The current study investigates the address systems of Argentines and Salvadorans living in the United States in order to determine whether these voseante speakers accommodate to forms used by other Hispanic groups with whom they come into contact by shifting from voseo to tuteo . Previous research has shown a decrease from high levels of voseo among Salvadorans in El Salvador to significantly lower levels among their U.S.-based counterparts. In the current study, the same methodology has been used to study Argentine immigrants. It was hypothesized that for reasons such as national pride and socioeconomic status, the Argentines would maintain voseante forms of address at a much higher rate, something borne out by the data.


We investigate the possible application of a modified deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA)-dye system for dynamic processing of optical information, e.g., optical correlation. The system consists of a biopolymeric matrix made of DNA substituted with the cationic surfactant molecule cetyltrimethyl-ammonium chloride (CTMA) and doped with a photochromic Disperse Red 1 dye. Fast dynamics (millisecond range of rise and fall times) of output correlation signal formation was measured in a joint Fourier transform optical correlator experimental setup. Full reversibility of the correlation signal and reproducibility were observed even after long-time exposures.


An important question for salmon restoration efforts in the western USA is 'How should habitat restoration plans be altered to accommodate climate change effects on stream flow and temperature?' We developed a decision support process for adapting salmon recovery plans that incorporates (1) local habitat factors limiting salmon recovery, (2) scenarios of climate change effects on stream flow and temperature, (3) the ability of restoration actions to ameliorate climate change effects, and (4) the ability of restoration actions to increase habitat diversity and salmon population resilience. To facilitate the use of this decision support framework, we mapped scenarios of future stream flow and temperature in the Pacific Northwest region and reviewed literature on habitat restoration actions to determine whether they ameliorate a climate change effect or increase life history diversity and salmon resilience. Under the climate change scenarios considered here, summer low flows decrease by 35–75% west of the Cascade Mountains, maximum monthly flows increase by 10–60% across most of the region, and stream temperatures increase between 2 and 6 C by 2070–2099. On the basis of our literature review, we found that restoring floodplain connectivity, restoring stream flow regimes, and re-aggrading incised channels are most likely to ameliorate stream flow and temperature changes and increase habitat diversity and population resilience. By contrast, most restoration actions focused on in-stream rehabilitation are unlikely to ameliorate climate change effects. Finally, we illustrate how the decision support process can be used to evaluate whether climate change should alter the types or priority of restoration actions in a salmon habitat restoration plan. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. key words: restoration; climate change; decision support; adaptation; salmon habitat; stream flow; stream temperature Received 24 April 2012; Accepted 30 May 2012


Objective: Mindfulness is a process whereby one is aware and receptive to present moment experiences. Although mindfulness-enhancing interventions reduce pathological mental and physical health symptoms across a wide variety of conditions and diseases, the mechanisms underlying these effects remain unknown. Converging evidence from the mindfulness and neuroscience literature suggests that labeling affect may be one mechanism for these effects. Methods: Participants (n = 27) indicated trait levels of mindfulness and then completed an affect labeling task while undergoing functional magnetic resonance imaging. The labeling task consisted of matching facial expressions to appropriate affect words (affect labeling) or to gender-appropriate names (gender labeling control task). Results: After controlling for multiple individual difference measures, dispositional mindfulness was associated with greater widespread prefrontal cortical activation, and reduced bilateral amygdala activity during affect labeling, compared with the gender labeling control task. Further, strong negative associations were found between areas of prefrontal cortex and right amygdala responses in participants high in mindfulness but not in participants low in mindfulness. Conclusions: The present findings with a dispositional measure of mindfulness suggest one potential neurocognitive mechanism for understanding how mindfulness meditation interventions reduce negative affect and improve health outcomes, showing that mindfulness is associated with enhanced prefrontal cortical regulation of affect through labeling of negative affective stimuli. fMRI = functional magnetic resonance imaging; PFC = prefrontal cortex; VLPFC = ventrolateral prefrontal cortex; VMPFC = ventromedial prefrontal cortex; MPFC = medial prefrontal cortex; DLPFC = dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.


In the present study a time series analysis of three of the most well-known Sun activity data series is made: 1) the Hoyt-Schatten (Group Sunspot Number $\mbox{\textit{Rg}}$)(Hoyt & Schatten 1988); 2) the Schove and 3) the Greenland (Dye-3 ice probe) 'cosmogenic' $^{10}Be$ concentration series (Schove 1983, Beer et al. 1998). The series "1" is based on instrumental observations for the last $\sim$400 years. The series "2" is a reconstruction of all Schwabe-Wolf cycle magnitudes after AD 296 by use of historical reports mainly for auroras and naked-eye visible sunspots. The series "3" is an indicator for the processes in outer solar corona and interplanetary space for the epoch AD 1423–1985. Two independent methods for time series analysis are used: 1) the $T$-$R$ periodogramm analysis (Komitov, 1986); 2) the method of Kaftan (2002).To search for other articles by the author(s) go to: http://adsabs.harvard.edu/abstract_service.html


Burn wound healing is a complex process including inflammation, epithelialization, granulation, neovascularization, and wound contraction. Modern therapies present a large number of options, while traditional therapies are promising effective choices. Plant-based products have been used in the treatment of wounds for centuries worldwide. Recently, the mechanisms behind many of these traditional therapies could be explained in detail. The most commonly found mechanisms behind the herbal source products supporting wound healing are mostly their antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, cell proliferative, and angiogenic effects. However there is not much more studies demonstrated in patients except Aloe vera and Avena sp., herbal treatment still show a lot of promise in the future. It is important not to ignore possible toxic and allergic effects of plants and phytochemical agents, but the studies mostly resulted with antitoxic effects. Several herbs show efficient results with therapies of wounds also in burn wounds, which may be considered as an option for treatment. On the other hand, herbal treatment in burn wounds still needs to have more clinical and pharmaceutical studies to place in modern therapies safely.


Digital technology has enabled us to record and share our memories and histories faster and in greater numbers than previously imagined. However digital files rely on hardware, software, and descriptive information to be used. As formats change and equipment to read them goes out of use we are all challenged to connect our present to our future. How long do you want your digital files to last? Decades or even a few years from now will you still be able to access and enjoy those pictures, documents and other digital items you create today? Libraries, museums and archives spend countless hours and resources preserving physical items from the past and present, but may be forfeiting the longevity of our digital work and connecting to future generations through unintended neglect. Using practical examples and employing best practices of research institutions, participants will learn important first steps to digital preservation including the importance of metadata to personal history, recommended file formats, and approaches they can immediately use to ensure the work they create today will still be enjoyed tomorrow. Help yourself, your organization, and your patrons continue to connect their digital heritage to the generations yet to come.


In this paper we consider a class of loss networks that have arbitrary topologies and routes of arbitrary length. Multiple traffic classes are present, each with different bandwidth requirement, and each routed according to a state-dependent routing scheme. In particular, we consider the least loaded routing method generalized to routes of arbitrary number of hops. The connection level performance metric of interest is the end-to-end blocking probability. We are interested in developing fast evaluation methods to provide reasonably accurate estimates of the blocking probability, especially under heavy traffic load. Our algorithms are based on the fixed-point method framework, also known as the reduced load approximation. In addition to what commonly examined by previous work, two more factors contribute to the complexity of the computation in the scenario under consideration in this paper. One is the state-dependent nature of the routing mechanism, the other is the possible overlapping between routes due to the general multihop topology of the network. We present two fast approximation algorithms to evaluate the blocking probability with state-dependent routing by simplifying the route overlapping computation. We discuss the computational complexity of our algorithms as well as sources of approximation error. We then compare the numerical results with that of simulation and show that our algorithms provide fairly accurate blocking probability estimates especially under heavy traffic load.


Cell-matrix and cell-cell adhesions are often characterized as functionally distinct adhesion systems within the cell that mediate different proliferative outcomes. In contrast to the widely accepted pro-proliferative effect of cell-matrix adhesion, the proliferative effect of cadherin-dependent cell-cell adhesion remains unresolved. While the majority of studies demonstrate that cadherins mediate contact inhibition of proliferation, there have also been compelling reports of cadherins stimulating cell cycling. Here, we show that matrix stiffness is the mechanistic basis for crosstalk between N-cadherin at cell-cell junctions and focal adhesion kinase (FAK) at cell-matrix adhesions, and that this interplay between adhesive systems modulates the proliferative role of N-cadherin. We demonstrate that N-cadherin is induced in smooth muscle cells (SMCs) following vascular injury, an in vivo model of tissue stiffening and proliferation. Complementary experiments on deformable polyacrylamide hydrogels demonstrate that stiffness-mediated activation of a FAK-p130Cas-Rac signaling pathway results in induction of N-cadherin. To understand the functional consequence of this adhesion-dependent crosstalk in cell proliferation, we next used micropatterned islands of different shapes and sizes to control cell-cell contact and cell-matrix adhesion, respectively. Paired and unpaired SMCs on micropatterned substrates of different areas show that N-cadherin stimulates proliferation by relaxing the spreading requirement for proliferation. In vivo SMC deletion of N-cadherin strongly reduces injury-induced cycling. Moreover, SMC-specific deletion of FAK inhibits proliferation after vascular injury, and this is accompanied by reduced induction of Ncadherin. We conclude that stiffnessand FAK-dependent induction of N-cadherin connects cell-matrix to cell-cell adhesion and overrides the spreading requirement for proliferation. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Cell & Molecular Biology First Advisor Richard K. Assoian Second Advisor Christopher S. Chen


This thesis was a post-implementation evaluation of Albuquerque's Downtown 2010 Sector Development Plan. The Downtown Plan, commissioned in 2000, has a preset deadline of 2010 for meeting conditions outlined within its text. Therefore, the timing of this study was optimal. A triangulated, mixed methods methodology yielded data that were evaluated through an amalgamation of conformance and performance-based evaluation approaches.

