The success of the Salvadoran Peace Accords of 1992 surprised the world. What was the key to crafting a lasting peace? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] I think the crucial factor in the Peace Accords was also the most controversial one. It refers to the fact that El Salvador did not experience a civil war. That interpretation is a partial reading that does not truly capture what happened in El Salvador. The truth is that the Soviet Union, through Cuba, decided to take over the weak throat of Central America during the Cold War. To do so, Cuba counted on funding, logistical resources, and weapons [from the Soviet Union], and the United States decided to stop Soviet expansionism in Central America during the start of the 1980s. So what happens is that El Salvador, mainly due to President Reagan's actions, is the last theater of the Cold War. And the war in El Salvador is linked to the decisions of the Soviet Union and the United States. The same applies to the Peace Accords. When the Berlin Wall fell, the Salvadoran guerrillas decided to enter peace negotiations. Why? Because the source of logistic resources and weapons had dried up. The Peace Accords are very valuable for El Salvador in the sense that they were a creative exercise through which Salvadoran institutions were redesigned. We had two main objectives: persuading guerrilleros to abandon weapons and embrace politics, and persuading the military to abandon politics and embrace weapons. And we achieved them both. That democratic package is very valuable, but one must not forget that the historical trigger in El Salvador was the Cold War. Does this mean that the guerrillas did not represent the opinions and perspectives of an ample segment of the population? Did they not have considerable support among Salvadorans? El Salvador was, like the other Central American countries, governed by a military dictatorship that started in 1932 and fell, due to this Cold War crisis, in 1979. This means that El Salvador endured 47 years of abuse and authoritarianism. So of course, there was a very important portion of the population that said, "this situation will only change through the use of force." So in that sense, the call to arms is legitimized. Now, when the guerrillas decide to implement the "final offensive," which was an effort to take control of the capital city, they assumed that they had popular support, and that when they reached the capital the people would rise up and support them. They hid organized piles of AK-47 weapons in different points of the city so that the people could take them and join the insurrection. What happened? The residents of the poorest neighborhoods decided to support the army instead, leaking information and helping them. I think this event indicates that the guerrillas did not have the popular support they claimed to have. The fact is that, in democracy, in free elections, the Salvadoran guerrillas have never been able to win a presidential election with one of its members. In recent years, there have been important tensions both within and among many of the key institutions that emerged from the civil war and the Peace Accords. For example, your party experienced a split in 2010. What is the source of these tensions? These tensions are due to the fact the new government has not respected the independence of the institutions and has attempted to take control over them. For example, the government attempted to crush and rebel against the rulings of the Supreme Court. The entire country, through its civil society, mobilized in support of Magistrate Dr. Belarmino Jaime to protect the independence of the Court. That is the source of the tensions. Do these tensions represent a particular moment for the country, or a more permanent democratic slump? El Salvador has experienced an important democratic slump. During these past few years, I would say that Salvadoran institutions have become less independent than they once were. …


This study centres on conductive polymers with particular reference to those exhibiting
positive temperature coefficient of resistance (PTC) behaviour. Applications of PTC
polymers are identified including, with special relevance to this study, automotive
applications.
The electrical properties and the structure of a particular conductive polymer that has
a carbon black conductive filler and exhibits a positive temperature coefficient
characteristic, have been measured.
Early problems affecting the testing and service performance of these devices are
described. Initial concepts of the factors affecting their structure and performance are
outlined. The importance of the characteristic known as resistance linearity is
described and its important relationship with device performance is noted. The results
of a literature survey are detailed.
Typical materials and manufacturing processes employed for the type of heater circuit
central to this study are described.
The results of initial testing and analysis of PTC heater circuits in relation to
manufacturing process variables, ageing tests and service failure are summarised.
The results of further testing of heater samples and analysis using advanced
techniques including Fourier transform IR spectroscopy (FTIR), Calorimetric analysis
with scanning microscopy (CASM), Auger electron spectroscopy (AES), Static
secondary ion mass spectrometry (SSIMS) and Laser microprobe mass spectrometry
(LIMA) are given.
The structure of the PTC polymer used in construction of the heater circuit is
examined with a high resolution scanning electron microscope (FEGSEM) and the
distribution of the carbon filler is determined. Structural changes and changes in the
distribution of the carbon resulting from thermal conditioning and other stresses are
investigated. A cause of functional failure of heater circuits in service has been
identified.
Conclusions have been drawn and further work proposed.


