IntroductionIn Yemen, devastated by war, it has been reported that the cholera epidemic disease among the larg-est of cutting-edge times. The aim of this study is to describe the epidemiological features including the people at risk, drivers of cholera transmission and the drug resistance pattern of the aetiological agent in Sana'a- Yemen.MethodsAll the suspected cholera cases presenting at the medical health laboratory centre in Sana'a during the period from January to May 2019 were considered in this study. Epidemiological variables included in ad-dition to the results of the rapid diagnostic methods and antimicrobial susceptibility. Bacterial cultures were carried out to confirm the diagnosis.Results The cumulative total number of suspected cholera cases from 1st January 2019 to 18th May 2019 is 49096, with 969 have been confirmed as cholera-pos-itive for Vibrio cholerae O1 Ogawa strain by culture at the central public health laboratory in Sana'a and 49 associated deaths (CFR 0.10%). The highest death rate was among the elderly (>60y) represent 55% of total suspected cases. Among the clinical isolates 100 % resistance towards both; Nalidixic acid, Nitro-furantoin and 69% sulfamethoxazole/trimethoprim. The majority of the isolates (69%) showed multidrug resistant pattern towards four different antibiotics.ConclusionOur results suggested that the cholera epidemic in Amanat Al Asimah, Yemen is caused by multidrug resistance strains. Hence, the rapidly emerging mul-tidrug resistance must be monitored closely and health authorities and partners should immediately enhance current control efforts to mitigate the risk of a new cholera epidemic wave in Yemen.


Senegal is the only low-income country where prostitution is legal and regulated by a health policy. To solicit clients in public places, female sex workers need to register with a health facility and attend monthly routine health checks aiming at testing and treating sexually transmitted infections and distributing free condoms. While this policy was first introduced in 1969 to limit the spread of sexually transmitted infections, there is no evidence so far on its impact on sex workers' health. The paper aims to fill this gap by exploiting a unique data set of legal and illegal Senegalese sex workers. Using propensity score matching we find that becoming a registered sex worker leads to an improvement in health but has a detrimental effect on wellbeing. Precisely, registered sex workers are found to engage in riskier and more degrading sex acts and to have less social support from their co-workers. Our results are robust to the use of a super learner to improve the specification of the propensity score and the use of entropy balancing in order to achieve covariate balance. The results are also robust to the violation of the conditional independence assumption. The results suggest that psychological services should be offered to sex workers part of the registration policy in order to overcome its negative effect on wellbeing.


Excess and deficiency of iron(III) and antibiotics from normal permissible limits will induce serious disorders, so their detection is important but challenging. In this work, by introducing a new amino triazole ligand N1-(4-(1H-1,2,4-triazole-1-yl)benzyl)-N1-(2-aminoethyl)ethane-1,2-diamine (L), a series of Cd(II)-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) [Cd3(BDC)3(DMF)2] (1), [Cd(L)(BDC)]2·2DMF·H2O (2), [NaCd2(L)(BDC)2.5]·9H2O (3), [Cd2(L)(2,6-NDC)2]·DMF·5H2O (4) and [Cd2(L)(BPDC)2]·DMF·9H2O (5) were synthesized. MOFs 1, 2 and 3 obtained under the same conditions with the same auxiliary ligand (H2BDC) but different amounts of alkali (NaOH) show distinct 3D, 1D and 3D framework structures, respectively, in which L and BDC2− exhibit varied coordination modes. 4 and 5 with 3D structures were isolated by using longer auxiliary ligands of 2,6-H2NDC and H2BPDC. The porosity and excellent fluorescence performance of 3, 4 and 5 make them potential luminescent sensors for Fe(III) and antibiotics. The results show that 3, 4 and 5 represent high sensitivity for the detection of Fe(III) ions with detection limits of 155 ppb for 3, 209 ppb for 4 and 297 ppb for 5 due to the existence of open channels and chelating NH2 sites. In addition, the strong emissions of 3, 4 and 5 can be quenched efficiently by trace amounts of NFs (nitrofurazone, NZF; nitrofurantoin, NFT; furazolidone, FZD) antibiotics even in the presence of other competing antibiotics such as β-lactams (penicillin, PCL). They are responsive to NZF with detection limits of 162 ppb for 3, 75 ppb for 4 and 60 ppb for 5.


Nigeria is faced with many environmental problems. Available data indicate that Nigeria is losing her renewable natural resources (including arable land, forest, pasture/rangeland and water resources) beyond sustainable limits. Economic and environmental systems interact in many important ways and hence the need to understand these interactions and develop effective public policy. While economic systems derive many invaluable inputs (some commodified, others free) from environmental systems and processes, economic activity can have negative impacts on the functional integrity of these natural systems and processes. The dynamic interactions of the environmental degradation problem with socioeconomic factors are neither well understood in Nigeria, nor are the implications for the nation's Transformation Agenda and Vision 20:2020 well appreciated. This study, therefore, explored the inherent dynamic interactions and feedback between the environment and socioeconomic spheres. The specific objectives were to: (i) determine the causality of resource degradation and macroeconomic profile, (ii) determine the causality of resource degradation and social profile, (iii) assess the effects of resource degradation on macroeconomic profile, (iv) assess the effects of resource degradation on social profile, and (v) forecast the impact of resource degradation on Nigeria's socioeconomic profile and implications for Nigeria's Vision 20:2020. The study adopted time-series design. Nigeria was the unit of analysis. Time series secondary data (from 1970 to 2010) from various sources were utilized for modeling and analysis. A time series environmental degradation index was constructed using the tool of principal components analysis (PCA). The constructed index (a synoptic single number) represents the nation's ecological footprint or bio-capacity. The next step was the modeling of the index and seven other variables as a dynamic vector error correction model, given the non-mean reverting nature of the variables, and to capture the evolution and interdependencies between the variables. Results from the analysis show that the exploitation of renewable natural resources in Nigeria was highly cointegrated with her socioeconomic spheres as there were 5-7 cointegrated equations in the vector error correction model (VECM). A bi-directional or feedback relationship existed between the index of environmental degradation and Nigeria's socioeconomic profile. Agricultural prices, population dynamics, public capital expenditure on agriculture, fertilizer consumption, per capita income, life expectancy and greenhouse emissions granger-caused the index of degradation (joint p-value = 0.0389), the index of degradation granger-caused (p ≤ 0.05) agricultural prices, expenditure on agriculture, fertilizer consumption, greenhouse emission, per capita income, migration and life expectancy. The index of degradation produced significant (95% confidence level of error bands) positive and sustained effects on Nigeria's macroeconomic profile (including agricultural prices, agricultural capital expenditure, fertilizer consumption and climate change over a ten-year horizon (2011-2020). On the other hand, the effects on Nigeria's social factors (such as per capita income, rural population dynamics and life expectancy) by the index of degradation were significantly (95% confidence level of error bands) negative and sustained over a ten-year horizon (2011-2020). Following from these results, the study among other things recommends a more comprehensive holistic and sustainable development path, and strategies and policies that integrate rural development and renewable natural resources management in order to tackle the complex, diverse and deeply rooted issues underlying worsening environmental degradation in Nigeria.


ABSTRACT Interpretive cross sections based on detailed descriptions of 33 outcrops and cores are used to better understand the relative effects of tectonics, eustasy, tides, and climate on Upper Mississippian (middle Chesterian) stratigraphy in the tectonically active, tide-dominated Illinois basin. The cross sections show that five mixed carbonate-siliciclastic, high-frequency sequences in the Bethel through Glen Dean formations can be correlated around the outcrop belt through areas with very different subsidence histories. The sequence boundaries are marked by paleosols and incised valleys and can be correlated basin-wide within a framework of distinctive marker beds. Because of its updip position, lowstand systems tracts are not preserved in the Illinois basin. The transgressive systems tracts generally consist of one or two parasequences that are typically composed of tidally influenced quartz sandstone filling incised valleys at the base overlain by open-marine skeletal limestone, shallow-marine shale, and heterolithic siliciclastic tidal-flat deposits. The maximum flooding surface (MFS) for the sequences is picked at the base of the deepest water limestone facies. Highstand systems tracts are composed of 1 to 6 regressive parasequences that consist of basal offshore skeletal limestone capped by laterally extensive shale and heterolithic siliciclastic tidal-flat facies. The basin-wide extent of the sequence boundaries and maximum flooding surfaces across tectonic highs and lows suggests that the sequences were produced by eustatic sea-level changes rather than local tectonics or autogenic processes. The sequences were likely produced by moderate- to high-amplitude (30-100 m) fourth-order ( 400 ky) glacio-eustatic sea-level changes driven by the transition from the greenhouse conditions of the Early Mississippian to the "icehouse" conditions of the late Paleozoic. The lateral extent and frequency of component parasequences suggests that they were likely produced by fifth-order sea-level changes (10-100 ky). The sequences may be bundled into third-order composite sequences, but the third-order signal is obscured by the magnitude of the fourth-order sea-level changes a feature typical of ice-house stratigraphies. The sequences can be used as time slices to identify spatial and temporal variations in differential subsidence between the Cincinnati Arch and the more rapidly subsiding Basin Interior. Episodes of high and low differential subsidence occurred every two to three sequences. These subsidence variations had a major impact on lithofacies distribution and onlap and offlap geometries in sequences and parasequences. The occurrence of some widespread seismically disturbed beds suggests that active faulting occurred during deposition. Normal faulting appears to have occurred during periods of high differential subsidence and reverse faulting during periods of low differential subsidence. Differential subsidence and related normal and reverse faulting may have occurred in response to phases of thrust loading and quiescence in the Appalachian orogenic belt to the east. Even in this tectonically active setting, however, it is the eustatic signal that generates basin-wide, mappable stratigraphic sequences.


