The brain combines and integrates multiple cues to take coherent, context-dependent action using distributed, event-based computational primitives. Computational models that use these principles in software simulations of recurrently coupled spiking neural networks have been demonstrated in the past, but their implementation in hybrid analog/digital Very Large Scale Integration (VLSI) spiking neural networks remains challenging. Here, we demonstrate a distributed spiking neural network architecture comprising multiple neuromorphic VLSI chips able to reproduce these types of cue combination and integration operations. This is achieved by encoding cues as population activities of input nodes in a network of recurrently coupled VLSI Integrate-and-Fire (I&F) neurons. The value of the cue is place-encoded, while its uncertainty is represented by the width of the population activity profile. Relationships among different cues are specified through bidirectional connectivity matrices, shared between the individual input node populations and an intermediate node population. The resulting network dynamics bidirectionally relate not only the values of three variables according to a specified relation, but also their uncertainties. When cues on two populations are specified, the standard deviation of the activity in the unspecified population varies approximately linearly with the widths of the two input cues, and has less than 6% error in position compared to the value specified by the inputs. The results suggest a mechanism for recurrently relating cues such that missing information can both be recovered and assigned a level of certainty.


Detection of drugs at low concentration is required in a variety of biological and medical situations, in order to avoid harmful side effects posed by some drug residues. The book details the instrumentation, detection, and application of nano chromatography (that is, any chromatographic and capillary electrophoretic method dealing with the detection of a sample at nano gram per liter or lower) and capillary electrophoresis in the analyses of biological and environmental samples. Methods discussed include: Nano Gas Chromatography, Nano Capillary Electrophoresis, Nano Chiral Chromatography, Micellar Electrokinetic Chromatography, Supercritical Fluid Chromatography, and Nano High Performance Liquid Chromatography.


In what ways might informational techniques and information technology alter the infrastructure of society? The approach employed in this paper involves a number of fundamental, almost historically determined, conditions for the emergence of an increasingly societal infrastructure. This discussion is then related to analyses of the significance of information and communication technologies (ICT) in terms of ubiquities, agglomerations and clusters. Are there grounds for assuming that these trends are having an impact on the systems of towns and cities of differing sizes and at varying distances? In conclusion, the discussion turns to the issue of whether developments in informational techniques over the past 20 years are leading towards what has been referred to as a digital division of labour and, by extension, also towards a 'digital (societal) infrastructure'.


Seven substances, namely oxytetracycline (antibiotic), ethyloestrenol (synthetic steroid), thyroid (hormone), alfalfa extract (plant material), glucosamine (chemical), prawn shell (animal material) and testosterone (hormone), were selected for evalution as growth promoting agents to add in the diet of the prawn Penaeus indicus. These substances each was incorporated in a purified diet consisting of casein, starch, sucrose, cod-liver oil, cholesterol, vitamins, minerals and cellulose. The diets supplemented with testosterone, glucosamine, prawn shell and alfalfa extract, respectively at levels 2.5 mg, 0.8 g, 0.8 g and 2.0 ml per 100 g of diet, produced faster growth, higher survival and better food conversion ratio than the control diet did. Testosterone gave the best results, the other substances in the order of efficiency being glucosamine, prawn shell and alfalfa extract. The diets supplemented with oxytetracycline, ethyloestrenol and thyroid, respectively at levels 10 mg. 0.5 mg and 1.0 mg per 100 g of diet, gave no better result in growth, survival rate and food conversion ratio than the control. Presenting the details ot the evaluation results, the effect of these seven substances on the body composition of the prawns is discussed.


Inhibitors against the NS3-4A protease of hepatitis C virus (HCV) have proven to be useful drugs in the treatment of HCV infection. Although variants have been identified with mutations that confer resistance to these inhibitors, the mutations do not restore replicative fitness and no secondary mutations that rescue fitness have been found. To gain insight into the molecular mechanisms underlying the lack of fitness compensation, we screened known resistance mutations in infectious HCV cell culture with different genomic backgrounds. We observed that the Q41R mutation of NS3-4A efficiently rescues the replicative fitness in cell culture for virus variants containing mutations at NS3-Asp168. To understand how the Q41R mutation rescues activity, we performed protease activity assays complemented by molecular dynamics simulations, which showed that protease-peptide interactions far outside the targeted peptide cleavage sites mediate substrate recognition by NS3-4A and support protease cleavage kinetics. These interactions shed new light on the mechanisms by which NS3-4A cleaves its substrates, viral polyproteins and a prime cellular antiviral adaptor protein, the mitochondrial antiviral signaling protein MAVS. Peptide binding is mediated by an extended hydrogen-bond network in NS3-4A that was effectively optimized for protease-MAVS binding in Asp168 variants with rescued replicative fitness from NS3-Q41R. In the protease harboring NS3-Q41R, the N-terminal cleavage products of MAVS retained high affinity to the active site, rendering the protease susceptible for potential product inhibition. Our findings reveal delicately balanced protease-peptide interactions in viral replication and immune escape that likely restrict the protease adaptive capability and narrow the virus evolutionary space.


Cardiovascular disease (CVD), which includes coronary heart disease and stroke, remains the major killer in the EU, being responsible for 42% of total mortality. The amount and composition of dietary fat is arguably the most important dietary factor contributing to disease risk. A significant body of consistent evidence indicates that a decrease in dietary saturated fat:unsaturated (polyunsaturated + monounsaturated) ratio and an increased intake of long-chain n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (LC n-3 PUFA) found in fish, is cardioprotective. Furthermore, although the evidence is currently less convincing, such a strategy is also likely to improve insulin sensitivity, the central metabolic defect in diabetes. Currently in the UK only 12% of men, 17% of women and 8% of children have an SFA intakes <10% of energy. The average intake of LC n-3 PUFA is <0.2 g/day, which is less than half the current conservative recommendation of a minimum of 0.45 g/day. Public health strategies to reverse these dietary fatty acid imbalances, aimed at educating and motivating the consumer and making affordable and acceptable food products with an 'enhanced' fatty acid profile more widely available, must remain a public health priority in the 'fight' against CVD.


Sensor networks consist of autonomous wireless sensor nodes that are networked together in an ad hoc fashion. The tiny nodes are equipped with substantial processing capabilities, enabling them to combine and compress their sensor data. The aim is to limit the amount of network traffic, and as such conserve the nodes' limited battery energy. However, due to the small packet payload, the MAC header is a significant, and energy-costly, overhead. To remedy this, we propose a novel scheme for a MAC address assignment. The two key features which make our approach unique are the exploitation of spatial address reuse and an encoded representation of the addresses in data packets. To assign the addresses, we develop a purely distributed algorithm that relies solely on local message exchanges. Other salient features of our approach are the ability to handle unidirectional links and the excellent scalability of both the assignment algorithm and address representation. In typical scenarios, the MAC overhead is reduced by a factor of three compared to existing approaches.


This thesis describes the design of a robotic inspection tool which is based on a differential track-drive platform. The robotic inspection tool is a one man-portable UGV that has been developed for the purpose of non-destructive evaluation (NDE) and internal inspection of environments where human penetration may be difficult or hazardous. Various NDE and sensing techniques are described in this paper but the focus is on the mechanical and electrical design of the platform itself. The platform is a versatile device for mobile robotics research and development that supports a wide variety of instrumentation and payloads. Variable height control of the payload is achieved with a scissor lift assembly that provides accurate positioning of equipped sensors and instrumentation. The architecture of the platform was designed to support future autonomous implementations.


When William Beebe needed to know what was going on in the depths of the ocean, he had himself lowered a half-mile down in a four-foot steel sphere to see-five times deeper than anyone had ever gone in the 1930s. When he wanted to trace the evolution of pheasants in 1910, he trekked on foot through the mountains and jungles of the Far East to locate every species. To decipher the complex ecology of the tropics, he studied the interactions of every creature and plant in a small area from the top down, setting the emerging field of tropical ecology into dynamic motion. William Beebe's curiosity about the natural world was insatiable, and he did nothing by halves. As the first biographer to see the letters and private journals Beebe kept from 1887 until his death in 1962, science writer Carol Grant Gould brings the life and times of this groundbreaking scientist and explorer compellingly to light. From the Galapagos Islands to the jungles of British Guiana, from the Bronx Zoo to the deep seas, Beebe's biography is a riveting adventure. A best-selling author in his own time. Beebe was a fearless explorer and thoughtful scientist who put his life on the line in pursuit of knowledge. The unique glimpses he provided into the complex web of interactions that keeps the earth alive and breathing have inspired generations of conservationists and ecologists. This exciting biography of a great naturalist brings William Beebe at last to the recognition he deserves.


The second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic is exacerbating in most of the countries creating a state of international alert. After a year of COVID-19 emergence, while some COVID-19 vaccines are currently being produced and available, new concerns regarding their safety and efficacy are coming up particularly with the emergence of mutated strains of SARS-CoV-2 virus. Here, we propose an alternative, inexpensive and natural approach that could attenuate or/and eliminate the respiratory symptoms of COVID-19 by inhalation of body temperature aerosolized-honey and propolis tincture particularly in developing countries. Vapor inhalation of this mixture might also fight the virus, modulate the immune system, and attenuate the exaggerated inflammatory response of COVID-19 before, during or after it occurs. This strategy could also be important as a home remedy and for healthcare employees since they need to take preventative measures at any time. ARTICLE HISTORY Received: February 08, 2021 Accepted: February 22, 2021 Published: March 01, 2021


Poor selectivity and high discard rate of hand-woven slack knotted codend is a serious problem for north eastern Mediterranean demersal fish stocks. This study investigates the effect of codend circumference on bottom trawl selectivity for red mullet (Mullus barbatus), bogue (Boops boops), goldband goatfish (Upeneus moluccensis), Randall's threadfin bream (Nemipterus randalli) and picarel (Spicara smaris). A total of 18 valid hauls were conducted using covered codend method between 08 October and 26 December 2012 in Mersin Bay. Results show that selectivity of commercially used standard codend (300 meshes around its circumference) is rather poor and the narrow codend (150 meshes around its circumference) significantly increases selectivity for tested species. However, it is not selective enough to avoid the individuals of five commercial species under the MLS or FMS.