Various resting-state fMRI (R-fMRI) measures have been developed to characterize intrinsic brain activity. While each of these measures has gained a growing presence in the literature, questions remain regarding the common and unique aspects these indices capture. The present work provided a comprehensive examination of inter-individual variation and intra-individual temporal variation for commonly used measures, including fractional amplitude of low frequency fluctuations, regional homogeneity, voxel-mirrored homotopic connectivity, network centrality and global signal correlation. Regardless of whether examining intra-individual or inter-individual variation, we found that these definitionally distinct R-fMRI indices tend to exhibit a relatively high degree of covariation. When taken as a measure of intrinsic brain function, inter-individual differences in concordance for R-fMRI indices appeared to be stable, and negatively related to age (i.e., functional concordance among indices decreases with age). To understand the functional significance of concordance, we noted that higher concordance was generally associated with higher strengths of R-fMRI indices, regardless of whether looking through the lens of inter-individual (i.e., high vs. low concordance participants) or intra-individual (i.e., high vs. low concordance states identified via temporal dynamic analyses) differences. Finally, temporal dynamics analyses also revealed that high concordance states are characterized by increased within- and between-network functional connectivity, suggesting more general variations in network integration and segregation. The current study draws attention to questions regarding how to select an R-fMRI index for usage in a given study, as well as how to compare findings across studies that examine inter-individual or group differences using different indices. Additionally, our work suggests global neural signals exist in the brain, and their spontaneous variations over time result in fluctuations in the connectedness of brain regions.


In 1824 in Washington, D.C., Ann Mattingly, widowed sister of the city's mayor, was miraculously cured of a ravaging cancer. Just days, or perhaps even hours, from her predicted demise, she arose from her sickbed free from agonizing pain and able to enjoy an additional thirty-one years of life. The Mattingly miracle purportedly came through the intervention of a charismatic German cleric, Prince Alexander Hohenlohe, who was credited already with hundreds of cures across Europe and Great Britain. Though nearly forgotten today, Mattingly's astonishing healing became a polarizing event. It heralded a rising tide of anti-Catholicism in the United States that would culminate in violence over the next two decades. Nancy L. Schultz deftly weaves analysis of this episode in American social and religious history together with the astonishing personal stories of both Ann Mattingly and the healer Prince Hohenlohe, around whom a cult was arising in Europe. Schultz's riveting book brings to light an early episode in the ongoing battle between faith and reason in the United States.


As we commemorate the diamond anniversary of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, this Article takes a critical look at one of the failed Rules: Rule 54(b). Although many commentators have noted difficulties with Rule 54(b), this is the first effort to describe those difficulties comprehensively, analyze their root causes, and offer a workable alternative.When an order resolves a discrete claim in a multi-claim action, Rule 54(b) permits a district court to sever the order for immediate appeal by "expressly determin[ing] that there is no just reason for delay." The rule was designed to ease the hardship on litigants who would otherwise have to await the conclusion of the entire case to appeal an adverse ruling.But the Rule has spawned seventy-five years of chaos. Appellate courts, in examining their jurisdiction to review an order certified under Rule 54(b), struggle to evaluate whether the order fully adjudicates a discrete and severable claim. They struggle to evaluate what "no just reason for delay" really means. And they struggle to articulate consistent standards for district courts to follow in making the required "express determin[ation]." At the heart of the problem lies a power clash: Rule 54(b) puts the district court in charge of deciding when an appellate court is required to hear an appeal. Not surprisingly, appellate courts often resist. And the resistance often comes only after full briefing and oral argument.It is time to end the struggle. And a better solution exists. This Article advocates the repeal of Rule 54(b) and, in its place, a resort to a discretionary-appeal system to permit trial courts to certify certain orders for immediate appeal and to permit appellate courts to decide whether to hear them.


A fully integrated vocabulary development program in American English, progressing from essential words to the more complex, delivered in short thematic units. Realistic scenarios and modern artwork are easy to relate to and these, together with story pages and practice exercises, have been applauded for their success in promoting critical thinking skills. Content is fully supported by a range of components (in English only) - including Workbooks, Classroom Activities, Audio and website.


