This study explores the relationship between childhood physical maltreatment and two mental health outcomes, psychological distress and problem drinking, in a nationally representative sample. Data from the National Survey of Midlife Development in the United States (MIDUS), which measured childhood experiences with parental physical maltreatment and adult mental health outcomes, were used to examine the conditional effects of childhood maltreatment on psychological distress and problem drinking. A " gender-difference hypothesis " predicts that childhood physical maltreatment is more strongly related to distress among women and is more strongly related to problem drinking among men. The results support this hypothesis only for psychological distress. A " saturation hypothesis " predicts that women are more likely to have higher rates of problem drinking but not distress, and men experience elevated rates of distress but not problem drinking. No significant findings emerged to support the second hypothesis. Results also suggest that, among respondents who experienced either any physical maltreatment or major psychical maltreatment, low parental support exacerbates the negative impact of physical maltreatment on distress. This research underscores the importance of structural and contextual factors for the long-term consequences of childhood physical maltreatment.


In the Differential Pulse-code Modulation (DPCM) image coding, the intensity of a pixel is predicted as a linear combination of a set of surrounding pixels and the prediction error is encoded. In this paper, we propose the adaptive residual DPCM (ARDPCM) for intra lossless coding. In the ARDPCM, intra residual samples are predicted using adaptive mode-dependent DPCM weights. The weights are estimated by minimizing the Mean Squared Error (MSE) of coded data and they are synchronized at the encoder and the decoder. The proposed method is implemented on the High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) reference software. Experimental results show that the ARDPCM significantly outperforms HEVC lossless coding and HEVC with the DPCM. The proposed method is also computationally efficient.


The effect of magnetic nanoparticle additions on the (Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+δ)1-x-(nano M)x with M= Sm2O3, Ho2O3, Nd2O3 and x= 0.0-0.05 systems, sintered at 850°C for 30 hours were investigated by X-ray diffraction techniques, critical temperature measurement, scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX). Magnetic nanoparticles, M= Sm2O3, Ho2O3 and Nd2O3 with 14.8 nm, 18 nm and 49-64 nm particle sizes respectively, were mixed with Bi1.6Pb0.4Sr2Ca2Cu3O10+δ precursor powder prepared by solid state reaction method before the final step heat treatment process. The phase purity, lattice parameters, superconducting properties, surface morphology and grain size were found to be dependent on the magnetic nanopatricles concentration in the sample.
The XRD result indicate that the dominant high Tc (Bi2223) phase decrease due to the increase of low Tc phase (Bi2212) with the presence of magnetic nanoparticles with 0<x≤0.02 and the later phase become significant for further addition. The lattice parameters calculated from XRD data show a slight decrease in the c-axis while a-axis increase for initial nanoparticale addition. Lattice parameters decrease monotonically with x≥0.02.
The scanning electron microscopy viewing shows platelets like-grain for all samples which is a signature of Bi2223 and Bi2212 phases. The existence of large oriented platelet-like grains that have been observed in pure sample surface, are maintained for sample with 0<x<0.02. Further more the previous samples have small, randomly oriented platelet-like grains that increase with the increase in magnetic nanoparticles content. For x≥0.02 the sample surface becomes more porous with large amount of randomly oriented platelet grains. The elemental analysis by EDX measurement of sample with x=0.05 reveals the existence of nanoparticles that homogeneously distributed in BSCCO matrix. The chemical formula of sample's elements composition that has been estimated from EDX measurements is in good approximation to that of Bi2223 system with noticeable excess in oxygen ratio which may be due to the existence of magnetic oxide nanoparticles in the sample.
All samples exhibit normal metallic behavior above superconducting transition temperature. Zero resistivity temperature Tc (R=0) which is around 102 K for pure sample was found to gradually decrease to lower temperature with magnetic nanoparticle additions and decrease to that of the low-Tc(2212) with x≥0.02. The onset transition temperature Tc is almost the same for sample with 0.005≤x≤0.02 and become lower with higher concentration of addition. The superconducting transition width becomes wider with increase in the magnetic nanoparticles addition.
The hole concentration, p, of pure sample under preparation condition is around 0.13. The introduction of magnetic nanoparticles causes a decrease in the hole concentration of Bi2223 system. This decrease characterize by two steps. For initial addition of magnetic nanoparticle, the reduction of hole concentration per change in magnetic nanoparticles addition, Δp/Δx, is more than when x>0.02 for Ho2O3 and Nd2O3 and at x>0.03 for Sm2O3 addition.


In 2013 the Greek government closed down public broadcaster ERT and made its employees redundant as part of the latest public spending cuts imposed to meet the terms of the country's bailout deal. In effect, this has left the commercially dominated Greek broadcasting landscape without a public channel and its citizens dependent on the private media sector for the provision of information, entertainment and education. One can rightly accuse ERT of lacking clear public interest objectives, overstaffing, bureaucracy, wastefulness and over-rewards for senior management, but its abrupt closure without consultation and a strategic plan is an attack on free speech and public space by the Greek government. ERT required restructuring, but not closing down. Public service broadcasters play a crucial role in producing and disseminating public service output that brings citizens together and enhances the educational and cultural aspect. This paper is concerned with analysing the reasons behind, and consequences of seizing a public service broadcaster such as ERT. After providing a background of the historical role and remit of ERT, the article focuses on the legal questions surrounding the Council of State decision regarding ERT's closure. The final part examines the legality of ERT's closure from the EU and ECHR perspective. The central argument is that the closure of a public channel limits pluralism and freedom of speech in a market-driven Greek economy.


Nowadays, finding a way to secure media is common with the growth of digital media. An effective method for the secure transmission of images can be found in the field of visual cryptography. There is a growing interest in the use of visual cryptography in security application.Since this method is used for secure transmission of images, many of the methods are developed based on the original algorithm proposed by Naor and Shamir in 1994.In this paper, a new hybrid model is used in cryptography of images which is composed of Mandelbrot algorithm and genetic algorithm. In the early stages of proposal, a number of encrypted images are made by using the Mandelbrot algorithm and the original picture and in the next stage, these encrypted images are used as the initial population for the genetic algorithm.At each stage of the genetic algorithm, the answer of previous iterations is optimized to get the best encoding image. Also, in the proposed method, we can achieve the decoded image by a reverse operation from the genetic algorithm. The best encrypted image is an image with high entropy and low correlation coefficient. According to the entropy and correlation coefficient of the proposed method compared with existing methods, it is observed that our method gets better results in both of them.


Over the past two decades, many Latin American countries have expanded the economic protection of older adults by developing non-contributory pensions or making eligibility rules more flexible. These policies have addressed long-standing coverage gaps in Latin American pension systems and contributed to incorporating a large number of older adults in the social protection system. The paper examines the main design features of non-contributory pensions and how they interact with pre-existing contributory systems. It identifies the different types of coverage expansion strategies across Latin America and discusses three different country experiences—Argentina, Bolivia, and Colombia—in greater detail.


Poverty can take many different forms, ranging widely over dimensions both monetary, such as consumption or income, and nonmonetary, such as health and education. One large class of nonmonetary measures of poverty is the multidimensional poverty index (MPI); recent studies document that people identified as poor in one dimension are often different from those who found to be poor in another dimension. This paper extends the literature by examining whether MDP dynamics are similar to the dynamics of a related consumption based measure of poverty. Using two waves of Ethiopian panel data (2011-12 and 2013-14) we estimate poverty based on a monetary value of real consumption and a non monetary weighted deprivation index (our underlying measure of MDP). Similar to studies for other countries, we find that the two estimates of poverty identify significantly different groups of Ethiopians as poor. A key contribution of this paper is the finding that changes in consumption are largely independent of changes in multidimensional wellbeing: Awareness that an individual's wellbeing improved over time as measured by improvements in the weighted deprivation index provides no information about whether his or her well being has improved where consumption is concerned.


Recent studies at Hot Weather Creek, Ellesmere Island document the climate and vegetation of a major part of the intermontane zone of Ellesmere Island. Summer temperatures in this region are much higher than would be expected for its 80° N location. This enables a variety of arctic species with more moderate temperature tolerances to thrive. The dense and diverse tundra and wetland vegetation in parts of the region, however, does not conform to polar desert or semidesert vegetation expected from the meager amount of precipitation (< 70 mm per year) recorded there. Comparisons between differing biological and geomorphological responses to the summer climatic regimes of 1988 and 1989 suggest a two source supply of moisture to the active layer in summer. Supplementary source of water, from the melting of massive ground ice bodies provides water from the base of the active layer, during the hot, dry summer of 1988. During the wet summer of 1989, a more conventional nival regime was in operation. These two potential sources of moisture in summer provide a fail-safe delivery system to vegetation in areas underlain by massive ground ice, and permit a richer vegetation growth than climate alone could.


Assessment of cognitive and motor functions is fundamental for developmental and neuropsychological profiling. Assessments are usually conducted on an individual basis, with a trained examiner, using standardized paper and pencil tests, and can take up to an hour or more to complete, depending on the nature of the test. This makes traditional standardized assessments of child development largely unsuitable for use in low-income countries. Touch screen tablets afford the opportunity to assess cognitive functions in groups of participants, with untrained administrators, with precision recording of responses, thus automating the assessment process. In turn, this enables cognitive profiling to be conducted in contexts where access to qualified examiners and standardized assessments are rarely available. As such, touch screen assessments could provide a means of assessing child development in both low- and high-income countries, which would afford cross-cultural comparisons to be made with the same assessment tool. However, before touch screen tablet assessments can be used for cognitive profiling in low-to-high-income countries they need to be shown to provide reliable and valid measures of performance. We report the development of a new touch screen tablet assessment of basic cognitive and motor functions for use with early years primary school children in low- and high-income countries. Measures of spatial intelligence, visual attention, short-term memory, working memory, manual processing speed, and manual coordination are included as well as mathematical knowledge. To investigate if this new touch screen assessment tool can be used for cross-cultural comparisons we administered it to a sample of children (N = 283) spanning standards 1–3 in a low-income country, Malawi, and a smaller sample of children (N = 70) from first year of formal schooling from a high-income country, the UK. Split-half reliability, test-retest reliability, face validity, convergent construct validity, predictive criterion validity, and concurrent criterion validity were investigated. Results demonstrate "proof of concept" that touch screen tablet technology can provide reliable and valid psychometric measures of performance in the early years, highlighting its potential to be used in cross-cultural comparisons and research.


