PURPOSE
To identify objective criteria to quantify visual function in the rat for developing therapeutic strategies to protect neuronal cells after ischemia. The impact of ocular ischemia on luminance and frequency-modulated contrast vision was compared with the function of outer retinal cells and the number of intact retinal ganglion cells (RGCs).

METHOD
Ischemia was induced in Brown-Norway rats by elevating the intraocular pressure to 120 mm Hg for 30, 45, 60, and 90 minutes. Visual function was evaluated by visual evoked potentials (VEPs) in awake, freely moving rats. Retinal function was analyzed with scotopic and photopic electroretinography (ERG). RGCs were quantified in retinal flatmounts after postischemic injection of tracer into the superior colliculus.

RESULTS
The response to flicker stimulation in VEP recordings decreased as the ischemic episodes increased. The susceptibility to ischemic damage was more pronounced when potentials were evoked with stimuli at higher frequencies. In ERG recordings, ischemia reduced oscillatory potentials and photopic flicker responses more intensely than scotopic a- and b-waves. In counting the RGCs, the reduced cell density correlated significantly with all electrophysiological parameters. The duration of ischemia with half-maximal inhibitory effect was between 36 and 58 minutes for VEPs and between 36 and 41 minutes for ERG, and it was 51 minutes for RGCs.

CONCLUSIONS
The amounts of reduction in VEPs, ERG, and RGCs differed as the duration of ischemia increased. The electrophysiological parameters presented in this study may serve as a useful addition to morphologic evaluations in future neuroprotection studies in vivo.


We argue that artificial intelligence capable of sustaining an uncontrolled intelligence explosion must have a conceptual-linguistic faculty with substantial functional similarity to the human faculty. We then argue for three subsidiary claims: first, that detecting the presence of such a faculty will be an important indicator of imminent superintelligence; second, that such a superintelligence will, in creating further increases in intelligence, both face and consider the same sorts of existential risks that humans face today; third, that such a superintelligence is likely to assess and question its own values, purposes, and drives.


Understanding the global carbon (C) cycle is of crucial importance to map current and future climate dynamics relative to global environmental change. A full characterization of C cycling requires detailed information on spatiotemporal patterns of surface-atmosphere fluxes. However, relevant C cycle observations are highly variable in their coverage and reporting standards. Especially problematic is the lack of integration of vertical oceanic, inland freshwaters and terrestrial carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) exchange. Here we adopt a data-driven approach to synthesize a wide range of observation-based spatially explicit surface-atmosphere CO 2 fluxes from 2001 and 2010, to identify the state of today's observational opportunities and data limitation. The considered fluxes include vertical net exchange of open oceans, continental shelves, estuaries, rivers, and lakes, as well as CO 2 fluxes related to gross primary productivity, terrestrial ecosystem respiration, fire emissions, loss of tropical aboveground C, harvested wood and crops, as well as fossil fuel and cement emissions. Spatially explicit CO 2 fluxes are obtained through geostatistical and/or remote sensing-based upscaling; minimizing biophysical or biogeochemical assumptions encoded in process-based models. We estimate a global bottom-up net C exchange (NCE) between the surface (land, ocean, and coastal areas) and the atmosphere. Uncertainties for NCE and its components are derived using resampling. In most continental regions our NCE estimates agree well with independent estimates from other sources. This holds for Europe (mean ±1 SD: 0.80 ± 0.16 PgC/yr, positive numbers are sources to the atmosphere), Russia (−0.02 ± 0.49 PgC/yr), East Asia (1.76 ± 0.38 PgC/yr), South Asia (0.25 ± 0.16 PgC/yr), and Australia (0.22 ± 0.47 PgC/yr). Our NCE estimates also suggest large C sink in tropical areas. The global NCE estimate is −6.07 ± 3.38 PgC/yr. This global bottom-up value is the opposite direction of what is expected from the atmospheric growth rate of CO 2 , and would require an offsetting surface C source of 4.27±0.10 PgC/yr. This mismatch highlights large knowledge and observational gaps in tropical areas, particularly in South America, Africa, and Southeast Asia, but also in North America. Our uncertainty assessment provides the basis for designing new observation campaigns. In particular, we lack seasonal monitoring of shelf, estuary and inland water-atmosphere C exchange. Also, extensive pCO 2 measurements are missing in the Southern Ocean. Most importantly, tropical land C fluxes suffer from a lack of in-situ observations. The consistent derivation of data uncertainties could serve as prior knowledge in multi-criteria optimization such as the Carbon Cycle Data Assimilation System (CCDAS) without overstating data credibility. Furthermore, the spatially explicit flux estimates may be used as a starting point to assess the validity of countries' claims of reducing net C emissions in climate change negotiations.


Implant temperature increases as soon as a wear test starts. Frictional heating is the main reason for the temperature increase. Factors that affect the magnitude of the increase include the thermal conductivity of the implant materials, testing speed, and serum volume of the test chamber. High implant temperature can cause precipitation of soluble proteins in the serum lubricant. The protein precipitates can form a film at the wear interface and may affect laboratory wear evaluation of polyethylene liners. The effects of the implant temperature (of cobalt-chromium and zirconia femoral components) and the amount of protein precipitation from serum lubricant on the wear of UHMWPE liners has been demonstrated in a previous study using an external temperature control device. Furthermore, the nonlinear relationship of the implant temperature and the polyethylene wear has been discussed in another study, using moderately crosslinked UHMWPE liners tested against cobalt-chromium, zirconia, and alumina/zirconia composite femoral components at various temperatures. The results from both studies demonstrated that the temperature around the hip joint implants during a simulation can affect the wear rate of polyethylene. One guideline for minimizing the thermal effects on in vitro testing include circulation of coolant at an appropriate temperature to avoid overheating (due to nonstop running of the simulator) thus preventing excessive protein precipitation. This recommendation should help producing wear surfaces and wear debris that are more comparable to in vivo outcomes.


Credit card lending in Asia has grown rapidly since the 1997 Asian financial crisis. This growth has seen several episodes of sharp booms and busts, posing new risks to financial stability. This paper attempts to learn more about the credit card markets and shed light on and draw lessons from some of the core common elements in the three recent episodes of credit card lending distress in Asia. Policymakers need to learn more about the risks arising from this type of consumer lending and respond with enhanced supervisory capacity, better market infrastructure, and appropriate prudential measures.


The main purpose of this study is to ascertain the existence of a relationship
between inflation and economic growth in Nigeria. The methodology employed in this study
is the quantitative research design. Consumer price index (CPI) was used as a proxy for
inflation and the GDP as proxy for economic growth, to examine the relationship. The scope
of the study spanned from 2000 to 2009. Ordinary least square method and t-test was used to
test the variables most likely to impact on economic growth in Nigeria due to inflation. The
findings also shows that there is strong relationship between inflation and economic growth
in Nigeria, that exchange rate has positive impact on economic growth and that high interest
rate discourages investment and hence forestalls economic growth. It is therefore,
recommended that the monetary policies aimed at exchange rate be strengthened through
effective supervision and regulatory framework of financial system by the monetary
framework of financial system by the monetary authorities. Continuous monetary policies
that will achieve the desired macroeconomic stability, increase in private sector credits and
there is also need fro more effective management of interest rate in Nigeria.


The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit held that a district wide ban of bracelets containing the word "boobies" was an impermissible restriction of students' First Amendment speech rights. The majority's focus on the bracelets' social message is critical for the preservation of students' rights to discuss social issues, particularly health issues. Alternatively, Judge Hardiman's dissent focused on the bracelets' alleged sexual innuendo and did not give credence to the bracelets' purpose. Judge Hardiman advocated upholding the ban due to the bracelets' supposed sexual nature. Had Judge Hardiman prevailed, knowledge and awareness of a vital health issue would have been wrongly suppressed because of the disease's connection to a sexual body part. It is important that the majority prevailed in order for students to maintain their rights to discuss and be well informed on social issues.


Getting started with iPad just got easier with this one-of-a-kind book-and-DVD bundle! In love with your iPad? Then this is the perfect package for you! Featuring the bestselling iPad For Dummies, 2nd Edition book, the bundle also includes a 45-minute instructional DVD complete with step-by-step instructions to help you get more from your iPad or iPad 2.This bundle is a real value, but most of all, it's a great way to master your iPad. Read the instructions in the book, then watch the video illustrate the technique. Or turn to the book for more detail on something you've watched on the video.Either way, you'll get to know your iPad or iPad 2 fast. You'll learn how to set up your iPad, master the multitouch interface, surf the web, make FaceTime video calls, record HD video, and shoot fantastic photos. You'll also get your data synchronized, browse the Internet, organize your e-mail and calendar, and more.This book-and-DVD bundle is an ideal resource for getting comfortable and confident with the features of your new iPadShows you how to fill your iPad or iPad 2 with cool stufffrom music to movies, apps to e-books, photos to games, and everything in betweenHighlights the newest iPad features including video chatting with FaceTime, adding cool effects to your photos with Photo Booth, recording HD video, and moreWalks readers through customizing your iPad's settings, protecting your information, troubleshooting, and keeping your iPad happyCovers both iPad and iPad 2 modelsDiscover all the incredible things iPad can do with the iPad For Dummies, 2nd Edition, Book + DVD Bundle.


