Course management software and on-line course material are becoming more available.. As a result, many instructors have developed WebCT course Web sites to deliver on-line course material that supplements lecture topics. The present study examined associations between student characteristics, course performance, and access of Web-CT course material. We tracked and coded patterns of Web usage by 154 students in a Psychology as a Profession course. Frequency of student access to Web-based material correlated positively with grades on course assignments. Females accessed the home page more often than males. Self-reports from students evaluated the course Website as highly valuable. These results suggest important advantages in supplementing lecture courses with on-line material. ********** A national survey revealed that psychology faculty view the Internet as an effective teaching tool (Vodanovich & Piotrowski, 2001). The present study aimed to determine what features of Web-based course material relate to subsequent course performance and whether access to the material varied by student characteristics. Published examples describe the incorporation of Web-based assignments and course supplements to enhance introductory psychology (Waschull, 2001), social psychology (Goldstein 1998; Lawson, 2000; Sherman 1998) and experimental (Goolkasian, Wallendael, & Gaultney, 2003) or research methods courses (Couch 1997; Rosen & Petty 1997). Unlike the attendance roster in lecture or classroom courses, it is not always certain with Web-based course material how often students "attend" the Web site or interact directly with the on-line material. One might ask from a skeptical point of view what value, if any, is associated with student utilization of a course Website. Couch (1997) designed a research methods course Web site to present lecture notes, handouts, and study guides. Previously, students had purchased a course packet containing these supplementary materials at the start of the semester. The Web site offered an immediate advantage to students, who no longer had to pay for a course packet or possibly lose it. Likewise, the instructor no longer needed to prepare the packet in advance: the instructor could add or revise materials on the Web site throughout the semester. Based on course evaluation results, students reported they accessed the course Web site an average of three times per week. All of the students liked having access to the lecture notes, and 95% of the students felt that other instructors should develop similar course Web sites (Couch 1997). In another study, Rosen and Petty (1997) found that students who enrolled in a Web-supplemented research methods course rated on-line databases as more useful at the end of the semester than at the beginning of the semester. Goolkasian et al. (2003) intensely studied the response of students enrolled in a cognitive science course designed around 12 Web-based course material modules. In general, students favorably rated the Web site and the "readability" and "usefulness" of the modules. A high percentage (54%) of the students indicated that the Web site was more useful than a traditional textbook. Other research has found that Web-based course material can be as effective as traditional teaching methods. In a research methods course, student response to an interactive, Web-based tutorial was compared to an in-class lecture demonstration of the sampling distribution (Aberson, Berger, Healy, Kyle, & Romero 2000). Students in both the in-class and Web tutorial conditions improved equally on pre/post-test quizzes on the sampling distribution, and students in the Web tutorial condition rated the tutorial as useful and educational as students in the in-class lecture evaluated the demonstration. Other research has analyzed patterns of student use of Web-based course material to examine how it relates to student course performance or individual difference variables. …


This study aimed to determine the presence of SARS-CoV-2 on surfaces frequently touched by COVID-19 patients, and assess the scope of contamination and transmissibility in facilities where the outbreaks occurred. In the course of this epidemiological investigation, a total of 80 environmental specimens were collected from 6 hospitals (68 specimens) and 2 "mass facilities" (6 specimens from a rehabilitation center and 6 specimens from an apartment building complex). Specific reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction targeting of RNA-dependent RNA polymerase, and envelope genes, were used to identify the presence of this novel coronavirus. The 68 specimens from 6 hospitals (A, B, C, D, E, and G), where prior disinfection/cleaning had been performed before environmental sampling, tested negative for SARS-CoV-2. However, 2 out of 12 specimens (16.7%) from 2 "mass facilities" (F and H), where prior disinfection/cleaning had not taken place, were positive for SARS-CoV-2 RNA polymerase, and envelope genes. These results suggest that prompt disinfection and cleaning of potentially contaminated surfaces is an effective infection control measure. By inactivating SARS-CoV-2 with disinfection/cleaning the infectivity and transmission of the virus is blocked. This investigation of environmental sampling may help in the understanding of risk assessment of the COVID-19 outbreak in "mass facilities" and provide guidance in using effective disinfectants on contaminated surfaces.


Following one of the year's most talked-about performances, three members of Russia's Pussy Riot were charged with hooliganism. At trial, band members read defense statements which employed an extensive use of spatial and container metaphors, allowing readers to organize concepts into a new system with respect to one another. The women, for example, use the terms 'up' and 'down' to speak of positivity and negativity, respectively. They also organize their society along a grid to showcase how the average Russian (horizontal axis) interacts with the country's political system (vertical axis). This essay examines how society employs conceptual metaphors and the use of metaphors to represent the band's complex relationship with Russian president Vladimir Putin.


An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of different cooling
systems on bird thermal comfort, litter moisture content and the performance of broiler
breeders, housed in open facilities at high temperatures conditions in Brazil. The study
used Hubber lineage birds, from 26 to 37 weeks of age, in summer and fall conditions, in the
Minas Gerais State, Brazil. Two facilities were used, with similar dimensions and
construction characteristics, oriented in an east-west direction. Six replicates of six different
systems of environmental control were evaluated: (fan jet with polytube and evaporative
cellulose pad material, FJS; roof sprinkling (exterior), RSS; internal fogging system, IFS; two
horizontal mixing fans directing air into the room, MFS; two roof-top wind-driven turbine
ventilators, RVS; and a conventional system as the control, CTL, with ventilation provided
solely by wind and no additional cooling. Hatchability, AH, was measured weekly. Results
demonstrated that the FJS, IFS and MFS systems, in this sequence, performed best,
presenting reduced BGHTI values and improved AH as compared to the other systems. Results obtained from the RVS and the CTL systems were markedly inferior. Litter moisture
content (MC) was least in the MFS system while greatest in the FJS system.


Resilience is increasingly being incorporated into environmental policy at national and global scales. Yet resilience is a contested concept, with a wide variety of definitions proposed in the scientific literature, and little consensus regarding how it should be measured. Consequently, adoption of resilience as a policy goal presents risks to biodiversity conservation, which are considered here in relation to three categories: (1) ambiguity, (2) measurement difficulty, and (3) misuse. While policy makers might welcome the ambiguity of resilience as a concept, as it provides flexibility and opportunities to build consensus, the lack of clear definitions hinders evaluation of policy effectiveness. Policy relating to resilience is unlikely to be evidence‐based, as monitoring will be difficult to implement. Vague definitions also provide scope for misuse. This is illustrated by the case of European forests, where resilience is being used as a justification to promote management interventions that will negatively affect biodiversity. To address these risks, there is a need for standard definitions and measures of resilience to be developed for use in policy. Furthermore, there is a need for guidelines, standards, and identification of best practice in relation to resilience policy, to ensure that its implementation does not contribute to biodiversity loss.


On 22 January 2019, Emmanuel Macron and Angela Merkel signed a new treaty on "Franco-German cooperation and integration" in Aachen. Complementing the 1963 Elysée Treaty which symbolized the reconciliation between Germany and France in the post-war period, the Aachen Treaty aims to further strengthen the ties between the two countries in the domains of economy, culture, administration, environment, diplomacy and defence. Although the Treaty has been criticised for its lack of ambition, a closer reading of its text reveals some hidden gems, including its mutual defence clause. What does this new clause mean for the Franco-German tandem and for collective defence in Europe?


A modified technique involving incubation of moistened Serdang
Series soil samples with segments of radicle and lateral roots as well
as portions of nodules of Centrosema was used to study release of
nitrogen into the soil as well as the biology of decompositon of roots
and nodules of this legume. The samples were incubated for various
lengths of time under optimum temperature and moisture content. At
weeks 0, 1, 2, 4 , 8, 12 and 16, the respective soil samples were
cleared of undecomposed legume tissues and analysed for total N,
ammonium, nitrate, organic carbon and soil pH. At the same time the
extracted laterals, radicle and nodule tissues were respectively plated
on Czapek-Dox and potato dextrose agar media for isolation and enumeration
of the decomposer mycoflora.
The amount of ammonium nitrogen released from the different soil
treatments was much higher than the levels of nitrate nitrogen released
throughout the experiment. This could probably be due to the slightly
acidic nature of the soil media used. The organic carbon content however
decreased with increase in incubation time. This ultimately reSUlted in
the narrowing of the C/N ratio to < 10 for all treatments under study.
Accumulation of the ammonium nitrogen in the soil apparently resulted
in the slight increase in soil pH. Soils amended with nodules varied
significantly for all analyses when compared to the other treatments.
The number of decomposer mycoflora isolated from the three tissue
types increased with advanced tissue decay. For all the three tissue
types used: laterals, radicles and nodules, five fungal genera were
isolated frequently throughout the sampling period. The different gen era isolated were Fusarium, Trichoderma, Curvularia, Gliocladium and
Penicillium. Total number of fungal genera and total isolates from
decaying nodules were significantly higher when compared to results
obtained from either decaying laterals or radicles.


Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is associated with maternal diet, however, findings are inconsistent. The aims of the present study were to assess whether intakes of foods and beverages during pregnancy differed between women who developed GDM and non-GDM women, and to compare dietary intakes with dietary recommendations of pregnancy. This is a longitudinal study using participants of a randomized controlled trial. Women with complete measurements of a 75 g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) at 18–22 and 32–36 weeks gestation were included in the cohort (n = 702). Women were diagnosed for GDM according to the simplified International Association of Diabetes and Pregnancy Study Group criteria at 32–36 weeks (GDM women: n = 40; non-GDM women: n = 662). Dietary data (food frequency questionnaire) was collected at both time points and compared between GDM and non-GDM women. Variability in OGTT values was assessed in a general linear model. Marginal differences between GDM and non-GDM women in intakes of food groups were found. No associations were found between dietary variables and OGTT values. Not all dietary recommendations were followed in the cohort, with frequently reported alcohol consumption giving largest cause for concern. This study did not find dietary differences that could help explain why 40 women developed GDM.


