Phenotypic variation results from the balance between sources of variation and counteracting regulatory mechanisms. Canalization and developmental stability are two such mechanisms, acting at two different levels of regulation. The issue of whether or not they act concurrently as a common developmental buffering capacity has been subject to debate. We used geometric morphometrics to quantify the mechanisms that guarantee phenotypic constancy in the haptoral anchors of Ligophorus cephali. Canalization and developmental stability were appraised by estimating inter- and intra-individual variation, respectively, in size and shape of dorsal and ventral anchors. The latter variation was estimated as fluctuating asymmetry (FA) between anchor pairs. The general-buffering-capacity hypothesis was tested by two different methods based on correlations and Principal Components Analyses of the different components of size and shape variation. Evidence for FA in the dorsal and ventral anchors in both shape and size was found. Our analyses supported the hypothesis of a general developmental buffering capacity. The evidence was more compelling for shape than for size and, particularly, for the ventral anchors than for the dorsal ones. These results are in line with previous studies of dactylogyrids suggesting that ventral anchors secure a firmer, more permanent attachment, whereas dorsal anchors are more mobile. Because fixation to the host is crucial for survival in ectoparasites, we suggest that homeostatic development of the ventral anchors has been promoted to ensure the morphological constancy required for efficient attachment. Geometric morphometrics can be readily applied to other host-monogenean models, affording not only to disentangle the effects of canalization and developmental stability, as shown herein, but to further partition the environmental and genetic components of the former.


of the alleles was fixed among the new color type and R. rubromaculatus populations, with an allozyme genetic distance of from 0.001 to 0.078, which greatly differed from those of R. candidianus (0.523~0.687) and 2 other undetermined Rhinogobius species from the Ryukyus, Japan (0.326~0.464). The complete sequences of the cytochrome b gene, tRNA genes, and the control region of mtDNA revealed substitution differences within R. rubromaculatus at 207 base pairs (bp) and among the 3 species at 363 bp. The sequence diversity within the population was from 0.000 to 0.004. Among local populations of R. rubromaculatus, the sequence mean distance diversities were from 0.005 to 0.074, which is smaller than that between R. rubromaculatus and another Rhinogobius species (0.094~0.113). Both markers were congruent in revealing significant differences between samples of R. rubromaculatus (global F ST = 0.404 for the allozyme and ΦST = 0.986 for the mitochondrial DNA data). The molecular trees of R. rubromaculatus constructed based on both allozyme and mtDNA data revealed a closer relationship between central and southern populations than with a northern population. Discrete phenotypes could have been produced by phenotypic plasticity. http://www.sinica.edu.tw/zool/zoolstud/44.1/119.pdf


ODR in the consumer context refers to the use of ICT tools and methods (usually alternative to the court system) employed by businesses and consumers (B2C) to settle conflicts that arise out of economic transactions between the parties, particularly in e-commerce. It is often distinguished from other fields where ODR is used, such as in the commercial field (B2B), in the public sphere to resolve government and citizen (G2C) disputes, and in the resolution of disputes related to intellectual property. A consumer transaction (B2C), akin to a consumer dispute, will be one where an individual, acting on a personal capacity, buys goods or services for his or her personal use. Conversely, a business is an individual or an entity that acts on a professional capacity selling goods or services as part of their profession. In a B2C dispute, the aggrieved party is frequently the consumer as they normally pay in advance for their purchased goods and services. Consequently, the consumer is the weaker party in a dispute where the business has the payment and the experience of dealing with similar disputes. Consumers will often get more involved in the dispute, taking it more personal, and thus requiring a more transformative solution, while the business is mostly interested in resolving the dispute as fast and inexpensively as possible. In certain cases, businesses will be keen in resolving the dispute in order to maintain their reputation. This is relevant when, as it happens in eBay, the buyer leaves feedback after a transaction. When ODR is effectively used in this way, it has an added value for the parties; it increases the consumers' trust in those online sellers that provide ODR services. Greater trust means that reliable sellers would boost their trade and consumers will be protected from the potential abuse by the dominant party in the transaction. ODR services may be employed to ensure that consumers' rights are respected by the online vendor, hence enhancing consumers' confidence in the online transaction. As a result, ODR would


Angular dependent x-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) measurements of all La, Ba, and Cu sites determined the origin and nature of the intrinsic disorder present in the low temperature tetragonal (LTT) structural ground state of La{sub 2-x}Ba{sub x}CuO{sub 4} with x=0.125,0.15 at T=10 K. Ba doping induces major local distortions that extend as far as 5 Aa from its lattice site. Despite the low Ba content the large distortions significantly affect the XAFS of the majority La and Cu sites. The distribution of the local LTT tilt angle of CuO{sub 6} octahedra was directly determined from single and multiple scattering contributions to the XAFS of La and Cu sites. This angle, which regulates the strength of electron-lattice and spin-spin coupling in this material, was found to exhibit large, random fluctuations with rms [ ){sup 2}>]{sup 1/2} {approx_equal}2 , being the average tilt angle determined by diffraction techniques. These fluctuations originate in the large, random, static disorder introduced with Ba doping. Their presence has implications for the plausibility of a mobility gap causing T{sub c} suppression at x=0.125 in only the LTT phase, and for the correlation length of the postulated charge and spin stripes. (c) 2000 The American Physical Society.


This paper develops a two-sector growth model in which institutional investors play a significant role. A necessary and sufficient condition is established under which these investors own the entire capital stock in the long run. The dependence of the long-run growth rate on the behaviour of such investors, and the effects of a productivity increase are analysed.


1 It is generally assumed that the same factors drive the decomposition of both litter and roots and that nutrient release from litter and roots is synchronized. However, few studies have explicitly tested these assumptions, and no studies have examined whether plant genetics (i.e. plant susceptibility to herbivory) could affect these relationships. 2 Here we examine the effects of herbivore susceptibility and resistance on needle and fine root litter decomposition of piñon pine, Pinus edulis. The study population consists of individual trees that are either susceptible or resistant to herbivory by the piñon needle scale, Matsucoccus acalyptus, or the stem‐boring moth, Dioryctria albovittella. Genetic analyses and long‐term experimental removals and additions of these insects to individual trees have identified trees that are naturally resistant or susceptible to M. acalyptus and D. albovittella. In addition, these herbivores increase litter chemical quality and alter soil microclimate, both of which mediate decomposition in ecosystems. 3 The effects of herbivore susceptibility and resistance on needle litter mass and phosphorus (P) loss, when significant, are largely mediated by herbivore‐induced changes to microclimate. But the effects of herbivore susceptibility and resistance on root litter nitrogen (N) and P retention, and needle litter N retention, are largely governed by herbivore‐induced changes to litter chemical quality. Whether a particular tree was resistant or susceptible to herbivores exerted a large influence on net nutrient release, but the direction of herbivore influence varied temporally. 4 The controls on decomposition vary between herbivore‐susceptible and herbivore‐resistant phenotypes. This suggests that understanding decomposition and nutrient retention in some ecosystems may require considering the effects of herbivores on above‐ and below‐ground processes and how these effects may be governed by plant genetics. 5 Synthesis. Because so few studies have attempted to quantify genetic components of ecosystem processes, the integration of ecosystem ecology with population genetics has the potential to place ecosystem science within a genetic and evolutionary framework. Using field trials of known genetic composition, ecosystem scientists may use quantitative genetics techniques to explore ecosystem traits just as population geneticists have used these techniques to explore traditional traits such as resistance to insects.


Coordination in software development teams has been a topic of perennial interest in empirical software engineering research. The vast majority of this literature has drawn on a conceptual separation between work and coordination mechanisms, separate from the work itself, which enable groups to achieve coordination. Traditional recommendations and software methods focused on planning: using analysis to predict and manage dependencies. Empirical research has demonstrated the limits of this approach, showing that many important dependencies are emergent and pointing to the persistent importance of explicit discussion to managing these dependencies as they arise. Drawing on work in Computer-Supported Collaborative Work and building from an analogy to collaboration amongst insects (stigmergy), we argue that the work product itself plays an under-appreciated role in helping software developers manage dependencies as they arise. This short paper presents the conceptual argument with empirical illustrations and explains why this mechanism would have significant implications for Software Engineering coordination research. We discuss issues in marshaling clear positive evidence, arguing that these issues are responsible, in part, for the under-consideration of this mechanism in software engineering and outlining research strategies which may overcome these issues.


Maize (Zea mays L.) is one of the world's most important cereals and is a staple food for many people in developing countries. However, in acid soils (pH < 5.5), its productivity is limited by aluminium (Al) toxicity, besides other factors. The objectives of this study were to: develop Al tolerant maize inbred lines for a maize breeding program in Kenya, develop single cross hybrids (SCHs) from some of the tolerant inbred lines and determine Al tolerance levels of the SCHs. One hundred and seventy five inbreds and 49 SCHs were developed and screened in nutrient culture containing 0 or 222 µM using Relative Net Root Growth (RNRG), hematoxylin staining (HS) and under Al saturated field conditions (44%-45.6%) at Sega and Chepkoilel. Seedling root growth was inhibited in 95% of the inbreds. F1 hybrids obtained from inbreds varying in Al tolerance, exhibited tolerance equal to or greater than that of the more tolerant parent indicating a positive transgressive inheritance to Al toxicity. Fifty eight percent of the F1 SCHs were heterotic for tolerance to Al toxicity. Al tolerance estimated by RNRG was well correlated to that of HS (r 2 = 0.88, P < 0.005) but minimally correlated with the field estimates (r 2 = 0.24-0.35), implying that RNRG can predict field selection under Al toxic soils by between 24% and 35%. Plant breeders should therefore employ both approaches in selecting cultivars under Al stress. This study has developed and identified Al tolerant inbreds and SCHs for use in the acid soils of Kenya and similar regions.