We present a new method for regularized convex optimization and analyze it under both online and stochastic optimization settings. In addition to unifying previously known firstorder algorithms, such as the projected gradient method, mirror descent, and forwardbackward splitting, our method yields new analysis and algorithms. We also derive specific instantiations of our method for commonly used regularization functions, such as l1, mixed norm, and trace-norm.


The following text taken from the (new) publisher's [Routledge] website:
"Presenting an informed view of current educational policy, this text encourages students of secondary English to take a creative and independent interpretation of government initiatives in order to achieve effective teaching practice. It provides a good balance of theoretical material with practical ideas for application in the classroom and strongly encourages reflection and critical thought. This new edition includes:

coverage of the National Curriculum 2000, the National Literacy Strategy and the new Key Stage 3 Strategy

a new chapter on how to teach ICT

a new chapter on Inclusion – including differentiation, cultural diversity, EAL and teaching across the ability range

new material on how to teach Shakespeare

an introduction to cross-curricular themes – such as citizenship, and social, moral and spiritual values.

Written in an accessible and conversational style, this text poses an excellent degree of challenge for all students on initial teacher training courses."


The androgen/estrogen balance is essential for normal sexual development and reproduction in mammals. Studies performed herein investigated the potential for estrogen synthesis in cells of the testes of a hystricomorph rodent, Galea spixii The study characterized the expression of the key enzymes responsible for estrogen and androgen synthesis, cytochromes P450 aromatase (P450arom), 17α-hydroxylase/17,20-lyase (P450c17) respectively, as well as the redox partner NADPH cytochrome P450 oxido-reductase (CPR) required to support electron transfer and catalysis of these P450s, by immunohistochemistry (IHC) and quantitative polymerase chain reaction (qPCR) analysis, throughout postnatal sexual development. Testes (immature, pre-pubertal, pubertal and post-pubertal) were collected, fixed for IHC (CYP19, CYP17 and CPR) and stored frozen for qPCR for the relevant gene transcripts (Cyp19a1 and Cyp17a1). Expression of P450c17 was significantly elevated at the pre-pubertal and pubertal stages. Based on IHC, P450c17 was expressed only in Leydig cell clusters. The expression of P450arom was detectable at all stages of sexual development of Galea spixii IHC data suggest that estrogen synthesis was not restricted to somatic cells (Leydig cells/Sertoli cells), but that germ cells may also be capable of converting androgens into estrogens, important for testicular function and spermatogenesis.


Preface Acknowledgements 1 The World s Forests and Their Dynamics 2 Forest Insect Dynamics 3 Forest Insect and Human Interactions 4 Monitoring Forest Insects, Their Damage and Damage Potential 5 Management of Forest Insect Pests 6 Forest Insect Orders and Families 7 Foliage Feeding Insects Lepidoptera 8 Other Foliage Feeding Insects 9 Bark and Ambrosia Beetles 10 Large Cambium and Wood Boring Insects 11 Sucking Insects 12 Gall Insects 13 Tip, Shoot and Regeneration Insects 14 Insects of Tree Reproductive Structures 15 Insects of Wood in Use References Cited Index


A prospective study of laparoscopic ultrasound (LUS) for evaluation of the common bile duct during laparoscopic cholecystectomy was started in October 1993. LUS during cholecystectomy was performed routinely to preoperatively identify unsuspected stones. Three-hundred thirty patients with symptomatic cholelithiasis were included in the study. The preoperative work-up included endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography in 49 patients. Common bile duct (CBD) stones were found in 22 cases; in 19 cases the stones were removed successfully by endoscopic sphincterotomy. LUS successfully visualized the CBD in all but 10 patients (3%). CBD stones were found in 17 patients and confirmed by preoperative cholangiography and/or CBD exploration. There were two false-negative and one false-positive result for LUS. In 47 patients (14.2%) LUS detected CBD sludge as low-amplitude echoes without acoustic shadowing. The presence of CBD sludge was correlated with some biochemical and clinical variables. A significant correlation was identified between the absence or presence of CBD sludge and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography, acute pancreatitis, gallbladder sludge, age, and the levels of serum bilirubin and alkaline phosphatase. A significant difference was recorded between CBD diameter and the presence or absence of stones or sludge (p = 0.00001). In our experience, LUS allowed good diagnosis of CBD stones during laparoscopic cholecystectomy. The clinical significance of CBD sludge remains to be elucidated.


A carbon-coated pyrosilicate, Na2Mn2Si2O7/C, was synthesized and characterized for use as a new positive-electrode material for sodium ion batteries. The material consists of 20–80 nm primary particles embedded in a z10 nm-thick conductive carbon matrix. Reversible insertion of Na ions is clearly demonstrated with z25% of its theoretical capacity (165 mA h g ) being accessible at room temperature at a low cycling rate. The material yields an average potential of 3.3 V vs. Na/Na on charge and 2.2 V on discharge. DFT calculations predict an equilibrium potential for Na2Mn2Si2O7 in the range of 2.8–3.0 V vs. Na/Na, with a possibility of a complete flip in the connectivity of neighboring Mn-polyhedra – from edge-sharing to disconnected and vice versa. This significant rearrangement in Mn coordination (z2 Å) and large volume contraction (>10%) could explain our inability to fully desodiate the material, and illustrates well the need for a new electrode design strategy beyond the conventional "down-sizing/coating" procedure.


The focus of environmental work in manufacturing companies has increasingly shifted from end-of-pipe solutions to the environmental performance of products and services. The product development process is central to creating value for customers. This thesis argues that companies can simultaneously create value for consumers and be profitable while taking environmental considerations into account. Modernising ecodesign means taking advantage of environmental benefits and the innovation potential when developing solutions rather than using ecodesign simply to ensure that legal requirements or customer demands are met. Ecodesign is a strategic issue and should be included in early product development activities, such as for project selection and when setting product targets. There is also need to perform ecodesign according to the characteristics of specific development processes as for radical product development or when developing integrated solutions, using a combination of services and products. This thesis reports on the findings from five different research studies, all of which adopted a qualitative approach in which the emphasis falls on exploring and creating understanding and meaning. The studies focused on three areas of ecodesign: A) rethinking approaches for manufacturing companies, B) setting environmental project targets and project selection and C) redesign of products. Recommendations on how to modernise ecodesign have been developed and can be summarised in six points: • Perform ecodesign both vertically and horizontally in a company. • Increase interaction between organisational units. • Take advantage of innovation potential in products, services, user behaviour and the delivery and take-back systems. • Take environmental considerations into account in the project selection process. • Set environmental targets for ensuring that environmental considerations are taken when developing innovative solutions. • Develop ecodesign procedures that fit the characteristics of the development process


A method is presented for creating a set of optimal channels for microwave sounding of the atmosphere. The method finds the combinations of center frequencies and bandwidths that provide optimal skill at retrieving a profile of atmospheric characteristics, such as the air temperature or water vapor concentration. The measure of optimality is a function of the degrees of freedom for the signal. The method is capable of considering several environmental regimes (e.g. latitude, season, surface type, scan angle) simultaneously while performing the optimization. Applications of the method are presented for satellite sounding at frequencies near 60, 118, and 183 GHz. The optimized channel sets compare favorably to channel sets from planned operational sensors, in terms of optimality measures and retrieval performance. For tropospheric sounding, optimal channels have spectrally broader passbands than have typically been used in satellite sounding instruments. For water vapor sounding on the 183-GHz line, the number of channels needed to achieve the full retrieval potential is shown to depend on the radiometer noise level and on the vertical structure of the water vapor profiles.


This report explores the experiences and aspirations of youth in Wadeye, a remote Aboriginal community in the Northern Territory which has become synonymous with the deviant behaviours of its young people. The research was undertaken over a three year period, and builds upon a previous ten year period of community based research. As such it forms a unique longitudinal study of young people during a period of extreme change in their lives. The research applied a mixed methods approach, utilising ethnography, interviews and the application of a community wide survey. Although young community based people were the primary focus of the study, the research also included the wider community perspectives, service provide rs and a sample of imprisoned community members. The proliferation of gangs in the Wadeye community has become a primary focus for outsiders' interpretation of social issues in the community. These gangs have been defined by their violent and oppositional cultures. This period of research and the research which preceded it, emphasise the complexity of gang cultures and gang dynamics in this community. The report also emphasises that a primary focus on gangs serves to obscure other factors influencing young people's lives and behaviours. This includes those youth who do not engage in deviant behaviour, who attend school and progress to employment. It also includes youth who engage in non-gang related violent and anti-social behaviour. The report argues that effective service delivery and the development of appropriate diversion activities for young people must recognise the diversity and complexity of the youth experience in the community and recognise and develop their current strengths. Feedback from elders, young people and long-term community workers, advocates that more partnership approaches to further research and program evaluation must become an integral part of the process. Involving young people themselves as part of this research process will provide opportunities to create new roles for them and to establish a positive foundation for the future of the community.


