Physical literacy (PL) is the motivation, confidence, physical competence, knowledge and understanding to value and participate in physical activity for life. Assessment of physical literacy has recently emerged as an aspect of the concept that requires further investigation. Without the ability to measure PL, practitioners, teachers and policy makers cannot ascertain if children are displaying positive PL behaviours or if additional support is required. It is currently unclear if there are assessment tools available in research or practice that have reported philosophical alignment to Whitehead's concept of physical literacy and the development of one is pivotal to promote the operationalisation of the concept within the education sector. Study One Globally, PL continues to gain momentum, yet the definition and underlying concept of physical literacy remains contested in both research and practice. This lack of clarity has the potential to undermine the operationalisation of PL, as such study 1 considers the various definitions of PL that are currently adopted internationally. PL experts identified seven leading groups that have established PL initiatives. Although each group is unified in using the term PL, there are contrasting definitions and interpretations of the concept. Common themes were identified, including the: (a) influence of PL philosophy, (b) core elements of PL, (c) lifelong nature of PL, and (d) the need to scientifically pursue a robust operationalization of the concept. Study 1 concludes by recommending that programmes relating to PL should provide a definition, a clear philosophical approach, and transparency with how their actions align with this approach. Study Two The purpose of this study was to systematically review the literature for assessment tools that are appropriate to measure PL elements within children aged 7-11 years. A systematic review was conducted in accordance with PRISMA-P guidelines. Search terms were defined during workshops with PL experts before the following electronic databases were searched (12 May 2017- 10 January 2019) to identify relevant peer-reviewed journal articles published in English: (i) MEDLINE (ii) ScienceDirect (iii) SPORTDiscus, iv) Education Research Complete (iv)Scopus, and (v) psycINFO. Methodological quality of both quantitative and qualitative assessment tools were appraised using the COSMIN risk of bias checklist. The feasibility, interpretability, cost and ease of use of each instrument was also appraised using a utility matrix and a bespoke PL checklist was developed to appraise alignment to the concept. The search strategy resulted in a total of 7530 initial results. Reference checking resulted in three additional eligible studies. After screening of titles and abstracts, 381 articles were retrieved for full text reading. After full text screening was completed a total of 130 studies were included in this review. In total, 65 studies were relevant to the physical domain, 58 to the affective domain and 7 to the cognitive domain. In relation to the 7-11 age range 21 tools were available for the physical domain, 33 for the affective and 6 for the cognitive. The findings within the review highlight that aspects of the physical, cognitive and affective domains are currently being assessed, using tools that have acceptable psychometric properties. While assessments are typically proven to be feasible within a school context, further empirical research is needed to consider the feasibility of the scoring and administration of assessment tools by teachers as opposed to research teams. Study 3 Study 3 explored stakeholder perceptions of a PL assessment for children aged 7-11 years. Specifically, this study aimed to explore key stakeholders' views of current practice, effective implementation and future directions of PL assessment to inform the development of a PL assessment for primary school-aged children. Purposive samples of children aged 7-11 years (10 focus groups, n=57), primary school teachers (6 focus groups, n=23) and experts in physical literacy (3 focus groups, academics n=13, practitioners n=8) were recruited to take part in a series of concurrent focus groups. A semi-structured focus group guide was developed focusing on acceptability, demand and implementation of PL assessment. Focus groups were audio recorded, transcribed verbatim and analysed using inductive and deductive thematic analysis, with key themes organised into pen profiles. It was found that stakeholders viewed the assessment of physical literacy as important but reported that it was not currently a priority in many schools, resulting in variable practice. In addition, child responses centred on a desire for enjoyment/fun within the assessment experience and teachers recommended that assessment should be time-efficient, simple and useful. Experts advocated the use of longitudinal assessment strategies. Moreover, all stakeholders proposed using technology and self-assessment/reflection to support PL assessment. Although all stakeholders recognised a demand for PL assessment at the individual and population level, existing assessments did not meet their perceived needs. Future assessments should consider the balance between the purpose of the assessment and the feasibility of the assessment process.


The discovery of Helicobacter pylori was hopeful as this agent was included in the list of 'preventable- infectious carcinogens', and many non-treatable gastroduodenal disorders with uncertain causes became treatable infectious diseases. Nevertheless, nowadays frequent antibiotic resistance is observed among H. pylori infections, sometimes as high as 95%. H. pylori is a bacteria that existed for a very long time, which was only recognised in the last 30 years. It can cause a variety of symptoms leading to gastroduodenal disorders from chronic inflammation in the gastrointestinal system to non-cardia gastric cancer. It is acquired in the early years of life and infection is commonly lifelong. The accepted primary route of transmission is person-to-person contact because humans are the only known significant reservoir of H. pylori. The target cell of H. pylori is the gastric mucus secreting cell. The prevalence in Europe shows a huge variety with almost all studies showing a decreasing trend. During childhood the highest prevalence was from Turkey (56.6%) and the lowest was from Czech Republic (4.8%). Among adults, the overall prevalence was found to be between 18.3% (Denmark) and 82.5% (Turkey), with substantial country-to-country variations. The prevalence rate differs by socioeconomic lifestyle characteristics and also genomic structure; it is also higher in less developed countries/populations. While the more commonly used test to determine H. pylori infection is serology, immunoglobulin G by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, the urea breath test (UBT), and stool antigen testing are non- invasive tests which are also recommended.


Composite tubes are a very good alternative to steel tubes in applications requiring low weight and high stiffness. For composite tubes to replace traditional steel tubes in demanding environments, such as in the subsea petroleum industry, more research on their behavior has to be made to qualify the performance. This thesis seeks to expand that knowledge by investigating the buckling behavior of composite tubes subjected to external hydrostatic pressure. To find a method of correctly predicting the stress and strain states on the tubes, a comparison between FEA and previously acquired strain data from external hydrostatic pressure testing of a composite tube has been carried out. The composite tube had a length of 600 mm and a diameter of 100 mm and was filament wound with a layup of [89$^\circ{}_1$/12.7$^\circ{}_1$/45$^\circ{}_1$] and instrumented with optical fiber to acquire the strain data. It was found that by modeling the cross section of the tube elliptic with 0.46 \% ("0.46 \% ovality") of the mean diameter added and subtracted to the major and minor diameter of the ellipse respectively, a very good match between FEA and the strain data was found. Using the same ovality, seven different layups were analyzed to find an optimal layup for withstanding external hydrostatic pressure. Based on the optimal layup assessment, the most optimal layup, [89$^\circ{}_2$/12.7$^\circ{}_1$/89$^\circ{}_2$], was produced. The tube was cut into lengths of 300, 400 and 600 mm to assess the buckling behavior and FEA matching's dependency on length. The tubes were instrumented with optical fiber for strain measurements and tested in an autoclave. It was found that the [89$^\circ{}_2$/12.7$^\circ{}_1$/89$^\circ{}_2$] layup performed well having a buckling pressure of 9.75 bar for the 600 mm long tube, 2.79 times that of the [89$^\circ{}_1$/12.7$^\circ{}_1$/45$^\circ{}_1$] layup, despite being just 33.5 \% thicker. To achieve a good match in FEA for the [89$^\circ{}_2$/12.7$^\circ{}_1$/89$^\circ{}_2$] layup, the fiber direction E-modulus had to be increased by 12 \% to 37738 MPa, compared to the predicted E-modulus from volume fraction scaling. The high E-modulus was concluded as being due to low void content coming from post winding compression of the tubes with peel ply. The ovality needed to achieve matching for the 600 mm long tube was 0.01\%. Based on the matching of the shorter tubes it was concluded that longer tubes with the same layup will need an ovality close to 0.01\% to simulate correct strain behavior.


Abner Greene's Against Obligation and Louis Michael Seidman's On Constitutional Disobedience offer provocative, subversive, and frequently convincing arguments against wholesale fidelity to the Constitution. Greene makes the case that individuals, at times, have no duty to obey the Constitution as it has been interpreted and articulates a methodology for how the government should accommodate these legitimate acts of disobedience. Seidman, however, makes the case that we should abandon the "pernicious myth" that we are obligated to obey the Constitution at all. He argues that if the fiction of constitutional obedience was jettisoned altogether, the national discourse about the issues that divide us – like the legality of gun ownership, affirmative action, and same-sex marriage – would concern the merits of various approaches to governmental regulation of the issues. The discourse would not hover around the question of whether a particular governmental regulation comports with the mandates of the Constitution. The latter, existing discourse is useless and frequently counterproductive, according to Seidman, as it stymies "the open-ended and unfettered dialogue that is the hallmark of a free society." This Essay asks a simple, but important, question: What will happen to abortion access in an era of constitutional infidelity? Will women continue to be able to terminate unwanted pregnancies if there is no obligation to follow the dictates of the Constitution? How one answers the question may determine whether Greene's and Seidman's visions of constitutional defiance should be advocated, pursued, and implemented. That is, if one believes that governments should not be able to compromise a woman's ability to undergo an abortion procedure – even if a majority of citizens believe that no woman (or only some women, in certain circumstances) should be able to have an abortion – then one may find Greene's and Seidman's proposals unattractive. And quite terrifying.


