Occurrence of outages in overhead distribution systems is
a significant factor in determining distribution system
reliability. Analysis of animal-related outages has practical value
since animals cause a large number of outages in overhead
distribution systems. This dissertation presents several different
methods to investigate the impact of weather and time of the year
on the animal-related outage rate. The animal-related outages from
year 1998 to year 2007 for different cities in Kansas are provided
by Westar Energy. From examinations of the historical data, two
factors which influence the animal-related outages, the month type
and the number of fair weather days are taken as inputs along with
historical outage data for prediction models. Poisson regression
model, neural network model, wavelet based neural network model and
Bayesian model combined with Monte Carlo simulations are applied to
the weekly data of different cites. Even though Poisson regression
models, Bayesian models and neural network models are able to
recognize the changing pattern of outage rates under different
weather conditions, they are limited in their ability to follow the
high peaks in the time series of weekly animal-related outages. The
introduction of wavelet transform techniques overcomes this
problem. Simulation results indicate that the wavelet based neural
network models are able to capture the pattern of fast fluctuations
in the weekly outages of different cities in Kansas of various
sizes. A hyperpermutation method inspired by artificial immune
system algorithm is used to solve the overtraining problem in the
application of neural networks. Finally, Monte Carlo simulations
based on conditional probability tables from Bayesian models are
used to find out the confidence intervals of the predictions. We
aggregate the weekly data and carry out the analysis on a monthly
and yearly basis too. Simulation results indicate that the models
are able to capture the pattern as at least 90% of the observed
values are within the upper limits of 95% confidence in the
predictions for weekly, monthly and yearly animal-related outages
of different cities in Kansas. The results obtained from Monte
Carlo simulations are compared with the wavelet based neural
network model to indentify years with more than expected level of
outages.


We examine the role of corporate pension plans in determining how firms restructure in financial distress. Both defined benefit (DB) and defined contribution (DC) plans can have significant exposures to the company's own stock, imposing significant losses on employees if the firm defaults and/or files for bankruptcy. We find that firms with DB plans typically have little exposure to the stock prior to default; the degree of underfunding increases significantly as firms near default, but is not related to restructuring types (bankruptcies versus out of court restructurings). In contrast, large exposures to company stock in DC plans often are not reduced prior to default. High levels of own-company stock ownership are positively related to default and bankruptcy probabilities. Our evidence suggests a link between employee-ownership related managerial entrenchment and default risk.


Methodologically, vocabulary instruction has faced significant ups and downs during the history of language education; sometimes integrated with the other elements of language network, other times tackled as a separate component. Among many variables supposedly affecting vocabulary achievement, the role of teaching word history, as a schemata-building strategy, in developing reading comprehension has received the least, if not any, attention. This study was an attempt, in fact, to explore the possibility of an integration of word history and reading comprehension ability of a group (No=100) of Iranian intermediate EFL learners. To conduct the study, 60/100 participants, identified as homogeneous members based on the Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT), were randomly divided them into two groups; an experimental and a control group. They were exposed to a teacher-made pretest and a post-test to check the participants' knowledge of word history and reading comprehension ability prior and posterior to the experiment. Pertinent statistical analyses proved that teaching word history plays both statistically and affectively, through enhancing motivation and attitude, meaningful schemata-building role in developing reading ability. Pedagogically, resort to word history may then be suggested as an effective and affective mechanism as far as teaching language skills, in particular reading, is concerned.


This symposium essay explores the growing convergence of environmental law and energy law, particularly at the state level, in an effort to provide some helpful insights with regard to both the last 20 years of environmental law and where it may head in the future. Many will agree that climate change is one of today's most difficult and most important environmental law challenges. It is also one that, despite major efforts, Congress has failed to address in any meaningful way and does not appear prepared to address any time soon. At the same time, however, in recent years, states and local governments have enacted significant policy measures to address climate change. These include California's GHG limits on automobile emissions that were ultimately adopted by the federal government; state renewable portfolios standards to spur the growth of renewable energy in the electricity sector; state legislation to limit or prohibit the use of new coal-fired electricity generation; state and local support for distributed generation of wind and solar energy and increased green building efforts; and, of course, California's Global Warming Solutions Act, the state's most recent and ambitious effort to cap GHG emission in the state and place significant limits on those emissions from power plants, vehicles, and other sources. A hallmark of each of these state policies is an effort by lawmakers to bridge the environmental/energy law divide. While this reliance on energy law tools to meet climate change goals has many positive benefits, it also has risks. Using energy policy to address climate change at the state level often requires impacting regional energy markets, such as electricity and transportation fuels, rendering states vulnerable to legal challenges that they are discriminating against interstate commerce. The resulting lawsuits and potential lawsuits highlight the difficulty states face in attempting to address climate change, where limiting the scope of regulation to in-state sources will result in little progress, particularly as compared to the historic regulation of traditional air, water, and land pollutants with significantly more localized effects. This essay discusses briefly the fields of environmental law and energy law, including the barriers that historically existed between them and how those barriers have partially broken down in recent years. It then considers in more detail some of the energy law-related climate change initiatives listed above to highlight the growing links between the two fields and some of the legal challenges that have followed. Last, it ends with some observations regarding the convergence of the two fields and what it may mean for the future of environmental law.


We analyze the inward and outward transmission of regulatory changes through German banks' (international) loan portfolio. Overall, our results provide evidence for international spillovers of prudential instruments, these spillovers are however quite heterogeneous between types of banks and can only be observed for some instruments. For instance, foreign banks located in Germany reduce their loan growth to the German economy in response to a tightening of sector-specific capital buffers, local reserve requirements and loan to value ratios in their home country. Furthermore, from the point of view of foreign countries, tightening reserve requirements was effective in reducing lending inflows from German banks. Finally, we find that business and financial cycles matter for lending decisions.


Freedom of the press in Thailand fluctuates greatly, depending upon the government in each period. Newspapers have been suppressed since the monarchy political system was changed to democracy in 1932. Several kinds of suppression were imposed in each period which showed that the country, in reality, was under a military dictatorship. This study is a summary of the government control of the press since 1932. The study was divided into five chapters, including the introduction, background of the press and politics in Thailand, style and characteristics of Thai newspapers, government control from 1932 to 1963, and the conclusions and recommendations for further study.


Commercial banks are among the oldest and most familiar financial institutions. When they work well, we hardly notice; when they do not, we rail against them. What are the historical forces that have shaped the modern banking system? In Unsettled Account, Richard Grossman takes the first truly comparative look at the development of commercial banking systems over the past two centuries in Western Europe, the United States, Canada, Japan, and Australia. Grossman focuses on four major elements that have contributed to banking evolution: crises, bailouts, mergers, and regulations. He explores where banking crises come from and why certain banking systems are more resistant to crises than others, how governments and financial systems respond to crises, why merger movements suddenly take off, and what motivates governments to regulate banks. Grossman reveals that many of the same components underlying the history of banking evolution are at work today. The recent subprime mortgage crisis had its origins, like many earlier banking crises, in a boom-bust economic cycle. Grossman finds that important historical elements are also at play in modern bailouts, merger movements, and regulatory reforms. Unsettled Account is a fascinating and informative must-read for anyone who wants to understand how the modern commercial banking system came to be, where it is headed, and how its development will affect global economic growth.


