Since its publication in Japan ten years ago, the Origins of Modern Japanese Literature has become a landmark book, playing a pivotal role in defining discussions of modernity in that country. Against a history of relative inattention on the part of Western translators to modern Asian critical theory, this first English publication is sure to have a profound effect on current cultural criticism in the West. It is both the boldest critique of modern Japanese literary history to appear in the post-war era and a major theoretical intervention, which calls into question the idea of modernity that informs Western consciousness.

In a sweeping reinterpretation of nineteenth-and twentieth-century Japanese literature, Karatani Kojin forces a reconsideration of the very assumptions underlying our concepts of modernity. In his analysis, such familiar terms as origin, modern, literature, and the state reveal themselves to be ideological constructs. Karatani weaves many separate strands into an argument that exposes what has been hidden in both Japanese and Western accounts of the development of modern culture. Among these strands are: the "discovery" of landscape in painting and literature and its relation to the inwardness of individual consciousness; the similar "discovery" in Japanese drama of the naked face as another kind of landscape produced by interiority; the challenge to the dominance of Chinese characters in writing; the emergence of confessional literature as an outgrowth of the repression of sexuality and the body; the conversion of the samurai class to Christianity; the mythologizing of tuberculosis, cancer, and illness in general as a producer of meaning; and the "discovery" of "the child" as an independent category of human being.

A work that will be important beyond the confines of literary studies, Karatani's analysis challenges basic Western presumptions of theoretical centrality and originality and disturbs the binary opposition of the "West" to its so-called "other." Origins of Modern Japanese Literature should be read by all those with an interest in the development of cultural concepts and in the interrelating factors that have determined modernity.


We examined the impact of habitat degradation (removal of surface rocks) on an endangered snake species (Hoplocephalus bungaroides, Elapidae) at 23 sites in south-eastern Australia, by quantifying the impact of rock removal on (i) the availability of suitable shelter-sites for the snakes and their major prey species (the velvet gecko, Oedura lesueurii), and (ii) the numbers of snakes and geckos. Our survey showed that both the snakes and the geckos prefer rocks lying on other rocks, rather than on soil, and select rocks of particular sizes. The rocks removed by bush-rock collectors overlap considerably in size (diameter and thickness) and substrate (rock on rock) with those used by broad-headed snakes and velvet geckos. Multivariate path analysis suggests that population densities of broad-headed snakes (as measured by capture rates) may be determined primarily by gecko numbers, which in turn depend upon availability of suitable rocks. In some sites, rock numbers were substantially reduced by anthropogenic disturbance. Thus, our survey data suggest that bush-rock removal has contributed to the endangerment of H. bungaroides.


Phytophthora ramorum is a new and aggressive Phytophthora species that causes leaf blight and dieback symptoms on Viburnum and Rhododendron plants in Europe. A variant of this fungus is responsible for Sudden Oak Death (SOD) in California and Oregon. In Europe, problems so far are mostly restricted to nursery plants of Rhododendron and Viburnum while in the US, the fungus has been isolated from over 20 host species and is responsible for massive killing of oak trees (mostly Quercus agrifolia and Lithocarpus densiflorus) in forest and park settings. The potential for infection of native tree species in Europe and the recent detection of the fungus in nurseries of several European countries has lead to the implementation of EU emergency phytosanitary measures. As a result, most European countries have conducted surveys and are doing research as part of risk assessment efforts. The first part of this paper focuses on the plant diagnoses of the 2002 survey of P. ramorum in Belgian nurseries. The data from the survey indicates P. ramorum is present in Belgium at similar rates as in the neighbouring countries, in an apparent random distribution. The second part of this paper describes research results relating to the in vitro effect of oomycete fungicides on P. ramorum, Rhododendron cultivar susceptibility, the determination of the leaf infection site, and pathogen survival. Some fungicides had excellent in vitro activity against P. ramorum and should be tested further on plants. Use of host resistance as a control strategy may be limited as little difference in cultivar sensitivity was observed. Infection studies showed that wounds and the lower sides of the leaves are most susceptible to infection. Once the pathogen gets inside, it can survive well on detached leaves, especially when they are kept cool and moist. These data can contribute to management decisions of P. ramorum at the level of nurseries as well as the government.


A comparison of the long-term outcome after surgical and nonsurgical treatment of hypertensive putaminal hemorrhage was performed in Japan over the last 15 years to determine the appropriate role of surgery. The overall results show a poor response to surgical treatment, but neurosurgeons also know that hematoma evacuation may bring about a dramatic result in some cases. In addition, experimental studies have shown that hematoma evacuation improves neuronal function at the penumbra. The discrepancy between the results of this study and the neurosurgeon's clinical impression is probably a reflection of the following. In the past, the decision to operate was determined mainly by the location of the hemorrhage as determined by computed tomography and/or magnetic resonance imaging. However, this method of deciding surgical indications is probably not correct. We are trying to change the method of determining the surgical indications from morphological to physiological criteria as follows: All patients are initially treated with hyperbaric oxygen, and those who show improvement of their symptoms are clearly indicated for surgery. If the somatosensory evoked potential or auditory brain stem response shows an improvement after administration of mannitol or glycerol, this is also an indication that surgery should be performed.


Neutron imaging has become a valuable tool for measuring hydrogen distributions qualitatively and quantitatively in metals. Hydrogen mass flow can be measured inside cm thick Steel samples with 10 s temporal resolution. Hydrogen accumulations around craclcs in embrittled iron samples can be visualized three-dimensionally. The gas pressure of hydrogen in crack cavities has been measured to be in the range of 5 MPa to 15 MPa. This quality of information allows new insights for the analysis of damage mechanisms on a micrometer scale, e.g., of hydrogen blistering. Further, this method is nondestructive and provides local information in situ and in three dimensions with a spatial resolution of 20 µm - 30 µm.


This article analyses the blossoming of the initiatives for inter-parliamentary cooperation currently observable in the European Union from a democratic legitimacy perspective. It shows that there exists numerous forms and settings for the cooperation among national parliaments (NPs) and with the European Parliament (EP) outside of the best-known and formalized inter-parliamentary conferences (Speakers' Conference, Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union (COSAC), Common Foreign and Security Policy/Common Security and Defense Policy (CSDP) Conference and Article 13 Conference). There is, indeed, a rapidly growing number of formal and informal forums in which not necessarily all Member States parliaments, or the EP, are invited to participate. It is argued on this basis that while an increased participation of NPs especially to the European integration process can be positive and contribute to bringing 'Brussels' closer to the citizens, this evolution is not free of risk. If the number of inter-parliamentary initiatives continues to grow without order or control, their representativeness, legitimacy and in fine their impact is likely to become insignificant. Therefore, a re-recentralization and a strong reinforcement of their visibility and their clarity for the public in general are in order so that the benefits of such an increased parliamentary participation can be preserved.


Since the late 1980s, Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) has become a well-established field in the social sciences. However, in contrast with some branches of linguistics, CDA is not a discrete academic discipline in the traditional sense, with a fixed set of research methods. The manifold roots of CDA lie in a myriad of disciplines including rhetoric, anthropology, philosophy and cognitive science, to name a few. This four-volume set brings together seminal articles on the subject from varied sources, creating an invaluable roadmap for scholars seeking to consolidate their knowledge of CDA, and of its continued development. Sculpted and edited by a leading voice in the field, this work covers the interdisciplinary roots, the most important approaches and methodologies of CDA, as well as applications in other disciplines in an updated and comprehensive way. Structured thematically, the four volumes cover a wide range of aspects and considerations: Volume One: Histories, Concepts and Interdisciplinarity Volume Two: Theoretical Approaches and Methodologies Volume Three: 'Doing CDA' - Case Studies Volume Four: Applications and Perspectives - New Trends in CDA


Foam reduces gas mobility and can improve sweep efficiency in an enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) process. Previous studies show that foam can be generated in porous media by exceeding a critical velocity or pressure gradient. This requirement is typically met only near the wellbore, and it is uncertain whether foam can propagate several tens of meters away from wells as the local pressure gradient and superficial velocity decreases. Theoretical studies show that foam can be generated, independent of pressure gradient, during flow across an abrupt increase in permeability. In this study, we validate theoretical predictions through a variety of experimental evidence. Coreflood experiments involving simultaneous injection of gas and surfactant solution at field-like velocities are presented. We use model consolidated porous media made out of sintered glass, with a well-characterized permeability transition in each core. The change in permeability in these artificial cores is analogous to sharp, small-scale heterogeneities, such as laminations and cross laminations. Pressure gradient is measured across several sections of the core to identify foam-generation events and the subsequent propagation of foam. X-ray computed tomography (CT) provides dynamic images of the coreflood with an indication of foam presence through phase saturations. We investigate the effects of the magnitude of permeability contrast on foam generation and mobilization. Experiments demonstrate foam generation during simultaneous flow of gas and surfactant solution across a sharp increase in permeability, at field-like velocities. The experimental observations also validate theoretical predictions of the permeability contrast required for foam generation by "snap-off" to occur at a certain gas fractional flow. Pressure-gradient measurements across different sections of the core indicate the presence or absence of foam and the onset of foam generation at the permeability change. There is no foam present in the system before generation at the boundary. CT measurements help visualize foam generation and propagation in terms of a region of high gas saturation developing at the permeability transition and moving downstream. If coarse foam is formed upstream, then it is transformed into stronger foam at the transition. Significant fluctuations are observed in the pressure gradient across the permeability transition, suggesting intermittent plugging and mobilization of flow there. This is the first CT-assisted experimental study of foam generation by snap-off only, at a sharp permeability increase in a consolidated medium. The results of experiments reported in this paper have important consequences for a foam application in highly heterogeneous or layered formations. Not including the effect of heterogeneities on gas mobility reduction in the presence of surfactant could underestimate the efficiency of the displacement process.