Six of the twelve categories, under which the Plan's text is organized, were chosen as the focus of this study's evaluation efforts. The categories are as follows: 1) Transportation and Parking; 2) Land Use and Design; 3) Healthy Neighborhoods; 4) Urban Housing; 5) Urban Retailing; and 6) Parks and Open Space. The findings of this study were specified to each of the six categories with additional findings listed later on. Overall, the results for each category fell between 'somewhat unsuccessful' to 'successful' based on a success spectrum created for typifying the evaluation results.

Ultimately, this study found that the Plan was responsible for some significant and positive changes that occurred in Downtown Albuquerque over the past decade. These include the development of a number of various housing options, the prevention of commercial encroachment from the Downtown onto adjacent neighborhoods, and the creation of parking, bicycle, transit, and pedestrian facilities. A lack of various retail services and the failure to remediate the Fourth Street Mall are couple of the 2010 Plan implementation failures discovered by the evaluation. Additional findings spoke to the interplay between categories such as Urban Housing and Urban Retailing, which identified the need to synchronize the functions of these two interdependent markets. Further discoveries were derived from the collected data and their subsequent analysis.


This study uses event history analysis to explore the relationship between women's employment and motherhood entry in the socioeconomic and institutional context of South Korea. Data used for analysis come from waves 1 to 10 of the Korea Labor and Income Panel Study (KLIPS) collected between 1998 and 2007. The study shows that motherhood entry declines during the study period, particularly from the 1990s onward, with marriage postponement and decline arguably contributing to this downtrend. Women who leave the labour market are more likely to become mothers than working women and women with no employment experience. Labour market withdrawal is a signal of family formation and extension. However, this practice has been challenged in recent years, and staying at work up to and during pregnancy has gained prevalence. Among wage earners, women employed in the public sector are more likely than others to become a mother, underlying the importance of employment stability for motherhood entry in Korea. The fertility behaviour of private-sector employees appears to be sensitive to changes in the business cycle.


Introduction: Workplace values are a significant factor in facilitating successful transitions from the classroom to the workforce and in the career development process. Furthermore, employees whose value system aligns with that of their coworkers and leaders report higher rates of job satisfaction. This study sought to determine what current doctor of veterinary medicine (DVM) students' value with respect to intrinsic, extrinsic, and lifestyle factors. Methods: A modified version of the work values checklist was administered to 100 3rd-year students at a large veterinary school located in the United States. Results: The three values rated most important among participants were "Have fun in your life and at work," "Feel respected for your work," and "Gain a sense of achievement." The three values rated least important were "Be involved in politics," "Compete with others," and "Live abroad." Conclusion: Overall, intrinsic and lifestyle values appear to play a larger role in DVM students' workplace preferences than extrinsic values. Researchers are encouraged to replicate this study at other institutions to determine the extent to which findings from this study are generalizable across the veterinary medical profession.


Hyperspectral remote sensing offers an effective approach for frequent, synoptic water quality measurements over a large spatial extent. However, the optical complexity of case 2 water makes the water quality monitoring by remote sensing in estuarine water a challenge. The prime objective of this study was to develop algorithms for hyperspectral remote sensing of water quality based on in situ spectral measurement of water reflectance. In this study, water reflectance spectra R(λ) were acquired by a pair of Ocean Optic 2000 spectroradiometers during the summers from 2008 to 2011 at Patuxent River, a tributary of Chesapeake Bay, USA. Simultaneously, concentrations of chlorophyll a and total suspended solids (TSS), as well as absorption of colored dissolved organic matter (CDOM) were measured. Empirical models that based on spectral features of water reflectance generally showed good correlations with water quality parameters. The retrieval model that using spectral bands at red/NIR showed a high correlation with chlorophyll a concentration (R2 = 0.81). The ratio of green to blue spectral bands is the best predictor for TSS (R2 = 0.75), and CDOM absorption is best correlated with spectral features at blue and NIR regions (R2 = 0.85). These empirical models were further applied to the ASIA Eagle hyperspectral aerial imagery to demonstrate the feasibility of hyperspectral remote sensing of water quality in the optical complex estuarine waters.


Location-enabled applications now permeate the mobile computing landscape. As technologies like Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) and Apple's iBeacon protocols begin to see widespread adoption, we will no doubt see a proliferation of indoor location enabled application experiences. While not essential to each of these applications, many will require that the location of the device be true and verifiable. In this paper, we present LocAssure, a new framework for trusted indoor location estimation. The system leverages existing technologies like BLE and iBeacons, making the solution practical and compatible with technologies that are already in use today. In this work, we describe our system, situate it within a broad location assurance taxonomy, describe the protocols that enable trusted localization in our system, and provide an analysis of early deployment and use characteristics. Through developer APIs, LocAssure can provide critical security support for a broad range of indoor location applications.


The ability to assess the relevance of topics and related sources in information-rich environments is a key to success when scanning business environments. This paper introduces a hybrid system to support managerial information gathering. The system is made up of three components: 1) a hierarchical hyperbolic SOM for structuring the information environment and visualizing the intensity of news activity with respect to identified topics, 2) a spreading activation network for the selection of the most relevant information sources with respect to an already existing knowledge infrastructure, and 3) measures of interestingness for association rules as well as statistical testing facilitates the monitoring of already identified topics. Embedding the system by a framework describing three modes of human information seeking behavior endorses an active organization, exploration and selection of information that matches the needs of decision makers in all stages of the information gathering process. By applying our system in the domain of the hotel industry we demonstrate how typical information gathering tasks are supported. Moreover, we present an empirical study investigating the effectiveness and efficiency of the visualization framework of our system.


In recent years there has been a growing desire for the use of probe vehicle technology for congestion detection and general infrastructure performance assessment. Unlike costly traditional data collection by loop detectors, wide-area detection using probe-sourced traffic data is significantly different in terms of measurement technique, pricing, coverage, etc. This affects how the new technology is applied and used to solve current traffic problems such as traffic incident management and roadway performance assessment. This report summarizes the experiences and lessons learned while using probe data for traffic operations and safety management in the state of Nebraska and makes recommendations for opportunities to maximize the use of probe data in light of its limitations. A detailed analysis of performance monitoring and historical trend analysis, including identification of the top 10 congested segments, congestion per mile across metro areas, congested hour(s) during summer and winter months, and yearly travel time reliability, for Interstate 80 segments in Nebraska were performed. Two main conclusions can be drawn from this study. First, there is almost always a speed bias between data streaming from probes and traditional infrastructure-mounted sensors. It is important to understand the factors that influence these biases and how to cope with them. Second, lack of confidence score 30 (real-time) probe data is a critical issue that should be considered precisely for incident detection, roadway performance assessment, travel time estimation, and other traffic analyses. Ultimately, the authors present several recommendations that will help transportation agencies gain the best value from their probe data.


Abstract Communicative approach ( al-madhal al-ittishaly ) in Arabic language learning comprises of four language competences: listening ( istima' ), speaking ( kalam ), reading ( qiraah ), and writing ( kitabah ). Communicative approach ( al-madhal al-ittishaly ) is aimed at stimulating students to learning activity. The use of communication approach needs learning activities that enable students to share information or held social interaction (dialog, simulation, debating, and another discussion activities) in its general sense. Kata kunci: Pendekatan Komunikatif ( al-madhal al-ittishaly ), Pembelajaran, Bahasa Arab


In Bayesian model selection, suitable mathematical models are selected among a set of possible models using Bayes' theorem. To simplify the analysis, linear structural models are often used, though they are not always adequate to accurately compute the structural response. Nonlinear models, which may be more accurate, significantly increase the required computation time for Bayesian model selection. A method is proposed in this paper to reduce the computational cost by incorporating into the model selection process the authors' previously developed efficient dynamic response algorithm for response of locally nonlinear systems. The efficacy of the approach is demonstrated, using the numerical example of a base-isolated building on hysteretic lead rubber bearing (LRB) isolators, with different linear and nonlinear model classes as candidates to represent the LRBs. doi: 10.12783/SHM2015/288


Ionic liquids have emerged as an environmentally friendly alternative to the volatile organic solvents. Being designer solvents, they can be modulated to suit the reaction conditions, therefore earning the name "task‐specific ionic liquids." Though primarily used as solvents, they are now finding applications in various fields such as catalysis, electrochemistry, spectroscopy, and material science to mention a few. The goal of this chapter is focused on the electrocatalytic applications of ionic liquids, which can be used as catalysts and catalytic supports in electrochemistry. Their scope has marched beyond academic research laboratories to industries where their practical applications have been leading to various sustainable technologies. Flexibility to modulate properties by changing design endows freedom to a chemist to design an ionic liquid according to one's own requirement. To conclude, it can be said that the field of ionic liquid electrocatalysis holds enormous possibilities to be explored.


