Given the substantial amount of research that has been conducted throughout the United States regarding the relationship between race and capital punishment, one might assume that much of the attention has been focused on Harris County, Texas. After all, Harris County – home to Houston and surrounding areas – is the capital of capital punishment. Indeed, if Harris County were a state it would rank second in executions after Texas. Yet only one study has examined whether race influences the death penalty in Houston. Specifically, Phillips (2008) reports that death was more likely to be imposed against black defendants, and more likely to be imposed on behalf of white victims, during the period from 1992 to 1999 – the final years of Johnny Homes tenure as District Attorney. After Holmes retired, Charles Rosenthal served as District Attorney from January 1, 2001 to February 15, 2008. Did racial disparities continue during the Rosenthal administration? The current research suggests that the impact of defendant race disappeared, but the impact of victim race continued: death sentences were imposed on behalf of white victims at 2.5 times the rate one would expect if the system were blind to race, and death sentences were imposed on behalf of white female victims at 5 times the rate one would expect if the system were blind to race and gender. Such disparities are particularly troubling because Rosenthal was forced out of office in a scandal that included racist emails. Given the disparities, coupled with racist emails from the elected official who decides whether to seek the death penalty, the paper contemplates a key question: Should the state of Texas be allowed to execute inmates who were sentenced to death in Harris County during the Rosenthal administration?


We extend the response theory of optical forces to general electromagnetic systems which can be treated as multi-port systems with multiple mechanical degrees of freedom. We demonstrate a fundamental link between the scattering properties of an optical system to its ability to produce conservative or non-conservative optical forces. Through the exploration of two nontrivial two-port systems, including an analytical Fabry-Perot interferometer and a more complex particle-in-a-waveguide structure, we show perfect agreement between the response theory and numerical first-principle calculations. We show that new insights into the origins of optical forces from the response theory provide clear means of understanding conservative and non-conservative forces in a regime where traditional gradient force picture fails.


Object-Oriented Analysis and Design for Information Systems clearly explains real object-oriented programming in practice. Expert author Raul Sidnei Wazlawick explains concepts such as object responsibility, visibility and the real need for delegation in detail. The object-oriented code generated by using these concepts in a systematic way is concise, organized and reusable. The patterns and solutions presented in this book are based in research and industrial applications. You will come away with clarity regarding processes and use cases and a clear understand of how to expand a use case. Wazlawick clearly explains clearly how to build meaningful sequence diagrams. Object-Oriented Analysis and Design for Information Systems illustrates how and why building a class model is not just placing classes into a diagram. You will learn the necessary organizational patterns so that your software architecture will be maintainable. Learn how to build better class models, which are more maintainable and understandable. Write use cases in a more efficient and standardized way, using more effective and less complex diagrams. Build true object-oriented code with division of responsibility and delegation.


We propose a selective labeling method using meta-learning for medical image interpretation in the setting of limited labeling resources. Our method, MedSelect, consists of a trainable deep learning model that uses image embeddings to select images to label, and a non-parametric classifier that uses cosine similarity to classify unseen images. We demonstrate that MedSelect learns an effective selection strategy outperforming baseline selection strategies across seen and unseen medical conditions for chest X-ray interpretation. We also perform an analysis of the selections performed by MedSelect comparing the distribution of latent embeddings and clinical features, and find significant differences compared to the strongest performing baseline. Our method is broadly applicable across medical imaging tasks where labels are expensive to acquire.


In this study, we investigated the signaling pathway involved in cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2) expression caused by peptidoglycan (PGN), a cell wall component of the Gram-positive bacterium Staphylococcus aureus, in RAW 264.7 macrophages. PGN caused dose- and time-dependent increases in COX-2 expression, which was attenuated by a Ras inhibitor (manumycin A), a Raf-1 inhibitor (GW 5074), and an MEK inhibitor (PD 098059). Treatment of RAW 264.7 macrophages with PGN caused time-dependent activations of Ras, Raf-1, and ERK. The PGN-induced increase in Ras activity was inhibited by manumycin A. Raf-1 phosphorylation at Ser-338 by PGN was inhibited by manumycin A and GW 5074. The PGN-induced increase in ERK activity was inhibited by manumycin A, GW 5074, and PD 098059. Stimulation of cells with PGN activated IκB kinase α/β (IKKα/β), IκBα phosphorylation, IκBα degradation, and κB-luciferase activity. Treatment of macrophages with an NF-κB inhibitor (pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate), an IκBα phosphorylation inhibitor (Bay 117082), and IκB protease inhibitors (l-1-tosylamido-2-phenylethyl chloromethyl ketone and calpain inhibitor I) all inhibited PGN-induced COX-2 expression. The PGN-mediated increase in the activities of IKKα/β and κB-luciferase were also inhibited by the Ras dominant negative mutant (RasN17), manumycin A, GW 5074, and PD 098059. Further studies revealed that PGN induced the recruitment of p85α and Ras to Toll-like receptor 2 in a time-dependent manner. Our data demonstrate for the first time that PGN activates the Ras/Raf-1/ERK pathway, which in turn initiates IKKα/β and NF-κB activation, and ultimately induces COX-2 expression in RAW 264.7 macrophages.


Coastal Quintana Roo, Mexico, including islands such as Cozumel and Isla Mujeres, contains numerous ridges of Quaternary eolian calcarenite in two packages, one Pleistocene and one Holocene. The Pleistocene eolianites are recognizable in the field by well-developed terra rossa paleosol and micritic crust on the surface, containing a fossil epikarst. The foreset beds of these eolianites commonly dip below modern sea level, and fossilized plant root structures are abundant. The Holocene eolianites lack a well-developed epikarst, and have a calcernite protosol on their surfaces. The degree of cementation, and the grain composition, are not reliable indicators of the age of Quaternary eolianites. The Pleistocene eolianites have been previously described (e.g. Ward, 1997) as exclusively regressive-phase eolianites, formed by the regression during the oxygen isotope substages (OIS) 5a and 5c. However, certain eolianites, such as those at Playa Copal, contain flank margin caves, dissolution chambers that form by sea water/fresh water mixing in the fresh-water lens. For such mixing dissolution to occur, the eolianite must already be present. As the flank margin caves are found at elevations of 2-6 m above current sea level, the caves must have developed during the last interglacial sea-level highstand, and the eolianites could not have formed on the regression from that or younger highstands. Therefore the eolianites must be transgressive-phase eolianites developed at the beginning of the last interglacial sea-level highstand, or either transgressiveor regressive-phase eolianites from a previous sea-level highstand that occurred earlier in the Pleistocene. There is no field evidence of oxygen isotope substage 5c or 5a eolianites as suggested by Ward (1997). Most coastal outcrops show classic regressive–phase Pleistocene eolianites as illustrated by complex and well-developed terra rossa paleosols and epikarst, and dense arrays of fossilized plant roots. However, in addition to flank margin caves, other evidence of transgressive-phase eolianites includes notches in eolianites on the west side of Cozumel, with subtidal marine facies onlapping the notches. The absence of a paleosol between those two units indicates that the eolianite is a transgressive-phase deposit from the last interglacial. All Holocene eolianites are, by definition, transgressive-phase units.


When a site's topography prohibits the installation of a single stormwater management pond, the drainage system can be integrated with multi-ponds in series. A computer program written in BASIC language can assist the pond design by simulating the runoff routing through the sequential ponds. The discharge outlet of each pond is submerged by the adjacent downstream pond. The transient change of water level at any pond's outlet will affect the discharge of the pond immediately upstream. Based on the mass conservation theory and the water head difference between ponds, the hydraulic equation is derived in a type of non-linear first-order differential equation. A numerical test to solve the differential equation has been done by using RUNGE-KUTTA's and EULER's explicit finite difference method. Results of the test indicate that the RUNGE-KUTTA method is better than the EULER method. The flow routing, therefore, has been modeled by using the RUNGE-KUTTA method. The computed outflow hydrograph of a 3-pond system is presented. The numerical accuracy and stability of the computational results are discussed and concluded.


Heroin and other opiate dependencies affect individual users, interpersonal relationships, and communities. The purpose of this qualitative study was to better understand risk factors of heroin dependence by examining the life course paths of individuals who have been through addiction, treatment, and are currently in recovery. In-depth interviews were conducted with five participants in recovery. Participant narratives suggest that early childhood experiences, specifically parental abuse and social rejection, combined with substance abuse as a model for coping, influenced the development of addiction. Social support and self-awareness during and after treatment were effective components of sustaining recovery.


One of the main causes of bridge failure is scour at the abutments or piers. Scour is caused by increased velocities of water through bridge openings. Sediment is carried away from the foundations by high flows causing the bridge to become unstable and possibly collapse. Bottomless culverts have become an attractive bridge option and until recently studies to determine scour at their abutments are scarce. New studies have been conducted and need field review. The purpose of this report is to verify the validity of bottomless culvert equations derived from laboratory studies. Given the likely increase in interest in bottomless culverts, finding the right equations to use for the design of foundations becomes crucial. The advantage of this study is the abundant field data available for a comparison through the Kansas Department of Transportation project headed by TranSystems. A subset of bridges is tested with the equations and comparisons are made.


Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy is a widely used analytical technique for molecular structure determination, and is highly valued in the fields of chemistry, biochemistry, and medicinal chemistry. The importance of NMR methods in the European (PhEur) and United States Pharmacopeia (USP) is steadily growing. However, undergraduates often have problems becoming familiar with handling the complex data. We have developed a simple experiment in which undergraduates, who are learning 1H NMR spectroscopy for the first time, investigate natural amino acids, and determine their structure and identity using low-field 1H NMR measurements and simple COSY experiments. These students see and learn the connection between the chemical shift of the αC-proton and the isoelectric point of the amino acid. They engage with the spectroscopic topic by acquiring their own spectra, and processing and interpreting the data. Understanding important natural amino acids and their physicochemical character is highly rele...


This conceptual paper explores how Critical Race Theory (CRT) in education can be utilized with a Critical Content Analysis (CCA) of children's literature. We first explain how we came to this work as education scholars trained to examine systemic racism in educational institutions. We then explain the steps we have taken to pursue our current study that examines the portrayal of Latinx in children's literature. First, we describe an online library catalog platform that we have created to catalog a book collection of over 300 books by/about Latinx people published in the United States during a five-year period from 2011 to 2015. Next, we outline our understanding of two prevalent research approaches in critical analyses of children and youth literature, Critical Multicultural Analysis (CMA) and CCA. We then explain CRT in education and its tenets. Finally, we explain how the tenets of CRT can be applied to a CCA. We provide a set of guidelines for researchers to use in their own critical race analyses of children's literature and use an example of how these guidelines are applied.


Change point detection is an important part of time series analysis, as the presence of a change point indicates an abrupt and significant change in the data generating process. While many algorithms for change point detection exist, little attention has been paid to evaluating their performance on real-world time series. Algorithms are typically evaluated on simulated data and a small number of commonly-used series with unreliable ground truth. Clearly this does not provide sufficient insight into the comparative performance of these algorithms. Therefore, instead of developing yet another change point detection method, we consider it vastly more important to properly evaluate existing algorithms on real-world data. To achieve this, we present the first data set specifically designed for the evaluation of change point detection algorithms, consisting of 37 time series from various domains. Each time series was annotated by five expert human annotators to provide ground truth on the presence and location of change points. We analyze the consistency of the human annotators, and describe evaluation metrics that can be used to measure algorithm performance in the presence of multiple ground truth annotations. Subsequently, we present a benchmark study where 14 existing algorithms are evaluated on each of the time series in the data set. This study shows that binary segmentation (Scott and Knott, 1974) and Bayesian online change point detection (Adams and MacKay, 2007) are among the best performing methods. Our aim is that this data set will serve as a proving ground in the development of novel change point detection algorithms.


E-government has been identified as the next major application of information systems to fundamentally alter how U.S. federal agencies interact with the public. Through a strategy published by the Office of Management and Budget, federal agencies are formulating and executing plans to realize the many expected benefits from e-government. It is not clear, though, whether there is either a normative or empirical framework of e-government underpinning the strategy. Based on a normative framework of federal e-government created through this research, this paper presents a case study of an initiative in the federal e-government strategy, examining whether it conforms to the normative framework of federal e-government. This paper finds that there was not a consistent underlying e-government framework providing a foundation for this federal initiative. This finding raises questions about whether other federal e-government initiatives suffer a similar problem, calling into question the ultimate success of the U.S. federal e-government strategy.


Computability concerns information with a causal – typically algorithmic – structure. As such, it provides a schematic analysis of many naturally occurring situations. We look at ways in which computabilitytheoretic structure plays a hierarchical role in natural contexts. We will look at how structure does not just emerge mathematically from information, but how that structure can model the emergence of very basic aspects of the real world of a non-local character. This will be applied to identifying precise hyper-causal content in various real contexts.


Conservation covenants (or easements) are flexible but legally enforceable documents attached to a land title restricting the use of that land, providing for the protection of important conservation values, while allowing the landholder to retain possession. Given the attractiveness of covenants to those who seek to expand national and regional nature conservation initiatives, it is important to understand landholder motivations for participation in programmes that covenant for nature conservation. This paper examines the likely influences on landholder decision making when it comes to conservation initiatives. A review of literature highlights key motivations and determinants, such as landholder demographics and the nature of the land tenure in question, their knowledge and awareness of the programme, financial circumstances, and perceptions of financial and other risks and benefits of the programme itself, including incentives and compensation. Underpinning, or mediating, the decision-making processes will be landholder philosophies and values, and five constructs are determined from the review, namely economic dependence on property, private property rights, confidence in perpetual covenant mechanisms, nature conservation equity and nature conservation ethic. Using these constructs, a series of explicit hypotheses is drawn, applicable to agencies dealing with conservation covenants and testable through an adaptive management approach. A conceptual model is presented to show hypothesized relationships between motivational factors and the five constructs that will lead to the uptake of covenants by landholders, providing direction for policy makers and managers of incentive programmes for nature conservation on private lands.


ABSTRACT Much of the recent debate on immigration to Europe has focused on how many refugees should be allowed to enter and how refugees should be distributed among EU member states, but there has been less academic focus on under what conditions, if any, human smuggling is morally permissible. How should we morally assess those who make a business out of helping migrants reach their desired destination and those who pay smugglers to reach their destination? We argue that human smuggling is morally permissible under some conditions even if it is illegal. Human trafficking, by contrast, is immoral and should be illegal. The moral conditions for permissible human smuggling are sometimes being met on the route from Africa to Europe (but are all too often grossly violated). We consider and rebut objections based on the arguments that a legal prohibition on human smuggling must translate into a moral one, and that human smuggling violates the rights of individuals to freedom of association in receiving countries. We conclude with policy implications.


The aim of the present study was twofold: 1) to assess whether inhibition of thromboxane A2 (TxA2) synthase exerts more potent antiplatelet effects when applied concomitantly with TxA2 and prostaglandin (PG)H2 receptor blockade and 2) whether these effects are mediated through redirection of PG endoperoxides toward the synthesis of antiplatelet PGs, such as PGI2 and PGE2. Thus, cyclic flow variations (CFVs), due to recurrent platelet aggregation, were initiated in the stenotic, endothelially injured carotid arteries of 39 rabbits. After 30 min of CFVs, the animals received: 1) SQ29548 (up to 0.6 mg/kg bolus + 0.2 mg kg-1 hr-1, n = 13), a TxA2/PGH2 receptor antagonist; 2) dazoxiben (up to 15 mg/kg bolus + 5 mg kg-1 hr-1, n = 13), a TxA2 synthase inhibitor and 3) picotamide (up to 20 mg/kg bolus + 20 mg kg-1 hr-1, n = 13), a drug with simultaneous TxA2 synthase and receptor blocking properties. CFVs were abolished in 6, 7, and 12 animals treated with SQ29548, dazoxiben, and picotamide, respectively (P < .01 for picotamide versus SQ29548 and dazoxiben). The animals in which CFVs were not abolished by SQ29548 or dazoxiben received the other drug at the same dose. CFVs were abolished by dazoxiben in five of seven rabbits that initially did not respond to SQ29548 and by SQ29548 in five of six animals that did not respond to dazoxiben. All animals that responded to the combination of SQ29548 and dazoxiben, as well as those that responded to picotamide, received increasing intravenous infusions of epinephrine to restore CFVs.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


An effective health portal should be easy to use and understandable. A number of research studies have been taken in order to evaluate different health portals but there is no such study for ltblekeinge health portal. A multi-phased research approach is adopted to evaluate the usability of ltblekeinge health portal. Authors conducted a usability test of the system where citizens from the county of Blekinge are taken as subjects. They evaluated the health portal on the basis of usability test and a questionnaire is prepared to know the different perspectives of citizens. The authors validated the result with the help of interviews with a number of individual. The authors find it is very important that a health web portal should contain sufficient amount of relevant and useful health related contents. Moreover, there is need to improve ltblekeinge portal in terms of interface, contents and set of tools for accessing the ehealth services and health related information.


This paper presents a novel concept for stretchable conductors. Metal coated polymer spheres were densely packed in biocompatible silicone tubes. The resistivity of the conductors were in the approximate range of 1×10-4 Ωm at 0% strain and 50% strain could be applied before degrading their electrical performance. Initial results showed good reproducibility and no drift in resistance values up to 1000 cycles with 0%-25% strain. This make the conductors well suited for digital low speed data transmission. The initial application is intended for integration of electronics in clothing; the conductors have been tested with success transmitting data from a commercial digital combined humidity and temperature sensor.


The aim of this study is to extend and adapt the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software used in advanced studies on hemodynamics at the RMEE team at UPC/EPSEM. The FOSS (Free and Open Source Software) CFD
software FreeFOAM (Open Field Operation and Manipulation) is used for this purpose. FreeFOAM is a fork of the widely used OpenFOAM CFD software. It is geared towards freeing OpenFOAM from its system dependency (using Cmake), enabling it to run natively on as many operating systems as possible
and improved documentation. The software concerns a a C++ toolbox for the development of customized numerical solvers, and pre-/post-processing utilities for the solution of continuum mechanics problems, including computational fluid dynamics (CFD).
For CFD studies, a Graphic User Interface (GUI) program is often desired to create complex geometries. For example geometries of arteries used for hemodynamics (blood flows) studies, done at UPC/EPSEM. Though
OpenFOAM/FreeFOAM is one of the most advanced CFD tools under a the FOSS GPL licence, its main drawback is the lack of a Graphic User Interface for integrated displaying pre-processing and post-processing results. In order to get the functionality of the OpenFOAM / FreeFOAM CFD software in some GUI programs, the CFD libraries will need their functionality in Python scripts.
This is obtained by the creation of modules that are derived from the libraries and can be loaded in Python scripts or programs.
In this study we will focus to obtain python modules from the FreeFOAM libraries. The SALOME GUI desktop, embeds a Python console allowing the user to access different SALOME functionalities via Python interfaces.
PyFreeFOAM intends to define a new level of flexibility and user interaction scenario for numerical simulation software. Our aim is to use this project for the creation of a python front-end for the FreeFOAM CFD software to get its functionality in Salome.


