Buddhism is being emphasised strongly in both Chinese and Indian public diplomacy, as they both seek to increase their soft-power attractiveness. This article finds that while Buddhism has served to draw the two countries together in their bilateral relationship, their current invocation of Buddhism as a bridge is in many ways an ahistorical reconstruction. The article also finds that Buddhism operates as a tool of diplomacy in a competitive way, as China and India both seek influence among Buddhist countries elsewhere in Asia and among international Buddhist organisations. Finally, this article finds that whereas China's use of Buddhism is straightforwardly tactical and to a degree disingenuous, India is able to incorporate genuine spiritual elements into its use of Buddhism, albeit within a setting of Hindu reinterpretation of Buddhism. In the future, China could shift from a short-term tactical to a long-term normative use of Buddhism within international socialisation scenarios.


The establishment of Batik Air as a Full-Service-Carrier (FSC) of Lion Air Group, a Low-Cost-Carrier group, marks a new development in the airline industry. LCC groups had started their move to serve a larger customer segment to increase their share in key markets. Previously the multi-brand strategy was only utilized by FSC groups as a response to the entry of LCC in the market. This study specifically tries to investigate the perception of passengers towards FSC within an LCC group. An online survey was conducted among the passengers of Batik Air in the last one year. 247 respondents were obtained resulting in a 67.1% response rate. SEM analysis was used to analyze the data. This study provides light in revealing how passengers perceive the service quality of FSC under an LCC group. The current results also clarify whether the service performances of such FSC align with the perceived services by its customer. This study contributes to the existing customer perception and strategic literature in the way that is among the first studies to investigate the perception of passenger a newly established FSC from an LCC group. The study includes implications for the low-cost airline group that plans to establish a full-service unit to maintain the level of service quality thus can succeed in attracting passengers within the intended market


If youre as excited as we are about the Rebel XSi/450D, you probably cant wait to start shooting. Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi/450D For Dummies will show you how to make every shot count! Even if youre new to digital SLR cameras or are unfamiliar with general photography terms and techniques, this handy guide will show you how to feel comfortable with the controls and start taking beautiful photographs. Dont worry if youve never heard the words aperture, white balance, or ISO. Youll soon be switching easily between automatic and manual modes, managing exposure, and using the all-important Quality setting! Youll learn everything about the lenses, from how to choose the ones you need to how to handle them. Youll finally know how to push just the right buttons to achieve the results that you desire. In a snap, you will find out how to unleash your creativity by manipulating exposure and lighting. You will find out how to: Control picture quality Adjust resolution for image quality and size Shoot in automatic and manual modes Review photos using Playback Mode and the histogram, delete unwanted photos, and protect valuable photos from accidental deletion Manipulate exposure, color, focus, and lighting Download, organize, archive, print, and share photos with family and friends Complete with lists of ten fast photo-editing tricks and ten special-purpose features to explore on a rainy day, Canon EOS Digital Rebel XSi/450D For Dummies is your one-stop guide to setting up, working with, and making the most of your new Canon digital SLR camera.


The Grand Tour was all things to all men. For the Adam brothers, Robert and James, Italy offered a world of intense intellectual, professional and social development. The limited attainments of their Scottish education had equipped all three brothers to practice architecture in Scotland, but little else. To attain greater things, they needed the space to branch out and break with tradition. This meant travel abroad. For anyone interested in extending or developing their understanding of the visual arts in the eighteenth century, this certainly meant Italy, regarded as the cradle of antiquity and centre of the classical world.For the Adam brothers, the purpose of their tours was to provide them with a clear understanding of classical architecture and enable them to effectively express that understanding pictorially. Such was the bedrock of the Adam style and the basis of their later triumph in London. Accompanied by a fascinating text by world renowned art historian Professor A A Tait, the drawings reproduced in this beautifully produced book are all taken from the collection of 57 volumes of Adam drawings purchased by Sir John Soane and held in the Sir John Soane Museum, London, many of which have never been published before.


The paper considers recent trends in the provision of finance and the factors that are likely to influence its future course. It emphasises how the interaction between the allocation of household wealth and the financing needs of firms shape the structure and evolution of financial systems. The paper focuses on the experiences of banks, and argues that as the 1990s proceed they will face increased competition on both sides of their balance sheets. However, several factors are likely to provide banks some competitive advantage. The most important is that a large pool of borrowers cannot raise funds other than through banks. On the asset side of their balance sheets, the intermediation of funds to small and medium-sized businesses is thus a core function which differentiates banks from other financial institutions and the securities markets generally. But banks also have advantages on the liabilities side of their balance sheets, as they offer depositors a safe and highly liquid repository for their funds. The paper argues that the extent to which banks remain the institutional core of the financial system will depend on their ability to perform their traditional lending role. It concludes by speculating about the implications for the stability of the financial system of the structural changes which have occurred.


Abstract The Karner blue butterfly, Lycaeides melissa samuelis, is an endangered species residing in savanna and barrens habitats in the Midwest and Northeast United States. To improve our understanding of nectar plant selection patterns by the Karner blue, we examined nectar plant choices made by 146 butterflies. Within observation areas of 2-m radius butterflies usually chose the nectar species with the greatest total number of flowers or flowering heads. This suggests that the Karner blue is opportunistic in selecting nectar plants. However, certain nectar species, including Arabis lyrata, Coreopsis lanceolata, Melilotus alba and Rubus flagellaris, were selected in a significant majority of cases when other nectar species were available nearby. At least in the case of R. flagellaris, this preference was not directly related to the species' local flower abundance. In a significant majority of cases (77.5%) adult Karner blues selected nectar plant species with yellow or white flowers over species with other-colored flowers. Comparison of nectar plant selections at Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore to selections from Michigan and Wisconsin suggests that the Karner blue most frequently chooses a suite of nectar plant species that includes A. lyrata, C. lanceolata, Euphorbia corollata, M. alba, Monarda punctata, Potentilla simplex, Rubus spp., Solidago speciosa and, perhaps, Asclepias tuberosa and Helianthus divaricatus. This suite includes plant species that readily flower in the sun and others that readily flower in the shade, an important consideration since Karner blues often move across the sun-shade interface.


The authors assess how Medicare financing and projections of future costs have changed since 2000. They also assess the impact of legislative reforms on the sources and levels of financing and compare cost forecasts made at different times. Although the aging U.S. population and rising health care costs are expected to increase the share of gross domestic product devoted to Medicare, changes made in the program over the past decade have helped stabilize Medicare's financial outlook--even as benefits have been expanded. Long-term forecasting uncertainty should make policymakers and beneficiaries wary of dramatic changes to the program in the near term that are intended to alter its long-term forecast: the range of error associated with cost forecasts rises as the forecast window lengthens. Instead, policymakers should focus on the immediate policy window, taking steps to reduce the current burden of Medicare costs by containing spending today.


In a multiprocessor systems, it is important to local and to replace the faulty processors to maintain systempsilas high reliability. The fault diagnosis, which is the process of identifying fault processors in a multiprocessor system through testing. The conditional diagnosis requires that for each processor u in a system, all the processors that are directly connected to u do not fail at the same time. In this paper, we study the conditional diagnosability of the n-dimensional locally twisted cubes. After showing some properties of the locally twisted cubes, we prove that it under the PMC model is 4n – 7 for n ≥ 5.


This problem in lieu of thesis report presents a study on gate electrode materials on high K dielectrics, including poly-SiGe and Ru. The stability of poly-SiGe in direct contact with Hf silicon-oxynitride (HfSiON) is studied by rapid thermal annealing (RTA), Rutherford backscattering spectrometry (RBS), X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and high resolution transmission electron microscopy (HRTEM). By performing a series of RTA treatments we found that as RTA thermal budgets reach 1050 C for 30s, the poly-SiGe layer begins to intermix with the HfSiON film, as observed by TEM. The maximum annealing condition for the Hf0.14Si0.23O0.46N0.17 film to remain stable in contact with poly-SiGe is 1050 C for 20s in high purity N2(99.9%) ambient. We also found that after 1000 C annealing for 60s in a nitrogen ambient, the poly-SiGe crystal phase structure was changed from a columnar structure to a large grain structure. For a metal gate, Ru was studied to determine N2annealing effects on sheet resistance of Ru sample electrodes and electrical characterization of Ru/HfSiOx/Si stack. Results show that a pure Ru metal gate is not a good choice for high k materials since it is hard to etch off, and different annealing conditions can cause large changes in the electrical behavior.