Innovation is a key factor in modern economies and many companies invest in R&D to obtain such innovations, with both public and private resources. The objective is to achieve and increase productivity and economic growth, but it could also provide a guarantee of long-run performance. The present work explores the relationship between R&D and firm survival. The hypothesis that R&D activity is a positive factor for firm survival is contrasted using data from the Encuesta Sobre Estrategias Empresariales (ESEE – Business Strategies Survey) for the period 1991–2010 and for a sample of Spanish manufacturing firms. With these data, a Cox proportional hazard model is estimated. The results show the existence of a positive relationship between R&D expenditure and survival probability, with differences depending on the environment. Specifically, we show that increasing the ratio of R&D to turnover lowers exit probability, controlling for other factors. The different environments are defined as combinations of both technological (or not) regions and sectors in which firms operate.


We present SPOT, a scalable power observation tool that enables in situ measurement of nodal power and energy over a dynamic range exceeding four decades or a temporal resolution of microseconds. Using SPOT, every node in a sensor network can now be instrumented, providing unparalleled visibility into the dynamic power profile of applications and system software. Power metering at every node enables previously impossible empirical evaluation of low power designs at scale. The SPOT architecture and design meet challenges unique to wireless sensor networks and other low power systems, such as orders of magnitude difference in current draws between sleep and active states, short-duration power spikes during periods of brief activity, and the need for minimum perturbation of the system under observation.


The objective for this Masters thesis is to conduct a
Design program, as a planning and design tool, for
the outdoor environment at the campus site of Wollo
University in Kombolcha, located in northern Ethiopia.
The geographical location as well as the social and
political context of the site has constituted the framework
for this Design program and Masters thesis. Kombolcha
Campus site was established during 2006/2007, as
part of the Ethiopian government's strategy for higher
development which was initiated in the Ethiopian policy
of 'Education and training' 2001. Investment in higher
education was a step towards the development of
socio-economic conditions and an essential prerequisite
for poverty reduction and important for the future of
Ethiopia (Federal ministry of Education, 2010). The
strategy has resulted in several universities being built
during the last decade distributed in different parts of
Ethiopia.

At Kombolcha Campus, most buildings are more or less
constructed. However, there are still some facilities and
constructions lacking and parts of the infrastructure as
well as the outdoor environment are yet to be planned,
built and established. Because of its location, Kombolcha
Campus confronts a high risk of flooding during heavy
rainfall in the summer. There is a gully running down
the hillside through the middle of the campus site which
creates a threat towards many buildings and has already
caused severe damage to some. In addition the campus
faces problems with erosion. The outdoor environment
and the vegetation at site is young and represents a
surface with a few green spots and many empty, large
scale, areas. It lacks seating areas and shade in order to
support the use of the outdoor environment.

The choice of subject for this Masters thesis was initiated
from a raised interest and a request from Wollo University
in order to conduct a Design program for the outdoor
environment. The main focus in this Masters thesis is to
highlight the landscape architectural perspectives and
to contribute with a planning tool, as well as applicable
design approaches. The aim is to provide additional
support and ideas for the development of the outdoor
environment at site. Focus has been laid upon how to
strengthen the study environment and make Kombolcha
Campus functioning and attractive. The emphasis
has been placed on students and their desire and
requirements in particular. The methods used hazve been
based on a pragmatic and an empirical perspective (Patel
and Davidson, 2003). Analysis tools employed have
mainly been mapping, observations, participation, talks
and interviews with a focus on the students in particular.
Within the program special focus has been laid on how
to deal with three main fields at site: Water, Vegetation
and Placemaking. Examples/Suggestions of solutions
are given through several approaches of how to deal
with: Water issues such as flooding and erosion; possible
ways to work with and establish Vegetation; as well as
identification of areas suitable for additional support for
Placemaking. Thereafter seven key areas are shown
as examples, including a range of different approaches
applied within each key area.


Taking the stance that business is social first, but with economic outcomes, The Silk Road presents two new models for international marketing which embraces every aspect of success. The first is SILK - Social Informations, Learning and Knowledge. The second - PASSION - builds on that to include corporate purpose and identity and the personal commitment, energies and enthusiasm which fire up the engine for great global performance. This radical new approach is supported by practical examples, modern marketing theory, and the authors' own international business experience. It tackles the very real problems companies face, and offers explanations and practical suggestions for addressing them. The Silk Road captures the essence of how international business really works. It gets to the heart of what drives seccess: People and passion. "Marketing is about relationships with global reach. You won't find a more discerning guide to forming and sustaining these complex webs." - George S. Day, The Geoffrey T. Boisi Professor and Professor of Marketing, The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia "Ambler and Styles have done an excellent job. Anyone attempting to conduct international business will recognise only too painfully the problems they identify - and will go on to be grateful for the solutions they describe."- Martin Sorrell, Chief Executive Officer, WPP Group Plc "In language at once formal, playful, and at times irreverent, Ambler and Styles place international marketing squarely within the emerging biological view of business success. Utterly refreshing!"- Arie de Geus, Author of The Living Company


For one-month S&P 500 index options, Constantinides, Jackwerth and Perrakis (2009) report widespread and substantial violations of stochastic dominance bounds. According to the subsequent study of Constantinides et al. (2011), the violations can be exploited to generate abnormal trading profits. The reported mispricing, which is far more extreme than known from the pricing kernel puzzle, calls into question that option markets meet the most basic requirements of rational pricing. However, we find that index options on the S&P 500, EuroStoxx 50 and DAX are priced almost perfectly in line with stochastic dominance bounds when adjusting for (a) the general level of option prices, (b) conditional volatility and (c) put-call parity in order to determine the appropriate (dividend-adjusted) underlying index level. Our results indicate that index option markets might be much more efficient than previous literature suggests.


We propose a probabilistic approach to the problem of global path planning with uncertainty for mobile robots in a dynamic manufacturing environment. To model the changing environment, we use a topological graph weighted by scalar cost functions. The cost functions consist of two elements: a deterministic cost for the known part of the robot's environment, and an uncertainty cost for the unknown part of the environment. Statistical models are built to quantify the unknown part of the environment, forming uncertainty costs for handling unexpected events. These uncertainty costs are dynamically updated by available sensor data when the mobile robot moves around. An optimal path (suboptimal in practice) is then found from the weighted topological graph using dynamic programming.


The grassroots movement propelling the DREAM Act and immigration reform forward reveals how the definition of citizenship is undergoing a dramatic transformation, in ways both inspiring and troubling. The DREAM movement depends upon the compelling but exceptional stories of passionate, high-achieving, law-abiding youth who already define themselves as being American, and worthy of legal status. Situating this narrative in the rich literature of citizenship, the article shows how the DREAM movement effectively exposes the disjuncture between the DREAMers' identity as Americans and their lack of legal immigration status. The article celebrates how this narrative succeeds as a contrast to the prevailing political discourse and how the movement, led by youth from all corners of the globe, radically upends America's history of deeming people of color unworthy of (and ineligible for) citizenship. The article also presents some unintended consequences of the movement, however, suggesting that the worthiness-based narrative strategy adopted by the DREAMers is both produced by and contributing to ever-narrowing standards for who is deemed worthy of inclusion. These narrowing standards may have negative consequences for the expansiveness of immigration reform more broadly, and even for citizenship beyond the field of immigration. This article explores how the worthiness narrative, which implicitly acknowledges a concept of unworthiness, inadvertently connects to attempts to restrict notions of citizenship, specifically by limiting the principle of jus soli citizenship, extending felon disenfranchisement and instituting voter identification laws.


Abstract Two natural clays (kaolinite and montmorillonite) were deposited onto a platinum electrode surface using two deposition techniques and under different experimental variables. For both clays, the percentages of surface coverage (%y) were optimized in the 75-96% range. A greater surface coverage was observed at higher temperatures for both clays, which confirms the endothermic nature of the deposition process. The maximum surface coverage (96%) was achieved for kaolinite. The surface coverage of kaolinite on a platinum electrode was constant for deposition times between 6 and 20 h. A surface coverage of 91% with montmorillonite particles was achieved. There was a very small increase in surface coverage by increasing the concentration of clay in the modified solution. The maximum surface coverage was observed under acidic conditions and smaller coverage values were reported for neutral and basic solutions. For both clays, a complete surface coverage for the electrode surface was achieved using the spin-coating technique. The experimental variables that affect the deposition of the clay, such as the stoichiometric ratio of clay/PVC and centrifugation speed and time, were studied and optimized to obtain full surface coverage. The spincoating method achieved the required durability and stability for the modified-electrode. The characterization showed that the metallic surface chemistry of the platinum electrode was totally suppressed. Both modified electrodes were found to be useful for determination of Ag(I) ion with a detection limit as small as 1.00×10-10 м. The analytical precision was also satisfactory (RSD <5.0%).


This article examines the basis for testing historical claims and proffers the observation that the historical method is akin to the scientific method in that it utilizes critical elimination rather than justification. Building on the critical rationalism of Karl Popper – and specifically the deductive component of the scientific method called falsification – I examine his tetradic schema and adapt it for the specific purpose of historical analysis by making explicit a discrete step of critical testing, even though the schema is adequate as Popper expresses it and the elimination of error occurs at all steps of analysis. I also add a discrete step of critical elimination to Popper's schema even though the elimination of error occurs at every step of analysis. The basis for critical elimination history is the demonstrable counterexample. The study of history will never approach the precision of science – history deals with open systems that cannot be replicated like experiments guided by fundamental laws. But just because we cannot know something with the rigor of science does not mean that we cannon know it better than we do. There may be no objective truth in an absolute sense, but there is a distinction to be made between well-tested and poorly tested theories and therefore between history done well and history done with less analytical rigor. What I hope to show is how our historical knowledge may progress through good faith critical discussion – history is discussion – and the elimination of error.


