Felicity D. Scott revisits the architectural, art, video, and intermedia practices of the experimental collective 'Ant Farm', self-described super-radical activist environmentalists. Drawing together archival material on their extended fields of practice, "Ant Farm" features the first full-color publication of the complete "Ant Farm Timeline", as well as "Allegorical Time Warp: The Media Fallout" (1969) and an archival dossier on "Ant Farm's Truckstop Network" (1970-1972). "The Ant Farm" architects produced experimental works on the 'fringe of architecture' (1968-1978) and were influential video artists. Felicity D. Scott is Assistant Professor of Architecture at Columbia University and a founding editor of "Grey Room".


A gang of men stopped a public bus and, forcibly removing all women of Chinese descent, proceeded to rape them. A ten-year old girl was seized from her ruined home and sexually assaulted in front of onlooking neighbors. These atrocities did not occur in a war zone, but rather on the streets of the Indonesian capital city Jakarta. Over 170 cases of rape committed against ethnic Chinese women were documented in Indonesia during one week in May 1998, with speculation that the statistics could be significantly higher. While the media covered the Asian economic crisis and spread alarm about the potential hazard to the international market, the brutality of these rapes in Indonesia barely created a ripple in international headlines. Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation in the world, comprises over 300 ethnic groups and 200 spoken languages--of these, the ethnic Chinese constitute only a small minority. Though Indonesia's contact with China started as early as the fifth century, most of the Chinese population was brought to Indonesia by the Dutch as migrant labor in the 17th and 18th centuries. Resentment against the Chinese grew early on when they became the economic middlemen between the Dutch and the native Indonesians, establishing their position as a merchant class. Similar to European Jews in the nineteenth and early twentieth century, the Chinese in Indonesia were historically the scapegoats for economic downturns and popular unrest. Today, although the Chinese make up less than four percent of the population, they own over half of the private businesses and 70 percent of the private wealth. When the Indonesian economy collapsed in 1997, pulling down with it a powerful political regime, the chaos that ensued set the stage for the violence of May 1998. Under Suharto, Chinese Indonesians were protected because of their vital importance to his political economy. When his control faltered in the face of rising economic woes, ethnic Chinese were left defenseless. Still, the blind frustration of the rest of the population--left without political or economic stability--does not entirely explain the mass rapes and waves of violence in Jakarta. The violence seemed to be marked with elements of organizational structure which would not account for the actions of an angry, erratic mob. Trucks with armed men arrived simultaneously in various parts of the city. Gangs of men systematically raided houses and apartment buildings and gathered only ethnic Chinese women. Some witnesses and victims claim to have caught glimpses of army uniforms in the trucks and buses carrying the men. Many aid workers treating the victims believe that the military had a role in the atrocities, and that the rapes were used as a political tool. In 1965, Suharto rode to power on a wave of violence; anywhere between 500,000 and one million people were killed in Indonesia as Suharto assumed control with military backing. In 1998, the Indonesian military may have sought to foment ethnic strife and disorder to generate an excuse to clamp down and usurp power. Regardless of who masterminded the mass rapes, those forces are still at work, as investigators of the incidents have received death threats and other forms of coercion. At this rate, it may take years until true offenders are brought to justice, if justice is found at all. The international community, more concerned with the unfolding Asian economic crisis, paid little attention to the rapes and violence in Jakarta. The Indonesian government's reluctance to deal with the rapes further obscured the atrocities. Few officials openly acknowledge existence of these crimes, and the government maintains that the numbers are inflated by false accounts meant to further racial unrest. Such claims are not entirely groundless, as some horrifying accounts remain unsubstantiated, but the majority of the cases certainly merit thorough investigation. …


The visual system analyzes image properties across multiple spatial and temporal scales. Population receptive field ("pRF") models have successfully characterized spatial representations across the human visual pathways. Here, we studied temporal representations, measuring fMRI and electrocorticographic ("ECoG") responses in posterior, lateral, ventral, and dorsal visual areas to briefly viewed contrast patterns. We built a temporal pRF model employing linear summation and time-varying divisive normalization. Our model accurately predicts the fMRI amplitude and ECoG broadband time-course, accounting for two phenomena - accumulation of stimulus information over time (summation), and response reduction with prolonged or repeated exposure (adaptation). We find systematic differences in these properties: summation periods are increasingly long and adaptation more pronounced in higher compared to earlier visual areas. We propose that several features of temporal responses - adaptation, summation, and the timescale of temporal dynamics - can be understood as resulting from a small number of canonical neuronal computations.


Background:Many factors may affect survival rates after in-hospital cardiac arrest, including knowledge among health-care professionals. The aim of this study was to describe health-care professionals' theoretical knowledge of resuscitation guidelines five years after the introduction of a systematic standardized training program. An additional aim was to look at survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest. Methods: This study was conducted at the county hospital in Vastmanland, Sweden. The study was conducted using random sampling at two time points over two different years. In 2009, all health-care professionals were offered the opportunity to participate in a cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) education program and answered a multiple-choice questionnaire regarding their knowledge of CPR guidelines. Five years later (in 2014), health-care professionals working at the same hospital answered the same questions. The results from the two tests were then compared using chi-squared tests. Results: A total of 2,034 individuals participated in the study in 2009 and 1,519 participated in 2014. Overall, 19.6% of the health-care professionals achieved a correct response rate of at least 80% in 2009, whereas in 2014 only 7% did so. Discussion: Many factors affect the survival rate, with education of hospital employees being only one. However, during the five years following the offered CPR education, and parallel with deterioration in hospital employees' theoretical knowledge of the guidelines, a sharp decrease in the 30-day survival rate was observed among patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest. Conclusions: Long-term follow-up of an educational intervention among all employees in one hospital indicated a marked deterioration in knowledge of CPR. Five years after the intervention, only 7% of all health-care professionals showed adequate theoretical knowledge of the guidelines. Our results indicate that established guidelines for regular CPR training are not followed.


Modem commercial agricultural practices involving chemical inputs such as fertilisers and pesticides have been associated with huge increases in food production never witnessed before, and in the case of cereal production (especially wheat) under Green Revolution technology, recorded spectacular growth. As statistics show, production and productivity have increased. However, the high chemical usage of fertilizers and pesticides used to bring about these increases in food production are not without problems. A visible parallel correlation between higher productivity, high artificial input use and environmental degradation and human health effects is evident in many countries where commercial agriculture is widespread. The high usage of these chemical inputs has caused numerous pollution problems impacting on human health, agricultural land, other production processes, wildlife and the environment in general. The private and external costs are very high. Such a production path is clearly unsustainable. This Ph.D. study lays its focus on estimating the private costs of illnesses arising from direct exposure to pesticides during handling and spraying by farmers on their farms in Sri Lanka. For this purpose three valuation techniques are used. They are the contingent valuation, cost of illness and the avertive behaviour approaches. Multiple regression analyses are also carried out to establish several relationships involving pesticide handling/spraying and direct exposure to pesticides. Policy implications of the regression analyses are then discussed. A health production model showing the relationships between the three approaches used for estimating the private costs of ill health and thereby inferring the willingness to pay for pollution control is presented. The theoretical background to agricultural pollution, drawing examples mostly from Asia, is also dealt with in this thesis. Data for this Ph.D. study were obtained from a field survey carried out in the summer of 1996. During this survey, 227 subsistence farmers handling and spraying pesticides on a regular basis were interviewed to gather the necessary data. For the analysis of data, only 203 samples are used.


Lower pH is a well-replicated finding in the postmortem brains of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder. Interpretation of the data, however, is controversial as to whether this finding reflects a primary feature of the diseases or is a result of confounding factors such as medication, postmortem interval, and agonal state. To date, systematic investigation of brain pH has not been undertaken using animal models, which can be studied without confounds inherent in human studies. In the present study, we first confirmed that the brains of patients with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder exhibit lower pH values by conducting a meta-analysis of existing datasets. We then utilized neurodevelopmental mouse models of psychiatric disorders in order to test the hypothesis that lower brain pH exists in these brains compared to controls due to the underlying pathophysiology of the disorders. We measured pH, lactate levels, and related metabolite levels in brain homogenates from three mouse models of schizophrenia (Schnurri-2 KO, forebrain-specific calcineurin KO, and neurogranin KO mice) and one of bipolar disorder (Camk2a HKO mice), and one of autism spectrum disorders (Chd8 HKO mice). All mice were drug-naïve with the same postmortem interval and agonal state at death. Upon postmortem examination, we observed significantly lower pH and higher lactate levels in the brains of model mice relative to controls. There was a significant negative correlation between pH and lactate levels. These results suggest that lower pH associated with increased lactate levels is a pathophysiology of such diseases rather than mere artifacts.


In this work, we focus on the use of influence functions to identify relevant training examples that one might hope "explain" the predictions of a machine learning model. One shortcoming of influence functions is that the training examples deemed most "influential" are often outliers or mislabelled, making them poor choices for explanation. In order to address this shortcoming, we separate the role of global versus local influence. We introduce RelatIF, a new class of criteria for choosing relevant training examples by way of an optimization objective that places a constraint on global influence. RelatIF considers the local influence that an explanatory example has on a prediction relative to its global effects on the model. In empirical evaluations, we find that the examples returned by RelatIF are more intuitive when compared to those found using influence functions.