This paper, originally given at The Consciousness and Experiential Psychology Section of the British Psychological Society Annual Conference at the University of Bristol in September 2012, has subsequently been peer-reviewed and published in the July 2013 edition of the academic journal Constructivist Foundations. Standard approaches to understanding consciousness are interrupted by the purported explanatory gap between the qualitative nature of experience and the quantitative methods of science. The conference invited papers to discuss, through phenomenological studies, the insurmountable difficulties of bridging third-person scientific methods and the first-person nature of experience. The conference sought to examine the aims and practices of neurophenomenology and attempted to gauge its success in eradicating the explanatory gap. Neurophenomenology investigates the structural parallels between experience, as investigated by the phenomenological method, and the activity of biological systems, as investigated empirically by neuroscience., In this paper I first discuss the terms by which neuroscience appropriates art to describe the neural basis of visual consciousness and how alternative appropriations by theorists of phenomenology relate to my visual arts practice. The rationale of a theory-led/practice-based research method is then set out and the importance of works of art that involve the perception of particular visual phenomena is analysed. The paper concludes by demonstrating how such examples support the alternative phenomenologically based 'sensorimotor' account for vision (proposed by the philosopher Alva Noe) by enabling aspects of these artworks to become 'perceptually present.', The paper contends that contemporary visual art has a key role in this interdisciplinary terrain and, more specifically, demonstrates how the 'experiential' art identified by Alva Noe provides a fertile ground for important aspects of contemporary consciousness studies.


Laparoscopic surgery, a less invasive camera-aided surgery, is now performed commonly. However, it requires a camera assistant who holds and maneuvers a laparoscope. By controlling the laparoscope automatically using a robot, a surgeon can perform the operation without a camera assistant, which would be beneficial in areas suffering from lack of surgeons. In this paper, a prototype image segmentation architecture based on a convolutional neural network (CNN) is proposed  to realize an automated laparoscope control for cholecystectomy. Since a training dataset is annotated manually by a few surgeons, its scale is limited compared to common CNN-based systems. Therefore, we built a recursive network structure, with some sub-networks which are used multiple times, to mitigate overfitting. In addition, instead of the common transposed convolution, the flip-based subpixel reconstruction is introduced into upsampling layers. Furthermore, we applied stochastic depth regularization to the recursive structure for better accuracy. Evaluation results revealed that these improvements bring better  classification accuracy without increasing the number of parameters. The system shows a throughput sufficient for real-time laparoscope robot control with a single NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU.


This study assesses the major chemical processes leading to acid extremes in a small, moorland stream in mid-Wales, UK, which has been monitored since 1979. Results suggest that base cation (mainly calcium) dilution, the "sea-salt effect", and elevated nitrate pulses, are the major causes of seasonal/episodic minima in acid neutralising capacity (ANC), and that the relative importance of these drivers has remained approximately constant during 25 years of decreasing acid deposition and associated long-term chemical recovery. Many of the chemical variations causing short-term reductions in stream acidity, particularly base cation dilution and organic acid increases, are closely related to changes in water-flowpath and therefore to stream discharge. Changes in the observed pH-discharge relationship over time indicate that high-flow pH has increased more rapidly than mean-flow pH, and therefore that episodes have decreased in magnitude since 1980. However a two-box application of the dynamic model MAGIC, whilst reproducing this trend, suggests that it will not persist in the long term, with mean ANC continuing to increase until 2100, but the ANC of the upper soil (the source of relatively acid water during high-flow episodes) stabilising close to zero beyond 2030. With climate change predicted to lead to an increase in maximum flows in the latter half of the century, high-flow related acid episodes may actually become more rather than less severe in the long term, although the model suggests that this effect may be small. Two other predicted climatic changes could also detrimentally impact on acid episodes: increased severity of winter "sea-salt" episodes due to higher wind speeds during winter storms; and larger sulphate pulses due to oxidation of reduced sulphur held in organic soils, during more extreme summer droughts. At the Gwy, the near-coastal location and relatively small extent of peat soils suggest that sea-salt episodes may have the greatest influence.


Although oil windfalls have opened a window of opportunity for the Gulf States, at the same time they have created numerous problems. In particular, the uncertainty associated with periods of boom and bust in the oil market has made the formulation and implementation of sound fiscal policies a formidable task. This insightful book focuses on the role of fiscal policy in common markets, especially in the context of the supranational constructs in the Gulf Cooperation Council, comprising Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. It draws on the experience of the EU and the importance of VAT, and reflects on the other main common market in Central America.