In this article, we describe a conceptual model for video games and interactive media. Existing conceptual models such as the Functional Requirements for Bibliographic Records (FRBR) are not adequate to represent the unique descriptive attributes, levels of variance, and relationships among video games. Previous video game‐specific models tend to focus on the development of video games and their technical aspects. Our model instead attempts to reflect how users such as game players, collectors, and scholars understand video games and the relationships among them. We specifically consider use cases of gamers, with future intentions of using this conceptual model as a foundation for developing a union catalog for various libraries and museums. In the process of developing the model, we encountered many challenges, including conceptual overlap with and divergence from FRBR, entity scoping, complex relationships among entities, and the question of how to model additional content for game expansion. Future work will focus on making this model interoperable with existing ontologies as well as further understanding and description of content and relationships.


World economic growth is moderating accompanied by a broad-based deterioration in economic sentiment. Following a temporary pick up in the second quarter, global activity slowed down significantly in the third quarter and sentiment indicators point towards a further deceleration towards the end of the year. Increased uncertainty from global trade conflicts and the tightening of monetary policy in the US that has put emerging economies under pressure have likely contributed to this development. We expect the global economy to expand at a rate of 3.7 percent this year, followed by 3.4 next year. This is a slight downward revision for 2018 and 2019 by 0.1 percentage points compared to our September forecast. For 2020, we continue to expect world production to increase by 3.4 percent. The escalation of trade conflicts, the possibility of a 'hard Brexit', doubts about the sustainability of Italian public debt, and a delay of reforms in France pose downside risks to our outlook.


Focal modulation microscopy (FMM) is an emerging microscopy technique for fluorescence imaging of thick biological tissue in vivo. A spatial phase modulator is a critical component whose characteristics have a significant impact on the performance of a FMM system. We have designed a simple spatial phase modulator based on a tilting glass plate that provides superb modulation stability. Image quality has been improved remarkably after integrating such a modulator into a FMM system.


MSMBuilder is a software package for building statistical models of high-dimensional time-series data. It is designed with a particular focus on the analysis of atomistic simulations of biomolecular dynamics such as protein folding and conformational change. MSMBuilder is named for its ability to construct Markov State Models (MSMs), a class of models that has gained favor among computational biophysicists. In addition to both well-established and newer MSM methods, the package includes complementary algorithms for understanding time-series data such as hidden Markov models (HMMs) and time-structure based independent component analysis (tICA). MSMBuilder boasts an easy to use command-line interface, as well as clear and consistent abstractions through its Python API (application programming interface). MSMBuilder is developed with careful consideration for compatibility with the broader machine-learning community by following the design of scikit-learn. The package is used primarily by practitioners of molecular dynamics but is just as applicable to other computational or experimental time-series measurements. http://msmbuilder.org


The impact of new digital technologies, developed in the last decades, has substantially modified the conception, use and practices, which to the present day, remained immutable for centuries in the world of music and performing arts; from edition or distribution of contents, to production or management of sheet music. In parallel with the emergence and growth of the e-book, it have been developed applications with specific functions and tolos, focused in reading and handling sheet music and musical texts in digital formats. The progressive inclusion, within these applications, of specialized tools for text annotation, study and practice, or music performance, and the present days acknowledgement of them as great educational value resources, has been resolved with the birth of a new category of applications specifically developed for music teaching and learning related purposes. This work aims to describe the great potential of these new emerging tools, largely in response to a progressive generalization of music as a globalized social practice. It also describes the various possibilities of use and application in relation to the context, discipline or matter on which they are involved, as well as the different avalaible resources for each particular educational need.


Abstract Haemophilus influenzae is a Gram-negative human-restricted bacterium that can act as a commensal and a pathogen of the respiratory tract. Especially nontypeable H. influenzae (NTHi) is a major threat to public health and is responsible for several infectious diseases in humans, such as pneumonia, sinusitis, and otitis media. Additionally, NTHi strains are highly associated with exacerbations in patients suffering from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Currently, there is no licensed vaccine against NTHi commercially available. Thus, this study investigated the utilization of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs) as a potential vaccine candidate against NTHi infections. We analyzed the immunogenic and protective properties of OMVs derived from various NTHi strains by means of nasopharyngeal immunization and colonization studies with BALB/c mice. The results presented herein demonstrate that an intranasal immunization with NTHi OMVs results in a robust and complex humoral and mucosal immune response. Immunoprecipitation revealed the most important immunogenic proteins, such as the heme utilization protein, protective surface antigen D15, heme binding protein A, and the outer membrane proteins P1, P2, P5 and P6. The induced immune response conferred not only protection against colonization with a homologous NTHi strain, which served as an OMV donor for the immunization mixtures, but also against a heterologous NTHi strain, whose OMVs were not part of the immunization mixtures. These findings indicate that OMVs derived from NTHi strains have a high potential to act as a vaccine against NTHi infections.


The ability to monitor the wireless spectrum in real-time is important in a variety of environments including high-security and control-system environments such as power plants and military facilities, as well as shared spectrum environments such as the 3.5 GHz band model that was announced by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). In all of these cases, real-time detection and classification of signals while minimizing missed detections and misclassifications is paramount. Motivated by these important applications, we built a real-time system for spectrum monitoring and analysis which uses GNU Radio and Universal Software Radio Peripheral (USRP) X310s. In this paper, we focus on the GNU Radio-specific implementation challenges we face as well as the approaches we take to tackle these challenges. We also present our experiences with our implementation. We show that in some instances, particularly message passing, we can achieve a substantial improvement in processing performance by using alternative mechanisms, including Qt Signals and Slots (yielding a 78x performance improvement) and treating streams of data as strings, or by simply improving upon the existing code such as switching to using VOLK.


The study was carried out to assess the implication of the use of selected Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) for extension service delivery in Nigeria. The simple random technique was used to select fifty percent of the total extension agents which equivalent to forty-two respondents as sample size for the study. Frequency counts, percentages, mean and standard deviation were used as descriptive statistic. Also, Chi-Square test and Spearman's rho correlation were employed as inferential statistic to test for the hypotheses. Findings indicated that access to various ICTs tools especially Radio and Mobile phone and were found to be relevant to farming operations. The result of Chi square test revealed that significant relationship exist between sex, age, level of education, years of working experience of the extension agents and level of use of ICTs. Furthermore, the result of Spearman rho Correlation showed that there was no significant relationship between ICT training of extension workers and the level of use of ICTs. The study recommended among others that, there should be a periodic review of the use of current ICTs in extension service delivery to facilitate effectiveness in the use of ICTs for extension service and adequate funding of extension service should also be ensured to enhance the maintenance of ICTs made available to extension personnel.


Objectives: Cancer survivors may have increased risk for additional malignancies and illnesses. Veterans comprise a significant proportion of Texas male cancer survivors and may differ in their health status and needs from non-veterans. It is unknown whether they differ in general health-promotion strategies. This study sought to identify deficits in health-promoting behaviors among Texas male cancer survivors and to determine whether veteran-status predicts differences along these behaviors. Methods: Using the Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System 2009 survey, we conducted secondary analysis of 280 veteran and 250 non-veteran Texas male cancer survivors. Data were analyzed using Fisher's exact test and logistic-regression models. Results: Survivors averaged 68 years (SD = 11.4) and were primarily white (93%), married (71.5%), college graduates (51%), and non-smokers (91%). Respondents reported several different cancer diagnoses; most commonly prostate (28%). More non-veterans than veterans were obese (31.6% vs. 22.5%; p = 0.03). Veteran-status was not associated with other co-morbidities, current smoking, binge drinking, or fruit/vegetable consumption. However, only 22% met recommendations for daily fruits/vegetables. In multivariate regression, veterans were less likely to meet moderate (OR = 0.54, 95% CI = 0.30–0.95) and vigorous (OR = 0.67, 95% CI = 0.45–0.99) physical-activity recommendations, but were more likely to have had health examinations within the previous year (OR = 1.77, 95% CI = 1.11–2.83). Conclusion: Texas male cancer survivors reported deficits across important health behaviors, including dietary and physical-activity recommendations. Veterans reported low compliance with physical-activity guidelines, in spite of evidence-based veterans health-promotion programs, e.g., MOVE! ®. Our results suggest veterans' adherence to routine care may offer a point of intervention to implement health-promotion guidelines among cancer survivors. Further research is needed to understand how to use the growing focus on cancer survivorship within the VA healthcare system to encourage greater adoption of health promotion practices among veteran cancer survivors.


In an increasingly mobile and risk-centred world, the focus of academic attention is often on global movements of people, commodities, wages, finance and information, and on global risks such as environmental deterioration, pandemics and terrorism (Beck 1992, Adams 1999, 2005, Urry 2000). However, everyday life, with everyday mobilities and everyday risk are more often the predominant concern of the majority of citizens in the West (Tulloch and Lupton 2003). This paper is situated at this more local level, aimed at understanding a microcosm of everyday life: the corporeal mobilities of the journey to school, drawing out broader implications for a society shaped by both risk and mobility. In particular, the discussion here follows on from Jenkins' (2006) paper on risk, parenting and young people in using socio-cultural theory to question the assumptions made about parental management of risks to their children and particularly theories of 'paranoid parenting' (Furedi 2001). It is argued here that it is localised everyday risk discourses, and their construction according to gender and generation, that are most significant in shaping mobility.


