Abstract Among the philosophies and initiatives for a renaissance in quality across the business and public sectors, Total Quality Management (TQM) and the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award have been outstanding in terms of their design and appeal. The objective of this paper is to discuss the concepts of TQM and the Baldrige Award criteria, explicating their applicability and the value of combining the two for the benefit of banks and other financial institutions. We delineate the areas of potential benefit for an institution adopting TQM and seriously pursuing the Baldrige Award, or at least setting into motion a process of change as per the Baldrige guidelines. The benefits to such institutions include economic benefits, improved compliance with legal and ethical guidelines, and improved training and retention of employees and reputational benefits. To demonstrate the value of our thesis, we discuss the case of Los Alamos National Bank, the only bank to have won the Baldrige Award. Introduction Over the past thirty years, the role of quality as an all-encompassing organizational value and an important antecedent of organizational performance has been increasingly stressed. With the recognition of serious quality deficits in American organizational performance, especially in comparison with the Japanese, prognostications were made of dire consequences of the neglect of quality for American competitiveness. Thought leaders in industry, academe and government called for nothing short of a renaissance in quality in America. Consequently, the recognition of quality as a vital need led to the rise of quality management (Lee, Zuckweiler and Trim, 2006) The early 1980s witnessed the emergence of a number of streams of research and writing intended to support, inspire and help direct this renaissance. Prominent among these streams of thought and practice was Total Quality Management (TQM). The idea of TQM has not only survived as a viable approach to improving quality in organizations, but has also spawned a substantial body of research and practice. One especially significant quality initiative that grew out of the TQM movement was the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award (MBNQA), instituted and sponsored by the United States Department of Commerce and presently administered by the National Institute for Standards and Technology. The objective of this paper is to identify the applicability and role of TQM in the banking and financial services industry, and to delineate the potential benefits of aspiring for the MBNQA. We begin with a discussion of TQM concepts and MBNQA Award criteria, followed by a discussion of the applicability and value of combining TQM efforts with the MBNQA criteria. To demonstrate the value of our thesis, we discuss the case of Los Alamos National Bank, the only bank to have won the Baldrige Award. The TQM Approach The philosophical roots of TQM are generally attributed to Edward De m ing' s 14 points and Carl Juran's 10 steps. Nomenclature and semantics may vary, but TQM can broadly be defined as "a philosophy, a set of tools, and a process whose output yields customer satisfaction and continuous improvement" (Hradesky, 1995). While the roots of TQM are in statistical quality control and conformance to specifications, the adoption of TQM can not only improve conformance but can also positively affect other dimensions of quality (Flynn, Schroeder and Sakakibara, 1995). TQM has been recognized as the preeminent route to quality improvement (Ishikawa, 1985), and it has been found to have a positive link with organizational performance (U.S. General Accounting Office, 1991). An organization may initiate a TQM program for a variety of reasons, among which may be a desire for continuous improvement, superior use of resources, a desire for organizational change or a goal of improving operational efficiency and decision-making. Implementing the philosophy of TQM and utilizing its tools and process calls for a comprehensive commitment of effort, an understanding of customer requirements, a change in organizational culture, the use of statistical techniques, and wide-ranging coordination and integration among all these efforts. …


We review experimental results, from transport to magnetization measurements, on different graphite samples, from bulk oriented graphite, thin graphite films to transmission electron microscope lamellae, that indicate the existence of granular superconductivity at temperatures above 100~K. The   accumulated evidence speaks for a localization of the superconducting phase(s) at certain interfaces  embedded in semiconducting crystalline regions with Bernal stacking order. Received: 25 January 2013,  Accepted: 10 October 2013;  Reviewed by: E. M. Forgan, School of Physics & Astronomy, University of Birmingham, U.K.;  Edited by: S. A. Grigera;  DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.4279/PIP.050007 Cite as: P Esquinazi, Papers in Physics 5, 050007 (2013)


The action of major world economic institutions, especially the International Monetary Fund, the World Bank group, and GATT, has been the object of many critical studies. So many of these studies are outstanding both in the precision of their information and the accuracy of their analysis that one may wonder if anything more needs to be said. It is noticeable, however, that until around 1980 most of these criticisms remained evenhanded. Of course, critics pointed out that the policies pursued by these institutions were part of the logic of capitalist expansion, serving the interests of transnationals, careless of the environment (whose claims had barely begun to be gauged), uncritically accepting the idea that "development" would bring about a decrease in "pockets of poverty" by a "trickle down" effect. Yet, on the other hand, a positive view was taken of openness and the progress of globalization, and consequently of the support they received from the IMF to help solve balance-of-payments difficulties, return to the convertibility of major currencies, gradually lower tariffs, etc. This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website , where most recent articles are published in full. Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


AIMS: To clarify the underlying causes of corneal opacification in Tangier disease. METHODS: Both corneas were removed at death from a 62 year old man with Tangier disease, and were examined by direct and transmission electron microscopy, histochemistry, biochemical analysis by thin-layer and gas-liquid chromatography after extraction, and by differential scanning calorimetry. RESULTS: Membranous inclusions in the stroma were seen on transmission electron microscopy. Direct analysis confirmed enrichment with phospholipids and cholesterol, with acyl patterns and proportions as ester broadly similar to those of normal cornea. Tangier cornea showed major thermotropic phase transitions in the range 28-37 degrees C, peak 30-33 degrees C, extending above profiles of normal clear cornea and without the complexity of those seen with cornea with heavy arcus involvement. CONCLUSIONS: Lipid accumulation underlies corneal opacification in Tangier disease. The excess material is mainly phospholipid and cholesterol esters. As at other sites which are below body core temperature, notably tonsil, accumulation may be enhanced by local impaired mobilisation of material as the phase transitions of the excess lipid present extend above ambient corneal temperatures.


Over / Under / Cover / Repeat is a new body of work created for a showcase at the Bowery. It forms part of ongoing studio investigations into the qualities of everyday barrier materials. From solid hoardings, to chain-link wires and to plastic weaves, diverse material surfaces are so often part of everyday urban spaces, but are easily overlooked.

Beginning with representational reflections of repeated patterns and non-descript urban sites, the subjects are gradually distilled to reveal what I see as their abstracted, painterly qualities. Over / Under / Cover / Repeat reflects a desire to continually test out materials and to 'think through' ideas using painting processes. Of interest to me is the notion that when these diverse works are brought together, shared visual languages are pushed to the fore within a vibrant, abstracted and fragmented aesthetic archive.

At the core of what I create in studio is the notion of 'thinking through practice.' My concerns as a painter do not specifically relate to abstracted aesthetics, or simply to re-presenting patterns. Rather, I am consistently driven by a desire to try and think about that which interests me using painting as a methodological tool. In essence, as an artist, I always want to see what something looks like, and how it can be thought about, as a painting.

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Over / Under / Cover / Repeat is the culmination of a 2 year practice-based research trajectory.

Built upon investigations relating to how contemporary painting practices can be used to to explore visual relationships and interactions with physical barrier materials.

The exhibition showcases the breadth of personal studio painting processes, developed over a 2 year period, which have been tested out at group exhibitions over 2017. O/U/C/R locates these distinct visual practices as interconnected personal research activities.

The resulting body of work is positioned as a 'thinking-through' process, rather than simply an activity of making paintings of subjects, or creating objects.

Here, the works point toward questioning the ways in which the selected subject can be considered, challenged, used and re-imagined through the activity of painting and by using painting practice as a methodological tool.

The Bowery Gallery in Leeds is a venue of considerable standing, having showcased the work of national and international artists over the last 10 years.


A model of the up-converter parametric amplifier is developed in order to derive expressions for admittance, gain, bandwidth, and noise figure. The expressions derived are presented in such a way as to show a good analogy to the standard coupled circuit. This allows use of the concepts of coefficient of coupling, critical coupling, and stagger-tuning and their effects upon bandwidth. It is shown that the gain of the amplifier is equal to the ratio of output frequency to input frequency and is constant, independent of matching, resonance, or pump level. The derived expression for noise figure indicates that the principal noise source is the input tank and that heavy loading of both tanks improves the noise figure. The results of experimental tests are used to verify the relations derived and show the limitations of the model and the amplifier. Also the possibility of using the experimental circuit as a practical lownoise amplifier is examined.


The importance of transverse optic-longitudinal optic (TO-LO) splitting in the interpretation of infrared spectra of thin films is experimentally presented. When infrared spectra are observed at oblique angles of incidence, the shifts in peak position and/or the changes in peak shape may be due to TO-LO splitting. Before one assigns the optical behavior to surface phenomena such as molecular orientation, proper care must be employed. The proposed technique includes optical calculation to extract surface phenomena from TO-LO splitting in the spectra, and it is applied to reflection absorption spectra of perfluoropolyether.