OVERVIEW OF THE THESIS The aim of the research is to explore the first year experiences of two groups of undergraduate student nurses. The research takes a holistic approach to the investigation of the first year experience. In part, a curriculum change is used as a way to find out about the first year experience, with the research looking at how the introduction of enquirybased learning (EBL) into a curriculum impacted on the first year. The curriculum change is described in detail in chapter 1. The objectives of the thesis were to: 1. Examine the first year experience of nursing students. 2. Describe the curriculum change, the rationale for the change and the context within which this occurred. 3. Compare the demographic profiles of two groups of students one following a ˜traditional curriculum and the other using ˜EBL; to compare students who chose to leave the courses with those who successfully completed first year. 4. Compare experiences with expectations of first year between nursing students undertaking a ˜traditional and an ˜EBL curriculum. 5. Propose strategies to enhance the student experience and rates of retention in first year undergraduate nursing students. The context for the research is described in chapter 1 " the literature review. This chapter explores the literature on the first year experience from both national and international perspectives. Inevitably, it reviews issues relating to student retention, which is the focus for much of the first year experience literature. The literature review argues that the contemporary context of nursing education requires nurse educators to consider the whole first year student experience when developing curricula that are fit for purpose. While the content of a course is important, the approaches to teaching need to facilitate learning within a diverse student population and need to prepare students to continue to learn in an increasingly dynamic healthcare environment. The chapter goes on to 2 argue that the issues that impact on the students first year experiences (e.g. relationships with peers and with academic staff, external domestic and personal circumstances) can be mitigated through curriculum development and other means (such as the availability and effectiveness of student support). The context of the particular nursing course along with the curriculum change and the rationale for the change are described. It can be argued that the retention literature takes a deficit approach to the improvement of the first year experience. Such an approach can be viewed as one that emphasises the factors that cause people to leave (or puts them ˜at risk), and attempts to address these. On the other hand, a positive approach to the improvement of the first year is one in which measures and interventions aim to enhance the overall experience for all students, not just those who are seen as ˜at risk. That said, the policy drivers for improving retention cannot be ignored and are discussed within the context of HE and nursing education. Finally, it is contended that the first year experience has not been widely explored within nursing literature and merits attention for a number of reasons, including the policy context and the need to determine whether student nurses have differing needs from students within other specialities. In chapter 2 the research methodology and research methods are described. An overview of case study research is provided and the approach taken within this thesis is described, along with a rationale for its use. The philosophical perspective is discussed with particular emphasis on the relationships between the methodology and the methods used to investigate the first year experience of students. It is argued that case study research is an appropriate methodology to investigate a complex area and provides an opportunity to utilise a number of methods so as to get to a ˜thick description of the phenomenon (the first year experience). All students in the two groups under investigation were asked to complete an expectations questionnaire, and an experiences questionnaire. Everyone who chose to leave the courses was asked to undertake an in-depth focused interview, although not all agreed. A sample of students who successfully completed first year was also asked to undertake an in-depth 3 focused interview. Finally, a sample of students was asked to complete a diary for the duration of the first year. The use of multiple methods is fitting, given the case study approach and the aim to create a ˜thick description, and an in-depth understanding of the first year experience. The use of the same research methods across the different groups of students allows for some comparisons to be made between the ˜traditional and ˜EBL curriculum students, and between leavers and stayers. The chapter also describes the approaches to data analysis. Chapter 3 presents the findings from the two questionnaires. Relevant demographic variables are reported, and the quality of the educational experience is measured in relation to the ways in which experiences meet expectations. This chapter shows that the two groups (˜traditional and ˜EBL) are similar in terms of demographic variables. It also shows that the participants appeared to expect a ˜connected curriculum experience, but that the experience did not always match expectations. In chapter 4 the findings from the interviews and diaries are presented. Four themes are identified, with a number of categories in each. The themes (and categories) are: relationships with people (broadening horizons, knowing self and others, being supported and valued); the classroom experience (feeling inspired, becoming empowered, engaging with the learning experience); the practice experience (feeling inspired, becoming empowered, engaging with the learning experience); and professional education (motivation, preparedness, making adjustments). The chapter demonstrates the differences and similarities between the groups of students, before introducing the links to the quantitative findings, and to relevant research findings from the literature. Chapter 5 " the Discussion - brings together the findings from the qualitative and quantitative data as the case study. A conceptual framework is presented as a way in which the findings can be framed and through which future research can be organised. The assertion is made that the better the relationships, and the closer that experiences meet 4 expectations, the more likely it is that the student will have a ˜good experience and therefore be successful. The first year is seen as the foundation for future experiences on a course. While there are some areas that are particularly relevant to nursing students, it seems that the first year experience of student nurses is similar to that seen in other disciplines. Similar issues are identified within the thesis as within the wider literature, although nursing students issues may manifest themselves in slightly different ways (e.g. issues with practice placements/learning). In chapter 6, a number of conclusions are drawn that may enable future curriculum development to take a more holistic view of the student experience. Recommendations for practice are made and a focus for future systematic research is proposed. It is asserted that the conceptual framework that has been developed from the findings has allowed for a contribution to be made to the theoretical debate that relates to enhancing the first year experience and, in particular, to propose policy changes within the HE sector that may improve retention rates. This opening section has provided the reader with the context from which the ideas and focus for the thesis have developed, and has provided an overview of the aim and objectives of the research. It provided signposts for the full thesis and its component parts. Chapter 1 " the literature review " aims to describe the context within which the research is situated.


Molecular hydrogen (H2) has been shown to have antioxidant and anti-inflammatory activities that may reduce the development and progression of many diseases. In this study, hydrogen-rich water (HRW) was obtained by reacting hybrid magnesium–carbon hydrogen storage materials with water. Then, the effects of intake of HRW on the activities of xenobiotic-metabolizing enzymes, membrane transporters, and oxidative stress in rats were investigated. Rats were given HRW ad libitum for four weeks. The results showed that intake of HRW had no significant effect on the activities of various cytochrome P450 (CYP) enzymes (CYP1A1, 1A2, 2B, 2C, 2D, 2E1, 3A, and 4A), glutathione-S-transferase, and Uridine 5′-diphospho (UDP)-glucuronosyltransferase. Except for a mild lower plasma glucose concentration, intake of HRW had no effect on other plasma biochemical parameters in rats. p-Glycoprotein and multidrug resistance-associated protein (Mrp) 2 protein expressions in liver were elevated after intake of HRW. However, HRW had no significant effects on glutathione, glutathione peroxidase, or lipid peroxidation in liver. The results from this study suggest that consumption of HRW may not affect xenobiotic metabolism or oxidative stress in liver. However, intake of HRW may increase the efflux of xenobiotics or toxic substances from the liver into bile by enhancing p-glycoprotein and Mrp2 protein expressions.


This paper analyzes the decision on whether to include deaths of HIV+ pregnant women in the classification of maternal mortality. The study focuses on deaths of childbearing-age women in S o Paulo in 1998, investigated by the State's Central Committee on Maternal Mortality (CCMM). Working from a social constructionist perspective, the research was based on documental analysis and interviews with the president of the CCMM and members of one regional committee. The analysis focused on the selection, investigation, and classification of maternal death, with special attention to the negotiation among various actors involved in the classificatory procedures. The data suggest that in the deaths of HIV+ women, other factors are present including the precedence of HIV status over maternal death and the moral and symbolic aspects of AIDS. The results suggest that improving data through a better understanding of decisions to include or exclude cases is only one side of the issue; it is also important to improve quality of care in pregnancy and childbirth in order to prevent maternal death.


This article reviews Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman for an audience of lawyers, legal scholars, and legal educators. Creating law and teaching law require accurate models of human behavior and how the mind works. Thinking, Fast and Slow by Noble Prize winner Daniel Kahneman provides a new model of human behavior and how the mind works that will change how we undertake these endeavors. Everyone in the legal field and legal education needs to be familiar with Kahneman's ideas.


For the past 50 years, cultural economics has developed as an independent research specialism. At its core are the creative industries and the peculiar economics associated with them, central to which is a tension that arises from the notion that creative goods need to be experienced before an assessment can be made about the utility they deliver to the consumer. In this they differ from the standard private good that forms the basis of demand theory in economic textbooks, in which utility is known ex ante. Furthermore, creative goods are typically complex in composition and subject to heterogeneous and shifting consumer preferences. In response to this, models of linear optimization, rational addiction and Bayesian learning have been applied to better understand consumer decision- making, belief formation and revision. While valuable, these approaches do not lend themselves to forming verifiable hypothesis for the critical reason that they by-pass an essential aspect of creative products: namely, that of novelty. In contrast, computer sciences, and more specifically recommender theory, embrace creative products as a study object. Being items of online transactions, users of creative products share opinions on a massive scale and in doing so generate a flow of data driven research. Not limited by the multiple assumptions made in economic theory, data analysts deal with this type of commodity in a less constrained way, incorporating the variety of item characteristics, as well as their co-use by agents. They apply statistical techniques supporting big data, such as clustering, latent class analysis or singular value decomposition.

This thesis is drawn from both disciplines, comparing models, methods and data sets. Based upon movie consumption, the work contrasts bottom-up versus top-down approaches, individual versus collective data, distance measures versus the utility-based comparisons. Rooted in Bayesian latent class models, a synthesis is formed, supported by the random utility theory and recommender algorithm methods. The Bayesian approach makes explicit the experience good nature of creative goods by formulating the prior uncertainty of users towards both movie features and preferences. The latent class method, thus, infers the heterogeneous aspect of preferences, while its dynamic variant- the latent Markov model - gets around one of the main paradoxes in studying creative products: how to analyse taste dynamics when confronted with a good that is novel at each decision point. Generated by mainly movie-user-rating and movie-user-tag triplets, collected from the Movielens recommender system and made available as open data for research by the GroupLens research team, this study of preference patterns formation for creative goods is drawn from individual level data.


This Essay examines the vocation of the international arbitrator. I begin by evaluating, under sociological frameworks developed in literature on Weberian theories of the professions, how the arbitration community is organized and regulated. Arbitrators operate in a largely private and unregulated market for services, access to which is essentially controlled by what might be considered a governing cartel of the most elite arbitrators. I conclude my description with an account of how recently international arbitrators have begun to display a professional impulse, meaning efforts to present themselves as a profession to obtain the benefits of professionalization. Professional status is often used by groups to distinguish themselves, but with international arbitrators, their supposed professionalization is not a particularly compelling reason for distinguishing them from other service providers, such as lawyers. Instead of relying on the rubric of sociological accounts, I offer a preliminary conceptual analysis of the normative underpinnings of the vocation of the international arbitrator. I argue that, unlike settlement or mediation, the aim of international arbitration is to render justice, not to simply resolve disputes. I provide an overview of the ways in which the practice of international arbitration bears out this hypothesis through its development of a vibrant, if perhaps still fledgling, public realm. Finally, I return to the market for international arbitrator services and their efforts at self-regulation, evaluating them in light of obligations and expectations attendant with their justice-providing function and the public realm of the international arbitration system. I propose certain innovations that would increase the rigor and transparency in international arbitrator's self-regulation, including minimizing existing information asymmetries that affect the market for arbitrator services. These improvements may be regarded as having been implicitly promised through their professional impulse and by their justice-providing role, but to date have been elusive.