Quantitative methods for mapping sub-pixel land cover fractions are gaining increasing attention, particularly with regard to upcoming hyperspectral satellite missions. We evaluated five advanced regression algorithms combined with synthetically mixed training data for quantifying urban land cover from HyMap data at 3.6 and 9 m spatial resolution. Methods included support vector regression (SVR), kernel ridge regression (KRR), artificial neural networks (NN), random forest regression (RFR) and partial least squares regression (PLSR). Our experiments demonstrate that both kernel methods SVR and KRR yield high accuracies for mapping complex urban surface types, i.e., rooftops, pavements, grass- and tree-covered areas. SVR and KRR models proved to be stable with regard to the spatial and spectral differences between both images and effectively utilized the higher complexity of the synthetic training mixtures for improving estimates for coarser resolution data. Observed deficiencies mainly relate to known problems arising from spectral similarities or shadowing. The remaining regressors either revealed erratic (NN) or limited (RFR and PLSR) performances when comprehensively mapping urban land cover. Our findings suggest that the combination of kernel-based regression methods, such as SVR and KRR, with synthetically mixed training data is well suited for quantifying urban land cover from imaging spectrometer data at multiple scales.


What are the origins of global regulation? This article proposes that the developmental state — the state investing in economic development — can be a source of global environmental regulation. Through industrial policy, the developmental state can promote structural economic change in polluting sectors that supports global regulatory policy in two ways: first, providing state support to green industries creates economic interests in support of global regulation; and, second, driving down the cost of technology through government subsidies alters the pay-offs of global cooperation for other states. This article examines the two mechanisms in the case of climate change: the global leadership of the European Union; and international cooperation on the Paris Agreement. The argument advances our theory of the state in global regulatory politics as both a developmental and a regulatory force. This article identifies significant scope for the developmental strategies of major economies to change the interest and cost structures of polluting sectors to support global environmental regulation.


Ant mimicry, i.e., the mimicking of ant workers by another organism, is a widespread phenomenon among different groups of Euarthropoda, including spiders and different insect species. One example of ant mimicry occurs among praying mantises (Mantodea); here the first stage nymphs have been recorded to perform ant mimicry. In this study, we investigated different nymphal instars of Miomantis binotata for possible morphological similarities to ants. The different instars were compared as stages supposed to perform ant mimicry would differ morphologically from those stages not supposed to resemble ants. The specimens were investigated under different microscopic settings and measurements were performed. Our results do not show significant differences concerning morphological measurements or shape of structures between the different nymphal instars of M. binotata. One prominent difference between stage one nymphs and later stages occurs in the colouration of the body, which is very dark in the earliest nymph. This difference might explain why young nymphs of Miomantis binotata are interpreted as ant-mimicking, despite the apparent lack of other morphological resemblances.


In this paper we propose a novel dimensionality reduction method that is based on successive Laplacian SVM projections in orthogonal deflated subspaces. The proposed method, called Laplacian Support Vector Analysis, produces projection vectors, which capture the discriminant information that lies in the subspace orthogonal to the standard Laplacian SVMs. We show that the optimal vectors on these deflated subspaces can be computed by successively training a standard SVM with specially designed deflation kernels. The resulting normal vectors contain discriminative information that can be used for feature extraction. In our analysis, we derive an explicit form for the deflation matrix of the mapped features in both the initial and the Hilbert space by using the kernel trick and thus, we can handle linear and non-linear deflation transformations. Experimental results in several benchmark datasets illustrate the strength of our proposed algorithm.


Acrylonitrile (AN) is a major volatile waste generated in the production of acrylamide and often associated with aromatic contaminants (toluene and styrene) in plant effluents. We examined Rhodococcus rhodochrous DAP 96622 to determine if it could be adapted to efficient biodegradation of acrylonitrile (AN) in a bioreactor. A model bioreactor with granular activated carbon (GAC) as a substratum for Rhodococcus with AN as sole carbon or in combination with toluene was established. The kinetics of AN biodegradation by immobilized and planktonic cells were evaluated and compared. Inlet load and empty retention time were varied to test the removal efficiency in fed-batch and single-pass mode reactor. In addition, the three dimensional structure and characteristics of the biofilm were followed using confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM) and relative software. Immobilized cells in the bioreactor, at starting concentrations of AN up to 1150 mg l in the presence of Tol, had at least 13 fold higher AN degradation rates than that seen of planktonic cells. A near steady state of AN degradation was maintained at 75-85% for AN and 80%-90% for Tol within the parameter of EBRT=8 min and AN and Tol inlet loads between 50-200 mg l h and 200-500 mg lh, respectively. However, when the inlet load of AN was increased to more than 200mg l h and 500 mg l h for Tol, a reduction in efficiency of AN degradation was observed. Biofilms with discrete microcolonies interspersed with voids and channels were observed. Precise measurement of biofilm characteristics agreed with the assumption that the biomass and thickness of the biofilm increased along the carbon column depth. With a porous attachment material like GAC, substrate diffusion is most likely not a limiting factor for AN degradation. Rhodococcus rhodochrous DAP 96622 in a non-sterile activated charcoal column showed efficient degradation of AN in the presence of Tol. The Rhodococcus bioreactor may provide a potential practical waste gas and water treatment system. INDEX WORDS: Rhodococcus, Acrylonitrile, Wastewater treatment, Trickling bed bioreactor BIOFILTRATION OF ACRYLONITRILE BY RHODOCOCCUS RHODOCHROUS DAP 96622 ON A TRICKLING BED BIOREACTOR


Regulatory power has become fractured. Its assertion both by public and private bodies is well known. Less well recognized is that the expression of this regulatory power has been fracturing as well. No longer confined to positive regulation or judicial decision, the techniques for enforcing regulation are substituting for regulation itself. This paper examines surveillance as a mechanism through which power is asserted and regulation effected in a world of shared public/private governance. For this purpose, understanding the nature of surveillance as a technique of governance, and as a substitute for governance itself, is a key element for understanding political authority as it is developing. The paper focuses on surveillance as a new form of lawmaking through which the old boundaries between the public and private, national and transnational, are not relevant. It explores the ways in which the construction of complex systems of conscious and permanent visibility affects the power relationships among states, economic entities and individuals. To understand the complexities and vectors of surveillance is to grasp the shape of converging public/private governance in this century. To that end, this paper first suggests an approach to the unbundling of the normative and methodological assumptions of surveillance. That approach can be usefully divided into four aspects, normative, informatics, control, and governance, each of which is developed in turn. The paper ends with an elaboration of the regulatory consequences of the manipulation of these aspects of surveillance. Drawing on theories of gouvernmentalité, the paper suggests the ways in which governance is increasingly elaborated through the techniques of its own power. The attention lavished on surveillance in its many forms evidences the ways in which law, in a sense, is now expressed through different forms.


The use of femtosecond lasers as a tool for precise machining of nano-structures in materials has been steadily growing in recent years. In particular, It has been demonstrated that direct femtosecond laser ablation can be used to rapidly prototype photonic waveguide devices operating at optical telecommunication wavelengths. To take the best advantage of femtosecond laser structuring of materials, a good understanding of the energy deposition mechanisms is required. A simple and important technique to study the ultra-fast carrier generation process and energy deposition mechanisms into the material is to measure the self-reflectivity of incident pulses. In spite of the demonstrated applications of femtosecond laser ablation for nano-structuring of materials where strongly foucsed beams are used, up to now, there have been no self-reflectivity studies in the ablation regime with strongly focused beams. Furthermore, for an application point of view, the surface morphology of the ablated nano-holes such as the diameter, the depth, the roughness etc. are of course very important to be used as controlling parameters in device fabrication. Up to now, there have been little work on a symmetric study in the morphology of the ablated holes. In this thesis, we study the energy deposition mechanisms and the surface morphology of the ablated nano-holes of femtosecond laser pulses. Experimentally we measure the self-reflectivity on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) samples and a bulk silicon sample, illuminated by tightly focused femtosecond laser pulses of energies around the ablation threshold. The surface morphology of the resulting nano-sized holes are measured using an atomic force microscope (AFM). In order to understand and reproduce the measured self-reflectivity data, we developed a model based on the Finite Difference Time Domain (FDTD) method. In this model, we incorporate the generation of a plasma by the laser pulse and the interaction between the pulse and this induced plasma. We show that by taking the dynamically changing Drude response of the laser-induced plasma into account, the model excellently describes the behavior of the self-reflectivity under nano-ablation conditions. It is shown that impact ionization is the dominating carrier generation process in silicon excited by a single femtosecond laser pulse with a wavelength of 800 nm. Furthermore, we find, to our knowledge for the first time, that part of the incident pulse is scattered by the laser-induced plasma into the guided modes of the silicon device layer, an effect that we refer to as self-scattering. In addition, we discovered a pronounced peak in the ablation depth versus incident fluence data which in practice may well turn out to be very beneficial for laser drilling of high aspect-ratio nano-holes. It is shown qualitatively by the model that optical interference effects in laser ablation of layered structures such as the SOI contributes to the appearance of this pronounced peak. In the final part of the thesis, we present ablation of materials by using a femtosecond laser beam with a ring-shaped intensity distribution. We propose material ejection purely caused by laser-induced converging shock wave.


