Complex diseases which affect a large proportion of our population today demand more strategic methods to produce significant association results. As it currently stands there are numerous disorders and diseases which are yet to be identified with a genetic causal variant despite evidence produced by research efforts which indicate the existence of high genetic concordance. Breast Cancer is one of the most prominent cancers in the female population with approximately 55K new cases each year in the UK and approximately 11K deaths. The genetic component of Breast Cancer is a popular research area and has uncovered many genetic associations from high to low penetrance. The dataset used within this research is obtained from the DRIVE project, one of five introduced under the GAME-ON initiative. The general research use DRIVE dataset contains approximately 533K single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), with more than 280K sequenced with reference to the 5 most prominent cancers; colon, breast, ovarian, prostate and lung. SNP's are sequenced for approximately 28K subjects, of which approximately 14K were diagnosed with one of three stages of Breast Cancer; unknown, in-situ and invasive. Epistasis is a progressive approach that complements the 'common disease, common variant' hypothesis that highlights the potential for connected networks of genetic variants collaborating to produce a phenotypic expression. Epistasis is commonly performed as a pairwise or limitless-arity capacity that considers variant networks as either variant vs variant or as high order interactions. This type of analysis extends the number of tests that were previously performed in a standard approach such as GWAS, in which FDR was already an issue, therefore by multiplying the number of tests up to a factorial rate also increases the issue of FDR. Further to this, epistasis introduces its own limitations of computational complexity that are generated based on the analysis performed; to consider the most intense approach, a multivariate analysis introduces a time complexity of ( !) On . Throughout this thesis, approaches, methods and techniques for epistasis analysis and GWAS are discussed, as well as the limitations that exist and how to address these issues. Proposed in this thesis is a novel methodology, methodology and methods for the detection of epistasis using interpretable methods and best practice to outline interactions through filtering processes. RaSaR refers to process of Random Sampling Regularisation which randomly splits and produces sample sets to conduct a voting system to regularise the significance and reliability of biological markers, SNPs. Parallel to this, the proposed methodology takes into consideration and adjusts for the common limitations of computational complexity and false discovery using filter selection and a novel method to association analysis. Preliminary results are promising, outlining a concise detection of interactions using benchmarking standard approaches that consider the common approaches to multiple testing. Results for the detection of epistasis, in the classification of breast cancer patients, indicated nine outlined risk candidate interactions from five variants and a singular candidate variant with high protective association.


Abstract The oil and gas industries are one of the major producers of wastewater streams. Most of this water is disposed either through subsurface reinjection or surface discharge after some treatment. There is a growing interest in the reuse of produced water from oil and gas fields due to limited availability of freshwater resources. However, the poor quality of the produced water is a big challenge for its reuse. The characteristics of produced waters are highly complex, variable, and are dependent on field location, nature of reservoir, type of hydrocarbons produced, and field chemicals added. Good sampling and analytical methodology are required to better understand the needs for water treatment options, to evaluate environmental impact, and to explore feasibility of produced water reuse. In addition to that, quality assurance and quality control (QA/QC) protocols are essential for wastewater characterization. The presentation will address the importance of proper sampling and analytical protocols th...


BACKGROUND
Identification of patient groups by risk of renal graft loss might be helpful for accurate patient counselling and clinical decision-making. Survival tree models are an alternative statistical approach to identify subgroups, offering cut-off points for covariates and an easy-to-interpret representation.

METHODS
Within the European Society of Pediatric Nephrology/European Renal Association-European Dialysis and Transplant Association (ESPN/ERA-EDTA) Registry data we identified paediatric patient groups with specific profiles for 5-year renal graft survival. Two analyses were performed, including (i) parameters known at time of transplantation and (ii) additional clinical measurements obtained early after transplantation. The identified subgroups were added as covariates in two survival models. The prognostic performance of the models was tested and compared with conventional Cox regression analyses.

RESULTS
The first analysis included 5275 paediatric renal transplants. The best 5-year graft survival (90.4%) was found among patients who received a renal graft as a pre-emptive transplantation or after short-term dialysis (<45 days), whereas graft survival was poorest (51.7%) in adolescents transplanted after long-term dialysis (>2.2 years). The Cox model including both pre-transplant factors and tree subgroups had a significantly better predictive performance than conventional Cox regression (P < 0.001). In the analysis including clinical factors, graft survival ranged from 97.3% [younger patients with estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) >30 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and dialysis <20 months] to 34.7% (adolescents with eGFR <60 mL/min/1.73 m(2) and dialysis >20 months). Also in this case combining tree findings and clinical factors improved the predictive performance as compared with conventional Cox model models (P < 0.0001).

CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, we demonstrated the tree model to be an accurate and attractive tool to predict graft failure for patients with specific characteristics. This may aid the evaluation of individual graft prognosis and thereby the design of measures to improve graft survival in the poor prognosis groups.


Multiple trauma mortality in the critical care setting most often occurs as a result of multi-system organ failure (MSOF). Mortality rates increase exponentially as successive organ systems fail. Although the role of shock in determining patient outcome has been extensively investigated, inflammatory factors and sepsis are becoming increasingly implicated in the development of MSOF. The physiologic effect of these factors on individual organ systems is explained. Signs, symptoms, and key criteria for determining organ system failure also are presented to assist the nurse in recognition and prevention.


—In modern societies, opening data is playing a crucial role in innovations and economic growth. Public organizations and private enterprises constantly are collecting data. To support the growth of societies, these organizations and enterprises intend to be more active in data opening. However, disclosure of personal data is one of the main threats for data opening. Data transformation techniques for Statistical Disclosure Control (SDC) aim at removing personal data while maintaining the utility of the data at an acceptable level. Applying SDC methods always faces the struggle of maintaining a balance between data utility and personal disclosure risk. In this research, we investigate different options for a common set of transformations for protecting microdata. We study a set of common scenarios which target (or specify) two types of data environments (i.e., those with and without the original microdata sets) and two approaches for privacy protection (i.e., those based on normative heuristics and a formal approach). Employing ARX, we run a series of experiments to observe the behaviours of various measurement factors. At the end, we discuss the consequences of choosing each of the options that can be used by policymakers for opening privacy-sensitive microdata sets.


Reproducibility of experiments is a basic requirement for science. Minimum Information (MI) guidelines have proved a helpful means of enabling reuse of existing work in modern biology. The Minimum Information Required in the Annotation of Models (MIRIAM) guidelines promote the exchange and reuse of biochemical computational models. However, information about a model alone is not sufficient to enable its efficient reuse in a computational setting. Advanced numerical algorithms and complex modeling workflows used in modern computational biology make reproduction of simulations difficult. It is therefore essential to define the core information necessary to perform simulations of those models. The Minimum Information About a Simulation Experiment (MIASE, Glossary in Box 1) describes the minimal set of information that must be provided to make the description of a simulation experiment available to others. It includes the list of models to use and their modifications, all the simulation procedures to apply and in which order, the processing of the raw numerical results, and the description of the final output. MIASE allows for the reproduction of any simulation experiment. The provision of this information, along with a set of required models, guarantees that the simulation experiment represents the intention of the original authors. Following MIASE guidelines will thus improve the quality of scientific reporting, and will also allow collaborative, more distributed efforts in computational modeling and simulation of biological processes.


The purpose of this work is to identify possible elements of infology in some systems development methodologies. To reach the aim two objectives were identified: to gain an understanding of the concept of infology and secondly to study different kinds of methodologies and analyse them to find out possible elements of infology. In order to reach the aim of this work a literature study was performed. Four methodologies were chosen for the analysis and the selection represented a wide range of different methodologies. They were: Soft Systems Methodology (SSM), Effective Technical and Human Implementation of Computer based Systems (ETHICS), Structured Systems Analysis and Design Method (SSADM) and Yourdon Systems Method (YSM). The infological approach has been characterised and the fundamental characteristic of infology is the distinction between data and information. A consequence from this distinction is that the users of the intended information system should participate in the developing process in order to understand the complex and dynamic relations in an organisation and information system. The results of this work have shown that the soft methodologies (SSM and ETHICS) have a high degree of infology and the more hard methodologies (SSADM and YSM) have a low degree of infology.


This monograph is about the semiotics of lexical signs, and is of particular interest for historical linguists, in particular those interested in etymology. Specialists in linguistic change have long noticed that certain classes of words seem to be in part exempt from regular patterns of sound change, or perhaps more likely to undergo unusual analogical shifts. The problem is far worse for the etymologist, since the lexicon of every language contains some hundreds of semiotically problematic vocables which must, if the etymological dictionaries are ever to be completed, be explained somehow. Always been struck by the sheer capriciousness of etymologies in which some sort of unusual form-meaning relations are involved, the author, with the help of C.S. Peirce, provides answers to crucial questions in his search to make sense of those capricious etymologies.


Theoretical and numerical analyses of waveguide branches in a photonic crystal are presented. Conditions for perfect transmission and zero reflection are discussed. Based upon these conditions, numerical simulations of electromagnetic-wave propagation in photonic crystals are performed to identify structures with near-complete transmission.


Ancient Athenians introduced democracy, majoritarianism and popular sovereignty. They also introduced populism and rent-seeking. Moreover, Athenians didn't invent the rule of law. The power of demos was almost unlimited, there were no constitutional guarantees, checks and balances. The laws were subjected to the whims of the majority of citizens or judges. Most importantly, individual rights were not recognized in Athens. The concept of liberty in Ancient Athens was very different from the concept of liberty that prevailed after the Great Revolutions of the late 18th and the early 19th century which led to the contemporary liberal democracies. We will discuss these issues with reference to famous historical episodes and trials. However, we will also see that the liberal ideas of individuality, toleration and the rule of law, appeared in a not-so-embryonic way, in three important works of the period (a tragedy, a comedy and a history book). These ideas were remarkably original but at the same time marginal. They didn't exert any significant influence on the Athenian democratic institutions.This is the text of a Keynote Lecture at the international conference: "Ancient Greece and the Modern World: The Influence of Greek Thought on Philosophy, Science and Technology" (Ancient Olympia, August 2016).