The Supreme Court's inquiry into the constitutionality of the death penalty has overlooked a critical "objective indicator" of society's "evolving standards of decency": the rate at which citizens are excluded from capital jury service under Witherspoon v. Illinois due to their conscientious objections to the death penalty. While the Supreme Court considers the prevalence of death verdicts as a gauge of the nation's moral climate, it has ignored how the process of death qualification shapes those verdicts. This blind spot biases the Court's estimation of community norms and distorts its Eighth Amendment analysis. This paper presents a quantitative study of Witherspoon strikes in real capital cases, measuring the strike rate in eleven Louisiana trials resulting in death verdicts from 2009 to 2013. Of the 1,445 potential jurors questioned, 325 individuals (22.5%) were excluded from service on the basis of their opposition to the death penalty. These exclusions had a considerable impact on the racial composition of the jury pool: In the trials for which individualized data on race was available, one-third of black venire members were struck under Witherspoon, and nearly 60% of those struck on this basis were black. These findings underscore the profound impact of death qualification upon the composition of capital juries and the outcomes of capital trials. Particularly in the wake of Justice Breyer's recent call for reconsideration of the death penalty's constitutionality, there is an urgent need for (a) systematized, ongoing data collection on Witherspoon strikes, and (b) formal consideration of the effect of death qualification in future Eighth Amendment analysis.


Experimental and archaeological studies of use-wear and residues on obsidian artefacts from Papua New Guinea By Nina Kononenko Technical Reports of the Australian Museum, Online 21:1-244 (2011) DOI: 10.3853/j.1835-4211.21.2011.1559 This timely monograph is a modified version of Kononenko's PhD thesis which was completed in 2008. Kononenko's research incorporates the most comprehensive study of use-wear on obsidian tools published since Hurcombe's (1992) seminal monograph, which has been the 'bible' of obsidian use-wear analysts to date. The aims of the monograph are three-fold. Firstly, to continue to develop the analytical techniques used in obsidian use-wear and residue studies in order to improve the reliability of functional interpretations of artefacts. Secondly, to provide a resource for researchers in the form of an extensive range of coloured images of use-wear and residues on obsidian, and, thirdly, to apply the methodology to resolve important questions regarding significant technological changes that occurred during the Late Holocene throughout the Western Pacific. The study comprises an extensive experimental programme involving the use of local obsidian to manufacture tools to process an impressive array of reference materials, most of which are readily available in West New Britain and were obtained and employed locally. The concept of replicating tool use with local materials is methodologically sound, as it constrains at least some of the variability innate in experimental use-wear studies and approximates prehistoric conditions. This discretion persists throughout Kononenko's research, including her choice of the FAO site on Garua Island, West New Britain for her case study. The FAO site has unequivocal stratigraphic and temporal integrity and a large number of obsidian artefacts distributed over the transitional Mid to Late Holocene. This was a period of changing technology (the appearance of Lapita pottery) and the data on obsidian wear patterns obtained from Kononenko's experiments are applied to the functional analysis of the FAO site obsidian artefacts in an effort to address questions of possible concurrent changes in "subsistence, domestic activities, site structure and settlement patterns". The monograph is organised in two sections. The first part is of three chapters and details the methods, methodology and experimental programme, including the results of 292 replication experiments, with the data presented both in text with excellent summaries and in table form in an Appendix. The second describes the case study in which 190 tools were identified from almost 1400 obsidian artefacts analysed, and their function interpreted by comparison with the experimental use-wear data. The final chapter in this section considers these results within the broader context of Western Pacific archaeology and provides a reconstruction of cultural behaviour at the FAO site during the period overlapping the introduction of Lapita pottery. …


I/O is getting faster in servers that have fast programmable NICs and non-volatile main memory operating close to the speed of DRAM, but single-threaded CPU speeds have stagnated. Applications cannot take advantage of modern hardware capabilities when using interfaces built around abstractions that assume I/O to be slow. We therefore propose a structure for an OS called parakernel, which eliminates most OS abstractions and provides interfaces for applications to leverage the full potential of the underlying hardware. The parakernel facilitates application-level parallelism by securely partitioning the resources and multiplexing only those resources that are not partitioned.


Problem statement: Termites are an essential member of the soil ecosystem and are found throughout the world. In their natural environment, they improve soil pH, organic carbon content, water content and porosity by cycling dead organics. However, they can negatively impact human welfare by causing damage to unprotected timber structures, underground cables, earthen dams, irrigation ditches and farming equipment. Globally, the annual economic cost of termite damage and termite prevention is estimated in the billions. However, in underdeveloped countries data on damage is unavailable and it is difficult to estimate the cost of repair as funds are also not available. This study aimed at addressing termite damage in Zambia as a model underdeveloped country by: (a) identifying the injurious species of termites found in the country, (b) reviewing the factors affecting the natural durability of wood, (c) determining the nature of termite damage to timber, (d) determining the most common faulty construction practices which lead to termite entry and infestation in buildings, (e) reviewing chemical and biological techniques for prevention of damage to wood and (f) developing construction methods that will prevent termite entry to buildings. Approach: Several houses in selected villages, towns and cities in different locations in Zambia were chosen for study (ten houses in each location). The injurious species of termites and the natural durability of construction wood were assessed. The damage to timber was evaluated and the faulty construction practices that allowed termite entry to buildings were identified. Results: The interior of each house and the surrounding area were examined for the presence of termites and termite related damage. Termites were found to gain entry to buildings by a number of paths. These included creating bore holes through walls, crawling through cracks in the foundation and climbing through the roof. Conclusions: To prevent termite entry into buildings multiple approaches must be used. Before construction begins all nests and palatable wood must be cleared from the site. Once clearing is completed and before construction begins, wood should be selected based on its natural repellency. If no naturally repellent timber is available wood should be impregnated with a chemical preservative. A chemical barrier must be created by treating all exposed wood in the structure with termiticides and all wood should be placed above a concrete footing. Once materials have been selected additional constructional preventative measures consisting of internal preventive measures within the plinth and external preventive measure in the form of concrete grooves and interlocking apron floors around the periphery building should be put in place. Educational and promotional activities will further lead to prevention of termite attack to buildings.


Water availability is a key factor for rural properties in semiarid areas. Urbanization, industrial, droughts and climate change are reducing water for agriculture. As accessibility declines, water becomes a critical factor defining the price of land. Pricing rural land generally includes several factors. However, water is not considered an explicit factor in the existing valuation methods. The objective of this study was to evaluate the differential cost of rural land due to the availability of water, by considering at different methods that are used to value rural properties in Mexico: valuation of physical mass appraisal, comparable method, profits productivity method, and income capitalization method. The study was carried out in three sites of semiarid Central Mexico: El Toreador, Luz de Maria and Zamarripa, all located in the State of Guanajuato. The results indicated that the price of land decreased strongly, due the lack of water availability independently of the valuation method used. The decrease in land price is also linked to other factors, such as the market value and location.


This article, written for the Supreme Court Review issue of Tulsa Law Review, critiques Bowles v. Russell - perhaps last term's most underrated case - which characterized the time to file a civil notice of appeal as jurisdictional and therefore not subject to equitable excuses for noncompliance. In so holding, the Court overstated the supporting precedent, inflated the jurisdictional importance of statutes, and undermined an important recent movement to clarify when a rule is jurisdictional and when it is not. This did not have to be. The Court missed a golden opportunity to chart a middle course holding the rule mandatory but nonjurisdictional, which would have been more consistent with precedent while resolving the case on its narrowest grounds. This Article explains where Bowles went wrong, what it should have done, and how it may affect future questions on the jurisdictionality of rules and limits.


This is a methodological paper with the aim to discuss pros and cons related to different tools and environments when evaluating the effect of warnings given to sleepy drivers. There is no simple answer to the question which platform is most suitable. It depends on the research question asked, and it is possible that different aspects of the problem should be approached with different methods. A driving simulator has clear advantages when high control and repeatability are paramount. A simulator can also be used when the driver has to be put into a potentially dangerous scenario. How ecologically valid the results obtained from a simulator in fact are depends very much on the fidelity of the simulator. A test track study is based on real driving and should have a higher degree of ecological validity. On the other hand, the test track most often consists of an unrealistic environment. For assessing the prevalence of drowsy driving in real traffic, and in order to investigate what drivers actually do when they receive a sleepiness warning, it is absolutely necessary to study their natural behaviour when they go about their daily routines. Here field operational tests or naturalistic driving studies are most suitable. A disadvantage is the lack of control.


The effect of flow motion on a volume hologram written in a fluid medium is studied. The hologram is written in a sensitized fluid by either thermal absorption or the photochromic effect or by other mechanisms. After being written, the hologram is deformed because of the motion of the supporting fluid. The effect of several representative fluid motions on the hologram deformation, i.e., a plane shear flow and a symmetric plane jet, is found by solving the associated convection-diffusion equation. The effect of diffusion on the fading of the hologram is also studied for several diffusion rates corresponding to different hologram-writing mechanisms. The result of the calculation is the determination of the new shape and intensity of the hologram as functions of time. The analysis is carried out entirely in the Fourier domain, where the convection–diffusion equation is solved more easily. The output is therefore given in terms of spatial Fourier components that represent the deformed and convected hologram. The use of volume holograms for the determination of velocity gradients corresponding to small-scale fluid motion is discussed. In this paper we describe the deformation process that the hologram undertakes under the effect of fluid motion. In part II of this series [ J. Opt. Soc. Am. A5, 1297 ( 1988)] we describe a method for predicting the diffracting characteristics of strained holograms. That method directly incorporates the results presented here.