A long term goal of Interactive Reinforcement Learning is to incorporate nonexpert human feedback to solve complex tasks. Some state-of-the-art methods have approached this problem by mapping human information to rewards and values and iterating over them to compute better control policies. In this paper we argue for an alternate, more effective characterization of human feedback: Policy Shaping. We introduce Advise, a Bayesian approach that attempts to maximize the information gained from human feedback by utilizing it as direct policy labels. We compare Advise to state-of-the-art approaches and show that it can outperform them and is robust to infrequent and inconsistent human feedback.


Banking and insurance are two inseparably connected components of
the financial services sector. In modern economy, which was
especially evident in the 1990s in the previous century, the model of
integrated cooperation between banks and insurance companies in the
market has been increasingly apparent, and it can be perceived in the
action of providing banking and insurance services simultaneously,
through the model of bancassurance. This type of distribution, in most
cases, implies the creation of specifically created product of life and
non-life insurance specialized to be sold through the network of
banking. Manifestations of bancаssurance are different from country
to country and vary depending on the legal restrictions that apply to
this sales channel. Bancassurance has numerous benefits in the times
when competition at the financial market is at its highest, for banks as
for the insurance companies. Mutual benefits can be seen through:the
increase of sale/profit,expending the client list,maintaining the clients
as well as,improvement of offer through creation of new products
according to client's structure and needs. Serbian insurance market is
expected to experience growth in the following period, and with it the
competition will like wise increase, as the number of insurance
companies has been in constant growth. There is already a great
competition between a large number of banks in the financial sector.
Everything previously mentioned will condition the inevitable
integration of banks and insurance companies in order to avoid the
loss of clients. Previous results of the implementation of
bancassurance in Republic of Serbia were a consequence of banks'
low interest in the further development of this mode of sale. This was
conditioned by the fact that the structure of their profit was still
dominated by the income based predominantly on interest. On the
other hand, insurance companies base the sale of their product mainly
on the traditional mode of sale. However, in the coming period, in
accordance with global trends, it is expected a significant reduction in
interest margins. This will affect the higher direction of commercial
banks in the Republic of Serbia to the development of those types of
services that will contribute to the increase in income from fees and
commissions. This work is a presentation of the notion, development
of bancassurance, strategy for approaching this mode of product
distribution, distributional modes, operative procedures of
bancassurance, the importance of motivation of bancassurance
partakers, as well as the position of bancassurance in the world –
comparative analysis. This work contains a representation of the legal
acts of the Republic of Serbia as the basis for the introduction of
bancassurance and the current level of its development. On the basis
of facts obtained from research and analyzes conducted, the final
result is displayed bancassurance model in the Republic of Serbia
whose implementation can be concluded the largest number of life
insurance policies (according to world experience), with a significant
reduction in the administrative costs of insurance companies using the
sales network of the bank and its customer base . The application of
the model would imply a long-term benefit for banks, insurance
companies, customers in the form of an integrated supply of financial
services, but also the country as a whole. The development of
bancassurance is closely linked with the growth of the insurance
market. In that sense, this sales channel can become a driving force
for further development of the financial services sector in the
Republic of Serbia, having in mind the broader significance of the
increase in the number of beneficiaries of life insurance brings one
country.


Promotions and cross-firm mobility provide substantial gains in earnings – a well established finding based on gross income data. Yet, what matters for incentives is how much an individual can consume or save after taxation. We show that net and gross income growth patterns may differ substantially when a progressive tax system allows for deduction opportunities. Exploiting unique matched employer-employee data with information on tax payments and employee mobility, we find that gross income gains from promotions and cross-firm mobility do not translate into significantly higher net income growth, because employees adjust their tax-shielded consumption and savings (in particular, deductible private pension contributions and mortgage-financed housing) to maintain constant net income growth.


This work aims to recover the mystical heart of Christianity, confirming that there is a direct tradition of spiritual practices that the main stream Church has managed to ignore and suppress. The author's quest for higher knowledge takes him on a journey to Maine, New York, London, Cyprus and Greece. His revelation of a vital living mystical practice based in ancient Christian thought, is a major step in linking the most esoteric traditions of the East to the largely hidden esoteric traditions of the West. The book has a wide cultural significance, revealing a Western Christian spirituality that includes space for mystical practice that is too often assumed to be the exclusive domain of eastern religions.


Aim Rain forest-restricted plant families show disjunct distributions between the three major tropical regions: South America, Africa and Asia. Explaining these disjunctions has become an important challenge in biogeography. The pantropical plant family Annonaceae is used to test hypotheses that might explain diversification and distribution patterns in tropical biota: the museum hypothesis (low extinction leading to steady accumulation of species); and dispersal between Africa and Asia via Indian rafting versus boreotropical geodispersal. Location Tropics and boreotropics. Methods Molecular age estimates were calculated using a Bayesian approach based on 83% generic sampling representing all major lineages within the family, seven chloroplast markers and two fossil calibrations. An analysis of diversification was carried out, which included lineage-through-time (LTT) plots and the calculation of diversification rates for genera and major clades. Ancestral areas were reconstructed using a maximum likelihood approach that implements the dispersal‐extinction‐cladogenesis model. Results The LTT plots indicated a constant overall rate of diversification with low extinction rates for the family during the first 80 Ma of its existence. The highest diversification rates were inferred for several young genera such as Desmopsis, Uvariopsis and Unonopsis. A boreotropical migration route was supported over Indian rafting as the best fitting hypothesis to explain present-day distribution patterns within the family. Main conclusions Early diversification within Annonaceae fits the hypothesis of a museum model of tropical diversification, with an overall steady increase in lineages possibly due to low extinction rates. The present-day distribution of species within the two largest clades of Annonaceae is the result of two contrasting biogeographic histories. The 'long-branch clade' has been diversifying since the beginning of the Cenozoic and underwent numerous geodispersals via the boreotropics and several more recent long-distance dispersal events. In contrast, the 'short-branch clade' dispersed once into Asia via the boreotropics during the Early Miocene and further dispersal was limited.


New theorems of asymptotical stability and uniformly asymptotical stability for nonautonomous difference equations are given in this paper. The classical Liapunov asymptotical stability theorem of nonautonomous difference equations relies on the existence of a positive definite Liapunov function that has an indefinitely small upper bound and whose variation along a given nonautonomous difference equations is negative definite. In this paper, we consider the case that the Liapunov function is only positive definite and its variation is semi-negative definite. At these weaker conditions, we put forward a new asymptotical stability theorem of nonautonomous difference equations by adding to extra conditions on the variation. After that, in addition to the hypotheses of our new asymptotical stability theorem, we obtain a new uniformly asymptotical stability theorem of nonautonomous difference equations provided that the Liapunov function has an indefinitely small upper bound. Example is given to verify our results in the last.


BACKGROUND
Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) for HIV involves using antiretroviral drugs to prevent individuals at high risk from acquiring HIV infection. Most practicing primary care providers believe PrEP to be safe and effective, but less than half have prescribed or referred for PrEP. Attitudes and prescribing patterns among house officers have not been well described previously.

STUDY QUESTION
Can an educational intervention enhance HIV PrEP practices among internal medicine house officers?

STUDY DESIGN
This study relied on a pretest/posttest design. All categorical trainees at a medium-sized internal medicine program were offered a baseline survey to assess their knowledge on PrEP. This was followed by a PrEP-focused educational intervention and a postintervention survey.

MEASURES AND OUTCOMES
Likert scales captured perceptions regarding safety, effectiveness, barriers, factors that would promote PrEP use, potential side effects, impact on risk-taking behavior, and provider comfort level in assessing behavioral risks and in PrEP prescribing. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Wilcoxon signed rank test, and the Kruskal-Wallis test. Significance was accepted for P < 0.05.

RESULTS
Forty-eight (100%) trainees participated in the educational session, 45 (94%) in a preintervention survey, and 36 (75%) in a postintervention survey. Before PrEP training, 22% of respondents were unaware of PrEP, 78% believed PrEP was effective, 66% believed PrEP was safe, 62% had fair or poor awareness of side effects; 18% of residents had referred for or prescribed PrEP, and 31% believed they were likely to prescribe PrEP in the next 6 months. After the intervention, 94% of trainees believed PrEP was effective (P < 0.001), 92% believed PrEP was safe (P < 0.001), and two-thirds believed they were likely to prescribe PrEP in the next 6 months.

CONCLUSIONS
Brief, focused training on HIV prevention promotes awareness, acceptance, and likelihood of prescribing PrEP by internal medicine trainees.


PAX-1 is a comprehensive database management system, developed by paratransit and taxi operators/managers, tailored to a particular operation - whether 5 or 500 vehicles are operated. Had PAX-1 been available 2000 years ago, it unquestionably would have been used by Roman transportation managers to operate effective and efficient chariot and omnibus services along the Appian Way. PAX-1 is easy to use, comprehensive and inexpensive (and will likely last longer than did Pax Romana). As its name suggests, PAX-1 will, for the first time ever, bring 'peace' to the dispatch area, the parts room, the maintenance bay and the personnel bookeeping office. At present, PAX-1 runs on most microcomputers.


