We present the photometric catalogs for the star-forming cluster NGC 602 in the wing of the Small Magellanic Cloud covering a range of wavelengths from optical (HST/ACS F555W, F814W, and SMARTS/ANDICAM V, I) to infrared (Spitzer/IRAC 3.6, 4.5, 5.8, and 8 μm and MIPS 24 μm). Combining this with Infrared Survey Facility near-infrared photometry (J, H, Ks), we compare the young main sequence (MS) and pre-main sequence (PMS) populations prominent in the optical with the current young stellar object (YSO) populations revealed by the infrared. We analyze the MS and PMS population with isochrones in color–magnitude diagrams to derive ages and masses. The optical data reveal ∼565 PMS candidates, low-mass Stage iii YSOs. We characterize ∼40 YSOs by fitting their spectral energy distributions to a grid of models (Robitaille et al.) to derive luminosities, masses, and evolutionary phase (Stages i–iii). The higher resolution HST images reveal that ∼70% of the YSO candidates are either multiples or protoclusters. For YSOs and PMS sources found in common, we find a consistency in the masses derived. We use the YSO mass function to derive a present-day star formation rate of ∼0.2–1.0 M☉ yr−1 kpc−2, similar to the rate derived from the optical star formation history suggesting a constant star formation rate for this region. We demonstrate a progression of star formation from the optical star cluster center to the edge of the star-forming dust cloud. We derive lifetimes of a few 105 years for the YSO Stages i and ii.


Abstract The neonatal period of very preterm infants is often characterized by a difficult adjustment to extrauterine life, with an inadequate nutrient supply and insufficient levels of growth factors, resulting in poor growth and a high morbidity rate. Long-term multisystem complications include cognitive, behavioral, and motor dysfunction as a result of brain damage as well as visual and hearing deficits and metabolic disorders that persist into adulthood. Insulinlike growth factor 1 (IGF-1) is a major regulator of fetal growth and development of most organs especially the central nervous system including the retina. Glucose metabolism in the developing brain is controlled by IGF-1 which also stimulates differentiation and prevents apoptosis. Serum concentrations of IGF-1 decrease to very low levels after very preterm birth and remain low for most of the perinatal development. Strong correlations have been found between low neonatal serum concentrations of IGF-1 and poor brain and retinal growth as well as poor general growth with multiorgan morbidities, such as intraventricular hemorrhage, retinopathy of prematurity, bronchopulmonary dysplasia, and necrotizing enterocolitis. Experimental and clinical studies indicate that early supplementation with IGF-1 can improve growth in catabolic states and reduce brain injury after hypoxic/ischemic events. A multicenter phase II study is currently underway to determine whether intravenous replacement of human recombinant IGF-1 up to normal intrauterine serum concentrations can improve growth and development and reduce prematurity-associated morbidities.


The Red Star and the Crescent provides an in-depth and multi-disciplinary analysis of the evolving relationship between China and the Middle East. Despite its increasing importance, very few studies have examined this dynamic, deepening, and multi-faceted nexus. James Reardon-Anderson has sought to fill this critical gap. The volume examines the 'big picture' of international relations, then zooms in on case studies and probes the underlying domestic factors on each side. Reardon-Anderson tackles topics as diverse as China's security strategy in the Middle East, its military relations with the states of the region, its role in the Iran nuclear negotiations, the Uyghur question, and the significance and consequences of the Silk Road strategy.


Many fisheries have significant challenges related to sustainable development, such as overexploitation and overcapacity in the fishing fleet. Overcapacity leads to increased pressure on fish resources, reduced profitability, and environmental problems such as greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and acidification fromfuel consumption. Sustainable management of the fish resources is an important objective in Norway, but overcapacity is a problem in several Norwegian fleet segments. Important issues in this respect are whether the traditional management models are able to deal with the capacity development, and whether the role of technology as a relevant discipline in fisheries management is underestimated.The objective of this work has been to integrate a technological perspective into fisheries management in order to improve sustainability in the fishing fleet. The thesis work has been limited to the Norwegian fisheries in Norwegian territorialwaters. Since the main problems addressed in this thesis are sustainability and overcapacity, the system boundaries are limited to the fishing fleet. This means that the marine ecosystem in where the fishing vessels are interacting, is outside the thesis' boundaries.The main contributions of this thesis are:• Development of a methodological framework that structures fisheries management decision-making, with main emphasis on improved sustainability in the fishing fleet.• Clarification of the concept of sustainability in the Norwegian fishing fleet.• Classification of attributes characterizing sustainability, and a performance evaluation of the different vessel groups in the cod-fishing fleet.• Comparison of two cod-production systems, with focus on sustainability.• Suggestions for how fisheries management can evaluate sustainability on a regular basis.• Improved foundation for further research about sustainability in the fisheries. A lot of literature is collected and synthesized.The framework developed is based on the systems engineering process. The nature of sustainability requires a systems perspective. There are different system analysis methods, but from a technological perspective, dealing with multidisciplinary tasks, systems engineering has been selected as the most feasible process. It has a strong focus on stakeholder needs and requirements, and it facilitates frequent evaluations of sustainability, which is important in order to assess management efficiency and goal achievement.Problems regarding sustainability in the fisheries are not only caused by technological development, but have organizational challenges as well. However, in this thesis the focus is within the technological perspective. Systems engineering is not applied as an attempt to change the structure of fisheries management, but as means of suggesting a decision-making process that improves sustainability in the fishing fleet.Fisheries management involves decision-making in situations often characterized by high risks and uncertainties, and it may be difficult to predict the outcomes of the decisions, for example, regarding sustainability in the fishing fleet. A number of tools that are available to support decision-making have been discussed and used in the thesis, such as cost-benefit analysis, risk acceptance criteria, life cycle cost (LCC), the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP), and Quality Function Deployment (QFD). Nevertheless, these tools do not provide "correct" answers; they have limitations, they are based on a number of assumptions, and their uses are based on scientific knowledge as well as value judgments involving political, strategic, and ethical issues. This means that these methods leave the decision-makers to apply decision processes outside the practical applications of the analyses, to which the framework offers guiding principles and structure.The main outcome of using systems engineering principles in fisheries management, is that the framework offers a broader analytical perspective to fisheries management and sustainability, which acknowledge that sustainability cannot be distinguished fromthe context. Today, most input to fisheries management come from biology and economy, such as stock assessments and profitability analyses. In systems engineering, information from different scientific disciplines, for example, biology, social sciences, economy, and technology, are necessary input to the analyses and decision processes, because fisheriesmanagement is much more than bio-economics. Application of the systems engineering process in fisheries management, and the inclusion of technology, introduce new perspectives, new disciplines, and new stakeholders into the decision-making process in the fisheries.Based on the framework developed in the thesis, the sustainability performance of the cod-fishing fleet has been evaluated. Sustainability in the fishing fleet may be characterized by seven attributes; accident risk, employment, profitability, quality, catch capacity, bycatch/selection, andGHGemissions/acidification. Indicators have been identified in order to measure the system performance within the attributes. The evaluation shows that there are differences in the performance of the vessel groups. These differences pose a major challenge to fisheries management in their decision-making regarding sustainability in the fleet. The smallest vessels have the lowest fuel consumption (kg fuel/kg fish), but they have a very high accident risk (FAR). The evaluation of cod fishing vs. cod farming shows that the potential growth in the cod farming industry may cause changes in the management system of the cod fisheries, such as a possible shift from the IVQ-systemof today to an ITQ-system.The Norwegian fisheries management lacks frequent evaluations of its policies, and the information and data available about the fisheries are fragmented. Sustainability should be evaluated on a regular basis by use of performance indicators to determine if sustainability increases or decreases. For simplicity, the indicators could be aggregated into a sustainability index showing the overall system performance. Aggregation implies simplification and weighting of the indicators, which means that such an index should be used with care. Sustainability implies a long term perspective when taking decisions, because future generations will be affected. The performance evaluations can give indications of trends, which means that the results can be used to predict consequences in the future, based on the current development.


OBJECTIVES
Computed tomography is considered as the diagnostic gold standard for following up the majority of pediatric chest X-ray (CXR) opacities. However, radiation, cost, and waiting times have led to search for diagnostic alternatives. This study was conducted to determine the diagnostic accuracy of the ultrasound (US) in detecting the causes of pediatric CXR opacities.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
This study was conducted on the pediatric patients with CXR opacity referring to Dr. Sheikh Hospital in Mashhad, Iran during 2016-2017. After undergoing the US exam, the patients were followed to obtain the final diagnosis based on reference standard (RF). The accuracy of the US was calculated in detection of thoracic lesions. P value <0.05 was considered to be significant.

RESULTS
The most common diagnostic cause of CXR opacity based on RF was pneumonia (n=46, 35-38%), thymus (n=37, 28-46%), bone and soft tissue mass (n=12, 9.23%), cystic lesions (n=11, 8.46%), and diaphragmatic lesions (n=10, 7.69%), as well as intrathoracic masses and empyema (n=7, 5.38%). In only four patients (3.07%), the final diagnosis based on RF was inconsistent with the US diagnosis. The diagnostic accuracy of the US was 100% in the diagnosis of bone and soft tissue masses, diaphragmatic lesions, empyema, and normal thymus, and the accuracy was 96.92% for pneumonia, and 99.23% for cystic lesions and intrathoracic masses.