This book is a successor to J Griffiths, A Bood and H Weyers, Euthanasia and Law in the Netherlands (Amsterdam University Press 1998) which was widely praised for its thoroughness, clarity, and accuracy. The new book emphasises recent legal developments and new research, and has been expanded to include a full treatment of Belgium, where since 2002 euthanasia has also become legal. The book also includes descriptions written by local specialists of the legal situation and what is known about actual practice in a number of other European countries (England and Wales, France, Italy, Scandinavia, Spain, Switzerland). The book strives for as complete and dispassionate a description of the situation as possible. It covers in detail: - the substantive law applicable to euthanasia, physician-assisted suicide, withholding and withdrawing treatment, use of pain relief in potentially lethal doses, palliative and terminal sedation, and termination of life without a request (in particular in the case of newborn babies); -the process of legal development that has led to the current state of the law; -the system of legal control and its operation in practice; -the results of empirical research concerning actual medical practice. A concluding part deals with some general questions that arise out of the material presented: Is the legalisation of euthanasia an example of the decline of law or should it, on the contrary, be seen as part and parcel of the increasing juridification of the doctor-patient relationship? Does the Dutch experience with legalised euthanasia support the idea of a 'slippery slope' toward a situation in which life-especially of the more vulnerable members of society-is less effectively protected? Is it possible to explain and to predict when a society will decide to legalise euthanasia?


A first seizure, if incorrectly diagnosed or left untreated, could lead to further more severe debilitating seizures, resulting in complicated epilepsy and even death (Turner and Benger, 2009). Conversely first seizure has been identified as one of the ambulatory care sensitive conditions (ACSC), which can be treated safely and efficiently within an acute ambulatory emergency care setting (Blunt, 2013). The National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) provide clear recommendation guidelines for the diagnosis, management and treatment of epilepsy (NICE, 2012). However current practice within the local district hospital, where I work, has led to a number of inconsistencies in the delivery of these guidelines, resulting in an increased number of potentially avoidable inpatient admissions and recurrent A+E attendances. Not surprisingly this has had financial and logistical implications for the NHS trust and potentially suboptimal care provisions for patients. Subsequently, producing an agreed plan or document that provides clinicians with current evidenced based information plus well-defined succinct methods of delivering standardised treatment, has multiple advantages for patients, medical professionals and hospital trusts overall. Clinical pathways have been utilised successfully in a number of clinical areas within the NHS for a number of years (Rotter et al, 2012). Consequently the proposed introduction of a first seizure pathway has the potential to reduce the number of unnecessary admissions, therefore appears to be the next appropriate step in ensuring a secure and fixed approach to changing current practice.


A number of charmoniumand bottomonium-like meson states have been observed that have properties that do not match well to expectations for the simple quark-antiquark substructure suggested by the constituent quark model. Some of them are electrically charged and decay to final states containing hidden charmonum or bottomonium mesons and, thus, must contain at least four quarks. Common properties of these so-called XY Z mesons are partial widths for decays to hidden quarkonium states plus light hadrons that are much larger than corresponding partial widths for established quarkonium mesons. I review some recent results from the Belle experiment, including the recent discovery of two charged bottomium-like states, the Zb(10610) and Zb(10650), that decay to πhb(mS) (m = 1,2) and π±Υ(nS) (n = 1,2,3) final states. In addition, I present recent Belle results from a search for H-dibaryon production in inclusive Υ(1S) and Υ(2S) decays.


The dysbindin protein is required for the modulation of presynaptic neurotransmitter release in Drosophila. Homeostatic signaling systems are widely believed to stabilize neural function over prolonged periods of time. However, the molecular mechanisms of homeostatic signaling in the nervous system are largely unknown, and direct links between defective homeostatic signaling and disease-causing genes remain obscure. Dickman and Davis performed a large-scale, electrophysiology-based genetic screen for mutations that specifically disrupt synaptic homeostasis. DTNBP1 is one of two genes that are most strongly and consistently associated with schizophrenia susceptibility in humans. The Drosophila homolog of DTNBP1 (dysbindin) was identified in the screen and was found to function during synapse development, baseline neurotransmission, and synaptic homeostasis. Dysbindin altered the calcium dependence of vesicle release and was essential in the presynaptic neuron for both the induction and expression of synaptic homeostasis. D. K. Dickman, G. W. Davis, The schizophrenia susceptibility gene dysbindin controls synaptic homeostasis. Science 326, 1127–1130 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


The Antarctic Muon And Neutrino Detector Array (AMANDA) is a high-energy neutrino telescope. It is a lattice of optical modules (OM) installed in the clear ice below the South Pole Station. Each OM contains a photomultiplier tube (PMT) that detects photons of Cherenkov light generated in the ice by muons and electrons. ICECUBE is a cubic-kilometer-sized expansion of AMANDA currently being built at the South Pole. In ICECUBE the PMT signals are digitized already in the optical modules and transmitted to the surface. A prototype string of 41 OMs equipped with this new all-digital technology was deployed in the AMANDA array in the year 2000. In this paper we describe the technology and demonstrate that this string serves as a proof of concept for the ICECUBE array. Our investigations show that the OM timing accuracy is 5 ns. Atmospheric muons are detected in excellent agreement with expectations with respect to both angular distribution and absolute rate. r 2005 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved. PACS: 07.05.Hd; 07.07.Hj; 07.50.Qx; 29.40.Ka; 95.55.Vj; 95.85.Ry; 96.40.Tv


A credit default swap, or CDS, is a financial agreement between two parties about an exchange of cash flows that depend on the occurrence of a credit default or in general a credit event. A CDS may terminate earlier than the expiration or the occurrence of the credit event when one party of the contract defaults, this is called counterparty risk. This thesis studies the price of CDS with counterparty risks. The credit default and counterparty risks are modeled by the first arrival times of Poisson processes with stochastic intensities depending on interest rates. The popular CIR and Vasicek models are used for interest rates in this thesis. The prices of CDS are derived as solutions of different partial differential equations with respect to the CIR and Vasicek models, respectively. For the CIR model, the volatility for the interest rate vanishes as interest rate approaches zero. New techniques are introduced here to deal with this degeneracy and cover the full parameter range, thereby allowing the usability of any empirical calibrated CIR models. For the Vasicek model, the allowance of negative interest rate can produce an arbitrarily large discount factor, instead of typically smaller than one; this poses difficulties in mathematical analysis and financial predictions. This thesis solves the mathematical well-posedness problem and more importantly, produces accurate bounds of the CDS price. For the CDS with long time to expiry, the corresponding infinite horizon problems are studied. As time to expiry goes to infinity, the price of CDS being the asymptotic limit of the solution of the infinite horizon problem is verified.


Abstract. The undertaken issue was the digital processing of cartographic material such as Prussian old topographical maps from the beginning and the end of the XIX century. These maps play a crucial role in studies of the development of the landscape in the past. Quantitative and qualitative changes in geographical space could be analyzed after the transformation of historical material according to the present day coordinate system.The main source of data were two types of Prussian topographical maps – Urmesstischblätter which represents topographical features from the 1820s and Messtischblätter which depicts the landscape from the 1880s and were based on more precise measurements. These two maps were drawn in the 1 : 25 000 scale and because of that they are very useful in comparative analysis. Regions presented on them are the Upper Silesia Industrial District and the Ruhr Area.The main aim of this research was to design and develop a reference basis for further quantitative and qualitative studies of landscape changes in two mentioned regions. The research included a set of methods such as georeferencing old maps based on the current coordinate system, vectorization of the selected geographical features, unification of symbolization, and proofreading of prepared reference maps.The processing of old cartographic maps was divided into stages which helped to achieve the main goals of the research and gave the results which were reference maps with uniformed style in one coordinate system. These reference maps have also become the basis for the creation of bargraphs of land usage, which are used to describe changes in selected elements of the landscape in individual time periods from 1830.


This is a prospective, hospital-based study reporting an update and the prevalence of nonconvulsive status epilepticus (NCSE) in patients with altered mental status (AMS) in Qatar. Patients presenting with NCSE are compared to controls. Two-hundred and fifty patients with AMS are involved. Patients with NCSE are: 65 (12–79 years, m, 37, f, 28); controls: 185 (12–80 years, m, 101, f, 84). Occurrence of NCSE in patients with AMS was 26%. NCSE patients were younger than controls (p < 0.001). Deaths in the NCSE group occurred in 31% and 19% in controls (p < 0.0007). Hospitalization length was longer in NCSE proper and in comatose NCSE compared to controls (p < 0.02, p < 0.03). Recovery occurred in 40% of NCSE patients and 53% of controls (p < 0.08). About 31% of patients (n = 21) had refractory NCSE and 9 died. This is the first study reporting the prevalence of NCSE in Qatar. This prevalence (26%) is in the middle range. NCSE did not do better than the controls, result being disappointing regarding comatose NCSE. NCSE is an emerging condition requiring rapid diagnosis and rapid treatment. Regarding the optimal duration of continuous EGG (cEEG) monitoring to diagnose the majority of NCSE cases, 3 days of cEEG monitoring could accomplish this task.


Private real estate returns cannot be explained adequately by alpha and beta alone. The fact that so many real estate managers claim positive and persistent alpha performance versus the NCREIF benchmark seems simply unbelievable to public securities investors, who know that alpha is a zero-sum game. Perhaps this outperformance is simply the result of value creation strategies such as new development or redevelopment, something that can occur only in private market investing strategies that allow the investor to take control of the asset. This third component of return—value creation—is here called gamma, making the real estate portfolio return equation equal beta + alpha + gamma. An analytic approach to such three-way performance attribution indicates that gamma is likely a much more powerful explanation of private equity portfolio outperformance than alpha could ever be.


