Litter decomposition is the most important way of nutrient entering to soil and soil nutrient availability is highly related to dynamics of nutrients and litter decomposition in the forest ecosystems. This study aimed to evaluate the dynamics of nutrients and litter decomposition in the northern Zagros forests using litterbag technique for 180 days in the Khul Hoare forests located in Baneh city. The litter bags were collected at intervals of 30, 60, 120 and 180 days and the rate of leaf litter decomposition and chemical compounds such as nitrogen, carbon, phosphorus, potassium and calcium were measured. The results showed there was no significant correlation between the rate of decomposition and the initial composition of nutrients and also C: N and C: P ratios. Due to the qualification of leaf litter based on the amount of nitrogen in this study, the average amount of nitrogen in Quercus libani was 1.37%. So Lebanon oak can be classified in the average group and it can be considered as a soil improver species. In the studied litter, phosphorus and nitrogen had a similar performance and their concentration increased over time (7.27 and 30.38 mg/g respectively). While concentration of elements such as calcium, potassium and magnesium was decreased. The nutrient concentration of Quercus libani leaf litter was Ca>N>P>K> Mg .


This paper explores a macroeconomic model of the business cycle in which stickiness of information is pervasive. We start from a familiar benchmark classical model and add to it the assumption that there is sticky information on the part of consumers, workers, and firms. We evaluate the model against three key facts that describe shortrun fluctuations: the acceleration phenomenon, the smoothness of real wages, and the gradual response of real variables to shocks. We find that pervasive stickiness is required to fit the facts. We conclude that models based on stickiness of information offer the promise of fitting the facts on business cycles while adding only one new plausible ingredient to the classical benchmark.


This study was set up to investigate the phylogeny of and characterize the methanogenic population in anaerobic tank for treating palm oil mill effluent. In this study, environmental DNA was extracted and purified from wastewater sludge by using a simplified and less time consuming procedure (Malaysian Patent Pending Number: PI20082842 filed on 30/07/2008) and the results obtained were compared to that of other three existing protocols i.e. Ogram et al., Tsai and Olson, and Jacobsen and Rasmussen methods which are normally used for environmental samples. The DNA isolated from the palm oil mill anaerobic tank in FELDA Serting Hilir, was used for determining the molecular phylogeny of methanogenic archaea by using culture-independent analysis of the 16S rRNA genes amplified directly from sludge. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) and fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) were also used in combination which made the present study, the first wide-scale study carried out in Malaysia. 1260-bp 16S rRNA PCR products were cloned and sequenced. Phylogenetic analysis showed the microbes were closely affiliated with known cultured methanogenic Archaea, Methanosaeta concilii. Based on RFLP (HaeIII) analysis, just a few clones (clone SamaliEB; Genebank Accession Number: EU580025) seemed to be new species or at least new strains of Methanosaeta. This was also confirmed by DGGE analysis which showed the presence of M. concilii and Methanosarcina. sp. FISH was carried out using specifically designed 16s rRNA probes to target methanogens and bacteria. The results were in line with DGGE analysis and revealed the presence of two types of methanogens including M. concilii and Methanosarcina sp. in the anaerobic tank. Quantitative FISH showed that M. concilii had a population of 1.4 x 108/ml of wastewater sludge, while Methanosarcina sp. was 2 x 105/ml of wastewater sludge. This could be the reason of failing to get it cloned as for each 1000 clones of Methanosaeta, there was just one clone of Methanosarcina and therefore, the probability of picking up a clone affiliated to Methanosarcina was approximately 0.1 %. FISH helped to elucidate the association of methanogens and bacteria together. The findings of this study helped to understand the microbial population of the anaerobic tank for treating POME in Malaysia. The results indicate that filamentous acetate-utilizing methanogens detected in the POME anaerobic tank belong to the genus Methanosaeta based on the cell-morphology, and the phenotypic and phylogenetic characteristics described above. The data obtained also suggest that Methanosaeta is the most abundant methanogen in POME anaerobic digestion and that it plays an important role in methane production from acetate and its optimum growth conditions should be considered when an attempt is made to treat POME anaerobically. In future, these findings will provide the chance to optimize the anaerobic tank conditions to increase the methane production and "carbon oxygen demand" (COD) removal.


Solid organ transplantation sometimes requires the use of blood vessels from a deceased donor as conduits to connect transplanted organ vessels to recipient vessels. Vessels not immediately used are sometimes stored for later use, including vessels collected from hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) seropositive donors; HBV and HCV seropositive vessels can be stored for use in seropositive recipients. In May 2009, HCV was transmitted when a transplant facility inadvertently used a blood vessel conduit from an HCV-seropositive donor in a seronegative recipient. In November 2009, a second transplant facility, the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), identified two cases of potential hepatitis virus transmission from vessel conduits. In December 2009, CDC was asked to assist the local health department in conducting an investigation at UPMC. This report summarizes the results of that investigation, which determined that, although neither recipient of the vessel conduits at UPMC contracted hepatitis, these represented "near miss" incidents in which transmission could have occurred. The storage of vessels from hepatitis-seropositive donors at UPMC and its affiliated Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital was not necessary; vessels from seropositive donors were infrequently used because adequate supplies of vessels from seronegative donors were available. UPMC's prohibition of the storage of vessels from hepatitis-seropositive donors has removed a documented risk factor for viral transmission while not substantially affecting the transplant centers' vessel conduit supply. Evaluation of available national data supports this prohibition. Therefore, CDC recommends that transplant centers discontinue the practice of storing vessel from donors with markers for viral hepatitis, including HBV surface antigen (HBsAg), HCV antibody (anti-HCV), and HBV or HCV detectable by nucleic acid tests.


SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) play a key roJe in Ihe Colombian economy. "They represent 96.4% of the number of establishments in Colombia, contribute lo 63% of national employment; with 45% of manufacturing production, 40% of wages and 37% of the value added. There are more than 650,000 ernployers paying contributions to the social security system". (businesscol.com, 2007). This empirical study in a group of Bogota 's SMEs, shows the state of the management of culture and organizational structure and its impact on other variables, as innovation and knowledge, human management, partnership, communication and information and strategic management. which are mandato!)' managed by the senior management of organizations, as well as its irnpact in the operational profit as the key measure to the contribution of wealth to the stakeholders of a company. Sorne of the hypotheses are tested completely, sorne partiaJly and others are rejected introducing new observations in regard to the two components analyzed.


We present experiments on repeated non-cooperative network formation games, based on Bala and Goyal (2000). We treat the one-way and the two-ways flow models, each for high and low link costs. The models show both multiple equilibria and coordination problems. We conduct experiments under various conditions which control for salient labeling and learning dynamics. Contrary to previous experiments, we find that coordination on non-empty Strict Nash equilibria is not an easy task for subjects to achieve, even in the mono-directional model where the Strict Nash equilibria is a wheel. We find that salience significantly helps coordination, but only when subjects are pre-instructed to think of the wheel network as a reasonable way to play the networking game. Evidence on learning behavior provides support for subjects choosing strategies consistent with various learning rules, which include as the main ones Reinforcement and Fictitious Play.


Drug concentrations and effects may be different in morbidly obese patients (body mass index > 40 kg/m2). In addition, also such changes may be expected in patients after a weight loss surgery. This thesis aims to develop evidence-based dosing recommendations for these patient groups and focuses on two drugs: cefazolin and midazolam.
Cefazolin is an antibiotic that is often used as a prophylactic before surgery in order to prevent surgical wound infections. This research demonstrates that in morbidly obese patients, cefazolin subcutaneous tissue penetration in lower in comparison to non-obese patients and dosing adjustments are needed.
Midazolam is a commonly used drug for short term or long term sedation. This thesis shows that in particular the distribution of midazolam is strongly influenced by obesity requiring dosing adjustments. Furthermore, it was found that midazolam metabolism (through cytochrome P450 3A enzymes, CYP3A) appears to be lower in comparison to non-obese healthy volunteers, while the total clearance was the same for both groups. After weight loss surgery, midazolam clearance increased, probably because the CYP3A enzyme activity is restored.
In the future, these results may be used for other drugs which also undergo CYP3A metabolism (approximately 25% of all clinical used drugs).


This paper presents a differential-flatness-based integrated point-to-point trajectory planning and control method for a class of nonholonomic wheeled mobile manipulator (WMM). We demonstrate that its kinematic model possesses a feedback-linearizable description due to the flatness property, which allows for full-state controllability. Trajectory planning can then be simplified and achieved by polynomial fitting method in the flat output space to satisfy the terminal conditions, while control design reduces to a pole-placement problem for a linear system. The method is then deployed on our custom-constructed WMM hardware to evaluate its effectiveness and to highlight various aspects of the hardware implementation.


The objective learning formulation is essential for the success of convolutional neural networks. In this work, we analyse thoroughly the standard learning objective functions for multiclass classification CNNs: softmax regression (SR) for singlelabel scenario and logistic regression (LR) for multi-label scenario. Our analyses lead to an inspiration of exploiting LR for single-label classification learning, and then the disclosing of the negative class distraction problem in LR. To address this problem, we develop two novel LR based objective functions that not only generalise the conventional LR but importantly turn out to be competitive alternatives to SR in single label classification. Extensive comparative evaluations demonstrate the model learning advantages of the proposed LR functions over the commonly adopted SR in single-label coarse-grained object categorisation and cross-class fine-grained person instance identification tasks. We also show the performance superiority of our method on clothing attribute classification in comparison to the vanilla LR function. The code had been made publicly available.