CONCLUSION
Regarding the assessed diagnostic accuracy, the US can be a reliable diagnostic tool to differentiate the main cause of pediatric CXR opacity.


Despite three decades of vigorous efforts at deregulation across the government, regulation remains ubiquitous. It also continues to be unpopular because it forces individuals and businesses to do things --frequently costly and unpleasant things --that they don't want to do. If regulatory programs are to survive and remain effective, the challenge posed by their endemic unpopularity and political vulnerability must be met. Unlike much of the existing literature on regulation, Taming Regulation begins with the assumption that the government's capacity to utilize regulation as a policy tool is vital. The book examines the questions of how to make the inherently coercive aspects of regulation more politically acceptable in the present antiregulatory environment and how the legal and administrative challenges of reform in ongoing regulatory programs might best be approached. The authors explore these issues through a case study of administrative reform in the Superfund program. Chartered with an ambitious mission to clean up the nation's hazardous waste sites, Superfund was from its inception a uniquely aggressive and unpopular program. Yet despite the election in 1994 of a Republican Congress committed to fundamental changes in environmental regulation, the Superfund program weathered the storm and remains intact today. The authors credit this political and programmatic success to a series of artfully designed and orchestrated internal reforms that softened Superfund's implementation, thus increasing its political support while retaining its potent coercive tools. Taming Regulation provides a cautionary discussion of both the necessity and the difficulty of regulatory reform. It is essential reading for students of regulation and environmental policy, for practitioners contemplating reform of ongoing regulatory programs, and for those interested in the checkered history of Superfund.


Normal adult aging is known to be associated with lower performance on tasks assessing the short-term storage of information. However, whether or not there are additional age-related deficits associated with concurrent storage and processing demands within working memory remains unclear. Methodological differences across studies are considered critical factors responsible for the variability in the magnitude of the reported age effects. Here we synthesized comparisons of younger and older adults' performance on tasks measuring storage alone against those combining storage with concurrent processing of information. We also considered the influence of task-related moderator variables. Meta-analysis of effect sizes revealed a small but disproportionate effect of processing on older adults' memory performance. Moderator analysis indicated that equating single task storage performance across age groups (titration) and the nature of the stimulus material were important determinants of memory accuracy. Titration of storage task difficulty was found to lead to smaller, and nonsignificant, age-differences in dual task costs. These results were corroborated by supplementary Brinley and state-trace analyses. We discuss these findings in relation to the extant literature and current working memory theory as well as possibilities for future research to address the residual heterogeneity in effect sizes. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).


This Article proposes to modernize the archaic procedures states use to authorize marriages so as to provide legal flexibility, promote efficiency, and enhance individual choice. Almost universally, states require couples' presence within their borders, however briefly, for a ceremony. After considering the historical and policy rationales for this requirement and finding them either obsolete or incoherent, we propose that states offer marriages to those outside their borders. Such distance marriages could occur via video-conference, using the internet or even telephone, with readily available safeguards to prevent fraud. This simple reform would allow certain couples who cannot marry under local law to import the trappings of an official marriage ceremony in "real time," as well as assure access to the legal tie for any couple facing a barrier of physical separation. Our proposal builds upon the historical and present-day precedent of proxy marriage and legal principles such as choice of law for multi-jurisdictional contracts and corporate formation. With this reform, states would be free to compete over marriage procedure efficiency and experiment with alternative regulatory goals or menu options, such as enabling greater disclosure about personal or health histories, permitting more restrictive prenuptial arrangements (as with certain states' development of "covenant marriage") or tying access to certain distance marriages to advance agreement to accept jurisdiction for marriage dissolution. Finally, our proposal would allow same-sex couples (and other couples unable to marry under their home jurisdictions' laws) easier access to marriage authorization and the ability to perform wedding ceremonies before family and friends. Our procedural reform offers a gradualist approach to the controversies concerning the substantive rules of marriage, notably Judge Walker's recent ruling declaring Proposition 8 unconstitutional.


This thesis is about how health professionals at hospitals collaborate across professional boundaries. Societal and political reforms demand for more transparency and efficiency in health care work, yet history tells us that the professional practitioner resists external accounting. They are not used to open up their professional boundaries for neither insight nor outsight, and too much pressure may risk to strengthen the boundary instead of soften it. Due to the rising complexity in many of these services, there is a growing attention towards how management and patients can account the professionals' work. This is often combined with the notion that teams comprised of different professions have a great potential in terms of efficiency. Due to these two aspiring developments – claims of interdisciplinarity and accountability – health professionals need to work with an outwardly rather than inwardly focus. In other words, health professionals need to construct, build and sustain relations and relationships that extend across their professional boundaries. In this thesis, I pursue the empirical quest of how health professionals do this by employing contributions from two theoretical strands. The first strand is that of team/group development and social relationships. I elaborate here on the meaning of sociality and different models of integration in a relationship. The other strand I draw upon insights from, is Science and Technology Studies; and in particular the notion of objects as mediators of social relationships. The concept of boundary object is elaborated upon and argued to be an important asset in cross-boundary collaboration. Drawing on this theoretical elaboration, added with findings from the papers, I introduce the concept of cross-boundary relationships. A cross-boundary relationship is a relationship that is tightly integrated across the professional boundary. The cross-boundary relationship emerges when health professionals are able to see interactions across the boundary as meaningful, mutually influence and share decisions across the boundary, and finally interpret the boundary itself as an implicit part of the relationship. Boundary objects and social relationships are argued to be an important part of this becoming. The main contribution of this thesis is to show how health professionals can collaborate cohesively across their professional boundaries. Previous research tend to focus on the work professionals exert to upheld their boundaries, or merely describe interprofessional collaboration at a conceptual level. I show the value in focusing on cross-boundary collaboration rather than boundary work, and model how such collaboration in a practical setting may look like. The concept of crossboundary relationship encompasses this idea.


HiFlow3 Version 2.0 continues the path as a multi-purpose finite element software, which provides powerful tools for efficient and accurate solution of a wide range of problems modeled by partial differen- tial equations (PDEs). New features and functionalities, which allow to run numerical simulations with more advanced solution algorithms and discretizations in comparison to previous releases of HiFlow3, have been implemented. These comprise Uncertainty Quantification (UQ), energy-efficient multigrid techniques, Schur complement solvers for saddle-point problems, extended third-party library support, and adaptive local mesh refinement in a parallel computing environment. Furthermore, HiFlow3 has been successfully integrated into advanced and state-of-the-art simulation environments by means of the Medical Simulation Markup Language (MSML), for example.The presented new algorithms and features as well as general under-the-hood improvements have enabled excellent and relevant research activities in the fields of both medical engineering and meteorol- ogy and environmental sciences. The described show cases demonstrate the potential and advantages, which HiFlow3 can offer in performing a numerical simulation by means of finite element methods. Especially, the high performance computing capabilities of HiFlow3 – not only in the mentioned fields of applications, but also in general – have been significantly improved in Version 2.0.


Practice teaching is a vital aspect of the teacher preparatory program in teacher training institutions. This study examined the University of Ilorin final year students' experience in a practice teaching exercise. It made use of descriptive survey research design. The population for this study were all students of the Faculty of Education, University of Ilorin, Ilorin, Nigeria. The researchers' self-developed questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.63 was used for data collection while the data collected were analysed using descriptive statistics of mean and standard deviation and inferential statistics of independent t-test. It was found that during the course of practice teaching exercises, student-teachers acquired skills which enabled them to use a variety of teaching methods, and instructional resources, improved their skills in tests construction, scoring and recording, built their teaching confidence and presentation, among others. However, student-teachers were faced with a number of challenges in the course of lesson presentation during practice teaching. It was, therefore, recommended among others, that student-teachers should not perceive their personality and logical presentation of instructional objectives as challenges but rather should embrace and exploit it to improve and widen their (cognitive) domains.

This article is published under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.


Chief information officers (CIOs) have a unique role in today's dynamic and competitive business environment. They must deal with the impacts of external environmental changes, changing internal customer needs, and rapidly changing technology. New models for the organization suggest that CIOs should create and manage an enterprise IT organization that is more flexible to manage uncertainty. During a two-year ethnographic study, the lead researcher observed and interviewed CIOs to determine current CIO practices for managing uncertainty. Findings from the study also include CIO recommendations on how enterprise IT organizational flexibility can help to balance the need for lean and effective operations with the need for creative and innovative ones. This paper reports on one aspect of the study: CIO leadership. The findings suggest that a CIO's ability to be flexible is critical if the enterprise IT organization is to deal with and manage uncertainty. Flexible CIOs, it was found, respond to three types of environmental uncertainty (global, enterprise, and IT), and do so by three means of flexibility response – anticipation, agility, and adaptation. Flexible CIOs who are proactive to unexpected change manage uncertainty as if it were an opportunity.