This work aims at identifying the public outlays that has been influenced by the growth of Portuguese trade openness since the end of World War II. For the Portuguese reality, it is one of the first attempts to discuss a large set of simultaneously tested control variables. For this purpose, the methodology started from a model that tries to the public expenditures to a system of simultaneous macroeconomic forces and, for testing, it followed the steps associated with cointegration analysis. Using the most convenient techniques, a restrictive set of four expenditures (subsidies, interest payments, other current expenditures, and total public expenditures as a proportion of GDP) was found among the wider set suggested by the Literature. The nature of these expenditures supports the claim that, for the Portuguese case, a particular validity of the compensation hypothesis has been observed. The achieved evidence promotes an important rule: in addition to there being a long-term relation between (some) public expenditures and trade openness, short-term relations may also appear.


A sender who has disclosable information with probability less than one may partially conceal bad news by choosing to withhold information and pooling with uninformed types. The success of this strategy depends on receivers' beliefs about the probability that the sender has disclosable news. In a dynamic context, informed senders try to cultivate a reputation for reticence either by concealing good news along with the bad, or by concealing some good news and disclosing some bad news. A reputation for reticence is valuable because it makes receivers less skeptical of past or future nondisclosures. The model provides insight into the choice by firms such as Google not to disclose quarterly earnings guidance to analysts, as well as Tony Blair's reticence over his son's vaccine record during the measlesmumpsrubella scare in the United Kingdom.


In the wake of the global food crisis of 2008, Middle Eastern oil producers have announced multi-billion investments to secure food supplies from abroad. Often called land grabs, such investments are at the heart of the global food security challenge and put the Middle East in the spotlight of simultaneous global crises in the fields of food, finance, and energy. Water scarcity here is most pronounced, import dependence growing, and the links between oil and food are manifold ranging from the economics of biofuels to climate change and the provision of crucial input factors like fuels and fertilizers. In the future the Middle East will not only play a prominent role in global oil, but also in global food markets, this time on the consumption side. In Oil for Food, Eckart Woertz analyzes the geopolitical implications behind the current investment drive of Arab Gulf countries in food insecure countries like Sudan or Pakistan. Having lived in Dubai for seven years, and drawing on extensive archival sources and interviews, he gives the inside story of how regional food security concerns have developed historically, how domestic agro-lobbies shape policy making, and how the failed attempt to develop Sudan as an Arab bread-basket in the 1970s carries important lessons for today. The book argues against the media hype that has been created around land grabs and analyzes why there has been such a gap between announced projects and their actual implementation. Instead, it calls for a revision of Gulf food security policies and suggests policy alternatives. It is essential reading for academics interested in the political economy of the Gulf region and for practitioners in governments, the media, and international organizations who deal with contemporary food security and energy issues.


Throughout the United States school districts are increasingly entering collaborative arrangements with outside providers to assist in the provision of products and services to meet the needs of the system. This approach mirrors those underway in other local public and private sectors of society that are pursuing collaborative arrangements as a means to supplement their work and aid in meeting their organizational needs. However, these structural arrangements lead to an alteration of the traditional hierarchical model of organizational management which typifies the 'template' within which these organizations have been structured. The entry of a provider from outside of the school system (referred to as a non-system actor within the present study) necessitates that leaders of these organizations not only lead the agency, staff and programs that they are directly responsible for but also these wider collaborative arrangements and the actors therein. Reference within the public administration literature to the leadership found in these organizational arrangements is frequently referred to as collaborative or network leadership. This thesis develops a set of findings using qualitative data gathered through individual semi-structured interviews with school district leaders in two U.S. public school districts. The primary aim of this enquiry was to investigate the nature of appropriate leadership and management practices as conceptualized by school district leaders operating within collaborative arrangements that engage non-system actors in the work of the district. The findings are structured into three main themes. The first theme addresses the rationale behind why district leaders decided to pursue collaborative arrangements. The study found that school district leaders pursue arrangements with non-system actors based upon the perception that the organization often needs to compensate for limitations of funding, personnel and expertise. The second theme provides an understanding of how these organizational arrangements may impact the work of the district leader. The findings establish insight into the fact that these forms of collaborative arrangements hold the potential to adversely impact district activity and the role that the district leader plays including contending with issues of control and accountability as well as the integration of the non-system actor into the organization. The third theme addresses how district leaders conceptualize the necessary and appropriate leadership and management practices in overseeing collaborative arrangements that include non-system actors. There were three broader sub-themes identified. First, preparation for entering an arrangement with a non-system actor included the need to establish legitimacy with existing staff, a clear and coherent rationale for the collaborative arrangement itself as well as the need to thoughtfully broker relationships between system and non-system actors. Second, leaders identified the need to establish the context of the organization as part of the arrangement which included articulating organizational values, goals and expectations including the clarification of routines and practices. The third and final sub-theme that emerged centered around the oversight of non-system actor activity which included developing systems of accountability, assessing and reviewing the goals for the arrangement and planning for sustainability. A secondary aim of the study was to analyze how relevant leadership theories and/or models can inform an understanding of the practices of leading and managing within collaborative organizational arrangements situated within public education. The literature review briefly explored elements of leadership models or theories which included Inter-Agency Collaborations across Organizational Boundaries, Public Network Management theory and Collaborative Leadership. Based upon the data collected through these case studies, the conceptualization of leading and managing non-system actors at the school district level shares a strong alignment with the elements, themes and aspects associated with these relevant leadership theories advanced in the public administration literature. The findings herein suggest that there is a "through-line" within these practices that relates to the dominant needs of the organization centering around not so much the physical management of the arrangement but rather the leadership of the people including both system and non-system actors. Consequently, it was found that the application of these relevant theories can serve as viable frameworks in order to further analyze the activity associated with these forms of leadership. The thesis contributes to the field of leadership within public sector settings including public education. Educational researches interested in examining school and district leadership can use the results of this study, along with leadership models and frameworks found in the public administration field, to further explore leading and managing non-system actors engaged in formal collaborations within both the public sector but more particularly within school districts.


This thesis demonstrates that participants in Political Blogging Communities increase their deliberative capacity over time, potentially enabling them to participate in democratic societies. The study unifies perspectives on the meaning of blogs in American politics. It presents a unique theoretical framework that incorporates community and social learning literatures. The Internet is thought to potentially enable a revitalization of democracy because of its political and communicative properties. While studies have looked to deliberation in online forums, this study specifically targets Political Blogging Communities. Blogs have been targeted by a diverse range of scholars and methods that raise questions of their role in emphasizing the constitutional ideal of deliberation. Daily Kos and Red State are among the most popular political discussion sites, but are generally under-investigated in the literature. The theoretical framework and results presented here suggest that they are places where democratic capacity increases. A pilot study provided encouraging results. Because Political Blogging Communities talk about public issues, have several aspects of a supportive community, and feature contributions from ordinary people, they foster an adherence to deliberative norms. The sampling frame sought dedicated participants in an effort to approach the question of social learning over time. To address these questions, the deliberative content of 373 diaries from 20 authors at Daily Kos and Red State was hand coded. This Thesis makes two principal contributions: (1) it introduces a new measure that assesses deliberative quality is introduced, and (2) finds that the diversity of deliberative content in political blogs increases over time.


A cellobiose dehydrogenase (CDH)-modified graphite electrode was designed for amperometric detection of catecholamines in the flow injection mode, by their recycling between the graphite electrode (+300 mV vs Ag|AgCl) and the reduced FAD cofactor of adsorbed CDH, resulting in an amplified response signal. The high efficiency of the enzyme-catecholamine reaction leads to a detection limit below 1 nM and a sensitivity of 15.8 A.M(-1) x cm(-2) (approximately 1150 nA/microM) for noradrenaline, with a coverage of less than 2.5 microg of CDH adsorbed on the electrode surface (0.073 cm(2)). Working parameters such as pH, cellobiose concentration, carrier buffer, and applied potential were optimized, using hydroquinone as a model analyte. The sensitivity, linear range, and amplification factor can be modulated by the steady-state concentration of cellobiose in the flow buffer. The response of the sensor decreases only 2% when run continuously for 4 h in the flow injection mode. The response peak maximum is obtained within 6 s at a flow rate of 0.5 mL/min, representing the time of the entire sample segment to pass the electrode. CDH enzymes from Phanerochaete chrysosporium and Sclerotium rolfsii were investigated, providing different characteristics of the sensor, with sensors made with CDH from P. chrysosporium being the better ones.