ABSTRACT This paper is a brief review of camel bones recently discovered in the territory of modern-day Hungary. The goal of this paper is to provide an inventory of all known camel finds representing both the Roman Period province of Pannonia (1st–4th c.) and the northernmost outpost of the Ottoman Empire in Europe (16th–17th c.), historical periods when this exotic animal was present in Hungary. In spite of the fact that both occupying forces used camels, the camel discoveries cannot be linked exclusively to military functions. Morphological and metric information identifies the majority of these bones as originating from dromedaries. However, the list of 18 sites offers putative evidence that both dromedary and Bactrian camel were used in the central part of the Carpathian Basin.


Foreword. Introduction. Part I: The Basics of New Product Development. Chapter 1: It Takes a Company. Chapter 2: What Are You Developing, and Why? Chapter 3: Defining Your Product Strategy. Part II: Charting the Ocean of Opportunity for New Products. Chapter 4: What Do Your Customers Really Want? Chapter 5: Turning Your Company into an Idea Factory. Chapter 6: Picking Winners and Losing Losers. Chapter 7: Making the Most of Technology. Chapter 8: Focusing Your NPD Efforts. Part III: Navigating the River of Product Development. Chapter 9: One Foot in Front of the Other: The Product Development Process. Chapter 10: Organizing the NPD Troops. Chapter 11: Managing Your Corporation's NPD Resources. Chapter 12: Using Reviews to Keep Projects on Track. Chapter 13: Launching Products for Market Success. Part IV: New Challenges in Product Development. Chapter 14: Developing Products in the Digital Age. Chapter 15: Product Development Goes Global. Chapter 16: Choose Your Partner! Partners in Product Development. Part V: The Part of Tens. Chapter 17: Ten Ideas on Ways to Test Your New Products. Chapter 18: Ten (Or More) Ways to Track Your Innovation Efforts. Appendix: Business Case Outline. Index.


Lesion and functional imaging studies in humans have shown that the ventral and medial prefrontal cortex is critically involved in the processing of emotional stimuli, but both of these methods have limited spatiotemporal resolution. Conversely, neurophysiological studies of emotion in nonhuman primates typically rely on stimuli that do not require elaborate cognitive processing. To begin bridging this gap, we recorded from a total of 267 neurons in the left and right orbital and anterior cingulate cortices of four patients who had chronically implanted depth electrodes for monitoring epilepsy. Peristimulus activity was recorded to standardized, complex visual scenes depicting neutral, pleasant, or aversive content. Recording locations were verified with postoperative magnetic resonance imaging. Using a conservative, multistep statistical evaluation, we found significant responses in 56 neurons; 16 of these were selective for only one emotion class, most often aversive. The findings suggest sparse and widely distributed processing of emotional value in the prefrontal cortex, with a predominance of responses to aversive stimuli.


The theory of international environmental agreements overwhelmingly assumes that governments engage as unitary agents. Each government makes choices based on benefits and costs that are simple national aggregates, and similarly on a single set of national-level motivations, together drawing a strong analogy with the behaviour of an individual or firm in other strategic contexts. In reality, however, various domestic special interests shape environmental policy, including how national governments cooperate on cross-border issues. Therefore in this paper we introduce to a classic model of international environmental cooperation the phenomenon of domestic political competition, whereby lobby groups seek to influence policy by offering to fund political campaigning. We use the model to establish some general conditions for the effects of lobbying on the stringency of policy and the size of coalitions cooperating to provide an environmental good. Using specific functional forms, we obtain a range of further results, including circumstances in which the omission of lobbying results in environmental protection being underestimated.


Many scholars and activist have argued that the liberal political tradition's development of the concepts of religious freedom and separation of religion and the state arose out of the Enlightenment's effort to address the chaos of the religious wars that had rent their societies. Through what I refer to as the liberal religious compact, these societies sought to avoid religious violence by privatizing religion - walling it off from the secular public square. While the United States and Western Europe can, in large part, claim to bear witness to this position - even in those countries, a number of troubling incidents of religious violence have arisen, including anti-abortion violence, the Muslim riots in the Paris suburbs and the British terror cells and the London bombings. Of equal concern, a rising tide of religious violence, often identified with religious fundamentalism, is sweeping the world. Many commentators have noted that Western leaders struggle with how to address this type of violence because they operate from a political orientation that views religious participation in public discourse with suspicion if not outright hostility. In this new book I want to explore the relationship between religion, violence, politics and law - specifically, how the liberal political tradition has approached the problem (the liberal compact), how that approach was historically conditioned by Western culture, and how it can be adapted to address contemporary challenges to peace and stability associated with religion. Chapter two, "The Terrors of Christendom" reviews the history of religious violence within the Western European, specifically Christian, tradition which provided the context for the thinkers and politicians responsible for the development of the liberal religious compact. This history primarily shaped by the relationship between the Christian church and the state, evolved through five stages: persecution (64-312 C.E.); adoption (312-425 C.E.); autonomy (440-751 C.E.); the establishment of Christendom (750-1307 CE); and fragmentation (1307-forward). It includes the age of martyrdom, the adoption of Christianity by Constantine, the Crusades and the Inquisition, and the wars of religion surrounding the Protestant Reformation.


The Queensland sugar industry largely relies on tropical soils that have low cation exchange capacities (CEC) and are prone to becoming deficient in Ca, Mg and K
without appropriate management. Adding bentonite is an option for increasing the CEC and improving the fertility of these soils. In a light textured Red Kandosol and a
medium textured Red Ferrosol the basic CEC at soil pH was increased significantly by adding bentonite. The increases in surface charge are permanent and the correlation between the amount of bentonite applied and the change in CEC was
linear. Significant increases in CEC of >1.0 cmol(+)/kg were achieved in both soil types at application rates of 20 t/ha and CECs >4.0 cmol(+)/kg were achieved at application rates of 50 t/ha. Bentonite at rates as low as 10 t/ha significantly increased the concentration and retention of applied nutrient cations. At application rates of 20
t/ha and above, natural sodium bentonite additions complemented by conventional nutrient management effectively maintained adequate levels of exchangeable Ca, Mg
and K in soils under sugarcane over a full growing season (62 weeks), while nutrients
in the untreated controls became deficient through leaching after just four weeks.
Bentonite also increased the plant available water (PAW) content of soils. At an
application rate of 30 t/ha the PAW content of a Kandosol was increased by 22%.
Overall, the addition of natural bentonites at rates of 20 to 50 t/ha seems an effective
means of permanently improving the availability of nutrients and PAW in low fertility
sugarcane soils.


Grazing is a major land use in Australia's rangelands. The 'safe' livestock carrying capacity (LCC) required to maintain resource condition is strongly dependent on climate. We reviewed: the approaches for quantifying LCC; current trends in climate and their effect on components of the grazing system; implications of the 'best estimates' of climate change projections for LCC; the agreement and disagreement between the current trends and projections; and the adequacy of current models of forage production in simulating the impact of climate change. We report the results of a sensitivity study of climate change impacts on forage production across the rangelands, and we discuss the more general issues facing grazing enterprises associated with climate change, such as 'known uncertainties' and adaptation responses (e.g. use of climate risk assessment). We found that the method of quantifying LCC from a combination of estimates (simulations) of long-term (>30 years) forage production and successful grazier experience has been well tested across northern Australian rangelands with different climatic regions. This methodology provides a sound base for the assessment of climate change impacts, even though there are many identified gaps in knowledge. The evaluation of current trends indicated substantial differences in the trends of annual rainfall (and simulated forage production) across Australian rangelands with general increases in most of western Australian rangelands (including northern regions of the Northern Territory) and decreases in eastern Australian rangelands and south-western Western Australia. Some of the projected changes in rainfall and temperature appear small compared with year-to-year variability. Nevertheless, the impacts on rangeland production systems are expected to be important in terms of required managerial and enterprise adaptations. Some important aspects of climate systems science remain unresolved, and we suggest that a risk-averse approach to rangeland management, based on the 'best estimate' projections, in combination with appropriate responses to short-term (15 years) climate variability, would reduce the risk of resource degradation. Climate change projections including changes in rainfall, temperature, carbon dioxide and other climatic variables if realised, are likely to affect forage and animal production, and ecosystem functioning. The major known uncertainties in quantifying climate change impacts are: (i) carbon dioxide effects on forage production, quality, nutrient cycling and competition between life forms (e.g. grass, shrubs and trees); and (ii) the future role of woody plants including effects of fire, climatic extremes and management for carbon storage. In a simple example of simulating climate change impacts on forage production, we found that increased temperature (3°C) was likely to result in a decrease in forage production for most rangeland locations (e.g. 21% calculated as an unweighted average across 90 locations). The increase in temperature exacerbated or reduced the effects of a 10% decrease/increase in rainfall respectively (33% or 9%). Estimates of the beneficial effects of increased CO2 (from 350 to 650ppm) on forage production and water use efficiency indicated enhanced forage production (+26%). The increase was approximately equivalent to the decline in forage production associated with a 3°C temperature increase. The large magnitude of these opposing effects emphasised the importance of the uncertainties in quantifying the impacts of these components of climate change. We anticipate decreases in LCC given that the 'best estimate' of climate change across the rangelands is for a decline (or little change) in rainfall and an increase in temperature. As a consequence, we suggest that public policy have regard for: the implications for livestock enterprises, regional communities, potential resource damage, animal welfare and human distress. However, the capability to quantify these warnings is yet to be developed and this important task remains as a challenge for rangeland and climate systems science.


