Increasingly, protected areas have been connected with the rest of the world through telecouplings (socioeconomic and environmental interactions over distances) that are essential for their structures and functions. Unfortunately, many of the Earth's protected areas are located in regions with frequent natural disasters that can profoundly affect telecouplings. Although there have been many studies evaluating socioeconomic or ecological effects of natural disasters separately, systematic evaluations of socioeconomic and ecological effects of natural disasters by altering multiple telecouplings have remained rare. With long-term data collected in China's Wolong Nature Reserve for giant pandas (Wolong), we applied the telecoupling framework to assess the effects of the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake on telecouplings that link Wolong with the rest of the world, as well as their subsequent effects on coupled human and natural systems in Wolong. Our results show that the earthquake altered all major components of multiple telecouplings and generated complex socioeconomic and ecological effects in Wolong. Based on these understood effects, we provide suggestions to enhance environmental sustainability and human well-being in Wolong and beyond.


The Federal Republic of Germany has coped with indigenous left-wing terrorism for several decades and not lost its liberal democratic character f which raises the question of why terrorists continue to attract recruits to fight the state. This case study of terrorist motivation also elucidates the concept of identification, the lasting influence of someone, some group f or some idea on others, to aid the understanding of motivation and responses to terrorism. Identification also enables the integration of three entwined levels of terrorism study-individuals, groups and society. Elucidation of left-wing terrorism in the Federal Republic of Germany shows that a wide variety of persons became terrorists. The important factors in becoming a terrorist were the influence of 'significant others' both in the decision to join a terrorist group! and later wi thin the group! as well as the perception that terrorism was the only available option. The terrorist groups fonned 'macronarrati ves r based on the group members' shared history and culture which supported their decisions to offer incentives and sanctions to group members to enable their underground existence. Not all of the groups sought to influence public policy. The Red Army Faction was mainly interested in group survival! as was the Second of June, while some of the Revolutionary Cells and Alitonamen followed their self-interest in commiting terrorist acts. Other Revolutionary Cells and Autanamen groups, however! sought public policy changes through terrorist acts in support of protest groups. The other groups had limited concepts of the 'public'! which reflected their group direction. The government of the Federal Republic responded to left-wing terrorism with short-tenn paramilitary options taking precedence over the long~tenn socio-economic considerations. The Gennan government generally has perceived all left-wing terrorist groups as the same! and not given due consideration to the different terrorist organisations perceptions of the 'public'. A clearer perception of left-wing terrorism in the Federal Republic of Germany shows the usefulness of the concept of identification in the study of terrorism, and highlights the processes involved in terrorist motivation at individual, group and society levels.


There are visible changes in the world organization, environment and health of national conscience that create a background for discussion on possible redefinition of global, state and regional management goals. The author applies the sustainable development criteria to a hierarchical management scheme that is to lead the world community to non-contradictory growth. Concrete definitions are discussed in respect of decision-making process representing the state mostly. With the help of systems analysis it is highlighted how to understand who would carry the distinctive sign of world leadership in the nearest future.


In their comment Hiscott and co-authors adhere rigidly to ages and sources for sedimentary units in the subsurface of the Marmara shelf that they have previously reported in their publications from 2002 through 2007. This adherence is in spite of a superior age-depth model from our 13 m-long sediment core that penetrated deeply into the deposits under consideration and in disregard to the results of subsequent more-detailed and full-coverage mapping of the region under scrutiny. The age revisions are dismissed by the authors of the comment as representing sediments severely disturbed during coring. We rebut this criticism. The Bosporus source attributed by them to the sedimentary units sampled and dated by us appears to be driven by their conception that the Black Sea had a persistent outflow prior to its two-way connection with Marmara. Irrespective of whether the outflow was persistent, our reply shows that the drawing of the isopachs of the sedimentary units by Hiscott and co-authors was accomplished in a fashion to promote the Bosporus source hypothesis regardless of the geographic limits of their survey. The ages assigned to the units are equally indeterminate because the cores used by them have missing core tops of unknown lengths that are not discussed in their publications. Furthermore, the sub-bottom reflectors at the sites where the reflectors were calibrated to their only core without a missing top are actually hidden by the finite width of the bottom reflecting wavelet.


We study a real-time iteration (RTI) scheme for solving online optimization problem appeared in nonlinear optimal control. The proposed RTI scheme modifies the existing RTI-based model predictive control (MPC) algorithm, by selecting the stepsize of each Newton step at each sampling time using a differentiable exact augmented Lagrangian. The scheme can adaptively select the penalty parameters of augmented Lagrangian on the fly, which are shown to be stabilized after certain time periods. We prove under generic assumptions that, by involving stepsize selection instead of always using a full Newton step (like what most of the existing RTIs do), the scheme converges globally: for any initial point, the KKT residuals of the subproblems converge to zero. A key step is to show that augmented Lagrangian keeps decreasing as horizon moves forward. We demonstrate the global convergence behavior of the proposed RTI scheme in a numerical experiment.


This is an interview with Rianna Walcott, the co-founder of Project Myopia – a student-led initiative to decolonise university curricula. The discussion explores the difference between 'diversity' and 'decolonisation': how these two concepts relate to and contradict one another. Walcott outlines some of the recent student efforts to 'decolonise' the university and we discuss the extent to which this represents a paradoxical ambition, as well as the limitations of attempting to change the university from the inside. Walcott also explores the significance of some practical measures which can be – or have been – put into place when attempting to diversify or decolonise curricula, and we close by discussing the significance of Philosophy in particular with respect to decolonising efforts, and the steps which need to be taken in order to begin the process of 'decolonising' philosophy.


In this work, we propose new ways to learn pose and motion priors models and show that they can be used to increase the performance of 3D body tracking algorithms, resulting in very realistic motions under very challenging conditions. We first explored an approach to 3D people tracking that combines learned motion models and deterministic optimization. The tracking problem is formulated as the minimization of a differentiable criterion whose differential structure is rich enough for optimization to be accomplished via hill-climbing. This avoids the computational expense of Monte Carlo methods, while yielding very good results under challenging conditions. To demonstrate the generality of the approach we show that we can learn and track cyclic motions such as walking and running, as well as acyclic motions such as a golf swing. We also show results from both monocular and multi-camera tracking. Finally, we provide results with a motion model learned from multiple activities, and show how these models can be used for recognition and motion generation. The major limitation of these linear motion models is that they required many noiseless, segmented and time warped examples to create a complete database with good generalization properties. We therefore investigated more complex non-linear statistical techniques. We advocate the use of Scaled Gaussian Process Latent Variable Models (SGPLVM) to learn prior models of 3D human pose. The SGPLVM simultaneously optimizes a low-dimensional embedding of the high-dimensional pose data and a density function that both gives higher probability to points close to training data and provides a nonlinear probabilistic mapping from the low-dimensional latent space to the full-dimensional pose space. The SGPLVM is a natural choice when only small amounts of training data are available. We demonstrate our approach with two distinct motions, golfing and walking. We show that the SGPLVM sufficiently constrains the problem such that tracking can be accomplished with straightforward deterministic optimization. However, in the presence of very noisy or missing data, for example due to occlusions, the simplistic second order Markov model we use is not realistic enough to sufficiently constrain the algorithm. Moreover, when learning models that contain stylistic diversity, from different people or from the same person performing an activity multiple times, the SGPLVM results in models whose latent trajectories are not smooth, and are therefore not suited for hill climbing tracking. Finally, we present a more powerfull approach based on the Gaussian Process Dynamical Models (GPDMs) that combines the strengths of the two previous ones. We advocate the use of GPDMs for learning human pose and motion priors. A GPDM provides a low-dimensional embedding of human motion data, with a density function that gives higher probability to poses and motions close to the training data. With Bayesian model averaging a GPDM can be learned from relatively small amounts of data, and it generalizes gracefully to motions outside the training set. Here we modify the GPDM to permit learning from motions with significant stylistic variation. The resulting priors are effective for tracking a range of human walking styles, despite weak and noisy image measurements and significant occlusions.


Research focus: The aim of this chapter is to introduce a new citation analysis and service framework based on the semantic web technologies (e.g., ontology and linked data). Research methods: This research project is based on a review of relevant literature and a series of experimental results based on ontology and linked data. Motivation: Traditional citation analysis methods and tools are overly dependent on citation databases, and tradi- tional citation information service may ignore the semantics of knowledge resources and lack ability to store and query data in a machine-readable mode. Findings: The findings underline that the new citation analysis and service system framework based on ontology and linked data are feasible, which can integrate information requirements and knowledge services, and provide users with more personalized and comprehensive services.


We develop a model of how the visual system finds the colors of objects that have unknown shapes and positions. The model relies on mechanisms of light adaptation, coupled with eye movements, to recover three descriptors of surface reflectance that are represented in the signals of an achromatic mechanism and two color-opponent mechanisms. These descriptors are transformed to yield estimates of hue, the dimension of surface color that is independent of object shape and viewing geometry.


Despite major advances in the management of heart failure with angiotensin-converting–enzyme inhibitors, beta-blockers, and resynchronization therapy, there are more than 1 million hospitalizations for heart failure in the United States each year, and mortality remains high.1 As compared with the general population, patients with heart failure have an increased risk of stroke and of systemic thromboembolic events, which are believed to arise from within the heart as a result of left ventricular stasis, endocardial dysfunction, and a systemic hypercoagulable state.2 Heart failure is a risk factor for atrial fibrillation, which, even if asymptomatic, further increases the risk of stroke.3 Consequently, . . .