The image processing pipeline boasts a wide variety of complex filters and effects. Translating an individual effect to operate on 3D surface geometry inevitably results in a bespoke algorithm. Instead, we propose a general-purpose back-end optimization that allows users to edit an input 3D surface by simply selecting an off-the-shelf image processing filter. We achieve this by constructing a differentiable triangle mesh renderer, with which we can back propagate changes in the image domain to the 3D mesh vertex positions. The given image processing technique is applied to the entire shape via stochastic snapshots of the shape: hence, we call our method Paparazzi. We provide simple yet important design considerations to construct the Paparazzi renderer and optimization algorithms. The power of this rendering-based surface editing is demonstrated via the variety of image processing filters we apply. Each application uses an off-the-shelf implementation of an image processing method without requiring modification to the core Paparazzi algorithm.


Cybernetics offers what I believe to be several new theoretical perspectives for communication by a unified perspective that allows an observer to understand whole systems from their component parts and parts in the context of whole systems. Fundamental differences are encountered depending on whether a system is observed from the outside, whether the observer is part of the system he attempts to describe or whether he participates productively in a system that produces material components including what it needs to maintain an organizational unity. Rather than repeating the arguments presented above, I will summarize the paper by presenting a set of distinctions and a table. The distinctions are intended as a guide for an observer to recognize in what kind of system he might be involved in so that he can decide which theory of communication is appropriate. Some of these distinctions, the first and last in particular, are taken from Varela et al. (1974). The others summarize what was said. The table lists several key concepts the respective theories of communication define and suggest analogies between them. The reader will have to refer to the text for their elaboration. Disciplines Communication | Social and Behavioral Sciences This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/asc_papers/218


This is a qualitative case study that examines an alternative subculture composed of adult males who are fans of the Hub Network cartoon television series: My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. Given the predominantly female cast of pony characters who primarily serve as positive role models for children, the fan base, which refers to itself as "bronies", provides a unique opportunity to explore a group that defies traditional norms regarding masculinity. Four main themes were explored. First, this study seeks to explain why adult males are drawn to this particular show. In addition, this study explores how the bronies are perceived by others who are not part of this subculture. Since it is presumed that bronies are regarded in a negative manner by outsiders, this study also attempts to explain how bronies deal with these primarily negative perceptions. Finally, this study examines how a sub-group within the fan base who derive sexual pleasure from the pony characters differ from the more mainstream group of bronies.  Bronies make for a fascinating subculture when framed within gender and sexuality in the age of the internet. Content analyses and narrative analyses were employed using a variety of data sources including online message boards specially created by fans to discuss the television series, popular new stories and a documentary on the bronies subculture. While unusual, the bronies, for the most part, appear to be a harmless group of males who are brought together by a common interest in a cartoon that promotes friendship and acceptance and many inadvertently help to break down traditional stereotypes.


An increasing number of studies have suggested the dysbiosis of salivary microbiome has been linked to the advancement of multiple diseases and proved to be helpful for the diagnosis of them. Although epidemiological studies of salivary microbiota in carcinogenesis are mounting, no systemic study exists regarding the oral microbiota of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) patients. In this study, we presented the characteristics of the salivary microbiota in patients from NSCLC and healthy controls by sequencing of the 16S rRNA microbial genes. Our result revealed distinct salivary microbiota composition in patients from NSCLC compared to the healthy controls. As principal co-ordinates analysis (PCoA) showed, saliva samples clearly differed between the two groups, considering the weighted (p = 0.001, R2 = 0.17), and unweighted (p = 0.001, R2 = 0.25) UniFrac distance. Phylum Firmicutes (31.69% vs 24.25%, p < 0.05) and its two genera Veillonella (15.51%% vs 9.35%, p < 0.05) and Streptococcus (9.96% vs 6.83%, p < 0.05) were strongly increased in NSCLC group compared to the controls. Additionally, the relative abundances of Fusobacterium (3.06% vs 4.92%, p = 0.08), Prevotella (1.45% vs 3.52%, p < 0.001), Bacteroides (0.56% vs 2.24%, p < 0.001), and Faecalibacterium (0.21% vs 1.00%, p < 0.001) in NSCLC group were generally decreased. Furthermore, we investigated the correlations between systemic inflammation markers and salivary microbiota. Neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) positively correlated with the Veillonella (r =0.350, p = 0.007) and lymphocyte-monocyte ratio (LMR) negatively correlated with Streptococcus (r =-0.340, p = 0.008). Additionally, Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes (KEGG) pathways inferred by phylogenetic investigation of communities by reconstruction of unobserved states (PICRUSt) showed that pathways related to xenobiotics biodegradation and metabolism (p < 0.05) and amino acid metabolism (p < 0.05) were enriched in the NSCLC group. Folate biosynthesis (p < 0.05) significantly decreased in NSCLC group. The specific correlations of clinical systemic inflammation markers and predicted KEGG pathways also could pronounce a broad understanding of salivary microbiota in patients with NSCLC. Moreover, our study extended the new sight into salivary microbiota-targeted interventions to clinically improve the therapeutic strategies for salivary dysbiosis in NSCLC patients. Further investigations of the potential mechanism of salivary microbiota in the progression of NSCLC are still in demand.


This paper presents a novel method for predicting the location of a driver's destination during the drive. Such a prediction can be used to help decide which information to automatically present to the driver, depending on where the driver is going. The prediction is based on the common intuition that drivers tend to chose efficient routes. We quantify this preference for efficiency probabilistically based on a database of driving trips we gathered with GPS receivers. We show how to use this probability along with a map of driving times to compute the probability of any candidate destination. Our tests show that halfway through the drive, we can predict the destination to within about 10 km, and at three quarters of the way, the error drops to about 3 km.


Youth volunteerism is highly researched by volunteer organizations, but little is known about the factors impacting youth who provide indirect volunteering and the strengths and challenges which they face. Volunteering is indirect when the results of a volunteer's work travels through more than one channel, (usually stakeholders spreading a message or raising funds), before reaching the intended client. Awareness raising and fundraising activities are two common examples of indirect volunteering that are attractive to many youth. Ten youth volunteers from five different organizations in the Greater Toronto Area were interviewed in order to investigate three important questions about indirect volunteering. These questions are: 1) What strengths and challenges affect youth volunteers who provide indirect forms of service? 2) What motivations, barriers to engagement, and opportunities for leadership affect youth volunteers who participate in indirect forms of service? 3) How does role ambiguity impact indirect forms of service? The methodology included purposive sampling for youth volunteers to participate in semistructured, in-depth interviews. Open coding from an interpretivist framework was used to analyze the qualitative data. The results highlight motivations, barriers to engagement, and opportunities for leadership that validate prior literature and shed light on new themes. The results also highlight strengths and challenges for youth volunteers. Role ambiguity, along with two new core themes emerged as new issues that were important to youth volunteers who provide indirect service. These two new core themes included exploring issues of empowerment and power imbalances for youth volunteers and the meaning that youth ascribe to their volunteer experiences. Practice recommendations weighing strengths and challenges faced by youth volunteers across each of the core themes are provided in the discussion. Practice recommendations explore implementing job design and Community Service Learning to make indirect volunteering more clear for youth. The discussion also includes a conceptual framework with new models illustrating the provision of indirect services along with ideal and problematic pathways of engaging youth who are indirect volunteers. A conceptual framework illustrating ways to overcome role ambiguity is also provided. This research fills significant gaps in the literature about youth volunteers who are engaged in indirect service delivery. This thesis offers methods to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of work with youth in the volunteer sector which is a deeply embedded component of the welfare state (Evers, Laville, Borzaga, Defourny, Lewis, Nyssens, & Pestoff 2004). Volunteerism is an act of helping, and volunteers perform their work in helping professions including the social services that serve the welfare state.


This research provides the basis for developing a comprehensive plan for inspection, cleaning, condition assessment and prediction of remaining service life of CSCP (Corrugated Steel Culvert Pipe). Inspection frequency guidelines were developed that rate CSCPs at three levels. The rating categories are based on the following factors: corrosion and erosion, bed load, pH, and culvert size, age and importance, and are ranked according to increasing need; e.g., annual inspections are recommended for Category III (older pipes with reported problems). A four condition state assessment system based upon the Caltrans system was developed, including quantifiable section losses, specific surface features, and a prescribed response associated with each condition state. A Markov deterioration model was used to predict the future condition state of new CSCP in urban and rural settings. These improvements will be addressed in the next phase of the research project within the context of a Culvert Information Management System (CIMS). In addition, the Weibull distribution will replace the Markov model for predicting the remaining service life of CSCP in the next phase of this project. The proposed CIMS will be capable of analyzing decisions to inspect, rehabilitate/replace, or do nothing at both project and network levels. At the project level this will be achieved by comparing inspection and/or rehabilitation/replacement costs with risks and costs associated with failure. At the network level, the associated costs will be optimized to meet annual maintenance budget allocations by prioritizing CSCPs needing inspection and rehabilitation/replacement. CIMS will also be used to estimate the required annual budgetary allocation for a stipulated planning horizon to maintain or improve the aggregate condition state of the CSCP network, or to maintain or improve the total highway CSCP network asset value, thereby meeting the GASB-34 requirements. The optimum sequential path in the annual decision making process may then be determined using a combination of operations research tools. A framework for real time and automated monitoring of the condition of culverts based on the identification of internal defects via video inspection was developed. An innovative approach of judiciously extracting image frames from the video and analyzing the frames to locate and categorize major defects was developed. Each frame is preprocessed to enhance contrast using an adaptive scheme and reduced dimensionality in pixel-space by implementing region based processing. The preprocessing is followed by a two-step image segmentation process, which implements a background elimination procedure in the first step and shape detection in the second step. Fuzzy clustering is used as the underlying segmentation model. Defect shape and depth information after post-processing are used as input to an automated condition state assessment methodology. A simple formulation based on both the damage area and depth is then utilized to assess the condition of culverts based on a 4-point condition assessment scale. The proposed framework was demonstrated with a test example. Future research would entail consolidating the concept by extensive testing and integration for real time application.


