In the last years China has recognized the environment as an economically valuable good, thus promoting sustainable economic development. Among the young people, this principle is spread by creating awareness through Environmental Education (EE) in schools. Although high on the agenda, the implementation of EE is restricted by a lack of finance and know-how so that Chinese schools benefit from foreign assistance. The focus of this paper is to evaluate the situation of EE in Chinese schools and to test the adaptability of a German EE strategy in China. For this purpose, the need patterns of different categories of schools concerning the contents and the implementation of EE are analyzed. These need patterns are then contrasted with the contents and concept of the German EE strategy. The restrictions in adaptability as well as the necessary adaptations of the German strategy are concluded and laid down accordingly. Together with an outline of possible project partners, these findings are put together to form four different project proposals for EE projects in Chinese schools.


The Water-Energy-Food Nexus has been promoted by a number of prominent and influential global policy actors over the last couple of years. Increasingly, the concept has emerged as a major research, policy and planning instrument to govern and address demand and supply challenges across four main development sectors: water, energy, food and ecosystems. These sectors are often considered within an interdependent relationship and intertwined framework for balancing tradeoffs and identifying synergies and opportunities. This article frames the water-energy-food nexus as a crucial policy and planning instrument for strengthening cross-sector interactions and highlights the opportunities and challenges for doing so. The article is divided into four main sections. The first section describes the major linkages between water and energy and shows that the links between water and energy goes far beyond where water and energy are needed for each other. The second section describes other nexus dimensions beyond water and energy to include dimensions such as food, ecosystems and climate change for example. The key challenges in pursuing the nexus perspective in integrated planning and management of natural resources are presented in the third section and lastly, as a way of concluding, the article outlines some of the measures that are needed to operationalize the nexus perspective. Considering the implications of this analysis for the implementation of SDGs would be an important undertaking going forward for the operations of development agencies and the means of ensuring that the interdependences among sectors are taken into account in policy formulation and implementation.


When most Software Engineers think of software process assessment and improvement, images of high paid consultants, byzantine process frameworks, and expensive audits come to mind. Established process frameworks, such as the Capability Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), are focused primarily on external certification and less on internal process improvement. Software process assessment and improvement need not be a heavyweight and burdensome endeavor. The best software organizations make process improvement an integral part of their organizational development and culture. The approach outlined in this paper describes a lightweight software process assessment and improvement approach that is practical, customizable, and can be implemented with reasonable effort. This approach is particularly relevant for smaller software organizations, which bear the costs of software process improvement (SPI) disproportionately. For most software organizations, the value and benefit of assessing organizational maturity is in identifying tangible process improvement initiatives based upon well-established Software Engineering best practices. Considerable research has been conducted over the past 40 years into the practices that yield the biggest return on investment in regards to defect removal efficiency and developer productivity. Some of the most comprehensive research has been conducted by Capers Jones of Software Productivity Research (SPR). SPR has compiled a large database measuring the relative effectiveness of most common software practices. This data forms the basis of the software process assessment and improvement approach proposed in this paper.


Since the first demonstration of organic photovoltaic devices much progress has been made. Organic solar cells reach now power conversion efficiencies of up to 3% over the solar spectrum. The morphology of the active film is very important for efficient devices. Films spin-coated from blend solutions phase separate. The scale of the phase separation depends on the solvent, solubility of the materials and parameters of the spin-coating process such as speed, temperature, etc. If the morphology could be controlled on a molecular scale the efficiency of charge separation and transport could be expected to be substantially higher. The use of discotic liquid crystalline materials might help to reach this goal, because of their capacity to self-organise into columnar stacks. In this work we describe photovoltaic devices made with discotic liquid crystalline hexabenzocoronene and perylene dye molecules. Thin films have been produced by spin coating blends directly from solution. Devices with an external quantum efficiency (incident photon to current efficiency) of up to 34% at monochromatic illumination at 490 nm have been achieved with a blend of hexaphenyl-substituted hexabenzocoronene (HBC-PhC 12 ) and a perylene diimide. Photovoltaic devices with other hexabenzocoronene derivatives as hole conductor show lower efficiencies. We attribute the lower device performance of the latter to the different film morphology occurring from spin coating of these materials. The aim of this work is to exploit the advantageous self-organising properties of HBC-perylene blends for solar cells.


Purpose: This study attempted to determine whether there is a localized effect of GSM (Global System for Mobile communications) microwaves by studying the Auditory Evoked Potentials (AEP) recorded at the scalp of nine healthy subjects and six epileptic patients. Materials and methods: We determined the influence of GSM RadioFrequency (RF) on parameters characterizing the AEP in time or/and frequency domains. A parameter selection method using SVM (Support Vector Machines)-based criteria allowed us to estimate those most altered by the radiofrequencies. The topography of the parameter modifications was computed to determine the localization of the radiofrequency influence. A statistical test was conducted for selected scalp areas, in order to determine whether there were significant localized alterations due to the RF. Results: The epileptic patients showed a lengthening of the scalp component N100 (100 ms latency) in the frontal area contralateral to the radiation, which may be due to an afferent tract alteration. For the healthy subjects, an amplitude increase of the P200 wave (200 ms latency) was identified in the frontal area. Conclusions: The present study suggests that radiofrequency fields emitted by mobile phones modify the AEP. Nevertheless, no direct link between these findings and RF-induced damages in brain function was established.


Multiple-scattering correction factors for cirrus particle extinction coefficients measured with Raman and high spectral resolution lidars are calculated with a radiative-transfer model. Cirrus particle-ensemble phase functions are computed from single-crystal phase functions derived in a geometrical-optics approximation. Seven crystal types are considered. In cirrus clouds with height-independent particle extinction coefficients the general pattern of the multiple-scattering parameters has a steep onset at cloud base with values of 0.5-0.7 followed by a gradual and monotonic decrease to 0.1-0.2 at cloud top. The larger the scattering particles are, the more gradual is the rate of decrease. Multiple-scattering parameters of complex crystals and of imperfect hexagonal columns and plates can be well approximated by those of projected-area equivalent ice spheres, whereas perfect hexagonal crystals show values as much as 70% higher than those of spheres. The dependencies of the multiple-scattering parameters on cirrus particle spectrum, base height, and geometric depth and on the lidar parameters laser wavelength and receiver field of view, are discussed, and a set of multiple-scattering parameter profiles for the correction of extinction measurements in homogeneous cirrus is provided.


We model a Systemically Important Financial Institution (SIFI) that is too big (or too interconnected) to fail. Without credible regulation and strong supervision, the shareholders of this institution might deliberately let its managers take excessive risk. We propose a solution to this problem, showing how insurance against systemic shocks can be provided without generating moral hazard. The solution involves levying a systemic tax needed to cover the costs of future crises and more importantly establishing a Systemic Risk Authority endowed with special resolution powers, including the control of bankers' compensation packages during crisis periods.


Bird ingestion has been a hazard that affects the structural integrity and survivability of turbofan engines. It can result in deformation of one or more fan blades, in which case, the engine is likely to surge and not recover. Numerical studies and simulations of bird strikes have become essential to optimize the design of engine components simultaneously to increase the engine capabilities for acceptable damage tolerance. Good understanding of these phenomena and the implications on the behaviour of the flow field with respect to the damage affecting the fan blades are usually investigated using computational techniques and/or experimental methods. The purpose of this paper is to present a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) method for the analysis of the aerodynamic behaviour of an aero-engine fan affected by a bird strike. NASA rotor 67 was used as a test case because of the availability of experimental data that can be used to calibrate the model for the undamaged fan. The undamaged fan characteristic was mapped using a modification to the methodology developed by Sayma (2007). In this method a downstream variable throttle is added which allows changing the operating point on the speed characteristic without having to change downstream boundary conditions. This approach allows for changes in fan operating point to come out of the calculation as opposed to those dictated by the downstream static pressure boundary conditions used in typical computations. The methodology is automated allowing for a sweep along a speed characteristic or along a working line in one calculation in the same way as a rig test is conducted. Agreement with experimental data when available was excellent. This provided the base line for the undamaged blades. A damaged blade was inserted among undamaged blades in the fan assembly and the fan characteristic was mapped for a range of rotational speeds. Two different degrees of damage were analysed in an attempt to establish a correlation between the extent of the damage and the locus of the stall boundary. It was found that small increments on the damage lead to significant reduction in stall margin particularly at higher rotational speeds.


The tammar wallaby (Macropus eugenii) is a model marsupial that has recently had its genome sequenced to a depth of 2-fold coverage. Although this is a great resource for comparative genomic studies, information on gene location is essential if this resource is to be used to its full potential. In this study, tammar wallaby bacterial artificial chromosomes (BACs) containing key immune genes were isolated from the tammar wallaby BAC library. BACs containing T cell receptor (TCR) and immunoglobulin (Ig) genes were physically mapped using fluorescence in situ hybridisation (FISH) to tammar wallaby chromosomes. Congruence between the locations of these immune genes in the tammar wallaby genome, with those predicted from chromosome painting data, highlights the conservation of genomic context of these important immune genes in marsupials. The isolation and mapping of these key immune genes in the tammar wallaby will aid in the assembly of the recently sequenced light coverage genome and assignment of sequence to chromosomes.