Social network-based Sybil defenses exploit the algorithmic properties of social graphs to infer the extent to which an arbitrary node in such a graph should be trusted. However, these systems do not consider the different amounts of trust represented by different graphs, and different levels of trust between nodes, though trust is a crucial requirement in these systems. For instance, co-authors in an academic collaboration graph are trusted in a different manner than social friends. Furthermore, some social friends are more trusted than others. However, previous designs for social networkbased Sybil defenses have not considered the inherent trust properties of the graphs they use. In this paper we introduce several designs to tune the performance of Sybil defenses by accounting for differential trust in social graphs and modeling these trust values by biasing random walks performed on these graphs. Surprisingly, we find that the cost function, the required length of random walks to accept all honest nodes with overwhelming probability, is much greater in graphs with high trust values, such as co-author graphs, than in graphs with low trust values such as online social networks. We show that this behavior is due to the greater number of close-knit communities in high-trust graphs, requiring longer walk to traverse multiple communities. Furthermore, we show that our proposed designs to account for trust increase the cost function of graphs with low trust value.


The desire to get to know new cultures and their way of living has always inspired people to travel. Human library initiative provides precisely that an opportunity to get to know different people from first-hand. It is a one of a kind of library where instead of borrowing books, one "rents" people who tell their stories. This is initiative is easily applicable in tourism: both in promotion of destinations and as experience-based products, which are increasing in demand. The goal of this paper is to introduce human library as a new experience based tourism amenity that will disclose interesting stories about the destination and its residents in different languages. The development of the initiative for tourism purposes and the comparison of living books and other in-destination information provision services are provided.


We propose the use of time-varying (TV) signaling in modulation schemes to provide multiuser detection and multipath diversity in TV wireless channels. Specifically, we design an orthogonal linear chirp modulation scheme that is based on assigning different users with optimally designed parameters in order to reduce multiple-access interference. We also derive conditions on the parameters of the modulation signals to achieve multipath diversity. Furthermore, we propose the use of TV pilot signals with nonlinear instantaneous frequency and matched time-frequency (TF) techniques to estimate fast-fading channels with unknown state information. The proposed algorithm simplifies to the estimation of the parameters of multiple linear chirps, which we perform using the modified matching pursuit decomposition. We compare our estimation method with the use of pilot signals with linear instantaneous frequency, which we implement using the reassigned spectrogram. The proposed modulation scheme is applied to a frequency-hopped code-division multiple-access system for which we demonstrate improved performance when compared with frequency-shift-keying (FSK) modulation due to the designed multipath diversity and low multiple-access interference. Our simulations also demonstrate the increased estimation performance when pilot signals with nonlinear structures are used instead of linear structured ones to estimate TV channel parameters


In the age data digitalization, important applications of optics and photonics based sensors and technology lie in the field of biometrics and image processing. Protecting user data in a safe and secure way is an essential task in this area. However, traditional cryptographic protocols rely heavily on computer aided computation. Secure protocols which rely only on human interactions are usually simpler to understand. In many scenarios development of such protocols are also important for ease of implementation and deployment. Visual cryptography (VC) is an encryption technique on images (or text) in which decryption is done by human visual system. In this technique, an image is encrypted into number of pieces (known as shares). When the printed shares are physically superimposed together, the image can be decrypted with human vision. Modern digital watermarking technologies can be combined with VC for image copyright protection where the shares can be watermarks (small identification) embedded in the image. Similarly, VC can be used for improving security of biometric authentication. This paper presents about design and implementation of a practical laboratory experiment based on the concept of VC for a course in media engineering. Specifically, our contribution deals with integration of VC in different schemes for applications like digital watermarking and biometric authentication in the field of optics and photonics. We describe theoretical concepts and propose our infrastructure for the experiment. Finally, we will evaluate the learning outcome of the experiment, performed by the students.


This report reviews four of the main approaches (two band-limited and two broadband) currently used for estimating the site κ0: the acceleration slope (AS) above the corner frequency, the displacement slope (DS) below the corner frequency, the broadband (BB) fit of the spectrum, and the response spectral shape (RESP) template. Using these four methods, estimates of κ0 for rock sites in Central Eastern North America (CENA) in the shallow crustal dataset from NGAEast are computed for distances less than 100 km.

Using all of the data within 100 km, the mean κ0 values are 8 msec for the AS approach and 27 msec for the DS approach. These mean values include negative κ estimates for some sites. If the negative κ values are removed, then the mean values are 25 msec and 42 msec, respectively. Stacking all spectra together led to mean κ0 values of 7 and 29 msec, respectively. Overall, the DS approach yields 2–3 times higher values than the AS, which agrees with previous observations, but the uncertainty of the estimates in each case is large. The AS approach seems consistent for magnitudes down to M3 but not below.

There is large within-station variability of κ that may be related to differences in distance, Q, complexity along the path, or particular source characteristics, such as higher or lower stress drop. The station-to-station differences may be due to site-related factors. Because most sites have been assigned Vs30 = 2000 m/sec, it is not possible to correlate variations in κ0 with rock stiffness.

Based on the available profile, the individual spectra are corrected for crustal amplification and only affect results below 15 Hz. Since the AS and DS approaches are applied over different frequency ranges, we find that only the DS results are sensitive to the amplification correction. More detailed knowledge of individual near-surface profiles may have effects on AS results, too. Although κ is considered to be caused solely by damping in the shallow crust, measurement techniques often cannot separate the effects of damping and amplification, and yield the net effect of both phenomena.

The two broadband approaches, BB and RESP, yield similar results. The mean κ0_BB is 5±0.5 msec across all NEHRP class A sites. The κ0_RESP for the two events examined is 5 and 6 msec. From literature, the average value of κ0 in CENA is 6 ± 2 msec. This typical value is similar to the broadband estimates of this study and to the mean κAS when all available recordings are used along with all flags. When only recordings with down-going FAS slope are selected from the dataset, the mean value of κAS increases by a factor of 2–3.

To evaluate the scaling of high-frequency ground motion with κ, we analyze residuals from ground motion prediction equations (GMPEs) versus κ estimates. Using the κ values from the AS approach, the average trend of the ln(PSA) residuals for hard-rock data do not show the expected strong dependence on κ, but when using κ values from the DS approach, there is a stronger correlation of the residuals, i.e., a κ that is more consistent with the commonly used analytically based scaling. The κDS estimates may better reflect the damping in the shallow crust, while the κAS estimates may reflect a net effect of damping and amplification that has not been decoupled. The κDS estimates are higher than the κAS estimates, so the expected effect on the high-frequency ground motion is smaller than that expected for the κAS estimates.

An empirical hard-rock site factor model is developed that represents the combined Vs-κ0 site factor relative to a 760 m/sec reference-site condition. At low frequencies ( 10 Hz), the residuals do not show the strong increase in the site factors as seen in the analytical model results. A second hard-rock dataset from British Columbia, Canada, is also used. This BC hard-rock residuals show an increase in the 15–50 Hz range that is consistent with the analytical κ0 scaling for a hard-rock κ0 of about 0.015 sec.

The variability of the PSA residuals is also used to evaluate the κ0 scaling for hard-rock sites from analytical modeling. The scatter in existing κ0 values found in literature is disproportionately large compared to the observed variability in high-frequency ground motions. We compared the predicted ground-motion variability based on analytical modeling to the observed variability in our residuals. While the hard-rock sites are more variable at high frequencies due to the additional κ0 variability, this additional variability is much less than the variability predicted by the analytical modeling using the variability from κ0-Vs30 correlations. This is consistent with weaker κ0 scaling compared to that predicted by the analytical modelling seen in the mean residuals.


This paper presents preliminary results of using commercial time of flight depth camera for 3D scanning of underwater objects. Generating accurate and detailed 3D models of objects in underwater environment is a challenging task. This work presents experimental results of using Microsoft Kinect v2 depth camera for dense depth data acquisition underwater that gives reasonable 3D scanned data but with smaller scanning range. Motivations for this research are the user friendliness and low-cost of the device as compared to multi view stereo cameras or marine-hardened laser scanning solutions and equipment. Preliminary results of underwater point cloud generation and volumetric reconstruction are also presented. The novelty of this work is the utilization of the Kinect depth camera for real-time 3D mesh reconstruction and the main objective is to develop an economical and compact solution for underwater 3D scanning.


Although Persian is one of the world's oldest languages, in its modern form it is still spoken by more than forty million people in Iran and by more than twenty million people elsewhere. These volumes provide students from beginning to intermediate levels with a mastery of modern Persian (also known as farsi) and with an understanding of colloquial Persian. The books offer extended vocabulary, grammar, and essays on aspects of Iranian culture. Volume I emphasizes speaking and understanding, and Volume 2 focuses on the written language. The first to teach Persian as a living language, Modern Persian incorporates the most effective methodologies and the most recent cultural and linguistic changes occurring in Iran. Donald Stilo is a scientist at Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, working on the Northwest Iranian Language Project in the Linguistics Department. Kamran Talattof is associate professor of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Arizona, Tucson. Jerome W. Clinton was professor of Near Eastern Studies at Princeton University.