Facing the economic crisis (began in 2007) managers and political leaders pay more attention to the postulate of socially responsible business. The axiological turn gives new possibilities to implement ethical standards in the sphere of economy. Alas, at the same time, this task evokes the following problems. Firstly, as social researchers, we need to know how to compose heterogeneous axiological systems (to join rules of ethics with the imperative of economic efficiency). Secondly, as market participants, we have to find the formula of mutual understanding (being seen as precondition of our ethical claims).


Background Patients with metastatic non‐small-cell lung cancer have a substantial symptom burden and may receive aggressive care at the end of life. We examined the effect of introducing palliative care early after diagnosis on patient-reported outcomes and end-of-life care among ambulatory patients with newly diagnosed disease. Methods We randomly assigned patients with newly diagnosed metastatic non‐small-cell lung cancer to receive either early palliative care integrated with standard oncologic care or standard oncologic care alone. Quality of life and mood were assessed at baseline and at 12 weeks with the use of the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy‐Lung (FACT-L) scale and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, respectively. The primary outcome was the change in the quality of life at 12 weeks. Data on end-of-life care were collected from electronic medical records. Results Of the 151 patients who underwent randomization, 27 died by 12 weeks and 107 (86% of the remaining patients) completed assessments. Patients assigned to early palliative care had a better quality of life than did patients assigned to standard care (mean score on the FACT-L scale [in which scores range from 0 to 136, with higher scores indicating better quality of life], 98.0 vs. 91.5; P = 0.03). In addition, fewer patients in the palliative care group than in the standard care group had depressive symptoms (16% vs. 38%, P = 0.01). Despite the fact that fewer patients in the early palliative care group than in the standard care group received aggressive end-of-life care (33% vs. 54%, P = 0.05), median survival was longer among patients receiving early palliative care (11.6 months vs. 8.9 months, P = 0.02). Conclusions Among patients with metastatic non‐small-cell lung cancer, early palliative care led to significant improvements in both quality of life and mood. As compared with patients receiving standard care, patients receiving early palliative care had less aggressive care at the end of life but longer survival. (Funded by an American Society of Clinical Oncology Career Development Award and philanthropic gifts; ClinicalTrials.gov number, NCT01038271.)


This paper examines the effect of workplace safety regulations on worker safety. Studies in this area must overcome the issue that regulations and worker safety are jointly determined and that regulatory resources are likely to focus on the worst offenders. We examine the effects of regulatory enforcement in the 1990s on occupational death rates by state in major industries, and propose an instrumental variables technique to isolate the causal effect of regulatory enforcement on worker safety. We find that more inspections lead to higher death rates at a statistically significant level. This counter-intuitive result suggests that increased worker safety measures induce riskier behaviors on the part of workers.


The agriculture sector is one of the driving sectors within the European Union countries, and nowadays much attention is paid to the sustainable development of this industrial sector. Having in mind that farming is mostly a family activity in most Member States with family labour accounting for more than 90 % of agricultural workforce in Bulgaria, Croatia, Poland and Slovenia, the continuing education of those small farmers is of increasing concern for the European Union Policies. Thus, the project entitled "Development of managerial and entrepreneurial skills of young eco-farmers via joint VET curricula, enhanced qualification profile, assessment standard and sustainable cooperation synergies" (ECOFAR, Project No: 597256-EPP-1-2018-1-BG-EPPKA3-VET-JQ) was supported by the European Union. The main aim of this project was to develop a joint VET qualification curriculum for improvement of the managerial and entrepreneurial skills of young eco-farmers by including improved transparency, comparability and recognition of those qualifications. In order to develop further the knowledge, skills and competences of young eco-farmer entrepreneurs, a curriculum composed of 7 modules was developed by the researchers of the projects partners from Bulgaria, Greece, Slovenia and Turkey. In the present study, the main objectives, expected results and expected impact of the project as well as the development of the joint qualification curriculum are described.


Book synopsis: "Diversity" has become a key term in contemporary social politics, and is often used as both a description of complex social realities and a normative prescription for how those realities should be valued, influenced by the politics of multiculturalism and by social movements asserting "the right to be different" diversity has emerged as an open, fluid discourse that challenges reductive visions of legitimate identities and human possibilities.

It is this apparent acceptance of diversity as a fact and value that this book sets out to examine, in a range of ways, it offers a countervailing assessment of 'diversity; seeing it less as a unifying social imaginary and more as a cost-free form of politics attuned to the needs of late capitalist, consumer societies. The introduction distinguishes between 'diversity polities' — emerging from a range of critiques of social power — and the "politics of diversity", a depoliticised celebration of difference that replicates the problems of multiculturalism without the benefits of the overt ideological engagement that multiculturalism has provoked.

The essays collected here are developed from a research seminar entitled "Diversity, Human Rights and Participation" organised by the Partnership on Youth between the Council of Europe and the European Commission. The studies gathered here are embedded in 10 different national contexts. They track dimensions of 'diversity' in education, social services, jurisprudence, parliamentary proceedings and employment initiatives, and assess their significances for the social actors who must negotiate these frameworks in their daily experience.


A new dicyanodistyrylbenzene‐based phasmidic molecule, (2Z,2′Z)‐2,2′‐(1,4‐phenylene)bis(3‐(3,4,5‐tris(dodecyloxy)phenyl)acrylonitrile), GDCS, is reported, which forms a hexagonal columnar liquid crystal (LC) phase at room temperature (RT). GDCS molecules self‐assemble into supramolecular disks consisting of a pair of molecules in a side‐by‐side disposition assisted by secondary bonding interactions of the lateral polar cyano group, which, in turn, constitute the hexagonal columnar LC structure. GDCS shows very intense green/yellow fluorescence in liquid/solid crystalline states, respectively, in contrast to the total absence of fluorescence emission in the isotropic melt state according to the characteristic aggregation‐induced enhanced emission (AIEE) behavior. The AIEE and two‐color luminescence thermochromism of GDCS are attributed to the peculiar intra‐ and intermolecular interactions of dipolar cyanostilbene units. It was found that the intramolecular planarization and restricted molecular motion associated with a specific stacking situation in the liquid/solid crystalline phases are responsible for the AIEE phenomenon. The origin of the two‐color luminescence was elucidated to be due to the interdisk stacking alteration in a given column driven by the specific local dipole coupling between molecular disks. These stacking changes, in turn, resulted in the different degree of excited‐state dimeric coupling to give different emission colors. To understand the complicated photophysical properties of GDCS, temperature‐dependent steady‐state and time‐resolved PL measurements have been comprehensively carried out. Uniaxially aligned and highly fluorescent LC and crystalline microwires of GDCS are fabricated by using the micromolding in capillaries (MIMIC) method. Significantly enhanced electrical conductivity (0.8 × 10−5 S•cm−1/3.9 × 10−5 S•cm−1) of the aligned LC/crystal microwires were obtained over that of multi‐domain LC sample, because of the almost perfect shear alignment of the LC material achieved in the MIMIC mold.


The focus of this paper is to present potential electronic waybill (e-waybill) solutions for a traditional waybill with the potential for supporting different Intelligent Transport System (ITS) services, such as, identification of freight, automating the exchange of content-related data for regulatory or commercial purposes, etc. At present there are some initiatives, for instance, by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) and the e-Freight framework, for achieving solutions that can handle e-waybills. Both these solutions focus on actor-to-actor communication, however we hypothesize that the storage of a waybill's data both locally and centrally (i.e. actor-to-actor as well as goods-to-actor communication) can support more services than only central storage of the waybill's data. Further we look at the information required and possible communication links between different actors in order to identify different ITS services that can be achieved through an e-waybill solution. We then map this information on to the e-waybill solutions that we have proposed, which will allow us to identify which services are supported by the different e-waybill solutions.