The amount of information stored in databases is constantly increasing. Databases contain multiple records, each of them divided in several data fields. And some of these fields may contain sens itive information, so there is a need to prevent free access to it. Traditionally, cryptography has been used to conceal this kind of infor mation, but conventional cryptography has the problem that, for queries that need access to a specific field for all the records, it re quires the decryption of the entire data field. Order preserving encryption ensures that comparing encrypted data returns the same result than comparing the original data. This permits to order encrypted data without the need of decryption. In this way, databases using this kind of cryptosystems admit encrypted record fields while still allowing searches and range queries. In this paper, we propos e an order preserving symmetric encryption scheme whose encryption function is recursively constructed. Starting with the trivial or der preserving encryption function, which is the identity, a function is constructed in a series of steps by making it more and more complex until the the desired security level is reached. The security of the proposed cryptosystem is also analyzed.


Whenever a recession occurs, there is a heated dialog among marketing academics and practitioners about the appropriate levels of marketing spending. In this article, the authors investigate whether firms should spend more on research and development (R&D) and advertising in recessions. They propose that the effects of changes in firms' R&D and advertising spending in recessions on profits and stock returns are contingent on their market share, financial leverage, and product-market profile (i.e., business-to-consumer goods, business-to-business services, business-to-business goods, or business-to-consumer services). They estimate the model using a panel of more than 10,000 firm-years of publicly listed U.S. firms from 1969 to 2008, during which there were seven recessions. Their results support the contingency approach. The authors compute the marginal effects, which show how the effects of changes in R&D and advertising spending in recessions vary across firms. The marginal effects provide evidence of inadequate spending (e.g., 98% of business-to-consumer goods firms underspend on R&D), proactivity (e.g., 96% of business-to-business services firms are at approximately the right levels on advertising). and excess spending (e.g., 92% of business-to-consumer services firms overspend on advertising). Using the authors' approach and publicly available data, managers can estimate the effects of their firms' and competitors' R&D and advertising spending on profits and stock returns in recessions.


Background: Menopause is the end of a women's menstrual cycle and reproductive years. For some women the transition is without major problems; others struggle with various psychological and physical symptoms. Regular walking exercise can be an easy way to maintain physical and mental health. Previous focus groups revealed that women enjoy and want the social aspect of walking groups.

Objectives: The goal of this study is to test use and effectiveness of a walking app platform specific for menopausal women that allows them to connect with each other to schedule walks in Edmonton, and track the effect of walking on their symptom changes.

Methods: Women will be recruited from the Edmonton Menopause clinics and by word of mouth. Interested and consented women receive login information to use the app to schedule and sign-up for walks. Women will complete menopause-specific QOL and symptom questionnaires at their first login and will be prompted to complete them monthly thereafter. Women will also be asked to record their walking durations and intensities. Participating women will be invited to focus groups to discuss their experience using the app. Descriptive statistics will be applied to analyze data collected at the backend from questionnaires and surveys, and qualitative content analysis will be applied to analyze the audio-recorded focus groups.

Results: A prototypic online application has been created including a user manual.
Access is restricted and all potential participants will be screened after their first login by the research team prior to gaining full access. Women will then be able to use the app features for schedules and surveys. Data collected at the back end by the researchers will determine the use and effectiveness of the app and explore the impact of social walking on menopause symptom changes.

Conclusion: This is the first social platform of this kind created specifically for menopausal women. Ultimately we hope that this platform will empower women to seek lifestyle changes such as walking exercises and connect with each other on the communality of menopause. Testing the use and effectiveness of the app will help us to improve and further develop the app.


We introduce a method for tracking multiple people in a cluttered street scene. We use global context to address the challenge of long occlusion by endowing each tracked object with a planning agent. This planner uses context of the street scene, people and other moving objects to reason about pedestrian intended behavior for tracking under occlusion and ambiguity. We extract short but robust trajectories called tracklets by tracking people with a simple appearance model. We formulate the tracking problem as a batch mode optimization, linking tracklets into paths, each with supporting evidence by an agent's goal directed behavior, and image partial matching along the trajectory gap. We propose a global criteria for consistent linking of the tracklet with planning that can correct local ambiguity in linking. We test our algorithm in a challenging real world setting, where we automatically estimate scene context and intended goals, then track multiple people from a moving camera.


Although a main way of enterprise financing, the issuance of bonds has many problems for small and medium-sized enterprise (SME). The main contradiction is that the investors believe too high a risk SMEs bonds have, and demand a higher risk premium, while the raiser consider it a too high cost. As liquidity premium is a main part of risk premium, we believe a higher liquidity will alleviate the above contradiction in some degree. On the basis of former research,we developed liquidity indicators suitable for China's SMEs bonds, and tested some common factors which may affect the liquidity. The empirical results show that the only significant factor is the investor's characteristics. It means that China's bond market is lack of investor adapt to SMEs bonds. We believe that the root of this problem is information asymmetry, and proposed some suggestions for improve SMEs bond liquidity.


Abstract: This article examines the process through which different interpretations of ethnicity and statehood in Rwanda have been used to create and justify policies of exclusion, inclusion and claims to legitimacy, from the colonial period to the present day. Arguing that the roots of such politics can be found in the politics of the precolonial state, it considers how they have been transformed, not created, by colonial and postcolonial governments. Viewing the representation of ethnicity and statehood over time as fictions of ethnicity, ethnography and history, this article illustrates the process of creation and recreation of these fictions and their impact on Rwandan lives.In the fall of 1994, during a private conversation, an officer of a large donor organization expressed her amazement to me that two different ministers of the Rwandan Patriotic Front government which had just been installed in Kigali placed the rewriting of history books as a first priority of the government. Given the general devastation found in the country, this seemed an incomprehensible priority to her. She asked me why this aspect of Rwandan culture was so overwhelmingly important to the current government. Any observer of Rwanda quickly becomes aware of the powerful hold that the interpretation of history and the nature of ethnicity has on any discussion of Rwanda. The origin and meaning of ethnicity in Rwanda, and the nature of the precolonial state have been topics of debate since the first German set foot in the region. For Western observers, these debates have been largely academic, but for the people living in the region these controversies have had serious consequences. Different interpretations of ethnicity and statehood have been used to create and justify policies of exclusion, inclusion and claims to legitimacy, from the colonial period to the present day.Most recently the whole issue of ethnicity and the precolonial, colonial and postcolonial state in Rwanda has been reopened by the events of 1959-94. In different ways the Rwandans who fled Rwanda in 1959, the Rwandans who remained in Rwanda after 1959, the three successive governments since 1959, the extremists, the opposition and the propagandists of the various political parties in the region, and politicians in the neighbouring countries have interpreted and reinterpreted the "history" of the precolonial and colonial state to justify various policies and actions.Viewed through the lens of serious research this whole debate can be seen as a series of fictions: fictions of ethnicity, ethnography and history in Rwanda. Rwanda is a particularly fascinating case, because the manipulation of these fictions has been so transparent, and because it has affected the lives of all the people living in the Great Lakes region of the country. This article will illustrate these characterizations of ethnicity, history and the state in Rwanda and will present an alternative perspective on them, showing how various concepts of ethnicity and "history" have been manipulated by successive governments. It will then consider the genocide in the light of this review.Fictions of HistoryMany discussions of Rwandan precolonial history, and of the construction of the precolonial state continue to be highly reductionist (for recent examples see African Rights, 1994; Braeckman, 1994; Destexhe, 1994; Mamdani, 1996). This is due, in part, to the complexity of the subject and the need to make it easily comprehensible, but it is also the result of manipulation for political ends by various groups. Beginning in the precolonial period, intensifying and transmuting under the Belgian colonial period, undergoing further transformation under the first and second Republic and altering again under the current government, the rewriting of history has been a major academic and political project in Rwanda. Central to this project has been the characterization of the nature of precolonial rule, and the role played by various ethnic groups in the precolonial state. …


The following study concerns Knowledge Management and Outsourcing in an IT environment. More specifically, it gives a brief description of what Knowledge Management is; the different types and phases, the economics and strategies, different drivers, the outcomes, critical success factors, the benefits, frameworks and the influence that Knowledge Management has on competitiveness and innovation in the workplace. The topic is concluded with a discussion around technologies for enabling Knowledge Management. Also discussed in the study is the definition of Outsourcing, the different theories, critical success factors, drivers and moving from traditional to transformational Outsourcing. Mention is also made about some of the obstacles and problems associated with Outsourcing and the different prescriptive models around. Lastly, the determinants of organisational adoption and the stages of the Outsourcing framework are discussed in depth. The original decision was to develop a questionnaire and distribute it throughout the company, Business Connexion, a leader in the IT Outsourcing industry. However, due to time constraints and the number of potential employees, approximately 4700, it was agreed upon to only target the staff members within the Outsourcing division. At the time of the questionnaire, the total number of employees was 539 and 127 participated in this study by responding via a URL link set up by Statkon, a division of the University of Johannesburg. The responses were fed into a database which produced the relevant results for this particular study. These questionnaires were designed to specifically measure the varying issues surrounding Knowledge Management and Outsourcing in an IT environment. Due to the fact that this study was implemented within only one division of the organisation, it is important to note that the findings of this study cannot be generalised, thus providing an opportunity for future comparative research.