Distilled water, a carbohydrate-electrolyte (CE; 4% sucrose, 2% glucose, 17.2 meq/l NaCl, and 2.8 meq/l KCl) solution, or a 10% glucose solution, all containing the nonabsorbed indicator polyethylene glycol (PEG) and deuterium oxide (D2O, 30 ppm), were infused (15 ml/min) into the duodenojejunum of seven men by using the triple lumen technique. Net water absorption was determined directly from the change in PEG concentration and was calculated from plasma D2O derived from D2O in the perfusion solutions. The protocol included a 45-min equilibration period followed by a 90-min test period. Intestinal samples were drawn at 10-min intervals from 15 to 45 min and at 15-min intervals thereafter. Blood was drawn at 45, 50, 55, 60, 75, 90, 105, 120, and 135 min. Intestinal samples were analyzed for D2O, Na+, K+, osmolality, PEG, and glucose; blood was analyzed for D2O. Results (+/- SE; positive values secretion, negative values absorption) showed net fluid absorption from distilled water (-9.40 +/- 1.28 ml.h-1.cm-1) and the CE (-13.30 +/- 1.22 ml.h-1.cm-1) solution, but net secretion (4.40 +/- 1.25 ml.h-1.cm-1) from the 10% glucose solution. All values were significantly (P less than 0.05) different from each other. Perfusing the CE solution caused net Na+ and K+ absorption, whereas perfusing the 10% dextrose solution caused net electrolyte secretion. Rates of D2O accumulation in the plasma were independent of the solutions perfused.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Fuzzy dark matter (FDM), consisting of ultralight bosons ( mb∼10−22eV ), is an intriguing alternative to cold dark matter. Numerical simulations that solve the Schrödinger–Poisson (SP) equation show that FDM halos consist of a central solitonic core, which is the ground state of the SP equation, surrounded by an envelope of interfering excited states. These excited states also interfere with the soliton, causing it to oscillate and execute a confined random walk with respect to the halo center of mass. Using high-resolution numerical simulations of a 6.6×109M⊙ FDM halo with mb=8×10−23eV in isolation, we demonstrate that the wobbling, oscillating soliton gravitationally perturbs nuclear objects, such as supermassive black holes or dense star clusters, causing them to diffuse outwards. In particular, we show that, on average, objects with mass ≲0.3% of the soliton mass ( Msol ) are expelled from the soliton in ∼3 Gyr , after which they continue their outward diffusion due to gravitational interactions with the soliton and the halo granules. More massive objects (≳ 1%Msol ), while executing a random walk, remain largely confined to the soliton due to dynamical friction. We also present an effective treatment of the diffusion, based on kinetic theory, that accurately reproduces the outward motion of low-mass objects and briefly discuss how the observed displacements of star clusters and active galactic nuclei from the centers of their host galaxies can be used to constrain FDM.


This book revolves around the public international law aspects of the destructive use of cyberspace by state actors and non-state actors, encompassing cyberwar, cyberterrorism, and hacktivism, but excluding cybercrime. For the purpose of delimitation, the book also addresses cyberespionage and political activism in cyberspace. Starting with an overview of the technical background, the book explains the vulnerabilities of critical infrastructure. Then, it outlines notable cyberincidents that have occurred so far and analyzes pertinent state practices and policies. Turning to the legal analysis, the book primarily focuses on the contemporary jus ad bellum and jus in bello, exploring whether concepts like the use of force or self-defense are applicable to cyberattacks, despite their lack of physicality; or whether state responsibility and the principles of international humanitarian law are applicable to cyberspace, in particular in the light of an evident civilianization of battlespace in this area. Furthermore, the book encompasses destructive cyberterrorism and puts this into context with human rights aspects of political activism in cyberspace. The book also looks into jurisdictional pitfalls borne in cyberspace. After a brief summary of the research results, the final chapter is dedicated to providing recommendations to the international community, in order to address cyberthreats in a political process.


This thesis examines the complex nature of the poetic genre of the dramatic monologue by providing multiple perspectives on the genre--namely those of the literary critic and the creative writer. This thesis provides a selection of original dramatic monologues in various styles and featuring characters ranging from the prophet Jeremiah to a modern-day plastic surgeon tied together by the theme of imaginatively filling in historical gaps and erasures with speakers in times of great political or cultural upheaval. Prefacing this collection of poems is a discussion of the genre of dramatic monologue beginning with a general overview of the development and features of the genre followed by a discussion of specific issues involved in writing this collection.