RECENTLY, my relatively negative perception of the availability of online books and audiobooks changed radically. It all started when I read a short blurb on the website http://manybooks.net. Manybooks was created by Matthew McClintock, who graciously runs the site as a service to the Internet community. Currently, the site has nearly 18,000 books online. Unlike Project Gutenberg, which specializes only in public domain books that are usually very old, Manybooks also has recent public domain books and books licensed under Creative Commons agreements. (More on Creative Commons below.) For example, Halo, a science-fiction thriller by Tom Maddox, is relatively recent and was published in 1991. An example of a recent addition to the site, though not a recent book, is Herman Melville's Moby-Dick. The Manybooks website is one of the best-designed sites and could serve as an exemplar of a clean user interface. One of the most amazing aspects of the site is the availability of books in 21 different formats, including Acrobat (pdf) regular and large type, rich-text format (rtf), iPod notes, and formats that many cell phones can display. In some cases, audio versions of the books are available. The site also features book reviews, lists by popularity, lists of most downloaded, and so on. It's hard to believe that the site runs on a Macintosh Mini running public domain Apache server software. Incidentally, the last time I checked, about 60% of the world's websites run on Apache server software. Creative Commons at http://creativecommons.org is a volunteer organization that helps writers, artists, musicians, videographers, and others change the copyright on their work from "all rights reserved" to "some rights reserved." Effectively, the creators of works can retain ownership and commercial rights, while allowing others to use and share their work so long as it is not for profit. Material that offers a Creative Commons (CC) license differs from material in the public domain. With the latter, you can do anything you want, including copying it, altering it, and selling it. An interesting video titled "Want to Work Together?" appears on the CC website. At the home page, click on the "Find CC Licensed Work" button. It was while exploring the Creative Commons home page that I found out about Libri-Vox. LibriVox (www.librivox.org) was started in August of 2005 by Hugh McGuire. Its objective is "to make all books in the public domain available, for free, in audio format on the Internet." The following principles guide that work. "LibriVox is a noncommercial, nonprofit, and ad-free project. LibriVox donates its recordings to the public domain. LibriVox is powered by volunteers. LibriVox maintains a loose and open structure. LibriVox welcomes all volunteers from across the globe." As of this writing, the site has had over 1,000 volunteers read books aloud and donate the recordings. Here are a few of the hundreds of titles: The Three Little Pigs, by Leslie Brooke; Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe; and, of course, all of Mark Twain's books. You can browse the LibriVox collection, but using the search function works better. Out of curiosity, I searched for audiobooks about Christmas and found over a dozen. I listened to a portion of A Christmas Carol, which was read by various people including a father/ daughter team reading one poignant section. If you would like to get ready for the holiday season early, you might think about downloading a few Christmas audiobooks and poems. The site also has a few readings of classic carols and hymns. Another interesting site for audiobooks is Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic (RFB&D) at www.rfbd. org. RFB&D is a nonprofit organization that has over 30,000 audiobooks available, including recent best sellers and textbooks. For example, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows is now available. Individual students with a letter certifying a visual disability can register for a one-time fee of $65 and an annual renewal fee of $35. …


This guide provides quick access to the best resources at Widener University for research related to speech and language pathology.


PURPOSE
Large-volume scintillator detectors show promise for fast, highresolution measurements of proton treatment fields, but previous work has been limited to observing 2D projections of the 3D scintillation light distribution. The purpose of this work is to develop a 3D reconstruction method for a scintillation dosimetry system consisting of a tank of liquid scintillator imaged by CCD cameras.

METHODS
To reconstruct the scintillation light produced by proton beams in 3D, we applied the maximum-a-posteriori (MAP) algorithm using projections from three views (2 orthogonal side projections and 1 forward projection). However, the small number of viewing angles in our system limits the efficiency of this approach. In this study, we exploited the axial symmetry of proton beams to create an improved initial estimation of the light distribution. Monte Carlo calculations were performed to simulate the light emission from a volume of liquid scintillator irradiated with proton pencil beams. Projection images of the light emission were calculated from the simulated data with known camera and scintillator artifacts. We compared the MAP reconstructed emissions obtained using a standard backprojection initial estimate with those using our proposed profile-based initial estimation.

RESULTS
From our simulations, the root mean square (RMS) error of the MAP reconstruction was 5.6% using the backprojection estimate. It was reduced to 4.9% using the profile-based estimate. In addition, our new approach also reduced visual artifacts in the low dose region. Using the profile-based estimate, reconstruction converged at about 6 iterations. Using the backprojection estimate, 14 iterations were required for convergence.

CONCLUSION
The proposed method allows more accurate 3D reconstruction with fewer artifacts and requiring fewer iterations. The application is useful in proton beam calibration and has the potential to make 3D quality assurance possible for intensity modulated proton therapy.


State, Society & Governance in Melanesia ips.cap.anu.edu.au/ssgm Over the past five years, several major international development policy statements and declarations have adopted 'political settlement' as a framing concept to guide statebuilding practice in fragile and conflict-affected states, and encouraged efforts towards achieving an inclusive, or inclusive enough, political settlement in order to underpin stability. Despite the policy enthusiasm, the concept itself remains elusive.1 This discussion paper explores how the concept 'political settlement' arose and where it came from, identifies its essential elements and the level of consensus around them and tests out some of its normative content. Finally it considers where the concept might go from here.


What are the implications of AVR (augmented, virtual and mixed reality) for collaboration concerned with preserving our more recent digital heritage? The authors of this paper will describe their collaborative, participatory work with artist's books and mixed reality, works which archive historical responses to artists' books, these books are framed as part of the recent historical legacy of computational, interactive works, works which, in the current acceleration, and obsolescent cycles of digital technologies, risk being lost without concerted efforts. Our work as technologists, designers and writers, as well as academic researchers, seeks to identify the chances and challenges of VR collaborative environments, adopting an Interdisciplinary and intermedia approach, at the intersection of the gallery, games, film, theatre and fine arts. Our paper will outline the author's research into intelligent books and immersive collaborative forms, including situated computing and post humanist conceptions of readers and readership. The work extends both author's long-standing collaboration on The Phi Books (2008-). The work draws upon Haraway, Alva Noe, Braidotti and the roboticist Rodney Brooks, among other contemporary theories of artificial intelligence, AVR, collaboration and wider theories of the Virtual, as well as, of course, the future, and past, of the book. The authors will present their recent VR book, PHI_VR, an immersive, collaborative artists' book documenting ten years of collaboration.


Abstract. Models for estimating flood losses to infrastructure are rare and their reliability is seldom investigated although infrastructure losses might contribute considerably to the overall flood losses. In this paper, an empirical modelling approach for estimating direct structural flood damage to railway infrastructure and associated financial losses is presented. Via a combination of event data, i.e. photo-documented damage on the Northern Railway in Lower Austria caused by the March River flood in 2006, and simulated flood characteristics, i.e. water levels, flow velocities and combinations thereof, the correlations between physical flood impact parameters and damage occurred to the railway track were investigated and subsequently rendered into a damage model. After calibrating the loss estimation using recorded repair costs of the Austrian Federal Railways, the model was applied to three synthetic scenarios with return periods of 30, 100 and 300 years of March River flooding. Finally, the model results are compared to depth-damage-curve-based approaches for the infrastructure sector obtained from the Rhine Atlas damage model and the Damage Scanner model. The results of this case study indicate a good performance of our two-stage model approach. However, due to a lack of independent event and damage data, the model could not yet be validated. Future research in natural risk should focus on the development of event and damage documentation procedures to overcome this significant hurdle in flood damage modelling.


The aim of this research is to consider whether the articles 6:107 and 6:108 BW should be reconsidered. These articles grant third parties an action to bring an independent claim against the tortfeasor in personal injury cases. The characteristics of these articles are threefold. First, these claims are derived from the liability towards the direct victim. Second, the actions are of a limited of nature. Finally, when the damage suffered by the third party is a consequence of the injury or death of someone else, these apply on an exclusive basis: a right to full compensation cannot be allowed on the basis of tort law. The main aim of these articles is to set clear boundaries for liability in personal injury cases. Someone is a 'third party' when his damage is caused by the death or injury of someone else. That direct nature is determined in fact, but that factual determination is followed by a normative conclusion: a factual third party cannot be awarded full compensation. In my opinion this is a mistaken starting point. The focus should be on the question whether a protected interest exists and whether the tortfeasor has infringed that protected interest. Next, from the perspective of private enforcement two questions should be distinguished. First, which third party damage should be compensated when the foundation is found in the liability towards the direct victim? Second, under which circumstances should the interest of third parties autonomously be protected by tort law? To start with the first question. The government has tried to expand the scope of the derived actions. In my opinion there is one argument against this solution: the fact that liability is founded on one party cannot be directional for the compensation of third party damage which cannot be qualified as the transferred loss. The tortfeasor is first responsible for the damage caused by his wrongful act towards the person against who liability exists. By making exceptions for the benefit of one type of third party or for one of his losses, boundaries will be difficult to explain and maintain. In my opinion another solution is more appropriate: answering the second question of enforcement. The necessity of making exceptions is mostly advocated in favour of next of kin. Decisive in concluding that the interest of family members should autonomously be protected is that I consider the interest of 'direct family members' to be the most protectable interest next to someone's life and health. A family is a unit which forms the essence of someone's personality. By taking someone from that unit or seriously injuring that person, a family member is directly forced to reconsider life choices. Tort law should facilitate the (new) choices which family members are forced to make. The essence of my conclusions is that the system of articles 6:107 and 6:108 BW should be reconsidered as far as its exclusive scope is concerned. General tort law should be decisive for someone's position in tort law, not the factual cause of someone's damage.