Subject: Flexible staffing solutions and its impact on customer satisfaction Key terms: Flexible staff, temporary, non-standard, contingent, customer satisfaction, financial benefits. The face of the workplace has changed dramatically over the past decade and most organisations have to survive in a fiercely competitive global economy. The impact of the competitive changes, especially in the service environment has become critical and quality service is considered an essential strategy for success and survival in today's competitive environment. Organisations are continuously searching for ways to improve their performance and create a sustainable competitive advantage. Consumers are also continuously being made more aware of their rights and in today's fast paced world, with time constraints and increased stress, tolerance levels have been considerably eroded. In view of this, customer satisfaction has become a focus area, in particular, to investigate ways that it can be enhanced to gain a competitive edge. A better understanding of how organisations can apply resources to achieve these goals will be a useful instrument towards gaining sustainable competitive advantage. One way of doing this is for service firms to manage their capacity to achieve maximum and/or optimum utilisation at all times, if possible. But having trained staff on hand at the right times is no easy task. Overstaffing can lead to budget blow-out, while understating adds to staff stress levels, and can contribute to both customer and staff dissatisfaction. As a possible solution many employers tackle this problem by employing casual staff who are more flexible in their working hours and can be deployed to meet peak demands in service. The objective of this study was to investigate the importance of customer satisfaction and whether the utilisation of temporary staffing solutions could positively contribute in improving service levels. A survey research design was used with a questionnaire as data-gathering instrument. The study population consisted of customers (/V=507) that iv visited Absa branches in the Vaal Triangle and were serviced by either permanent or flexi tellers. Contingency tables were used to record and analyse the relationship between the different variables, and statistical significance tests were used to show that the results are significant. Chi-square and Cramer's phi or V test were used as the basis of the analysis. The research confirmed that customer satisfaction has definite financial benefits for an organisation and that the effective application of temporary staffing solutions could further enhance these benefits. The results of the statistical analysis of the survey further confirmed that there was no significant difference in the perceived level of service received from either permanent or flexi tellers. Limitations in the research are identified and recommendations for future research are made.


As one of the important stakeholders in the academic process, students and their preferences should be considered when the instructor selects the various course design features. Although students are not the only stakeholders in the academic process, their receptiveness to classroom instruction is clearly a central focus of that process. This paper examines a large sample of business student data on their preferences with respect to fourteen controllable course design features. The preferences are examined in light of their relative ranked importance and relative intensity. Additionally, the data is examined in light of potential differences in student preferences relative to various demographics. The paper summarizes the ranked contributions of different course design features from a student perspective. These findings should assist instructors in designing course parameters to meet student considerations without compromising an instructor's personal choice and academic freedom.


This study examined the relationship between childhood sexual abuse and symptoms of a newly proposed complex posttraumatic stress disorder or disorder of extreme stress not otherwise specified (DESNOS). Compared to 34 women without histories of sexual abuse, 74 survivors of sexual abuse showed increased severity on DESNOS symptoms of somatization, dissociation, hostility, anxiety, alexithymia, social dysfunction, maladaptive schemas, self-destruction and adult victimization. In addition, a logistic regression found that a complex of symptoms representing DESNOS was significantly related to a history of sexual abuse. Consistent with other studies, the results of this study provide support for the idea that symptoms of DESNOS characterize survivors of sexual abuse.


Summary

Background

The [13C]-ethanol breath test (EBT) has been proposed as a novel non-invasive laboratory test to detect the degradation of ethanol into CO2. However, this method has not yet been evaluated clinically.

Aim

To investigate the factors that influence [13C]-EBT.

Methods

Twenty-six healthy volunteers were instructed to drink 100 mL of beer (4 g ethanol) containing 100 μL of [13C]-ethanol. Breath samples were collected every 15 min before and after the intake of ethanol solution and 13CO2-enrichment was measured using mass spectrometry. CO2 excretion was then calculated, and the results were evaluated using kinetic parameters (Tmax, Cmax, AUC).

Results

Tmax (min) was significantly shorter in men than in women but not Cmax and AUC. Infection with H. pylori had no impact on all kinetic parameters. Genetic alcohol dehydrogenase (ADH) polymorphisms did not affect 13CO2 excretion, but Cmax (11.1 ± 3.4% dose/h, n = 16) and AUC (10.5 ± 3.4% dose) were slightly increased in aldehyde dehydrogenase (ALDH)-deficient individuals (heterozygote of ALDH2*2) (13.2 ± 3.2 and 12.9 ± 4.5, respectively; n = 10).

Conclusions

[13C]-EBT is capable of assessing the metabolic processing of 100 mL beer in a non-invasive way. Kinetic parameters are partially influenced by ALDH polymorphism but not by gender, H. pylori infection or ADH polymorphism.


Inquiry learning is a didactic approach in which students acquire knowledge and skills through processes of theory building and experimentation. Computer modeling and simulation can play a prominent role within this approach. Students construct representations of physical systems using modeling. Using simulation, they execute these representations to study the phenomena or systems modeled. However, the modeling task is complex, and students can fail to create adequate models, which prevents effective learning. This necessitates supportive measures to scaffold the modeling processes. In this paper, we address the issue of designing such support through the development of intelligent advice to be incorporated in modeling environments. The advice is based on the definition of a family of reference solutions for each modeling problem, on the comparison of the reference solutions with the students' solutions, and on the use of an advice knowledge base. This advice guides the students to the construction of a better solution, helping them acquire the knowledge required for successful modeling and for the correction of modeling mistakes. In a collaborative session, having the advice encourages discussion between students about the advice and the best way of proceeding. Empirical validations of the advice approach are presented.


In recent years, there has been an explosion of large-scale real-time analytics needs and a plethora of streaming systems have been developed to support such applications. These systems are able to continue stream processing even when faced with hardware and software failures. However, these systems do not address some crucial challenges facing their operators: the manual, time-consuming and error-prone tasks of tuning various configuration knobs to achieve service level objectives (SLO) as well as the maintenance of SLOs in the face of sudden, unpredictable load variation and hardware or software performance degradation.

In this paper, we introduce the notion of self-regulating streaming systems and the key properties that they must satisfy. We then present the design and evaluation of Dhalion, a system that provides self-regulation capabilities to underlying streaming systems. We describe our implementation of the Dhalion framework on top of Twitter Heron, as well as a number of policies that automatically reconfigure Heron topologies to meet throughput SLOs, scaling resource consumption up and down as needed. We experimentally evaluate our Dhalion policies in a cloud environment and demonstrate their effectiveness. We are in the process of open-sourcing our Dhalion policies as part of the Heron project.


In an order-driven financial market, the price of a financial asset is discovered through the interaction of orders - requests to buy or sell at a particular price - that are posted to the public limit order book (LOB). Therefore, LOB data is extremely valuable for modelling market dynamics. However, LOB data is not freely accessible, which poses a challenge to market participants and researchers wishing to exploit this information. Fortunately, trades and quotes (TAQ) data - orders arriving at the top of the LOB, and trades executing in the market - are more readily available. In this paper, we present the LOB recreation model, a first attempt from a deep learning perspective to recreate the top five price levels of the LOB for small-tick stocks using only TAQ data. Volumes of orders sitting deep in the LOB are predicted by combining outputs from: (1) a history compiler that uses a Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) module to selectively compile prediction relevant quote history; (2) a market events simulator, which uses an Ordinary Differential Equation Recurrent Neural Network (ODE-RNN) to simulate the accumulation of net order arrivals; and (3) a weighting scheme to adaptively combine the predictions generated by (1) and (2). By the paradigm of transfer learning, the core encoder trained on one stock can be fine-tuned to enable application to other financial assets of the same class with much lower demand on additional data. Comprehensive experiments conducted on two real world intraday LOB datasets demonstrate that the proposed model can efficiently recreate the LOB with high accuracy using only TAQ data as input.


Last few years have seen rapid acceptance of high-definition television (HDTV) technology around the world. This technology has been hugely successful in delivering more realistic television experience at home and accurate imaging for professional applications. Adoption of high definition continues to grow as consumers demand enhanced features and greater quality of content. Following this trend, natural evolution of visualisation technologies will be in the direction of fully realistic visual experience and highly precise imaging. However, using the content of even higher resolution and quality is not straightforward as such videos require significantly higher access bandwidth and more processing power. Therefore, methods for radical reduction of video bandwidth are crucial for realisation of high visual quality. Moreover, it is desirable to look into other ways of accessing visual content, solution to which lies in innovative schemes for content delivery and consumption. This book presents selected chapters covering technologies that will enable greater flexibility in video content representation and allow users to access content from any device and to interact with it.


In countries with aging populations, the global recession presents unique challenges for older workers, and compels an assessment of how they are faring. To this end, the International Labour Organization's concept of decent work provides a useful metric or yardstick. Decent work, a multifaceted conception, assists in revealing the interdependence of measures needed to secure human dignity across the course of working lives. With this in mind, in three English-speaking, common law countries (Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States), this Article considers several decent work principles applicable to older workers and provides evaluations in light of them. Relevant to the analysis is the role workplace law plays in each country in ameliorating or exacerbating older worker vulnerability. Although the recession affected each country to a different extent, and the response of national employers to the crisis varied significantly, the effects of the financial crisis on older workers are strikingly similar. The recession has affected the quality of work for older workers. For many, employment has become more fragile, inconstant and insecure. In all three nations, the recession also compromised older workers' ability to plan for and secure a key decent work precept, a dignified retirement.Yet stronger national differences emerge when evaluating labor regulations affecting older workers. While all three countries prohibit age discrimination to varying degrees, such prohibitions by themselves do not greatly contribute to employment security for older workers. General labor standards, such as those restricting termination and layoff or requiring severance pay, and the provision of a robust safety net, are just as important in forestalling older worker vulnerability. By using decent work as a touchstone, and looking broadly at the intersecting factors that contribute to older worker insecurity, the outlines of needed policy reforms become clear.