Background: Bone mineral density (BMD) measurement is one of the method for making osteoporosis diagnosis. World Health Organization (WHO) recommends the measurement of BMD conducted at antero-posterior lumbar vertebrae, unilateral hip (femur), and radius. However, there was a concern about osteoporosis under diagnosis if the measurement is only conducted at unilateral hip. Some studies found significant differences of BMD between both femur and evidence of the importance to examine both femur in making the diagnosis of osteoporosis. This study aims to determine anydifference between right and left femur BMD measurement and to investigate the bone status result with measurement of BMD of bilateral femur in Hasan Sadikin General Hospital. Methods: A retrospective study was conducted from June to November 2015. Patients who received dual-femur BMD testing using General Electrics (GE) Lunar Prodigy dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry at the DXA Facility in Hasan Sadikin General Hospital,Bandung between January 1, 2006 to December 31, 2014 were included. Statistical analysis performed to assess the difference and the correlation between theBMD of two femurs (g/cm2). T-scores of the subject were implemented into bone status according to WHO Diagnostic Criteria for Osteoporosis.Results: From sixty-one patients included in this study, there were difference bone status resulted from BMD of the femoral neck, Ward's triangle, trochanter, andtotal hip area between right and left femur, although no statistically significance were found. There was a positive correlation between BMD of right and left femurat all areas of femur. There were 16 subjects (26.1%) showed combination level of bone status (normal, osteopenia, or osteoporosis in one femur).Conclusion: BMD results in each area of the right and left femurs are different.Therefore, performing bilateral hip BMD examination as a routine measurement for makingdiagnosis of osteoporosis is important.


Mice of the KC strain can survive injections up to 300 units of insulin as compared to the maximum 30-50 units tolerated b y normal BUB mice. This resistance is inherited. The KC mice are able to survive the hypoglycemia by maintaining their blood sugar level just above that which produces convulsions. Previous work had suggested that an increased rate 0£ food consumption supplied the carbohydrate necessary to overcome the hypoglycemia. Current theories on the mechanism of hunger drive emphasize the role played by the hypothalamic reeding centers. The best understood centers are the lateral feeding center and the ventromedial satiety center. Evidence has accumulated to show that the ventromedial center is a glucoreceptor which inhibits the activity 0£ the lateral nucleus during periods of high b lood glucose. To test the hypothesis that the hypothalamic feeding centers play a role in the insulin resistance, the ventromedial nucleus was destroyed by aurothioglucose. This ' compound has been demonstrated to be relatively specific for the satiety center, and its administration results in a hyperphagia aid obesity due to the unchecked activity of the lateral center. The amount of food consumed was measured daily for a period of ten days, and as expected the aurothioglucosetreated mice exhibited a hyperphagia. Of the remaining groups the tolerant strain ate more per day than the intolerant. In the period after insulin injection, I however, the intolerant mice ate at the fastest rate and the tolerant mice just slightly less. The tolerant mice rendered hyperphagic and obese by aurothioglucose exhibited a suppression of food consumption in response to insulin. When these findings are related to the proposed mechanism of insulin tolerance, it becomes questionable that the amount of food consumed is the sole determinant of survival after insulin stress. Also discovered is the possibility that this procedure may be of value in investigating the role played by feeding centers not located in the ventromedial nucleus and not sensitive to glucose or aurothioglucose.


Postoperative wound infection is a severe problem in the surgical specialties, which can cause mortality, morbidity and economic burden. In most post-operative SSIs the causative pathogens originate from endogenous flora of the patient's skin, mucous membranes or hollow viscera. Objectives of the present study were to study the frequency of various types of bacteria. The study was carried out in general ward of the North Indian hospitals. The samples from the 50 post-operative patients were evaluated for the study. Samples were taken from the patients during the period of surgical wound dressing before the wound was cleaned with antiseptic solution. The swab was inoculated onto plates of MacConkey agar and 5% Sheep blood agar by rolling the swab over the agar and streaked. These plates were incubated at 37° C for 24- 48hours. The present microbiological study has determined the commonest bacteria responsible for the post-operative wound infectons. There was predominance of commonly isolated bacterial species were S. aureus, P. aeruginosa and E. coli.


Marijuana is the most commonly used illicit drug in the United States and worldwide. Initiation of use typically occurs during adolescence. The most recent epidemiological data indicate that in the United States, 42% of high school seniors have tried marijuana, 18% have used it in the past 30 days, and 5% use it daily.


What We Do
BODIES IN FLIGHT, co-directed by Sara Giddens and Simon Jones, make performance where flesh utters and words move, that challenges and re-energizes the conventional relationship between audiences and performers, and audiences and place. Based in Bristol and Nottingham, our work comes from the careful and rigorous development of interdisciplinary and collaborative methods, often with new technologies in cutting edge venues. We insist on the buzz of ideas, on philosophy and poetry, using words and images, movement and stillness, voices and bodies, with which we aim to move audiences emotionally and spiritually.

Reflecting now on 30 years of performance-making, our work falls into three broad phases: the company's early professional practice; the development of its practice-as-research methodology working across a range of collaborations; and finally its recent work collaborating with different communities. Our first shows (1989-1995) thrilled to the energy and excitement of the late eighties and early nineties UK experimental performance scene. High-energy, action-based, erotic and political, they pastiched both popular and esoteric forms. Increasingly involving poetic text and choreographed movement, they consistently explored theatre's capacity to make meaning, to affect its audiences, to comment on the world.

In 1996, with our eighth show Do the Wild Thing!, we formalized these concerns into a specific research imperative: to explore how performance achieved these affects. We began to deconstruct and examine what we called the mixing of flesh and text through a series of collaborations with sonic and visual media artists (1996-2003), developing a strategy of duetting between bodies and technologies, texts and spaces. We extended our interest in siting performances in specific places, including the virtual online environment. We took these collaborations across continents and cultures, so that bodies with radically different experiences were brought together in the work.

Our current phase of work (2004-present) extends our collaborations to include working with different communities, some of place, others of skill-sets, for example – choirs and gymnasts, taking the work to global cities, seaside towns, galleries and gymnasia, mixing different kinds of expertise with different kinds of personal investment. In these ways we have increasingly opened out our practice to different understandings of everydayness: how commonplace experience might help us fashion a new idea of community, however realized in the performance event itself.


The Greek debt exchange (PSI) that took place in March 2012 was unprecedented in two ways: it was the biggest sovereign default ever and the first within the euro area. This paper examines the debt exchange and the subsequent debt buyback with a view to drawing lessons for policymakers and market participants. It discusses the interaction between the political dimension and the market perception, including areas of actual or potential conflicts between the two. The paper does not address Greece's longer-term prospects for debt sustainability or euro area membership, but instead focuses narrowly on an assessment of the debt exchange and its aftermath, taking into account its impact on the broader euro area crisis.


Tana Toraja is a highland region in the Indonesian province of South Sulawesi, best known today for its exquisite Arabica coffee and as an exotic destination. Toraja is a place, but more importantly a people who have been shaped by location, and by selective absorption of and resistance to cultural forces from the Islamic lowlands. This ambitious, multifaceted study traces the history of Tana Toraja, from 1870 (40 years before the Dutch took control of the highlands) to the 1990s. It shows how the people of this area re-negotiated their place in the province and in the Indonesian nation during times of major political change, and succeeded in avoiding ethnic and religious hostility of the sort that has recently plagued nearby Central Sulawesi and other parts of Eastern Indonesia. Drawing from Dutch and Indonesian archives as well as extensive interviews with Torajans and lowlanders in South Sulawesi, the author discusses a wide range of subjects, including trade (coffee, slaves and arms), the missionary presence, colonial administration, modern education and the development of ethnic consciousness, religious change, and the growth of political activity. The invaluable oral sources collected in this book are no longer possible today because of a passing of a generation.


This thesis studies service consistency in the context of multi-period vehicle routing problems (VRP) in which customers require repeatable services over a planning horizon of multiple days. Two types of service consistency are considered, namely, driver consistency and time consistency. Driver consistency refers to using the fewest number of different drivers to perform all of the visits required by a customer over a planning horizon and time consistency refers to visiting a customer at roughly the same time on each day he/she needs service. First, the multi-objective consistent VRP is defined to explore the trade-offs between the objectives of travel cost minimization and service consistency maximization. An improved multi-objective optimization algorithm is proposed and the impact of improving service consistency on travel cost is evaluated on various benchmark instances taken from the literature to facilitate managerial decision making. Second, service consistency is introduced for the first time in the literature to the periodic vehicle routing problem (PVRP). In the PVRP, customers may require multiple visits over a planning horizon, and these visits must occur according to an allowable service pattern. A service pattern specifies the days on which the visits required by a customer are allowed to occur. A feasible service pattern must be determined for each customer before vehicle routes can be optimized on each day. Various multi-objective optimization approaches are implemented to evaluate their comparative competitiveness in solving this problem and to evaluate the impact of improving service consistency on the total travel cost. Third, a branch-and-price algorithm is developed to solve the consistent vehicle routing problem in which service consistency is enforced as a hard constraint. In this problem, the objective is to minimize the total travel cost. New constraints are devised to enhance the original mixed integer formulation of the problem. The improved formulation outperforms the original formulation regarding CPLEX solution times on all benchmark instances taken from the literature. The proposed branch-and-price algorithm is shown to be able to solve instances with more than fourteen customers more efficiently than either the existing mixed integer formulation or the one we propose in this paper.