Project (M.B.A.)--American University of Beirut, Suliman S. Olayan School of Business, 2009.;"First Reader : Dr. Dima Jamali, Associate Professor , Suliman S. Olayan School of Business--Second Reader : Dr. Yusuf Sidani, Associate Professor ,Suliman S. Ola


Foreword. Preface. Acknowledgements. Chapter 1 Epidemiology of Lipids, Lipid Management and Risk for Coronary Heart Disease: An Overview. 1.1 Early History of Cardiovascular Epidemiology. 1.2 Lipid Risk Factors are Central to Efforts at CHD Prevention. 1.3 LDL-C and CHD Risk. 1.4 LDL-C Lowering and CHD Risk Reduction. 1.5 Other Atherogenic Lipoproteins: Atherogenic Remnants. 1.6 HDL-C and CHD Risk. 1.7 Trends in Lipids and Lipid Management in the USA. 1.8 The National Cholesterol Education Program Evaluation Project Using Novel E-Technology (NEPTUNE) II Survey. Controversy: Should a Measure of Atherogenic Lipoprotein Particle Number be used in Risk Assessment And/Or to Evaluate the Response to Lipid Therapy? Chapter 2 Vascular Biology and Atherogenesis. 2.1 Introduction. 2.2 Arterial Structure. 2.3 Endothelial Cell Function and Dysfunction. 2.4 The Role of Monocytes and Lymphocytes. 2.5 Atheromatous Plaques. Chapter 3 Detection, Evaluation, and Treatment Goals for Lipid Disorders in Adults. 3.1 Matching Aggressiveness of Treatment to Absolute Risk. 3.2 Screening for Dyslipidemias. 3.3 Risk Stratification. 3.4 Steps in the Risk Stratification Process - Major Risk Categories. 3.5 Tips for Calculating the Framingham Risk Score. 3.6 Subcategories for Consideration ofMore Aggressive Optional Treatment Goals. 3.7 Very High Risk Patients, Optional LDL-C Goal <70 mg dl -1 40. 3.8 Moderately High Risk Patients, OPTIONAL LDL-C Goal <100 mg dl -1 40. 3.9 Treatment Goals for Patients with Elevated Triglycerides. 3.10 Triglycerides and HDL-C as Targets for Therapy. Controversy: Should Treatment Guidelines Include Targets for the Total/HDL Cholesterol Ratio? Chapter 4 Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes in the Management of Lipid Disorders and the Metabolic Syndrome. 4.1 Nature and Nurture in the Development of CHD Risk Factors. 4.2 Lifestyle Factors as Determinants of CHD Risk in Populations. 4.3 Within Country Variations in Lifestyle and CHD Risk. 4.4 The Metabolic Syndrome. 4.5 Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes. 4.6 The TLC Diet. 4.7 Dietary Adjuncts: Viscous Fibers and Plant Sterol/Stanol Products. 4.8 Physical Activity and Weight Reduction. 4.9 Smoking Cessation. 4.10 Importance of Allied Health Professionals. Chapter 5 Management of Elevated Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol. 5.1 Relationship between LDL-C and Risk for Cardiovascular Events. 5.2 Clinical Trial Support for Very Aggressive LDL-C Reduction for Those at Highest Risk. 5.3 Genetic Disorders Associated with Elevated LDL-C. 5.4 Atherogenic Impact of LDL-C. 5.5 Management of Elevated LDL-C. Controversy: How Low Should We Go? Controversy: Risks and Benefits of High-Dose Statin Therapy Versus Combination Lipid Drug Therapy. Controversy: Do the Benefits of Low-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol Reduction Depend Strictly on "How Low You Go" or also on "How You Get There"? Chapter 6 Management of Elevated Triglycerides and Non-High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol. 6.1 Clinical Factors Associated with Elevated TG and Non- HDL-C Levels. 6.2 Disorders of TG-Rich Lipoprotein Clearance. 6.3 Insulin Resistance and Hypertriglyceridemia. 6.4 Excessive Production of VLDL: The Primary Lipid Abnormality in the Insulin-Resistant State. 6.5 Reasons for Elevated Free Fatty Acid Levels in Insulin- Resistant States. 6.6 Body Fat Distribution and Insulin Resistance. 6.7 Insulin Resistance in the Nonobese Patient. 6.8 Hypertriglyceridemia and the Development of Atherogenic Dyslipidemia. 6.9 Lifestyle Management for the Metabolic Syndrome and Atherogenic Dyslipidemia. 6.10 Drug Therapies. 6.11 Intensification of Efforts to Lower LDL-C as a Means of Achieving the Non-HDL-C Goal. 6.12 Targeting Triglyceride-Rich Lipoprotein Reduction as a Means of Achieving Non-HDL-C Goal. 6.13 Fibrates. 6.14 Niacin. 6.15 Omega-3 Fatty Acids. 6.16 Management of Diabetic Dyslipidemia. Controversy: Do we Need a Triglyceride Treatment Target to Insure a Predominance of Larger, More Buoyant LDLParticles? Chapter 7 Management of Depressed High-Density Lipoprotein Cholesterol. 7.1 The Relationship between HDL and Risk For CVD. 7.2 Prevalence of Low HDL-C. 7.3 Goals for HDL Treatment. 7.4 Antiatherogenic Effects of HDL. 7.5 HDL and Insulin Resistance. 7.6 Effects of Lifestyle Modification on Serum HDL. 7.7 Pharmacologic Management of Low HDL. Controversy: Do we Need HDL Treatment Goals? Chapter 8 Lipid Management in Population Subsets: Women, the Elderly, Ethnic Minorities, Children, and Adolescents. 8.1 Women. 8.2 Lipids in Women. 8.3 Treatment of Dyslipidemia in Women. 8.4 Sex Hormone Therapy, Lipids, and Cardiovascular Risk in Menopausal Women. 8.5 The Elderly. 8.6 Special Considerations for LipidManagement in the Elderly. 8.7 Ethnic Minorities. 8.8 Risk Factor Incidence and Prevalence in Ethnic Minority Groups. 8.9 Children and Adolescents. Chapter 9 Emerging Risk Factors and Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Disease. 9.1 Role of Inflammation in the Pathogenesis of Atherosclerosis. 9.2 Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Disease. Chapter 10 A Primer on Clinical Trials and Critical Review of Clinical Trial Reports for the Clinician. 10.1 Design Issues Affecting the Validity and Generalizability of Clinical Trial Results. 10.2 Chance, Bias, and Confounding as Potential Explanations for Trial Results. 10.3 Efficacy versus Effectiveness. 10.4 Useful Questions to ask when Evaluating a Published Clinical Trial Report. Chapter 11 Case Studies. Index.


1. Captopril was shown to be as effective as hydrochlorothiazide in lowering the blood pressure in patients with moderately severe essential hypertension. 2. With the combination of captopril and hydrochlorothiazide satisfactory control of blood pressure was maintained over 8 months. 3. Inhibition of angiotensin converting enzyme by captopril in man was associated with falls in plasma angiotensin II and urinary aldosterone and rises in angiotensin I and plasma renin. 4. No change in venous concentrations of bradykinin could be demonstrated during therapy. 5. Captopril attenuated the hyperaldosteronism and hypokalaemia associated with diuretic therapy.


The objective of this study is to prepare bilirubin-imprinted polymeric particles for the selective removal of bilirubin from hyperbilirubinemic human plasma. N-methacryloyl-(L)-tyrosine methylester (MAT) was chosen as the complexing monomer. In the first step, functional monomer MAT was synthesized by the reaction of L-tyrosine methylester and methacryloyl chloride and characterized by nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR). Bilirubin then was complexed with MAT and the bilirubin-imprinted poly(2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate-N-methacryloyl-(L)-tyrosine methylester) [MIP] was produced by bulk polymerization. The template molecules (i.e., bilirubin) then were removed using sodium carbonate and sodium hydroxide. MIP particles were characterized by elemental analysis, water uptake tests, Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy, and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Bilirubin adsorption experiments from human plasma were performed in a batch experimental setup. Cholesterol and testosterone were used as competing molecules in selectivity tests. Obtained results were as follows: the water uptake ratio of MIP and non-imprinted (NIP) particles were 64.7% and 51.3%, respectively, in water. According to the elemental analysis results, the incorporation of MAT was 69.0 μmol/g for MIP particles. SEM micrographs showed the surface roughness and porosity. The specific surface area of the MIP particles was determined to be 27.8 m 2 /g. The pore diameter of the MIP particles varied over a range of 20-245 A and the average pore diameter was 25.0 A. Template molecules (i.e., bilirubin) were removed from the polymer structure in the ratio of 87% of the initial concentration. Bilirubin adsorption increased as the bilirubin concentration increased, up to 0.8 mg/mL. The maximum bilirubin adsorption capacity was 3.4 mg/g of the dry weight of particles. MIP particles were 6.3 and 3.0 times more selective, with respect to the cholesterol and testosterone, respectively. Reusability of the MIP particles was also investigated. MIP particles showed a negligible loss in the bilirubin adsorption capacity after five adsorption-desorption cycles with the same adsorbent.


In 2007, the District Court for the Central District of California required the preservation of data stored in random access memory (RAM), which sparked significant commentary about the rapidly expanding realm of electronically-stored discoverable information. This Article addresses the impact of Columbia Pictures Industries v. Bunnell in the context of the duty to preserve and produce documents, and the scope of information that can be subject to e-discovery obligations. This Article also describes how the 2006 amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure provide a necessary limitation—reasonableness—on the costly and unrealistic preservation, and subsequent production, of electronic information. Furthermore, this Article discusses how Columbia Pictures Industries v. Bunnell, like several other recent federal court cases involving e-discovery, fits within a broader trend in e-discovery litigation that recognizes new forms of electronic information with the same limits of reasonableness. It closes by reviewing the important reminders given by Columbia Pictures Industries v. Bunnell, including future trends and the need for data retention policies. Table of


Substance use disorders (SUD) are some of the greatest challenges in clinical practice, because of their tendency to become chronic, to associate various complications, to decompensate underlying psychiatric or somatic disorders, to increase the hospitalization costs for any comorbid conditions etc. In this context, the case manager should be aware of the necessity for a multidisciplinary team that has to approach psychological, organic and social aspects of the SUD. A narrative review of the most evidence-based treatments for SUD is considered important as a reference for clinicians faced with SUD patients. The main dimensions of the therapeutic management suggested by this paper are: combined pharmacological and psychotherapeutic treatment is necessary; organic diseases should be evaluated and treated concomitantly with SUD; using psychological instruments is important for an objective monitoring of the clinical evolution; the involvement of a caregiver in the patient monitoring is strongly recommended, both on short and long term; particular care to pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic interactions of the recommended treatment is required; also, special consideration should be paid to the risk of overdose, adverse events and discontinuation risk for all the recommended drugs.


