inversely linked potential pathogenic microbial groups with plasma SCFA concentrations and with genes involved in fatty acid metabolism. These findings suggest that besides satiating effects, resistant starch has a beneficial effect on colonic health. In the last study, the long-term effects of a gelling fibre promoting satiation (alginate) and a fermentable fibre promoting satiety (resistant starch) on feeding patterns and growth performance were assessed. In the long-term, growing-finishing pigs compensated for a reduced dietary energy content by increasing voluntary food intake (alginate), or they became more efficient in the use of digestible energy (resistant starch). Moreover, dietary fibres increased the relative weight of the gastrointestinal tract and led to changes in body composition (less fat more muscle), which may be relevant for the maintenance of lean weight in humans. In conclusion, fermentable fibres are more satiating than viscous and bulking fibres. The satiating effects of fermentable fibres are likely mediated by an increased SCFA production, and a reduced and attenuated glucose supply. Under unrestricted feeding conditions, dietary fibres promoting satiation (alginate) and satiety (resistant starch) did not reduce long-term food intake and total body weight gain, yet, colon empty weight was increased and carcass growth was reduced. This implies that changes in body composition and intestinal weight or content, rather than body weight and body mass index (BMI) alone may be relevant to fully acknowledge the effects of fibres to aid in maintaining or promoting healthy body weight in humans.


Abstract Performance-based regulation (PBR) has been mandated at the national level in the United States and at the agency level, where appropriate, at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (USNRC). Guidance has been developed that implements the USNRC's definitions of PBR and other such conceptual regulatory improvements. This paper describes why PBR is important, what constitutes PBR in the context of direction provided at the USNRC, and how PBR can be implemented using a five-step process. The process steps articulate questions to be posed by the analyst regarding various aspects of a regulatory issue so that a suitably performance-based resolution can be developed. A regulatory alternative thus developed can be included among other options to be considered as part of the regulatory decision-making process.


The work described in this thesis is an attempt to provide improved understanding of the effects of several factors affecting diffusion in hydrated cement pastes and to aid the prediction of ionic diffusion processes in cement-based materials. Effect of pore structure on diffusion was examined by means of comparative diffusion studies of quaternary ammonium ions with different ionic radii. Diffusivities of these ions in hydrated pastes of ordinary portland cement with or without addition of fly ash were determined by a quasi-steady state technique. The restriction of the pore geometry on diffusion was evaluated from the change of diffusivity in response to the change of ionic radius. The pastes were prepared at three water-cement ratios, 0.35, 0.50 and 0.65. Attempts were made to study the effect of surface charge or the electrochemical double layer at the pore/solution interface on ionic diffusion. An approach was to evaluate the zeta potentials of hydrated cement pastes through streaming potential measurements. Another approach was the comparative studies of the diffusion kinetics of chloride and dissolved oxygen in hydrated pastes of ordinary portland cement with addition of 0 and 20% fly ash. An electrochemical technique for the determination of oxygen diffusivity was also developed. Non-steady state diffusion of sodium potassium, chloride and hydroxyl ions in hydrated ordinary portland cement paste of water-cement ratio 0.5 was studied with the aid of computer-modelling. The kinetics of both diffusion and ionic binding were considered for the characterization of the concentration profiles by Fick's first and second laws. The effect of the electrostatic interactions between ions on the overall diffusion rates was also considered. A general model concerning the prediction of ionic diffusion processes in cement-based materials has been proposed.