The discrimination of the preictal state in EEG signals is of great importance in neuroscience and the epileptic seizure prediction field has yet to provide conclusive evidence. In this study, three different classification approaches, including the Repeated Incremental Pruning to Produce Error Reduction (RIPPER) algorithm, Support Vector Machines (SVMs) and Neural Networks (NNs), are investigated for their ability to discriminate preictal from interictal EEG segments. Using public EEG data, a wide range of features is extracted from each segment and then applied to the classifiers. The analysis covers a patient-specific approach, so as to optimize the decision to each patient individually and a patient-independent approach in order to explore a global prediction approach that can discriminate randomly selected preictal and interictal segments from all patients. Overall, the first approach aims at revealing patient-specific epileptic characteristics, whereas the second seeks for potential general preictal-related signs. The results reveal that in the patient-specific case, the SVM classifier exhibits the highest classification accuracy in both preictal and interictal classes reaching 85.75% sensitivity and specificity. As it is expected, the classification performance is lower for the patient-independent case at 68.5%, due to the complicated nature of preictal activity and the variations among patients condition.


This Thesis investigates the potential of a single-photon depth profiling system for imaging in highly scattering underwater environments. This scanning system measured depth using the time-of-flight and the time-correlated single-photon counting (TCSPC) technique. The system comprised a pulsed laser source, a monostatic scanning transceiver, with a silicon single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) used for detection of the returned optical signal. Spectral transmittance measurements were performed on a number of different water samples in order to characterize the water types used in the experiments. This identified an optimum operational wavelength for each environment selected, which was in the wavelength region of 525 690 nm. Then, depth profiles measurements were performed in different scattering conditions, demonstrating high-resolution image re-construction for targets placed at stand-off distances up to nine attenuation lengths, using average optical power in the sub-milliwatt range. Depth and spatial resolution were investigated in several environments, demonstrating a depth resolution in the range of 500 μm to a few millimetres depending on the attenuation level of the medium. The angular resolution of the system was approximately 60 μrad in water with different levels of attenuation, illustrating that the narrow field of view helped preserve spatial resolution in the presence of high levels of forward scattering. Bespoke algorithms were developed for image reconstruction in order to recover depth, intensity and reflectivity information, and to investigate shorter acquisition times, illustrating the practicality of the approach for rapid frame rates. In addition, advanced signal processing approaches were used to investigate the potential of multispectral single-photon depth imaging in target discrimination and recognition, in free-space and underwater environments. Finally, a LiDAR model was developed and validated using experimental data. The model was used to estimate the performance of the system under a variety of scattering conditions and system parameters.


Local adaptation is ubiquitous, but the molecular mechanisms giving rise to this ecological phenomenon remain largely unknown. A year-long reciprocal transplant of mustard hill coral (Porites astreoides) between a highly environmentally variable inshore habitat and more stable offshore habitat demonstrated that both inshore and offshore populations exhibit elevated growth, protein and lipid content in their home reef environment, indicative of local adaptation. Here, we characterized the genomic basis of this adaptation in both coral hosts and their intracellular algal symbionts (Symbiodinium sp.) using genome-wide gene expression profiling and gene coexpression network analysis. Inshore and offshore coral populations differ primarily in their capacity for gene expression plasticity: upon transplantation to a novel environment inshore corals were able to match expression profiles of the local population significantly better than offshore corals. Furthermore, elevated plasticity in expression of environmental stress response (ESR) genes was adaptive in the inshore environment: it correlated with the least susceptibility to a natural summer bleaching event, whereas higher constitutive ESR gene expression ("frontloading" sensu Barshis et al. 2013) did not. Our results reveal a novel genomic mechanism of resilience to a variable environment, demonstrating that corals are capable of a more diverse molecular response to environmental stress than previously thought.


In this work we investigate how two autonomous agent swarms, controlled by the BEECLUST algorithm are able to cooperate. The task is to locate two different target areas, which are located near each other. Therefore we developed an individual-based NetLogo model to simulate two different agent swarms moving in a temperature gradient. Both agent swarms are controlled by the BEECLUST algorithm, which is inspired by honeybee behavior. We found out that the two cooperating agent swarms are able to locate the target areas, independent of the ratio of the agents.


Since the inception of Turkey as an independent state, the country has based itself on Western modes of governance, with secularism being a hallmark of the nation. In recent years, Islamic parties have made inroads in government, causing consternation among the old guard and allies in Europe. Much of the modern arguments against Turkey's inclusion in the EU rely on psuedo-Orientalist ideas; Turkey is somehow so different and alien from "European" culture that they simply do not belong in the EU. Historical notions of Turkey and Islam as fundamentally different are then propagated to remove Turkey from contemporary Europe. Islamic politics in Turkey do not represent a shift to a more fundamentalist ideology; in actuality, Turkish Islamic parties are very modern movements based in progressive ideas. The rise of Islamic parties in Turkey signals a shift away from a dogmatic following of the strictly secular West into a more hybrid political identity, unshakably tied to the West but allowing for a greater expression of its Middle Eastern Muslim heritage.


Even after 47 years of nationalization of banks in 1969, a large section of country's population and most of the rural areas still remains unbanked leading to financial instability. To enhancing financial inclusion status and overcome this issues the government of India announced innovative scheme namely PMJDY. Pradhan Mantri Jan-Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) is a National Mission for Financial Inclusion to ensure access to financial services, namely, Banking, Savings & Deposit Accounts, Remittance, Credit, Insurance, Pension in an affordable manner. Financial inclusion is an innovative concept which enables the alternative techniques to promote the banking habits and acts as enabler in reducing the poverty and the launch of Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojana (PMJDY) by Government of India is in that direction. India's Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of this scheme at the historic Red Fort on the occasion of India's Independence Day 2014. The scheme is not only limited to opening of a bank account but has other benefits with it viz. zero balance bank account with RuPay debit card, in addition to accidental insurance cover of 1 lakh, those who open accounts by January 26, 2015 over and above the 1 lakh accident, they will be given life insurance cover of 30,000, etc. The present paper endeavor to study the need of financial inclusion in india, pillars of the PMJDY and current status and progess of this scheme.


A manned lunar outpost will require agricultural facilities to provide for self-sufficiency. This paper examines a three phase approach which incorporates research on crop optimization. A first phase facility would utilize both a hard module for systems equipment and an inflatable structure that would provide a growth chamber for the demonstration of crop production. In the second phase, additional facilities are installed to allow for the production of warm season crops and to support the entire crew. The third phase utilizes in situ lunar materials to construct a larger inflatable growth facility. Crop candidates for growth are selected because of their ease of harvesting and processing, their familiarity, variety, and taste in addition to their nutritional value. These vegetable crops would both maintain air quality and provide for 20.8% of the recommended daily caloric intake, consisting of 36.4% of the daily carbohydrate and 10.1% of the daily protein requirements for the crew.


Hans Spoolder,*, Maria Schöne & Marc Bracke Together with our clients, we integrate scientific know-how and practical experience to develop livestock concepts for the 21st century. With our expertise on innovative livestock systems, nutrition, welfare, genetics and environmental impact of livestock farming and our state-of-the art research facilities, such as Dairy Campus and Swine Innovation Centre Sterksel, we support our customers to find solutions for current and future challenges.


Hydro power production strictly depends on the geography and weather peculiarity of locations where power plants are settled. In this paper, we produce long term estimates of hydro power capacity factors for all European countries based on future climate scenarios. We use machine learning techniques for formalizing models able to capture the complex relation between climate variables and energy production on a European scale and use the results of regional and global climate models for future projections.


The German economy is in the midst of a robust economic cycle: the number of employed persons has reached historic highs and is still increasing powerfully; private household income is on the rise; and the public coffers are overflowing. Inflation is rising only gradually, partly because capacities are not overburdened. The mood is bright among consumers and firms alike, with economic development distributed across the board: the service sector is benefiting from consumers' more liberal spending habits, while industry is profiting from the robust exports. Yet uncertainties remain high— and this is also why companies continue to hold back on expanding their domestic capital stock. The Brexit negotiations—which include the future of trade relations—are also fraught with considerable uncertainty; as well, foreign trade could also suffer if the U.S. government implements stronger protectionist measures. No significant acceleration in investment—as would be expected given the current economic conditions—is apparent.


The aim of the article is to discuss Ingmar Bergman's film Persona in a philosophical context and analyze the problem of the identity of the main characters. During the analysis, elements of existential thought and Sartre's philosophy were used. The psychological and philosophical layer of the film combines the common theme of broadly understood existence. The focus was on the identity problems of the main characters of the film and the linguistic layer in the context of the interpersonal conflict.


Two experiments were designed to investigate perceivers' self-evaluations when they received objectively positive above-average performance feedback but were told about another coactor who performed either moderately or much better than the participant. Results indicated that participants responded negatively to this comparison information even though they received better-than-average performance feedback. Participants were given the opportunity to evaluate themselves relative to another coactor who was described as performing at an average level. When the negative implications of the unfavorable social comparisons were relatively mild, both low and high self-esteem participants raised their self-evaluations vis-à-vis the inferior coactor who performed at an average level on the task. However, when the upward comparisons were especially unfavorable (i.e., when there was a large discrepancy between the performance level of the participant and the coactor—the comparison target), only high self-esteem participants raised their self-evaluations. Results provided evidence for active compensation and relatively passive spreading activation, supporting a schema-maintenance through compensation model (e.g., Seta & Seta, 1982, 1993; Seta, Seta, & McElroy, 2003).