Background: The CYP2D6 enzyme is involved in the metabolism of numerous psychopharmacological drugs. Guidelines recommend how to adjust the dose of medication based on the CYP2D6 genotype. Aims: To evaluate the effect of dose adjustment to the CYP2D6 genotype and phenotype, in patients with severe mental illness (SMI) already receiving psychopharmacological treatment. Methods: A total of 269 psychiatric patients (on the island Curaçao) receiving antipsychotic treatment were genotyped for CYP2D6. Of these, 45 patients were included for dose adjustment according to the clinical guideline of the Royal Dutch Association for the Advancement of Pharmacy, i.e., 17 CYP2D6 poor metabolizers, 26 intermediate metabolizers, and 2 ultrarapid metabolizers. These 45 patients were matched for age, gender, and type of medication with a control group of 41 patients who were CYP2D6 extensive metabolizers (i.e., with a normal CYP2D6 function). At baseline and at 4 months after dose adjustment, subjective experience, psychopathology, extrapyramidal side-effects, quality of life, and global functioning were assessed in these two groups. Results: At baseline, there were no differences between the groups regarding the prescribed dosage of antipsychotics, the number of side-effects, psychiatric symptoms, global functioning, or quality of life. After dose adjustment, no significant improvement in these parameters was reported. Conclusion: In psychiatric patients with SMI already receiving antipsychotic treatment, dose adjustment to the CYP2D6 genotype or phenotype according to the guidelines showed no beneficial effect. This suggests that dose adjustment guidelines are currently not applicable for patients already using antipsychotics. ClinicalTrials.gov: Cost-effectiveness of CYP2D6 and CYP2C19 Genotyping in Psychiatric Patients in Curacao; Identifier: NCT02713672; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT02713672?term=CYP2D6&rank=5


Simple equations used for analyzing chromatic aberrations of Selfoc lenses were derived in terms of Buchdahl chromatic coordinates and Buchdahl dispersion constants. The equations that employ gradient-index chromatic constants Ψ(1) and Ψ(2) are used for selecting suitable ion-exchange pairs to design an achromatic Selfoc lens.


The explosion in online social networks motivates an enquiry into their structure and their welfare effects. A central feature of these networks is information sharing: online social networks lower the cost of getting information from others. These lower costs affect the attractiveness of individual search vis-a-vis a reliance on social networks. The paper reports the findings of an experiment on these effects. Our experiment shows that online networks can have large effects. Information acquisition is more dispersed and it is accompanied by denser social networks. Aggregate investment in information acquisition falls, but information available to individuals remains stable, due to increased networking. The overall effect is a significant increase in individual utility and aggregate welfare.


Sudden birth of entanglement between two initially separate atoms interacting with two entangled photons in a double JC model is investigated, and the influences of different atomic initial states on entanglement among atoms are discussed. The results show that sudden birth of entanglement can occur when the two atoms are initially in excited states.


The present communication is based on two big sections. First of all we make a summary study about the process of economic globalization and fiscal systems. Next, we will face the present and new problem of electronic commerce taxability. The current process of economic globalization - although it is not an exclusive process at present time - is characterized by its support in information and knowledge, which enables the technological revolution we are living in. In fact, the new economy goes around information. Among the positive aspects, we must emphasize a better localization of resources or the access of individuals and companies to a greater supply of goods and services. The ease of agents mobility and the increase of information available at a low cost, are other beneficial aspects we cannot revile. There is also a group of negative aspects to which we will devote our attention: the objective of our study is public sector procedure, particularly in the field of fiscal systems. Among the negative elements which affect government tax collection, we have reflected on the increment of the mobility of individuals and the activities executed, the growing importance of law taxation countries, the creation of new finantial instruments and new methods of canalization of inversions, the increase of multinational trade, the replacement of real money by electronic money or the impotence of the countries to levy a high tax rate on financial capital yield and high remuneration labor yield. The aspects studied, make tax collection teeter as well as alter the principles that rule all fiscal systems to which we will focus our attention. What do we understand by electronic commerce or e-commerce? A first approach to the phenomenon could benefit from the following definition: business transactions, both between companies and between companies and final consumers, based on digitalized data transmission processes, including text, sound and images, made through open and closed networks with possible connections to open networks. The plurality of the sources consulted about the growth rates expected to reach in future years, gives a non-revealing result of rising trend. Considering the present and future potential of this reality we must analyze its effects on certain public sector actuation, especially on those actuations related to government revenues. The analysis of the impact on electronic commerce fiscal systems has to reexamine necessarily some basic principles of international tax laws as fiscal sovereignty, or the ultraterritorial character of the associated fiscal laws. We will mention the different actions of the OECD, the European Union and in particular, the position of the USA. Furthermore, the European Union has achieved a breakthrough in the field of the implications that the new reality of electronic commerce may generate on the value added tax (in fact, electronic commerce is a business transaction). The two aspects that give more problems regarding the viability of the current model of VAT are taxable event localization and the qualification of operations (distinction between goods and services). Once the problems are delimited and before analyzing possible solutions, we will take into account an example of the taxation of these operations according to current regulations.


Solid-state 1H-NMR and 13C-NMR spectroscopy were used to investigate the chemical components of sweet cherry tree leaves under rain-shelter cultivation (RS) and open-field cultivation (CK). The 1H-NMR spectral chemical shifts of RS and CK showed differences in height and integral value. The δ 1–3, δ 3–4, δ 4–6, and δ 6–10 regions were attributed to the hydrogen signals of aliphatic compounds, unsaturated carbohydrate compounds, and aromatic compounds, respectively. Among the four regions, the percentage of signal strength and the integral value of hydrogen signals of RS and CK were 34.25% and 28.34%, 11.64% and 12.26%, 26.71% and 31.06%, 27.4% and 28.34%, respectively. The 13C-NMR results showed that the CK sample had slightly stronger spectral lines and contained slightly more carbon atoms than the RS sample. Sweet cherry leaves contain aromatic and carboxyl carbons, mainly from carboxylic acids, esters, and amides. The alkyl carbons exhibited the lowest ratio, whereas the alkyl and alkoxy carbons were mainly derived from carbohydrates (cellulose, polysaccharides).


Gram-negative bacteria are characterized by a cell envelope consisting of an inner membrane (IM) and an outer membrane (OM), which are separated by the peptidoglycan-containing periplasm. While the integral IM proteins are alpha-helical, all but one known integral OM proteins (OMPs) are beta-barrels. All OMPs are synthesized in the cytosol with an N-terminal signal sequence that directs them to the Sec translocon for transport through the IM. Extensive genetic and biochemical research brought to light many aspects of protein translocation across the IM; however, details about protein assembly into the OM have remained obscure. The Omp85 protein was first described in Neisseria meningitdis as an essential protein and the key component of the OMP assembly machinery. Homologs of Omp85 are present in Gram-negative bacteria and in mitochondria. The Omp85 homolog in Escherichia coli, known as BamA, was shown to be associated with four lipoproteins only one of which is essential. Several chaperones have been identified that play a role in OMP biogenesis during transit of the periplasm. Among them, Skp and SurA appear to be the most prominent ones in E. coli. So far, most of the research concerning OMP assembly in Gram-negative bacteria has been performed in E. coli. However, with the release of more and more genome sequences of Gram-negative bacteria, it becomes clear that the OMP assembly process may not be entirely similar in all Gram-negatives, since some of the components implicated in the assembly process cannot always be found in each genome. Furthermore, Gram-negatives other than E. coli were shown to demonstrate different phenotypes when genes for OM assembly components are inactivated, and their analysis may yield novel insights into the biogenesis of the OM. The goal of this work was to characterize the OMP assembly process in N. meningitidis to further our understanding of OMP assembly in Gram-negative bacteria in general. To that end, we characterized the Omp85-containing beta-barrel assembly complex in N. meningitidis. Several components were found to be similar to those found in E. coli, but one was lacking and a new component was also identified. We addressed the roles of the major periplasmic chaperones that are generally implicated in OMP assembly, i.e. SurA and Skp, in N. meningitidis and found considerable differences compared to E. coli, particularly with respect to the role of SurA. Emanating from the observation that E. coli BamA did not interact with a neisserial OMP in vitro, we addressed the species specificity of Omp85 by analyzing the functionality of Omp85 homologs from other proteobacteria in E. coli and in N. meningitidis. Further, we purified E. coli and N. meningitidis Omp85 proteins and some of their subdomains and studied properties, such as secondary structure, pore formation and substrate recognition in vitro. Altogether this thesis provides broad study of the OMP assembly in N. meningitidis.


Translating Law into a Dictionary. A Terminographic Model The purpose of the paper is to present a model dictionary which could serve as a tool for professional translators of legal texts. Firstly, the methodological approach which was adopted in order to create the model is delineated. It is based on the combined specialist knowledge of three disciplines, namely terminography, translation studies and law. Subsequently, the notion of the translation dictionary as a separate type of terminological dictionary is presented, with particular emphasis on the unit of translation and translation equivalence. The following part of the paper characterises translation of legal texts and its implications concerning the needs of the translator as well as the role of the dictionary in the translation process. Finally, the paper proposes a model dictionary, constructed according to the methodological rules determined at the beginning and in the light of the conclusions drawn from the following analysis.


In this paper the transmission properties of a metal plate perforated with a triangular array of air holes is investigated. We find that the normalized transmittivity exceeds unity within a certain frequency range under normal incidence of a Gaussian beam. Calculations and experiments indicate that the phenomenon results from the collimation effect which only occurs inside the complete bandgap of surface resonance states on the perforated metal plate. The findings present a simple approach for beam collimation.