Forty-five colonies of Temnothorax curvispinosus (MAYR, 1866) containing the rare inquiline ant T. minutissimus (SMITH, 1942) have been collected near Bloomington, Indiana, USA. The colonies were censused and some were kept in laboratory culture. Dealate and alate females of T. curvispinosus and T. minutissimus were dissected. The parasite females have a total of six ovarioles. Both, T. minutissimus and the host species, are facultatively polygynous, and the parasite is host-queen tolerant. Alate males were found in August and September. High numbers of alate and dealate, mated but not yet reproductive, young females of T. minutissimus were present in colonies collected in early spring, a feature which had been known as "Intranidal Mated Offspring Hibernation" (IMOH). Mated young queens of T. minutissimus seem to disperse in spring to invade host colonies. Apparently they are accepted quite easily by host colonies. Rearing of colonies collected in the early spring, or hibernated in the laboratory, yielded first a brood of sexuals of T. curvispinosus, and subsequently considerable numbers of gyne pupae of T. minutissimus appeared. Only very few males were produced (sex ratio about 0.1 ♂/♀). Intranidal mating attempts were observed, and newly mated young females were detected in colonies having reared gynes and males of T. minutissimus. Life history of the species thus is a novel combination of traits found in different other parasitic ant species: Intranidal mating and IMOH as in a few European "degenerate slavemakers" of the genus Myrmoxenus, but the parasite is host-queen tolerant, as is the case in two of the three European inquiline species of Leptothorax (former Doronomyrmex). The development of the parasites after the host species sexuals is a novel trait. The male of T. minutissimus is described. It is characterized by a reduced number of antennomeres (9-11 instead of 12), and a certain "morphological feminization".


How many microfinance institutions (MFIs) exist in the developing world? What are their current performances? In 1999, an International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) team on microfinance conducted a survey on MFIs in Asia, Africa, and Latin America in order to offer a new in-depth analysis on the distribution and performances of MFIs at the international level. A systematic sampling has been adopted through the contacting of international NGOs and networks supporting various MFIs. The information has been complemented by a review of publications and technical manuals on microfinance. The database of MFIs from 85 developing countries shows 1,500 institutions (790 institutions worldwide plus 688 in Indonesia) supported by international organizations. They reach 54 million members, 44 million savers (voluntary and compulsory savings), and 23 million borrowers. The total volume of outstanding credit is $18 billion. The total savings volume is $12 billion, or 72 percent of the volume of the outstanding loans. MFIs have developed at least 46,000 branches and employ around 175,000 staff. The IFPRI database underlines the presence of a multitude of MFIs that, except in unstable countries, are widespread, with no forgotten regions. MFIs are very diverse in terms of lending technologies and legal status, which allows room for innovation, but they remain highly concentrated. The data are analyzed by type of MFIs and by geographic regions. The results presented give an overview of the current development of MFIs and offer a benchmark for comparisons.


Simonova M., K. Sirotek, M. Marounek, A. Laukova: Lipolytic Activity of Potential Probiotic Enterococci and Additive Staphylococci. Acta Vet. Brno 2008, 77: 575-580. The ability to produce lipolytic enzymes by enterococci and staphylococci isolated from rabbit faeces and traditional Slovak sausages was examined. Seven strains (3 by genopypization allotted to the species Enterococcus faecium and 1 Enterococcus species of rabbit origin, 2 rabbit staphylococci and 1 Staphylococcus xylosus SX SO1/1M/1´/2 strain - sausage isolate) were lipolytic activity free, whereas lipolytic activity of remaining isolates varied in the range from 61.4 ± 0.0 to 470.7 ± 0.0 mmol/h/mg of protein. In general, enterococci isolated from sausages showed higher lipolytic activity compared to rabbit enterococci; on the other hand, rabbit staphylococci produced more lipase than was measured in staphylococci from fermented meat products. The predominance of staphylococcal lipolytic activity of both origins was detected; the selected strains could be recommended as starter culture in sausage production, e.g. by improving meat quality due to their lipid content.


Objective: To report a case of delirium probably caused by the atypical antipsychotic olanzapine in a 74-year-old man with dementia. Case Summary: A 74-year-old white man with a diagnosis of severe dementia of mixed etiology with behavioral disturbances was admitted to an urban teaching hospital for increasing agitation in the context of worsening dementia. Olanzapine 2.5 mg each evening was started for agitation, and the dose was titrated to 5 mg each evening with additional emergent doses. Memantine, an N-methyl-d-aspartate antagonist, was increased from the admission dose of 10 mg/day to 15 mg/day. The patient developed symptoms of delirium on hospital day 4. Neuroleptic malignant syndrome and other causes of delirium were ruled out. Discontinuation of olanzapine resulted in resolution of the delirium. Discussion: Antipsychotic medications are commonly used to treat symptoms of delirium. Atypical antipsychotics are better tolerated in the elderly because of their fewer adverse reactions compared with other antipsychotics. Olanzapine has been successfully used in the treatment of delirium. However, there have been case reports of delirium associated with olanzapine, probably related to its intrinsic anticholinergic effect. Application of the Naranjo probability scale indicated a probable relationship between the onset of delirium and the use of olanzapine in this patient. As of December 1, 2005, this was the second such report of a case in the elderly. Conclusions: Although olanzapine is useful in the treatment of delirium, elderly patients treated with this drug can develop delirium and hence should be closely monitored.