We study two of the simple rules on finite graphs under the death-birth updating and the imitation updating discovered by Ohtsuki, Hauert, Lieberman and Nowak [Nature 441 (2006) 502-505]. Each rule specifies a payoff-ratio cutoff point for the magnitude of fixation probabilities of the underlying evolutionary game between cooperators and defectors. We view the Markov chains associated with the two updating mechanisms as voter model perturbations. Then we present a first-order approximation for fixation probabilities of general voter model perturbations on finite graphs subject to small perturbation in terms of the voter model fixation probabilities. In the context of regular graphs, we obtain algebraically explicit first-order approximations for the fixation probabilities of cooperators distributed as certain uniform distributions. These approximations lead to a rigorous proof that both of the rules of Ohtsuki et al. are valid and are sharp.


Since the publication of his first novel in 1998, China Mieville has distinguished himself as one of the most exciting and inventive writers working in any genre in contemporary British fiction. The author of nine novels and two short story collections to date, as well as comics script-writing, numerous critical works on science fiction, and legal scholarship, Mieville is a critically acclaimed writer who has also achieved popular success.

The chapters in this collection respond to the range of interests that have shaped Mieville's fiction from his influential role in contemporary genre debates, to his ability to pose serious philosophical questions about state control, revolutionary struggle, regimes of apartheid, and the function of international law in a globalized world. This collection demonstrates how Mieville's fictions offer a striking example of contemporary literature's ability to imagine alternatives to neoliberal capitalism at a time of crisis for leftist ideas within the political realm.


Stitching in Fluoroacetate Polyketide synthase enzymes stitch together an impressively diverse series of organic compounds from simple acetate and propionate building blocks. Walker et al. (p. 1089) now show that these biochemical pathways can be engineered to incorporate fluoroacetate—a primary product of the only known native enzymatic fluorination route—into tri- and tetraketides. In Escherichia coli cells, this process shows potential as a versatile means of inserting fluorine substituents into a range of complex molecules for use in pharmaceutical and agrochemical research. Biochemical pathways can be engineered to incorporate fluoroactetate into tri- and tetraketides in place of acetate. Organofluorines represent a rapidly expanding proportion of molecules that are used in pharmaceuticals, diagnostics, agrochemicals, and materials. Despite the prevalence of fluorine in synthetic compounds, the known biological scope is limited to a single pathway that produces fluoroacetate. Here, we demonstrate that this pathway can be exploited as a source of fluorinated building blocks for introduction of fluorine into natural-product scaffolds. Specifically, we have constructed pathways involving two polyketide synthase systems, and we show that fluoroacetate can be used to incorporate fluorine into the polyketide backbone in vitro. We further show that fluorine can be inserted site-selectively and introduced into polyketide products in vivo. These results highlight the prospects for the production of complex fluorinated natural products using synthetic biology.


The moist temperate Himalayas, as one of the major ecological zone of Pakistan, deserve specific attention to the conservation of environment and the sustainable development of natural resources. During the last hundred years, the area has been subjected to major structural changes leading to a decrease of about fifty per cent of the potential forest area. The decrease in forest cover, combined with major changes in community structure has been responsible for the decline of indigenous medicinal plants resources and their traditional knowledge also. Ayubia National Park has been identified as one of the priority area to be focused for medicinal plant conservation.
The study was aimed to analyze traditional knowledge including local names, general distribution, flowering period, part used, medicinal and other uses, market values and taxonomic diversity of the medicinal plant of the area
The field surveys were conducted by adopting predefined questionnaires through guided and transect walks. The market oriented indigenous species have been subjected through IUCN criterion for evaluation of their conservation status.
Traditional knowledge about 117 indigenous medicinal plants (including 8 cultivated ones) have been collected from 140 informants. Women followed by children have been identified as the principle gatherers of medicinal plants. About 44 species were found to be market oriented. According to this criterion, eleven species including two trees (Juglans regia, Taxus wallichiana), one shrub (Berberis lycium) and eight herbaceous species (Asparagus adscendens, Atropa acuminata, Colchicum luteum, Dioscorea deltoidea, Podophyllum hexandrum, Rheum australe, Saussurea costus and Valeriana jatamansi) have been found as endangered.
It has been concluded that Traditional knowledge in Moist Temperate Himalayas of Pakistan is under threat of being lost. Availability of cultivated land is quite less, the establishment of botanical gardens, home gardens or kitchen gardens may be the best ex situ conservation strategy, which can be adopted for sustainable utilization of medicinal plants. While clearly defined land tenure system and community participation in park management will be the best in situ conservation measure for adoptation.


Graph mining has attracted considerable research interest recently with the emergence of complex networks like social media, sensor networks, and the world wide web. In a streaming scenario, the concept to be learned might change over time. While there has been considerable research done for detecting concept drift in traditional data streams, little work has been done on addressing concept drift in data represented as a graph. We propose a novel unsupervised concept-drift detection method on graph streams. The methodology starts by discovering discriminative subgraphs for each graph in the stream. We then compute the entropy of the window based on the distribution of discriminative subgraphs with respect to the graphs and then use the direct density-ratio estimation approach for detecting concept drift in the series of entropy values obtained by moving one step forward in the sliding window. The usefulness of the proposed method is demonstrated through experiments using artificial and real-world datasets and its performance is evaluated by comparing against related baseline methods.


The Singapore Genome Variation Project (SGVP) provides a publicly available resource of 1.6 million single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) genotyped in 268 individuals from the Chinese, Malay, and Indian population groups in Southeast Asia. This online database catalogs information and summaries on genotype and phased haplotype data, including allele frequencies, assessment of linkage disequilibrium (LD), and recombination rates in a format similar to the International HapMap Project. Here, we introduce this resource and describe the analysis of human genomic variation upon agglomerating data from the HapMap and the Human Genome Diversity Project, providing useful insights into the population structure of the three major population groups in Asia. In addition, this resource also surveyed across the genome for variation in regional patterns of LD between the HapMap and SGVP populations, and for signatures of positive natural selection using two well-established metrics: iHS and XP-EHH. The raw and processed genetic data, together with all population genetic summaries, are publicly available for download and browsing through a web browser modeled with the Generic Genome Browser.


Increasing evidence support the claim that international trade enhances innovation and productivity growth through an increase in competition. This paper develops a two-country endogenous growth model, with firm specific R&D and a continuum of oligopolistic sectors under Cournot competition to provide a theoretical support to this claim. Since countries are assumed to produce the same set of varieties, trade openness makes markets more competitive, reducing prices and increasing quantities. Under Cournot competition, trade is pro-competitive. Since firms undertake cost reducing innovations, the increase in production induced by a more competitive market push firms to innovate more. Consequently, a reduction on trade barriers enhances growth by reducing domestic firm's market power.


A great improvement in the absorption of energy of a wave energy converter (WEC) is obtained with a time-varying power take-off (PTO) damping over a constant damping. In a passive control scheme based on the Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT), the PTO damping is time-varying and tuned to the instantaneous frequency of the wave excitation force. The HHT method relies on the use of the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method to decompose the wave signal into a number of components (IMFs) from the highest to the lowest frequency component. However, the decomposition process is not always perfect and may result in mode mixing, where an IMF will consist of signals of widely disparate frequency scales, or different IMFs will consist of signals with similar frequency scales. Mode mixing can be caused by intermittent/noisy signals, and by specific amplitude and frequency relations of the original modes in the signal. The aim of this paper is to extend the studies on the use of the HHT for WEC tuning purposes by revealing how the EMD mode mixing problem affects the WEC performance. A comprehensive study using firstly synthetic two-tone waves (i.e., superposition of two sinusoidal waves) is performed. Then, the observations from the two-tone studies are used to further improve the energy absorbed by WECs using the HHT in real ocean wave scenarios resembling the analytic scenario.


The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of attendance at a senior center on the well being and quality of life of grandparents that were rearing grandchildren. Using convenience sampling, grandparents (N=130) who were rearing grandchildren were given a self administered demographic data survey along with an attendance at a senior center questionnaire, the Quality of Life Scale, the Well Being Scale by Liang, the UCLA Loneliness Scale, the Caregiver Burden Scale, and the Role Satisfaction Scale. An initial MANOVA (F 7, 69 = 2.72, p < .01) suggesting that senior center attendance affect the measures as a set was conducted and then a series of one way ANOVAs were carried out to test the hypothesis that attending a senior center has an effect on the dependent variables: well being, quality of life, role satisfaction, caregiver burden, loneliness, current health, and heath one year ago. Subsequently, a hierarchical regression analysis was conducted to find out whether frequency and quality of attendance of a senior center predicted quality of life, caregiver burden, well being, loneliness, and role satisfaction, controlling for the demographic data. The results of the MANOVA showed that the dependent variables: quality of life, caregiver burden, well being and role satisfaction were impacted positively by the attendance of a senior center. The results of the regression analyses showed that for each of the major dependent variables, after controlling for the demographic data, the quality and frequency of involvement at the senior center did not have a uniquely significant role in predicting the dependent variables. The results of this study shows that further research need to be conducted to answer other questions regarding grandparents who are rearing minor grandchildren and the affects that senior centers may have in assisting in the management of this new task that grandparents have found themselves dealing with.