Abstract Extensive rearing of monarch larvae (Danaus plexippus L.) through the citizen science Monarch Larva Monitoring Project (MLMP) revealed that monarchs' primary parasitoids are flies in the family Tachinidae and that these parasitoids result in appreciable larval mortality. We document the tachinid community that attacks monarchs in the United States, evaluate their relative frequency, and examine variation in their specificity, oviposition strategy, and use of host stages. Based on results of rearing >20,000 monarchs by MLMP volunteers, overall parasitism by tachinids across life stages was 9.8% (17% for monarchs collected as fifth instars). We identified the flies that emerged from 466 monarch hosts, and found seven Tachinidae species. In decreasing order of frequency, these included Lespesia archippivora (Riley), Hyphantrophaga virilis (Aldrich & Webber), Compsilura concinnata (Meigen), Leschenaultia n. sp., Madremyia saundersii (Williston), Lespesia sp., and Nilea erecta (Coquillett). Lespesia sp., Leschenaultia n. sp., and N. erecta had not been previously reported as monarch parasitoids, and Leschenaultia n. sp. is apparently undescribed. We include new state records (Texas and Iowa) for C. concinnata. Lespesia archippivora and C. concinnata were overrepresented as parasitoids of later instars and were absent from monarchs collected as eggs, but H. virilis and Leschenaultia sp., which lay their eggs on foliage, were reared from caterpillars collected as eggs. To our knowledge, we include the first report of multiparasitism of monarchs, in which more than one parasitoid species emerged from a host. The biology of the tachinid parasitoids we identified and their relationship with monarchs is examined.


Background: Patients surviving hospitalisation for COVID-19 are thought to be at high risk of cardiometabolic and pulmonary complications, but quantification of that risk is limited. We aimed to describe the overall burden of these complications in people after discharge from hospital with COVID-19. Methods: Working on behalf of NHS England, we used linked primary care records, death certificate and hospital data from the OpenSAFELY platform. We constructed three cohorts: patients discharged following hospitalisation with COVID-19, patients discharged following pre-pandemic hospitalisation with pneumonia, and a frequency-matched cohort from the general population in 2019. We studied seven outcomes: deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), ischaemic stroke, myocardial infarction (MI), heart failure, AKI and new type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) diagnosis. Absolute rates were measured in each cohort and Fine and Gray models were used to estimate age/sex adjusted subdistribution hazard ratios comparing outcome risk between discharged COVID-19 patients and the two comparator cohorts. Results: Amongst the population of 77,347 patients discharged following hospitalisation with COVID-19, rates for the majority of outcomes peaked in the first month post-discharge, then declined over the following four months. Patients in the COVID-19 population had markedly higher risk of all outcomes compared to matched controls from the 2019 general population. Across the whole study period, the risk of outcomes was more similar when comparing patients discharged with COVID-19 to those discharged with pneumonia in 2019, although COVID-19 patients had higher risk of T2DM (15.2 versus 37.2 [rate per 1,000-person-years for COVID-19 versus pneumonia, respectively]; SHR, 1.46 [95% CI: 1.31 - 1.63]). Conclusions: Risk of cardiometabolic and pulmonary adverse outcomes is markedly raised following discharge from hospitalisation with COVID-19 compared to the general population. However, excess risks were similar to those seen following discharge post-pneumonia. Overall, this suggests a large additional burden on healthcare resources.


We are all committed to keeping health data private; and whilst Navarro and Neame have completely different models their very different approaches both seek to mitigate the same risks. Both authors make a valuable contribution to this current debate. Navarro suggest we should measure 'privacy risk breach' and to present a simple theoretical framework for its assessment (privacy risk breech = nature of the data x trust). Neame urges us to think carefully and separately about the context and content of data and to adopt strict rules for sharing context. He also presents a much more patient-centred framework for sharing health data, and health card controlled data access. Hinds presents a model whereby researchers can continue to utilise these data goldmines - something the public currently support. However, this is not support we should take for granted and active engagement of the public in this research and the past and current consultations are to be welcomed in this context. Emerging professionalism in informatics should help develop better definitions and core generaliseable theory about risks to patients' privacy about how to mitigate them; but more importantly informaticians who can be trusted. Further research is needed to explore how to measure the risks and consequences of privacy breach. However, if sharing of health data is blocked then patients may continue to suffer because information known about them in one part of the health system is not made available in another; and research which might improve patient care will not be done. Informatics groups should not allow themselves the luxury of adopting an unconstructive critical approach - but instead should either support current consensus statements or come up with specific proposals of how these might be improved. © 2008 PHCSG, British Computer Society.


Current research shows that emotions have an important role in guiding attention and cognitions especially when the emotional stimuli are affective. Load theory proposes that when the perceptual load on attention is sufficiently high, irrelevant emotional stimuli is no longer attended to and thus will not produce a distracting effect. In this study 18 participants performed two discrimination tasks where their attention was manipulated spatially. To investigate the effect of spatial attention on ERP components, emotional pictures in 14 different semantic categories were shown while EEG was recorded. The results indicate that a successful perceptual load was achieved, reflected in the behavioral data that show there was a clear difference in performance between tasks. Further the results indicate that a strong effect was achieved in the mean amplitudes of both EPN and LPP corresponding to the semantic categories of pictures. Critically directing the attention to the periphery while emotionally salient pictures were presented attenuated the mean amplitude of both EPN and LPP.


Multiphase catalytic processes involve the combination of scale-dependent and scale-independent phenomena, often resulting in a compromised, sub-optimal performance. The classical approach of randomly packed catalyst beds using unstructured catalyst particles may be outperformed by the careful design of the catalyst at the nano-scale and by the judicious choice and design of reactor. Application of structured catalysts and reactor internals and the combination of advanced reactor and catalyst systems with in situ separation allow decoupling the various phenomena involved, opening the way to intensified processes on a large scale. The integral approach of Catalysis and Reaction Engineering discussed here will play a pivotal role in the development of novel, future-proof processes.


In this letter, poly(vinylidene difluoride) (PVDF)/(Y0.97Eu0.03)2O3 rare-earth nanocomposites were prepared by a simple co-precipitation method, and their morphology, structure, and optical properties were investigated. The scanning electron microscope (SEM) images showed that the (Y0.97Eu0.03)2O3 rare-earth nanoparticles formed 50 nm-2 µm aggregates in PVDF matrices. X-ray diffraction (XRD) curves indicated the incorporation and structure preserving of (Y0.97Eu0.03)2O3 nanoparticles in PVDF matrices. Photoluminescence (PL) spectra of the nanocomposite showed a characteristic red light emission at 612 nm, which was attributed to the intrinsic emission of (Y0.97Eu0.03)2O3 nanoparticles. Optical band gap (Eg) of the nanocomposite exhibited a decreasing trend with the increase of (Y0.97Eu0.03)2O3 content in PVDF matrices within the experimental dosage range.


It would not be too much to say that myth is the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation. Religions, philosophies, arts, the forms of primitive and historic man, prime discoveries in science and technology, the very dreams that blister sleep, boil up from the basic, magic ring of myth. —Joseph Campbell, The Hero with a Thousand Faces


Actin and ezrin networks limit signaling through the BCR by restricting its mobility. The B cell receptor (BCR) consists of a membrane immunoglobulin (IgM or IgD) that binds to antigen and a transmembrane immunoglobulin heterodimer (Igα and Igβ) that mediates signaling. The BCR can generate a tonic signal in the absence of antigen stimulation, although the underlying mechanisms have been unclear (see also Sasaki and Kurosaki). Treanor et al. proposed that the mobility of the BCR in the plasma membrane was linked to its ability to induce tonic signaling. The authors performed total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy (TIRFM) and found that although some fluorescently labeled BCRs were highly mobile within the plasma membrane, most showed slow, restricted diffusion in naive, unstimulated primary B cells. A chimera consisting of the extracellular domain of IgM fused to the transmembrane and cytoplasmic domain of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class I (IgM-H2 BCR) was more mobile than wild-type IgM, an effect that was rescued by replacing the MHC class I intracellular domain with that of Igβ. BCRs in areas of high actin density were less mobile than those in areas of low actin density. Wild-type BCRs rarely exited actin-rich areas, whereas the IgM-H2 chimera entered and exited actin-rich areas. The slow-diffusing BCRs that were detected outside actin-rich areas were located in networks rich in the cytoskeletal protein ezrin. Agents that disrupted actin polymerization (such as latrunculin A, cytochalasin D, and jasplakinolide) induced events typical of B-cell activation in naive B cells, such as intracellular increases in calcium concentration and phosphorylation of extracellular signal–regulated kinase (ERK). However, these signaling events were reduced in latrunculin A–treated cells lacking signaling molecules downstream of the BCR, including phospholipase C γ2 (PLCγ2) and the guanine nucleotide exchange factors Vav1 and Vav2. Disruption of the actin cytoskeleton increased the mobility of the BCR, and increasing concentrations of cytochalasin D correlated with increases in intracellular calcium concentration. Furthermore, BCR mobility was reduced in B cells lacking PLCγ2 or Vav1 and Vav2. Thus, the authors propose that the cytoskeleton restricts the diffusion of the BCR, and thereby its ability to initiate signal transduction events, and that tonic signaling is mediated by the mobile fraction of BCR in the plasma membrane. B. Treanor, D. Depoil, A. Gonzalez-Granja, P. Barral, M. Weber, O. Dushek, A. Bruckbauer, F. D. Batista, The membrane skeleton controls diffusion dynamics and signaling through the B cell receptor. Immunity 32, 187–199 (2010). [PubMed] Y. Sasaki, T. Kurosaki, Immobile BCRs: The safety on the signal trigger. Immunity 32, 143–144 (2010). [PubMed]