The main catalysts which are traditionally used for the hydrogenation of organic compounds are supported platinum group metals, and while these heterogeneous catalysts are generally not effective in carbon-carbon bond forming reactions, there has been a growing interest in recent years in soluble complexes of the platinum group metals for use as catalysts in organic synthesis. Rhodium catalysed alkene hydroformylation and carbonylation of methanol to acetic acid are two particularly notable industrial successes in this area, and there have also been many dramatic advances in laboratory-scale carboncarbon bond forming reactions. A tremendous amount of research has shown that palladium is one of the most versatile centres in this context, and many otherwise difficult-to-achieve organic transformations can be accomplished in convenient practical procedures, when mediated by soluble palladium species. This is illustrated by two important reaction types: coupling processes of the kinds developed by R. F. Heck and reviewed in his book "Palladium Reagents in Organic Synthesis", Academic Press, 1985; and direct incorporation of carbon monoxide into certain organic compounds to give a variety of carbony1 derivatives (aldehydes, carboxylic acids, amides, esters, etc.) often under conditions as mild as room temperature and atmospheric pressure, which palladium compounds have the ability to promote. A book on these reactions by the present reviewer and his colleagues appeared more recently ("Carbonylation Direct Synthesis of Carbonyl Compounds", by H. M. Colquhoun, D. J. Thompson and M. V. Twigg, Plenum Press, 199 1 (1)). The present book is to be welcomed, since it not only gives an update of progress in the two areas mentioned, but also embraces the entire field of palladium reagents and catalysts in organic synthesis. In his authoritative book Professor Tsuji provides more than 2400 original literature references, as well as information about relevant monographs and other texts. It comprises three short and two long chapters. The first chapter, of only ten pages, describes characteristic features of palladium catalysed reactions, and fundamental concepts in palladium organometallic chemistry. The second, even shorter, chapter (six pages) describes how reactions are classified in the book, while the third chapter, of over one hundred pages, deals with oxidation reactions involving palladium(II), such as Wacker chemistry (alkenes to aldehydes, etc.). The fourth chapter is very long, some four hundred pages, and is concerned with carbon-carbon bond forming reactions. The fifth and final chapter, of twenty pages, brings together various catalysed reactions, which have unclear mechanisms, or which, for other reasons, do not fit into any of the categories of the two main chapters. The index is useful, although not exhaustive. References are collected at the end of chapters and also at the end of some main sections in the largest chapter; this could cause confusion for readers wishing to pursue the original papers. The two other previously mentioned books give practical details for those wanting to make use of palladium-based procedures in their own work. In contrast, the present book does not provide such information, but as the discussion is detailed, and there are copious references, there should be no major problems translating theory into practical applications. As suggested by the layout of the chapters, material is organised according to the involvement of the metal, while in the two main chapters it is organised according to the organic transformations. This could make it rather difficult for a reader who wants to establish how palladium catalysis might help with a particular transformation. However, by using the contents list and the index, specific information can be tracked down. Due to the wealth of informa-


We investigated the feasibility of simultaneous identification of soil hydraulic and root‐distribution parameters by inverse simulation of soil water flow in monolithic lysimeters under atmospheric boundary conditions using the Richards equation and a macroscopic root water uptake model. Weighable lysimeters are powerful test systems for this purpose because the boundary fluxes (precipitation, actual evapotranspiration, and seepage across the bottom) can be determined very precisely. We analyzed the amount of information needed for the unique identification of parameters and investigated the magnitude of their uncertainties. First, we examined synthetic data sets for different scenarios and instrumentation campaigns that differed in their information content and complexity of soil properties. Atmospheric boundary conditions as measured at the lysimeter station in Wagna, Austria, were used as forcing data. The results show that for homogeneous profiles, cumulative outflow and profile‐averaged water content data contain enough system information to allow the simultaneous estimation of soil hydraulic properties and root‐distribution parameters. In contrast, for soil profiles consisting of two layers, unique soil hydraulic parameters and the correct rooting depth could only be estimated if matric potential measurements from both layers were included in the objective function. Finally, soil hydraulic properties of the grass‐reference lysimeter in Wagna were estimated using real measurements. Water dynamics in the lysimeter could be described well by an effective parameterization assuming a homogeneous soil profile. Furthermore, the system behavior under different boundary conditions could be predicted adequately with the estimated parameters. This demonstrates the usefulness of the identified system properties for predictive modeling.


Persistent unemployment is recognised as one of the main mechanisms of social and political exclusion. The Dynamics of Full Employment provides a new and fresh approach to the question of full employment in contemporary society. It offers an internationally comparative, interdisciplinary approach to the dynamics of full employment and views the labour market not only as an economic institution, but as a social one.


There is a perception that information systems security outsourcing, in spite entailing a relationship between a client and one or more providers, tends to be studied and analysed from the perspective of the client. A gap is then believed to exist in the study of the information systems security outsourcing relationship from the point of view of the service provider. This research aims to identify the key issues of such a relationship from the perspective of the service provider and rank them according to their importance. The Delphi method was used to support the communication with the group of experts contributing to this research as well as to boost consensus within the group. Final interviews with participants were also conducted with the aim of reaching deeper into their opinions and to shed a brighter light over the results of the Delphi. A ranked list of the 13 most important key issues found is presented and discussed and propositions for further work are put forward in the wake of the study.


Introduced alien species are frequently implicated in ecosystem disruption and biodiversity loss, but some ecologists have recently argued that efforts to manage ecosystems should be refocused on known problematic species without regard to whether such species are native or alien. This argument rests on the premise that native and alien species in general do not differ in their impacts. Although there are numerous cases that suggest alien predators and herbivores can sometimes cause severe declines or even local extinctions of native species, very few studies have compared the impacts of native and alien consumers on native populations.


The subject of inquiry of my research is the socio-economic restructuring of the European Union (EU). The project provides an innovative interdisciplinary intervention that uses the canonical texts of Karl Polanyi and the insights from the burgeoning Polanyian scholarship in an attempt to explain the morphology of the contradictions that underpin the EU integration project. The starting point of analysis lies in the recent debates instigated by the critical turn in the EU studies scholarship that tries to shift the focus from the causes of the EU integration to its consequences. My original contribution to the scholarship consists of providing a Polanyian critique of the EU political economy. The ever-growing Polanyian scholarship proves a formidable alternative to the already established Gramscian and Marxist routes of critical inquiry. Based on a close reading of Polanyi and the wider Polanyian scholarship the thesis proposes a new take on the established practice of using Polanyi's concept of dis/embeddedness as an all-or-nothing phenomenon and instead suggests conceptualising the social reality in terms of tendencies. The lenses through which I evaluate the EU predicament consist of the following conceptual vocabulary: a) dis/embedding tendencies b) habitation and improvement, and c) the rate of change.

The main puzzle that the project endeavours to explain is the interplay between the disembedding and the embedding tendencies in the EU. The examination of the disembedding tendency consists of excavating the self-regulating market logic inscribed into the EU edifice by analysing the development across three policy fields: competition, finance and education. The findings suggest that the disembedding tendency is manifested not only in the monetary orthodoxy inscribed in the Economic and Monetary Union since the Maastricht Treaty and further reified during the Great Recession, but also in the privatisation, depoliticisation and commodification dynamics evident in the three policy domains discussed in the thesis. Given Polanyi's observation that the embedding tendency is immanent to the disembedding one, the second empirical endeavour consists of investigating the surge of socio-environmental measures. Notwithstanding the institutional divergences between the social and environmental policy domains, the appraisal of the policy output demonstrates that the embedding tendency is characterised by the same marketisation dynamic that we see in the disembedding one. This thesis recuperates a critical Polanyian reading that highlights the disruptive dialectics between the disembedding tendency and the seemingly protective measures predicated on fictitious commodification. In addition to unearthing the structural bias towards the market form that constitutes the two tendencies, this project develops a normative critique of the market society, based on Polanyi's ferocious appraisal of neoclassical economics' formal understanding of the economy, by problematising the extension of the economising rationality within previously unaffected spheres.


We demonstrate coherent microwave control of rotational and hyperfine states of trapped, ultracold, and chemically stable ^{23}Na^{40}K molecules. Starting with all molecules in the absolute rovibrational and hyperfine ground state, we study rotational transitions in combined magnetic and electric fields and explain the rich hyperfine structure. Following the transfer of the entire molecular ensemble into a single hyperfine level of the first rotationally excited state, J=1, we observe lifetimes of more than 3 s, comparable to those in the rovibrational ground state, J=0. Long-lived ensembles and full quantum state control are prerequisites for the use of ultracold molecules in quantum simulation, precision measurements, and quantum information processing.


In spite of the many efforts in the pursuit of a European single market, many barriers continue to lie ahead, as the field of public procurement illustrates. In 2015, around 40% of all high-value procurement tenders in a large pool of European countries attracted only 2 bidders or less, and only 3% of all winning companies had their offices outside the procuring country. This paper explores a rather unaccounted dimension behind the competitiveness of tenders: the administrative capacities of contracting authorities. For this, we first build a theoretically-informed multidimensional framework of administrative capacities and subsequently test the effect of these capacities on competitiveness, by using a comprehensive and curated database of more than 120.000 procurement contracts in 32 European countries. The findings show that most administrative measures robustly explain a portion of competitiveness, in particular administrative aspects related to the choice of instruments and procedures to conduct the bidding calls, such as electronic procurement. Findings also show that the behaviour of these relationships is counterintiuitive at times, and highly dependent on the national context, suggesting that organizational path-dependency undermines convergence under EU regulation.


Indices of condition enable the evaluation of the well-being of fish, with the assumption that heavier fish of a given length are in a better condition. Relative weight (Wr) is one of these indices; it is calculated by comparing the actual weight of a specimen with the ideal weight of a specimen in good physiological condition of the same length from the same species, i.e. standard weight (Ws). In this research, length and weight data over the distribution range for Pursak chub Squalius pursakensis, an endemic species distributed in the Sakarya and Porsuk drainages in Northwest Anatolia (Turkey), were used to compute a Ws equation by means of the empirical percentile (EmP) method. The Ws equation obtained was log10 Ws = -4.657 + 2.614 log10 TL + 0.127 (log10 TL)2, and the total length range of application was 80-340 mm. Since the EmP Ws equation was not influenced by length variation, the use of this equation to compute the relative weight (Wr) for S. pursakensis throughout its area of distribution is suggested.