ABSTRACT Salmonellae often have the ability to express two different flagellar antigen specificities (phase 1 and phase 2). At the cell level, only one flagellar phase is expressed at a time. Two genes,fliC, encoding phase-1 flagellin, and fljB, encoding phase-2 flagellin, are alternatively expressed. Flagellin genes from 264 serovars of Salmonella enterica were amplified by two phase-specific PCR systems. Amplification products were subjected to restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis by using endonucleases HhaI and HphI. RFLP with HhaI and HphI yielded 64 and 42 different restriction profiles, respectively, among 329 flagellin genes coding for 26 antigens. The phase-1 gene showed 46 patterns with HhaI and 30 patterns with HphI. The phase-2 gene showed 23 patterns with HhaI and 17 patterns with HphI. When the data from both enzymes were combined, 116 patterns were obtained: 74 for fliC, 47 forfljB, and 5 shared by both genes. Of these combined patterns, 80% were specifically associated with one flagellar antigen and 20% were associated with more than one antigen. Each flagellar antigen was divided into 2 to 18 different combined patterns. In the sample of strains used, determination of the phase-1 and phase-2 flagellin gene RFLP, added to the knowledge of the O antigen, allowed identification of all diphasic serovars. Overall, the diversity uncovered by flagellin gene RFLP did not precisely match that evidenced by flagellar agglutination.


3C-SiC layers (7 and 15 μm thick), epitaxially grown on silicon, were covered with gold nanoparticles by immersion in a solution containing HF and KAuCl4. The surface of the layers played a crucial role in the morphology of the deposited metal network and large gold agglomerates developed on the pronounced antiphase domain boundaries of the thinner layer. Preferential growth was not observed on the smooth surface of the 15 μm thick layer. Rutherford backscattering spectrometry and electron microscopy outlined a progressive nucleation that takes place for less than 60 s immersion times under a kinetic control process. For longer deposition time each cluster grows under a diffusion control process, resulting in flower-like gold particles. However, the nucleation and growth processes can be strongly modified by multiple immersions in solution after rinsing in water. The adopted procedure allows the tailoring of the particles size and avoids the aggregation, therefore improving by about 1 order of magnitude t...


ABSTRACT Since 1995, unsuccessful efforts to promote a Middle East weapons-of-mass-destruction-free zone (MEWMDFZ) within the review process of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons (NPT) have weakened the treaty regime. This viewpoint proposes establishing a designated Middle East Support Unit to work independently from and in parallel to the NPT review process. The Support Unit will contribute to both global and regional security. Globally, its work will increase the ability to reach a consensus-based final document at the 2020 NPT Review Conference, which in turn will strengthen support for the treaty. Regionally, the Support Unit can help reinvigorate dialogue on security measures and nonproliferation in the Middle East. The possibility of resuming a direct dialogue between states in the region is of utmost importance today, as growing regional instability is a source of mutual concern to the Arab states, Iran, and Israel.


Digital networked communications are the key to all Internet-of-Things applications, especially to smart metering systems and the smart grid. In order to ensure a safe operation of systems and the privacy of users, the transport layer security(TLS) protocol, a mature and well standardized solution for secure communications, may be used. We implemented the TLS protocol in its latest version in a way suitable for embedded and resource-constrained systems. This paper outlines the challenges and opportunities of deploying TLS in smart metering and smart grid applications and presents performance results of our TLS implementation. Our analysis shows that given an appropriate implementation and configuration, deploying TLS in constrained smart metering systems is possible with acceptable overhead.


Since the publication of "The Arrhenuri of the United States," in 1908, the author has been fortunate enough to secure enough more material to justify the publication of a supplementary paper on this large genus of water-mites. This material consists of collections from new localities in the United States, and of additional material from old collecting grounds, together with a few specimens from other countries. The author's own collections were made in Wisconsin and Illinois. A few new places were visited, as the lakes about Milwaukee; and more extensive collections were made in previously known bodies of water, as Lake Wingra, Mirror Lake, Lake Spooner, Wisconsin, and the Illinois River at Havana. As a result, several hundred more Arrhenuri have been studied, representing twenty-eight species; the habitats of eleven species have been extended beyond state lines, and three new species have been added to the genus, while four more females have been identified.


Event studies show that Fed unconventional announcements of forward guidance and large scale asset purchases had large and desired effects on asset prices but do not tell us how long such effects last. Wright (2012) used a structural vector autoregression (SVAR) to argue that unconventional policies have very transient effects on asset prices, with half-lives of 3 months. This would suggest that unconventional policies can have only marginal effects on macroeconomic variables. The present paper shows, however, that the SVAR is unstable, forecasts very poorly and therefore delivers spurious inference about the duration of the unconventional monetary shocks. In addition, implied in-sample return predictability from the SVAR greatly exceeds that which is consistent with rational asset pricing and reasonable risk aversion. Restricted models that respect plausible predictability in asset returns are more stable and imply that the unconventional monetary policy shocks were fairly persistent but that our uncertainty about their effects increases with forecast horizon. Estimates of the dynamic effects of shocks should respect the limited predictability in asset prices.


Abstract : In early 2010, when the authors began to participate in exploratory discussions regarding the possibility of a negotiated peace in Afghanistan, the very concept of talking to the enemy was controversial in official circles and little discussed beyond them. The objective of a negotiated peace has since been firmly embraced by both the Afghan and American governments, supported by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and endorsed by most of Afghanistan's neighbors. Taliban intermediaries have held talks on the subject with both Afghan and American officials. As this monograph makes clear, we are still some distance from full-scale negotiations, let alone a peace settlement, but the exploratory process has clearly passed from former officials and academic observers, such as ourselves, into more-authoritative hands. This monograph is the product of the our personal experience in dealing with Afghanistan and other trouble spots and of conversations held over the past 18 months with many potential participants in any Afghan peace process, including senior Afghan officials, leading members of the Afghan parliamentary opposition and civil society, former and current Taliban figures, and representatives of the many governments likely to play a role in any such peace process, whether directly or behind the scenes. Our purpose is to provide a guide, for both officials and observers, to the conduct of such negotiations as they may evolve over the next several years.


Gastro-oesophageal regurgitation was observed in 13 patients in a series of 200 on whom barium meal studies were made as a routine investigation. Only 4 of the 13 patients gave a history of epigastric or substernal pain related to posture. Seven other patients in the series had this complaint but did not exhibit reflux. Three of the 4 patients who had postural pain and who exhibited reflux were found to have sliding hiatus hernia. It is concluded that there was no correlation between a history of epigastric or substernal pain related to posture and the occurrence of gastro-oesophageal regurgitation per se, and that this history is a feature in cases of sliding hiatus hernia, which is often associated with regurgitation.


Active noise control has proven to be an efficient solution to low frequency noise problems in many different applications. A large part of these applications are concerned with harmonic noise control and typically require control systems with several inputs and outputs. As the systems grow, the demand for processor capacity increases rapidly, resulting in large and expensive hardware platforms. As multiple-input, multiple-output noise control is restricted to the control of periodic noise, a controller structure that is adapted to the signal type may significantly reduce the requirements on the hardware capacity. This paper discusses a complex, time-domain controller that is designed for the control of harmonic components. The structure of the controller is simple, easily implemented and can easily be extended to handle any number of noise references and any number of harmonics. The convergence properties of a multiple-input, multiple-output control system depends largely on the acoustic coupling between the active sources and the control sensors. To get accurate and stable control it is necessary to use normalization, i.e. a weighting function that optimizes the controller for each control source. With the presented controller structure, the use of normalization is straightforward and a number of different approaches for normalization is discussed as well as examples from practical inplementations.


The words in the title were spoken by a Black female student in a predominantly White school in southern England. This article is based on a school-initiated enquiry which I was invited to undertake by the headteacher who was shocked by the number of racist incidents in the school within a three-month period. Researchers (Gillborn, 2005; Mirza, 2005) have reported that in the last thirty years the gains made in education related to ethnic diversity in our society appear to have been lost and old-fashioned racism has appeared again.


Inventories of individually delineated landslides are a key to understanding landslide physics and mitigating their impact. They permit assessment of area–frequency distributions and landslide volumes, and testing of statistical correlations between landslides and physical parameters such as topographic gradient or seismic strong motion. Amalgamation, i.e. the mapping of several adjacent landslides as a single polygon, can lead to potentially severe distortion of the statistics of these inventories. This problem can be especially severe in data sets produced by automated mapping. We present five inventories of earthquake-induced landslides mapped with different materials and techniques and affected by varying degrees of amalgamation. Errors on the total landslide volume and power-law exponent of the area–frequency distribution, resulting from amalgamation, may be up to 200 and 50%, respectively. We present an algorithm based on image and digital elevation model (DEM) analysis, for automatic identification of amalgamated polygons. On a set of about 2000 polygons larger than 1000 m2, tracing landslides triggered by the 1994 Northridge earthquake, the algorithm performs well, with only 2.7–3.6% incorrectly amalgamated landslides missed and 3.9–4.8% correct polygons incorrectly identified as amalgams. This algorithm can be used broadly to check landslide inventories and allow faster correction by automating the identification of amalgamation.


Interest in underwater acoustic networks has grown rapidly with the desire to monitor the large portion of the world covered by oceans. Fundamental differences between underwater acoustic propagation and terrestrial radio propagation may call for new criteria for the design of networking protocols. In this paper, we focus on some of these fundamental differences, including attenuation and noise, propagation delays, and the dependence of usable bandwidth and transmit power on distance (which has not been extensively considered before in protocol design studies). Furthermore, the relationship between the energy consumptions of acoustic modems in various modes (i.e., transmit, receive, and idle) is different than that of their terrestrial radio counterparts, which also impacts the design of energy-efficient protocols. The main contribution of this work is an in-depth analysis of the impacts of these unique relationships. We present insights that are useful in guiding both protocol design and network deployment. We design a class of energy-efficient routing protocols for underwater sensor networks based on the insights gained in our analysis. These protocols are tested in a number of relevant network scenarios, and shown to significantly outperform other commonly used routing strategies and to provide near optimal total path energy consumption. Finally, we implement in ns2 a detailed model of the underwater acoustic channel, and study the performance of routing choices when used with a simple MAC protocol and a realistic PHY model, with special regard to such issues as interference and medium access.