Five out of five allo-specific cytotoxic T lymphocyte (CTL) clones tested strongly suppressed the development of CTLs directed against the H-2 haplotype of the CTL clone and independent of the H-2 specificity recognized by the CTL clone. This was shown by including 100-1,000 cells from the five clones in one way mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) cultures in which the stimulator cells were of the same H-2 type as the CTL cells. When these cultures were assayed for cytotoxicity against the stimulator cell haplotype, the cytotoxic activity was decreased in a CTL cell dose-dependent manner by 50 to more than 90%. Suppression was usually not observed in MLR cultures where the CTL-H-2 type was identical with the responder cells or was different from both the responder or stimulator cells. Suppression was demonstrated not to be due to "cold" target inhibition at the time of cytotoxicity assay. Even if the added CTL were completely removed after 48-72 h of culture, significant suppression was obtained. Suppressive ability did not appear to be correlated with the level of allo-specific cytotoxic activity present in the CTL clones, but might involve direct killing of MLR precursor cells by cells in the added CTL clones. The suppression observed here, which is anti-self from the point of view of the added CTL clone, appears to be triggered by precursor cells in the MLR responder population recognizing MHC determinants on cells from the added CTL clone. This peculiar type of suppression, in which the regulator regulates on being recognized, has been christened the veto phenomenon and may play a role in maintenance of self tolerance.


* Murray, Michael D. and Roy L. Moore, eds. (2003). Mass Communication Education. Ames, IA: Iowa State Press. pp. 445. * Frohlich, Romy and Christina Holtz-Bacha, eds. (2003). Journalism Education In Europe and North America. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. pp. 349. * Lavender, Tony, Birgitte Tufte, and Dafna Lemish, eds. (2003). Global Trends in Media Education. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press. pp. 200. With seventy-five contributors, these books may not provide the last word on media education, but they provide a lot of them. Somewhere in all three books, someone admits that education for and about the media is "in a state of flux" or words to that effect. Well, that's been a starting point as well as an ending point in media studies during the last half-century or so. And there have been a lot of studies. Five years ago in Mass Media Education in Transition, Tom Dickson counted about one a year since World War II. So is there any point in looking at these three new studies? Well, there is. Each of these books in its own way is going to be useful to some people in our field. This reviewer will try to point out some of the useful stuff. As we occasionally admit, no one in academe pays much attention to teaching until the semester is upon us. This is especially a problem for the newly minted Ph.D. who ground out that research to get through graduate school. Murray and Moore's book is a substitute for that seminar you never took on "How to Teach a Course." The book will tell you how to set up a course, what texts to use, and what resources are available. The contributors run through a list of courses likely to be assigned including introductory ones in mass communication, advertising, broadcasting, journalism, public relations, and even film. They assume you had little or no training in how to teach even, or perhaps especially, if you were a teaching assistant. They urge you to latch on to a mentor in graduate school and lean heavily on him or her in the early semesters. It apparently worked for these authors. Most of them include a loving "Remembering a Mentor" essay in their chapters. Even the deceased mentors, who probably cannot help or hinder these authors' career progress any more, get nothing but praise so they must really mean it. Murray and Moore can also be a life preserver for the seasoned faculty member. These veterans of academe have been wisely narrowing down their teaching area to comfortable courses that help in the research quest. But occasionally a colleague gets a better job and your department chair calls on you to teach a new course. In a section titled "Advanced Curriculum," the book provides background and advice on teaching media ethics, law, international media, media management, and media history. We aren't told why these courses wound up in the "Advanced" category, but with a chapter from here and a week or two to get ready even a senior faculty member can earn a creditable teaching score in a surprise class. Journalism Education in Europe and North America tries to compare this venture in a dozen countries. Useful in an international communication course, but the problem is that each country is a separate case study and comparison has to be by the reader. The contributions are also quite uneven. Weaver's chapter on the United States is carefully structured and balanced. Frank Esser explains Great Britain's move toward a U.S. model of journalism education and how this affects salaries and the old union-controlled apprenticeship model. His views are summed up in a chapter subtitle: "Between Dream and Nightmare." The idea of university courses for journalists has certainly caught on in Britain. Esser counted 331 degree programs there that claim to offer mass communication courses. …


We report the observation of a deuterium kinetic isotope effect for the conversion of 5-enolpyruvylshikimate-3-phosphate into chorismate (6proR2HV = 1.13 +/- 0.03) using recombinant chorismate synthase from Escherichia coli. Similar isotope effects were observed for the decay of a spectroscopically characterized flavin intermediate (6proR2Hk = 1.17 +/- 0.04) during single-turnover experiments. The main rate-limiting steps and C-(6proR)-H bond breaking are therefore distinct and both must occur after the formation of the flavin intermediate and either before or concomitant with its decay.


Drawing on recently declassified Albanian, Soviet, East German, and Western archival sources, as well as a rich historiography on Nikita Khrushchev's secret speech and the Hungarian revolution of 1956, this article investigates the little-known events of 1956 in Albania. Rejecting de-Stalinization, the Albanian Communist leader Enver Hoxha was able to vindicate his position against Yugoslavia's brand of socialism abroad, fortify his rule at home, and claim more aid from Moscow, Beijing, and the Soviet bloc. This article discusses the Tirana Party Conference of April 1956, treating the Albanian Party of Labor (the Communist party) as an "information society." The article assesses deliberations over security and ideology at the highest levels and demonstrates how tiny Albania came to embody, in exaggerated form, both the promises and the perils of socialist exchange, in addition to mirroring the profound inconsistencies of Khrushchev's de-Stalinization campaign.


The study describes the behavior of regular closed-cell cellular structure with gaseous fillers under impact conditions and consequent post-impact thermal conduction due to the compression of filler gas. Two dependent but different analyses types have been carried out for this purpose: (i) a strongly coupled fluid-structure interaction and (ii) a weakly coupled thermalstructural analysis. This paper describes the structural analyses of the closed-cell cellular structure under impact loading. The explicit code LS-DYNA was used to computationally determine the behavior of cellular structure under compressive dynamic loading, where one unit volume element of the cellular structure has been discretised with finite elements considering a simultaneous strongly coupled interaction with the gaseous pore filler. Closed-cell cellular structures with different relative densities and initial pore pressures have been considered. Computational simulations have shown that the gaseous filler influences the mechanical behavior of cellular structure regarding the loading type, relative density and type of the base material. It was determined that the filler's temperature significantly increases due to the compressive impact loading, which might influence the macroscopic behavior of the cellular structure.


The pursuit of Lakshmi, the fickle goddess of prosperity and good fortune, is a metaphor for the aspirations of the state and people of independent India. In the latest of their distinguished contributions to South Asian studies, scholars Lloyd I. Rudolph and Susanne Hoeber Rudolph focus on this modern-day pursuit by offering a comprehensive analysis of India's political economy. India occupies a paradoxical plane among nation states: it is both developed and underdeveloped, rich and poor, strong and weak. These contrasts locate India in the international order. The Rudolphs' theory of demand and command polities provides a general framework for explaining the special circumstances of the Indian experience. Contrary to what one might expect in a country with great disparities of wealth, no national party, right or left, pursues the politics of class. Instead, the Rudolphs argue, private capital and organized labor in India face a "third actor"-the state. Because of the dominance of the state makes class politics marginal, the state is itself an element in the creation of the centrist-oriented social pluralism that has characterized Indian politics since independence. In analyzing the relationship between India's politics and its economy, the Rudolphs maintain that India's economic performance has been only marginally affected by the type of regime in power-authoritarian or democratic. More important, they show that rising levels of social mobilization and personalistic rule have contributed to declining state capacity and autonomy. At the same time, social mobilization has led to a more equitable distribution of economic benefits and political power, which has enhanced the state's legitimacy among its citizens. The scope and explanatory power of "In Pursuit of Lakshmi" will make it essential for all those interested in political economy, comparative politics, Asian studies and India.


When political activists rallied for the abolition of bilingual education and even called for the declaration of English as an official language, Mexican Americans and other immigrant groups saw this as an assault on their heritage and civil rights. Because language is such a defining characteristic of Mexican American ethnicity, nearly every policy issue that touches their lives involves language in one way or another. This book offers an overview of some of the central issues in the Mexican American language experience, describing it in terms of both bilingualism and minority status. It is the first book to focus on the historical, social, political, and structural aspects of multiple languages in the Mexican American experience and to address the principles and methods of applied sociolinguistic research in the Mexican American community. Spanish and non-Spanish speakers in the Mexican American community share a common set of social and ethnic bonds. They also share a common experience of bilingualism. As Martinez observes, the ideas that have been constructed around bilingualism are as important to understanding the Mexican American language experience as bilingualism itself. Mexican Americans and Language gives students the background they need to respond to the multiple social problems that can result from the language differences that exist in the Mexican American community. By showing students how to go from word to deed (del dicho al hecho), it reinforces the importance of language for their community, and for their own lives and futures.