The segmentation of the primary heart sounds within a phonocardiogram (PCG) is an essential step in the classification of pathological cardiac events. Recently, probabilistic models, such as hidden Markov models, have been shown to surpass the segmentation capabilities of previous methods. These models are further improved when a priori information about state duration is incorporated into the model, such as in a hidden semi-Markov model (HSMM). This paper addresses the problem of the accurate segmentation of heart sounds within noisy, real-world PCGs using a HSMM, extended with the use of support vector machines (SVMs) for emission probability estimation. A database of 123 patients with over 20,000 labelled heart sounds were used to train and test the algorithm. Best reported alternatives in the literature were also implemented and tested on the same data. On out-of-sample test data, our method outperforms previously reported methods with sensitivities of 94.9% and 91.0% and positive predictivities of 95.2% and 90.9% for first and second heart sounds respectively.


In many disciplines of science it is vital to know the effect of a 'treatment' on a response variable of interest; the effect being known as the 'treatment effect'. Here, the treatment can be a drug, an education program or an economic policy, and the response variable can be an illness, academic achievement or GDP. Once the effect is found, it is possible to intervene to adjust the treatment and attain a desired level of the response variable. A basic way to measure the treatment effect is to compare two groups, one of which received the treatment and the other did not. If the two groups are homogenous in all aspects other than their treatment status, then the difference between their response outcomes is the desired treatment effect. But if they differ in some aspects in addition to the treatment status, the difference in the response outcomes may be due to the combined influence of more than one factor. In non-experimental data where the treatment is not randomly assigned but self-selected, the subjects tend to differ in observed or unobserved characteristics. It is therefore imperative that the comparison be carried out with subjects similar in their characteristics. This book explains how this problem can be overcome so the attributable effect of the treatment can be found. This book brings to the fore recent advances in econometrics for treatment effects. The purpose of this book is to put together various economic treatments effect models in a coherent fashion, make it clear which can be parameters of interest, and show how they can be identified and estimated under weak assumptions. The emphasis throughout the book is on semi- and non-parametric estimation methods, but traditional parametric approaches are also discussed. This book is ideally suited to researchers and graduate students with a basic knowledge of econometrics.


Recombinant 1,5-anhydro-d-fructose reductase (AFR) from Sinorhizobium morelense S-30.7.5 was crystallized in complex with the cofactor NADP(H) and its structure determined to 2.2 A resolution using selenomethionine SAD (refined R(work) and R(free) factors of 18.9 and 25.0%, respectively). As predicted from the sequence and shown by the structure, AFR can be assigned to the GFO/IDH/MocA protein family. AFR consists of two domains. The N-terminal domain displays a Rossmann fold and contains the cofactor binding site. The intact crystals contain the oxidized cofactor NADP(+), whose attachment to the cofactor binding site is similar to that of NADP(+) in glucose-fructose oxidoreductase (GFOR) from Zymomonas mobilis. Due to variations in length and sequence within loop regions L3 and L5, respectively, the adenine moiety of NADP(+) adopts a different orientation in AFR caused by residue Arg38 forming hydrogen bonds with the 2'-phosphate moiety of NADP(+) and cation-pi stacking interactions with the adenine ring. Amino acid replacements in AFR (S10G, A13G, and S33D) showed that Ala13 is crucial for the discrimination between NADPH and NADH and yielded the A13G variant with dual cosubstrate specificity. The C-terminal domain contains the putative substrate binding site that was occupied by an acetate ion. As determined by analogy to GFOR and by site-directed mutagenesis of K94G, D176A, and H180A, residues Lys94, Asp176, and His180 are most likely involved in substrate binding and catalysis, as substitution of any of these residues resulted in a significant decrease in k(cat) for 1,5-AF. In this context, His180 might serve as a general acid-base catalyst by polarizing the carbonyl function of 1,5-AF to enable the transfer of the hydride from NADPH to the substrate. Here we present the first structure of an AFR enzyme catalyzing the stereoselective reduction of 1,5-AF to 1,5-anhydro-d-mannitol, the final step of a modified anhydrofructose pathway in S. morelense S-30.7.5. We also emphasize the importance of the A13G variant in biocatalysis for the synthesis of 1,5-AM and related derivatives.


There has been a longstanding interest in human factors and the processes of change in manufacturing organizations. In this article attention is focused on the establishment and contribution of a processual perspective to understanding change. A history of the processual approach is outlined and some of the main defining elements and ongoing developments are appraised. Field data drawn from a study of cellular work arrangements at a mirror manufacturing plant are used to highlight the interlocking and overlapping dynamics between substance, context, and politics. In advocating the benefits of a processual perspective, it is argued that during the uptake of cellular manufacturing there is a mutual shaping between the "technical" and the "social" and in support of this claim, case study data are used to illustrate the complex and ongoing interaction between sociopolitical processes and the substance of change (in this case, the technical reconfiguration into cellular form). It is argued that attempts to distill, separate, identify, and examine discrete elements (such as technology) are misplaced and likely to produce misleading results that undervalue the importance of the contextual and sociopolitical processes that also play a key part as mutual shapers of change. © 2005 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Hum Factors Man 15: 385–402, 2005.


The paper presents the results of preliminary research on the use of silica sands with hydrated sodium silicate 1.5% wt. of binder for the performance of eco-friendly casting cores in hot-box technology. To evaluate the feasibility of high quality casting cores performed by the use of this method, the tests were made with the use of a semiautomatic core shooter using the following operating parameters: initial shooting pressure of 6 bar, shot time 4 s and 2 s, core-box temperature 200, 250 and 300 °C and core heating time 30, 60, 90 and 150 s. Matrixes of the moulding sands were two types of high-silica sand: fine and medium. Moulding sand binder was a commercial, unmodified hydrated sodium silicate having a molar module SiO2 / Na2O of 2.5. In one shot of a core-shooter were made three longitudinal samples (cores) with a total volume of about 2.8 dm3. The samples thus obtained were subjected to an assessment of the effect of shooting parameters, i.e. shooting time, temperature and heating time, using the criteria: core-box fill rate, bending strength (Rg), apparent density and surface quality after hardening. The results of the trials on the use of sodium silicate moluding sands made it possible to further refine the conditions of next research into the improvement of inorganic warm-box / hot-box technology aimed at: reduction of heating temperature and shot time. It was found that the performance of the cores depends on the efficiency of the venting system, shooting time, filling level of a shooting chamber and grains of the silica matrix used.


This study introduces a Genre Purity Assessment Tool (GPAT). GPAT calculates genre purity by using SIF n-graphs (statistically improbable graph strings) to identify genre characteristics in text. The study describes the tool and assesses it across five experiments that feature a variety of text types and text lengths. The results demonstrate that GPAT is at least as effective as a system that uses a combination of 30 complex textual analysis indices. The results further demonstrate that GPAT is informative on texts as short as three words. The study is of value to discourse psychologists, psycholinguistics, and any researchers for whom the genre of texts is a component of the analysis.


In the present paper we describe the evaluation of ricin A-chain immunotoxins for clinical application in Hodgkin's disease. The immunotoxins were constructed by chemically linking deglycosylated ricin-A to monoclonal antibodies (MoAb) recognising lymphocyte activation markers CD25, CD30, or IRac, which are expressed by Hodgkin's and Reed-Sternberg (H-RS) cells. The cytotoxic effects of the immunotoxins were investigated in vitro against L540Cy Hodgkin cells and in vivo against Hodgkin's tumors in nude mice and disseminated Hodgkin's tumors in SCID mice. MoAbs were evaluated for crossreactivity with normal human tissues and staining of sections from Hodgkin's disease tissue. Of 32 MoAbs, eight showed little crossreactivity with vital human organs and produced highly active immunotoxins. The most effective immunotoxin, RFT5 gamma l.dgA (CD25), inhibits the growth of H-RS cells at concentrations of 7 x 10(-12) M. RFT5 gamma l.dgA destroys about 60% of solid Hodgkin's tumors of 0.5 cm diameter in nude mice and induces complete remissions in 95% of SCID mice with disseminated Hodgkin's tumors when administered one day after tumor challenge. This immunotoxin binds to all H-RS cells in more than 90% of patients with Hodgkin's disease. Patients with refractory Hodgkin's disease are currently being treated in a phase-I/II clinical trial.


The authoritative guide to creating applications for the Tablet PC-direct from the Microsoft Tablet PC software development team! The introduction of faster chips and hardware has recently enabled the first workable, tablet-sized, pen-based PCs. Building Tablet PC Applications distills the best usability research on pen-based computing to present an authoritative discussion of how to design pen-based applications and user interfaces. It also gives you an in-depth description of the Tablet PC Platform SDK, complete with tips and tricks on how to produce "ink-aware" applications for the Microsoft® Windows® XP Table PC Edition operating system. By the time you finish this book, you'll understand how to create natural, pen-based applications for this exciting new platform, where portability, digital ink, and pen-driven input are the new PC paradigm.


Neisseria meningitidis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae can colonize humans without causing any symptoms. However, gonorrhea and invasive meningococcal disease are serious health concerns. An essential virulence factor for neisserial adhesion to host cells, twitching motility and microcolony formation/aggregation is the retractile type IV pili (Tfp). The scope of this thesis stretches from the motility of single Neisseria cells, via the multicellular dynamics of N. meningitidis microcolonies, to the bactericidal and endotoxin-inhibiting activity of a novel anti-meningococcal peptide. The Tfp machinery in pathogenic Neisseria is highly conserved. Nevertheless, our data demonstrate species-specific expression levels of the Tfp retraction ATPase PilT. By using live-cell microscopy and particle tracking together with visualization of pili, differences between N. gonorrhoeae and N. meningitidis were also observed in piliation and twitching motility speed. However, these differences could not be attributed to the contrasting PilT expressions per se (Paper I). The importance of PilT for pilus dynamics is well established in the literature while comprehensive knowledge of the paralog PilU is lacking. In Paper II, results suggest that PilU promotes timely formation of microcolonies. Furthermore, both PilU and PilT were required for full virulence of meningococci in vivo. The meningococcal response upon adhesion to host cells includes upregulation of the novel virulence factor Neisseria anti-aggregation factor A (NafA). Our data indicate that NafA limits microcolony formation by preventing excessive formation of Tfp bundles (Paper III). Microcolony dispersal is a prerequisite for close adhesion and mucosal invasion. Dispersal progressed rapidly on host cells and upon induction with host cell-conditioned medium (Paper IV). The dispersal phase was not altered in NafA-deficient meningococci. However, NafA may be important after microcolony dispersal on host cells for maintaining bacteria in a single cell state (Paper IV). In Paper V, a screen of cell-penetrating peptides for antimicrobial activity towards meningococci demonstrated that transportan-10 (TP10) exhibited rapid membrane-disruptive and bactericidal activity. TP10 also decreased bacteraemia levels in a murine model of meningococcal disease. Furthermore, TP10 reduced the proinflammatory effect of endotoxin on macrophages. Thus, TP10 displays two properties that may be utilized for the development of a peptide-based treatment against pathogens.