The morphology and ultrastructure of spores of Selaginellites leonardii Kustatscher et al. 2010 from the Anisian (Middle Triassic) of the Dolomites is studied. The microspores are assignable to Uvaesporites Doring, 1965. Distally and equatorially they are covered with verrucae fused into rugae; proximally they are smooth or finely granulate. The sporoderm includes two layers, which appear homogeneous; the outer layer greatly varies in thickness at the expense of the sculptural elements, is much thicker and slightly less electron dense than the inner layer. The microspores were probably originally acavate, with an homogeneous sporoderm. Although a multi-layered sporoderm forming a cavum is the most common type occurring in selaginellalean microspores, acavate sporoderms are also known with a very high ratio between sporopollenin units and the spaces between them. The megaspores are rounded to rounded-triangular, with a very dense two-layered sporoderm, with the outer layer many times as thick as the inner layer. We suppose that originally the megaspore sporoderm was granular, formed by fused spheroid units, and could belong to the irregularly granular type or to the laterally fused type of selaginellalean sporoderms. The occurrence of various spore types in the Selaginellales is known from the Carboniferous until the present day. Available data on the sporoderm ultrastructure in the Selaginellales and Isoetales, similarities and dissimilarities between the two groups are discussed in light of the newly obtained information.


The vacuum-assisted resin infusion molding (VARIM) method has been increasingly used in manufacturing large composite structures, such as MW-scale wind turbine blades, due to its simplicity and cost-effectiveness. Understanding permeability of the composite is essential in controlling resin infusion for efficient manufacturing process development. Deformation of the vacuum bagging in the VARIM results in ever-changing permeability during infusion. The objectives of this research are to: (1) identify unique features of the apparent permeability during VARIM of glass-fabric laminate composite, (2) investigate the effects of process variables and manufacturing variations on the apparent permeability, and (3) determine the effective permeability value for use in VARIM simulations. In the experimental program, a series of glass-fabric panels were placed in a variety of laminate lay-ups and infused with vinyl ester resin and a selected low-viscosity fluid (corn oil). The process was monitored with embedded thermocouples, a video camera, a digital viscometer and an LVDT to monitor flow front motion and dimensional stability. Two methods were used to evaluate the VARIM composite apparent permeability. In the first method, permeability and part quality of the composite panels were determined by vinyl ester resin flow-front tracking and burn-out tests. In the second method, the apparent permeability of corn-oil infused composite panels was determined as a function of mass flow-rate and panel thickness. Resin fluid motion and other manufacturing parameters were found to govern the apparent permeability in the first method. With an improved lay-up design the second method was used and the resulting composite dimensional stability was found to be more significant in pre-infusion compaction tests than that during infusion. Distinct features were obtained in both effective and apparent permeabilities. Infusion times in the experiment are compared favorably with the results obtained from FLUENT 16.0's volume of fluid method, using inputs from the second experimental method.


Pichler G, Pocivalnik M, Riedl R, et al. C reactive protein: impact on peripheral tissue oxygenation and perfusion in neonates (Arch Dis Child Fetal Neonatal Ed 2012;97:F444–8). The authors of this paper have asked us to point out that there is an error concerning the units in which C–reactive protein (CRP) is measured. The unit for CRP in the abstract is correct with mg/l. However, the unit for CRP in the body of the paper is not correct – it should also be mg/l (Methods, Results, table 1). In table 2 there should be no unit of CRP because there are no CRP levels mentioned.


This is the main page for the 2015 Shorttakes. Shorttakes is a compilation of news from NIAMS published three times a year.


An approach is described for the recovery of images from tightly confined spaces by use of multimode fibers, and an analytical demonstration shows that the concept is sound. The proof of concept draws on earlier studies that concentrated on image recovery after two-way and one-way transmissions through a multimode fiber; both types of transmission used four-wave-mixing techniques. The approach described also uses four-wave mixing but utilizes two fibers to capture the image at some intermediate point that is accessible to the fibers but that is visually inaccessible to the casual viewer.