The authors report 2 experiments in which they examined age differences in working memory tasks involving complex item manipulation (i.e., letter-number sequencing). In Experiment 1, age differences on tasks involving item manipulation were not greater than age differences on tasks requiring recall of items in the order in which they appeared, suggesting that older adults do not have difficulty with item manipulation per se. In Experiment 2, slower presentation rates increased age differences in item manipulation spans, although age differences at the fastest rate may be attributed to differences in strategy use. In both experiments, age differences were largest when participants were most likely to be remembering familiar sequences, suggesting that older adults may have difficulties dampening the representations of such sequences once they are activated.


Abstract Student evaluations of teaching and learning are playing an increasingly important role in the delivery of high-quality, student-centred education. Insights into student perceptions of their learning experience provide important information that can be used to inform course design and development. The majority of course evaluations take the form of quantitative surveys, but research suggests that a reliance on survey data alone can be problematic from a teaching and learning perspective. Qualitative course evaluations have been cited as a viable alternative to quantitative evaluations, but less research has been conducted into their efficacy when compared to quantitative evaluations. The study on which this article reports attempted to contribute to addressing this shortcoming by describing and assessing a novel approach to eliciting qualitative feedback from students in a research methodology course at a higher education institution in South Africa. Conventional content analysis was used to analyse the qualitative feedback received from students. The qualitative course evaluation approach was then appraised in terms of the degree to which it has the potential to overcome the shortcomings associated with quantitative course evaluations and the extent to which the information gathered could be used to improve the design and delivery of the academic programme.


Differences in the earnings of women and men are increasingly being used to justify regulation of the private affairs of employers and employees. Yet there is very little evidence that the 'gender pay gap' is the result of unfair discrimination. In fact in can be explained by variations in the kinds of job undertaken by men and women, as well as educational and lifestyle choices. Women may favour quality of life and job satisfaction over higher earnings. The authors argues that complete equality of pay is impossible to achieve in a free society of any complexity. Men and women would need to be identical in their qualifications, choice of occupations, career plans and lifestyle choices. Thus policies that try to impose equality through tighter employment regulation are unlikely to have much impact, and such measures may damage the economic position of both men and women.


This volume accompanies Flora of China text Volume 4, published in 1999. Included are 394 figures representing 816 species (;75% of the taxa represented in the text volume) in the families Cycadaceae (8 species), Ginkgoaceae (1 species), Araucariaceae (2 species), Pinaceae (84 species), Taxodiaceae (11 species), Cupressaceae (27 species), Cephalotaxaceae (9 species), Taxaceae (11 species), Ephedraceae (14 species), Gnetaceae (6 species), Casuarinaceae (2 species), Saururaceae (3 species), Piperaceae (42 species), Chloranthaceae (11 species), Salicaceae (240 species), Myricaceae (4 species), Junglandaceae (24 species), Betulaceae (62 species), and Fagaceae (242 species). The Sciadopityaceae, included in the text volume, is omitted from the illustrations volume.


We investigate the causal effect of house price movements on unemployment dynamics. Using a dataset of 34 countries over the last 40 years, we show the large and significant impact of house prices on unemployment fluctuations using property taxes as an instrument for house prices. A 10% (instrumented) appreciation in house prices yields to a 3.4% decrease in the unemployment rate. These results are very robust to the inclusion of the variables commonly used to explain unemployment rate developments. If house prices directly impact employment in construction, job volatility in this sector resulting in large employment fluctuations, they impact also total employment through their effects on non-residential investment and consumption, two determinants of labour demand. Housing booms have a specific effect on employment in the tradable sector as they lead to real exchange rate appreciations that affect manufacturing activity.


The continuous growth of data, mainly the medical data at laboratories becomes very complex to use and to manage by using traditional ways. So, the researchers start studying genetic information field which increased in the past thirty years in bioinformatics domain (the computer science field, genetic biology field, and DNA). This growth of data becomes known as big bioinformatics data. Thus, efficient algorithms such as Genetic Algorithms are needed to deal with this big and vast amount of bioinformatics data in genetic laboratories. So the researchers proposed two models to manage the big bioinformatics data in addition to the traditional model. The first model by applying Genetic Algorithms before MapReduce, the second model by applying Genetic Algorithms after the MapReduce, and the original or the traditional model by applying only MapReduce without using Genetic Algorithms. The three models were implemented and evaluated using big bioinformatics data collected from the Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy (DMD) disorder. The researchers conclude that the second model is the best one among the three models in reducing the size of the data, in execution time, and in addition to the ability to manage and summarize big bioinformatics data. Finally by comparing the percentage errors of the second model with the first model and the traditional model, the researchers obtained the following results 1.136%, 10.227%, and 11.363% respectively. So the second model is the most accurate model with the less percentage error.


Abstract The Ti13Nb13Zr alloy was subjected to laser modification with the Nd:YAG laser provided that such treatment would increase the surface roughness followed improved adhesion of hydroxyapatite (HAp) coatings The hydroxyapatite was deposited by electrophoretic method in suspension of 0.5 g HA powder and 100 ml ethyl alcohol. The deposition was carried out for 10 min at 10 V voltage followed by drying at room temperature for 24 h and heating at 800°C for 1 h in vacuum. The thickness of the HAp coatings was found as of about 4.06 μm to 9.05 μm. The examinations of surfaces were carried out at each stage of the experiment with the ultra-high resolution scanning electron microscope. The measurements of surface roughness after laser treatment and after HAp deposition were performed with the Hommel Etamic Waveline profilograph.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To investigate the relationship of social support and psychological and physical states among Japanese women with breast cancer and to compare the variables before and one year after breast surgery.

DESIGN
A prospective longitudinal study.

SETTING
A general hospital in northern Japan.

SAMPLE
61 Japanese women with breast cancer.

METHODS
Measures were the Japanese versions of the Interpersonal Relationship Inventory, the General Health Questionnaire, and the Physical States Interview Form. Data were collected at four time points: before (time 1), three months after (time 2), six months after (time 3), and one year after (time 4) breast surgery.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Social support (support, reciprocity, and conflict), social support network, and psychological and physical states.

FINDINGS
Psychological and physical states correlated significantly at all four time points. Significant correlations also were found between psychological states and support at times 2 and 4 and between psychological states and reciprocity at time 4. Repeated measures analysis of variance showed significant differences in support, reciprocity, conflict, and physical states but no significant differences in social support network or psychological states.

CONCLUSIONS
The results of the study suggest that healthcare professionals need to consider social support as an important factor when helping Japanese women adjust to the diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Healthcare professionals need to provide appropriate social support for Japanese women with breast cancer not only at the time of diagnosis of breast cancer but also after breast surgery.


The neuropeptide DRNFLRFamide (DF2) increases synaptic transmission at the crayfish neuromuscular junction, but its function depends on temperature. The difference in DF2's effectiveness in synaptic modulation may be due to different degree of dephosphorylation by protein phosphatases. Motivated by previous studies on temperature dependence of synaptic enhancement induced by DF2, we hypothesized that (1) DF2's function depends on phosphorylation and inhibition of phosphatases would increase DF2's effectiveness. (2) At lower temperature phosphatases will be less active. Therefore, increase in DF2's function at low temperatures is due to more phosphorylated proteins induced by inactiveness of phosphatases. We experimented with DF2 and phosphatase inhibitors at both low and room temperatures. We determined the effectiveness of DF2 by measuring Excitatory Postsynaptic Potential (EPSP) of extensor muscle cells in different solutions with five minutes of adjustment period using intracellular recording and repeated stimulation of every five seconds. Our data shows that DF2's effectiveness increases at low temperature, and the effect of phosphatase inhibitors at low temperatures was not as prominent as that at room temperature. The results indicate that at low temperature, phosphatase has already been inhibited, and further inhibition with phosphatase inhibitors has no notable effect. This result supports our hypotheses, suggesting that the effectiveness of DF2 increases in low temperature due to minimized function of phosphatase.


In the United Kingdom, the need for companies to manage in a responsible manner across the various sectors of their activity is generally, if not universally, understood. Generally business' role in society is understood by the most common term, corporate social responsibility or CSR. Many of the larger companies in the UK have well articulated CSR strategies and codes of practice. Most, although not all, large companies have moved on from philanthropy to a more comprehensive approach to how they manage in a responsible manner. However, smaller companies continue to limit their approach to CSR to philanthropy.