Recent improvements in data analysis and receiver techniques have allowed us to produce a map of the 100GHz emission from the compact radio source 3C273 with the unsurpassed resolution of 50-mu-as (microarcseconds). Our map shows that the structure within 300-mu-as (approximately 1.5.10(18).h-1 cm) has a position angle significantly different from the position angle of the jet observed at lower frequencies. There are also indications in our map that the inner structure has a more pronounced wiggling structure than has been observed on larger scales. The observations were made about 60 days from the start of the outburst of 1988. Most of the flux from the outburst is concentrated in a component which is elongated approximately (56 x 5).10(16).h-1 cm perpendicular to the overall jet-axis. The distance between this component and the core is approximately 128-mu-as, which corresponds to the distance expected from an apparent velocity of approximately 800-mu-as year-1.


Introduction The health care system is in transition. Integrated cares solutions are prominent and even forced by health care policy. But how can we understand the needs of different stakeholders in this system? Why do they still not act effectively and efficiently together? A closer look, using the structuration theory of Anthony Giddens, may be helpful. Theory The theory of structuration enables people to explain social interactions. As this is a matter of fact, the health care system was analyzed by the author in her habilitation thesis. The focus of the study laid on the effective and efficient care of the very old people in Germany. The structuration theory was presented, and as an example of practical translation of the theory, the implementation of the 'Pflegestützpunkte' (service point for care) was described. Practice Giddens' structuration theory is on the one hand complex in theory, and simple on the other hand in practice. Choosing the paradigm may be helpful to explain the motivation of the different stakeholders in the health care system. It would be necessary to create a suitable questionnaire, to get deeper insight in how the different actors in the system act and react. Such a questionnaire should be based on Giddens' theory. The following three dimensions are needed: structure (including domination, legitimation, and signification), interaction (including power, sanctioning, and communication) and modality/duality (including instruments of power, norms and interpretation).


Healthcare providers treating wounds have difficulties assessing the prognosis of patients with critical limb ischemia who had been discharged after complete healing of major amputation wounds. The word "major" in "major amputation" gives the impression of "being more severe" than "minor amputation." Therefore, even if wounds are healed after major amputation, they imagine that prognosis after major amputation would be poorer than that after minor amputation. We investigated the prognosis of diabetic nephropathy patients 2 years after amputations. Those patients underwent dialysis as well as amputation following percutaneous transluminal angioplasty for their foot wounds. They were ambulatory prior to these surgeries. Among 56 cases of minor amputation, 45 were males and 11 were females, and mortality was 41.1%. The mortality of cases with and without a coronary intervention history was 53.1% and 25.0%, respectively (p = 0.034). Among 10 cases of major amputation, 9 were males and 1 was female, and mortality was 60%. The mortality of cases with and without a coronary intervention history was 75.0% and 0%, respectively. Although we predicted poor prognosis in cases with major amputation, there was no significant difference in mortality 2 years after amputations (p = 0.267). Thus far poor prognosis has been reported for major amputation. It might be due to inclusion of the following patients: patients with wounds proximal to ankle joints, patients with extensive gangrene spreading to the lower legs, patients with septicemia from wound infection and who died around the time of operation, and patients with malnutrition. The results of our present study showed that the outcomes at 2 years postoperatively were similar between patients with major amputations and those with minor amputations, if surgical wounds were able to heal. We should not estimate the prognosis by the level of amputation, rather we should consider the effect of coronary intervention history on prognosis.


1. The exposure of Asian immigrants to effective quantities of naturally occurring ultraviolet light was investigated by observing the increase in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations during the summer months. 2. The seasonal increase in adult males was greater than in adult females. 3. There was a significant positive correlation between the seasonal increase and the prevailing 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentration, compatible with the view that the accumulation of inadequate stores of 25-hydroxyvitamin D during the summer results in the low serum concentrations seen in Asian immigrants.


Objective: To evaluate long-term effects of COVID-19, and to determine the risk factors in long-COVID in a cohort of the Turkish Thoracic Society (TTS)-TURCOVID multicenter registry. Methods: Thirteen centers participated with 831 patients; 504 patients were enrolled after exclusions. The study was designed in three-steps: (1) Phone questionnaire; (2) retrospective evaluation of the medical records; (3) face-to-face visit. Results: In the first step, 93.5% of the patients were hospitalized; 61.7% had a history of pneumonia at the time of diagnosis. A total of 27.1% reported clinical symptoms at the end of the first year. Dyspnea (17.00%), fatigue (6.30%), and weakness (5.00%) were the most prevalent long-term symptoms. The incidence of long-term symptoms was increased by 2.91 fold (95% CI 1.04-8.13, P=0.041) in the presence of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and by 1.84 fold (95% CI 1.10-3.10, P=0.021) in the presence of pneumonia at initial diagnosis, 3.92 fold (95% Cl 2.29-6.72, P=0.001) of dyspnea and 1.69 fold (95% Cl 1.02-2.80, P=0.040) fatigue persists in the early-post-treatment period and 2.88 fold (95% Cl 1.52- 5.46, P=0.001) in the presence of emergency service admission in the post COVID period. In step 2, retrospective analysis of 231 patients revealed that 1.4% of the chest X-rays had not significantly improved at the end of the first year, while computed tomography (CT) scan detected fibrosis in 3.4%. In step 3, 138 (27.4%) patients admitted to face-to-face visit at the end of first year; at least one symptom persisted in 49.27% patients. The most common symptoms were dyspnea (27.60%), psychiatric symptoms (18.10%), and fatigue (17.40%). Thorax CT revealed fibrosis in 2.4% patients. Conclusions: COVID-19 symptoms can last for extended lengths of time, and severity of the disease as well as the presence of comorbidities might contribute to increased risk. Long-term clinical issues should be regularly evaluated after COVID-19.


ATST control systems communicate by passing sets of attribute-value pairs between system components. Each set, or configuration, defines a required state for a component to match. To coordinate the control systems using configurations, every component must implement a consistent behavior. The ATST Controller provides a base class for components to use that implements a uniform life cycle and functional behavior for matching configurations. The ATST Controller class is one of the key elements of the ATST Common Services software framework. The Controller class accepts input configurations though a simple command interface. The class is readily extended to subclasses that may perform detailed operations based on the configuration. Alternatively, ATST Controllers may be used in hierarchical systems that delegate actions to groups of lower level controllers. The Controller provides a simple configuration life cycle to determine the state of a configuration in a component. The Controller also enforces a separation of a component's command request and the ensuing action by executing each configuration in its own thread. This implementation also allows a Controller to execute simultaneous configurations, where the synchronization and exclusion details are left to the implementing subclass.


The ever-increasing boom in smart, miniaturized electronics has led to an urgent need for on-chip energy storage systems that exhibit high performance, safety, flexibility and robust integration. However, tremendous challenges exist. Here, we demonstrate the first prototype of all-solid-state planar lithium ion micro-capacitors (LIMCs) based on interdigital patterns of lithium titanate nanospheres as the anode and activated graphene as the cathode. The interdigital LIMCs were fabricated via layer-by-layer mask-assisted deposition of graphene and electrode materials, without the need for metal current collectors, additives or polymer binders. The as-assembled LIMCs delivered a record volumetric energy density of 53.5 mW h cm−3. Furthermore, they exhibited outstanding mechanical flexibility without performance degradation under repeated bending, superior electrochemical metrics and safety at a high temperature of 80 °C due to the highly stable ionogel electrolyte and the absence of a separator. Additionally, our microdevices presented remarkable modular integration of the constructed bipolar cells for boosting high voltage and capacitance. Therefore, these LIMCs hold great potential for application in future flexible and wearable electronics.