Cilia dysfunction is a common factor underlying left-right axis malformation and the pathogenesis of virtually all known renal cystic diseases. Mutations in the RNA-binding protein Bicaudal-C (Bicc1) provoke cystic kidneys reminiscent of polycystic kidney disease (PKD), and ectopic Wnt/b-catenin signaling during left-right axis development. Renal cysts in these mice have been linked to defective miRNA-mediated silencing of specific mRNAs, including adenylate cyclase 6 (AC6) and protein kinase A inhibitor (PKIa), but little is known about how Bicc1 activities are regulated. Prompted by the overlapping phenotypes of mice lacking Bicc1 or Inversin (Invs), the protein defective in patients with nephronophthisis type II, we investigated a potential epistatic relationship. We found that Invs acts as an inhibitor of Bicc1 induced silencing and that Invs is required for Bicc1 localization to the Invs compartmentent in the proximal cilium. Molecular analysis demonstrated that Invs interacts with the Bicc1 KH domains required for mRNA binding. The Bicc1/Invs complex prevented the recruitment of target mRNA and their incorporation into miRNA-induced silencing complexes (miRISC). To test whether Bicc1 activity is regulated in vivo, we monitored Bicc1 targets in inv/inv mutant mouse kidneys lacking Invs. While AC6, the RNA helicase Ddx5 (a novel Bicc1 target) and PKA signaling were dramatically downregulated in inv/inv mutant kidneys, these effects were suppressed in Bicc1-/-; inv/inv double mutants, demonstrating that loss of Invs leads to ectopic activation of Bicc1. In autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD), fluid-filled cysts develop in both kidneys due to defective calcium-permeable mechanosensory complexes of polycystin-1 and -2 encoded by PKD1 and PKD2. Studies in zebrafish suggest that Pkd2/Ca2+ signaling stimulates calmodulin kinase 2 (CaMK2). To further elucidate a role for Ca2+ in Bicc1 regulation, we mutated specific residues that are predicted to be phosphorylated by CaMK2. We found that CaMK2 phosphorylated Bicc1 on T724 and S805 and enabled miRISC assembly, at least in part by stimulating Bicc1 binding to nascent miRNAs. In addition, elevated Ca2+ concentrations prevented in vitro binding of Bicc1 to Invs. Based on these data we suggest a dual role for Ca2+ in regulating Bicc1. Elevated intracellular Ca2+ levels may induce the dissociation of a Bicc1/Invs complex and activate CaMK2 to enable Bicc1 mediated silencing of target mRNAs.


Aims Effective pain management in the pre-hospital setting is gaining traction as a potential key performance indicator by many EMS systems, but historically has been shown to be inadequate, particularly in the paediatric population. This study aimed to identify the barriers, as perceived by a representative national cohort of Advanced Paramedics (APs), to achieving optimal prehospital management of acute pain in children. Methods A qualitative approach was employed to capture data through two focus group interviews. 16 APs were invited to participate in this study. Both interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and analysed using Attridge-Stirling's framework for thematic network analysis. Ethical approval was granted for this study. Results The global theme "Barriers to the Prehospital Management of Acute Pain in Children" emerged from three organising themes as follows: AP education and training, Current clinical practise guidelines for paediatric pain management, and Realities of prehospital practise. Limited exposure to children in the pre-hospital setting, difficulty assessing pain intensity in small children, and challenges in administering oral or inhaled analgesic agents to distressed and uncooperative children were highlighted by participants. Short transfer times to the ED and a "medical" cause of pain were also implicated as examples of when children are less likely to receive analgesia from practitioners. Conclusion The pathway to improving care must be paved with an emphasis on improvements in practitioner education and training, offering alternatives to assessing pain in pre-verbal children, exploring the intranasal route of drug delivery in managing acute severe pain, and through robustly developing evidence-based guidelines that are practitioner friendly and patient-focused.


Background South Asians constitute the single largest ethnic minority group in the United Kingdom, yet little is known about their perspectives and experiences on end of life and its related care. Aim This paper examines attitudes and expectations that older South Asians expressed towards the discussion of death and dying and decision making. Methods Five focus groups and 29 in-depth, semi-structured interviews were conducted with total of 55 older adults aged between 52 and 78 years. Participants from six South Asian ethnic groups were recruited from 11 local community organisations. Constructive grounded theory was used as data analysis approach. Findings Trust is category that captured views and experiences of participants that consists two key themes. The theme 'avoidance of discussion' relates to the relative absence of discussions around death and dying among participants. Participants neither expected to have discussions about their own death and dying within their family, nor to assume any involvement in related issues of decision making. The second theme 'locus of authority' relates to beliefs and experiences about the delegation of decision making to family members. Conclusion Older South Asians living in East London make efforts to adhere to important social and cultural values relating to death and dying, and rebuild and adapt those values during the challenges of living in an emigrant society. Future research should explore the perspectives of second-generation adult children towards end of life care decisions.


A greenhouse pot experiment was conducted in which bermudagrass [Cynodon dactylum (L.) Pers.] was grown on Holtville silty clay and San Emigdio fine sandy loam soils, which were amended with aerobically (AEDS) and anaerobically (ANDS) digesed sludges to supply N at 600, 900, and 1200 kg ha⁻¹. Ammonium sulfate [(NH₄)₂SO₄] was applied to other pots at rates to supply N at 300 and 600 kg ha⁻¹. A second 600 kg N treatment as (NH₄)₂SO₄ was applied in three split applications. All (NH₄)₂SO₄ treatments received 60 kg of P as monocalcium phosphate (MCP). Cumulative yields of bermudagrass grown on aerobic sludge treatments were greater than those yields on anaerobic sludge treatments for both soils. Patterns of plant yields indicate that a large initial release of plant-available N occurred in aerobic sludge treatments relative to anaerobic treatments. Though not statistically significant, more N was accumulated by plants grown on aerobic than on anaerobic sludge-amended soils. On both soils, aerobic sludge-P was more plant-available than anaerobic sludge-P. Calculated recoveries of sludge-applied N and P showed little variation due to soil type at equal rates of sludge application. For both soils, 1 Mg of aerobic sludge or anaerobic sludge produced bermudagrass yields equivalent to those resulting from the application of 24–37 kg (NH₄)₂SO₄-N and 7–10 kg (NH₄)₂SO₄-N, respectively. Tissue concentrations of Cd were below 9 × 10⁻⁴ mmol kg⁻¹ for all treatments, and were not considered to be excessive.


In various applications the use of sorption chillers and heat pumps is limited by the available temperature level of the driving heat source or the heat sink for export of reject heat. These constraints can be overcome by integrating an efficient high-speed transonic turbo-compressor into the internal cycle of a thermally driven water/lithium bromide absorption heat pump. The operation in a hybrid heat pump with the refrigerant water implies specific challenges for the design of the compressor: Saturation pressures in the sub-atmospheric range, low vapor density, high volume flows and a targeted pressure ratio of 3 result in high impeller tip speed up to 660 m/s and transonic flow phenomena in the flow channel of impeller and diffusor. Here the authors present a theoretical design study based on a 3Dsimulation of a centrifugal compressor, targeted at the given operating conditions for a hybrid heat pump. Key figures are investigated to figure out the relationship between impeller tip speed, compressor pressure ratio and operating range of the compressor meeting the requirements, wide stable operating range between surge and choke line and appropriate pressure ratio. The optimization of the impeller geometry comprises both fluid dynamic behavior and structural stability.


This chapter describes an AI application called the TRADOC issue management expert (TIME), which was deployed in 1990 for the U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC). TIME helps generate a document that is part of the system acquisition milestone or decision process. The goal of TIME is to bridge the gap between the headquarters decision makers who know how to write the desired document and the various authors at 17 sites nationwide who know what to put in the document. TIME has several capabilities. In one capacity, it is an expert critiquing and tutoring system that emulates the headquarters decision makers. In this capacity, it communicates good document-au-thoring rules, heuristics, and practices in real-time (during authoring) mode. In another capacity, TIME is also a knowledge-acquisition system that interviews the author and helps him(her) generate the document. Finally, TIME acts as an intelligent memory that dynamically indexes and collects as many as 600 documents that are produced annually in a corporate memory for later analogical retrieval and illustration purposes. This last capability means that the more TIME is used, the more useful it is.


We compare the generation and decay dynamics of charges and excitons in a model polymer semiconductor (MEH-PPV) in solution and drop-cast thin films, by recording the sub-ps transient complex conductivity using THz time-domain spectroscopy. The results show that the quantum efficiency of charge generation is two orders of magnitude smaller in solution (~10–5) than in the solid film (~10–3). The proximity of neighboring chains in the films apparently facilitates (hot) exciton dissociation, presumably by allowing the electron and hole to separate on different polymer strands. For both samples, photoexcitation leads to the predominant formation of bound charge pairs (excitons) that can be detected through their polarizability. Surprisingly, the polarizability per absorbed photon is a factor of 3 larger in solution than in the film, suggesting that interchain interactions in the film do not result in a substantial delocalization of the exciton wave function.


Gender disparities in top-level academic positions are persistent. However, whether bias in recruitment plays a role in producing these disparities remains unclear. This study examines the role of bias in academic recruitment by conducting a large-scale survey experiment among faculty in Economics, Law, Physics, Political Science, Psychology, and Sociology from universities in Iceland, Norway, and Sweden. The faculty respondents rated CVs of hypothetical candidates—who were randomly assigned either a male or a female name—for a permanent position as an Associate Professor in their discipline. The results show that, despite the underrepresentation of women in all fields, the female candidates were viewed as both more competent and more hireable compared to their male counterparts. Having children or a stronger CV do not change the overall result. Consequently, biased evaluations of equally qualified candidates to Associate Professor positions do not seem to be the key explanation of the persistent gender gap in academia in the Nordic region.