The risk of unauthorized remote access of streaming video from networked cameras underlines the need for stronger privacy safeguards. We propose a lens-free coded aperture camera system for human action recognition that is privacy-preserving. While coded aperture systems exist, we believe ours is the first system designed for action recognition without the need for image restoration as an intermediate step. Action recognition is done using a deep network that takes in as input, non-invertible motion features between pairs of frames computed using phase correlation and log-polar transformation. Phase correlation encodes translation while the log polar transformation encodes in-plane rotation and scaling. We show that the translation features are independent of the coded aperture design, as long as its spectral response within the bandwidth has no zeros. Stacking motion features computed on frames at multiple different strides in the video can improve accuracy. Preliminary results on simulated data based on a subset of the UCF and NTU datasets are promising. We also describe our prototype lens-free coded aperture camera system, and results for real captured videos are mixed.


Background: Facilitated Communication Training (FCT) is a controversial approach to supporting people with severe communication difficulties. It is one method of supporting Alternative and Augmentative Communication (AAC). It has the potential for enabling people with severe language impairments to access communication aids. The local education authority had experience of enabling a non-verbal young person with cerebral palsy who uses FCT to access mainstream education and were open to exploring whether other young people could benefit from this support.

Aims: To explore ways of introducing FCT within the local authority in order to enhance the communication of young people who had been identified as not having had access to the means of reaching their communication potential.

Method: An action research approach resulted in the implementation of a pilot project. AAC/FCT was introduced to a group of seven pupils and the adults who support them through a training and support programme. A case study methodology was used to analyse the outcomes for pupils and adults.

Results: Action research was found to support the introduction of FCT. Some pupils showed significant gains through access to AAC/FCT. The majority of adults reported changes in their knowledge, use and attitudes towards AAC/FCT. Many attributed this to an increased belief in pupils' potential.

Conclusions: Action research is an effective process in supporting change. There is a theoretical basis for explaining why FCT supports some pupils. The discourse used to describe FCT could be further supported by using theories that take account of context (mediated learning and activity theory) and could contribute to changing the negative historical and socio-cultural discourse associated with FCT. An effective training and ongoing support programme lead to changes in adults' practise.


Athletes can approach competition positively, as a challenge, or negatively, as a threat. The theory of challenge and threat states in athletes (TCTSA) outlines that a challenge state, contrary to a threat state, is characterised by high levels of self-efficacy and perceived control, approach goals, positive emotions, a helpful interpretation of emotional state and a cardiovascular reactivity pattern of increased cardiac output and decreased total peripheral resistance. The aim of this thesis was to examine relations between these cognitive, affective, and physiological components of challenge and threat states in a sport setting; research in sport have mostly examined these components separately. Five studies were conducted to examine this aim. These comprised a qualitative analysis of athletes" interviews about an upcoming competition, a cross-sectional questionnaire study, two studies where self-report data were associated with cardiovascular responses to an upcoming competition or previous competition, and a case study. Overall, the cognitive and affective components are somewhat supportive of the TCTSA, with a positive relation between self-efficacy, perceived control and approach goals. Threat appraisal and anxiety were positively predicted by avoidance goals. Most of the physiological findings, however, were not in line with the predictions of the TCTSA. Specifically, participants who had high levels of self-efficacy appeared to be physiologically threatened by an upcoming competition. There was no consistent relation between the cognitive, affective, and physiological components regarding previous competitions. Temporal patterning may be one of the main confounding factors for the inconsistent findings as the relations between physiological, cognitive, and affective components all change in the lead up to competition. This thesis makes an original contribution to stress research by exploring the combination of cognitive, affective, and physiological components outlined by the TCTSA using a holistic understanding of how athletes approach competition.


Great database systems performance relies heavily on index tuning, i.e., creating and utilizing the best indices depending on the workload. However, the complexity of the index tuning process has dramatically increased in recent years due to ad-hoc workloads and shortage of time and system resources to invest in tuning. This paper introduces holistic indexing, a new approach to automated index tuning in dynamic environments. Holistic indexing requires zero set-up and tuning effort, relying on adaptive index creation as a side-effect of query processing. Indices are created incrementally and partially;they are continuously refined as we process more and more queries. Holistic indexing takes the state-of-the-art adaptive indexing ideas a big step further by introducing the notion of a system which never stops refining the index space, taking educated decisions about which index we should incrementally refine next based on continuous knowledge acquisition about the running workload and resource utilization. When the system detects idle CPU cycles, it utilizes those extra cycles by refining the adaptive indices which are most likely to bring a benefit for future queries. Such idle CPU cycles occur when the system cannot exploit all available cores up to 100%, i.e., either because the workload is not enough to saturate the CPUs or because the current tasks performed for query processing are not easy to parallelize to the point where all available CPU power is exploited. In this paper, we present the design of holistic indexing for column-oriented database architectures and we discuss a detailed analysis against parallel versions of state-of-the-art indexing and adaptive indexing approaches. Holistic indexing is implemented in an open-source column-store DBMS. Our detailed experiments on both synthetic and standard benchmarks (TPC-H) and workloads (SkyServer) demonstrate that holistic indexing brings significant performance gains by being able to continuously refine the physical design in parallel to query processing, exploiting any idle CPU resources.


The 4-m aperture Advanced Technology Solar Telescope (ATST) is the next generation ground based solar telescope. In this paper we provide an overview of the ATST post-focus instrumentation. The majority of ATST instrumentation is located in an instrument Coude lab facility, where a rotating platform provides image de-rotation. A high order adaptive optics system delivers a corrected beam to the Coude lab facility. Alternatively, instruments can be mounted at Nasmyth or a small Gregorian area. For example, instruments for observing the faint corona preferably will be mounted at Nasmyth focus where maximum throughput is achieved. In addition, the Nasmyth focus has minimum telescope polarization and minimum stray light. We describe the set of first generation instruments, which include a Visible-Light Broadband Imager (VLBI), Visible and Near-Infrared (NIR) Spectropolarimeters, Visible and NIR Tunable Filters, a Thermal-Infrared Polarimeter & Spectrometer and a UV-Polarimeter. We also discuss unique and efficient approaches to the ATST instrumentation, which builds on the use of common components such as detector systems, polarimetry packages and various opto-mechanical components.


This paper proposes a dedicated outdoor air system (DOAS) with thermoelectric module radiant cooling panels (TEM-RCP). The DOAS involves the concept of a decoupled system with a parallel sensible cooling unit. This concept implies decoupling of ventilation and air-conditioning functions. The DOAS treats latent loads from outside air intake as a 100 % OA ventilation system. Additionally, a parallel sensible cooling unit, such as ceiling radiant cooling panel (CRCP), generally removes sensible loads. In the study, the variable air volume system and DOAS CRCP using chilled water were also considered as a conventional HVAC system and traditional parallel cooling unit of DOAS, respectively. The two cases were compared to investigate the possibility of applying TEM-RCP on DOAS. Mathematical simulation models were developed, and the operating and annual energy consumptions for all three cases were estimated. The results indicated that the thermal performance was satisfied in all cases including the proposed systems. The proposed system resulted in annual energy consumption savings of 44.5 % when compared with the variable air volume system. On the other hands, the energy consumption of TEM-RCP exceeded that of the CRCP by 33 % due to its low coefficient of performance (COP) and additional energy from heat rejection. The proposed system did not exhibit benefits in terms of energy consumption when compared with that of the DOAS CRCP. However, it could be easily controlled by using input current without refrigerants and still continue to display energy saving potential when compared with the VAV system.


The striatum and thalamus are subcortical structures intimately involved in addiction, and the morphology and microstructure of these has been studied in murine models of cocaine addiction. However, human studies using noninvasive MRI has shown inconsistencies in morphology using volumetric analysis. In our study, we used MRI-based volumetric and novel shape analysis, as well as a novel fast diffusion kurtosis imaging sequence to study the morphology and microstructure of striatum and thalamus in crack cocaine addiction (CA) compared to matched healthy controls (HC). We did not find significant differences in volume and mean kurtosis (MKT) between groups. However, we found significant contraction of nucleus accumbens in CA compared to HC. We also found significant age related changes in volume and MKT of CA in striatum and thalamus that are contrary to those seen in normal brain aging. Our findings suggest that the use of finer methods and sequences is needed to characterize morphological and microstructural changes in cocaine addiction, and that brain changes in cocaine addiction are related to age. . CC-BY-NC 4.0 International license peer-reviewed) is the author/funder. It is made available under a The copyright holder for this preprint (which was not . http://dx.doi.org/10.1101/066647 doi: bioRxiv preprint first posted online Jul. 29, 2016;


This paper uses a new data-set to examine how internal capital markets and foreignownership affect investment. Our data allow us to compare investment behaviour of listedsubsidiaries with stand-alone firms while controlling for investment opportunities of parentand subsidiary firms. We evaluate how the size of ownership and the geographical proximityof majority owners to their subsidiaries affect firm investment efficiency. We find that theinvestment of subsidiaries is more sensitive to investment opportunities than that of standalonefirms and falls when investment opportunities of parent firms improve. This suggeststhat there are internal capital markets that reallocate funds towards units with betterinvestment opportunities. We find that investment allocation is most efficient where parentshave modest ownership stakes and are distant from their subsidiaries and when subsidiariesoperate in well developed financial markets. These results indicate that influence costsimposed by dominant parents may outweigh their potential informational benefits, especiallywhen subsidiaries are located in countries with weaker financial development.