This article examines some of the memories of the Holocaust produced in Holocaust education in a selection of Jewish high schools in Melbourne and New York at the beginning of the twenty-first century. It is being suggested here that the narratives about the Holocaust being taught in these schools are in part shaped by a gendered Zionist outlook. This article takes up the question of why this is, and in doing so provides an explanation of these types of narratives. In particular, this article explores the ways that this pedagogy places the story of the creation of the sovereign Jewish State of Israel at the end of a unit of study on the Holocaust, thus linking these two "events" in an important way. This article also explores what it is that makes these narratives gendered, and what work such narratives, and collective memories, do in the formulation of particular notions of diasporic Zionist thinking.


Humorous advertisements attract attention and entertain consumers. Nonetheless, attempting humor is risky because consumers may be offended by failed humor attempts. We propose another reason that attempting humor is risky: humorous advertisements can hurt brand attitudes by eliciting negative feelings — even when consumers find the ad funny. Three experiments and one correlational study demonstrate that humorous marketing is more likely to hurt the advertised brand when it (1) features a highly threatening humorous ad rather than mildly threatening ad, (2) makes fun of a subset of the population rather than people in general, and (3) motivates avoidance rather than approach. We conclude by offering five guiding questions for marketers who want to use humor to attract attention and entertain consumers without inadvertently hurting brand attitudes.


This paper presents the motivation, design, and pilot evaluation of CountMeIn, a pervasive collaborative game to improve the waiting time experience (e.g., waiting for a train, or traffic light to turn green). We tested two versions of CountMeIn, an NFC-based and touchscreen version in a small pilot study. Our early results showed that the NFC-based version increases collaboration, and was overall more positively perceived than the touchscreen version. We discuss the challenges ahead in deploying CountMeIn in a real-world setting.


This chapter focuses on the implications of changing climate extremes for development, and considers how disaster risk management and climate change adaptation together can contribute to a sustainable and resilient future. Changes in the frequency, timing, magnitude, and characteristics of extreme events pose challenges to the goals of reducing disaster risk and vulnerability, both in the present and in the future. Enhancing the capacity of social-ecological systems to cope with, adapt to, and shape change is central to building sustainable and resilient development pathways in the face of climate change. The concept for social-ecological systems recognizes the interdependence of social and ecological factors in the generation and management of risk, as well as in the pursuit of sustainable development. Despite 20 years on the policy agenda, sustainable development remains contested and elusive. However, within the context of climate change, it is becoming increasingly clear that the sustainability of humans on the Earth is closely linked to resilient social-ecological systems, which is influenced by social institutions, human agency, and human capabilities.


Machine learning algorithms have achieved remarkable results and are widely applied in a variety of domains. These algorithms often rely on sensitive and private data such as medical and financial records. Therefore, it is vital to draw further attention regarding privacy threats and corresponding defensive techniques applied to machine learning models. In this paper, we present TenSEAL, an open-source library for Privacy-Preserving Machine Learning using Homomorphic Encryption that can be easily integrated within popular machine learning frameworks. We benchmark our implementation using MNIST and show that an encrypted convolutional neural network can be evaluated in less than a second, using less than half a megabyte of communication.


The knowledge of the complex anatomy of maxillary molars and location of extra canals are essential for diagnosis and endodontic treatment success. Objective: The purpose of this study was to report a clinical case showing a varying number of palatal roots in a second maxillary molar with the aid of operating microscope (OM). Case report: A four-rooted maxillary permanent second molar with 2 separated palatal canals undergone endodontic therapy. After endodontic access, examination of the chamber floor using an operating microscope revealed two distinct palatal canals orifices. A radiograph was taken after the working lengths of each canal were estimated by means of an electronic apex locator which clearly identified the four roots with independent four canals. The canals were instrumented with ProTaper™ rotatory instruments under irrigation with 5% sodium hypochlorite, obturated with Pulp Canal Sealer® and continue wave technique. After completion of root canal treatment, the tooth was restored with composite resin. Results: After endodontic access, the presence of two different palatal canals was found in a second maxillary molar, resulting from a variation in the number of palatal roots of this tooth. Conclusion: The high magnification and clear illumination quality provided by the dental operating microscope increase endodontic treatment success of the variations in the internal anatomy of the tooth.


The structure and stability of families have long stood as key predictors of juvenile delinquency. Boys from "broken homes" experience a higher prevalence of juvenile delinquency than those from intact families. Unresolved is whether the consequences of frequently disrupted family contexts endure to shape criminal trajectories into adulthood. Long-term influence may also be indirect. Life-course criminologists credit family formation during the transition to adulthood, and particularly marriage, for redirecting men's criminal trajectories, but children who experience repeated changes in family structure are more likely to experience precarious starts to their own eventual family formation. Using data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and its two child-centered supplemental studies (N = 1,127), we find that the experience of repeated family structure change is associated with higher rates of arrest and incarceration during early adulthood for White men but not for Black men. However, divergent patterns of own family formation among men in early adulthood do not mediate this association.


In 2007, Professor Eric K Yamamoto acknowledged that reparations theory and practice had reached a crossroads and called for a new strategic framework that reparations advocates could utilize in working to achieve redress for social and historical wrongs. This Article attempts to answer Yamamoto's call. In it, I situate my proposal for a truth commission to redress the post-9/11 torture program in a new Inclusive Model for Social Healing. In the past, reparations advocates have relied on litigation-a strategic model that excludes participants other than the named parties-to obtain redress. By increasing the number of stakeholders in a reparations scheme, the Inclusive Model for Social Healing has the potential to attract more widespread support from the public and is more resilient to criticism than exclusive litigation models. A truth commission that would provide some measure of redress for those who have suffered from the post-9/11 torture program is a critical testing ground for this new model, especially as judicial avenues for relief appear to have been blocked. The federal courts have consistently dismissed civil actions alleging torture and other brutal treatment brought by former detainees against government officials. Attorney General Eric Holder does not seem keen on pursuing charges against CIA agents operating under the Torture Memos, so recourse in criminal court appears to be likewise unavailable. Finally, despite concluding that the authors of the infamous Torture Memos had relied on flawed legal reasoning, the Office of Professional Responsibility's February 2010 report forecloses the possibility that John Yoo, Jay Bybee, and other Justice Department lawyers will be subject to disciplinary action for creating the torture program. The time to press for alternative forms of redress is now. I This slogan appears on fundraising t-shirts printed by the Los Angeles, California chapter of AnakBayan, an international youth-based political activism organization. See ANAKBAYAN Los ANGELES, http://anakbayanla.org/ (last visited Jan. 31, 2010). Assistant Professor of Law, The John Marshall Law School (JMLS), Chicago, Illinois. This Article is a product of JMLS's generous summer research stipend. I am grateful for the comments I received from my faculty colleagues when I presented an early version of this Article during the JMLS Faculty Works-inProgress series. Professor Eric K. Yamamoto, a valued mentor, and Professors Christina M. Sautter and Sharon G. Finegan provided thoughtful critique on early drafts, all of which ultimately improved the quality of this Article. Additional thanks go to my research assistants, Katie C. Galanes and Kristina McClure, the JMLS Library Research Fellows, and the student editors of the Northwestern Journal of Law and Social Policy. All errors are my own. HeinOnline -6 Nw. J. L. & Soc. Pol'y 1 2011 NORTHWESTERN JOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIAL POLICY The Inclusive Modelfor Social Healing is well-suited for the problem that currently faces the nation as it begins to confront the reality that in order to win the military battle against al-Qaeda and other Islamist terrorist groups, it must first win the ideological battle for hearts and minds. The narratology of Islamist terrorist organizations relies on a cosmology that separates actors into two categories-"us" or "them." While U.S. leadership has submitted to a similar world view in the past, it must reject exclusive categorizations like this. The Inclusive Model for Social Healing directly confronts the exclusive terrorist ideology and provides an alternative narrative of inclusion premised upon social healing.


In role based access control systems (RBAC) permissions are associated with roles, and users are made members of appropriate roles thereby acquiring the roles' permissions. This greatly simplifies management of permissions. Roles are created for the various job functions in an organization and users are assigned roles based on their responsibilities and qualifications. Users can be easily reassigned from one role to another. Roles can be granted new permissions as new applications and systems are incorporated, and permissions can be revoked from roles as needed. Role-role relationships can be established to lay out broad policy objectives. The principal motivation of RBAC is to simplify administration. In large organizations the number of roles can be in the hundreds or thousands, and users can be in the tens or hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions. To be effective, management and administration of RBAC in such systems need some form of decentralization and automation without loosing central control over broad policy. An appealing possibility is to use RBAC to manage itself. Our work looks at proposing models that would allow for decentralization and automation of user-role assignment.
In this dissertation we identify architectures and models for decentralized administration of user-role assignment. Our work is performed in context of the OM-AM layered models framework. OM-AM stands for objectives, models, architectures and mechanisms. OM layer addresses security requirements and trade offs, essentially it represents "what" needs to be achieved. AM layer articulates "how" to meet the specified requirements. In this dissertation we use the terms architecture and models as they relate to OM-AM framework. Initially we focus our work on user-role assignment in a centralized system. Then we concentrate our work on user-role relationship as it pertains to distributed systems. Finally we look at how self-service and automation can be achieved in user-role assignment.
We propose a model called URA97 for user-role assignment. This model provides the semantics for granting and revoking roles from users in a centralized system. URA97 achieves assignment and revocation of users to and from roles by means of simple and intuitive relations named can-assign and can-revoke. In URA97 grant and revoke operations are performed by administrators assigned to administrative roles.
We explore some of the possible architectures in a distributed environment. These depend on how the resources, data and users are distributed and how they interact in a distributed environment. We then develop a push-based model for user-role assignment, which deals with two operations assignment of users to roles and revocation of roles from users.
URA97 was developed in context of the RBAC96 model. URA97 was developed during early stages of RBAC96 when it was still an academic discipline, since then RBAC96 has received strong support from the research and practitioner communities and today is widely practiced as preferred form of access control. It is becoming clear that relying on manual intervention in all aspects of RBAC administration is cumbersome. Concurrently access control has started adopting emerging concepts like usage control, rate limits and accountability etc. To this effect we propose five founding principles for next-generation RBAC, summarized as ASCAA for Abstraction, Separation, Containment, Automation and Accountability.
Finally we develop a framework for self service based RBAC called SSRBAC08 based on ASCAA principles. The SSRBAC08 is a modified version of RBAC96 model. The primary goal of SSRBAC08 as it pertains to our dissertation work is to show how automation, containment and accountability aspects can be achieved in user-role assignment.