Abstract This paper aims to enhance our understanding of interactions between French/English Foreign Language Assistants (FLAs) and their school mentors (MEs), and, more specifically, of how 'advice' is sought, given and received. More generally, it will articulate a pragmatic approach (employing the notion of 'activity type') that can help achieve this aim. The paper draws on a sub-set of the data produced for the Pragmatics and Intercultural Communication (PIC) project, a project which deployed multiple and different methodologies, including, for example, not only transcriptions of live interactions, but also retrospective reflections on those interactions. We focus on the first non-casual meetings between FLAs and their MEs, a crucial part of which concerns 'advice'. We argue that advice can be viewed as a 'discourse type', and show how it is deployed in the context of the activity types constituted by those meetings. We conduct a detailed qualitative analysis of one audio-recording of a meeting based in England, and then compare it with one based in France, our interpretations being informed by the participants' reflections, especially those of the FLA. We also deploy quantitative analysis and explore whether the patterns identified in our case studies can be generalised. Finally, we reflect on the implications of activity types and discourse types for pragmatics research, particularly politeness theory and cross-cultural pragmatics.


Functional biologists employ numerical differentiation for many purposes, including (1) estimation of maximum velocities and accelerations as measures of behavioral performance, (2) estimation of velocity and acceleration histories for biomechanical modeling, and (3) estimation of curvature, either of a structure during movement or of the path of movement itself. I used a computer simulation experiment to explore the efficacy of ten numerical differentiation algorithms to reconstruct velocities and accelerations accurately from displacement data. These algorithms include the quadratic moving regression (MR), two variants of an automated Butterworth filter (BF1-2), four variants of a method based on the signal9s power spectrum (PSA1-4), an approximation to the Wiener filter due to Kosarev and Pantos (KPF), and both a generalized cross-validatory (GCV) and predicted mean square error (MSE) quintic spline. The displacement data simulated the highly aperiodic escape responses of a rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss and a Northern pike Esox lucius (published previously). I simulated the effects of video speed (60, 125, 250, 500 Hz) and magnification (0.25, 0.5, 1 and 2 screen widths per body length) on algorithmic performance. Four performance measures were compared: the per cent error of the estimated maximum velocity (Vmax) and acceleration (Amax) and the per cent root mean square error over the middle 80 % of the velocity (VRMSE) and acceleration (ARMSE) profiles. The results present a much more optimistic role for numerical differentiation than suggested previously. Overall, the two quintic spline algorithms performed best, although the rank order of the methods varied with video speed and magnification. The MSE quintic spline was extremely stable across the entire parameter space and can be generally recommended. When the MSE spline was outperformed by another algorithm, both the difference between the estimates and the errors from true values were very small. At high video speeds and low video magnification, the GCV quintic spline proved unstable. KPF and PSA2-4 performed well only at high video speeds. MR and BF1-2 methods, popular in animal locomotion studies, performed well when estimating velocities but poorly when estimating accelerations. Finally, the high variance of the estimates for some methods should be considered when choosing an algorithm.


There are two important questions in post-conflict constitution making, and at present neither of them has a definitive or uniformly accepted answer. The first relates to the best configuration of institutions to adopt in order to ameliorate the problem of the intergroup conflict. The second concerns the process most apt to produce the best configuration of institutions, whatever it might be. The first question is unanswered because there is a dispute among scholars and practitioners between two opposing views of appropriate institutions to mitigate conflict. Constitutional processes have not generally been geared to yield coherent exemplars of either configuration in a sufficient number of conflict-prone countries to provide a convincing demonstration of the superiority of one approach or the other. The second question is unanswered because in many cases constitutional processes are chosen in a haphazard fashion, without regard to the aptness of the process for the problems to be addressed. Meanwhile, advocates have been arguing for a single, highly structured, uniform process that may be apt for some classes of problems but is not necessarily appropriate for the full range of problems constitution makers confront in coping with divided societies. Hence the questions of what and how are both subject to debate.This Article takes up both questions. It surveys the main contending prescriptions for constitutional designs to cope with serious ethnic conflict, and it enumerates some of the main objections to each. It then reviews some of the available evidence on the efficacy of the contending prescriptions before turning to the question of adoptability. The Article notes that there are many obstacles to the adoption of a coherent set of political institutions to mitigate conflict, which derive mainly from processes of constitution making. For this reason, the Article evaluates some of the main suggestions in the recent literature on constitutional process and thereafter devotes considerable attention to the difficult question of designing a process for constitution making that is geared to the specific problems faced by constitution designers.


Given a random pair of images, an arbitrary style transfer method extracts the feel from the reference image to synthesize an output based on the look of the other content image. Recent arbitrary style transfer methods transfer second order statistics from reference image onto content image via a multiplication between content image features and a transformation matrix, which is computed from features with a pre-determined algorithm. These algorithms either require computationally expensive operations, or fail to model the feature covariance and produce artifacts in synthesized images. Generalized from these methods, in this work, we derive the form of transformation matrix theoretically and present an arbitrary style transfer approach that learns the transformation matrix with a feed-forward network. Our algorithm is highly efficient yet allows a flexible combination of multi-level styles while preserving content affinity during style transfer process. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach on four tasks: artistic style transfer, video and photo-realistic style transfer as well as domain adaptation, including comparisons with the state-of-the-art methods.


Much of constitutional theory is preoccupied with a single question: What does a democracy owe its minorities? And most of the answers to this question fit naturally into the two categories Albert Hirschman made famous: voice and exit. On both the rights side and the structural side of constitutional theory, scholars worry about providing minorities with an adequate level of influence. And the solutions they propose almost inevitably offer minorities a chance at voice or exit, as if no other option exists. The First Amendment, for instance, offers minorities the right to free speech (voice) and private association (exit). Exit and voice are not, however, the only options available to a minority group seeking influence. That's because much of the nation's administrative structure looks more like Tocqueville's democracy than Weber's bureaucracy. In our highly decentralized and partially politicized system, minorities can wield influence over national policy because they routinely administer it. State officials regularly run federal programs, often with governors and state legislators serving nominally bureaucratic roles. Federal policy is often implemented by local juries and local prosecutors, state and local school boards, and state-created agencies. Because national minorities often constitute local majorities in the United States, these institutional arrangements ensure that those with outlier views help set federal policy. Voice and exit thus aren't the only paths of influence for minorities. Minorities can also exercise agency in their ongoing quarrel with the center because they are often the center's agents.Retooling Hirschman's frame to include agency, then, doesn't just draw our attention to an underappreciated avenue of minority influence. It raises questions as to why voice and exit have entirely dominated constitutional theory — why scholars who are interested in minority empowerment have overlooked the role that administrative arrangements can play in furthering that goal.


The use and application of social media in the healthcare industry is attracting the attention of the researchers worldwide. The usage and application of social media in health communication has presented a new dimension in healthcare for potentially improving health outcomes. However, there has been widespread critique of its application due to the lack of sufficient information, and grounded with a common myth that social media is limited to social interaction and has not found a beneficial usage of its application in the industry. This paper focuses on identifying the real time benefits and limitations which include the social, ideological, and technological usage of social media in the healthcare industry unlike other industries where-in a widespread application has changed the dynamics. The diverse range of social platform which entails collaborative projects, content communities, social networking sites, virtual games and social worlds have been in use already in the healthcare industry but lacks the wider acknowledgement as deserving. Information Technology acceptance has been widely researched in the extant literature. However, studies focusing on the acceptance and usage of social media from the perspectives of healthcare professionals are sparsely represented. To add to the growing work in this arena, we propose a conceptual model appropriate for determining the drivers and barriers of social media usage in the healthcare industry. The study applies unified theory of acceptance and use of technology (UTAUT) model by identifying the existing gaps in the prevalent literature. Some modifications to the extant model were required to fit the purpose of the study. The study shall entail the examination of the drivers and barriers of social media usage of healthcare professionals with some key recommendations for future research. The results of this research will contribute immensely to the limited research available in literature and will have significant implications for practitioners and healthcare professionals in Australia and comparable parts of the world.


The Ukrainian phraseology is constantly evolving; the obsolete and infrequent phraseologisms disappear, instead the new phraseologisms appear and the traditional ones are being updated, changed and evolved. At the same time, not only the component composition of phraseological richness of the Ukrainian language is being changed, but also the understanding of the concept "phraseologism", which determines the relevance of our research and explains its objective – to ascertain which phraseologisms are used by the media in order to attract the reader's attention and to find out the transformations that occur with traditional phraseologisms in the modern editions. Among the methods used to conduct the research, one can mention firstly the general scientific methods: descriptive method; analysis and synthesis; typologization.

Along with general scientific methods, a modern methodology was used to study effectiveness of use of modified phrasemes in the modern media: a discourse analysis, which included the study of interrelations of the text or its unit with other elements and texts, dependence of the text on speech, social and political situation. The study also used a content analysis method aimed at collecting quantitative data about the phenomenon which allowed drawing the objective conclu-sions about the spread and use of phrasemes in the headlines complex.