In this article, we focus on the applicability of parallel computing architectures to video processing applications. We demonstrate different optimization strategies in detail using the 3-D convolution problem as an example, and show how they affect performance on both many-core CPUs and symmetric multiprocessor CPUs. Applying these strategies to case studies from three video processing domains brings out some trends. The highly uniform, abundant parallelism in many video processing kernels means that they are well suited to a simple, massively parallel task-based model such as CUDA. As a result, we often see ten times or greater performances increases running on many-core hardware. Some kernels, however, push the limits of CUDA, because their memory accesses cannot be shaped into regular, vectorizable patterns or because they cannot be efficiently decomposed into small independent tasks. Such kernels, like the depth propagation kernel in the section "Synthesis Example: Depth Image-Based Rendering" may achieve a modest speedup, but they are probably better suited to a more flexible parallel programming model. We look forward to additional advances, as more researchers learn to harness the processing capabilities of the latest generation of computation hardware.


INTRODUCTION Trochamminoides elegans (Grzybowski) [= Trochammina elegans Grzybowski, 1898] is a familiar species that is commonly recorded from the Paleogene of the Carpathian flysch. However, during the course of work on a taxonomic revision of the Grzybowski Collection, it has become apparent that the name of this taxon is in actuality, invalid. The designation Trochammina elegans was first used by Rzehak (1887), but since the name only appeared in a table (without a description or illustration) the name is unavailable under Article 12 of the ICZN. Grzybowski (1898), who had received specimens from Rzehak, referred to this species as "Trochammina elegans Rzehak", but the authorship of the species belongs to Grzybowski under Article 50 of the ICZN. Grzybowski (1898) described Trochammina elegans as follows: Test agglutinated, surface rough; circular in outline, spirally coiled in two and one-half to three whorls. Chambers spherical, increasing in size, numerous, with depressed sutures; there are thirteen to fifteen of them in the last whorl. Aperture at the lower edge of the last chamber, just above the rounded periphery. Diameter 1.3 mm. However, transferring the authorship of this species makes Trochammina elegans Grzybowski, 1898 a primary junior homonym of Trochammina elegans Egger, 1893 (Article 53c of the ICZN). As such, the name must be permanently rejected (Article 52a). Because no junior synonym exists, we propose the replacement name Trochamminoides grzybowskii Kaminski & Geroch, nom. nov. SYSTEMATIC DESCRIPTION Suborder:Textulariina Delage & Herouard, 1896 Genus: Trochamminaides Cushman, 1910 Trochamminoides grzybowskii Kaminski & Geroch, nom.nov. for Trochammina elegans. . .


This article addresses the question,"How do mothers and children in a homeless shelter interact with literacy?" We drew on the theoretical framework of social literacy practices in which cultural context is foregrounded. Data for this qualitative study included participant observation in one homeless shelter and interviews with one shelter's residents and other stakeholders, including teachers, administrators, shelter staff at various shelters, and homelessness experts across Los Angeles County, California. While examining the literacy practices of women and children living in one transitional shelter, we identified three institutions that were part of their lives (a) the public library, in which choice was a major factor; (b) the church, which focused on reading the Bible; and (c) schools, where literacy was tied to evaluative outcomes. Although families were overwhelmingly positive about their participation in each of these institutions and all three were referred to as places for learning, children's talk about reading and writing in school focused on procedures such as daily routines and testing. This may reflect the current mandated curriculum as well as the cost of frequent moves, which necessitate that children learn how to succeed in each new school. This study captures the influence of different institutions on the literacy practices of families in crisis and suggests ways to further support reading and writing for children living without homes.


OBJECTIVES
To compare the frequency and pattern of sexual activities of women infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) relative to uninfected women at the time of enrollment into a multisite cohort study.

METHODS
The HIV Epidemiology Research Study (HERS) is a prospective study following 873 HIV-infected and 438 HIV-uninfected women. The baseline protocol included interviews about sexual practices, sociodemographic information, and drug and alcohol use, as well as clinical and laboratory studies. Multiple logistic regression models estimated differences between infected and uninfected women in relation to sexual activity and practice.

RESULTS
77% of infected women and 89% of uninfected women reported at least one sexual partner in the six months before study entry. Among sexually active women, specific practices varied little by HIV serostatus, with the exception of oral sex, which was more frequently performed and received by uninfected women. Despite the high prevalence of sexual activity, infected women were 2.5 times as likely not to have had any recent sexual partners as uninfected women (95% CI = 1.77-3.44).

CONCLUSIONS
Women who decrease or altogether stop engaging in sexual partnerships may benefit from direct counseling in relation to underlying loss of sexual affection.


This paper deals with the international effects of taxation. Tax policies have profound effects on the temporal composition and on the intertemporal evolution of the macro economy. The analysis highlights key issues pertinent for the understanding of international effects of domestic tax policies and of international tax harmonization. The analytical framework adopts the saving-investment balance approach to the analysis of international economic interdependence and includes a detailed specification of public and private sector behavior focusing on the roles played by taxes on income, consumption, and international borrowing. We present stylized facts on the average consumption and income tax rates for the seven major industrial countries. They reveal large international diversity of tax rates and tax structures. The analytical framework is used to analyze the consequences of revenue-neutral conversions between income and consumption (VAT) tax systems. We demonstrate analytically that the effects of such changes in the structure of taxes depend critically on international differences in saving and investment propensities which in turn govern the time profile of the current account of the balance of payments. The key results are also illustrated by means of dynamic simulations. We then examine the international effects of budget deficits and public-debt management and demonstrate analytically as well as by means of dynamic simulations that these effects depend critically on whether the government manages its deficit through alterations in income or consumption (VAT) taxes. Finally, motivated by proposals for tax harmonization associated with the single market in Europe of 1992, we consider the effects of international tax harmonization. The main results, demonstrate that, in analogy with the effects of tax conversions, the effect of harmonization depends critically on the inter-country differences in saving and investment propensities. These differences are shown to yield conflicts of interests in the tax harmonization program.


Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is considered as an autoimmune disease. It is characterised by the presence of antibody (humoral) and T-cell (cellular) responses to islet proteins (antigens). Nigella sativa oil and its major component thymoquinone (TQ) have been documented to have hypoglycemic properties in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes, but to the best of our knowledge the effect of this plant on the immunopathology of IDDM has never been examined.The objectives of this study were to determine the potential immunomodulatory effect of administration of Nigella sativa oil and it major compound thymoquinone (TQ) in the disease process of IDDM by assessing the levels of anti- islet cell antibodies, pan T- lymphocytes marker (CD90), pan B-lymphocytes markers (CD19), and pan innate cells marker (CD 1 lb).Method: Type 1 diabetic state was induced to overnight fasted animals by intraperitoneal injection with a single dose of STZ (65 mg/kg body weight). Six equal sized groups of male Sprague- Dawley rats received or not different doses of N. sativa oil and TQ. Blood glucose was tested every morning through 30 days of the experimental period. After completion of the 4 weeks experimental protocols, blood samples were collected from overnight fasted rats by the cardiac puncture under anesthesia. Serum was assayed for autoimmune anti- Islet cell antibodies (ICA), pan T- lymphocytes marker (CD90), pan B lymphocytes marker (CD 19), and pan innate cells marker (CD1 lb) in addition to serum insulin using enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) . The animals were dissected after sacrificed and the pancreas was taken for histology. This organ was placed in 10% formalin for fixation. Results: T1DM causes increased the levels of serum glucose, levels of T, B lymphocytes markers, innate cells marker, and ICA and decreased serum insulin level, meanwhile treatment of diabetic rats with N. sativa oil and TQ significantly decrease the levels of all immunological (p< 0.05) beside it significantly resulted in elevation of serum insulin level (p< 0.05). The study also emphasized that, N. sativa oil and TQ are effective against STZ diabetes as its administration ameliorated most of the pathological changes.Conclusions: These experimental results indicate the immunomodulatory effect of N.sativa against autoimmune reactions occurs in T1DM. This data provide new strategies for using this plant to be recommended in the clinical management, control, and prevention of T1DM. Moreover, N. sativa oil and TQ may be suggested to be used in the management of other autoimmune diseases.


OBJECTIVES
In lungs of asbestos-exposed persons alveolar and interstitial macrophages are able to release genotoxic substances such as reactive oxygen intermediates. It is unknown whether reactive oxygen intermediates released by macrophages are able to induce DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid) strand lesions in neighboring bronchial epithelial cells.

METHODS
A co-culture (transwell) system was established which allows exposure of human blood monocytes cultured on a polycarbonate membrane within a distance of 1 mm of a monolayer of the bronchial epithelial cell line BEAS-2B.

RESULTS
Exposure of blood monocytes to chrysotile B (100 microg/10(6)cells) caused an up to 2.8-fold increase in DNA strand lesions in co-cultured BEAS-2B cells measured by alkaline elution when compared with the levels of control cells after 1, 3, 24, and 48 hours. The main DNA damage thus occurred as early as within 1 hour of incubation, corresponding to the time course of the release of reactive oxygen intermediates by blood monocytes determined by chemiluminescence. The maximum release of reactive oxygen intermediates (3.2-fold increase over control values) was measured after 30 minutes of exposure of blood monocytes to chrysotile B. The addition of catalase (200 U/ml) or desferoxamine (100 microM) to the culture medium blocked almost completely the induction of DNA strand lesions in this system (maximum 85%).

CONCLUSIONS
Exposure of blood monocytes to chrysotile B results in an increase in the release of reactive oxygen intermediates and induces DNA strand lesions in neighboring bronchial epithelial cells.