The news media's dissemination of public opinion polls has increased exponentially over the past decade. While most citizens treat polls as reliable sources of information upon which to base their political decisions, political scientists have decried polls as plagued by inaccuracies and biases. This paper investigates the impact the "bandwagon effect," the tendency for people to modify their beliefs in order to conform to the majority opinion presented by a poll. Drawing from social identity theory and self-categorization theory, I hypothesize that the bandwagon effect impacts those individuals who seek to enhance their connection to their national and political groups. I further hypothesize that the strength of group opinion moderates the impact of the bandwagon effect. With three unique experiments, I find that social identity does, in fact, moderate the impact of bandwagon effect. Self-identified political partisans change their attitudes to conform to those of their fellow Republicans or Democrats. Interestingly, Americans do not change their attitudes to conform to the opinions of their fellow Americans. I also find that the strength of group opinion does not moderate the impact of the bandwagon effect, and that people who change their attitudes are unaware of the influence of the opinion poll.


Abstract The spectacular scale and speed of China's domestic renewable energy capacity development and technology catch-up has in recent years been followed by the 'go out' of Chinese clean energy technology firms seeking new markets and opportunities in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper explores the growing involvement of China in the development and transfer of renewable energy technologies in Africa and examines the key drivers and obstacles shaping Chinese renewable energy investments and exports. Far from there being some kind of grand or harmonious strategy directed by a single monolithic state, we argue that fragmented and decentralised state apparatuses and quasi-market actors in China are increasingly pursuing their own independent interests and agendas around renewable energy in Africa in ways often marked by conflict, inconsistency and incoherence. Moving beyond the state-centric analysis common in much of the research on contemporary China–Africa relations, we examine the motivations of a range of non-state and quasi-state actors, as well their different perceptions and constructions of risk, policy environments and political stability in recipient countries. The paper explores the case study example of South Africa, where Chinese firms have become increasingly significant in the diffusion of renewable energy technology.


Spacecraft Engineering Simulation II (SES II) is a C-language computer program for simulating diverse aspects of operation of a spacecraft characterized by either three or six degrees of freedom. A functional model in SES can include a trajectory flight plan; a submodel of a flight computer running navigational and flight-control software; and submodels of the environment, the dynamics of the spacecraft, and sensor inputs and outputs. SES II features a modular, object-oriented programming style. SES II supports event-based simulations, which, in turn, create an easily adaptable simulation environment in which many different types of trajectories can be simulated by use of the same software. The simulation output consists largely of flight data. SES II can be used to perform optimization and Monte Carlo dispersion simulations. It can also be used to perform simulations for multiple spacecraft. In addition to its generic simulation capabilities, SES offers special capabilities for space-shuttle simulations: for this purpose, it incorporates submodels of the space-shuttle dynamics and a C-language version of the guidance, navigation, and control components of the space-shuttle flight software.


Movement skills assessment tools - still gender biased?!In 1997 Antony Okely and Jan Wright argued that fundamental movement skills test are gender biased and most assessment tools are strongly related to the skills integral to traditional male sports. From these test results it is deduced that girls are poorly skilled. How does it look today, 15 years later? Have girls' results in movement skills assessments increased during the last decade? Have the assessment tools been revised in terms of adding skills which are essential to female activities e.g. balance and rhythm, which were proposed by Okely and Wright in 1997? Several studies conducted in the last ten years have shown that the boys still are outperforming girls in movements skills tests (e.g. Barnett et al., 2008; Hands et. al., 2009; Okely et al., 2001ab; Reed et al., 2004; Robinson, 2010; Stodden et al., 2009). A few studies show some skillsto girls'advantage. Hands and colleges (2009) have shown that girls outperform boys in skills which include flexibility and Jaakkola and colleges (2009) indicate that girls perform better than boys in balance skill. In most of the studies boys still are assessed to perform better the girls in object control skills e.g. Barnett et al. (2010).It is also discussed that boys perform better than girls in tests that use a quantity approach, results in terms of speed or distance, instead of a qualitative approach, focused on how the skill is performed. The qualitative approach has been suggested to provide a more accurate and gender neutral assessment of the skill level (Okely & Wright 1997). The presentation will include discussions about how to provide assessment of movement skills in a gender-neutral way. Is it as possible as just adding some skills that usually girls are good at or is the question greater than that? Shouldn't girls and boys develop the same skills? Is a test gender- neutral if it assesses a number of classic masculine or feminine skills?


Does the shift from subsistence agriculture to a specialization in cash-crop production affect human capital? We assess the influence of the rapid expansion of the cultivation of cash crops for export in the mid and late 19th century Philippines, with a focus on the increase or decline of basic numeracy. Based on the historiography, we expect the expansion of cash crops (in 19th century Philippines, mostly abaca, sugar, and tobacco) to have a negative effect on human capital of the majority of the population during the first phase. To test this hypothesis, we mobilize a new and large data set based on age statements from parish records, which includes 228,853 underlying observations. This is the first long term quantitative study on numeracy in a Southeast Asian country. We aggregate the individual observations by 41 provinces and the birth decades from the 1800s to the 1930s in order to obtain a large and informative panel (panel observations based on less than 50 underlying age statements are dropped). This allows us to compare regional levels of numeracy before, during, and after the introduction of the three main cash crops.


[1] Neutrons emitted from the Moon are produced by the impact of galactic cosmic rays (GCRs) within the regolith. GCRs are high-energy particles capable of smashing atomic nuclei in the lunar regolith and producing a shower of energetic protons, neutrons and other subatomic particles. Secondary particles that are ejected out of the regolith become "albedo" particles. The neutron albedo has been used to study the hydrogen content of the lunar regolith, which motivates our study of albedo protons. In principle, the albedo protons should vary as a function of the input GCR source and possibly as a result of surface composition and properties. During the LRO mission, the total detection rate of albedo protons between 60 MeV and 150 MeV has been declining since 2009 in parallel with the decline in the galactic cosmic ray flux, which validates the concept of an albedo proton source. On the other hand, the average yield of albedo protons has been increasing as the galactic cosmic ray spectrum has been hardening, consistent with a disproportionately stronger modulation of lower energy GCRs as solar activity increases. We construct the first map of the normalized albedo proton emission rate from the lunar surface to look for any albedo variation that correlates with surface features. The map is consistent with a spatially uniform albedo proton yield to within statistical uncertainties.


Multi-view learning has been an important learning paradigm where data come from multiple channels or appear in multiple modalities. Many approaches have been developed in this field, and have achieved better performance than single-view ones. Those approaches, however, always work on small-size datasets with low dimensionality, owing to their high computational cost. In recent years, it has been witnessed that many applications involve large-scale multi-view data, e.g., hundreds of hours of video (including visual, audio and text views) is uploaded to YouTube every minute, bringing a big challenge to previous multi-view algorithms. This work concentrates on the large-scale multi-view learning for classification and proposes the One-Pass Multi-View (OPMV) framework which goes through the training data only once without storing the entire training examples. This approach jointly optimizes the composite objective functions with consistency linear constraints for different views. We verify, both theoretically and empirically, the effectiveness of the proposed algorithm.


We consider a model for secret sharing, where a dealer distributes the shares of a secret among a set of participants with the constraint that only predetermined subsets of participants must be able to reconstruct the secret by pooling their shares. Unlike traditional secret sharing models, no secure channels are available between the dealer and the participants. Additionally, we assume that the dealer is an abstract entity made of several sub-dealers able to communicate with the participants through a noiseless and authenticated public channel. In this setting, we assume that the sub-dealers and the participants observe realizations of independently and identically distributed random variables. Our main results are inner and outer bounds on the rate of the secret that the dealer can distribute to the participants via its sub-dealers.


The induction of caprine keratoconjunctivitis by the subconjunctival inoculation of a cloned culture of Mycoplasma conjunctivae is described. The clinical course of the experimental disease was similar to that noted in naturally occurring outbreaks of "pink-eye" among goats, and biopsies of inflamed conjunctivae showed similar histological response. M. conjunctivae was consistently recovered from the inflamed conjunctival tissues of inoculated animals that developed ocular disease, thus fulfilling Koch's postulates and establishing this organism as an etiological agent of caprine keratoconjunctivitis. Immunological studies suggested that cellular immune mechanisms may play a role in protecting animals from disease produced by this mycoplasma.


Phenotypic and genotypic evaluation of wheat genetic resources and development of segregating populations are pre-requisites for identifying rust resistance genes. The objectives of this study were to assess adult plant resistance (APR) of selected wheat genotypes to leaf rust and stem rust and to develop segregating populations for resistance breeding. Eight selected Kenyan cultivars with known resistance to stem rust, together with local checks were evaluated for leaf rust and stem rust resistance at seedling stage and also across several environments. Selected diagnostic markers were used to determine the presence of known genes. All eight cultivars were crossed with local checks using a bi-parental mating design. Seedling tests revealed that parents exhibited differential infection types against wheat rust races. Cultivars Paka and Popo consistently showed resistant infection types at seedling stage, while Gem, Romany, Pasa, Fahari, Kudu, Ngiri and Kariega varied for resistant and susceptible infection types depending on the pathogen race used. The control cultivars Morocco and McNair consistently showed susceptible infection types as expected. In the field, all cultivars except for Morocco showed moderate to high levels of resistance, indicating the presence of effective resistance genes. Using diagnostic markers, presence of Lr34 was confirmed in Gem, Fahari, Kudu, Ngiri and Kariega, while Sr2 was present in Gem, Romany, Paka and Kudu. Seedling resistance gene, Sr35, was only detected in cultivar Popo. Overall, the study developed 909 F6:8 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) as part of the nested mating design and are useful genetic resources for further studies and for mapping wheat rust resistance genes.