Mutations in the dystrophin gene cause muscular dystrophy as well as cognitive impairments, including an abnormal dark‐adapted electroretinogram. To investigate the basis for the ocular phenotype, we analysed dystrophin and the dystrophin‐associated protein β‐dystroglycan in retinae from mdx3Cv mice. This strain has a mutation in the dystrophin gene and abnormalities in the electroretinogram which are similar to those of muscular dystrophy patients. Despite an overall reduction of all dystrophin isoforms and of β‐dystroglycan in retinal tissue from mutant mice, we observed no apparent change in the histotypic layering of the retina, or in the ultrastructure of several specific cell types, including rods and cones. In retinae from wild type and mdx3Cv mice, dystrophin and β‐dystroglycan were concentrated in small extensions of rod and cone photoreceptor terminals protruding into the outer plexiform layer. Beta‐dystroglycan but not dystrophin was also clustered around the inner limiting membrane and the capillary basal laminae. While the labelling pattern around the basal laminae was not altered in the mutant mice, we found that the area as well as the intensity of the dystrophin and β‐dystroglycan immunoreactivity associated with the terminals of rod photoreceptors were severely reduced. The same parameters were much less affected in cone terminals. These results show, that dystrophin and β‐dystroglycan are differentially distributed in the retina, and that a severe reduction of dystrophin has no gross effect on retinal structure, but could influence intraretinal signalling at the level of the photoreceptor terminals. Moreover, the mutation in mdx3Cv mice has a selective effect on rods, providing an explanation for the altered electroretinogram.


We have been developing Laser Ablation Multi-Collector Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS) technique to measure titanium isotopic composition in situ. A principal aim of this work is to search for isotopic heterogeneities larger than the few epsilons (e, in parts in 10^4) of the solar system. Our analytical precision of the ratios of 46Ti, 48Ti, and 50Ti to 49Ti after exponential-law mass discrimination correction normalizing 47Ti/49Ti to 1.33375 were about 2.5 e(2δ). Mixture solutions were prepared by adding the expected level of Ca, Cr, Mg, and Al to the Ti solutions to demonstrate that our interference correction is effective. We then applied our technique with 213 nm Nd-YAG laser ablation to five Ti-rich terrestrial solids, and all of them also showed titanium isotopic composition that was consistent with one another and agreed with that for the solution standard. It appears that the in situ laser technique did not significantly increase the long-term reproducibility beyond the 2.5 e established using the solution method. This is an order of magnitude better than the typical precision of a few permil for secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS). The combination of the ability to perform in situ analysis on 30μm spots with e level precision is a niche for LA-MC-ICP-MS. We also ablated two lines on a fassaite grain from a large well studied CAI Egg-6 of the Allende meteorite. After the mass discrimination was corrected by normalizing 47Ti/49Ti, the 46Ti and 48Ti are normal within about 2 e while 50Ti/49Ti shows a 9 e excess. These data are in excellent agreement with thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) results. Comparing our ICP-MS results against the results from TIMS studies, we found that our normal titanium isotopic ratios were closest to the less precise data of Heydegger et al. (1979) who measured Ti(superscript +). We support the proposal to IUPAC to change the accepted Ti abundance to that measured by ICP-MS and TIMS without using Ti oxides.


The information in this article was originally presented as a keynote invited talk by Susan Lederman at the Thirteenth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Chambery, France; it is based primarily on a joint research program that we conducted. We explain how the scientific study of biological systems offers a complementary approach to the more formal analytic methods favored by roboticists; such study is also relevant to a number of classical problems addressed by the AI field. We offer an example of the scientific approach that is based on a selection of our experiments and empirically driven theoretical work on human haptic (tactual) object processing; the nature and role of active manual exploration is of particular concern. We further suggest how this program with humans can be modified and extended to guide the development of highlevel manual exploration strategies for robots equipped with a haptic perceptual system.


Birds of Southern Africa surpasses other field guides to the region by illustrating and describing all 1,250 bird species of South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique, and Zimbabwe. In addition, this is the only guide to illustrate the birds of Angola (including Cabinda), whose river basins and rocky hillsides are home to the striking White-headed Robin Chat and the Angolan Cave Chat. The 84 color plates group similar species and subspecies and also depict vagrants and ocean wanderers that appear in this huge region characterized by widely varying habitats, from woodlands and forests to deserts to swamps. The text directly opposite the plates concisely describes each bird's habitat and key physical, behavioral, and vocal characteristics. All the larks are shown perching as well as in flight, and every swallow is pictured in flight from below. The most distinctive immature and nonbreeding plumages are included, and distribution maps show the range and frequency of each species. This is an essential guide for any birder contemplating a trip to southern Africa. * The only field guide to illustrate every bird species of South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Namibia, Lesotho, Swaziland, Botswana, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, and Angola (including Cabinda) *1,250 species illustrated on 84 color plates * Buzzards to bustards, flufftails to flycatchers, penguins to pipits, and many more * Informative notes directly opposite illustrations succinctly describe each bird's habitat and key physical, behavioral, and vocal characteristics * Female or juvenile shown for many species in addition to adult male * Subspecies and color variants included * Shaded maps showing range and frequency of each species


The potential renewable energy stored in the ocean's thermocline at a given location can be estimated using a model of the ocean thermal energy conversion (OTEC) process. Combining such a model with a global climatology of oceanic stratification and a flexible visualization system—such as a Geographic Information System (GIS)—provides a useful tool for estimating both global OTEC potential and locations with particularly rich resources. We report here on the application of an OTEC Plant model developed at Lockheed Martin (LM) that includes critical assumptions and accounts for major contributing (and loss) factors to electrical power production. This model uses global climatology of the oceanic stratification based on open-source results from the Hybrid Coordinate Ocean Model (HYCOM) in data assimilation mode produced by the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL). Because the HYCOM results used here are gridded at approximately 1/12° in latitude and longitude, the resolution of the results is a significant improvement over previous ocean climate studies of this nature, notwithstanding the use of a computer model. In addition, a new algorithm that optimizes the depth of the cold water source (by balancing power production and power loss) is used, meaning that the previous condition of using a 1-km-deep cold source is relaxed.


Abstract. The spatial structure and the progression speed of the first ash layer from the Icelandic Eyjafjallajokull volcano which reached Germany on 16/17 April is investigated from remote sensing data and numerical simulations. The ceilometer network of the German Meteorological Service was able to follow the progression of the ash layer over the whole of Germany. This first ash layer turned out to be a rather shallow layer of only several hundreds of metres thickness which was oriented slantwise in the middle troposphere and which was brought downward by large-scale sinking motion over Southern Germany and the Alps. Special Raman lidar measurements, trajectory analyses and in-situ observations from mountain observatories helped to confirm the volcanic origin of the detected aerosol layer. Ultralight aircraft measurements permitted the detection of the arrival of a second major flush of volcanic material in Southern Germany. Numerical simulations with the Eulerian meso-scale model MCCM were able to reproduce the temporal and spatial structure of the ash layer. Comparisons of the model results with the ceilometer network data on 17 April and with the ultralight aircraft data on 19 April were satisfying. This is the first example of a model validation study from this ceilometer network data.


THE BOLLYWOOD HINDI FILM Om Shanti Om (2007) constructs its intertextual identity and debuts in the best postmodern fashion, with irony, parody, pastiche, irreverence, and double entendre of the tongue-in-cheek variety.1 The exercise of intertextuality can become intricate, given a context such as OSO, which keeps oscillating between reality, illusion, and a formidable corpus of cinematic texts. In the process, the extensive range of intertextual devices and the role of self-reflexivity in the construction of OSO's intertextual identity come to be foregrounded. OSO's narrative structure, because of its intertextuality, makes a visible break from conventional Bollywood cinema in a remarkable way. Mackey's observation on the contemporary nature of such activity in understanding the success of OSO is a useful pointer in this regard.2 The story of OSO starts "thirty years ago," in line with plots that employ the technique of flashback, usually for suspense, with Om Prakash, or Orni (played by actor Shah Rukh Khan), who is a junior artiste in Bollywood, in love with the famous actress Shanti Priya (played by newcomer Deepika Padukone). It comes as a shock to Orni to learn that Shanti is secretly married to film producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampai), who subsequently murders her, because he does not want the news of their marriage to become public, fearing this might adversely affect Shanti's career. Orni, unable to rescue his beloved heroine from the fire that kills her, also dies, only to be reincarnated as Om Kapoor, or OK (also played by Shah Rukh Khan), a Bollywood superstar; now, armed with money and power, he is in a position of strength from which to execute his revenge on Mukesh, who has reinvented himself as "Mike," after a stint in Hollywood. Deepika Padukone reappears as Sandy (though not a reincarnation of Shanti Priya) and helps OK, along with Omi's mother and his friend Pappu, to carry his plan through. The movie ends with the revelation that not Sandy, but the ghost of Shanti Priya (also played by Deepika Padukone), has made OK's revenge possible. OK's plan to avenge Shanti Priya's death through the making of a film called Om Shanti Om (OSO) creates the better part of the self-reflexivity in the movie. Intertextuality Intertextuality is a term that describes the processes of cross-referencing by a text that relies overtly on other texts- whether they are past texts, contemporary texts, or textual conventions- in its composition. The term is most famously associated with Julia Kristeva, in her recapitulation of Bakhtin's concept of the novel's dialogic nature. "By introducing the status of the word as a minimal structural unit, Bakhtin situates the text within history and society, which are then seen as texts read by the writer, and into which he inserts himself by rewriting them" (Kristeva 65). However, because her position suggests that all writing is intertextual, the problem of redundancy in defining intertextuality is simultaneously posed. Even if an attempt Is made to narrow the concept to such overt interaction between texts as is involved in plagiarism, epigraphs, allusion, or pastiche, the term still seems to lack a critical rigor. One way of confronting this problem is to delimit the term with, for instance, the recognition that intertextuality implies "attitude"-typically of the later text toward the earlier. Parody is an obvious case in point. Ridicule through imitation is the function of parody, but intertextuality can and does extend attitude to include reverence, affirmation, skepticism, and rebuttal. Although it is possible to trace intertextuality as far back as Shakespeare or even Aristotle, whose definition of mimesis was a response to Plato's discussion of the concept, intertextuality, as deployed in the argument of this article, and as evinced by OSO, is a deliberate proceeding marked by self-consciousness in representation. In the making of this case for intertextuality, a postmodern identity is also conferred on it, given that one of the most integral features and techniques of postmodernism is self-reflexivity, which usually involves breaking the reader/viewer's "willing suspension of disbelief. …