In the past few years secure messaging has become mainstream, with over a billion active users of end-to-end encryption protocols such as Signal. The Signal Protocol provides a strong property called post-compromise security to its users. However, it turns out that many of its implementations provide, without notification, a weaker property for group messaging: an adversary who compromises a single group member can read and inject messages indefinitely. We show for the first time that post-compromise security can be achieved in realistic, asynchronous group messaging systems. We present a design called Asynchronous Ratcheting Trees (ART), which uses tree-based Diffie-Hellman key exchange to allow a group of users to derive a shared symmetric key even if no two are ever online at the same time. ART scales to groups containing thousands of members, while still providing provable security guarantees. It has seen significant interest from industry, and forms the basis for two draft IETF RFCs and a chartered working group. Our results show that strong security guarantees for group messaging are practically achievable in a modern setting.


This ePublication contains a collection of eleven short Impact Investing case studies. The papers are researched and written by the participants of our Master's Level course on Impact Investing which took place in the Contextual Studies at the University of St. Gallen in the Spring Semester of 2015.

Investments aiming to generate a positive social and / or environmental impact as well as some financial return have become known as impact investments over recent years and have gained substantial momentum in both the finance and social entrepreneurship community. Impact investing can be viewed as occupying the space between traditional philanthropy and traditional investments. It differs from traditional investments, that aim to yield risk adjusted optimal returns, by introducing positive impact generation as a precondition to further considering an investment opportunity. On the other hand it differs from traditional philanthropic expenditure by having the expectation to generate some financial return.

In this course participants researched a suitable investment opportunity for an impact investor and then developed a structure for a fictitious investment. This investment structure was presented at length during the course and student teams also delivered short papers on their investment proposal which are compiled in this document.


Scholars have long speculated that commitments to human rights agreements are unlikely to have an effect on domestic policy because they do not contain a threat of external enforcement. Recent research has challenged that belief by suggesting that ratification of human rights agreements leads democracies to change their policies because international commitments change public support for reform. Although considerable progress has been made, the empirical research in support of that theory has not directly tested the primary causal mechanisms speculated to produce policy changes. Experimental methods present a promising way to do exactly that. To leverage that fact, I have embedded an experiment within a survey in the first effort to explore whether information on the status of international law changes public opinion on a purely domestic human rights issue: the practice of subjecting prisoners to solitary confinement. The results show that, although generic appeals to human rights do not influence public opinion, references to prior treaty commitments do. In other words, the results demonstrate the plausibility of theories of compliance with human rights agreements that are based on the idea that international obligations alter the political climate within democracies.


SUMMARY We monitored 100 artificial nests of four different designs to examine the occupancy and breeding success of predatory birds in nest site limited, steppe habitat of central Mongolia. Three species, upland buzzard Buteo hemilasius, common raven Corvus corax and saker falcon Falco cherrug, occupied artificial nests in all years and their number increased over the five-year study period, when the number of breeding predatory birds rose from 0 to 64 pairs in our 324 km 2 study area. The number of breeding pairs of saker falcons increased at a faster rate than ravens, reflecting their social dominance. Saker falcons and common ravens preferred to breed inside closed-box artificial nests with a roof, whereas upland buzzards preferred open-top nests. For saker falcons nest survival was higher in closed nests than open nests but there was no significant difference in laying date, clutch size and brood size in relation to nest design. This study demonstrates that whilst nest boxes can increase breeding populations in nest site limited habitats, nest design may also influence occupancy rates and breeding productivity of the species utilizing them. Careful consideration is needed in designing nests to maximize occupancy rates and productivity.


A consensus has emerged that the remarkable behavior of IT prices provides the key to the surge in US economic growth after 1995. The relentless decline in the prices of information technology equipment and software has steadily enhanced the role of IT investment. Productivity growth in IT-producing industries has risen in importance and a productivity revival is underway in the rest of the economy. The surge of IT investment in the United States after 1995 has counterparts in all other industrialized countries. It is essential to use comparable data and methodology in order to provide rigorous international comparisons. A crucial role is played by measurements of IT prices. The US national accounts have incorporated measures of IT prices that hold performance constant since 1985. Schreyer (2000) has extended these measures to other industrialized countries by constructing "internationally harmonized prices". The acceleration in the IT price decline in 1995 triggered a burst of IT investment in all of the G7 nations — Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the UK, as well as the US. These countries also experienced a rise in productivity growth in the IT-producing industries. However, differences in the relative importance of these industries have generated wide disparities in the impact of IT on economic growth. The role of the IT-producing industries is greatest in the US, which leads the G7 in output per capita.


Importance Health care services that support the hospital-to-home transition can improve outcomes in patients with heart failure (HF). Objective To test the effectiveness of the Patient-Centered Care Transitions in HF transitional care model in patients hospitalized for HF. Design, Setting, and Participants Stepped-wedge cluster randomized trial of 2494 adults hospitalized for HF across 10 hospitals in Ontario, Canada, from February 2015 to March 2016, with follow-up until November 2016. Interventions Hospitals were randomized to receive the intervention (n = 1104 patients), in which nurse-led self-care education, a structured hospital discharge summary, a family physician follow-up appointment less than 1 week after discharge, and, for high-risk patients, structured nurse homevisits and heart function clinic care were provided to patients, or usual care (n = 1390 patients), in which transitional care was left to the discretion of clinicians. Main Outcomes and Measures Primary outcomes were hierarchically ordered as composite all-cause readmission, emergency department (ED) visit, or death at 3 months; and composite all-cause readmission or ED visit at 30 days. Secondary outcomes were B-PREPARED score for discharge preparedness (range: 0 [most prepared] to 22 [least prepared]); the 3-Item Care Transitions Measure (CTM-3) for quality of transition (range: 0 [worst transition] to 100 [best transition]); the 5-level EQ-5D version (EQ-5D-5L) for quality of life (range: 0 [dead] to 1 [full health]); and quality-adjusted life-years (QALY; range: 0 [dead] to 0.5 [full health at 6 months]). Results Among eligible patients, all 2494 (mean age, 77.7 years; 1258 [50.4%] women) completed the trial. There was no significant difference between the intervention and usual care groups in the first primary composite outcome (545 [49.4%] vs 698 [50.2%] events, respectively; hazard ratio [HR], 0.99 [95% CI, 0.83-1.19]) or in the second primary composite outcome (304 [27.5%] vs 408 [29.3%] events, respectively; HR, 0.93 [95% CI, 0.73-1.18]). There were significant differences between the intervention and usual care groups in the secondary outcomes of mean B-PREPARED score at 6 weeks (16.6 vs 13.9; difference, 2.65 [95% CI, 1.37-3.92]; P < .001); mean CTM-3 score at 6 weeks (76.5 vs 70.3; difference, 6.16 [95% CI, 0.90-11.43]; P = .02); and mean EQ-5D-5L score at 6 weeks (0.7 vs 0.7; difference, 0.06 [95% CI, 0.01 to 0.11]; P = .02) and 6 months (0.7 vs 0.6; difference, 0.06 [95% CI, 0.01-0.12]; P = .02). There was no significant difference in mean QALY between groups at 6 months (0.3 vs 0.3; difference, 0.00 [95% CI, −0.02 to 0.02]; P = .98). Conclusions and Relevance Among patients with HF in Ontario, Canada, implementation of a patient-centered transitional care model compared with usual care did not improve a composite of clinical outcomes. Whether this type of intervention could be effective in other health care systems or locations would require further research. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02112227


Part of the role of the social worker in a medical setting should be to determine if a patient has reviewed his legal status concerning wills, insurance, and estate planning. If not, the worker should encourage the patient and his family to seek legal advice so that the patient can receive medical treatment free of legal and financial concerns.


This article thoroughly analyzes the theoretical evolution of Massimo Fagioli's work, published in the weekly magazine Left. This theoretical development was drawn up starting from the Conference celebrating the 40 years of cure, training and research carried out by Fagioli in the Collective Analysis. After establishing the distinction between discoveries and theoretical ideas, the author focuses on the process leading to the choice of words to write about human birth. This paper shows how Fagioli investigated the root and identity of these words in order to reveal about human origin and identity.