Methods for educating students in biotechnology require intensive training in laboratory procedures. Laboratory procedures cost Universities in terms of equipment and experienced guidance which often come short in many developing countries. Universities need revitalizing approach and well-adapted curriculum especially in terms of laboratory practice. For enhanced education at the level of University-level laboratory courses such as those in biology or biotechnology, one of the key elements is the need to allow the student to familiarize laboratory techniques in par with regular theory. The Sakshat Amrita virtual biotechnology lab project focusing on virtualizing wet-lab techniques and integrating the learning experience has added a new dimension to the regular teaching courses at the University. Establishing virtual labs requires both domain knowledge and virtualizing skills via programming, animation and device-based feedback. This paper reports a cost-effective process used in virtualizing real biotechnology labs for education at Universities. The major challenge in setting up an effective knowledge dissemination for laboratory courses was not only the scientific approach of biotechnology, but included the virtualization aspects such as usage/design scalability, deliverability efficiency, network connectivity issues, security and speed of adaptability to incorporate and update changes into existing experiments. This paper also discusses an issue-specific case-study of a functional virtual lab in biotechnology and its many issues and challenges.


Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) was used to examine the pattern of activity of the prefrontal cortex during performance of subjects in a nonspatial working memory task. Subjects observed sequences of letters and responded whenever a letter repeated with exactly one nonidentical letter intervening. In a comparison task, subjects monitored similar sequences of letters for any occurrence of a single, prespecified target letter. Functional scanning was performed using a newly developed spiral scan image acquisition technique that provides high‐resolution, multislice scanning at approximately five times the rate usually possible on conventional equipment (an average of one image per second). Using these methods, activation of the middle and inferior frontal gyri was reliably observed within individual subjects during performance of the working memory task relative to the comparison task. Effect sizes (2–4%) closely approximated those that have been observed within primary sensory and motor cortices using similar fMRI techniques. Furthermore, activation increased and decreased with a time course that was highly consistent with the task manipulations. These findings corroborate the results of positron emission tomography studies, which suggest that the prefrontal cortex is engaged by tasks that rely on working memory. Furthermore, they demonstrate the applicability of newly developed fMRI techniques using conventional scanners to study the associative cortex in individual subjects. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Bifurcation lesions represent one of the most challenging lesion subsets in interventional cardiology. The European Bifurcation Club (EBC) is an academic consortium whose goal has been to assess and recommend the appropriate strategies to manage bifurcation lesions. The quantitative coronary angiography (QCA) methods for the evaluation of bifurcation lesions have been subject to extensive research. Single-vessel QCA has been shown to be inaccurate for the assessment of bifurcation lesion dimensions. For this reason, dedicated bifurcation software has been developed and validated. These software packages apply the principles of fractal geometry to address the "step-down" in the bifurcation and to estimate vessel diameter accurately. This consensus update provides recommendations on the QCA analysis and reporting of bifurcation lesions based on the most recent scientific evidence from in vitro and in vivo studies and delineates future advances in the field of QCA dedicated bifurcation analysis.


During his presidential address in July 2002, President Chirac of France announced that traffic safety became a national priority. The French automated speed enforcement system (CA) was launched in November 2003. The implementation of CA permitted to strengthen the intensity of detection and to punish effectively speed offenders. Today roughly 1,850 speed radar devices are operating on the French road network. The objectives of CA are in to change road users' driving choices by combining general deterrence and specific deterrence actions, and to build a consistent grid of detection on the whole territory for enforcing speed limits. This paper presents some elements of understanding: a brief presentation of the CA, its organisation and its working. It will focus also on the impact of CA in terms of deterrence, by analysing the evolution of speed violation ratios and the effects on the mean speed.


Over the past decade, China and India have rapidly increased their use of antidumping laws, the world's
most dominant form of trade protectionism, against their trading partners. Yet, this behavior has triggered
little concern in the United States and Europe. Why? Two leading theories suggest that the recent spike in
Indian and Chinese antidumping measures is temporary. Moreover, the balance of benefits under existing
international legal rules continues to favor American and European producers. As a result, the United
States and European Union have viewed attempts to reform global antidumping laws as against their
interests.
This Article challenges this conventional wisdom. It argues that India and China's antidumping regimes
pose a larger long-term threat to the global trade regime than is commonly believed. Through novel
empirical tests of the two leading theories, I demonstrate why China and India's recent increase in antidumping
protectionism is not temporary and not destined to level off. Instead, as more industries discover
the benefits of antidumping laws and as China takes a more aggressive retaliatory stance against its
trading partners, both countries' use of antidumping sanctions will likely continue to increase. To guard
against this increased protectionism, this Article argues that World Trade Organization members should
reverse their opposition to reforming global antidumping rules and instead enact proposals that place
greater restrictions on antidumping laws. It highlights why the present moment is an opportune time for
reform, but notes that the window for reform is likely to close as China and India acquire increased
economic strength.


The heterotrimeric G protein Gq regulates neuronal activity through distinct downstream effector pathways. In addition to the canonical Gq effector phospholipase Cβ, the small GTPase Rho was recently identified as a conserved effector of Gq. To identify additional molecules important for Gq signaling in neurons, we performed a forward genetic screen in the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans for suppressors of the hyperactivity and exaggerated waveform of an activated Gq mutant. We isolated two mutations affecting the MAP kinase scaffold protein KSR-1 and found that KSR-1 modulates locomotion downstream of or in parallel to the Gq-Rho pathway. Through epistasis experiments, we found that the core ERK MAPK cascade is required for Gq-Rho regulation of locomotion, but that the canonical ERK activator LET-60/Ras may not be required. Through neuron-specific rescue experiments, we found that the ERK pathway functions in acetylcholine neurons to control Gq-dependent locomotion. Additionally, expression of activated LIN-45/Raf in acetylcholine neurons is sufficient to cause an exaggerated waveform phenotype and hypersensitivity to the acetylcholinesterase inhibitor aldicarb, similar to an activated Gq mutant. Taken together, our results suggest that the ERK MAPK pathway modulates the output of Gq-Rho signaling to control locomotion behavior in C. elegans.


This festschrift, in honor of the work of Gray L. Dorsey, covers their major areas of his lifelong commitment to the culture and jurisprudence of law in an historical and comparative, East-West context. Within his normative framework, Dorsey took account of the crisis in positivism, Marxism, and alternative conceptions of value in the law. His work emphasized intercultural conflicts in a societal and global environment without surrendering the sense of western culture and its special contributions to legal and moral thought. The volume, originally prepared as a special issue of the " Washington University Law Quarterly," has the benefit of an urbane new opening essay by Professor Vojcanin, which seeks to show how jurisculture is a "treasure map one may use to unearth the holes in which justice was hidden." It also contains a special essay by Gray Dorsey to conclude the volume in which he offers his current views on the philosophy of law and social theory in general. The volume is vigorous in its analysis, and central to any serious appraisal of the status of the philosophy of international law at this stage in history. The essays by Abraham Edel, Elizabeth Flower, Harold J. Berman, and Iredell Jenkins give special attention to this theme. The chapters by Jerome Hall, Herbert H.P. Ma, and Thomas H. Fang each take up a central issue in the relationship of world religion to world law. A third set of papers--by Edward McWhinney, Palitha T.B. Kohona, and Jacob W.F. Sundberg, discuss the major sociological implications of Dorsey's type of legal theory--with figures from Karl Marx, Max Weber, and F.S.C. Northrop covered in detail. For three decades, Gray L. Dorsey has contributed to comparative legal systems, emphasizing through his novel method of reasoning--jurisculture--a synthesis of empirical investigation and legal reasoning. Dorsey's work focuses on a set of meanings derived without reference to observed events, but by the adaptation and use of fundamental beliefs to organize and govern human cooperation. "Gray L. Dorsey" is Charles Nagel Professor Emeritus of Jurisprudence at International Law at Washington University Law School in St. Louis. He is the author of, among other works, "Beyond the United States: Changing Discourse in International Politics and Law, " and "Jurisculture"--the first two volumes, on Greece and Rome, and on India and China are now published by Transaction Publishers--with an additional five volumes remaining to complete this massive project. He is a past president of the International Association for Philosophy of Law and Social Philosophy.


Although provisions prohibiting abuses of dominance through the setting of excessive prices have long been present under many competition jurisdictions, prohibitions have been seldom applied in practice. This is most likely due to the profound conceptual and practical difficulties in differentiating between pricing conduct that is neutral from a competition law perspective and conduct that genuinely constitutes excessive pricing, and then further problems in remedying genuine abuses. However, recent developments in South African competition policy have focussed on use of import parity pricing as a possible indicator of excessive pricing, although in our view the mere existence of import parity pricing is unlikely to be a reliable indicator of such conduct. This paper draws upon economic theory and relevant jurisprudence to provide clarity as to the circumstances under which import parity pricing might reflect excessive pricing. It then considers the prospects for effective remedies if an abuse is identified.


ABSTRACT As marine life spirals towards mass extinction in this age of the Anthropocene, law seems incapable of preventing negative human impacts on marine biodiversity. As humanity realises its geological agency, what is the responsibility of law for marine life within the Anthropocene? This article explores this question by first theorising the concept of the Anthropocene within law, focussing on the concept of responsibility. It then analyses, based on critical environmental law theory, the core marine biodiversity norms from a historical and structural perspective. The article finds that the law of the sea is moulded by liberal constitutive processes, namely economic growth. Law is not passive in the Anthropocene; it is one of the institutions that brought the era forth. The article concludes that to ensure responsible human geological agency, law must be used strategically to destabilise the dominant paradigm and reform it in something that recognises our responsibility towards the oceans and the biosphere.