Visualization methods that arrange data objects in 2D or 3D layouts have followed two main schools, methods oriented for graph layout and methods oriented for vectorial embedding. We show the two previously separate approaches are tied by an optimization equivalence, making it possible to relate methods from the two approaches and to build new methods that take the best of both worlds. In detail, we prove a theorem of optimization equivalences between β- and γ-, as well as α- and Renyi-divergences through a connection scalar. Through the equivalences we represent several nonlinear dimensionality reduction and graph drawing methods in a generalized stochastic neighbor embedding setting, where information divergences are minimized between similarities in input and output spaces, and the optimal connection scalar provides a natural choice for the tradeoff between attractive and repulsive forces. We give two examples of developing new visualization methods through the equivalences: 1) We develop weighted symmetric stochastic neighbor embedding (ws-SNE) from Elastic Embedding and analyze its benefits, good performance for both vectorial and network data; in experiments ws-SNE has good performance across data sets of different types, whereas comparison methods fail for some of the data sets; 2) we develop a γ-divergence version of a PolyLog layout method; the new method is scale invariant in the output space and makes it possible to efficiently use large-scale smoothed neighborhoods.


Abstract Strategies to empower women in development contexts frequently address their authority to take decisions within their household, including decisions that are taken jointly by couples. Assessing empowerment in joint decision-making has traditionally followed a dichotomous approach: decisions are either joint or not, with the former associated with women's empowerment. This paper contributes to a more nuanced understanding of the empowerment effects of joint decision-making, based on case study data from Uganda. We present survey data revealing significant gender differences in perception of decision-making over the adoption of agricultural practices and consumption expenses. Women reported joint decision-making more often than men, who presented themselves more as sole decision makers. We supplement the survey data with an in-depth study in Lodi village, where we reconstruct meanings attached to joint decision-making using focus group discussions, a decision-making game and participant observation. Reported joint decision-making included a range of practices from no conversation among partners to conversations where female spouse's ideas are considered but the man has the final say. The findings suggest that local interpretations of joint decision-making, in at least this case of a dominantly patriarchal context, can limit its potential for assessing women's empowerment.


Patients with chronic lymphocytic leukemia or small lymphocytic lymphoma whose tumors carry deletion of chromosome 17p13.1 [del(17p)] have an unfavorable prognosis and respond poorly to standard chemoimmunotherapy. Zanubrutinib is a selective next-generation Bruton tyrosine kinase inhibitor. We evaluated the safety and efficacy of zanubrutinib 160 mg twice daily in treatment-naïve patients with del(17p) disease enrolled in a dedicated, nonrandomized cohort (Arm C) of the phase III SEQUOIA trial. A total of 109 patients (median age, 70 years; range, 42–86) with centrally confirmed del(17p) were enrolled and treated. After a median of 18.2 months (range, 5.0–26.3), seven patients had discontinued study treatment due to progressive disease, four due to an adverse event, and one due to withdrawal of consent. The overall response rate was 94.5% with 3.7% of patients achieving complete response with or without incomplete hematologic recovery. The estimated 18-month progression-free survival rate was 88.6% (95% CI: 79.0–94.0) and the estimated 18-month overall survival rate was 95.1% (95% CI: 88.4–98.0). Most common all-grade adverse events included contusion (20.2%), upper respiratory tract infection (19.3%), neutropenia/ neutrophil count decreased (17.4%), and diarrhea (16.5%). Grade ≥3 adverse events were reported in 53 patients (48.6%), most commonly neutropenia (12.9%) and pneumonia (3.7%). An adverse event of atrial fibrillation was reported in three patients (2.8%). Zanubrutinib was active and well tolerated in this large, prospectively enrolled treatment cohort of previously untreated patients with del(17p) chronic lymphocytic leukemia/small lymphocytic lymphoma. This trial was registered as clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT03336333.


Oral contraceptives (OCs) are often prescribed to adolescents and young adults for the treatment of health problems and to avoid unwanted pregnancies. We hypothesized that the use of OCs, among adolescents and young adults, is associated with a greater likelihood of pregnancy, abortion, sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), pelvic inflammatory disease (PID), and sexual behaviors that will enhance those problems (i.e., earlier sexual debut and more sexual partners) than adolescents and young adults not using OCs. To test this hypothesis, data from 1,365 adolescents and young adults in the 2011–2013 National Survey of Family Growth (NSFG) were used to describe the influence of ever use of OCs on ever having sex, sexual debut, multiple sexual partners, STDs, PID, pregnancy, and abortion. A secondary purpose was to evaluate protective factors from unhealthy sexual practices like religiosity, church attendance, and intact families. We found that the "ever use" of OCs by US adolescents and young adults results in a greater likelihood of ever having sex, STDs, PID, pregnancy, and abortion compared with those adolescents and young adults who never used OCs. Furthermore, those adolescents who ever used OCs had significantly more male sexual partners than those who never used OCs, and they also had an earlier sexual debut by almost two years. Conversely, we found that frequent church attendance, identification of the importance of religion, and having an intact family among adolescents were associated with less likelihood of unsafe sexual practices. We concluded that the use of OCs by adolescents and young adults might be considered a health risk. Further research is recommended to confirm these associations. Summary: The purpose of this article was to show the correlation between contraceptive use in adolescents and negative sexual outcomes. We used data from the 2011–2013 NSFG and demonstrated that never married adolescents who used oral hormonal contraception were three times more likely to have an STD, have PID, and to become pregnant, and, surprisingly, ten times more likely of having an abortion compared to noncontracepting adolescents. These are outcomes that contraception is intended to prevent. These data also showed that the contraceptors had significantly more male partners than their contraceptive counterparts. Protective factors such as church attendance and family cohesiveness were associated with a decreased likelihood of sexual activity.


The magneto-optical absorption spectroscopy experiments on calcium and cadmium are presented. The experimental setup and the method of analysis is described. The data were acquired utilizing the linearly polarized light emitted by the 2.5 G eV electron accelerator, a 6 Tesla superconducting magnet, and a 3-meter high dispersion spectrograph with the photographic detection.

The design and construction of a new high temperature furnace is described. It is a specially designed resistance furnace (king type), capable of working up to 2000 °C and fits in the restricted warm bore of ~ 10 cm of the superconducting magnet.

The magneto-optical absorption spectra of calcium were recorded in the wavelength range from 2020 A to 2090 A. Measurements of oscillator strengths (relative f-value) for the principal series of calcium

3p6 4s2 1 s0 → 3p6 4snp 1p1

are reported. A quantum defect plot of the density of oscillator strengths of discrete transitions in calcium yields the photoionization cross section at the threshold as 2.04 ± 0.20 Mb, in agreement with earlier measurements.

In case of cadmium, the magneto-optical absorption spectra were recorded in the wavelength range from 1370 A to 1480 A. The oscillator strengths for transitions

4d10 5s2 1 s0 → 5snp 1p1 (8 ≤ n ≤ 13)

have been measured. The value of the total photoionization cross section at the ionization threshold of cadmium is found to be 4 ± 2 Mb. In addition, quasi-Landau resonances in cadmium spectrum are observed for the first time. The separation between these resonances around ionization threshold is found to be 1.5 hwc, where wc is the cyclotron frequency. This value of the resonance separation agree with that. observed in other alkaline earth elements.


Objective To estimate trends in malaria morbidity at six sentinel sites in Uganda. Introduction Over the past five years, efforts to control malaria have been intensified in Uganda (1). With the intensification of these efforts, accurate and timely data are needed to monitor impact of the interventions and guide malaria control program planning (2, 3). We present data on trends in malaria burden over four years from six out-patient health facilities located in regions of varying malaria endemicity in Uganda. Methods The study utilized data from the on-going malaria sentinel surveillance program involving six level IV outpatient health facilities: Aduku, Nagongera, Walukuba, Kasambya, Kihihi and Kamwezi. Major malaria control interventions between 2008 and 2010 in sub-counties where these sites are located included Indoor residual spraying (IRS) conducted in Aduku; insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) distributed in Nagongera and Kamwezi. There has been no major control intervention(s) in sub-counties where Walukuba, Kasambya and Kihihi are located. Treatment with artemisinin-combination therapies have however been deployed nationally. Patient information; demographics, malaria test results and diagnosis are recorded on a standardized patient record. The test positivity rate (TPR) defined as the number of persons testing positive for malaria divided by the total number of persons tested was calculated by year from 2008 to 2011 for two age categories (< 5 years and > 5 years). Results A total of 560,586 patients were seen, of which 25% were <5 years. Over 325,500 patients were suspected to have malaria, with the proportion of these having a confirmatory test done increasing from 62% in 2008 to 98% in 2011. Between 2008 and 2011, the proportion of the <5 years testing positive for malaria significantly decreased from 66% to 34% in Aduku, from 61% to 41% in Nagongera, and from 54% to 24% in Kamwezi. However, significant increases were seen in Kasambya and Kihihi from 41% to 51% and from 28% to 44% respectively. The TPR at Walukuba remained stable (41% to 45%). Similar trends were seen in the > 5 years. Conclusions Sentinel site surveillance has been a reliable and timely method/tool for monitoring trends in malaria morbidity thereby informing and guiding the Uganda malaria control program.