This thesis is developed from an experiment undertaken between 2011 and 2014. It interrogates Marx's theory of capital, with a particular focus on cooperation. The purpose of the experiment was to develop a model for non-hierarchical collaborative theatre premised on collective ownership. My personal experience of collaborations and the literature in this field pointed to an erosion of the political roots of the theatre collectives formed in the 1950s and 1960s. Since then collaboration has come to reflect capitalist modes of production, characterised by hierarchy and utility, distancing it from its earlier intentions to promote equality in the making of theatre. By interrogating Marx's theory of capital through practice, I suggest possibilities for reclaiming shared ownership in collaborative theatre-making. While the argument for ownership originates from capital and cooperation, it is developed through a theoretical and practical engagement with Engels' three laws of the dialectic. I identify capital and cooperation to be the primary dialectic of capitalist economy and transpose this to the product/process dialectic in theatre-making. By applying the laws of the dialectic to the process/product dialectic, I discover a theoretical route to developing ownership in collaborative theatre. I test and refine this in practice with BloodWater Theatre, a collective of artists I formed for the purpose. I name my theory and our practice Dialectical Collaborative Theatre.
The findings of this research materialise from BloodWater Theatre's practice of Dialectical Collaborative Theatre over the three years when we created Whose Story Is It Anyway? and Leave Your Shoes at the Door, performed at the Tron Theatre and the Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow, respectively. Through observations, video diary reflections, focus group/audience feedback and dialectical analysis, I suggest how we came to own the processes and products of our labour. It is not my intention to replace capitalist modes of theatre production. These have their place. Dialectical Collaborative Theatre works within the capitalist cultural economy but it challenges its systems of production and proposes an alternative way of making theatre, working with and against normative cultural production. I hope this practice as research thesis opens up conversations and new practice which interrupt prevalent hegemonic utility-led collaborative theatre practice.


Summary

Reality television programs that explore purportedly paranormal phenomena with pseudoscientific research approaches have emerged in popular culture. These shows commonly feature electronic voice phenomena (EVP), whereby recording devices capture audio signals that are interpreted as paranormal messages. We compared perceptions for voices in EVP with actual speech, acoustic noise, and degraded speech. Some participants were told that the experiment was about speech intelligibility, whereas others were told that the experiment was about paranormal EVP. The paranormal prime increased the proportion of trials for which participants perceived voices in both EVP stimuli and degraded speech. When a voice was detected, low agreement was found regarding the content of EVP messages. In both priming conditions, participants reported general skepticism in the paranormal. Results are discussed in the context of theoretical perspectives on paranormal events, trait-versus-state accounts of paranormal beliefs, and pseudoscientific approaches to research. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


This paper explores the context, problems, quality, and challenges of local governance in four Central Asian countries: Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. The prime focus is on the question of whether local governments in this region perform their functions in an effective and efficient way. It looks at the four conditions – contextual, structural, institutional and human resource conditions – as factors for explaining the capacity of local governments in the region. These questions will be investigated with reference to academic literature and policy papers on the topic. The findings indicate that local governments in Central Asia do not have real capacity to adequately address the needs and concerns of citizens, as they are heavily dependent on the central government in all policy issues, be it taxation, service delivery, local development, or privatization. The study suggests that local government reform in this region is not simply a matter of introducing Western-style governance structures or granting more autonomy to local actors. It is, more importantly, about understanding local socio-political context and promoting socio-economic change.


Our study builds on extant theory on embeddedness by concentrating on the process of preservation and dissolution of the target firm's embedded ties in acquisitions. We identify four critical areas (communication, idiosyncratic investments, interpersonal relations and personnel turnover) where managerial decisions taken during the acquisition process affect the components of the target firm's embedded ties — trust, joint problem-solving, conflict resolution and exchange of fine-grained information. The preservation or dissolution of an embedded tie depends ultimately on two specific tie contingencies, the balance of power between the target firm and the embedded relation and interpretive processes at the interface between the two. Our findings have implications for the study of the dissolution of market ties by pointing to different roles played by social and institutional forces, power asymmetries and competition in the dynamics of embedded ties. Finally, we encourage theory development in acquisition studies by positing the importance of interpretive processes and, more broadly, relational elements that span the boundaries of the parent—target dyad.


A beam incident upon a slightly lossy layered dielectric structure at special (phase-matched) angles displays abnormal absorption and lateral beam shift on reflection. The amplitude of the reflected beam can be calculated either by a conventional transform technique or by a quasi-particle method. Different wave-number (k) expansions of the reflection coefficient may be employed for calculation of reflected beam properties. The convergence of these expansions is limited by the presence of poles and zeros and by the rapidity of dispersion in k of the reflection coefficient. The series expansions used in the quasi-particle method are not limited by the zeros and converge better for far fields than for fields on the reflecting surface; moreover, they permit faster numerical calculation of beam properties.


Schizoid personality disorder (SPD) has been described as the most challenging of the personality disorders, with literature scarce and what studies exist suggesting individuals diagnosed with SPD respond poorly to medicalized and manualized approaches. This article reviews what recent literature exists on SPD, and introduces alternative conceptualizations of the 'schizoid' personality not as disorder, but as a relational interpersonal style of attachment-avoidance. A humanistic-interpersonal approach is presented that emphasizes immediacy and focusing acutely on SPD's most trying clinical challenge: the development of counselor-client proximity and relationship. This approach is dubbed the relationship encounter. A long-term relational and instrumental case illustration bridges existing literature on SPD with practitioner scholarship on interpersonal and existential practice. Themes suggest practitioners working with SPD may have some success by focusing on the relationship, rather than the prescribed symptoms of the diagnosis.


The rest-frame UV, optical, and X-ray are important wavebands to study quasar activities because they trace ionization phases and dynamical properties of the physical structures surrounding the central engine, including the accretion disk, the broad line region, and the outflow. This thesis investigates the correlations of spectral components (continua, emission lines and absorption lines) and the physical conditions implied by these components using well-defined samples of spectra from the archives of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), the Hubble Space Telescope (HST), the International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE), the Swift Space Telescope, and the Keck Telescope. The scientific goal of these studies is to produce a set of well-documented properties of quasar UV, optical, and X-ray spectra that will provide important constraints on models of the quasar phenomenon. The UV and optical continuum properties are studied using a set of composite quasar spectra created from the SDSS quasar catalog. We discovered a dependency of the continuum shape on both quasar luminosity and redshift, and found that the Baldwin Effect, in which the equivalent width of an emission line is anti-correlated with the continuum, applies for most of the broad emission lines. Focusing on the CIV emission line, we construct a sample which consists of 272 Type 1 AGNs. An analysis of this sample indicates that the changes of the EWs are controlled by both UV and soft X-ray emissions, suggesting that the UV and X-ray emissions are closely related. We show that variability is an important contributor to the scatter of many important correlations, such as the Baldwin Effect, as well as the quasar spectral energy distribution (SED) between optical and X-ray. In order to eliminate the influence of variability, we compiled a catalog of quasars with simultaneous UV, optical and X-ray observations from the Swift gamma-ray-burst explorer. Using the Swift data, plus the photometric data from SDSS, we constructed a set of composite quasar SEDs for most of the objects in our catalog. We use this set of SEDs to constrain the amplitude of the big blue bump. We also re-visit the lν(2500 Å)-αox relation and demonstrate that the dispersion of this correlation can be reduced by ∼ 20% using this simultaneously observed sample. Quasar intrinsic absorption lines are important diagnoses of the quasar outflow. Models of intrinsic narrow absorption line systems towards three high redshift quasars from Keck/HIRES, reveals high ionization levels and super-solar metallicities of these absorbers, indicating vigorous star formation occurred before the quasars become visible.


For its millions of readers, the National Geographic has long been a window to the world of exotic peoples and places. In this fascinating account of an American institution, Catherine A. Lutz and Jane L. Collins explore the possibility that the magazine, in purporting to teach us about distant cultures, actually tells us much more about our own. Lutz and Collins take us inside the National Geographic Society to investigate how its photographers, editors, and designers select images and text to produce representations of Third World cultures. Through interviews with the editors, they describe the process as one of negotiating standards of "balance" and "objectivity," informational content and visual beauty. Then, in a close reading of some six hundred photographs, they examine issues of race, gender, privilege, progress, and modernity through an analysis of the way such things as color, pose, framing, and vantage point are used in representations of non-Western peoples. Finally, through extensive interviews with readers, the authors assess how the cultural narratives of the magazine are received and interpreted, and identify a tension between the desire to know about other peoples and their ways and the wish to validate middle-class American values. The result is a complex portrait of an institution and its role in promoting a kind of conservative humanism that acknowledges universal values and celebrates diversity while it allows readers to relegate non-Western peoples to an earlier stage of progress. We see the magazine and the Society as a key middlebrow arbiter of taste, wealth, and power in America, and we get a telling glimpse into middle-class American culture and all the wishes, assumptions, and fears it brings to bear on our armchair explorations of the world.