Abstract. Estimates of the recovery time of stratospheric ozone heavily rely on the exact knowledge of the processes that lead to the decomposition of the relevant halogenated source gases. Crucial parameters in this context are fractional release factors (FRFs) as well as stratospheric lifetimes and ozone depletion potentials (ODPs). We here present data from the analysis of air samples collected between 2009 and 2011 on board research aircraft flying in the mid- and high-latitude stratosphere and infer the above-mentioned parameters for ten major source gases: CFCl3 (CFC-11), CF2Cl2 (CFC-12), CF2ClCFCl2 (CFC-113), CCl4 (carbon tetrachloride), CH3CCl3 (methyl chloroform), CHF2Cl (HCFC-22), CH3CFCl2 (HCFC-141b), CH3CF2Cl (HCFC-142b), CF2ClBr (H-1211), and CF3Br (H-1301). The inferred correlations of their FRFs with mean ages of air reveal less decomposition as compared to previous studies for most compounds. When using the calculated set of FRFs to infer equivalent stratospheric chlorine, we find a reduction of more than 20% as compared to the values inferred in the most recent Scientific Assessment of Ozone Depletion by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO, 2011). We also note that FRFs and their correlations with mean age are not generally time-independent as often assumed. The stratospheric lifetimes were calculated relative to that of CFC-11. Within our uncertainties the ratios between stratospheric lifetimes inferred here agree with the values in recent WMO reports except for CFC-11, CFC-12 and CH3CCl3. Finally, we calculate lower ODPs than recommended by WMO for six out of ten compounds, with changes most pronounced for the three HCFCs. Collectively these newly calculated values may have important implications for the severity and recovery time of stratospheric ozone loss.


This paper offers time-series of urban unskilled labor wages and commodity prices in eight British African colonies (1880-1940) and shows that real wages were above subsistence level and rising, especially during the interwar years. Real wages in West Africa and Mauritius were even considerably higher than in some major Asian cities. Our results cast doubt on studies emphasizing the existence of 'structural impediments' to African economic growth. We also document an East-West divergence within Africa and argue this was caused by variations in colonial land and labor market institutions, challenging the view that African colonial institutions were exclusively extractive.


This dissertation explores how uncertainty a�ffects diff�erent facets of an economy through three empirical essays. First, we presents an analytical framework to examine the policy
reaction function of a central bank in an open economy context while allowing for asymmetric
preferences. This implies that the policy makers can weigh negative and positive
deviations of target variables (inflation and output gap) from their corresponding targets
di�fferently. We use an open economy New-Keynesian forward looking model where aggregate
demand and supply depend on real exchange rate. Using quarterly data ranging
from 1979q1-2007q4 for Canada, Japan, the UK and the US, the empirical evaluation is
drawn through generalized methods of moments. The results strongly favor the presence
of asymmetries in the response of monetary policy towards both inflation rate and output
gap for all sample countries. The estimates show that central banks follow an active monetary
policy. Also, there is evidence that changes in foreign interest rate and exchange
rate �significantly aff�ects the domestic monetary policy formation.
Second, we examine the role of various sources of uncertainty on total factor productivity
growth. Specifi�cally, this essay estimates the role of of uncertainty emanating from global,
country, and industry level on TFP growth in manufacturing industries of sixteen emerging
economies. For this purpose, we use annual data covering the period from 1971-2008.
Our fi�ndings suggest a signifi�cant impact of each source of uncertainty on TFP growth.
Particularly, we observe that industry and country specifi�c uncertainty have a positive
impact on TFP growth of manufacturing industries. However, global uncertainty has statistically
signifi�cant and negative impact on TFP growth. We also provide evidence that
the impact of industry speci�fic uncertainty strengthens as the size of industry increases
whereas the reverse holds for both country specifi�c and global uncertainty. In addition,
we observe that the positive impact of both industry and country speci�fic uncertainty gets
stronger at higher levels of factor intensity.
Third, we examine the role of of uncertainty of technology diff�usion in TFP convergence of
manufacturing industries of frontier and non-frontier countries. For this purpose, we use
annual data covering the time period from 1981-2008, eighteen manufacturing industries of fi�ve emerging economies. We employ superlative index number approach to compute the
TFP level and growth in manufacturing industries of these countries. Our �findings suggest
a signi�ficant evidence of TFP convergence in manufacturing industries of non-frontier and
frontier countries. Moreover, technology diff�usion not only pertains a positive impact on
TFP growth of manufacturing industries of non-frontier countries but also facilitates the
process of TFP convergence. More importantly, we report a signi�ficant negative impact
of uncertainty of technology diff�usion on the TFP growth.


Engineering sustainability focuses on the design and manufacture of goods and services with due consideration for renewable energy, scarce materials, resource efficiency, waste recovery, industrial symbiosis, sustainable construction and life cycle engineering.


Much of the opportunity assessment literature focuses on evaluating a single opportunity rather than multiple opportunities. However, discussions with entrepreneurs, as well as personal experience, suggests that many entrepreneurs have multiple opportunities that they are screening in parallel. As such, the challenge is to assess each opportunity for its viability individually and against other opportunities under review. A second challenge is retaining objectivity in the opportunity assessment process. More than one entrepreneur, including one of the authors, spoke of how particular opportunities resonated with them, even before any research had been conducted. If entrepreneurs have a means to evaluate multiple opportunities objectively, they will have a much more realistic view of which opportunities have the highest potential for success. The authors explored how opportunities are analyzed, then modeled the process for multiple opportunities and developed a heuristic to assist entrepreneurs with the effort. The Multiple Opportunity Analysis Process (MOpA©) was pre-tested with students in undergraduate and postgraduate entrepreneurship courses, and with entrepreneurs. After making appropriate changes, a single case study was conducted in which one entrepreneur's multiple opportunities were assessed. The heuristic proved to be viable at narrowing the opportunities quickly to a much smaller set, as well as identifying the best alternative. To the authors' knowledge, this heuristic is the only one of its type, and, with further testing, may hold significant value for the field.


Four submersible dives off the coast of Bonaire (Caribbean Netherlands) and Klein Curaçao (Curaçao) to depths of 99.5-242 m, covering lower mesophotic and upper dysphotic zones, yielded 52 sponge specimens belonging to 31 species. Among these we identified 13 species as new to science. These are Plakinastrella stinapa n. sp., Pachastrella pacoi n. sp., Characella pachastrelloides n. sp., Geodia curacaoensis n. sp., Caminus carmabi n. sp., Discodermia adhaerens n. sp., Clathria (Microciona) acarnoides n. sp., Antho (Acarnia) pellita n. sp., Parahigginsia strongylifera n. sp., Calyx magnoculata n. sp., Neopetrosia dutchi n. sp., Neopetrosia ovata n. sp. and Neopetrosia eurystomata n. sp. We also report an euretid hexactinellid, which belongs to the rare genus Verrucocoeloidea, recently described (2014) as V. liberatorii Reiswig & Dohrmann. The remaining 18 already known species are all illustrated by photos of the habit, either in situ or 'on deck', but only briefly characterized in an annotated table to confirm their occurrence in the Southern Caribbean. The habitat investigated-steep limestone rocks, likely representing Pleistocene fossil reefs--is similar to deep-water fossil reefs at Barbados of which the sponges were sampled and studied by Van Soest and Stentoft (1988). A comparison is made between the two localities, showing a high degree of similarity in sponge composition: 53% of the present Bonaire-Klein Curaçao species were also retrieved at Barbados. At the level of higher taxa (genera, families) Bonaire-Klein Curaçao shared approximately 80% of its lower mesophotic and upper dysphotic sponge fauna with Barbados, despite a distance between them of 1000 km, indicating high faunal homogeneity. We also preliminarily compared the shallow-water (euphotic) sponge fauna of Curaçao with the combined data available for the Barbados, Bonaire and Klein Curaçao mesophotic and upper dysphotic sponges, which resulted in the conclusion that the two faunas show only little overlap.


What are the neighborhoods in this city like? This is a question that movers and travelers ask all the time, and despite the information sources on the internet, there are few neighborhood guides to help people answer it. We describe formative research, including the Twitter Neighborhood TF-IDF map and an interview-based study of 17 recent movers and travelers. Based on this research, we then describe plans for construction of neighborhood guides based on social media posts in each neighborhood and publicly available data.


The rhetoric of populist politicians is an important part of their appeal; however, little is known about how that rhetoric operates. Drawing on two large experiments conducted with American adults, we show that frames encouraging individuals to consider political problems in dispositional terms prompt populist expressions, while an encouragement to consider these same problems situationally does not. In our second experiment, we connect this framing change to voting intentions and find that subjects exposed to dispositional frames are more likely to express support for Donald Trump and less likely to express support for Hillary Clinton than subjects exposed to situational frames. We find the same pattern when we compare Bernie Sanders with Clinton but not when we compare Trump with Sanders. Importantly, the impact is contingent on preexisting populist attitudes; subjects with lower populist attitudes are more likely to demonstrate an increase in expressed populism and support for populist candidates.