PRECURSORS AND NOT-SO-DISTANT COUSINS The genre designation "lounge" describes a complex network of music ranging from light instrumentais (easy listening) to experimental uses of instruments and cutting-edge technology (not-so-easy listening). The word "network" is used here instead of genre because lounge emerged from many different kinds of sources and embraces many different kinds of music, contemporary cultural influences, and technological innovations. Its roots may be found in the very beginnings of background or incidental music, in music that exhibits unusual uses of traditional western musical instruments as well as newly-invented electronic instruments, in avant-garde and futuristic music, in arrangements emerging from the era of light music on the radio (the 1920s and 1930s), and in instrumental versions or "covers" (i.e., recordings by other artists) of popular and classical songs. Lounge's musical influences and inspirations are a hodgepodge: Dixieland jazz; Latin dance; the croon; experimental music, and the gimmick song. Most lounge music is composed and performed to create a particular mood or to transport the listener to another placeoften a jungle, an island paradise, or outer space. There are numerous excellent monographs and discographies that focus on this large network of music. Joseph Lanza's Elevator Music: A Surreal History of Muzak, Easy-Listening, and Other Moodsong, now available in a second revised and expanded edition (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2004) provides a detailed history and discography focusing on easy-listening recordings. Other sources for discographies and reviews include back issues of Cool and Strange Music! Magazine, The Space Age Pop Music Page (available on the Internet at http://spaceagepop .com), and Weirdomusic.com (http://weirdomusic.com/index.html). The focus of this discographical essay is on lounge music that tends to impel listeners to pay attention to their stereos or radios, music that offers both listener and stereo a workout, as opposed to the notion of "easy listening." The discussion in the essay section will consider sound quality, variety (particularly of compilations), and accessibility of reissued recordings for the purpose of starting a library collection; these are also the inclusion criteria for the discography itself. Turning now to the milieu of lounge music, please adjust your VU meters, sit back, and read further. "NOVELTY" A typewriter dings after being cued by an orchestra; a waltz meows; a clock tick-tocks to a tune in common meter. From the late 1930s into the 1950s compositions by Leroy Anderson (1908-1975) were popular favorites among radio audiences as well as concertgoers (the Harvardeducated composer was an arranger for the Boston "Pops" Orchestra under Arthur Fiedler and later became a composer of Broadway musicals). Such descriptive or "novelty" songs predate the "gimmick" songs that gained popularity in the early 1960s. They demand the attention of listeners-causing them to sit and listen. With a sense of humor, Anderson transformed everyday sounds into music. The Leroy Anderson Collection (MCA Classics MCAD2-9815A and MCAD2-9815B [1988]) is a two-compact disc set that includes Anderson's best known works: "Blue Tango," "The Typewriter," "The Waltzing Cat," "The Syncopated Clock," "Sleigh Ride," and his theme song "Forgotten Dreams." The largest compilation of Anderson's songs available, this CD set includes selections (some monaural) from Anderson's Broadway musical Goldilocks (1958) as well as less well-known songs such as "Sandpaper Ballet," "Jazz Pizzicato," and "Clarinet Candy." A more accessible compilation of Anderson's popular songs is on the CD "The Typewriter": Leroy Anderson Favorites (RCA Victor 09026-68048-2 [1995]). The recording features performances by the St. Louis Orchestra under Leonard Slatkin. Raymond Scott (1909-1994), Anderson's contemporary, was a bandleader, composer, pianist, recording and electronic music engineer, and producer. …


Cyber attacks pose a major threat to modern organizations. The effectiveness of cyber defense can likely be enhanced if programs are implemented that allow organizations that face similar cyber threats to share information and resources. To begin to understand the potential for cooperation to improve cyber security, we modeled a simple cooperative structure that allows resource sharing between two organizations whose defense teams do a significant amount of redundant work. This model is a first step toward understanding the social and operational issues involved in implementing a program of cooperative cyber defense between organizations.


In times of genetically modified food, globalized production and distribution chains, food safety is a major issue in public policy. Although industrial actors have traditionally had remarkable influence on political decision-making in this area, challenger organizations from civil society have gained influence by mobilizing support and shaping public discourse on the Internet. The authors' study analyzes online issue networks concerning food safety in order to assess the actor constellations and coalitions that may serve as an opportunity structure for the mobilization of the issue. By comparing the US, the UK, Germany, and Switzerland, the authors investigate the differences in policy settings between pluralist and corporatist democracies. They find that the mobilization structures related to food safety issues are actively promoted by the challengers themselves. In countries where challengers do not find support within national politics, the challengers' online communication refers to mass media as witnesses to legitimize their concern in public debates.


Aim Analyses of the Rapoport effect (species at high latitudes have broader latitudinal ranges) usually indicate only a weak effect in the tropics. However, studies of tropical taxa are rare. This study used a global analysis of a tropical order, primates, to ask two questions. Is there a Rapoport effect in this tropical, terrestrial mammal, globally or per continent? If so, can the effect be explained by greater adaptability of higher latitude taxa. Methods Geographical data for the majority of primates species are available. Genera, rather than the species, were the main data used because the genus is a more stable taxonomic level for this order. Regressions and Spearman correlations were used to test for the effect. Generic ranges are the sum of the constituent species' ranges. In addition, phylogenetic effects were controlled for to minimize dependence of data. Results The Rapoport effect is apparent globally when Madagascar and outlier taxa are excluded. It is also present separately in Africa, Asia and Madagascar when outlier genera are excluded, but not in South America. The effect persists globally, and in Africa and Asia when phylogeny is controlled for. Climatic variation (temperature or precipitation) correlates with either mid-latitude or extent of latitude of genera in Africa, Asia and the Americas (insufficient data for Madagascar), but controlling for phylogeny confirms only the African and Asian correlations. The four measures of adaptability of taxa (number of dietary types, number of habitat types, body mass and number of species per genus) correlated variously with latitudinal extent of the taxa, but the correlations did not always match the existence of a Rapoport effect in the respective continents. Main conclusions The intercontinental variation apparent in the Rapoport effect in the tropics should be fruitful material for further study of the causes of the Rapoport effect. The discovery of significant associations of measures of adaptability with latitudinal extent in both the presence and the absence of a Rapoport effect indicates that care is needed in using such associations to explain the Rapoport effect.


This chapter uses data from the extended Brown family of corpora (see Hundt and Leech, forthcoming), i.e. material from the 1930s, 1960s and 1990s, to study ongoing linguistic change in British and American English (BrE and AmE) in the twentieth century. Since the prequel to the Brown corpus (B-Brown) is still being compiled, this study focuses exclusively on material from the academic writing and general fiction sections of the corpora, which represent registers that have previously been shown to display substantial linguistic differences (see e.g. Leech et al. 2009). The present case study looks at quantitative as well as qualitative changes in the use of the progressive. By extending the time frame into the past, we are able to shed light on the fine-grained differential developments in the two varieties: For instance, BrE and AmE converge in their use of the progressive in the second half of the twentieth century in terms of overall frequency. At the same time, qualitative analyses taking into account text type, tense, aspect and voice, paint a more varied picture of change in the two varieties. It turns out that BrE and AmE sometimes develop in tandem and at other times show divergent trends, and that changes in BrE are not necessarily due to an American influence.


The weevil Bangastemus orientalis Capiomont was selected as a candidate for the biological control of Centaurea solstitialis L. (yellow starthistle) in the United States. Its potential host range was studied during 1982, 1983, and 1984 in Rome, Italy, using populations collected from C. solstitialis in Thermi near Thessaloniki and Kozani in northern Greece. Adults laid eggs only on members of the genus Centaurea and the thistle Onopordum acanthium; eggs laid on 0. acanthiwl1 hatched but 1st instars died before entering buds. There was no significant difference in the number of eggs laid on various U.S. and Italian strains of C. solstitialis included in the tests. Eggs were not deposited on plant species of economic importance such as Cynara scolymus, Heliantlws an11U1l8, Carthamus tinctorills, and Lactuca sativa. Larvae completed their larval development only on C. solstitialis from Greece and on U. S. and Italian populations of C. solstitialis among the 60 plant species, varieties, and strains (in 7 families) tested. This restricted host range suggested introduction of this weevil as a biological control agent against yellow starthistle in the United States. Releases of B. oricntalis were made in California, Washington, Idaho, and Oregon in 198.5 and it became established in all states in 1989.


Arctic environments are subject to acute nitrogen deposition events, in which 40% or more of annual atmospheric N input can be deposited as acidic rainfall in less than one week. The overall aim of this research was to investigate the impact of acute N deposition events upon soil microbial communities in High Arctic tundra. A plot scale field experiment, established on the High Arctic tundra (Ny-Alesund, Svalbard), and a microcosm experiment, were used to simulate acute N deposition over the summer by the application of NH4NO3 solution at ~pH 4, at rates of 0.4, 4 and 12 kg N ha-1 yr-1. Changes in soil characteristics were measured on soil samples from the organic and mineral horizons. Variation in the structure and abundance of bacterial, archaeal, and fungal communities and in the presence and abundance of N-cycling functional guilds were investigated using molecular (DNA)-based approaches such as Terminal Restriction Fragment Polymorphism (T-RFLP) and quantitative-PCR.
T-RFLP analysis revealed significant (P < 0.001) differences in the structure of bacterial and archaeal communities between the organic and mineral horizons within field plots, whilst the fungal community structure showed high variability between soil horizons. Both bacterial and fungal abundance were higher within the mineral horizon in 2009 at the end of the summer, but similar between soil horizons in 2010 earlier in the summer. In contrast, archaeal abundance was always higher in the mineral than in the organic horizon, despite sharp decreases in C, N and water content from organic to mineral horizons. Significant changes (P < 0.05) in both bacterial and fungal community structure in the 12 kg N ha-1 yr-1 plots were found in the mineral horizon only after one and seven days post treatment, respectively, with no subsequent changes thereafter. Bacterial community structure within the mineral horizon also varied with lower N addition rate (4 kg N ha-1 yr-1) one day post N application. The microcosm experiment showed that addition of water had a stronger effect on bacterial and archaeal community structure and bacterial abundance within both soil horizons than N addition. Overall, this study showed that microbial community in High Arctic tundra can be rapidly affected by acute N deposition event.