Following the success of Style Book: Fashionable Inspirations, this new volume offers a fresh take on the iconic patterns and prints that are renewed and recycled year after year, from the runways to street wear. Fashion editor Elizabeth Walker draws on eclectic influences from around the world: embroidered kimonos from Japan, batiks from Indonesia, paisley from India and France, animal prints, bold op-art geometrics in black and white, bright kangas from Kenya, Hawaiian print hibiscus, or bold splashes of color combining Schiaparelli pink with tangerine and turquoise. From Grace Jones in a zebra print jumpsuit to a flappers scalloped swimsuit, or from Marc Jacobs in a Mickey Mouse t-shirt to Nicolas Cage in a snakeskin jacket, you can take your cue to liven up the gray workday commute in a jewel-toned ikat print or a jaunty African tribal fabric. The striped mariners pullover that looked great on Picasso is still in style, and hounds-tooth checkered trousers will turn heads and add bounce to your stride. The images selected here featuring both celebrities and more proletariat fashionistas spotlight the striking prints and patterns that add panache to any look.


Abstract The Pliocene fossil porpoise SDSNH 65276 has extremely elongate mandibular morphology, unlike that of any marine amniote, and is superficially most similar to the living bird species known as skimmers (Rynchops sp.). Endocasts of the pterygoid sinuses and endocranial cavity were digitally segmented from high-resolution X-ray CT scans of the specimen to explore internal anatomy of functionally and phylogenetically important anatomical features of this specimen and odontocetes in general. The sinuses are similar in volume and shape to extant porpoise species, but the dorsal extension of the preorbital lobes are particularly elongate as in the harbor porpoise (Phocoena phocoena). The cranial endocast also shows similarities with extant porpoises, but has much deeper interhemispheric fissures, which are filled by ossified meninges, particularly a deep falx cerebri and shallower tentorium cerebelli. Ossifications of these parts of the meninges may reflect faster angular accelerations of the head, deeper diving ability, or both. Penetrations of the endocranial cavity for cranial nerves and blood vessels are like those of extant porpoises. The internal skull morphology of this unique delphinoid sheds additional light both on its phylogenetic affinities and novel odontocete adaptations.


Triangle counting is an important building block for finding key players in a graph. It is an integral part of the popular clustering coefficient analytic and can be used for pattern matching in social networks. A triangle, which is also a 3-clique, represents a strong connection between three players that are all connected. While counting triangles is not overly expensive from a computational standpoint, especially in comparison to centrality metrics (such as betweenness centrality and closeness centrality), it can still prove to be prohibitive for large scale networks, especially for those with a power-law distribution. This problem only deepens for dynamic graphs where the network is constantly changing, requiring constant updating of the graph and the analytic. In this paper, we present a new dynamic graph algorithm for counting triangles that is based on an inclusion-exclusion formulation. While our algorithm is independent of the computing platform, we show performance results on an NVIDIA GPU. Our approach handles 32 million updates per second, or up to 11 million updates per second if the graph data structure is also updated. In past approaches, when a vertex was affected due to an edge insertion or deletion, it was necessary to find the triangles from scratch for that given vertex. Our new formulation does not need this and only requires considering the affected edges. As such our algorithm is typically several hundred times faster than the past approach - in some cases up to 819X faster.


We explore some of the multiple relationships between two very active research fields in eLearning and Knowledge Management research: educational modeling languages and ontologies. Our previous research projects in the last 10 years have shown the central importance of the association between the learning activities and the knowledge and skills that they target. Studies on this relationship have led to the concept, we will present here, of a semantically referenced educational function grouping actors, operations and resources or learning objects. The referencing method proposed here is both qualitative (structured by an ontology) and quantitative, using a bi-dimensional skill/performance metric to situate the mastery level of knowledge associated to an actor, an operation or a resource in a multi-actor learning scenario.


Vegetables and fruits and all the drinks derived from them, are rich in phenolic compounds, which have been confirmed to exhibit positive effects on certain types of inflammatory disorders, coronary disease and cancers. In this study, the total phenolic contents of selected Iraqi date's and vinegars were evaluated and compared with other fermented fruits. The production of date vinegar was carried out by anaerobic conversion of date juice to ethanol using bakery yeast and aerobic oxidation of ethanol to acetic acid at 30°C by old vinegar. Total phenolics were determined colorimetrically by Folin-Ciocalteau reagent. The levels of sugars, ethanol and acetic acid in homemade and 21 commercially available vinegars were determined by refractometry, gas chromatography and titrimetry. The results indicated that: (i) Khistawi variety gave the highest phenolic content (475.5 mg GAE/100 g), followed by Khadrawi (411.6 mg GAE/100 g), Sultani (371.6 mg GAE/100 g), Zahdi (335.6 mg GAE/100 g), Maktoom (331.6 mg GAE/100 g) and Ashursi (315.6 mg GAE/100 g) and (ii) the total phenol content of khistawi date's vinegar (1453 mg GAE/L) was very high compared with other fermented fruits. Accordingly, Iraqi date palm and its vinegar could be considered as a potential source of antioxidant. These natural compounds can be used in food industry as a source of bioactive human health promoters.


The revolutions sweeping the Middle East provide dramatic evidence of the role that technology plays in mobilizing citizen protest and upending seemingly invulnerable authoritarian regimes. A grainy cell phone video of a Tunisian street vendor's self-immolation helped spark the massive protests that toppled longtime ruler Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, and Egypt's "Facebook revolution" forced the ruling regime out of power and into exile. While such "Liberation Technology" has been instrumental in freeing Egypt and Tunisia, other cases - such as China and Iran - demonstrate that it can be deployed just as effectively by authoritarian regimes seeking to control the Internet, stifle protest, and target dissenters. This two-sided dynamic has set off an intense technological race between "netizens" demanding freedom and authoritarians determined to retain their grip on power. "Liberation Technology" brings together cutting-edge scholarship from scholars and practitioners at the forefront of this burgeoning field of study. An introductory section defines the debate with a foundational piece on liberation technology and is then followed by essays discussing the popular dichotomy of "liberation" versus "control" with regard to the Internet and the sociopolitical dimensions of such controls. Additional chapters delve into the cases of individual countries: China, Egypt, Iran, and Tunisia. This book also includes in-depth analysis of specific technologies such as Ushahidi - a platform developed to document human-rights abuses in the wake of Kenya's 2007 elections-and alkasir - a tool that has been used widely throughout the Middle East to circumvent cyber-censorship. "Liberation Technology" will prove an essential resource for all students seeking to understand the intersection of information and communications technology and the global struggle for democracy. Contributors: Walid Al-Saqaf, Daniel Calingaert, Ronald Deibert, Larry Diamond, Elham Gheytanchi, Philip N. Howard, Muzammil M. Hussain, Rebecca MacKinnon, Patrick Meier, Evgeny Morozov, Xiao Qiang, Rafal Rohozinski and Mehdi Yahyanejad.


Supreme Court scholars have long discussed and debated the dramatic shift in constitutional decision-making that took place in the late 1930s - shift that led the Justices to presume the constitutionality of any and all commercial statutes no matter how "preposterous" they might seem. The conventional wisdom holds that the Supreme Court altered its decision-making calculus to avoid the consequences of President Roosevelt's "court-packing plan," but various other explanations have also emerged in the literature over time. In this Article, Professor Staudt and Ms. He investigate an explanation that scholars and commentators have largely ignored: the role of the economy itself. Staudt and He begin their analysis by noting that rational Justices are likely to consider the state of the economy when deciding cases and controversies, and then go on to observe that the rhetoric and dicta found in the published opinions support this theoretical perspective. To make their point, Staudt and He undertake a qualitative investigation of a handful of well-known cases decided in the early decades of the twentieth century and highlight the Justices' systematic desire to promote national economic prosperity (albeit from widely differing perspectives). The authors argue that while politics and doctrine may have played a role in the famous "shift in time that saved nine," the economy is also a factor that played an important role in the observed changes in judicial behavior. Staudt and He conclude that while economic rhetoric has largely disappeared from judicial opinions and the Court now presumes the constitutionality of economic statutes, it is more than likely that the Justices continue to advance their economic preferences through the process of statutory interpretation.


In this paper presented the prototype of robotic leg has been designed, constructed and controlled. These prototype are designed from a geometric of human leg model with three joints moving in 2D plane. Robot has three degree of freedom using DC servo motor as a joint actuators: hip, knee and ankle. The mechanical leg constructed using aluminum alloy and acrylic material. The control movement of this system is based on motion capture data stored on a personal computer. The motions are recorded with a camera by use of a marker-based to track movement of human leg. Propose of this paper is design of robotic leg to present the analysis of motion of the human leg swing and to testing the system ability to create the movement from motion capture. The results of this study show that the design of robotic leg was capable for practical use of the human leg motion analysis. The accuracy of orientation angles of joints shows the average error on hip is 1.46o, knee is 1.66o, and ankle is 0.46o. In this research suggesting that the construction of mechanic is an important role in the stabilization of the movement sequence.