A must-read book for seniors who are eager to get started with Windows 8!As one of the biggest and most highly anticipated technology releases, Windows 8 will be new territory to many PC users and may require a generous learning curve. Windows 8 for the Older and Wiser is an ideal guide for the senior computer user. Featuring an accessible writing style, a full-colour layout, an easy-to-read font, and a generous amount of screenshots, this resource covers everything from mouse and keyboard basics to surfing the Internet. No previous computing knowledge is assumed, so you get an easygoing style that skips the technical jargon. A friendly step-by-step approach helps you get through each topic, including what the "windows" are in Windows and how they work, how to customise your Windows desktop, get digital photos from your camera to your PC, and much more. Details how to create, save, organise, and find files Reviews all the desktop background options, font sizes, widgets, colours, and more Addresses troubleshooting solutions to common problems Walks you through setting up and using e-mail Demonstrates how to use the Internet for news, shopping, travel, and more Helps you use programs, navigate menus, enlarge fonts and icons, set the screen for best visibility, and moreWindows 8 for the Older and Wiser is an easy-to-follow guide for the senior market for making the most of Windows 8.


HUBENOVA, T., A. ZAIKOV, P. VASILEVA and I. PISKOV, 2010. Growth and survival of pike larvae Esox lucius L. fed on brine shrimp (Artemia salina L.) nauplii. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 16: 394-397 The purpose of this investigation is to establish the effect of using live Artemia nauplii on the survival and growth of juvenile pike (Esox lucius L.). The experiment was carried out at laboratory conditions in 20 l tanks in the course of 20 days. The experimental fish were obtained by means of semi artificial reproduction of pike spawners in tank (4 m3). On the 12fth day after hatching larvae were transferred to the laboratory and stocked in the experimental tanks at three densities 10, 20 and 30 pike larvae.l-1. The larvae from the different variants have been fed ad libitum on Artemia nauplii. The results have shown that Artemia nauplii can be used successfully to feed pike larvae obtained from the artificial and semi-artificial reproduction, when because of the low water temperature the zooplankton collection from ponds and lakes has been difficult. The highest growth rate was achieved at stocking density of 30 larvae.l-1, which has been probably due to the relatively higher density of the Armemia nauplii given in the tanks at that variant. The survival rate of pike larvae in all variants was good and within the limits of 64-68%, in the third variant being little less because of cannibalism, which have occurred more often during the last 3-4 days of rearing.


Two recently developed instruments, the Laser Optical Plankton Counter (LOPC) and the Zooscan, have been applied to study zooplankton biomass size spectra in tropical and subtropical marine ecosystems off Brazil. Both technologies rely on optical measurements of particles and may potentially be used in zooplankton monitoring programs. Vertical profiles of the LOPC installed in a 200 µm ring net have been obtained from diverse environmental settings ranging from turbid and nearshore waters to oligotrophic open ocean conditions. Net samples were analyzed on the Zooscan and counted under a microscope. Particle biovolume in the study area estimated with the LOPC correlated with plankton displacement volume from the net samples, but there was no significant relationship between total areal zooplankton biomass determined with LOPC and the Zooscan. Apparently, normalized biomass size spectra (NBSS) of LOPC and Zooscan overlapped for particles in the size range of 500 to 1500 µm in equivalent spherical diameter (ESD), especially at open ocean stations. However, the distribution of particles into five size classes was statistically different between both instruments at 24 of 28 stations. The disparities arise from unequal flow estimates, from different sampling efficiencies of LOPC tunnel and net for large and small particles, and possibly from the interference of non‐zooplankton material in the LOPC signal. Ecosystem properties and technical differences therefore limit the direct comparability of the NBSS slopes obtained with both instruments during this study, and their results should be regarded as complementary.


Abstract The currently most plausible pathophysiologic theory for the etiology of pain in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome involves abnormal mechanical stress to the patellofemoral joint. At this time, there is no consensus nor is there a sufficient body of research evidence to guide management of patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome. This means that clinicians have to rely to some extent on a mechanism-based approach. Decreased quadriceps flexibility and muscular endurance have been identified as possibly relevant impairments in patients with patellofemoral pain syndrome. Surgical anterior translation of the tibial tuberosity with the Maquet procedure has a proven positive effect on patellofemoral contact forces. This case series studied the effects of a physical therapy management approach that included translating the tibia anteriorly while performing open kinetic chain quadriceps training and manual muscle stretching of the rectus femoris muscle. Outcome measures used included the numeric pain rating scale and goniometric measurement of rectus femoris muscle length in a standardized test position. Anterior tibial translation reduced pain during both interventions and also produced clinically and statistically significant pre- to post-intervention improvements in pain during manual muscle testing and rectus femoris length testing in addition to statistically significant pre- to post-intervention increases in rectus femoris muscle length. The results of this quasi-experimental study indicate the need for future experimental study. Future study should include functional in addition to impairment-based outcome measures, standardization and blinding for the rectus femoris muscle length test (should future researchers chose to again use this outcome measure), a pilot study establishing reliability of outcome measures collected by the therapist, younger subjects, and the collection of longer-term outcome data.


Sanjika, Opsaridium microcephalum, were collected from two sites (Nkhotakota and Chia) along the southwestern shoreline of Lake Malawi. The sagitta of the otolith was arrowhead-shaped with an obvious nucleus. Increments in the sagittae were observable until the bases of the rostra but invisible in the rostra. The asteriscus was oval-shaped with an ambiguous nucleus, leading to difficulty in identifying the first increment. The lapillus was 'a'-shaped with an obvious nucleus and increments were observable from the nucleus to the margin. The lapillus was therefore considered the most suitable structure for interpreting daily growth increments in this species. The estimated hatching months of fish based on lapilli increment counts were from November to July, suggesting that this species has a long breeding period of at least eight months per year. The growth rate of fish born in the rainy season (0.74 mm TL per day) was higher than those in the dry season (0.56 mm TL per day). This growth difference was considered to be due to the difference in water temperature in the lake.


Purpose : Occupational therapists play an important role in improving the occupational performance of persons with mental retardation. Relaxation techniques are a preparatory activity used by occupational therapists to enhance occupational performance. When working with persons who are mentally retarded, one preparatory technique related to anxiety reduction is relaxation strategies. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of 2 relaxation treatment techniques: paced respiration technique and an object manipulation technique on heart rate as a physiological measure of anxiety, in a person with mild mental retardation. Methods : This study used a single subject alternating treatment design consisting of a 14 session treatment phase (paced respiration or object manipulation) followed by a best-treatment phase with 5 sessions. Each session consisted of an acclimation, treatment, and post-treatment period. Staff who worked with the participant on a regular basis were surveyed to ascertain their opinion of the social validity of the best treatment. Results : There were no statistically significant differences in heart rate when comparing the paced respiration to the object manipulation technique. The object manipulation technique was chosen as the best-treatment because it was found to have more of a lasting effect after the treatment was ended. Within each treatment, between the acclimation and the post period, each technique produced a statistically significant difference in heart rate. Staff agreed this research was socially valid. Discussion : Since both the paced respiration and object manipulation techniques individually reduced heart rate in an individual with mental retardation, both could be used to influence anxiety. Because staff viewed the object manipulation treatment in a positive manner, they may be more likely to implement this type of treatment. Occupational therapists working with individuals with mental retardation may find the use of these two relaxation methods effective as preparatory intervention strategies.


NEW YORK and PITTSBURGH, /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ Today the Institute for Global Labour & Human Rights (formerly National Labor Committee) is releasing a new in-depth report Dirty Parts Where Lost Fingers Come Cheap: Ford in China which documents worker rights violations—including workers maimed when factory management turned off critical safety equipment—at the Yuwei Plastics and Hardware Products company in Dongguan, China. According to workers, 80 percent of the factory's production is for Ford. The Yuwei factory has a U.S. office and warehouse in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Workers earn a base wage of just 80 cents an hour, working 14-hour shifts and 7 days a week. During the peak season, workers toil 30 days a month, often drenched in their own sweat. Prospective hires are told they must "work hard and endure hardship." On March 13, 2009, 21-year-old Worker "A" had three fingers and several knuckles torn from his left hand when it was crushed in a stamping machine. He was making "RT Tubes" for export to Ford. Management deliberately instructed the worker to turn off the infrared safety monitoring system so he could work faster. "We had to turn it off. My boss did not let me turn it on," said Worker A. He had to stamp out 3,600 "RT Tubes" a day, one every 12 seconds. We are aware of at least four serious injuries—maimed hands and fingers—over the last several years. Seriously injured workers are fired. New workers receive no training or safety instruction before being assigned to operate dangerous machinery. Worker A received a total payment of just $7,430 for the loss of three fingers, leaving his hand basically inoperative. Workers Compensation for a similar accident in the U.S. would result in a $144,292 payment. "While millions of democracy advocates are launching protests across the Middle East and North Africa, workers at the Yuwei factory have never heard of a 'union' and have no idea what a union is or how it could help them," said Charles Kernaghan, director of the Institute for Global Labour & Human Rights (formerly the National Labor Committee). Kernaghan is asking Ford to pay Worker A an additional workers compensation payment of $72,126.40, which is just half of what workers compensation would be in the U.S. Ford Kernaghan said, "should not be complicit in the payment of below subsistence wages and the suppression of local and internationally recognized worker rights standards."


Recently, multi-level cell (MLC) spin-transfer torque random access memories (STT-RAMs) are attracting great attentions as an alternative to static or dynamic random access memories. They have the benefits of capacity, but the penalties of performance, and power consumption caused by a complicated two- or three-phase access. An MLC STT-RAM controller that eliminates the MLC STT-RAM penalties for multimedia applications is proposed. The key ideas are frame-level data-to-memory mapping and frame-type aware frame assignment techniques that make a two- or three-phase access no longer required. Experimental results show that the proposed MLC STT-RAM controller achieves 56.1% higher memory performance, and 4.2% lower memory power consumption than the conventional controller for industrial multimedia applications.