A method for the separation of additive spectra of complex mixtures is developed on the basis of a linear algebra technique and nonlinear optimization algorithms. It is shown to be possible, under certain conditions, to uniquely separate a set of complex spectral curves consisting of the same components, but with different proportions, into the unknown spectra of the pure constituents and to give their respective relative concentrations. The method proposed is a variant of the self-modeling curve-resolution approach based on the singular value decomposition of the data matrix formed by the set of digitized spectra of mixtures. The spectra of components are calculated as linear combinations of left-side singular vectors of the data matrix provided that both individual spectra and their concentrations are nonnegative and the shapes of the spectra are as dissimilar as possible. The technique provides a unique decomposition if each fundamental spectrum has at least one wavelength with zero intensity and the other pure spectra are nonzero at this wavelength. The algorithm is evaluated on an artificial data set to clearly demonstrate the method. The approach described in this paper may be applied to any experiment whose outcome is a continuous curve y(x) that is a sum of unknown, nonnegative, linearly independent functions.


We present a number of polyfluorene based conjugated polymers with crosslinkable acrylate and oxetane units. These polymers can be crosslinked by free radical polymerization in the case of acrylates and by cationic ring opening polymerization for oxetanes. Upon polymerization densely crosslinked networks are formed which are completely insoluble. We show that the diffusion coefficient of C60 in polyfluorene is reduced by a factor of 1000 by crosslinking. MIS-CELIV measurements are used to monitor changes in the charge carrier mobility upon crosslinking. It shows that using appropriate conditions, e.g. low initiator concentrations or thermal crosslinking, the charge carrier mobility is not reduced by crosslinking. Solution processed three layer organic solar cells were realized with a crosslinkable fluorene based copolymer containing acrylate groups. The efficiency is increased from 1.4% for the reference to 1.8% in the three layer cell with a crosslinked exciton blocking layer. A critical issue of BHJ cells is the instability of the morphology of the polymer:fullerene blend over long operation times at elevated temperature. We present a crosslinkable derivative of the low bandgap polymer PFDTBT which contains oxetane units. BHJ cells with the crosslinked PFDTBT derivative and PCBM were tested in accelerated aging experiments at 100 °C for times up to 100 h. Stabilization was clearly observed in crosslinked BHJ cells compared to the non-crosslinked reference. We show for the first time that oxetane containing polymers can be thermally crosslinked without any added initiator. Initiator free crosslinking is particularly attractive as it avoids the formation of decomposition products, and thus potential electron traps and quenching sites from the initiator.


The word xenolith is Latin for strange (xeno) rock (lith). Mantle xenoliths are egg-shaped rocks comprised of olivine (ol) and orthopyroxene (opx) ± clinopyroxene (cpx), spinel (sp) and garnet (gt), and other trace minerals. Xenoliths are most frequently exhumed by explosive volcanoes. Worldwide, xenoliths show variations in petrology (e.g. Mercier and Nicholas, 1974, Kopylova et al., 2004), trace elements (Shaw et al., 2004) and P-T conditions (e.g. Macgregor, 1974, Nickel and Green, 1985, Finnerty and Boyd, 1987, Brey and Kohler, 1990). Interpretation of the variations in xenoliths worldwide greatly enhances our understanding of mantle processes. Xenoliths from two different sites are considered in this thesis. The site considered in Chapter One, Jericho Pipe in Northern Canada, is the diatreme of a diamondiferous kimberlite pipe containing mantle xenoliths from depths between ∼45-220 km (Kopylova et al., 2004). Chapter Two is a study of xenoliths from Meerfelder Maar in the West Eifel Volcanic Field, Germany. Meerfelder Maar is the remnant of a phreatic eruption triggered by the encounter of hot magma with the water table that exhumed mantle xenoliths from ∼70-80 km depth (Schmincke, 1983, Witt-Eichsceh, 2007). Chapter One describes our Matlab model of the paleo-geotherm below the North American Craton. We analyzed P-T data obtained using three geothermometers (Macgregor, 1974, Wells, 1977, Brey and Kohler, 1990) and three geobarometers (Nickel and Green, 1985, Finnerty and Boyd, 1987, Brey and Kohler, 1990) on xenoliths from Jericho Pipe in the Slave Craton area of Canada to generate possible geotherms for the Jericho Pipe region. Our geophysical model compares published heat flux data and surface heat production values with geothermobarometry conducted on Jericho xenoliths. Geothermometers and geobarometers respectively are compared and analyzed for accuracy and precision relative to the petrology of the Jericho region. Each geotherm shows a scatter in the data and change of slope of the best-fit line to the data between depths ∼160 km and ∼220 km (see Figures 1.7, 1.8, 1.11, 1.12, 1.15, 1.16). We hypothesize that this change of slope is resultant of mantle plume impingement at the basal Canadian Shield prior to the eruption of Jericho Pipe and other regional kimberlites. We use a Matlab-generated 1D thermal model based on code developed by Depine et al., (2008) to explore this hypothesis. Implied in this hypothesis and seen in the model (see Figures 1.7, 1.8, 1.11, 1.12, 1.15, 1.16) is that continental cratons do not cause underlying mantle to appreciably warm on a ∼200 Ma timescale by acting as effective insulators for mantle material. Furthermore, the basal heating event must be geologically short-lived, spanning ∼50 Myr (see Figures 1.7, 1.8, 1.11, 1.12, 1.15, 1.16). Chapter Two is an empirical FTIR study of water content in Meerfelder Maar xenoliths. The amount of water present in the mantle affects melt geochemistry (e.g. Shaw et al., 2005, Bolfan-Casanova, 2007) and subsequently mantle viscosity (Grant et al., 2007). Chapter Two considers water partitioning in the mantle below the Eifel region of Germany by looking at maps of water concentration within minerals and along grain boundaries as well as single spectra graphs of H2O and OH − at specific points within minerals. Meerfelder Maar xenoliths contain a high amount of molecular water in olivine and clinopyroxene and below average amount of molecular water in orthopyroxene (see Table 2.2) with respect to other xenoliths worldwide (Grant et al., 2007).


The Impact of School Choice on Pupil Achievement, Segregation and Costs: Swedish Evidence. This paper evaluates school choice at the compulsory school level. We estimate the impact of an increased enrolment in private schools on average achievement using within-municipality variation over time. We find positive effects, shown to be the sum of a (small) private school attendance effect and a competition effect. We also find effects on segregation and costs.Age at Immigration and School Performance: A Siblings Analysis Using Swedish Register Data. This paper analyzes the role of age at immigration for the school performance gap between native and immigrant pupils by exploiting within-family variation. The critical age is about nine, above which there is a strong negative impact on performance. The results are similar for boys and girls, but vary by region of origin. A comparison of sibling-difference and cross-sectional estimates reveals striking similarities. Integration of Childhood Immigrants in the Short and in the Long Run: Swedish Evidence. I study childhood immigrants at different stages in life in order to examine the role of age at immigration for educational and labor market outcomes. I find that childhood immigrants tend later to recover strongly in terms of educational achievement. Yet, the same individuals are on average found to be poorly integrated into the labor market. Life-Cycle Variations in the Association between Current and Lifetime Income: Replication and Extension for Sweden. We apply a generalized errors-in-variables model, recently developed by Steven Haider and Gary Solon, in order to produce estimates of the association between current and lifetime income. We find strong life-cycle patterns. This implies that the widespread use of current income as a proxy for lifetime income leads to inconsistent estimates even when the proxy is used as the dependent variable. We find country similarities, but gender and cohort differences.


The iceberg of illness1 is an important concept in understanding the relation between health and illness and one that healthcare systems ignore, Titanic-like, at their peril. The pyramidal iceberg has health at its base and tertiary care at its apex; as individuals develop symptoms they pass upwards through self care, primary care, and secondary care, with specialised services encountering an ever more highly selected patient population. We know surprisingly little about what prompts movement across these interfaces, particularly that between self care and primary care. Initiatives within the NHS to make access to services easier could have profound effects, yet the necessary research is only just being defined.

The movement of patients from self care to primary care and from primary to secondary care determines workload for health services, and relatively small changes at the base of the pyramid can have substantial impacts on demand at higher levels. For example, population screening, ascertainment by …


A number of recent incidents have focused media attention on the phenomenon of tourist selfies, described their negative consequences for tourist destinations and identified a number of challenges for tourist site managers. This paper reports on an analysis of the social representation of tourist selfies in news media, and a review of emerging evidence about selfies from academic research. The aim was to develop a better understanding of this phenomenon to suggest ways that tourist site managers can balance the needs of the tourists taking the selfies with the demands of protecting the setting and others in it from negative tourism impacts. The paper seeks to contribute to more sustainable tourism through better site and attraction management.


The dopamine hypothesis of schizophrenia was examined by measuring the density of dopamine receptors in the postmortem brains of 81 control subjects and 59 schizophrenics from four different countries. The densities of dopamine receptors in the tissues from the schizophrenic patients had a bimodal distribution in the caudate nucleus, putamen, and nucleus accumbens. One mode occurred 25 percent above the control density, and a second mode occurred at a density 2.3 times that of the control density for all three regions. Although almost all the patients had been medicated with neuroleptics, the two modes had the same dissociation constant for the labeled ligand used, suggesting that the neuroleptic doses were similar for the two populations of schizophrenics. The results thus provide direct evidence for two distinct categories of schizophrenia.


Over the last few decades, there has been a marked increase in media and debate surrounding a specific group of offences in modern Democratic nations which bear the brunt of the label 'crimes against morality'. Included within this group are offences related to prostitution and pornography, homosexuality and incest and child sexual abuse. This book examines the nexus between sex, crime and morality from a theoretical perspective.