From the first cannonballs fired by American warships at North African pirates to the conquest of Falluja by the Marines - from the early American explorers who probed the sources of the Nile to the diplomats who strove for Arab-Israeli peace - the United States has been involved in the Middle East. For well over two centuries, American statesmen, merchants and missionaries, both men and women, have had a profound impact on the shaping of this crucial region. Yet their story has not been told until now. Drawing on thousands of government documents and personal letters, featuring original maps and photographs, this book reconstructs the diverse and remarkable ways in which Americans have interacted with this alluring yet often hostile land. "Power, Faith, and Fantasy" is an indispensable work of history for anyone interested in understanding the roots of America's Middle East involvement today.


In the post-September 11 era, liberal democracies face the question of whether, and if so to what extent, they should change the relationship between liberty and security. This book explores how three major liberal democratic states - the United States, the United Kingdom and Germany - have approached this challenge by analysing the human rights impacts of their anti-terrorism laws and practices. The analysis reveals that the most far-reaching restrictions of liberty have been imposed on minorities: foreign nationals and certain 'racial', ethnic and religious groups.This disparate treatment raises complex issues concerning the human right to non-discrimination. Differential treatment on the basis of nationality, national origin, 'race' or religion is only compatible with the right to non-discrimination if there are objective and reasonable grounds for it. The author evaluates contemporary anti-terrorism efforts for their compliance with this requirement. Is there, in the context of the current 'war on terror', sufficient justification for applying powers of preventive detention or trial by special tribunal only to foreign nationals? Are law enforcement methods or immigration policies that single out people for special scrutiny based on their national origin, or their ethnic or religious appearance, a suitable and proportionate means of countering terrorism? The concluding part of the book argues that, in the long term, discriminatory anti-terrorism measures will have impacts beyond their original scope and fundamentally reshape ordinary legal regimes and law enforcement methods.


Are the elderly posing a threat to America's political system with their enormous clout? Are they stretching resources to the breaking point with their growing demands for care? Distinguished economist and legal scholar Richard A. Posner explodes the myth that the United States could be on the brink of gerontological disaster. Aging and Old Age offers fresh insight into a wide range of social and political issues relating to the elderly, such as health care, crime, social security, and discrimination. From the dread of death to the inordinate law-abidingness of the old, from their loquacity to their penny-pinching, Posner paints a surprisingly rich, revealing, and unsentimental portrait of the millions of elderly people in the United States. He explores issues such as age discrimination in employment, creativity and leadership as functions of age, and the changing social status of the elderly. Why are old people, presumably with less to lose, more unwilling to take risks than young people? Why don't the elderly in the United States command the respect and affection they once did and still do in other countries? How does aging affect driving and criminal records? And how does aging relate to creativity across different careers?


Aims: The number of patients with chronic pain is increasing every year, and effective management of it is one of the prime concerns of doctors across the world. But this demands appropriate awareness, knowledge, and attitude regarding pain and specialized clinics where pain can be dealt with, using the most effective approaches. The latter vividly points at "Pain Clinics," which form the basis of our study. Considering the Indian scenario, patients prefer visiting either their family physicians or general practitioners (GPs) to be alleviated of their pain, as they essentially believe in the suggestions of these doctors. Materials and Methods: A survey of 170 GPs was conducted in Nagpur, India, to know about their knowledge, awareness, and attitude toward pain clinics through a structured questionnaire. Results: About 72% of the GPs had awareness about pain clinics, but only 32% actually referred patients to pain clinics. Sixty percent of the GPs referred patients to other specialists, mostly orthopedic surgeons. Forty percent of the GPs were aware of few techniques of pain relief; however, 65% answered negatively about techniques at pain clinics. GPs showed interest in knowing more about such clinics (88.2%). Conclusions: Majority of the GPs in Nagpur are aware of the pain clinics but are reluctant to refer patients to pain clinics. This may be due to limited knowledge about pain physicians and procedures performed at pain clinics and their efficacy and safety.


Time synchronization is critical in distributed environments. A variety of network protocols, middleware and business applications rely on proper time synchronization across the computational infrastructure and depend on the clock accuracy. The Network Time Protocol (NTP) is the current widely accepted standard for synchronizing clocks over the Internet. NTP uses a hierarchical scheme in order to synchronize the clocks in the network. In this paper we present a novel non-hierarchical peer-to-peer approach for time synchronization termed CTP-Classless Time Protocol. This approach exploits convex optimization theory in order to evaluate the impact of each clock offset on the overall objective function. We define the clock offset problem as an optimization problem and derive its optimal solution. Based on the solution we develop a distributed protocol that can be implemented over a communication network, prove its convergence to the optimal clock offsets and show its properties. For compatibility, CTP may use the packet format and number of measurements used by NTP. We also present methodology and numerical results for evaluating and comparing the accuracy of time synchronization schemes. We show that the CTP outperforms hierarchical schemes such as NTP in the sense of clock accuracy with respect to a universal clock


This chapter presents authors development work on walking assistant exoskeletons for gait training of patients and promotion exercise of the elderly. The first exoskeleton is a whole leg assisting device using a special parallel link mechanism. For gait training of motor palsy patients, a weight bearing lifter was attached, and an impedance control was tuned by using frequency entertainment. For the elderly, a torque controller taken into account the dynamics of both a user and the apparatus with real time acceleration data is developed. The second exoskeleton is a whole body assisting suit was developed by adding arm assistance to the whole leg apparatus. By assisting not only legs but also swinging arms, an increased cerebral activity of all areas can be expected via rehabilitation with the whole body exoskeleton. Finally, we developed a close-fitting type exoskeleton assisting only ankle joint, which leads to a product RE-Gait® in 2016. By utilizing the structure of bi-articular muscle and physiological phenomenon of stretch reflex, the user's leg can be raised assisting only ankle joint. Experiments with by hemiplegic patients are enclosed, which show that abduct variation of the hip joint is decreased while the stride length is increased by using the device.


ABSTRACT Today, cities become more dense, green spaces disappear and children spend less time outdoors. Research suggests that these conditions create health problems and lack of ecological literacy. To reverse such trends, localities are creating urban green spaces for children to visit during school time. Drawing on ideas in ecological literacy, this study investigates school children's perspectives on a forest garden, a type of outdoor educational setting previously only scarcely researched. Data were collected through walk-and-talk conversations and informal interviews with 28 children aged 7 to 9. Many children in the study expressed strong positive feelings about the forest garden, the organized and spontaneous activities there, and caring for the organisms living there. We observed three aspects of learning in the data, potentially beneficial for the development of children's ecological literacy: practical competence, learning how to co-exist and care, and biological knowledge and ecological understanding.


Social influence is ubiquitous in cultural markets, from book recommendations in Amazon, to song popularities in iTunes and the ranking of newspaper articles in the online edition of the New York Times to mention only a few. Yet social influence is often presented in a bad light, often because it supposedly increases market unpredictability.
Here we study a model of trial-offer markets, in which participants try products and later decide whether to purchase. We consider a simple policy which ranks the products by quality when presenting them to market participants. We show that, in this setting, market efficiency always benefits from social influence. Moreover, we prove that the market converges almost surely to a monopoly for the product of highest quality, making the market both predictable and asymptotically optimal. Computational experiments confirm that the quality ranking policy identifies "blockbusters" in reasonable time, outperforms other policies, and is highly predictable. These results indicate that social influence does not necessarily increase market unpredicatibility. The outcome really depends on how social influence is used.