Companies can gain a competitive edge by managing closed-loop supply chains efficiently. This requires the joint consideration of forward and reverse logistic processes. The acquisition of used products is an important factor within the closed-loop context, as the availability of acquired used cores has a direct effect on the manufacturing–remanufacturing disposition strategy. Thus, the acquisition process and the production disposition are highly interrelated. In further consequence, the linked view on an active acquisition process combined with manufacturing–remanufacturing decisions is essential. In this paper, the optimal strategies concerning the acquisition of used cores, manufacturing of new products, and remanufacturing are studied analytically in a two-period model with stochastic, newsvendor-like demands. Given the closed-loop setting, the quantity acquired and remanufactured in the second period is limited to the sales of new products in the first period. An extensive numerical study provides insights into the influence of an active acquisition process on quantities and profit.


Progressively increasing number of students in Malang is also increasing cost of land for housing. Circumstances so require students to interact with each other with social backgrounds and with different cultural issues owned by each student is different. Similarly, the condition of boarding-lodging house in Jalan Tirto Utomo, who can be sure that the boarding capacity of less according to the number of dorm residents, of course this will affect the daily behavior of students as residents of boarding houses. Another fact which can be seen in the cosmic environment kosan Tirto Utomo is charged to every personnya environment that is high enough to interact socially. In such circumstances it can be concluded, although environmental conditions kos Tirto full Utomo densities that promote tightness factor, but its inhabitants will continue to have interpersonal relationships. From the above description can be seen that the crowding factor will affect the dynamics of inter-personal relationships that occur in society both men and women. On the basis of the description above, the authors examine the "Study of Correlation Between Tribulation With Interpersonal Relationships In Kos Environment." The purpose of the study are (1) To determine the level of crowding at the Kos environment Men and Women, (2) To know the interpersonal relationships in the environment Kos Men and Women, (3) Describe the correlation between the Tribulation with the influence of the environment Kos Interpersonal Relations Male men and women. To achieve the research objectives, the authors use korelasitas analysis, the study sample as many as 75 people by distributing questionnaires to collect data. Results obtained data validity and reliability was tested first. Have reliable data will be analyzed using the Product-Moment Correlation Analysis. From the results of correlation analysis are known in male boarding 0.227), whereas in the r r table, 95% (0.245 environment that count 0.227), which means that the r r table, 95% (0.236 female dorm count level of 95% confidence "research hypothesis is correct that" There is a correlation or a negative relationship between Factor Tribulation with Interpersonal Relationships in the boarding environment Men and Women On the Road Tirto Utomo Malang ", namely: the higher the lower the level of crowdedness of interpersonal relationships. While viewed from the effective contribution of the variable (R Square), tightness in the environment variable male boarders have effective contribution rate of 6% to changes in interpersonal relationships, whereas in the female dorm crowdedness variables have amounted to 14.7% effective contribution to changes in interpersonal relationships.


The hemopoietic cells from anemic mice of genotype WW are less able by 200-fold to take part in colony formationin the spleen than cells from the normal littermates of genotype ww. The genetic defect shows itself in the colony-forming cells, since cells from normal littermate mice formcolonies in the spleens of unirradiated mice of genotype WW. Use of animals of genotype WVVWT as recipients improves the spleen-colony method by removing bias resulting fromthe death of irradiated recipients.


Described herein are glass-clad optical fibers, fabricated using a molten core fiber draw process, comprising oxide cores in the Bi2O3 – GeO2 system. More specifically, the fibers utilized a borosilicate glass cladding with core compositions in the initial preform ranging from un-reacted crystalline Bi2O3-rich (Bi2O3 + GeO2) powders to stoichiometric crystalline Bi12GeO20. Fibers drawn from the as-purchased crystalline Bi2O3-rich powders were amorphous with a transmission of about 80% at 1.3 μm. Fibers drawn from the crystalline Bi12GeO20 core contained a mixture of crystalline bismuth germanate (Bi2GeO5) and bismuth oxide (δ-Bi2O3/BiO2-x). While representing an initial proof-of-concept, this work shows that commercially-relevant draw processing can be employed to yield fibers with core composition that are very difficult to fabricate using conventional methods and that the molten core method further enables in situ reactive chemistry to take place during fiberization resulting in amorphous or crystalline oxide core fibers depending on initial core composition. Perhaps more importantly is that optical fibers possessing acentric, hence optically nonlinear, oxide crystals can be realized in a scalable manufacturing manner though further optimization is required both of the core chemistry and process conditions in order to achieve a single phase and single crystalline fiber.


The gamma‐ray activities of 33 meteorite samples (30 ordinary chondrites, 1 Mars meteorite, 1 iron, 1 howardite) collected during Omani‐Swiss meteorite search campaigns 2001–2008 were nondestructively measured using an ultralow background gamma‐ray detector. The results provide several types of information: Potassium and thorium concentrations were found to range within typical values for the meteorite types. Similar mean 26Al activities in groups of ordinary chondrites with (1) weathering degrees W0‐1 and low 14C terrestrial age and (2) weathering degree W3‐4 and high 14C terrestrial age are mostly consistent with activities observed in recent falls. The older group shows no significant depletion in 26Al. Among the least weathered samples, one meteorite (SaU 424) was found to contain detectable 22Na identifying it as a recent fall close to the year 2000. Based on an estimate of the surface area searched, the corresponding fall rate is ~120 events/106 km2*a, consistent with other estimations. Twelve samples from the large JaH 091 strewn field (total mass ~4.5 t) show significant variations of 26Al activities, including the highest values measured, consistent with a meteoroid radius of ~115 cm. Activities of 238U daughter elements demonstrate terrestrial contamination with 226Ra and possible loss of 222Rn. Recent contamination with small amounts of 137Cs is ubiquitous. We conclude that gamma‐ray spectroscopy of a selection of meteorites with low degrees of weathering is particularly useful to detect recent falls among meteorites collected in hot deserts.


Contemporary staged performances frequently utilize advanced lighting and projection techniques. The design and creation of these stage effects are rarely accessible to the actual performers and must be designed by professional lighting designers or highly-paid programmers. With MotionDraw we want to create an affordable system that is easily controlled and manipulated by performers. With intuitive gestures, non-specialized users can control the MotionDraw visual library and interact with the captured visual record of their own movements. Possible uses for our system grew out of research with dancers and performers, and the current technical implementation sets a framework for including additional visual libraries and capabilities.


OBJECTIVE
To determine circulating concentrations and fate of total and free thyroxine (T4) in cats with various illnesses not associated with the thyroid glands (nonthyroidal illnesses).

DESIGN
Prospective study.

ANIMALS
98 cats with nonthyroidal illness and 50 clinically normal cats.

PROCEDURE
Serum total T4 concentrations were measured by radioimmunoassay, and serum free T4 concentrations were measured by direct equilibrium dialysis. Free T4 fraction was calculated from these 2 values.

RESULTS
Serum total T4 concentrations were significantly (P < 0.001) lower in sick cats (mean +/- SD, 17.18 +/- 8.14 nmol/L), compared with healthy cats (mean +/- SD, 26.00 +/- 7.62 nmol/L). Serum total T4 concentrations were inversely correlated with mortality. Differences in serum free T4 concentrations in sick cats (mean +/- SD, 27.70 +/- 13.53 pmol/L), compared with healthy cats (mean +/- SD, 24.79 +/- 8.33 pmol/L), were not significant. A few sick cats had serum free T4 concentrations greater than the reference range. Calculated free T4 fraction was significantly (P < 0.001) greater in sick cats (mean +/- SD, 0.24 +/- 0.30%), compared with healthy cats (mean +/- SD, 0.10 +/- 0.06%).

CLINICAL IMPLICATIONS
Euthyroidism is maintained in sick cats, despite low serum total T4 concentrations. Measurement of serum total T4 concentrations is a valuable prognostic indicator. Serum free T4 concentrations should be used cautiously as a sole diagnostic criterion for confirmation of hyperthyroidism.


The European Council, Parliament and Commission are about to start trilogue negotiations over the
revision of the posting of workers Directive (PWD) of 1996. The aim of the revision is to ensure,
among others, the principle of equal pay for equal work at the same place, limit the maximum
posting duration and address increasing involvement of temporary work agencies in the business.
The past year has shown how acutely sensitive these issues are and arriving at this point has
required substantial political capital.
Some have argued that this energy would have been better spent elsewhere, but in fact for some
member states a lot is at stake. Postings have a large impact on (net) receiving countries such as
Belgium, particularly when looking solely at its construction sector where posted workers make up
25% of the Belgian workforce. Likewise, in some (net) sending countries, such as Slovenia, outgoing
posting makes up 7% of overall employment. A restriction on posting would have significant
ramifications in these labour markets and for fiscal/social security revenues.
The proposed revision is unlikely to render the majority of postings unprofitable, but some postings
may disappear. In any case, those participating in the upcoming trilogue on posting will have to be
mindful of the consequences for the single market while addressing the shortcomings in the current
PWD.


A sensing configuration for simultaneous measurement of strain and temperature with enhanced intrinsic sensitivity based on a fiber Bragg grating (FBG) pair with one grating inscribed in the etched and the other in unetched polymer fiber region is demonstrated. A poly (methyl methacrylate) based single-mode polymer fiber is etched to different diameters, and it is observed that etching can lead to change in the material properties of the fiber, such as Young's modulus and thermal expansion coefficient, which can play a vital role in improving its intrinsic sensing capabilities. Thus, exploiting the different strain and temperature sensitivities exhibited by etched and unetched polymer FBGs, strain and temperature can be simultaneously measured with very high sensitivity. Experimental results show that rms deviations of ±8.42 με and ±0.39 °C for strain and temperature, respectively, in a real simultaneous measurement. The effect of individual thermal and strain sensitivity coefficients on measurement accuracy is also analyzed.