For the past 225 years, the story of the Bounty's voyage has captured the public's imagination. Two compelling characters emerge at the forefront of the mutiny: Lieutenant William Bligh, and his deputy – and ringleader of the mutiny – Acting Lieutenant Fletcher Christian. One is a villain and the other a hero – who plays each role depends on how you view the story. With multiple narratives and incomplete information, some paint Bligh as tyrannical and abusive, and Christian as his deputy who broke under extreme emotional pressure. Others view Bligh as a victim and a hero, and Christian self-indulgent and underhanded. Alan Frost looks past these common narrative structures to shed new light on what truly happened during the infamous expedition. Reviewing previous accounts and explanations of the voyage and subsequent mutiny, and placing it within a broader historical context, Frost investigates the mayhem, mutiny and mythology of the Bounty.


Present regulations and prohibitions relating to psychoactive substances rest upon socio-historically contingent and hence arguably irrational foundations. New evidence bases located in post-genomic genetics and neuroscience hold the potential to disrupt them through demonstrating a lack of congruence between the regulations and prohibitions and the alleged and actual harms. How far might we use such knowledge to drive policy? What limits, if any, should be placed on our choices, and what attempts to influence these may be seen as acceptable? This article seeks to address these questions in relation to criminal justice system and public health governance of psychoactive substance use. It will explore the implications of justifications employed in both areas to restrict free choice on the grounds of harm to the self and to others. The central argument made is that the current categorisation of psychoactive substances as lawful or unlawful is likely to become disrupted as the result of several separate discourses which converge over psychoactive substance use: enhancement, cognitive liberty and the degree to which subjective experiences of pleasure, well being and happiness might enable us to improve and maintain our health as individuals and that of society as a whole. In my view, the strategic deployment of concepts of addiction which has enabled the public health and criminal justice systems to be able to share governance over psychoactive substance use is likely to become destabilised by these discursive developments. In that policy in the United Kingdom and elsewhere now draws upon happiness research, while reformers advocate freedom of choice over means of enhancing our states of being, a new focus upon the rational evaluation of psychoactive substances governance seems plausible.


This study examined the status of women in Texas from 1860 to 1920. Age, family structure and composition, occupation, educational level, places of birth, wealth, and geographical persistence are used as the measurements of status. For purposes of analysis, women are grouped according to whether they were married, widowed, divorced, or single.


In this overview of the historiography of Christianity in Africa a number of desiderata and considerations for future research are reviewed. The first issue considered relates to the practice of historiography. The second issue relates to African identity/-ies and its relationship to global cultural movements. The third desideratum is the pursuit of new disciplinary practices in the study of African Christianity, especially interdisciplinarity as scholarly ethos. Finally, a number of themes that should become foci in historiography of African Christianity are explored, among these are: concentration on local and regional narratives, the gendered character of Christianity in Africa, attention to the material conditions and needs of African religious communities and the various cultural innovations adopted to cope with these conditions, as well as the role of Christian communities in development in Africa and the wider encompassing question of ethics and morality.


The Mw 7.9 Wenchuan, China, earthquake ruptured two large thrust faults along the Long-menshan thrust belt at the eastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau. This earthquake generated a 240-km-long surface rupture zone along the Beichuan fault and an additional 72-km-long surface rupture zone along the Pengguan fault. Maximum vertical and horizontal offsets of 6.5 m and 4.9 m, respectively, were measured along the Beichuan fault. A maximum vertical offset of 3.5 m was measured along the Pengguan fault. Coseismic surface ruptures, integrated with aftershocks and industry seismic profiles, show that two imbricate structures have ruptured simultaneously, resulting in the largest continental thrust event ever documented. Large oblique thrusting observed during this earthquake indicates that crustal shortening is an important process responsible for the high topography in the region, as everywhere along the edge of Tibetan Plateau.


In this study, motor skills of giftedstudents with no professional sports background who are more succesful than others in terms of perception and academical success, are compared with the motor skills of ones who are not accepted as gifted. Weights, heights, flexibility, vertical jump, standing broad jump, right-left grip power, right-left visual and auditory reaction times of 50 male students (10,66 age) selected from a 12500 sample with a 3 stage test and 105 male participants (10,96 age) selected randomly among students who are not accepted as successful, were measured.SPSS 19,0 package programme was utilized for statistical analysis and signifance value was taken to be 0,05. Findings of this study imply that motor performance skills, especially reaction time values, of gifted subjects were superior to the other group. The gifted are also more successful in right and left hand grip power, vertical and standing broad jump tests. The other group performed better only in the situps. No statistical difference was observed in balance and flexibility tests between two groups. Results are supposed to be related with the high concentration abilities of gifted students. The observed success in the perormance data reveals that it would be beneficial to divert gifted students to various sports branches.


John M. Legge shows the many ways in which the real world diverges from economics textbooks. He argues that mainstream economic theory took a disastrous turn 140 years ago, when it attempted to use calculus to explain human behavior. A real economy involves people who are not variables in equations. This error led to a second, mainstream economics becoming obsessed with equilibrium. However, constant change is the reality and one cannot explain the present without understanding the path taken to get here. This book presents economics in historical context. It includes a short account of the contributions by some of the key figures in economic theory, starting with Adam Smith. Smith placed great weight on morality: he believed that economic activity took place in a society and could not be justified except insofar as it advanced the interests of that society. Too many economists have come to believe that the interests of society can be measured by a number: that if a policy change raises GDP it is justified, whatever its impact on people. Legge places the economy within society, and society within the environment, explaining that every significant decision has a social and environmental impact, as well as an economic dimension. Seeking to provide answers to students, professional business managers, and those interested in the political process, this work addresses the gap between theory and reality.


In the recent past years, global warming and climate change have drastically affected the agricultural crop productivity grown in tropical and subtropical areas globally by appearing to several new biotic and abiotic stresses. Among the abiotic stresses, heat, drought, moisture, and salt stresses are most prevalent. Wheat is the most common and widely used crops due to its economic and social values. Many parts of the world depend on this crop for food and feed, and its productivity is highly vulnerable to these abiotic stresses. Improving tolerance to these abiotic stresses is a very challenging assignment for wheat researchers, and more research is needed to better understand these stresses. The progress made in understanding these abiotic stress tolerances is due to advances in three main research areas: physiology, genetic, and breeding research. The physiology research focused on the alternative physiological and biochemical metabolic pathways that plants use when exposed to abiotic stresses. Identifying genes contributing to particular stress tolerance is very important. New wheat genotypes having a high degree of abiotic stress tolerance are produced through marker-assisted breeding by making crosses from promising concerned stress-tolerant genotypes and selecting among their progeny using gene-specific markers.


We introduce a method that learns a class-discriminative subspace or discriminative components of data. Such a sub- space is useful for visualization, dimensionality reduction, feature extraction, and for learning a regularized distance metric. We learn the subspace by optimizing a probabilistic semiparametric model, a mixture of Gaussians, of classes in the subspace. The semiparametric modeling leads to fast computation (O(N) for N samples) in each iteration of optimization, in contrast to recent nonparametric methods that take O(N2) time, but with equal accuracy. Moreover, we learn the subspace in a semi-supervised manner from three kinds of data: labeled and unlabeled samples, and unlabeled samples with pairwise constraints, with a unified objective.


Pine wilt disease (PWD) caused by the pine wood nematode (PWN), Bursaphelenchus xylophilus, is one of the most devastating diseases of Pinus spp. The PWN was therefore listed as one of the most dangerous forest pests in China meriting quarantine. Virulence of the PWN is closely linked with the spread of PWD. However, main factors responsible for the virulence of PWNs are still unclear. Recently epiphytic bacteria carried by PWNs have drawn much attention. But little is known about the relationship between endophytic bacteria and virulence of B. xylophilus. In this research, virulence of ten strains of B. xylophilus from different geographical areas in six provinces of China and four pine species were tested with 2-year-old seedlings of Pinus thunbergii. Endophytic bacteria were isolated from PWNs with different virulence to investigate the relationship between the bacteria and PWN virulence. Meanwhile, the carbon metabolism of endophytic bacteria from highly and low virulent B. xylophilus was analyzed using Biolog plates (ECO). The results indicated that ten strains of PWNs showed a wide range of virulence. Simultaneously, endophytic bacteria were isolated from 90% of the B. xylophilus strains. The dominant endophytic bacteria in the nematodes were identified as species of Stenotrophomonas, Achromobacter, Ewingella, Leifsonia, Rhizobium, and Pseudomonas using molecular and biochemical methods. Moreover, S. maltophilia, and A. xylosoxidans subsp. xylosoxidans were the predominant strains. Most of the strains (80%) from P. massoniana contained either S. maltophilia, A. xylosoxidans, or both species. There was a difference between the abilities of the endophytic bacteria to utilize carbon sources. Endophytic bacteria from highly virulent B. xylophilus had a relatively high utilization rate of carbohydrate and carboxylic acids, while bacteria from low virulent B. xylophilus made better use of amino acids. In conclusion, endophytic bacteria widely exist in B. xylophilus from different pines and areas; and B. xylophilus strains with different virulence possessed various endophytic bacteria and diverse carbon metabolism which suggested that the endophytic bacteria species and carbon metabolism might be related with the B. xylophilus virulence.