To enhance the structural stability and improve the poor electrochemical reaction kinetics of anodes for sodium ion batteries (SIBs), we develop a novel strategy to couple NiCoP bimetallic phosphide nanoparticles with alkali-induced 3D interconnected crinkled porous Ti3C2 MXenes as anodes for high-performance SIBs. The interconnected 3D Ti3C2 crinkled architectures can establish a 3D conductive network, abundant open pores and large surface area, which provides a 3D conductive highway and unblocked channels for a rapid charge transfer process and for electrolyte storage, and makes fully close contact between the electrode and electrolyte. The unique MXene structure can effectively tolerate volume expansion and prevent aggregation and pulverization of NiCoP nanoparticles during Na+ insertion/extraction processes. The NiCoP bimetallic phosphide possesses richer redox reaction sites, higher electrical conductivity and low charge transfer impedance. The synergistic effect between the components of NiCoP and MXene Ti3C2 with high structural stability and electrochemical activity leads to excellent electrochemical performance, retaining a specific capacity of 261.7 mA h g−1 at a current density of 1 A g−1 for 2000 cycles. The present strategy of an in situ phosphization route and coupling phosphides with crinkled 3D Ti3C2 can be extended to other novel electrodes for high-performance energy storage devices.


Current meter data in the mid-Lombok Strait region in 1985 show that 42% of the vari ance in the currents is within the intraseasonal frequency band (10-100 day-1). It is about two times the variance of the tidal currents. This intraseasonal variability appeared as episodic northward flows of 20 to 80 cm/s recurring every 20 to 60 days. Our data indicate these northward flows are driven by episodes of sea-level rise south of the Lombok Strait which are controlled by large scale westerly wind events in the Southeastern Indian Ocean. These northward flow events occur almost simultaneously with either a cyclone or a typhoon generated in south or north monsoon trough, respectively. The occurrence of these northward flows and cyclone/typhoon events follow 5 20 days after the appearance of an atmospheric pressure trough system over the Eastern Indian Ocean Western Pacific region. Sea-level data from 1984-1990 in the Eastern Indian Ocean and Western Pacific region show that the intraseasonal variability is a persistent phenomena along the southern coast of the Indonesian Archipelago. The energy of this variability is concentrated at a 40-60 day period band. The magnitude of this variability suggests that the intraseasonal variability can serve as a significant modulator of the Indonesian throughflow. The surface currents in the Lombok Strait reach 150 cm/s in the mid Strait region and 300 cm/s in the sill region. The monthly mean flow varies from 20 cm/s northward into the Flores S ea to 60 cm/s southward into the Indian Ocean. Within the Lombok Strait, the geostrophic approximation computed from cross-strait sea-level differences explains most the sub-inertial along-strait flow less than 60 cm/s. The sea-level difference outside the entrances of the Strait suggests the flow through the Strait is a frictional balance with a Rayleigh friction coefficient estimated 4.6x10-5 sec-1.


Excerpt] Concern that structural factors impede efficient labor market performance is evidenced in both statistical analyses of economic potential and policy proposals for selective employment subsidies. Estimates of the level and expected growth of full-employment GNP have recently been revised downward, as has the 3.2 unemployment multiplier implicit in Okun's Law (see U.S. Council of Economic Advisers and George Perry). These indications of structural changes in labor markets reinforce statistics showing excessively high unemployment rates for youths and blacks, and labor force participation rates that are increasing for women and decreasing for men. The simultaneous concern with high inflation and high measured unemployment, in the context of major changes in labor force composition and increased variance in sectoral unemployment rates (see Perry), has brought forth numerous and sizable selective employment subsidy policies (SESP) in both the United States and Western Europe. The SESP, changes in potential GNP, and Okun's Law are not unrelated phenomena. This paper explores that relationship. Section I presents a brief taxonomy of the primary SESPs which are currently being discussed in Western industrialized countries. Section II provides the economic rationale underlying these measures. Section III explores the relationship of SESP to the prospective growth of aggregate output, in the context of Okun's Law. Evidence on the existence and magnitude of changes in employment decisions in response to the New Jobs Tax Credit (NJTC) is presented in Section IV.


Modern internal combustion engine maintenance programmes incorporate various methods and techniques for early fault detection and diagnosis to maintain efficiency, low pollution and high reliability and to avoid catastrophic failures. Lubrication oil related faults are among those faults that may lead to such consequences. This research has been conducted aiming at engine lubrication oil condition monitoring intrusively by analysing the engine airborne acoustic signals. The structure-borne acoustic signals were measured using an accelerometer mounted on the thrust side of the 1 st cylinder and the airborne acoustic signals were recorded using a microphone placed 0.5 m away from the engine block facing the 1 st cylinder and 1 m high from the floor. The signals are then band-pass filtered and transformed to the frequency domain, where the amplitudes of the frequency components of these signals are analysed and compared to the base-line signals. The mean amplitudes of the spectral components in the frequency band 1 kHz to 3 kHz were found directly proportional to the engine speed and load. It was also found that the RMS values of this frequency band are affected by the lubricating oil conditions. These results show that it is possible to use airborne acoustic signals to evaluate the quality of lubrication.


Natural signals such as speech are hierarchically structured across many different timescales, spanning tens (e.g., phonemes) to hundreds (e.g., words) of milliseconds, each of which is highly variable and context-dependent. While deep neural networks (DNNs) excel at recognizing complex patterns from natural signals, relatively little is known about how DNNs flexibly integrate across multiple timescales. Here, we show how a recently developed method for studying temporal integration in biological neural systems – the temporal context invariance (TCI) paradigm – can be used to understand temporal integration in DNNs. The method is simple: we measure responses to a large number of stimulus segments presented in two different contexts and estimate the smallest segment duration needed to achieve a context invariant response. We applied our method to understand how the popular DeepSpeech2 model learns to integrate across time in speech. We find that nearly all of the model units, even in recurrent layers, have a compact integration window within which stimuli substantially alter the response and outside of which stimuli have little effect. We show that training causes these integration windows to shrink at early layers and expand at higher layers, creating a hierarchy of integration windows across the network. Moreover, by measuring integration windows for time-stretched/compressed speech, we reveal a transition point, midway through the trained network, where integration windows become yoked to the duration of stimulus structures (e.g., phonemes or words) rather than absolute time. Similar phenomena were observed in a purely recurrent and purely convolutional network although structure-yoked integration was more prominent in the recurrent network. These findings suggest that deep speech recognition systems use a common motif to encode the hierarchical structure of speech: integrating across short, time-yoked windows at early layers and long, structure-yoked windows at later layers. Our method provides a straightforward and general-purpose toolkit2 for understanding temporal integration in black-box machine learning models. ∗ These authors contributed equally. 2 Code available at: https://github.com/naplab/PyTCI 35th Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems (NeurIPS 2021).


Title of dissertation: GLOBAL OPTIMIZATION OF FINITE MIXTURE MODELS Jeffrey W. Heath Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Dissertation directed by: Professor Michael Fu Robert H. Smith School of Business & Professor Wolfgang Jank Robert H. Smith School of Business The Expectation-Maximization (EM) algorithm is a popular and convenient tool for the estimation of Gaussian mixture models and its natural extension, modelbased clustering. However, while the algorithm is convenient to implement and numerically very stable, it only produces solutions that are locally optimal. Thus, EM may not achieve the globally optimal solution in Gaussian mixture analysis problems, which can have a large number of local optima. This dissertation introduces several new algorithms designed to produce globally optimal solutions for Gaussian mixture models. The building blocks for these algorithms are methods from the operations research literature, namely the Cross-Entropy (CE) method and Model Reference Adaptive Search (MRAS). The new algorithms we propose must efficiently simulate positive definite covariance matrices of the Gaussian mixture components. We propose several new solutions to this problem. One solution is to blend the updating procedure of CE and MRAS with the principles of Expectation-Maximization updating for the covariance matrices, leading to two new algorithms, CE-EM and MRAS-EM. We also propose two additional algorithms, CE-CD and MRAS-CD, which rely on the Cholesky decomposition to construct the random covariance matrices. Numerical experiments illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed algorithms in finding global optima where the classical EM fails to do so. We find that although a single run of the new algorithms may be slower than EM, they have the potential of producing significantly better global solutions to the model-based clustering problem. We also show that the global optimum matters in the sense that it significantly improves the clustering task. Furthermore, we provide a a theoretical proof of global convergence to the optimal solution of the likelihood function of Gaussian mixtures for one of the algorithms, namely MRAS-CD. This offers support that the algorithm is not merely an ad-hoc heuristic, but is systematically designed to produce global solutions to Gaussian mixture models. Finally, we investigate the fitness landscape of Gaussian mixture models and give evidence for why this is a difficult global optimization problem. We discuss different metrics that can be used to evaluate the difficulty of global optimization problems, and then apply them to the context of Gaussian mixture models. GLOBAL OPTIMIZATION OF FINITE MIXTURE MODELS


Both sides of the birth control debate agree that birth control artificially prevents or interrupts conception, allowing women to control their own fertility and allowing heterosexual men and women to enjoy unconstrained sexual liberty. However, the decision in Hobby Lobby omitted all discussion of this central function of birth control, and contained no mention of arguments for or against birth control that assume it.This piece examines and criticizes the two major arguments opposing and supporting birth control on this understanding of its function and core social meaning: first the neo-natural lawyers' argument against birth control advanced in a papal encyclical in the 1930's and in contemporary law review articles by John Finnis, George Bradley, and Robert George, and second, the "sexual-libertarian" argument supporting the use of birth control, culled from Griswold, Eisenstadt, Lawrence and their advocates and supporters in the academy.The focus of the piece is on the competing conceptions of heterosexual morality that underlie these two arguments. My central claim is that both sides fail to address women's actual felt desires either for sex or pregnancy. Natural law advocates generally celebrate all non-contracepted marital sex regardless of women's desires for either the sex or the pregnancy that is its foreseeable consequence. Likewise, sexual libertarians celebrate all consensual sex regardless of women's desires.This erasure of the relevance of women's desire, or lack of desire, to the morality of heterosexual intercourse and pregnancy causes women harm, and is a condition of women's subordination. The current legal clashes over birth control have marginalized the harms. This piece seeks to re-center them.