Cluster analysis is combined with Principal Components Analysis in an attempt to study the variation in shell-shape displayed by non-marine bivalves of the genus Anthraconauta pruvost from the Sydney coalfield, Nova Scotia. Two assemblages of shells, 89 from above the Phalen seam and 91 from between the Harbour and Hub seams of the Westphalian D, are analysed. The method requires the measurement of only six linear shell dimensions in order to produce a phenetic classification. The results are presented in the form of phenograms, stereo Principal Component plots and pictographs. Use of Principal Components Analysis allows the construction of reproducible pictographs with identified variational trends. A new morphospecies, Anthraconauta calveri, is figured and described as a result of the analyses which are found to be broadly in agreement with the Trueman & Weir system of nomenclature presently in use for the classification of Upper Carboniferous non-marine bivalvia. Suggestions are made as to how this system of nomenclature might ultimately be modernized and revised


This contribution is a recording of the CAMRI research seminar held at the University of Westminster on November 19, 2014, in which Victor Pickard presented his book "America's Battle for Media Democracy: The Triumph of Corporate Libertarianism and the Future of Media Reform": http://www.cambridge.org/gb/academic/subjects/politics-international-relations/american-government-politics-and-policy/americas-battle-media-democracy-triumph-corporate-libertarianism-and-future-media-reform Why do American media have so few public interest regulations? How did the American media system become dominated by a few corporations, and why are structural problems like market failures routinely avoided in media policy discourse? By tracing the answers to many of these questions back to media policy battles in the 1940s, Victor Pickard explains how this happened and why it matters today. Drawing from extensive archival research, the book uncovers the American media system's historical roots and normative foundations. His book charts the rise and fall of a forgotten media reform movement to recover alternatives and paths not taken. As much about the present and future as it is about the past, the book proposes policies for remaking media based on democratic values for the digital age. Victor Pickard is an assistant professor at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Pennsylvania. Previously he taught media studies at NYU and the University of Virginia, and he worked on media policy in Washington, D.C. as a Senior Research Fellow at the media reform organization Free Press, the public policy think tank the New America Foundation, and Congresswoman Diane Watson's office. He has published numerous journal articles and book chapters on the history and political economy of media institutions and media reform activism. His op-eds on media policy debates and the future of journalism have appeared in news outlets like The Guardian, The Seattle Times, The Huffington Post, and The Philadelphia Inquirer. He is the editor (with Robert McChesney) of Will the Last Reporter Please Turn out the Lights, and the author of America's Battle for Media Democracy. He tweets at @VWPickard.


In this paper, a large factor model is utilized with the aim of isolating the medium-tolong-run component (MLRC) from a large data set which could potentially describe the underlying data generating process, in this case gross domestic product (GDP). The central idea is to extract a few common factors from all the data set with as much variance as possible. To do so, the use of a particular kind of principal components analysis is employed, which is specifically designed to extract from the data set the common information of the data. More precisely, the linear combinations of the data. Removal of the short-run dynamics from a stationary time series to isolate MLRC can be done with a simple bandpass filter. Quarterly GDP is not timely, it suffers from heavy short-run component and is under constant revision. The main objective of this paper is to construct a timely indicator which could better describe the current economic state than GDP does. For this to be reliable, the data set is made contemporaneous and synchronized in a way that all time series in the data set are describing the same process at the same time. Further, the data set is on a monthly basis which makes it even more timely than the quarterly GDP. Therefore, the Icelandic Coincident Indicator (ICI) is on a monthly basis which is an estimate of the MLRC of GDP, in real time. The main findings are that ICI captures the underlying data generating process of GDP rather nicely, it is smooth with less volatility but still manages to describe the average growth of GDP.


"Tools for Living" is a book all about ultimates - the ultimate things designed for the home - from chef knives and pots and pans, to door handles and bathroom taps, to home-office furniture and garden tools. Well-designed objects not only have superior performance but also look better and last longer, which ultimately means that they are more sustainable and provide better value for money. They also give the user a satisfying sense of reliability - they are the household tools that we use on a daily basis, which enhance life. Many of the objects included in "Tools for Living" are famous design classics, which are still in production. This comprehensive sourcebook features them beautifully, with full descriptions of their historic relevance and design excellence. Manufacturers' web addresses are shown for each product, so readers can easily find where to buy them. The introductory essay explains why Good Design for the home should be an important feature of our daily lives and how it makes sense not only for aesthetic and functional reasons, but also for economic and environmental reasons too. It is an essential sourcebook for all design lovers!


We present the first results from the science demonstration phase for the Hi-GAL survey, the Herschel key program that will map the inner Galactic plane of the Milky Way in 5 bands. We outline our data reduction strategy and present some science highlights on the two observed 2° × 2° tiles approximately centered at l = 30° and l = 59°. The two regions are extremely rich in intense and highly structured extended emission which shows a widespread organization in filaments. Source SEDs can be built for hundreds of objects in the two fields, and physical parameters can be extracted, for a good fraction of them where the distance could be estimated. The compact sources (which we will call cores' in the following) are found for the most part to be associated with the filaments, and the relationship to the local beam-averaged column density of the filament itself shows that a core seems to appear when a threshold around AV ~ 1 is exceeded for the regions in the l = 59° field; a AV value between 5 and 10 is found for the l = 30° field, likely due to the relatively higher distances of the sources. This outlines an exciting scenario where diffuse clouds first collapse into filaments, which later fragment to cores where the column density has reached a critical level. In spite of core L/M ratios being well in excess of a few for many sources, we find core surface densities between 0.03 and 0.5 g cm-2. Our results are in good agreement with recent MHD numerical simulations of filaments forming from large-scale converging flows.


»Selbstkontrolle lehren. Verkehrssicherheit und Verkehrserziehung in der frühen Bundesrepublik«. In the 1950s, the Federal Republic of Germany had to cope with a situation referred to at the time as "Verkehrskrise" (traffic crisis). In a relatively short time span, the number of cars on German roads had increased rapidly, as well as the number of accidents and fatalities. Correspondingly, efforts in traffic education were heavily intensified. By examining public campaigns and expert discourse, the article explores how the notion of selfcontrol gained more and more acceptance among road safety experts, and eventually helped to establish a paradigm change in Western German traffic education. In the course of the three decades from the 1950s to the 1970s, the focus shifted from enforcement by appealing to reason and disciplinary endeavors to the internalization of adequate behavior on the road and competence behind the wheel. Traffic education aimed to motivate road users to regulate themselves and to improve their ability to adapt to traffic situations. It tried to establish a specialized "seventh sense" as the core element of vernacular risk practices on the road. The notion of self-control, as implemented in public campaigns and other road safety activities, relied on societal models and certain notions of social and political order. These included, in particular, traditional family and gender roles, Christian religious values, and democratic freedom. Therefore, road traffic can be regarded as a cultural concept with road safety as a discursive arena. In that sense, road safety does not appear as a static state but was in a state of flux just as traffic itself was. Thus it required self-control and routinized yet flexible practices to improve the resilience of each individual road user to the risk of accidents as well as the resilience of the traffic system itself.


As humans age, the ability to produce maximal voluntary torque decreases due to muscle atrophy (sarcopenia) and it is also known that advancing age alters the neural control of voluntary movement. One manifestation of the neural changes is that old adults execute voluntary movements with heightened antagonist muscle coactivation. Previous studies have examined the roles of increased coactivation but none have examined the effects of coactivation on motor output per se. In a simple knee extension task, it is possible to estimate the torque generated by the knee extensor and hamstring muscle groups using an electromyography- (EMG) driven model. The purpose of this study was to determine if the higher hamstring coactivation during knee extension in old adults would produce proportional reductions in knee extension torque. The hypothesis was that old compared with young adults have higher levels of antagonist hamstring muscle coactivation at all velocities, producing greater reductions of torque during knee extensions in the old adults.   Peak torque was measured in the quadriceps and hamstrings and surface EMG activity were collected from the vastus lateralis, vastus medialis, semitendinosus, and biceps femoris during knee extension at 30°/s, 90°/s, and 150°/s using concentric (shortening) and eccentric (lengthening) contractions of the hamstrings. Outputs of the EMG-driven model were: 1) net concentric knee extension torque (summation of the torque computed from EMG activity of the quadriceps and hamstrings), 2) agonist torque (torque calculated from the EMG activity of the quadriceps), and 3) antagonist torque (torque calculated from the EMG activity of the hamstrings). We compared these three measures of torque during controlled knee extension at 30°/s, 90°/s, and 150°/s between old (mean age 76.2, n=10) and young adults (age 20.7, n=13) using a speed (3) by group (2) ANOVA followed by a Tukey's post-hoc contrast at p < 0.05.     Measured peak torque was 31% lower in old vs. young adults. Old adults had greater coactivation during knee extension at all three contraction velocities. The calculated torques revealed that young vs. old adults produced more calculated net concentric torque and that old vs. young adults had significantly greater calculated antagonist hamstring torque production. The difference in calculated net concentric torque was attributed to increased calculated antagonist hamstring torque in old adults, since calculated agonist quadriceps torque was similar between the two groups. There was a significant speed-related increase in calculated antagonist hamstring torque production. In conclusion, while the age-related loss of maximal voluntary torque has been primarily attributed to sarcopenia, the present data suggest that such reductions may also include decreases in torque due to hyperactivity of antagonist muscle that increase the counteracting torques produced by the agonist prime movers.