An investigation was made of the aerodynamic effects of reflexing the trailing edge of three commonly used airfoils. Six airfoils were used in the investigation: three having the normal profiles of the Navy 60, the Boeing 106, and the Gottingen 398, and three having these profiles modified to obtain a reflexed trailing edge with the mean camber line changed to give Cmc/4=0. The tests were conducted at a value of the Reynolds Number of approximately 3,100,000 in the variable density wind tunnel of the National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics. Measurements of lift, drag, and pitching moment were made on each of the six airfoils. The expected reduction of the center of pressure travel was obtained. The maximum lift was reduced approximately 12 per cent and the minimum profile drag approximately 4 per cent.


In the weeks following the events of September 11, 2001, the Bush administration granted the CIA authority to set up detention facilities known as 'black sites' outside the United States, and to employ new interrogation procedures on suspected terrorists taken into custody. Recently released legal memoranda by the US Department of Justice's Office of Legal Counsel condoned the use of several interrogation techniques (such as water-boarding and prolonged sleep deprivation), which the US itself had previously condemned as torture. This paper examines the legal rationalizations the Bush administration advanced to circumvent international and national laws prohibiting torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. It also juxtaposes these rationalizations with medical evidence of the physical and psychological effects of torture and other forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment. Finally, it recommends several prohibitions and safeguards that the Obama administration should enact to prohibit torture and prevent authorized interrogation techniques from being used in such a way that their cumulative effect results in torture or illegal cruelty. Governments must consider the cumulative effect of interrogation practices and conditions of confinement when creating policies and procedures designed to prevent torture. Long-term political and legal policies must consider both the legal definitions of torture used in international law and the medico-legal evidence that certain interrogation techniques when used together, or in succession and over extended periods, can amount to torture. Finally, the paper calls on the Obama administration to establish an independent, non-partisan commission to investigate and publicly report on the post-9/11 treatment of detainees suspected of terrorist activities who have been held in US custody.


For sophomore/junior-level courses in cell biology offered out of molecular and/or cell biology departments. Cell and Molecular Biology gives students the tools they need to understand the science behind cell biology. Karp explores core concepts in considerable depth, and presents experimental detail when it helps to explain and reinforce the concept being explained. This fifth edition continues to offer an exceedingly clear presentation and excellent art program, both of which have received high praise in prior editions.


Hollywood musicals combine two distinctive features: narrative and musical numbers, also referred to as "the real and the expressive" (Telotte 1980a, 4). These two equally important parts of any successful musical have to harmonize such that both seem appropriate in each scene and, ideally, supportive of each other. As musical numbers are traditionally seen as a "source of a tension" (ibid., 2) within the narrative, harmonization is not easy to achieve, and different directors as well as different sub-genres of the film musical have found different ways to deal with this tension. In this work, I will discuss two methods of integrating musical numbers into the plot of Hollywood musicals: the stage-worlds and the world-stages. While the former entails a certain kind of storyline, the latter refers to the setting of single numbers within the plot.


Why are some genocides prominently remembered while others are ignored, hidden, or denied? Consider the Turkish campaign denying the Armenian genocide, followed by the Armenian movement to recognize the violence. Similar movements are building to acknowledge other genocides that have long remained out of sight in the media, such as those against the Circassians, Greeks, Assyrians, the indigenous peoples in the Americas and Australia, and the violence that was the precursor to and the aftermath of the Holocaust.The contributors to this collection look at these cases and others from a variety of perspectives. These essays cover the extent to which our biases, our ways of knowing, our patterns of definition, our assumptions about truth, and our processes of remembering and forgetting as well as the characteristics of generational transmission, the structures of power and state ideology, and diaspora have played a role in hiding some events and not others. Noteworthy among the collection s coverage is whether the trade in African slaves was a form of genocide and a discussion not only of Hutus brutalizing Tutsi victims in Rwanda, but of the execution of moderate Hutus as well."Hidden Genocides" is a significant contribution in terms of both descriptive narratives and interpretations to the emerging subfield of critical genocide studies.Contributors: Daniel Feierstein, Donna-Lee Frieze, Krista Hegburg, Alexander Laban Hinton, Adam Jones, A. Dirk Moses, Chris M. Nunpa, Walter Richmond, Hannibal Travis, and Elisa von Joeden-Forgey"


To provide an opportunity to perform multichannel low-frequency radar experiments, airborne SAR "Compact" was designed to operate in L and VHF band. Both channels were mounted on board of Mi-8 helicopter without the need of any platform modification. The SAR system gives the possibility to obtain VHF data in VV and HH polarizations. L and VHF band observations were performed simultaneously, under the same conditions, for the several test sites equipped with calibrated corner reflectors. Reflectors were specially calibrated for both L and VHF bands and for VV and HH polarization (in both bands). The comparative analysis of backscattering properties for some natural surfaces was performed using generated SAR images. Backscatter coefficients for surfaces for L and VHF band were calculated. These measurements are in good fit with the results obtained by other SAR under similar observation conditions. Several examples of L and VHF SAR images containing clearly seen frequency- and polarization-dependent differences are demonstrated. The joint use of VHF band VV and HH images seems to be an interesting instrument in SAR image analysis.


We study both experimentally and theoretically the dynamics of chemically self-propelled Janus colloids moving atop a two-dimensional crystalline surface. The surface is a hexagonally close-packed monolayer of colloidal particles of the same size as the mobile one. The dynamics of the self-propelled colloid reflects the competition between hindered diffusion due to the periodic surface and enhanced diffusion due to active motion. Which contribution dominates depends on the propulsion strength, which can be systematically tuned by changing the concentration of a chemical fuel. The mean-square displacements (MSDs) obtained from the experiment exhibit enhanced diffusion at long lag times. Our experimental data are consistent with a Langevin model for the effectively two-dimensional translational motion of an active Brownian particle in a periodic potential, combining the confining effects of gravity and the crystalline surface with the free rotational diffusion of the colloid. Approximate analytical predictions are made for the MSD describing the crossover from free Brownian motion at short times to active diffusion at long times. The results are in semi-quantitative agreement with numerical results of a refined Langevin model that treats translational and rotational degrees of freedom on the same footing.


In its life cycle, an enterprise may experience periods of crisis. If the crisis is monitored promptly and appropriate measures are taken, not only may the enterprise continue to operate but it may also be able to seize opportunities for growth. The Italian legislator is introducing a procedure aimed at supporting companies to detect the very first warning signs of a crisis. The supervisory board of auditors, the audit firm, and certain qualified creditors will have the right and duty to start the early warning procedure ("allerta"). The board of statutory auditors (Collegio Sindacale) plays a fundamental role: its ex-ante supervisory and control activities over management allow it to effectively play an important role as main recipient of any crisis warning signs. The new regulatory framework lays down certain indicators and critical thresholds, which may trigger the alert process. Initially, the Delegated Legislation (Bill No.3671- bis) sets forth certain specific financial indicators. The new bill (Crisis and Insolvency Code) on the contrary refers to a more complex and sector-specific system of indicators. The findings of an empirical research conducted by analysing a sample of more than 600 enterprises and testing the discriminating capacity of the indicators initially considered are presented herein.


Relations between the biological and social sciences have been hotly contested and debated over the years. The uses and abuses of biology, not least to legitimate or naturalize social inequalities and to limit freedoms, have rightly been condemned. All too often, however the style of debate has been reductionist and ultimately unfruitful. As we enter an age in which ultr-Darwinian forms of explanation gather momentum and the bio-tech revolution threatens a 'Brave New World' of possibilities, there is urgent need to re-open the dialogue and rethink these issues in more productive ways. Debating Biology takes a fresh look at the relationship between biology and society as it is played out in the arena of health and medicine. Bringing together contributions from both biologists and sociologists, the book is divided into five themed sections: - Theorising Biology draws on a range of critical perspectives to discuss the case or 'bringing back' the biological into sociology. - Structuring Biology focuses on the interplay between biological and social factors in the 'patterning' of health and illness. - Embodying Biology examines the relationship between the lived body and the biological body - Technologizing Biology takes up the multiple relations between biology, science and technology. - Reclaiming Biology looks at the broader ethical and political agendas. Written in an accessible and engaging style, this timely volume will appeal to a wide audience within and beyond the social sciences, including students, lecturers and researchers in health and related domains.


Can the ancestors of present-day proteins be reconstructed to determine what kinds of functionality they might have had? Thornton et al. have examined a class of steroid hormone receptor proteins previously believed to be restricted to vertebrates. An estrogen receptor gene from a mollusk was identified and characterized, suggesting that this family of proteins in fact predates the origin of bilaterally symmetrical animals. Using phylogenic approaches, the hypothesized 670 to 1100 million years old ancestor (Proterozoic) protein was then reconstructed, synthesized, and expressed. The primordial steroid receptor was likely to have been an estrogen-activated protein. J. W. Thornton, E. Need, D. Crews, Resurrecting the ancestral steroid receptor: Ancient origin of estrogen signaling. Science 301, 1714-1717 (2003). [Abstract] [Full Text]


During the recent financial crisis dedicated short bias (DSB) hedge funds exhibited extremely strong results while many other hedge fund strategies suffered badly. This study, prompted by this recent episode, investigates DSB hedge fund performance over an extended sample period, from January 1994 to December 2008. Performance and risk evaluation is carried out on an equally weighted DSB hedge fund portfolio using three different factor model specifications and both linear and nonlinear estimation techniques. We conclude that DSB hedge funds are a significant source of diversification for equity market investors and produce statistically significant levels of alpha. Our findings are robust to the specification of traditional and alternative risk factors, nonlinearity and the omission of the crisis periods, which are particularly favorable for the DSB strategy.