Over the past few decades, surgical procedures have made enormous progress, shifting from traditional open procedures to less and less invasive approaches, with the promise of smaller incisions, less complications, better cosmetic results and shorter recovery times. With these developments came a reduced dexterity and more complex control through the fulcrum effect and modified eye-hand coordination. These complications were greatly mitigated by the recent introduction of surgical robots, allowing the surgeon to sit in a comfortable posture, and restoring natural visuomotor coordination. To date, the issue of the lack of haptic feedback, which initially allowed the surgeon to intervene without vision, identify pathological tissue, feel arteries, etc., has not been resolved, despite the fact that it is crucial in certain interventions. Besides, the added value of haptic feedback is subject to controversy. Surgeons experienced in robotic surgery have adapted to the lack of haptic feedback and learned how to rely only on vision and proprioceptive cues as compensation. Nevertheless, previous studies have shown that substituting haptic information through various sensory channels can increase surgeons' performance. As a complete restoration of the sense of touch is extremely challenging in minimally invasive surgery, the advantages of haptic feedback have to be demonstrated and quantified to justify the additional cost and complexity. This is the aim of the present work. We hypothesized that tactile feedback as well as force is crucial in surgery and we investigated the haptic information involved in several representative surgical tasks. Dedicated hardware and a virtual reality environment to simulate suturing and palpation tasks were developed to address these questions. Ergonomic design guidelines were established based on an in-depth literature review and surgeons' comments gathered in a survey. These guidelines were then used to design and benchmark an ergonomic haptic handle featuring active grasping feedback and additional safety features. The results of the first two studies suggest that the benefits of haptic information highly depend on the surgical task in question. During a suturing task, force feedback significantly increased users' accuracy whereas torque feedback did not result in any significant improvement. In a palpation task, a higher recognition rate was achieved with tactile feedback than with visual sensory substitution. The performance of the haptic device integrating the ergonomic handle was assessed and compared with the standard omega.7 haptic device. Results showed that the index of performance of the original device was not degraded with the additional hardware. The index of performance was slightly increased for a manipulation task involving orientations. The ergonomic assessment of the handle showed a slight decrease of the tension in the adductor pollicis and flexor digitorium muscles, and therefore a potential decrease of fatigue. Although just a subset of surgical tasks could be investigated, the results indicate that haptic feedback and sensory substitution would greatly benefit teleoperated robotic surgery. Providing the surgeon with tactile information can potentially restore the feeling of "contact with the patient" and other surgeries that are highly reliant on the sense of touch could become possible again. This thesis presents a novel multidisciplinary approach to systematically analyzing surgical tasks in order to improve safety in two dimensions. Firstly, in the area of patient safety by providing the surgeon with haptic information to increase performance and reduce the risk of errors and secondly, in the area of surgeon safety by providing a more ergonomic master console. We expect this work to be a first step in establishing a general design method for more ergonomic surgeon consoles and trust that it will inspire research to investigate the sensory mechanisms underlying highly dexterous tasks such as those performed in surgery.


What kind of relationship exists between wars and epidemics? It is widely held that epidemics affected the outcomes of many wars and, until World War II, more victims of war died of disease than of battle wounds. Many disease vectors are present in times of conflict, including mass movements of people across borders and increased contact between persons of different geographic regions, yet disease is rarely treated in depth in histories of war. Hikmet Ozdemir s "The Ottoman Army, 1914 1918 "provides extensive documentation of disease and death across the Ottoman Empire during World War I, when epidemic diseases annihilated armies and caused civilians to perish en masse. Drawing on hospital records and information on regional disease prevalence, Ozdemir examines the effects that disease and epidemic had on the outcome of the war. The information on disease mortality explains much that has never been properly understood about wartime events and government actions, events that only begin to make sense when the disease factor is considered. Rich in detail, this is an extremely valuable book that illuminates a facet of the war that has not been adequately considered until now."


Deterioration of information disclosed through financial statements among the last decade, especially in the light of the recent global financial crisis has determined shareholders and stakeholders as well to find out a complementary solution that would provide more reliable information, relevant for resources allocation. Also, as the need of appropriation between accounting result and corporate finance result has been frequently claimed for years, the value creation potential has won an increasing role on identifying suitable financial and non-financial metrics that measure the efficiency and efficacy of management strategic policies. Integrated reporting framework is an alternative solution to the existing corporate reporting model. The focus on the strategic view of the result, on the process and function-based analysis of the results, or the idea of an institutional continuous process of communication of managers with the shareholders and stakeholders as well, have determined an increasing number of entities to implement IIRC reporting framework voluntary. This article is aimed to find some answers concerning the main drivers that determine entities to adopt voluntary integrated reporting framework proposed by IIRC on December 2013. The study is aimed to analyze firm-level factors and country-level factors considered on IIRC framework adoption decision as well, starting from stewardship theory, stakeholder theory and institutional perspective.


This thesis is about observations of clouds from satellite and ground based instruments. The aim is to reconstruct the three dimensional cloud distributions. This information is used both in climate research and operational meteorological applications. In climate research, cloud observations provide a reference to atmospheric models, which enables optimization of cloud parameterizations. For operational meteorologists clouds are symptoms of atmospheric conditions. Cloud observations therefore are helpful in understanding the current weather (nowcasting) and improve the estimate of how of the atmospheric conditions will evolve (forecasting).In order to obtain cloud field characteristics, analysis environments were developed for the interpretation of meteorological satellite measurements in terms of cloud properties. A large effort was put in the evaluation of the results with synoptic observations and measurements from two measurement campaigns. As a result this thesis comprises three major research topics: Meteosat analysis, AVHRR analysis and combined analysis of ground and satellite observations. Meteosat analysis A new cloud detection scheme was developed that includes the use of the surface temperature fields of a Numerical Weather Prediction (NWP) model as a threshold value to distinguish cloudy and cloud free areas. It is shown that also for cloud free conditions, the equivalent black body temperature as measured from satellite is different from the model surface temperature. An innovative part of the scheme is the quantification of this temperature difference, which is used to improve the skill of the cloud detection method. The improvement of the detection efficiency was quantified over land and ocean for 1997 on a 3 hourly basis in a semi-operational setting. As the method optimizes the use of the infrared information it is relatively insensitive to changes of insolation conditions with time of day, location, or season. AVHRR analysis The NWP model surface temperatures are also used in the AVHRR analysis environment. For the interpretation of the 0.6μm channel reflectivities, extensive radiative transfer calculations were done with the Doubling-Adding KNMI (DAK) radiative transfer code. The results were put in Look-up tables (LUT). The LUTs are used to obtain the following cloud field properties: cloud cover fraction, cloud top temperature, optical thickness and liquid water path. In order to assess the quality, the retrieved properties were compared to measurements from two campaigns: the Tropospheric Budget Experiment, TEBEX, and the Clouds and Radiation intensive measurement campaigns, CLARA. The comparison shows that the retrieval algorithms yield results that agree with independent ground based measurements for the cases studied. Combined analysis of satellite and ground observations Combined analysis of satellite and ground based observations from the TEBEX and CLARA data sets yields information on the quality of the satellite retrieval, but also on the merits of the ground based remote sensing instruments. The study shows that both observational sets have strong points, but a combination is preferred to obtain a good definition of the cloud field. In all comparisons the problem of collocation occurs. The ground based instruments measure continuous in time at one location, while satellites measure a spatial distribution at one moment in time. When comparing ground and satellite derived cloud products it is always questionable which part of the time series corresponds to which part of the spatial distribution. This correlation is studied by comparing variance spectra of time series and spatial distributions of liquid water path derived from microwave radiometer and AVHRR data respectively. It is shown that for two cases with different scaling properties the variance spectrum is similar for a part of the time-series and for a part of the AVHRR image.This thesis contributes to quantitative use of meteorological satellite data in meteorology and climate research. Furthermore, it advances combined analysis of space born and ground based remote sensing measurements of clouds for routine applications.


Despite legal protections, couples in Australian residential aged care facilities experience institutional interference in their intimate and sexual relationships. Panoptic surveillance remains widespread in aged care. Little attention is given to privacy. Some residents' doors are kept open at all times. Couples may be separated or provided with single beds only, unable to push them together. Staff frequently enter without knocking, commonly ignore 'do not disturb signs' and often gossip about residents. This culture has its origins in colonial institutions. Attempts at legislative reform to redress this situation have been met with mixed responses, with the most vociferous opposition coming from religious conservatives. A recurrent source of conflict is the tension between the 'rights' of religious and political institutions versus those of individuals. This article identifies systemic issues faced by partnered aged care residents, their historical origins, and the legislation that is designed to protect residents. Using a thematic analysis methodology, it reviews political debates in the past 40 years, in both federal Parliament and newspapers, and provides a critical analysis of recurrent themes and ideologies underpinning them. It concludes with recommendations for legislation that is consultative and 'person-centred' and recommends proscriptive privacy protections. Adoption of these ideas in future policy reforms has the potential to create more positive outcomes for partnered aged care


Optical absorption and photoluminescence (PL) measurements were performed on single crystals of undoped Y3Al5O12 (YAG) and a number of rare-earth-doped YAG to study the effect of dopant type and concentration, growth atmosphere, post-growth annealing and UV irradiation on the optical properties of YAG crystals. The presence of hydrogen in the growth atmosphere was found to be essential for enhancing the incorporation of Ce ions in the Ce3+ state in Ce-doped YAG (Ce : YAG). Annealing in air was shown to have no effect on the PL emission of Ce : YAG crystals. An absorption peak around 256 nm was observed in the undoped YAG and Ce : YAG crystals after air anneal at 1200 °C. Optical absorption and annealing experiments support the association of the 256 nm peak with Fe impurities and oxygen ions. UV irradiation modifies the valency of impurities and generates electronic defects leading to an increase in the optical density of YAG crystals. Optimizing the growth and annealing conditions is critical in order to develop Ce : YAG single crystals as efficient scintillators.