Native American men have historically been important to their communities, each having a specific function in the perpetuation of cultural norms and practices. Oral tradition and communal experiential activity were pathways of maintaining a connection with others and in regenerating culture. In contrast, the modern dominant culture values and emphasizes individuation as an indicator of psychosocial growth. This influence seems to have hindered Indigenous people/men in maintaining a sense of connection with the community. Survival for Indigenous men during the establishment of encroaching nations has often occurred through relinquishment of a part of `self' psychically. Aboriginal men report experiencing hopelessness living in a self-imposed isolation, without a sense of tradition or direction. Healing may focus on use of normative and narrative efforts that rebuild the `self' as a part of others and the community, which fosters a sense of interconnectedness. Ceremony is an adjunct to developing linkages between heritage, roles, and a community connection. ********** It can be said that whatever befalls the least empowered people of a nation, will eventually come to pass for the entire nation. Native American men have historically been stewards of a culture and tradition sustaining a larger community connection (Johnston, 1976; Densmore, 1979; Gill, 1985; Bear Heart & Larkin, 1996). During five centuries of mainstream oppression, the Native male faced disenfranchisement from society, and self; being cut off from the traditional community focus of life. While today's mainstream society enjoys modernity with all of its gadgetry, not all members have been so blessed as to be participants. The pressure imposed by majority institutions on the Native man to individuate has largely resulted in a lonely retreat into depressive hopelessness. For Native people, this change has been twofold. Primarily, the cost has been unfavorable to the Indigenous psyche, in that being a minority in a larger European-valued population, there a sense of either being ignored or romanticized. Second, there is a growing feeling of disillusionment with life in modern society; neither being fully allowed to participate in it, nor fully wanting to do so. Many Native men lack a positive self-esteem, which was historically derived from a role abundant with personal life-meaning, and functioning as part of a nurturing community. Many indigenous people have learned to survive for decades by denying their `Indian-ness' and even rejecting that part of self in an attempt to gain a limited foothold in the modern world (Moore & Gillette, 1992; Voss, Douville, Little Soldier & Twiss, 1999). This denial of the self greatly diminishes the reward and opportunity once offered to sustain a time-honored way of life and personal meaning-making. Without this rudimentary sense of usefulness and purpose, many Native men have turned to harmful chemical and behavioral addictions of as a means of either escaping hopelessness or maintaining the illusion of control. The progression of an addiction eventually robs the individual of a sense of self, perpetuates psychic despair, and promotes further addictive behavior (Schaler, 2000). As one student stated, "at least [with alcohol] we have something to look forward to in life" (D. L. Johnson, personal communication, August 21, 1999). Recently, men began to realize they were neglecting the everyday nurturing responsibilities traditionally considered as theirs. For Indigenous men to achieve their own center and balance, it is important that they embrace a healthy respect for the women, children, and elders of their nations (Small, 2001). A respect for the self is grounded in a healthy respect for others, emphasizing the importance of being connected with a community. It is the goal of this paper to heighten awareness of the diminishing importance of men's contextual role and function in modern Native America, how this has contributed to dysfunctional behaviors and addictions, and how some helpers and organizations are successfully reversing this trend. …


In this paper we consider the problem of building rich categories of setoids, in standard intensional Martin-L\"of type theory (MLTT), and in particular how to handle the problem of equality on objects in this context. Any (proof-irrelevant) family F of setoids over a setoid A gives rise to a category C(A, F) of setoids with objects A. We may regard the family F as a setoid of setoids, and a crucial issue in this article is to construct rich or large enough such families. Depending on closure conditions of F, the category C(A, F) has corresponding categorical constructions. We exemplify this with finite limits. A very large family F may be obtained from Aczel's model construction of CZF in type theory. It is proved that the category so obtained is isomorphic to the internal category of sets in this model. Set theory can thus establish (categorical) properties of C(A, F) which may be used in type theory. We also show that Aczel's model construction may be extended to include the elements of any setoid as atoms or urelements. As a byproduct we obtain a natural extension of CZF, adding atoms. This extension, CZFU, is validated by the extended model. The main theorems of the paper have been checked in the proof assistant Coq which is based on MLTT. A possible application of this development is to integrate set-theoretic and type-theoretic reasoning in proof assistants.


The study focuses on 'News Finds Me' perception, i.e. the belief that users can stay informed enough without actively following traditional news media while relying on social media and personal contacts. The text analyses the influence between this perception and news consumption ("news internalising") and sharing ("news externalising"). Uses & Gratifications sought ("information seeking", "social interaction" and "impression management") were considered as moderating variables. Survey based results (n = 96) show that 'News Finds Me' perception is positively correlated with news internalising but not with news externalising. It is thus concluded that the mere presence of the 'News Finds Me' perception does not encourage news sharing attitudes. The study also brings evidence to support a relationship between news internalising and news externalising habits, which influence each other mutually and can moderate other factors in news consumption and dissemination on social media. It is concluded that the presence of the 'News Finds Me' perception does not encourage news sharing attitudes.


This study examines how Social Networking Services (SNS) are used to form ethnic communities among hafu (Half Japanese) and the impact they have on identity formation. Hafu is the most common term in Japanese used to refer to people who have two different ethnic backgrounds. The term originated from the name of a popular celebrity group called Goruden Hafu (Golden Half) which emerged in the 1970s. Although there has been hafu in Japan for many years, hafu communities are a new phenomenon and it has only been within about the past five years that hafu have begun to form their own unique ethnic communities. The emergence of such communities is strongly linked to the development of the SNS, which has enabled people with similar interests and backgrounds to meet freely through the Internet. It is argued in this thesis that the Internet and new technologies are not only contributing to the formation of new relationships but are also radically transforming the ways in which the meanings and identities of ethnicities are produced. The fast growing mixi SNS service was used as a case study, with qualitative research on hafu communities being conducted over a period of one year. The aim of this thesis is to investigate the reasons why hafu form online ethnic communities despite the fact that the members have different ethnic backgrounds and do not share the same ethnic history, language, or culture. This study explores the interests hafu have in other hafu and investigates the motivations hafu have in participating in both online and offline events. Through an exploration of the cultural activities engaged in by hafu communities, this study address the issues of racial and ethnic discrimination and stereotypes experienced by hafu in Japan, as well as issues related to their sense of identity and belonging.


This Article challenges the prevailing doctrinal, political, and academic view that the Extension Clause — which provides that "[t]he judicial Power shall extend" to nine types of cases and controversies — justifies legislative attempts to strip the Supreme Court of appellate jurisdiction. Legislators have repeatedly introduced bills seeking to prevent the Court from hearing cases on politically charged topics such as marriage, religion, and abortion. Scholars have relied on the Extension Clause to advance three arguments in support of such jurisdiction-stripping: (1) that "judicial Power" is not jurisdiction, and thus jurisdiction is not constitutionally protected; (2) that "shall" is not mandatory, and thus the clause need not be obeyed; and (3) that to "extend" a power is not to grant it but merely to define its potential outer reaches, and thus Congress is responsible for deciding what to allow the Court to hear. As the Article explains, however, the text, context, and drafting history of the Extension Clause reveal the fallacy of those conventional justifications. Just as other constitutional provisions guarantee the jurisprudential independence of federal judges so that they can do their jobs without fear of reprisal, the Extension Clause prevents Congress from taking certain cases away from the Supreme Court and thus secures the Court's jurisdictional independence.


Gravity-driven membrane bioreactors (GD-MBR) have been proposed as a sustainable water treatment due to the low energy requirements in terms of operation. The objective of this study is to investigate the effect of different physical cleaning strategies on the membrane performance in a gravity-driven membrane bioreactor treating primary wastewater. The Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) allowed evaluating the impact of the physical cleaning on the biomass developed on the membrane surface. Applying relaxation did not enhance the membrane performance, however, it led to an increase in thickness and a decrease in the biomass specific hydraulic resistance. Using air scouring under continuous filtration increased the biomass specific hydraulic resistance by compressing the biomass (~50% decrease in thickness). When air scouring was applied at the end of a relaxation cycle, a higher biomass removal and a significant increase in flux (250%) were observed. Biopolymers were found to constitute 55% of the fouling layer. This study highlighted the suitability of an in-situ monitoring approach as a key tool to evaluate the impact of different physical cleaning strategies on the biomass removal in membrane filtration process.


TAMBO TAMBO (c. 1863-24 Feb. 1884) was an Australian aborigine whose misplaced, mummified remains were returned to his homeland for burial 109 years after his death with a traveling circus troupe in Cleveland. His real name was Dianarah or Wangong, according to Australian anthropologist Roslyn Poignant, and he was probably kidnapped from Queensland in 1883 by Robert A. Cunningham, an agent for P.T. Barnum. Opening in San Francisco and then touring the East Coast, the company of 9 "Australian Boomerang Throwers" was booked by Frank Drew's Dime Museum at 189 Superior St. for the week of 25 Feb. 1884. Advertised as "ferocious, treacherous and uncivilized savages," they checked into the New England House at 6 p.m. on Sunday night. Tambo Tambo, however, described as a "mulatto of light color," had come down with a severe cold 3 weeks earlier in Baltimore and had to be carried to his room. By 11 p.m. he was dead of pneumonia. The Cleveland Herald saw him as "a victim to the mania for curiosity exhibitions which has raged in this country and Europe for the past ten years." His companions apparently were in the process of preparing his body for burial when they were interrupted by Cunningham, who had the corpse taken to the funeral establishment of Hogan & Harris. There it was embalmed but forgotten, as Hogan & Harris over the years was succeeded by C.J. Smith & Son on St. Clair Ave. Tambo turned up in 1993, when the C.J. Smith home was sold and his remains were turned over to the Cuyahoga County Coroner. Two of his descendants came to Cleveland to claim the body, which was returned to Australia for burial on 8 Dec. 1993.