Aim/Purpose Engagement in doctoral training is intended to lead to personal development, as well as – of course the development of a person's skills as a researcher. Having engaged in the occupation of doctoral training, I aim to reflect upon how my identity as researcher developed throughout this process; that is, through doing, being, becoming, and belonging. The aim of my doctoral research was to explore the impact of woman-to-woman rape and sexual assault. Hence, the foundational themes explored in this paper are sexual offending, auto/biography, and the significance of identity. Background I commenced my doctoral training as someone who identified as an occupational scientist and who, therefore, understood that occupation is a means through which people can develop, express themselves, and achieve some sense of belonging. Having completed my training, I reflect upon my becoming an auto/biographical researcher. Methodology In this original paper, I use the sociologically-informed auto/biographical approach, which affords me with the rationale for writing from the first-person perspective. Auto/biography concedes the combined inclusion of my own voice – as researcher and the experiences of my respondents. Contribution Little is known about the issue of woman-to-woman sexual offending, let alone the impact of researching this traumatic topic upon the researcher. Moreover, research has only relatively recently started to grow that explicitly uses an auto/biographical approach, in which researchers embrace their subjectivity and positionality within their work. Developing my Research Identity 156 Findings Identifying as an auto/biographical researcher, I appreciate how my respondents – in terms of their identity and the stories they told me were integral to my development. That is, I engaged in the process of developing and understanding the Self through exploring the perceived impacts of woman-to-woman rape and sexual assault. Recommendations for Practitioners I invite practitioners to share their awareness that woman-to-woman sexual offending is a very real phenomenon. Additionally, your engagement in or with research (which can include being the audience, or reader of research) is one way in which you can gain understanding of your Self. Recommendation for Researchers I invite others to reflect upon how embodying the Self can lead you to gain selfknowledge through direct experience. Good, moral research practice does not have to involve the researcher remaining objective, neutral, and value-free. Your subjective and personal experiences as the researcher may well support the use of an auto/biographical approach. Impact on Society Researching traumatic topics can have a varied emotional and professional impact upon researchers that warrants scrutiny. Use of an auto/biographical approach, in which the researcher's insider status is made explicit has enabled this researcher (me) to manage this impact, whilst also developing my knowledge, experience and Self. Future Research Research that should follow on from this paper must continue to explore working auto/biographically when researching traumatic topics and biographical disruptions.


We discuss practical methods to ensure near wirespeed performance from clusters with either one or two Intel(R) Omni-Path host fabric interfaces (HFI) per node, and Intel(R) Xeon Phi(TM) 72xx (Knight's Landing) processors, and using the Linux operating system.
The study evaluates the performance improvements achievable and the required programming approaches in two distinct example problems: firstly in Cartesian communicator halo exchange problems, appropriate for structured grid PDE solvers that arise in quantum chromodynamics simulations of particle physics, and secondly in gradient reduction appropriate to synchronous stochastic gradient descent for machine learning. As an example, we accelerate a published Baidu Research reduction code and obtain a factor of ten speedup over the original code using the techniques discussed in this paper. This displays how a factor of ten speedup in strongly scaled distributed machine learning could be achieved when synchronous stochastic gradient descent is massively parallelised with a fixed mini-batch size.
We find a significant improvement in performance robustness when memory is obtained using carefully allocated 2MB "huge" virtual memory pages, implying that either non-standard allocation routines should be used for communication buffers. These can be accessed via a LD\_PRELOAD override in the manner suggested by libhugetlbfs. We make use of a the Intel(R) MPI 2019 library "Technology Preview" and underlying software to enable thread concurrency throughout the communication software stake via multiple PSM2 endpoints per process and use of multiple independent MPI communicators. When using a single MPI process per node, we find that this greatly accelerates delivered bandwidth in many core Intel(R) Xeon Phi processors.


Polymer-based nanoassemblies have emerged as viable platforms for the encapsulation and delivery of lipophilic molecules. Among the criteria that such carriers must meet, if they are to be effective, are the abilities to efficiently solubilize lipophilic guests within an assembled scaffold and to stably encapsulate the molecular cargo until desired release is achieved through the actions of appropriately chosen stimuli. The former feature, dictated by the inherent loading capacity of a nanocarrier, is well studied, and it has been established that slight variations in assembly structure, such as introducing hydrophobic content, can improve miscibility with the lipophilic guests and increase the driving force for encapsulation. However, such clear correlations between assembly properties and the latter feature, nanocarrier encapsulation stability, are not yet established. For this purpose, we have investigated the effects of varying hydrophobic content on the loading parameters and encapsulation stabilities of self-cross-linked polymer nanogels. Through investigating this nanogel series, we have observed a fundamental relationship between nanoassembly structure, loading capacity, and encapsulation stability. Furthermore, a combined analysis of data from different loading amounts suggests a model of loading-dependent encapsulation stability that underscores an important correlation between the principal features of noncovalent encapsulation in supramolecular hosts.


Creative Arts Educ Ther (2015) 1(1):81–84DOI: 10.15534/CAET/2015/1/10
Report on the 11th International Expressive Arts Therapy Association Conference in Hong Kong, China: The Flowing Tao of Expressive Arts Therapy
國際表達藝術治療協會「表達藝術•順道流形」國際會議報告
Kate Donohue, Fiona Chang, Lisa Herman, Grace Cheng and Pearl Tse

Abstract
The Flowing Tao of Expressive Arts Therapy, the theme of the 11th International Expressive Arts Therapy Association (IEATA) created "the way" to bridge the wisdom of the East to that of the West. This conference birthed a global village at the Wu Kwai Sha Youth Village, Hong, Kong where over 400 people gathered to honor the Eastern and Western practitioners, artists, educators and their acumen in expressive arts. As the first IEATA conference in Asia, two thirds of the participants were from Asian countries, demonstrating the vibrancy of expressive arts in Asia as well as coupling with the West, with 26 countries represented!
The intention of the conference was to create a community that invited formal and informal dialog, as well as making the conference affordable to many who live in developing countries through the numerous scholarships offered. The choice of the Youth Village provided a setting in which we all lived, ate, played and studied together with a taste of nature in urban Hong Kong. The feedback we received reflected our intention that the conference enhance dialog and bonding among our many international participants.
摘要
首次在亞洲舉辦的第十一屆國際表達藝術治療協會國際會議順利於二零一五年十月八日至十日在中國香港烏溪沙青年新村舉行,四百名來自二十七個國家的參加者難得聚首一堂,匯集東西方智慧,交流各地文化與表達藝術應用心得,從不同派別的理論分析、研究、臨床實踐和社區充權計劃中深入學習,擴闊視野,反思殖民化和國際化帶來的影響,在充滿挑戰和掙扎的世界裡,希望大家能夠順應善用表達藝術之道,用和平、創新和有意義的方法,建立和諧共融的地球村。


Solomon ibn Adret, one of the foremost Rabbis of the Jewish community in the Iberian peninsula in the late thirteenth century, wrote a treatise that engaged directly with the claims and arguments of ibn Hazm, a Muslim scholar who had been dead for some two hundred years. His preoccupation with ibn Hazm seems strange given his many other concerns such as the spread of Averroism and Christian attacks on the Jewish post-biblical texts. One of ibn Adret's Christian interlocutors was the famous Dominican, Ramon Martí, and it is he who provides the key for understanding the treatise written against ibn Hazm. Ibn Adret's treatise is his way of exploring his own religious beliefs in the face of the Christian attacks against rabbinical Judaism.


Children's sleep is critical for optimal health and development; yet sleep duration has decreased in recent decades, and many children do not have adequate sleep. Certain sleep behaviours ('sleep hygiene') are commonly recommended, and there is some evidence that they are associated with longer nighttime sleep. Parents of 84 British 3-year-old children were interviewed about their children's sleep and completed five-night/four-day sleep diaries documenting their children's sleep, from which daily sleep duration was estimated. Diaries were validated by actigraphy in a subgroup of children. Sleep hygiene behaviours (regular bedtime, reading at bedtime, falling asleep in bed) were associated with each other, and were more common in the high socioeconomic status compared to the low socioeconomic status group. Parents' reasons for not practicing sleep hygiene included difficulty, inability or inconvenience. Sleep hygiene behaviours were associated with significantly longer child sleep at night but not over 24 h. Longer daytime napping compensated for shorter nighttime sleep in children whose parents did not implement sleep hygiene behaviours. Parents may need to be advised that certain behaviours are associated with longer nighttime sleep and given practical advice on how to implement these behaviours. © 2014 The Authors. Infant and Child Development published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Future military aviation platforms such as the proposed Joint Strike Fighter F-35 will integrate helmet mounted displays (HMDs) with the avionics and weapon systems to the degree that the HMDs will become the aircraft's primary display system. In turn, training of pilot flight skills using HMDs will be essential in future training systems. In order to train these skills using simulation based training, improvements must be made in the integration of HMDs with out-thewindow (OTW) simulations. Currently, problems such as latency contribute to the onset of simulator sickness and provide distractions during training with HMD simulator systems that degrade the training experience. Previous research has used Kalman predictive filters as a means of mitigating the system latency present in these systems. While this approach has yielded some success, more work is needed to develop innovative and improved strategies that reduce system latency as well as to include data collected from the user perspective as a measured variable during test and evaluation of latency reduction strategies. The purpose of this paper is twofold. First, the paper describes a new method to measure and assess system latency from the user perspective. Second, the paper describes use of the testbed to examine the efficacy of an innovative strategy that combines a customized Kalman filter with a neural network approach to mitigate system latency. Results indicate that the combined approach reduced system latency significantly when compared to baseline data and the traditional Kalman filter. Reduced latency errors should mitigate the onset of simulator sickness and ease simulator sickness symptomology. Implications for training systems will be discussed.