Microplate readers are versatile devices that can rapidly measure the photoluminescence intensities of multiple samples, and are widely used in biological chemistry. In this work, using a commercial microplate reader, we attempted to optimize the atomic compositions of green-emitting phosphor Y1−x−yCexTbyBO3 and red-emitting phosphor Y1−x−y−zCexTbyEuzBO3. We filled 48 individual wells of an alumina microplate with aqueous solutions of nitrates of Y3+, Ce3+, Tb3+, and Eu3+ with different compositions, and then added an aqueous solution of boric acid to each well. After drying, the microplate was heated at 550 °C for 2 h in air, and then at 1100 °C for 3 h in a reducing atmosphere. Y1−x−yCexTbyBO3 absorbed near ultraviolet light through 4f → 5d transitions of Ce3+ and emitted green fluorescence corresponding to 4f → 4f transitions of Tb3+ through Ce3+ → Tb3+ energy transfer. Moreover, Y1−x−y−zCexTbyEuzBO3 emitted red fluorescence corresponding to 4f → 4f transitions of Eu3+ through Ce3+ → Tb3+ → Eu3+ energy transfer under near-ultraviolet light. Measurement of the photoluminescence intensity of each well by a microplate reader revealed that the optimized green and red phosphors were Y0.835Ce0.025Tb0.14BO3 and Y0.535Ce0.005Tb0.45Eu0.01BO3, respectively.


This paper characterizes the temporal pattern of trading rule returns and official intervention for Australian, German, Swiss and U.S. data to investigate whether intervention generates technical trading rule profits. High frequency data show that abnormally high trading rule returns precede German, Swiss and U.S. intervention, disproving the hypothesis that intervention generates inefficiencies from which technical rules profit. Australian intervention precedes high trading rule returns, but trading/intervention patterns make it implausible that intervention actually generates those returns. Rather, intervention responds to exchange rate trends from which trading rules have recently profited.


The adiabatic dynamics of solitons under the action of third-order dispersion (TOD), the Raman effect, and self-steepening is studied. Using equations that describe the evolution of the pulse parameters, it is shown that the interplay between these effects results in nontrivial pulse dynamics. It is found that positive TOD slows down the self-frequency shift. The theory also describes the eventual suppression of the self-frequency shift in fibers with negative TOD that was recently observed in experiments and described theoretically. The relations of our results to supercontinuum generation are discussed.


We present an improved de novo pipeline by combining long-range polymerase chain reaction (LR-PCR) and capture hybridization for enriching mitochondrial DNA to high-throughput sequencing. We test a new set of primers and hybridizing long-range library (LR-HY) with 112 mitochondrial genomes (MtG) representing three orders, 12 families, 54 genera, and 106 species of Amphibia. The primers are used for obtaining wide taxonomic MtG amplicons to sequence directly and/or make probes for closely related species. LR-HY is compared to standard hybridization. The primers successfully amplify 82 MtGs from all three order, all families, 92.6% (50/54) of the genera, and 74.5% (79/106) of the species, despite some DNA degradation and gene rearrangement. We observe a significantly negative correlation between sequence depth and gene variation. The pattern of highly variable regions is separately distributed in different regions within the length of < 4 kb in the 33-pooled sample. We demonstrate that using 2 kb libraries generate deeper sequence coverage in the highly variable loci than using 400 bp libraries. In total, the pipeline successfully recovers 83 complete and 14 almost complete MtGs from 53 of 54 genera, including 14 MtGs had rearranged protein-coding genes. This universal primers combined with LR-HY is an efficient way to enrich complete MtGs across the entire Amphibia.


To come up to the demand for extremely sensitive biosensors for parallel real-time bioanalyses, we present two configurations of label-free biosensors on silicon-on-insulator optical chips. We discuss results on microring resonators and the design and fabrication of an integrated surface plasmon resonance interferometer. The high refractive index contrast material offers submicron-size features with high quality for dense integration, high sensitivity and detection with very low analyte volumes. Fabrication with deep UV lithography allows for mass production of cheap disposable biochips.


In this paper we examine the impact of globalization on innovation in the Indonesian manufacturing sector. The lack of innovation data in the manufacturing survey has necessitated the use of R&D expenditure as an input in the innovation production function. Globalization is represented by being exporters, FDI and effective rate of protection (EPR). The model is set up such as within the concept of R&D as conditional input demand function, allowing labor productivity to have impact on R&D. In this case we find that less productive firms are less likely to venture into R&D activities. In terms of globalization variables we find that being exporters is important determinant of R&D. Meanwhile the impact of FDI firms on domestic R&D is only on the incidence not on the intensity of R&D. It will require a critical mass of firms within a location or an agglomeration to have a meaningful impact. Also lower ERP would induce firms to spend more on R&D. So lowering protection or trade barriers will have positive impact on R&D.


A number of developments have marked the evolution of clinical supervision as a separate specialty since publication of the Standards for Counseling Supervisors in 1990, including accreditation and counselor licensure standards, supervisor credentials, and research on supervision practice and supervisor training, nationally and internationally. Such developments culminated in the development of a statement of Supervision Best Practices Guidelines. The Guidelines are described, followed by suggestions for their implementation and further evolution through research.


BACKGROUND
Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a preventable and treatable disease with a prevalence of more than 10% worldwide among adults 40 years and older. Whether this amount has been increasing, decreasing, or stable over time remains unknown.

METHODS
A longitudinal cohort study using population-based, health administrative data from 1991 to 2007 was conducted in Ontario, Canada. Individuals with COPD were identified using a previously validated health administrative case definition of COPD. Annual COPD prevalence, incidence, and all-cause mortality rates were estimated from 1996 to 2007.

RESULTS
The prevalence of COPD increased by 64.8% between 1996 and 2007. The age- and sex-standardized COPD prevalence rate increased from 7.8% to 9.5%, representing a relative increase of 23.0% (P < .001). The age- and sex-standardized incidence decreased from 11.8 per 1000 adults to 8.5 per 1000 adults, representing a relative decrease of 28.3% (P < .001). Finally, the age- and sex-standardized all-cause mortality rate decreased from 5.7% to 4.3%, representing a relative decrease of 24.0% (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicate a substantial increase in COPD prevalence in the last decade, with more of the burden being shifted from men to women. Effective clinical and public health strategies are needed to prevent COPD and manage the increasing number of people living longer with this disease.


In this study, we present experimental results on particle-wall collision in viscoelastic fluids. A sphere is released in a tank filled with poly(ethylene-oxide) (PEO) mixed with water with varying concentrations up to 1.5%. The effect of Stokes and Deborah numbers on the rebound velocity of a spherical particle colliding onto a wall is considered. It has been observed that the slope at which the coefficient of restitution increases with Stokes number is smaller for higher Deborah numbers. Higher rebound occurs for higher PEO concentration at the same stokes number. However, the results for the coefficient of restitution in polymeric liquids can be collapsed together with the Newtonian fluid behaviour if one defines the Stokes number based on the local strain rate.


An alternative method to the traditional hydrated oocyte (HO) method has been evaluated for the Sicilian anchovy, Engraulis encrasicolus . The method is based on the processing of ovarian whole mount images and the identification of the spawning batch in oocyte size frequency distributions and shows the advantage that it can be applied to various oocyte stages rather than strictly to the HO stage. Despite the peculiar elliptical shape of anchovy oocytes, this image analysis technique was fully successful since the yolked stage appeared to perform equally to the HO stage for anchovy batch fecundity measurements.


"[W]hatever their fond sentiments for men and women in uniform, for most Americans the wars remain an abstraction. A distant and unpleasant series of news items that does not affect them personally. Even after 9/11, in the absence of a draft, for a growing number of Americans, service in the military, no matter how laudable, has become something for other people to do."- Defense Secretary Robert Gates1"Communication is the real work of leadership."- Nitin Nohria, Dean, Harvard Business School2IN SEPTEMBER 2010, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates delivered an address to the students and faculty of Duke University on the nature of our modern all-volunteer military.3 During his hour-long speech he repeatedly returned to the theme of the growing disconnect between today's professional soldiers and the civilian society they serve. Not only, he said, are our military organizations becoming more professional, but they are drawing from an ever-decreasing segment of the American public. A 2009 study undertaken for the Directorate of Accession Policy and cited by Secretary Gates during his address at Duke found that, in 1988, approximately 40 percent of 18-year olds had at least one veteran parent. By 2000, that figure had fallen to 18 percent, and by 2018, only about 8 percent of 18-year olds will have a veteran parent and the exposure to and familiarity with military life that comes from being part of a military family.4Secretary Gates is not alone in his concerns among senior government officials. In his 2010 farewell speech, outgoing chair of the House Armed Services Committee, Congressman Ike Skelton, warned of what he perceived to be a "civil-military gap, a lack of understanding between civilians and the military that has grown in the era of an all-volunteer force."5 This "civil-military gap" is very real and poses a number of substantial challenges to leaders in both the executive and legislative branches of our government.The existence and importance of a "civil-military" gap has been exhaustively debated in the academic literature and popular media.6 I suggest that it exists, but that it is natural and unavoidable. Our focus should not be on "closing the gap," but on mitigating its negative effects. To accomplish this, I suggest a broad program of "interface." Personal relationship building is the key to cultural understanding, and cultural understanding leads to good relations. Cultural understanding is the goal, not cultural homogeneity.Today's Army has a number of programs and regulations it could adapt to promote interface without greatly disrupting their existing functions. As of now, no unifying or coordinating structure links these programs, and in most cases, individual regulations contain a variety of material weakness when viewed from the perspective of cultural outreach promotion. This article proposes a framework for analyzing existing programs for interface promotion potential. Then, using the Army Congressional Fellowship Program as an example, it illustrates how the process could work and proposes some changes that can have an immediate, significant, and lasting impact on the relationships between our modern professional Army, our political leaders, and the public they both serve.7The core task is one of targeted outreach. As an organization, the Army must establish new points of cultural interface to supplant those lost during the professionalization of American military forces in recent decades. To do this, the entire military organization must work to communicate to political leaders and the civilian population they serve what it truly means to be a member of the profession of arms.The Cultural DivideMilitary organizations are unlike any other social institutions in contemporary American society. Virtually all modern military sociologists have come to view modern militaries as highly professionalized social institutions.8 In their 2000 commentary on American military culture, Edwin Dorn, Walter Ulmer, and Thomas Jacobs noted that "[g]iven the military's unique role of managing violence on behalf of society, a strong and incorruptible culture is not only important but essential. …