This is the first academic text to offer an examination and analysis of the philosophical underpinnings of sex-related crimes and social attitudes towards them and the historical, anthropological and moral reasons for differentiating these crimes in contemporary western culture.

The book is divided into three sections corresponding to three theoretical frameworks:

Part 1 examines the moral temporality of sex and taboo as a foundation for legislation governing sex crimes

Part 2 focuses on the geography of sex and deviance, specifically notions of public morality and the public private divide

Part 3 examines the moral economy of sex and harm, including the social construction of harm.
Sex, Crime and Morality will be key reading for students of criminology, criminal justice, gender studies and ethics, and will also be of interest to justice professionals.


This paper presents a novel path planning system for multiple robots working in an uncontrolled environment in the presence of humans. The approach combines the use of Petri net to plan the movement of multiple robots to prevent the risk of congestion caused by routing several robots into a narrow region, together with a dipole field with dynamic window approach to avoid collisions of a robot with dynamic obstacles. By regarding the velocity and direction of both humans and robots as a source of magnetic dipole moment, the dipole-dipole interaction between the moving objects will generate repulsive forces to prevent collisions. The whole system is presented on robot operating system platform so that its implementation can be extendable into real robots. Experimental results with Gazebo simulator demonstrates the effectiveness of the proposed approach.


This study aimed to gain an insight into the general coping strategies used by sport psychology consultants (SPCs) based in the UK, and an in-depth understanding of their development and impact. To achieve these aims a mixed-method approach was adopted by means of two linked studies. In study one, BASES accredited and/or BPS chartered SPCs (n = 29) completed the modified COPE inventory (Crocker & Graham, 1995) to gain a better understanding of the general coping strategies used by practitioners. In study two, follow-up interviews (n = 6) with participants sampled from study one were conducted to explore how the reported strategies were developed, the perceived impact of coping/not coping with stressors, and how future SPCs may be better prepared for the stressful nature of consultancy. Findings suggested that the participants had a statistically significant preference to using problem-focused coping strategies. Further, the interviews suggested that coping strategies were primarily developed through refle...


Aim: To study the bioactivity of Citrus limon leaf extracts through in vitro and in silico approaches. Methodology: In this study, the leaves of Citrus limon were subjected to solvent extraction using ethyl acetate and ethanol, and also the essential oil by hydro distillation method. Preliminary phytochemical screening of solvent extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavanoids, anthocyanins, carbohydrates, triterpenoids, tannins and coumarins. The extracts and essential oil were then tested for the antibacterial, antioxidant and anticancer activity. Molecular docking studies were studied for the proteins namely tyrosine phosphatase, alkaline protease, and elastase of Pseudomonas aeruginosa whose protein structure retrieved from the PDB using discovery studio 2.0 version and inhibition was checked against all the three proteins. Results: The plant extract was found to inhibit the growth of Microvirga aerilata and Pseudomonas aeruginosa at 100 μg and 50 μg of essential oil and ethanol extract respectively. Cytotoxicity against HeLa cell lines by the crude extracts and essential oil appeared to be active at the concentration of 50 μg/mL and 100μg/mL respectively. GCMS studies on the essential oil revealed the presence of α-pinene, β-pinene, decanal, citral and α-terpineol. Molecular docking studies revealed that tyrosine phosphatase to interact better than the other two proteins. Key words: Citrus limon , Phytochemical, Essential oil, Molecular docking.


The aim of this study was to examine the effects of fringe benefits on employee loyalty in the context of university teachers. The study sample consisted of 100 university teachers who were randomly selected from both private and public universities situated in Khulna city of Bangladesh. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire survey. To test the study hypotheses, data were analyzed employing correlation and multiple regression analysis tools. Results of correlation analysis reveal that fringe benefits (insurance & retirement benefits, payments for time not worked, education & development opportunities, flexible working hours, and employee welfare benefits) are positively related to employee loyalty. Regression statistics shows that 25.6% variance of employee loyalty can be explained by the fringe benefits. The study findings also indicate that flexible working hours (β = 0.296, Sig. = 0.001) has the most significant contribution in explaining employee loyalty among the university faculty members employed in Khulna city of Bangladesh.


An investigation in innovation management and entrepreneurial management is conducted in this thesis.
The aim of the research is to explore changes of innovation styles in the transformation process from a
start-up company to a more mature phase of business, to predict in a second step future sustainability and
the probability of success. As businesses grow in revenue, corporate size and functional complexity,
various triggers, supporters and drivers affect innovation and company's success. In a comprehensive
study more than 200 innovative and technology driven companies have been examined and compared to
identify patterns in different performance levels. All of them have been founded under the same formal
requirements of the Munich Business Plan Competition -a research approach which allowed a unique
snapshot that only long-term studies would be able to provide. The general objective was to identify the
correlation between different factors, as well as different dimensions, to incremental and radical
innovations realised. The 12 hypothesis were formed to prove have been derived from a comprehensive
literature review. The relevant academic and practitioner literature on entrepreneurial, innovation, and
knowledge management as well as social network theory revealed that the concept of innovation has
evolved significantly over the last decade. A review of over 15 innovation models/frameworks
contributed to understand what innovation in context means and what the dimensions are. It appears that
the complex theories of innovation can be described by the increasing extent of social ingredients in the
explanation of innovativeness. Originally based on tangible forms of capital, and on the necessity of pull
and technology push, innovation management is today integrated in a larger system. Therefore, two
research instruments have been developed to explore the changes in innovations styles. The Innovation
Management Audits (IMA Start-up and IMA Mature) provided statements related to product/service
development, innovativeness in various typologies, resources for innovations, innovation capabilities in
conjunction to knowledge and management, social networks as well as the measurement of outcomes to
generate high-quality data for further exploration. In obtaining results the mature companies have been
clustered in the performance level low, average and high, while the start-up companies have been kept as
one cluster. Firstly, the analysis exposed that knowledge, the process of acquiring knowledge, interorganisational
networks and resources for innovations are the most important driving factors for
innovation and success. Secondly, the actual change of the innovation style provides new insights about
the importance of focusing on sustaining success and innovation ii 16 key areas. Thirdly, a detailed
overview of triggers, supporters and drivers for innovation and success for each dimension support
decision makers in putting their company in the right direction. Fourthly, a critical review of
contemporary strategic management in conjunction to the findings provides recommendation of how to
apply well-known management tools. Last but not least, the Munich cluster is analysed providing an
estimation of the success probability of the different performance cluster and start-up companies. For the
analysis of the probability of success of the newly developed as well as statistically and qualitative
validated ICP Model (Innovativeness, Capabilities & Potential) has been developed and applied. While
the model was primarily developed to evaluate the probability of success of companies; it has equal
application in the situation to measure innovativeness to identify the impact of various strategic initiatives
within small or large enterprises. The main findings of the model are that competitor, and customer
orientation and acquiring knowledge important for incremental and radical innovation. Formal and interorganisation
networks are important to foster innovation but informal networks appear to be detrimental
to innovation. The testing of the ICP model h the long term is recommended as one subject of further
research. Another is to investigate some of the more intangible aspects of innovation management such as
attitude and motivation of mangers.
IV


Three carpets from Turkey with different pile materials (wool, acrylic and PP), 1/3 V-type and woven by face to face in the Wilton system are used to evaluate the thickness loss in compression after prolonged heavy static loading. The tests were conducted in accordance with internationally accepted standard methods in a conditioned testing laboratory. The characteristic parameters, defined as the squeezing susceptibility or compression sensitivity S (%), permanent deformation DP (%), elasticity E (%) and resilience R (%) determining the carpets' behaviours, were calculated using the thicknesses measured before loading and after various recovery periods, and the thickness differences (or deformation levels) between these periods. This study forms a part of an examination of carpets under static and dynamic loading, and includes only the static loading results.


Challenger parties are on the rise in Europe, exemplified by the likes of Podemos in Spain, the National Rally in France, the Alternative for Germany, or the Brexit Party in Great Britain. Like disruptive entrepreneurs, these parties offer new policies and defy the dominance of established party brands. In the face of these challenges and a more volatile electorate, mainstream parties are losing their grip on power. In this book, Catherine De Vries and Sara Hobolt explore why some challenger parties are so successful and what mainstream parties can do to confront these political entrepreneurs. Drawing analogies with how firms compete, De Vries and Hobolt demonstrate that political change is as much about the ability of challenger parties to innovate as it is about the inability of dominant parties to respond. Challenger parties employ two types of innovation to break established party dominance: they mobilize new issues, such as immigration, the environment, and Euroscepticism, and they employ antiestablishment rhetoric to undermine mainstream party appeal. Unencumbered by government experience, challenger parties adapt more quickly to shifting voter tastes and harness voter disenchantment. Delving into strategies of dominance versus innovation, the authors explain why European party systems have remained stable for decades, but also why they are now increasingly under strain. As challenger parties continue to seek to disrupt the existing order, Political Entrepreneurs shows that their ascendency fundamentally alters government stability and democratic politics.


This paper develops a simulation model in order to examine the effectiveness of state attempts at redistribution under a variety of migration elasticity assumptions. Key outputs from the simulation include the impact of tax-induced migration on state revenues, excess burden, and fiscal externalities. With modest migration elasticities, the costs of state-level redistribution are substantial, but state action may still be preferred to a federal policy that is at odds with preferences of a state's citizens. At higher migration elasticities, the costs of state action can be tremendous. Overall excess burden is greater, but this is dominated by horizontal fiscal externalities. Horizontal fiscal externalities represent a cost to the state pursuing additional redistribution, but not a cost at the national level.