Housing has always been the most important thing is human life. Having a safe, secure and comfortable shelter is one of the long-term desires of every human being, but this need is also related to other human needs. On the other hand, today this reality is added to other realities that every phenomenon at any moment is a manifestation of the constant analysis and combination of variables that have regular, continuous, and multiplicative correlations; therefore, in investigating the phenomenon of housing, what is important is the relation and influence of its various aspects. The purpose of this study was to investigate the regional indexes affecting housing in Ilam province using TOPSIS technique. The research method is descriptive-analytical and development-applied, and GIS, GRAFER and EXCEL software have been used. The results of the study showed that the density index in the residential unit in the Ilam province between 1996 and 2006, except in 1997 and 1998, has slightly increased, the trend has improved since 1999and has approached the ideal . The average number of households in the residential unit showed that the construction of residential units in the province had been increasing but could not fully compensate for housing shortages. In contrast, the average household in the residential unit in the province had an upward trend. Finally, the TOPSIS model showed that CL was the highest and lowest in the following areas Ilam (0.99), Dehloran (0.13), Ivan (0.09), Mehran (0.08), Abdanan (0.05), Darreshahr (0.04) and Shirvan (0.00).


Sub-Doppler lines of Cs2 were investigated with a Nd:YAG laser. Modulation transfer spectroscopy and FM spectroscopy were applied to yield error signals that were used for absolute stabilization of the laser frequency. The frequency stability was characterized with an I2-locked dual-wavelength Nd:YAG frequency reference. The root Allan variance of the beat frequency reached a minimum of 1.3 × 10−11 (beat frequency fluctuations of 3.65 kHz) for a measurement time of 20 s. Absolute frequencies of several Cs2 lines were determined with an accuracy of ∼1 MHz. Further improvement in sensitivity was demonstrated by insertion of the absorption cell into a Fabry–Perot cavity. While the laser was locked to the cavity, the cavity length was modulated and the transmitted probe beam was detected at the third harmonic of the modulation frequency.


Enterprise systems supporting business processes in large companies and organizations, are critical for their business survival, and expensive to build and run. In this special issue we have collected several papers which describe successful approaches to designing, and tuning for performance, large enterprise systems. In contrast to earlier mainframes, the modern distributed systems contain large numbers of components and simple capacity planning methods, applicable to mainframes, cannot be used for design or tuning of complex distributed systems. Methods that have proven to be successful are based on building predictive models that take into account key characteristics of hardware, software, data and communications. The first paper by V. Kotov provides a good introduction to enterprise system issues and sets the stage for discussing various solution techniques. The paper has a section on e-commerce and e-services which require end-to-end performance among other important requirements. The author introduces the concept of  System of Systems  and offers an approach for optimizing and analyzing  System of Systems  by using communicating structures, a hierarchical distributed structure that represents the system components and communications between them. A brief description of business enterprise systems and related implementation issues is contained in the second paper by Aries, et al. The authors report their favorable experience with simulation modeling and related tools. They also emphasize the importance of workload characterization and data required for building accurate predictive simulation models. The next contribution (by Brittan et. al.) is a ground breaking approach to designing distributed systems that involves the simulated annealing method for solving combinatorial optimization problems that represent mathematical formulations for the design of large distributed systems. A paper by C. U. Smith and L. G. Williams advocates a Software Performance Engineering (SPE) method for constructing distributed systems. SPE is a method for constructing software systems to meet performance and scalability objectives. The paper illustrates the construction of simple performance and scalability models for distributed systems. It also describes a modeling tool called SPEi?½ED. The authors point out that most performance failures are due to a lack of performance consideration in the early stages of distributed software architecture. An important enterprise system design issue is determining capacity of system servers. The paper by Nezlek deals with this problem. It offers an approach to estimating server capacities and an application to a real life case. Distributed system server capacity estimation is a key operation required for purchasing specific hardware which is the last step in system design or re-engineering. In the last paper M. Nagasawa et al. propose a design tool called WISE which combines simulation modeling with genetic algorithm for solving discrete optimization problems. This is a very tempting idea which naturally fits the objectives of distributed system design. The challenge is to restrict its use to cases which are computationally realistic. The approach if not applied carefully could easily result in prohibitive amounts of computing. Guest Editor Janusz Kowalik


We consider the wave equation in a boundary integral formulation. The discretization in time is done by using convolution quadrature techniques and a Galerkin boundary element method for the spatial discretization. In a previous paper, we have introduced a sparse approximation of the system matrix by cutoff, in order to reduce the storage costs. In this paper, we extend this approach by introducing a panel clustering method to further reduce these costs.


The quality of the employment relationship is argued to be central to knowledge workers' commitment, which in turn supports knowledge creation. Given the high levels of discretion enjoyed by knowledge workers, managers' decisions over work distribution, content and resources become more critical for commitment and knowledge creation. However, little research has explored how justice perceptions shape the quality of the employment relationship and the consequences for commitment. Using a sample of 429 R&D workers from across six science and technology-based firms this paper explores the three-way interaction of procedural and interactional justice with the psychological contract to predict knowledge worker commitment. We found that when employees simultaneously perceived high levels of procedural and interactional justice this moderated the relationship between psychological contract breach and knowledge worker commitment. Furthermore, where there was contract breach, positive perceptions of procedural justice moderated the relationship with commitment. However, in the context of contract fulfilment, low perceived levels of interactional justice predicted lower comparative levels of commitment, regardless of the level of procedural justice. The results suggest that the perceived quality of the relationship between knowledge workers and their manager can make a positive difference in the context of breach of the psychological contract and this in turn can help maintain levels of commitment important for knowledge creation.


We propose a weakly-supervised model for word-level mispronunciation detection in non-native (L2) English speech. To train this model, phonetically transcribed L2 speech is not required and we only need to mark mispronounced words. The lack of phonetic transcriptions for L2 speech means that the model has to learn only from a weak signal of word-level mispronunciations. Because of that and due to the limited amount of mispronounced L2 speech, the model is more likely to overfit. To limit this risk, we train it in a multi-task setup. In the first task, we estimate the probabilities of word-level mispronunciation. For the second task, we use a phoneme recognizer trained on phonetically transcribed L1 speech that is easily accessible and can be automatically annotated. Compared to state-of-the-art approaches, we improve the accuracy of detecting word-level pronunciation errors in AUC metric by 30% on the GUT Isle Corpus of L2 Polish speakers, and by 21.5% on the Isle Corpus of L2 German and Italian speakers.


Several important problems in control theory can be reformulated as semidefinite programming problems, i.e., minimization of a linear objective subject to linear matrix inequality (LMI) constraints. From convex optimization duality theory, conditions for infeasibility of the LMIs, as well as dual optimization problems, can be formulated. These can in turn be reinterpreted in control or system theoretic terms, often yielding new results or new proofs for existing results from control theory. We explore such connections for a few problems associated with linear time-invariant systems.


Since 1985 the Corps of Engineers has reviewed Section 404 permit requests in regard to hydrology and hydraulic impacts of developments in the mainstem floodplains of the Trinity River in the Fort Worth-Dallas Metroplex. A Regional Environmental Impact Study with multiple alternative mainstem floodplain development scenarios indicated very significant negative cumulative impacts on downstream land uses. Development of a significant part of the mainstem floodplain can occur without a Corps permit but does require approval of local governments. Local political entities are considering implementing a permit process in cooperation with the Corps for the entire mainstem floodplain.


It is well established that trait anxious individuals have an attentional bias for threatening information and stimuli, as demonstrated through both the dot probe and cueing paradigms. In recent efforts to reduce attentional biases and minimize anxiety symptomatology, variations of the dot probe task have been used to train attention away from threat. However, under this paradigm, it is uncertain what the underlying mechanism for attentional bias is. Is anxiety being perpetuated by a shift in attention to threat or does it result from one's inhibited ability to disengage from threat once it is attended to? The purpose of the present study was to train attention away from threat using a cueing task, thus isolating attentional biases to difficulties in disengaging from threat. The goal of this task was to train attention by manipulating the contingency between the location of a target and a threatening or affectively neutral pictorial cue. Eighty-nine trait anxious college students participated in this study. It was hypothesized that participants in training groups would be able to disengage from threat faster and subsequently show a greater decrease in state anxiety when compared to controls. However, the data failed to support the primary hypotheses of this study. Interestingly, none of the groups showed an attentional threat bias at pretest, which makes it difficult to evaluate the efficacy of the training task. Future research should continue to focus on developing alternative training techniques that can target the mechanism(s) responsible for attentional biases in anxious individuals.


This important contribution to the literature on university relations with the wider community explains and describes best practice for a new model of working characterised by mutuality, reciprocity, shared risk and genuine exchange. All the chapters are co-written by community partners and researchers, giving unique perspectives into the problems and rewards of partnership. It advises on ways to generate relevant knowledge and apply scholarship to practice, and deals with universities' role in relation to business and to community organisations. Loaded with theoretical and practical insights, this is a good practice guide and a community practitioner text. 'Required reading for anyone who is interested in participating in, or learning about, a true community-university partnership...' (Michaela Hynie, York University, Toronto).


Photo and video technology has become increasingly useful in the study of avian nesting ecology. However, researchers interested in using camera systems are often faced with insufficient information on the types and relative advantages of available technologies. We reviewed the literature for studies of nests that used cameras and summarized them based on study objective and the type of technology used. We also designed and tested two video systems that we used for three nest predator and behavioral studies. We found 327 studies that recorded 255 bird species spanning 19 orders. Cameras were most commonly used to study nest predators (n 114), feeding ecology (n 103), and adult behavior (n 81). Most systems (69%) were partially or completely user-built. Systems that recorded in real time ( 25 frames per second), time-lapse ( 25 fps), and still images were all common, though their use tended to vary by study objective. Using the time-lapse digital video recording systems we designed, we monitored 184 nests of 15 different species. We generally found these low-cost systems (US$350–725 per unit) to be reliable. Sources of data loss were variable by study but included digital recorder malfunction, power failure, and video cable damage due to rodents. Our review of the literature and our own experiences suggest that researchers carefully consider their objectives and study systems when choosing camera technology. To facilitate selection of the appropriate system, we describe general video system design and offer recommendations for researchers based on commercially available system components.