Abstract: This essay traces a critique of anti-sentimentalist leftist impersonality in the critically underestimated and best-selling novel The Unpossessed (1934). Tess Slesinger's satire parodies the deadened affect that results from programmatic refusals of subjectivity and personal life among New York intellectuals who ineffectually conspire to found a radical magazine. Although the novel has typically been read as a roman à clef, its broader target becomes evident when positioned in relation to masculinist orthodoxies of objectivity and scientific materialism that dominated American Marxist magazines in the early 1930s. Pitted against abstraction in particular, Slesinger challenges impersonality's disembodied imperative, which renders what this article terms "impersons": waifs "unpossessed" of agency and emotional intensity, and thus unfit not only for collective action but any form of deliberate futurity whatsoever. Slesinger's intervention suggests a deep affinity between leftist collectivism and modernist individualism, despite their superficial antinomy: according to her, both dangerously extend a suspicion of sentiment into the negation of personhood.


FRANCIS SUAREZ'S VIEWS ON THE RELATION BETWEEN THE ABSOLUTE POWER OF GOD AND THE NATURAL LAW

The article presents Francis Suarez's views concerning the problem of the possibility of granting dispensation from the natural law by the absolute power of God. Suarez's opinions on this matter were shown in his comprehensive work on the philosophy of law: De legibus ac Deo legislatore, in Book II De lege aeterna, naturali, et jure gentium, chapter XV entitled Utrum Deus dispensare possit in lege naturali etiam de absoluta potestate. Analyzing the notion of natural law Suarez accepts the Thomistic formula, according to which, the created world is a collection of things with invariable natures. These natures require us to fulfil certain moral obligations and to act in a proper manner. And for this reason, natural law, included in the Decalogue, is invariable and even God is not able to grant its dispensation. The commandments involve an intrinsic principle of justice and obligation and for this reason they are not liable to dispensation. God cannot act contrary to His own nature and His being just, so He would not order people to do something intrinsically unjust. Doctor Eximius justifies moral norms expressed in the Decalogue axiologically, not in a voluntaristic way, by referring to God's will alone. Suarez criticises both strong theological voluntarism, attributed to Ockham, as well as weak theological voluntarism, attributed to John Duns Scotus.

Keywords: FRANCIS SUAREZ, ABSOLUTE POWER OF GOD, NATURAL LAW


This paper exploits an unusually rich data set to estimate racial differences in the rents paid for identical housing in the same neighborhood in U.S. housing markets and how they vary with neighborhood racial composition. It overcomes the shortcomings of the data used in previous studies. It is large (over 400,000 observations), covers all parts of the country, and contains detailed information about the housing units and their immediate neighborhoods and the census block group of each unit. Importantly, due to the sample size, there are many blacks living in predominantly white neighborhoods and many whites in predominantly black neighborhoods. Results suggest that households led by blacks pay more for identical housing in identical neighborhoods than their white counterparts and that this rent gap increases with the fraction of the neighborhood white. In neighborhoods with the smallest fraction white, the premium is about 0.6 percent. In neighborhoods with the largest fraction white, it is about 2.4 percent. This pattern holds across different types of areas, namely the 50 largest metro areas, all other metro areas, non-metro areas, and areas with the highest and lowest levels of racial segregation in housing.


Over the last years Turkey has been increasingly associated in the international political and economic debate with concepts such as "gas corridor" and "gas hub". This characterization of Turkey is clearly mainly due to its unique geographical position at the crossroads the Caspian region, the Middle East and Europe. In particular, this argument is often advanced in the political discussion on the rise of Turkey as a leading regional power and in the debate on the future prospects for the EU-Turkey relations. However, by going beyond the political slogans and by focusing on the concrete gas realities around Turkey this picture could be seriously put into question. The aim of this paper is to explore the real potential role of Turkey in the regional gas markets, firstly focusing on the current situation of gas producing countries around Turkey and then moving to the future prospects of gas cooperation in the region. To this end, the paper will provide an assessment of both the current situation and outlook of gas markets in Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Iraq, Iran, Israel and Cyprus, subsequently providing a discussion of the future prospects of the Southern Gas Corridor and of the potential Eastern Mediterranean Gas Corridor. This analysis will indicate that Turkey will hardly have the potential to become a regional gas hub in the medium term (up to 2020-2025). However, Turkey could have the potential to play an important role in the regional gas markets in the longer term (after 2025-2030) if a number of infrastructural, commercial and political barriers described in the paper are overcome and -last but not the least- if the EU gas demand recovers and the EU market actually needs more natural gas supplies.


Named entity disambiguation has become an important research area providing the basis for improving search engine precision and for enabling semantic search. Current approaches for the named entity disambiguation are usually based on exploiting structured semantic and lingual resources (e.g. WordNet, DBpedia). Unfortunately, each of these resources cover independently from each other insufficient information for the task of named entity disambiguation. On the one hand WordNet comprises a relative small number of named entities while on the other hand DBpedia provides only little context for named entities. Our approach is based on the use of multi-lingual Wikipedia data. We show how the combination of multi-lingual resources can be used for named entity disambiguation. Based on a German and an English document corpus, we evaluate various similarity measures and algorithms for extracting data for named entity disambiguation. We show that the intelligent filtering of context data and the combination of multilingual information provides high quality named entity disambiguation results.


The 2011 Tohoku earthquake (M_w 9.0) was followed by a large number of aftershocks that resulted in 70 early warning messages in the first month after the mainshock. Of these warnings, a non‐negligible fraction (63%) were false warnings in which the largest expected seismic intensities were overestimated by at least two intensities or larger. These errors can be largely attributed to multiple concurrent aftershocks from distant origins that occur within a short period of time. Based on a Bayesian formulation that considers the possibility of having more than one event present at any given time, we propose a novel likelihood function suitable for classifying multiple concurrent earthquakes, which uses amplitude information. We use a sequential Monte Carlo heuristic whose complexity grows linearly with the number of events. We further provide a particle filter implementation and empirically verify its performance with the aftershock records after the Tohoku earthquake. The initial case studies suggest promising performance of this method in classifying multiple seismic events that occur closely in time.


Freeze/thawing process reduces sperm survival and fertilizing ability of cat spermatozoa, with sperm motility being the most sensitive sperm parameter altered, due to cryo-damage. In this context, swim-up and density gradient processing method can help to recover high motile and normal spermatozoa. Maximizing the use of frozen semen sample is essential, especially in e ndangered felids or high value cats in which sample size, number of samples or access to semen collection is reduced. To our knowledge, t here is no previous report describing an in depth analysis of sperm motility improvement, after sperm selection techniques in frozen cat s em . Accordingly, we evaluated the effect of percoll gradient (PG) and swim up (SU) sperm selection techniques on sperm motility par ameters and sperm recovery rate in frozen/thawed spermatozoa of domestic cat. Next, we evaluated the individual effect of the cat over sperm motility after PG sperm selection of frozen/thawed spermatozoa. SU and PG improved significantly all sperm motility parameters of frozen/thawed cat spermatozoa compared to simple washing. However, PG allows better sperm recovery from the original frozen sam ple and works mostly homogeneously among individual cats. This new information could help to maximize the use of frozen semen in endangered felids or high value domestic cats for its subsequent application on in vitro fertilization and artificial insemination.


Ozone prodn. in 5M H2SO4 with Ti/IrO2/SnO2 - Sb2O5 electrodes was studied. Electrodes were prepd. at 550 Deg by spray pyrolysis of a soln. of precursors contg. tin and antimony chlorides. The aim of this work was to elucidate the mechanism of activation and deactivation of Ti/IrO2/SnO2-Sb2O5 electrodes for ozone prodn. Under galvanostatic conditions the anodic potential and O3 prodn. increases firstly reaching a max. then suddenly decrease. The authors explain this observation by considering that the SnO2 layer prepd. by spray pyrolysis is under stoichiometric for oxygen. During the activation SnO2 becomes stoichiometric. This condition is necessary for ozone prodn. XRD anal. showed no modification of the structure of the bulk during ozone prodn. Nevertheless XRF anal. revealed an inhomogeneity of the at. Sb/Sn ratio on the surface of the electrode leading to pitting corrosion which is responsible of the deactivation of the electrode. [on SciFinder (R)]


We investigate energy-efficient cooperation for secrecy in cognitive radio networks. In particular, we consider a four-node cognitive scenario where the secondary receiver is treated as a potential eavesdropper with respect to the primary transmission. The cognitive transmitter should ensure that the primary message is not leaked to the secondary user by using cooperative jamming. We investigate the optimal power allocation and power splitting at the secondary transmitter for our cognitive model to maximize the secondary energy efficiency (EE) under secrecy constraints. We formulate and analyze an important EE Stackelberg game between the two transmitters aiming at maximizing their utilities. We illustrate the analytical results through our geometrical model, highlighting the EE performance of the system and the impact of the Stackelberg game.