Abstract Cardamom (Elettaria cardamomum) essential oil (CEO) is popular in skin care, although no studies have reported its biological activity in human skin cells. We studied its effect on 17 protein biomarkers closely related to inflammation, immune responses, and tissue remodeling using a dermal fibroblast cell culture system designed to model chronic inflammation. CEO significantly inhibited the proliferation of skin cells and the expression of vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1) and macrophage colonystimulating factor (M-CSF). The CEO-induced inhibition of the production of these protein biomarkers suggests its anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory potential, which has been largely attributed to its major active component, eucalyptol. We further studied the effect of CEO on the expression of 21,224 genes in the same cell culture system. Ingenuity pathway analysis showed that CEO affected critical genes and signaling pathways closely involved in inflammation, immune responses, and tissue remodeling. The observed overall CEO-induced inhibition of these genes and pathways supports its anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory properties. This study provides important evidence of the biological activity of CEO in human skin cells. Further research into the mechanism of action of CEO in human skin and other systems is recommended.


Abstract This article discusses the historical mechanisms and geographical factors that have formed the current structure of urban water provision in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The formation of the urban geography of Kampala dates back to the early colonial period. The high- and middle-income earners have settled on the hills while the poorest part of the population lives in the low-lying areas, dispersed as pockets of unplanned and informal settlements. Public services are underdeveloped in these informal pockets. The government has pledged to improve services for the poor and this article analyses whether the efforts made are likely to lead to a lasting change, seen in a longer time perspective. The public water supply in Kampala has ever since its opening in 1930 focused on the middle- and high-income groups while poor people have been marginalised. Water provision to low-income groups has continued to rely on standpipes since the colonial period. There has also been organisational continuity, with a single centralised organisation in charge of urban water supply in all larger towns. Institutional changes, such as the new connection policy from 2004, have perpetuated the emphasis on middle- and high-income groups. This article argues that the traditional focus on private connections is creating a barrier for expansion of services in informal areas. Pre-paid water distribution, which was tried already in the 1920s, has in recent years seen a revival. This technology offers an important avenue for rectifying inequalities of public services that has been reproduced since the colonial period.


The President (SIR PETER KENT) welcomed this contribution with the comment that a Permo-Triassic age would be in line with evidence elsewhere of an early breakdown of the Atlantic continental margin, long pre-dating the lateral translation marked by magnetic stripes etc. He was however somewhat concerned that other authorities (also familar with other New Red Sandstone outcrops in the Hebrides) had not accepted such a late date, and he asked whether there was direct evidence from palynology or other studies. He also commented that thicknesses of the order estimated for the Stornoway conglomerates (4 km) were usually associated in other places with relatively local contemporaneous trapdoor type faulting. Dr Audley-Charles remarked that studies of clast composition in the thinner English Permo-Trias deposits have been interpreted as indicating deepening and widening levels of erosion. The present interpretation of the Stornoway Formation as approximately 4 km thick and consisting mainly of rudites would seem to require deep sub-aerial erosion of the adjacent landmass contemporaneous with accumulation of these rudites. Had the authors made any statistical study of clast composition? Such a study might reveal evidence of systematic changes in clast composition through the accumulated succession, resulting from erosion having removed successively deeper levels of the nearby landscape from which these rudites were derived. Would the authors accept that the lack of such composition changes could be used as an argument for the Stornoway Formation being much thinner than they had estimated? Professor J. Watson had examined the Stornoway Conglomerate in the field


The technique known as Grilliot's trick constitutes a template for explicitly defining the Turing jump functional $(\exists^2)$ in terms of a given effectively discontinuous type two functional. In this paper, we discuss the standard extensionality trick: a technique similar to Grilliot's trick in Nonstandard Analysis. This nonstandard trick proceeds by deriving from the existence of certain nonstandard discontinuous functionals, the Transfer principle from Nonstandard analysis limited to $\Pi_1^0$-formulas; from this (generally ineffective) implication, we obtain an effective implication expressing the Turing jump functional in terms of a discontinuous functional (and no longer involving Nonstandard Analysis). The advantage of our nonstandard approach is that one obtains effective content without paying attention to effective content. We also discuss a new class of functionals which all seem to fall outside the established categories. These functionals directly derive from the Standard Part axiom of Nonstandard Analysis.


Inward migration is a relatively new phenomenon for Ireland. The improvement in the Irish economy, which has resulted in an influx of non-Irish nationals, has changed the face of employment in Ireland today. Diversity in the workforce embraces many different dimensions including race, national origin, and language, but heretofore cultural differences have not impacted significantly on strategies in relation to learning and development within Irish organisations. Now these organisations have to confront the complex issues faced by other multicultural organisations, and strategies to ensure the successful development of staff have had to take culture into account. The research question explored the challenges facing Irish organisations, focusing on the issues of integration, language acquisition and learning and development with diverse cultures and in different organisations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with employers, employees, Trade Union and Regulatory bodies. Non-Irish employees were also asked for their views in a postal survey.
The results indicated that there is a paucity of research on the issue of learning and development for non-Irish workers in an Irish context and while Irish organisations and Government bodies are grappling with other management issues, learning and development is not seen as a priority. Most training is provided in English and is legally required. Irish trainers it appears have little understanding of cultural differences in learning styles. Guidelines should be developed and presented at national level to coordinate all integration strategies and provide valuable advice for organisations regarding the development of their multicultural workforces. Organisations should also re-consider their attitudes to the learning and development strategies that are currently in place for their non-Irish workers. Although Ireland is new to the immigration experience, we now have an opportunity to examine management strategies from other countries, avoiding their mistakes while adopting their positive models of good practice.


I start from Mill's words about Mansel and the problem of evil. In this dispute Mansel has generally been thought to have come off worst. However, Mansel was clearly right to this extent: that what would make a man a good man would not be the same as what made God good. This is because, quite generally, what makes something good of its kind, where we can talk about goodness at all, varies with the kind. With Aristotle we must say: the criteria are fixed by the thing's ergon, or at least by something analogous. On this account, it would seem that God must be perfect, since as an intelligent agent He does supremely well what is in the nature of an intelligent agent to do. This seems to lead to the right solution to the problem of evil. But Mill also had something useful to contribute. He saw that there would be a consequent difficulty in regard to revelation. This difficulty seems to be severe and insufficiently discussed.


After a large awareness and decades of negotiations, a historic climate agreement was adopted by consensus by all 195 parties at the UNFCCC, the December 12, 2015, in order to provide an answer to this climate issue. This agreement marks a turning point towards a new world, a decarbonized world. At least, that is its ambition. Using a long-term prospective approach, and more precisely the bottom-up optimization model TIAM-FR, we investigate different GHG mitigation trajectories in line with 1) commitments occurring according to the Paris Climate Agreement, 2) an ambitious ultimate and global target by 2050 in line with the 2°C objective and the IPCC recommendations (AR4 and AR5), and 3) regional assumptions by 2050 according to the optimistic/pessimistic revisions of long-term commitments, including a carbon price. The latter is considered in the light of Paragraph 137 of the Paris agreement that recognizes the importance of providing incentives to emission reduction activities, in particular with regard to tools such as national policies and carbon pricing. We analyze a combination of these scenarios to discuss decarbonized pathway and the technological solutions to climate issues. Our analysis of the scenario results then focuses on the effects on the level of GHG emissions and the carbon abatement costs associated with the different GHG reduction targets for regions (developed, fast developing or developing countries) with national focus.


As Chinese immigrants in the United Kingdom age, they experience an increasing need to access health and care services. It has, however, been reported that older Chinese immigrants have difficulties in accessing these services. This study explored the experiences of this population in using health and care services and the strategies that they adopted to address their difficulties. A grounded theory method with a two-staged research design was used. Stage 1 explored the participants' experiences of ageing and use of health and social care services through focus group interviews. Stage 2 investigated the strategies individuals used to support access to and use of services through individual interviews. Forty-four older Chinese people and 15 supporters participated in interviews during August 2011 and May 2013. These older Chinese immigrants were challenged in knowing about and in accessing services. Their difficulties were attributed to language barriers, lack of information and instrumental support, and emotional and cultural issues regarding use of health and care services. Their supporters facilitated access to services and acted as a bridge between the service and the user; therefore, they were given the title 'Bridge People'. Bridge People have different backgrounds: family and friends, public sector workers and staff from community-based Chinese organisations. The defining attributes of these supporters were: bilinguality, bicultural, multifunctionality and accessibility. There is no charge for this support; and the relationship between the Bridge Person and recipient involves trust and influence over decisions regarding use of health and care services. Bridge People should be recognised and identified by health, social care and housing services to promote engagement and use of services by older immigrant Chinese people.