Hyperconjugation, an interaction of electrons in a σ orbital or lone pair with an adjacent π or even σ antibonding orbital, can have a strong effect on aromaticity. However, most work on hyperconjugative aromaticity has been limited to main-group substituents. Here, we report a thorough density functional theory study to evaluate the aromaticity in various cyclopentadienes that contain both main-group and transition-metal substituents. Our calculations reveal that the strongest aromatic cyclopentadiene ring can be achieved by the synergy of trans influence and hyperconjugation caused by transition-metal substituents. Our findings highlight the great power of transition metals and trans influence in achieving hyperconjugative aromaticity, opening an avenue to the design of other novel aromatic organometallics.


Dengue is acknowledged to be the world's foremost arboviral infection of humans. This Aedes mosquito-borne pathogen is recognized as the aetiological agent of a preeminent re-emerging tropical disease and serious public health threat. Four discrete but genetically similar serotypes of dengue virus, DENV 1-4, trigger a range of clinical symptoms from mild fever to severe haemorrhagic complications. The existence of a phylogenetically more distant fifth serotype was recently suggested. Verification of identity is now needed before it can be officially ratified as DENV 5. Still, the prospect of another serotype calls into question the intrinsic efficacy of anti-dengue vaccines and therapies founded on DENV 1-4 that are now being developed. Accordingly, the presence of DENV 5 and other closely related sylvatic arboviruses, such as Zika, may hamper attempts to identify and treat dengue fever and related pyrexias of unknown origin. The ramifications of this should be considered when updating protocols for diagnosis, therapy, control and prevention.


A retrospective, blinded study was conducted to examine the prevalence of antiretroviral drug resistance among a cohort of HIV-infected infants born in 1998 and 1999 in New York State. The earliest available HIV-positive specimen was tested. Most samples were from infants younger than 60 days of age. Genotype data were generated for the protease and reverse transcriptase genes of HIV-1 proviral DNA from 91 infected infants. Eleven infants (12.1%) had provirus with mutations associated with drug resistance, with all three classes of antiretroviral drugs represented. Two infants (2.2%) had mutations associated with resistance to two classes of antiretrovirals. Perinatal antiretroviral drug exposure was examined; it was not found to be significantly associated with the presence of resistance mutations. However, for those infants who had perinatal antiretroviral exposure and genotypic evidence of drug resistance to HIV, the mutations that were detected correlated with at least one antiretroviral from the perinatal period. The prevalence of genotypic drug resistance among this infant cohort is comparable with that found among recently infected adults. These results suggest that resistance testing should be strongly considered for perinatally infected infants, at the earliest possible time point, to avoid use of antiretroviral drugs to which the infant has preexisting resistance.


Build feature-rich, reliable Android Pie apps with the help of more than 100 proven industry standard recipes and strategies.
Key Features

Uncover the latest features in Android 9 Pie to make your applications stand out
Develop Android Pie applications with the latest mobile technologies, from set up to security
Get up-to-speed with Android Studio 3 and its impressive new features

Book Description
The Android OS has the largest installation base of any operating system in the world. There has never been a better time to learn Android development to write your own applications, or to make your own contributions to the open source community! With this extensively updated cookbook, you'll find solutions for working with the user interfaces, multitouch gestures, location awareness, web services, and device features such as the phone, camera, and accelerometer. You also get useful steps on packaging your app for the Android Market. Each recipe provides a clear solution and sample code you can use in your project from the outset. Whether you are writing your first app or your hundredth, this is a book that you will come back to time and time again, with its many tips and tricks on the rich features of Android Pie.
What you will learn

Develop applications using the latest Android framework while maintaining backward-compatibility with the support library
Create engaging applications using knowledge gained from recipes on graphics, animations, and multimedia
Work through succinct steps on specifics that will help you complete your project faster
Add location awareness to your own app with examples using the latest Google Play services API
Utilize Google Speech Recognition APIs for your app

Who this book is for
If you are new to Android development and want to take a hands-on approach to learning the framework, or if you are an experienced developer in need of clear working code to solve the many challenges in Android development, you will benefit from this book. Either way, this is a resource you'll want to keep on your desk as a quick reference to help you solve new problems as you tackle more challenging projects.


This research note discusses the Euro crisis in Greece in light of the referendum of July the 5th. It lays out the social and political costs of a GREXIT, but also of a continuing austerity policy. It proposes a reform policy fostering growth in Greece and discusses the role of conditionality. Finally, the important role of mid-left parties is highlighted.


Computerized data has become critical to the survival of an enterprise. Companies must have a strategy for recovering their data should a disaster such as a fire destroy the primary data center. Current mechanisms offer data managers a stark choice: rely on affordable tape but risk the loss of a full day of data and face many hours or even days to recover, or have the benefits of a fully synchronized on-line remote mirror, but pay steep costs in both write latency and network bandwidth to maintain the mirror. In this paper, we argue that asynchronous mirroring, in which batches of updates are periodically sent to the remote mirror, can let data managers find a balance between these extremes. First, by eliminating the write latency issue, asynchrony greatly reduces the performance cost of a remote mirror. Second, by storing up batches of writes, asynchronous mirroring can avoid sending deleted or overwritten data and thereby reduce network bandwidth requirements. Data managers can tune the update frequency to trade network bandwidth against the potential loss of more data. We present SnapMirror, an asynchronous mirroring technology that leverages file system snapshots to ensure the consistency of the remote mirror and optimize data transfer. We use traces of production filers to show that even updating an asynchronous mirror every 15 minutes can reduce data transferred by 30% to 80%. We find that exploiting file system knowledge of deletions is critical to achieving any reduction for no-overwrite file systems such as WAFL and LFS. Experiments on a running system show that using file system metadata can reduce the time to identify changed blocks from minutes to seconds compared to purely logical approaches. Finally, we show that using SnapMirror to update every 30 minutes increases the response time of a heavily loaded system only 22%.


Abstract Henrik Ibsen's play A Doll's House caused a global sensation when first performed in the nineteenth century. Nora, the play's protagonist, became an icon for women, an emblematic figure representing the pursuit of selfhood. This article aims to historicise the figure of Nora in Korean gender politics as a representation of both the quintessence of modernity and the antithesis of "womanly virtue". It specifically examines the tensions in the Korean perception of the character by juxtaposing the adapted representation of Nora that appeared in a Korean novel with the lives of actual New Women, some of whom were labelled in the press as "Korea's Nora". Through a close examination of the creative process that took place in the introduction, circulation and appropriation of A Doll's House in colonial Korea, the article demonstrates how the play served not only as a vehicle for experiencing the modern self, but as a proxy for critiquing the notion of Western modernity and feminism that had yet to be localised. It also reveals the significant chasm between the hyperbolic image of the modern Western woman and the locally rooted gender politics among Korean New Women. Such a chasm reflects the tension between local/national demands and transnational lures that both women and men experienced in envisioning modern womanhood.


"Thank you, Catherine Sanders, for giving us a book that few others could have written. Every page speaks both the depth of your compassion and the breadth of your knowledge. This book will be a wise companion on the difficult journey from loss to recovery." — Robert Kastenbaum, Ph.D., author of The Psychology of Death "How to Survive the Loss of a Child is a godsend to those in the field as well as to those of us in need of such a resource for our own mourning." — Eugene Knott, Ph.D., University of Rhode Island "Dr. Sanders' insights are profound and poignant." — Patricia Geiger, M.D., pediatrician, Boone, North Carolina "Thank you so much for all that you do for bereaved parents but especially for writing How to Survive the Loss of a Child. I know that it has changed lives. It changed mine!" — Nancy Ulmer, bereaved parent, Kindermourn, Charlotte, North Carolina It is only through experiencing grief that bereaved parents ultimately heal. Moving through the phases of grief, the bereaved person works toward restoration. Understanding these phases, knowing what to expect, and learning what they can do to help themselves give parents greater assurance and comfort. In How to Survive the Loss of a Child, Dr. Sanders, a bereaved parent herself, offers grieving parents practical help and emotional support. This book also helps family members, friends, and caregivers relate to grieving parents and aids them, too, in understanding the process of healing through grief.... Download ebook, read file pdf Filling the Emptiness and Rebuilding Your Life


Overwhelming climatic change scenarios considerably upsurge the sea level rise (SLR) and precipitation trends which accelerate the natural and anthropogenic hazards in several regions in the United Kingdom (UK) particularly in low-lying and coastal areas. Global sea level trends influence the United Kingdom (UK) especially along the Norfolk and Suffolk coastlines in south-east England. Sea levels have risen by circa 2 mm yr-1 at Lowestoft, circa 1.2 mm at Newlyn and the rise in local sea level creates increased risk at many locations around the UK. Accordingly, to identify the current trends of sea level rise and precipitation trends around the UK, the current study analysed the time series sea level change data based upon the longest sea level records in the UK. Besides, precipitation trends were also examined and subsequently, regression models were constructed. Results highlighted that a positive correlation suggesting that sea levels had risen between 1920 and 2014. This was given by the regression equation y = 1.8419x – 3548.5. The coefficient of determination showed that over three-quarters of sea level variation was explained by the passage of time (R2 = 83%) and was indicative of a steady sea level rise of almost 2mm yr -1. Whereas as precipitation trends statistically significant linear trend existed (p<0.01), suggesting that there was an increase in UK rainfall through a time of circa 1mm yr-1. However, these trends are the indication of the upsurge in the intensity of SLR and precipitation trends in the UK.