This study tested the hypothesis that the extent of enhancement in muscle strength following an 8-week program of static stretch (SS) and proprioceptive neuromuscular facilitation (PNF) training would be related to a shift in optimum angle (OA) toward a longer muscle length. Thirty healthy males were randomly assigned into SS, PNF, and control (CON) groups (n=10 per group). The SS and the PNF groups engaged in flexibility training three times per week for eight weeks, while the CON group underwent no training during this time. Passive range of motion (P-ROM) of the hip and maximal isokinetic concentric strength (ISO) at the angular velocity of 60°/s (i. e, the angle-torque relationship) were measured before and after training for all groups. The results of this study showed that compared to before training, the P-ROM values of both the SS (25°) and PNF (31°) groups were significantly increased (P<0.05) after training, while those of the CON group remained unchanged (P>0.05). In addition, after the training, both the SS and PNF groups saw a significant increase in ISO (SS: 13%; PNF: 17%; P <0.05), and a marked shift of the OA toward a longer muscle length (SS: 9°; PNF: 10°; P<0.05). The CON group, however, saw no significant change in either of these two variables. There was a positive correlation (P<0.05) between the increase in ISO and the shift of OA toward a longer muscle length for the SS (r=. 69) and PNF (r=. 78) groups after training. It was concluded that eight weeks of SS and PNF training can not only effectively improve flexibility, but also increase ISO and cause a shift of OA toward a longer muscle length.


This paper frames the role of community (wireless) networks, and other forms of grassroots DIY networking models, as complementary to the Internet communication infrastructures hosting local services for facilitating local interactions, as drivers for a more convivial and sustainable life in the city. Today, only a few Internet-based global corporations mediate our everyday online interactions, without respecting our rights to privacy, freedom of expression and self-determination; they depend for their own sustainability on the exploitation of the immense collected information and design power toward private, commercial and political objectives. But when communication is meant to take place between people in physical proximity, local community networks can provide an alternative infrastructure owned and designed by those concerned. The paper analyses four key reasons, practical, social, political, and scientific, why such DIY networks should be considered as a viable complementary infrastructure for local communications even when Internet access is available. Through analogies with other relevant domains of local action, namely complementary currencies and cooperative housing, I conclude by addressing the dichotomy between local action and global coordination. I advocate for the co-creation of convivial ICT tools for building local communities, or better hybrid spaces of local cooperation, which are larger in size than the small in "small is beautiful" and smaller, but in many cases more diverse, than recent imaginaries of the "multitude".


Scanlon, Liz G. Noodle & Lou . Illus. Arthur Howard. New York: Beach Lane Books, 2011. Print. In an unlikely animal pairing, Noodle, an earthworm who is having a bad day, turns to his buddy Lou, a perky blue jay, to cheer him up. While Noodle confides his feelings of envy about other worms living it up at Wiggly Field and catalogues all of his reasons for self-loathing, Lou counters with loyal support until finally Noodle cheers up. Lou's patient, nurturing, and kind-hearted reassurance highlights the importance of friendship and self-acceptance. There are moments of entertaining weirdness in the book like when Noodle reasonably complains "My head has no eyes" but at times the text is cliched and seems forced to fit into the rhyming scheme. The book does not stray from the author's purposive, straightforward storyline and lessons—developing self-esteem, supporting friends, and appreciating who you are. Kids will pay attention to the thick-lined, colourful drawings and try to spot other bugs and birds found in the illustrations. The illustrations get progressively brighter and more detailed as Noodle's mood brightens.  Noodle is drawn as a ball-cap wearing, charming worm who expresses a surprising range of emotions through body language and his mouth. Noodle & Lou is an old-fashioned story about the importance of friendship. It is aimed at children ages 4-6. Recommended with reservations: 2 out of 4 stars Reviewer: Tami Oliphant


Unintentionally doped GaN were grown on Si (111) substrates by metal organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD). The high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HRXRD) and Lehighton contactless sheet resistance measuring systems were employed to characterize the quality and sheet resistance (Rs) of GaN epilayer. The threading dislocation density (TDD) was estimated by calculating the full width at half maximum (FWHM) of GaN (0002) and (10-12) diffractions measured by HRXRD. The relationship between Rs and TDD in GaN epilayer was investigated. The influence of growth conditions of bottom GaN initial layer including carrier gas category (H2 or N2), growth temperatures, and growth pressures on the quality or resistivity of top GaN epilayer was discussed and analyzed. As a result, the improved resistivity was achieved in top GaN epilayer with low TDD by using H2 carrier, low growth temperature of 1050°C, and high growth pressure of 400mbar during the growth of bottom GaN initial layer.


The topic is the burial of the corpse of Odysseus at Aeaea in the Telegony. I argue that in the Cyclic epic the corpse is buried at an Aeaea localized in Italy. The prophecy of Tiresias in Odyssey 11 may allude to some version of the Telegonus story, but the Homeric epic largely discounts such epichoric legends about Odysseus. Correspondences and differences between the Odyssey and the Telegony result from independent self-positioning within traditional Odyssean myth.


We present the results of a first search for self-annihilating dark matter in nearby galaxies and galaxy clusters using a sample of high-energy neutrinos acquired in 339.8 days of live time during 2009/10 with the IceCube neutrino observatory in its 59-string configuration. The targets of interest include the Virgo and Coma galaxy clusters, the Andromeda galaxy, and several dwarf galaxies. We obtain upper limits on the cross section as a function of the weakly interacting massive particle mass between 300 GeV and 100 TeV for the annihilation into b (b) over bar, W+(W) over bar (-), tau(+)tau(-), mu(+)mu(-) , and nu(nu) over bar. A limit derived for the Virgo cluster, when assuming a large effect from subhalos, challenges the weakly interacting massive particle interpretation of a recently observed GeV positron excess in cosmic rays.


Abstract This article argues that effective co-operation between the antitrust authorities of Mainland China and Hong Kong in antitrust enforcement and the removal of anti-competitive state restraints is essential to the promotion of market competition in, as well as free trade and economic integration between, the two regions. This entails the careful design and conclusion of a bilateral co-operation agreement embracing not only comity co-peration in antitrust enforcement, but also the adoption of a diplomatic solution of mutual self-restraint for the removal of anti-competitive state restraints at the Mainland China-Hong Kong interface. This would also require the co-operation of Mainland Chinese and Hong Kong government authorities. Only with such bilateral cooperation can anti-competitive business practices and state restraints obstructing free trade and economic integration between the two regions be eliminated.


Air pollution is an important health risk concern and an economic burden, notably on low- and middle-income countries. The aim of this study was to determine the mortality burden of cardiovascular and respiratory diseases, specifically, the relative risk due to air pollution and the economic valuation derived from life-years lost within the population of Sao Paulo, Brazil. This study was conducted using a retrospective Health Impact Assessment (HIA) approach via daily time series of cardiovascular and respiratory deaths for the population of Sao Paulo from 2000 to 2011. The effects of particulate matter smaller than 10 µm (PM10) were estimated with Poisson generalized additive models. The single-day lag effects of air pollutant exposure were estimated for 0–3-day lags. Therefore, we obtained the years of life lost (YLL) through the disability-adjusted life years (DALY) method to estimate the burden of disease due to air pollution in Sao Paulo. The value of a life year (VOLY) was then applied to convert the YLL component to economic loss. The results showed an association between PM10 and cardiovascular and respiratory mortality, lagging 3 days. The YLL totaled 231,691.8 years, meaning an overall economic loss of more than US$14.1 billion. In conclusion, knowledge regarding the costs of premature deaths related to air pollution can be used to improve public policy and to facilitate decision making in the context of scarce resources.


Various research groups across the globe have developed models for engine condition monitoring and fault diagnosis based on the data from steady state performance measurements over the last two decade. However, these performance data are not amenable for easy collection in some situations and some of the data may show little performance deviation at the steady state conditions of operation. The aim of this study is to identify engine operating conditions and parameters that can be used to develop a diagnostic tool for internal combustion (CI) engine running on biodiesel blends fuel. Ricardo Wave Software was used to stimulate healthy and degraded engine. The degraded condition of operation was created by forcing one injector to work with 90%, 80% and 70% of the normal fuel flow efficiency. The measurable performance parameters such as brake power, brake torque and exhaust temperature and CO emission have been used to compare the deviations during steady and transient condition. From the comparison of the data obtained from transient and steady state simulation of the engine with and without injector fault, it can be concluded that the transient parameters show higher deviations and hence are better suited for condition monitoring and diagnostic modelling in engine working speed.


The cumulative increase in expenditures on U.S. domestic homeland security over the decade since 9/11 exceeds one trillion dollars. It is clearly time to examine these massive expenditures applying risk assessment and cost-benefit approaches that have been standard for decades. Thus far, officials do not seem to have done so and have engaged in various forms of probability neglect by focusing on worst case scenarios; adding, rather than multiplying, the probabilities; assessing relative, rather than absolute, risk; and inflating terrorist capacities and the importance of potential terrorist targets. We find that enhanced expenditures have been excessive. To be deemed cost-effective in analyses that substantially bias the consideration toward the opposite conclusion, the security measures would have to deter, prevent, foil, or protect each year against 1,667 otherwise successful attacks that each inflicted some $100 million in damage (more than four per day) or 167 attacks inflicting $1 billion in damage (nearly one every two days). This is in the range of destruction of what might have happened had the Times-Square bomber of 2010 been successful. Although there are emotional and political pressures on the terrorism issue, this does not relieve politicians and bureaucrats of the fundamental responsibility of informing the public of the limited risk that terrorism presents, of seeking to expend funds wisely, and of bearing in mind opportunity costs. Moreover, political concerns may be over-wrought: restrained reaction has often proved to be entirely acceptable politically. And avoiding overreaction is by far the most cost-effective counterterrorism measure.