In Europe, a significant adaptation of the existing power distribution sector is necessary to support the transition toward low-carbon energy systems and facilitate the massive deployment of low-carbon distributed power technologies. This report first examines the current organization of that industry and highlights the country-specific and diverse nature of the industry structures and the institutional organizations governing the distribution sector. We then discuss the new tasks and roles assigned to Distribution System Operators (DSOs) and shed light on the emerging challenges facing these DSOs. Finally, we highlight and discuss a few emerging research topics on the sector's industrial and institutional arrangements that have important implications for assisting the rapid decarbonization and digitization of European power systems.


Importance
Recent meta-analyses of randomized clinical trials (RCTs) comparing clozapine with nonclozapine second-generation antipsychotics (NC-SGAs) in schizophrenia have challenged clozapine's superiority in treatment-resistant patients. However, patients in RCTs are not necessarily generalizable to those in clinical practice.

Objective
To conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis to compare various outcomes of clozapine vs oral NC-SGAs in cohort studies.

Data Sources
Systematic literature search in PubMed, PsycINFO, and CINAHL without language restriction from database inception until December 17, 2018.

Study Selection
Nonrandomized cohort studies reporting effectiveness and/or safety outcomes comparing clozapine with NC-SGAs in schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder.

Data Extraction and Synthesis
Independent investigators assessed studies and extracted data. Using a random-effects model, the study calculated risk ratio (RR) unadjusted for covariates and follow-up duration, number needed to treat/number needed to harm (NNT/NNH) for dichotomous data, and standardized mean difference (SMD) or mean difference (MD) for continuous data.

Main Outcomes and Measures
Coprimary outcomes were hospitalization and all-cause discontinuation. Secondary outcomes included all effectiveness and safety outcomes reported in at least 3 analyzable studies.

Results
Of 8446 hits, 68 articles from 63 individual cohort studies (n = 109 341) (60.3% male; mean [SD] age of 38.8 [6.5] years, illness duration of 11.0 [5.1] years, and study duration of 19.1 [23.3] months) were meta-analyzed. Compared with NC-SGAs, despite greater illness severity (17 studies [n = 38 766]; Hedges g, 0.222; 95% CI, 0.013-0.430; P = .04), clozapine was significantly associated with lower hospitalization risk (19 studies [n = 49 453]; RR, 0.817; 95% CI, 0.725-0.920; P = .001; NNT, 18; 95% CI, 12-40) and all-cause discontinuation (16 studies [n = 56 368]; RR, 0.732; 95% CI, 0.639-0.838; P < .001; NNT, 8; 95% CI, 6-12). Associations were statistically significant for comparisons with quetiapine fumarate and aripiprazole regarding hospitalization and all NC-SGAs, except aripiprazole, for all-cause discontinuation. Clozapine was also significantly associated with better outcomes regarding overall symptoms (SMD, -0.302; 95% CI, -0.572 to -0.032; P = .03) and Clinical Global Impressions scale severity (SMD, -1.182; 95% CI, -2.243 to -0.122; P = .03). Clozapine was significantly associated with increases in body weight (MD, 1.70; 95% CI, 0.31-3.08 kg; P = .02), body mass index (MD, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.24-1.68; P = .009), and type 2 diabetes (RR, 1.777; 95% CI, 1.229-2.570; P = .002; NNH, 27; 95% CI, 13-90).

Conclusions and Relevance
In cohort studies, despite more severely ill patients being treated with clozapine, use of clozapine was associated with better key efficacy outcomes and higher cardiometabolic-related risk outcomes vs NC-SGAs.


A graph G is called P4-free, if G does not contain an induced subgraph P4. The domination polynomial of a graph G of order n is the polynomial D(G,x) = Pn=1 d(G,i)x i , where d(G,i) is the number of dominating sets of G of size i. Every root of D(G,x) is called a domination root of G. In this paper we state and prove formula for the domination polynomial of non P4-free graphs. Also, we pose a conjecture about domination roots of these kind of graphs.


The introduction of computers into cataloguing marked a turning point in the way it is being done; this has changed and expanded the work of cataloguers tremendously. The application of the internet is essentially to fast-track that process and ensures that books and other resources spend the least period of time in the cataloguing section. Cataloguers that have internet access have now recognised the potentials of online catalogue for improving subject access to information. It is in the light of this that this research work focuses on the influence of subject background and computer literacy skills on on-line cataloguing by librarians of Ekiti State University. This work adopted a survey research method and utilised questionnaire to generate data. Out of the twelve (12) copies of questionnaire distributed, eleven (11) copies (91.6%) were returned with valid responses. Findings revealed that librarians need constant training to keep up with international standards; this will enhance professional exposure and capacity building and ensure that best practices in cataloguing are adopted


The "standard" equation used to describe CaCO3 precipitation and dissolution is Ca2+ + 2HCO3 – = CaCO3 + CO2 + H2O. As written, the equation somewhat overestimates the ratio of CO2 gas flux to CaCO3 precipitation and dissolution considered individually in the contemporary ocean, and it substantially misestimates the flux associated with the net reaction (i.e., precipitation minus dissolution). The equation can be adjusted to reflect this molar flux ratio more accurately: Ca2+ + (1 + Y)HCO3 – + (1 – Y)OH– = CaCO3 + YCO2 + H2O, where Y is a coefficient related to the HCO3 – buffer capacity of seawater and is a function of temperature and pCO2. When the equation is applied to contemporary hydrographic data for the world ocean, it is found that Y presently varies from an average of ~0.63 in low to mid-latitude surface waters (the primary sites of CaCO3 production) to ~0.85 below 500 m throughout the ocean (where most dissolution occurs). In addition to this vertical variation, surface ocean values for Y have varied substantially over time, primarily in response to variations in atmospheric pCO2. The CaCO3-generated flux of CO2 between ocean and atmosphere and the direction of flux are strongly affected by the vertical variations in Y interacting with amounts and relative proportions of pelagic versus benthic CaCO3 production, export, dissolution, and accumulation. Most pelagic CaCO3 production is transported downward by particle fallout from production sites high in the water column and dissolves lower in the water column; only a small fraction of pelagic production is incorporated into the sedimentary record. As a consequence of vertically variable Y in the sites dominated by CaCO3 production and dissolution, net reactions leading to the accumulation of pelagically derived CaCO3 in the contemporary ocean absorb more CO2 from the atmosphere than is released during production. By contrast, most benthic CaCO3 production accumulates in the sediments, with little dissolution. Therefore net accumulation of benthically derived CaCO3 is a net source of CO2 release to the ocean, and ultimately to the atmosphere. Net CaCO3 reactions in the contemporary ocean are a slight net source of CO2 release to the atmosphere. As a geochemical consequence of vertically and temporally variable Y, as well as the relative contribution of benthic versus planktonic calcifying communities to CaCO3 production and accumulation, the role of gross and net CaCO3 production as a source or a sink of atmospheric CO2 varies over time. Geochemical consequences of these observations and calculations with respect to air-sea CO2 flux are explored for the present and post-modern (increasingly acidified) ocean; for changing shallow benthic habitat area and Y over the past 120,000 years (the last glacial-interglacial cycle); and over Phanerozoic geological time (~550 million years). © 2013, by the Association for the Sciences of Limnology and Oceanography Inc. DOI: 10.4319/svsmith.2013.978-0-9845591-2-1 Smith


Neoclassical economic theory rules out systematic errors in consumption choice. According to the basic view, individuals know what they choose. They are able to predict how much utility an activity or a good produces for them now and in the future and they can maximize their utility. This implies that behavior reveals consistent preferences. This approach makes it impossible to detect and understand sub-optimal consumption decisions, due to problems of self-control and the misprediction of utility. We propose the economics of happiness as a methodological approach to study these phenomena. Based on proxy measures for experienced utility, it is, in principle, possible to directly address whether some observed behavior is sub-optimal and is therefore reducing a person's well-being. We discuss recent evidence on smoking and eating habits, TV viewing and commuting choice.


In Fall 2014 over 460,000 students enrolled in the 23-campus California State University system; unfortunately, more than 20,000 qualified applicants were denied admission due to capacity and budgetary constraints. In response to continued overcrowding, the Chancellor's Office and Board of Trustees are investigating "bottlenecks," defined as anything limiting students' ability to graduate in a timely manner. Blended learning, a pedagogy combining face-to-face and computer-mediated instruction, presents a potential solution to alleviate overcrowding and bottleneck problems. In an effort to investigate the extent to which student demographics and performance analytics explain student success outcomes in a popular blended learning psychology course, an explanatory sequential design was used to study 18,254 students enrolled in the course between 2006 and 2014. In the initial quantitative part of the design, logistic regression and traditional regression analysis were used to determine the predictors of those who chose to drop the course, those who ultimately passed the course, and then to investigate why some students received higher grades than others. Results revealed that race, gender, age, socioeconomic status, and early course participation were key predictors of success. Some of the most significant findings which included the fact that Mexican American, African American, and Filipino students were less successful in the course than their White counterparts were examined in more detail in the qualitative part of the study that followed. Specifically, students who self-identified within these race/ethnicities provided a nuanced look at their own course experiences by completing questionnaires and interviews for the study. Thematic findings revealed socioeconomic status, time management, parents' education, and students' campus community as factors contributing to course performance. This study represents one of few large-scale analyses of a blended learning environment focused upon learner outcomes, and it serves to inform the evaluative work surrounding student success interventions, including the ability to predict and understand student risk characteristics for dropping, failing, or performing poorly within a blended learning environment. Understanding the many reasons students engage in less successful behavior may inform student success strategies and alleviate bottlenecks, especially as the prevalence of blended learning courses increases within the California State University system.