India embarked on a path of liberal economic reform in the 1990s after years of nurturing an intensively regulated and controlled economic environment that was loosened slightly in the mid-1980s. The most important and critical segments of this reform were trade and foreign investment. India has felt the impact of globalization through increased prosperity, partly triggered by increasing trade volumes, investment, and growth. The theme of this article is to make readers aware of the impact of international trade and foreign direct investment (FDI) on climate change with special reference to India's economy. Scholarly work on trade, FDI, and the environment in India with rich theoretical insight and solid empirical evidence is scarce. However, there is a good amount of work on general environmental issues. Our hypothesis is that trade liberalization has not directly or substantially affected carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions. However, it has probably had greater effects through its impact on gross domestic product (GDP). In other words, we impress upon readers that the direct impact of trade and FDI on environmental conditions is less of an issue compared with the indirect effects through the positive impact on GDP growth and resultant prosperity. We also emphasize that enforcing regulations is a complex task given corruption, informal markets, and the inability of citizens to cooperate and form effective lobbies. Preliminary calculations using data from the World Bank show that GDP has a direct, proportional relationship with the extent of CO2 emissions in India, and the relationship is even stronger after the introduction of the liberalization policy in the 1990s. However, trade seems to have an inversely proportional relationship, consistent with the view that Indian imports are mostly manufactured items that may involve polluting production process and are currently being produced outside India. We believe more specific research is needed to assess the overall environmental impact of patterns of production and consumption. Recent scientific analysis focuses on better scientific measures of the damage and impact of climate change and its effect on inequality. Clearly, warmer regions around the globe, including India and many developing Asian countries, will be affected more than their northern counterparts due to global warming. In fact, recent estimates show that climate change has increased inequality in the United States between the north and the south. Patterns of production are generally induced by the conditions of global trade and investment and by physical infrastructural support and local resources. India and the People's Republic of China (PRC), the two largest countries in Asia, have very different GDP compositions. This poses the question of whether excessive industrialization coupled with the usual transboundary and climate concerns make the PRC more vulnerable than India, which thrives on service sector growth and in turn benefits from the low pollution content of growth. This also calls for serious exploration of green accounting and the preparation of databases with better environmental indicators. It will be worthwhile to explore the effect of liberalization on other climatic aspects, such as water pollution and land salinity, with the help of large scientific databases. But the fact remains that only through trade can countries replace the local production of pollution intensive goods with imports and reduce CO2 emissions. Countries that can replace the production of pollution intensive goods by imports will reduce CO2 emissions on this count. The growth effect, however, will go the other way. Countries with different trade patterns may suffer on both counts. India is possibly a mixed case and more detailed analysis is needed to examine the hypothesis.


This study aims at comparing the removal of 2,4-dichlorophenol (2,4-DCP) by 3 methods; adsorption using hydrophobic zeolite (faujasite) or activated carbon (S-23 and L-27), conventional ozonation and hybrid adsorption/ozonation treatment. On the one hand, the three materials correctly adsorb 2,4-DCP; however the adsorption kinetics using zeolite is very low. On the other hand, ozonation totally removes 2,4-DCP after 1 h experiment and the simultaneous combination of adsorbent and ozone does not change the 2,4-DCP degradation. But, though ozonation and hybrid process appear to be equivalent for 2,4-DCP removal, activated carbons are able to decompose ozone and to improve chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal, whereas the zeolite does not show this catalytic effect. Similar results were also observed in a former study with nitrobenzene. Adsorbent degradation is evaluated by Brunauer, Emmet and Teller (BET) and differential thermogravimetric (DTG) analysis, which evidence that Faujasite and S-23 activated carbon are resistant to ozone exposure whereas the pore volume and the surface area of L-27 activated carbon decrease during ozonation.


Abstract We have developed a tightly coupled multiphysics simulation tool for the pebble bed reactor (PBR) concept, a specific type of very high temperature gas-cooled reactor. The simulation tool PRONGHORN takes advantage of the Multiphysics Object-Oriented Simulation Environment library and is capable of solving multidimensional thermal-fluid and neutronics problems implicitly with a Newton-based approach. Expensive Jacobian matrix formation is alleviated via the Jacobian-free Newton-Krylov method, and physics-based preconditioning is applied to minimize Krylov iterations. Motivation for the work is provided via analysis and numerical experiments on simpler multiphysics reactor models. We then provide detail of the physical models and numerical methods in PRONGHORN. Finally, PRONGHORN's algorithmic capability is demonstrated on a number of PBR test cases.


Effect of a hydrotherapy program on flexibility and muscle strength in elderly women Objective: To evaluate the effect of a hydrotherapy program on flexibility and muscle strength among sedentary elderly women. Method: The participants were 31 healthy sedentary elderly women aged between 65 and 70 years (16 in the experimental group and 15 in the control group). Muscle strength tests were carried out using myometry on arm, leg and chest muscles. Flexibility before and after the program was assessed by means of a photographic record of performance in toe-touch tests and tests of anterior flexion of the trunk. The program consisted of 28 one-hour sessions over a consecutive 14-week period. The physical exercises were organized in seven levels of difficulty that were selected to obtain gains in flexibility and muscle strength. Results: There was a statistically significant decrease in anterior flexion of the trunk of –15.4%, which signified a mean decrease of 19.3 cm (±22.4) in the distance from the styloid process of the ulna to the lateral malleolus, and an improvement of 4.2% in the toetouch test, which indicated a mean increase in finger-to-finger distance of 4.7 cm (±4.5). There were no statistically significant changes in strength in the abdominal, gluteal and iliopsoas muscles. The quadriceps femoris, hamstring, biceps brachii, pectoralis major, middle pectoralis and middle deltoid presented significant improvement. Conclusion: The proposed hydrotherapy program was efficient in improving flexibility and partially effective in improving muscle strength among the early elderly women who took part in the study. Our results are compatible with the findings from similar studies carried out on the ground.


In this article giving a voice to students in higher institutions acknowledges that there is much to be gained from entering into the students' world and respecting their versions of reality. If transdiciplinarity is to be achieved in institutions of higher education, knowledge should be presented through mutual learning and dialogue across disciplines towards a horizon of shared understanding. The student participation, transdisciplinary interface provides a critical framework and an experience of building a diverse intellectual community as a basis for curriculum renewal. This paper builds upon fieldwork conducted amongst students enrolled for the Grounding Program also known as Life Knowledge Action and staff. Unstructured interviews were used. Narrative descriptions where derived and were analysed through content analysis. The findings indicated that, the student participation-transdisciplinarity interface is elucidated through the case of the Life Knowledge Program under the Centre for Transdisciplinary Studies at the University of Fort Hare. The interface is embedded in the exchange of ideas which supercedes mono-inter- discipline, addressing cross cutting issues that create additional value. The discourse of Transdisciplinarity has been promoted through the structure of the curriculum and emphasis placed on the attainment of mutual dialogue amongst learners themselves and with lecturers.


The enormous success of German football is envied around the world. The national team won the 2014 World Cup in style, while the Bundesliga offers an alternative model through its fan-friendly set-up, terraces and low ticket prices. In Matchdays: The Hidden Story of the Bundesliga, award-winning author Ronald Reng takes a unique approach to explain the history and peculiarities of German football. He follows the tracks of a journeyman footballer, Heinz Hoher, who has been in the Bundesliga all his life, from the first day of its existence in 1963 until now, as a player, manager, sports director and youth coach. We see through Hoher's story the wider picture of how German football, and even German society, developed from the ruins of the Nazi era to become the football and economic powerhouse of today. Born in 1939, Hoher became the small-town hero of Bayer 04 Leverkusen, a stylish winger and the first to let his hair grow like the Beatles. He witnessed the big match-fixing affairs of the seventies, fought in vain the temptations of so many managers - alcohol and gambling - and realised that, even at 75, his real addiction is still the game. Matchdays does for German football what David Winner's Brilliant Orangedid for Dutch football.