The Resilience-Increasing Strategies for Coasts – Toolkit (RISC-KIT) FP7 EU project (2013-2017) aims to produce a set of three innovative and EU-coherent open-source and open-access methods, tools and management approaches (the RISC-KIT) in support of coastal managers, decision-makers and policy makers to reduce risk and increase resilience to low-frequency, high impact hydro-meteorological events.

The Coastal Risk Assessment Framework (CRAF) is the first element of the risk assessment suite applied at a regional scale and permits a comprehensive and systematic approach to undertaking risk assessment at a variety of levels of detail. In particular, the approach reveals potential hotspots along the coasts. Hotspots are defined in the Toolkit as specific locations where high-resolution modelling and risk assessment are required to assess the coastal risk and to design and compare disaster risk reduction measures. As such, hotspots, or groups of hotspots, should be indicative of those areas where risk is highest.

To do so the CRAF consists of a 2-phase approach, Phase 1 is a coastal-index approach to identifying potential hotspots, whereas Phase 2 utilises a suite of more complex modelling processes to rank these hotpots. The coastal INtegrated DisRuption Assessment model (INDRA) has specifically been developed as an open-source and open-access model for this purpose.

This document provides guidance to CRAF users on both approaches, as well as explanations on the proposed methodologies. The CRAF is a prototype and will be trialled on the RISC-KIT case studies (WP5). Limitations in its application, the potential for a full application and the needs for further development will be discussed in Deliverable 5.1.


Objective: To examine the effects of anomalous language representation (i.e., mixed- and right-cerebral dominant) on neuropsychological performance. Background: Right cerebral language dominance resulting from early cerebral injury is associated with relatively preserved language function with decreased visuospatial ability. However, previous reports of this phenomenon have examined patients with relatively large cerebral injuries (e.g., infantile hemiplegia) or limited sample sizes. Methods: A total of 561 patients with complex partial seizures of left temporal lobe origin were studied. Patients were classified into left (n = 455), bilateral (n = 58), and right (n = 48) language dominant groups based on Wada testing. Results: Right language dominant patients performed more poorly on multiple tests of visuospatial function, including Performance IQ (PIQ), than did left language patients. No significant group differences were detected for measures of language or general verbal function. The effects of bilateral language on PIQ differed according to handedness. Lowered PIQ was present in the bilateral nondextral group but not for bilateral dextral patients, and this pattern was observed with other visuospatial measures. Conclusions: In patients with relatively small lesions restricted to the left mesial temporal lobe, a shift in language dominance to the right hemisphere is associated with decreased visuospatial functions but preserved verbal abilities. Nondextral patients with bilateral language representation also displayed decreased visuospatial performance, although dextral patients with bilateral language did not.


A comprehensive study on the effects of sintering temperature on graphene-doped MgB2 superconductor was conducted. Graphene has emerged as an effective dopant that is capable of improving the critical current density ( J-{\rm c}) and flux pinning at a very low doping level, with only a slight reduction of the critical temperature (T-{\rm c}). MgB2 undoped and graphene-doped bulk samples were prepared by the in situ method and sintered within a temperature range from 650 to 950 {\circ}\hbox{C}. It is surprising to note that at the doping level of 1 at.% the sample sintered at 850 {\circ}\hbox{C} shows a J\rm c of 5.6 \times 10{3}\ \hbox{A/cm} 2, which is nearly two times higher than that of the undoped sample, with a slight reduction in T\rm c of 0.5 K. The effects of the sintering temperature on the lattice parameters, resistivity, grain to grain connectivity, lattice disorder, and critical fields have also been investigated. The results are compared with those for undoped samples subjected to the same sintering conditions, and the origins of the differences in the critical current density are discussed. 2002-2011 IEEE.


Since the launch of ChatGPT for public use, educators have expressed a variety of concerns about its integration into educational settings. This paper has been written to provide an in-depth examination of these issues and explore the potential use of ChatGPT in educational contexts. Specifically, it aims to (i) present an argument in favor of incorporating ChatGPT into education and (ii) provide educators with a set of strategies and techniques to ensure responsible and successful implementation of ChatGPT in teaching or research. By doing so, this paper aims to promote a more informed discussion around the use of ChatGPT in education.


The increasing commercial production of engineered nanoparticles (ENPs) has led to concerns over the potential adverse impacts of these ENPs on biota in natural environments. Silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) are one of the most widely used ENPs and are expected to enter natural ecosystems. Here we examined the effects of AgNPs on germination and growth of eleven species of common wetland plants. We examined plant responses to AgNP exposure in simple pure culture experiments (direct exposure) and for seeds planted in homogenized field soils in a greenhouse experiment (soil exposure). We compared the effects of two AgNPs–20-nm polyvinylpyrrolidine-coated silver nanoparticles (PVP-AgNPs) and 6-nm gum arabic coated silver nanoparticles (GA-AgNPs)–to the effects of AgNO3 exposure added at equivalent Ag concentrations (1, 10 or 40 mg Ag L−1). In the direct exposure experiments, PVP-AgNP had no effect on germination while 40 mg Ag L−1 GA-AgNP exposure significantly reduced the germination rate of three species and enhanced the germination rate of one species. In contrast, 40 mg Ag L−1 AgNO3 enhanced the germination rate of five species. In general root growth was much more affected by Ag exposure than was leaf growth. The magnitude of inhibition was always greater for GA-AgNPs than for AgNO3 and PVP-AgNPs. In the soil exposure experiment, germination effects were less pronounced. The plant growth response differed by taxa with Lolium multiflorum growing more rapidly under both AgNO3 and GA-AgNP exposures and all other taxa having significantly reduced growth under GA-AgNP exposure. AgNO3 did not reduce the growth of any species while PVP-AgNPs significantly inhibited the growth of only one species. Our findings suggest important new avenues of research for understanding the fate and transport of NPs in natural media, the interactions between NPs and plants, and indirect and direct effects of NPs in mixed plant communities.


We investigate the efficiency of k-means in terms of both statistical and computational requirements. More precisely, we study a Nystr\"om approach to kernel k-means. We analyze the statistical properties of the proposed method and show that it achieves the same accuracy of exact kernel k-means with only a fraction of computations. Indeed, we prove under basic assumptions that sampling $\sqrt{n}$ Nystr\"om landmarks allows to greatly reduce computational costs without incurring in any loss of accuracy. To the best of our knowledge this is the first result showing in this kind for unsupervised learning.


Speech therapy aiming at improving voice quality and speech intelligibility is often hampered by the lack of knowledge of the underlying deficits. One way to help speech therapists treating patients would be to supply synthetic benchmarks for pathological speech. These can be used to train therapists and evaluate and interpret automatic speech recognizers used for diagnosing pathological speech. Moreover, synthetic pathological speech can also be used to make expected therapy aims audible before treatment. In a listening experiment testing perceived intelligibility, three types of manipulations of tracheoesophageal speech were evaluated by experienced speech therapists. It was found that modeling the intensity contour of the voice source signal improved speech quality over plain analysis-synthesis. Replacing the voicing source with fully synthetic source periods decreased the perceived intelligibility markedly. Making the source fully periodic with a regular pitch had no effect on perceived intelligibility. Low quality speech benefitted more from manipulations, or deteriorated less, than high quality speech.


Business leaders frequently face dilemmas, circumstances where whatever course of action they choose, something of important value will be offended. How can an organisation prepare its decision makers for such situations? This article presents a pedagogical approach to dilemma training for business leaders and managers. It has evolved through ten years of experience with human resource development, where ethics has been an integral part of programs designed to help individuals to become excellent in their professional roles. The core element in our approach is The Navigation Wheel, a figure used to keep track of relevant decision factors. Feedback from participants indicates that dilemma training has helped them to recognise the ethical dimension of leadership. They respond that the tools and concepts are highly relevant in relation to the challenges that occur in the working environment they return to after leadership training.


Introduction The present study was conducted under the guidance of three factors. First of all, as the related literature indicates, studies on portfolio keeping mainly focus on the EFL writing skills of learners but not of teachers or pre-service teachers. Secondly, little attention has been paid to the problems on portfolio keeping in EFL writing and the research activities mostly focused on the positive effects of portfolios. Thirdly, the studies conducted in Turkey are too limited to draw conclusions about the positive or negative effects of portfolio keeping on the writing skills of both learners and pre-service teachers. In other words, portfolio keeping might be a way to overcome poor writing instruction during teacher training process. Thus, it seems necessary to investigate the positive effects of portfolio keeping on EFL writing. With these concerns in mind, the paper focuses on two issues: the contributions of portfolio keeping to the writing skills of EFL pre-service teachers, and the possible problems related to portfolio keeping in EFL writing. Magnan (1985) asserts that the purposes of writing for foreign language learners include practicing grammatical forms and structures, vocabulary, and spelling, using information in context, and expressing their ideas, feelings, opinions, thoughts, and attitudes. Writing in a foreign language also has some pedagogical purposes such as reinforcement, training, imitation, communication, fluency, and learning (Raimes, 1987). Briefly, according to Scarcella and Oxford (1995), writing in a foreign language helps learners improve their grammatical, strategic, sociolinguistic, and discourse competencies in the target language. However, writing in English as a foreign language constitutes one of the problematic areas in language teaching and learning in Turkey due to some considerable reasons. Basically, it is difficult to argue that the competencies in question can be properly acquired by Turkish EFL learners since writing instruction is neglected during the language learning process at primary and secondary schools, except for those schools with intensive language programs. Two reasons for the negligence in writing instruction are exam-oriented language classes and grammar- and reading-based textbooks. In addition to the teaching methods and materials, language teachers also play a key role in developing and improving the writing skills of EFL learners. However, there exist two potential problems with regard to the writing skills of Turkish EFL teachers: writing instruction that is neglected at primary and secondary education and limited writing instruction at higher education. Secondary and higher education for language teacher training in Turkey consists of several steps. Having completed their first year in secondary education, students are guided to various programs such as Language, Science, Social Sciences and Mathematics. Secondly, language learners who have graduated from high school programs are selected and placed in various departments such as English Language Teaching, English Language and Literature, Linguistics, English and American Language and Culture, and Translation and Interpreting Studies in accordance with their preferences and their scores in the Foreign Language Examination, an official and central examination for selection and placement of students in the mentioned departments. The examination is a multiple choice test that consists of reading comprehension and grammar items. Dramatically and critically enough, it does not include any items that assess listening, speaking and writing skills. Therefore, to prepare for the examination, students studying in language programs at high schools usually ignore productive and communicative skills, only focusing on reading skills and grammar. The second problem concerns writing instruction at higher education level. Writing classes are taught three hours a week during the first year in English Language Teaching programs. …