In this paper, we show the method to increase the temperature tolerance with wavelength tuning in the holographic data storage. Photopolymer media is sensitive to thermal environment so this compensation method should be required to keep low BER with the temperature change. We actually demonstrate to keep high SNR with temperature change by using the wavelength tuning blue ECLD that is under development. Also we numerically show the temperature tolerance in some compensation method i.e. the angle changing method, the wavelength tuning method, and the angle and wavelength tuning (hybrid) method.


Snow water equivalent (SWE) sensors can experience errors when the base of the snow cover is at the melting temperature, the snow can support shear stresses (assumed to occur at densities greater than 200 kg m−3), and the rate of snowmelt on the sensor is different than on the surrounding ground. Either undermeasurement or overmeasurement errors may occur at critical times when the snow cover transitions from winter to spring conditions and at the start of periods of rapid snowmelt. Parameters to determine the onset of SWE sensor undermeasurement errors are defined by a negative rate of change for SWE, a negative rate of change for snow density, and an increasing snow depth. For the onset of overmeasurement errors, the rate of change for SWE will be positive while snow depth decreases and the snow density rate of change exceeds a defined positive threshold. When the snow temperature and density error conditions and the three under‐ or over‐measurement error‐indicator parameters are satisfied at the same time, an SWE sensor error has started. Real‐time correction of the errors is done by multiplying the average snow cover density, set at the start of the error, with the snow depth. Once the error event ends, when the corrected SWE and SWE sensor data intersect, SWE is again determined from SWE sensor measurements. SWE sensor errors were accurately detected and corrected for five different sensors located in maritime and intermountain climatic zones when high‐quality SWE sensor, snow or air temperature, and snow depth measurements were available. Implementation of the error detection and correction method requires simultaneous measurements of SWE, snow depth, and snow temperature near the ground. Improved error correction can be achieved by incorporating precipitation data and estimates of snow density due to retained rain or snow melt. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


A series of pyrope single crystals up to 2 mm in size was synthesized over a range of hydrothermal pressures of 20.0 to 50.0 kbar and temperatures of 800 to 1200 °C using
different starting materials (oxides, glass, gel) and fluid fluxes (H_2O, NaOH, HCl). The crystals were characterized by optical, SEM, microprobe, and X-ray techniques. Single
crystal Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopy was used to measure the incorporated structural OH^-. Spectra measured in the region of 4000-3000 cm^(-1) wavenumbers
were different for all samples grown from oxides or glass vs. those grown from the gel at temperatures less than 1000 °C. In spectra obtained at room temperature the former are
characterized by a single OH^- stretching vibration at 3629 cm^(-1), full widths at half-height (FWHH) = 60 cm^(-1), which is present regardless of the synthesis conditions (P, T or fluid flux). At 78 K, the single band splits into two narrow bands of FWHH of 11 cm^(-1) each. The unit-cell dimension of pyrope increases up to 0.004 A with the incorporation of OH^-. The best interpretation of these data is that OH^- defects are introduced into the pyrope
structure as a hydrogarnet component where (O_4H_4)^(4-) = SiO^(4-)_4, i.e., by the substitution Si^(4+) + 4O^2 - = ^[4]□ + 40H^-. The amount of OH^- substitution into pyrope ranges from 0.02 to 0.07 wt% expressed as H_2O. The infrared (IR) spectra of pyropes grown from a gel starting material, at temperatures less than 1000 °C, display four band spectra, which indicate that OH^- substitution is not governed solely by the hydrogarnet substitution. Natural pyrope-rich garnets generally have lower OH^- concentrations and more complicated IR spectra than the synthetic pyrope crystals grown from oxides. This is assumed
to be caused by crystal chemistry differences and probably different mechanisms of OH^- incorporation.


Innovation has long been recognised as the mainspring of economic growth. But only in the last two decades or so has economic theory started to come to grips with the complexity of cause and effect in technological progress. In this paper, the author shows a relationship between innovation and its uncertainty; between sources of innovative strategies and typical innovation strategies. It can be a short framework to encompass the basic question of the "who, what, when, and where" of innovation, combining theoretical discussion with abundant examples. Because of the crucial importance of innovation, this text can be a guidance for those who are looking to understand the value of innovation.


Many aspects of materials deformation and failure are controlled by atomic-scale phenomena that can be explored using molecular statics and molecular dynamics simulations. However, many of these phenomena involve processes on multiple length scales with the result that full molecular statics/molecular dynamics simulations of the entire system are too large to be tractable. In this review, we discuss hybrid models that perform molecular statics/molecular dynamics simulations "without all the atoms," aimed at retaining atomistic detail at a fraction of the computational cost. These methods couple a fully atomistic model in critical regions to regions described by less-expensive continuum methods where they can provide an adequate representation of the important physics. We give an overview of the challenges such models present, with a focus on recent work to address issues of dynamics and finite (non-zero) temperature.


Using a representative sample of Italian workers ag ed 55 and above, we study their preference for anticipated retirement and their willingness to pay for a year of anticipation after the recent Italian pension reform (2011), which significantly restricted the access conditions to retirement. We distinguish workers by gender and ac cording to whether they have been obliged to postpone their exit by the reform. The preferenc e for anticipated retirement is particularly strong for women and for workers who were directly affected by the reform. As for the "willingness to pay" to anticipate retirement, ther e is no systematic difference between the two categories, and this finding is common to both men and women. We also investigate whether informal care duties play a role in explaining the willingness to pay, and we find that the effect differs across genders. Women who are involved in i nformal care of children are willing to pay significantly more than women who are not caregiver s and more than men. Our findings suggest that retirement policies produce side effec ts, which differ according to both gender and being a caregiver or not. These effects signal that when a pension system performs further tasks than the provision of retirement income, its reform may cause social mismatches unless supplemented by appropriate changes in other social programmes.


Introduction: The purpose of this study was: 1) compare the flexibility and strength levels and 2) investigate possible functional asymmetries in flexibility in gymnasts from two National Teams of Rhythmic Gymnastics. Material and Methods: Participants included nine gymnasts from Brazilian National Team (BNT) (20.8±1.9 years) and four gymnasts from Portuguese National Team (PNT) (15.8±1.3 years). Ten specific flexibility tests and six specific strength tests were used. The Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests were applied. Results and Conclusions: The Brazilian National Team was composed by older gymnasts with more years of practice than Portuguese National Team. The groups obtained similar training volume. Brazilian  gymnasts showed an advantage in all strength tests, although significant differences were observed in 66.7% of tests. On the other hand, the Portuguese gymnasts reached higher results than Brazilian gymnasts in the spine and shoulders flexibility, although without statistical significance, as well as lower levels of functional asymmetries. In the lower limbs flexibility, the groups showed excellent results with preferred lower limb. However, functional asymmetries in the flexibility tests were found in 88.9% and 50% of Brazilian and Portuguese gymnasts, respectively. Therefore, we cannot observe an absolute superiority of one National Team in the motor performance.


Quadratic discriminant analysis is a common tool for classification, but estimation of the Gaussian parameters can be ill-posed. This paper contains theoretical and algorithmic contributions to Bayesian estimation for quadratic discriminant analysis. A distribution-based Bayesian classifier is derived using information geometry. Using a calculus of variations approach to define a functional Bregman divergence for distributions, it is shown that the Bayesian distribution-based classifier that minimizes the expected Bregman divergence of each class conditional distribution also minimizes the expected misclassification cost. A series approximation is used to relate regularized discriminant analysis to Bayesian discriminant analysis. A new Bayesian quadratic discriminant analysis classifier is proposed where the prior is defined using a coarse estimate of the covariance based on the training data; this classifier is termed BDA7. Results on benchmark data sets and simulations show that BDA7 performance is competitive with, and in some cases significantly better than, regularized quadratic discriminant analysis and the cross-validated Bayesian quadratic discriminant analysis classifier Quadratic Bayes.


Despite the fact that much research has been devoted to understanding the effect of performance-contingent monetary incentives on individuals' effort provision, little attention has been dedicated toward understanding whether a sequence of changes in the amount of piece rate an individual receives affects performance. In this paper we examine how effort provision of participants varies in a three-period laboratory setting in which different performance based compensation schemes are implemented for two differentiated tasks. The first task, consisting of downward counting from a big number while each time subtracting a fixed quantity, is considered relatively more challenging, while the second task consisting of counting the number of A's in a paragraph is considered relatively less challenging.
Our findings are as follows:
(1) Performance contingent incentives affect participants' effort provision.
(2) The effect is task dependent and it is much stronger for the less challenging task.
(3) A unique increase in the amount of piece rate leads to an increase in performance only in the less challenging task.
(4) A decrease in piece rate incentive negatively affects subjects' performance on both tasks, but only provided that the decrease follows a previous increase.