Spatially resolved near-field luminescence spectroscopy was carried out on locally grown InP ridges, overgrown by a GaInAsP layer in metal organic molecular beam epitaxy. For free access to the quaternary layer the cleaved surface was investigated. Two different reflection scanning near-field microscopy setups were used. In the illumination mode we were able to estimate the charge-carrier diffusion in the InP. For improving the spatial resolution, measurements were also carried out in the collection mode. Here a shift of the center wavelength toward lower energy occurs near the side facets. This can be a result of a material composition gradient or of strained growth near the side facets. A second recombination channel at 1115 nm occurs at the growth-nongrowth transition. With the simultaneous recorded topography this recombination channel can be localized in the quaternary layer grown on the side of the InP ridge.


OBJECTIVE
To study the relation between indicators of infection and Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium infection, and serum concentrations of zinc, ferritin and retinol.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional.

SETTING AND SUBJECTS
313 rural Zimbabwean schoolchildren (144 boys and 169 girls, 11-17 years).

VARIABLES
S. mansoni and S. haematobium egg output, concentration of C-reactive protein, neutrophil count, questionnaire data on fever and diarrhoea, and serum concentrations of retinol, ferritin and zinc.

RESULTS
Age, elevated CRP, fever and S. mansoni egg output were significant predictors of the concentration of retinol. The regression coefficient for age was positive, and negative for elevated CRP, fever and S. mansoni egg output. As S. mansoni, but not S. haematobium, was of significance, it is unlikely that low retinol level increased susceptibility to infection. The effect of S. mansoni on retinol level was 0.03 mumol/l (95% CI: 0.002-0.06, P = 0.03) for each 100 eggs/g increase in egg output. Neither indicators of infection nor age and sex were predictors of concentration of zinc and log10 concentration of ferritin.

CONCLUSION
S. mansoni infection reduced retinol level, when indicators of infection and age were controlled for. High intensities of S. mansoni infection may induce vitamin A deficiency among children with marginal vitamin A status. The study emphasizes the importance of controlling for age and metabolic response to concurrent infections in studies using serum retinol as a measure of vitamin A status.


Preparing teachers to teach students from diverse background is an issue of concern to educators and researchers who are committed to multicultural education. Drawing on my professional experiences of teaching the course ""Foundations of multicultural literacy education "" interviews with students, researcher s journal, and the research literature on multicultural education, this paper examines the ethical and methodological challenges 1 encountered in researching and teaching about issues of diversity. 1 explore the questions: Is it ethical for teacher educators to engage in-service and pre-service teachers in discussing issues of diversity that they feel uncomfortable with? What 'borders' are teacher educators crossing and re-crossing as they prepare teachers for teaching diverse students? In what ways the professional, personal and community experiences of teachers inform their responses to issues of diversity? How do these intersect with teacher educator as researcher's commitment to multicultural education? The findings of the study suggest that, whether and how teachers would embrace multicultural education as part of their professional practices depends largely on their perspectives regarding specific issues of diversity.


The ILO technical consultation "Employment of People with Disabilities: A Human Rights Approach" was held from 18 to 20 January 2006 in Bangkok, Thailand, as part of an ILO project "Promoting the Employability and Employment of People with Disabilities through Effective Legislation." This project, funded by the Government of Ireland through Irish Aid, is being implemented by the ILO in four countries of Asia China, Mongolia, Viet Nam and Thailand; and several countries of Africa -Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. The project aims at enhancing the capacity of national governments in these countries to implement effective legislation concerning the employment and training of people with disabilities. The technical consultation brought together representatives of governments, employers, workers and disabled persons from the four participating countries, as well as observers from Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Thailand. The meeting, which marked the start of phase two of the project, examined the training and employment of persons with disabilities from a human rights perspective, drawing on ILO Conventions and other international human rights instruments, as well as exemplary legislation at national level. Key elements of a rights-based approach are contained in ILO Conventions concerning employment in general and persons with disabilities in particular. Of particular relevance are the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111) and the Vocational Rehabilitation and Employment (Disabled Persons) Convention, 1983 (No. 159) that are based on the principles of equal opportunity, equal treatment and non-discrimination. Through a combination of formal presentations and working group sessions, participants had the opportunity to learn from other members of their own delegations, as well as those from other countries, and to become familiar with the main elements of rights-based disability laws and policies. The consultation was a contribution to the objectives and activities of the Asian and Pacific Decade of Disabled Persons from 2003 to 2012 and the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action towards an Inclusive, Barrier-free and Rights-based Society for Persons with Disabilities in Asia and the Pacific. In relation to legislation, the Biwako Millennium Framework for Action calls upon member States of Asia and the Pacific region to review and amend all legislation that impacts negatively on the lives of people with disabilities, to pass and promulgate enabling disability-related legislation aiming to promote equal opportunity, and to amend bills of rights to include a non-discriminatory clause on the basis of disability. The Plan of Action also calls on member States to protect and promote the human rights of people with disabilities. Following the consultation, project support will be provided to participant countries, in the form of nationallevel technical guidance upon request, a training programme on disability-related laws and policies, and support to a media campaign to challenge negative images of disabled persons at work.


This paper addresses stability problem for a class of networked control systems (NCSs) with network attacks. As a network attack to control systems, denial-of-service attacks are fully taken into account in the NCSs modelling. Under the scenario that there exist denial-of-service attacks in the communication channel, a closed-loop system with an error function is provided for the studied NCSs, where the denial-of-service attacks are well considered. Then based on the above constructed system model, one sufficient condition is derived for ensuring the uniformly ultimately boundedness of the derived system under consideration, and the upper bound of the maximum allowable number of denial-of-service attack is obtained. Moreover, the celebrated time-delay system technology method is introduced to improve the result of the upper bound of the maximum allowable number of denial-of-service attack. Finally, one numerical example is given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method.


We propose a novel Riemannian manifold preconditioning approach for the tensor completion problem with rank constraint. A novel Riemannian metric or inner product is proposed that exploits the least-squares structure of the cost function and takes into account the structured symmetry that exists in Tucker decomposition. The specific metric allows to use the versatile framework of Riemannian optimization on quotient manifolds to develop preconditioned nonlinear conjugate gradient and stochastic gradient descent algorithms for batch and online setups, respectively. Concrete matrix representations of various optimization-related ingredients are listed. Numerical comparisons suggest that our proposed algorithms robustly outperform state-of-the-art algorithms across different synthetic and real-world datasets.


In The Witch's Boy (2005), by Michael Gruber, fairy-tale intertexts are skillfully hidden, foreshadowed, and successively revealed in the text; they are fractured, deconstructed, and reassembled in a both fascinating and disturbing manner. While intertextuality is frequently regarded as enhancing the artistic qualities of a literary text, it is at the same time a means of manipulating readers toward specific interpretations. Some intertexts of The Witch's Boy are explicit, some hinted at, yet others demand deeper acquaintance with intertexts. With the help of various intertextual and reader-response theories, the essay explores how the novel invites readers to participate in a game of (mis)recognition and (mis)interpretation.


Damage assessment techniques have been applied to particulate-filled woven roving glass fibre reinforced epoxy laminates. Impact energies up to 43J were applied to approximately 8mm thick laminates, using a drop weight apparatus. An optimal testing arrangement was used to investigate the effect of particulate filler characteristics, e.g. particle strength, size, shape and surface treatment, on the compressive strength of undamaged and impact-damaged laminates.
The damage to impacted laminates filled with particulate fillers was examined using optical and scanning electron microscopy and quantified by measuring the maximum damage zone size. Their damage tolerance was determined by compressive strength retention. All the particulate fillers caused a deterioration in the damage tolerance. Mineral fillers increased the size of the damage zone, and the compressive strength of unimpacted laminates was increased by incorporating hard, high modulus filler. The compressive failure modes before and after impact were distinctly different. Glass beads gave the highest damage resistance and compressive strength retention, but hollow glass microspheres and mica caused the most severe damage and a significant reduction in the retention of compressive strength after impact, while alumina trihydrate, calcium carbonate and quartz showed moderate damage tolerance.
The size of the glass beads had a more significant effect on the damage resistance and post-impact compressive strength than the surface treatments. Although the laminates filled with two-dimensional glass flakes showed a lower impact damage resistance than those containing glass beads, they showed a higher compressive strength retention caused by better interlaminar shear strength.
Adding rubber modifiers and combining Kevlar fabrics with glass fibre did not improve the damage tolerance of ATH-filled laminates. The use of a hot cure (piperidine) system improved the quality of the filled laminates probably by lowering the void content and/or improving fibre/matrix adhesion, and therefore improved the low energy impact resistance of laminates, but this advantage disappeared at higher impact energies.
Based on a theoretical analysis of the impact damage mechanism, the fundamental matrix properties affecting the damage tolerance of laminates were identified, and verified by experimental data. There was a linear relationship between the strength of the matrix and the compressive strength retention of impact damaged laminates. The pre-impact interlaminar shear strength of laminates also correlated well with the compressive strength retention of laminates after impact. But there was no positive correlation between the modulus of the matrix and the impact damage tolerance' of laminates.