This research focuses to the right marketing strategy to be implemented by IndoCreation.com for business development. IndoCreation.com is an online retail market websites that focus on only promote Indonesia product. With using primary and secondary data collected from interview the management IndoCreation.com, this research use the analysis of internal and external environments, industry environment analysis (five forces porter) and SWOT analysis for business development strategy, and also use the analysis of STP (Segmentation, Targeting, Positioning), and (7P's (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Process, and Physical Evidance) for marketing strategy. In business development strategy use IFE matrix (Internal Factor Evaluation), EFE matrix (External Factor Evaluation), and IE matrix (Internal-External) to assure the strategy advised for IndoCreation.com is based on their actual conditions of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. The result of IE Matrix for external environment factor (3,87) and Internal environment factor (3,92) puts the position of IndoCreation.com was in quadrant I, in the area "Growth and build" The strategy commonly used in this position are market penetration and market development. Analysis segmentation for some aspects which are, geographic, demographic, behavior and psycographic. Analysis targeting for niche market and growth market. Analysis positioning for product user, use of the product, and by competitors.


Th is piece tells the story of a disturbing episode in the author's relation- ship with the fi eld. Th ough the details are unique, the kind of ethical dilemmas it documents must be in some form or other part of the experience of a great many anthropologists - though such stories are seldom set down in print. Th ese dilem- mas include the balance we strike between participation and observation, and be- tween the moral commitments we have as private individuals and our (no less moral) commitment as anthropologists to report on our ethnography in as impar- tial and objective a way as is possible. Central to this particular story is the anthro- pologist's relationship with his research assistant over more than two decades, and it tells of the latter's involvement in various human rights campaigns, his arrest, imprisonment and on-going trial on vaguely specifi ed charges. I refl ect on the way in which these events have aff ected my subsequent fi eldwork and on the way I have written up. It is the story of a friendship and of a genuine intellectual collaboration between the anthropologist and anthropologist's research assistant that is probably not so uncommon but is seldom fully refl ected in the ethnographies we read.


In this entertaining and informative book, Walter Friedman chronicles the remarkable metamorphosis of the American salesman from itinerant amateur to trained expert. From the mid-nineteenth century to the eve of World War II, the development of sales management transformed an economy populated by peddlers and canvassers to one driven by professional salesmen and executives. From book agents flogging Ulysses S. Grant's memoirs to John H. Patterson's famous pyramid strategy at National Cash Register to the determined efforts by Ford and Chevrolet to craft failsafe sales pitches for their dealers, selling evolved from an art to a science. "Salesmanship" as a term and a concept arose around the turn of the century, paralleling the new science of mass production. Managers assembled professional forces of neat, responsible salesmen who were presented as hardworking pillars of society, no longer the butt of endless "travelling salesmen" jokes. People became prospects; their homes became territories. As an NCR representative said, the modern salesman "let the light of reason into dark places." The study of selling itself became an industry, producing academic disciplines devoted to marketing, consumer behaviour, and industrial psychology. At Carnegie Mellon's Bureau of Salesmanship Research, Walter Dill Scott studied the characteristics of successful salesmen and ways to motivate consumers to buy. Full of engaging portraits and illuminating insights, Birth of a Salesman is a singular contribution that offers a clear understanding of the transformation of salesmanship in modern America.


We ask whether the US government should replace its current discounting practices with a declining discount rate schedule, as the United Kingdom and France have done, or continue to discount the future at a constant exponential rate. We present the theoretical basis for a declining discount rate (DDR) schedule, but focus on how, in practice, a DDR could be estimated for use by policy analysts. We discuss the empirical approaches in the literature and review how the United Kingdom and France estimated their DDR schedules. We conclude with advice on how the United States might proceed to consider modifying its current discounting practices.


Psychological problems play a critical role in development of cardiovascular disease. Several mechanisms were suggested to explain the association and mechanism of this effect, recently. Knowledge of the mechanisms mediating the association between psychological status and heart disease could help in developing treatments. The effects of mind and mood on the cardiovascular system can be due to behavior related (indirect) mechanisms. In fact, mental problems can lead to some behavioral changes which are associated with cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, it can effect on the cardiovascular system directly by elevating stress hormone levels, heartbeat and blood vessels constriction. Therefore, in this review, majority of mechanisms linking mental health disorders and cardiac disease are represented in these two parts.


This thesis describes a study of pentacene-based organic electronic devices with poly(methyl methacrylate) (PMMA) and cross-linked PMMA (cPMMA) gate dielectrics. The electrical characteristics of pentacene-based organic thin-film transistors (OTFTs) using PMMA as the gate dielectric are reported. Uniform pinhole-free and crack-free films of PMMA could be obtained by spin-coating, with a lower limit to the thickness of about 150 nm. The effects of the insulator thickness and channel dimensions on the performance of the devices has been investigated. Leakage currents, which are present in many devices using polymeric gate dielectrics, were
reduced by patterning the pentacene active layer. The resulting transistors exhibited minimal hysteresis in their output and transfer characteristics with an acceptable performance (a field-effect mobility of 0.33 cm2 V−1 s−1, a threshold voltage of -11 V, an on/off current ratio of 1.2X106 and a subthreshold slope of 1.5 V per decade).

 A bootstrapped inverter incorporating optimised pentacene OTFT structures, with PMMA as the gate dielectric, has been designed, fabricated and tested. The inverter uses capacitive coupling and bootstrapping effects, and exhibits superior performance to the normal diode-connected load inverter. The circuit has a 30 us rise
time and 450 us fall time, at an operating frequency of 1 kHz and 30 V drive voltage. Pentacene-based OTFTs incorporating a PMMA gate insulator usually possess a large operating voltage, related to the thickness of the PMMA layer. A physical method, in particular ion-beam irradiation, to produce ultra-thin cross-linked layers of PMMA (33 nm) is introduced. It is demonstrated that physical cross-linking of
the PMMA gate dielectric can be used to produce OTFTs with improved performance (a field-effect mobility of 1.1 cm2 V−1 s−1, a threshold voltage of -1 V, an on/off current ratio of 1.0X106 and a subthreshold slope of 220 mV per decade) and operating at low voltages, < 10 V. Low voltage memory transistors based on various charge storage elements (gold nanoparticles, ultra-thin aluminium and silver films)
with cPMMA as the gate dielectric, have been investigated. Solution-processed OTFTs based on 6,13-bis(triisopropylsilylethynyl) (TIPS) pentacene with PMMA
and cPMMA as the gate dielectric were also studied.


Predicting a driver's cognitive state, or more specifically, modeling a driver's reaction time (RT) in response to the appearance of a potential hazard warrants urgent research. In the last two decades, the electric field that is generated by the activities in the brain, monitored by an electroencephalogram (EEG), has been proven to be a robust physiological indicator of human behavior. However, mapping the human brain can be extremely challenging, especially owing to the variability in human beings over time, both within and among individuals. Factors such as fatigue, inattention and stress can induce homeostatic changes in the brain, which affect the observed relationship between brain dynamics and behavioral performance, and thus make the existing systems for predicting RT difficult to generalize. To solve this problem, an ensemble-based weighted prediction system is presented herein. This system comprises a set of prediction submodels that are individually trained using groups of data with similar EEG-RT relationships. To obtain a final prediction, the prediction outcomes of the sub-models are then multiplied by weights that are derived from the EEG alpha coherences of 10 channels plus theta band powers of 30 channels, whose changes were found to be indicators of variations in the EEG-RT relationship. The results thus obtained reveal that the proposed system with a time-varying adaptive weighting mechanism significantly outperforms the conventional system in modeling a driver's RT. The adaptive design of the proposed system demonstrates its feasibility in coping with the variability in the brain-behavior relationship. In this contribution surprisingly simple EEG-based adaptive methods are used in combination with an ensemble scheme to significantly increase system performance.


BACKGROUND
This paper reviewed a) mass media campaigns and b) 'new media' interventions to promote physical activity. They are different kinds of interventions, with campaigns being mass-reach communications efforts to increase population awareness of physical activity. 'New media' interventions assess the impact of web-based, internet, other 'new media' and e-mail-delivered interventions to increase physical activity.

METHODS
Previous reviews of mass media campaigns and 'new media' interventions were assessed, and more recent peer-reviewed publications identified using routine electronic databases. For each area, a framework for interventions was described, and evidence for the effectiveness of these interventions, the main outcomes of interest, and methodological strengths and weaknesses were identified.

KEY RECOMMENDATIONS
For mass media campaigns, key recommendations were to use consistent and well-branded messages, and for campaigns to be integrated across local, State and national levels, with sufficient resources to purchase sufficient media. Mass media campaigns should be subject to rigorous formative, process and impact evaluation. For 'new media' interventions, there is clear evidence of effectiveness, but efforts should be made to increase the reach and generalizability of these interventions. They should be provided as a low cost component of integrated communitywide physical activity programs.