VERSION: September 2019 Existing research on self-management skills shows that measures of selfmanagement predict student success. However, these conclusions are based on small samples or narrowly defined self-management measures. Using a rich longitudinal dataset of 221,840 fourth through seventh grade students, this paper describes self-management gaps across student groups, and confirms, at a large scale, the predictive power of self-management for achievement gains, even with unusually rich controls for students' background, previous achievement, and measures of other social-emotional skills. Self-management is a better predictor of student learning than are other measures of socioemotional skills. Average growth in English language arts due to changing from a low to a high level of self-management is between 0.091 and 0.112 standard deviations, equivalent to almost 80 days of learning.


P2P applications deployment on MANETs is motivated by the popularity of these applications, coupled with the widespread use of mobile devices. P2P applications and MANETs have common features such as decentralization, self organization, and the absence of dedicated servers or infrastructure. The deployment often faces specific performance challenges resulting from topological overlay and underlay mismatch, limited bandwidth constraint and dynamic topology changes. Hierarchical MANETs are a special type of MANETs where some nodes have specific routing roles to allow inter- cluster communications. Such topologies (typical for tactical networks) render a successful P2P deployment more challenging. We developed a novel approach for P2P deployment in such networks by bringing topology-awareness into the overlay, mapping the underlay topology (structure) to the logical overlay and building a hierarchically-structured logical overlay on top of the hierarchical underlay. Simulation results demonstrated a significant performance advantage of our proposed deployment solution vs. a flat logical overlay using different configurations and mobility scenarios.


What, and how, can "revolution" mean in the Global South in the decades after the end of the Cold War? Lusophone author José Eduardo Agualusa's 2002 novel The Year that Zumbi Took Rio stages an imagined violent revolution in the marginalized, racialized communities of Rio de Janeiro through the collaboration of Angolan and Brazilian subjects multiply displaced by war, racism and other forms of social violence. The novel's narrative frame revolves around retelling the story of the messianic figure of Zumbi dos Palmares, the seventeenth-century maroon king of the city of Palmares, located in the Brazilian hinterland, who leads the city's final failed uprising against Portuguese and Dutch colonialists. In the Zumbi mythology, the Afro-Brazilian figure's eventual return will initiate a new revolutionary cycle, vindicating the community's fall. This article calls upon Boaventura de Sousa Santos's notion of "epistemologies of the South," a proposal to outline the possibilities of "intercultural translation"; such a project operates in the cracks of hierarchical boundaries that restrict the circulation of knowledge reinforced through organizing concepts such as nationalism, colonialism and racism. This essay, accordingly, traces the possibilities offered by both geographical and temporal displacement in Agualusa's novel as offering a model for the ways in which these "epistemologies of the South" might map productive modes of South-South exchange.


An analysis of nationally representative panel data from rural Mexico, with observations in years 2002, 2007, and 2010, suggests that the same shift out of farm work that characterized U.S. labor history is well underway in Mexico. Meanwhile, the demand for agricultural labor in Mexico is rising. In the future, U.S. agriculture will compete with Mexican farms for a dwindling supply of farm labor. Since U.S. domestic workers are unwilling to do farm work and the United States can feasibly import farm workers from only a few countries in close geographic proximity, the agricultural industry will eventually need to adjust production to use less labor. The decline in foreign labor supply to farms in the United States ultimately will need to be accompanied by farm labor conservation, switching to less labor intensive crops and technologies, and labor management practices that match fewer workers with more farm jobs. Copyright 2012, Oxford University Press.


The planthopper family Delphacidae is a speciose lineage of phloem‐feeding insects, with many species considered as pests of economic significance on essential world food commodities (including rice, maize, wheat, barley and sugar cane). Despite their economic importance, evolutionary relationships among delphacids, particularly those within the speciose tribe Delphacini, are largely unknown. Presented here are the results of a phylogenetic investigation of Delphacidae based on DNA nucleotide sequence data from four genetic loci (18S rDNA, 28S rDNA, wingless and cytochrome oxidase I) and 132 coded morphological characters. The resulting topologies are used to test the higher classification of Delphacidae and to examine evolutionary patterns in host–plant associations. Our results generally support the higher classifications of Delphacidae proposed by Asche, Emeljanov and Hamilton, and suggest that the rapid diversification of the Delphacini was associated with host shifts to, and within, Poaceae, and specifically from C3 to C4 grasses.


This article scrutinizes the much used, but less examined, concept of 'trickle down' in an urban setting. We make a distinction between the production of and distribution in the city, and argue that trickle down in contemporary urban policy could be regarded as the liberal link between production and distribution. Based on interviews with key figures and document analyses, we look at the transformation of the Swedish city of Malmo from an industrial to a post-industrial city, where, during the last two decades, we have found three concurrent components: the ideology of trickle down; several urban policy programs and governmental policies to 'make' money and resources trickle down; as well as increased economic polarization and segregation. A liberal critique of trickle down would argue that market mechanisms cannot by themselves solve distribution, and that government policies therefore are needed. We argue for the need to go beyond a liberal critique of trickle down and stress how unequal distribution is built into the unequal production of the city.


Natural gas obtained during the extraction of liquid hydrocarbons is often undesired due to the lack of infrastructure to transport the natural gas to an onshore location. As a result the natural gas is often flared causing economic waste and environmental concern. It would therefore be desirable to either convert the natural gas into some other substance which can be transported easily, or transport the natural gas in a liquid state. In that way, new field development will be more financially viable through the use of the extensive infrastructure and technology already in place in the offshore industry for transporting liquid hydrocarbons. It is considered that one feasible way of utilising offshore produced natural gas, is to convert it into synthetic gas (syngas) which can in turn be used to produce gases and fluids such as methanol, ammonia or a synthetic crude oil that can be readily pumped through the same pipelines as the produced oil. For the production of synthetic gas, membrane technology presents an attractive advantage improving conversion efficiency by operating as catalyst support, which then also increases the catalyst dispersion, resulting in optimal catalyst load and complete consumption of oxygen and methane in the partial oxidation. In the present investigation, an enhanced catalyst-dispersed ceramic membrane for low-cost synthesis gas production suitable for gas-to-liquids has been prepared, characterised and tested in a self-designed membrane reactor. The effect of temperature and feed flow rates has been studied and a kinetic model has been developed. In the novel membrane reactor, an active porous layer is located on both sides facing the oxygen and methane containing gas, adjacent is a second active porous layer and is supported by layers with increasing pore radii. Here the active porous layer on the bore side enhances the reaction between permeated oxygen and fuel species. In this study, it has also been demonstrated that the oxygen is activated prior to contacting the methane inside the membrane. This often results in 100% oxygen conversion, CO selectivity higher than 96% and syngas ratio (1-1/2 C O) of 2.2 to 1.8. Another advantage of the developed membrane system is that it can be used in high temperatures (> 1273.15K) and high pressure (80bars) processes with no variation on the flow rates, due to the mechanical strength of the ceramic support used.


Differential-K theory, when applied to the study of anxiety disorders, predicts that slower life history (LH) racial groups exhibit higher levels of trait anxiety and worry, and higher prevalence of anxiety disorders, as both LH and anxiety experiences are future oriented. We predict that slower LH racial groups will exhibit an especially high prevalence of those anxiety disorders in which: (A) A central symptom is excessive worry rather than the anxious emotion only, as worry is an effortful cognitive phenomenon that involves mentally scrutinizing longer-term future threats and solutions; and (B) The central source of concern is social interactions, as the long-term maintenance of social relationships is one of the hallmarks of slow LH. We conducted an extensive search in international databases of scientific publications, with selection criteria chosen to reduce the possible effect of methods variance in the design and language of psychometric instruments and protocols, as well as variance in psychological health services and sociopolitical conditions. In line with the evolutionary hypothesis, Whites exhibited a higher prevalence of worry-related and sociality-related anxiety disorders than African-Americans and Latinos. Self-report data on worry and social anxiety traits further supported the evolutionary hypothesis, with Northeast Asians reporting the highest average scores. Importantly however, Blacks exhibited higher rates of post-traumatic stress disorder, a stressor-related condition, lending partial support to the social psychology hypothesis. We review and discuss racial differences in propensity to seek professional help when experiencing distress, in emotional expression to health care workers, and in the validity of psychometric measures, and conclude they are unlikely explanations for the identified race differences. Future studies that test the evolutionary hypothesis on differences among populations within these broad racial groupings are necessary to further examine the predictive power of this theory.


The progress made in friction compensation in robotics was concentrated on friction losses in the actuated joints. The newly emerging parallel manipulators however, possess considerable number of passive joints. This paper discusses the influence of passive joint friction (PJF) in robot's dynamics and its impact on control performance. It gives a basic framework on the modeling, the detection of such phenomena and provides experimental examples achieved on a spatial parallel robot. All proposed methods do not require additional sensors and use only the actuators for detection and compensation. Due to its dependency on the robot's configuration, even small magnitudes of PJF can affect the system's behavior, especially at unfavorable configurations.


The problem of capital allocation to a set of strategies could be partially avoided or at least greatly simplified with an appropriate strategy approval decision process. This paper proposes such a procedure. We begin by splitting the capital allocation problem into two sequential stages: strategy approval and portfolio optimization. Then we argue that the goal of the second stage is to beat a naive benchmark, and the goal of the first stage is to identify which strategies improve the performance of such a naive benchmark. We believe that this is a sensible approach, as it does not leave all the work to the optimizer, thus adding robustness to the final outcome. We introduce the concept of the Sharpe ratio indifference curve, which represents the space of pairs (candidate strategy's Sharpe ratio, candidate strategy's correlation to the approved set) for which the Sharpe ratio of the expanded approved set remains constant. We show that selecting strategies (or portfolio managers) solely based on past Sharpe ratio will lead to suboptimal outcomes, particularly when we ignore the impact that these decisions will have on the average correlation of the portfolio. Our strategy approval theorem proves that, under certain circumstances, it is entirely possible for firms to improve their overall Sharpe ratio by hiring portfolio managers with negative expected performance. Finally, we show that these results have important practical business implications with respect to the way investment firms hire, layoff and structure payouts.