Kalman filter (KF) is the most commonly used estimation technique for integrating signals from short-term high performance systems, like inertial navigation systems (INSs), with reference systems exhibiting long-term stability, like the global positioning system (GPS). However, KF only works well under appropriately predefined linear dynamic error models and input data that fit this model. The latter condition is rather difficult to be fulfilled by a low-cost inertial measurement unit (IMU) utilizing microelectromechanical system (MEMS) sensors due to the significance of their long- and short-term errors that are mixed with the motion dynamics. As a result, if the reference GPS signals are absent or the Kalman filter is working for a long time in prediction mode, the corresponding state estimate will quickly drift with time causing a dramatic degradation in the overall accuracy of the integrated system. An auxiliary fuzzy-based model for predicting the KF positioning error states during GPS signal outages is presented in this paper. The initial parameters of this model is developed through an offline fuzzy orthogonal-least-squares (OLS) training while the adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference system (ANFIS) is implemented for online adaptation of these initial parameters. Performance of the proposed model has been experimentally verified using low-cost inertial data collected in a land vehicle navigation test and by simulating a number of GPS signal outages. The test results indicate that the proposed fuzzy-based model can efficiently provide corrections to the standalone IMU predicted navigation states particularly position.


Summary

Although the immediate effects of temperature stress are well documented, the longer-term effects of such stresses are more poorly known. In these experiments, we investigate the effects of suboptimal and supraoptimal temperatures during pharate adult development on fecundity in the flesh fly, Sarcophaga crassipalpis Macquart. A 1 h cold shock at −10°C during the red-eye pharate adult stage decreases the fecundity of both sexes. Induction of rapid cold hardening by pre-treatment at 0°C for 2 h partially prevents reproductive impairment. Heat shock of pharate adults for 1 h at 45°C also reduces fecundity in both sexes, but inducing thermotolerance by pre-treatment at 40°C for 2 h affords protection only to females. Males heat shocked at 45°C or first pre-treated at 40°C consistently fail to transfer sperm to the females. The injury inflicted on males by heat shock is most pronounced when the stress is administered to pharate adults or adults; wandering larvae and true pupae are unaffected. The implications of these data for naturally occurring populations are discussed.


This article presents the review of modeling and control during the airdrop process of transport aircraft. According to the airdrop height, technology can be classified into high and low altitude airdrop and in this article, the research is reviewed based on the two scenarios. While high altitude airdrop is mainly focusing on the precise landing control of cargo, the low altitude flight airdrop is on the control of transport aircraft dynamics to ensure flight safety. The history of high precision airdrop system is introduced first, and then the modeling and control problem of the ultra low altitude airdrop in transport aircraft is presented. Finally, the potential problems and future direction of low altitude airdrop are discussed.


Radar remote sensing is a new earth observation technology with promising results and future. InSAR is a sophisticated radar remote sensing technique for combining synthetic aperture radar (SAR) single look complex images to form interferogram and utilizing its phase contribution to land topography, surface movement and target velocity. In recent years considerable applications of Interferometric SAR technique have been developed. It is an established technique for precise assessment of land surface movements, and generating high quality digital elevation models (DEM) from space-borne and airborne data. InSAR is able to produce DEMs with the precision of a couple of ten meters whereas its movement map results have sub-centimeter precision. The technique has many applications in the context of earth sciences such as topographic mapping, environmental modelling, rainfall-runoff studies, landslide hazard zonation, and seismic source modelling. Nevertheless new developments are taking place in the application of InSAR for aquatic bodies. We have observed that using SAR Interferometry technique for aquatic bodies with the maximum temporal baseline of 16 seconds for image pairs shows considerable results enabling us to determine the direction of sea surface motion in a large area, estimate the sea surface fluctuations in the direction of sensor line-of-the-sight, detect wave pattern and the sea surface disturbance and whether the water motion is bulk and smooth or otherwise. This paper presents our experience and achievements on this new topic through discussing the facts and conditions for the use of InSAR technique. The method has been examined for Haiti, Dominican Republic, Western Chile and Western Turkey coast areas and inland lakes however ground truth data is needed for final verification. This technique scheduled to be applied in some other sites for which the proper data is available.


In a bid to ensure privacy of personal data of data subjects, the General Data Protection Regulation(GDPR) entails stringent obligations on organizations and businesses qualifying as data controllers and data processors. The regulation additionally bestow data subjects certain rights over their personal data, right to be forgotten generally being perceived the landmark. Fulfilling the GDPR's obligatory requirements and provisioning of the data subject's rights implicates considerable changes to the existing (pre-GDPR era) business and organizational processes. Being a non-trivial task, several technical as well as procedural challenges are associated. The case for organizations having intertwined or cascaded business processes and business processes stretched over multiple organizations is even more complicated. Process mining discipline has been found highly effective in automatically discovering, conformance/compliance analysis, and enhancement of business processes, organizational workflows, healthcare procedures/guidelines to name a few. Process mining techniques therefore have a great potential to assist and guide the transformation of pre-GDPR era (presumably GDPR non-compliant) business or organizational processes into GDPR-compliant processes, and afterwards monitor the compliance during execution. In addition to the current state of the art offline process mining techniques, stable online conformance checking and online model repair techniques needs to be developed for ensuring compliance to the regulation. We are highlighting the challenges associated with implementation of the right to be forgotten, and the GDPR in general.


The research explores the structure and performance of Ghana's construction subsector, in light of the country's 2007 oil discovery. Using primary and secondary data resources, we discuss how marginal costs and expenditure shocks may vary within the construction sector for subsectors such as housing, roads, and other important social infrastructure such as drainage. We analyse expenditure shocks that may result from inflation and price dynamics, finding that construction sector costs are closely related to exchange rate movements. We identify key bottlenecks to the supply response of the sector and recommend institutional and policy reforms to improve performance and output.


A prototype antenna for the ITER ion cyclotron system, based on a resonant double loop antenna design from the 1998 Engineering Design Activity, has been built and tested. Electrical properties of the antenna were measured and were in agreement with theoretical calculations. Results of high-power experiments in vacuum showed that the antenna could operate at voltages in excess of 60 kV for multisecond pulses. The stub tuning arrangement proposed for use on ITER was demonstrated to work. These results validate the original design concept of the ITER antenna.


The purpose of this research study was to examine Missouri middle school principals' perceptions of the adolescent literacy crisis and to ascertain how middle level principals are addressing adolescent literacy needs in their schools. The phenomenological qualitative research approach was selected due to the underpinning of the social constructivism and pragmatism paradigms of the research questions. Data sources included an open-ended online survey administered to a random sample of middle level principal and personal interviews. The research findings are based on the data collected from 50 research participants. Although there was not agreement regarding literacy being in a state of crisis, the study found consensus that literacy is a priority for middle level principals. Additionally, principals reported factors of family chaos, technology challenges, and expanded demands of literacy created additional challenges for adolescent literacy. According to the data, principals are addressing literacy needs through shared responsibility, varied delivery methods, and instructional leadership.


A fundamental step in sentence comprehension involves assigning semantic roles to sentence constituents. To accomplish this, the listener must parse the sentence, find constituents that are candidate arguments, and assign semantic roles to those constituents. Where do children learning their first languages begin in solving this problem? Even assuming children can derive a rough meaning for the sentence from the situation, how do they begin to map this meaning to the structure and the structure to the form of the sentence? In this paper we use feedback from a semantic role labeling (SRL) task to improve the intermediate syntactic representations that feed the SRL. We accomplish this by training an intermediate classifier using signals derived from latent structure optimization techniques. By using a separate classifier to predict internal structure we see benefits due to knowledge embedded in the classifier's feature representation. This extra structure allows the system to begin to learn using weaker, more plausible semantic feedback.


The surface of the wind-ruffled sea contains capillary wave facets whose curvature is much larger than the wavelength of visible and infrared light. As a result, visible sea radiance consists of the sum of all the mirrorlike reflections of the sky and sun from each facet. In the infrared, additional radiance arises from blackbody emission by the facet and along the atmospheric path to the point of observation. Numerical calculations of mean sea radiance based on this model agree to within 1 °C with infrared data obtained in the long-wave band and in the short- and mid-wave bands outside the sun-glint corridor. If sun glint can be neglected, the spectral radiance of the ocean horizon is approximately given by the Planck function at the temperature of the ocean and lower atmosphere.


Abstract. MIPAS global Sun-synchronous observations are almost fixed in local time. Subtraction of the descending and ascending node measurements at each longitude only includes the longitudinal oscillations with odd daily frequencies nodd from the Sun's perspective at 10:00. Contributions from the background atmosphere, daily-invariant zonal oscillations and tidal modes with even-parity daily frequencies vanish. We have determined longitudinal oscillations in MIPAS temperature with nodd and wavenumber k = 0–4 from the stratosphere to 150 km from April 2007 to March 2012. To our knowledge, this is the first time zonal oscillations in temperature have been derived pole to pole in this altitude range from a single instrument. The major findings are the detection of (1) migrating tides at northern and southern high latitudes; (2) significant k = 1 activity at extratropical and high latitudes, particularly in the Southern Hemisphere; (3) k = 3 and k = 4 eastward-propagating waves that penetrate the lower thermosphere with a significantly larger vertical wavelength than in the mesosphere; and (4) a migrating tide quasi-biennial oscillation in the stratosphere, mesosphere and lower thermosphere. MIPAS global measurements of longitudinal oscillations are useful for testing tide modeling in the mesosphere and lower thermosphere region and as a lower boundary for models extending higher up in the atmosphere.