This working paper presents an analysis of enforcement policies that rely either on command and control (disconnection-suspension of water services) or economic incentives (late payment and reconnection charges) on billing collection rates for 35 Mexican water utilities located in five states along the Mexico-U.S. border. Our survey gathered data about water utilities characteristics and the legal background that might affect payment for water services. We also examined the impact of average household income and poverty levels on payment for water services. Our results suggest that low income is not the main factor for nonpayment of water services in the border region. Instead many water utilities do not collect their bills on time because of weak enforcement, a lack of commercial orientation that precludes the application of financial penalties for promoting payment, and most importantly, because of the perverse incentives of payment campaigns that waive charges and grant significant discounts. To improve payment of water services, we therefore recommend the cessation of payment campaigns and we urge water utilities to apply widely publicized selective disconnection measures while boosting payment plans for poor users. Future research should gather household data to better understand user payment behavior.


This revolutionary, user-friendly textbook not only guides social workers in developing competence in the DSM system of diagnosis, it also assists them in staying attuned during client assessment to social work values and principles: a focus on client strengths, concern for the worth and dignity of individuals, appreciation of environmental influences on behavior, and commitment to evidence-informed practice. The authors, seasoned practitioner-scholars, provide an in-depth exploration of fourteen major mental disorders that social workers commonly see in practice, including anxiety disorders, depression, bipolar disorder, and schizophrenia. They skillfully integrate several perspectives in order to help practitioners meet the challenges they will face in client assessment. A risk and resilience framework helps social workers understand environmental influences on the emergence of mental disorders and the strengths that clients already possess. Social workers will also learn to apply critical thinking to the DSM when it is inconsistent with social work values and principles. Finally, the authors catalog the latest evidence-based assessment instruments and treatments for each disorder so that social workers can intervene efficiently and effectively, using the best resources available. Students and practitioners alike will appreciate the wealth of case examples, evidence-based assessment instruments, treatment plans, and new social diversity sections that make this an essential guide to the assessment and diagnostic processes in social work practice.


In July 2016, Member States of the United Nations (UN) concluded the 'ECOSOC Dialogue on the longer-term positioning of the UN Development System' in which they had discussed options for reforming the UNDS for nearly two years. The next step in the reform process will be intergovernmental negotiations on specific reform measures. Against this backdrop, this paper offers a genuinely political analysis of the UNDS and the current reform process. Special emphasis is given to the continuing North-South divide within the UNDS. The paper starts by introducing three theoretical perspectives on the UNDS which emphasize the roles of power, utility and attitudes. These three factors correspond to major shifts in the international development landscape, namely, a global power transformation, the rising need for collective action and a new social context for global cooperation. From these considerations emerges an understanding of the political space and the yardsticks for a successful UNDS reform, whereby success is understood in terms of future political relevancy. In the empirical section, the paper turns to the ECOSOC Dialogue and offers an analysis of major reform options under consideration by Member States in the areas of the 'functions', 'governance', 'funding' and 'organization' of the UNDS. The paper concludes by identifying three strategic directions for reform and how Member States should change their behaviour towards the UNDS if they wish to fully exploit the UNDS's comparative advantages as the epitome of multilateral global development cooperation.


Abstract The bioacoustic analyses of animal sounds result in an enormous amount of digitized acoustic data, and we need effective automatic processing to extract the information content of the recordings. Our research focuses on the song of Collared Flycatcher (Ficedula albicollis) and we are interested in the evolution of acoustic signals. During the last 20 years, we obtained hundreds of hours of recordings of bird songs collected in natural environment, and there is a permanent need for the automatic process of recordings. In this study, we chose an open-source, deep-learning image detection system to (1) find the species-specific songs of the Collared Flycatcher on the recordings and (2) to detect the small, discrete elements so-called syllables within the song. For these tasks, we first transformed the acoustic data into spectrogram images, then we trained two deep-learning models separately on our manually segmented database. The resulted models detect the songs with an intersection of union higher than 0.8 and the syllables higher than 0.7. This technique anticipates an order of magnitude less human effort in the acoustic processing than the manual method used before. Thanks to the new technique, we are able to address new biological questions that need large amount of acoustic data.


"Bottom line: For a holistic view of chemical engineering design, this book provides as much, if not more, than any other book available on the topic.' Extract from Chemical Engineering Resources review. Chemical Engineering Design is a complete course text for students of chemical engineering. Written for the Senior Design Course, and also suitable for introduction to chemical engineering courses, it covers the basics of unit operations and the latest aspects of process design, equipment selection, plant and operating economics, safety and loss prevention. It is a textbook that students will want to keep through their undergraduate education and on into their professional lives. -New to this edition: * Revised organization into Part I: Process Design, and Part II: Plant Design. The broad themes of Part I are flowsheet development, economic analysis, safety and environmental impact and optimization. Part II contains chapters on equipment design and selection that can be used as supplements to a lecture course or as essential references for students or practicing engineers working on design projects.* New discussion of conceptual plant design, flowsheet development and revamp design* Significantly increased coverage of capital cost estimation, process costing and economics* New chapters on equipment selection, reactor design and solids handling processes* New sections on fermentation, adsorption, membrane separations, ion exchange and chromatography* Increased coverage of batch processing, food, pharmaceutical and biological processes* All equipment chapters in Part II revised and updated with current information* Updated throughout for latest US codes and standards, including API, ASME and ISA design codes and ANSI standards* Additional worked examples and homework problems * The most complete and up to date coverage of equipment selection*108 realistic commercial design projects from diverse industries* A rigorous pedagogy assists learning, with detailed worked examples, end of chapter exercises, plus supporting data and Excel spreadsheet calculations plus over 150 Patent References, for downloading from the companion website* Extensive instructor resources: 1170 lecture slides plus fully worked solutions manual available to adopting instructors


Dietary fat is known to affect serum concentrations of total and lipoprotein cholesterol. However, all components of dietary triglycerides--saturated, monounsaturated, and polyunsaturated fatty acids--do not have identical effects on serum cholesterol levels. Until recently, most attention has been given to saturated fatty acids, which raise cholesterol levels, and polyunsaturated fatty acids, which are thought by many to lower cholesterol levels. Monounsaturates in contrast have been given little attention. However, recent studies carried out in our laboratory and in others have shown that monounsaturates can have favorable effects when substituted for saturated fatty acids in the diet. In this exchange, the monounsaturates reduce low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol levels, but do not lower high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol levels. In contrast, an HDL-lowering action has been noted for polyunsaturates. Also, monounsaturates appear to alter lipoproteins more favorably than carbohydrates, which can raise triglycerides and lower HDL cholesterol levels. Therefore, monounsaturated fatty acids appear to have more potential for use in cholesterol-lowering diets than previously recognized.


Advertising encapsulates both the realities and fantasies of the world in which we live (Cortesse, 1999). Dating back to the Roman era, advertising has been used as a communications medium, revolutionising the way in which people view the world around them and changing the lifestyle of those who surrender to its calls. However, the power of this medium is grossly underestimated. To many, advertising is seen as an enjoyable form of persuasive artwork, capable of igniting ones' emotions irrespective of age, gender or socio-economic status. To others, advertising presents a platform for advertisers to exploit their creative talents, formulating deceiving, provocative and highly controversial advertisements, staged before our very own eyes or ears. Sadly, this is a truer depiction of the advertising world. Although many choose to concentrate on the positive influence it continues to provide and the reward it holds for this who use it respectfully. Many however choose to neglect the damaging effects advertising has had on the moral and ethical high grounds on which some elements of society rest. Fundamental misconceptions and distorted truths can often be blamed on advertising campaigns that choose to shock their audience for the sake of generating publicity. The debate argued within this paper seeks to decipher whether shock advertising is predominately justifiable, based as it is upon the frequent misuse and exploitation of sensitive and delicate issues. The paper also questions whether the intentions were morally and ethically justified (Wnek, 2003), in spite of causing widespread public offence. More often than not, advertising agencies are oblivious to the damaging effects that shock advertising continues to have on society. It leaves those responsible to grapple with the burdening question of whether images and literature used in advertising campaigns pose a risk of introducing messages that contain impurities into the most vulnerable elements of society and our society as a whole. This paper draws in views gathered during interviews with the Advertising Standards Authority and OfCom, based in the United Kingdom, together with perspectives from advertising agencies to present a consideration of both the reasons for and the impact of using shock tactics within advertising. Do advertisers perceive that a highly controversial and offensive advertisement is a success if publicity and profit were generated, despite considerable public complaints? Are agencies lowering their standards of advertising through the use of such controversial material? Where do they, and the regulatory bodies, see advertising progressing in the future and what effect might this have on society as a whole? Concern for the future of advertising is therefore in need of much attention, since the consequences of neglect may be damaging to our future prosperity. The study highlights the much-needed role for a greater responsibility to be exercised throughout the industry, together with an effective regulatory framework, void of any potential loopholes.


This paper comes in three parts. First, relevant principles of fēng-shuǐ are enunciated and examined. Second, these principles are applied to procedures to compute two parameters of predesign behaviour in Chinese traditional architectural practice: the fortunate orientation for a building site and an auspicious date for the start of its construction. Third, an interactive computer implementation is described that incorporates these procedures.