Knowledge is maintained as a core variable for growth in a large set of contemporary theories. In this paper, we analyze the relationship between knowledge accessibility and regional growth. The knowledge resource used in our model R&D conducted at universities and in companies. A precise definition of accessibility was introduced and calculations were based on actual travel time distances. Using data at the municipality level in Sweden, the hypothesis that knowledge accessibility has a positive effect on growth cannot be rejected. The knowledge accessibility in a given period has a statistically significant effect on the growth in value-added per employee in subsequent periods. The total accessibility of a municipality was divided into three types, (i) intra-municipal accessibility, (ii) intra-regional accessibility and (iii) extra-regional accessibility. The paper has shown that this division gives a clear indication of that there is spatial dependence in the sense that the knowledge resources in a given municipality tend to have a positive effect on the growth of another municipality, conditional on that the municipalities belongs to the same functional region. Thus, the results of the analysis indicate that knowledge flows transcend municipal borders, but that they tend to be bounded within functional regions. The findings in the paper provide support for the theories that emphasize the role of knowledge for growth. However, the paper demonstrates that spatial proximity to knowledge resources is important to materialize the positive effect of such resources. Accessibility to knowledge in space is thus imperativ


Over the last two decades, the use of company stock and options thereon to compensate and motivate employees has become widespread. Defenders of stock-based compensation argue that it creates value for shareholders because it encourages employees to work harder and with a common purpose. Critics, however, are less sure and stock-based compensation has come under heavy attack from investors, commentators and academics. Critics argue that it imposes excessive risk on employees and overstates net income. To date, there has been very little detailed legal or economic analysis of the tax efficiency of stock-based compensation. What serious work there has been has generally concluded that such mechanisms are inefficient, perhaps highly inefficient. Clearly, given the heavy use of stock-based compensation and thus the substantial tax costs firms would incur if it were tax inefficient, measuring the tax saving or cost from stock-based compensation is an important gap in the debate over the wisdom of its heavy use. In this paper, I define tax efficiency and develop a methodology for assessing whether a compensation mechanism is tax efficient. I then apply that methodology to various forms of stock-based compensation. I show that there is no general answer to the question whether stock-based compensation mechanisms are efficient. Instead, I show that the tax efficiency of such mechanisms depends upon several factors, including tax rates, what investment (if any) the grant displaces, and how the displaced investment would have been held. As a result, the efficiency of stock-based compensation can vary across employers and even across employees of the same employer. Accordingly, I cabin the efficiency cost of stock-based compensation over a wide range of circumstances and show that under reasonable assumptions stock-based compensation can produce a joint net tax benefit to employer and employee.


A recent phenomenon on the Web is the emergence and proliferation of new social media systems allowing social interaction between people. One of the most popular of these systems is Wikipedia that allows users to create content in a collaborative way. Despite its current popularity, not much is known about how users interact with Wikipedia and how it has evolved over time. In this paper we aim to provide a first, extensive study of the user behavior on Wikipedia and its evolution. Compared to prior studies, our work differs in several ways. First, previous studies on the analysis of the user workloads (for systems such as peer-to-peer systems [10] and Web servers [2]) have mainly focused on understanding the users who are accessing information. In contrast, Wikipedia's provides us with the opportunity to understand how users create and maintain information since it provides the complete evolution history of its content. Second, the main focus of prior studies is evaluating the implication of the user workloads on the system performance, while our study is trying to understand the evolution of the data corpus and the user behavior themselves. Our main findings include that (1) the evolution and updates of Wikipedia is governed by a self-similar process, not by the Poisson process that has been observed for the general Web [4, 6] and (2) the exponential growth of Wikipedia is mainly driven by its rapidly increasing user base, indicating the importance of its open editorial policy for its current success. We also find that (3) the number of updates made to the Wikipedia articles exhibit a power-law distribution, but the distribution is less skewed than those obtained from other studies.


One of the central tenets of the embodied theory of language comprehension is that the process of understanding prompts the same perceptuo-motor activity involved in actual perception and action. This activity is a component of comprehension that is not memory–dependent and is hypothesized to be intact in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Each article in this thesis is aimed at answering the question whether individuals with probable AD, healthy older adults and younger adults show differences in their performance on tests where perceptual and motoric priming take place during language comprehension. The second question each article asks is whether language comprehension in AD can be facilitated by the specific use of this perceptual and motoric priming.

Article I examines whether the way individuals with pAD represent verbs spatially matches the way healthy older and younger adults do, and how stable these representations are. It also explores in what way spatial representations may relate to verb comprehension, more specifically, whether representations matching the norms translate into a better quality of verb comprehension.

Article II tests the interaction between the verbs' spatial representations taking place during comprehension and perceptual cues - compatible and incompatible to the representations - in order to investigate whether individuals with pAD show differences in susceptibility to perceptual cues, compared to healthy older and younger participants. The second aim of this article is to explore in what way performance on a word-picture verification task can be affected, with reference to the fact that in previous studies on young participants, both priming and interference have resulted from the interaction of linguistic and perceptual processing.

Article III explores the Action Compatibility Effect (ACE) (Glenberg & Kaschak, 2002) with the aim of finding out whether the ACE exists for volunteers with pAD and whether it can facilitate language comprehension. The order of presentation of language and movement is manipulated to establish whether there is a reciprocal relationship between them. This information could be crucial in view of possible applications to individuals with pAD.

These articles test, for the first time, the effects of the manipulation of the perceptuo-motor component during language comprehension in individuals with pAD; they are intended as a methodological exploration contributing to a better understanding of the potential of embodiment principles to support language comprehension changes associated with pAD. Embodiment effects need to be studied further with a view to putting them to use in either clinical or real-life applications.


The practice of assessments in third level education is extremely important and a rarely
disputed part of the university curriculum as a method to demonstrate a student's learning.
However, assessments to test a student's knowledge and level of understanding are
challenging to apply given recent trends which are showing that student numbers are
increasing, student demographics are wide ranging and resources are being stretched. As a
result of these emerging challenges, lecturers are required to develop a comprehensive
assessment to effectively demonstrate student learning, whilst efficiently managing large
class sizes. One form of assessment which has been used for efficient assessment is multiple
choice questions (MCQs); however this method has been criticised for encouraging surface
learning, in comparison to other methods such as essays or case studies. This research explores the impact of blended assessment methods on student learning. This
study adopts a rigorous three-staged qualitative methodology to capture third level lecturers'
and students' perception to (1) the level of learning when using MCQs; (2) the level of
learning when blended assessment in the form of case based MCQs are used. The findings
illuminate the positive impact of cased based MCQs as students and lecturers suggest that it
leads to a higher level of learning and deeper information processing over that of MCQs
without case studies. The implications of this research is that this type of assessment contributes to the current
thinking within literature on the use of assessments methods, as well as the blending of
assessment methods to reach a higher level of learning. It further serves to reinforce the belief
that assessments are the greatest influence on students' learning, and the requirement for both
universities and lecturers to reflect on the best form of assessment to test students' level of
understanding, whilst also balancing the real challenges of large class size teaching.


This thesis investigates, at the country level, the relationship between innovation output or generation of new technology and input factors such as stock of knowledge, research effort and institutional factors such as competition and intellectual property rights.It is shown that variations in generation of new technology reflect differences in knowledge stock, research effort, product market competition and other institutional factors of OECD countries. The available stock of knowledge and the research effort was shown to have a linear and positive effect on technology generation. It was also shown that the degree of product market competition has a nonlinear effect on technology growth, thereby confirming on a country-level an inverted-U relationship between competition and innovation.Generation of new knowledge was examined using a knowledge production function with annual and accumulated knowledge measured with a patent indicator based on a worldwide count of patent priority filings. A cross-sectional linear regression model was used with secondary data. Independent variables included were the main variables accumulated stock of patent priority filings, the number of FTE researchers in R&D and the Product Market Regulation Index. Institutional bias was accounted for by including the independent variables Index of Patent Rights, administrative patenting fees and a Global Competitiveness Index. The Global Competitiveness index was found to have positive effect on patent productivity and the administrative patenting fees relationship was found to be negative. The results are consistent with theories and empirical findings. The results also highlight the importance of innovation policies that keep costs of patenting low and of adjusting the competition policy of a country to the type of economy in question.


The "sedimentary cover" refers to the stratified rocks of youngest Proterozoic and Phanerozoic age that rest upon the largely crystalline basement rocks of the continental interior. The early chapters of the volume present data and interpretations of the geophysics of the craton and summarize, with sequential maps, the tectonic evolution of the craton. The main body of the text and accompanying plates and figures present the stratigraphy, structural history, and economic geology of specific sedimentary basins (e.g., Appalachian basin) and regions (e.g., Rocky Mountains). The volume concludes with a summary chapter in which the currently popular theories of cratonal tectonics are discussed and the unresolved questions are identified.