Manchester City Council v Pinnock [2010] UKSC 45 (Lords Phillips, Hope, Rodger, Walker, Hale, Brown, Mance, Neuberger, Collins) INTRODUCTION It is rare that the highest court in the UK sits with nine judges; this only happens, it would seem, where matters of the highest constitutional importance are raised. (1) It is, perhaps, even rarer that such a court is able to speak with one voice. Interestingly, this happened in November 2010 in the case of Pinnock v Manchester City Council (2) when Lord Neuberger delivered the sole judgment of a nine judge panel of the Supreme Court, which suggests even to the casual bystander that the case must be of some importance. It is not exactly clear why the court took the approach of leaving the judgment to one judge. One possible reason is that Lord Neuberger is probably the most eminent property lawyer amongst the Supreme Court justices and thus best suited to delivering such a judgment. The other is that there was a clear need for the Court to dispel confusion which had arisen over the conflicting decisions in Kay and others v London Borough of Lambeth, (3) Doherty and others v Birmingham City Council (4) and the subsequent European Court of Human Rights decision in Paulic v Croatia (5). All of these had wrestled with the problem of the extent to which someone who had no domestic legal right to remain in residential property could invoke the protection Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights to avoid eviction. Pinnock deals clearly with the relationship between claims for possession of land, an issue which has traditionally been unaffected by the law of non-UK jurisdictions, and European Convention law. In what is an important attempt to clarify the interaction between these, however, the Supreme Court has, perhaps, inadvertently opened up the argument as to whether that traditionally non-UK issue of proportionality should be introduced as an element to claims for possession of land which involve interference with the "home". BACKGROUND, FACTS AND CASE HISTORY Mr Pinnock was previously a secure residential tenant of Manchester City Council ("Manchester"). In March 2005, Manchester began possession proceedings against him because of serious acts of anti-social behaviour committed in and around his property by members of his family. The county court in those proceedings ordered that his secure tenancy be demoted. "Demoted tenancies" were introduced by the Anti Social Behaviour Act 2003 following the success of probationary "introductory tenancies" under the Housing Act 1996 (6). Demotion of a secure tenancy effectively removes much of the security of tenure afforded to a local authority tenant. Under a local authority secure tenancy, the court must always consider the reasonableness of making an order for possession or have an element of discretion as to whether to grant possession. Once a secure tenancy becomes a demoted tenancy, however, the statutory provisions (contained in the Housing Act 1996, sections 143E and 143F), simply require the landlord seeking possession to serve appropriate notice on the tenant and, if required by the tenant, to conduct an internal review of the decision to seek possession. If this review upholds the decision to seek possession, the landlord then applies to the court for a possession order. Under section 143D(1)(2), the court must make an order for possession unless it thinks that the statutory procedure has not been followed. Demoted tenancies, like introductory tenancies, were introduced so that a local authority landlord could obtain possession as of right against anti-social families without the process being slowed down by arguments about whether it was reasonable or not to make an order for possession. In June 2008 Manchester served a notice under the Housing Act 1996 section 143E seeking to terminate Mr Pinnock's demoted tenancy because of the conduct of two of his sons at or near the property. …


Anticancer nanotherapeutics have shown mixed results in clinical trials, raising the questions of whether imaging should be used to i) identify patients with a higher likelihood of nanoparticle accumulation, ii) assess nanotherapeutic efficacy before traditional measures show response, and iii) guide adjuvant treatments to enhance therapeutic nanoparticle (TNP) delivery. Here we review the use of a clinically approved MRI nanoparticle (ferumoxytol, FMX) to predict TNP delivery and efficacy. It is becoming increasingly apparent that nanoparticles used for imaging, despite clearly distinct physicochemical properties, often co-localize with TNP in tumors. This evidence offers the possibility of using FMX as a generic "companion diagnostic" nanoparticle for multiple TNP formulations, thus potentially allowing many of the complex regulatory and cost challenges of other approaches to be avoided.


This paper examines the viability of monetary treaty. Using time series data, estimates of trade masses, trade trend ratios and the trade accumulation coefficient, it finds that the European monetary union is trade-creating. Descriptive statistics indicate that internal trade has been asymmetric and that a substantial amount of intra-European union real income has been transferred to non-members. The internal trade imbalances threaten the growth and welfare of the deficit members. In the absence of reciprocal intra-European Union trade and structural changes required to offset unemployment, the vitality of the union and the irrevocably pegged currency are severely compromised. The paper concludes that the trade-creating effects of the union is a necessary but insufficient condition for the preservation of the monetary treaty as it is presently constructed.


Positive precipitation biases over western North America have remained a pervasive problem in the current generation of coupled global climate models. These biases are substantially reduced, however, in a version of the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory Forecast-Oriented Low Ocean Resolution (FLOR) coupled climate model with systematic sea surface temperature (SST) biases artificially corrected through flux adjustment. This study examines how the SST biases in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans contribute to the North American precipitation biases. Experiments with the FLOR model in which SST biases are removed in the Atlantic and Pacific are carried out to determine the contribution of SST errors in each basin to precipitation statistics over North America. Tropical and North Pacific SST biases have a strong impact on northern North American precipitation, while tropical Atlantic SST biases have a dominant impact on precipitation biases in southern North America, including the western United States. Most notably, negative SST biases in the tropical Atlantic in boreal winter induce an anomalously strong Aleutian low and a southward bias in the North Pacific storm track. In boreal summer, the negative SST biases induce a strengthened North Atlantic subtropical high and Great Plains low-level jet. Each of these impacts contributes to positive annual mean precipitation biases over western North America. Both North Pacific and North Atlantic SST biases induce SST biases in remote basins through dynamical pathways, so a complete attribution of the effects of SST biases on precipitation must account for both the local and remote impacts.


If students really understand the systems they study, they would be able to tell how changes in the system would affect a result. This demands that the students understand the mechanisms that drive its behaviour. The study investigates potential merits of learning how to explicitly model the causal structure of systems. The approach and performance of 15 system dynamics students who are taught to explicitly model the causal structure of the systems they study were compared with the approach and performance of 22 engineering students, who generally did not receive such training. The task was to bring a computer-simulated predator-and-prey ecology to equilibrium. The system dynamics students were significantly more likely than the engineering students to correctly frame the problem. They were not much better at solving the task, however. It seemed that they had only learnt how to make models and not how to use them for reasoning.


At a time in which we are going through the ruins of two models of social transformation – social revolution and social reformism –, I identify a radical division between metropolitan and colonial social relations. I describe and denounce what I call an 'abyssal line' between these two realities. The difference between the two sides is that on the metropolitan side we can claim rights, as we are fully human. Conversely, on the colonial side, exclusion is abyssal, people are sub-human, and therefore have no rights. To denounce this abyssal exclusion, we should learn other types of knowledge that allow us to produce radical diagnoses of our societies. We should become more aware of the diversity of social experience in the world, an experience of untold and repugnantly unjust suffering, but also of neglected creativity and innovation. We should develop a law of common goods, democratic pluralism, interculturality, and dignity.


The Hirnantian glaciation of West Gondwana produced a glacially sculpted topography, which is draped by organic-rich latest Ordovician and early Silurian 'hot shales'. Although these are the most important Early Palaeozoic source rock in North Africa, organic enrichment is distributed unevenly. For example, in Al Kufrah Basin, Libya, 'hot shales' are elusive, but outcrop analysis at the western basin demonstrates why this is the case. The topmost Mamuniyat Formation, of Hirnantian age, comprises glaciogenic sandstones, passing upward into mixed facies of the Tanezzuft Formation, which has a latest Ordovician–early Silurian age. The basal Tanezzuft Formation contains a shelly carbonate (cool-water deposits accumulated under oxygenating conditions) and bioturbated sandstone succession. Above, hummocky cross-bedded and graded sandstone intervals are intercalated with shale and siltstone (storm influx onto a muddy shelf). These are interrupted by several lonestone-bearing intervals (ice-rafted debris), a striated pavement (of subglacial origin), and manganese oxide crusts and concretions. The concretions and bioturbation imply oxygenation of the sea floor during transgression. These putative glacial deposits were deposited following the main phase of the Hirnantian glaciation, at the same stratigraphic level as 'hot shales' elsewhere in northern Gondwana. Lingering ice caps may have produced well-oxygenated marine waters precluding 'hot shale' deposition.


Peter Hennessy's "The Secret State: Preparing for the Worst 1945-2010" is the story of secret government plans for combatting attacks on Britain, from the Cold War to modern counter-terrorism. Now completely revised and updated, Peter Hennessy's acclaimed account of the secret state includes material from a host of recently declassified documents, to give an up-to-date picture of Whitehall's efforts to defend the safety of the realm. What were the secret plans for Britain if World War Three had erupted and 'breakdown' had occurred? When would the Queen have been informed and where would she have gone? How does the contingency planning for a national emergency work today? By what procedures would the Prime Minister authorise a nuclear strike and how would those orders be carried out? This book now gives the most detailed and authoritative answers to all these questions. "Riveting, path-breaking and wonderfully readable". (Christopher Andrew, "The Times"). "Effective and vivid...One of the fascinations of this book is the bureaucratic aridity to which Whitehall reduced concepts of bloodcurdling awfulness". (Philip Ziegler, "Daily Telegraph"). "An insider's insider, if ever there was one". (Anthony Howard, "New Statesman"). "One of those rare books that reflects credit not only on the author but on its subjects too". (John Crace, "Guardian"). Peter Hennessy is Attlee Professor of History at Queen Mary College, London, and the Director of the Mile End Institute of Contemporary British Government, Intelligence and Society. He is the author of "Never Again: Britain" 1945-51 (winner of the NCR and Duff Cooper Prizes); the bestselling "The Prime Minister" and "The Secret State".


Nowadays large real estates and infrastructural installations are managed using Computer Aided Facili-ties Management-systems (CAFM-systems). These systems are based on the graphical and alphanumerical base data of the building, as well as real-time data from master control systems and security installations. Even though a substantial number of rules and regulations exist concerning how the information is to be gathered and administered, there are still no standardised international norms in that area. Further, there are no provider-specific data and database structures on how to deal with the large amount of data, since the market is still far from consolidation and no single system has a market-dominating position. This is not a downfall in the daily routine of a facility manager, since most systems inte-grate all processes of the facilities management, but the incoherent data can cause problems when exchanging them with other applications or during benchmarking. Severe problems arise with the lack of standards in extraordinary situations when numerous im-portant decisions with major consequences have to be taken within a short period of time. In cases of fires, floods or terrorist attacks the base data of the buildings need to be readily available in an adequate format. Further these data should be constantly up-dated and integrated with real-time data from the Disaster Management System (DMS). The main challenges in this situation are locating and tracking rescue teams, the local information management and the communication between the on-site staff and the command centre. The Institute for Building Informatics at TU Graz in coopera-tion with the security industry is currently researching and developing a CAFM-based DMS (CADMS). In the following the individ-ual aspects and technical problems are outlined and first re-sults are presented.