The article deals with phraseologisms as an actively used language trope in the modern print and online media. It has been found out that in the modern periodicals the phraseologisms become an effective tool for attracting the reader's attention through emotionally-expressive component. The phraseme modification processes that contribute to the relevance of these language constuc-tions are analyzed. The phraseme modification techniques are investigated: complete or partial modification of semantics, adding author's comment, spreading a phraseologism with the help of new components. It is determined that a large part of phraseme used in online media is formed as a result of transformation of traditional stable units through spreading their compo-nent composition, complete or partial modification of semantics.


Internet voting has long been a topic both of public discussion and also of scientific research. While the introduction of Internet voting may bring many advantages, it is further important to ensure an adequate level of security of the systems and underlying schemes that are used for casting and tallying the votes in order to encourage faith and acceptance for this relatively new way of voting.

A number of cryptographic schemes have been proposed, that enable secure Internet voting. One of the most established and well-researched solutions is the Helios scheme, which is also implemented as an open-source system. Both its implementation and the scheme behind it has been extensively studied in the literature, and the Helios system has been used for numerous elections in practice, such as the IACR elections.

However, there are election settings for which Helios is currently not appropriate, either due to infrastructure demands, required functionality for the voters or assurance of the security requirements. These kinds of election settings could benefit from the advantages that secure Internet voting provides.

In this thesis we identify the election settings not currently supported by Helios, propose our extensions for each one of these settings and evaluate their security. Hence, this work describes four Internet voting schemes that are build upon Helios, with each scheme developed towards a specific setting.

The first scheme presented here enables elections within the so-called boardroom voting setting. This setting is characterized by its decentralization, whereby all the tasks within the election are distributively performed by the voters themselves, without the support of a centralized infrastructure. The election in the boardroom voting setting are further conducted in an ad-hoc manner, so that limited time is available for preparation beforehand. We propose an extension of Helios that distributes the tasks of the voting system components in Helios among the voters. For this, we use cryptographic primitives such as decentralized key exchange with short authentication strings, distributed secret sharing and distributed decryption and Byzantine agreement.

The second scheme extends Helios with proxy voting functionality. Proxy voting, as a newly emerged form of voting, enables the voter to delegate her voting right in the election to a trusted third-party, the so-called proxy, who is authorized to vote on the voter's behalf. This extension facilitates such delegation while assuring the security for delegating voters and for the proxies and preserves the security guarantees provided by Helios for the voters who vote directly (instead of delegating). For ensuring the security of our extension, we introduce the so-called delegation credentials that are assigned to the voters and are used to compute anonymized delegation tokens sent to the proxies to enable delegation. We further use cryptographic primitives such as proofs of knowledge and signatures of knowledge.

The third scheme combines the first two settings to extend Helios towards the proxy boardroom voting setting, namely, a setting in which the elections are performed in a decentralized way as in boardroom voting, yet the voters who cannot participate in the election themselves are allowed to delegate their voting right to a trusted proxy before the election. The security of our extension is assured with threshold secret sharing and Pedersen commitments.

The fourth scheme extends Helios by improving its security.
As such, it introduces participation privacy, meaning that the voting system does not reveal which voters have participated in the election, while supporting verification that only the eligible voters have cast their ballots in the election. The extension furthermore introduces receipt-freeness, ensuring that the voter cannot create a receipt that proves to a third party how she voted, thus preventing vote selling. To ensure the security of the extension, a new kind of entity is introduced, the posting trustee, and a new kind of ballot, the so-called dummy ballot that is indistinguishable from a normal ballot cast by the voter, but does not modify the election result. We furthermore use disjunctive zero-knowledge proofs and proofs of signature knowledge to prove, that a sender of a particular ballot knows the private signature key of an eligible voter, or that the ballot is a dummy ballot.

For each one of the extensions, the security model is provided, which describes the security requirements and the assumptions that are necessary for ensuring the security requirements (i.e. vote privacy or vote integrity), is provided. For the first three extensions, the security model is used as a base for the informal security evaluation, in which an informal argument is used to show, that the security requirements hold under the described assumptions. Conducting a formal security evaluation for these extensions is considered an important part of the future work, in which new formal definitions have to be developed.
For the fourth extension, we provide a formal security analysis that relies on the formal definitions for the security requirements of vote privacy, vote integrity and eligibility, available in the literature. We furthermore introduce new formal definitions for participation privacy, receipt-freeness and fairness, which we also use for the formal proofs of our extension.


The present research examined the psychological motives underlying widespread support for intelligent design theory (IDT), a purportedly scientific theory that lacks any scientific evidence; and antagonism toward evolutionary theory (ET), a theory supported by a large body of scientific evidence. We tested whether these attitudes are influenced by IDT's provision of an explanation of life's origins that better addresses existential concerns than ET. In four studies, existential threat (induced via reminders of participants' own mortality) increased acceptance of IDT and/or rejection of ET, regardless of participants' religion, religiosity, educational background, or preexisting attitude toward evolution. Effects were reversed by teaching participants that naturalism can be a source of existential meaning (Study 4), and among natural-science students for whom ET may already provide existential meaning (Study 5). These reversals suggest that the effect of heightened mortality awareness on attitudes toward ET and IDT is due to a desire to find greater meaning and purpose in science when existential threats are activated.


Abstract. Submicron aerosol particles (PM1) were measured in-situ using a High-Resolution Time-of-Flight Aerosol Mass Spectrometer during the summer 2009 Field Intensive Study at Queens College in New York, NY. Organic aerosol (OA) and sulfate are the two dominant species, accounting for 54% and 24%, respectively, of the total PM1 mass. The average mass-based size distribution of OA presents a small mode peaking at ~150 nm (Dva) and an accumulation mode (~550 nm) that is internally mixed with sulfate, nitrate, and ammonium. The diurnal cycles of both sulfate and OA peak between 01:00–02:00 p.m. EST due to photochemical production. The average (±σ) oxygen-to-carbon (O/C), hydrogen-to-carbon (H/C), and nitrogen-to-carbon (N/C) ratios of OA in NYC are 0.36 (±0.09), 1.49 (±0.08), and 0.012 (±0.005), respectively, corresponding to an average organic mass-to-carbon (OM/OC) ratio of 1.62 (±0.11). Positive matrix factorization (PMF) of the high resolution mass spectra identified two primary OA (POA) sources, traffic and cooking, and three secondary OA (SOA) components including a highly oxidized, regional low-volatility oxygenated OA (LV-OOA; O/C = 0.63), a less oxidized, semi-volatile SV-OOA (O/C = 0.38) and a unique nitrogen-enriched OA (NOA; N/C = 0.053) characterized with prominent CxH2x + 2N+ peaks likely from amino compounds. Our results indicate that cooking and traffic are two distinct and mass-equivalent POA sources in NYC, together contributing ~30% of the total OA mass during this study. The OA composition is dominated by secondary species, especially during high PM events. SV-OOA and LV-OOA on average account for 34% and 30%, respectively, of the total OA mass. The chemical evolution of SOA in NYC appears to progress with a continuous oxidation from SV-OOA to LV-OOA, which is further supported by a gradual increase of O/C ratio and a simultaneous decrease of H/C ratio in total OOA. Detailed analysis of NOA (5.8% of OA) presents evidence that organic nitrogen species such as amines might have played an important role in the atmospheric processing of OA in NYC, likely involving both acid-base chemistry and photochemistry. In addition, analysis of air mass trajectories and satellite imagery of aerosol optical depth (AOD) indicates that the high potential source regions of secondary sulfate and aged OA are mainly located in regions to the west and southwest of the city.


This work presents the research conducted during the development of a new optical particle velocity measurement in the field of Cold Spray. Cold Spray is a process for surface coating formation and additive manufacturing, in which powder particles are accelerated by an expanding process gas in a converging-diverging supersonic nozzle and deposited via highspeed impact onto a substrate. Temperatures below the melting point are characteristic for this process, which leads to unique benefits, such as low oxide contents and residual stresses, as well as sprayability of progressive material combinations and temperaturesensitive powders. The core feature of this process is the gas-particle nozzle and jet flow, defining the required high velocities upon impact. Although some aspects can be simulated reasonably well using computational models, the general validity of such is casedependent and coverage of advanced features, such as the particle loading effect, is not yet established. As a result, application challenges like nozzle clogging and the prediction of the deposition efficiency cannot be assessed with these methods. In order to overcome this limitation and to provide means for validation of a new generation of computational models, a new measurement technique is developed in this study. The approach combines the Cold Spray process with a Particle Tracking Velocimetry system and introduces the design of a transparent quartz glass nozzle for internal particle motion measurements. Particle behaviour during powder injection, nozzle-immanent distribution, acceleration as well as particle dispersion within the jet were observed at various pressures and particle loadings. The injector position was varied to study the influence of the particle injection plume and materials were altered to identify differences between distinct Stokes number ranges. The character of the particle phase motion was analysed and particle-particle interactions found to play an important role. Firstly, acceleration of particles in the nozzle were experimentally quantified and the statistical distributions for iii particle speed and direction evaluated, highlighting the importance of randomised motion. This information was used to advance the understanding of nozzle clogging and particle heating residence time. Commercially available software (Ansys FLUENTv16.0 ) was used to construct a computational model with advanced methods, including full phase coupling, particle collisions and a tailored particle phase boundary condition. The value of the presented experimental set-up for advanced model validation was demonstrated by comparing the measurements against the simulation results. Limits of such computational models were identified in this respect: it is necessary to employ an advanced, fully coupled model to obtain adequate velocity predictions, while dispersion characteristics remain challenging also for detailed models. This results in very material-dependent opportunities for computational clogging and heating time analysis. The validation was used to identify ways to manipulate the models for better representation of the nozzle-internal flow physics.