Through two victorious world conflicts and a Cold War, the U.S. Navy and American ocean scientists drew ever closer, converting an early marriage of necessity into a relationship of astonishing achievement. Beginning in 1919, Gary Weir's "An Ocean in Common" traces the first forty-two years of their joint quest to understand each other and the deep ocean. Early in the twentieth century, American naval officers questioned the tactical and strategic significance of applied ocean science, demonstrating the gap between this kind of knowledge and that deemed critical to naval warfare. At the same time, scientists studying the ocean labored in their inadequately funded, discreet disciplines, seemingly content to keep naval warfare at arm's length. German U-boat success in World War I changed these views fundamentally, bringing ocean science insights to an increasing number of naval objectives. Driven primarily by anti-submarine priorities, the physics, chemistry, and geology of the ocean, more than its biology, became the early focus of American ocean studies. The World War II experience solidified the Navy's relationship with ocean scientists, and the years after 1945 found the American military investing heavily in both applied and basic research. Today, oceanography is a permanent resident on the bridge of American fighting ships and the Navy continues to provide much of the impetus and funding for fundamental research, in both naval and civilian laboratories. In "An Ocean in Common" Gary Weir focuses on the compelling motives and carefully engineered course that brought scientists and naval officers together, across a considerable cultural divide, to achieve a more comprehensive understanding of one another and the world ocean. Weir details how this alliance laid the powerful multidisciplinary foundation for long-range ocean communication and surveillance, modern submarine warfare, deep submergence, and the emergence of oceanography and ocean engineering as independent and vital fields of study.


This study examined the development of individual social capital in a distributed learning community. Feld's theory of focused choice predicts that the formation of network ties is constrained by contextual factors that function as foci of activities. In our research, we examined how group assignment and location could function as such foci to influence the development of individual social capital in a distributed learning community. Given that networks with different content flows may possess different properties, we examined two different types of networks—task-related instrumental networks and non-task-related expressive networks. A longitudinal research design was used to evaluate the evolution of networks over time. Hypotheses were tested using a sample of 32 students enrolled in a distributed learning class. The results show strong support for Feld's theory. While serving as foci of activities to organize social interactions, both group assignment and geographic separation can also function to fragment a learning community.


The International Symposium Series on Measurement Technology and Intelligent Instruments (ISMTII) has progressed considerably over the 15 years of its existence. The first and second conferences were held in 1989 and 1993, respectively at Huazhong University of Science and Technology, in China in conjunction with the University of Birmingham in the UK, and organised by Professor Zhu Li, the founding chairman. The third symposium was held in 1996 at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan. The fourth in the series was held in 1998 at the University of Miskolc, Hungary, the fifth was held at the National Institute for Standards, Egypt in 2001 and the sixth conference was organised by Hong Kong University of Science and Technology in 2003. The seventh in the series and an associated seminar on "History and Future Prospects in the Field of Measurement and Instrumentation" were hosted at the University of Huddersfield, UK. The subject covered in this series is wide-ranging and detailed. "Measurement Technology and Intelligent Instruments" is in fact a combination of enabling technologies brought together to make possible more meaningful metrology of a wide range of disciplines. This involves bringing together subjects such as the design and use of sensors measuring displacement and its derivatives; flow, pressure, temperature. Of critical importance is calibration and traceability without which quality control cannot be guaranteed. One aspect of measurement which is attracting much interest is the optimisation of information obtained from sensors and the use of the more significant information to improve instrument usage. Automatic checks on the data can be made to improve fidelity and speed up operation. Much effort has been expended in understanding the nature of the measurand and utilising the latest mathematical techniques to isolate hitherto untypical parameters such as scratches. Many of these new parameters lie outside the capability of traditional instruments. It is hoped that exposure of these new techniques in the proceedings will open the door to their use in a much wider range of applications than occurs at present. Also some papers devoted to measurement problems in conventional applications such as the railways should reassure sceptics that advanced theory in mathematics and associated software algorithms is useful today as well as in the future. Another aim of the publication is to demonstrate that measurement problems in nanotechnology and macro metrology are not necessarily mutually exclusive. Engineering and physics as well as biology and chemistry can all benefit from the integration of ideas and methods as shown. The global relevance of the subjects depicted in this series of papers is reflected in the diverse backgrounds and disciplines of the contributors. It is hoped that this trend will be accelerated by the publication. Huddersfield University's Centre for Precision Technologies is an ideal venue for the 7th ISMTII Conference, being committed to all aspects of measurement, instrumentation and productivity.


The Adventures of Reddy Fox Thornton W Burgess Hent PDF The Adventures of Reddy Fox is another in the series of children's stories by conservationist Thornton W. Burgess. In this story, Reddy and Granny Fox must outsmart Farmer Brown's Boy who is out to get Reddy for stealing his pet chicken. Along the way, Reddy encounters many of the citizens of the Green Meadows and the Green Forest and with him we learn little lessons about life such as: the perils of being a show off; the importance of using all of one's senses; that it is a fine thing to show sympathy and kindness to others even our enemies; and that the value of a grandmother's wisdom is inestimable. We also learn that after you've stolen a boy's pet chicken and he is coming your way with a gun, a shovel and a hound dog, it may be time to beat a hasty retreat.


Background
Older adult functional declines may be partly attributable to sarcopenia (the age-related loss of skeletal muscle mass and function), and also age-related fat gains. The associations of lifestyle factors with skeletal muscle and body fat changes are unclear.
Aim
To investigate how measures of ambulatory activity, dietary nutrient intake, vitamin D, chronic disease and medication use, associate with changes in muscle mass, lower-limb function, falls risk and body fat in community-dwelling older adults.


Objective : to describe the occasions when, the places where and people with whom respondents reported pork meat consumption. Design & Setting: Cross-sectional web based survey in Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece and Poland, January 2008, with quota samples on gender (male, female), age categories (20- 44y and 45-70y), and locality of residence (urban, rural with low pig production density and rural with high pig production density). Subjects : 2437 respondents (51% women, 49% men; mean age 41.4 y SD 13.1). Methods : Online computer based survey, including sociodemographic information, anthropometrics (weight, height), and further questions on frequency of pork consumption (30 common items, 17 country-specific items), the occasions (working day, any day, weekend, special occasions), the company (alone, with family, with friends, with others) and the place of actual consumption (at home, outside of home). Results are aggregated for the five European countries. Results : Tenderloin, mignonette, brochette together with pork shoulder ranked as the first choices for weekend and special occasions. The most out-of home consumed products are mixed gyros-pita meat, pork based brochette, pizza, small cuts, marinated meat, escalope, shoulder, tenderloin and mixed meat. The Greek country specific Sygglino, Tigania, and the Country-style sausage are amongst the main preferences for out of home consumption. At European level, most products are consumed at home and with the family. Meat products such as salami, ham, and similar products are amongst the first choices when eating alone. Semi-processed meat like brochettes, small cuts and marinated or ready to eat dishes as gyros-pitas and pizza are the main choice for eating in the company of friends. Conclusions : European respondents seem to make specific choices of food depending on to the occasions, the places and the company. This information highlights the potential orientation of consumers towards fresh meat for special occasions or weekends, and more processed and convenient products when alone or socializing. This information is also useful to address interventions aiming at the improvement of food related health in Europe.


The United States and European Union differ significantly in terms of their innovative capacity: the former have been able to gain and maintain world leadership in innovation and technology while the latter continues to lag. Notwithstanding the magnitude of this innovation gap and the political emphasis placed upon it on both sides of the Atlantic, very little systematic comparative analysis has been carried out on its causes. The empirical literature has emphasised the structural differences between the two continents in the quantity and quality of the major 'inputs' to innovation: R&D investments and human capital. The very different spatial organisation of innovative activities in the EU and the US – as suggested by a variety of contributions in the field of economic geography – could also influence innovative output. This paper analyses and compares a wide set of territorial processes that influence innovation in Europe and the United States. The higher mobility of capital, population, and knowledge in the US not only promotes the agglomeration of research activity in specific areas of the country but also enables a variety of territorial mechanisms to fully exploit local innovative activities and (informational) synergies. In the European Union, in contrast, imperfect market integration, and institutional and cultural barriers across the continent prevent innovative agents from maximising the benefits from external economies and localised interactions, but compensatory forms of geographical process may be emerging in concert with further European integration.


This paper draws on my books Urban Outcasts and Punishing the Poor , on the transformation of the forms and policy management of marginality in advanced society, to probe the use of space as a medium for social closure and control in the city. This first part sketches a framework for the (comparative) analysis of sociospatial seclusion , the process whereby particular social categories and activities are corralled and isolated in a reserved and restricted quadrant of physical and social space. The second part applies this schema to present a compressed analysis of the divergent trajectories of the black American ghetto and the French working-class borough in the post-Fordist age anchored by the three spatially inflected concepts of ghetto, hyperghetto and anti-ghetto. It concludes by stressing the role of the state in directing processes of seclusion at the top and at the bottom of the urban order, along a gradient from constraint to choice.


Many if not most audio features used in MIR research are inspired by work done in speech recognition and are variations on the spectrogram. Recently, much attention has been given to new representations of audio that are sparse and time-relative. These representations are efficient and able to avoid the time-frequency trade-off of a spectrogram. Yet little work with music streams has been conducted and these features remain mostly unused in the MIR community. In this paper we further explore the use of these features for musical signals. In particular, we investigate their use on realistic music examples (i.e. released commercial music) and their use as input features for supervised learning. Furthermore, we identify three specific issues related to these features which will need to be further addressed in order to obtain the full benefit for MIR applications.