Bio-inspired electronic circuits have the potential to address some of the shortcomings of conventional electronic circuits, such as lack of applicability to ill-defined problems, of robustness, or of adaptivity to unexpectedly changing environments. Bio-inspired circuits are designed by taking inspiration from principles observed in biology. The evolution of biological organisms, their development from a fertilized egg, and their learning capabilities are three sources of bio-inspiration that can be used for this purpose. Until now bio-inspired electronics mostly focused on a single aspect of bio-inspiration: either evolution, development or learning. In this thesis we consider that electronic circuits should encompass all three aspects to fully benefit from bio-inspiration. These circuits capable of evolution, development and learning are called POEtic circuits (POE stands for phylogeny, ontogeny and epigenesis, that mean respectively evolution, development and learning). Conceptually these POEtic circuits, much like biological organisms, are multi-cellular circuits that evolve following the principles of selection and differential reproduction, they develop from a single cell and differentiate according to inter-cellular and environmental signals, and eventually they learn during their lifetime. These circuits may also dynamically reorganize their structure in order to cope with changes in the environment, or when they are expanded with new cells, sensors or actuators. In comparison to conventional circuits, POEtic circuits are created automatically using evolutionary principles, even if only a partial or high-level specification of the problem is known. Development provides a complex genotype to phenotype mapping, that may lead to fault-tolerance or adaptive development in order to cope with environmental changes. Finally learning allows these circuits to memorize past events or adapt their response over time to improve their behavior. This thesis deals with the evolutionary mechanisms required to evolve these POEtic circuits. We argue that in order to fully realize the potential of POEtic circuits a novel evolutionary system that takes into account their characteristics and that encompasses both a genetic encoding and a developmental system is required. Indeed, evolutionary algorithms commonly used to evolve electronic circuits do not exploit the complex dynamics of development which is seen in biological organisms. They generally use a direct genetic encoding with a one to one genotype to phenotype mapping. As a consequence the genetic string grows with the size of the circuits and this may limit the scalability of the evolutionary approach to larger circuits. Furthermore these encodings do not allow intercellular or environmental interactions during development, which could lead to adaptive development or fault-tolerant circuits. In this thesis we develop an evolutionary system suited for multi-cellular POEtic circuits. This evolutionary system is inspired by the mechanisms of gene expression and cellular differentiation seen in biological organisms. It attempts to provide better evolvability and scalability than direct genetic encodings, it allows cellular or environmental interactions during development, and it is computationally simple so that it can be efficiently implemented in hardware. It is furthermore generic, and it makes minimal assumptions on the circuits that are evolved: other than assuming they are multi-cellular, it only requires local communication between neighboring cells. We demonstrate the proposed evolutionary system by evolving multi-cellular circuits for a wide range of applications. The results that we obtain confirm the generality of our approach and its advantages in comparison to direct genetic encodings. The proposed evolutionary system is used to evolve structures of differentiated cells, and it shows better scalability to larger structures in terms of fitness than a direct genetic encoding. The dynamics of development within the evolutionary system can recover these structures in case of faults, even at high fault rates. The proposed evolutionary system is used to evolve multi-cellular circuits composed of spiking neurons to recognize patterns and to control the navigation with obstacle avoidance of a mobile robot, and in comparison it outperforms a direct genetic encoding. Finally it is used to evolve circuits capable of learning that control a mobile robot in a vision-based learning and navigation task. This last application demonstrates the three aspects of bio-inspiration of POEtic circuits in a single task: evolution, development and learning.


Gaussian processes with derivative information are useful in many settings where derivative information is available, including numerous Bayesian optimization and regression tasks that arise in the natural sciences. Incorporating derivative observations, however, comes with a dominating $O(N^3D^3)$ computational cost when training on $N$ points in $D$ input dimensions. This is intractable for even moderately sized problems. While recent work has addressed this intractability in the low-$D$ setting, the high-$N$, high-$D$ setting is still unexplored and of great value, particularly as machine learning problems increasingly become high dimensional. In this paper, we introduce methods to achieve fully scalable Gaussian process regression with derivatives using variational inference. Analogous to the use of inducing values to sparsify the labels of a training set, we introduce the concept of inducing directional derivatives to sparsify the partial derivative information of a training set. This enables us to construct a variational posterior that incorporates derivative information but whose size depends neither on the full dataset size $N$ nor the full dimensionality $D$. We demonstrate the full scalability of our approach on a variety of tasks, ranging from a high dimensional stellarator fusion regression task to training graph convolutional neural networks on Pubmed using Bayesian optimization. Surprisingly, we find that our approach can improve regression performance even in settings where only label data is available.


Background Childhood obesity is associated with increased risk of cardiovascular diseases and metabolic syndrome, such as insulin resistance. Clinically, insulin resistance may be manifested as acanthosis nigricans. Resistin has a biological activity that is important in glucose and lipid metabolisms and closely related to the incidence of insulin resistance. Objective To find out the association of resistin level with scale of acanthosis nigricans in adolescents obesity. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted on 53 obese adolescents with acanthosis nigricans in senior high schools in Padang, West Sumatera. Degree of acanthosis nigricans was assessed using scale of Burke and then plasma resistin level was performed with ELISA. Data were analyzed using ANOVA and post-hoc test. Result The mean of resistin level in obese adolescents was 14.21 (SD 7.43) ng/dL. High resistin level was found in scale of acanthosis nigricans 2,3 and 4 (P=0.0001). Obese adolescents with severe degree of acanthosis nigricans has higher resistin level compared to milder acanthosis nigricans. Conclusion In obese adolescents, the higher degree of acanthosis nigricans, the higher level of plasma resistin.


This study explores the human face of workplace change in two Technical and Further Education (TAFE) colleges in Western Australia. It analyses the impact of neoliberalism on organisational culture by examining the way vocational education and training (VET) reforms influenced the restructuring and orientation of these colleges, and changed their power dynamics and work practices. It presents the accounts of 100 women and men who were interviewed between 2000-2002 about their working lives. Their stories of passion and angst represent a 'vertical slice' of life in TAFE and include responses from administrative staff, lecturers, academic managers, corporate services managers and executives.

This study explores perceptions of power and the mechanisms of control that were exerted upon and within the colleges with a focus on the factors that impact on career satisfaction. In addition, it examines perceptions of fairness in relation to employment, remuneration and promotion issues. Specifically, it reveals a variety of points of view on the attributes of success and outlines the strategies individuals use to get ahead. Furthermore, it seeks to understand the way values and norms guide and justify conduct and how they influence organisational culture. It evaluates whether a climate of sacrifice operates in the colleges and whether individuals will sacrifice personal or professional values to get ahead.

Although much has been written on the impact of neoliberalism on the changing nature of work and organisational culture, there has been little investigation of the TAFE 'experience' at the individual, group and institutional level. It is also less common to find analyses of workplace restructuring that conceptualises the changes from a feminist and sociocultural perspective. By investigating the colleges as sites of gender and identity politics, this study explores the way individuals and groups do gender and describes how gender asymmetry is reproduced through social, cultural and institutional practices. It highlights how individuals construct their professional and worker identity and perceive themselves in relations to others in the social and organisational hierarchy of the colleges.


Six species of Sesbania were fingerprinted using RAPD and ISSR markers. Both the markers yielded a total of 249 bands out of which 243 were polymorphic in nature indicating high degrees of genetic diversity in the genus. Cluster analysis using the combined data revealed segregation of the lone species Sesbania grandiflora from the rest of the species. High boot strap values in the dendrograms show the accuracy and authenticity of the result. All other five species got separated to a distinct cluster. This supports the taxonomic division of the genus Sesbania into Agati Desv. comprising the only species S. grandiflora (Linn.) Poir. and sub-genus Eusesbania Baker containing all other species.

 Key words: Sesbania, RAPD, ISSR, phenogram.


This chapter describes two cases of divergent syntactic change between Portuguese and Spanish, namely clitic placement and post-nominal algum/alguno . While both changes feature instances of linguistic splitting from a former unity during the Middle Ages, they nevertheless exhibit different patterns of development, illustrating what the author calls the 'inverted-Y' and the 'I' patterns of change. Under the former, the two languages start diverging as soon as grammatical change is set in motion. Under the latter, the two languages show a similar/parallel path of change and eventually split apart when one of them goes a step further than the other. Clitic placement in the history of Spanish and Portuguese exemplifies the 'inverted-Y' pattern, post-nominal algum/alguno exemplifies the 'I' pattern of change.


Foreign national students have come to the United States to study in increasing numbers and participated in some of the most advanced academic research efforts to date, lending enormous brainpower to the development of technological and scientific innovations that benefitted America. The students were drawn to the United States by the country's highly vaunted academic research institutions and enormous budgets for funding basic and applied research. Upon completion of their studies, significant numbers of foreign students have traditionally chosen to remain in the U.S. to work full-time or pursue post-doctoral work. More recently, as the economies of the developing world have grown rapidly and Western economies have grown less quickly, anecdotal evidence has begun to suggest that fewer foreign national students wish to stay in the U.S. after graduation. Reports in the popular press, and elsewhere have suggested that many of these students now believe that greater opportunities exist elsewhere in the world. To date, there has been very little empirical research, aside from the NSF surveys, into the post-graduate intentions of foreign nationals, and the key factors driving their decisions to seek to stay in the U.S. or to move abroad. This paper attempts to fill some of this void. This paper is based on an Facebook survey of 1,224 foreign nationals who are currently studying in institutions of higher learning in the United States or who had graduated by the end of the 2008 academic school year. We found that foreign national students in our sample are planning to leave the U.S. after graduation in numbers that appear to be higher than the historical norm as measured in STEM disciplines. A significant percentage of these students also say they intend to open businesses in the future. This expressed intention is prevalent among Indian and Chinese nationals currently studying in the U.S. This would appear to be a marked contrast to the recent past, when Chinese and Indian degree holders were very likely to stay in the U.S. and continue working or in a research capacity (even more so in the PhD ranks).