Objectives To determine whether the impact of guided self-determination (GSD) applied in group training (GSD-GT) in people with chronically elevated HbA1c and type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM) was superior to 'care as usual' in improving HbA1c and psychological functioning. Setting An outpatient clinic at a university hospital in Western Norway. Participants A total of 178 adults (all Caucasian) aged 18–55 (mean age 36.7±10.7, 62% women) with type 1 DM for at least 1 year and HbA1c ≥64 mmol/mol (8.0%) were randomly assigned to participate in either GSD-GT or a control group (CG). Exclusion criteria were severe comorbidity, major psychiatric disorder, cognitive deficiency/language barriers and pregnancy. Intervention Intervention group met seven times for 2 hours over 14 weeks to promote patient autonomy and intrinsic motivation using reflection sheets and advanced professional communication in accordance with the GSD methodology. Primary and secondary outcome measures The primary outcome was HbA1c and secondary outcomes (all outcomes 9 months post intervention) were self-monitored blood glucose frequency, self-reported diabetes competence, autonomy support by healthcare providers (Health Care Climate Questionnaire), autonomous versus controlled diabetes motivation (Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire), diabetes distress (Problem Areas In Diabetes Scale (PAID) and Diabetes Distress Scale (DDS)), self-esteem (Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale) and psychological well-being (World Health Organization five-item Well-Being Index scale). Results Among participants allocated to the GSD-GT (=90) 48 completed the study, whereas 83 completed in the CG (n=88). With 95% CIs GSD-GT did not have effect on HbA1c (B −0.18, CI (−0.48, 0.12), p=0.234). GSD-GT improved autonomy-motivated behaviour (B 0.51, CI (0.25, 0.77), p<0.001), diabetes distress (PAID, B −6.96, CI (−11.40, −2.52), p=0.002), total DDS (B −5.15, CI (−9.34, −0.96), p=0.016), DDS emotional burden (B −7.19, CI (−13.20, −1.19), p=0.019) and self-esteem (B 1.43, CI (0.34, 2.52), p=0.011). Conclusions Results from this behavioural intervention must be interpreted cautiously because of recruitment and attrition problems. Medical outcomes did not improve. Psychological outcomes improved, especially reduced diabetes distress. Trial registration number Clinical Trials.gov NCT 01317459.


The aim of the study was to assess the lifestyle of teachers in Poland. It was the first such research in Poland conducted on such a large scale.The study was performed in the Łódź region. The stratified sampling method was applied, taking into account the type of school (primary school, junior high school, high school, profiled high school, technical school, vocational school, special school) and place (voivodeship city; city>5,000 inhabitants; town<5,000 inhabitants; village). Out of 650 questionnaires, 416 were returned (64%). The study group consisted of 71 men (17%) and 345 women (83%). Their average age was 47.6±8.2 and work experience 21.6±9.2 years.The study used three questionnaires KomPAN (developed by the Committee of Human Nutrition Science of the Polish Academy of Sciences), a survey prepared by the Department of Occupational Physiology and Ergonomics, NIOM, Łódź, and the International Physical Activity Questionnaire.The study shows that teachers lead a healthy lifestyle, as evidenced by proper diet (only 2% of the respondents displayed moderately unhealthy traits), low alcohol consumption (86.8% do not drink strong alcohol at all), small percentage of smokers (10% men, 8% women) and high/sufficient physical activity (52%). The average BMI was within normal limits and equaled 25.05±6.7, only in men it was slightly exceeded (26.6±6.6).The research results suggest that teachers, as a professional group, are aware of the lifestyle impact on health. To check whether this positive observation applies to all teachers in Poland, further research is planned embracing the whole country.


In transparent optical networks, signals propagate over all-optical lightpaths. The absence of regenerating devices that act in the electrical domain renders end-to-end monitoring difficult. Quality of transmission (QoT) metrics quantify the degradation in quality that a signal experiences as it traverses a lightpath. Hardware monitors that can directly measure QoT are expensive, which motivates the development of monitoring schemes that require fewer monitors but can still generate accurate QoT estimates. In this paper we describe a monitoring scheme that estimates the QoT of multiple lightpaths in a network. Our focus is on estimating bit-error-rates (BERs), but the methodology is also applicable for other metrics. One of the primary innovations in this monitoring framework is the establishment of "active lightpaths"-lightpaths that carry no useful data but are instead used as measurement probes. We describe a method for choosing where to establish the active lightpaths in order to maximize the information gain. We demonstrate with simulations the possibility to trade off the amount of costly hardware monitoring equipment with cheaper, temporary active lightpaths, while still achieving accurate monitoring.


Racing continues to be the singular, preeminent source of powertrain development for automakers worldwide. Engineering teams rely on motorsports for the latest prototype testing and research. Endurance racing provides the harshest and most illuminating stage for system design validation of any motorsport competition. While advancements throughout the 20th Century brought about dramatic increases in engine power output, the latest developments from endurance racing may be more impactful for fuel efficiency improvements. Hybrid powertrains are a critical area of research for automakers and are being tested on the toughest of scales. Prototype Powertrain in Motorsport Endurance Racing brings together ten vital SAE technical papers and SAE Automotive Engineering magazine articles surrounding the advancements of hybrid powertrains in motorsports. The book also includes a history of endurance racing from the World Sports Car Championship through the 24 Hours of Le Mans to the World Endurance Championship written by the author. The goal is to provide the latest concepts being researched and tested on hybrid systems that will influence vehicles for years to come - appealing to engineers and enthusiasts alike.


Habitat structure across multiple spatial and temporal scales has been proposed as a key driver of body size distributions for associated communities. Thus, understanding the relationship between habitat and body size is fundamental to developing predictions regarding the influence of habitat change on animal communities. Much of the work assessing the relationship between habitat structure and body size distributions has focused on terrestrial taxa with determinate growth, and has primarily analysed discontinuities (gaps) in the distribution of species mean sizes (species size relationships or SSRs). The suitability of this approach for taxa with indeterminate growth has yet to be determined. We provide a cross-ecosystem comparison of bird (determinate growth) and fish (indeterminate growth) body mass distributions using four independent data sets. We evaluate three size distribution indices: SSRs, species size-density relationships (SSDRs) and individual size-density relationships (ISDRs), and two types of analysis: looking for either discontinuities or abundance patterns and multi-modality in the distributions. To assess the respective suitability of these three indices and two analytical approaches for understanding habitat-size relationships in different ecosystems, we compare their ability to differentiate bird or fish communities found within contrasting habitat conditions. All three indices of body size distribution are useful for examining the relationship between cross-scale patterns of habitat structure and size for species with determinate growth, such as birds. In contrast, for species with indeterminate growth such as fish, the relationship between habitat structure and body size may be masked when using mean summary metrics, and thus individual-level data (ISDRs) are more useful. Furthermore, ISDRs, which have traditionally been used to study aquatic systems, present a potentially useful common currency for comparing body size distributions across terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems.


An analytic theory is proposed that characterizes Q switching in an active mode-locked cavity as the nonlinear interaction of two unstable modes: one symmetric, another antisymmetric. The phase difference between these modes generates a nonlinear beating interaction that gives rise to quasi-periodic behavior in the laser cavity. This quasi-periodic behavior is responsible for the Q-switching phenomenon and is controlled by the interaction and overlap between neighboring pulses. With a linear stability analysis, a simple qualitative description of the Q-switching phenomenon is given that is verified with numerical simulations of the governing active mode-locked equations. This model characterizes the Q switching as a function of the physical parameters of the laser cavity and elucidates the mechanisms for controlling its behavior.


This paper presents a method for license plate recognition through analysis of vehicle images. Accurate location of license plate and extracting characters of plate are implemented. In the plate location module, the paper puts forward arithmetic of plate edge recognition by morphology algorithms. Meanwhile, Radon transform is used to adjust different angles between viewer and license plate. At last, characters extraction is done by histogram. And the extraction characters are matched with the templates. Experimental results show that this approach can recognize license plates more effectively and establish a good technical base for the future advanced license plate recognition.


Objectives: The purpose of this study is to compare the adults diagnosed and not diagnosed with anxiety disorder in terms of positive psychotherapy formation. Methods: Participants of the study are 100 people diagnosed with anxiety disorder, and another 100 people who do not have any mental disorder. Positive Psychotherapy and Family Therapy Inventory, and Beck Anxiety Inventory were used to collect data. T-test and multivariate regression analysis were conducted for data analysis. Results: Regarding primary aptitudes, there are significant differences in terms of patience, relationship, love, and faith aptitudes. In study, a significant difference was found in terms of orderliness, cleanliness, kindness, honesty, obedience, justice and loyalty among the secondary and non-diagnosed groups. Diagnosed individuals have been found to use order, cleanliness, reliability, obedience, justice and loyalty more than non-diagnosed individuals. It is seen that individuals who have anxiety disorder are more patient than relatives without diagnosis are and use relational, love and faith ability more. It has been found that for the individuals diag-nosed with anxiety disorder, all of primary aptitudes explains 32% of the total variance and all of secondary aptitudes explains approximately 30% of the total variance. It has been found that for non-diagnosed individuals all of primary aptitudes explains approximately 15% of the total variance and all of secondary aptitudes explains approximately 13% of the total variance. Discussion: Conducting similar studies in the future on individuals who are at different developmental periods, such as adolescence and old age, may be useful. In addition, various intervention programs can be performed using the perspective of positive psychotherapy for anxiety disorder treatment.