Abstract. The Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB) in southeastern Louisiana is one of the most impacted and vulnerable coasts in the continental USA. This area has been facing recurring threats from coastal hazards in a long run. These hazardous events have negatively impacted the communities in various degrees. Therefore, identifying the places that are resilient to disasters and understanding the dynamic interactions among indicators are critical topics for pre-disaster preparation, post-disaster recovery, and establishment of mitigation plans. Studies on how variables of community resilience to natural hazards interact as a system that affects the final resilience (i.e., their dynamical linkages) have rarely been conducted. Bayesian network (BN), which represents the interdependencies among variables in a graph while expressing the uncertainty in the form of probability distributions, offers an effective way to investigate the interactions among different resilience components and addresses the natural–human system as a whole. This study employed a BN to study the interdependencies of ten resilience variables and population change in the Lower Mississippi River Basin (LMRB) at the census block group scale. A genetic algorithm was used to identify an optimal BN where population change, a cumulative resilience indicator, was the target variable. The results uncovered a set of important resilience variables that could account for the spatial variation of population changes in a region vulnerable to coastal hazards, also identify and quantify the interactions among these variables in a probabilistic form, the results of which can then be used for future scenario modeling and planning for resilience. Specifically, an optimal Bayesian network model was developed to explain the population change dynamics using data at block group scale. The study first extracted 10 variables from a group of 35 to derive the network. Through a genetic algorithm and after 906 generations, the resultant optimized Bayesian network was achieved with a cross-validation accuracy of 67%. The expectation-maximization (EM) method was used to learn the conditional probability tables, and the junction tree (JT) algorithm was applied to compute the posterior probabilities. Six variables were found to have direct impacts on population change, including hazard exposure, hazard damages, distance to coastline, employment rate, percent housing units built before 1970, and percent households with female householder. The remaining four variables are indirect variables, including percent agriculture land, percent flood zone area, percent owner-occupied housing units, and population density. Each variable has a conditional probability table so that its impacts on the probability of population change can be evaluated as it propagates through the network. These probabilities could be used for scenario modeling in the subsequent studies to help inform policies to reduce vulnerability and enhance resilience. We further used the developed BN model to simulate the probability of percent of population change under different scenarios by varying the probability distributions of some input variables. The simulation process was carried out through computing the posterior probability of the target variable. Findings from the scenarios simulation offer useful information on how the factors interact that lead to population change, which can be used to inform decision making on disaster resilience and adaptation strategies. For example, the scenarios of lowering either the hazard exposure or damages (Scenarios 1 and 2) reveal a spatial pattern of which population-change state 4 (−5.5% to 34.4%) becomes dominant, whereas extreme increase and decrease are less probable. Findings from Scenario 3 show that without the hazard exposure and damages the spatial pattern shows that no extreme population increase or decrease would possibly happen under the current socioeconomic and environmental condition. Results also show that reducing the percentage of housing units built before 1970 would be more effective than increasing the employment rate in terms of reducing population loss.


After the Second World War in the Netherlands, one of the most open economies in the world, wage moderation has be a leading theme in macroeconomic policy and industrial rela-tions. When wage restraint met with an overheated labour market and strike movements, social partners accepted the re-placement of a voluntary "social minimum wage" by a statutory minimum wage, introduced in 1969. Due to governmental freezes in the 1990s and 2000s the statutory minimum wage fell relative to the average wage, which left room for the in-crease of low-wage employment. In the 2000s the Dutch econ-omy generated large trade surpluses. However, in 2008-13 domestic private consumption fell substantially and this has, in combination with a housing bubble, seriously frustrated the recovery of the Dutch economy from the crisis. Continuing the Dutch wage moderation tradition in current conditions would cause negative effects, not only on domestic demand but also on the country´s labour productivity and growth potential. Thus, there are good reasons to defend a wage-led strategy as a recovery option in the case of the Netherlands.


Sharks are top predators in many marine ecosystems and can impact community dynamics, yet many shark populations are undergoing severe declines primarily due to overfishing. Obtaining species-specific knowledge on shark spatial ecology is important to implement adequate management strategies for the effective conservation of these taxa. This is particularly relevant concerning highly-mobile species that use wide home ranges comprising coastal and oceanic habitats, such as tiger sharks, Galeocerdo cuvier. We deployed satellite tags in 20 juvenile tiger sharks off northeastern Brazil to assess the effect of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on depth and temperature usage. Sharks were tracked for a total of 1184 d and used waters up to 1112 m in depth. The minimum temperature recorded equaled 4°C. All sharks had a clear preference for surface (< 5 m) waters but variability in depth usage was observed as some sharks used mostly shallow (< 60 m) waters whereas others made frequent incursions into greater depths. A diel behavioral shift was detected, with sharks spending considerably more time in surface (< 10 m) waters during the night. Moreover, a clear ontogenetic expansion in the vertical range of tiger shark habitat was observed, with generalized linear models estimating a ~4-fold increase in maximum diving depth from 150- to 300-cm size-classes. The time spent in the upper 5 m of the water column did not vary ontogenetically but shark size was the most important factor explaining the utilization of deeper water layers. Young-of-the-year tiger sharks seem to associate with shallow, neritic habitats but they progressively move into deeper oceanic habitats as they grow larger. Such an early plasticity in habitat use could endow tiger sharks with access to previously unavailable prey, thus contributing to a wider ecological niche.


Written to meet the needs of thousands of students and pre-professional singers participating in production workshops and classes in opera and musical theater, Acting for Singers leads singing performers step by step from the studio or classroom through audition and rehearsals to a successful performance. Using a clear, systematic, positive approach, this practical guide explains how to analyze a script or libretto, shows how to develop a character building on material in the score, and gives the singing performer the tools to act believably. More than just a "how-to" acting book, however, Acting for Singers also addresses the problems of concentration, trust, projection, communication, and the self-doubt that often afflicts performers pursuing the goal of believable performance. Part I establishes the basic principles of acting and singing together, and teaches the reader how to improvise as a key tool to explore and develop characters. Part II teaches the singer how to analyze theatrical work for rehearsing, and performing. Using concrete examples from Carmen and West Side Story, and imaginative exercises following each chapter, this text teaches all singers how to be effective singing actors.


Objective: Combined traumatic brain injury and hemorrhagic shock are highly lethal. Following injuries, the integrity of the blood-brain barrier can be impaired, contributing to secondary brain insults. The status of the blood-brain barrier represents a potential factor impacting long-term neurologic outcomes in combined injuries. Treatment strategies involving plasma-based resuscitation and valproic acid therapy have shown efficacy in this setting. We hypothesize that a component of this beneficial effect is related to blood-brain barrier preservation. Design: Following controlled traumatic brain injury, hemorrhagic shock, various resuscitation and treatment strategies were evaluated for their association with blood-brain barrier integrity. Analysis of gene expression profiles was performed using Porcine Gene ST 1.1 microarray. Pathway analysis was completed using network analysis tools (Gene Ontology, Ingenuity Pathway Analysis, and Parametric Gene Set Enrichment Analysis). Subjects: Female Yorkshire swine were subjected to controlled traumatic brain injury and 2 hours of hemorrhagic shock (40% blood volume, mean arterial pressure 30-35 mmHg). Interventions: Subjects were resuscitated with 1) normal saline, 2) fresh frozen plasma, 3) hetastarch, 4) fresh frozen plasma + valproic acid, or 5) hetastarch + valproic acid (n = 5 per group). After 6 hours of observation, brains were harvested for evaluation. Measurements and Main Results: Immunofluoroscopic evaluation of the traumatic brain injury site revealed significantly increased expression of tight-junction associated proteins (zona occludin-1, claudin-5) following combination therapy (fresh frozen plasma + valproic acid and hetastarch + valproic acid). The extracellular matrix protein laminin was found to have significantly improved expression with combination therapies. Pathway analysis indicated that valproic acid significantly modulated pathways involved in endothelial barrier function and cell signaling. Conclusions: Resuscitation with fresh frozen plasma results in improved expression of proteins essential for blood-brain barrier integrity. The addition of valproic acid provides significant improvement to these protein expression profiles. This is likely secondary to activation of key pathways related to endothelial functions.


We examine the problem of fiber Bragg grating reconstruction from its reflection coefficient. A direct numerical method of solving the Gel'fand-Levitan-Marchenko integral equations for the problem is developed. The method is based on a bordering procedure, Cholesky decomposition, and piecewise-linear approximation. It is tested using high-reflectance homogeneous and hyperbolic secant profiles. The proposed method is shown to concede the popular discrete layer peeling technique in efficiency but surpasses it in accuracy and stability at high reflectance.