This thesis examines the morphological changes of three beaches close to Sohar Industrial Are (SIA), a newly developed industrial area north of the Batinah Region in Oman. The construction work on the port breakwaters started in 1999 and was complete 2002. Three sites were selected for this project: Harmul, located north of SIA, Majees south of SIA, and Zafaran, about nine kilometers south of Majees. The main purpose of this thesis is study the changes likely to occur on beaches north and south of SIA. Major focus will be on beach profiles and sediment characterization with respect to mean, sorting, skewness, particle distribution, particle density, and bulk density. Sediment samples were also analyzed for 11 heavy metals including: vanadium (V), chromium (Cr), manganese (Mn), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), selenium (Se), mercury (Hg), cadmium (Cd), lead (Pb), zinc (Zn) and arsenic (As) using microwave digestion followed by Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS). No previous study had been conducted on these beaches. Although a comprehensive master plan was developed for Sohar industrial area, which included a strategic environmental impact assessment, the master plan contained little information on physical and chemical characteristics of beaches north and south of the industrial area. A total of 252 surface sediment samples were collected in four site visits over 12 months: November 2005, February 2006, June 2006, and November 2006. Each site was divided into seven stations. Three sediment samples were collected from each station from highwater, intertidal and surf zones. Beach profiles showed little seasonal variations in 67% of profiles surveyed and about 24% showed big seasonal variations. Almost 81% of all samples were fine sand and 19% were medium sand. Moderately sorted sediments represented 56% of all samples, whereas 22% of samples were moderately well sorted and 22% were poorly sorted. Half of the samples were near symmetrical, whereas 39% of the samples were coarsely skewed and 11% were fine skewed. Sediment trend analysis showed that wadis were the main source of sediments in the study area. June 2006 samples had a higher particle density than November 2006 samples. There was no significant difference in sediment bulk density between the three sites for June 2006 samples (p = 0.203) but significant difference was found in November 2006 samples (p=0.015). The concentrations of chromium, manganese, and vanadium were higher in Harmul than Majees and Zafaran. Arsenic concentration was generally low except in few stations. It is concluded that the impacts of Sohar industrial area on these beaches are
still not apparent but more research is needed to identify any impacts in its early stage and set prevention and mitigation measure programs to reduce the anticipated impacts of Sohar industrial area on the beach environment.


A highly efficient colorimetric and fluorescence turn-on molecular probe for sensitive and selective detection of biologically important cysteine (Cys) in human plasma is demonstrated using a new zwitterionic dye (M1). The sensing mechanism involves release of the blue-colored and fluorescent M1 from its non-fluorescent, pale-yellow copper complex (M1–Cu) upon exposure to Cys. The new dye has the desired properties suitable for bio-sensing applications, such as distinct blue color, near-infrared (NIR) fluorescence at the wavelength of 875 nm, a large Stokes shift (195 nm), high solubility and stability. This new probe shows both colorimetric and fluorescent responses specifically to Cys over other naturally occurring amino acids, amines and some bioactive thiols and allows for detection of Cys in aqueous solution with a low detection limit of 4.07 × 10−6 M and in human plasma at the physiologically relevant levels.


LA BELLE NEVERNAISE ET AUTRES CONTES. By Alphonse Daudet. Edited for school use by Ruth Hendrickson Allee. New York, Cincinnati, Chicago, Boston, Atlantic City: American Book Company. An American youth who is steeping himself in French literature and customs while sojourning in Paris, writes that he likes Alphonse Daudet best of all French authors whose works he has yet sampled. This handy . collection of eight ch~rming tales by this much-enjoyed author will appeal to teachers because it will appeal to students. Supplied with vocabulary and a sufficiency of notes, and printed in clear type on soft finish paper, this text will afford practice in writing and speaking as well as reading "la belle langue." Exercises for oral and written composition are ample in amount and well devised. On the whole this is a book to enliven the second or third year of French in high school or the corresponding year in college classes.


Whispering gallery modes (WGMs) have been demonstrated in polystyrene microspheres embedded with quantum dots (QDs) in the periphery to serve as local light sources for the remote excitation of low Q-factor microsphere sensors. These sensors were shown to display varied WGM spectra and refractometric sensitivity exceeding that predicted for a homogeneous microsphere. To explain these differences from the basic Mie scattering theory, the QDs have been modeled as a thin high index outer layer. This model has been shown to provide a good fit of the observed WGM spectra, with calculated values for the QD layer refractive index and penetration depth falling within our observed estimates. The possible enhancement in sensitivity for these microspheres has also been determined.


The bispectral method retrieves cloud optical thickness (τ) and cloud droplet effective radius (re) simultaneously from a pair of cloud reflectance observations, one in a visible or near‐infrared (VIS/NIR) band and the other in a shortwave infrared (SWIR) band. A cloudy pixel is usually assumed to be horizontally homogeneous in the retrieval. Ignoring subpixel variations of cloud reflectances can lead to a significant bias in the retrieved τ and re. In the literature, the retrievals of τ and re are often assumed to be independent and considered separately when investigating the impact of subpixel cloud reflectance variations on the bispectral method. As a result, the impact on τ is contributed only by the subpixel variation of VIS/NIR band reflectance and the impact on re only by the subpixel variation of SWIR band reflectance. In our new framework, we use the Taylor expansion of a two‐variable function to understand and quantify the impacts of subpixel variances of VIS/NIR and SWIR cloud reflectances and their covariance on the τ and re retrievals. This framework takes into account the fact that the retrievals are determined by both VIS/NIR and SWIR band observations in a mutually dependent way. In comparison with previous studies, it provides a more comprehensive understanding of how subpixel cloud reflectance variations impact the τ and re retrievals based on the bispectral method. In particular, our framework provides a mathematical explanation of how the subpixel variation in VIS/NIR band influences the re retrieval and why it can sometimes outweigh the influence of variations in the SWIR band and dominate the error in re retrievals, leading to a potential contribution of positive bias to the re retrieval. We test our framework using synthetic cloud fields from a large‐eddy simulation and real observations from Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer. The predicted results based on our framework agree very well with the numerical simulations. Our framework can be used to estimate the retrieval uncertainty from subpixel reflectance variations in operational satellite cloud products and to help understand the differences in τ and re retrievals between two instruments.


In order to improve understanding of Jamaica's Citizen Security and Justice Program (CSJP) youth targeted interventions, the Office of Evaluation and Oversight Office (OVE) of the he Inter-American Development Bank's (IDB) commissioned a series of life histories of participants in the programme. The objective of conducting life histories is to inform the complexity of the challenges faced by young people in high-risk and disadvantaged communities in Kingston and St Andrew and to better understand how the programme has intervened in their life trajectories. This report contains transcripts of each taped session. The transcripts are preceded by a summary, which entails the basic socio-demographic data provided by each respondent, as well as the researcher's observations and conclusions.


This book focuses on broadband distribution and systems architecture and concentrates on practical concepts that will allow the reader to do their own design, improvement, and troubleshooting work. The objective is to enhance the skill sets of a large population that designs and builds broadband cable plants, as well as those maintaining and troubleshooting it. A large cross-section of technical personnel who need to learn these skills design, maintain, and service HFC systems from signal creation through transmission to reception and processing at the customer end point. In addition, data/voice and video specialists need to master and reference the basics of HFC design and distribution before contending with the intricacies of their own unique services. This book serves as an essential reference to all cable engineers--those who specifically design and maintain the HFC distribution plant as well as those primarily concerned with data/voice technology as well as video technology. Included is an online component consisting of spreadsheets that were used in developing the material presented in the book.

Concentrates on practical concepts that will allow the user to do his own design, improvement, and trouble-shooting work.

 Prepares cable engineers and technicians to work with assurance as they face the latest developments and future directions.

Concise and tightly focused, allowing readers to easily find answers to questions about an idea or concept they are developing in this area.


This paper presents the prior PAC-Bayes bound and explores its capabilities as a tool to provide tight predictions of SVMs' generalization. The computation of the bound involves estimating a prior of the distribution of classifiers from the available data, and then manipulating this prior in the usual PAC-Bayes generalization bound. We explore two alternatives: to learn the prior from a separate data set, or to consider an expectation prior that does not need this separate data set. The prior PAC-Bayes bound motivates two SVM-like classification algorithms, prior SVM and ν-prior SVM, whose regularization term pushes towards the minimization of the prior PAC-Bayes bound. The experimental work illustrates that the new bounds can be significantly tighter than the original PAC-Bayes bound when applied to SVMs, and among them the combination of the prior PAC-Bayes bound and the prior SVM algorithm gives the tightest bound.


The aims of this paper are to present knowledge about the threat of flooding in the upper basins of the Myjava River, obtained using a questionnaire, and to identify the potential lessons for flood risk management. The questionnaire was designed to obtain information about households9 experience with flooding, including the type of floods experienced, the locations of flooding, the exacerbating factors contributing to flood risk that they considered to be important and their proposals to minimise the occurrence of flooding. Findings obtained using the questionnaire suggest that: (i) in the upper basins, sheetwash flooding is as important as river flooding and the assessment of flood hazards should include all significant types of flood hazard; (ii) flood risk management in the upper basins should primarily focus on the systematic maintenance of small watercourses and on eliminating local factors that increase the risk of all types of flooding. The building of structures for flood defence should be seen as a last resort when other options are not effective.