SummaryExisting methods for estimating optimal dynamic treatment regimes are limited to cases where a utility function is optimized over a fixed time period. We develop an estimation procedure for the optimal dynamic treatment regime over an indefinite time period and derive associated large-sample results. The proposed method can be used to estimate the optimal dynamic treatment regime in chronic disease settings. We illustrate this by simulating a dataset corresponding to a cohort of patients with diabetes that mimics the third wave of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, and examining the performance of the proposed method in controlling the level of haemoglobin A1c.


This was an ethnographic study of the woven tent objects produced by the Bedouin Otaibah tribe in Najd, central Saudi Arabia; the study examines origin, techniques, character and significance of their weavings. A major objective of the researcher was to discern the relationship between the weavers' development of traditions and the factors of technique, medium and perceived meaning. The method used was investigative fieldwork that included techniques of face to face interviews and participant observation. Interviews with 50 Bedouin female weavers in Najd were conducted for 8 months. Background information on the Otaibah tribe and their traditional way of life was provided. The review of the literature of traditional arts, folk arts and art education illustrates that there is limited accessible information concerning the general history of traditional arts in Saudi Arabia. A discussion of the aesthetic value, definitions and roles of traditional art, tribal art and the differences between art and crafts was included. Analysis of data answered the study's questions through a presentation of the findings of the fieldwork. The Otaibah tribe has its own unique style of weaving. Information gathered from participant observation and documents from the Haifa Faisal Collection of Saudi Arabian Traditional Arts in Chicago supplements information obtained by interview. The findings indicate that as a result of modernization and settlement, traditional Bedouin weavings are gradually being replaced. Weavers find themselves forced to compete with a deluge of imported machine-made goods, a development changing structure of the culture from nomadic to semi--modernized creating a new foundation of social and economic life for the society. The.results of the study provide a curriculum base for art education in Saudi Arabia. Suggestions for further studies, recommendations and the implications for art education are included.


Lanthanum (La) doped vanadium dioxide (VO2) thin films were fabricated through a facile sol–gel technique. The La doping was found to be effective for reducing the phase transition temperature (τc) of VO2 below the 4 at% doping level, with a reducing rate of −1.1 °C per at%. In addition, below the 3 at% La doping level, the band gap (Eg) decreased steadily with the increasing addition of La dopants. 5 at% La doping can enhance both the integrated visible transmission (Tlum) and the solar modulating ability (ΔTsol) simultaneously. The combination of Tlum = 50.1% and ΔTsol = 10.3% represents the best values for VO2 continuous thin films.


Members of the muscarinic acetylcholine receptor family (M1-M5) are known to be involved in a great number of important central and peripheral physiological and pathophysiological processes. Because of the overlapping expression patterns of the M1-M5 muscarinic receptor subtypes and the lack of ligands endowed with sufficient subtype selectivity, the precise physiological functions of the individual receptor subtypes remain to be elucidated. To explore the physiological roles of the M2 muscarinic receptor, we have generated mice lacking functional M2 receptors by using targeted mutagenesis in mouse embryonic stem cells. The resulting mutant mice were analyzed in several behavioral and pharmacologic tests. These studies showed that the M2 muscarinic receptor subtype, besides its well documented involvement in the regulation of heart rate, plays a key role in mediating muscarinic receptor-dependent movement and temperature control as well as antinociceptive responses, three of the most prominent central muscarinic effects. These results offer a rational basis for the development of novel muscarinic drugs.


This paper emerges from a current research project that examines the relationship between contemporary English rurality and notions of identity and belonging. While this is primarily a methodological narrative we argue that this narrative speaks to an analysis of current rural relations. The paper concerns itself with two key methodological issues that have arisen during the 'doing' of the research. First, it examines our own relationship, as 'outsider', urban-based researchers, to the rural and the use and/or relevance of our biographies as resources for making ourselves seem less 'strange' and for accessing, and being in, rural environments. At the same time as providing us with a map into our micro rural worlds the paper draws on this biographic-research relation in order to problematize notions of homogenous rural identities and polarized rural/urban identities. The second part of the paper argues that who we were/how we were perceived had a relation to what 'truths' and accounts we were told by our respondents. More particularly, we show how our use of focus group interviews had a direct role in the rehearsal and presentation of these 'truths'. Given the current contestations and tensions over what and who 'the rural' is, it was clear that those involved in the focus group discussions wanted to give us particular stories that often fell into a consensus pattern of either 'rural idyll' or 'rural crisis' narratives. Drawing on Simmel's notion of the stranger and focus group data we argue that for these narratives to be told we, as researchers, were ascribed by the group members to shifting positions of intimacy and remoteness.


The aim of this paper is study the cost-effectiveness of using waste hot water as an energy source for heat pumps. The research was made in one part of the hotel complex on Kopaonik, in which the whole system is implemented with a heat pump and piping system for collecting hot water from showers and sinks (gray-water). Tap water that is collected in package (reservoirs) has a certain average temperature, which is more than enough for a very high level of profitability of the heat pump. In the paper, a statistical analysis of the test results of two parallel systems for space heating with the difference in energy consumption and emissions of CO2 into the atmosphere. The first system uses fuel oil as an energy source to heat water which is further distributed to the heaters. Another system uses a heat pump water-water, which operates using electricity with high efficiency thanks to the energy that is generated in the sanitary waste water.


Object: The inability of the spinal cord to regenerate after
SCI is due to the extremely limited regenerative capacity of most central nervous
system (CNS) axons, along with the hostile environment of the adult CNS, which does
not support axonal growth. It seems that for successful axonal regeneration to take
place, a supportive local environment is required after the injury. We have previously
reported that transplantation of the olfactory mucosa is effective in restoring
functional recovery in rats following spinal cord transaction.
In this study, we examined histological features of olfactory mucosa grafts in rats
subjected to a spinal cord contusion protocol. Respiratory mucosa was utilized as
a control, as we have previously found that respiratory mucosa does not support
neuronal generation. Methods: The rats spinal
cords were crash-injured by dropping a 10-g metal rod from a height of 7.5 cm, and
a couple of weeks later, the injury sites were exposed, and both olfactory and respiratory
mucosae were inserted into the posterior sulcuses of the spinal cord. The each number
of olfactory and mucosa transplanted rats were five. The Basso, Beattie, and Bresnahan
(BBB) score was observed. Immunohistochemical study for neurofilament was performed. Results: Olfactory mucosa transplanted rats following spinal
cord injury can support at least partial hind limb motor recovery compared with
respiratory mucosa transplanted rats and
we identified numerous axons surrounding the transplanted olfactory mucosa cells,
and penetrating the olfactory mucosa at the transplant site. Conclusion: Olfactory mucosa
might be a suitable scaffold for axonal regeneration.


The longest common subsequence (LCS) for two given strings has various applications, such as for the comparison of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA). In this thesis, we propose a graphics processing unit (GPU) algorithm to accelerate Hirschberg's LCS algorithm improved with the bit-parallel algorithm by Crochemore et al. The algorithm by Crochemore et al. includes bitwise logical operators, which can be computed easily in parallel because they have bitwise parallelism. However, the algorithm by Crochemore et al. also includes an operator with less parallelism, i.e., an arithmetic sum. In this thesis, we focus on how to implement these operators efficiently in parallel and experimentally show the following results. First, the proposed GPU algorithm with a 2.67 GHz Intel Core i7 920 CPU and a GeForce GTX 580 GPU executes a maximum of 12.81 times faster than the bit-parallel CPU algorithm with a single-core of a 2.67 GHz Intel Xeon X5550 CPU. Next, the proposed GPU algorithm executes a maximum of 4.56 times faster than the bit-parallel CPU algorithm with all the four-cores of a 2.67 GHz Intel Xeon X5550 CPU. Finally, the proposed algorithm with a GeForce 8800 GTX executes a maximum of 18.1 times faster than the GPU algorithm proposed by Kloetzli et al.