A square (0, 1)-matrix X of order n ≥ 1 is called fully indecomposable if there exists no integer k with 1 ≤ k ≤ n− 1, such that X has a k by n − k zero submatrix. The reduced adjacency matrix of a bipartite graph G = (A, B, E) (having A ∪ B = {a1, ..., am} ∪ {b1, ..., bn} as vertex set, and E as edge set), is X = [xij ], 1 ≤ i ≤ m, 1 ≤ j ≤ n, where xij = 1 if aibj ∈ E and xij = 0 otherwise. A stable set of a graph G is a subset of pairwise nonadjacent vertices. The stability number of G, denoted by α(G), is the cardinality of a maximum stable set in G. A graph is called α-stable if its stability number remains the same upon both the deletion and the addition of any edge. We show that a connected bipartite graph has exactly two maximum stable sets that partition its vertex set if and only if its reduced adjacency matrix is fully indecomposable. We also describe a decomposition structure of α-stable bipartite graphs in terms of their reduced adjacency matrices. On the base of these findings we obtain both new proofs for a number of well-known theorems on the structure of matrices due to Brualdi (1966), Marcus and Minc (1963), Dulmage and Mendelsohn (1958), and some generalizations of these statements. Several new results on α-stable bipartite graphs and their corresponding reduced adjacency matrices are presented, as well. Two kinds of matrix product are also considered (namely, Boolean product and Kronecker product), and their corresponding graph operations. As a consequence, we obtain a strengthening of one Lewin's theorem claiming that the product of two fully indecomposable matrices is a fully indecomposable matrix.


During 2015 and 2016 several baboon spider specimens (Araneae: Theraphosidae) were collected in central Angola during surveys undertaken for the Okavango Wilderness Project. These collections represent range and habitat extensions for Pterinochilus Pocock, 1897, Ceratogyrus Pocock, 1897 and Phoneyusa Karsch, 1884. The new species Ceratogyrusattonitifersp. n. is described from female specimens and the distribution of genera mapped. Central and eastern Angola is severely under sampled for theraphosid spiders, with every species collected during the survey either being potentially new to science or representing a significant range extension for the genus.


Volcanoes are true wonders of the planet; they are central to the formation, evolution and sustenance of biological systems; they form some of our deepest and most significant cultural attachments to the land; and they attract large numbers of visitors for their aesthetic appeal. Although the primary focus of the analysis in this Study is on volcanic sites that are inscribed on the World Heritage List under criterion (viii), these defining features of volcanoes mean that States Parties may also consider protection of the volcanic heritage value by listing them under other criteria. This Study also provides advice to States Parties on the application of criterion (viii) specifically to volcanic sites. The advice includes the use of the classification system and features identified in this Study to strengthen the nomination of volcanic sites under criterion (viii). The scope of the study is the World Heritage List, but the analysis in this Volcano Thematic Study also includes properties listed in the UNESCO Global Geoparks Programme and sites listed in the UNESCO Man and the Biosphere Programme (Biosphere Reserves).


The growth of hydrogenated amorphous silicon carbide (a-SiC:H) thin films deposited by HotWire Chemical Vapour Deposition (HWCVD) for solar cell applications has been studied. The films were characterized for structural properties using Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy FTIR, Elastic Recoil Detection Analysis (ERDA), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Raman Spectroscopy (RS). A low temperature of the substrate heater maintained at 280 °C was used in this thesis due to the demand of low-cost solar cells based on cheap substrate that require deposition at such low temperatures. In this thesis, we showed that the structural properties of a-SiC:H films are dependent on the filament temperature and also on the CH4 gas flow rate. It was shown that in non-stoichiometric a-SiC:H, hydrogen content throughout the deposited films varies with depth. An attempt is done in this study to determine, for the first time the absorption strength of the C-Hn bonds in the 950 -1050 cm -1 band of the FTIR spectrum. Real-time ERDA was used to determine the hydrogen kinetics parameters in a single temperature ramp; a model based on the solution of the diffusion equation is used for this effect.


Plant disease epidemics require plant pathogens to be dispersed to infect new hosts. Understanding dispersal is important for devising methods to improve detection and control of plant pathogens. This is not straightforward, as plant pathogens can be dispersed by air, rain, water or soil, and by vectors such as animals, pollen, various microbes, people and machinery and on infected plant material including seeds. Epidemics vary in time and space as a result of complex processes affecting inoculum availability and production, dispersal and survival processes, and also the coincidence of susceptible crop plants, which each interact with the weather. To reduce disease, exposure of crops to inoculum is often limited by separating crops in time and space, using crop rotation, including different varieties. A wide range of diagnostic methods are increasingly used to help with this by detecting plant pathogens before infection occurs to prevent introduction of exotic inoculum, or to improve applications of crop protection products.

Key Concepts:

Plant pathogens include fungi, protists (such as oomycetes and plasmodiophorids), bacteria, phytoplasmas, viruses and viroids. For plant disease epidemics to occur, these plant pathogens must be dispersed to infect new hosts.

Plant pathogens can be dispersed by air, rain, water, soil, by animals, people and machinery and through infected plant material including pollen and seeds.

A key method for crop protection is to limit dispersal by separating susceptible crops in time and space by crop rotation, use of different varieties, hygiene or management of inoculum and use of crop protection products (biologicals and pesticides) at key growth stages or when infection conditions are suitable.

Some pathogens that are dispersed by air are adapted to survive freezing temperatures, high UV light levels and desiccation, whereas others only remain viable for short periods or in certain less extreme conditions. Some may even induce ice nucleation to promote rainfall to return them to the ground.

Some plant pathogens are dispersed in rain-splash, usually short distances but occasionally longer when combined with strong winds. Pathogens can be dispersed in water films and groundwater or rivers.

Insects and other invertebrates, pollen and protists may vector some pathogens, mainly viruses, viroids and phytoplasmas.

One of the main reasons for new introductions of plant pathogens to a territory is introduction by people, as infected plant material, infected seeds or as contamination on clothing, machinery, food or other imported materials. Various statutory quarantine regulations and inspections by plant health professionals aim to reduce introductions.

Climate change may help pathogens to establish in new territories where they were previously absent.

Keywords:

epidemics;
plant disease;
plant pathogens;
inoculum;
aerobiology;
rain-splash;
soilborne;
diagnostics;
quarantine


Diagnosis and management of bipolar disorder (BD) are limited by the absence of available biomarkers. Allostatic load (AL) represents the strain that stress, including the effects of acute phases and inter‐episode chronic mood instability, exerts on interconnected biological systems. This study aimed to operationalize an AL index and explore whether it could be relevant to better characterize BD patients with and without emotional hyper‐reactivity particularly those at higher risk of immune‐cardiometabolic dysregulation and functional impairment.


In the classical form of alpha1‐antitrypsin (AT) deficiency, a point mutation in AT alters the folding of a liver‐derived secretory glycoprotein and renders it aggregation‐prone. In addition to decreased serum concentrations of AT, the disorder is characterized by accumulation of the mutant alpha1‐antitrypsin Z (ATZ) variant inside cells, causing hepatic fibrosis and/or carcinogenesis by a gain‐of‐toxic function mechanism. The proteasomal and autophagic pathways are known to mediate degradation of ATZ. Here we show that the autophagy‐enhancing drug carbamazepine (CBZ) decreased the hepatic load of ATZ and hepatic fibrosis in a mouse model of AT deficiency‐associated liver disease. These results provide a basis for testing CBZ, which has an extensive clinical safety profile, in patients with AT deficiency and also provide a proof of principle for therapeutic use of autophagy enhancers. (Hepatology 2011;.)


It is commonplace to replicate critical components in order to increase system lifetimes and reduce failure rates. The case of a general N-plexed system, whose failures are modeled as N identical, independent nonhomogeneous Poisson process (NHPP) flows, each with rocof (rate of occurrence of failure) equal to λ(t), is considered here. Such situations may arise if either there is a time-dependent factor accelerating failures or if minimal repair maintenance is appropriate. We further assume that system logic for the redundant block is 2-out-of-N:G. Reliability measures are obtained as functions of τ which represents a fixed time after which Maintenance Teams must have replaced any failed component. Such measures are determined for small λ(t)τ, which is the parameter range of most interest. The triplex version, which often occurs in practice, is treated in some detail where the system reliability is determined from the solution of a first order differential-delay equation (DDE). This is solved exactly in the case of constant λ(t), but must be solved numerically in general. A general means of numerical solution for the triplex system is given, and an example case is solved for a rocof resembling a bathtub curve.


This empirical study examines the question of why the United States persisted in enacting unilateral sanctions during the 1990s, given the increasing constraints, particularly by the European Union, in trade and investment policy. It selects the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 as its case study, a bill that not only tightened the long-standing American embargo against Cuba, but also incorporated extraterritorial aspects that purported to regulate third countries' legitimate rights to trade with that island nation. The European Union was particularly disturbed by the bill's extraterritoriality, and took the decision to request a WTO Dispute Settlement Panel. Out of concern that their dispute may irreparably damage the fledgling WTO, Washington and Brussels embarked on lengthy bilateral negotiations that resulted in an accord that suspended the WTO panel. As the United States did not implement the requisite changes to Helms-Burton, the agreement remains inchoate. This thesis argues that Helms-Burton was a particularly ill-conceived piece of legislation. It strives to understand why the United States acted in this irrational manner by opening up the 'black box' of the state to examine internal constraints on the formation of foreign policy. Putnam's two-level game provides the analytic framework within which the thesis evaluates the simultaneous responses of domestic (Level II) and international (Level I) influences. The thesis investigates the domestic American politics that led to the passage of Helms-Burton, and the intergovernmental tensions at play in the EU's decision to request a WTO panel, both Level II. It then examines the protagonists' strategies at the Level I international bargaining table, where statesmen are simultaneously constrained by what other nations will accept and by what domestic constituencies will ratify. It concludes with an analysis of how the EU successfully overcame its Level II national preferences to ratify the agreement, whilst the US defaulted. This thesis argues that Brussels' mounting of a WTO action was crucial in bringing the United States to the negotiating table and that the EU won the greater gains in these negotiations.