Two membrane receptors interact to maintain endothelial monolayer integrity in the vasculature. In endothelial cells (ECs), liver X receptors (LXRα and LXRβ) can be activated in response to oxysterols derived from endogenous cholesterol or by synthetic agonists to inhibit atherosclerosis. Estrogen promotes reendothelialization and inhibits inflammation after vascular injury through its receptor ERα. Ishikawa et al. found that LXRβ interacts directly with ERα in ECs to promote cell migration, vasodilation, and reendothelialization. ERα and LXRβ coimmunoprecipitated from cultured human EA.hy926 ECs, an interaction that was increased by the LXR agonist T0901317 (T1317) or estrogen (E2). In vitro assays indicated that this interaction required a 30–amino acid region within the ligand-binding domain of ERα. Scratch assays revealed that the LXR agonists T1317 or GW3965 stimulated EC migration independently of proliferation, to a similar extent to that caused by E2 treatment. Agonist- or E2-induced migration was abrogated by treatment with a nonselective nitric oxide synthase (NOS) inhibitor but not by treatment with inhibitors of inducible NOS (iNOS) or neuronal NOS (nNOS), indicating that endothelial NOS (eNOS) mediates LXR- and ER-induced migration. E2 stimulated cell migration in primary ECs isolated from wild-type or Lxra/b–/– mice; however, whereas T1317 induced migration in Lxra–/– ECs, it did not stimulate migration in Lxrb–/– or Lxra/b–/– ECs. Further, in the presence of E2, T1317 did not have an additive or synergistic effect on migration, and a general (ICI) or an α-specific, but not a β-specific, ER antagonist prevented T1317-induced migration, indicating that activation of LXRβ induces EC migration through ERα. LXR agonists (and, as expected, E2) induced the phosphorylation and activation of the kinase Akt and that of its target eNOS. Akt activation in response to either treatment was inhibited by ICI or overexpression of an inactive mutant (S118A) ERα. In contrast, knockdown of LXRβ prevented Akt activation in response to LXR agonists but not to E2, suggesting that the LXRβ-mediated mechanism is dependent on ERα but that ER signaling is independent of LXRβ. E2 or T1317 had a vasodilatory effect on isolated rat aortic rings, which was inhibited by the nonselective NOS inhibitor. E2 or T1317 induced reendothelialization of denuded carotid arteries in wild-type or Lxra–/– mice but not Lxrb–/–, Lxra/b–/–, Era–/–, or ICI-treated mice. Together the data suggest that activation of LXRβ promotes the integrity of the endothelial monolayer through ERα. T. Ishikawa, I. S. Yuhanna, J. Umetani, W.-R. Lee, K. S. Korach, P. W. Shaul, M. Umetani, LXRβ/estrogen receptor-α signaling in lipid rafts preserves endothelial integrity. J. Clin. Invest. 123, 3488–3497 (2013). [PubMed]


Password management is a major issue in the Internet centric world. This project presents the human computable password management scheme by Blocki et al., which makes it possible for human users to calculate passwords from publicly available challenges. The scheme is evaluated in terms of usability, and parameters affecting it discussed. Two applications are designed and implemented, one as a Google Chrome browser extension, and one as a web application. The Chrome extension implements the scheme, utilizing the strengths of browser extensions with accompanying APIs. It handles challenge generation, management and storage, using the Google account of the user to keep the data persistently synced. Smart functionality provided by the Chrome extension framework makes it possible to monitor the site users visit, allowing the application to display the correct challenges without user interaction. The second application is a web application built as an experiment and demonstration site. It demonstrates the scheme and allows users to learn the scheme by trial and error, then asks them to calculate challenges while recording calculation times and failure rates. The gathered data is analyzed using an exploratory approach, trying to find interesting characteristics related to usability. The experiment gave indications that the scheme might suffer from high failure rates, limiting usability for some users. The failure rate was measured to be 0.0585, approximately every one out of 17 calculations was wrong. A measure to limit the consequences of this observation is suggested by categorizing the accounts, having different length passwords for different accounts. Both applications were designed to investigate if the scheme could be implemented in a usable way, and if so, provide strong enough security to justify the efforts required of the users. The Chrome extension lowers the threshold for using the scheme, solving problems related to challenge management and presentation. The conclusion from the experiment was that failure rates are indeed an important usability factor which should be investigated more thoroughly, as it may limit the scheme severely.


Background
Greater purpose in life is associated with lower rates of certain chronic diseases. Whether purpose in life can protect against development of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes is unknown.

Purpose
To examine the association between purpose in life and blood glucose control among adults ≥50 years.

Methods
We conducted a longitudinal cohort study of 3,907 participants of the Health and Retirement Study who at baseline did not have type 2 diabetes or prediabetes. Baseline purpose in life was measured using the Ryff and Keyes' Scales of Psychological Well-Being and grouped into tertiles (high, medium, and low). We used multivariable linear regression to examine the association between baseline purpose in life and HbA1c over 4 years. Multivariable logistic regression was used to examine the association between baseline purpose and incident prediabetes or type 2 diabetes over the same period.

Results
After adjusting for sociodemographic factors, body mass index, physical activity, and physical and mental health factors, HbA1c was 0.07 percentage points lower among participants with high purpose than those with low purpose (95% confidence interval [CI] -0.12 to -0.02; p = .011). Participants with high purpose had lower odds of developing prediabetes or type 2 diabetes than those with low purpose (adjusted odds ratio 0.78; 95% CI 0.62 to 0.98; p = .037).

Conclusions
Among older adults, greater purpose in life is associated with a lower incidence of prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. Strategies to promote greater purpose in life should be tested as a part of type 2 diabetes prevention efforts.


On February 5, 2016, 25 educators from Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and the University of Richmond (UR) gathered in Richmond, Virginia, for an annual service-learning workshop. This year's workshop featured Robin Everhart, PhD, VCU assistant professor of psychology, as keynote speaker. Jumpstarted by Everhart's research on student empathy, workshop participants explored the concept of empathy and collaboratively developed strategies for integrating empathy into the service-learning experience. This document grows out of Everhart's presentation and group discussions during that workshop and represents a collection of ideas generated.


We put forward an efficient entanglement concentration protocol (ECP) for recovering the single-photon less-entangled W state into the maximally entangled W state with only two conventional auxiliary photons. The ECP includes two local steps, both of which are based on the weak cross-Kerr nonlinearities and the variable beam splitter (VBS). Benefiting from the cross-Kerr nonlinearities and the VBS, the ECP can be used repeatedly to further concentrate the less-entangled W state. All the advantages indicate that our protocol may be feasible and convenient in current quantum communications areas.


'Interactions between families and frontline workers – their frequency, quality, and equity – and coverage of interventions for mothers and newborns'. This IDEAS study of the interactions between families and frontline workers and coverage of critical interventions for mothers and newborns was conducted between November 2012 and November 2015 in the State of Uttar Pradesh, India. It is one of three country-specific reports, along with Ethiopia and North Eastern Nigeria.

It follows from the 2013 Baseline findings from Uttar Pradesh, India. The aim was to estimate changes in maternal and newborn health care in areas where Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation implementation projects were operating, with three active projects in the region: Manthan;
Better Birth; The Community Mobilisation Project.

The main body of this report focuses on change in indicators that were expected to improve as a result of the specific implementation activities in place in the study area.

This study was not designed to reflect progress of individual projects, but to understand changes arising as a result of investments made by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation strategy for maternal and newborn health.

Key Messages: (1) Some, but not all, indicators that had been targeted by projects were observed to have increased between the surveys (2) Coverage of at least one antenatal care visit with a skilled provider increased so that three quarters of women reported this in 2015. But there was no change in coverage of at least four antenatal care visits with only one quarter of women having the recommended four visits in 2015. (3) Postnatal care for the mother within two days of birth increased from half of women receiving a check, to two-thirds of women in 2015. This large change was driven by an increase in the number of postnatal checks for women who delivered at home. (4) Postnatal care for the newborn remained very low at just 15% in 2015 and Indicators of interaction quality showed no evidence of change (5) There was very little change in the coverage of life saving interventions for newborns (6) Over three-quarters of women with a recent birth had been visited at home by a frontline worker in 2015.

Citation
Marchant, T; (2016). Change in maternal and newborn health care: Interactions between families and front line workers – their frequency, quality, and equity – and coverage of interventions for mothers and newborns. Report from six-district surveys in Uttar Pradesh, India, 2012-2015. IDEAS Project Report. London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine.

Acknowledgement
The IDEAS team wishes to acknowledge the work of Sambodhi Research and Communications Pvt. Ltd who implemented the surveys, and the cooperation of the grantees in Uttar Pradesh throughout the development and implementation process. We are grateful to the State officials in Lucknow who provided support to the survey implementation, and to all households, facilities and individuals surveyed.


Self-induced transparency (SIT) pulses induce a traveling population inversion in two-level atoms. As a rule, the active medium in which the soliton travels has to be homogeneous. Here, we study the effect of a spatially disordered modulation in the refractive index profile that may lead to Anderson localizations. The interplay between the ultrashort SIT pulse, a nonlinear effect, and this kind of disorder-induced mode exhibits intriguing features. Once the SIT pulse is confined in the spatially confined regions, they act as closed cavities for the SIT population inversion. A positive optical feedback mechanism can be thus activated and, as a result, a two-level laserlike emission can be obtained.


Understanding the governability of traditional use zone (TUZ) on Marine National Parks is still debated due to various reasons since successful implemented of the governing system could be observed in some areas only.  There is a need to assess the contributions and limitations of governance performance sustainability. Using the Cenderawasih Bay National Park as a case, we studied the governance system (GS), system to be governed (SG), and interactive governance (IG) in managing TUZ.  Multi-dimension scaling analysis showed that the existing management showed low sustainability (36%) caused by limitation of stakeholders capacity and violations of rules (GS), impact of live fish fishing, coastal ecosystem degradation and low income (SG), adaptive management and feedback from monitoring and evaluation that were not be able to create effective governance (IT).  Improvement could be achieved by increasing the integration of these three systems, in which social-ecology system benefit could work under effective governance.  This paper also supported the previous finding that household income alternative was the priority for improving management and conservation.  It is justified that both direct and indirect benefits to the society or stakeholders could be provided by well-performed governance. Keywords: governance, traditional use zone, marine national park