This paper presents a comparative study of the level of unit labor costs in the manufacturing sectors of several countries. The paper begins by surveying earlier estimates of relative productivity and unit labor cost levels and evaluating the various methodologies that have been used in previous studies. Empirical estimates of the levels of foreign unit labor costs in dollars are derived based on labor compensation translated into dollars at nominal exchange rates and labor productivity translated into dollars at purchasing power parity exchange rates. These estimates are compared with results obtained in earlier studies. The results show that the level of unit labor costs in the United States has fluctuated significantly in recent years, predominantly with fluctuations in the nominal exchange rate. As of early 1988, unit labor costs in the United States had dropped well below the average level of other industrialized countries but were significantly above the level in a representative newly industrialized country, Korea.


Is the representation of editors at prestigious economics journals geographically diverse? Using data on the affiliations of academics working in an editorial capacity at such journals, we map the locations of editorial power within the economics profession. This allows us to rank institutions, countries and continents according to this measure of power. In addition, by considering the average distance of a journal's editorial affiliations from a geographic mean, we rank journals by geographic diversity. The magnitudes of the geographic differences we find are striking. Over half the journals we consider have over two thirds of their editorial power located in the USA. A large majority of journals have a tiny editorial contribution from academics located outside of North America and Europe. Any one of the states of California, Massachusetts and Illinois has more power than the four continents of Asia, South America, Africa and Australasia combined.


This book series on research in international human resource management and strategy is designed to stimulate discussions on current developments in these disciplines. The scope of this series reflects the importance of the fields of strategy and human resource management in the international environment of a globalised world. Both fields have the potential to contribute essentially to the description and explanation of competitive advantage realisation, performance issues and to achieving other corporate goals and objectives. Therefore, these areas need attention in research as well as in practice. This series will focus on the latest research results in this field. This volume consists of a series of research articles divided into two sections. Part 1 examines the policy dimensions of clusters across Europe, Australia and the Middle East. Part 2 examines the strategy and management dimension of clusters. This book expands upon and develops the research around cluster development in a number of ways. First, the countries included in the research cover different regions in the world. Second, we have included several conceptual papers that provide interesting theoretical insights into the role of resources, cluster-specific knowledge and social exchange in clusters. Third, we have included several policy papers around the development of cluster policies and the operation of clusters. Fourth, we have included case studies that examine clusters in different national, industry and policy contexts. There are areas of cross over and complementarities in the research presented; as such the book provides an interlinked reflection of the scope and focus of contemporary research on clusters.


This paper analyzes Internet diffusion among various organizations, based on daily observation of secondlevel domain name registrations under the ".it" ccTLD. In particular, we analyzed domain names registered by organizations in the non profit sector. The penetration rate, calculated according to the number of organizations, was computed for various widely separated geographic levels (regions). Regression analysis was performed using demographic, social, economic and infrastructure indicators. Results show that a "social digital divide" exists, both in terms of geographical distribution (i.e., in macro-areas – Northern, Central, and Southern Italy and at the regional level) and in terms of the legal status of the organizations.


We extend the exact solutions of the Di Marzio-Rubin matrix method for the thermodynamic properties, including chain density, of a linear polymer molecule confined to walk on a lattice of finite size. Our extensions enable (a) the use of higher dimensions (explicit 2D and 3D lattices), (b) lattice boundaries of arbitrary shape, and (c) the flexibility to allow each monomer to have its own energy of attraction for each lattice site. In the case of the large chain limit, we demonstrate how periodic boundary conditions can also be employed to reduce computation time. Advantages to this method include easy definition of chemical and physical structure (or surface roughness) of the lattice and site-specific monomer-specific energetics, and straightforward relatively fast computations. We show the usefulness and ease of implementation of this extension by examining the effect of energy variation along the lattice walls of an infinite rectangular cylinder with the idea of studying the changes in properties caused by chemical inhomogeneities on the surface of the box. Herein, we look particularly at the polymer density profile as a function of temperature in the confined region for very long polymers. One particularly striking result is the shift in the critical condition for adsorption due to surface energy inhomogeneities and the length scale of the inhomogeneities; an observation that could have important implications for polymer chromatography. Our method should have applications to both copolymers and biopolymers of arbitrary molar mass.


This paper addresses the issues of distributed dynamic resource allocation (DRA) in the downlink of a SDMA broadband wireless packet network with multiple access points and adaptive antennas. Packet access and downlink beamforming make the intercell interference hard to predict, and how to handle it in order to efficiently perform slot and power allocation is still an open issue. We propose here new DRA strategies for efficient allocation in a distributed environment, which jointly consider spatial compatibility of users and an intercell interference estimation based on a fraction of the worst case interference measurements. The latter is independent of the actual allocation. We consider a low mobility TDD system with synchronized base stations and we assume perfect channel knowledge. The algorithms which are introduced and compared are the distributed max-min fit (DMMF) and the distributed reverse fit (DRF), which are based on the max-min fit criterion, the DMMF combined with the novel concept of nulls preallocation, where each AP reserves some beamforming nulls for the most interfered users of neighboring cells, and the power shaping technique (PS-DRA for SDMA), which efficiently exploits static power preallocation on time slots. The numerical results show that our techniques are able to significantly reduce the gap between a greedy centralized strategy that fully coordinates all the access ports and the baseline case of random distributed allocation, previously proposed for packet access. However, distributed power control in a packet switched environment with downlink beamforming still remains a hard task: nevertheless, PS-DRA is an efficient solution for joint slot-power allocation


This paper examines the concern over large endowments from the perspective of tax policy as it applies to the income tax exemption for charitable organizations. It suggests that because unlike other subsidies, income tax exemption only affects those charities that accumulate funds for the future, such exemption does not follow automatically from the charitable deduction but requires a showing that accumulation is appropriately treated. The paper concludes that unlike the treatment of gifts and income from related goods and services, exemption of investment income from an endowment, represents a departure from normal tax principles. Whether a subsidy is nevertheless appropriate depends upon whether one believes that current accumulation is likely to be excessive. I believe that the bias of donors, trustees and key employees indicates that endowments may well exceed the level that public policy would suggest and recommend a tax based on assets and a reduced limit on the charitable deductions for the largest endowments. While a mandatory distribution level is considered, I conclude that such a requirement is both intrusive and unlikely to have a significant impact on the level of accumulation.


We present a novel graphical model approach for a problem not previously considered in the machine learning literature: that of tracking with ranked signals. The problem consists of tracking a single target given observations about the target that consist of ranked continuous signals, from unlabeled sources in a cluttered environment. We introduce appropriate factors to handle the imposed ordering assumption, and also incorporate various systematic errors that can arise in this problem, particularly clutter or noise signals as well as missing signals. We show that inference in the obtained graphical model can be simplified by adding bipartite structures with appropriate factors. We apply a hybrid approach consisting of belief propagation and particle filtering in this mixed graphical model for inference and validate the approach on simulated data. We were motivated to formalize and study this problem by a key task in Oceanography, that of tracking the motion of RAFOS ocean floats, using range measurements sent from a set of fixed beacons, but where the identities of the beacons corresponding to the measurements are not known. However, unlike the usual tracking problem in artificial intelligence, there is an implicit ranking assumption among signal arrival times. Our experiments show that the proposed graphical model approach allows us to effectively leverage the problem constraints and improve tracking accuracy over baseline tracking methods yielding results similar to the ground truth hand-labeled data.


Certain early writers suggested that syphilis infected ancient Chinese dynasties, whilst others claim priority for the afflicted populus of the early Romans, alleging that Augustus Caesar was afflicted by hereditary syphilis. But these suppositions are unconfirmed. The sailors with Columbus in 1493 were said to have brought the disease to Spain. It is certain that the Spanish fleet, when they fought for their ruler Alfonso II against the French forces of Charles VIII of France in 1494–5, heavily infected the peoples of Naples. The illness spread rapidly around Europe and mercenaries who in 1496 joined Perkin Warbeck in Scotland and with the support of James IV of Scotland invaded England, bore both arms and the grandgore (Old French. grand gorre: grand great + gorre syphilis) as it was called.1 In 1497 the Minutes of the Town Council of Edinborough ( Phil. Trans. XLII. 421) recognised: "This contagious sickness callit the Grandgor."

The infective and contagious nature of the disease were recognised. The Burgh of Aberdeen issued a ruling that "all licht (loose) women decist fra thar vicis and syne of venerie." A grandgore act was passed in September 1497. There was a …


This study focuses on examining the Online Game User Experience (UX) and the antecedents influencing it. We present a user-oriented research approach using the Repertory Grid Technique (RGT) to collect data across 15 semi-structured interviews, which were then analysed through content analysis, Interpretive Structural Modelling (ISM) and Cross Impact Matrix Multiplication Applied to Classification (MICMAC). The findings of the case study reveal 5 hedonic-oriented dimensions of Online Game UX and 6 interrelated antecedents. We propose a hierarchical framework to achieve a holistic understanding of the relationships between and amongst antecedents as well as dimensions of Online Game UX. The framework diagrammatically portrays the relationships of these context-specific variables by observing the direct and indirect chains of between the variables in the hierarchy. The study concludes by discussing the implications of these findings and presents two key theoretical contributions, one exemplary practical contribution, as well as directions for future research.