Globalization has meant that universities are under increased pressure to internationalize through mobility, research partnerships, and internationalised programing. Global citizenship is an increasingly mainstream term being used by the UN and OECD regarding education for the 21st century, yet research about its conceptualization in higher education comes largely from English-speaking contexts (e.g. Jorgenson & Shultz, 2012). This paper presents a piece of an inter-disciplinary, international mixed-methods research project funded through the Academy of Finland and involving 20 universities in 10 countries. It responds to concerns that current economic crises have resulted in an intensification of those internationalization policies in universities that prioritize profit-seeking over those that prioritize ethical alternatives (Khoo, 2011). Drawing on critical and post/de-colonial theories (e.g. Andreotti, 2009), the project considers how, when left unchecked, internationalisation is normalized so as to re-direct social and political values such as global citizenship and social responsibility towards economic values thereby reproducing ideals of exceptionalism, entitlement, and (market) expansionism (Rhoads & Szelenyi, 2010); and denying reproduction of systems of inequities (King, Marginson, & Naidoo, 2013; Rizvi, 2007). Selecting social cartography as a method to analyze the findings, the project aims to create a socially accountable map of shifting imaginaries of higher education as expressed in trends in internationalization (Paulston, 1999). In this paper, we focus on imaginaries of global citizenship. We will present a heuristic co-created by project partners and use it to analyze responses from teacher-education students studying in two Nordic universities, focusing on two specific survey questions: Do you see yourself as a global citizen? How do you think global citizens should think, relate and/or act in the world? The heuristic consists of three discursive orientations—neoliberal, liberal and critical—and four interfaces—neoliberal-liberal, liberal-critical, critical-neoliberal, and all four. Interfaces indicate where signifiers are deployed with multiple meanings. The mapping helps to identify dominant discourses, articulating where there are foreclosures of and possibilities for an ethical approach. The project contributes data and frameworks for understanding existing possibilities. By making discursive configurations and interfaces jointly intelligible, processes in higher education can be more informed by ethically oriented versions of international education.


Background/Study Context: Skill acquisition often involves a shift from an effortful algorithm-based strategy to more fluent memory-based performance. Older adults' slower strategy transitions can be ascribed to both slowed learning and metacognitive factors. Experimenters often provide feedback on response accuracy; this emphasis may either inadvertently reinforce older adults' conservatism or might highlight that retrieval is generally quite accurate. Response time (RT) feedback can lead to more rapid shift to retrieval (Hertzog, Touron, & Hines, 2007, Psychology and Aging, 22, 607–624). Methods: This study parametrically varied trial-by-trial feedback to examine whether strategy shifts in the noun-pair task in younger (M = 19) and older (M = 67) adults were influenced by type of performance feedback: none, trial accuracy, trial RT, or both accuracy and RT. Results: Older adults who received accuracy feedback retrieved more often, particularly on difficult rearranged trials, and participants who receive speed feedback performed the scanning strategy more quickly. Age differences were also obtained in local (trial-level) reactivity to task performance, but these were not affected by feedback. Conclusions: Accuracy and speed feedback had distinct global (general) influences on task strategies and performance. In particular, it appears that the standard practice of providing trial-by-trial accuracy feedback might facilitate older adults' use of retrieval strategies in skill acquisition tasks.


The currency and financial crises of the late 1990s generated a broad consensus that fundamental reforms in the international financial system are needed to appropriately address the challenges of the 21st century. The rationing of poor countries from private capital flows, even when these are booming to emerging countries, the drastic reversals of capital flows that trigger crises, the significant drought of private flows to all developing countries for five years after the Asian crises (which began to be overcome only fairly recently) implies that besides the objective of international financial stability, an equally important objective –to which insufficient attention has been given- is the provision of sufficient and sufficiently stable private and public flows to different categories of developing economies. It is therefore essential for the international financial system to be coherent with development that it both: (a) prevents developmentally costly crises and better manage them when they occur and (b) supports adequate net private and public flows to support poverty reduction and sustainable development. Whilst much of the international discussion has been on the former, much of this paper will focus on the latter, somewhat more neglected point. This paper aims to explore certain options for reform that are being debated by the international community which, if adopted, could considerably improve development policy coherence of OECD member countries and thereby contribute to meeting the challenges mentioned above. It will focus on new forms of encouraging more and more stable private and public flows to developing countries, involving public-private linkages, so that these countries can grow faster and reduce poverty, thereby moving closer to the Millennium Development Goals. It will also discuss key obstacles to reform, and the challenges for overcoming these. Following this introduction, section 2 provides a brief background analysis of recent trends in capital flows. The purpose is to show that these flows, although starting to recover from the extremely low levels seen since 1998, may still be easily reversible, which calls for the need of further reforms in the international financial architecture (IFA). Section 3 asks how much progress has been made so far, and argues that progress to date has been limited, and suggests areas in which further advances are needed. It highlights in particular the need for more vigorous action for implementing the Monterrey agenda on development finance, which includes a range of options for encouraging more and more stable capital flows to developing countries; and the need for more developing country representation in international fora. Section 4 addresses the issue of capital flows, sections 5 and 6 discuss the issue of developing country representation. More specifically, section 4 explores new public-private mechanisms that might be considered for adoption, to encourage more stable private flows to middle-income countries, and aid flows to the poor countries. Three possible proposals will be discussed: the creation of partial counter-cyclical guarantees, public incentives for encouraging socially responsible investment (SRI) in developing countries, and the International Finance Facility (IFF) put forward by the UK Treasury. The section will lastly discuss the current proposal put forward by the Basel Committee on banking regulation and supervision, on modifying the regulatory capital charge of banks. The reason for discussing the Basel proposal is that we believe that as currently designed it may have an unintended negative impact on capital flows to developing countries. Next, section 5 discusses obstacles to progress on reform of the IFA, from a political economy perspective. It will argue that insufficient or no developing country representation in the Basle Committees and other international fora as well as in the IFIs can be identified as a major, although not the only, reason why international financial policies seem to be lacking development coherence. Section 6 in turn discusses the challenges facing the international community for increasing developing country representation in the international fora. Section 7 concludes and indicates areas for further research.


This chapter reports on a data-driven contrastive study of Greek men's and
women's lifestyle magazines. Integrating methodologies of corpus linguistics and
critical discourse analysis, it explores the hypothesis that, despite their apparently
dichotomic gender-oriented differentiation, these two types of publication bear
fundamental discoursal and ideological similarities. The initial quantitative
(n-gram-based) analysis of the two corpora reveals an equally striking prominence
of the power-expressing feature of deontic modality in both men's and women's magazines.
The in-depth qualitative (concordance-based) analysis of the instances of deonticity
demonstrates that magazine texts systematically simulate and creatively rearticulate a
multitude of recognizable voices of authority of the public and private spheres
(e.g. official institutions, professional experts, educators, parents and older relatives,
lovers, friends), seamlessly incorporating the relevant styles and registers
(e.g. information leaflet, instructions manual, self-help book, teacher scolding,
parent counseling, lover's reprimand, friend's mock-impolite criticism, etc.) in the
magazines' proposed life scripts. The relentlessly regulative tone is invariably
mitigated by the implication that the rules posed are for the benefit of the reader.
It appears that the extensive appropriation of canonistic discourses and their skillful
and imaginative hybridisation with other replicated non-regulative genres and registers
renders deontic modality a powerful rhetorical instrument for effectively conveying gender-differential and other crucial (e.g. consumerist/commercial, political) messages in both
types of lifestyle magazines.


Implicit neural 3D representation has achieved impressive results in surface or scene reconstruction and novel view synthesis, which typically uses the coordinate-based multi-layer perceptrons (MLPs) to learn a continuous scene representation. However, existing approaches, such as Neural Radiance Field (NeRF) and its variants, usually require dense input views (i.e. 50-150) to obtain decent results. To relive the over-dependence on massive calibrated images and enrich the coordinate-based feature representation, we explore injecting the prior information into the coordinate-based network and introduce a novel coordinate-based model, CoCo-INR, for implicit neural 3D representation. The cores of our method are two attention modules: codebook attention and coordinate attention. The former extracts the useful prototypes containing rich geometry and appearance information from the prior codebook, and the latter propagates such prior information into each coordinate and enriches its feature representation for a scene or object surface. With the help of the prior information, our method can render 3D views with more photo-realistic appearance and geometries than the current methods using fewer calibrated images available. Experiments on various scene reconstruction datasets, including DTU and BlendedMVS, and the full 3D head reconstruction dataset, H3DS, demonstrate the robustness under fewer input views and fine detail-preserving capability of our proposed method.