Adsorption of aqueous Au species by goethite, smectite and kaolinite has been investigated as a function of pH at 25 °C. Adsorption isotherms indicate Au is mainly adsorbed as anionic complexes with adsorption edges centred at pH 8.5 for goethite, 7.5 for smectite (Swy-1) and 8.0 for kaolinite (KGa-1). The possibility that colloidal Au species interact with the mineral surfaces cannot be excluded. A zone of slow adsorption of Au(III) complexes exists for goethite at pH <6.5 and kaolinite at pH <8, with complete adsorption from solutions containing <5 μM Au and 1 g/l solids requiring over 100 hours of reaction time. Adsorption by goethite in thepH range 7–9 is more rapid and may be largely attributed to adsorption of Au(OH)3.(H2O)o. The loss of Au from solution at pH values above adsorption edges may be due to adsorption of uncharged Au species or development of colloidal gold. Aqueous phase equilibrium modelling indicates Auo (monomer or colloid) to be the dominant phase at pH 4–10 but its rate of formation in 0.1 M NaCl is slow. The uptake of Au by goethite has been modelled as an inner-sphere surface complexation using the diffuse layer model. The model of best fit was obtained using a single binding site and setting AuCl4−, AuCl3(OH)− and Au(OH)3.(H2O)o as the main Au(III) sorbing species with logKint values for the formation of the adsorbed species of 9, 35 and 17 respectively.


In March 2012, Greece conducted one of the biggest and most brutal sovereign debt restructurings ever, asking holders of Greek government bonds to take net present value haircuts of near 80 percent. Greece forced acquiescence to its terms from a large number of its bonds by using a variety of legal strong-arm tactics. With the vast majority of Greek bonds, the tactics worked. There were, however, thirty-six bonds guaranteed by the Greek state, which, because of the weakness of the underlying companies, were effectively obligations of the Greek state. Yet, on these thirtysix bonds, even though Greece desperately needed every euro of respite it could get, no restructuring was even attempted. Why not? The answer we received was that the guarantees escaped the restructuring because their contractual provisions made them much harder to restructure than the ordinary Greek government bonds. Assuming this contract-based claim to be true, the foregoing, in combination with the Euro area crisis of 2010–2014 throws up an opportunity to test the extent to which markets price legal differences in bond contract terms. We report evidence that the markets did price in at least some of the advantage that guaranteed bonds had over ordinary sovereign bonds in the months immediately prior to the March 2012 restructuring.


The Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) determine what evidence federal juries see and don't see, with most states having adopted rules modeled on the FRE. Despite playing a pivotal role in the accuracy, efficiency, and legitimacy of trials, the rules are premised on untested psychological assumptions. The Present Sense Impression (PSI), is an exception to the general ban against hearsay when it is believed that the traditional risks of errors in perception, memory, narration, and deceit associated with hearsay are lessened. The PSI assumes that contemporaneity is a safeguard against deceit. Here, we used novel behavioral paradigms and electroencephalography (EEG) measures to assess several event-related potential components (ERP) associated with deception. These ERPs were used to test the hypothesis assumed by the PSI exception that distinct cognitive processes underlie lies about contemporaneous events, lies about past events, and truthful responses. Our results suggest that while contemporaneity is not a safeguard against deceit per se, as the PSI assumes, people do switch cognitive strategies when lying about a contemporaneous event compared to a past event and that these strategies are well suited to the safeguards established by the PSI. Specifically, when lying in the moment individuals utilize a slower, more memory intensive lie cognitive strategy that may be more easily detected by a causal third party observer. When lying about a past event, however, individuals shift to a faster, less memory intensive cognitive strategy that may result in fewer behavioral tells but could signify less overall encoding of the event such that cross examination may be effective at uncovering the deceit.


Since its creation in 1992, the Premier League has sold exclusive media rights for live football matches to broadcasters on behalf of member clubs. The collective selling method removes any price competition between the clubs, whom would otherwise compete against each other to sell rights to their matches (commonly seen in other European Leagues). A key issue with monopoly power is that the Premier League could distort the market for its product or abuse its dominant position in the market as the sole seller of the rights (contrary to Article 101 and 102 of the Treaty of the European Union). In defence, the Premier League argued that matches broadcast live on television can be considered as a substitute for watching at the stadium. A Competition Commission investigation concluded that the potential benefits of collective selling arrangements are for the redistribution of revenue to promote solidarity at all levels of football. After some amendments to the auction process, collective selling continues.
Contributing to the applied industrial economics literature, this thesis examines the key arguments for using collective selling methods in the Premier League. Results from empirical economic analysis find firstly, that there is no evidence to suggest a negative impact on match day revenue from live broadcasting and the revenues from rights sales heavily outweigh such an impact. Secondly, that sharing revenue between clubs will only enhance solidarity (competitive balance) if the amount shared is much larger than at present, however, a greater uncertainty of match outcome reduces demand for spectating at the stadium whilst increasing demand for television viewing. Finally, the impact of investment in talent is far greater for weaker teams whilst participating in the Champions League and Europa League has no impact on domestic league performance. This thesis concludes that the Premier League should offer a greater number of rights to broadcast matches and should increase the amount of revenue shared (including revenues from European Competitions) in order to increase competitive balance. This would increase the number of television viewers for live football broadcasts but would likely reduce the numbers of fans spectating at the stadium.


This report considers the potential effect of Proposition 26, which appears on the November 2, 2010 California ballot, on the state's environmental and public health protections. With very little time remaining before the election, controversy rages over whether the passage of Proposition 26 would make it harder for the state to fund environmental protection programs and other public benefit programs.1 Proposition 26 proposes to expand the definition of a "tax" under California law. As a result of this expansion, some fees and other charges imposed by the state or by cities or counties could no longer be enacted by a simple majority vote of the Legislature. Instead, a 2/3 supermajority vote would be required — the same vote now required to pass a budget or a new tax. We have taken a careful look at the measure's language and its impacts on environmental and public health programs in California, and have concluded that Proposition 26 would erect significant barriers to funding many of these programs in the future. This could have substantial and wide-ranging impacts on implementation of the state's health, safety and environmental laws.


Each month, USDA's Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, formerly known as the Food Stamp Program) provides 35 million low-income people with benefits to purchase approved foods at authorized foodstores. SNAP benefit levels are based on USDA's Thrifty Food Plan (TFP)—comprised of low-cost foods that meet the Dietary Guidelines for Americans and deviate as little as possible from the consumption patterns of the low-income population. A major restriction of the TFP is that it does not include foods purchased at fast food, takeout, or sitdown restaurants. A typical low-income household spent about 27 percent of its food budget on away-from-home foods in 2002. Like upper income households, who spend almost half of their food budget on food away from home, many low-income households turn to restaurant meals in part to help save time. Previous ERS research has shown that many away-from-home foods are high in total and saturated fats and low in dietary fiber, calcium, and iron. However, healthy food choices, such as lowfat milk, apple slices, and some salads, are increasingly available in away-from-home eating places. Using 2001-02 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data, researchers at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and USDA examined the effect on diet quality and costs of including food-away-from-home options in the TFP. When healthy eating-out choices were incorporated into a hypothetical food plan that allows at-home and away-fromhome foods, the result was a diet that met the Dietary Guidelines. The estimated cost of the hypothetical TFP, however, was higher. At 2001-02 prices, eating one meal per week away from home would increase the cost of the TFP by 7 percent. Allowing SNAP participants to use their benefits to purchase food away from home is not likely to result in the healthy food choices found by the researchers' model. Most U.S. households make poorer nutritional choices than those recommended by the TFP and the Dietary Guidelines. Allowing for SNAP benefits to be spent on food away from home, which is generally nutritionally inferior to food at home, may help SNAP participants balance time constraints and other needs, but could also make eating healthy even more challenging.


The son of former slaves, Paul Laurence Dunbar was one of the most prominent and publicly recognized figures in American literature at the turn of the twentieth century. Thirty-three years old at the time of his death in 1906, he had published four novels, four collections of short stories, and fourteen books of poetry, not to mention numerous songs, plays, and essays in newspapers and magazines around the world. In the century following his death, Dunbar slipped into relative obscurity, remembered mainly for his dialect poetry or as a footnote to other more canonical figures from the period. The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar showcases his gifts as a writer of short fiction and provides key insights into the tensions and themes of Dunbar's literary achievement. Through examining the 104 stories written by Dunbar between 1890 and 1905, readers will be able to better understand Dunbar's specific attempts to maintain his artistic integrity while struggling with America's racist stereotypes. His work interrogated the color-line that informed American life and dictated his role as an artist in American letters. Editors Gene Jarrett and Thomas Morgan identify major themes and implications in Dunbar's work. Available in one convenient, comprehensive, and definitive volume for the first time, The Complete Stories of Paul Laurence Dunbar illustrates the complexity of his literary life and legacy. About the authors - Gene Jarrett is an assistant professor of English at the University of Maryland, College Park. He is co-editor (with Henry Louis Gates Jr.) of a forthcoming anthology, New Negro Criticism: Essays on Race, Representation, and African American Culture. Thomas Morgan is a lecturer at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His research and teaching interests focus on critical race theory in late-nineteenth century American and African American literature, specifically as it applies to the politics of narrative form.