This document is one of a collection that together describes the
Registration Data Access Protocol (RDAP). It describes how RDAP is
transported using the Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP). RDAP is a
successor protocol to the very old WHOIS protocol. The purpose of this
document is to clarify the use of standard HTTP mechanisms for this
application.


Non-photorealistic rendering (NPR) algorithms are used to produce stylized images, e.g., in a painted or stippled style. This thesis presents a new family of automatic methods for effects and styles including halftoning, screening, stippling, line art, and mosaics. Our proposed algorithms are motivated by perceptual effects including contrast and similarity to present structure preservation. Meanwhile, the novelty also shows in exploring primitives in distribution for our NPR algorithms.
First, we propose a novel contrast-aware error diffusion algorithm based on a priority-based scheme,
called Prioritized Contrast-based Error Diffusion (CED), to generate stylized imagery. The core idea of this technique is to implicitly and progressively preserve the original tendency in contrast. This method generates halftoning with a success in similarities for tone, structure, and contrast, and with good visual appearance. We extend Prioritized CED with variations on masks and priority configuration to create screening style with non-uniform patterns. To apply Prioritized CED to stippling generation, we design a new modification to the contrast-aware error distribution to provide
density control in dot distribution. A set of varied stippling styles are produced. Thanks to the good structure preservation, all resulting effects are quite good. We also propose a technique of pixel clustering and employ skeletonization for generation of line art with long strokes. Pixel clustering produces long lines by processing a set of pixels, which align along the edge guidance from a smoothed bilateral filter on an edge tangent field (ETF). Skeletonization captures large-scale structure of an image. We can create simplified line art with clean and elegant visual appearance.
Second, we propose a novel automatic approach to construct an artistic tessellation (AT) through the growth of curves in a particle system. The core idea is to present similarity, and in addition, to consider spatial balance during curve growth. The AT method is applied to create natural and abstract patterns. The further exploration guided by a bilateral smoothed ETF from an image can simulate stained-glass mosaics.


In this paper, a Linear Active Disturbance Rejection Control (LADRC) scheme is presented for the uncertain first order delay time plant. The stable boundary is obtained, which make the tuning process very easy. The controller can be applied to a plant with large time delay. The uncertainty of the system is characterised by the Kharitonov theorem and the gain–phase margin tester approach, combined with the D–partition method, is utilised to determine specific performance boundaries. The analysis is conducted graphically and the feasible regions are explicitly shown in the parameter plane. Numerical simulation is provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed controller.


Abstract The detection of nucleated red blood cells (NRBCs) in blood of patients suffering from a variety of severe diseases is known to be highly associated with increased mortality. Blood analyzers to routinely measure NRBC concentrations are now available. However, the diagnostic and prognostic significance of this parameter for intensive care patients has not been evaluated. Using a Sysmex XE-2100 analyzer, NRBC concentrations were determined in blood samples from 421 patients treated in intensive care units (general and accident surgery, cardiothoracic surgery, and internal medicine) of a university hospital. NRBCs were found at least once in 19.2% of all patients. The mortality of NRBC-positive patients (n = 81) was 42.0% (n = 34); this was significantly higher (p < 0.001) than the mortality of NRBC-negative patients (5.9%, n = 340). The NRBC concentration was 115 ± 4 × 106/l (median 40 × 106/l; range 20–2930 × 106/l) at initial detection of NRBCs in the blood. Mortality increased with increasing NRBC concentration and increasing frequency of occurrence. With regard to in-hospital mortality, NRBCs in blood showed sensitivity and specificity of 63.0% and 87.2%, respectively. The detection of NRBCs is highly predictive of death, the odds ratio after adjustment for other laboratory prognostic indicators being 1.01 (p < 0.01) for each increase in the NRBC concentration of +1 × 106/l. NRBCs were detected for the first time, on average, 13 days (median 8 days) before death. The routine analysis of NRBCs in blood is of high prognostic power with regard to in-hospital mortality of critically ill patients. Therefore, this parameter may serve as an early indicator for patients at increased mortality risk.


We introduce an expansion of the Rishon Model to cover quark generations, (including a previously unnoticed one), provide an explanation for T and V as a topologically convenient moniker representing aspects of phase and polarity within knots (of for example String Theory), and explain particle decay in terms of simple ``phase transform" rules. We identify all current particles (with the exception of ``Top") including the gluon, the Bosons and the Higgs, purely in terms of the underlying mechanism which topologically can be considered to be Rishons. All this is predicated on the simple assumption that all particles in effect photons phase-locked in a repeating pattern inherently obeying Maxwell's equations, in symbiotic support of their own outwardly-propagating electro-magnetic synchotronic radiation, and that Rishons represent a phase ``measurement" (real or imaginary) at key strategic points on the photon's path.


This book is based on the very popular international publication (Crezee, 2013) and has been supplemented with Spanish glossaries. Just like the 2013 textbook, this practical resource will allow interpreters and translators to quickly read up on healthcare settings, familiarizing themselves with anatomy, physiology, medical terminology and frequently encountered conditions, diagnostic tests and treatment options. It is an exceptionally useful and easily accessible handbook, in particular for interpreters, translators, educators and other practitioners working between Spanish and English. A special chapter on the US insurance system adds even more value for those in the US. The extensive English-Spanish glossaries will be very useful to Spanish speaking practitioners, and may also be beneficial to those working with other Romance languages, as the Spanish terms may serve as a trigger to help identify cognates. Where terms are most commonly used in a particular part of the Spanish speaking world, an abbreviation has been added to indicate which country it may be found in. This helps ensure that terms reflect usage in different parts of the Americas, and also in Spain.


Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the lung epithelial atypical changes (if any), which might be associated with continuous exposure to air pollution resulting from motor vehicles maintenance. Methodology: This is a case control study, investigated 250 participants by cytological methods. Of the 250 participants, 200 were cases exposed to vehicle maintenance emissions air pollution and 50 were controls (non-exposed). Early morning expectorated sputum specimen was obtained and cytologically assessed. Results: Cytological atypia was identified in 7 (3.5%) out of the 200 cases and could not be identified in 193 (96.5%) cases, whereas, in the control group, cytological atypia was not found. The risk of cytological atypia, which is associated with exposure to vehicle maintenance emissions air pollution, the 95% confidence interval (95% CI) and relative risk (RR); RR=3.9 (0.2199 to 69.7010), P=0.3529. Metaplasia was identified among 26 (13%) cases and 2/50 (4%) in the controls. The risk of metaplasia that is associated with exposure to vehicle maintenance emissions air pollution, the 95% CI and RR=3.5 (0.8218 to 15.649), P=0.0893. Conclusion: The exposure to vehicle maintenance air pollution increases the risk of lung epithelial atypical changes, which may develop in to precancerous and cancerous changes.


Information literacy instruction and teaching is among the increasing variety of roles which librarians undertake (Vassilakaki & Moniarou-Papaconstantinou, 2015). However, as teaching development is a missing component in the majority of library courses, many in the profession learn skills when in post (Levene & Frank, 1993; Alabi & Weare, 2014). Apart from learning by doing, approaches to in- job development can include training programmes, short courses and a range of other methods including colleague shadowing, professional reading, speaking at library conferences and peer observation of teaching (Bewick & Corrall, 2010). In this article we concentrate on peer observation, which is a popular development tool (Bell & Mladenovic, 2008), explore its use in libraries, and reflect on our personal experience of participating in a reciprocal peer observation arrangement newly introduced to our team which has responsibility for Information Literacy skills teaching.


The study examines the production of sentences describing motion in L2 learners, focusing on progress in learning verbal constructions, i.e. pairings of verbs of motion and their compatible syntactic frames in English and French. This is an important issue because verbs that are translational equivalents in the two languages do not necessarily share syntactic frames. Following the idea that the overall meaning of a verb is composed of its core meaning and structural meaning, we expected that after associating translational equivalents from L1 and L2, language learners would progressively associate L2 syntactic frames to the core meaning of the verb. However, this was only true for learners of French. Learners of English did not show improvement in sentence production corresponding to their proficiency level.


New and alarming evidence has been published by Trivelpiece et al. recently about the reduction of the populations of Adélie (Pygoscelis adeliae) and chinstrap penguins (Pygoscelis antarctica) in the West Antarctic Peninsula/Scotia Sea area. According to this scientific paper, Adélie and chinstrap penguin populations have declined more than 50% during the last 30 years at study colonies in the South Shetland Islands. This is consistent with the declines in both species throughout the Scotia Sea. Trivelpiece et al. argue that the reduction of the populations of both species could be attributed to changes in the abundance of their main prey, Antarctic krill, which is affected by climate change. In this context, CCAMLR should keep a precautionary approach in the management of the krill fishery to reduce significant impacts on these species. CM 51-07 should be maintained until sufficient information is acquired for its revision.


The main objective of the research is to analyze and highlight forms of support for agriculture and rural development used in Republic of Moldova and to underline their impact on agrifood competitiveness. For this purpose the main directions of the State agricultural subsidy program have been considered, as well as the programs financed by donor's community, including, European Union, World Bank, international Fund for Agricultural Development, United State Agency for International Development, Millennium Challenge Corporation and others. As result of this research had been established that Republic of Moldova has a number of sources of funding and support programs for agriculture and rural development, but their impact remains insufficient to ensure a good international competitiveness. In this context, during the process of the agricultural support policies and programs development, the priorities and needs of the sector have to be considered, and transparent and simple criteria have to be elaborated in such way to facilitate the access of farmers to existing sources of support.