Investments with exit flexibility require decisions regarding both the investment and holding period. Because selling an investment often leads to taxable capital gains, which crucially depend on the duration of an investment, we investigate the impact of capital gains taxation on exit timing under different tax systems. We observed that capital gains taxation delays exit decisions but loses its decision relevance for very long holdings. Often the optimal exit time, which indicates the maximal present value of future cashflows, cannot be determined analytically. However, we identify the breakeven exit time that guarantees present values exceeding those of an immediate sale. While, after-taxes, an immediate sale is often optimal, long holding periods might also be attractive for investors depending on the degree of income and corporate tax integration. A classic corporate tax system often indicates holdings over more than 100 periods. By contrast, a shareholder relief system indicates the earliest breakeven exit time and thus the highest level of exit timing flexibility. Surprisingly, high retention rates are likely to accelerate sales under a classic corporate system. Additionally, the worst exit time, which should be avoided by investors, differs tremendously across tax systems. For an integrated tax system with full imputation, the worst time is reached earlier than under partial or non-integrated systems. These results could help to predict investors' behavior regarding changes in capital gains taxation and thus are of interest for both investors and tax policymakers. Furthermore, the results emphasize the need to control for the underlying tax system in cross-country empirical studies.


The current study investigates the demands that steering places on mental resources. Instead of a conventional dual-task paradigm, participants of this study were only required to perform a steering task while task-irrelevant auditory distractor probes (environmental sounds and beep tones) were intermittently presented. The event-related potentials (ERPs), which were generated by these probes, were analyzed for their sensitivity to the steering task's demands. The steering task required participants to counteract unpredictable roll disturbances and difficulty was manipulated either by adjusting the bandwidth of the roll disturbance or by varying the complexity of the control dynamics. A mass univariate analysis revealed that steering selectively diminishes the amplitudes of early P3, late P3, and the re-orientation negativity (RON) to task-irrelevant environmental sounds but not to beep tones. Our findings are in line with a three-stage distraction model, which interprets these ERPs to reflect the post-sensory detection of the task-irrelevant stimulus, engagement, and re-orientation back to the steering task. This interpretation is consistent with our manipulations for steering difficulty. More participants showed diminished amplitudes for these ERPs in the "hard" steering condition relative to the "easy" condition. To sum up, the current work identifies the spatiotemporal ERP components of task-irrelevant auditory probes that are sensitive to steering demands on mental resources. This provides a non-intrusive method for evaluating mental workload in novel steering environments.


Purpose To evaluate the mechanical compression of retinal nerve fiber layer (RNFL) by intraretinal cysts in macular edema and its relief with anti-vascular endothelial growth factor (anti-VEGF) treatment. Methods Optical coherence tomography scans were used to measure RNFL thickness and reflectance at seven preselected points at and around the peak of the edema before and after anti-VEGF treatment in 10 patients (11 eyes) with branch retina vein occlusion (BRVO) and diabetic macular edema (DME). Scans through nonedematous retina and from the fellow eyes were taken as controls. Correlations were sought between the changes in retinal and RNFL thickness, RNFL reflectance, and the size of the intraretinal cysts. Results Postinjection RNFL thickness decreased significantly only at peak point of the edema (18.1 ± 2.7 vs. 13.8 ± 1.2 µm; P = 0.038), at its nasal edge (20.1 ± 2.7 vs. 15.5 ± 1.4 µm; P = 0.026), and 500 µm away from its nasal border (35.7 ± 6.0 vs. 20.1 ± 2.7 µm; P = 0.006) suggesting focal stagnation of the axoplasmic flow owing to compression at its peak point. Significant postinjection decreases in RNFL reflectivity were also noted at peak point of the cyst (164.9 ± 10.3 vs. 141.5 ± 12.6 arbitrary units [AU]; P = 0.037), at its nasal edge (166.8 ± 7.8 vs. 135.1 ± 10.2 AU; P = 0.02), and 1500 µm away from temporal edge (160.2 ± 6.2 vs. 141.1 ± 6.4 AU; P = 0.022). Cyst proximity to RNFL (D50 = 50 µm) was the only determinant significantly affecting the magnitude of the RNFL thickness change after anti-VEGF treatment (P = 0.001). Conclusions Intraretinal cysts due to BRVO and DME locally compress overlying axons and induce anatomic changes suggestive of axoplasmic stagnation. This compression can be relieved with anti-VEGF treatment. Translational Relevance Focal compression of RFNL by retinal cysts may indicate a need for early treatment of macular edema to prevent axonal loss, especially in patients with low axonal reserve


Prediction of flow and transport through unsaturated porous media requires knowledge of the water retention and unsaturated hydraulic conductivity functions. In the past few decades many different laboratory procedures have been developed to estimate these hydraulic properties. Most of these procedures are time consuming and require significant human commitment. Furthermore, multiple measurement techniques are typically required to yield an accurate characterization of the retention and hydraulic conductivity function between full and residual saturation. We present a more efficient and robust approach to estimating the hydraulic properties of porous media. Our method derives an optimized pore‐size distribution from measurements of air permeability and using recent advances in capillary modeling and high‐dimensional parameter estimation. The section diameters of different parallel capillaries representing the pore structure of a porous medium are optimized with a multi‐algorithm optimization method by comparing measured and modeled air permeability values. The optimized pore model is subsequently used to predict the water retention and water permeability functions. The predicted soil hydraulic properties are shown to be in excellent agreement with experimentally determined data from an unconsolidated porous medium column. Our approach does not impose any functional form of the hydraulic properties and requires only measurements of air permeability.


As teamwork becomes more prevalent in organizational decision-making, the influence of emotional intelligence (EI) on team decision-making process demands more research attention. This study aims to investigate the impact of EI on team psychological safety and decision-making performance.,Team decision-making performance and decision quality from a team decision task were obtained from 54 decision-making teams composed of 241 undergraduate business students from a Mid-Atlantic university. Regression analyses were used to test individual and team's EI relationship with team decision performance and the mediation effect of psychological safety.,This study provides empirical evidence that individual EI is positively related to individual influence on team decisions. Team-level EI improves team decision-making performance through increases in psychological safety.,The sample size is relatively small, and the participants were business students; therefore, the research results may lack generalizability. Future research is encouraged to explore this topic further.,As teamwork becomes more prevalent in organizational decision-making, the influence of EI on team decision-making process demands more research and managerial attention. The findings of this paper provide insights on the importance of individual/team EI and psychological safety in team decision performance.,This study furthers research showing that emotions are pertinent to social interactions, including group decision-making, and therefore suggests the desirability of investigating other social processes affecting group decision-making.


The Fukuyama-Mitsunobu alkylation procedure is widely used to introduce alkyl substituents to amino groups in general and N-alkylation of peptides in particular. Here we have investigated the procedure in detail for N-alkylation of peptides with N-terminal glycine residues, based on the observation that standard conditions lead to substantial bis-nosylation of the glycine amino group. A systematic evaluation of this observation was carried out and it was demonstrated that for peptides with alanine, β-alanine or γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) as N-terminal residues mono-nosylation was observed under the same conditions. Moreover, bis-nosylation was independent of the type of resin, neighboring amino acid and nature of the peptide. Calculations suggest that the reason for the bis-nosylation is the fact that the deprotonated mono-nosyl species is particularly stable in the case of the terminal Gly residue because the N(-) residue can become closer to the SO(2) unit. Finally, the mono-nosylated N-terminal glycine could be obtained by careful optimization of the procedure, adding only one equivalent of 2-nitrobenzenesulfonyl chloride.


This paper discusses the main stages of the work of the S. I. Vavilov State Optical Institute on the creation of optoelectronic apparatus for detecting the flares of ballistic missiles undergoing takeoff, for the space echelon of this country's antimissile system in the 1960s and until the present. A complex of fundamental and applied studies, a search for engineering and technical solutions, and a large volume of work on the investigation, refinement, and standardization of the initial data as applied to various objects and facilities has been carried out to create detection apparatus in accordance with the specific requirements of the purchaser.


We describe a quite general and accurate approach for determining the dispersion equation of TE-polarized modes propagating in planar graded-index waveguides bounded on one side by a self-focusing nonlinear cover with finite thickness. The proposed structure appears to be appropriate for wavelength converters based on a four-wave mixing process. The dependence of the guided power flow along the proposed four-layered structure (which is different from others previously published) on the refractive-index profile parameters is investigated. The validity of the reported numerical results is confirmed by the beam-propagation-method simulation. Moreover, a particular waveguide configuration is described, one especially designed to maximize the power confinement in the nonlinear medium.


Dermal fillers can correct age-related perioral volume loss, augment lips that are 'caving in' and add definition to thinning lips. In this article, the author will review factors associated with lip ageing, outline ideal lip proportions and introduce a variety of techniques to enhance lip shape. The author will aim to educate aesthetic nurses on the unique intricacies of artistic lip enhancement with hyaluronic acid dermal fillers. After reading this article, it is hoped that practitioners will be able to identify different lip patterns and distinguish different injection techniques to produce different aesthetic outcomes.