The application of IR 786 perchlorate (IR-786) as a selective optical sensor for cyanide anion in both organic solution (acetonitrile (MeCN), 100%) and solvent-free solid surfaces was demonstrated. In MeCN, IR-786 was selective to two anions in the following order: CN− > OH−. A significant change in the characteristic dark green color of IR-786 in MeCN to yellow was observed as a result of nucleophilic addition of CN− to the fluorophore, i.e., formation of IR 786-(CN), which was also verified by a blue shift in the 775 nm absorbance peak to 430 nm. A distinct green fluorescence emission from the IR-786-(CN) in MeCN was also observed, which demonstrated the selectivity of IR-786 towards CN− in MeCN. Fluorescence emission studies of IR-786 showed that the lower detection limit and the sensitivity of IR-786 for CN− in MeCN was 0.5 μM and 0.5 to 8 μM, respectively. The potential use of IR-786 as a solvent-free solid state sensor for the selective sensing and monitoring of CN− in the environment was also demonstrated. On solvent-free solid state surfaces, the sensitivity of the IR-786 to CN− in water samples was in the range of 50–300 μM with minimal interference by OH−.


Persuasion, a vital element in commercial marketing, is also an essential tool for the winning and maintenance of political power. Corporations seek to persuade customers to purchase their products and services but may also need to influence wider public opinion and political decision-makers in ways that serve their interests. In this article, we present an account of environmental-related conflict in Malaysia and the use of persuasion in the discourse of an Australian transnational mining corporation and its supporters. We analyse the strategies used by the corporation as it engages in intense conflict with environmental campaigners and concerned residents following its moves to establish the world's largest rare earth metals extraction plant in peninsular Malaysia. Following the political ecology perspective, we note that the efforts at persuasion used by the corporation have been actively backed by the Malaysian state itself. This is not simply a case of environmental conflict but strongly connected to the underlying political economy of Malaysia - a country with an authoritarian regime where corruption and 'crony capitalism' are rife, and public opinion is often ignored or consistently manipulated by government-controlled mass media. Keywords: environmental-related conflict, rare earth, persuasion techniques, Malaysia


Alexandrium tamarense is a common harmful algal bloom species and can cause high concentrations of paralytic shellfish poisoning toxins (PSTs) in marine coastal waters. PSTs are nitrogen rich alkaloids and their production has been shown to depend on resource conditions as well as on growth rate. We hypothesized that PST content in A. tamarense depends on the nitrogen availability and will increase with cellular N:P ratios and arginine content. To test this hypothesis, we first grew A. tamarense cells under nitrogen starved, phosphorus starved and nutrient replete conditions. Subsequently, we transferred cells into nutrient rich medium and followed dynamic changes in growth, elemental stoichiometry, as well as the amino acid and PST content and composition. Our results illustrate that PST content was lowest under nitrogen starvation, intermediate under nutrient replete conditions, and highest under phosphorus starvation. As expected, PST content correlated well with cellular N:P ratios and arginine content. Upon transfer of cells into nutrient replete medium, PST content varied with growth rate, depending on the growth controlling resource. Specifically, PST content increased with growth when recovering from nitrogen starvation and decreased with growth when recovering from phosphorus starvation. Furthermore, PST composition shifted towards less hydroxylated analogues upon resumption of growth. Our findings also illustrate a high potential for luxury consumption of phosphorus by A. tamarense. The applied comprehensive approach will help to further elucidate the intriguing coupling between carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus assimilation and the synthesis of amino acids and PSTs.


The study of volcanic rocks and igneous centres has long been a classic part of geological research. Despite the lack of active volcanism, the British Isles have been a key centre for the study of igneous rocks ever since ancient lava flows and excavated igneous centres were recognized there in the 18th century (Hutton, 1788). This led to some of the earliest detailed studies of petrology. The starting point for many of these studies was the British Palaeogene Igneous Province (BPIP; formerly known as the 'British Tertiary' (Judd, 1889), and still recognized by this name by many geologists around the globe). This collection of lavas, volcanic centres and sill/dyke swarms covers much of the west of Scotland and the Antrim plateau of Northern Ireland, and together with similar rocks in the Faroe Islands, Iceland and Greenland forms a world-class Large Igneous Province. This North Atlantic Igneous Province (NAIP) began to form through continental rifting above a mantle plume at c. 60 Ma, and subsequently evolved as North America separated from Europe, creating the North Atlantic Ocean.


Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS) has achieved state-of-the-art results in many domains such as Go and Atari games when combining with deep neural networks (DNNs). When more simulations are executed, MCTS can achieve higher performance but also requires enormous amounts of CPU and GPU resources. However, not all states require a long searching time to identify the best action that the agent can find. For example, in 19x19 Go and NoGo, we found that for more than half of the states, the best action predicted by DNN remains unchanged even after searching 2 minutes. This implies that a significant amount of resources can be saved if we are able to stop the searching earlier when we are confident with the current searching result. In this paper, we propose to achieve this goal by predicting the uncertainty of the current searching status and use the result to decide whether we should stop searching. With our algorithm, called Dynamic Simulation MCTS (DS-MCTS), we can speed up a NoGo agent trained by AlphaZero 2.5 times faster while maintaining a similar winning rate, which is critical for training and conducting experiments. Also, under the same average simulation count, our method can achieve a 61\% winning rate against the original program.


Music education scholar and researcher Peter Webster (2017) offers a scenario in which a doctor, an engineer, and a music educator living in the year 1917 enter a time machine and are transported to their workplaces 100 years into the future. The doctor and the engineer are taken aback by the advances in their respective disciplines and realize that if they want to continue practicing their professions, they each will need to be retrained. On the other hand, apart from a few new technological devices like televisions, computers, and smartphones, the music educator concludes that music teaching hasn't changed very much in 100 years and promptly decides to apply for a teaching position.


Offset-dependent reflectivity or amplitude-variation-with-offset (AVO) analysis of ground-penetrating radar (GPR) data may improve the resolution of subsurface dielectric permittivity estimates. A horizontally stratified medium has a limiting layer thickness below which thin-bed AVO analysis is necessary. For a typical GPR signal, this limit is approximately 0.75 of the characteristic wavelength of the signal. Our approach to modeling the GPR thin-bed response is a broadband, frequency-dependent computation that utilizes an analytical solution to the three-interface reflectivity and is easy to implement for either transverse electric (TE) or transverse magnetic (TM) polarizations. The AVO curves for TE and TM modes differ significantly. In some cases, constraining the interpretation using both TE and TM data is critical. In two field examples taken from contaminated-site characterization data, we find quantitative thin-bed modeling agrees with the GPR field data and available characterization data.


This dissertation studies definite noun phrases like (reading) the newspaper, (answering) the phone, and (going to) the hospital. They are called weak definites because, in contrast to regular definite phrases, they can occur in contexts where more than one individual satisfies their descriptive content. In addition, weak definites exhibit a number of other peculiar properties: resemblance with generic definites, restricted modification, discourse referential defectiveness, "sloppy identity" in VP-ellipsis sentences, "narrow scope" interpretations, typical occurrence in object position and limited capacity to occur as subjects of episodic sentences, meaning enrichment, restricted range of nouns, and restricted range of governing verbs (and verb-preposition combinations). The main contribution of this dissertation is a compositional analysis of the meaning of weak definites. The proposal is that these phrases refer to kinds of individuals, which are instantiated by ordinary individuals when the definites combine with object-level predicates. This combination is made possible by a lexical rule, which lifts object-level predicates to kind-level predicates, and incorporates into their denotation a relation representing the stereotypical usages of the kinds. The present analysis accounts for the special behavior of weak definites plus it makes a number of theoretical and empirical predictions. The first prediction is that only adjectives operating at the level of kinds should be able to occur in weak definite configurations. The second prediction is that only nouns designating objects used in a stereotypical way can occur in weak definites. The third prediction is that only verbs supporting these stereotypes can govern weak definites. The fourth prediction is that the meaning enrichment weak definite sentences display is partly truth- conditional. The last prediction is that weak definites are not able to establish discourse referents. This dissertation also aims to corroborate these predictions. The dissertation is organized in eight chapters. After an introduction, in Chapter 1, Chapter 2 characterizes weak definites in detail. Then, Chapter 3 presents a compositional analysis of weak definites. Chapter 4 then discusses some modification restrictions weak definites are subject to. Chapter 5 explores the lexical meaning of the nouns and verbs occurring in weak definite configurations. Chapter 6 discusses the semantic-pragmatic nature of the meaning enrichment exhibited by weak definite sentences. Chapter 7 then discusses the discourse referential properties of weak definites. Chapter 8 provides conclusions. This work constitutes a relevant contribution to the literature on definite phrases and weak referentiality. It should also be of interest to any linguist, language philosopher and psycholinguist studying the interpretation of various noun phrases, genericity, adjectives, meaning enrichment, and the lexical meaning of nouns.


This study was commissioned by the European Parliament's Policy Department for Citizens' Rights and Constitutional Affairs at the request of the Committee on Constitutional Affairs of the European Parliament. It analyses the political and legal dynamics behind referendums on EU-related matters. It argues that we have entered a period of increasing political uncertainty with regard to the European project and that this new political configuration will both affect and be affected by the politics of EU-related referendums. Such referendums have long been a risky endeavour and this has been accentuated in the wake of the Great Recession with its negative ramifications for public opinion in the European Union. It is clear that referendums on EU matters are here to stay and will continue to be central to the EU's future as they are deployed to determine the number of Member States within the EU, its geographical reach, its constitutional evolution and adherence to EU policies. Only now they have become an even riskier endeavour.