This thesis is a study of the men who served as archers in the armies of the English kings between 1367 and 1417. However, the focus is not the archers in their military capacity, but the motivations behind their service and their position in late medieval English society. Increasing usage of indentures, recorded in muster rolls, to recruit soldiers for English armies in this period provide historians with rich resources for the study of the military community. Previously this has focused on those of higher socio-economic backgrounds, serving mostly as men-at-arms, and not on those who served as archers. However by combining this muster roll data with information on residency, wealth, and occupations from the poll tax returns of 1377, 1379, and 1381 in a relational database the backgrounds and service links of the archers could be explored. There is a clearly identifiable group of archers whose service was not significantly motivated by political or social obligations and represents a shift towards military service as a 'free market', driven by economic considerations. This was apparent in the connections between archers and captains and in the patterns of service they followed, with the more professional archers ranging more widely in both the location and type of military service they performed. Despite this, it is evident that the archers were embedded within society and did not differ greatly in terms of occupation or wealth from their non-military peers. The difference between the careerist and 'amateur' archers was more subtle, with 'amateur' archers appearing in a wider range of economic backgrounds.


Background : Musculoskeletal problems of the lower extremities are becoming more frequent lately. This problem usually requires surgery to be dealt quickly . The role of the anesthesiologist is needed to determine which anesthesia technique that has to be performed. Selection of proper anesthesia technique can reduce the incidence of complications . Objective of this study was to determine anesthesia technique selection pattern in patients undergoing orthopedic surgery at Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital from January–June 2013. Methods : A quantitative study with retrospective descriptive method was conducted. This study was carried out from September–October 2013 at Dr. Hasan Sadikin General Hospital Bandung. Medical records were used as a research instrument. Data collection was conducted using total sampling method. There were 228 data of all cases, but only 151 patients who met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. Results : One hundred fifty one patients were identified. Sixty five subjects (43%) were performed under general anesthesia, 83 subjects (55%) under regional anesthesia and 3 subjects (2%) under combination of general-regional anesthesia. Regional anesthesia techniques consisted of spinal anesthesia (29%), epidural anesthesia (64%), combination of spinal-epidural anesthesia (5%), and peripheral nerve block (2%). Conclusions : Regional anesthesia is the most frequently technique used in lower extremities orthopedic surgery, with epidural anesthesia as the most common regional technique used because of all the benefits. [ AMJ .2016;3(1):141–6] DOI:  10.15850/amj.v3n1.717


Work is not only a historically dated word or notion, but also an invented reality, constructed by the European 18th century. It corresponds to the emergence of the labour relationship and the `free' worker selling his or her capability to work. Through its spread and progressive hegemony, this social relationship has become the reference to perceive, think and organize any other activity. The consequence has been an extension of the term `work' to activities which no longer stem from the labour relationship, such as `domestic work', `independent work' and so on. Work has been `naturalized' and `universalized'. This contemporary reality - originally geographically circumscribed - has been projected on the past and on other societies. We need to explain it through historical conditions that caused it to emerge three centuries ago. Nor has it been socially intrinsic from the outset, as it has become today by being the condition of access to resources necessary for life in our societies. If its historicity logically implies its disappearance one day, it cannot reasonably be prognosticated for the near future, as it supposes the marginalization of the social relationship which brought it forth.


Since the invasion of 2003, Iraq has suffered an extraordinary era of both heritage destruction and devastating spikes in violence. While cases such as the 2003 attacks on the Iraq National Museum and the Iraq National Library and Archive, as well as the systematic looting of Iraq's sensitive archaeological sites, understandably caused outrage among scholars of heritage studies across the world, little attention has been paid to the destruction of Iraq's many significant Islamic sites – particularly during the ethno-religious sectarian violence that raged across the nation in 2006-7. This paper presents the first results of a three year project funded by the Australian Research Council which aims to empirically test the assumption that a significant relationship exists between this spike in violence and the targeting of sites of Islamic heritage (mosques, shrines, etc.). To do this, the paper will compare and contrast the information in the world's first database of heritage destruction (created by the author) and existing measures of violence in Iraq (such as the Iraq Body Count database). This will set the precedent for studies of both heritage and violence and enable policy formation towards the minimization of heritage destruction and spikes in violence during times of conflict.


"For me [Walker Percy] was the writer who told me ... that everything can be magic--a trunk in an attic, the ninth green of a golf course. We all go through hating the South, even though Quentin said, `I don't hate it, I don't hate it, I don't, I don't.' Oh yes we did, a lot of us, for a long time.... Then Walker walked out on a golf course and the South--our South--came alive. An old greenhouse became a castle. A cave became not more than a cave but the true cave of man's self-deception and death.... This is such reality, and this is how I've always thought Walker Percy taught me to write--not the mundane thing of learning to write, but simply learning that the work is too hard to do anything but try to tell the truth and see its lights and see its magic." (1) --Mary Lee Settle, "Walker Percy" In 1975 the authors of Southern Literary Study: Problems and Possibilities posed the following query: "Is the introduction of `alien' philosophical concepts into recent southern literature--O'Connor's Catholicism, Percy's existentialism--indicative of a significant change in the orientation and motivation of southern writing?" (235). Twenty-five years later, the answer to such a broad question seems both more readily within reach and perhaps--given Fred Hobson's assessment of O'Connor and Percy as, along with Eudora Welty, the dominant influences on southern writers in the two last decades of the twentieth century--even more significant (8-9). The answer, I believe, is yes. My aim here, however, is not to address this question fully but rather to consider it briefly as a prelude to demonstrating just one way in which Percy's example seems to have affected the "orientation" of some recent southern fiction. In doing so I will ultimately concentrate at length on his legacy for two particularly keen observers of the contemporary regional landscape: Josephine Humphreys (whose work has been linked to Percy's before, though not in the manner I wish to suggest here) and Padgett Powell. A comment O'Connor made to Louis D. Rubin, Jr. in 1960 is useful in establishing the broader context of my analysis: "Walker Percy" she said, "wrote somewhere that his generation of Southerners had no more interest in the Civil War than in the Boer War. I think that is probably quite true" (75). (2) Rubin--who, following Allen Tate's lead, had recently defined southern literature as the literature of the "backward glance" and the southern writer as characterized by a "peculiarly historical consciousness"--was not entirely pleased with the remark. O'Connor's observation seems even more incisive in retrospect, because while so many of the writers of the Renascence had written at least some fiction or poetry that not only meditated directly on regional history but was actually set in the past, neither she nor Percy would. But they refrained from doing so neither merely because of generational differences nor because the historical mode had passed out of vogue by their time. In the 1940s Welty wrote The Robber Bridegroom and stories such as "A Still Moment" and "First Love," capturing the frontier history of the Natchez Trace; in the 1950s Robert Penn Warren wrote World Enough and Time and Band of Angels; William Styron would not only persist in the Faulknerian mode of tragic family history in Lie Down in Darkness (1951), but would also in the 1960s return outright to the historical mode--albeit in a new and controversial manner--in The Confessions of Nat Turner (1967). By contrast, Percy and O'Connor alike came to write a new kind of southern fiction by capturing their contemporary world with a vision shaped largely by their intense religious and philosophical interests. Those interests were shaped as much by the philosophers and theologians of the transatlantic Catholic Revival at mid-century as by fiction writers, southern or otherwise: their libraries were stocked with such works as Jacques Maritain's Art and Scholasticism, Romano Guardini's The End of the Modern World, and Gabriel Marcel's The Mytery of Being. …


Abstract Background: Community-based research and prevention scholarship has shown a growing interest in examining the impact of the ecological structure of neighborhoods on community violence. Ecological structures such as higher numbers of alcohol outlets and abandoned/vacant properties in geographically dense, poor, and socially isolated communities are critically important to consider. Further, disadvantaged urban communities are burdened by greater police presence with limited or no abatement in crime or violence. Purpose: Using Geographic Information Systems (GIS) mapping, spatial analysis techniques, and a negative binomial regression analyses, this study investigated the relationships between alcohol outlet density consisting of license C (i.e., combined on and off premises establishments) and license D (i.e., off premises establishments such as liquor stores), abandoned properties, and police calls to service on aggravated assault rates in a Northeastern United States urban city. Results: Negative binomial regression analysis results showed that license C alcohol outlet density count (IRR = 1.36, 95% CI = 1.08, 2.11), license D alcohol outlet density count (IRR = 1.13, 95% CI = 1.01, 1.30), abandoned property count (IRR = 1.28, 95% CI = 1.01, 2.01), and police call to service counts (IRR = 1.24, 95% CI = 1.01, 1.50) were positively associated with aggravated assault rates. Analyses controlled for census data characteristics. Conclusions: The link between alcohol outlet density and violent crime has been established in public health research. However, this study represents an important contribution in recognizing the unique relationships between license C and license D alcohol outlet density, abandoned properties, and police calls to service with aggravated assaults in an urban neighborhood. Conclusions are drawn for policy and practice.