PHT3D, a three-dimensional biogeochemical tool for natural and enhanced remediation of organic compounds in saturated porous media, is presented. The model is based on four modules: a three-dimensional transport model accounting for advective-dispersive transport and three modules accounting for (bio)chemical reactions. These comprise a NAPL (non aqueous phase liquids) dissolution module, a geochemical equilibrium package and a biodegradation module. The modules are coupled via an operator-splitting method. Model capabilities are demonstrated by way of an illustrative simulation for a dissolved hydrocarbon plume undergoing natural biogeochemical attenuation.


How would you react if told that you and your children have been lied to in science lessons at school and university? Yet this is exactly what has been happening for decades, as Icons of Evolution' demonstrates. The author, a Berkeley Ph.D in Biology, is not a creationist, but his book describes many serious misrepresentations of facts commonly found in biology textbooks, which are used to perpetuate belief in evolution. The main part of the book describes ten of these icons', devoting one chapter to each, and shows what is wrong with them in the light of published scientific evidence. The chapters are all fairly brief, and each is divided into short sections, to make the material easier to assimilate. The author's thesis is amply documented with 71 pages of research notes at the end of the book.


This paper summarizes the basic arguments given by professors Christian Bordes, David Currie and Hans Soderstrom in their reports on the state and behaviour of the Finnish economy prior to mid 1993. The focus is primarily on the analytical frameworks or models used by the professors to organize their thoughts on the Finnish economy, and, admittedly, at some risk of over-simplification interpretes the reports through common analytical principles. The paper argues that basically each of the reports subscribes to the idea of a credit cycle as the driving force behind the development of the Finnish economy during the last ten years or so. Thus the very nature of the credit cycle is analyzed in the paper and interpreted in a way suitable for economic policy analysis. This discussion is followed by the policy analysis, which is organized through a sequence of policy issues and proposals raised by the professors in their reports. The paper tries to emphasize and evaluate those aspects of the analysis pursued by the professors which relate to the (lack of) credibility of the then prevailing policy regime and the feasibility of the various policy measures taken. Finally, the paper draws attention to some of the ideas discussed by the professors related to future policy options in Finland.


The book explores the philosophical thinking of Petrarch and Boccaccio in contrast to the writings of contemporary mendicants. Examining both Latin and vernacular works, it investigates how these humanists poetically express the temporal, subjective, and emotional quality of moral sensibility.


In the geometrical-optics framework, the internal fields near morphology-dependent resonances (MDR) of dielectric spheres are represented by rays undergoing total internal reflection at the sphere surface. The round-trip path length of rays circumnavigating the sphere is used to compute the mode spacing of MDR's. The Goos–Hanchen shift of the total internally reflected rays at the sphere surface is included in the ray picture to explain the qualitative behavior of the MDR frequency spacing in the Lorentz-Mie formalism for the entire size-parameter (circumference/wavelength) range. The MDR's are characterized by a radial distance rm′. A connection between the ray picture and the Mie theory is established, based on rm′.


Zoonoses are caused by microorganisms of animal origin that can also infect humans. Apart from human-to-human transmitted pathogens, they are the microorganisms of greatest concern in regard to threats to drinking-water and ambient water safety, now and in the future. A significant number of emerging and re-emerging waterborne zoonotic pathogens have been recognized over recent decades. SARS, E. coli O157:H7, and Cryptosporidium provide examples of zoonoses with waterborne routes of transmission.

Developed from an expert workshop of 29 scientists convened by the World Health Organization and the United States Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), Waterborne Zoonoses: Identification, Causes and Control provides a critical assessment of current knowledge about waterborne zoonoses and identifies strategies and research needs for controlling future emerging waterborne zoonoses.

This book provides guidance to agriculturists, veterinarians, worldwide health agencies and water providers to anticipate potential future waterborne disease problems and to determine whether current practices will be protective or whether new approaches need to be deployed to better protect the health of both humans and animals.

This title belongs to WHO Emerging Issues in Water & Infectious Disease Series. .

ISBN: 9781780405865 (eBook)

ISBN: 9781843390589 (Print)


In this paper, we examine whether globalization effects financial development by generating incentives for institutional reforms, and therefore, enhance economic growth due to increased financial development in addition other channels. Specifically, we examine the relationship between globalization and financial development for a panel data of 36 countries over the period 1996-2016, using panel data estimation methods. In addition to overall globalization, we also consider economic, political and social subdimensions of globalization. Moreover, not only the financial institutional development but also its access, depth and efficiency dimensions are considered. The study also controls for several other covariates affecting financial development. The shows that all measures of globalization strongly enhances financial institutional development and its subdimensions except the efficiency for which the evidence is weaker. Thus, globalization has generated incentives for institutional reforms, and therefore contributed positively to financial institutional development and economic growth. Keywords: Globalization, Financial Development, Panel Data


Assessment of seismic site classification (SSC) using either the average shear wave velocity (VS30) or the average SPT-N values (N30) for upper 30 m in soils is the simplest method to carry out various studies including site response and soil-structure interactions. Either the VS30- or the N30-based SSC maps designed according to the National Earthquake Hazards Reduction Program (NEHRP) classification system are effectively used to predict possible locations for future seismic events. The main goal of this study is to generate maps using the Geographic Information System (GIS) for the SSC in Kahramanmaras city, influenced by both East Anatolian Fault and Dead Sea Fault Zones, using both VS30 and N30 values. The study also presents a series of GIS maps produced using the shear wave velocity (VS) and SPT-N values at the depths of 5 m, 10 m, 15 m, 20 m, and 25 m. Furthermore, the study estimates the bed rock level and generates the SSC maps for the average VS values through overburden soils by using the NEHRP system. The VS30 maps categorize the study area mainly under class C and limited number of areas under classes B and D, whereas the N30 maps classify the study area mainly under class D. Both maps indicate that the soil classes in the study area are different to a high extent. Eventually, the GIS maps complied for the purpose of urban development may be utilized effectively by engineers in the field.


We present a novel learning framework for vehicle recognition from a single RGB image. Unlike existing methods which only use attention mechanisms to locate 2D discriminative information, our work learns a novel 3D perspective feature representation of a vehicle, which is then fused with 2D appearance feature to predict the category. The framework is composed of a global network (GN), a 3D perspective network (3DPN), and a fusion network. The GN is used to locate the region of interest (RoI) and generate the 2D global feature. With the assistance of the RoI, the 3DPN estimates the 3D bounding box under the guidance of the proposed vanishing point loss, which provides a perspective geometry constraint. Then the proposed 3D representation is generated by eliminating the viewpoint variance of the 3D bounding box using perspective transformation. Finally, the 3D and 2D feature are fused to predict the category of the vehicle. We present qualitative and quantitative results on the vehicle classification and verification tasks in the BoxCars dataset. The results demonstrate that, by learning such a concise 3D representation, we can achieve superior performance to methods that only use 2D information while retain 3D meaningful information without the challenge of requiring a 3D CAD model.


The ethnic composition of US inventors is undergoing a significant transformation - with deep impacts for the overall agglomeration of US innovation. This study applies an ethnic-name database to individual US patent records to explore these trends with greater detail. The contributions of Chinese and Indian scientists and engineers to US technology formation increase dramatically in the 1990s. At the same time, these ethnic inventors became more spatially concentrated across US cities. The combination of these two factors helps stop and reverse long-term declines in overall inventor agglomeration evident in the 1970s and 1980s. The heightened ethnic agglomeration is particularly evident in industry patents for high-tech sectors, and similar trends are not found in institutions constrained from agglomerating (e.g., universities, government).(This abstract was borrowed from another version of this item.)


Alessandro Sinopoli, a Michael Wasielewski, b Muhammad Sohail. a aQatar Environment & Energy Research Institute, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, PO Box 5825, Doha, Qatar; bDepartment of Chemistry and Argonne-Northwestern Solar Energy Research (ANSER) Center, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois 60208-3113, USA. The use of fossil fuels, especially natural gas, which has a lower carbon burden than oil or coal, will continue to dominate the energy market for the next several decades. In order to mitigate the large amounts of CO2 released into the atmosphere, it is essential to have clean ways of converting the CO2 back into a high energy density liquid fuel. Benchmark catalysts for CO2 reduction typically employ second and third row transition metals like palladium, iridium, and rhenium. The rarity, cost, and environmental ramifications of mining large quantities of such precious metals deter scaling up the usage of such catalysts. Developing a CO2 catalytic system that uses earth abundant first row transition metals like manganese, will push the field away from rare earth metal catalysts. While still an emerging field, transition metal-based catalysts can be successfully integrated in electrochemical and photoelectrochemical devices for CO2 reduction. Inside this class of compounds, developing manganese-based systems remains an extremely promising strategy for the advent of low cost but at the same time efficient molecular systems for CO2 reduction. We will therefore investigate Mn(bpy)(CO)3Br and its related derivatives that have recently been shown to efficiently reduce CO2 to CO. More importantly, none of these Mn-bipyridine complexes have yet been integrated with a covalent photo-driven source of electrons and this will be the main synthetic and experimental challenge within this project. Aromatic organic anions (radical anions or closed shell dianions) are reactive species involved in various chemical transformations. The photochemistry and photophysics of these species have been the subject of extensive study since they have been implicated in many photo-induced electron transfer processes, and are suggested to be powerful reducing agents. Such properties were substantiated by the observation of rapid electron ejection to give solvated electrons, electron-cation pairs, or reduced electron acceptors upon photolysis of aromatic anions (e.g. sodium pyrenide or biphenylide). We envision that the high reducing power (up to − 3 V vs. SCE) of excited monoanions or dianions of aromatic diimides can be exploited for CO2 reduction catalysis. In particular, the anions of PDI perylene-3,4:9,10-bis(dicarboximide) and its homolog naphthalene-1,8:4,5-bis(dicarboximide) (NDI) will be used as the primary photosensitizers in this study. These planar, chemically robust, redox-active compounds are widely used as industrial pigments, supramolecular building blocks, photooxidants, and n-type semiconducting materials. In the effort of integrating NDI and PDI units in the design and development of manganese based photocatalysts, experiments will be carried out in two stages. In the first stage, we will synthesise photosensitizer systems designed specifically to act as catalysts, so that their structures and properties can be determined. Figure 1. Examples of Mn-based catalysts designed for this project. The structures depicted in Figure 1 are examples of PDI and NDI photosensitizer systems designed for this project. For example, in the molecule on the left (Figure 1), two easily reducible PDI molecules are covalently attached to the bpy ligand. One-electron reduction of PDI will produce the stable PDI-• radical anion. The structure of the designed manganese complexes, the dynamics of CO2 binding, and subsequent protonation of the bound Mn carboxylate will be studied using femtosecond transient absorption spectroscopies with both UV-Vis and mid-IR probing as well as and femtosecond stimulated Raman spectroscopy (FSRS). The second stage of the experiments will study the laser-generated Mn(0)(bpy)-1(CO)3-based catalyst followed by CO2 binding and protonation. For this we will perform steady-state photolysis experiments on the systems in DMF with varying amounts of HBF4 and CO2 up to the limit of a saturated solution of CO2 in DMF at 25 °C and 1 atm, which is about 0.14 M. These studies will look for products generated following one-electron reduction of the Mn catalysts. We will quantitate the yield of CO produced by the overall photoreaction using a 16-sample parallel system in which the samples are illuminated using filtered LEDs and a parallel, continuous gas sampling system connected to a gas chromatograph. The system will be calibrated with appropriate standard gas mixtures, and a full range of conditions and appropriate control experiments will be performed by varying the concentrations of catalyst, CO2, HBF4, and sodium ascorbate in the solution. Solar energy, an abundant resource in Qatar, can drive CO2 reduction to produce both liquid solar fuels and potentially high value chemicals. In this regard, our study will represent the birth of a new generation of efficient photocatalytic systems for CO2 reduction by coupling robust light harvesting molecules with earth abundant transition metals like manganese.