This paper deals with the sense of represent- ing both a new domain as Digital Humanities and its community. Based on a case study, where a set of visualizations was used to represent the community attending the international Digital Humanities conference of 2014 in Lausanne, Switzerland, the meaning of representing a community is investigated in the light of the theories of three acknowledged authors, namely Charles Sanders Peirce for his notion of the interpretant, Ludwig Wittgenstein for his insights on the use of language, and finally Bruno Latour for his ideas of representing politics. There results a proposal to designing and interpreting social network visualizations in a more thoughtful way, while remaining aware of the relation between objects in the real world and their visualizations. As this type of work pertains to a wider scope, we propose bringing a theoretical framework to a young domain such as data visualization.


This best practices guide for residential HVAC system retrofits is aimed at contractors who want guidance on delivering energy efficient, cost effective and innovative products. It has been developed around the idea of having packages of changes to the building HVAC system and building envelope that are climate and house construction dependent. These packages include materials, procedures and equipment and are designed to remove some of the guesswork from a builder, contractor, installer or homeowner decisions about how best to carry out HVAC changes. The packages are not meant to be taken as rigid requirements--instead they are systems engineered guidelines that form the basis for energy efficient retrofits. Similar approaches have been taken previously for new construction to develop extremely energy efficient homes that are comfortable safe and durable, and often cost less than standard construction. This is best epitomized by the Building America program whose partners have built thousands of residences throughout the U.S. using these principles. The differences between retrofitting and new construction tend to limit the changes one can make to a building, so these packages rely on relatively simple and non-intrusive technologies and techniques. The retrofits also focus on changes to a building that will givemore » many years of service to the occupants. Another key aspect of these best practices is that we need to know how a house is working so that we know what parts have the potential for improvement. To do this we have put together a set of diagnostic tools that combine physical measurements and checklists/questionnaires. The measured test results, observations and homeowner answers to questions are used to direct us towards the best retrofits applicable to each individual house. The retrofits will depend on the current condition of the building envelope and HVAC system, the local climate, the construction methods used for the house, and the presence of various energy saving systems (e.g., a Heat Recovery Ventilator) and/or materials. This is just like a doctor referring a patient for blood tests or x-rays before actually performing surgery. This way the doctor can be sure that he does the right thing. To take this analogy further--we can borrow from the medical profession and say that the first thought when retrofitting a house is to do no harm, i.e., do not make changes that could make the house worse to live in.« less


Abstract Background: The aim of this prospective study was to identify clinical factors associated with the development of shoulder pain in stroke patients with pronounced arm paresis. Methods: At stroke onset, 485 patients were initially assessed in 2007–2009. Sixty-three patients with pronounced arm paresis completed the study, and 21 of these developed shoulder pain. Clinical findings were recorded fortnightly by the attending physiotherapist during hospital stay. Results: Hand oedema on the paretic side was more common in patients developing shoulder pain compared with those who did not develop shoulder pain. The onset of shoulder pain was associated with concomitant hand oedema. High NIHSS score was associated with developing shoulder pain. Patients with a history of shoulder pain developed pain earlier than those without previous shoulder pain. Patients with haemorrhagic stroke were significantly more prone to developing shoulder pain. Conclusions: One-third of the stroke patients with pronounced arm paresis developed shoulder pain. Concomitant hand oedema seems to be an additional symptom of shoulder injury. Patients with low general status are more vulnerable to develop post-stroke shoulder pain.


Debate exists regarding the number of species of the moon jellyfish (genus Aurelia ), a common member of the planktonic community of the coastal shelf seas around the world. Three Aurelia congeners ( A. aurita , A. labiata and A. limbata ) are currently considered to exist but recent genetic analyses suggested that this is an oversimplification. We analyzed the morphological characteristics of scyphistomae, morphological characteristics of ephyrae and differences in the time span of the strobilation process of Aurelia congeners from 17, 7 and 6 different source populations, respectively, of known species. Morphological characteristics of scyphistomae were similar among the 17 populations but those of ephyrae, such as the shape and form of lappets, were effective discriminators in the 6 cases examined. We recommend identifying species based on differences in 1) the morphological characteristics of scyphistomae and ephyrae (and not only medusae), 2) the genetics of individuals, and 3) the geographical occurrence of the population. This study adds to the growing body of knowledge on scyphozoan scyphistomae and ephyrae, stages of the metagenic life cycle of scyphozoans that have received relatively little study compared to medusae.


Abstract Strategic planning is an excellent tool that local governments can (and should) use in order to deal efficiently with change, which means that planning is an important aspect of public sector reform, arguably one of the defining elements of the public policy landscape for the past three decades (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011). Our main objective with this research is twofold: to analyze why and how local public administration uses strategic planning as a managerial tool for managing change (reform), and to identify whether the planning efforts display a specific reform pattern. We employed a quantitative methodology – online survey – to collect data on the strategic planning process at the local level in Romania, with a specific framework for the strategic profile (Hinţea, 2015) and another three dimension model – NPM, NWS, NPG1 – for the reform component (Pollitt and Bouckaert, 2011). Our analysis indicates that over 70% of strategic planning efforts are done because it is a mandatory condition for accessing EU funds. Major issues concern implementation, monitoring and evaluation with only around a third of organizations having a formal body responsible for this. Although the process has mixed characteristics, NWS type elements are more common/preferred, while NPM seem least common/preferred by local authorities.


In this study, we characterize the CCN activity of the water-soluble organics in biomass burning aerosol. The aerosol after collection upon filters is dissolved in water using sonication. Hydrophobic and hydrophilic components are fractionated from a portion of the original sample using solid phase extraction, and subsequently desalted. The surface tension and CCN activity of these different samples are measured with a KSV CAM 200 goniometer and a DMT Streamwise Thermal Gradient CCN Counter, respectively. The measurements show that the strongest surfactants are isolated in the hydrophobic fraction, while the hydrophilics exhibit negligible surface tension depression. The presence of salts (primarily (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 ) in the hydrophobic fraction substantially enhances surface tension depression; their synergistic effects considerably enhance CCN activity, exceeding that of pure (NH 4 ) 2 SO 4 . From our analysis, average thermodynamic properties (i.e, molar volume) are determined for samples using our newly developed Kohler Theory Analysis (KTA) method. The molar mass of the hydrophilic and hydrophobic aerosol components is estimated to be 87±26 g mol −1 and 780±231 g mol −1 , respectively. KTA also suggests that the relative proportion (in moles) of hydrophobic to hydrophilic compounds in the original sample to be 1:3. For the first time, KTA is applied to an aerosol with this level of complexity and displays its potential for providing physically-based constraints for GCM parameterizations of the aerosol indirect effect.


Diverse knowledge and techniques are required in retail store network planning (RSNP), which involves indispensable and interdependent strategic decision processes such as performance evaluation, trade area analysis, market potential forecasting and retail network optimization. On the one hand, these processes are often tightly related and need to be integrated to solve the complex business optimization problems. On the other hand, the required information, e.g. external geographic and demographic information and internal store information, and decision units are usually geographically dispersed. Decentralization is required at both data administration level and decision process level. To offer a feasible loose-coupled and easy-to-implemented solution, this paper proposes a service-oriented framework for RSNP. Detailed specification of RSNP services, process model and corresponding messaging mechanism are also detailed. The RSNP implementation case for retail chain store operators is finally presented to illustrate how the proposed solution improves the flexibility and interoperability of existing RSNP practices.


The Council of Assiniboia, whose members were appointed by the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC), held administrative, judicial and legislative powers over the Red River colony. The Council's main challenge was to remain relevant to the Red River settlers while simultaneously adhering to the priorities of the HBC. Through numerous petitions and occasional riots the population of Red River acquired both representation and power in the Council. The aim of this paper is to discuss the relations of power underlying the transformation of not only the Council, but of the colony as a whole.


The human brain consists of a myriad of chemical compounds critical to its functioning. A group of these compounds, collectively known as metabolites, have been a research interest for years because the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative diseases, a tumours classification, the effectiveness of a drug, etc., can be investigated via variations in brain metabolite concentration levels. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Spectroscopy (NMRS) enables investigators to conduct non-invasive in vivo studies of metabolites in the human brain and the rest of the body. However a number of problems have hindered the usage of NMRS as a clinical diagnostic tool. One is the non-uniqueness of the most widely used analysis methods, i.e. as the parameters and/or prior knowledge data of an analysis method are changed, the results also change. A second problem is the lack of a method that can automatically classify the signal components estimated via signal decomposition based signal analysis methods. Additionally, some of the most widely used analysis methods, by virtue of their algorithms, intrinsically assume the nature of NMRS signals, e.g. stationary, linear, Lorentzian, etc. Hence, this thesis explores a new analysis approach, based on a theoretical and practical understanding of NMRS, that (a) avoids making assumptions about the nature of experimentally acquired NMRS signals, (b) relies on a unique decomposition analysis method, and (c) automatically classifies the estimated peaks of an analysis. Unique decomposition analysis was conducted via the rarely used unique and non-linear signal decomposition method − the Fast Padé Transform (FPT). The FPT is compared with the main decomposition based NMRS analysis methods via a detailed mathematical analysis, and a comparative analysis. Automatic classification was conducted via a novel classification method, which is introduced herein, and which is based on quantum mechanical predictions of metabolite NMRS behaviour.