Abstract Identity-based cryptography plays an important role in current electronic applications. Mediated Rivest-Shamir-Adleman (RSA) is a simple method of sharing RSA secret keys between the user and the security mediator (SEM). Any signature operation must involve these two parties. In this paper, we newly propose an identity-based forward secure threshold signature scheme based on mediated RSA. In this scheme, threshold users can combine multiple mediators to generate a valid signature. The public key can be any identity information such as mail address or internet protocol (IP) address. The scheme has forward security because the secret key is useless for the adversary after it is renewed. At last, we give the related analysis.


The sirtuin deacetylases are implicated in long-term changes in gene expression associated with chronic exposure to cocaine. To better understand transcriptional changes associated with chronic use of cocaine, Renthal and colleagues did a genome-wide screen for mouse genes at which changes in histone modification by polyacetylation or dimethylation had occurred. These covalent changes in histones are associated with regulatory changes in gene transcription. The authors confirmed the regulation of numerous genes that had been detected as cocaine targets by direct measurements of mRNA abundance. However, they also identified new targets that appear to function in signaling in the nucleus accumbens, a brain region of reward circuitry where cocaine and other addictive drugs produce long-term changes. The authors saw alterations in histone modification at genes encoding the sirtuins Sirt1 and Sirt2. The sirtuins are themselves Class III NAD-dependent histone deacetylases that can deacetylate histones and other proteins. The sirtuins regulate a wide range of biological processes, including cell growth, apoptosis, organismal metabolism, and aging. The authors confirmed that chronic cocaine administration increased the abundance of mRNAs for Sirt1 and Sirt2 and increased deacetylase activity of the enzymes. Pharmacological manipulation of sirtuin activity in brain slices showed that sirtuin activation was associated with increased excitability of medium spiny neurons. In whole animals, administration of an inhibitor or activator showed that sirtuin activation enhanced a learned response to prefer a location that the animal associated with cocaine administration. Furthermore, inhibitor-infused rats decreased self-administration of cocaine in an animal model of addictive behavior. Analysis of the global changes in gene regulation with Ingenuity software for pathway analysis showed changes associated with numerous signaling pathways after chronic exposure of animals to cocaine. Some pathways, such as cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) signaling, mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK) signaling, and retinoic acid receptor signaling, have been previously implicated in cocaine action. New pathways, the biological relevance of which remains to be explored, included protein ubiquitination, Toll-like receptor signaling, and fibroblast growth factor receptor signaling. W. Renthal, A. Kumar, G. Xiao, M. Wilkinson, H. E. Covington III, I. Maze, D. Sikder, A. J. Robison, Q. LaPlant, D. M. Dietz, S. J. Russo, V. Vialou, S. Chakravarty, T. J. Kodadek, A. Stack, M. Kabbaj, E. J. Nestler, Genome-wide analysis of chromatin regulation by cocaine reveals a role for sirtuins. Neuron 62, 335–348 (2009). [Online Journal]


Abstract Steady-state advanced tokamak (AT) scenarios rely on optimized density and pressure profiles to maximize the bootstrap current fraction. Under this mode of operation, the fueling system must deposit small amounts of fuel where it is needed and as often as needed, so as to compensate for fuel losses, but not to adversely alter the established density and pressure profiles. Conventional fueling methods have not demonstrated successful fueling of AT-type discharges and may be incapable of deep fueling long-pulse edge-localized-mode-free discharges in ITER. The capability to deposit fuel at any desired radial location within the tokamak would provide burn control capability through alteration of the density profile. The ability to peak the density profile would ease ignition requirements, while operating ITER with density profiles that are peaked would increase the fusion power output. An advanced fueling system should also be capable of fueling well past internal transport barriers. Compact toroid (CT) fueling has the potential to meet these needs, while simultaneously providing a source of toroidal momentum input. Experimental data needed for the design of a CT fueler for ITER could be obtained on NSTX using an existing CT injector.


When the infrared spectrum of a sample is to be recorded, it is not always convenient to locate the sample and its supportive apparatus within the sample chamber of a spectrometer. The beam-projecting device described herein permits redirection of the infrared beam from the sample chamber to a location outside the spectrometer. Thus the effort required to obtain infrared spectra of in situ samples using a Fourier transform spectrometer is greatly reduced. The unique capability of this infrared beam projector is its ability to accommodate the large diameter beam of a Fourier transform spectrometer, even in the far infrared mode, without appreciable loss of throughput.


Low-end smartphones with sub $50 price tags provide affordable device ownership to low-income populations. However, their limited capacity, when combined with the need for multimodal connectivity, raises usage concerns in rural off-grid regions. Some off-grid regions in sub-Saharan Africa provide recharge facilities using solar power and charge money for the service. Adding data bundle costs to frequent recharge costs, affordability of low-end smartphones becomes questionable in such areas. Community-controlled solar-powered wireless mesh network models with Session Initiation Protocol capability could alleviate the network usage cost conundrum and consume less power in low-end smartphones with the usage of WiFi. This paper reports on investigations that reveal usage of WiFi consumes less battery than 3G, 2G and Bluetooth. In addition, we feel that lowering recharge costs also requires battery consumption knowledge of the over-the-top applications. Using automated voice calls, this paper reports on battery and data consumption by multiple popular social media applications using one type of low-end smartphone. Data consumption was calculated with the objective of learning how to lower data bundle costs by selecting the application with least data consumption. Battery consumption due to CPU usage by the applications was also measured. Results show that WhatsApp consumes the least battery amongst instant messengers and also the least data over all apps measured. SipDroid consumes the least battery overall. Additionally, the reported experiments provide a framework for future experiments aimed at evaluating battery and data consumption by other smartphone applications.


Aiming at the goal of individualized medicine, this dissertation develops a generic methodology to individualize risk factors and phenotypes via metabolomic data from the urine. As metabolomic data can be seen as a holistic representation of the metabolism of an organism at certain time point, metabolomic data contain not only information about current life-style factors like diet and smoking but also about latent genetic traits. Utilizing this integrative attribute, the dissertation delivers a metric for biological age (the metabolic age score) which was shown to be informative beyond chronological age in three independent samples. It was associated with a broad range of age-related comorbidities in two large population-based cohorts, predicted independently of classical risk factors mortality and, moreover, it predicted weight loss subsequently to bariatric surgery in a small sample of heavily obese individuals.
Subsequently to this work, the dissertation built a definitional framework justifying the procedure underlying the metabolic age score, delivering a general framework for the construction of individualized phenotypes and thereby an operationalization of individualization in statistical terms. Conceptualizing individualization of the process of differentiation of individuals showing the same phenotype despite different underlying biological traits, it was shown formally that the prediction error of a statistical model approximating a phenotype is always informative about the underlying biology beyond the phenotype if the predictors fulfill certain statistical requirements. Thus, the prediction error facilitates the meaningful differentiation of individuals showing the same phenotype. The definitional framework presented here is not restricted to any kind of data and is therefore applicable to a broad range of medical research questions.
However, when utilizing metabolomic data, technical factors, data-preprocessing, pre-analytic features introduce unwanted variance into the statistical modeling. Thus, it is unclear whether predictive models like the metabolic age score are stable enough for clinical application. The third part of this doctoral thesis provided two statistical criteria to decide which normalization method to remove the dilution variance from urinary metabolome data performs best in terms of erroneous variance introduced by the different methods, aiding the minimization of biological irrelevant variance in metabolomic analyses.
In conclusion, this doctoral thesis developed a general, applicable, definitional framework for the construction of individualized phenotypes and demonstrated the value of the methodology for clinical phenotypes on metabolomic data, improving on the way the statistical treatment of urinary data regarding the dilution correction.


Arch-shaped members are used in many reinforced concrete structures such as tunnels, bridges, silos, or offshore constructions. They are generally designed to carry significant axial forces, and, in most cases, are not provided with transverse reinforcement. Depending on the applied actions, however, bending moments and shear forces may also develop. This can potentially lead to spalling failures of the concrete cover or to shear failures where the strength may be reduced in comparison with straight members. Such reduction is due to the curvature of the element and to the corresponding deviation forces originated by the compression and tension chords. In spite of the significance of the topic, little research has been performed. In this paper, the authors summarize the results of a comprehensive investigation comprising an experimental part on nine arch-shaped specimens with thickness equal to 400 mm (15.7 in.). On the basis of these results, the basic failure mechanisms and shear-transfer actions are identified. By using the principles of the critical shear crack theory for assessment of the shear strength, a design approach for such members is presented that accounts for the various mechanical and geometrical parameters. The approach provides consistent and accurate predictions when compared with the tests presented in the paper.


In the early 1900s, thousands of immigrants labored in New Yorks Lower East Side sweatshops, enduring work environments that came to be seen as among the worst examples of Progressive-Era American industrialization. Although reformers agreed that these unsafe workplaces must be abolished, their reasons have seldom been fully examined."Sweated Work, Weak Bodies"is the first book on the origins of sweatshops, exploring how they came to represent the dangers of industrialization and the perils of immigration. It is an innovative study of the language used to define the sweatshop, how these definitions shaped the first anti-sweatshop campaign, and how they continue to influence our current understanding of the sweatshop."