The presence of circulating microbiome in blood has been reported in both physiological and pathological conditions, although its origins, identities and function remain to be elucidated. This study aimed to investigate the presence of blood microbiome by quantitative real-time PCRs targeting the 16S rRNA gene. To our knowledge, this is the first study in which the circulating microbiome has been analyzed in such a large sample of individuals since the study was carried out on 1285 Randomly recruited Age-Stratified Individuals from the General population (RASIG). The samples came from several different European countries recruited within the EU Project MARK-AGE in which a series of clinical biochemical parameters were determined. The results obtained reveal an association between microbial DNA copy number and geographic origin. By contrast, no gender and age-related difference emerged, thus demonstrating the role of the environment in influencing the above levels independent of age and gender at least until the age of 75. In addition, a significant positive association was found with Free Fatty Acids (FFA) levels, leukocyte count, insulin, and glucose levels. Since these factors play an essential role in both health and disease conditions, their association with the extent of the blood microbiome leads us to consider the blood microbiome as a potential biomarker of human health.


A new method for predicting prosodic parameters, i.e. phone durations and F0 targets, from preprocessed text is presented. The prosody model comprises a set of CARTs, which are learned from a large database of labeled speech. This database need not be annotated with Tone and Break Indices (ToBI labels). Instead, a simpler symbolic prosodic description is created by a bootstrapping method. The method had been applied to one Spanish and two German speakers. For the German voices, two listening tests showed a significant preference for the new method over a more traditional approach of prosody prediction, based on hand-crafted rules.


Background: In the era before highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), socioeconomic status was associated with survival from HIV disease. We have explored socioeconomic status, access to triple therapy (HAART), and mortality in the context of a universal healthcare system. Methods: We evaluated 1408 individuals who initiated double or triple therapy between 1 August 1996 and 31 December 1999, and were followed until 31 March 2000. Cumulative HIV-related mortality rates were estimated using Kaplan–Meier methods and Cox proportional hazards regression. Results: In the overall Cox model, we found that adherence [risk ratio (RR) 0.83; per 10% increase], CD4 cell count (RR 1.53; per 100 cell decrease), and lower socioeconomic status (RR 2.19; high versus low), were associated with HIV-related mortality. However, socioeconomic status was not significant among patients prescribed triple therapy in a stratified analysis, or in a sub-analysis restricted to patients prescribed HAART in the initial regimen. When we investigated if inequitable access to HAART by socio-economic status could explain the discrepancy, we found that persons in the lower socio-economic strata were less likely to be prescribed triple therapy even after adjustment for clinical characteristics. Conclusion: In a universal healthcare system, socioeconomic status was strongly associated with HIV-related mortality. When we investigated possible explanations for this association, we found that individuals of lower socioeconomic status were less likely to receive triple therapy after adjustment for clinical characteristics. Our findings highlight the need for the monitoring of therapeutic guidelines to ensure equitable access, as treatment strategies are updated.


Background: Colombia's national COVID-19 vaccination plan began in February of 2021. It gave priority to older adults, who constituted 77.7% of deaths from this illness in the year 2020. The main goal of the plan is to decrease specific mortality and the number of serious COVID-19 cases, however, the number of deaths avoided by this strategy is unknown. The objective of this study was to estimate the number of avoided deaths in Colombia by fully vaccinating older adults against COVID-19, during the first year of the implementation of the national vaccination plan. Methods: This study took on the design of an ecological, longitudinal study. Full vaccination coverage for older adults was calculated for each epidemiological week and age group from March to December 2021, based on which the number of avoided COVID-19 deaths was estimated. A sensitivity analysis was performed taking into account variations in the vaccines' effectiveness by age group. Results: In Colombia, over 5.3 million adults 60 years of age and older received full COVID-19 vaccinations between March and December 2021. During that same period, nearly 46,000 deaths of older adults from this cause were registered. We estimated that vaccination has avoided around 22,000 more older adults from dying from COVID-19 in Colombia, that is, 32.4% of expected deaths in 2021. According to the sensitivity analysis, the number of lives saved ranged from 19,597 to 36,507. Conclusions: Colombia's strategy to vaccinate older adults against COVID-19 has avoided mortality for this age group from being 48.0% higher than what was observed during the study period. Even more lives have been saved when taking into account the parameters that were defined and the omission of the contribution from partial vaccinations.


This project will study the impact of 14-19 reforms on career guidance in England, which was repositioned within Connexions in 2001, and faces further change as Connexions is devolved to local authorities in 2008. Based primarily in three North West Connexions services, the research will focus on continuity and change in the professional roles, identities and practices of careers advisers. It will seek to map the national state of the profession within Connexions in terms of staffing levels, turnover and specialist expertise. It will also ask how changes in 14-19 education, training and support have shaped the delivery of career guidance; and how careers advisers position themselves in relation to these changes. A key question for the study is: what happens when policy decisions fundamentally restructure an entire profession? In addition to a national survey, the project will use qualitative methods to investigate the experiences of careers advisers working in Connexions and those who have quit the service, and the perceptions of local managers and national stakeholders. Working closely with participating services and national policymakers, the research will seek to develop insights into the infrastructural support and professional development needs of the career guidance profession in the 14-19 sector.


Named One of Shutterbug Magazines Top Digital Imaging Books of 2008! Capturing an image and getting the right exposure is critical and Jeff Wignall recognizes exposure as the secret for creating an image that captures a vision and shares it with the world. When you apply his techniques with patience, experimentation, and a focus on the outcome, you will begin creating images that reveal not only what you saw, but how you felt when you saw it. In fact according to Shutterbug magazine Exposure Photo Workshop may be the best book yet written about exposure. By learning to work with natural light as well as when to use flash you will confidently capture action, night scenes, rainbows, sunsets, and reflections like never before. With stunning images, Jeff Wignall shows you how to perfectly expose pictures in even the most challenging existing light conditions, including poor weather, using a flash, and even a section guiding you through using multiple wireless flash units. You can upload your own images to Photoworkshop.com and get feedback from other photographers. Wignall starts by explaining the fundamentals of exposure and why its important. This leads into learning the basics of exposure controls. By the end of chapter 2, you will know how to control the exposure on your point-and-shoot or digital SLR camera. Chapter 3 walks readers through measuring light using just about any light meter and Chapter 4 delves into lens apertures and depth of field. The focus moves to shutter speed and subject motion. After Chapter 6, youll have the knowledge and confidence to turn off your cameras automatic settings and take manual control. Wignall then examines natural light exposures, discussing the intricacies of light quality, light direction, and time of day. As you approach more advanced exposure options, youll need the troubleshooting advice provided in Chapter 8, covering difficult situations such as metering challenges, handling contrast, and creating dramatic silhouettes. With more advanced techniques mastered, you can then approach night and low-light conditions and then examine special considerations such as the weather and natural phenomena. The book finishes strong with a comprehensive look at all things flash photography.


Mutations in the gene TARDBP, which encodes TAR DNA-binding protein 43 (TDP-43), are a rare cause of familial forms of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). While the majority of mutations are found in the C-terminal glycine-rich domain, an alanine to valine amino acid change at position 90 (A90V) in the bipartite nuclear localization signal (NLS) of TDP-43 has been described. This sequence variant has previously been shown to cause cytoplasmic mislocalization of TDP-43 and decrease protein solubility, leading to the formation of insoluble aggregates. Since the A90V mutation has been described both in patients as well as healthy controls, its pathogenic potential in ALS and FTD remains unclear. Here we compare properties of overexpressed A90V to the highly pathogenic M337V mutation. Though both mutations drive mislocalization of the protein to the cytoplasm to the same extent, M337V produces more significant damage in terms of protein solubility, levels of pathogenic phosphorylation, and formation of C-terminal truncated protein species. Furthermore, the M337V, but not the A90V mutant, leads to a downregulation of histone deacetylase 6 and Ras GTPase-activating protein-binding protein. We conclude that in the absence of another genetic or environmental 'hit' the A90V variant is not sufficient to cause the deleterious phenotypes associated with ALS and FTD, despite prominent cytoplasmic protein relocalization of TDP-43.


This tutorial reference takes the reader from use cases to complete architectures for real-time embedded systems using SysML, UML, and MARTE and shows how to apply the COMET/RTE design method to real-world problems. The author covers key topics such as architectural patterns for distributed and hierarchical real-time control and other real-time software architectures, performance analysis of real-time designs using real-time scheduling, and timing analysis on single and multiple processor systems. Complete case studies illustrating design issues include a light rail control system, a microwave oven control system, and an automated highway toll system. Organized as an introduction followed by several self-contained chapters, the book is perfect for experienced software engineers wanting a quick reference at each stage of the analysis, design, and development of large-scale real-time embedded systems, as well as for advanced undergraduate or graduate courses in software engineering, computer engineering, and software design.