This volume brings together an impressive array of internationally recognized scholars from around the world to examine the many facets of gender politics in Asia. Its central concern is how women in various gendered contexts in Asia position themselves in the (re)production of gender relations, and how they manoeuver in order to preserve or alter these. It covers fields as varied as the use of dress as a political weapon, the practice of healing as an indirect challenge to the dominant gender and political orders, and religious ordination as a struggle for equity in Buddhism.


We present CHARON, a cloud-backed storage system capable of storing and sharing big data in a secure, reliable, and efficient way using multiple cloud providers and storage repositories to comply with the legal requirements of sensitive personal data. CHARON implements three distinguishing features: (1) it does not require trust on any single entity, (2) it does not require any client-managed server, and (3) it efficiently deals with large files over a set of geo-dispersed storage services. Besides that, we developed a novel Byzantine-resilient data-centric leasing protocol to avoid write-write conflicts between clients accessing shared repositories. We evaluate CHARON using micro and application-based benchmarks simulating representative workflows from bioinformatics, a prominent big data domain. The results show that our unique design is not only feasible but also presents an end-to-end performance of up to 2.5× better than other cloud-backed solutions.


T. S. Eliot once spoke of a lifetime burning in every moment. He had the mind to conceive a perfect life, and he also had the honesty to admit he could not meet it. 'He was a man of extremes whose deep flaws and high virtues were interfused,' writes Lyndall Gordon in this perceptive and innovative biography of the great poet. She brilliantly explores his poetry, drama and essays in relationship to the four quite different women in his life and to his time in America and England. The Imperfect Life of T.S. Eliot follows the trials of a searcher whose flaws and doubts speak to all of us whose lives are imperfect.


Learning with a primary objective, such as softmax cross entropy for classification and sequence generation, has been the norm for training deep neural networks for years. Although being a widely-adopted approach, using cross entropy as the primary objective exploits mostly the information from the ground-truth class for maximizing data likelihood, and largely ignores information from the complement (incorrect) classes. We argue that, in addition to the primary objective, training also using a complement objective that leverages information from the complement classes can be effective in improving model performance. This motivates us to study a new training paradigm that maximizes the likelihood of the groundtruth class while neutralizing the probabilities of the complement classes. We conduct extensive experiments on multiple tasks ranging from computer vision to natural language understanding. The experimental results confirm that, compared to the conventional training with just one primary objective, training also with the complement objective further improves the performance of the state-of-the-art models across all tasks. In addition to the accuracy improvement, we also show that models trained with both primary and complement objectives are more robust to single-step adversarial attacks.


The main theoretical position of this paper is that it is the explicit problem-solving support in concept mapping software that produces a stronger effect in problem-solving performance than the implicit support afforded by the graphical functionality of concept mapping software. Explicit problem-solving support activates cognitive functions such as knowledge representation, knowledge elicitation, knowledge reflection and knowledge creation. Concept mapping graphical instruction supports knowledge representation only. This paper reports on an experimental study that tests this assumption as measuring the effect of two types of concept mapping software on problem-solving performance, mapping production and perceived problem-solving effectiveness of 47 students randomly assigned to an experimental and a control group. The results validated empirically the theoretical position as the group that used concept mapping software with explicit problem-solving support scored significantly higher on problem-solving performance and on the most of the indicators of mapping production and perceived effectiveness of concept mapping software.


Today, business activities seem to have shifted towards green business with the inception of women entrepreneurs who are more environmentally conscious. This study aims to examine the behaviour construction of women entrepreneurs' intention towards green business in Indonesia. Using a quantitative approach, data were collected from 122 women entrepreneurs using simple random sampling, which were then processed by PLS-SEM. This study found that green behavioural intention among women entrepreneurs in Indonesia reflects their environmental concern with a strong solid vision to create the change. The argument that market rationality will mediate green business behaviour and predicted as a barrier factor to their intention of having business with environmental concerns was not proven. This study argues that women entrepreneurs with green business initiatives in Indonesia belong to the visionary champion type, an entrepreneur who takes themselves as agents of change. Increasing the number of women entrepreneurs with green business initiation in Indonesia will favour Indonesia's future economy and sustainability. The nurture of women's role in spreading knowledge allows them to create their market by educating the market with their green image and offering alternatives. The government needs to pay strict attention and formulate policies on encouraging women entrepreneurs in Indonesia, particularly those starting their business with environmental consciousness.
Keywords: women entrepreneurs, green business, behavioural intention, sustainable development goals, Indonesia


This guide will provide resources and assistance to students majoring and/or taking classes in Environmental Science within the Department of Biology and Earth Science.


"Teaching in Inclusive School Communities, 1st Edition is the essential resource to provide pre-service teachers with the most contemporary, ethical and useful framework for incorporating diversity and inclusive practices in today's classroom. Fourteen concise chapters compose a focused picture of the values and beliefs that inform the inclusive education approach, with the most up-to-date connections to curriculum and pedagogy throughout. Complemented by the latest research in the field, this text provides the practical knowledge and skills needed for inclusive classroom teaching in Australia and New Zealand, as well as a thorough analysis of exactly what is required to build respectful relationships in modern school communities."--publisher website


The question of how and why users engage in sport digital communication endures. In this study, structuration theory is employed to examine how social-media users exercise preferences in the creation of content as they respond to a variety of macrolevel factors pertaining to college football—the type of game, team strength, conference membership, market characteristics, etc. Through hierarchical regression analysis, the results indicate that the presence and timing of college football games, as well as team strength and game outcome, are significant determinants for the patterns of online content generation. As such, the study advances the theoretical, methodological, and managerial inquiry of user-generated content on sport social-media platforms through a Big Data analytics approach.


This paper provides a comprehensive introduction to the design of the minimally expressive robot KASPAR, which is particularly suitable for human--robot interaction studies. A low-cost design with off-the-shelf components has been used in a novel design inspired from a multi-disciplinary viewpoint, including comics design and Japanese Noh theatre. The design rationale of the robot and its technical features are described in detail. Three research studies will be presented that have been using KASPAR extensively. Firstly, we present its application in robot-assisted play and therapy for children with autism. Secondly, we illustrate its use in human--robot interaction studies investigating the role of interaction kinesics and gestures. Lastly, we describe a study in the field of developmental robotics into computational architectures based on interaction histories for robot ontogeny. The three areas differ in the way as to how the robot is being operated and its role in social interaction scenarios. Each will be introduced briefly and examples of the results will be presented. Reflections on the specific design features of KASPAR that were important in these studies and lessons learnt from these studies concerning the design of humanoid robots for social interaction will also be discussed. An assessment of the robot in terms of utility of the design for human--robot interaction experiments concludes the paper.


Although privatization has been a key feature of economic policy in Africa since the early 1990s its sequencing and intensity have varied from country to country, with donor leverage being an important determinant of the pace of implementation. However, although many privatization schemes were undertaken in response to donor demands for reduced government participation in business, the process soon achieved its own dynamics. The positive view of privatization suggests that it went ahead, in spite of domestic opposition, because politicians and bureaucrats perceived real benefits to themselves and their supporters. They could influence the sales to their own benefit, while, on the other hand, a more focused public sector improved service delivery.


The topic of plasticity-induced closure and its role in shielding a crack tip from the full range of applied stress intensity factor has provoked considerable controversy over several decades. We are now in an era when full field measurement techniques, e.g. thermoelasticity and photoelasticity, offer a means of directly obtaining the stress field around a crack tip and hence the effective stress intensity factor. Nonetheless, without a clear understanding of the manner in which the development of plasticity around a growing crack affects the applied stress field, it will remain difficult to make crack growth rate predictions except through the use of an often highly conservative upper bound growth rate curve where closure is absent, or through semi-empirical approaches. This paper presents new evidence for an interpretation of plasticity-induced crack tip shielding as arising from two separate effects; a compatibility-induced interfacial shear stress at the elastic-plastic interface along the plastic wake of the crack, and a crack surface contact stress which will vary considerably as a function of stress state, load and material properties.


Utah deserts supply the state with exquisite beauty and are a definitive part of Utah's identity. However, a consequence of this arid beauty is aridity itself. Because Utah is one of the driest states in the nation, water is an important resource. Accordingly, Utah legislators have enacted statutes that ensure that those who own water will use it beneficially and that ownership of water can be transferred easily from one owner to another. Water ownership is categorized as either ownership of a water right or a share of water stock. This Note focuses on the need for a resolution in Utah law regarding the transfer of shares of water stock. Under Utah statutes, shares of water stock transfer as securities according to the principles of Utah's Uniform Commercial Code. However, Utah courts have ignored these statutes and have applied judicially made rules in an ad hoc manner to determine whether the shares of stock in question should transfer as securities or as real property. This Note advocates that Utah courts should acquiesce to the Utah Legislature and hold that shares of water stock are transferred per the Utah Uniform Commercial Code.