In the past two decades, many research is being carried out on coating of textile membranes with conductive polymers. In order to functionalize the textile membranes, coating of different intrinsically conductive polymers can be applied on these membranes through appropriate coating techniques like electrochemical polymerization, wet chemical oxidation and chemical vapor deposition (CVD). Noticeably, CVD process is one of the most suitable and environment friendly technique. In this research, microporous polyester and polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) membranes were coated with conductive poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene) (PEDOT) by CVD process in the presence of ferric(III)chloride (FeCl3) used as an oxidant. Polymerization of PEDOT on the surface of membranes and pore size was examined by optical microscope and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Structural analysis investigated with ATR-FTIR, which revealed the successful deposition of PEDOT on membranes without damaging their parent structures. The amount of PEDOT in PEDOT-coated polyester and PTFE membranes was explored with the help of thermogravimeteric analysis. Electrical resistance values of PEDOT-coated membranes were measured by two probe method. The effect of different electrolyte solutions such as, distilled H2O, Na2SO4, HCl, and H2SO4 on electrical properties of produced conductive membranes was investigated after dipping for certain period of time. It was found that membranes dipped in H2SO4 show very low electrical resistance values, i.e. 0.85 kΩ for polyester membrane and 1.17 kΩ for PTFE membrane. The obtained PEDOT-coated electro-active membranes may find their possible utility in fuel cells, enzymatic fuel cells, and antistatic air filter applications. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


We use a new dataset and a novel identification strategy to analyze the effects of residential segregation on the employment of migrants in 8 Italian cities. Our data, which are representative of the population of both legal and illegal migrants, allow us to measure segregation at the very local level (the block) and include measures of house prices, commuting costs and migrants' linguistic ability. We find evidence that migrants who reside in areas with a high concentration of non-Italians are less likely to be employed compared to similar migrants who reside in less segregated areas. In our preferred specification, a 10 percentage points increase in residential segregation reduces the probability of being employed by 7 percentage points or about 8% over the average. Additionally, we also show that this effect emerges only above a critical threshold of 15-20% of migrants over the total local population, below which there is no statistically detectable effect. The negative externality associated with residential segregation arises only for the employment prospects of immigrants, whether legal or illegal. We do not find evidence of either spatial mismatch or skill bias as potential explanations of this effect. Statistical discrimination by native employers is the remaining suspect.


This PhD research project examines the agency of photography and the photographic image. The research develops insights into photography as one of the dominant image making, cultural practices in the Twenty-first Century. Its focus is on digital photography and it begins by understanding agency as distributed, connected and networked: properties predominantly associated with an image that is digital. The intended contribution to knowledge is a philosophical engagement with how images embody notions of representational failure because they present themselves as image in support of a fiction of reality. What this means philosophically, is that there is no access to reality other than through representations that fail to represent.

Underpinned by the question as to whether and how "practice interpellates a subject of the signifier" (Burgin, 2011: 196) the research considers the role of photography in helping to determine individuals as viewing subjects. Since photography is the "quintessential practice of life" (Kember & Zylinkska, 2015:07) in which seemingly every moment is recorded, captured and represented, this project investigates how we become who we are through interactions and encounters with photography. I conclude that photographic agency conceals a structure sustained by a form of labour and production that is masked by creativity and enjoyment. The research also provides new ideas towards understanding how technology has shaped perceptual experiences and aligns agency to algorithms and software.

Since amateurs and casual image-makers – those "without the spirit of mastery" (Barthes 1977/1975: 52) – are the producers of the majority of images we encounter today, much of the inquiry focused on their experiences. This approach, focusing on the amateur, was also taken within the context of the "massive production of photos in the conduct of everyday life" (Hand, 2012: 02) and the "identifiable increase in image-making as an ordinary aspect of people's lives" (Ibid: 03). In this sense photography is addressed as a dominant cultural practice. Drawing on the experiences of those who take photographs, the research develops an understanding of an interconnected object of inquiry: photography and the photographic image. Practice contributes two fold to this research. Firstly, as the output of photographic labour, secondly, in the form of my own practice, as a set of responses to the theoretical ideas developed within the project.

This research delivers a refined theory of photographic agency. It proposes, through a chain of reasoning, that in photography we do not create likeness of places. Instead, we grasp how unlike places photographs really are and in turn the ground of representation is questioned and repositioned. If photography is not "another visual form of representation, but an immersive economy that offers an entirely new way to inhabit materiality and its relation to bodies, machines and brains" (Rubinstein, 2015), then it is this new, emerging and complex photographic ontology that my project contributes toward.


A major concern in coalition peace-support operations is the incidence of terrorist activity. In this paper, we propose a generative model for the occurrence of the terrorist incidents, and illustrate that an increase in diversity, as measured by the number of different social groups to which that an individual belongs, is inversely correlated with the likelihood of a terrorist incident in the society. A generative model is one that can predict the likelihood of events in new contexts, as opposed to statistical models which are used to predict the future incidents based on the history of the incidents in an existing context. Generative models can be useful in planning for persistent Information Surveillance and Reconnaissance (ISR) since they allow an estimation of regions in the theater of operation where terrorist incidents may arise, and thus can be used to better allocate the assignment and deployment of ISR assets. In this paper, we present a taxonomy of terrorist incidents, identify factors related to occurrence of terrorist incidents, and provide a mathematical analysis calculating the likelihood of occurrence of terrorist incidents in three common real-life scenarios arising in peace-keeping operations


We use mobile phone call detail records to estimate the resettlement times of a subset of individuals that have been previously identified to be internally displaced persons (IDPs) following a sudden-onset disaster. Four different mobility metrics - two versions of radius of gyration and two versions of entropy - are used to study the behaviour of populations during three disasters - the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, the 2015 Gorkha earthquake in Nepal, and Hurricane Matthew in Haiti in 2016. We characterise the rate at which a disrupted population resettles by the fraction of individuals who remain disrupted each week after the disaster. We find that this rate can be modelled very well as the sum of two exponential decays and observe that the resettling rate for all three disasters is similar, with half the original number of displaced persons having resettled within four to five weeks of the disaster. If the study of further disasters leads to the observation of similar exponential decay rates, then it would imply that the number of IDPs at any time can be inferred from an estimate of the initial number of IDPs immediately following the disaster. Alternatively, the method provides a way to monitor disaster resilience and compare recovery rates across disasters. The method has the advantage that no assumptions need to be made regarding the location or time of resettlement. Our results indicate that CDRs can significantly contribute to measuring and predicting displacement durations, distances, and locations of IDPs in post-disaster scenarios. We believe that information and estimates provided by specifically developed CDR analytics, coupled with field data collection and traditional survey methods, can assist the humanitarian response to natural disasters and the subsequent resettlement efforts.


Background and purpose: A long non-coding transcript Lnc-Ang362 plays critical role on the expression of miR-221 and miR-222. Knockdown of Lnc-Ang362 reduces the expression of these miRNAs as well as vessel smooth muscle cell proliferation in response to vascular injury. This study, for the first time, considered the possible association between Lnc-Ang362 rs7887062A/G polymorphism with the risk of atherosclerotic coronary artery disease (CAD) in low risk patients. Materials and methods: In this case-control study, 299 subjects, including 150 patients with atherosclerotic CAD and 149 healthy individuals (control group) enrolled. Genotyping of the rs7887062 was done using PCR-RFLP method. Data were analyzed using SPSS v.19. Results: The frequency of heterozygote AG and G-allele carriage (GG+AG) genotypes were greater in controls compared to the patients, supporting the protective role against CAD. The G allele reduced the risk of disease (OR: 0.32, 95%CI: 0.150.7, P=0.004). In cross tabulation of the study population based on gender, reduced risk of CAD in the presence of AG and G-carriage genotypes was seen in both males and females. Conclusion: Lnc-Ang362 variant could be considered as a molecular screening marker for low risk susceptible subjects to atherosclerotic CAD.


We propose a new multicast routing and scheduling algorithm called multipurpose multicast routing and scheduling algorithm (MMRS). The routing policy load balances among various possible routes between the source and the destinations, basing its decisions on the message queue lengths at the source node. The scheduling is such that the flow of a session depends on the congestion of the next hop links. MMRS is throughput optimal. In addition, it has several other attractive features. It is computationally simple and can be implemented in a distributed, asynchronous manner. It has several parameters which can be suitably modified to control the end-to-end delay and packet loss in a topology-specific manner. These parameters can be adjusted to offer limited priorities to some desired sessions. MMRS is expected to play a significant role in end-to-end congestion control in the multicast scenario.


Over the past decade, numerous scholars and commentators have asserted that the indirect copyright liability standards applied in the Napster, Aimster, and Grokster decisions, among others, significantly chill technological innovation. This article examines this critical conjecture and offers both a broader framework for assessing the relationship between indirect copyright liability and technological innovation and some suggestive empirical results. The conceptual analysis demonstrates that the question of whether indirect copyright liability chills technological innovation inherently requires consideration of a broader range of social balances, market mechanisms, and roles for mediating institutions. Several countervailing forces, such as the relatively modest capital requirements associated with the technology at issue, the nature of the many established research environments, the philosophical and cultural orientation of many digital technology researchers, various liability-insulating institutions, the ability of investors and technology companies to manage risk, and the importance of technological advance in fields unaffected by copyright liability, suggest that the effects of indirect copyright liability on innovation in replication and distribution technologies will be less dire and more complex than the conjecture suggests. Moreover, the Chilled Innovation conjecture downplays the beneficial effects of indirect copyright liability on the development of balanced technologies (those that tend to balance incentives to create copyrighted works with advances in information dissemination) while ignoring the adverse effects of broad immunity, which fosters deployment of parasitic technologies that tend to drive out balanced technologies. To the extent that the Chilled Innovation conjecture has force, it is not at the basic research and development stages of the innovation pipeline, but rather at the commercialization stage – which is where in the innovation process such effects are most appropriately focused. This limits the effects of choking innovation in its infancy. The article also offers a partial test of the chilled innovation conjecture by examining academic research and patent data. The findings indicate that the Napster-Aimster-Grokster trilogy does not appear to have derailed technological innovation in the peer-to-peer field.