These days it may seam like education is changing faster than educators can keep up--Common Core State Standards, the charter school movement, increasingly diversified student populations, "new normal" shrinking budgets--but it's not moving nearly as fast as technology. That's par for the course though, according to David Thomburg, a noted futurist and education consultant who teaches graduate courses on emerging technologies at Walden University. After all, education is a deep-rooted part of society, one that can't always keep up with rapid-fire advances in technology. "It's a common error that people make, which is to overestimate social change and to underestimate technological change," Thornburg says. That makes it especially tough to predict how the two will impact the future. Thornburg contends that, in all of human history, only three major technological revolutions have fundamentally resculpted education. The first two are taken for granted: the construction of a phonetic alphabet, and the propagation of the mass-produced book in the 16th century. These changes seeped into education, Thornburg says, because they were consumer-driven, and ultimately too big to ignore. Thornburg argues that mobile device technology has placed us on the cusp of the next great revolution, which is already very much in progress and is certain to affect education. Like its predecessors, this one is consumer-driven, and has the potential to drastically transform an education environment that has become, to his mind, too focused on assessment and evaluation. Recreating Education Thomburg is a strong advocate of teaching students creative construction skills. While attending a recent event, he sat down with some community-college educators and asked them how recent shifts in education policy, like No Child Left Behind, have affected creativity in their current crop of students. Their response, he says, was not promising. "They said, 'Honestly, we've lost an entire generation of students. They're just lost since NCLB got implemented. The high-stakes tests, they're useless. All [students learn] how to do is pass a test." [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Removing creativity from the curriculum has been a gradual process, and the evolution of educational technology itself has played a pivotal role. "When computers were first introduced into schools, there wasn't any shrink-wrapped software to speak of, so we tended to teach kids how write software using BASIC," Thornburg says. "And that was in some sense good, because it showed kids that this tool was something you could bend to your own whim. Whatever you wanted it to do, it would do it--if you learned how to speak its language." With the proliferation of store-bought software like word processing and computerized spreadsheets in the late 1980s, however, computer science assumed a diminishing role in computer literacy. As software evolved to follow education's next trajectory (and its dollars) it became increasingly centered on helping students succeed on standardized tests, turning technology away from creative construction. With the emergence of the Common Core and new science standards, however, Thornburg says educators' focus is shifting away from rote memorization and teaching to a test, and toward creativity and problem solving--a change he says is long overdue. That change is occurring in tandem with the sudden emergence of what Thomburg calls a "disruptive technology," an impossible-to-predict game changer that will fundamentally alter the conventional landscape. This technology, which he predicts will create the third education revolution, is the always-connected mobile device. Thornburg believes that mobile devices hold significant promise for students, provided they're used appropriately. Disruptive technologies radicalize the field, as opposed to evolutionary ones, which iterate upon (but largely enforce) the status quo. …


Structural analysis of a short segment of the Lagonegro thrust nappe in the Lucania region (Southern Apennines, Italy), revealed two episodes of non-coaxial folding and thrusting (D1, D2). The best developed mesoscopic structures found in the region trend NNW-SSE and are attributed to Miocene shortening (D1). Minor distortion of earlier fold traces developed WSW-ENE trending tectonic fabrics and possibly occurred during Pliocene-Pleistocene(?) deformation (D2). Two different structural sheets of Mesozoic Lagonegro basinal rocks occur in the area. Upper Triassic cherty limestones which are part of the lower imbricate exhibit a variable anisotropy of low field magnetic susceptibility (AMS) from 5% to 40%. The AMS ellipsoids show a lack of correlation in orientation with the pervasive tectonic structures formed during the regional shortening episode (D1). On the contrary, they are consistent with structures developed during the younger deformational episode (D2), casting doubt on the commonly accepted spatial correlation between major mesoscopic structures and AMS ellipsoids.


The attitude and behavioural intention of men towards purchase and consumption of fairness cream have been investigated. We carried out an empirical study with a structured questionnaire. Results showed that attitude towards fairness cream and perceived behavioural control significantly influenced behavioural intention towards fairness cream. Subjective norm was not significant in influencing behavioural intention. Further, subjective knowledge of men significantly influence attitude, and attitude was mediating the effect of subjective knowledge to behavioural intention.


There are many forms of speed control for an autonomous ground vehicle currently in development. Most use a simple PID controller to achieve a speed specified by a higher-level motion planning algorithm. Simple controllers may not provide a desired acceleration profile for a ground vehicle. Also, without extensive tuning the PID controller may cause excessive speed overshoot and oscillation. This paper examines an approach that was designed to allow a greater degree of control while reducing the computing load on the motion planning software. The SpAM+PI (Speed-based Acceleration Map + Proportional Integral controller) algorithm outlined in this paper uses three inputs: current velocity, desired velocity and desired maximum acceleration, to determine throttle and brake commands that will allow the vehicle to achieve its correct speed. Because this algorithm resides on an external controller it does not add to the computational load of the motion planning computer. Also, with only two inputs that are needed only when there is a change in desired speed or maximum desired acceleration, network traffic between the computers can be greatly reduced. The algorithm uses splines to smoothly plan a speed profile from the vehicle's current speed to its desired speed. It then uses a lookup table to determine the correct pedal position (throttle or brake) using the current vehicle speed and a desired instantaneous acceleration that was determined in the splining step of the algorithm. Once the pedal position is determined a PI controller is used to minimize error in the system. The SpAM+PI approach is a novel approach to the speed control of an autonomous vehicle. This academic experiment is tested using Odin, Team Victor Tango's entry into the 2007 DARPA Urban Challenge which won 3 place and a $500,000 prize. The evaluation of the algorithm exposed both strengths and weaknesses that guide the next step in the development of a speed control algorithm.


By any measure, the European Monetary Union and the European Union are in a deep hole. In the summer of 2011 we came uncomfortably close to an uncontrolled sovereign default of an EU country, a member of the European Monetary Union, hardly ten years after the common currency project was launched. In the months that followed, Greece was brought back from the precipice, but by the time of this writing has accumulated sovereign indebtedness of more than €380b or more than 170% of the country's gross domestic product. By current estimates, more than half of this debt is held by foreigners, and mostly by foreign official institutions. How could a country with less than 2% of EU output be the source of such great concern? Quite simply, because in the meantime Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy (which along with Greece, are known as the GIIPs countries, or the PIIGS in less politically correct circles) have all spent significant time at the financial edge, with borrowing costs rising enough to threaten the integrity of the Eurozone banking system, the mechanism of payments, the European Central Bank and the common currency itself. In my view, we are still not out of the hole, even though most recent events may belie that assessment.


Flow and transport parameters of soils in numerical simulations need to be defined at the support scale of computational grid cells. Such support scale can substantially differ from the support scale in laboratory or field measurements of flow and transport parameters. The scale dependence of flow and transport parameters essentially precludes the direct use of measured or pedotransfer‐estimated parameter values in numerical simulations. The hypothesis of this work was that a support‐based scaling law can be introduced that can convert pedotransfer‐estimated saturated hydraulic conductivity values into values to be used over grid cells for finite‐element‐based simulations of water flow and tracer transport in variably saturated soils. A 4‐month‐long experiment was conducted at the USDA–ARS experimental site where Cl− as a tracer was applied with a pulse of irrigation water and its transport in groundwater and variably saturated shallow coarse‐textured soils was monitored in two rows of wells on a daily basis. The HYDRUS‐3D software was used to set and calibrate the Richards model for flow simulations and the convective–dispersive equation for transport simulations. Saturated hydraulic conductivity values were estimated with class pedotransfer functions derived from the USDA database containing results of about 1000 measurements in soils of different textures and bulk densities. A power law scaling for the saturated hydraulic conductivity was suggested based on literature data. When only two parameters of the scaling law rather than nine values of hydraulic conductivity from nine soil materials were calibrated, using the scaled saturated hydraulic conductivity values resulted in an accuracy of simulations that was similar to the accuracy of the calibrated model results. Upscaling of pedotransfer‐estimated saturated hydraulic conductivities can provide reasonable estimates for numerical flow and transport modeling in variably saturated soils.


Liverpool John Moores University and FRAME recently conducted a research project sponsored by Defra on the status of alternatives to animal testing with regard to the European Union REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorisation of Chemicals) system for safety testing and risk assessment of chemicals. The project covered all the main toxicity endpoints associated with the REACH system. This paper focuses on the prospects for using alternative methods (both in vitro and in silico) for environmental (aquatic) toxicity testing. The manuscript reviews tests based on fish cells and cell lines, fish embryos, lower organisms, and the many expert systems and QSARs for aquatic toxicity testing. Ways in which reduction and refinement measures can be used are also discussed, including the Upper Threshold Concentration — Step Down (UTC) approach, which has recently been retrospectively validated by ECVAM and subsequently endorsed by the ECVAM Scientific Advisory Committee (ESAC). It is hoped that the application of this approach could reduce the number of fish used in acute toxicity studies by around 65–70%. Decision-tree style integrated testing strategies are also proposed for acute aquatic toxicity and chronic toxicity (including bioaccumulation), followed by a number of recommendations for the future facilitation of aquatic toxicity testing with respect to environmental risk assessment.


We empirically examine the impact of expanded product variety on demand concentration using large data sets from the movie rental industry as our test bed. We find that product variety is likely to increase demand concentration, which goes against the "Long Tail effect" theory predicting that demand would become less concentrated on "hit" products due to expanded product variety. We further provide evidence that this finding is not due to introducing many low-selling niche products as the intuition might suggest. Instead, we discover that increasing product variety diversifies the demand away from each movie title, but less significantly for hits than for niche products. In particular, we find that increasing product variety by 1,000 titles may increase the Gini coefficient of DVD rentals by 0.0029, which translates to increasing the market share of the top 1% of DVDs by 1.96% and the market share of the top 10% of DVDs by 0.58%. At the same time the market share of the bottom 1% of DVDs is reduced by 21.29% while the market share of the bottom 10% of DVDs is reduced by 5.28%. We rule out alternative explanations using a variety of "Long Tail" metrics, capturing movie format/distribution channel interaction and customer heterogeneity, while making use of instrumental variables.