This important new book fills a large gap in legal literature by examining restitution in private international law,including both the jurisdiction and choice of law questions facing restitutionary claims with international elements. The book begins with a brief summary of the English domestic law of restitution and highlights some of the issues which may arise. It goes on to examine classification, or characterisation of restitutionary claims. Restitution has a theoretical unity which enables the author to treat it essentially as a single issue for characterisation purposes. However, restitutionary claims arise in the context of contracts and wrongs; they may be at law or in equity; they may give rise to personal or proprietary remedies, whilst they may be contingent on tracing. Each of these contexts is analysed separately for the purposes of characterisation. The central part of the book examines the choice of law rule for restitutionary issues, and reviews the different approaches adopted in the US and UK and in other parts of the common law world. After weighing the merits of the different approaches the author adopts a choice of law rule for restitutionary issues which is the proper law of the unjust factor. Depending on whether the unjust factor is event-based or law-based, the choice of law rule will focus on either the law of the place, or alternatively, the legal system with which the unjust factor has its closest and most real connection. Jurisdiction is an area of increasing importance in private international law and the book provides a thorough analysis of the topic of jurisdiction for restitutionary claims, both under the Brussels Convention as well as the traditional common law rules contained in the Civil Procedure Rules. This is an important and timely new work for all lawyers interested in restitution, private international law and international commercial litigation.


During 10 years of production, crestal fluid pressures in the Magnus Field (UKCS) have dropped from 6650 psi to under 3500 psi leading to a two- to three-fold increase in the effective stress on the rock fabric. Petroacoustic measurements on cores indicate that this leads to a 12% increase in the acoustic impedance which, in theory, should be detectable using time-lapse seismic data. We analyse the difference between two 3D surveys shot over Magnus and relate this to dynamic changes in fluid pressure and saturation through time. The results demonstrate that, under certain conditions, fluid pressure changes may be detected in the reservoir and that fluid transmissibilities across faults can be deduced. Further, 4D seismic data may detect other dynamic processes, including thermal effects and cold water fracturing around injectors, and stress relaxation and fluid compositional changes around producers.


Abstract Objective: To determine the prevalence of liver function test abnormalities in South African black and Indian adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus attending a tertiary diabetes clinic. Method: The study was a retrospective chart review of patients with type 2 diabetes attending a diabetes clinic. Recorded data included the past medical and drug history, history of alcohol abuse, anthropometry, lipid profile and liver function tests. Results: The charts of 313 patients were reviewed. Liver function test abnormalities were found in 146 patients (46.6%). Of these, 15 patients had a history of alcohol abuse, or a past medical history that might explain the abnormality, and these patients were excluded from further analysis. Elevations in serum gamma-glutamyl transferase, alkaline phosphatase and alanine transaminase were found in 25.2% (n = 79), 23.3% (n = 73) and 15.3% (n = 48), respectively. Serum total cholesterol, triglycerides and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol were higher in the group with liver function test abnormalities when compared with subjects with normal results. Mean body mass index was similar in the two groups (32.5 vs. 33.2 kg/m2). Although morbidly obese patients (n = 42) demonstrated the highest frequency of liver enzyme derangements (54.8%), this was not statistically significant. Conclusion: There is a high prevalence of liver function test abnormalities in this group of patients with type 2 diabetes, and this is particularly so in the morbidly obese subjects. This is comparable with the reported prevalence in the Western world. Lipid abnormalities were more frequent in the group with liver enzyme derangements.


Using a spatial competition framework with three ex ante identical firms, we study the effects of a horizontal merger on quality, price and welfare. The merging firms always reduce quality. They also increase prices if demand responsiveness to quality is sufficiently low. The non-merging firm, on the other hand, always responds by increasing both quality and prices. Overall, a merger leads to higher average prices and quality in the market. The welfare implications of a merger are not clear-cut. If the demand responsiveness to quality is sufficiently high, some consumers benefit from the merger and social welfare might also increase.


HIV-1 Nef is a small myristoylated protein capable of interaction with a diverse array of host cell signaling molecules. Multi-faceted in its function, Nef is a critical accessory factor, essential for high-titer viral replication and AIDS progression. Despite its essential role, the molecular mechanisms of Nef-mediated HIV pathogenicity are not fully understood. Previous biochemical and structural studies have suggested that Nef may form homodimers and higher order oligomers in HIV-infected cells. The studies summarized below investigated the oligomeric status of the HIV-1 nef gene product and its role relative to Nef-mediated function. We explored the formation of Nef oligomers in live cells by adapting a bimolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) assay, a well-defined system in which dimeric protein interactions are observed in live cells. Using this assay, we provided the first direct evidence for Nef oligomerization in vivo. We then assessed the generality of oligomerization by a group of Nef alleles broadly representative of all major HIV-1 subtypes and found oligomerization was highly conserved across all subtypes examined. We then used our BiFC system to define residues previously suggested via X-ray crystallographic studies to comprise the Nef dimerization interface. Using a systematic strategy for the mutagenic profiling of the oligomerization interface, we discovered two classes of residues were critical to Nef oligomerization. BiFC was completely abolished when either all four key hydrophobic interactions were simultaneously removed or when ionic interactions mediated by D123 and R105 were disrupted. Finally, we utilized Nef mutants identified in the mutagenic profiling of the oligomerization interface to explore the effects of oligomeric disruption on Nef function. Screening a panel of Nef mutants with varying degrees of oligomeric disruption we discovered, surprisingly, despite the varying effects on oligomerization, all of these mutants were shown to dramatically disrupt Nef-induced CD4 downregulation and viral replication. Taken together, the studies presented in this dissertation advance the field of HIV research by furthering our understanding of the regulation of Nef-mediated downregulation of CD4 and enhancement of HIV replication as well as validating the Nef oligomerization interface as a potential target for anti-retroviral drug design.


The predominant precursor cell type during cortical neurogenesis are radial glia cells, which receive extrinsic and intrinsic signals that might influence cell proliferation and neurogenesis. These radial glia cells have direct contact to the growth factor rich basement membrane throughout cell division. However, it is not known, how the signals received from the basal cell attachment influence the behavior of radial glia cells in regard to the regulation of cell proliferation and neurogenesis. Therefore, I examined the lamininγ1 (LNγ1) mutant, lacking the contact of radial glial endfeet to the basement membrane, and the α6 integrin-/- with a disturbed assembly of the basement membrane. The analysis of the LNγ1 mutant and the α6 integrin-/- showed no defects in the radial glia progeny, cell proliferation or their orientation of cell division. Thus, these results strongly suggest that the direct contact of radial glia cells to the basement membrane is not required for these aspects. Radial glia cells of the dorsal telencephalon are also known to be specified by the expression of the transcription factor Pax6, which plays a pivotal role in the regulation of cell proliferation, neurogenesis and regionalisation during development of the telencephalon. In order to understand how Pax6 coordinates these diverse functions at the molecular level, the roles of the different DNA-binding domains of Pax6, the paired domain (PD), the splice variant of the paired domain (PD5a) and the homeodomain (HD) were analyzed in loss- and gain-of-function approaches. The analysis of the specific paired domain mutant Pax6Aey18-/-, that lacks large parts of the paired domain, but contains an intact homeodomain and transactivating domain (TAD), showed that the paired domain is required for the regulation of neurogenesis, cell proliferation and regionalisation in the developing telencephalon and eye. The homeodomain plays only a minor role during telencephalic development, in contrast to its function in the eye, as shown by the analysis of Pax64Neu-/- mice, which have a point mutation in the DNA-binding domain of the homeodomain, while paired domain and transactivating domain are still functional. Moreover retrovirus-mediated overexpression of Pax6 and Pax6(5a) in cortical cells showed that splicing of the paired domain regulates between a Pax6 form that affects neurogenesis, and cell proliferation, while the other Pax6 form, containing exon5a, regulates exclusively cell proliferation.


Why do firms concomitantly rely on more than one organizational arrangement to procure/distribute a given input/product? In this paper, we systematically review and discuss the extensive path undergone by the literature exploring this issue: the so-called plural forms.We address two main questions: how to explain the coexistence (and often the prevalence) of plural forms in many types of businesses? Are plural forms stable or a transitory phenomenon? We describe the most prominent motivations identified in the economics and management literature that drive firms to adopt plural forms and show that their vast majority are related to the mitigation of various types of agency/transaction costs.We also demonstrate that most of the available pieces of empirical evidence suggest the stability of plural forms over time. We conclude by demonstrating the path that has been trailed by the most recent developments.