Theoretically, corporate social responsibility should be embedded in corporate governance structures. This paper presents evidence that this is not the case for listed UK companies. Our evidence shows that in the presence of less stringent regulatory requirements, companies tend to disclose less social information in comparison to mandatory governance information. The observed positive association between social and governance information disclosure levels provides supporting evidence that companies with more transparent governance structures tend to be socially conscientious. The paper also empirically shows that the level of social information disclosure tends to vary with the size and industrial affiliation of companies, providing further evidence that listed UK companies are still treating social information as a tool to project a legitimate image.


Environmental Assessment is an inherently interdisciplinary mechanism which is concerned with the input and quality of information about the likely effects of development upon the environment. It is a useful tool for examining aspects of the relationship between law, governance, and the regulation of decision making, which have been central to the development of environmental law. In this volume, the procedural mechanism of environmental assessment is analysed. The author argues that, notwithstanding its procedural nature, environmental assessment is highly material to the outcome of a decision. A major focus of this analysis is the enhanced role of the developer in shaping the outcome of a decision by assuming responsibility for providing information on which a decision will be based, in accordance with a broader agenda of expanding the roles and responsibilities of participants in environmental decision making. The author draws upon several contemporary projects as case studies of assessment: a global port, an offshore windfarm, a flood defence strategy, and a recreation centre. In analysing these sites of decision making from a legal perspective, the author touches upon the key determinants of environmental assessment: discretion, the significance of environmental effects, alternative options, and participatory rights. Finally, the volume looks to the future development of environmental assessment: as an avenue for protest, and, alternatively, as a standardized component of international contracts for development.


Large multi-touch displays are expanding the possibilities of multiple-coordinated views by allowing multiple people to interact with data in concert or independently. We present Lark, a system that facilitates the coordination of interactions with information visualizations on shared digital workspaces. We focus on supporting this coordination according to four main criteria: scoped interaction, temporal flexibility, spatial flexibility, and changing collaboration styles. These are achieved by integrating a representation of the information visualization pipeline into the shared workspace, thus explicitly indicating coordination points on data, representation, presentation, and view levels. This integrated meta-visualization supports both the awareness of how views are linked and the freedom to work in concert or independently. Lark incorporates these four main criteria into a coherent visualization collaboration interaction environment by providing direct visual and algorithmic support for the coordination of data analysis actions over shared large displays.


Design research topics attract exponentially more attention and consideration among researchers. This study is the first research article that endeavors to analyze selected design research publications using an advanced approach called "text mining". This approach speculates its results depending on the existence of a research term (i.e., keywords), which can be more robust than other methods/approaches that rely on contextual data or authors' perspectives. The main aim of this research paper is to expand knowledge and familiarity with design research and explore future research directions by addressing the gaps in the literature; relying on the literature review, it can be stated that the research area in the design domain still not built-up a theory, which can unify the field. In general, text mining with these features allows increased validity and generalization as compared to other approaches in the literature. We used a text mining technique to collect data and analyzed 3553 articles collected in 10 journals using 17,487 keywords. New topics were investigated in the domain of design concepts, which included attracting researchers, practitioners, and journal editorial boards. Such issues as co-innovation, ethical design, social practice design, conceptual thinking, collaborative design, creativity, and generative methods and tools were subject to additional research. On the other hand, researchers pursued topics such as collaborative design, human-centered design, interdisciplinary design, design education, participatory design, design practice, collaborative design, design development, collaboration, design theories, design administration, and service/product design areas. The key categories investigated and reported in this paper helped in determining what fields are flourishing and what fields are eroding.


Collaborative filtering recommender systems provide their users with relevant items based on information from other similar users. Popular collaborative filtering approaches such as Pearson correlation coefficient and cosine similarity, compute the similarity between users based on the set of their co-rated items. However, similarities are commonly computed without taking the popularity of the set of two users' co-rated items into consideration, e.g. an item rated by very many users should have less impact on the similarity measure, and analogously an item rated by few should have a larger impact on the similarity score of two users. In this paper, we investigate the effects of common weighting schemes on different types of users, i.e. new users with few ratings (so-called cold start users), post cold start users, and power users. Empirical studies over two datasets have shown in which of these cases weighting schemes are beneficial in terms of recommendation quality.


The dispersion relation of eigenmodes of two-dimensional waveguide gratings is studied with a perturbative model. The analytic expression of the complex wavelength of the modes permits us to predict the shape of the anomalies in the grating reflectivity with respect to the wavelength and the polarization of the incident plane wave. The simultaneous excitation of two independent modes is necessary for obtaining high-efficiency filtering of unpolarized light. We show how this requirement can be met.


Objective: We report a series of three experiments designed to assess the relative speed with which people can initiate speeded head-orienting responses following the presentation of spatial warning signals. Background: Recent cognitive neuroscience findings have shown that the human brain tends to treat stimuli occurring in peripersonal space as being somehow more behaviorally relevant and attention demanding than stimuli occurring in extrapersonal space. These brain mechanisms may be exploited in the design of warning signals. Method: Experiment 1 assessed the effectiveness of various different unisensory warning signals in eliciting a head-turning response to look at the potential source of danger requiring participants' immediate attention; Experiment 2 assessed the latency of a driver's responses to events occurring in the cued direction; Experiment 3 assessed the relative effectiveness of various warning signals in reorienting a person's gaze back to a central driving task while he or she was distracted by a secondary task. Results: The results show that participants initiated head-turning movements and made speeded discrimination or braking responses significantly more rapidly following the presentation of a close rear auditory warning signal than following the presentation of either a far frontal auditory warning signal, a vibrotactile warning signal presented to their waist, or a peripheral visual warning signal. Conclusion: These results support the claim that the introduction of peripersonal warning signals results in a significant performance advantage relative to traditionally designed warnings. Application: Warning systems that have been designed around the constraints of the human brain offer great potential in the future design of multisensory interfaces.


Twelve Thousand Years: American Indians in Maine documents the generations of Native peoples who for twelve millennia have moved through and eventually settled along the rocky coast, rivers, lakes, valleys, and mountains of a region now known as Maine. Arriving first to this area were Paleo-Indian peoples, followed by maritime hunters, more immigrants, then a revival of maritime cultures. Beginning in the sixteenth century, Native peoples in northern New England became tangled in the far-reaching affairs of European explorers and colonists. Twelve Thousand Years reveals how Penobscots, Abenakis, Passamaquoddies, Maliseets, Micmacs, and other Native communities both strategically accommodated and overtly resisted European and American encroachments. Since that time, Native communities in Maine have endured, adapted when necessary, and experienced a political and cultural revitalization in recent decades.


The Semantic Web provides a way to encode information and knowledge on web pages in a form that is easier for computers to understand and process. This article discusses the issues underlying the discovery, indexing and search over web documents that contain semantic web markup. Unlike conventional Web search engines, which use information retrieval techniques designed for documents of unstructured text, Semantic Web search engines must handle documents comprised of semi-structured data. Moreover, the meaning of data is defined by associated ontologies that are also encoded as semantic web documents whose processing may require significant amount of reasoning. We describe Swoogle, an implemented semantic web search engine that discovers, analyzes, and indexes knowledge encoded in semantic web documents throughout the Web, and illustrate its use to help human users and software agents find relevant knowledge.


Social networking services are relatively new phenomena and they have attracted so much attention around themselves. These services have been seen by many organizations as a po-tential tool to facilitate knowledge sharing. However, very few have successfully adopted such services. Many problems which lead to failures arise when it comes to developing and implementing social networking services with the goal to facilitate knowledge sharing.The purpose of this thesis is to investigate the failure of one social networking service to satisfy the knowledge sharing needs of the organization that has developed and implement-ed it in-house.Interviews with three employees of the company were arranged. The interviews were done with time intervals in between. This gave us the opportunity to rearrange the questions that were going to be asked to the next interviewee. The interviews were really helpful and gave us a good insight of the problem with the development and implementation of the social networking service that the organization was facing. After the interviews were conducted, a questionnaire was elaborated and sent out to the employees in the organization.The results we came up with were really interesting. A table with failure factors for the so-cial networking service used in the organization was made and a model suggesting the steps an organization should follow for the successful development and implementation of a so-cial networking service that facilitates knowledge sharing internally was developed.We found out that the failure was not in the social networking service itself but in the way it was presented, positioned and communicated to the employees of the company. They never took the service seriously for its intended purpose which was knowledge sharing within the organization and that led to the cancelation of the project.