Rediscover how your organization works and where it can be improved by using simple, yet powerful techniques! How Work Gets Done will provide the business or IT professional with a practical working knowledge of Business Process Management (BPM). This book is written in a conversational style that encourages you to read it from start to finish and master these objectives: Learn how to identify the goals and drivers important to your organization and how to align these with key performance measures Understand how business strategies, business policies, and operational procedures need to be connected within a Business Process Architecture Know the basic building blocks of any business process - Inputs, Outputs, Guides, and Enablers Learn how to create a BPM Center of Excellence in your organization Acquire the skills to establish a BPM methodology addressing Enterprise-level, Process-Level, and Implementation-Level priorities Learn how to build a Process Competency Framework encompassing all BPM stakeholders Obtain the knowledge to improve a process step-by-step with easy to use techniques and templates such as swimlanes and flowcharts How Work Gets Done is a clear, concise, and well-navigated journey into the world of Business Processes and Business Process Management. From a practical introduction through advanced topics around methodology and competencies, it is suitable for business process newcomers and seasoned practitioners alike. It should be required reading at all levels of every organization. Eugene Fucetola - Global Application Messaging and Integration, Operations Manager, Mars Information Services If you have always wished you had a very practical friend who could sit down and talk you through just what is involved improving how work gets done at your organization, this is the book! Paul Harmon - Executive Editor, Business Process Trends and Chief Methodologist, BPTrends Associates Artie Mahal has done something that was thought to be impossible - produce an easily readable book about business process management. He paints pictures with words, offers many easy-to-grasp analogies, and stimulates with simplifying charts of complex concepts. Leon Fraser- Lecturer, Rutgers Business School Chapter Listing: Chapter 1 - Enterprise Business Model Chapter 2 - Business Process Hierarchy Chapter 3 - Business Process Blueprint Chapter 4 - Anatomy of a Process Chapter 5 - Process Knowledge Chapter 6 - Business Models Chapter 7 - Process Configuration Chapter 8 - BPM Methodology Chapter 9 - BPM Competencies Chapter 10 - BPM Services Chapter 11 - Software Tools Chapter 12 - NewAge Foods Business Process Case Study


Contradiction and Conflict The Popular Church in Nicaragua. By Debra Sabia. (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press. 1997. Pp. xi, 239. $34.95.) In July, 1979, the Sandinista National Liberation Front (Frente Sandinista de Liberacion Nacional, FSLN) led a multi-class coalition in toppling the dictatorship of the Somoza family in Nicaragua. The hierarchy gave qualified support for armed struggle during the insurrection to an unprecedented degree, and by the 1980's Nicaragua also represented the greatest church polarization in Latin America over the desirability and moral legitimacy of violent political change, class struggle, and socialism. Debra Sabia's study is "an attempt to understand the rise, growth, and fragmentation of the popular church in Nicaragua" (p. 2) that is a clearly written treatment of grassroots Catholic groups before, during, and after FSLN rule (1979-1990). Background chapters discuss the impact of Vatican Council II, pastoral innovation, and the spread of Christian base communities (comunidades eclesiales de base, CEBs). The author then explains the splits in the popular church and offers a typology of Catholics that comprised it. These types include Marxists,"Revolutionary, Reformist and Alienated Christians." The basic distinctions among them pertain to religious beliefs and practices, the degree of ties to the institutional church, and views on the desirability and means of social change. The first group came to reject Catholicism completely, and was most committed to socialism, class conflict, and the use of violence to bring about radical change (pp. 111-114). Revolutionary Christians had greater ambivalence about violence and close association with the FSLN (pp. 132-137). Reformists were equally interested with the Church's option for the poor, but were less ideological and turned against the FSLN after 1980-1983 (pp. 148154). Finally, Alienated Christians who once supported Catholic social change movements turned toward individualistic religion, be it Charismatic Catholicism, or conversion to Protestantism. Sabia's contributions are demonstrating how the extent of leftism in the Nicaraguan Catholic Church was overstated in the 1980's, and through ethnographic research, describing "the variegated nature of the progressive Christian sector in Nicaragua" (p. 11). The life histories of CEB participants destroy any notion of a monolithic, pro-FSLN, and radically violent grassroots church. In their own words lay persons describe the evolution of their faith, and how the insurrection against Somoza, Church-FSLN conflict, the Contra War, and later developments shaped it. Poverty, female-headed households, and a majority of the population that came of age after 1980 constitute major drains on the membership of the CEBs. Increasingly there is renewed value for many in the grassroots church in Catholic liturgy and recognition by church authorities (and the legitimacy and resources that go with it). Another strength of the book is the linking by the author of the four types and their potential patterns of political participation. There are some basic flaws to Sabia's research. …


Abstract The extant Nautilus nowadays exclusively lives in the Indo-Pacific Ocean along the slopes of coral reefs, mainly in water depths of 300–400 m. It possesses a complex gas-liquid combined system to regulate its buoyancy in the water column. After death this system is lost and the shells become either positively or negatively buoyant and float for some time or respectively sink to the seafloor where taphonomic processes strongly influence the shell's condition. A major process in taphonomy is bioerosion. We present herein a detailed study of the influence of taphonomic pathways on bioerosion in backshore collected and deep-water dredged Nautilus shells from the New Caledonia region. Some bioerosion of Nautilus shells may take place during life but most occurs after death and deposition of the shell. The ichnocoenosis found in the shells collected in backshore settings indicates that these shells were positively buoyant after the death of the animals and were initially deposited in a nearshore environment (shallow euphotic zone III to deep euphotic zone) before they were transported ashore. Part of the deep-water dredged shells, in contrast, were initially deposited in the deep euphotic to dysphotic zone before being transported into aphotic depths. We demonstrate that bioerosion supports the reconstruction of taphonomic pathways of Nautilus shells and, following an actualistic approach, it can help to reconstruct taphonomic processes and depositional settings for fossil cephalopod shells.


Whole-brain neuroimaging is a key technique for
studying brain function and connectivity. Recent advances in
combining two imaging modalities - magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)
and positron emission tomography (PET) - into one integrated
scanner, have created the opportunity to explore the underlying
neurochemistry of brain function in more detail. Imaging these
dynamics plays an important role for understanding drug action and
function of neurochemical pathways in the brain and is crucial, yet
largely unexplored, for creating and evaluating treatment of
neurological and psychiatric disorders. In this thesis, we first
address technological challenges in simultaneous PET/MRI by
designing, building and evaluating PET compatible MR probes for
brain imaging, which enable highly sensitive dual modality imaging.
We then develop simultaneous imaging methods with PET and
functional MRI to assess and validate relationships between
receptor occupancy and changes in brain activity due to
pharmacological challenges targeting the dopamine system. Our
results indicate that dopamine receptor occupancies and vascular
responses are correlated in anatomical space and with
pharmacological dose. Moreover, the temporal dynamics of the
signals show that a direct neurovascular coupling between receptor
occupancy and hemodynamics exists and that a temporal divergence
between PET and fMRI can be used to investigate previously
unexplored neurochemical parameters and adaptation mechanisms in
vivo. Overall, our findings provide insight into dopaminergic
receptor dynamics and their effects on high-level brain function,
paving a way to address receptor-specific brain dysfunction
effectively.


This paper examines the nature of the staff–visitor encounter in relation to the challenges presented in supporting museum visitors with varying competencies in adopting new technologies. In particular, the paper examines the organisation and operation of a museum's front desk, and addresses the highly contingent, interactional accomplishment of loans and dissemination, more specifically the conversation and the interaction between the front desk assistant and the visitors concerning a potential iPod loan. Based on 18 hours of video recordings, the paper focuses on the offering sequence and shows that participants orient to at least two aspects when making/receiving offers of an iPod loan: (1) the acceptance or rejection of the offer and (2) questions of familiarity; e.g. whether or not the iPod can be treated as a known item. These aspects are inherently related, and participants may choose to align with the terms of familiarity while disaligning with the offer, and vice versa. The study shows that museums are faced with a great challenge, as well as a great opportunity, in supporting visitors when adopting new technologies.