Over the past quarter of a century much has been written on African involvement in the Anglo-Boer War and on the imprisonment of civilians and military combatants during this conflict. Not mentioned in these writings is the labour camp created on the Bluff, Durban, for Africans suspected of collaborating with the Republican forces. In this institutional biography the rationale for the creation of the camp as well as life in it – from its creation in April 1900 to its closure in early 1902 – is investigated. The central argument of the article is that instead of treating captured Africans suspected of collaborating with the Boer commandoes as prisoners of war or as traitors guilty of high treason they were channelled to the Durban harbour to carry out forced labour on the breakwater. In the process, during a period of acute labour shortages, these suspects were central to the development of the Bluff wharfside.


Aging-associated increases in complement C1q activate the Wnt pathway and compromise tissue regeneration. The transcriptional regulator β-catenin, which is stabilized by activation of the Wnt pathway, functions in development and adult tissue homeostasis, as well as contributes to various diseases and aging-related conditions. Noting that human serum can activate Wnt signaling, Naito et al. isolated the complement component C1q as an activator of the β-catenin reporter (TOPFLASH) and as a molecule that stabilized β-catenin when applied to cultured cells. C1q was more abundant in serum and tissues from aged mice. Binding assays with the cysteine-rich domain of the Wnt receptor Frizzled showed that C1q bound to this receptor. Activation of the β-catenin pathway was reduced in cultured cells exposed to serum depleted of C1q or in tissues from mice deficient for C1q. Furthermore, the aging-associated increase in Wnt signaling was absent in C1q-deficient mice. C1q associates with and activates two proenzymes: C1r and C1s. C1r and C1s were not present in the purified C1q that was added exogenously to cultured cells but were produced by HepG2 cells and released into the culture medium. Knockdown of these two enzymes or addition of inhibitors of C1s blocked activation of Wnt signaling by exogenously applied C1q. Because deletion of the extracellular domain of the Wnt co-receptor LRP6 constitutively activates the Wnt pathway, Naito et al. tested whether LRP6 was a target for C1s-mediated cleavage and found that C1s cleaved the LRP6 extracellular domain in vitro and when C1q was added to cultured cells. The cleavage fragment was detected in mouse serum and was increased in the serum of aged mice. Addition of C1q, Wnt, or serum from aged mice inhibited satellite muscle cell proliferation and promoted fibroblast proliferation and production of collagen. Treating injured skeletal muscle in young mice with C1q impaired tissue repair and promoted fibrosis. Inhibition of C1s or deficiency of C1q promoted tissue regeneration after muscle injury in aged mice. Thus, binding of C1q to Frizzled activates C1s, which cleaves and activates the co-receptor LRP6, resulting in activation of the Wnt pathway. Increased abundance of C1q in circulation leading to activation of the Wnt pathway may contribute to the aging-related decline in tissue regenerative capacity. A. T. Naito, T. Sumida, S. Nomura, M.-L. Liu, T. Higo, A. Nakagawa, K. Okada, T. Sakai, A. Hashimoto, Y. Hara, I. Shimizu, W. Zhu, H. Toko, A. Katada, H. Akazawa, T. Oka, J.-K. Lee, T. Minamino, T. Nagai, K. Walsh, A. Kikuchi, M. Matsumoto, M. Botto, I. Shiojima, I. Komuro, Complement C1q activates canonical Wnt signaling and promotes aging-related phenotypes. Cell 149, 1298–1313 (2012). [Online Journal]


This paper assesses the impact of contract farming in the oil palm industry in Indonesia on smallholders' well-being and investigates its implication for poverty reduction. Data were collected using random sampling from 245 smallholders in the province of Jambi, Sumatra. A treatment effects model was applied in order to capture endogeneity and selection bias. Results show that participation in contract farming is significantly associated with type of household, age of household head, size of oil palm plot, and the time of plantation establishment. While contract farming has a significant positive effect on smallholder income overall, it discriminates against poorer smallholders. It is recommended that the agro industry and government review contractual arrangements in order to increase the chances of the poor benefiting from oil palm expansion in Indonesia.


This study was designed a wastewater treatment plant with an aim at minimizing and/or removing of suspended solids, dissolved solids, nutrients, and toxic compounds, before it releases into a water body. A lab-scale batch type integrated aerobic biological treatment plant was constructed and operated for pharmaceutical wastewater treatment and its performance was evaluated. A cylindrical open tank was used as a reactor and passed air through the bottom of the tank. The maximum hydraulic retention time was 15 days. The treated water samples were collected every day and tested for its chemical oxygen demand (COD), total suspended solids (TSS), pH, conductivity, and total dissolved solids (TDS) to evaluate the efficiency of the plant. About 75% removal of COD was achieved employing hydraulic residence times of 15 days. The analyses results of the treated wastewater reveal that the parameters pH, BOD, COD, TSS, TDS and color were found within the prescribed permissible limits indicating the efficiency of the plant. The results of this study demonstrate the potential for air injection to accelerate the biological treatment process, with greatest influence on COD removal from the wastewater.


While Deep Reinforcement Learning has emerged as a de facto approach to many complex experience-driven networking problems, it remains challenging to deploy DRL into real systems. Due to the random exploration or half-trained deep neural networks during the online training process, the DRL agent may make unexpected decisions, which may lead to system performance degradation or even system crash. In this paper, we propose PnP-DRL, an offline-trained, plug and play DRL solution, to leverage the batch reinforcement learning approach to learn the best control policy from pre-collected transition samples without interacting with the system. After being trained without interaction with systems, our Plug and Play DRL agent will start working seamlessly, without additional exploration or possible disruption of the running systems. We implement and evaluate our PnP-DRL solution on a prevalent experience-driven networking problem, Dynamic Adaptive Streaming over HTTP (DASH). Extensive experimental results manifest that 1) The existing batch reinforcement learning method has its limits; 2) Our approach PnP-DRL significantly outperforms classical adaptive bitrate algorithms in average user Quality of Experience (QoE); 3) PnP-DRL, unlike the state-of-the-art online DRL methods, can be off and running without learning gaps, while achieving comparable performances.


Knowledge technologies, the software products that support all aspects of knowledge processing and exchange, are the subject of permanent interest for software engineers at research organizations, as well as, for market analysts in commercial organizations. In order to clarify the role of knowledge management solutions in an enterprise business process, in this paper we survey the market of knowledge management solutions and analyze their functionalities from operational and strategic business perspective. Although knowledge flows are identified on an operational level, discussion will show that knowledge management solutions here serve to utilize the enterprise knowledge in an efficient performance of daily work. We argue that data and information collected on the operational level are processed by knowledge management solutions on a strategic level thus creating new knowledge that is used for strategic management of customers, suppliers and partners. This paper gives an insight into knowledge management market that can help the strategic planners to easily begin a knowledge management initiative.


Abstract. We present a model of crack growth in brittle materials which couples dissipative effects on the crack tip and viscous effects. We consider the 2-dimensional antiplane case with pre-assigned crack path, and firstly prove an existence result for a rate-dependent evolution problem by means of time-discretization. The next goal is to describe the rate-independent evolution as limit of the rate-dependent ones when the dissipative and viscous effects vanish. The rate-independent evolution satisfies a Griffith's criterion for the crack growth, but, in general, it does not fulfil a global minimality condition; its fracture set may exhibit jump discontinuities with respect to time. Under suitable regularity assumptions, the quasi-static crack growth is described by solving a finite-dimensional problem.


The study investigated differences in the one- (SH) and two-handed (DH) backhands when hit flat, across-court (AC) and down-the-line (DL), and with heavy topspin DL (TDL). The ability to disguise each of these backhands when hitting the above strokes was also assessed. Eighteen college-level male tennis players, identified as having a high performance topspin SH (n = 6) or DH (n = 12) backhand drive, participated in the study. Players were required to hit three AC, DL and TDL backhands from the baseline with their preferred technique, while being filmed with two high-speed video cameras operating at 200 Hz. The highest horizontal velocity backhand for each stroke was analysed. Results indicated that the sequential coordination of five body segments (hips, shoulder, upper arm, forearm, and hand/racquet rotations) was required for the execution of the SH stroke. The same number of segments were generally coordinated in the DH stroke (hips, shoulders, and varying degrees of upper arm and forearm rotations followed by hand/racquet movement). Mature players produced comparable racquet horizontal velocities 0.005 s prior to impact using either the SH or DH backhand technique. The SH backhand was characterised by a more rotated shoulder alignment than the DH stroke (SH: 119.1 degrees; DH: 83.4 degrees) at the completion of the backswing. At impact the ball was impacted further in front (SH: 0.59 m: DH: 0.40 m) and a similar distance to the side of the body (SH: 0.75 m: DH: 0.70 m). Players using the DH backhand technique delayed the horizontal acceleration of the racquet towards the ball (SH: 0.13 s: DH: 0.08 s prior to impact) and thus were capable of displaying a similar hitting motion closer to impact than players with a SH technique.


This study examines the ways in which transnational city newcomers interact with locative technology to build knowledge about their urban surroundings. We conducted semistructured interviews with 25 transnational migrants recently relocated to the greater New York City area, investigating their day-to-day smartphone use, navigation tactics, and uses of location-based services. Our analysis reflects on three themes: tensions surrounding different navigation strategies (searching vs. browsing); social monitoring practices (awareness vs. surveillance); and perceptions of online information sources (credibility/trust vs. distrust). Together, these themes highlight the contradictory outcomes of technology use both facilitating and hindering the processes of urban learning. We conclude with a discussion of paradoxical outcomes of technological use as a means of unpacking the sociotechnical tensions that emerge from locative technology use among transnational migrants in new urban environments.