Objectives
The objective was to evaluate the effect of an aqueous phenolic extract from cocoa shell (CAE) and its main phenolic compounds to prevent the adipogenesis-induced loss of mitochondrial function and insulin sensitivity, targeting the inflammatory interplay macrophages-adipocytes in vitro.

Methods
CAE and its main phenolic compounds (protocatechuic acid, procyanidin B2, and epicatechin) were tested in cell culture of RAW264.7 macrophages and 3T3-L1 mature adipocytes. Macrophages were stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 1 µg/mL). Adipocytes were treated with the conditioned media (CM) from LPS-stimulated macrophages. Biomarkers for inflammation, mitochondrial function, and insulin sensitivity were determined after 24 h co-treatment with CAE and LPS/CM using chemical and immunochemical techniques.

Results
LPS-stimulated macrophages showed reduced inducible nitric oxide synthase and cyclooxygenase-2 expression and lowered NO and pro-inflammatory cytokines release when treated with CAE and pure phenolics. Inflammatory crosstalk created by stimulating adipocytes with CM was arrested; CAE diminished tumor necrosis factor-α (67%, p < 0.05) and highly promoted adiponectin secretion (12.3-fold, p < 0.05). Mitochondrial function, measured by reactive oxygen species production, mitochondrial content, and activity, was preserved in CM-treated adipocytes through up-regulating peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma coactivator 1-α expression (46%, p < 0.05). Significant (p < 0.05) increases in insulin receptor (9-fold, p < 0.05), phosphoinositide 3-kinase (3-fold, p < 0.05), protein kinase B (4-fold, p < 0.05) phosphorylation and a decrease in insulin receptor substrate 1 serine phosphorylation induced increased glucose uptake (34%, p < 0.05) and glucose transporter 4 translocation (14-fold, p < 0.05) in CM-induced adipocytes.

Conclusions
Cocoa shell extract polyphenols reduced macrophages-adipocytes inflammatory interaction preventing mitochondrial dysfunction and insulin resistance. For the first time, cocoa shell aqueous extract showed a positive effect on adipogenesis and inflammation-related disorders.

Funding Sources
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid-Banco Santander, United States Department of Agriculture-National Institute of Food and Agriculture-HATCH, and the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.


NEURO-ONCOLOGY Following are the preferred responses to the questions in the Postreading Self-Assessment and CME Test in this Continuum issue. The preferred response is followed by an explanation and a reference with which you may seek more specific information. You are encouraged to review the responses and explanations carefully to evaluate your general understanding of the article topic. The comments and references included with each question are intended to encourage independent study.


This article outlines the contribution of Buddhist organizations in Australia to education and social welfare. It is argued that from the viewpoint of Buddhist organizations in Australia, they have always been concerned with social welfare and education issues, and this is not a new phenomenon. This is illustrated through examining services delivered by Buddhist organizations in Australia in nine areas: education of adults; education of children; working with the sick and dying in the community; working in hospitals and hospices; working in drug rehabilitation; working with the poor; working in prisons; speaking up for the oppressed; and working for non-human sentient beings. The worldviews of these Buddhist organizations that state social engagement has always been integral to their tradition will be articulated.


Rolling element bearing is an essential component in mechanical transmission because it reduces friction between two rotating parts. Two main approaches to evaluate power losses are proposed in literature: (i) global engineering models using few input data; (ii) local models which are more accurate but need much more information on rolling element bearing geometry. Based on thermal network approach, an intermediate model is developed in this study. This new model allows obtaining lumped information (temperature of rings) with a minimum of input data (external geometry only) and by using global power loss models. This intermediate model is developed for angular contact ball bearing under oil jet lubrication for high speed application. Thermal network results are compared with experimental findings.


Human beings live to get happiness, livelihood, peace, security, safety, dignity and respect among others. Deprivation of any of these could be frustrating. Thus, attempts were made to determine multidimensional poverty index (MPI) of rural households and its decomposition by geo-political zones in Nigeria using the Alkire-Foster MPI approach. The result showed that the headcount poverty ratio H was 78.1% when K = 30 as compared to 58.8% for K = 40 and 23.6% for K = 60. The adjusted headcount ratio also suggested that 41% of the households were poor at K=30, whereas 34.2 and 16.7% of the households were considered poor for K=40 and K=60, respectively. The intensity of poverty from the result showed that the share of dimensions in which the poor were deprived increased with K, while the MPI of the households was decreasing with K. The result further revealed that living conditions contributed the largest value (59.9%) to the multidimensional poor, followed by education (14.3%), health (13.4%) and assets (12.4%). Therefore, the living condition and education of households should be prioritized in targeting poverty as it contributes largely to MPI across all the geopolitical zones in the country.

 Key words: Asset, multidimensional poverty, Nigeria, rural, wellbeing.


More than two decades ago, Smith and Welch (1989) used the 1940 through 1980 census files to document important relative black progress. However, recent data indicate that this progress did not continue, at least among men. The growth of incarceration rates among black men in recent decades combined with the sharp drop in black employment rates during the Great Recession have left most black men in a position relative to white men that is really no better than the position they occupied only a few years after the Civil Rights Act of 1965. A move toward more punitive treatment of arrested offenders drove prison growth in recent decades, and this trend is evident among arrested offenders in every major crime category. Changes in the severity of corrections policies have had a much larger impact on black communities than white communities because arrest rates have historically been much greater for blacks than whites.


The paper deals with the phenomena of the noise emitted by high voltage overhead power transmission lines. It contains an analysis of technical parameters of the transmission line: voltage, voltage gradient, configuration as well as technical conditions of the bundle of conductors. Test results for various weather and environmental conditions have been presented, and their influence upon the level and character of the emitted noise spectrum has been discussed. The atmospheric conditions have been pointed out which essentially influence the acoustic climate of the environment. Special attention has been paid to the noise emitted during intensive corona effect, and to the second harmonic of the power transmission line which appears then in the acoustic spectrum.


Sams Teach Yourself C in 24 Hours, Second Edition, shows you how to program in C in an easy-to-understand format. C is a powerful and flexible language used for a wide range of projects. You begin with learning the basics to write a first program and then move on to arrays, pointers, disk input/output, and functions. This book will allow you to understanding data types, loops, and strings to make your programs work for you. You'll also work with arrays, structures, and unions to expand your programming skills, use pointers to access and retrieve data elements, develop programs that process mathematical equations, functions, and variables, and explore memory management techniques.


When John Maynard Smith and Eors Szathmary published The Major Transitions in Evolution, it was seen as a major work in biology. Nature hailed it as a book of "grand and daunting sweep.... A splendid and rewarding tour de force." And New Scientist wrote that it captured "the essence of modern biology," calling it "an extremely significant book which, as a bonus, is very readable."
Now, in The Origins of Life, Maynard Smith and Szathmary have completely rewritten Transitions to bring their ideas to a wider audience of general readers. Here is a brilliant, state-of-the-art account of how life evolved on earth, focusing primarily on six major transitions--dramatic breakthroughs in the way that information was passed between generations. The authors offer illuminating explorations of the origin of life itself, the arrival of the first cells with nuclei, the first reproduction by sexual means, the appearance of multicellular plants and animals, the emergence of cooperation and of animal societies, and the birth of language.
The Origins of Life represents the thinking of two leading scientists on questions that engage us all--how life began and how it gradually evolved from tiny invisible cells into whales and trees and human beings.


AUSGeoid09 is the latest model used to convert Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) derived ellipsoidal heights to heights in the Australian Height Datum (AHD). While previous studies have evaluated the performance of the AUSGeoid09 model across Australia, such studies have not focused on mountainous regions in particular. This paper evaluates AUSGeoid09 in the Blue Mountains region of New South Wales from a practical user's point of view. Along a 90 km stretch of road incorporating flat to mountainous terrain, comparisons were undertaken between AUSGeoid09-derived heights and published AHD heights, using repeated Network Real Time Kinematic (NRTK) GNSS observations. The performance of AUSGeoid09 was also evaluated relative to its predecessor, AUSGeoid98, and the latest gravimetric model AGQG2009. It was found that AUSGeoid09 performs well across the study area and provides a significant improvement over AUSGeoid98. AUSGeoid09 generally allows AHD height determination at the ±0.03 m level (1 sigma) in flat terrain and at the ±0.06 m level (1 sigma) in mountainous terrain. However, across the entire study area, AUSGeoid09-derived AHD heights are consistently lower than the published AHD heights. Comparison of the results obtained with AUSGeoid09 against those using AGQG2009 in flat terrain illustrates the benefit that the introduction of the geometric component of AUSGeoid09 has had on the determination of AHD heights with satellite technology. However, for elevations above 500 m it appears that the geometric component degrades the fit to AHD in the study area, indicating that there is room for improvement in regards to future versions of the AUSGeoid model.