• This Issue Brief explores whether an old concept (benefit design) and a newer concept (evidence-based clinical information) can be more explicitly linked in order to better focus care on health improvement, and to discourage services and costs that do not result in improved health. • Potential of evidence-based medicine not yet successful— The better use of evidence in coverage design could reduce the use of marginal services and control some of the variation in utilization among providers. Recent efforts to move in this direction have not been particularly successful, but they have led to the identification of obstacles that, if overcome, will increase the chances of significant progress in this effort. • Interest is growing in evidence-based medicine—There is growing interest in more explicit approaches to benefit language that better integrate evidence, encourage its use, reward improvement in the quality of evidence, and provide more precision for decision makers. These developments give credibility to a movement in which the demand side of the U.S. health care equation is becoming ever more explicit about exactly what it expects for the enormous sums it is transferring to the supply side of the health care system. • Evidence is essential to success of consumer-driven health plans—Consumer-driven plans use various strategies to offer patients more and better information. They need to do so, since evidence consistently shows cost sharing is indiscriminant in its effects, reducing utilization of valuable services that improve health as much as it reduces ineffective services. Without more transparency, consumers may conclude that these efforts to provide patients with better information are incomplete or biased. • Obstacles to increased use of evidence—Major obstacles to increased use of evidence in health benefits include a perceived lack of sufficient evidence to proceed, credibility and transparency, benefit design language, financial relationships, and administrative costs. • Key elements—Among the major factors in designing evidence-based health benefits are analysis, decision making, communication; synthesis of evidence used in deciding what is covered or excluded; and primary studies that would help determine the value of various benefits. • Oregon example—The state of Oregon has developed a language of benefit design that is organized around combinations of conditions and treatments that use medical evidence in determining covered conditions and approved treatments. Health plans currently administering the Oregon Health Plan benefit have been profitable over the course of multiple changes in the plan.


Fundamental to the effective translation of safe system knowledge into action is the existence of underlying data systems consistent with this approach. Important functions of a data system include permitting assessment of the extent to which the safe system has been applied across the road system, allowing for monitoring of the progress of road safety strategies created under the system and assisting road safety managers in developing future policy in accordance with safe system principles. This paper outlines conceptual frameworks defining an ideal data system based fully on the safe system approach. It then presents an examination of two Australian jurisdictions, namely Western Australia and Victoria, the current status of the data systems in each state and how these compare with the ideal system, and discusses the potential of improved data systems to enhance the translation of safe system knowledge into practice.


By distinction between efficiency and effectiveness scales, the aim of this paper is to propose a model that can show the differents of efficiency and effectiveness. For this purpose, enveloping form of ICCR model ,has considered to calculate simultaneously the influences of efficiency and effectiveness. this model, is a linear programming model based on Data envelopment analysis (DEA), that combine the input and output oriented CCR model to investigate the efficiency and effectiveness impressed each other ,in a three-stage process. By applying the model on data of 24 bank branches, the result clarify comprehensive view of the performance of the branches that have been substantially three-stage.


The versatility and dimension of smart phone applications is increasing at magnificent rate and getting more and more advanced in a level that could solve complicated real time tasks. One of the important factors for such advancement has been the powerful sensors embedded on a Smartphone devices and sensory networks. Moreover, Context and Context-awareness would have remained a myth without the advent of sensors. The objective of this thesis has been to contribute to the research work carried out under the MediaSense project. Accordingly, the ultimate purpose of the thesis has been to evaluate and study the feasibility of the adaptive context view proposed in MediaSense Platform. In precise words, the thesis has done three core tasks. Firstly, the theoretical presentation of related works and the significance of the research question have been discussed through various social applications. Secondly, a proof-of-concept application has been developed to simulate what has been proposed in the research work. Finally, Android application has been designed and implemented in order to evaluate and study the techniques presented in a practical scenario. Moreover, in the android application known as SundsvallBIGBuddies, we have used the extensions designed for the existing MediaSense platform. The impact of using Android app relaying on a continuous stream of context data has been presented using graphs and tables. In order to study the impact we used smart phone and tablets from Samsung.


Acute kidney injury (AKI) is being increasingly shown to be a risk factor for chronic kidney disease (CKD), but little is known about the possible mechanistic links. We hypothesized that analysis of the genomic signature in the repair stage after AKI would reveal pathways that could link AKI and CKD. Unilateral renal pedicle clamping for 45 min was performed in male C57BL/6J mice. Mice were euthanized at 3, 10, and 28 days after ischemia-reperfusion injury (IRI). Total RNA was isolated from kidney and analyzed using an Illumina mouse array. Among 24,600 tested genes, 242, 146, and 46 genes were upregulated at days 3, 10, and 28 after IRI, and 85, 35, and 0 genes were downregulated, respectively. Gene ontology analysis showed that gene expression changes were primarily related to immune and inflammatory pathways both early and late after AKI. The most highly upregulated genes late after AKI were hepatitis A virus cellular receptor 1 (Havcr1) and lipocalin 2 (Lcn2), which code for kidney injury molecule-1 (KIM-1) and neutrophil gelatinase-associated lipocalin (NGAL), respectively. This was unexpected since they are both primarily potential biomarkers of the early stage of AKI. Furthermore, increases observed in gene expression in amiloride binding protein 1, vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, and endothelin 1 could explain the salt-sensitive hypertension that can follow AKI. These data suggested that 1) persistent inflammation and immune responses late after AKI could contribute to the pathogenesis of CKD, 2) late upregulation of KIM-1 and NGAL could be a useful marker for sustained renal injury after AKI, and 3) hypertension-related gene changes could underlie mechanisms for persistent renal and vascular injury after AKI.


Background Immunoglobulin is a blood product used in a variety of medical disorders, usually delivered intravenously (IVIg). Neurology patients, particularly those with inflammatory polyneuropathy, utilise a lot of IVIg. There is a national shortage of immunoglobulin and, thus, pressing need to ensure minimum effective dosing as well as rigorous outcome assessments to assess benefit at treatment start and subsequently, as placebo effects can be strong. Methods Serial audit of IVIg use at The Walton Centre against national guidelines was carried out through analysis of clinical notes of day unit patients. Review of the national immunoglobulin database and of neurology outpatient notes to benchmark our practice and provide some comparison with the wider nation was also performed. Results Serial audit led to improved adherence to guidelines, and analysis of practice identified wide variation in IVIg use. Conclusion Local audit and benchmarking of practice can be used to promote quality and consistency of IVIg use across the NHS.


The vigorous current systems in the Southern Ocean play a key role in regulating the Earth's oceans and climate, with the record of long-term environmental change mostly contained in deep-sea sediments. However, the well-established occurrence of widespread regional disconformities in the abyssal plains of the Southern Ocean attests to extensive erosion of deep-sea sediments during the Quaternary. We show that a wide belt of rapid sedimentation rates (>5.5 cm/k.y.) along the Southeast Indian Ridge (SEIR) is a global anomaly and occurs in a region of low surface productivity bounded by two major disconformity fields associated with the Kerguelen Plateau to the east and the Macquarie Ridge to the west. Our high-resolution numerical ocean circulation model shows that the disconformity fields occur in regions of intense bottom-current activity where current speeds reach 0.2 m/s and are favorable for generating intense nepheloid layers. These layers are transported toward and along the SEIR to regions where bottom-current velocities drop to <0.03 m/s and fine particles settle out of suspension, consistent with focusing factors significantly greater than 1. We suggest that the anomalous accumulation of sediment along an 8000-km-long segment of the SEIR represents a giant succession of contourite drifts that is a major extension of the much smaller contourite east of Kerguelen Plateau and has occurred since 3–5 Ma based on the age of the oldest crust underlying the deposit. These inferred contourite drifts provide exceptionally valuable drilling targets for high-resolution climatic investigations of the Southern Ocean.


Kwandhula or Kwanjula is an elaborate introduction ceremony of a husband to the wife's family, among the Basoga and Baganda, respectively, of Uganda. It is also considered to be a cultural or traditional marriage. Marriage plays many roles in these societies and it is considered to be a cardinal institution of social organization. It unites not just individuals but also families and even clans. The paper shows who the main actors are during the kwandhula ceremony. It looks at how, over time, exogenous factors have altered this age-old institution. It compares how kwandhula was in yesteryears and how it is today, bearing in mind the changing times.The methodology is unstructured, qualitative and is an ethnographic insider's insight of what occurs during an introduction or marriage ceremony among the said societies. It is a narrative and interpretative discussion of this institution which has a lot of bearing on the family life of the said societies. In conclusion, it states that although many external factors have changed kwandhula, it is still an important and respected ceremony which is still very much around.


Background: Deltamethrin (DM) is a synthetic pyrethroid insecticide that can elicit neurotoxicity, leading to apoptosis. There is accumulating evidence that oleuropein (OE) has anti-apoptotic effect. The purpose of this study was to determine the anti-apoptotic effect of OE pretreatment in the neuronal cells of cerebral cortex. Methods: Rats were randomly divided into four groups each containing five rats: DM-treated group (12.5 mg/kg, a single dose), OE-treated group (20 mg/kg per day), DM + OE-treated group, and vehicle group. Sections of the brain were obtained 24 hours after DM injection and studied for histopathological and immunohistochemistry assessment. Results: The histopathological assessments showed lesser characteristics of neural degeneration in DM + OE group compared with DM group. Greater Bcl-2 and attenuated Bax expression could be detected in the DM + OE treated-mice compared with DM group. Conclusion: The results suggested that DM-induced neurotoxicity can be subsided by OE.


We describe Lamello, an approach for creating tangible input components that recognize user interaction via passive acoustic sensing. Lamello employs comb-like structures with varying-length tines at interaction points (e.g., along slider paths). Moving a component generates tine strikes; a real-time audio processing pipeline analyzes the resultant sounds and emits high-level interaction events. Our main contributions are in the co-design of the tine structures, information encoding schemes, and audio analysis. We demonstrate 3D printed Lamello-powered buttons, sliders, and dials.