While there has been significant growth in the number of Migrant Resource Centres (MRCs) in recent years, there has been no attempt to date to examine the impact of these centres on migration management goals. This study aims to help bridge the gap by providing an overview of good practices employed by MRCs to help migrants move to their destinations in a legal, voluntary, orderly and protected manner. This assessment covers the work of 17 MRCs in Albania, Australia, Colombia, Croatia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Mali, the Philippines, Portugal, Slovakia, Sri Lanka and Tajikistan. It focuses on the role of MRCs in empowering migrants for development and self-protection. The assessment also covers MRCs' strategies for ensuring their smooth operation and long-term sustainability.


The location of the Aral Sea in an endorheic basin makes the system highly responsive to both human activities and climatic variability that alter inflows. The lake level is tightly linked to the runoff from its main inflowing rivers, the Amu Darya and the Syr Darya. The rich archaeological record of the region gives evidence of both climate and human-induced regressions of the Aral Sea due to irrigation already BC. In the early Holocene, the Oxus river (Amu Darya) repeatedly changed its course towards the Caspian Sea, due to tectonic motions and human impact (Uzboj Channel), leading to major regressions of the Aral Sea. The most recent regression of the Aral Sea since the sixties shows impressively how human activities may accelerate natural processes. Since the seventies a massive decline of zooplankton and zoobenthos diversity was recorded. Here we present results from field campaigns in summer 2002 and spring 2004, and look at the consequences the desiccation has on the ecosystem. We use the salt composition and mass ratios, benthic cycling, nutrients, oxygen, and uranium isotopes as indicators of the geochemical changes in the ecosystem. Nowadays, the Aral Sea has split up into three almost independent ecosystems representing the different stages of its desiccation process: the Small Aral is a shallow brackish inland water body; the Large Aral consists of the almost disconnected western and the eastern basins. The deep trench of the western basin with a salinity range of 80 to 110 g kg-1 becomes periodically anoxic, depending on the inflow of high saline water from the eastern basin, further reducing biodiversity.The increase in salinity from 10 g kg-1 to 80-90 g kg-1 in the Large Aral reflects the shrinkage in water volume. Clearly, the decrease in the water level causes dramatic changes in the water chemistry and the redox milieu of the lake, followed by gradual overturn of the whole ecosystem. Since 2000, Artemia sp. constitutes 99% of the zooplankton biomass in the western basin. Since 2002, only two fish species (Atherina sp. And flounder) were recorded in the western basin. The eastern shallow lagoon-like basin has salinities as high as 150 g kg-1 and is devoid of fish.


In designing educational tests, instructors often have access to a question bank that contains a large number of questions that test knowledge on the concepts underlying a given course. In this setup, a natural way to design tests is to simply ask learners to respond to the entire set of available questions. This approach, however, is clearly not practical since it involves a significant time commitment from both the learner (in taking the test) and the instructor (in grading the test if it cannot be automatically graded). Hence, in this paper, we consider the problem of designing efficient and accurate tests so as to minimize the workload of both the learners and the instructors by substantially reducing the number of questions, or—more colloquially—the test size, while still being able to retrieve accurate concept knowledge estimates. We refer to this test design problem as TeSR, short for Test-size Reduction. We propose two novel algorithms, a non-adaptive and an adaptive variant, for TeSR using an extended version of the SParse Factor Analysis (SPARFA) framework for modeling learner responses to questions. Our new TeSR algorithms finds fast approximate solutions to a combinatorial optimization problem that involves minimizing the uncertainly in assessing a learner's understanding of concepts. We demonstrate the efficacy of these algorithms using synthetic and real educational data, and we show significant performance improvements over state-of-the-art methods that build upon the popular Rasch model.


Human work and life support are areas that provide practical applications for robotics and mechatronics technology. There is great expectation from the industry in these fields, and research and development efforts have been actively undertaken with great social impact. To support human work and life accurately, we must understand the complicated sensory, nervous, and motor control systems that enable design and development of appropriate assistive devices.
 Therefore, in this mini special issue, we focus on robotics and mechatronics for human sensing, modeling, and augmentation.
 The editor hopes that this special issue will attract researchers' interest and contribute to further developments in this field.


Africa is experiencing a rapid urbanisation and the major cities of the continent are currently the fastest growing cities in the world. This phenomenon is especially visible in Kampala, Uganda; which is one of the fastest growing cities in Africa. The rapid development, with people moving from rural to the urban areas, poses new challenges and opportunities for the construction sector which has become the second largest employer in Uganda. However, the construction sector is still young and developing. To contribute to the development of the sector, this thesis set out to be a study of construction project management practices in the country. Field studies were conducted in Kampala to explore the current practices of project managers active in the construction industry. The findings from the field studies where later analysed and compared with secondary data collected on Western construction management practices.Project management is a well standardised practice that has established itself as a vital component of construction projects in the Western part of the world. The theories and practices mostly originate from USA and the U.K and rely on stable settings of social environment, politics and economy. Standards are accepted and followed by the majority of practitioners in the Western part of the world. However, if these theories are valid and applicable in Africa has been questioned. Therefore, the research aimed towards finding how Western theories and practices of construction management have been adapted by the Ugandan industry. Furthermore, study whether the practices of Ugandan managers could be improved with implementation of Western construction management methods.The study found that the profession of project management in the Ugandan construction industry are relatively new but is getting more and more established and appreciated. The mentality within the construction sector is, to a wide extent, orientated towards short term benefits. Clients' interests in maximising short term profits often result in quality issues. This correlates with the troublesome past of Uganda and the scattered poverty; people are trying in any way to make as much money as possible. The issue involves a large scale of corruption in the construction industry, where even governmental officials are involved. The construction sector has problems regarding lacking competence of actors. Combined, these issues are affecting the quality outcomes of projects and make them difficult to manage. Western construction management theories and practices are adapted by Ugandan managers, however, to a minimal extent in terms of complexity to fit, what is believed to be, the development level of the industry. Actors are micromanaged with a task-oriented mentality and separated though hierarchic boundaries. Projects are divided between several actors usually completing their part individually which lead to inconsistencies and managerial problems.We believe there is urgent need of education within professions in the industry in order to raise the overall competence. Regulations and standardisations regarding construction and employment policies need to be implemented starting from government level. Actors need to co-operate, learn from each other and grow together.


Single trait selection is often utilized to maximize genetic gain in recurrent selection systems. However, traits negatively correlated to the primary trait can deteriorate with single trait selection. Multiple trait selection can be used to prevent or correct correlated trait deficiencies. Our objective was to compare the effectiveness of several multiple trait selection schemes with selection for grain yield alone. Five multiple-trait selection schemes were evaluated for their effect on total genotypic worth and individual trait responses in an "opened" oat (Avena sativa L.) recurrent selection population. Grain yield, days-to-heading, plant height, and reaction to barley yellow dwarf virus (BYD) were studied in several environments. The phenotypic correlations with yield were 0.44 and 0.60 for heading date and plant height, respectively. There was no association between yield and BYD. A restricted index, a Smith index, a modified base index, a multiplicative index, and independent culling were evaluated and compared with selection for yield alone. The restricted and Smith selection indices, when compared with selection for yield alone, selected genotypes with improved heading date, plant height, and BYD with only negligible decreases in yield. Greater correction for heading date and plant height was achieved with the modified base index, the multiplicative index and independent culling, but yield decreased accordingly. Realized gains in total worth for the restricted index were 15% above, and the Smith index 14% above, the gain realized by selection for yield alone. Restricted and Smith index selection were effective at preventing secondary traits from deteriorating through selection for grain yield.


The goals of this paper are: to determine the stages of calculation of the quality of life index, to identify the quality of life index estimation branches, to distinguish the main indicators depicting the quality of each working area, to introduce the corresponding mathematical models of each area, and present the method of calculation of the integral quality of life index. Plenty of models are used to measure the quality of population's life index, but as a rule they estimate influence of economical variables. The author of this paper tries to include many more indicators covering all the important dimensions. The originality of the paper includes determination of major dimensions, which define the quality of life index, two proposed mathematical models of calculation of the integral quality of the life index and the specific indicators suitable for every situation, the estimation of ways to measure weigh constituent coefficients, choosing the unit of measurement for any indicator and the discussion of different ways to obtain the necessary information. The models referred above are modern ones and have not been used before. This research is a theoretical one. The author is going to take practical steps to employ this methodology in the research under the project "Creation of system of measurement indicators and evolution model of the quality of life of Lithuanian population".


This paper reports a prosodic difference between elliptic and non-elliptic coordinations in German. Findings of a speech production experiment indicate that ellipsis has an effect on prosodic phrasing and that speakers avoid phrase boundaries between an elliptic gap and its filler. The data is incompatible with accounts stating that phonetically empty material resurfaces in the form of increased segment duration and greater pitch excursion at the gap. The results are evaluated against the Sense Unit Condition on intonational phrasing.