We present a visually grounded hierarchical planning algorithm for long-horizon manipulation tasks. Our algorithm offers a joint framework of neuro-symbolic task planning and low-level motion generation conditioned on the specified goal. At the core of our approach is a two-level scene graph representation, namely geometric scene graph and symbolic scene graph. This hierarchical representation serves as a structured, object-centric abstraction of manipulation scenes. Our model uses graph neural networks to process these scene graphs for predicting high-level task plans and low-level motions. We demonstrate that our method scales to long-horizon tasks and generalizes well to novel task goals. We validate our method in a kitchen storage task in both physical simulation and the real world. Experiments show that our method achieves over 70% success rate and nearly 90% of subgoal completion rate on the real robot while being four orders of magnitude faster in computation time compared to standard search-based task-and-motion planner. 1


India was a major player in the world export market for textiles in the early 18th century, but by the middle of the 19th century it had lost all of its export market and much of its domestic market. Other local industries also suffered some decline, and India underwent secular de-industrialization as a consequence. While India produced about 25 percent of world industrial output in 1750, this figure fell to only 2 percent by 1900. We use an open, specific-factor model to organize our thinking about the relative role played by domestic and foreign forces in India's de-industrialization. The construction of new relative price evidence is central to our analysis. We document trends in the ratio of export to import prices (the external terms of trade) from 1800 to 1913, and that of tradable to non-tradable goods and own-wages in the tradable sectors going back to 1765. With this new relative price evidence in hand, we ask how much of the de-industrialization was due to local supply-side influences (such as the demise of the Mughal empire) and how much to world price shocks (such as world market integration and rapid productivity advance in European manufacturing), both of which had to deal with an offset the huge net transfer from India to Britain before 1815. Whether the Indian de-industrialization shocks and responses were big or small is then assessed by comparisons with other parts of the periphery.


Abstract The living species Ginkgo biloba is phylogenetically isolated, has a relictual distribution, and is morphologically very similar to Mesozoic and Cenozoic congenerics. To investigate what adaptations may have allowed this lineage to persist with little or no morphological change for over 100 Myr, we analyzed both sedimentological and floral data from 51 latest Cretaceous to middle Miocene Ginkgo-bearing fossil plant sites in North America and northern Europe. The resulting data indicate that throughout the late Cretaceous and Cenozoic Ginkgo was largely confined to disturbed streamside and levee environments, where it occurred with a consistent set of other plants. These inferred habitats are surprising because the life-history traits of Ginkgo (e.g., slow growth rate, late reproductive maturity, extended reproductive cycle, large and complex seeds, large and slowly developing embryos) are counter to those considered advantageous in modern disturbed habitats. Many flowering plant lineages first appeared or became common in disturbed riparian habitats, and are inferred to have had reproductive and growth traits (e.g., rapid reproduction, small easily dispersed seeds, rapid growth) suited to such habitats. Paleoecological inferences based on both morphology and sedimentary environments thus support the idea that Ginkgo was displaced in riparian habitats by angiosperms with better adaptations to frequent disturbance.


The hydrodynamic characteristics of a model of the hull of the Short Calcutta (N.A.C.A. Model 47) are presented in non-dimensional form. This model represents one of a series of hulls of successful foreign and domestic flying boats the characteristics of which are being obtained under similar test conditions in the N.A.C.A. tank. The take-off distance and time for a flying boat having the hull of the Calcutta are compared at two values of the gross load with the corresponding distances and times for the same flying boat having hulls of two representative American types, the Sikorsky S-40 and the N.A.C.A. 11-A. This comparison indicates that for hulls of the widely different forms compared, the differences in take-off time and distance are negligible.


The Marmaray Project was prepared to connect Asian and European parts of the Bosphorus as the biggest transportation project in Istanbul whereby it emerged a great opportunity to connect archaeological dots of the city's history and even surprised with a lot of new discoveries. Rescue excavations of the three major sites in Marmaray, were held under the authority of Istanbul Archaeological Museums (IAM) in 2004-2012, became the most important example of urban archaeology in the history of Turkey. This paper is focused on Sirkeci Station of Marmaray within the Historic Peninsula where archaeological stratification has demonstrated the architectural inventory from Early Turkish Republican, Ottoman, Byzantine to Roman Period (also some published archaeological pieces dated to Hellenistic Period). Rescue excavations implement with some problems not only about time but also documentation process. For instance, classical documentation process could hold all information about archaeological inventory with report and CAD folder and consequently, this crucial inventory cannot be a part of not only the scientific investigation but also modern planning process. This paper offers a solution with a GIS project as a contemporary digitalization and documentation method. With the contribution of the GIS, archaeological potential can present its periodical changes by examining the ancient topography, architectural remnants, their building techniques, materials, and urban relationships. For this reason, documentation of Sirkeci Rescue Excavations was transferred to the GIS database and its opportunity of the multidisciplinary perspective was discussed.


In recent years, approaches based on machine learning have achieved state-of-the-art performance on image restoration problems. Successful approaches include both generative models of natural images as well as discriminative training of deep neural networks. Discriminative training of feed forward architectures allows explicit control over the computational cost of performing restoration and therefore often leads to better performance at the same cost at run time. In contrast, generative models have the advantage that they can be trained once and then adapted to any image restoration task by a simple use of Bayes' rule.

In this paper we show how to combine the strengths of both approaches by training a discriminative, feed-forward architecture to predict the state of latent variables in a generative model of natural images. We apply this idea to the very successful Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) of natural images. We show that it is possible to achieve comparable performance as the original GMM but with two orders of magnitude improvement in run time while maintaining the advantage of generative models.


Recent years have seen a number of whistleblowers risk their liberty to expose illegal and corrupt behaviour. Some have heralded their bravery; others see them as traitors. Can there be a moral duty to emulate their example and blow the whistle?In this book, leading political philosophers Emanuela Ceva and Michele Bocchiola draw on well-known cases, such as those of Edward Snowden and Chelsea Manning, to probe the difference between permissible and dutiful whistleblowing. They argue that, insofar as whistleblowing is understood as an individual act of dissent, it falls short of constituting a duty, although it can be praiseworthy. Whistleblowing should, they contend, be seen as an institutional duty, embedded within the organizational practices of public accountability.This concise book will be invaluable for students and scholars of applied political theory, and political and professional ethics.


As embedded and real-time systems became an inherent part of many electronic appliances of everyday use, the demand for their development has grown enormously. Increasing complexity of these systems leads to demands of tools and techniques addressing their efficient and short time-to-market development. One of the possible ways to tackle the problem is a reuse of tools, methodologies and know how already established and successfully adopted in other application domains. Such transfer cannot be done inherently without appropriate modification and methodical adaptation based on an analysis of domain requirements. The paper analyzes necessary modifications and extensions of a general purpose component-based technology to enable development of embedded real-time systems. In addition, we present our own experience obtained while tailoring advanced component framework SOFA 2 to support development of embedded and real-time systems.


Objective: To determine the nature and strength of the relation between lean body mass and measures of health-related quality-of-living (HRQL) including physical functioning in men and women with HIV. Design: Cross-sectional analysis using 619 patients with HIV infection from two cities in the northeastern United States. Main Outcome Measures: Lean body mass (LBM) was assessed by bioimpedance analysis (BIA). Physical functioning, general health perceptions, energy/fatigue, and number of days spent in bed in the last month were determined by patient self-report. Results: Data from 450 men and 169 women were analyzed. Mean age was 39 years, 37.6% were nonwhite, and mean CD4 counts were 352 cells/ml. In multivariable models, higher LBM was significantly associated with better physical functioning in men but not in women. In men, a 10-kg increment in LBM was associated with a 3.7 point (95% confidence interval [CI], 0.19-7.2) increment in physical functioning (0-100 scale). In similar analyses, higher LBM was significantly associated with better general health perceptions (10-kg increment in LBM associated with a 4.8 point [95% CI, 1.4-8.1] increment in general health perceptions), and fewer days in bed in the last month (10-kg increment in LBM associated with 0.9 [95% CI, -1.8-0] fewer days in bed). Lean body mass was not independently associated with energy/fatigue. Conclusions: In this diverse population of persons with HIV, LBM was significantly related to physical functioning and other measures of HQRL in men, but not in women. In men, the relation was linear but relatively weak. These data have potential implications for assessing the clinical impact of interventions aimed at increasing LBM. Even in men, increases in LBM in the ranges that are currently achievable may produce relatively small improvements in physical functioning and other measures of HRQL.