Asymmetric and symmetric cylinder drives are the major actuators for hydraulic linear motion control applications. The asymmetric type is the most popular one and can be found in various areas, industrial, civil and even aerospace. Its compact design in structure and high power to weight ratio are highlighted, but nonlinear behaviours are found in these applications. An asymmetric cylinder is usually controlled by a symmetric ported control valve, which introduces difficulty in the motion control of the cylinder. To avoid such issue, symmetric cylinder drives are typically chosen for high-performance dynamic response applications. This thesis focusses at improving the modelling and driving of the asymmetric cylinder drive system.The major nonlinearities in asymmetric cylinder systems occur when the control valve crosses its null position, causing pressure jumps, and system parameters switching to new values. In this scenario, the system is usually operating at low speed, in which the friction influence is an important factor. In addition, energy efficiency is always a concern in hydraulic applications, a valve-controlled asymmetric cylinder drive can have better controllability than a pump-controlled system, but its energy efficiency is worse than the latter. The aims of this research are to:• Improve modelling of asymmetric cylinder drive systems.• Improve the driving of asymmetric cylinder systems at low speed and velocity reversal with friction consideration.• Combine the advantages of a valve-controlled and a pump-controlled asymmetric cylinder drive system for energy efficiency purpose.A detailed analysis of a valve-controlled asymmetric cylinder system is carried out, and the nonlinearities behaviours are investigated in structure and theory aspects. The simulation modelling in this thesis reveals the system performances when the control valve travels across its null position, and this process is simulated with a numerical solution. An analytical solution is developed, showing that the new analytical solution runs 200 times faster than the original numerical method in simulation. Friction is inevitable in any device and it plays an important role in hydraulic nonlinearities, especially when the system runs at low speed and velocity reversal. Existing friction models are investigated and reviewed, but limited friction models considered the pressure influence in hydraulics. A new friction model for hydraulic system is developed on current LuGre model. This new friction model includes pressure term, acceleration term and velocity term. The new friction model is validated by experimental results and improvements are demonstrated.Under the consideration of energy efficiency, functionality, cost and feasibilities, a hybrid pump-controlled asymmetric cylinder system that combines the merits of a valve-controlled system and a pump-controlled system is implemented. Its pros and cons are investigated and analysed. Its simulation model is built to aid further analysis of the existing nonlinearities.Comparing the simulation results of the hybrid pump-controlled asymmetric cylinder system with the valve-controlled asymmetric cylinder system, the energy efficiency of the hybrid pump-controlled system is 20% better and can be further optimised. The various experimental results validate the simulation model of the hybrid system. Therefore, the functionality and feasibility of the energy efficient design of the hybrid pump-controlled system are validated.The design circuit of the hybrid pump-controlled asymmetric cylinder system is not fully optimised, and improvements can be achieved in future works including replacing the pilot shifted four-way valve with a solenoid valve, adding accumulators to stabilise the pressure in the service line and adding a controller to optimise the system performance.


Japan's and Germany's ambitious national frameworks of Society 5.0 and Industry 4.0 acknowledge the importance of education and research as key success factors in the digital transformation. Universities are not only to develop the necessary human capital and to contribute to technological advances, they are also to play key roles with regard to social inclusion and life-long learning. To do so, they are expected to deepen and widen cross-organizational and international cooperation. Last, but not least they are urged to adjust their core activities of teaching, research and administration to take advantage of new digital technologies. How are universities in Germany and Japan responding to these challenges? How do they see themselves affected? What strategies do they pursue? Our two speakers are best suited to answer these questions based on their leading positions and professional careers in higher education and research institutions in Germany and Japan.


A Corresponding Author: practice@ nzcom.org.nz B New Zealand College of Midwives C Lead Maternity Carer, Christchurch D Christchurch Womens's Hospital, New Zealand E University of Canterbury, New Zealand Background: Over the last few decades the management of a breech baby at term has been immersed in controversy. It is important that New Zealand midwives and doctors have sufficient understanding of the evidence to be able to effectively counsel women to make an informed decision when a baby presents in a breech position at term. Aims: To review the evidence and international guidance related to mode of birth for singleton breech presentation at term, identify the current evidence and gaps in knowledge and highlight how the evidence can be used to support women within the New Zealand context of maternity care. Method: We searched Scopus, PubMed and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews for peer reviewed publications about term breech presentation. The search terms used were "breech presentation" and "term". Limiters were set for the time period between 2000 and 2015, English language, human pregnancies, and peer reviewed journals. Findings: We found 456 published papers covering breech presentation related to clinical outcomes, professional commentaries, professional guidelines and the woman's perspectives. We identified and retrieved 37 papers as relevant to our search criteria. We report specifically on the papers that provided professional commentary (detailed critique of the evidence), clinical studies, systematic reviews, meta-analyses and professional guidelines. Following the publication of the Term Breech Trial there was a change in practice to that of recommending planned caesarean section for term breech presentation. Subsequent critiques and reviews have identified concerns with the study which undermine its reliability. Further retrospective/ prospective studies, a systematic review and a meta-analysis have demonstrated equivocal results and suggest that perinatal mortality during vaginal breech births can be reduced when strict criteria are applied and an experienced clinician is involved. Many professional guidelines now advise that offering women the option of a vaginal breech birth is reasonable. Conclusion: New Zealand midwives and doctors need to be in a position to inform women with breech presenting babies about factors that support the safety of vaginal breech birth, as well as about the benefits and potential harms of both caesarean section and vaginal breech birth, to support their decision making.


According to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), Protected Health Information (PHI) is any health information that can identify an individual that is in the possession of or transmitted by a "covered entity" or its business associates that relates to a patient's past, present, or future health. This data includes demographic information. It also includes, but is not limited, to electronic and paper transmission. The term "covered entity" refers, but is not limited to, health care providers, insurance companies, and hospitals. PHI includes demographic identifiers, in medical records, like names, phone numbers, and emails, as well as biometric information like fingerprints, voiceprints, genetic information, and facial images.


Because of maternal mtDNA inheritance, mtDNA mutations detrimental only in males are not expected to be selected against, an effect termed the "mother's curse." However, if there is positive‐assortative mating, equivalent to what was called "inbreeding" by Wade and Brandvain (2009), then selection can act to reduce the frequency of these male‐specific detrimental mtDNA mutants. On the other hand, as shown here negative‐assortative mating, or "outbreeding, " paradoxically can result in an increase in the frequency of male‐specific detrimental mtDNA mutants. The implications of these findings are briefly discussed.


Scientific literacy is a major educational and political goal worldwide, yet the development and enhancement of scientific literacy is not well understood. In order to better understand scientific literacy at the level of everyday science meaning making and a person's ability to address scientific questions and issues, this study reports on findings from semi-structured interviews of seven German and five American secondary students. This paper reports on these students' conceptions of their science interactions in everyday life. By conducting the same interviews in the native languages of students representing two countries known for their emphasis on improving secondary science education's scientific literacy enhancement, this research aims to learn from a cultural and contextual spectrum of science experiences. Our findings include two distinct themes independent of the educational setting. In addition, the research finds the recurrent and prevalent theme of German students' practicing science in nature not mentioned by American students.


The after effects of Asian Currency Crisis were still lingering in the economies
of South East Asia countries. The crisis begun in July 1997, however, the
general insurance industry took the brunt of the economic downturn in 1998.
The 1997 financial result for general insurance companies shown good return
and potential growth in gross and net written premium, and profit for the next
financial year. Most general insurance companies including Perdana CIGNA
Insurance Berhad h ad targeted major growth in 1998. The uncertain
economic conditions dashed the company's hopes of producing the desired
results. The general insurance market or premium size had shrunk
considerable, especially, in motor insurance, as there are less new cars and
devaluation of second hand car value. Other general insurance lines like fire
was also affected as the value of properties were reduced, along with the fire
insurance premium. The general insurance companies competed among each
other to achieve growth and profitable, thus, reduction of premium occurred
as too many insurers were fighting for business. Perdana CIGNA Insurance
Berhad had a small portfolio of motor insurance, therefore, massive drop of
turnover or net written premium did not occurred. However, losses i n claims
were high and desirable growth was not achieved in 1998. Despite of the
economic downturn, companies must reorganized and planned to take on
new challenges or fight for survival as the most cost efficient and innovative
company would be able to weather out the bad economic conditions.


The article looks at federalism as applied in Africa in the dual sense of a devolution
of power from what would otherwise be unitary and centralised states to lower levels of
governance and a transferral of authorities upwards from the state level to that of the
African Union. Whereas the former is deemed to be a feasible and sensible way of
transforming certain states, the assessment of the latter is much more sceptical. Grand
schemes such as a "United States of Africa" are held to be both unrealistic and unhelpful,
whereas a more gradualistic approach is deemed to be more constructive and helpful


This article explores the complex empirical landscape of justice and security provision in post-war Mozambique, and its political dynamics. It scrutinises the formal policy framework, which today recognises legal pluralism. The current legislation not only fails to fully recognise the de facto role played by non-state providers, but also to acknowledge the various layers of informal interaction and competition that in practice occur between these and official state institutions. There are political reasons for this. Justice and security provision constitute a minefield of power interests and overlapping claims to authority, which have deep historical roots. State officials and the national government fear losing power if non-state actors are given clear rights and mandates. Unclear legislation also eases political instrumentalisation by politicians and power-holders. The risk is that justice and security provision becomes more about politics than about problem solving and access to justice.