In this article, the author proposes that the prosecution's obligation to disclose exculpatory information to the defense be formalized by statute, court rule, or internal protocol in ways that would reflect the current state of our knowledge of and experience with both Brady and wrongful convictions. This would improve on the current ineffective constitutional protection — and any existing statutory or rule-based regimes — in several ways. First, such a formalized regime would require disclosure of all materials that are reasonably helpful to the defense. Second, unlike the constitutional doctrine, which provides no reliable mechanism for monitoring police disclosure to the prosecution, an accompanying schedule (or "checklist") would require specific categories of exculpatory information that the prosecution would have to secure from the police or other investigative agency and then disclose to the defense. Third, the prosecution would be required to certify that it has used due diligence to collect and disclose all of the required information. Fourth, unlike the constitutional Brady rule, which requires the defendant to show materiality whenever suppressed evidence is discovered post-conviction, if suppression of evidence required on the checklist is discovered post-conviction, the burden of proof would shift and the prosecution would be required to prove that the suppression was harmless beyond a reasonable doubt. As to any other information, the defendant would continue to bear the burden of showing materiality. Finally, there would be a public interest declination exception and a process for the prosecution to apply for a protective order where necessary to protect a witness or another investigation.


Fibroblasts were incubated in the presence of the anti-microtubular drugs colchicine, vinblastine and vincristine. In concentrations between 10nm and 1 mM these drugs stimulated the secretion of beta-N-acetylglucosaminidase, alpha-N-acetylglucosaminidase and beta-glucuronidase, but not of beta-galactosidase. The endocytosis of beta-N-acetylhexosaminidase and alpha-N-acetylglucosaminidase, but not of beta-glucuronidase, was inhibited at drug concentrations higher than 0.1 micrometer. Formation, secretion and association with the cell membrane of sulphated proteoglycans were not affected by anti-microtubular drugs. Endocytosis of sulphated proteoglycans and their subsequent degradation was inhibited by drug concentrations above 0.1 micrometer. The inhibition of intracellular glycosaminoglycan degradation led to a moderate storage of these compounds. These results suggest that microtubules participate in the control of secretion and endocytosis of lysosomal enzymes, and in the endocytosis and degradation of lysosomal substrates such as sulphated proteoglycans.


Electrical grids have been developed over a century, which are considered as one of the most important infrastructures on the earth. In the past decade, the emergence of the Smart Grid, referred to the next generation of power grid, makes existing systems more complicated and vulnerable. Cyber-physical attacks against existing systems and future smart grids have drawn increasing attention, because such attacks could trigger large-scale cascading failures and result in major blackouts. In the traditional power society, contingencies are widely considered as the causes that result in power outages. The contingency analysis is the predominant method to investigate the vulnerability of power grids. With the increasing malicious attacks against power transmission systems, however, studying the grid's security and reliability only from the contingency analysis perspective has apparent limitations. First, contingencies happen randomly and unintentionally; malicious attacks are mostly intentional. Second, it is rare that multiple contingencies happen simultaneously. Malicious attacks, however, can likely occur on a few, even more, the power grid components. In this dissertation, the security and reliability of power grids is investigated. Briefly speaking, the attackers identify a few components in the grid as targets (e.g., substations, transmission lines, or both). Then, the attackers take down these targets by either physical sabotages or cyber intrusions, hoping that the initial failures can trigger large-scale cascading failures. The goal of the attackers is to find a group of targets, attacking on which can yield large damage to the power grid. In particular, this dissertation investigate the attacks against the power system from the following aspects. ˆ It is a nature question that why attacking a few, even one, critical components can severely weaken the system. In manuscript 1 (i.e., chapter 2), the cascading process is visualized to help people under such complicated phenomena, as well as discovering different types of failure propagation. ˆ Attackers might only know the topological connection of the power grid, e.g., the topology. In manuscript 2 (i.e., chapter 3), a topology-based cascading model is adopted to study cascading failures. The metric load distribution vector (LDV) and LDV-based attack strategy are proposed and investigated. ˆ Attackers can possibly know some general information of the power grid, e.g., the topology, types of substations and length of transmission lines. In manuscript 3 (i.e., chapter 4), the extended topological model is used to mimic cascading failures. A novel metric, called the risk graph, is proposed to reveal the hidden relationship among critical substations/transmission lines. In addition, the risk-graph based attack strategies are developed regarding substations and transmission lines, respectively. ˆ Attacks can occur on substations and transmission lines simultaneously. In manuscript 4 (i.e., chapter 5), both the vulnerability analysis and the attacks are investigated from the joint substation-transmission line perspective. ˆ Attacks can be conducted not only synchronously but sequentially. In manuscript 5 (i.e., chapter 6), the sequential attack is introduced; the metric sequential attack graph (SAG) is constructed; the SAG-based sequential attack strategy is developed and evaluated.


The use of energy is approximately 140 000 TWh per year globally. It is then interesting to note that biomass production is approximately 270 000 TWh/year, or roughly twice as much. This shows that biomass is not a marginal energy resource but more than enough to cover all our needs for both energy and food, if just the biomass is used efficiently. There has been a lot of discussion about using food for energy. This is quite relevant, and if we look at all resources like agricultural and forestry waste, the need to use food for energy is not needed. We can cover all our needs anyhow. The resources we have available and some other aspects like using the energy efficiently is covered in this book. One way of using energy efficiently is to use waste biomass or cellulosic materials in bio refineries, where production of fibers and products from fibers is combined with production of most chemicals we need in our daily life. This includes clothes, soap, perfume, medicines etc. Conventional pulp and paper applications are also covered. But it also includes bio-fuel for vehicles and even fuel for aviation is covered. It also includes production of heat, cool and electricity. That is, biomass can cover all our needs. The difficulty is to use the resources efficiently without harming the productivity long term. This book has the aim to give facts and inspiration to professionals like engineers and researchers, students as well as those working for different type of authorities or societal organizations.


This paper considers an emerging group of coastal management approaches that offer the potential to reduce coastal flood and erosion risks while also providing nature conservation, aesthetic and amenity benefits. These solutions mimic the characteristics of natural features, but are enhanced or created by man to provide specific services such as wave energy dissipation and erosion reduction. Such approaches can include beaches, dunes, saltmarshes, mangroves, sea grasses, coral and oyster reefs. The paper describes a number of innovative projects and the lessons learned in their development and implementation. These lessons include the planning, design and construction of projects, their development following implementation, the engagement of local communities and the cost-effectiveness of solutions.


Within the past few years, the field of Electron Spin Resonance has become an important tool in physical, chemical and biological research. However, in many cases its usefulness is limited by the sensitivity of the experimental setup. A typical example is the study of very limited sample quantities such as tissues, cellular structures, single cells, and also thin films in microelectronic technologies. For such volume limited samples, the typical dimensions and/or spatial variations of the properties of interest range between 1 µm and 1 mm. Present X-band ESR spectrometers are optimized for samples having a volume between (1 mm)3 and (1 cm)3, and achieve a spin sensitivity of about 1010 spins/G√Hz at room temperature. Setting up new high sensitivity ESR spectrometers would overcome this limitation and open the way to numerous new applications. The goal of the present work is to study and develop innovative devices in combination with modern continuous ESR detection method to achieve a spin sensitivity of 109 spins/G√Hz or better at room temperature, specifically conceived for samples having dimensions and/or spatial variations in the range between 1 µm and 1 mm. We mainly focus our investigation efforts on the design of ESR-setups based on miniaturized sensitive devices. Miniaturization concerns size reduction of the sensitive volume where the sample will be placed, i.e., the region in which the microwave magnetic field is generated. In this work two approaches will be investigated. Inductive transverse magnetization detection by means of planar structures based on coplanar waveguide (CPW) resonator design. Single turn coils and straight trace constrictions with different dimensions are designed as sensitive regions to accommodate the appropriate sample size. These constrictions are built with open-ended half-wavelength and shorted (or shunted) quarter-wavelength lines related to the working resonance frequency. Appropriate microfabrication technologies are also developed based on two substrate candidates, SU-8 and RO4003C, with Aluminum and Copper metals, respectively. Performance of the RO4003C based-resonators proves to be better than that for the SU-8 based ones in terms of the conversion factor describing the efficiency of conversion of microwave power to magnetic field strength. The analysis we have performed shows that the dielectric losses induced in the RO4003C substrate are much lower than those induced in SU-8 one. This improves the Q-factor by almost a factor 10. Since the conversion factor varies as Q1/2, this, in turn, enhances the power conversion efficiency by almost a factor 3. Detection efficiency is also improved by almost the same factor. As a result, a spin sensitivity of about 109 spins/G√Hz is achieved at room temperature for sensitive volumes of about (100 µm)3. This result is one order of magnitude better than that of existing X-band spectrometers. Longitudinal magnetization detection using a Hall-based probe. A resonant cavity and a CPW-resonator are used to generate the microwave field. Rather than a large rectangular cavity and its disperse field lines, the CPW-resonator offers a smaller structure. Its compact geometry is suitable for small volumes, since it concentrates the microwave magnetic field precisely at the sample. This approach eliminates several experimental difficulties of cavity-employed ESR spectroscopy and better controls the electromagnetic environment of the sample, avoiding the properties of the cavity resonator which suffer from thermal drifts and background instabilities. In addition, thanks to their greater sensitivity, the CPW-resonators require much less microwave power than waveguide cavities, to generate the same microwave magnetic field. The achieved spin sensitivity is about 109 spins/G√Hz at room temperature for sensitive volumes of about (10 µm)3 . This result is, once more, one order of magnitude better than that of conventional X-band spectrometers. The obtained results confirm the effectiveness of the combination of the CPW-resonators for small sample analysis for practical enhancement of the ESR spectrometer sensitivity at X-band frequencies. Furthermore, a key aspect of the present work is the ability to go further in miniaturization: the concept of coplanar waveguide structures is very simple and easy to implement for the required ESR measurements without too much additional design complexity and change to fabrication procedures. This should be very promising, and especially highly motivating to achieve in-vivo ESR measurements inside living organism and to perform high spatial resolution ESR-imaging.