The Canadian Homelessness Research Network (CHRN) was established to create a stronger link between homelessness research, policy, and practice. The knowledge mobilization strategy of the CHRN encompasses engaged scholarship, networking, and innovative dissemination practices. Part of the learning of the CHRN has been the need to reimagine and redefine the traditional relationship between content creation and dissemination. Using a "design thinking" perspective, the CHRN has nurtured a practice that integrates collaborative processes of knowledge and content development with a more assertive involvement in different aspects of publishing (and modes of publication), including graphic design, marketing, communications, and dissemination, with the goal of increasing the impact of research. This article explores this shift, using examples of work the CHRN produced and disseminated through the Homeless Hub.


I show that a class of fixed effects estimators is reasonably robust for estimating the population-averaged slope coefficients in panel data models with individual-specific slopes, where the slopes are allowed to be correlated with the covariates. In addition to including the usual fixed effects estimator, the results apply to estimators that eliminate individual-specific trends. Further, asymptotic variance matrices are straightforward to estimate. I apply the results, and propose alternative estimators, to estimation of average treatment in a general class of unobserved effects models.


This volume deals with the consequences of climate change and issues of international climate policy relating to Africa from a social science perspective. The contributions by international authors question dominant political approaches and key concepts of the climate debate. They explain how the effects of climate change are linked to existing social, economic and political-institutional structures and action by the State. The authors show how social movements in Africa shape climate policy «from below». The volume serves as an introduction into climate change in Africa. It wants to stimulate a critical debate on dominant strategies and points out that there can be no simple answers to the complex socio-ecological and political challenges linked to climate change in Africa.


BACKGROUND
Close association exists between allergic rhinitis and asthma. Moreover, allergic rhinitis is a strong risk factor for the onset of asthma in adults. This study was aimed at evaluating a large group of patients with moderate-to-severe and persistent allergic rhinitis alone for investigating the presence of spirometric abnormalities and possible risk factors related to it.

METHODS
A total of 392 patients with persistent allergic rhinitis were prospectively and consecutively evaluated. Clinical examination, skin prick test and spirometry were performed in all patients.

RESULTS
There were 24 (6.1%) patients with forced vital capacity (FVC < 80%) of predicted, 50 (12.8%) with forced expiratory volume in the first second (FEV(1) < 80%) of predicted and 341 (87.0%) with forced expiratory flow at 25% and 75% of the pulmonary volume (FEF(25-75)) < 80% of predicted. The logistic regression analysis evidenced that rhinitis duration (OR(Adj): 1.9/year) and sensitization to house dust mites (OR(Adj): 8.2) were significantly associated with impaired values of 2 or 3 spirometric parameters.

CONCLUSION
This study highlights the close link between upper and lower airways and the role of some risk factors, such as duration and mites sensitization, as early prognostic markers of bronchial involvement in patients with moderate-to-severe and persistent allergic rhinitis alone.


In her response to Julian Go's book Patterns of Empire, Mukherjee contends that the harder Go seeks to critique American exceptionalism, the more he has to insist on the liberal nature of the British Empire in India. By "liberal British rule," Mukherjee writes, Go refers to certain imperial policies that seemed to offer the subject populations more representation, and therefore more participation in governance. He is not concerned with liberalism as a school of political philosophy. The notion of "liberal empire," however, is untenable as a characterization of the British Empire in India, both discursively and historically. Even on the face of it, the notion of liberal empire is a contradiction in terms: the idea of liberty and the ideaand institution of empire are mutually incompatible. After all, the very fact of empire as an exercise in political power over an alien population is predicated on the loss of political sovereignty of the subject population. Can an empire deprive a society and culture of its political sovereignty and independence and yet claim to be liberal?


In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Robert Mueller, the Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), sought to transform the storied Bureau. The FBI had long served as both the chief law enforcement agency and the main domestic intelligence wing of the U.S. government. In practice, though, law enforcement had overshadowed intelligence at the FBI. The terrorist attacks made it tragically clear that the United States required a much stronger domestic intelligence service, and Mueller believed that that service should reside within the FBI. Critics, however, called for the Bureau to narrow its scope, focus on law enforcement, and cede domestic intelligence to a new, specialized agency. Should the FBI retain both the law enforcement mission and the domestic intelligence mission? If so, how should it change itself to succeed in both missions? This case, a supplement to the "Federal Bureau of Investigation, 2001 (Abridged)" case (710-450), reviews the FBI's progress from 2001 to 2007.


Landslide is the movement of mass of rock, debris or earth (soil) down a slope under the influence of gravity. Although Malaysia is not a precipitous country (mountains and hills are less than 25% of the terrain), slope failures/landslides are a frequently happened. From 1993-2011, around 28 major landslides were reported in Malaysia with a total loss of more than 100 lives. Moreover, from 1973-2007, the total economic loss due to landslides in Malaysia was estimated about US $1 billion. Collapsed of the 14-storey block A of the Highland Tower in Ulu Klang, Selangor was the most tragic landslide in Malaysia with 48 deaths.The main factor that caused slopes failure/landslides at numbers site in hillside development in Malaysia are rainfall, storm water activities and poor slope management. Another cause of landslides can be due to the abuse prescriptive methods, inadequate study of past failures, design errors including insufficient site specific ground investigation. Besides, the development of highland or hilly terrain has increased developed and many hills project are in the pipe line. All this factors together contribute to landslide disaster in this country. An impact of landslides in Malaysia has given rise to some environmental and socioeconomic issues such as loss of lives, damaged of properties and infrastructures, psychological pressures among the victims, disputes on land boundaries and also land degradation. Therefore, planning, design, construction and maintenance are very critical to achieve a safe and cost-effective hill-site development.


This paper presents a probabilistic approach for detecting network scans in real-time. Unlike previous approaches, our model takes into consideration both the number of destinations or ports accessed by a source, as well as how unusual these accesses are. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in terms of accuracy and throughput, based on an analysis of the unusual sources that were found in real-life packet trace files.


Educational Research and Professional Learning in Changing Times reports three dimensions of a longitudinal Australian study with the ultimate aim of improving the mathematics learning outcomes for all middle school students in preparation for the quantitative literacy requirements of the 21st century. It was also hoped to improve the prospects for students with the interest to study further mathematics. The project provided professional learning opportunities for teachers, carried out case studies in individual schools, produced well-documented classroom activities in line with the aims, and measured teacher and student change over three years. The three main sections of the book cover the formal data collection and analysis, the qualitative analysis of the case studies, and some of the professional learning activities for teachers. The final section reports the reflections of the authors, especially in relation to the changing educational environment in which the project took place. Many other countries are experiencing similar educational change. The book will supplement other resources for graduate programs for pre-service and in-service mathematics teachers by modeling both a realistic approach to quantitative and qualitative research and a range of practical classroom activities. It will also assist those providing professional learning for teachers in the field unrelated to formal research, as two thirds of the content is based on classroom experiences with mathematics.


Blue light emitted by LEDs might influence on natural biological rhythm of human being, what can be considered as environment pollution. In this paper the effect of the latest commercially available LEDs on melatonin suppression index (MSI) was analyzed. Research was done based on spectral power distribution of given LED (SPD) and melatonin suppression function in reference to melatonin suppression under daylight (illuminant D65). Results of calculations shows strong correlation between CCT and MSI, however MSI factor might vary for different LEDs with same CCT. Full Text: PDF ReferencesC. C. Sun, et al., Packaging efficiency in phosphor-converted white LEDs and its impact to the limit of luminous efficacy, Journal of Solid State Lighting, 1:19, (2014). CrossRef M. S. Rea, M. G. Figueiro, J. D. Bullough, "Circadian photobiology: An emerging framework for lighting practice and research", Light Research Technology Vol. 34(3), (2002). CrossRef I. Fryc, P. Jakubowski, K. Kołacz, Analysis of optical radiation parameters of compact discharge HID lamps and LED COB modules used for illuminating shop windows, Przeglad Elektrotechniczny, R. 93, No. 11, (2017). CrossRef G. C. Brainard, J. P. Hanifin, J.M. Greeson, B. Byrne, E. Gerner, D. D. Rollang, "Action spectrum for melatonin regulation in humans: evidence for a novel circadian photoreceptor", Journal of Neuroscience vol. 21, (2001). CrossRef K. Thapan, J. Arendt, D. J. Skene, "An action spectrum for melatonin supression: evidence for a novel non-rod, non-cone photoreceptor system in humans," Journal of Physiology vol. 535, (2001). CrossRef I. Fryc, J. Fryc, P. Jakubowski, K. A. Wąsowski, Technical, medical and legal aspects of domestic light sources photobiological safety, Przeglad Elektrotechniczny, R. 93, No. 3, (2017). CrossRef J. Enzi et. al, A "Melanopic" Spectral Efficiency Function Predicts the Sensitivity of Melanopsin Photoreceptors to Polychromatic Lights Journal of biological rhytms, Vol. 26 No. 4, (2011). CrossRef M. Aube, J. Roby J, M. Kocifaj, Evaluating Potential Spectral Impacts of Various Artificial Lights on Melatonin Suppression, Photosynthesis, and Star Visibility. PLOS ONE, Vol. 8, (2013). CrossRef P. Jakubowski, I. Fryc, Metrological requirements for measurements of circadian radiation, Optica Applicata, Vol. 48 Issue 4, (2018). CrossRef P. Jakubowski, I. Fryc, Measurement methods of optical radiation in circadian active range, Zeszyty Naukowe Wydziału Elektrotechniki i Automatyki Politechniki Gdańskiej, nr 54 (2017). DirectLink P. Jakubowski, Comparative analysis of light parameters of LEDs and OLEDs in context of blue light emission, Polish Journal for Sustainable Development 21 (2), (2017). CrossRef CIE TN003:2015, "Report on the First International Workshop on Circadian and neurophysiological Photometry", (2015). DirectLink