The Duchess of Padua 224pp Salome, A Florentine Tragedy and Vera 272pp Lady Windermere's Fan 198pp A Woman Of No Importance 206pp An Ideal Husband 254pp The Importance Of Being Earnest 202pp Lord Arthur Savile's Crime and Other Pieces 274pp Intentions and The Soul of Man 344pp Poems 358pp A House of Pomegranates and Other Tales 266pp De Profundis 230pp The Picture of Dorian Gray For Love of the King [1922] 426pp Reviews 572pp Miscellanies 362pp Bibliography of Oscar Wilde [1914] Stuart Mason 640pp illustrated


We analyze Boolean functions using a recently proposed measure of their complexity. This complexity measure, motivated by the aim of relating the complexity of the functions with the generalization ability that can be obtained when the functions are implemented in feed-forward neural networks, is the sum of two components. The first of these is related to the 'average sensitivity' of the function and the second is, in a sense, a measure of the 'randomness' or lack of structure of the function. In this paper, we investigate the importance of using the second term in the complexity measure. We also explore the existence of very complex Boolean functions, considering, in particular, the symmetric Boolean functions.


Beginning with the phenomenological equations of remote sensing and atmospheric transmission, we show that the altitude of a bright point-source target (such as a missile or afterburning aircraft) within the atmosphere can be determined with a single spaceborne multispectral sensor. Our calculation assumes that the target signal can be isolated from its background. And we do not consider noise. Essentially, we are measuring an attenuating molecules column density along the line of sight to determine range to the target. The range to the target which satisfies our equations is then transformed to altitude through our column density characterization. The column density measurement requires the sensor to simultaneously (or alternately) collect in two or more spectral bands associated with the attenuating molecule, and depends on the key assumptions that (1) we know the relative spectral emission of the target (i.e. we can classify the target) and (2) we know the attenuating molecule's vertical number density distribution. We evaluate the effects of uncertainty in our knowledge of these two key parameters by using a hydrocarbon-burning missile and carbon dioxide as examples. We demonstrate that the error in our determination of altitude is a small fraction of one scale height of the attenuating molecule (assuming an exponentially characterized atmosphere).


This research paper reports findings of eight studies looking into the processes involved in making sense of context-based (ironic) versus salience-based (nonironic) interpretations, the latter relying on the lexicalised and cognitively prominent meanings of the utterances' constituents. The aim of these studies was to test the claim that rich contextual information, supportive of the contextually appropriate (ironic) interpretation, can affect that interpretation immediately, without having to go through the inappropriate, salience-based interpretation first (Gibbs 1994, 2002). Results demonstrate that strong contexts, inducing anticipation for an ironic utterance, did not facilitate ironic interpretations immediately compared to salience-based nonironic interpretations. They show that ironic interpretations were neither faster than nor as fast to derive as nonironic interpretations, which were always first to be processed. For comprehenders, then, irony was slow to make sense of; slower than deriving the inappropriate but salience-based interpretation, regardless of whether the context was conversational or narrative. Overall, comprehenders' processing of salient meanings has a bearing on communicative processes, affecting the ease and the speed of language users' gleaning ironic import.


The main purpose of this paper is to analyze internal and external environments of Bushehr port using AHP-SWOT integration approach. First, we identified and classified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. Then, paired comparisons matrices for indices and groups were completed using views of six port experts. Finally, each index and group importance/weight calculated by AHP technique. The results showed weakness group with the weight of 0.4, threat group with the weight of 0.322, strength group with weight of 0.153 and opportunity group with the weight of 0.123 had the first to fourth ranks, respectively. However, the most important sub-criterion was the lack of dock and barnyard in the weakness group.


The Afghan war post 9/11 has become the source of multiple case studies. Recent studies suggest that variations in domestic support for deployment of troops in Afghanistan can be explained by means of the strategic narratives provided by the policymakers of the contributing state; a strong consistent narrative increases public support. Scholars recognize a Swedish catch-all narrative, which suggests weakens the narrative, thus raising the uncertainty among the public. This thesis investigates the projection of Swedish strategic narrative through elite Swedish newspapers. The content analysis reveals an inconsistency between the policymaker's formation of the strategic narrative and the narrative projected by individual newspapers. The finding suggests that the lack of a strong strategic narrative due to the inconsistencies raised an uncertainty among the public during the period. The results recognize media to be a significant, but surprisingly unnoticed actor in the projection of policymakers' strategic narratives.


Summary Why does regeneration occur? And why, when it manifests itself, does it do so in some but not all metazoan species? Hence, what are the permissive or inhibitory factors operating behind this phenomenon? When it comes to regeneration, many questions, such as these, remain unanswered. In fact, the problem of animal regeneration has withstood the probing of scientific inquiry for over 250 years and still awaits a satisfactory mechanistic explanation. In this essay, I will review the distribution and the modes of regeneration that are found in the different metazoan phyla. Also, I will re-examine ideas on its evolutionary origins, and discuss its possible relationship to both asexual reproduction and embryogenesis. This endeavor has two objectives. First, to bring forward an interpretation of regeneration which integrates evolutionary and developmental considerations into its discussion. And second, to suggest a comparative experimental approach to this problem that may bring us closer to understanding the molecular basis of this long-standing biological problem. BioEssays 22:578‐590, 2000. fl 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.


Abstract Background: Although depression and mood-related disorders are common in persons with cancer, these conditions remain frequently overlooked in clinical practice. Negative consequences of depressive disorder spectrum have been reported (e.g. suicidal ideation, increase physical complications and somatic symptoms, negative influence on prognosis), indicating the need for routine screening, assessment and management. Methods: A search of the major databases (Medline, Embase, PsycLIT, PsycINFO, and the Cochrane Library) was conducted on the reviews and meta-analyses available in order to summarize relevant data concerning depressive disorders spectrum in terms of prevalence, risk factors, and screening and assessment among patients with cancer across the trajectory of the disease. Results: The data show a prevalence of depression and depressive disorders between 5% and 60% according to the different diagnostic criteria, the tools used in the studies (e.g. semi-structured psychiatric interview and psychometric questionnaires), as well as the stage and type of cancer. Furthermore, despite the significant health care resources devoted to cancer care and the importance of addressing depressive symptoms, assessment and management of depressive spectrum disorders in cancer patients remains suboptimal. Conclusions: Routine screening and adequate assessment of depressive spectrum disorders is necessary in patients with cancer in order to effectively manage the multifaceted and complex consequences on cancer care.


Small scale laboratory experiments, in which the specimen is considered to represent an element of soil in the soil mass, are essential to the evolution of fundamental theories of mechanical behaviour. In this thesis, plane strain and axisymmetric compression tests, performed on a fine sand, are reported and the results are compared with various theoretical predictions. A new apparatus is described in which cuboidal samples can be tested in either axisymmetric compression or plane strain. The plane strain condition is simulated either by rigid side platens, in the conventional manner, or by flexible side platens which also measure the intermediate principal stress. Close control of the initial porosity of the specimens is achieved by a vibratory method of sample preparation. The strength of sand is higher in plane strain than in axisymmetric compression, and the strains required to mobilize peak strength are much smaller. The difference between plane strain and axisymmetric compression behaviour is attributed to the restrictions on particle movement enforced by the plane strain condition; this results in an increase in the frictional component of shear strength. The stress conditions at failure in plane strain, including the intermediate principal stress, are accurately predicted by a theory based on the stress- dilatancy interpretation of Mohr's circles. Detailed observations of rupture modes are presented and measured rupture plane inclinations are predicted by the stress-dilatancy theory. Although good correlation with the stress-dilatancy theory is obtained during virgin loading, in both axisymmetric compression and plane strain, the stress-dilatancy rule is only obeyed during reloading if the specimen has been unloaded to approximate ambient stress conditions. The shape of the stress-strain curves during pre-peak deformation, in both plane strain and axisymmetric compression, is accurately described bv a combined parabolic-hyperbolic specification.


To evaluate the concept that transfer of the human carboxylesterase (CE) gene will overcome the drug resistance of a solid tumor to CPT-11 (irinotecan), we used an adenovirus vector (AdCMV.CE) carrying human CE cDNA to infect CPT-11-resistant A549 human adenocarcinoma cells (A549/CPT) in vitro and in vivo and evaluated cell growth over time. The A549/CPT cells, selected by stepwise and continuous exposure of parental A549 cells to CPT-11 over 10 months, had a 6-fold resistance to CPT-11 and 42% CE activity in comparison with parental A549 cells. AdCMV.CE infection resulted in an increase in functional CE protein in resistant cells in vitro that was sufficient to convert CPT-11 to its active metabolite, SN-38, and effectively suppressed resistant cell growth in vitro in the presence of CPT-11. When AdCMV.CE was directly injected into established s.c. resistant A549-based tumors in nude mice receiving CPT-11, there was a 1.8-fold reduction in tumor size at day 20 compared to that of controls (P < 0.05). These observations suggest that adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of the human CE gene and concomitant administration of CPT-11 may have potential as a strategy for local control of acquired CPT-11 resistance of solid tumors.


This chapter focuses on how doctors, during consultations, use computers as objects that serve diagnostic purposes. Specifically, the chapter investigates instances when doctors shift their attention towards their computers while patients present their problems. Such shifts momentarily change the focus of the doctor-patient interaction from patient-centred, in which patients typically describe their problems and/or answer questions from their own perspective, to computer-centred, where doctors seek answers about patients' histories and general conditions as available in the digital records. I call this activity 'historytaking side sequences' because participants treat them as relevant departures from on-going interactional trajectories, which make a range of options such as diagnoses and informed decisions possible. The study sheds light on how computer use has become an integral part of face-to-face doctor-patient communication. More specifically, the study also shows that integrating the computer into the consultation requires doctors' active efforts, both verbal and embodied, to indicate that the computer is a relevant object and its use is important for the medical business at hand.