This study reviews the published literature on racial and ethnic disparities among people with Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias in the United States. To identify relevant studies, we searched electronic sources for peer-reviewed journal articles and unpublished research reports that were published through July 2014; related to the AD population and their caregivers; and provided evidence of racial and ethnic disparities, discussed reasons for disparities, or described interventions to address disparities. The literature shows consistent and adverse disparities among blacks and Hispanics compared with non-Hispanic whites concerning AD, including the disease's prevalence and incidence, mortality, participation in clinical trials, use of medications and other interventions, use of long-term services and supports, health care expenditures, quality of care, and caregiving. The literature suggests numerous underlying causes, including factors related to measurement of the disease, genetics, socioeconomic factors, cultural differences, lack of culturally competent clinicians, and discrimination. Although these disparities are well known, little is known about the effectiveness of various strategies, such as cultural competence training, to address these differences, and very few studies evaluate possible interventions.


This article examines the relationship between projections of climate change and the responses to those projections. First, it discusses uncertainty and its role in shaping not only the production of climate projections but also the use of these projections by decision makers. We find that uncertainty critically affects the way climate projections move from useful to usable, where usefulness is defined by scientists' perception of users' needs, and usability is defined by users' perception of what knowledge can be readily applied to their decision. From the point of view of the natural scientist, we pose that there is an uncertainty fallacy, that is, a belief that the systematic reduction of uncertainty in climate projections is required in order for the projections to be used by decision makers. Second, we explore the implications of climate projections for policy and decision making, using examples from the seasonal climate forecast applications literature as an analog. We examine constraints and opportunities for their application in policy and practice and find that over‐reliance on science and technical solutions might crowd out the moral imperative to do what is needed to improve livelihoods and to guarantee ecosystems' long‐term sustainability. We conclude that, in the context of high uncertainty, decision makers should not look for 'perfect' forecasts, but seek to implement knowledge systems that integrate climate projections with other kinds of knowledge and that consider the multiple stressors that shape their decision environment. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This new edition of the Pocket Oxford Chinese Dictionary comes packaged with the Talking Chinese Dictionary & Instant Translator, an innovative CD-ROM that provides instant pop-up translation help and invaluable Mandarin Chinese pronunciation for over 20,000 single-character words, allowing you to listen and practice. Authoritative and up-to-date, this fourth edition of the Pocket Oxford Chinese Dictionary covers over 90,000 words and phrases, and over 120,000 translations of contemporary Chinese and English, with brand-new words in each language. More than just a dictionary, this handy reference book includes a brand new section on communication, giving you the tools you need to communicate effectively and understand aspects of another culture. The communication supplement gives help with all types of correspondence, including example letters and emails. It also contains a 'useful phrases' section to help you when travelling. This dictionary is ideal for English and Chinese learners alike with Chinese simplified and traditional characters as well as pinyin romanization used throughout. You can quickly find the character you need by looking up in pinyin or using the radical index. Mandarin pronunciations are provided in pinyin. This book and CD-ROM package is the perfect reference for student and adult learners of English and Chinese .


For more than fifteen hundred years Yupik and proto-Yupik Eskimo peoples have lived at the site of the Alaskan village of Gambell on St. Lawrence Island. Their history is a record of family and kin, and of the interrelationship between those who live in Gambell and the spiritual world on which they depend; it is a history dominated by an abiding desire for community survival. Relying on oral history blended with ethnography and ethnohistory, Carol Zane Jolles views the contemporary Yupik people in terms of the enduring beliefs and values that have contributed to the community's survival and adaptability. She draws on extensive interviews with villagers, archival records, and scholarly studies, as well as on her own ten years of fieldwork in Gambell and the wisdom of Yupik elder advisor Elinor Mikaghaq Oozeva, to demonstrate the central importance of three aspects of Yupik life: religious beliefs, devotion to a subsistence life way, and family and clan ties. Jolles documents the life and livelihood of this modern community of marine mammal hunters and explores the ways in which religion is woven into the lives of community members, paying particular attention to the roles of women. Her account conveys a powerful sense of the lasting bonds between those who live in Gambell and their spiritual world, both past and present.


The current-voltage (I-V) characteristics of 4H-SiC metal-semiconductor-metal (MSM) ultraviolet photodetector with different finger widths and spacings, different carrier concentrations and thicknesses of n-type epitaxial layer are simulated. The simulation results indicate that the dark current and the photocurrent both increase when the finger width increases. But the effect of finger width on the dark current is more significant. On the other hand, the effect of finger spacing on the photocurrent is more significant. When the finger spacing increases, the photocurrent decreases and the dark current is almost changeless. In addition, it is found that the smaller the carrier concentration of n-type epitaxial layer is, the smaller the dark current and the larger the photocurrent will be. It is also found that I-V characteristics of MSM detector also depend on the epitaxial layer thickness. The dark current of detector is smaller and the photocurrent is larger when the epitaxial layer thickness is about 3 µm.


We prove homological stability for sequences of "oriented configuration spaces" as the number of points in the configuration goes to infinity. These are spaces of configurations of n points in a connected manifold M of dimension at least 2 which 'admits a boundary', with labels in a path-connected space X, and with an orientation: an ordering of the points up to even permutations. They are double covers of the corresponding unordered configuration spaces, where the points do not have this orientation. To prove our result we adapt methods from a paper of Randal-Williams, which proves homological stability in the unordered case. Interestingly the oriented configuration spaces stabilise more slowly than the unordered ones: the stability slope we obtain is one-third, compared to one-half in the unordered case (these are the best possible slopes in their respective cases). This result can also be interpreted as homological stability for unordered configuration spaces with certain twisted coefficients.


Acid Mine Drainage (AMD) discharged to the surrounding environment may cause serious environmental problems. Sulphidic mine wastes are oxidized resulting in the consequent release of AMD. Different metals such as cadmium, cobalt, copper, iron, lead, nickel, zinc, etc. are released to the environment when sulfides of these metals are exposed to the air. AMD affects the surface water as well as groundwater nearby and limits the reuse of the mine water for processing purposes. Because of differences in mine sites and ambient conditions, the prediction of AMD water composition is very complicated and remains a great concern for scientists. The determination of the minerals involved in producing AMD, as well as the oxidation reactions and chemical components produced in these reactions, are essential prior to choosing the appropriate treatment technology. The oxidation reactions of the minerals and chemical components produced by these reactions are discussed in this thesis. A methodology for predicting the minerals involved in the production of AMD is presented and may be used in conjunction with analytical techniques to reduce the cost of using sophisticated techniques. -- The determination of the possible chemical components included in AMD may aid in finding a suitable treatment system for treating mine water. Waste Stabilization Pond (WSP) technology is one of the natural treatment methods that use chemical and biological processes for AMD treatment. The design of the WSP is based on many assumptions, one of which is that the pond is well mixed. That is, there are no concentration gradients within the pond or the pond is modeled as a Continuously Stirred Tank Reactor (CSTR). However, in reality due to the heterogeneity of the constituents of the wastewater and influence of controlling parameters (i.e., temperature & concentration), these assumptions are over simplified. The concentration, wind shear, and temperature stratification within the pond significantly impact the flow pattern within the system. Instead of using ideal reactor models, dispersed flow model covers the non-idealities within the pond. This model is highly related to the hydraulic conditions of the pond. This non-ideal model is rarely used for determining the concentration gradient within the pond, because the main parameters of the model (i.e. actual retention time and dispersion coefficient) are not easy to obtain. Computational Fluid Dynamic (CFD) codes are one of the options presented for defining these two parameters. A methodology discussed in this thesis is using CFD as a suitable option for determining the main parameters of the dispersed flow model. A dispersion model is tested and validated for modeling the concentration gradient within the pond, and CFD is used for determining the dispersion coefficient and actual retention time via case studies in this thesis. -- Following the determination of the chemical concentrations in the effluent, assessment of the effect of these concentrations on human health and the ecosystem is required. Environmental risk assessment is a systematic process for describing and quantifying the hazardous effect of chemical contaminants to human health and ecosystems. The USEPA framework is used for identifying and quantifying the risk of chemical contaminants to ecological entities. The four steps of the USEPA framework are hazard identification, exposure assessment, dose-response modeling, and risk characterization. The estimated risk of the effluent of treatment systems may be used to assess the performance of the treatment process. Furthermore, the risk value is associated with different uncertainties and therefore uncertainty assessment may not be neglected in any risk assessment process. The ecological risk assessment methodology and quantification of risk associated with effluent contaminants from the tailing pond to the ecosystem is demonstrated in this thesis via a case study.


Our understanding of how the brain works is still an open challenge. Current neuronal models (e.g. integrate-and-fire, Hodgkin-Huxley) are able to mimic voltage patterns in neurons using ordinary differential equations. Coupling these models would be difficult to solve manually and numerically. Previously, we proposed a cellular automata neuronal model that would efficiently simulate the dynamics of a large number of neurons. We chose a linear activation function that mimics the neuronal response of an integrate-and-fire neuron. In this paper, we extended our analysis by comparing nontotalistic vs totalistic modes. We also investigated how a spherical lattice topology affects the neuronal network dynamics as opposed to the previous toroidal topology. Finally, we were able to find three dynamical categories that we previously observed, by considering the length of the activation function and the fraction of initially active neurons.