Cool Sea Surface Temperature (SST) anomalies tend to prevail in the Seychelles Dome region (Southwest Indian Ocean, NE of Madagascar) during the Northern hemisphere summer-autumn 1.5 years before El Nino. This West Indian Ocean precursor might potentially help to predict El Nino/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) events, hence we investigate its statistical significance and possible underlying mechanisms. A specially designed test, which filters out possible influences of prior ENSO events on the Indian Ocean, shows that the correlation between the west Indian Ocean SST and ENSO at 1.5 years lead-time is indeed significant. Further analysis of the observational record, together with result from a simplified model (an Indo-Pacific extension of the Zebiak-Cane or ZC model), suggest the following, possibly co-acting, mechanisms: "Atmospheric bridge": Cool SSTs in the West Indian Ocean (WIO) lead to a local cooling and subsidence of the overlying air masses, which is compensated by a weak uplift of air away from the WIO. Above Indonesia, where a warm and moist background state prevails, this initial uplift can be amplified by convection (latent heat release invigorating the upward motion). This leads to wind convergence at the surface and thus easterlies over the Pacific. The easterlies "push" warm water towards Indonesia, creating a large warm water volume, which in turn is a prerequisite for El Nino in the following season. "State-dependent noise": a cool WIO in summer-autumn is often followed after a few months by enhanced wind variability on intraseasonal timescales over the west Pacific, although the exact mechanism for this remains unclear. Such wind variability in late winter-spring, in particular westerly wind bursts, may trigger El Nino development. However, an analysis of the output of a state-of-the-art climate model (CESM) suggests that the East Indian Ocean temperature has more influence on ENSO than the West. This may mean that the observational record is still too short or inaccurate. However, CESM results show an unrealistically strong SST variability in the East Indian Ocean. This large signal may "mask" the influence from the WIO. The bias seems to be linked to errors in the time-mean vertical temperature profile in the East Indian Ocean, so it might be possible to reduce the bias by improving the temperature profile. This may also apply to other climate models suffering from similar biases. We also used the ZC model to investigate the effect of long-term temperature changes in the whole Indian Ocean on ENSO. In the ZC model, a warming in the Indian Ocean leads to easterlies in the Pacific and a more La Nina-like background state. The amplitude of the ENSO cycle increases and the spatial pattern changes such that the largest temperature anomalies shift westwards from the South American coast towards the central Pacific. The latter result is in line with observations, because in recent decades we saw both a warming of the Indian Ocean relative to the Pacific and an enhanced frequency of "central Pacific" El Ninos. However, these results should be tested with more complex models than the ZC model.


A careful analysis of contemporary society shows a radical evolution of the role and function of consumption. So-called post-modernity, along with the technological, economic and social transformations that have brought it on, inaugurate a different way of conducting relationships, of existing and of consuming. So consumptions evolve, assuming new expressions in extremely heterogeneous ambits, including that of food consumptions. The past decades have witnessed a progressive increase in the complexity of food consumptions due to the affirmation of increasingly more differentiated trends sensitive to territorial specificity and, at the same time, open to the globalisation of tastes. This topic represents a theme as interesting from the scientific viewpoint as it is decisive from the perspective of implementing food marketing strategies. In this framework, studying food consumptions and the sources that influence them in order to comprehend motivations and significances, implicates reflecting on and investigating into the way these practises can be the object of conditioning mediated by business communication, social practises and practises among friends, or by particular socio-economic conditions.