This paper links accounting errors to firms' incentives for fraud. While errors discourage fraud by lowering the value relevance of reported earnings, they also incentivize fraud by providing camouflage. We analyze the two effects in the framework of Fischer and Verrecchia (2000) and generate hypotheses. Using intentional and unintentional misstatements as empirical proxies for fraud and errors, respectively, we document a hump-shaped relationship between an industry's prevalence of fraud and that of errors. This result is robust to using SEC enforcement actions or the likelihood of meeting or marginally beating analyst consensus forecasts as alternative proxies for fraud. Motivated by three causes of errors (i.e., transaction complexity, regulation ambiguity, and staffing deficiency), we use firms' number of items in their quarterly filings, rules-based characteristics of accounting standards, and state boards' CPA requirements as alternative proxies for errors. These proxies are associated with fraud in a similar fashion as errors. Our results highlight an important economic implication of accounting errors and shed light on the recent debate on "principles-based" versus "rules-based" accounting systems. JEL classifications: G38; M40; M41; M48; M53


Magneto-optic devices are a potential enabler of better scaling, transparent networks that are bit-rate, protocol and format insensitive. Transparency is critical given the paradigm shift from connection-oriented communications to IP-centric packet switched data traffic driven by the influx of high bandwidth applications. This is made more urgent by the large and growing optical-electronic bandwidth mismatch as well as the rapid approach of device dimensions to the quantum limit. Fiber-based switches utilizing bismuth-substituted iron garnets as Faraday rotators in Mach-Zehnder and Sagnac interferometer configurations are proposed, analyzed and characterized. The issues and limitations of these switches are investigated and efforts are undertaken to model and optimize the field generating coil impedance parameters. While alleviating the concerns associated with free-space switches and being compatible with contemporary optical networks, the performance of the fiber-based interferometric switches is still below theoretical limits and could be improved. Moreover, the discrete components of a fiber-based implementation engender scalability concerns. In keeping with the spirit of Richard Feynman's lectures, the maturity of planar lithographic techniques that are widely used in microelectronics is leveraged to realize integrated versions of the fiber-based interferometric switches. The design, analysis, fabrication and characterization of these integrated switches are detailed herein, including the selection of a suitable material system, design of the waveguide geometry, creation and calibration of a fabrication process based on direct-write scanning electron-beam lithography as well as determination of the switches' fabrication tolerance.


State-of-the-Art Approaches to Advance the Large-Scale Green Computing Movement Edited by one of the founders and lead investigator of the Green500 list, The Green Computing Book: Tackling Energy Efficiency at Large Scale explores seminal research in large-scale green computing. It begins with low-level, hardware-based approaches and then traverses up the software stack with increasingly higher-level, software-based approaches. In the first chapter, the IBM Blue Gene team illustrates how to improve the energy efficiency of a supercomputer by an order of magnitude without any system performance loss in parallelizable applications. The next few chapters explain how to enhance the energy efficiency of a large-scale computing system via compiler-directed energy optimizations, an adaptive run-time system, and a general prediction performance framework. The book then explores the interactions between energy management and reliability and describes storage system organization that maximizes energy efficiency and reliability. It also addresses the need for coordinated power control across different layers and covers demand response policies in computing centers. The final chapter assesses the impact of servers on data center costs.


Fluoroquinolones, despite their use as antibiotics of choice in the treatment of several microbial infections have been associated with the risk of the development of Torsades de pointes (Tdp). This study was conducted to evaluate the comparative effect 2 fluoroquinolone antibiotics, Ciprofloxacin and Levofloxacin, orally administered over a period of 14 days on QT and QTc interval. In a cross over study, 8 apparently healthy male dogs were equally and randomly divided into 2 groups. Ciprofloxacin and Levofloxacin were orally administered respectively to each group at the dosage of 25mg/kg weight twice daily for a period of 14 days. Electrocardiographic readings were taken 30 minutes before administration and subsequently on days 2, 5, 7, 10 and 14 post-treatment. Lead II QT readings were measured and compared with pre-administration values. For each QT reading, QTc (Bazett) and QTc (Fridericia) values were calculated. Data were analysed using one-way ANOVA with the Tukey post-hoc analysis at a 5% level of significance. For each of the treatment groups, no significant differences (p>0.05) were observed for the heart rate, QT, QTc (Bazett) and QTc (Fridericia) in the dogs when compared with pre-administration values. From this study, neither Ciprofloxacin nor Levofloxacin appeared to have a significant effect on QT and QTc values measured. At the dosage administered, the drugs did not show any observable risk for the manifestation of TdP.


We introduce a new proxy measure for V S 30 (time‐averaged shear‐wave velocity in the upper 30 m) for central and eastern North America (CENA). The new proxy is the site fundamental frequency ( f peak), measured from the horizontal‐to‐vertical (H/V) spectral ratios of recorded ground motion (or ambient noise). In this study, H/V spectral ratios are obtained from 5% damped pseudospectral acceleration (PSA) from seismograph stations in CENA using the Next Generation Attenuation‐East (NGA‐East) database. We correlate the measured V S 30 values at recording stations with the corresponding f peak values to obtain a predictive relationship for V S 30. The uncertainty of the V S 30 estimate using the f peak‐based model is small (0.14log10 units) in comparison to that for the proxy‐based methods (e.g., topographic slope and surface geology proxies) used in the NGA‐East database (0.25log10 units). However, values of f peak can be obtained for only about 23% of the NGA‐East recording stations due to data and site‐type limitations. Reducing the error in V S 30 estimates can potentially reduce the variability of ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs). To test this hypothesis, we use the f peak‐based V S 30 estimates and select one of the proponent NGA‐East GMPE models. For a selected database, we are able to reduce the GMPE variability ( σ ) by 3% on average, for PSA at 1–10 Hz, just using the f peak‐based proxy to estimate V S 30. Greater variability reductions could be achieved by replacing V S 30 with improved site characterization parameters, including f peak, in the GMPEs.


Elderly people are increasing as a percentage of the population in Ecuador and all over the world. According to population projections, Ecuador will have aged a 12% more than the current index by 2050. Thus, the application of technology to provide remote monitoring and healthcare services at home would reduce the high demand that hospitals currently experience. Under these assumptions, this paper describes the implementation of a prototype to monitor the health status of elderly people. The system collects data from different biological variables of the human body such as temperature, blood oxygen level, heart rate, body position, and even electrocardiogram signals. This propotype also uses mobile communication (i.e., GSM/GPRS) to send alerts and concentrate data at a Web server. That server might generate electronic health records in order to assist distant doctors. The performance of the system was analysed according to its reliability, average sampling rate at each sensor, and message latency through the mobile network. With this proposal, we look for a significant improvement in the quality of life of elderly people by preventing possible emergencies that may cause the death of patients.


We provide guidance to corporate managers and investors on how to select the discount rate when evaluating investment opportunities. When making corporate investment decisions on behalf of the equity investors in a firm, an obvious choice is to use the method that equity investors use in making their own investment decisions. We infer how investors compute the discount rate by looking at mutual fund investors' capital allocation decisions. We find that investors adjust for risk by using the beta of the capital asset pricing model (CAPM). Extensions to the CAPM perform poorly, implying that investors do not use these models to compute discount rates.


The enrichment with heavy metals of bottom ash from municipal solid waste incinerators limits its sustainable use as a construction material. Part of the heavy metals evaporate during the incineration process. In order to determine the factors influencing the volatility coefficients of the heavy metals, the complex processes in the furnace of an MSW incinerator were simulated in a tubular furnace in batch operation with small quantities of synthetic waste. It was shown that the results obtained from this experimental modeling can be transferred to real systems.


One of the most important methods employed to measure the market risk is value at risk calculation method. In this study, the value at risk of banks listed on the Tehran Stock Exchange and Over-the-counter (OTC) are calculated using parametric model, Monte Carlo simulation, historical simulation and Two-Sided Power (TSP) Distribution. The sample includes all listed banks in Iran. The results showed that the value at risk estimated by TSP and historical models is more accurate than the VaR estimated by Monte Carlo and GARCH models. TSP model and then historical model are more accurate than the other ones. Moreover, GARCH is the least accurate model. So far, no research has been conducted to investigate all four models of value at risk assessment.


With the passage of time, ICT has become accessible and used by more and more individuals without technical knowledge or skills. At the same time, the complexity of the instruments has grown enormously. Now those who acquire and use technology are not just IT specialists but also educational content creators, managers, teachers, instructors and students. These rapid changes have often left behind those who have failed to adapt and document properly. Lack of information and fear of the unknown often creates confusion and hostility towards the use of ICT in education. Processes running on multiple systems vary over time. For this reason, there is no static set of processes (and time intervals) that can be used for deterministic modelling. However, the CPU distribution and grid-generated bursts can be determined. These distributions can be measured and then approximated or estimated [1]. The results are mathematical formulas that describe the likelihood of occurrence of an event, for example the probability of the system being in a stable state. Usually the distribution is exponential, Poisson type, and is described by its average value. Similarly, the timing of the processes arriving in the system must be provided. From these two distributions the average values of productivity, usage, waiting time can be calculated using queuing networks analysis. Queuing networks are called open when the jobs can enter or leave the network by any node [2]. If the jobs cannot leave or enter the network, it is called closed, and the number of jobs on the network remains constant. Therefore, a network where a new job is admitted every time an old job leaves the system can be considered a closed network [3].