Table of Contents Preface Richard Allen Williams, M.D. Introduction The Honorable Jesse L. Jackson, Jr. Foreward Risa Lavizzo-Mourey, M.D. Acknowledgements Richard Allen Williams, M.D. Underlying Causes of Healthcare Disparities 1. Historical Perspectives on Healthcare Disparities: Is the Past Prologue? Richard Allen Williams, M.D. 2. Epidemiology of Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Health and Healthcare George A. Mensah, M.D. , FACP, FACC Maleeka Glover, ScD, MPH 3. Cultural Diversity in Medicine and in Healthcare Delivery Richard Allen Williams, M.D. Current Problems 4. Healthcare and the Politics of Race M. Gregg Bloche, M.D., J.D. 5. Barriers to Eliminating Disparities in Clinical Practice: Lessons From the IOM Report Joseph R. Betancourt, M.D., M.P.H. Angela Maina, B.S. 6. Second-Class Medicine: Implications of Evidence-Based Medicine for Improving Minority Access to the Correct Pharmaceutical Therapy Randall W. Maxey, M.D., Ph.D. Richard Allen Williams, M.D. John Sankofa 7. The Diversity Benefit: How Does Diversity Among Health Professionals Address Public Needs? Brian D. Smedley, Ph. D. Approaches to Correcting the Problems 8. The Role of Health Plans in Eliminating Disparities John W. Rowe, M.D. Laura Donna, M.B.A. 9. Eliminating Healthcare Disparities Through Quality Improvement Kevin Fiscella, M.D., M.P.H. 10. Eliminating Racial Discrimination in Healthcare: A Call for State Healthcare Anti-Discrimination Law Vernellia R. Randall, M.S.N., J.D. 11. Quality of Care and Health Disparities: The Evolving Role of Government Garth N. Graham, M.D., M.P.H. 12. The Role of Communities in Eliminating Disparities in Healthcare:Getting Down to the Grass Roots JudyAnn Bigby, M.D. 13. The Potential Impact of Performance Incentive Programs on Racial Disparities in Healthcare Alyna Chien, M.D., M.S. Examples of What Works 14. Monitoring Socioeconomic Determinants for Healthcare Disparities : Tools From the Public Health Disparities Geocoding Project Nancy Krieger, Ph.D. 15. The Association of Black Cardiologists: A Small-Group Success Story Richard Allen Williams, M.D. 16. Breathe Easy In Seattle: Addressing Asthma Disparities Through Healthier Housing James Krieger, M.D., M.P.H. Tim K. Takaro, M.D., M.P.H., M.S. Janice Rabkin, M.P.H., Ph. D. 17. Access Health Solutions: A Minority Physician Network Model That Works Kathy B. Jackson, Ph. D. 18. Carolinas Association for Community Health Equity-CACHE: A Role Model for Community Health Organizations Yele Aluko, M.D. Concluding Recommendations 19. Principles for Eliminating Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Healthcare John Z. Ayanian, M.D., M.P.P. Richard Allen Williams, M.D. Index


This paper reviews liposomes with crystalline phase and polymersomes exhibiting crystalline and thermotropic liquid crystalline phases in the membrane. Intriguing morphologies of vesicles are described, including spherical, ellipsoidal and faceted vesicles, produced by a large variety of amphiphilic molecules and polymers with nematic phase, smectic phase or crystalline phase. It is highlighted how the phase transitions and the phase grain boundaries could be used ingeniously to destabilize the vesicular structure and to achieve cargo-release under the action of external stimulation. These liposomes and polymersomes are responsive to physical stimuli, such as temperature variation, shear stress, light illumination, and magnetic and electric fields. These stimuli-responsive properties make them promising candidates as new smart drug delivery systems.


ABSTRACT Aim: AP26113 is an investigational orally-active tyrosine kinase inhibitor with preclinical activity against ALK and all 9 clinically-identified crizotinib-resistant mutants tested. Methods: The Phase (Ph) 2 portion of a Ph1/2 single arm, multicenter study in patients (pts) with advanced malignancies is underway. We report updated safety for all treated pts and efficacy data for ALK+ NSCLC pts previously treated with crizotinib. NCT01449461. Results: As of 17 March 2014, 125 pts were enrolled: 66 in Ph1 (30-300 mg) and 59 in Ph2 (90 or 180 mg). Baseline characteristics: 58% female, median age 57 yr; diagnoses: NSCLC n = 117, other n = 8. 62 pts remain on study; median follow-up for all pts is 3.1 mo (max= 24.4 mo, ongoing). The most common treatment-emergent adverse events (≥20%) were nausea (40%), fatigue (34%), diarrhea (34%), cough (26%), headache (25%), and vomiting (21%), which were generally Grade 1/2 in severity. Early onset pulmonary symptoms (dyspnea with hypoxia and/or new findings on chest imaging) were observed in 12/125 (10%) pts: 6/44 (14%) at 180 mg qd and 1/38 (3%) at 90 mg qd. Symptoms occurred within 7 days following initiation of AP26113, required medical attention, and occurred at lower rates with lower doses. Pts continue to be enrolled at 90 mg qd. Among 51 evaluable ALK+ NSCLC pts with prior crizotinib, 35 (69%) responded. Duration of response was 1.6– 14.7+ mo. 23 had confirmed responses and 7 await confirmation. Among 55 evaluable pts with ALK+ NSCLC, median progression free survival is 10.9 mo. Independent radiological review conducted on 10 pts enrolled with untreated or progressing brain metastases showed 6/10 pts with regression in brain, including 4 with undetectable brain metastases following AP26113; 2 had stable disease, 2 progressed; 7/10 remain on study (range 2.7-19.5 mo). Updated data will be presented. Conclusions: AP26113 has promising anti-tumor activity in pts with crizotinib-resistant ALK+ NSCLC, including pts with brain metastases. A randomized Ph2 trial evaluating either 90 mg qd or 90mg qd escalated to 180 mg qd in crizotinib-resistant ALK+ NSCLC has been initiated. Disclosure: S. Gettinger: research funding (ARIAD); consultancy (ARIAD); honoraria (ARIAD); C. Langer: research funding (ARIAD); A. Shaw: consultancy (ARIAD); G.J. Weiss: consultancy (Genentech, Pfizer, Celgene, Quintiles, Medscape); N.I. Narasimhan: employment and equity ownership (ARIAD); D.J. Dorer: employment and equity ownership (ARIAD); V.M. Rivera: employment and equity ownership (ARIAD); T. Clackson: employment and equity ownership (ARIAD); F.G. Haluska: employment and equity ownership (ARIAD); R. Camidge: research funding (ARIAD); honoraria (ARIAD). All other authors have declared no conflicts of interest.


Alternative food networks (AFNs) are the focus of an 'explosive growth' of research in Europe (Goodman 2004), and the term covers a wide range of activities, from food banks, community gardens, and farmers' markets, to community supported or organic agriculture. However, there is an impasse in differing positions over whether AFNs represent an exclusionary place-based 'quality turn' (Ilbery and Kneafsey 2000), or whether they contribute to inclusive local communities, sustainability and food security (Tregear 2011, Kirwan and Maye 2013). This research aimed to clarify these debates, through exploration of UK allotments as a benchmark for AFNs, using the case of Plymouth, SW England. A political ecology perspective of social-ecological systems (Ostrom 2008) was used to investigate the activities, relations and governance involved in allotments and AFNs, organised through the concepts of multidimensional capital assets (Bebbington 1999). This research demonstrates how activities on allotments involve human, social, cultural, natural and political capital assets, encompassing both basic food security and a quality turn towards 'good food' (Sage 2003). Taking the long view, it is seen that the relative importance of the different asset dimensions are contingent on wider sociopolitical settings. Relations on allotments illustrate the building of social capital, which extends to wider communities of interest, practice and place (Harrington et al. 2008), and which involves values of social justice that can be explained as diverse or care economies (Gibson-Graham 2008, Dowler et al. 2010). However, the politics and governance of allotments are largely influenced by neoliberal policies that favour oligopolistic and transnational food systems and restrict urban land allocations for place-based food initiatives. Present-day urban population densities are at levels far higher than envisaged for the original garden cities. Nevertheless, alliances at neighbourhood, city, regional, national and transnational scales are coalescing around the values represented in the original setting up of the UK allotment system: of selfreliance, human-scale settlements and the restorative value of the natural environment. Any realization of the potential contribution of allotments and AFNs to the sustainability and resilience of food supplies for urban populations (Armitage et al. 2008, Folke et al. 2010) ultimately depends on multilevel responses to a large range of challenges. Finally, the thesis contends that, in the present day, evidence is building up around the potential of allotments and many other AFN activities, or place-based food systems, to meet multiple policy objectives through aligned values.


Stratabound sulphur deposits of northern Iraq occur in folded Middle Miocene evaporites overlying Lower Miocene hydrocarbon reservoirs. Rocks hosting sulphur mainly comprise gypsum, dolomitic marl, carbonate mudstones and bioclastic dolomitized limestones, whereas the mineralized rocks are mainly composed of calcite and sulphur. Sulphur was formed by the oxidation of H2S produced from gypsum dissolution followed by sulphate reduction in the presence of hydrocarbons. Sulphate reduction occurred in a partially closed to closed system as reflected by the sulphur δ34S values of +7‰ to +20‰ (original gypsum +21‰). Host rock carbonates were calcitized by the dissolved carbonate formed by oxidation of the hydrocarbons, which produced low δ13C values ( – 14 to – 32‰). Periodic invasion by meteoric water and elevated temperatures produced 18O-depleted compositions for the newly-formed calcite (down to – 9‰) and dolomite (down to – 7‰), and oxidized the H2S produced during sulphate reduction. These sulphur deposits formed through the favourable stratigraphic juxtaposition of gypsum sulphate, brines and hydrocarbons. Tectonically produced fracture permeability in carbonates allowed rising brines from the underlying hydrocarbon reservoirs to mix with laterally migrating and descending, sulphate-bearing meteoric waters and produced the oscillating redox conditions needed for the bacterial reduction of sulphate and the oxidation of sulphide.


As American politics and television became more closely intertwined in the early 1960s, each underwent enormous and long-lasting changes. In The Expanding Vista, originally published in 1990 (Oxford University Press), Mary Ann Watson looks at how television was woven into the events and policies of John Kennedy's presidency, not only in his unprecedented use of the medium in campaigning and image projection, but in the vigorous efforts of his administration to regulate and improve the content of network programs. Examining the legacy of the New Frontier and its relationship to the new medium, she traces the Kennedy influence across a spectrum of programming that includes news, documentary, drama, situation comedy, advertising, children's shows, and educational TV. Through extensive archival research and oral histories Watson reconstructs key moments of an extraordinary time in the television age. The Expanding Vista's analysis and interpretation of that era continue to enlighten our understanding of culture and communication as the themes sounded in the 1960s resonate in today's complex media marketplace.