As separate stocks within a fishery can function differently, ensuring
sustainability of each is fundamental when establish or refining management
regulations and relies on a firm comprehension of the biological, recruitment,
growth, predator-prey, and mortality characteristics in response to environmental
factors and fishing pressure. The aim of this study was to analyse the population
structure, recruitment variability, migratory characteristics, and catch composition of
the arrow squid Nototodarus gouldi collected in the Great Australian Bight (GAB)
and Victoria from 2007 – 2009. Nototodarus gouldi is a common oceanic
ommastrephid found in waters of southern Australia and are considered
commercially and ecologically important. Although research on N. gouldi has
already provided biological and population characteristics for fisheries assessments,
better estimates of temporal and spatial variability of population structure and the
processes responsible are required. Completing their lifecycle in less than one year,
N. gouldi exhibited substantial variability in growth, spatial distribution, and
recruitment; processes considered to be highly influenced by environment and
oceanic factors such as water temperature and productivity. Comparing statolith
shape and biological characteristics from squid collected in Victoria to squid
collected in the GAB suggested significant phenotypic heterogeneity in stocks;
whereas statolith elemental composition analysis indicated that N. gouldi caught at
either location hatch throughout their distribution. Both male and female N. gouldi
grew faster and were larger in cooler waters off Victoria compared with warmer
waters of the GAB. The correlation of sea surface temperature (SST) with growth
showed that juveniles experiencing greater SST resulted in slower growth in the
GAB; however, juveniles experiencing greater SST had faster growth in Victoria.
Distribution of hatch dates calculated from statolith age estimates suggested that N.
gouldi collected in Victoria and the GAB during 2007 – 2009 hatch year round with
peaks of greater recruitment. Comparing the catch composition of N. gouldi caught
inshore from the jig fishery to squid caught offshore from the trawl fishery using
measures of size and growth suggested that squid caught inshore by jiggers were
larger, consisted of more males than females, and had a greater percentage of mature
females. However, statolith elemental composition from N. gouldi collected at inshore and offshore locations was likely to be driven by uniform ocean water
chemistry and squid physiological processes. Based on biology, reproductive,
recruitment, and growth characteristics of N. gouldi found in southern Australia,
current fishing effort is unlikely to jeopardize the sustainability of the resource.


Multiple conceptual frameworks support the link between coaches' attitudes and behaviors, and their effect on a variety of athlete outcomes, such as performance, motivation, and athlete self-perceptions. The present study explored the relationships among coaches' attitudes and behaviors, with respect to psychological skills training (PST), and the beliefs of their athletes. One hundred and fifteen coaches completed PST attitude (SPA-RC-revised) and behavior measures, while 403 athletes completed two perception measures (CCS and SCI). Structural Equation Modeling showed that the proposed relationships were statistically significant, except for the pathway between coaches' attitudes and their behaviors. Results support the disconnect between coaches' attitudes and behaviors previously established in PST research, as well as the theoretical links between coaches' behaviors and athletes' perceptions (i.e., evaluation of their coach and self-confidence).


In this article the author investigates the character, composition and task of particular or regional synods and of general synods in reformed churches. Although the character and composition of these assemblies in the church can be defined fairly easily, the same can not be said of the distinction between the task of the former and the latter. The fact that both of them were called upon in the past to look after matters common to all congregations within its borders, created a vagueness in this regard. Which are those matters common to all congregations which should be attended to by particular synods and which by general synods? His solution is the application of two well-known principles of a reformed church polity: firstly, that major assemblies should not attend to matters which could be dealt with at minor assemblies, and, secondly, that a general synod should concentrate on those issues which are really common to all congregations in the specific denomination.


Focus on US Policy: From the Eisenhower Doctrine to the War in Iraq Containing Arab Nationalism: The Eisenhower Doctrine and the Middle East, by Salim Yaqub. Chapel Hill, NC: The University of North Carolina Press, 2004. 337 pages. $59.95 cloth; $22.95 paper. L'Orient arabe a l'heure americaine: De la guerre du Golfe a la guerre d'Irak [The Arab World in America's Hour: From the Gulf War to the Iraq War], by Henry Laurens. Paris: Armand Colin/S.EJ.E.R., 2004. 303 pages. 19 euros. Secrets and Lies: Operation "Iraqi Freedom" and After, by Dilip Hiro. New York: Nation Books, 2004. xxvii + 468 pages. $14.95. Resurrecting Empire: Western Footprints and America's Perilous Path in the Middle East, by Rashid Khalidi. Boston, MA: Beacon Press, 2004. xiv + 223 pages. $23. Since World War II no area of the world has given American policy makers more headaches than the Middle East. Even leaving aside the complications of domestic politics, the region has presented a confusing array of conflicting objectives. Our commitment to Israel, growing more one-sided with the passage of time, has conflicted with our efforts to win the hearts and minds of the Arab peoples, desirable both to resist Soviet encroachments during the Cold War, and to preserve the availability of oil resources to the West. The rivalry between nationalist and conservative regimes among Arab states further complicated matters. Our early unsuccessful efforts to confront and defeat nationalist movements were followed by an effort to get along with them, but this in turn was defeated by the persistence of the struggle between nationalists and conservatives. And throughout this period, Washington's determination to see the rivalries and tensions in this part of the world in Cold War terms, rather than as a struggle between nationalist movements and established regimes, has proven to be a further handicap to sound policy. Recognizing at least some of this, successive American administrations have sought to make progress toward resolving the Arab-Israel conflict, or at least, encourage negotiations to relieve tensions. There have been periods when progress has been made - agreement on United Nations security Council Resolution 242 after the 1967 war, the three partial agreements negotiated by Henry Kissinger (secretary of State 1973-77) following the 1973 war, Camp David, and the Egypt-Israel peace treaty during the Carter Administration, President George H.W. Bush and secretary of State James Baker bringing the parties to Madrid in 1991, and President Bill Clinton's effort in the last year of his presidency to resolve issues in an Israeli-Palestinian peace settlement. But there were also long periods when our efforts have been feeble, inconsistent, and readily abandoned in the face of difficulties, whether caused by impediments to the negotiations, or by perceived electoral disadvantages at home. As the result of the latter, our political campaigns, even the two-year US House of Representatives cycle, have generally been seen as periods when a strong policy on this issue was out of the question. Forever hopeful, presidents arrive in office seeking the magic bullet - a negotiating formula that hasn't been tried before, the presidential emissary with the golden touch - that would create a breakthrough and save them from having to invest major political capital in the effort (the only magic bullet that ever came along to help the United States, was Egyptian President Anwar Sadat). Frustrated at the frontal approach, we have tried flanking movements, such as initiatives on water and the refugee problem, on reaching understandings about arms control and nuclear development, and various schemes promoting economic cooperation. None of these has borne fruit. When the outlook for conflict resolution appeared bleak, we have also sought to divert the Arabs from their dissatisfaction by persuading them that geopolitical considerations - resisting the expansion of Soviet influence, and more recently Islamic extremism - were more important than the Arab-Israel conflict. …


The components of living systems strike us as functional-as for the sake of certain ends -- and as endowed with specific norms of performance. The mammalian eye, for example, has the function of perceiving and processing light, and possession of this property tempts us to claim that token eyes are supposed to perceive and process light. That is, we tend to evaluate the performance of token eyes against the norm described in the attributed functional property. Hence the norms of nature. What, then, are the norms of nature? Whence do they arise? Out of what natural properties or relations are they constituted? In Norms of Nature, Paul Sheldon Davies argues against the prevailing view that natural norms are constituted out of some form of historical success -- usually success in natural selection. He defends the view that functions are nothing more than effects that contribute to the exercise of some more general systemic capacity. Natural functions exist insofar as the components of natural systems contribute to the exercise of systemic capacities. This is so irrespective of the system's history. Even if the mammalian eye had never been selected for, it would have the function of perceiving and processing light, because those are the effects that contribute to the exercise of the visual system. The systemic approach to conceptualizing natural norms, claims Davies, is superior to the historical approach in several important ways. Especially significant is that it helps us understand how the attribution of functions within the life sciences coheres with the methods and ontology of the natural sciences generally.


Well-designed molecular representations (fingerprints) are vital to combine medical chemistry and deep learning. Whereas incorporating 3D geometry of molecules (i.e. conformations) in their representations seems beneficial, current 3D algorithms are still in infancy. In this paper, we propose a novel molecular representation algorithm which preserves 3D conformations of molecules with a Molecular Hamiltonian Network (HamNet). In HamNet, implicit positions and momentums of atoms in a molecule interact in the Hamiltonian Engine following the discretized Hamiltonian equations. These implicit coordinations are supervised with real conformations with translation-&rotation-invariant losses, and further used as inputs to the Fingerprint Generator, a message-passing neural network. Experiments show that the Hamiltonian Engine can well preserve molecular conformations, and that the fingerprints generated by HamNet achieve state-of-the-art performances on MoleculeNet, a standard molecular machine learning benchmark.


The work described herein focus on the impact of different context factors in short-term planning situations. We have investigated which services have been used to solve different tasks. The method used in the study was based on scenario descriptions. The participants reported how they would have acted in different situations and they also rated the importance of different context factors in different situations. Analyses were made that revealed relationships between context factors and services used by the participants of the study. A qualitative analysis was also conducted, with the aim to capture context factors not covered in the study design.