Publishers big and small are producing hundreds of free-to-read, peer-reviewed online journals that charge authors fees ranging from about $500 to $3000 per paper. The most prominent publisher, the nonprofit organization Public Library of Science (PLoS), launched its first journal in 2003. This year, PLoS is on track to make a small profit. The broader open-access campaign remains rife with controversy, however. Debates rage about whether open access is speeding scientific progress. Some argue that academic researchers already have good access to the articles they need. Critics suggest that the open-access publishing model encourages mediocre work, noting that PLoS, for example, has succeeded financially only because one of its journals collects fees on thousands of lightly reviewed papers a year. Some traditional publishers—including many scientific societies—fear that at some tipping point in the future, libraries will drop subscriptions and put journals out of business. But so far, the journals haven9t shown that public-access mandates have done them harm.


In accordance with its mission, "The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in the USA is responsible for protecting public health by assuring the safety, efficacy and security of human and veterinary drugs, biological products, medical devices, food supply, cosmetics, and products that emit radiation." The FDA is also responsible for advancing public health by helping to speed up the progress of innovations that make medicines more effective, safer, and more affordable and by helping the public to obtain the accurate, science-based information they need to use medicines and foods to maintain and improve their health. The FDA also has responsibility for regulating the manufacturing, marketing, and distribution of tobacco products to protect the public health and to reduce tobacco use by minors. Finally, the FDA plays a significant role in the national counter-terrorism capability. It fulfills this responsibility by ensuring the security of the food supply and by fostering the development of medical products to respond to deliberate and naturally emerging public health threats.


This thesis concerns the development of rigorous global optimisation techniques and
their application to process engineering problems. Many Process Engineering optimisation
problems are nonlinear. Local optimisation approaches may not provide
global solutions to these problems if they are nonconvex.
The global optimisation approach utilised in this work is based on interval branch
and bound algorithms. The interval global optimisation approach is extended to take
advantage of information about the structure of the problem and facilitate efficient
solution of constrained NLPs using interval analysis. This is achieved by reformulating
the interval lower bounding procedure as a convex programming problem which
allows inclusion of convex constraints in the lower bounding problem. The approach
is applied to a number of standard constrained test problems indicating that this algorithm
retains the wide applicability of the interval methods while allowing efficient
solution of constrained problems.
A new approach to the construction of modular flowsheets is developed. This approach
allows construction of flowsheets from linked unit models which enable the
application of a number of global optimisation algorithms. The modular flowsheets
are constructed with 'generic' unit operations which provide interval bounds, linear
bounds, derivatives and derivative bounds using extended numerical types. The
genericity means that new 'extended types' can be devised and used without rewriting
the unit operations models.
The new interval global optimisation algorithm is applied to the generic modular
flowsheet. Using interval analysis and automatic differentiation as the arithmetic
types, lower bounding linear programs are constructed and used in a branch and
bound framework to globally optimise the modular flowsheet.


Rudolf Jaenisch explains how the quest for an answer to the simple question of viral tropism in the mouse lead him to a life-long career in regulation of gene expression in the early embryo and pluripotent stem cells. He shares his experience about what it takes to develop into a successful scientist; expresses his concern about the challenges facing young scientists entering the field - not all of them funding related - and candidly offers some solid tips on opportunities to take advantage of and mistakes to avoid. Being mindful of when to let go of a project, and staying focused on what is important, are probably obvious tips, but they need to be re-stated, since they also appear to be the most difficult to accomplish. Dr. Jaenisch continues to work tirelessly on the problem of epigenetic control in the early embryo and its connection with stem cells.


The unprecedented challenges from COVID-19 present many institutions of higher education with liquidity, and even solvency, concerns. In this report, we provide guidance to institutions and policymakers about the short- and medium-term revenue losses that are likely to materialize as a result of the ongoing pandemic and associated disruptions to revenue and expenses. Using historical data on states' responses to previous economic downturns and contemporaneous measures of the severity of the current economic predicament, we project state and local appropriation reductions that public colleges and universities are likely to experience. We then use these projections in conjunction with measures of the pandemic's severity at the local level — mobility on campus and in local areas, consumer spending, fall 2020 enrollment, and more — to project likely revenue losses to institutions from appropriations and two other key revenue sources: net tuition revenue and revenue from auxiliary enterprises. We project that losses in state and local appropriations are likely to be about half the magnitude of losses in the Great Recession, or on the order of $17 billion to $30 billion over the period 2020‒2025. However, appropriations represent a relatively small fraction of the cumulative revenue losses from the three main revenue categories, which we estimate to be $70 billion to $115 billion over the next five years. The extent of revenue losses depends crucially on assumptions about the pace of economic recovery. We find that most public colleges, private nonprofit colleges, and rural colleges will experience moderate cumulative losses (no loss, loss 50% of 2019 revenue) among institutions with fewer than 1,000 students, Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), and certain for-profit colleges as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.


Bulinus globosus is a freshwater snail that serves as intermediate host for Schistosoma haematobium and is known to be drought-tolerant. A previous report on the alteration in the status of glutathione S-transferase (GST) in B. globosus during aestivation and recovery, suggested that GST might be involved in the adaptation of the organism to drought. Therefore, the present study aims to characterize GST isoforms that are displayed in snails under drought stress, sampled during the dry season, and those under recovery, sampled during the rainy season. Our data show that the hepatopancreas contained the highest level of GST compared to foot muscle, hemolymph, and visceral mass. GST activity in the hepatopancreas of snails under drought stress was about 2-3 times higher than that of the recovered snails. Activity staining of a polyacrylamide gel revealed that B. globosus both in the active and inactive state has at least three forms of GST. Based on SDS-PAGE, the multiplicity of the main GSTs in the hepatopancreas of B. globosus (BgGSTs) was further revealed by the presence of five protein bands. In addition, LC-MS/MS analysis of BgGST 2, 3 and 4 revealed the expression of alpha GST. In conclusion, B. globosus exhibits tissue-specific expression of multiple GSTs with elevated activities when the organism is under stress. Elevated activities coupled with an alpha GST class expression accentuate the role of BgGSTs as an antioxidant defense system, in particular under stress conditions.


Rachel Louise Snyder reports from the far reaches of the multi-billion-dollar denim industry in search of the people who make your clothes. From a cotton picker in Azerbaijan to a Cambodian seamstress, a denim maker in Italy to a fashion designer in New York, Snyder captures the human, environmental, and political forces at work in a complex and often absurd world. Neither polemic nor prescription, Fugitive Denim captures what it means to work in the twenty-first century.


For meso‐ or regional‐scale Soil–Vegetation–Atmosphere Transfer (SVAT) schemes in hydroclimatic models, pixel dimensions may range from several hundred square meters to several hundred square kilometers. Pixel‐scale soil hydraulic parameters and their accuracy are critical for the success of hydroclimatic and soil hydrologic models. This study tries to answer a major question: What will be the effective and average hydraulic properties for the entire pixel (or footprint of a remote sensor) consisting of several textures if the soil hydraulic properties can be estimated for each individual texture? In this study, we examined the impact of areal heterogeneity in soil hydraulic parameters on soil ensemble behavior for steady‐state evaporation and infiltration. Using the widely used van Genuchten model and hydraulic parameter statistics obtained from neural network–based pedotransfer functions (PTFs) for various soil textural classes, we address the impact of areal hydraulic property heterogeneity on ensemble behavior and uncertainty in steady‐state vertical flow in large‐scale heterogeneous fields. The various averaging schemes of van Genuchten parameters are compared with "effective parameters" calculated by conceptualizing the areally heterogeneous soil formation as an equivalent homogeneous medium that will discharge approximately the same amount of ensemble flux of the heterogeneous soil. The impact of boundary conditions and parameter correlation on the effective parameters, as well as the accuracy and uncertainty of the averaging schemes for the hydraulic parameters, are investigated and discussed. In light of our results, we suggest the following guidelines for van Genuchten hydraulic parameter averaging: arithmetic means for Ks and n, a value between arithmetic and geometric means for α when Ks and α are highly correlated, and a value between geometric and harmonic means for α when Ks and α are poorly correlated.


Pneumatic percussion tools are extensively used in the construction industry. They are one of the noisiest machines in the construction industry generating noise levels above 110 dBA which are well beyond the permissible exposure limit (PEL) of 85 dBA. This work presents a comprehensive methodology for the acoustic characterization and noise source identification of these percussion tools. The methodology is applied to a representative pneumatic tool and the characterization results are described in detail. A mechanical analysis was performed on a chipping hammer finding mode shapes and natural frequencies of individual components. The mechanical analysis included modal hammer measurements and creating FE models. Fluid measurements were performed on the chipping hammer to find the velocity of the exhaust and pressure in the upper and lower chambers. The fluid tests found that the velocity of the exhaust is approximately Mach 1.0 or greater. Noise measurements were carried out on the chipping hammer to determine the spectral characteristics, overall sound power level, and spatial source strength maps of the tool. A spherical array of microphones was used to obtain an accurate estimate of the overall sound power levels and the directivity. The overall sound power radiation was found to be in the range of 110-115dBA. An advanced 63 microphone phased array was used to successfully locate and identify the major sources of noise from this tool via the use of beam-forming maps. This thesis also presents a preliminary noise control method employing commercial-off-the-shelf pneumatic silencers. The outcome of the tests is illustrated in detail in this thesis.