Let's admit it: most Web sites are duds The task is to attract and engage, not to price and promote Relating to "chiliheads" Should your online marketing be a separate unit? The rapid development of interactive media such as online services and the World Wide Web has taken many consumer marketers by surprise. While some marketers are still wondering what to do and how to do it, others are moving forward - but often with mixed success. Our recent analysis of 95 Fortune 500 consumer marketing companies with product or service-related Web sites reveals that consumer marketers fall far short of leveraging the full capabilities of interactive media. While over 90 percent of all the digital marketing applications examined provided product or service information and featured basic e-mail capabilities, only about half offered links to other sites and non-product-related content, and fewer than half provided any sort of interactive content, such as a game or a diagnostic requiring some user input. Most revealingly, only a handful of the examined sites made an effort to seriously collect information about their users, and fewer than 5 percent provided an opportunity to allow user-to-user communications, a unique - and one of the most popular - characteristics of interactive media. Most consumer marketers therefore still approach interactive media through the static, one-way, mass-market broadcast model of traditional media. The results of such an approach are uninspiring applications that fall far short of the new media's potential. Shrewd marketers will instead learn to create entirely new forms of interactions and transactions with consumers. To do so they'll need a new marketing model more appropriate to the new consumer marketspace(*) and new approaches to integrating interactive media into their business system and marketing programs. We believe that digital marketing is an attractive proposition for more consumer product or service categories than is typically assumed. In fact most consumer marketers - be they in financial services, travel, music, and books, even food and beverages - should be exploring how to capture the digital world's business opportunities. Evolution's grip For marketers of consumer goods or services, the emergence of a new consumer marketspace is no longer a matter of speculation or hype. In the consumer world, users of many popular branded products subscribe today to interactive media at rates two to three times the national average (Exhibit 1). By 2000, there will be between 30 and 40 million of such "digital" consumers. Digital consumers are, generally speaking, attractive for marketers (Exhibit 2). Digital consumers are more likely than their non-wired counterparts to spend more to get the best and to make an effort to use new devices and methods. Household income levels among current subscribers to online services and Internet users are considerably higher than average, as are education levels. Meanwhile, key technological barriers are falling - particularly the speed of content delivery. By the year 2000, more than 50 percent of these digital consumers are expected to access interactive media at speeds five to 500 times faster than they can today. A back-of-the-envelope calculation, based on published estimates,(*) suggests that a substantial Internet economy is emerging. Potential revenues across infrastructure, content, and trade businesses suggest an estimated $40 to $50 billion Internet economy in place by the year 2000. The rise of this consumer marketspace is clearly aligned with the evolutionary progress of the marketing function from a mass-market model to more interactive personalization of goods, services, and interactions. With interactive media, marketers can dynamically deliver personalized services and content, in real time, one consumer at a time. This is due to the unique and powerful characteristics of interactive media: it is addressable, meaning that each user can be identified and targeted separately; it allows for two-way interaction; services can be tailored for each individual customer; and purchases can be made and influenced online (Exhibit 3). …


Individuals and groups are often subjected to power, both public and private, by eliciting their consent. Debate usually focuses on whether or not that consent is freely given or is vitiated by imbalances of strength between the bargaining parties. This essay focuses on a different issue, one that is largely passed over in legal and moral analyses: how far does and should consent bind one to accepting in advance changes in the future? There are signs of a fundamental shift in answering this question—a shift that particularly concerns the control of power in the economy. Industrial democracies may be abandoning a conception of consent rooted in the model of the social contract. They may be moving toward a conception that requires the consenting parties to take on risks about the future that are more thoroughgoing and potentially damaging than would be allowed under the earlier model. Examples of this phenomenon will be drawn primarily from two domains in which issues of consent to economic power are central: employment law and international investment law. The evolution of legal principles of consent at work here will be critically evaluated with the help of the tools of political theory. It is an analysis that deliberately selects examples in order to illustrate positions rather than to provide an exhaustive account of the prevalence in different countries and sectors of the problems highlighted. The latter is a task for follow-up empirical investigation.


A spatial Fourier transform approach is proposed to investigate the polarization changing and the beam profile deformation of light during the acousto-optic (AO) interaction in isotropic media. Two basic types of sound waves are considered, namely, longitudinal and shear waves interacting with the light in an AO bulk cell. The perturbation of the permittivity is then caused by these kinds of acoustic waves and can be expressed in tensor forms. The evolution of two different orders of scattered light under the Bragg condition can be properly described by a couple of solutions that are derived from the wave equation by using a spatial Fourier transform approach. The solutions explicitly comprise the effects of polarization changing, beam deformation, and propagational diffraction. It is shown that the spatial beam profiles of the scattered light are distorted during the process because of the effects of the AO interaction and the propagational diffraction. For both cases of longitudinal and shear sound waves, the degree of the profile deformation can be controlled by changing the amplitude and the frequency of the sound. It is also shown that the polarization states of the scattered light are different from those of the input light on account of the AO effect. The degree of difference of the polarization states, which depend on the propagation type, frequency, and amplitude of the sound wave, can be examined through the use of two polarization parameters, the ellipticity and the orientation of the major axis of the scattered light. Detailed numerical simulations, including Fourier-transforming the incident light profile to calculate the spectra and the on-axis values of ellipticity and orientation of the scattered light in space with use of the inverse Fourier transform, are presented.


The concept of well-being is one of the oldest and most important topics in philosophy and ethics, going back to ancient Greek philosophy. Following the boom in happiness studies in the last few years it has moved to centre stage, grabbing media headlines and the attention of scientists, psychologists and economists. Yet little is actually known about well-being and it is an idea that is often poorly articulated.
The Routledge Handbook of Philosophy of Well-Being provides a comprehensive, outstanding guide and reference source to the key topics and debates in this exciting subject.

Comprising over 40 chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into six parts:

well-being in the history of philosophy
current theories of well-being, including hedonism and perfectionism
examples of well-being and its opposites, including friendship and virtue and pain and death
theoretical issues, such as well-being and value, harm, identity and well-being and children
well-being in moral and political philosophy
well-being and related subjects, including law, economics and medicine.
Essential reading for students and researchers in ethics and political philosophy, it is also an invaluable resource for those in related disciplines such as psychology, politics and sociology.


During this work, done mainly in the laboratories of the department of Industrial Chemistry and Materials of the University of Bologna but also in the laboratories of the Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with prof. K. Matyjaszewski and at the university of Zaragoza in collaboration with prof. J. Barbera, was focused mainly on the synthesis and characterization of new functional polymeric materials.
In the past years our group gained a deep knowledge about the photomodulation of azobenzene containing polymers. The aim of this thesis is to push forward the performances of these materials by the synthesis of well defined materials, in which, by a precise control over the macromolecular structures, better or even new functionality can be delivered to the synthesized material.
For this purpose, besides the rich photochemistry of azoaromatic polymers that brings to the application, the control offered from the recent techniques of controlled radical polymerization, ATRP over all, gives an enormous range of opportunity for the developing of a new generation of functional materials whose properties are determinate not only by the chemical nature of the functional center (e.g. azoaromatic chromophore) but are tuned and even amplified by a synergy with the whole macromolecular structure. Old materials in new structures.
In this contest the work of this thesis was focused mainly on the synthesis and characterization of well defined azoaromatic polymers in order to establish, for the first time, precise structure-properties correlation. In fact a series of well defined different azopolymers, chiral and achiral, with different molecular weight and highly monodisperse were synthesized and their properties were studied, in terms of photoexpansion and photomodulation of chirality. We were then able to study the influence of the macromolecular structure in terms of molecular weight and ramification on the studied properties.
The huge amount of possibility offered by the tailoring of the macromolecular structure were exploited for the synthesis of new cholesteric photochromic polymers that can be used as a smart label for the certification of the thermal history of any thermosensitive product.
Finally the ATRP synthesis allowed us to synthesize a total new class of material, named molecular brushes: a flat surface covered with an ultra thin layer of polymeric chain covalently bond onto the surface from one end. This new class of materials is of extreme interest as they offer the possibility to tune and manage the interaction of the surface with the environment. In this contest we synthesized both azoaromatic surfaces, growing directly the polymer from the surface, and mixed brushes: surfaces covered with incompatible macromolecules. Both type of surfaces acts as "smart" surfaces: the first it is able to move the orientation of a LC cell by simply photomodulation and, thanks to the robustness of the covalent bond, can be used as a command surface overcoming all the limitation due to the dewetting of the active layer. The second type of surface, functionalized by a grafting-to method, can self assemble the topmost layer responding to changed environmental conditions, exposing different functionality according to different environment.