This paper explores the significance of engaging with the lived experiences of disabled people in countries like Burkina Faso in order to implement long-lasting and beneficial development. It looks at the way disability was conceived of in pre-colonial times and how knowledge imported from the colonisers conflicted with, and continues to influence today, indigenous knowledge in Burkina Faso. Although Burkina Faso obtained its independence from European colonisers over fifty years ago, disability as a terrain for intervention continues to be colonised by international non-governmental organisations (INGOs) that frame their approaches in western models, which are not necessarily applicable in countries like Burkina Faso. In a context where the predominant view of disability is that of disabled people being an economic burden, many disabled people in Burkina Faso feel the need to prove themselves as economically independent; and yet development agencies often do not engage with disabled people's voices when designing and implementing development programmes. This paper argues that there is a need to engage with disabled people's lived experiences and knowledges through processes such as participatory video which create spaces where marginalised people's voices can be heard and listened to by the development agencies that influence disabled people's lives.


For half of the twentieth century, the Cold War gripped the world. International relations everywhere-and domestic policy in scores of nations-pivoted around this central point, the American-Soviet rivalry. Even today, much of the world's diplomacy grapples with chaos created by the Cold War's sudden disappearance. Here indeed is a subject that defies easy understanding. Now comes a definitive account, a startlingly fresh, clear eyed, comprehensive history of our century's longest struggle. In The Cold War, Ronald E. Powaski offers a new perspective on the great rivalry, even as he provides a coherent, concise narrative. He wastes no time in challenging the reader to think of the Cold War in new ways, arguing that the roots of the conflict are centuries old, going back to Czarist Russia and to the very infancy of the American nation. He shows that both Russia and America were expansionist nations with messianic complexes, and the people of both nations believed they possessed a unique mission in history. Except for a brief interval in 1917, Americans perceived the Russian government (whether Czarist or Bolshevik) as despotic; Russians saw the United States as conspiring to prevent it from reaching its place in the sun. U.S. military intervention in Russia's civil war, with the aim of overthrowing Lenin's upstart regime, entrenched Moscow's fears. Soviet American relations, difficult before World War II-when both nations were relatively weak militarily and isolated from world affairs-escalated dramatically after both nations emerged as the world's major military powers. Powaski paints a portrait of the spiraling tensions with stark clarity, as each new development added to the rivalry: the Marshall Plan, the communist coup in Czechoslovakia, the Berlin blockade, the formation of NATO, the first Soviet nuclear test. In this atmosphere, Truman found it easy to believe that the Communist victory in China and the Korean War were products of Soviet expansionism. He and his successors extended their own web of mutual defense treaties, covert actions, and military interventions across the globe-from the Caribbean to the Middle East and, finally to Southeast Asia, where containment famously foundered in the bog of Vietnam. Powaski skillfully highlights the domestic politics, diplomatic maneuvers, and even psychological factors as he untangles the knot that bound the two superpowers together in conflict. From the nuclear arms race, to the impact of U.S. recognition of China on detente, to Brezhnev's inflexible persistence in competing with America everywhere, he casts new light on familiar topics. Always judicious in his assessments, Powaski gives due credit to Reagan and especially Bush in facilitating the Soviet collapse, but also notes that internal economic failure, not outside pressure, proved decisive in the Communist failure. Perhaps most important, he offers a clear eyed assessment of the lasting distortions the struggle wrought upon American institutions, raising questions about whether anyone really won the Cold War. With clarity, fairness, and insight, he offers the definitive account of our century's longest international rivalry.


A Thesis submitted to the Department of Civil Engineering for the Degree of Master of Engineering in Structural Engineering Design. CD ROM included


The pathology of hematomyelia was examined in 35 rats following the stereotactic injection of 2 microliters blood into the dorsal columns of the thoracic spinal cord. This experimental model produced a small ball-hemorrhage without associated neurological deficits or significant tissue injury. Histological sections of the whole spinal cord were studied at intervals ranging from 2 hours to 4 months after injection. In acute experiments (2 to 6 hours postinjection), blood was sometimes seen within the lumen of the central canal extending rostrally to the level of the fourth ventricle. Between 24 hours and 3 days, the parenchymal hematoma became consolidated and there was an intense proliferation of microglial cells at the perimeter of the lesion. The cells invaded the hematoma, infiltrated its core, and removed erythrocytes by phagocytosis. Rostral to the lesion, the lumen of the central canal was found to contain varying amounts of fibrin, proteinaceous material, and cellular debris for up to 15 days. These findings were much less prominent in the segments of the canal caudal to the lesion. Healing of the parenchymal hematoma was usually complete within 4 to 6 weeks except for residual hemosiderin-laden microglial cells and focal gliosis at the lesion site. It is concluded that the clearance of atraumatic hematomyelia probably involves two primary mechanisms: 1) phagocytosis of the focal hemorrhage by microglial cells; and 2) drainage of blood products in a rostral direction through the central canal of the spinal cord.


The purpose of this research was to provide a theoretical analysis of the dynamic relationship between volunteering and personal mental health recovery. There is a gap in the literature investigating the current situation in which a substantial number of service users with enduring mental health problems remain excluded from any mainstream paid work and are unable to fulfil a role linked to work activities. This situation is informed by debates about the concept of recovery, such as what constitutes the quality of that recovery. How volunteering contributes to this process of recovery was the focus of this study.A constructivist approach to grounded theory was used to explore the impact that volunteering had on personal recovery. The research took place in England and comprised two distinct phases utilising in-depth interviews with a total of 19 volunteers. Methods consistent with grounded theory were employed. The first phase generated categories that were further explored and developed in phase 2 with the aim of theoretical saturation. Three main categories: finding meaning and challenge through volunteering; crossing boundaries from patient to volunteer and finding the right sort of work supported a substantive theory Emerging as a worker through volunteering. This proposes that volunteering when supported can enhance recovery because it fosters positive risk taking and validates a valued identity that integrates an experience of mental ill health. Volunteering provides authentic work experience, a socially valued role and it confirms capability and readiness as a worker. The findings of the study suggest that mental health professionals are in a unique position to build partnerships with service users to support their recovery and vocational aspirations by providing opportunities for volunteering. A framework for supporting volunteering is essential although different models warrant further investigation.The study has generated a new theoretical understanding of the experience of volunteering for mental health service users in relation to their recovery.


Machine learning models are notoriously difficult to interpret and debug. This is particularly true of neural networks. In this work, we introduce automated software testing techniques for neural networks that are well-suited to discovering errors which occur only for rare inputs. Specifically, we develop coverage-guided fuzzing (CGF) methods for neural networks. In CGF, random mutations of inputs to a neural network are guided by a coverage metric toward the goal of satisfying user-specified constraints. We describe how fast approximate nearest neighbor algorithms can provide this coverage metric. We then discuss the application of CGF to the following goals: finding numerical errors in trained neural networks, generating disagreements between neural networks and quantized versions of those networks, and surfacing undesirable behavior in character level language models. Finally, we release an open source library called TensorFuzz that implements the described techniques.


In recent years there has been an increasing interest in power generation using small-scale concentrated solar power units. Currently, photovoltaics are the main commercialised technology thanks to their low capital cost. However, their relatively low efficiency and power density has motivated research on the application of thermal engines. Dish-Stirling systems achieve reasonable efficiencies, but are relatively expensive and unreliable because of their technical complexity. The reliability of micro gas turbines and their potentially lower costs has motivated the current research, which is part of the EU funded OMSoP project, to study the thermo-economic performance of a micro gas turbine (MGT) engine coupled with dish concentrators in order to achieve suitable efficiency at low cost. To achieve this goal a system design, which takes into account the state of the art technology, is required to achieve an acceptable efficiency with minimised capital cost to promote dish-MGT systems in the market. An important issue to be addressed is to consider the effect of system design parameters on dish-MGT performance under the considerable variations of the solar irradiance.

A computational model for pure solar dish-MGT systems has been developed, which combines the cycle analysis of the MGT with component models to perform design point performance simulation, generate component performance maps and perform off-design performance simulation. The method has been proven to be quick and effective, particularly in terms of using minimal data and providing the component performance maps for off-design simulation. Different strategies which can be applied to pure solar dish-MGT systems are examined and novel concepts have been proposed to increase the generated electricity.

The computational model has been coupled with an up to date economic model which was specifically developed through the OMSoP project for dish-MGT systems. The integrated model is coupled to an optimisation platform to find system designs which lead to optimal thermo-economic performance for a 5kWe system. Then the optimisation has been extended over the rated power of 5-30kWe to find the power rating which results in the minimum cost of generated electricity by the dish-MGT systems.

The proposed concepts for the control and operation of the dish-MGT systems are shown to be advantageous for increasing electricity production and dealing with the variations of power demand. The results demonstrate the potential of pure solar dish-MGT systems to achieve economically competitive electricity when the economy of scale of these systems is taken into account.