Islamic finance has gained important momentum in the 1990s, and is now recognised by financial institutions and regulators all over the world. The development of Islamic finance in the Sudan has been through the Islamisation of economic and financial sectors along with the political shift towards Islam. It is, therefore, important to asses the progress and performance of Islamic financial instruments in a political setting such as in the Sudan. The study, therefore, covers, explores and evaluates the development of Islamic banking in the Sudan for the period 1990-2005 mainly, by focusing on five main areas: first, it investigates whether the PLS contracts are dominating the Islamic banking system in Sudan. Second, the study evaluates musharakah characteristics and its performance perceptions. Also, the study analyses how staff characteristics, bank characteristics and overall environment affect the preferences and performance of musharakah finance. Third, it investigates the factors influencing decision making in Islamic banks as regard to musharakah finance. Fourth, it investigates the implications of using musharakah mode of finance. In this regard, this study examines the perception of the implications of using the musharakah mode of finance by the Sudanese Islamic banks and provides an empirical assessment of these perceptions about musharakah characteristics, performance, preference and obstacles. This study also provides an empirical investigation of how central bank policies have affected musharakah finance in Sudan. Fifth, It investigates musharakah management to recognise the obstacles and factors influencing decision making and aims to suggest possible remedies. In fulfilling its aim and objectives, this study utilised both primary and secondary data from Sudan. This study finds that banking staff prefer musharakah over other types of Islamic modes of finance. However, ш reality the Sudanese banks prefer musharakah over other types of Islamic modes of finance with a gradual shift towards musharakah. It is therefore argued that government pressure has been the major factor behind this shift towards more musharakah finance. The study also shows that significantly, the dominant type of musharakah is a short term one which lasts for 3 to 6 months. The results indicate the correlation between musharakah risk and the average age of musharakah. Hence, the major dilemmas facing the present Sudanese Islamic banks nowadays are the fact that these banks have to involve in long term finance according to its theory. The non-parametric test confirms that the perception about the performance for musharakah is high in both profitability and risk. However, the comparative financial performance of the Islamic financial methods found no difference in both risk and profitability. The credit policy and size of banks was found to be the most important factor influencing the distribution of bank funds among different types of finance. Lack of proper feasibility studies was found to be the main cause of non-performing musharakah finance. The lack of PLS modes of finance performance, because of managerial efficiency, can be considerable and may threaten the existence of Islamic banking, which is already facing strong competition. Significantly, lack of specialized departments were found to be the main cause of the weakness in the following up. The study finds that financial capability is the most important factor determining the capability of the entrepreneurs. Satisfaction with performance measurement systems was not high and not acceptable. Training provided to the employees is not enough and needs strengthening. There is a need for national policies specially designed and oriented towards SMEs as well as a policy to ending the current BOS financing policies hindering musharakah and BOS discriminatory regulations so as to encourage PLS finance. Based on the results, this study made a number of recommendations to manage and measure musharakah risk.


Abstract. On 17 July 2005, an earthward bound north-south oriented magnetic cloud and its sheath were observed by the ACE, SoHO, and Wind solar wind monitors. A steplike increase of the solar wind dynamic pressure during northward interplanetary magnetic field conditions was related to the leading edge of the sheath. A timing analysis between the three spacecraft revealed that this front was not aligned with the GSE y-axis, but had a normal (−0.58,0.82,0). Hence, the first contact with the magnetosphere occurred on the dawnside rather than at the subsolar point. Fortunately, Cluster, Double Star 1, and Geotail happened to be distributed close to the magnetopause in this region, which made it possible to closely monitor the motion of the magnetopause. After the pressure front had impacted the magnetosphere, the magnetopause was perceived first to move inward and then immediately to correct the overshoot by slightly expanding again such that it ended up between the Cluster constellation with Double Star 1 inside the magnetosphere and Geotail in the magnetosheath. Coinciding with the inward and subsequent outward motion, the ground-based magnetic field at low latitudes was observed to first strengthen and then weaken. As the magnetopause position stabilised, so did the ground-based magnetic field intensity, settling at a level slightly higher than before the pressure increase. Altogether the magnetopause was moving for about 15 min after its first contact with the front. The high latitude ionospheric signature consisted of two parts: a shorter (few minutes) and less intense preliminary part comprised a decrease of AL and a negative variation of PC. A longer (about ten minutes) and more intense main part of the signature comprised an increase of AU and a positive variation of PC. Measurements from several ground-based magnetometer networks (210 MM CPMN, CANMOS, CARISMA, GIMA, IMAGE, MACCS, SuperMAG, THEMIS, TGO) were used to obtain information on the ionospheric E×B drift. Before the pressure increase, a configuration typical for the prevailing northward IMF conditions was observed at high latitudes. The preliminary signature coincided with a pair of reverse convection vortices, whereas during the main signature, mainly westward convection was observed at all local time sectors. Afterwards, the configuration preceding the pressure increase was recovered, but with slightly enhanced convection. Based on the timing analysis, the existence of the preliminary signature coincided with the passage of the oblique pressure front, whereas during the main signature the front was already well past Earth. The main signature existed during the time the magnetopause was observed to move. As the position stabilised, also the signature disappeared.


We investigate Carleson measures µ on D where D is the open unit disk in C, along with functional analytic properties of the formal identitiy of the Hardy space H p (D) into the Lebesgue space Lq (µ), for any previously fixed 0 < p, q <
∞. Our corresponding characterizations do not only extend the classical results for measures concentrated on D but also provide different proofs for the latter ones. Among the
applications are generalizations to formal identities as above of several results which have been known for composition operators only.


BACKGROUND
Host genetic factors can affect the progress of hepatitis-C virus (HCV) infection. Interleukin-28B (IL28B) single nucleotide polymorphisms may play an important role in the clearance of HCV spontaneously or with treatment.

AIMS
The aim of our study was to evaluate the rate of IL28B genotypes in patients with Chronic Hepatitis-C (CHC) and healthy control subjects and to examine the characteristics of patients in each IL28B subgroup.

STUDY DESIGN
Case-control study.

METHODS
IL28B polymorphisms were genotyped by Polymerase Chain Reaction and Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) in all subjects.

RESULTS
The mean age was 52.3±10.9 years (33% female) in the CHC patients and 52.5±11.5 years (39.1% female) in the healthy controls. The percentage of patients with a high baseline viral load (≥400,000 IU/mL) was higher in the CT group (69.8%) compared to the C/C (44.4%) and T/T (50%) groups (p=0.021). There was no significant difference in liver fibrosis and liver necroinflammation distribution among the CC, CT and TT genotypes with mild, moderate and severe groups (p=0.058 and p=0.791, respectively). Mean age, gender ratio, body mass index, viral load at baseline, rate of HCV genotypes, baseline ALT levels were not significantly different among the three IL28B subgroups (p>0.05). A significant increase was observed in the frequencies of IL28B rs12979860 TT genotypes in the CHC patients (20.6%) compared to the healthy control group (8.7%) (p=0.033).

CONCLUSION
In the patients with chronic HCV-genotype 1b and 4 infections, the IL28B rs12979860 (C>T) gene polymorphism frequency of the TT genotype and T allele was higher than in healthy control subjects. This result indicates that the TT genotype may be more effective in the progression of HCV infection than other genotypes.


Over the last 30 years, Israeli society has undergone dramatic social, political and economic changes, and this study examines changes in the importance of the valued work outcomes between 1981 and 2006. Results are reported for cross-sectional studies conducted in 1981 (n = 973) and 2006 (n = 909), which were drawn from representative samples of the Israeli workforce. The samples allow us to examine the cohort effect/generational differences and the ageing effect. The findings reveal substantial differences in work outcome importance over the course of time. Between 1981 and 2006, there was a decrease in the importance of the intrinsic outcome of interest and the social outcome of serving society while the importance of the extrinsic outcomes of income, status and prestige increased. This trend reflects the transformation from a collectivist and altruistic society to an individualist and materialistic society, and can be explained by the generational/cohort effect and ageing effect. The changes in work outcomes over the course of time are explained by political, social and economic factors.


The classical civilizations of Greece and Rome once dominated the world, and they continue to fascinate and inspire us. Classical art and architecture, drama and epic, philosophy and politics--these are the foundations of Western civilization. In The Classical World, eminent classicist Robin Lane Fox brilliantly chronicles this vast sweep of history from Homer to the reign of Augustus. From the Peloponnesian War through the creation of Athenian democracy, from the turbulent empire of Alexander the Great to the creation of the Roman Empire and the emergence of Christianity, Robin Lane Fox serves as our witty and trenchant guide. He introduces us to extraordinary heroes and horrific villains, great thinkers and blood-thirsty tyrants. Throughout this vivid tour of two of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known, we remain in the hands of a great master.


Ureteroscopy is a conventional procedure used for localization and removal of kidney stones. Laser is commonly used to fragment the stones until they are small enough to be removed. Often, the surgical team faces tremendous challenge to successfully perform this task, mainly due to poor image quality, presence of floating debris and occlusions in the endoscopy video. Automated localization and segmentation can help to perform stone fragmentation e ciently. However, the automatic segmentation of kidney stones is a complex and challenging procedure due to stone heterogeneity in terms of shape, size, texture, color and position. In addition, dynamic background, motion blur, local deformations, occlusions, varying illumination conditions and visual clutter from the stone debris make the segmentation task even more challenging. In this paper, we present a novel illumination invariant optical flow based segmentation technique. We introduce a multi-frame based dense optical flow estimation in a primal-dual optimization framework embedded with a robust data-term based on normalized correlation transform descriptors. The proposed technique leverages the motion fields between multiple frames reducing the e↵ect of blur, deformations, occlusions and debris; and the proposed descriptor makes the method robust to illumination changes and dynamic background. Both qualitative and quantitative evaluations show the e cacy of the proposed method on ureteroscopy data. Our algorithm shows an improvement of 5-8% over all evaluation metrics as compared to the previous method. Our multi-frame strategy outperforms classically used two-frame model.