This letter investigates the edge effects on the tree height retrieval over coniferous plantations using X-band interferometry. A coherent version of the water cloud model is used to evaluate the influence of observation conditions such as incidence angle, tree height, and slope, each of which affects the extent of areas affected by edge effects. Results from the model simulation are discussed in the context of actual X-band data over pine plantations. A generic expression to indicate the extent of edge effects is described


Host species and salinity often affect the development of disease in aquatic species. Eighty chinook salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha, 80 coho salmon O. kisutch and 80 rainbow trout O. mykiss were infected with Loma salmonae. Forty of each species were reared in seawater and 40 in freshwater. The mean number of xenomas per gill filament was 8 to 33 times greater in chinook salmon than in rainbow trout (RBT). Coho salmon had a mean xenoma intensity intermediate to that of chinook salmon and RBT. In contrast to the differences between species, salinity had no significant effect on xenoma intensity in any of these host species. The onset of xenoma formation occurred at Week 5 postexposure (PE) for chinook salmon and RBT, and at Week 6 PE for coho salmon. RBT had cleared all visible branchial xenomas by Week 9 PE, whereas xenomas persisted in coho and chinook salmon at Week 9 PE. Histologically, xenomas were visible in the filament arteries of the branchial arch in chinook and coho salmon gills but were absent from RBT gills. Fewer xenomas were seen in the central venous sinusoids of RBT than in chinook and coho salmon. The lower xenoma intensity, shorter duration of infection and pathological characteristics, common to microsporidial gill disease in RBT, suggest a degree of resistance to clinical disease that is not seen in coho and chinook salmon.


The five countries known as brics, while not homogeneous in interests, values, and policy preferences, do have a common interest in checking US/Western power and influence through collaboration with non-Western powers. They vary considerably but all are ahead of other developing countries on population, military power, economic weight, geopolitical clout, and global reach and engagement. They are unrepresentative of the typical developing country in terms of interest, capacity, and resources, but they can represent the interests and goals of developing countries as a group on those issues for which the North–South division is salient. The diversity within brics, their differences from other developing countries, and their potential to reflect and represent the global South are explored with respect to climate change, finance, trade, aid, human rights and intervention, and development. It remains unclear whether brics can morph from a countervailing economic grouping to a powerful political alternative.


When the natural gas with vapor is flowing in production pipeline, condensation occurs and leads to serious problems such as condensed liquid accumulation, pressure and flow rate fluctuations, and pipeline blockage. This chapter aims at studying phase change of vapor and liquid-level change during the condensing process of water-bearing natural gas characterized by coupled hydrothermal transition and phase change process. A hydrothermal mass transfer coupling model is established. The bipolar coordinate system is utilized to obtain a rectangular calculation domain. An adaptive meshing method is developed to automatically refine the grid near the gas-liquid interface. During phase change process, the temperature drop along the pipe leads to the reduction of gas mass flow rate and the rise of liquid level, which results in further pressure drop. Latent heat is released during the vapor condensing process which slows down the temperature drop. Larger temperature drop results in bigger liquid holdup while larger pressure drop causes smaller liquid holdup. The value of velocity with phase change is smaller than that without phase change while the temperature with phase change is bigger. The highest temperature locates in gas phase. But near the pipe wall the temperature of liquid region is higher than gas region.


Abstract Understanding the impacts of livestock grazing on wildlands is important for making appropriate ecosystem management decisions. Using livestock exclosures, we examined the effects of moderate cattle grazing on the abundance of California ground squirrels (Spermophilus beecheyii Richardson) and the spatial distribution of active burrows within their colonies in grassland and blue oak (Quercus douglasii Hook. & Arn.) savanna habitats in the coastal range of California over a 3-year period (1991–1994). Overall, relative population densities of California ground squirrels declined significantly throughout the experiment, but did not differ between grazed and ungrazed colonies or between habitats. There was also no significant interaction between these 2 factors. The spatial distribution of burrows, as measured by the mean nearest neighbor distance of active entrances within a colony, did not differ significantly between grazed and ungrazed colonies or between habitats, nor was the interaction significant. Thus, low to moderate levels of cattle grazing did not appear to have a strong effect on the population dynamics of California ground squirrels, and grazing may be compatible with maintenance of ground squirrel populations. Based on multivariate analysis of variance of 1994 data, live plant cover, native plant cover, and standing biomass were lower where the number of burrows was higher on grazed colonies but were little affected on ungrazed colonies. Ground squirrels may increase the impact of livestock grazing and thus reduce the capacity of the land to support other activities. However, it is clear that the effects of livestock grazing are complex and that detailed studies of potential mechanisms by which grazing impacts California ground squirrel populations are necessary.


The Water Framework Directive recently (2006) proposed to monitor a selection of priority substances and to report on the chemical status of European water bodies. The final objective is the protection of aquatic life and human health. The majority of these substances are lipophilic, nevertheless it is proposed to monitor them in the water-phase. As there is serious concern about whether measurements of these lipophilic compounds in water will give results that will guarantee the protection of aquatic life, monitoring in biota seems to be more appropriate. The advantages of using the European eel (Anguilla anguilla) as a model for evaluating the chemical status within the WFD are discussed. A wide range of studies over Europe exists and has pinpointed various types of environmental contamination. Eel contaminant profiles seem to be a fingerprint of the contamination pressure of a specific site. This is illustrated with results from 12 years of contaminant monitoring in eel in Flanders, where the database comprises at present analyses of 2946 eels from 365 sites. From this database, reference values and quality classes for PCBs, OCPs and heavy metals in eel were deduced and are presented. The establishment of a harmonised, Europe-wide chemical monitoring programme of eels could enable three separate objectives to be addressed: (1) the evaluation of environmental health and chemical status, (2) the sanitary control of fisheries products within human food safety regulations, and (3) the monitoring of eel quality within the requirements of the international eel restoration plan. Because of high concentration of some contaminants in certain eel subpopulations and the ecotoxicological effects of these substances, achieving good chemical status of EU waters will directly be beneficial for restoration of eels stocks.


Reuse of wastewater effluents from secondary treatment processes in municipal wastewater treatment plants has been issued because of substantial volumes of relatively clean waters. The major components of criteria for wastewater reclamations are color, organic matter, and pathogens. An advanced oxidation process with low-pressure ultraviolet and hydrogen peroxide addition (UV/H2O2 system) has been employed for removal of the major components in the criteria for reuse of wastewater. Sand filter pretreatment was applied to remove turbidity and to improve performance of UV irradiation. The results showed that total coliforms were effectively inactivated by the UV irradiation alone with the contact time of 30 minutes but color was remained. The addition of H2O2 significantly improved the removal of color and dissolved organic matter in the same contact time.


The relationship among foreign direct investments and economic growth is a very controversial issue that has given rise to an abundant literature. Numerous research studies examine the bidirectional causal relationship and investigate the major determinants of these investments. In the same order of ideas, this article gives an empirical study from four North African countries to evaluate the role of transport infrastructures to improve the territorial attractiveness for the foreign direct investment. The present paper starts by a theoretical study explaining the role of transport as a major determinant of FDI. In a second section, we represent the empirical study. By using an econometric model with panel data, we found that traditional determinants of FDI have the most significant influence on the international investors' decision. However, the same findings verify a positive impact of transport and consider it as a new important factor with strategic issues that cannot be avoided. The empirical validation from the four countries leads to verify that it is necessary to adopt development strategies that take into account the transport infrastructures and logistics function


Faced with growing environmental threats, governments and the international community have sought ways to halt biodiversity loss and ecosystem degradation and realize global climate and development priorities. Today, expanding the global network of protected areas is a key approach for achieving the goals of the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, and the Paris Agreement on climate change. But human pressure is increasing in and around protected areas, and far from improving the lives of those affected by the growing number of conservation initiatives, land and forest sequestration through "fortress" conservation approaches is creating chronic patterns of abuse and human-rights violations. In a context where many protected areas are underfunded and therefore limited in their capacity to deliver climate or biodiversity outcomes, the push for still more and even larger parks and conservation areas only stands to exacerbate the existing funding gap and the potential for injustice. Yet, despite widespread poverty and insecure resource rights, evidence shows that Indigenous Peoples and local communities are nevertheless spending their limited resources on conservation efforts and achieving outcomes that are at least equivalent to those of government-funded protected areas. As this brief shows, there is an urgent need to replace the fortress-conservation model with rights-based approaches to both improve conservation outcomes and end human-rights abuses committed in the name of conservation.


The fast-neutral-beam technique is a versatile approach to the determination of absolute cross sections for electron-impact ionization of atoms, stable molecules as well as free radicals and metastable species. A fast neutral beam of the species under study is prepared by charge-transfer neutralization of a mass-selected ion beam and the species are subsequently ionized by an electron beam. Mass- and energy-dispersive selection separates singly from multiply charged ions and parent from fragment ions and allows the determination of partial ionization cross sections. Here we describe some major improvements that were made recently to the fast-beam apparatus that has been used extensively for ionization cross section measurements for the past 15 years in our group. Experiments using well-established ionization cross sections in conjunction with extensive ion trajectory simulations were carried out to test the satisfactory performance of the modified fast-neutral-beam apparatus. We also report absolute partial cross sections for the formation of various singly charged positive ions produced by electron impact on SiCl3 for impact energies from threshold to 200 eV in the modified fast-beam apparatus.