Abstract. For the development of sustainable and realistic water security, generating information on the behaviours, characteristics, and drivers of users, as well as on the resource itself, is essential. In this paper we present a methodology for collecting qualitative and quantitative data on water use practices through semi-structured interviews. This approach facilitates the collection of detailed information on actors' decisions in a convenient and cost-effective manner. Semi-structured interviews are organised around a topic guide, which helps lead the conversation in a standardised way while allowing sufficient opportunity for relevant issues to emerge. In addition, they can be used to obtain certain types of quantitative data. While not as accurate as direct measurements, they can provide useful information on local practices and users' insights. We present an application of the methodology on farmer water use in two districts in the state of Uttar Pradesh in northern India. By means of 100 farmer interviews, information was collected on various aspects of irrigation practices, including irrigation water volumes, irrigation cost, water source, and their spatial variability. Statistical analyses of the information, along with data visualisation, are also presented, indicating a significant variation in irrigation practices both within and between districts. Our application shows that semi-structured interviews are an effective and efficient method of collecting both qualitative and quantitative information for the assessment of drivers, behaviours, and their outcomes in a data-scarce region. The collection of this type of data could significantly improve insights on water resources, leading to more realistic management options and increased water security in the future.


The relationship between rural sociology and rural social work can be traced back to the days of the Country Life Commission (1908), and has experienced many fluctuations throughout the years. This paper examines the interconnections between the developments in the two fields, drawing from historical data which lead to che hypothesis that those fluctuations were caused by forces within each discipline as well as by developments affecting the interactions of each field with the other. It appears that academic and theoretical issues were not alone in causing contention in the relationship between rural sociology and the practice of rural social work. Political moods and market priorities were equally influential.


We describe a quantitative construction of almost-normal diffeomorphisms between embedded orientable manifolds with boundary to be used in the study of geometric variational problems with stratified singular sets. We then apply this construction to isoperimetric problems for planar bubble clusters. In this setting we develop an improved convergence theorem, showing that a sequence of almost-minimizing planar clusters converging in $L^1$ to a limit cluster has actually to converge in a strong $C^{1,\alpha}$-sense. Applications of this improved convergence result to the classification of isoperimetric clusters and the qualitative description of perturbed isoperimetric clusters are also discussed. Analogous results for three-dimensional clusters are presented in part two, while further applications are discussed in some companion papers.


This paper presents a set of results of plate load tests that imposed incremental cyclic loading to a sandy soil bed containing multiple layers of granulated rubber-soil mixture (RSM) at large model scale. Loading and unloading cycles were applied with amplitudes incrementally increasing from 140 to 700 kPa in five steps. A thickness of the RSM layer of approximately 0.4 times the footing diameter was found to deliver the minimum total and residual settlements, irrespective of the level of applied cyclic load. Both the total and residual settlements decrease with increase in the number of RSM layers, regardless of the level of applied cyclic load, but the rate of reduction in both settlements reduces with increase in the number of RSM layers. When the thickness of the RSM layer is smaller, or larger, settlements increase and, at large thicknesses may even exceed those of untreated soil. Layers of the RSM reduced the vertical stress transferred through the foundation depth by distributing the load over a wider area. With the inclusion of RSM layers, the coefficient of elastic uniform compression decreases by a factor of around 3-4. A softer response was obtained when more RSM layers were included beneath the footing damping capacity improves appreciably when the sand bed incorporates RSM layers. Numerical modeling using "FLAC-3D" confirms that multiple RSM layers will improve the performance of a foundation under heavy loading.


Cross-country comparisons in finance use two distinct approaches. Some analyze country averages; others analyze the underlying firm-level data. The influential finding of an inverse relation between the law and ownership concentration is shown to be spurious because country averages have produced misleading results. When data from existing studies is used on a firm basis, the relation between the Anti-Director Rights Index and ownership concentration changes sign, while those involving legal origins and the Anti-Self-Dealing Index lose all significance. The results change because country averages do not control for firm-specific influences, such as firm size, and because firms from tiny countries are over weighted. The use of country averages instead of the underlying firm data is unnecessary and requires implausible assumptions. Other individual and firm-level inferences will also be unreliable when the supporting tests are based on country aggregation.


A new method of chlorination called Pulse-Chlorination was developed by KEMA in 1998. PulseChlorination is based on the principle that mussels and clams, in general have a recovery period before full opening and start filtering after exposure to a chlorination period. The chlorination method takes advantage of this recovery time by using short successive periods of chlorination, alternating with periods without chlorine. The full scale tests on site, among others at E.ON power station 'Maasvlakte' between 1999 and 2003 resulted in extremely clean condensers. The overall result is better performance of the cooling water system (K-value) and therefore less maintenance is necessary. This in turn allows longer intervals between planned outages and brings down the running costs on the basis of circa € 50.000 per day spread out over three years rather than two years.


We consider stochastic multi-armed bandit problems with complex actions over a set of basic arms, where the decision maker plays a complex action rather than a basic arm in each round. The reward of the complex action is some function of the basic arms' rewards, and the feedback observed may not necessarily be the reward per-arm. For instance, when the complex actions are subsets of the arms, we may only observe the maximum reward over the chosen subset. Thus, feedback across complex actions may be coupled due to the nature of the reward function. We prove a frequentist regret bound for Thompson sampling in a very general setting involving parameter, action and observation spaces and a likelihood function over them. The bound holds for discretely-supported priors over the parameter space and without additional structural properties such as closed-form posteriors, conjugate prior structure or independence across arms. The regret bound scales logarithmically with time but, more importantly, with an improved constant that non-trivially captures the coupling across complex actions due to the structure of the rewards. As applications, we derive improved regret bounds for classes of complex bandit problems involving selecting subsets of arms, including the first nontrivial regret bounds for nonlinear MAX reward feedback from subsets.


Background : While religious beliefs and values influence health behaviors, conventional health disparities research rarely examines health outcomes by religious affiliation particularly within multi-ethnic minority communities. Methods : Using a systematic strategy we searched the Medline literature to identify empiric studies that report on health disparities between American Muslims and nonMuslim groups residing in America. In addition to use religious affiliation descriptors for Muslim groups we utilized geographic and ethnicity terms such as "South Asian" or "Pakistani" as proxy terms to help uncover studies of American Muslims. Results : 171 empirical studies were captured. South Asians and Arabs were the most commonly studied groups, and mental health was the most common studied health condition. The overwhelming majority of studies did not assess connections between the Islamic faith and health outcomes. Conclusion: Healthcare disparities among American Muslims remain under-investigated. The few empirical studies of American Muslim groups, or of ethnic groups with large numbers of Muslims, rarely examine relationships between Islam-related factors and health outcomes and thereby miss an opportunity to understand the relationships between religion and health disparities.


The almost ideal demand system (AIDS) is commonly used to study demand for agricultural commodities and groups of commodities. Increasingly, separability has been utilized in conjunction with the AIDS to estimate conditional demand systems as well as to improve upon precision of parameter estimates. The paper shows that separability conditions are inconsistent with use of the AIDS and that tests of separability with the AIDS are problematic.


Technological advancements in research on circulating biomarkers from patient derived blood have enabled a less invasive means of diagnosing non-hematologic cancers. Considered a more practical way of real-time patient monitoring than traditional tumor biopsy, liquid biopsy markers including circulating tumor cells (CTCs), circulating tumor DNA (ctDNA) and extracellular vesicles (EVs) and exosomes certainly have the potential to change the dynamics of cancer management and treatment. Liquid biopsy essentially presents a snapshot of the disease from the primary and/or distant tumor locations and can be utilized for repeated sampling of tumor markers to adjust therapy according to the patient's response to treatment, also known as personalized or precision treatment. In this review, we discuss the research progress in this field with respect to each of the liquid biopsy markers ranging from CTCs, EVs to ctDNA. First, we highlight key CTC technologies that have been commercialized and extensively employed for patient sample analysis. Next, we present some recent developments with regards to exosome and ctDNA research. We then conclude with some future perspectives on the areas of research for these biomarkers. Taken together, we believe these non-invasive capabilities and their potential for diagnostic development can influence treatment selections and aid precision cancer therapies.


HTTP is a successful Internet technology on top of which a lot of the web resides. However, limitations with its current specification, i.e. HTTP/1.1, have encouraged some to look for the next generation of HTTP. In SPDY, Google has come up with such a proposal that has growing community acceptance, especially after being adopted by the IETF HTTPbis-WG as the basis for HTTP/2.0. SPDY has the potential to greatly improve web experience with little deployment overhead. However, we still lack an understanding of its true potential in different environments. This paper seeks to resolve these issues, offering a comprehensive evaluation of SPDY's performance using extensive experiments. We identify the impact of network characteristics and website infrastructure on SPDY's potential page loading benefits, finding that these factors are decisive for SPDY and its optimal deployment strategy. Through this, we feed into the wider debate regarding HTTP/2.0, exploring the key aspects that impact the performance of this future protocol.


This study was conducted to assess the growth performance and survival rate of a commercially important finfish Eleutheronema tetradactylum in 100 m-2 of sandy clay brackish water earthen ponds. Wild 36.14 g of E. tetradactylum juveniles were stocked at 0.5 individuals m-2 and cultured for 45 days by feeding trash Muraenesox sp. (pike eel) at 12 h intervals. Average body weight of E. tetradactylum was found 75±5.6 g for treatment ponds and 65±3.57 g for control ponds at the end of experiment. Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) was 2.3 with the survival rate of 70-80% at the end of the culture in the experimental culture ponds. The results of the present study suggest that the production of four finger thread fin could still be increased up to the marketable size if it is done for 5-6 months culture period by feeding trash fish.