Recommender systems apply knowledge discovery techniques to the problem of making personalized recommendations for information, products or services during a live interaction. These systems, especially the k-nearest neighbor collaborative ltering based ones, are achieving widespread success on the Web. The tremendous growth in the amount of available information and the number of visitors to Web sites in recent years poses some key challenges for recommender systems. These are: producing high quality recommendations, performing many recommendations per second for millions of users and items and achieving high coverage in the face of data sparsity. In traditional collaborative ltering systems the amount of work increases with the number of participants in the system. New recommender system technologies are needed that can quickly produce high quality recommendations, even for very large-scale problems. To address these issues we have explored item-based collaborative ltering techniques. Item-based techniques rst analyze the user-item matrix to identify relationships between di erent items, and then use these relationships to indirectly compute recommendations for users. In this paper we analyze di erent item-based recommendation generation algorithms. We look into di erent techniques for computing item-item similarities (e.g., item-item correlation vs. cosine similarities between item vectors) and di erent techniques for obtaining recommendations from them (e.g., weighted sum vs. regression model). Finally, we experimentally evaluate our results and compare them to the basic k-nearest neighbor approach. Our experiments suggest that item-based algorithms provide dramatically better performance than user-based algorithms, while at the same time providing better quality than the best available userbased algorithms.


In the early 1990s, 36 European governments worked as participants of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe on criteria and indicators of sustainable forest management. The indicators developed served as the basis for the 1999-founded Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification (PEFC), today's biggest forest certification system worldwide. Surprisingly, most members of the Ministerial Conference on the Protection of Forests in Europe either joined the PEFC immediately in 1999, or not at all. This paper examines the European governments' motives of membership with the PEFC by employing parametric models of survival analysis. The regression models show that most important determinants of states' participation in PEFC are the extent to which revenue from forestry contributes to a state's overall revenue and the share of privately owned forests. Put differently, participation is mainly driven by economic concerns and not social or ecological ones.


With the recent advance in microphone array speech processing, achieving robustness of speaker localization becomes most significant aspect. At the same time considerable research growth is performed in developing the multiple microphone sensors equipped rooms are developed also called as smart rooms for real time applications. The accuracy of speaker localization is down casted by acoustic noise and room reverberations. In distributed meeting environment speaker localization is performed by far field microphone arrays with the help of beamforming. But far field Microphone performance is degraded by room reverberations and acoustic noise. In this master thesis, speaker localization with two adaptive beamforming techniques in distributed meeting application in reverberated environment with the help of far filed microphone arrays is design and implemented. The two beamforming methods examined are multichannel wiener beamformer and multichannel sub band wiener beamformer. These methods use wiener filtering technique for their implementation and they are implemented to capture the human voice using widely separated microphone arrays even when irregular disturbances are present. A smart room is developed with Image source model for generating reverberation in which beamformers are implemented. In sub band beamformer WOLA filter bank is designed. The sub band beamforming is further extended to steered response power with phase transform for speaker localization is achieved with the cross correlation but speech is heavily degraded by the noise which can be further studied to eliminated it. Finally the quality of the speech is tested using SNR and PESQ (Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality) and also the performance of the system with respect to reverberation time is calculated. The results show that the two implementations are acceptable in terms of PESQ score.


Intestinal organoid cultures provide an in vitro model system for studying pathways and mechanisms involved in epithelial damage and repair. Derived from either embryonic or induced pluripotent stem cells or adult intestinal stem cells or tissues, these self-organizing multi-cellular structures contain polarized mature cells that recapitulate both the physiology and heterogeneity of the intestinal epithelium. These cultures provide a cutting-edge technology for defining regenerative pathways that are induced following radiation or chemical damage, which directly target the cycling intestinal stem cell, or damage resulting from viral, bacterial, or parasitic infection of the epithelium. Novel signaling pathways or biological mechanisms identified from organoid studies that mediate regeneration of the epithelium following damage are likely to be important targets of preventive or therapeutic modalities to mitigate intestinal injury. The evolution of these cultures to include more components of the intestinal wall and the ability to genetically modify them are key components to define the mechanisms that modulate epithelial regeneration.


Survival, growth and hatching of brown trout Salmo trutta embryos were studied using in situ incubation experiments in two lake outlet streams in Finland. The experimental design in both streams included an outlet site and a reference site far downstream. The date of hatching was recorded and the Elliott–Hurley model was then used to predict the time of emergence based on water temperature. For data analyses, the incubation period was divided into 'winter' (from fertilization to mid March) and 'spring' (from mid March until the end of the experiment). Temperature of the large-lake outlet remained at 1° C through the winter, while in other sites temperature was close to 0° C. In spring, temperature increased more slowly in the large-lake outlet. The survival of embryos was overall very high, from 83 to 98%, and they were larger in the outlets than in the downstream sites. Embryos hatched at the large-lake outlet in March, and 3–5 weeks later in the other sites. Although there were considerable between-site differences in hatching intervals, difference in expected 50% emergence dates of the earliest and latest site was only 4 days. Thus, any growth advantage that the outlet embryos had in winter disappeared by the end of the alevin period. Lake outlets, however, may be important for age 0 year brown trout later during the summer when other stream habitats do not provide adequate food resources.


Anticipating new opportunities in the coastal zone and convinced that basic research would be the means to secure them, in 1963 the United States Army Corps of Engineers created an independent entity, the Coastal Engineering Research Center (CERC): gave it a broad mandate, prime responsibility, and sufficient elbow room to do its work; and in subsequent years encouraged CERC's physical and organizational expansion. Given the data available to them, Corps leaders were responding logically. Twenty years later, different imperatives and perceptions caused a new set of decision makers to reach opposite conclusions. In folding CERC into the laboratory system at the Waterways Experiment Station (WES), they, too, selected the best from among the available alternatives.


While there is a wealth of information about children's technology and the design processes used to create it, there is a dearth of information regarding how the children who participate in these design processes may be affected by their participation. In this paper, we motivate why studying this impact is important and look at the foundation provided by past research that touches on this topic. We conclude by briefly proposing methods appropriate for studying the impact of the design process on the children involved.


The Age of Enlightenment of the 18th century, also called the Age of Reason, was so named for an intellectual movement that shook the foundations of Western civilization. In championing radical ideas such as individual liberty and an empirical appraisal of the universe through rational inquiry and natural experience, Enlightenment philosophers in Europe and America planted the seeds for modern liberalism, cultural humanism, science and technology, and laissez-faire Capitalism. This volume brings together works from this era, with more than 100 selections from a range of sources. It includes examples by Kant, Diderot, Voltaire, Newton, Rousseau, Locke, Franklin, Jefferson, Madison, and Paine that demonstrate the pervasive impact of Enlightenment views on philosophy and epistemology as well as on political, social, and economic institutions.


In this paper we present results from an investigation of religious information searching based on analyzing log files from a large general-purpose search engine. From approximately 15 million queries, we identified 124,422 that were part of 60,759 user sessions. We present a method for categorizing queries based on related terms and show differences in search patterns between religious searches and web searching more generally. We also investigate the search patterns found in queries related to 5 religions: Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, and Judaism. Different search patterns are found to emerge. Results from this study complement existing studies of religious information searching and provide a level of detailed analysis not reported to date. We show, for example, that sessions involving religion-related queries tend to last longer, that the lengths of religion-related queries are greater, and that the number of unique URLs clicked is higher when compared to all queries. The results of the study can serve to provide information on what this large population of users is actually searching for.


In this article, the author explores how one particular group of working-class women living in Belfast, the North of Ireland, experience the place(s) in which they live. The perspective of place that this exploration is embedded in represents the accumulation of multiple person-place relationships that are mediated by the sociopolitical history of the North of Ireland, as well as by the gendered, classed, and religious-mediated contexts in which the women live. The author explores the relationship between place and identity by describing a feminist participatory action research (PAR) project that she engaged in with a group of women living in Belfast (which included the use of photovoice as a tool for investigating people's lives) that provided them with a culturally relevant lens through which to view the relationship between place and the everyday lives of Irish women. Out of that investigation, the author and the women designed a photo-text exhibit that provides knowledge to local and international communities about the ways in which women engage in the formulation and reformulation of place and identity within contexts of everyday life.


Little is known theoretically, and even less empirically, about the relationship between firm boundaries and the allocation of decision rights within firms. We develop a model in which firms choose which suppliers to integrate and whether to delegate decisions to integrated suppliers. We test the predictions of the model using a novel dataset that combines measures of vertical integration and delegation for a large set of firms from many countries and industries. In line with the model's predictions, we obtain three main results: (i) integration and delegation co-vary positively; (ii) producers are more likely to integrate suppliers in input sectors with greater productivity variation (as the option value of integration is greater); and (iii) producers are more likely to integrate suppliers of more important inputs and to delegate decisions to them.


We present HyperCrypt, a hypervisor-based solution that encrypts the entire kernel and user space to protect against physical attacks on main memory, such as cold boot attacks. HyperCrypt is fully transparent for the guest operating system and all applications running on top of it. At any time, only a small working set of memory pages remains in clear while the vast majority of pages are constantly kept encrypted. By utilizing CPU-bound encryption, the symmetric encryption key is never exposed to RAM. We evaluated our prototype running a standard Linux system with an nginx web sever. With the default configuration of 1024 cleartext pages, successful cold boot attacks are rendered highly unlikely due to large caches of at least 4 MB in modern CPUs. The performance overhead of nginx is raised by factor 1.37 compared to a non-virtualized system.