There are basic dilemmas involving the interaction of advertising regulation and advertising ethics, and their relation to social responsibility in the field. Analysis contributes to understanding them, and hopefully to resolution as well. ********** As a scholar of advertising regulation, I have tended to think of consumer protection as an external force imposed on advertisers. Here I examine how advertisers alternatively may choose on their own to apply ethics to such matters. The latter is potentially an additional aid to assuring consumer success and satisfaction in the marketplace. And yet, how much can we expect from it? Achievement of the potential seems not to be automatic--consider recent failures in the financial world to impose societal protections on activities unconstrained by law! My examination does not involve as much straying from the topic of advertising law as I first expected, because it appears that advertisers' use of ethics is highly dependent on their observations of how the law is used on them. Consequently, the topic has become a look at the role of the two forces interactively--how law and ethics relate to each other in producing satisfactory degrees of consumer protection. Although my discussion concentrates on advertising and other sellers' speech, it can also be applied to various sellers' actions, such as the creation of financial instruments like derivatives, home loans, or credit cards. With ad law I have been a long-term scholar, but with ethics I have not. A true scholar of ethics has, among other things, read the major systems devised by various analysts, many of them philosophers and many of them historical figures such as Thomas Aquinas. I find that very interesting, but I have never emphasized that kind of study because I couldn't pull myself away from the law topic. However, I have given some time to the thought that being responsible ethically is voluntary, while being responsible legally is not. Being lawful is not a choice we make or reject simply on our own. Federal and state regulations require commercial speech to be nondeceptive in describing the item for sale. You can't volunteer to meet that requirement because you can't volunteer not to meet it, at least no longer than it takes the law to catch you. Sellers who are deceptive may be required to stop, and if they don't, they can face fines and sometimes even trips to jail. They can't volunteer to avoid that. Ethical principles prohibit deceptiveness, too, and also other unfair acts. Unfairness is a difficult concept for which there is no space here. In brief it involves harms to people in addition to those caused by deception, with a popular example being advertising to children who may not understand that selling involves persuasion that may reflect insufficient regard for the buyer's interest. Ethics overall is an immensely broad topic, but here I will consider it only as it pertains to deception, which means interpreting ethical behavior simply as being truthful. Ethical principles are not rules in the same sense that legal restraints are. They are neither uniformly nor formally agreed upon by all members of society, nor can the offenders of ethical rules be sanctioned or punished as by law. Violators can be hurt by social disapproval, but there's often nothing to assure that that will happen. Further, while the law, as an external force, is the same for everyone in commerce, ethics is within each person's mind, and so reflects individual and perhaps unique decisions. You can volunteer to avoid acting ethically, or to avoid even thinking about the topic. Because of these differences, we can say that ethics begins where the law ends. Now I have heard ad people, and others too, disagree by arguing that a choice to obey the law is itself an ethical action. However, I regard that as, at best, an awfully low form of ethics, so low in fact that I personally don't regard it as ethics at all. …


We need better approaches to understanding and managing software requirements, and Dean provides them in this book. He draws ideas from three very useful intellectual pools: classical management practices, Agile methods, and lean product development. By combining the strengths of these three approaches, he has produced something that works better than any one in isolation. From the Foreword by Don Reinertsen, President of Reinertsen & Associates; author of Managing the Design Factory; and leading expert on rapid product development Effective requirements discovery and analysis is a critical best practice for serious application development. Until now, however, requirements and Agile methods have rarely coexisted peacefully. For many enterprises considering Agile approaches, the absence of effective and scalable Agile requirements processes has been a showstopper for Agile adoption. In Agile Software Requirements, Dean Leffingwell shows exactly how to create effective requirements in Agile environments. Part I presents the big picture of Agile requirements in the enterprise, and describes an overall process model for Agile requirements at the project team, program, and portfolio levelsPart II describes a simple and lightweight, yet comprehensive model that Agile project teams can use to manage requirementsPart III shows how to develop Agile requirements for complex systems that require the cooperation of multiple teamsPart IV guides enterprises in developing Agile requirements for ever-larger systems of systems, application suites, and product portfolios This book will help you leverage the benefits of Agile without sacrificing the value of effective requirements discovery and analysis. Youll find proven solutions you can apply right nowwhether youre a software developer or tester, executive, project/program manager, architect, or team leader.