This paper investigates empirically how similarity of demand structures - approximated by similarity of income distributions - affects trade patterns along both the extensive and intensive margin. The idea that similarity of demand structures intensifies trade goes back to the well-known Linder hypothesis. Based on a sample of 102 countries, I find that bilateral trade volumes are increasing in the overlap of two countries income distributions. This effect is driven by both the extensive and intensive margin. I establish two novel measures of income similarity - the average income level of the overlap area and the range of incomes for which two distributions overlap - and document that both are important determinants of bilateral trade margins. My analysis shows that the positive relationship between similarity of income distributions and bilateral trade margins is present at the aggregate and disaggregate level of trade flows.


Abstract. Building floor plans with locations of safety, security and energy assets such as IoT sensors, thermostats, fire sprinklers, EXIT signs, fire alarms, smoke detectors, routers etc. are vital for climate control, emergency security, safety, and maintenance of building infrastructure. Existing approaches to building survey are manual, and usually involve an operator with a clipboard and pen, or a tablet enumerating and localizing assets in each room. In this paper, we propose an interactive method for a human operator to use an app on a smart phone to (a) create the 2D layout of a room, (b) detect assets of interest, and (c) localize them within the layout. We use deep learning methods to train a neural network to recognize assets of interest, and use human in the loop interactive methods to correct erroneous recognitions by the networks. These corrections are then used to improve the accuracy of the system over time as the inspector moves from one room to another in a given building or from one building to the next; this progressive training and testing mechanism makes our system useful in building inspection scenarios where a given class of assets in a building are same instantiation of that object category, thus reducing the problem to instance, rather than category recognition. Experiments show our proposed method to achieve accuracy rate of 76% for testing 102 objects across 10 classes.


Environmental Control and Life Support (ECLS) encompasses the process technologies and equipment necessary to provide and maintain a livable environment within a crewed spacecraft or surface habitat cabin. Functional areas of interest to this solicitation include atmospheric resource management; airborne particulate matter removal and disposal; water recovery systems; waste management; fire protection systems; and environmental monitoring. Technologies are needed for crewed space exploration missions supporting the Vision for Space Exploration with emphasis on missions to the lunar surface, including short duration lunar sortie and long duration lunar outpost missions. Vehicles of interest include the Lunar Lander and Lunar Outpost (LO). Requirements include operation in microand/or partial-gravity as well as ambient and reduced-pressure cabin environments. Special emphasis is placed on developing technologies that will fill existing gaps; have a significant impact on reduction of mass, power, volume and crew time; and increase safety and reliability.


The publication in 1992 of Miyabe Miyuke's highly anticipated Kasha (translated into English as All She Was Worth) represents a watershed in the history of Japanese women's detective fiction. Inspired by Miyabe's success and the increasing number of Western mysteries in translation, women began writing mysteries of all types, employing the narrative and conceptual resources of the detective genre to depict and critique contemporary Japanese society - and the situation of women in it. Bodies of Evidence examines this recent boom and the ways in which five contemporary authors (Miyabe, Nonami Asa, Shibata Yoshiki, Kirino Natsuo, and Matsuo Yumi) critically engage with a variety of social issues and concerns: consumerism and the crisis of identity, discrimination and harassment in the workplace, sexual harassment and sexual violence, and motherhood. Bodies of Evidence moves beyond the borders of detective fiction scholarship by exploring the worlds constructed by these authors in their novels and showing how they intersect with other political, cultural, and economic discourses and with the lived experiences of contemporary Japanese women.


We cannot realize our potential as a just society until every person in our country can count on affordable, high quality health care when they need it. In health care reform, the single toughest issue is cost control. Without cost savings, the debates over financing and the relative roles of public and private insurance programs are useless. No one can afford the system we have now, with its $2.3 trillion annual cost and a super-sized inflation rate. Those who advocate universal health coverage without serious cost containment are dooming us to the awful choice of denying all needed care to some, or denying some needed care to all. We cannot make our economy work for everyone until we make health care work for everyone. And it will not work unless all stakeholders in this struggle accept responsibility when it comes to controlling cost and guaranteeing quality care. We must achieve affordable universal coverage not only for the sake of the young, the old, the poor, the working poor, and the middle class. We must do it in order to turn our economy around and make it work for everyone.


ABSTRACT This paper challenges the stereotypical homogenisation of Islam often circulated in global discourses. We do this by focusing on the different ways youth across four national case studies constructed their religious identities. The analysis is informed by our understanding that local, national and global discourses are significant to the interpellation of subjects and the production of identities. These on-going processes produce plurality and diversity within and across particular historical contexts. We begin by highlighting the commonalities in youth's representations of Islam. These included proclamations of values such as universal peace and harmony as intrinsic to Islam and the global Ummah. The suturing together of discourses of religion with those of national belonging led us to explore the different socio-historical conjunctures of youth's respective postcolonial nations. This connection of the local with the national illuminated plurality as the historical and political contours in each nation produced different internal/external others against whom Muslim youth identity narratives were established and re-iterated. Finally, we turn to consider the intersections of these diverse identity narratives with global discursive flows around Islam and the responses these provoked for Muslim youth participants. In this multi-layered exploration of the complex intersections of religion with other identity narratives within four distinct historic and political contexts, we have illuminated the multiplicities and hybridities of youth's religious identities within and across the cases. Through this discussion, we challenge stereotypical tropes evident in the contemporary circulation of global discourses, which too often conflate professions of Islamic faith with religious fundamentalism.


Logistics of roundwood and biomass comprise a high number of operations, machinery, storage sites and transportable roundwood and biomass assortments. Moreover, complex and highly varying operational environment through the year poses logistics challenges incurring additional costs. An extensive review of studies was conducted in Sweden and Finland concerning roundwood and biomass logistics, starting from roadside landings and ending with delivery to a mill or a conversion facility. The main aim of the review was to describe trends in roundwood and biomass logistics since the start of the century. Papers were classified to categories of truck transports and roads, terminals, multimodal transports, storage and supply chain logistics. Slightly over 50% of reviewed articles were constrained to biomass only, 31% to roundwood only and 14% to both. Rapid technology development, amendments concerning road transports, increasing environmental concerns and forestry sector's push to decrease the logistics costs can be seen as the biggest drivers for the reviewed studies and their study objectives. These aspects will also drive and increase the demand for research and development in roundwood and biomass logistics in the future.


Objective To quantify the psychological impact of primary care based stepwise screening for type 2 diabetes. Design Controlled trial and comparative study embedded in a randomised controlled trial. Setting 15 practices (10 screening, five control) in the ADDITION (Cambridge) trial in the east of England. Participants 7380 adults (aged 40-69) in the top fourth for risk of having undiagnosed type 2 diabetes (6416 invited for screening, 964 controls). Interventions Invited for screening for type 2 diabetes or not invited (controls), incorporating a comparative study of subgroups of screening attenders. Attenders completed questionnaires after a random blood glucose test and at 3-6 months and 12-15 months later. Controls were sent questionnaires at corresponding time points. Non-attenders were sent questionnaires at 3-6 months and 12-15 months. Main outcome measures State anxiety (Spielberger state anxiety inventory), anxiety and depression (hospital anxiety and depression scale), worry about diabetes, and self rated health. Results No significant differences were found between the screening and control participants at any time—for example, difference in means (95% confidence intervals) for state anxiety after the initial blood glucose test was −0.53, −2.60 to 1.54, at 3-6 months was 1.51 (−0.17 to 3.20), and at 12-15 months was 0.57, −1.11 to 2.24. After the initial test, compared with participants who screened negative, those who screened positive reported significantly poorer general health (difference in means −0.19, −0.25 to −0.13), higher state anxiety (0.93, −0.02 to 1.88), higher depression (0.32, 0.08 to 0.56), and higher worry about diabetes (0.25, 0.09 to 0.41), although effect sizes were small. Small but significant trends were found for self rated health across the screening subgroups at 3-6 months (P=0.047) and for worry about diabetes across the screen negative groups at 3-6 months and 12-15 months (P=0.001). Conclusions Screening for type 2 diabetes has limited psychological impact on patients. Implementing a national screening programme based on the stepwise screening procedure used in the ADDITION (Cambridge) trial is unlikely to have significant consequences for patients' psychological health. Trial registration Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN99175498.


Beautifully illustrated and comprehensive, this must-have atlas guides readers through the delicate, high-risk surgical approaches they need to successfully manage pathology of the temporal bone, the most complex anatomic area in the human body. Each consistently organized chapter addresses a different technique, beginning with a clear definition of the approach followed by a discussion of indications and key information on anatomic orientation, surgical steps, and, in many cases, surgical anatomy. Clearly labeled, full-color illustrations accompany step-by-step descriptions of common and unique operative techniques. The author, a world-renowned otorhinolaryngologist, provides detailed explanations of important anatomic landmarks and advice on how to choose the appropriate instruments at each surgical stage. Features: * More than 300 full-color photographs and diagrams that orient the reader to the clinical setting * Helpful pointers appear throughout the text to help readers hone their surgical skills * Definitions and tips are incorporated as footnotes in each chapter for quick and easy reference * A thought-provoking section presenting surgical techniques, instruments, and prostheses that were developed and designed by the author * Extensive glossary that contains the most frequently used terms in otology and neurotology An ideal companion for use in both the dissection laboratory and the operating room, Atlas of Temporal Bone Surgery is an indispensable one-stop reference for otologists, neurotologists, and any specialist involved in skull base surgery or otolaryngology.