On the third anniversary of the war over South Ossetia, resumed talks between Georgia and Russia are needed to create positive momentum in a still unstable environment. The article examines the continuing strains and recommends that the two sides engage in direct dialogue in order to de-escalate allegations about the other's involvement in the conflict. While formal diplomatic relations remain more or less suspended, many mutual interests remain. Paramount in this is the fact that Georgia and Russia share interests in improving mutual security, trade and transport.The impact of the ongoing conflict on Georgia's very diverse communities differs substantially, as do their priorities. Concerns over the future amongst these communities are widespread. The consequences of the violence and subsequent failure to progress resolution of the conflict still affect communities, especially those living along the Administrative Boundary Line between South Ossetia and Georgia proper. Although no major incidents of violence have occurred since 2008 and the level of humanitarian assistance provided to communities around the ABL has been impressive during the first two years following the war, the contact and movement across the ABL has become increasingly difficult, badly affecting those dependent on cross-border interaction for their personal wellbeing and that of their communities. As a result, a range of vulnerabilities is more likely to come to the surface and undermine the future sustainability of communities living along the ABL.As such, it is essential that local and international actors, including OSCE and EUMM are better able to distinguish between the varied needs of communities living along the ABL , in order to develop appropriate strategies for responding to them.


Running Title: G-CSF is a cancer Stem cell (CSC) specific growth factor Author manuscripts have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication but have not yet been edited. Author manuscripts have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication but have not yet been edited. Abstract: Increasing evidence suggests that inflammatory cytokines play a critical role in tumor initiation and progression. A cancer stem cell-like (CSC) subpopulation in neuroblastoma is known to be marked by expression of the G-CSF receptor. Here we report on the mechanistic contributions of the G-CSF receptor in neuroblastoma CSCs. Specifically, we demonstrate that the receptor ligand G-CSF selectively activates STAT3 within neuroblastoma CSC subpopulations, promoting their expansion in vitro and in vivo. Exogenous G-CSF enhances tumor growth and metastasis in human xenograft and murine neuroblastoma tumor models. In response to G-CSF, STAT3 acts in a feed-forward loop to transcriptionally activate the G-CSF receptor and sustain neuroblastoma CSCs. Blockade of this G-CSF/STAT3 signaling loop with either anti-G-CSF antibody or STAT3 inhibitor depleted the CSC subpopulation within tumors, driving correlated tumor growth inhibition, decreased metastasis and increased chemosensitivity. Taken together, our results define G-CSF as a CSC activating factor in neuroblastoma, suggest a comprehensive re-evaluation of the clinical use of G-CSF in these patients to support white blood cell counts, and suggest that direct targeting of the G-CSF/STAT3 signaling represents a novel therapeutic approach for neuroblastoma. Author manuscripts have been peer reviewed and accepted for publication but have not yet been edited.


Workflow technologies provide scientific researchers with a flexible problem-solving environment, by facilitating the creation and execution of experiments from a pool of available services. In this paper we argue that in order to better characterise such experiments we need to go beyond low-level service composition and execution details by capturing higher-level descriptions of the scientific process. Current workflow technologies do not incorporate any representation of such experimental constraints and goals, which we refer to as the scientistpsilas intent. We have developed a framework based upon use of a number of semantic Web technologies, including the OWL ontology language and the semantic Web rule language (SWRL), to capture scientistpsilas intent. Through the use of a social simulation case study we illustrate the benefits of using this framework in terms of workflow monitoring, workflow provenance and enrichment of experimental results.


Enterprise architecture is an approach to aligning business and IT within a company. In this paper we present the state of the art in enterprise architecture (EA) research, our survey is based on an analysis of the publicly available publications. Our research methodology defines the analysis criteria. These criteria are: the distribution of the papers over time, their topics, authors, reference disciplines and their dispersion over the lifecycle activities, which will be defined. The evaluation included 80 papers (all referencing explicitly the term "enterprise architecture"). The results of our survey are: EA is a young discipline, but the interest in it is growing. Although a wide range of topics is covered, the discipline is lacking basic research. The main contributers to EA are consulting companies and academics. But academics do not contribute very much to the basic research in EA. Furthermore, very few other disciplines are used to enhance enterprise architecture. In addition enterprise architecture is a new discipline and it will not mature unless substantial basic research will be made.


Equivalent piezoelectric actuator circuit is necessary for certain applications. Previous models have limits and are not accurate on modelling the real part of piezo impedance at low frequency range. A simple inverse proportional to frequency model is proposed and experimentally validated. The comparison with other models show also it is the most robust model.


Over the past few decades, college sport in the United States has increasingly adopted a commercial institutional logic when engaging in an athletics "arms race." With decisions by some athletic directors to eliminate certain nonrevenue Olympic sport programs for spending reallocation, it stands to reason that programs such as men's wrestling will need to enhance their revenue streams to remain viable in future years. The purpose of the study was to investigate the motivational preferences of online wrestling consumers (N = 451) to provide a core foundation for the development of strategies to enhance interest in the college-wrestling product. In addition to illustrating that online consumers responded most favorably to the sport-related wrestling motives, the data also supported the notion that the motivational preferences of consumers varied when focusing on the demographic information of participants.


In this working paper, we describe the vignette data collection method as used in a research project "Comparative study of child maintenance policies, family complexity and equalities" funded by the Academy of Finland for the years 2016-21. Vignettes represented complex postseparation family scenarios and provided answers to the questions around how child maintenance policies are dealt with when financial responsibility is shared between separated parents. National informants were asked to explain how their country's child maintenance policy worked and what its outcomes were likely to be, such as the amount of child maintenance owed in each scenario. We describe how the vignettes were constructed, how data was collected and particularly what the strengths and limitations of the method were. We address the central issues that researchers have to deal with when conducting cross-national comparative research using the vignette approach in the domain of child maintenance or any other public policy scheme.


At the end of the Constitutional Convention, the delegates appointed the Committee of Style and Arrangement to bring together the textual provisions that the Convention had previously agreed to and to prepare a final constitution. Pennsylvania delegate Gouverneur Morris drafted the document for the Committee, and, with few revisions and little debate, the Convention adopted Morris's draft. For more than two hundred years, questions have been raised as to whether Morris covertly altered the text in order to advance his constitutional vision, but modern legal scholars and historians studying the Convention have either ignored the issue or concluded that Morris was an honest scrivener. No prior article has systematically compared the Committee's draft to the previously adopted resolutions or discussed the implications of those changes for constitutional law.

This Article undertakes that comparison. It shows that Morris made fifteen significant changes to the Constitution and that many of the Constitution's central elements were wholly or in critical part Morris's work. Morris's changes strengthened the national executive and judiciary, provided the textual basis for judicial review, increased presidential accountability through an expansive conception of impeachment, protected private property, mandated that the census report reflect "actual enumeration," removed the constitutional text suggesting that slavery was just, and fought slavery's spread.

This Article also shows that Morris created the basis for the Federalist reading of the Constitution. Federalists—notably including fellow Committee member Alexander Hamilton—repeatedly drew on language crafted by Morris as they fought for their vision of the Constitution. Because the changes Morris made to the Convention's agreed language were subtle, both Republicans and Federalists were able to appeal to text in the great constitutional battles of the early republic. Modern originalists claim that the Republican reading reflects the original understanding of the Constitution, but this Article argues that the largely dismissed Federalist reading explains words, phrases, and punctuation that the Republican reading ignores or renders unintelligible. By contrast, the Federalist reading of the Preamble (which they saw as a grant of substantive power), the Article I and Article II Vesting Clauses (which were contrasted to argue for expansive executive power), the Article III Vesting Clause (which they read to mandate the creation of lower federal courts), the Contracts Clause (which they read to cover public as well as private contracts), the Impeachment Clause (which they read to cover both nonofficial and official acts), and the "law of the land" provision (which they construed as a basis for judicial review) gives effect to Morris's—and the Constitution's—words.


High-fidelity flow simulation is one of the main goals to pursue in the research towards exascale computing. This capability will allow a cheaper exploration of aeronautical and automotive designs that fulfill energy consumption and noise emissions policies of the European agencies. In this project, the integration of three high-performance tools will be studied as a promising alternative to perform high-fidelity flow simulations. Specifically, a parallel curved unstructured mesh generator will be integrated with two different parallel high-order stabilized Galerkin solvers. We expect that the novel research required on the development and combination of these high-performance tools will provide the physical, numerical, and geometrical accuracy required to perform high-fidelity flow simulations on complex domains defined by industrial computer-aided design models. Furthermore, the project is of major interest in high-performance computing since we expect to improve the scalability of implicit flow solvers by increasing the accuracy for a given computational cost, favoring computation to data transfer, and increasing the ratio of operations that scale linearly with the number of mesh elements. The combined tools will be deployed in a large cluster to obtain flow simulations of practical interest for the aeronautical and automotive industries.