PURPOSE
Determine if a uniform planning target volume (PTV) margin can be used for intensity modulated proton therapy (IMPT) of centrally located pediatric brain tumors and determine the most appropriate value.

METHODS
Treatment planning data from three pediatric patients with centrally located brain tumors were used in this study. For each patient, two IMPT plan types, a 3 field multi-field-optimized (MFO) and a 3 field single-field-optimized (SFO), and a 5 field IMRT plan were created for 7 uniform PTV margins that ranged from 0 to 10mm. The IMPT plans did not use robust optimization. For all plan types, the target coverage was held constant (98% of CTV received 54Gy and 95% of PTV received >53Gy) and normal tissue doses were minimized. Four error types, each with numerous variations, were simulated and their effect were recorded. The four error types were: systematic plan position error, systematic field position error, systematic range error, and random position error.

RESULTS
Regarding normal tissues, there was no notable difference between MFO and SFO, both were substantially better than IMRT, e.g. mean cochlea dose was 14Gy for IMRT with 3mm margin and 5Gy for the IMPT plans. In general, smaller margins gave better normal tissue sparring. For both IMPT plan types and IMRT, PTV margins less than 3mm lead to target coverage deficits under the various errors. For position errors, the IMPT and IMRT plans gave similar results as a function of margin size. For density and systematic field errors, the SFO plans maintained target coverage better than MFO.

CONCLUSIONS
A uniform PTV margin is not suitable for MFO planning. However, a uniform PTV margin of 3mm is appropriate for SFO planning when considering the above uncertainties (excluding large errors). At 3mm, which is also required for IMRT, the SFO plans had superior normal tissue sparing. Varian Medical Systems.


Although mature black spruce forests are a dominant cover type in the boreal forest of North America, it is not clear how their carbon (C) budgets vary across the continent. The installation of an eddy covariance flux tower on an Old Black Spruce (OBS) site in eastern Canada (EOBS, Québec) provided a first opportunity to compare and contrast its annual (2004) and seasonal C exchange with two other pre‐existing OBS flux sites from different climatic regions located in Saskatchewan [Southern OBS (SOBS)] and Manitoba [Northern OBS (NOBS)]. Although there was a relatively uniform seasonal pattern of net ecosystem productivity (NEP) among sites, EOBS had a lower total annual NEP than the other two sites. This was primarily because warmer soil under a thicker snowpack at EOBS appeared to increase winter C losses and low light suppressed both NEP and gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) in June. Across sites, greater total annual GEP and ecosystem respiration (R) were associated with greater mean annual air temperatures and an earlier beginning of the growing season. Also, GEP at all three sites showed a stronger relationship with air temperature in spring and early summer compared with later in the growing season, highlighting the importance of springtime conditions to the C budget of these boreal ecosystems. The three sites had different parameter estimates describing the responses of R and GEP at the half hour time scale to near surface temperature and light, respectively. On the other hand, the responses of both R and GEP to temperature at the monthly scale did not differ among sites. These results suggest that a general parameterization could be sufficient at coarse time resolutions to model the response of C exchange to environmental factors of mature black spruce forests from different climatic regions.


In Web search ranking, the expected results for some queries could vary greatly depending upon location of the user. We name such queries regional sensitive queries. Identifying regional sensitivity of queries is important to meet users' needs. The objective of this work is to identify whether a user expects only regional results for a query. We present three novel features generated from search logs and build a meta query classifier to identify regional sensitive query. Experimental results show that the proposed method achieves high accuracy in identifying regional sensitive queries.


On January 19, 1993, approximately forty people from EDRC and its affiliates participated in a workshop on the role of software in disseminating new engineering design methods. Several case studies of method dissemination involving software were presented and analyzed. This report summarizes the workshop talks and discussions, which revealed several "myths" regarding software technology transfer and strongly supported a model in which people, rather than disembodied software systems, are seen as the primary agents for technology transition. However, lest the role of software itself in technology transition be completely overshadowed, the report concludes with some reflection on the potential for improving the quality and usability of research software systems (in contexts where this is a desirable goal). The workshop suggests that an important step in this direction is better calibrating the expectations and incentives of the academic and industrial players in the technology transition partnership.


Dynamic and static characteristics of high-speed 1.55- and 1-/spl mu/m wavelength tunneling injection quantum-well lasers and 1-/spl mu/m wavelength self-organized quantum-dot lasers, have been measured as a function of temperature. While differential gain of the quantum-well lasers greatly increased with lowering of temperature (by a factor of 50), gain compression increased along with it, resulting in about the same intrinsic damping limit (K-factor) over a wide range of temperatures and only moderate increases in bandwidth (20-35 GHz). This suggests that increase in differential gain alone is not sufficient to improve modulation characteristics directly. Because of the mechanism of gain compression, lasers which are damping limited may not see a large improvement in modulation bandwidth simply by operating at lower temperature. In contrast, the modulation bandwidth of the quantum-dot lasers increased from 5-6 GHz at room temperature to larger than 20 GHz at 90 K. This behavior is explained by considering electron-hole scattering as the dominant mechanism-for electron capture in quantum-dots. The measured temperature dependence of the K-factor is analyzed with consideration of electron-hole scattering, and the value extracted for the electron intersubband spacing from this analysis, 60 meV, agrees with the theoretically calculated value of 56 meV.


Spectrum sensing is a cornerstone task in cognitive radio environments supporting dynamic spectrum access by spectrum opportunities discovery. It must be reliable and accurate in order not to harm the primary system by incorrect spectrum opportunities decisions. Mid-end spectrum sensing devices are spectrum sensing devices with satisfactory signal detection performances and reasonable price. This paper presents an efficient and flexible mid-end spectrum sensing solution (an USRP2 based spectrum sniffer implementation) that offers many sensing functionalities and detection capabilities by implementing several sensing modes of operation and detector types. Additionally, the paper presents several usage possibilities of this USRP2 spectrum sniffer implementation proving its efficient employment in various spectrum sensing applications. Keywordsspectrum sensing, cognitive radio, USRP2 based sniffer implementation, detector, operation mode.


Golf has a long history at the Supreme Court, not only as a sometimes illuminating, sometimes entertaining interest of some personalities at the Court, but also as both a factor in and a reflection of the evolving work and culture of the place (and of the nation it serves). This article revisits a few early developments involving the first golfer on the Court (Justice James Wilson), the first golf enthusiast (the first Justice John Marshall Harlan), and the first golfing majority (October Term 1906).


A brilliant scholar of American, women's, and African American literature, Claudia Tate (1946-2002) succumbed to small cell lung cancer in Fair Haven, New Jersey, on 29 July 2002. She was fifty-five years old and in the midst of a new research project. Claudia Tate always exceeded the normative "protocols," as she termed them, of literature, scholarship, and race. Against prevailing assumptions that prized only writing in the political protest vein, she insisted that the work of nineteenth- and twentieth-century black women writers was important and fully worthy of the sustained, thoughtful, Freudian criticism she provided. Tate's iconoclasm immeasurably enriched criticism of African American authors, especially, but not exclusively women. Tate's legacies are several: to her scholarly field, a far more capacious literary criticism; to her students and colleagues, friendship and professional advancement; to her family and friends, an unforgettable personality and the warmth of permanent commitment. Claudia Tate was born in Long Branch, on the New Jersey shore, on 14 December 1946. Her parents, an engineer and a mathematician, had received their degrees from North Carolina Central University in Durham. They came to Fort Monmouth, New Jersey, during World War II, where Harold Tate served as an engineer in the Army and Mary Austin Tate was a mathematician at the U.S. Department of Defense. Harold and Mary Austin Tate endowed their children with a love of higher learning as well as a tie to the South. Throughout Claudia's life, her mother continued in mathematics, and her parents maintained homes in both New Jersey and North Carolina. Claudia Tate pre-deceased her parents. Harold and Mary Austin Tate's intellectual self-assurance surely encouraged Claudia's original, fearless thought and scholarly excellence, which showed from the very beginning. Claudia was an honor student at Rumson-Fair Haven Regional High School and went directly to college. In 1968 she received her bachelor's degree in English and American Literature from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. As one of a small handful of black women entering the graduate program in the Harvard English Department in 1969, she joined a pioneering cohort of scholars at Harvard who laid the groundwork for the field of African American studies. In English they included Nellie Y. McKay, Amold Rampersad, Cheryl Wall. Tate received a Ph.D. in English and American literature and language from Harvard University in 1977. She taught in Howard University's English Department for twelve years before joining George Washington University in 1989. She had been a professor at Princeton since January 1997. Claudia Tate realized early on that her class background surprised many Americans, who assumed that all African Americans come from poor families lacking formal education. Her middle-class origins may well have influenced her scholarly interest in black cultural production beyond the predictable. She was known for the power of her unexpected approaches to black literature. Venturing off beaten paths of scholarship, she turned a piercing gaze on non-canonical writers and themes. The persuasive employment of a methodology rarely encountered in African American literary criticism became the hallmark of her thought. From the very beginning of her scholarly career, Claudia Tate thought in innovative ways. Her first book took seriously the work of black women writers at a time when such writers had not yet received sustained scholarly attention. Her mid-career work specialized in psychoanalytic literary criticism and cultural studies. In addition, she had retrained herself in visual criticism and film studies for the book she was working on at the time of her death. At every point, she questioned the verities of American and African American literary criticism. She transcended what she called the "racial protocols" that made black women's thought invisible and decreed political struggle against whiteness the only theme worth investigation. …