Production of rice suffers a vital misfortune through weed pressure worldwide. The present work was carried out to evaluate ten rice plant characteristics related with the competitiveness against weeds. The experiment was conducted in a split-plot design with the weedy and weedfree treatments in the main plot and ten rice genotypes as the sub-plot treatment. Results depicted that rice genotypes reveal variable competitiveness against weeds. Among the genotypes, highest competitive rate was found in Govind and UPR 2962-6-2-1. The competitive ability of these genotypes could be attributed to high leaf number tiller number, plant height and shoot biomass at flowering stage. From the study we could understand that morphological parameter can be presuppose to be applied as suitable trait in rice weed interaction for sustainable agriculture.


The scope of this paper is to estimate the unpredictable hospital demand variations in two public general hospitals in Piraeus, Greece. We used daily emergency admissions data between 1/1/2001 to 31/12/2005. To measure unpredictable hospital demand we used both a univariate Autoregressive Moving Average model and a multivariate time series model. In the latter one, four explanatory variables are tested: the weekend effect, the duty effect, the summer holiday effect, and the official holiday effect. The variance of forecasted residuals of each hospital regression for every day provides the estimated unpredictable demand. The study verifies that daily emergency admissions are characterized by seasonal and weekly variations. In Tzaneio hospital, the unexpected part of emergency admissions increases over the five-year period, while in Nikaias hospital, it reduces. From the univariate analysis, it was found that the unpredictable part of admissions is not the same for the two hospitals and it also varies over the years. The variations of unpredictable hospital demand have increased by about 45% in Tzaneio hospital and have decreased by about 10% in Nikaias hospital. The results from the multivariate analysis show that the variations in unpredictable daily demand in Tzaneio hospital have less than doubled. On the contrary, the variations in unpredictable daily demand in Nikaias hospital have decreased by 20%. Due to these trends, a general conclusion is that at the beginning of the time period under investigation there are large variations in unpredictable demand between the two hospitals, which become smaller as we move on to 2005.


Context An increasing body of research has linked the geographic distribution of lead with various indicators of criminal and antisocial behavior. Objective The current study, using data from an ongoing project related to lead exposure in St. Louis City, MO, analyzed the association between aggregate blood lead levels and specific indicators violent crime within the city. Design Ecological study. Setting St. Louis, Missouri. Exposure measure Blood lead levels. Main outcome measure Official reports of violent crimes were categorized as 1) crimes involving a firearm (yes/no), 2) assault crimes (with or without a firearm), 3) robbery crimes (with or without a firearm), 4) homicides and 5) rape. Results With the exception of rape, aggregate blood-lead levels were statistically significant predictors of violent crime at the census tract level. The risk ratios for each of the outcome measures were as follows: firearm crimes 1.03 (1.03–1.04), assault crimes 1.03 (1.02–1.03), robbery crimes 1.03 (1.02–1.04), homicide 1.03 (1.01, 1.04), and rape 1.01 (0.99–1.03). Conclusions Extending prior research in St. Louis, results suggest that aggregated lead exposure at the census tract level predicted crime outcomes, even after accounting for important sociological variables. Moving forward, a more developed understanding of aggregate level crime may necessitate a shift toward studying the synergy between sociological and biological risk factors such as lead exposure.


BACKGROUND
The prevalence of self-reported upper respiratory tract (URT) symptoms in athletes has been traditionally associated with opportunistic infection during the temporal suppression of immune function after prolonged exercise. There is little evidence for this, and a competing noninfectious hypothesis has been proposed, whereby the exercise-induced immune system modulations favor the development of atopy and allergic disease, which manifests as URT symptoms. The aim of this study was to examine the association between allergy and URT symptoms in runners after an endurance running event.

METHODS
Two hundred eight runners from the 2010 London Marathon completed the validated Allergy Questionnaire for Athletes (AQUA) and had serum analyzed for total and specific immunoglobulin E response to common inhalant allergens. Participants who completed the marathon and nonrunning controls who lived in the same household were asked to complete a diary on URT symptoms.

RESULTS
Forty percent of runners had allergy as defined by both a positive AQUA and elevated specific immunoglobulin E. Forty-seven percent of runners experienced URT symptoms after the marathon. A positive AQUA was a significant predictor of postmarathon URT symptoms in runners. Only 19% of nonrunning controls reported symptoms.

CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of allergy in recreational marathon runners was similar to that in elite athletes and higher than that in the general population. There was a strong association between a positive AQUA and URT symptoms. The low proportion of households in which both runners and nonrunners were symptomatic suggests that the nature of symptoms may be allergic or inflammatory based rather than infectious. Allergy is a treatable condition, and its potential effect on performance and health may be avoided by accurate clinical diagnosis and management. Both athletes' and coaches' awareness of the potential implications of poorly managed allergy needs to be raised.


Geometry is a craft, an amalgam of science and art. A good development should be pleasing to the mind, kin to poetry. When, after sedentation of a century, a desk was moved in the Laurentian library, it was discovered that the architect, Michaelangelo, had inscribed an ellipse in a rosette section. Clarifying the nature of this ellipse eluded naive automated algebra. Herein I present a development intended for human appreciation. It is an introduction to the geometry of the rosette diagram. A sketch of the structure of the space of inscribed ellipses. A beginning to a pragmatic description of the meaning and relation between some algebraic equations. A plan of attack on a geometric problem with historical connections. This paper expresses core groundwork I have been conducting in order to embark on the search for a more classical construction of the complete elliptically decorated rosette diagram.


Can men and women have equal levels of voice and authority in deliberation or does deliberation exacerbate gender inequality? Does increasing women's descriptive representation in deliberation increase their voice and authority? We answer these questions and move beyond the debate by hypothesizing that the group's gender composition interacts with its decision rule to exacerbate or erase the inequalities. We test this hypothesis and various alternatives, using experimental data with many groups and links between individuals' attitudes and speech. We find a substantial gender gap in voice and authority, but as hypothesized, it disappears under unanimous rule and few women, or under majority rule and many women. Deliberative design can avoid inequality by fitting institutional procedure to the social context of the situation.


This paper describes experiment based on calculation of heat consumption for part of the town during the winter season. It is based on historical data analysis in the view of the nature of the sun activity. The relationship between heat consumption and outside temperature is sought and expressed in linear formulas. These relations are then improved by the inclusion of the information about sun activity during a day. The main idea is to separate sunny and common days and then describe heat consumption individually for them. This contribution also shows simple method substituting sun intensity measurement by the comparison of temperature differences.


Human resource management and work values specifically have become a core element to organizations success and achieving their aims. The two countries taken into consideration in our dissertation (Sweden & Pakistan) both have a high percentage of work being done in the service sector. Sweden is one of the most developed countries in the world where the service sector plays a fundamental part in its GDP and Pakistan is a developing country on the rise where again the service sector plays a major role in the country's GDP. Sweden has an edge over most countries in the world when it comes to infrastructure and Pakistan has its own plus points with a wide range of work force thus opening new horizons for Pakistani workers to move into Sweden for work and for Pakistani managers to gain skills and expertise from there Swedish counterparts. This dissertation analyze, what aspects of work value are similar or different between managers in Sweden and Pakistan, this includes reviewing the findings from different case studies and of interview conducted with managers of different organizations in Sweden and Pakistan. The dissertation is qualitative in nature and theoretical cultural aspects in the lights of work values are used along with articles and books on management styles of managers in both the respective countries.


Common algorithms for computationally simulating Langevin dynamics must discretize the stochastic differential equations of motion. These resulting finite-time-step integrators necessarily have several practical issues in common: Microscopic reversibility is violated, the sampled stationary distribution differs from the desired equilibrium distribution, and the work accumulated in nonequilibrium simulations is not directly usable in estimators based on nonequilibrium work theorems. Here, we show that, even with a time-independent Hamiltonian, finite-time-step Langevin integrators can be thought of as a driven, nonequilibrium physical process. Once an appropriate worklike quantity is defined—here called the shadow work—recently developed nonequilibrium fluctuation theorems can be used to measure or correct for the errors introduced by the use of finite time steps. In particular, we demonstrate that amending estimators based on nonequilibrium work theorems to include this shadow work removes the time-stepdependent error from estimates of free energies. We also quantify, for the first time, the magnitude of deviations between the sampled stationary distribution and the desired equilibrium distribution for equilibrium Langevin simulations of solvated systems of varying sizes. While these deviations can be large, they can be eliminated altogether by Metropolization or greatly diminished by small reductions in the time step. Through this connection with driven processes, further developments in nonequilibrium fluctuation theorems can provide additional analytical tools for dealing with errors in finite-time-step integrators.


We explore Calico, a miniature relocatable wearable system with fast and precise locomotion for on-body interaction, actuation and sensing. Calico consists of a two-wheel robot and an on-cloth track mechanism or "railway," on which the robot travels. The robot is self-contained, small in size, and has additional sensor expansion options. The track system allows the robot to move along the user's body and reach any predetermined location. It also includes rotational switches to enable complex routing options when diverging tracks are presented. We report the design and implementation of Calico with a series of technical evaluations for system performance. We then present a few application scenarios, and user studies to understand the potential of Calico as a dance trainer and also explore the qualitative perception of our scenarios to inform future research in this space.