Urban Planning and Social Policy, Bernard J. Frieden and Robert Morris (eds.), Basic Books Inc., New York, 1968, pp. 459. HAVING in mind the practical goal of eliminating alleged social problems in urban areas, the editors have drawn together articles written by a range of social scientists and practitioners, under the major headings of Approaches to Social Planning; Housing and Urban Renewal; Racial Bias and Segregation; Citizen Organisation and Participation; Urban Poverty and Guidelines for Social Policy. Only three of the articles are original and most have specific application to the United States. Those who are concerned with community development will be served best by the anthology. I.S.M.


This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-CommercialLicense(http://creativecommons .org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Received 14 October 2014; Revised 24 November 2014 Accepted (Publication) 8 December 2014 (30 December 2014)


In late 2008, as financial markets were crashing, the Vale Columbia Center on Sustainable International Investment launched the Columbia FDI Perspectives. The first Perspective, entitled "The FDI recession has begun," correctly forecast an FDI recession in the following year. From that first Perspective in late 2008 to the end of 2010, the series published thirty-three concise notes on topical FDI-related issues by diverse experts in the field. The purpose of these Perspectives is to inform readers about some of the important issues and trends in the contemporary debate on FDI, and to promote a wide-ranging discussion about the policy implications of these trends and events. The topics of these Perspectives, while not an exhaustive list of the issues raised by the global investment regime, capture a dynamic period in the global debate on international investment and reflect many hot topics and issues of continuing relevance in 2009-2010. Topics ranged from the implications of the financial crisis and recession for major economies, to the changing geography of the international investment regime and policy questions faced by emerging markets; from the implications of sovereign investment for national security and measures taken to restrict such investment, to policy options for countries seeking to increase inward investment flows and trying to stay competitive in a downward market; from investment in land and agriculture, to investment in extractive industries – raising important questions both for national policy and for the international investment regime. The range of topics reflects the multifaceted, interdisciplinary and rapidly evolving nature of key issues in international investment. This compilation of the Perspectives offers snapshots of some of the most topical issues of 2009-2010 and an opportunity to connect the dots, drawing out the interconnections among the various themes addressed in the stand-alone Perspectives. It is the collection of these issues and policy considerations that, woven together, forms the changing fabric of the international investment regime. By putting these pieces together in one volume, this e-book allows a clearer picture to emerge.


This thesis argues that the ideology of Naam (principle of power) is an essential and overlooked component in explaining both the logic of state formation, as well as the institutional continuities evident within the Mossi-Mamprusi-Dagomba states system. With reference to Igor Kopytoff's Internal African Frontier Thesis, it understands this logic as a single, continuous historical process whereby states were formed and dismantled, broken in autonomous entities and (re)created as clones of a constitutive Naam 'model'. This model also was negatively responsible for the genesis of acephalous non-state formations, composed of frontier men and women who escaped the stifling grip of the state. Specifically, the thesis argues that the ideology of Naam was the overarching principle that not only informed the expansion of the Mossi-Mamprusi-Dagombasystem, but also enabled the construction of a Mossi identity. Naam was 'proposed' in some places, and 'imposed' in others, through rituals, family-like associations, and the integration of indigenous groups into the sphere of political rule. Naam ideology was confronted with a fundamental contradiction: the Mossi ruled (over) people but had no control over the territorial basis of their rule. This contradiction was partly resolved through the extension of the discourse of power to the realm of Tenga (the sphere of rituals and earth-custody), by uniting the Mossi divinity (Wende) to the earth divinity (Tenga) and by tapping into the possibilities of a common belief, in order to buttress state legitimacy but also to articulate 'Mossi' culture on the basis of a shared idiom that transcended the dichotomy Naam /Tenga. This contradiction cannot be explained with reference to the materiality of conquest alone, as most accounts of state formation, within and beyond Africa, have suggested. Yet the process was informed throughout by violence of a different kind. The deployment of Naam in the realm of rituals served to mediate the gap between power and legitimacy; but at the same time, state power as discourse and representation concealed the ontological violence inherent in the Mossi state. It also concealed the limits of discourse in making valid statements on historical experience. In the Mossi case, pânga (a form of travesty/violent version of Naam), intervenes in the disarticulation of power from kinship by isolating the Naaba (king) from all forms of loyalties. An extended analysis of the consolidation of the Mossi state in the eighteenth century demonstrates how centralisation centred on the twin conditions of the necessary separation between kinship and kingship, and the integration of the stranger-kin as mediating agent at the junction of this divorce. The thesis will contribute to a better understanding of the role of ideology in state formation and society-making in the Voltaic region and West Africa more generally.


Efficient parallel algorithms are derived for the multiplication of a vector by a Kronecker product of matrices. For N square matrices of order ni, i = 1, ..., N, it is well-known that the problem can be solved with a total of Πi=1N ni × Σi=1N ni floating point multiplications. The starting point of our investigations is a multidimensional stepwise scheme which respects the previous optimal bound. We give some sequential codes facing the memory space restriction and the sparsity context. Two parallel schedules depending on the choice between data communication and computation redundancies are proposed. In both cases, the number of processors is rather special. However, algorithms are quite efficient as illustrated by some experimental results.


The procedures commonly used to evaluate the performance of objective quality metrics rely on ground truth mean opinion scores and associated confidence intervals, which are usually obtained via direct scaling methods. However, indirect scaling methods, such as the paired comparison method, can also be used to collect ground truth preference scores. Indirect scaling methods have a higher discriminatory power and are gaining popularity, for example in crowdsourcing evaluations. In this paper, we present how the classification errors, an existing analysis tool, can also be used with subjective preference scores. Additionally, we propose a new analysis tool based on the receiver operating characteristic analysis. This tool can be used to further assess the performance of objective metrics based on ground truth preference scores. We provide a MATLAB script with an implementation of the proposed tools and we show one example of application of the proposed tools.


In this essay I wish to examine critically Merleau-Ponty's treatment of relations with others in the light of his ontology of the flesh. I shall argue that the uniform character of the flesh and of its dynamic principle, reversibility leads to a reduction of the inter-subjective experience of the body manifest in an encounter with another embodied person, to a form of reflexivity operative within the body proper (le corps propre). The mechanics of the process by means of which the reduction is effectuated are the following: a specific, intra-subjective experience of the body is taken as a paradigm for relations to other embodied subjects. Simultaneously, its peculiar character is effaced for the sake of producing a single explanatory theory of the flesh. Deprived of its concrete specificity, the experience of one's own body comes to provide the standard norm for intersubjective or intercorporeal relations. These appear as a mere variant of the general schema, a "special case" contained in the universal dynamic of the flesh and subsumed under t.he heading of bodily reversibility. As a result, the peculiarities of intersubjective as well as intrasubjective lived experiences of the body are bracketed and a single category of reflexivity is applied to autoand hetero-relations alike.


Sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor agonists suppress immunopathology by targeting the type I interferon receptor for degradation. Type I interferons (IFNs), which are mostly produced by plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs), are critical to the immune response to viruses, but they are also implicated in autoimmune diseases and in viral and bacterial pathogenesis. Noting that selective agonists of sphingosine 1-phosphate receptor 1 (S1PR1), a G protein–coupled receptor (GPCR), suppress immunopathology without interfering with host defense, Teijaro et al. investigated the underlying mechanism. Treatment of mouse lung pDCs with the selective S1PR1 agonist CYM-5442 inhibited the production of IFN-α in response to influenza virus in vitro, whereas treatment with the S1PR1 antagonist W146 had the opposite effect. CYM-5442 also inhibited IFN-α production by pDCs in response to CpG oligonucleotides that trafficked to early endosomes and stimulated Toll-like receptor 9 (TLR9). Using pertussis toxin to block S1PR1-mediated activation of Gi/o proteins did not prevent CYM-5442 from inhibiting IFN-α production by pDCs exposed to influenza virus or CpG oligonucleotides. Without the type I IFN receptor IFNAR, pDCs cannot amplify IFN-α production and, as expected, IFNAR-deficient pDCs produced less IFN-α in response to CpG oligonucleotides than did wild-type pDCs. However, CYM-5442 had no further inhibitory effect on the IFNAR-deficient pDCs, suggesting that SIPR1 signaling blocks the autocrine amplification of type I IFN signaling rather than the initial production of IFN-α. Western blotting analysis showed that IFNAR abundance was reduced in CYM-5442–treated wild-type pDCs compared with that in W146-treated pDCs. Stimulation of pDCs with IFN-α in the presence of CYM-5442 resulted in decreased phosphorylation of the IFNAR effector STAT1 compared with that in W146-treated pDCs stimulated with IFN-α. Immunofluorescence confocal microscopy revealed that S1PR1 and IFNAR were colocalized to the plasma membrane in W146-treated pDCs, but were colocalized in lysosomes in response to CYM-5442. Compared with vehicle-treated mice, mice treated with an SIPR1 antagonist and then exposed to CpG oligonucleotides had increased amounts of serum IFN-α. Together, these data suggest that S1PR1 agonists prevent the amplification of IFN-α signaling and its associated immunopathology by promoting IFNAR internalization and degradation. J. R. Teijaro, S. Studer, N. Leaf, W. B. Kiosses, N. Nguyen, K. Matsuki, H. Negishi, T. Taniguchi, M. B. A. Oldstone, H. Rosen, S1PR1-mediated IFNAR1 degradation modulates plasmacytoid dendritic cell interferon-α autoamplification. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A. 113, 1351–1356 (2016). [PubMed]