Abstract. We have investigated CCN properties of internally mixed particles composed of one organic acid (oxalic acid dihydrate, succinic acid, adipic acid, citric acid, cis-pinonic acid, or Nordic reference fulvic acid) and one inorganic salt (sodium chloride or ammonium sulphate). Surface tension and water activity of aqueous model solutions with concentrations relevant for CCN activation were measured using a tensiometer and osmometry, respectively. The measurements were used to calculate Kohler curves and critical supersaturations, which were compared to measured critical supersaturations of particles with the same chemical compositions, determined with a cloud condensation nucleus counter. Surfactant surface partitioning was not accounted for. For the aqueous solutions containing cis-pinonic acid and fulvic acid, a depression of surface tension was observed, but for the remaining solutions the effect on surface tension was negligible at concentrations relevant for cloud droplet activation. The surface tension depression of aqueous solutions containing both organic acid and inorganic salt was approximately the same as or smaller than that of aqueous solutions containing the same mass of the corresponding pure organic acids. Water activity was found to be highly dependent on the type and amount of inorganic salt. Sodium chloride was able to decrease water activity more than ammonium sulphate and both inorganic salts are predicted to have a smaller Raoult term than the studied organic acids. Increasing the mass ratio of the inorganic salt led to a decrease in water activity. Water activity measurements were compared to results from the E-AIM model and values estimated from both constant and variable van't Hoff factors. The correspondence between measurements and estimates was overall good, except for highly concentrated solutions. Critical supersaturations calculated with Kohler theory based on measured water activity and surface tension, but not accounting for surface partitioning, compared well with measurements, except for the solutions containing sodium chloride and oxalic acid or one of the more surface active organic compounds. In such cases, significantly lower values were obtained from Kohler theory than the measured critical supersaturations with deviations above 50% for a 60 nm particle containing 50% (dry mass) of Nordic reference fulvic acid, suggesting that surfactant partitioning and/or an effect of sodium chloride on solubility of the organic component is important.


Power distribution systems are essential and crucial infrastructures for the development and maintenance of a sustainable society. These systems are extremely vulnerable to various types of natural and man-made disasters. The assessment of resilience focuses on preparedness and mitigation actions under pre-disaster conditions. It also concentrates on response and recovery actions under postdisaster situations. The aim of this study is to present a methodology to assess the resilience of electric power distribution poles against wind-related events. The proposed methodology can improve the accuracy and rapidity of the evaluation of the conditions and the assessment of the resilience of poles. The methodology provides a metric for the evaluation of the resilience of poles under pre-disaster and post-disaster conditions. The metric was developed using mathematical expressions for physical forces that involve various variables, such as physical dimensions of the pole, the inclination of the pole, and wind speed. A three-dimensional imaging technology (photogrammetry) was used to determine the inclination of poles. Based on expert opinion, the proposed metric was used to define zones to visualize resilience. Visual representation of resilience is helpful for decision makers to prioritize their resources before and after experiencing a wind-related disaster. Multiple electric poles in the City of Beaumont, TX were used in a case study to evaluate the proposed methodology. Keywords—Photogrammetry, power distribution systems, resilience metric, system resilience, wind-related disasters.


Discriminating marine fish assemblages at broad scales can be difficult because of het- erogeneity within their habitats, variability in patterns of behaviour and abundance of fish between habitats, and sampling biases in extractive fishing techniques when used across a range of habitats. Remote underwater video stations have recently been developed to help overcome these problems, but the use of bait as an attractant raises questions about bias towards scavengers and predators in samples of fish communities. We compared the ability of baited and unbaited underwater video sta- tions to discriminate between fish assemblages inhabiting distinct benthic habitats in temperate and tropical continental shelf waters in Australia, to help test whether the bait attracted predatory and scavenging species to the video in disproportionate numbers in comparison to other trophic groups, such as herbivores. Data from baited video cameras displayed a clearer discrimination in constrained canonical analysis of principal coordinates of fish assemblages between marine habitats in both trop- ical and temperate environments. Analysis of the key trophic groups indicated that bait attracted greater numbers of predatory and scavenging species without decreasing the abundances of herbiv- orous or omnivorous fishes. There was greater similarity between replicate samples from baited video within habitats, implying that the use of bait will provide better statistical power to detect spa- tial and temporal changes in the structure of fish assemblages and the relative abundances of indi- vidual species within them.


The recent rise of xenophobic attacks against refugees in Germany has sparked both political and scholarly debates on the drivers, dynamics, and consequences of right-wing violence. Thus far, a lack of systematic data collection and data processing has inhibited quantitative analysis to help explain this current social phenomenon. This paper presents a georeferenced event dataset on anti-refugee violence and social unrest in Germany in 2014 and 2015 that is based on information collected by two civil society organizations, the Amadeu Antonio Foundation and PRO ASYL, who publicize their data in an online chronicle. We webscraped this information to create a scientifically usable dataset that includes information on 1 645 events of four different types of right-wing violence and social unrest: xenophobic demonstrations, assault, arson attacks, and miscellaneous attacks against refugee housing (such as swastika graffiti). After discussing how the dataset was constructed, we offer a descriptive analysis of patterns of right-wing violence and unrest in Germany in 2014 and 2015. This article concludes by outlining preliminary ideas on how the dataset can be used in future research of various disciplines in the social sciences.


Abstract Bramson and Kalikow and Quas showed the phenomenon of non-uniqueness for g-measures in the absence of a C1 condition on g. We extend this result to show that for a sequence G=(Gn), the class of G-measures can be badly behaved in the sense of containing measures of type IIIλ for all λ in a continuous image of an Fσ set.


Ice growth in turbulent seawater is often accompanied by the accumulation of frazil ice crystals at its surface, forming a grease ice layer. The thickness and volume fraction of this ice layer play an important role in shaping the gradual transition from a loose to a solid ice cover, however, observations are very sparse. Here we analyse an extensive set of observations of frazil ice, grown in two parallel tanks with controlled wave conditions and thermal forcing, focusing on the first one to two days of grease ice accumulation. The following unresolved issues are addressed: (i) at which volume fraction the frazil crystals' rising process starts and how densely they accumulate at the surface, (ii) how the grease ice solid fraction and salinity evolve with time until solid ice starts to form and (iii) how do these conditions affect, and are affected by, waves and heat loss from the ice. We obtained estimates of the minimum initial grease ice solid fraction (0.03–0.05) and the maximum solid fraction to which it accumulates before freezing into pancakes (0.23–0.31). The equivalent thickness of solid ice that needs to be accumulated until grease ice packs close to maximum (95% of the compaction accomplished), was estimated as 0.4 to 1.2 cm. Comparison of grease ice thickness and wave observations indicates that a grease ice layer first begins to affect the wave field significantly when its thickness exceeds the initial wave amplitude. These results are relevant for modelling frazil ice accumulation and freeze-up of leads, polynyas and along the seasonal ice zone.


Reputation systems are a popular feature of web-based platforms for ensuring that their users abide by platform rules and regulations and are incentivized to demonstrate honest, trustworthy conduct. Accrual of "reputation" in these platforms, most prominently those in the e-commerce domain, is motivated by self-interested goals such as acquiring an advantage over competing platform users. Therefore, in community-oriented platforms, where the goals are to foster collaboration and cooperation among community members, such reputation systems are inappropriate and indeed contrary to the intended ethos of the community and actions of its members. In this article, we argue for a new form of reputation system that encourages cooperation rather than competition, derived from conceptualizing platform communities as a networked assemblage of users and their created content. In doing so, we use techniques from social network analysis to conceive a form of reputation that represents members' community involvement over a period of time rather than a sum of direct ratings from other members. We describe the design and implementation of our reputation system prototype called "commonshare" and preliminary results of its use within a Digital Social Innovation platform. Further, we discuss its potential to generate insight into other networked communities for their administrators and encourage cooperation between their users.


We propose a data-driven approach for intrinsic image decomposition, which is the process of inferring the confounding factors of reflectance and shading in an image. We pose this as a two-stage learning problem. First, we train a model to predict relative reflectance ordering between image patches ('brighter', 'darker', 'same') from large-scale human annotations, producing a data-driven reflectance prior. Second, we show how to naturally integrate this learned prior into existing energy minimization frame-works for intrinsic image decomposition. We compare our method to the state-of-the-art approach of Bell et al. [7] on both decomposition and image relighting tasks, demonstrating the benefits of the simple relative reflectance prior, especially for scenes under challenging lighting conditions.


Death and the Labyrinth is unique, being Foucault's only work on literature. For Foucault this was "by far the book I wrote most easily and with the greatest pleasure." Here, Foucault explores theory, criticism and psychology through the texts of Raymond Roussel, one of the fathers of experimental writing, whose work has been celebrated by the likes of Cocteau, Duchamp, Breton, Robbe-Grillet, Gide and Giacometti. This revised edition includes an Introduction, Chronology and Bibliography to Foucault's work by James Faubion, an interview with Foucault, conducted only nine months before his death, and concludes with an essay on Roussel by the poet John Ashbery.


Previous epidemiological studies suggested that patients with osteoarthritis (OA) of the hip might constitute a definable subset of the population with characteristics that predispose them to joint failure. To investigate this possibility a comparative study of somatotype, bone density, disc degeneration, polyarticular joint degeneration, and soft-tissue calcification was carried out in 3 groups of individuals: (1) patients presenting with OA of the hip; (2) patients with acute femoral neck fracture; (3) healthy controls. OA of the hip was rare in patients with femoral neck fracture; conversely, patients with coxarthrosis did not have the low values for bone density seen in the fracture group. There were significant differences in somatotype in the 2 patient groups; 94% of those with OA were endomorphic mesomorphs. Polyarticular OA occurred with the same prevalence in the 2 groups of women, but among males there was a significantly greater involvement of knees and hands in the OA group than in the fracture group. The highest incidence of joint calcification was found in the fracture group and the lowest in the OA group. It was concluded that patients with OA of the hip form a definable subset of the general population. Within this group the appearances of hip OA are determined by 3 interacting factors: mechanical stress, cartilage degeneration, and bone response.