Bazideraz's water transfer tunnel is located in the Zagros structural zone. To excavation this tunnel, an EPB Hard Rock type TBM machine was used. The axis of the tunnel is located on an Anticline. In this anticline, there are various geological structures such as folding, fault, karst, and so on. The underlying studies of the design and implementation of exploratory specimens in the core of this anticline have been confined. In this research, for study of geological conditions during drilling, seismic prediction of tunnel (TSP) test was carried out at two positions of 3+287 and 5+577. In this geophysical method, seismic waves are used to illustrate geological structures. The distribution of shear waves in a three-dimensional tunnel model provides evidence of lithological changes (alternation of marl and shale and limestone layers) and the existence of several crushed zones along the drilling path. Bazideraz Tunnel is the first project in the world to use the TSP method to drill a EPB machine. In this study, the analysis of the operational parameters of the EPB machine and Observe rock mass during drilling was used to measure the accuracy of the TSP results. The fluctuations of the penetration rate, thrust and torque in the drilling path are in accordance with the low velocity and high velocity regions of the three-dimensional shear waves. Results of controlling the drilling materials indicate that the shear waves distribution models have a relative adaptation to the geological conditions in the drilling path.


We apply density functional theory (DFT) and the DFT+U technique to study the adsorption of transition metal porphine molecules on atomistically flat Au(111) surfaces. DFT calculations using the Perdew-Burke-Ernzerhof exchange correlation functional correctly predict the palladium porphine (PdP) low-spin ground state. PdP is found to adsorb preferentially on gold in a flat geometry, not in an edgewise geometry, in qualitative agreement with experiments on substituted porphyrins. It exhibits no covalent bonding to Au(111), and the binding energy is a small fraction of an electronvolt. The DFT+U technique, parametrized to B3LYP-predicted spin state ordering of the Mn d-electrons, is found to be crucial for reproducing the correct magnetic moment and geometry of the isolated manganese porphine (MnP) molecule. Adsorption of Mn(II)P on Au(111) substantially alters the Mn ion spin state. Its interaction with the gold substrate is stronger and more site-specific than that of PdP. The binding can be partially reversed by applying an electric potential, which leads to significant changes in the electronic and magnetic properties of adsorbed MnP and approximately 0.1 A changes in the Mn-nitrogen distances within the porphine macrocycle. We conjecture that this DFT+U approach may be a useful general method for modeling first-row transition metal ion complexes in a condensed-matter setting.


Background. According to the National Department of Health (NDoH) guidelines, patients diagnosed with MDR TB must be referred to a specialised treatment centre for initiation of effective therapy. MDR TB is difficult to diagnose and the centralised referral model is beset with challenges that contribute to treatment delays, increased patient morbidity and mortality, and MDR TB nosocomial transmission. Culture and DST takes 8 weeks or longer to obtain results while line probe assays (LPAs) can give a result in hours. LPAs and the GeneXpert MTB/Rif (GX) are ground-breaking discoveries for TB diagnosis. However, they are not easily accessible or available to those needing it, so culture and sensitivity testing remains the gold standard for diagnosis. Aim. This study aimed to assess the delay in the initiation of MDR TB treatment and profiled the patients being referred to a specialised drug-resistant treatment centre in KwaZulu-Natal. Results. Of all the patients, 75% referred showed a mean delay of 12.4 weeks from the date of sputum collection for culture and drug sensitivity testing to the start of treatment. Most of the patients were symptomatic for TB and HIV-positive. Discussion. Our findings suggest that current policy on the initiation of effective treatment needs urgent revision. Staff should be appropriately trained in LPA and GX technology to reduce delays in initiating treatment for MDR TB. The NDoH's plans for rapid diagnosis and reducing the treatment burden on centralised MDR TB management facilities are in the early phases of implementation and will take years to achieve favourable and significant outcomes. Conclusion. There is a significant delay in initiating definitive management for MDR TB.


Increasing quantities of atmospheric anthropogenic fixed nitrogen entering the open ocean could account for up to about a third of the ocean's external (nonrecycled) nitrogen supply and up to ∼3% of the annual new marine biological production, ∼0.3 petagram of carbon per year. This input could account for the production of up to ∼1.6 teragrams of nitrous oxide (N2O) per year. Although ∼10% of the ocean's drawdown of atmospheric anthropogenic carbon dioxide may result from this atmospheric nitrogen fertilization, leading to a decrease in radiative forcing, up to about two-thirds of this amount may be offset by the increase in N2O emissions. The effects of increasing atmospheric nitrogen deposition are expected to continue to grow in the future.


Background: Anticentromere antibodies are characteristically observed in scleroderma but have recently been reported in other autoimmune rheumatic disorders, including Sjögren's syndrome. It is not known whether distinct centromere proteins (CENP) are targeted in primary Sjögren's syndrome (pSS) and scleroderma. Objective: To determine whether antibodies to CENP-B and CENP-C are present in these two disorders. Methods: Sera from 45 patients with pSS and 33 with limited scleroderma were studied. All patients met classification criteria for pSS and scleroderma, respectively. Sera were used to immunoprecipitate in vitro translated CENP-B and CENP-C. The proportions recognising CENP-B or CENP-C were compared. Results: 10 of 45 patients (22%) with pSS and 18 of 33 (55%) with scleroderma had antibodies recognising CENPs (p = 0.004). Seven of 10 (70%) CENP positive patients with pSS recognised CENP-C alone, compared with one of 18 (6%) CENP positive patients with scleroderma (odds ratio (OR) = 40 (95% confidence interval (CI), 3.5 to 450) (p = 0.003). In contrast, the majority (15 of 18 (83%)) of CENP positive scleroderma sera recognised both CENP-B and CENP-C, compared with none of 10 pSS sera (OR = 93 (95% CI, 4.4 to 1979) (p = 0.0001). Conclusions: The pattern of CENP recognition differs markedly in pSS and limited scleroderma. While patients with pSS predominantly recognise CENP-C alone, dual recognition of CENP-B and CENP-C is most frequent in scleroderma. These findings suggest that obtaining antibodies to specific centromere antigens is useful diagnostically, and imply that distinct mechanisms underlie the unique patterns of centromere autoreactivity in pSS and scleroderma.


This study is a discussion on the 'Non-Governmental Organization-Microfinance Institution Partnership Model' and 'Securitization Model' used by Indian microfinance institutions to achieve cost efficiency. These two models are effective strategies devised and used by efficient and sustainable Indian MFIs to reduce their operating cost and financing cost. Achieving such cost efficiency is crucial for microfinance institutions to attain operational self-sustainability without levying high interest rates. Using interview method the study elicits information on these innovative strategies and recommends them to be worthy of emulation for other microfinance institutions operating in the Indian microfinance industry.


Ultraviolet B (UVB) radiation is an important inducer of many biologic changes in skin, of which keratinocytes are a key target. To gain better insight into changes in gene expression generated in the early phase after UVB exposure, we used complementary RNA (cRNA) microarray hybridization to compare differences in mRNA expression of UVB‐irradiated (single dose of 100 J/m2 broad‐band UVB) and sham‐irradiated primary cultured human keratinocytes. Six hours after irradiation, total RNA was isolated from keratinocytes, and cRNA was synthesized and hybridized to a GeneChip expression array (Affymetrix) consisting of 6800 genes. Based on a threshold of > twofold change, 187 genes (2.8%) were designated to be the most UVB‐responsive. Surprisingly, none of these genes had been shown previously to be modulated by UVB. Conversely, several genes in the microarray that had been reported previously to be UVB‐ responsive by other methods showed less (< twofold) or no change. Northern blotting of seven differentially modulated genes produced results similar to those derived from microarray technology, thereby validating the accuracy of screening. Clustering based on known or likely functions indicated that among 88 upregulated genes, nine encode for cytochrome c subunits, six for ribosomal proteins, and two for regulators of apoptosis. By contrast, many of the 99 downregulated genes are involved in transcription, differentiation and transport. These findings indicate that keratinocytes respond to a single low dose of broad‐band UVB irradiation by enhancing processes involved in energy production and translation, while suppressing those related to transcription, differentiation and transport.


This paper discusses Pol Medina, Jr.'s contemporary comic strip Pugad Baboy as a case of subversion and renegotiation undergone by Philippine comedy. This paper posits that Medina's innovation by way of the "novelization" of the comic strip, as exemplified here by "Ang Hiwaga ng Duenas" ("The Duenas Mystery") from Pugad Baboy 4, illustrates and inscribes what can be deemed as comic interpretations of the gaps, distortions, and juxtapositions within Philippine culture. The reading of this contemporary Philippine comic strip leads us to examine abnormality, incongruity, inversions, and hyperreality as manifestations of current Philippine comedy, one that may be socially corrective, or culturally liminal, which now moves towards a depiction of comic postmodernity.


The purpose of this paper is to explore the translation procedures that are followed when rendering English fiction titles into Arabic. One hundred English fiction titles were collected and set against their Arabic counterparts. The quantitative analysis shows that the translation procedure employed in 60% of the sample is literal translation. The other translation procedures feature adaptation (20%), use of related words (12%), paraphrase/explication (5%), and transliteration alone (3%). Qualitatively, the analysis reveals that literal translation works very well when the title is lexically and culturally transparent. By contrast, adaptation is called for when the title includes culture-bound references or allusions. With regards to related words, they are employed when the title is lexically intricate or when a related word would render the title more attractive. The analysis also indicates that while explication may render a title more natural and attractive, paraphrase may produce flat and unnatural titles. Transliteration, for its part, is shown to work well with proper nouns, although it may need to be supplemented by other procedures in some cases. Other things being equal, commercial and marketing factors need to be taken into consideration when formulating as well as when translating a title.