An understanding of the potential roles as lipid mediators of a family of bioactive metabolites called N-acylethanolamines (NAEs) depends on their accurate identification and quantification. The levels of 18C unsaturated NAEs (e.g. NAE18:2, NAE 18:3, etc.) in wild-type seeds (about 2000 ng/g fw) generally decreased by about 80% during germination and post-germinative growth. In addition, results suggest NAE-degradative fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) expression does not play a major role in normal NAE metabolism as previously thought. Seedlings germinated and grown in the presence of abscisic acid (ABA), an endogenous plant hormone, exhibited growth arrest and secondary dormancy, similar to the treatment of seedlings with exogenous Nlauroylethanolamine (NAE12:0). ABA-mediated growth arrest was associated with higher levels of unsaturated NAEs. Overall, these results are consistent with the concept that NAE metabolism is activated during seed germination and suggest that the reduction in unsaturated NAE levels is under strict temporal control and may be a requirement for normal seed germination and post-germinative growth.


Purpose – The objective of this study is to formulate a model for forecasting the performance of firms in terms of trends in turnover, investments, exports, employment and flexibility, and to identify the principal correlations with selected dependent variables, such as the level of computerization, the extent of collaboration with competitors and the characteristics of the product. Design/methodology/approach - This paper analyses data, which refers to a survey conducted on a sample of 89 firms from the Treviso province in the north east of Italy by using the Logit model. Findings - From the application of the logit models it emerges that the most important variables contributing to the economic success of the firms are technological flexibility, collaboration, with competitors, and investments in certain areas such as research and development, marketing and fixed technology. Moreover, the findings show that the factors which contribute most significantly to technological flexibility (a key factor for the growth of the firm) are flexibility to demand, the level of computerization and staff training. Practical implications - From the application of logit models it emerges that the most important variables influencing the good performance of firms are flexibility in keeping pace with technology, collaboration with competitors, and the choice of certain types of investment. Moreover, the variables which contribute most to greater flexibility are investments in human capital and in information technology, as well website use, the technological characteristics of the product and the firm's flexibility in following the demand trend. Originality/value - In this study logit models are analysed from both a theoretical and applied point of view.


The effects of intermetallic compound (IMC) formation on reliability of Pb-free Sn-based solders for flip chip and three-dimensional (3D) interconnects were studied. The dissertation is organized into four parts. In the first part, the effect of Sn grain orientation on electromigration (EM) reliability of Pb-free Sn-based flip chip solder joints was studied. The Sn grain microstructure in flip chip solder joints was characterized using the electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) technique, and wa found to be closely related to the EM failure mechanims. The approach to grain structure optimization for improved EM reliability was also explored. In addition to the experimental work, a kinetic analysis was formulated to investigate the early EM degradation mechanism in Sn-based solder joints with Ni under-bump metallization (UMB). The aforementioned kinetic analysis, the intrinsic diffusion coefficients were not readily available in the literature. In the second part of the work, a Monte Carlo method known as simulated annealing was applied to estimate the unknown diffusion coefficients using a multi-parameter optimization method by fitting to experimental measurements. The intrinsic diffusion coefficients of Ni and Sn in Ni₃Sn₄ between 150 and 200°C, and those of Cu and Sn in Cu₃Sn and Cu₆Sn₅ between 120 and 200°C were estimatd. The activation energies for these diffusion coefficients were also determined. Together, this provides the diffusivity parameters to predict the intermetallic growth as a function of temperature. The third objective focused on the EM reliability of Sn-based microbump joints in 3D interconnects with through-silicon vias (TSVs). No EM-induced bump failure was observed, showing a robust EM reliability in microbumps. High temperature thermal annealing test was also performed on microbumps with three different metallizations in an effort to explore structural and process optimization. Finally, interfacial reaction induced stress in IMC microbumps was investigated. A numerial analysis was formulated to study the concurrent diffusion, phase transformation, and deformation in the process of IMC formation. Stress generation due to unbalanced diffusion rates and volumetric change upon phase transformation was considered. The coupled analysis was applied to investigate Ni₃Sn₄ growth in the Ni-Sn microbumping system. A simulation approach based on finite difference method with moving boundaries was employed to numerically solve stress evolution in Ni₃Sn₄. The equilibrium stress was also investigated using a modified model with a finite thickness of solder. Simulation predictions were found to be in good qualitative agreement with experimental observations.