We study the dielectric properties of proton and sodium terminated Nafion at varying degrees of hydration with a frequency-domain coaxial-line reflectometric method (1.5–20 GHz) and with time-domain THz-pulse spectroscopy (0.7–1.5 THz). The water content is varied from 1 to 12 water molecules per Nafion polymer unit. At low hydration levels, we observe that the orientational mobility of the water molecules embedded in the Nafion membrane channels is strongly slowed down in comparison to that of bulk water. Only at the highest hydration level does the rotational mobility of the water molecules become similar to that of bulk water. We also observe that the mobilities of protons and sodium ions strongly depend on the degree of hydration of the Nafion membranes and that the mobility of the proton is more strongly decreased than that of sodium upon lowering the hydration level.


This paper utilizes a unique dataset of 500 firms in ten Cambodian provinces and a natural experiment to test a long-held convention in political economy that the predictability of a corruption is at least as important for firm investment decisions as the amount of bribes a firm must pay, provided the bribes are not prohibitively expensive. Our results suggest that this hypothesis is correct. Firms exposed to a shock to their bribe schedules by a change in governor invest significantly less in subsequent periods, as they wait for new information about their new chief executive. Furthermore, the amount of corruption (both measured by survey data and proxied by the number of commercial sex workers) is significantly lower in provinces with new governors. Our findings are robust to a battery of firm-level controls and province-level investment climate measures.


We compare different tax incentive schemes for private R&D investments using a numerical model of R&D-investments and firm dynamics. We find that tax incentives that are based on the incremental annual spending increase firms' R&D spending much more than tax incentives that are based on the level of R&D spending. However, incremental incentives also distort the allocation of R&D personnel across different firms much more than level-based tax incentives. This effect tends to lower aggregate output. We also find that whether the tax benefits are targeted to only profit-making firms, which pay corporate income tax, or given to all firms, does not make a big difference in terms of aggregate R&D spending or aggregate output.


This paper presents a natural framework for information sharing in cooperative tasks involving humans and robots. In this framework, all information gathered over time by a human–robot team is exchanged and summarized in the form of a fused probability density function (pdf). An approach for an intelligent system to describe its belief pdfs in English expressions is presented. This belief expression generation is achieved through two goodness measures: semantic correctness and information preservation. In order to describe complex, multimodal belief pdfs, a Mixture of Statements (MoS) model is proposed such that optimal expressions can be generated through compositions of multiple statements. The model is further extended to a nonparametric Dirichlet process MoS generation, such that the optimal number of statements required for describing a given pdf is automatically determined. Results based on information loss, human collaborative task performances, and correctness rating scores suggest that the proposed method for generating belief expressions is an effective approach for communicating probabilistic information between robots and humans.


Diabetes is an ever-increasing health care problem in South Africa, similar to many other low- and middle-income countries. With the high rates of overweight/obesity (up to 60% of women and 26% of men) and physical inactivity (63% of men and 49% of women have less than 150 minutes of health-enhancing physical activity per week) found in the latest South African Demographic and Health Survey, this trend is likely continue into the foreseeable future. The need for coherent multifaceted preventive strategies is clear, as is the knowledge that these should commence in childhood. Simultaneously, however, it is critical that we improve care for people who already have diabetes.


Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) have proliferated in East Asia as regional economies rush to catch up with the rest of the world – but what difference do they make? This book answers that question by providing an up-to-date assessment of the quality and impact of FTAs in the region. Featuring a collection of papers originally written for the prestigious Research Institute for Economy, Trade and Industry (RIETI) in Tokyo, it presents contemporary analysis and insights into the evolution of recent FTAs. The book is suitable for use by trade policy negotiators, policy analysts, and people developing business strategies in organizations, as well as graduate students and researchers in the field.


Litigation on cheques and the field of application of the National Credit Act
At the outset, this contribution restates a number of essential common-law principles regarding litigation on cheques, especially by way of the provisional sentence procedure. It emphasises the fact that the holder of a cheque normally has a choice between litigating on the underlying relationship between the parties that gave rise to the drawing of the cheque and instituting action on the document itself. A so-called cambial contract is concluded on the cheque which is completed by signature and delivery thereof. However, the cambial relationship does not replace the underlying relationship. The two obligations are cumulative and directed at payment of the same debt. However, they give rise to two independent, alternative remedies: if the creditor elects to proceed on the document itself his right to proceed on the underlying relationship is suspended until maturity of the instrument. When litigating on a cheque by way of provisional sentence proceedings the plaintiff must make a number of essential averments in his founding affidavit, for example, that he is the holder of the cheque and that he has complied with the duty of presenting it for payment or that he is excused from doing so. The article investigates a number of decisions in which non-compliance with the notice requirements of sections 129 and 130 of the National Credit Act was raised in opposing applications for provisional sentence on cheques issued pursuant to transactions which were allegedly subject to the act. In effect the reasoning of the defendants in these cases was that by litigating on the cheques in question the plaintiffs were in fact attempting to enforce the agreements in respect of which they were given and that the plaintiffs could not proceed with such enforcement before complying with sections 129 and 130. As could be expected, the plaintiffs simply countered by arguing that they were exercising their choice to proceed on the cheques in question, not the underlying relationship, and that they therefore did not have to comply with sections 129 and 130. In this regard there were divergent decisions in different divisions of the high court. Fortunately, the supreme court of appeal recently finally settled any uncertainty in this regard by confirming not only the holder's choice of cause of action but also that an action on the cheques in cases such as these did not amount to the enforcement of the underlying transaction and that compliance with sections 129 and 30 was not required. The court also did not shy away from criticising the poor draftsmanship of the National Credit Act which has given rise to unnecessary litigation. An example of such draftsmanship is to be found in section 4(5) of the act and it is proposed that it should be scrapped.


The influence of natural organic matter (NOM) fouling on the rejection of micro pollutants in nanofiltration (NF) and the adsorption during granular activated carbon (GAC) filtration is investigated for a diverse group of pharmaceuticals. These pharmaceuticals were first spiked in feed waters filtered through a virgin NF-membrane and a corresponding NOM fouled membrane. The differences in rejection were never larger than 5%. The rejection of the negatively charged molecules on the fouled membrane slightly decreased and the rejection of the positively charged molecules slightly increased. These trends can be explained by a decrease of the repulsion of negative compounds and a decrease of the attraction of positive compounds by the fouled membrane. The sequential combination of NF and GAC was very effective in removing all types of pharmaceuticals. Compounds not well rejected by nanofiltration were more readily adsorbed by the GAC.


The literature on corruption and anti-corruption has mushroomed over the last decade or so. Of course, all research and writing on the problem of corruption and the fight against it are to be welcomed. Regrettably, however, with volume come fragmentation and specialisation and their concomitant quandaries. Indeed, any person wanting to understand the field would be hard-pressed to find a source or even a manageable bundle of sources which encompasses the crucial issues lucidly and logically.


FlySPEC is a video camera system designed for real-time remote operation. A hybrid design combines the high resolution of an optomechanical video camera with the wide field of view always available from a panoramic camera. The control system integrates requests from multiple users so that each controls a virtual camera. The control system seamlessly integrates manual and fully automatic control. It supports a range of options from untended automatic to full manual control. The system can also learn control strategies from user requests. Additionally, the panoramic view is always available for an intuitive interface, and objects are never out of view regardless of the zoom factor. We present the system architecture, an information-theoretic approach to combining panoramic and zoomed images to optimally satisfy user requests, and experimental results that show the FlySPEC system significantly assists users in a remote inspection tasks.


While on tour in 1869, Mark Twain paused to his have photograph taken in Alexandria, Egypt. In honor of the occasion, he and Charles Langdon--Twain's future brother-in-law, whom he had met on the trip--donned dragoman's suits of Ottoman Turkish style. Thanks to the meticulous preservation techniques of the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection, the suit that Langdon wore--along with the original photograph of him, Twain, and their interpreter--can be seen by the public beginning this spring at the Mark Twain House and Museum in Hartford, Connecticut. Charlotte Jirousek, an associate professor in the Department of Textiles and Apparel and curator of the Cornell Costume and Textile Collection, will speak at a symposium planned in connection with the exhibit. A large number of Orientalist pieces were donated to the Cornell collection by the Langdon family, says Jirousek. "These items tell much about the taste of an intellectual, artsy household in the late nineteenth century," she says. Clothing reveals aspects of a family in a more intimate way than other objects because it sensitively represents details of lifestyle and how people feel about themselves, Jirousek explains. For example, the romanticism of Twain and his wife Olivia, nee Langdon, is evidenced by their preference for varying shades of purple--beginning with the gown she wore when she first met Twain. Throughout her life, Olivia favored purple and lilac because of the colors' sentimental connection with their first meeting. It is reported that he owned a cape lined in lilac silk. The Langdon family's contribution is a fine example of the initial premise of the collection that "dress is a very sensitive measure of the cultural values of any particular time and place," says Jirousek. "We communicate who we are by how we dress." The collection's 11,000 items of men's, women's, and children's apparel (including undergarments, accessories, shoes, and handbags), ethnographic textiles, and costumes date from the eighteenth century to the present. They come from every continent and present a broad representation of world cultures, ranging, for example, from Eleanor Roosevelt's 1937 inaugual gown, to a complete Balinese dancer's costume of the same period (including the headdress made of coconut shell, tin, paper, and bamboo), to the everyday clothing of handspun and handwoven wool worn by Kurdish villagers in 1914, to a costume of kente cloth, handwoven by the personal weaver of Ghanaian president Kwame Nkrumah, the first democratically elected leader in Africa, in 1957. …