Thymoquinone (TQ), the most important bioactive constituent of Nigella sativa, has been originating to exhibit anticancer effects in plentiful preclinical studies. Due to its multi targeting character, TQ interferes in an extensive assortment of tumorigenic processes and counteracts carcinogenesis, malicious growth, incursion, exodus, and angiogenesis. Moreover, TQ can exclusively sensitize tumor cells on the way to predictable cancer treatments (e.g., chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and radiotherapy) and at the same time lessen psychoanalysis connected lethal effects in regular cells. In this review, we summarized the adjuvant prospective of TQ as observed in an assortment of in vitro and in vivo animal models and discussed the pharmacological properties of TQ to diminish its additional role in potentiating the usefulness of usual remedial modalities specifically surgery, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, and immunotherapy. On the whole we suggest supplementary ample evaluation of TQ in preclinical and clinical levels to demarcate its obscure usefulness as a novel corresponding adjuvant remedy for cancer treatment. The focal point on nanotechnology for enhanced bioavailability and drug deliverance is of increasing significance for organizing different human diseases. Therefore, copious nanoformulations have been urbanized for the oral bioavailability of different drugs. This appraisal introduces applications of nanomedicine to improve the biological actions of thymoquinone (TQ) to be in charge of dissimilar diseases in more than a few in vivo studies as a beginning analysis for human disease healing with nano-TQ. Nano-TQ successfully augments the anticancer roles of doxorubicin by up principle of P53 and downward guideline of Bcl2 and potentiates paclitaxel's apoptosis in MCF-7 breast cancer cells. In addition nano-TQ protects in opposition to diabetes, inflammation, CNS, and hepatotoxicity, essentially by enhancement of organs' antioxidant condition. We sum up the pros and cons of several FDA approved nanoparticle-based therapeutics and talk about the roadblocks in clinical translation, along with probable nano-TQ strategies to conquer these roadblocks. From this assessment we can bring to a close that nano-TQ may be measured as a talented nutraceutical for human being healthiness.


Complex systems thinking is applied to a wide variety of domains, from neuroscience to computer science and economics. The wide variety of implementations has resulted in two key challenges: the progenation of many domain-specific strategies that are seldom revisited or questioned, and the siloing of ideas within a domain due to inconsistency of complex systems language. In this work we offer basic, domain-agnostic language in order to advance towards a more cohesive vocabulary. We use this language to evaluate each step of the complex systems analysis pipeline, beginning with the system and data collected, then moving through different mathematical formalisms for encoding the observed data (i.e. graphs, simplicial complexes, and hypergraphs), and relevant computational methods for each formalism. At each step we consider different types of \emph{dependencies}; these are properties of the system that describe how the existence of one relation among the parts of a system may influence the existence of another relation. We discuss how dependencies may arise and how they may alter interpretation of results or the entirety of the analysis pipeline. We close with two real-world examples using coauthorship data and email communications data that illustrate how the system under study, the dependencies therein, the research question, and choice of mathematical representation influence the results. We hope this work can serve as an opportunity of reflection for experienced complexity scientists, as well as an introductory resource for new researchers.


Robotics technology has recently advanced to the point of being widely accessible for relatively low-budget research, as well as for graduate, undergraduate, and even secondary and primary school education. This lecture provides an example of how to productively use a cutting-edge advanced robotics platform for education and research by providing a detailed case study with the Sony AIBO robot, a vision-based legged robot. The case study used for this lecture is the UT Austin Villa RoboCup Four-Legged Team. This lecture describes both the development process and the technical details of its end result. The main contributions of this lecture are (i) a roadmap for new classes and research groups interested in intelligent autonomous robotics who are starting from scratch with a new robot, and (ii) documentation of the algorithms behind our own approach on the AIBOs with the goal of making them accessible for use on other vision-based and/or legged robot platforms.


India has five million working children which is more than two percent of the total child population in the age group of 5-14 years. Despite existence of legal prohibitions, several socio-economic situations ranging from dearth of poverty, over–fertility, non-responsive education system to poor access in financial services adversely affect a section of children and keep them in work field. This work burden not only prevents the children from getting the basic education, it is also highly detrimental to their health and ultimately leads to intellectual and physical stunting of their growth. At this backdrop, this paper measures the magnitude of child rights to education enjoyed by the child labour across the states of West Bengal. The paper identifies various reasons behind non-inclusiveness of a great portion of child labour in main-stream of education through empirical analysis in two backward districts of West Bengal. An analysis of NCLP activities based on evaluation surveys helps to trace the gap of work and lack of convergence mechanism with activities of Sarba Shiksha Mission. We recommend few measures to revamp the whole process, so that relationship between child labour and inclusive education activities can be revamped. NCLP and Sarba Shiksha Mission should work hand in hand to fulfill this objective. Complete implementation of Right to Education can help to solve many of these issues involved with child labour, as the act itself has an inclusive approach.


This thesis is an attempt at examining the extent to which indigenous news agencies in the third world are able to fracture the old order of information by providing alternative news. In other words, the thesis sets to examine whether indigenous third world news wholesalers could be viable alternatives to the international news wholesalers of the advanced industrialised capitalist countries as is hoped among NIIO advocates. The study focuses on the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) as a representation of such social institutions faced with the task of providing alternative window to the country's and indeed third world experience. For the purpose of providing a context for the analysis of social institutions such as the media we have drawn on primary and secondary material on the Nigerian society in which NAN operates. Similarly, primary and secondary material on NAN and other news agencies of the world have been used to assess the theoretical and empirical postulations advanced in the New International Information Order debate. In addition to foreign news content from NAN for instance, we have also excavated through the domestic news content so as to address the domestic dimension of the NIIO debate. In this regard the thesis has combined textual study with the sociological study of news production as a social process, as part of the method of analysis. The conclusions we arrived at are that far from fracturing the old order of information third world news agencies like NAN actually consolidate that old order in various ways. First, by relying on the same international news agencies for a larger part of their foreign news content, and secondly, by employing routine practices and assumptions that select certain news types, news locations, news actors and setting etc, and ompfit others, for inclusion into the news bulletin and, thirdly, by tending to focus towards more profitable services like the financial data (FD), as opposed to the non-profitable general news. These limitations more than their ownership by home governments or dearth of facilities, constrained such agencies like NAN in providing alternative news. It is for these that they disseminate a news product reflecting a skewed version of reality in so many ways that in the final count consolidate the prevailing order nationally and internationally, rather than providing a fundamental alternative. 0: Introduction: 7 1: Development and Underdevelopment 11 2: Imperialism, NIIO and the Era of Structured Debates 17 3: The information Network in Africa 19 4: Distribution of Communication Facilities 21 5: The NIIO proposals and Third World share in them 26 6: Toward a genuinely New International Information Order 31 7: Conclusion 32 TABLE OF CONTENTS DEDICATION


This paper investigates the information role of algorithmic traders (AT) in the Nifty index option market. I analyse a unique dataset to test for information-based trading by looking at the effect of net buying pressure options on implied volatilities. According to the direction-learning hypothesis, (directional) informed investors' net buying pressure of calls (puts) raises the implied volatilities of calls (puts) and lowers the implied volatilities of puts (calls). In addition, their net buying pressure can also predict future index returns. According to the volatility-learning hypothesis, (volatility) informed investors' net buying pressure is always positively related to implied volatilities. I find that these relations do not hold for AT and, therefore, infer absense of information-based trading by AT. On the contrary, I find the direction-learning hypothesis to hold for non-AT who, in this market, are primarily individual investors.


PURPOSE
To correct for the deviations of the detector response when typical radiation detectors are used under non-reference conditions, factor kNR was calculated from the known energy dependence of the detector response at photon energies from 10 keV upwards and from clinical photon spectra within a large water phantom beneath a Siemens Primus 6/15 MV linac. A Farmer type ion chamber (NE2571), two TLD detector types and two diodes were investigated.

METHODS
Factor kNR was obtained as the ratio of the weighted responses Yt of a given detector t under reference conditions xref (axial distance r = 0 cm, depth d = 10 cm, field size 10 × 10 cm2 and SSD = 100 cm) and that under non-reference conditions × (off-axis points and depths for various field sizes); kNR = Yt(xref)/Yt(x). For small field (SF) dosimetry, we evaluated correction factor kNRSF, which refers to small field reference conditions (4 × 4 cm2 field).

RESULTS
For all detectors investigated, the deviations of kNR from unity were highest outside the field, due to prevailing low-energy scatter contributions. For the Farmer chamber and EDP-10 diode, the kNR deviations did not exceed 2%, but were up to 60% for the EDD-5 diode, while kNR values for LiF:Mg,Cu,P and LiF:Mg,Ti deviated at most 15% and 5% respectively. kNR values appear as unique functions of the mean photon energy at the point of interest.

CONCLUSIONS
Air-filled ion chambers show only small kNR variations, while for non-water equivalent detectors, kNR variations depend on the detector response at low photon energy. kNR can be presented as a unique function of the mean photon energy at the point of interest. A 4 × 4 cm2 reference field is recommended for small fields, with correction factor kNRSF varying almost negligibly from kNR except for unshielded Si diodes.