Part III: Approaches to the Hidden History of Screen Culture:  Frank Gray Engaging with the Magic Lantern's History  Book abstract: Public performances using the magic or optical lantern became a widespread feature of the social fabric in the 19th century. The "Art of Projection" established the screen as a regular and central feature of cultural life. By 1900 a vast number of lantern slide sets (and later also films) were used in many countries, presenting images of slum life and destitution and contributing to controversial discourses on the Social Question like the ongoing temperance campaigns. Their impact in the public sphere has hardly been explored in either social or media history. In this volume sixteen international scholars address the issues of Screen Culture and the Social Question from different perspectives. Drawing on a rich variety of primary sources they investigate the impact of the lantern and cinematograph in public lectures, entertainments, church services and electoral campaigns. They examine how social reformers like Jacob Riis, as well as charitable organisations, raised public awareness of living conditions of the poor and destitute. They discuss use of visually shocking lectures and adaptations of sentimental stories, like those of Victorian celebrity George R. Sims, to argue for social reform and encourage the audience to help themselves and others. Case studies demonstrate uses of projection for education and entertainment of the poor, and as an agent of social prevention in the context of health and lifestyle. Finally approaches to the 'hidden history' of screen culture are outlined as a basis for an internationally agreed research agenda, including an introduction to the LUCERNA Magic Lantern Web Resource.


Motivated by A/B/n testing applications, we consider a finite set of distributions (called \emph{arms}), one of which is treated as a \emph{control}. We assume that the population is stratified into homogeneous subpopulations. At every time step, a subpopulation is sampled and an arm is chosen: the resulting observation is an independent draw from the arm conditioned on the subpopulation. The quality of each arm is assessed through a weighted combination of its subpopulation means. We propose a strategy for sequentially choosing one arm per time step so as to discover as fast as possible which arms, if any, have higher weighted expectation than the control. This strategy is shown to be asymptotically optimal in the following sense: if $\tau_\delta$ is the first time when the strategy ensures that it is able to output the correct answer with probability at least $1-\delta$, then $\mathbb{E}[\tau_\delta]$ grows linearly with $\log(1/\delta)$ at the exact optimal rate. This rate is identified in the paper in three different settings: (1) when the experimenter does not observe the subpopulation information, (2) when the subpopulation of each sample is observed but not chosen, and (3) when the experimenter can select the subpopulation from which each response is sampled. We illustrate the efficiency of the proposed strategy with numerical simulations on synthetic and real data collected from an A/B/n experiment.


In this paper I discuss the sociolinguistic and socio-political consequences of
employing notions of 'ethnolect' and 'multiethnolect' in connection with a particular
urban youth style of Danish. Such terms foreground ethnicity as an explanatory social
category in relation to linguistic behaviour. From an interactional sociolinguistic
approach I examine how linguistic resources associated with the urban youth style are
used to construct and negotiate identity and social relationships in interaction among adolescents in a multicultural area of Copenhagen. On the basis of the analyses I discuss whether the use of late modern urban stylistic features brings ethnic identity aspects into focus. My analyses suggest that in these interactions the late modern urban stylistic features are used for construction of a tough masculine identity.


The objectives of the present study were to investigate phenotypic correlations of milk urea (MU) and efficiency of crude protein utilization (ECPU) with milk production and cow parameters in two contrasting herds. Between July 2016 and May 2017, 210 cows were milked twice daily with high supplementary feed inclusion (HS) and 258 cows were milked once daily with low supplementary feed inclusion (LS). In early, mid and late lactation, milk samples were collected to measure MU. At every herdtest date, ECPU was calculated as protein yield (PY) divided by crude protein intake (CPI); this last variable derived from intake estimations of metabolizable energy requirements. Positive correlations between milk yield (MY) and both dry matter intake (DMI) and CPI were observed in LS and HS. The ECPU only correlated positively with MY traits in LS, and there was no correlation of CPI with MU in either herd. A moderate negative correlation of ECPU with live weight (LW) was observed in both herds, but it was stronger in LS. By suppressing MY due to the reduced milking frequency of cows fed LS, these cows gained LW, had higher body condition score and CPI, and lower PY, reducing the ECPU. No correlation between ECPU and MU was detected.


Disturbances, such as cyclones, have a major effect on the structure and dynamics of coral reef assemblages. However, the effect of cyclones on demographic traits, such as fecundity, has rarely been quantified, and direct estimates of mortality at the species level are rare. Here, we document the effect of Severe Tropical Cyclone Nathan on the demography of corals on the reef crest at Trimodal Reef in the northern Great Barrier Reef. Mortality rates based on tagged colonies were very high, ranging from 85.2% in Goniastrea retiformis to 100% in 6 Acropora species, 3 to 40 times higher than averages rates in the 5 yr preceding Cyclone Nathan. Fecundity was lower in 3 out of the 4 species examined following the cyclone, and egg carbon content was reduced by 58-63% in the 2 species examined. These results suggest that energy normally invested in reproduction was diverted to other processes such as injury repair and demonstrate that cyclones have important sub-lethal effects in addition to high rates of whole colony mortality. Coral cover was reduced from 34.9 ± 3.9% (mean ± SE) to 3.4 ± 1.5%, with reductions in the cover of all taxa except those with predominantly massive morphologies such as the Poritidae. A projected increase in the frequency of tropical storms as a result of global warming, combined with an increase in the frequency and scale of coral bleaching, suggest a fundamental shift in mortality regimes on reefs which has the potential to threaten their long-term persistence.


Protein turnover is a key aspect of cellular homeostasis and proteome dynamics. However, there is little consensus on which properties of a protein determine its lifetime in the cell. In this work, we exploit two reliable datasets of experimental protein degradation rates to learn models and uncover determinants of protein degradation, with particular focus on properties that can be derived from the sequence. Our work shows that simple sequence features suffice to obtain predictive models of which the output correlates reasonably well with the experimentally measured values. We also show that intrinsic disorder may have a larger effect than previously reported, and that the effect of PEST regions, long thought to act as specific degradation signals, can be better explained by their disorder. We also find that determinants of protein degradation depend on the cell types or experimental conditions studied. This analysis serves as a first step towards the development of more complex, mature computational models of degradation of proteins and eventually of their full life cycle.


There is a growing interest in studying voluntary environmental reporting around the world, especially in the mining industry, as there has been an increasingly focused debate about mining and its environmental responsibility, driven by strong public sentiment. The objectives of this study were, firstly, to evaluate the changes in environmental reporting over the period 2007-2010, in terms of type and volume of information disclosed in the Australian mineral mining industry, using the 2006 Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Guidelines and secondly, to identify the key political characteristics of companies that volunteer to disclose environmental information in their annual reports. Based on the political cost framework and the review of literature, five testable hypotheses were developed. These hypotheses were generated in tenns of five explanatory variables, which were company size, rate of return on assets, effective tax return, market share and number of shareholders. A sample of 100 Australian listed mineral mining companies was selected from the Fin Analysis database at Edith Cowan University. Within those companies, annual reports for the financial years 2007, 2008, 2009 and 2010 were reviewed. Content analysis was performed on each of the 400 annual reports. The GRI environmental index was used as a guideline to identify and classify the environmental disclosures provided by sampled companies. Further information regarding the organisational characteristic such as company size, rate of return, effective tax rate, market share was collected from the Fin Analysis Database, and information on the number of shareholders was collected from the companies' 2010 annual reports. To achieve the first objective, descriptive statistics and Wilcoxon signed-rank tests were used to analyse the changes in the level and type of environmental disclosure during 2007-2010. Furthermore, to achieve the second objective of the study, which was to identify the determinants of environmental reporting in terms of political cost framework, univariate statistics and ordinary least square multiple regression were conducted. All statistical results were generated using the Statistical Program for Social Science (SPSS). The findings from the environmental reporting analysis indicated that an increasing number of Australian listed mineral mining companies were disclosing environmental information in their annual reports during 2007-2010. The relative volume of such information disclosed in the annual reports also increased during this period. However, the level (extent of reporting) of environmental disclosure in the Australian mineral mining industry was typically low, as companies only disclosed a narrow group of reporting elements from the GRI environmental performance indicators. Moreover, the results from qualitative analysis indicated that the quality of environmental disclosures is relatively low. Finally, Australian listed mineral mining companies tend to disclose categories, such as "Overall", "Energy", "Water", "Emissions, Effluents, and Waste" and "Products and Services", which are the most common concerns raised by the public. The findings from the multiple regression analysis indicated that certain variables from political cost theory are able to explain the level of voluntary environmental disclosure by Australian listed mineral mining companies in their annual reports, whilst other variables are less able to. Variables company size and effective tax rate are significant, and hence, are able to explain the level of voluntary environmental disclosure. The remaining three variables including rate of return on assets, market share, and number of shareholders are not found to be highly significant. Nevertheless, rate of return on assets and number of shareholders are moderately significant. Except for variable rate of return on assets, all variables were found to be in the expected direction. The findings of the study, subject to limitations, have implications for the users of annual reports, the preparers of annual reports, and the regulators of financial information in Australia.