Early maturity during tilapia culture is a recurring problem. To avoid this, a series of techniques have been developed, including the production of YY-males. This technique involves the use of hormones to produce phenotypic females (XY genotype). However, incomplete transformations are frequently observed and the produced atypical feminized males (AFM) could display an ambiguity in the phenotypic expression of behavioral patterns. The aim of this study was to measure the frequency and intensity of aggressive behavior as well as the role that initial residence plays when involving three phenotypes (males, females and AFM). The experiment consisted of three stages. Resident fish were AFM in the first stage, males in the second and females in the third. In each stage the resident fish confronted males, females and AFM acting as intruders. Aggressive behavior was exercised more frequently by resident fish. Intersexual confrontations showed higher levels of aggression compared to intrasexual confrontations. The frequency of confrontations was not significantly different in confrontations involving AFM, however, differences were observed in intensity of aggression. It is possible that an incomplete transformation at physiological level could be responsible for an inaccurate decoding of signal during confrontations.


Fossil resources are rapidly depleting, forcing researchers in various fields of chemistry and materials science to switch to the use of renewable sources and the development of corresponding technologies. In this regard, the field of sustainable materials science is experiencing an extraordinary surge of interest in recent times due to the significant advances made in the development of new polymers with desired and controllable properties. This review summarizes important scientific reports in recent times dedicated to the synthesis, construction and computational studies of novel sustainable polymeric materials containing unchanged (pseudo)aromatic furan cores in their structure. Linear polymers for thermoplastics, branched polymers for thermosets and other crosslinked materials are emerging materials to highlight. Various polymer blends and composites based on sustainable polyfurans are also considered as pathways to achieve high-value-added products.


The domes communicate with the surrounding context, they irradiate in the landscape qualities that should be studied regardless of the response of the individual user. The issue here is tackled by approaching the phenomenon from a scientific point of view and by analysing the causative reasons of the subjective experience on the basis of documented results. Having determined an incident and reflected solar radiation equation for oblique surfaces which can be applied to a model of spherical tiled dome, the calculated powers were diagrammed on a vertical section plane. Despite the limitations due to the simplifications, the results provide indications which can shape the logic of a design plan capable of accounting for the existential sensitivity of landscape markers


We consider the point process of signal strengths from transmitters in a wireless network observed from a fixed position under models with general signal path loss and random propagation effects. We show via coupling arguments that under general conditions this point process of signal strengths can be well-approximated by an inhomogeneous Poisson or a Cox point processes on the positive real line. We also provide some bounds on the total variation distance between the laws of these point processes and both Poisson and Cox point processes. Under appropriate conditions, these results support the use of a spatial Poisson point process for the underlying positioning of transmitters in models of wireless networks, even if in reality the positioning does not appear Poisson. We apply the results to a number of models with popular choices for positioning of transmitters, path loss functions, and distributions of propagation effects.


Spectroscopic chemical classification based on adaptive, feature-specific measurements has been implemented and demonstrated to provide significant performance gain over traditional systems. The measurement scheme and the decision model are discussed. A prototype system with a digital micro-mirror device as the adaptive element has been constructed and validates the theoretical findings and simulation results.


Robust Control of Robots bridges the gap between robust control theory and applications, with a special focus on robotic manipulators. It is divided into three parts: robust control of regular, fully-actuated robotic manipulators;robust post-failure control of robotic manipulators; androbust control of cooperative robotic manipulators.In each chapter the mathematical concepts are illustrated with experimental results obtained with a two-manipulator system. They are presented in enough detail to allow readers to implement the concepts in their own systems, or in Control Environment for Robots, a MATLAB-based simulation program freely available from the authors. The target audience for Robust Control of Robots includes researchers, practicing engineers, and graduate students interested in implementing robust and fault tolerant control methodologies to robotic manipulators.


Objectives To assess the effectiveness of a brief behavioural intervention based on routine antenatal weighing to prevent excessive gestational weight gain (defined by US Institute of Medicine). Design Randomised controlled trial. Setting Antenatal clinic in England. Participants Women between 10+0 and 14+6 weeks gestation, not requiring specialist obstetric care. Interventions Participants were randomised to usual antenatal care or usual care (UC) plus the intervention. The intervention involved community midwives weighing women at antenatal appointments, setting maximum weight gain limits between appointments and providing brief feedback. Women were encouraged to monitor and record their own weight weekly to assess their progress against the maximum limits set by their midwife. The comparator was usual maternity care. Primary and secondary outcome measures Excessive gestational weight gain, depression, anxiety and physical activity. Results Six hundred and fifty-six women from four maternity centres were recruited: 329 women were randomised to the intervention group and 327 to UC. We found no evidence that the intervention decreased excessive gestational weight gain. At 38 weeks gestation, the proportions gaining excessive gestational weight were 27.6% (81/305) versus 28.9% (90/311) (adjusted OR 0.84, 95% CI: 0.53 to 1.33) in the intervention and UC group, respectively. There were no significant difference between the groups in anxiety or depression scores (anxiety: adjusted mean −0.58, 95% CI:−1.25 to –0.8; depression: adjusted mean −0.60, 95% CI:−1.24 to –0.05). There were no significant differences in physical activity scores between the groups. Conclusions A behavioural intervention delivered by community midwives involving routine weighing throughout pregnancy, setting maximum weight gain targets and encouraging women to weigh themselves each week to check progress did not prevent excessive gestational weight gain. There was no evidence of psychological harm. Trial registration number ISRCTN67427351


Over the last five years there has been a noticeable shift in focus among leading oil and gas companies active in the continent of Africa. Rather than focusing on West and North Africa for investment opportunities, there has been a move to explore new prospects in East Africa. The region is rapidly becoming a prominent investment destination in both the upstream and downstream oil sectors. In 2011 several majors including BG, Eni and Petrobras, are planning to sink wells and all of them are investing significant amounts in search of deepwater gas reserves. Alongside these exploration initiatives the author assesses plans for a new pipeline with a capacity of 450,000 barrels a day, to be constructed from Juba in Southern Sudan to Lamu on the Kenyan coast. Increasingly, as the author notes, the region is emerging as a significant location for investment in hydrocarbon resources.


When it comes to analyzing TCP data and extracting the information in such a way that it becomes viewable, there are a couple of tools that can be used. One of them is TCPTrace. TCPTrace is used to analyze special dump files created from programs such as tcpdump, snoop and WinDump. TCPTrace became published for a broader public in the late 1996 by Shawn Ostermann. Since then functionalities, changes and fixes have been implemented for example the extension to create graphs and trace UDP packets. From the dump files a trace will be done, and depending on the input from the user, TCPTrace can present this information in a number of ways such as plain text, trace files and graphs, depending on the amount of information the user is looking for. The extensive information traced will be viewed and divided for each connection found. For each connection, information such as retransmits, throughput, round trip times, bytes and packets sent and received etc. can be presented.This project came to be, since there has been a desire to see a tool for SCTP that provides the same functionalities as TCPTrace. The project, called SCTPTrace, aimed to implement as much of the previous TCP functionalities as possible for the SCTP protocol.


New accounting standards require ¯rms to expense the costs of option-based compensation (OBC), but the associated valuations o®er many challenges for ¯rms. Earlier research has documented that ¯rms in the U.S. generally underreport the values of OBC by manipulating the inputs used for valuation purposes. This paper examines the values of OBC disclosed by Danish ¯rms. The results suggest that ¯rms experi ence some di±culties in valuing OBC, but interestingly, there is no clear evidence of deliberate underreporting. For example, there is no evidence that ¯rms use manipulated values for the Black-Scholes parameters in their valuations. Furthermore, ¯rms determine the expected time to maturity in a way that is generally consistent with the guidelines provided by the new accounting standards. The ¯ndings di®er from those of the U.S., but is consistent with the more limited use of OBC and the lower level of attention paid to these values in Denmark. However, the di®erences can also be due to the fact that several Danish ¯rms do not provide the information required regarding their OBC, which is clearly a very e®ective way of hiding the true values.


Enterprise resources planning (ERP) systems attract many attentions from industry sector because of their ability to facilitate and integrate the enterprise operations. However, many expenses accompany the implementation of these systems and consecutive changes which doing a precise and comprehensive performance evaluation a necessary part of this process. These evaluations should consider operational and technical aspects of ERP systems to reflect the effectiveness of them toward the organization's requirements. In this paper, a two-stage data envelopment analysis model (DEA) is presented in order to evaluate the efficiency of ERP systems in such a way that the operational and the technical aspect are evaluated in the first stage and the second stage of DEM model, respectively. Based on the obtained results the ERP systems' functionality and customizability to the client processes are the two key features that need to be considered by the providers. Furthermore, the findings of parameter sensitivity analysis of the proposed model provide deep and managerial insights into the further usability improvements of ERP systems.


Tim Noakes is one of the world's leading authorities on the science behind sport and a successful sportsman in his own right. Through a lifetime of research, he has developed key scientific concepts in sport that have not only redefined the way elite athletes and teams approach their professions, but challenged conventional global thinking in these areas. In this new and updated edition of Challenging Beliefs, Noakes shares his views on everything from the myths perpetuated by the sports-drink industry to the prevalence of banned substances, the need to make rugby a safer sport and the benefits of a high-protein, low-carb diet. The teams and athletes with whom Noakes has worked make fascinating backdrops to these topics, highlighting the importance of science in sport in human terms. In providing an intimate look at the golden threads running through Noakes's life and career, this remarkable book reveals the landmark theories and principles generated by one of the greatest minds in the history of sports science.