Urgent action is necessary to acquire ERCs from abroad to meet the Kyoto target The Kyoto Protocol, adopted in 1997, committed industrialised countries to accept legally-binding targets to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions collectively by an average of 5% below 1990 levels in the first commitment period from 2008 to 2012. According to the latest report by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Secretariat in May 2006*, the total emissions of industrialised countries that ratified the Kyoto Protocol had decreased by 6.2% in 2003 relative to the 1990 level-which means that the reduction targets for industrialised countries as a whole appear achievable. However, individual parties, including Japan and some EU member states, currently seem unlikely to meet their targets. The Kyoto Target Achievement Plan (KTAP) adopted by the Japanese government in April 2005 estimates that the 2010 GHG emissions will be 6% higher than the 1990 level with existing policies and measures. Therefore it is necessary to reduce emissions by 12% in order to achieve the target of 6% below the 1990 level. Of the 12%, 6.5% is planned to be reduced by domestic policies and measures and 3.9% through the full utilisation of domestic sinks. The remaining 1.6%-which corresponds to about 100 million tonnes (Mt) CO2e during the first commitment period-will be acquired from abroad by using the Kyoto Protocol mechanisms. To this end, the government has set aside 5.7 billion yen (54 million US dollars in FY 2005) and launched the Kyoto Mechanisms Credit Acquisition Program in July 2006. It is still uncertain whether credits corresponding to 1.6% will be achieved with existing measures to utilise the Kyoto mechanisms. Moreover, since there is also uncertainty on reduction through domestic policy measures and utilisation of sinks, it may be necessary to acquire additional emission reduction credits (ERCs). Recognising the need to establish a mechanism in Japan to secure credits from abroad corresponding to at least 1.6% based on KTAP, I propose two parallel but interlinked stages: 1) effective implementation of a national purchasing scheme and, 2) the establishment of a domestic cap and trading scheme linked to other domestic emissions trading schemes.


Entrepreneurs need cash to finance their real investments. Since cash is costly to hold, entrepreneurs will underinvest. If entrepreneurs can access financial markets prior to learning about an investment opportunity, they can sell some of their less liquid assets for cash and, as a result, invest at a higher level. When financial markets are over-the-counter, the price that the entrepreneur receives for the assets that he sells depends on the amount of liquidity (cash) that is in the OTC market: Greater levels of liquidity lead to higher asset prices. Since asset prices are linked to liquidity, they can fluctuate over time even though asset fundamentals are fixed. Bid and ask prices naturally arise in an OTC market and the bid-ask spread is negatively correlated with asset returns when changes in asset prices are not related to changes in the OTC market structure. An increase in inflation widens bid-ask spreads and decreases asset prices.


Aim: Medulloblastoma is one of the most common posterior fossa tumors in childhood. The treatment-related side effects as well as predictive outcome still remain as a major challenge. The improved understanding of the disease and advances in molecular biology is changing the treatment paradigms from Chang's staging system to molecular risk stratification. However, surgery still remains as an important mainstay of therapy and is formidable. The role of radical surgery has always been a crucial factor in the outcome of these patients, the best survival being reported in patients who had total excision of the tumor and with no metastasis. Patient and Methods: An analysis of 365 patients (age<18 years) of medulloblastoma who underwent treatment at the Seth G.S. Medical College and King Edward VII Memorial hospital (KEM), Mumbai over a 25- year period (1985-2000 and 2001-2010) is presented. The clinical profile, radiological features, pathology and surgical nuances are discussed. Results: The most common age group affected was between 3 and 12 years. 75.3% presented with headaches, vomiting and 63.2% with papilledema. Sitting position was used in majority of cases. A total of 8 patients underwent shunting; all of them were in the postoperative period (5.19%). 92.2% (142 cases) had classical medulloblastoma, 5.1% (8 cases) had desmoplastic variant, 1.9% (3 cases) had anaplastic changes and 0.6% (1 case) had glial differentiation. The 5-year and 10-year progression free survival rate was 73 and 41% for average risk disease while for high risk disease rate it was 34%. The mortality rate was 2%. The quality of life was enhanced in patients who survived 5-10 years after treatment. Conclusion: Surgery for medulloblastoma is formidable. The option of sitting position for medulloblastoma surgery is still viable. A vigilant neuroanesthesiologist and a safe surgery are necessary to achieve a good postoperative result. Radiological characteristics are helpful adjuncts for determining effective surgical strategy. Permanent CSF drainage can be avoided in majority of patients and can be definitively considered in progressive symptomatic hydrocephalus. A safe maximal resection and a good Karnofsky score are paramount to ensure compliance with adjuvant therapy and contribute to an overall survival advantage.


Background: Multimorbidity presents an increasing challenge in the global ageing population. Predicting its development is necessary to help design and deliver effective healthcare. Objective: This scoping review aimed to collate and present the body of published evidence on biomarkers and multimorbidity, identifying what work has been done and what gaps remain. Methods: We searched the electronic databases MEDLINE, Register of Controlled Trials (Cochrane CENTRAL), CINAHL, PsycINFO, EMBASE, Scopus, Web of Science and TRIP database up until 11 August 2020 and hand-searched the reference lists of included articles. Results: We found 34 relevant studies including 12 reporting prospective data and 22 reporting cross-sectional data. These encompassed 14 studies on serum biomarkers, 2 on molecular biomarkers, 7 on physiological biomarkers, 8 on body size biomarkers and 3 on brain function biomarkers. Most studies were undertaken in European or North American populations. There was a broadly consistent finding that obesity was associated with increased multimorbidity. Other results were more varied, reflecting the diverse range of biomarkers investigated, and lack of standardisation of multimorbidity outcome definitions. Longitudinal studies have been set up that are maturing and further evidence can be expected over time. Conclusion: There has been limited research on biomarkers to predict the development of multimorbidity, with minimal investigation of putative biomarkers identified in basic research. High quality research studies in this area are needed to progress the development of targeted interventions to prevent or delay the onset of multimorbidity.


We study the evolution of a pulse propagating in a normally dispersive fiber in the presence of Kerr nonlinearity. We review the temporal and spectral impact of optical wave-breaking in the development of a continuum. The impact of linear losses or gain is also investigated.


Purpose. The success of a new drug candidate is determined not only by its efficacy and safety, but also by proper pharmacokinetic behavior. The early prediction of pharmacokinetic parameters could save time and resources and accelerate drug development process. Plasma clearance (CL) is one of the key determinants of drug dosing regimen. The aim of the study is development of quantitative structure – pharmacokinetics relationships (QSPkRs) for the CL. Methods. A dataset consisted of 263 basic drugs, which chemical structures were described by 154 descriptors. Genetic algorithm, stepwise regression and multiple linear regression were used for variable selection and model development. Predictive ability of the models was assessed by internal and external validation. Results. A number of significant QSPkR models for the CL were derived with respect to the primary elimination pathway (renal excretion, metabolism, or CYP3A4 mediated biotransformation), as well for the unbound clearance (CLu). The models were able to predict 52 – 80% of the drugs from external validation sets within the 2-fold error of the experimental values with geometric mean fold error 1.57 – 2.00. Conclusions. Plasma protein binding was the major restrictive factor for the CL of drugs, primarily cleared by metabolism. The clearance was favored by lipophilicity and several structural features like OH-groups, aromatic rings, large hydrophobic centers, aliphatic groups, connected with electro-negative atoms, and non-substituted aromatic Catoms. The presence of Cl-atoms and abundance of 6-member aromatic rings or fused rings had negative effect. The presence of ether O-atoms contributed negatively to the CL of both metabolism and renally excreted drugs, and urine excretion was favored by the presence of 3-valence N-atoms. These findings give insight on the main structural features governing plasma CL of basic drugs and could serve as a guide for lead optimization in the drug development process. This article is open to POST-PUBLICATION REVIEW. Registered readers (see "For Readers") may comment by clicking on ABSTRACT on the issue's contents page. _______________________________________________________________________


Introduction Higher cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) is associated with improved exercise capacity and quality of life in heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF), but there are no large studies evaluating the association of HFpEF, CRF, and long-term survival. We therefore aimed to determine the association between CRF and all-cause mortality, in patients with HFpEF. Material and methods In the Henry Ford Exercise Testing (FIT) Project, 167 patients had baseline HFpEF, defined as a clinical diagnosis of heart failure with ejection fraction ≥ 50% on echocardiogram. The CRF was estimated from the peak workload (in METs) from a clinician-referred treadmill stress test and categorized as poor (1–4 METs), intermediate (5–6 METs), and moderate-high (≥ 7 METs). Additional analyses assessing the effect of HFpEF and CRF on mortality were also conducted, matching HFpEF patients to non-HFpEF patients using propensity scores. Results Mean age was 64 ±13 years, with 55% women, and 46% Black. Over a median follow-up of 9.7 (5.2–18.9) years, there were 103 deaths. In fully adjusted models, moderate-high CRF was associated with 63% lower mortality risk (HR = 0.37, 95% CI: 0.18–0.73) compared to the poor-CRF group. In the propensity-matched cohort, HFpEF was associated with a HR of 2.3 (95% CI: 1.7–3.2) for mortality compared to non-HFpEF patients, which was attenuated to 1.8 (95% CI: 1.3–2.5) after adjusting for CRF. Conclusions Moderate-high CRF in patients with HFpEF is associated with improved survival, and differences in CRF partly explain the intrinsic risk of HFpEF. Randomized trials of interventions aimed at improving CRF in HFpEF are needed.