A LNG plant with MRC cycle would not work under the designed condition all the time. It is significant to know the performance of a fixed MRC plant working at changed working condition. The problem involves the problem of plant simulation, which is somewhat similar to but actually different with the process simulation which is used in the design of a LNG plant. A model of MRC plant simulation was established and brief comparison between the two kinds of simulations was made. Here, the performance of main devices at different working conditions is simulated using fitting method and the rest is regarded as constant. The calculation of devices in the MRC process is connected using the HYSYS soft so as the entire plant simulation at different conditions could be carried out. Two kinds of MRC plant of LNG are studied. One kind is the LNG plant with SMR cycle which generally used in small-scale plant. The other is the plant with C3-MR process which often used in large base-load plant is studied. The follow cases, including ambient temperature variations, feed gas pressure variations and load variations, are simulated and evaluated. The adaptabilities of the two LNG processes are analysis and compared. The results show the SMR cycle has good adaptability under changed working condition. Since C3-MR process is more sophisticated and has more devices, the effect of changed working conditions on the performance of the LNG plant is larger. The results could be referred in the selection of liquefaction process in medium-scale LNG plant. To reduce the energy consumption, it is necessary for LNG plant operation to adapt the mixture refrigerant composition and other process parameters to the changed working conditions for LNG plant. The operation optimization is a reasonable way to obtain the object. The operation optimization is also rather different with the design optimization. The operation optimization should be conducted on the basis of plant simulations. Here, the object function is to minimize the operation power consumption and corresponding constraint condition of operation should be made. The BOX method is used to solve the optimization problem. The operation optimizations of SMR plant and C3-MR plant are done under the same condition of changed ambient temperature. The results show that the obvious energy saving could be achieved for the both kinds of plants, although the total energy consumptions is still higher than that of design optimizations. The SMR plant also shows better performance at changed working conditions than that of C3-MR plant. The work could be referred for actual operation of a MRC plant for variable working conditions.


A model has been formulated of the equilibrium speciation, kinetic reaction, and transport of trace metals in the presence of biodegradation of organic substrates in saturated porous media. Kinetics of various processes (biodegradation, chemical reactions, and precipitation and dissolution of minerals) together with transport processes (advection, bioturbation, and diffusive/dispersive mixing) are quantified in a set of coupled mass balance equations (for the organic substrate, electron acceptors, reduced species, and trace metals). These steady state, one‐dimensional equations are discretized using a second‐order‐accurate finite difference approximation. A pE is estimated at each node in the domain on the basis the concentrations calculated and the half reaction for the dominant terminal electron acceptor at that location. The dynamic model is coupled iteratively to a modified version of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency's MINTEQA2, which calculates equilibrium chemical speciation (including aqueous speciation, adsorption, and precipitation of minerals) at each node of the domain. The primary dependent variables are the total dissolved concentrations of the aqueous species together with the solid concentrations of the minerals. To demonstrate that this formulation can simulate biodegradation using reaction rates consistent with published values, simulations are compared to data from the sediment pore waters of a small lake. Simulations are presented of the transport and reaction of arsenic in lake sediments to illustrate how this model can be used to evaluate trends in trace metal mobility as affected by various water quality parameters through their influence on the biogeochemistry of natural systems.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of a brief intervention for mandated students in the context of the University Assistance Program, a Student Assistance Program developed and modeled after workplace Employee Assistance Programs.

METHOD
Participants were 265 (196 males and 69 females) judicially mandated college students enrolled in a large, urban university in the northeast United States. All participants were sanctioned by the university's judicial office for an alcohol- or drug-related violation. Participants were randomized to one of two intervention conditions (the University Assistance Program or services as usual) and were assessed at baseline and 3 and 6 months after intervention.

RESULTS
Growth curve analyses showed that, relative to services as usual, the University Assistance Program was more efficacious in reducing past-90-day weekday alcohol consumption and the number of alcohol-related consequences while increasing past-90-day use of protective behaviors and coping skills. No significant differences in growth trajectories were found between the two intervention conditions on past-90-day blood alcohol concentration, total alcohol consumption, or weekend consumption.

CONCLUSIONS
The University Assistance Program may have a possible advantage over services as usual for mandated students.


The electric power sector is facing significant new economic and regulatory pressures that are changing the electric generation mix. In this chapter in the forthcoming book Global Climate Change and U.S. Law, we examine the regulation of fuels used for electric power generation, focusing on regulatory trends and economic considerations that are likely to have the largest impacts on greenhouse gas emissions and, therefore, climate change. Perhaps the biggest driver of change is the prospect of stable, relatively low prices for natural gas for the foreseeable future. As gas becomes cost-competitive with coal as an electricity generation fuel, it is commanding a growing share of the electric generation market, usually at the expense of coal. Increasingly stringent regulation of the environmental externalities associated with coal mining and coal combustion seem likely to hasten this trend. But the prospect of inexpensive natural gas discourages the development of other, less carbon intensive electric generation sources, including nuclear and renewable generation. Prospective investors in new generation face an increasingly competitive wholesale electricity market: new nuclear and renewable plants will compete with natural gas-fired plants for customers, and price will be the focus of that competition. Policies like state renewable portfolio standards and financial incentives for nuclear and renewables will continue to drive some development of those technologies. However, absent a significant change in the relative costs of these electric generation fuels, the creation of additional market demand for renewables or nuclear power will require the creation of new policies driving that demand.


Abstract. The late Paleocene is characterized by warm and stable climatic conditions that served as the background climate for the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM, ~55 million years ago). With respect to feedback processes in the carbon cycle, the ocean biogeochemical background state is of major importance for projecting the climatic response to a carbon perturbation related to the PETM. Therefore, we use the Hamburg Ocean Carbon Cycle model (HAMOCC), embedded in the ocean general circulation model of the Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, MPIOM, to constrain the ocean biogeochemistry of the late Paleocene. We focus on the evaluation of modeled spatial and vertical distributions of the ocean carbon cycle parameters in a long-term warm steady-state ocean, based on a 560 ppm CO2 atmosphere. Model results are discussed in the context of available proxy data and simulations of pre-industrial conditions. Our results illustrate that ocean biogeochemistry is shaped by the warm and sluggish ocean state of the late Paleocene. Primary production is slightly reduced in comparison to the present day; it is intensified along the Equator, especially in the Atlantic. This enhances remineralization of organic matter, resulting in strong oxygen minimum zones and CaCO3 dissolution in intermediate waters. We show that an equilibrium CO2 exchange without increasing total alkalinity concentrations above today's values is achieved. However, consistent with the higher atmospheric CO2, the surface ocean pH and the saturation state with respect to CaCO3 are lower than today. Our results indicate that, under such conditions, the surface ocean carbonate chemistry is expected to be more sensitive to a carbon perturbation (i.e., the PETM) due to lower CO32− concentration, whereas the deep ocean calcite sediments would be less vulnerable to dissolution due to the vertically stratified ocean.


As the Internet continues to permeate and connect communities, businesses, and things, there is an increasing demand for new approaches and technologies to analyze and synthesize data generated from diverse and distributed sources. In addition, this data must be accessible to a set of users having different analytic objectives and viewpoints. We examine these topics in light of the growing number of data consortia in sectors such as finance and healthcare, whose role is to share data among a set of contributing members. We address the need for data consortia to apply data customization and context-alignment services to make heterogeneous data relevant for its subscribers. Such services include record linkage, record selection, and scaling and homogeneity analysis. In addition, the often personal or business-sensitive nature of such data requires that privacy-preservation methods be employed to avoid improper disclosures. We provide a publication process model for data consortia that allow users to extract the maximum amount of information from these heterogeneous databases in a privacy-aware manner. We describe the Operational Riskdata eXchange (ORX) as a successful case study to illustrate these concepts.


Title of Document: MODELING AND SIMULATION OF OPERATOR KNOWLEDGE-BASED BEHAVIOR Yuandan Li, Ph.D., 2013 Directed By: Professor Ali Mosleh, Department of Mechanical Engineering Many accidents are attributed to human errors. Abundant evidences could be found in major accidents in petro-chemical, nuclear, aviation, and other industries. In the nuclear power industry, safe operation heavily relies on the operators' interaction with plant systems. For example, Three Mile Island accident was exacerbated by the operators' misdiagnosis of the situation, which led to the termination of the plant's automatic protection system that could have prevented meltdown of the reactor core. Hence, human Reliability Analysis (HRA) is an important ingredient of Probabilistic Risk Assessment (PRA), particularly in the nuclear industry. HRA aims to predict possible human errors, identify "error forcing contexts", and assess error probabilities. Despite advances in HRA discipline over the past two decades, virtually all existing methods lack a causal model and few leverage the theoretical and empirical insights for error prediction in a systematic and formal way. One approach that has attempted to address this major shortcoming is IDAC crew simulation model of ADS-IDAC dynamic PRA platform. Through the interactions between an IDAC crew model and a pressurizer water reactor plant model, ADS-IDAC dynamically simulates the operators' cognitive activities and actions in an accident condition. The goal of proposed research is to introduce an advanced reasoning capability and structured knowledge representation to enhance the realism and predictive power of in the IDAC model for situations where crew behaviors are governed by both the Emergency Operating Procedure (EOP) and their knowledge of the plant. This is achieved by: 1) Developing and implementing a cognitive architecture to simulate operators' understanding of accident conditions and plant response, their reasoning processes and knowledge utilization to make a diagnosis. A reasoning module has been added to the individual operator model within IDAC model to mimic operators knowledge-based reasoning processes; 2) Developing and applying a comprehensive set of Performance Shaping Factors (PSF) to model the impacts of situational and cognitive factors on operators' behaviors. The effects and interdependencies of PSFs are incorporated the reasoning module; and 3) Performing a calibration and validation of the model predictions by comparing the simulation results with results of a number of plantcrew simulator exercises. MODELING AND SIMULATION OF OPERATOR KNOWLEDGE-BASED BEHAVIOR