Optimal foraging models tend to assume that animals have perfect information. However, the world is constantly changing, and so it is likely that animals benefit from gathering better knowledge much of the time. Therefore, animals should exploit what they know to be the most profitable foraging options, but also invest some optimal level of effort in sampling. Sampling is when an animal investigates alternative foraging options in order to find out which is the best one to utilize at the current time. The aim of this study was to investigate if the Siberian jays (Perisoreus infaustus) used sampling and public information to exploit the best combination of different foraging patches of variable profitability. This was done using an experimental feeding platform containing a number of different randomly arranged patches each consisting of four closely spaced colour-coded tubes (i.e. one-shot feeders), each containing the same of one of five different sizes of food items (sausage pieces). Overall, the jays exploited significantly more tubes in patches that contained large sausage items than would be expected at random. This foraging success better than chance was achieved using a long-term approximation of the win-stay lose-shift strategy – i.e. the birds used information provided by a tube to either come back to the same patch again if a large item was obtained ('success'), or shift to sample a new patch if a small item was obtained ('no success'). Hence, if a tube with large item was opened, the birds were more likely to return to this patch again. However, they did not always return immediately since no significant influence of the previous 'success' was found, suggesting a longer-term strategy involving more than one patch at a time. In addition, the birds opened significantly more tubes containing large items than chance when visiting new patches that other birds had already visited, suggesting some use of public as well as private information. It therefore seems that Siberian jays try to maximize their food intake over the whole trial period and not just per visit. They do this by deviating from a simple win-stay lose-shift strategy, keeping the profitability of more than just two patches in mind at any one time and by exploiting the public information provided by the sampling behaviour of other birds.


We explain how the notion of homotopy colimits gives rise to that of mapping spaces, even in categories which are not simplicial. We apply the technique of model approximations and use elementary properties of the category of spaces to be able to construct resolutions. We prove that the homotopy category of any monoidal model category is always a central algebra over the homotopy category of Spaces. 55U35, 18G55; 18G10


This article provides a parameter-free measurement of utility in intertemporal choice and presents new and more robust evidence on the discounting of money outcomes. Intertemporal utility was concave for gains and convex for losses, consistent with a hypothesis put forward by Loewenstein and Prelec (1992). Discount rates declined over time but less so than previously observed under the assumption of linear utility. For approximately 40% of our subjects constant discounting provided the best fit. The remaining 60% were most consistent with Harvey's (1986) power discounting. Our data provide little support for the popular quasi-hyperbolic model, which is widely used in economics today. We observed an asymmetry in the discounting of gains and losses that, unlike earlier findings, cannot be explained by a framing effect.


This article focuses on the experiences of beginner teachers of the transdisciplinary demands evident in school curricula. A detailed inductive thematic analysis of open-ended interviews with ten beginner teachers from socially diverse South African schools provided rich data on their experiences of these demands. Rapid changes in the South African school curriculum since 1994 are discussed against the backdrop of participants' real lived experience during their first three years of teaching and are posed as main reason for transdisciplinary demands on beginner teachers. Despite the socio-economic differences between schools, all participants experienced the same cognitive and emotional dissonance during their first years of teaching. All participants' related experiences of heightened levels of confusion, fear of failure to meet demands of school management teams, frustration of not being able to effectively teach subjects for which they had been trained and concern about the influence of their lack of knowledge in unfamiliar subjects on learners. Drawing on the concept of an 'ideal' transdisciplinary approach, this article explores the ways in which transdisciplinary demands within the transitional space of the state of the South African educational system compound challenges faced by beginner teachers. Recommendations for tertiary teacher training programmes are briefly suggested in the conclusion.


Background. Maternal mental illness has been implicated in adverse child development outcomes. Factors such as context and culture may influence experiences of maternal distress and explain differences in outcomes across settings. Methods. We analyzed baseline data from 5,647 mothers in Ethiopia, India (Andhra Pradesh), and Vietnam participating in an ongoing cohort study (Young Lives) to compare symptom endorsement and sociodemographic correlates of distress. Maternal distress was assessed using the Self-Reporting Questionnaire-20 Items (cutoff: ≥8). Logistic regressions were stratified by sample to identify correlates of distress. Results. Symptom endorsement was similar among distressed women, particularly with regard to feeling unhappy (76%, 80%, and 79%). Notable differences were observed in three items assessing Depressive Thoughts, which were most highly endorsed in Ethiopia (49%–56%). Having a child experiencing a life-threatening event was correlated with distress in all three samples. A variety of correlates were unique to only one sample. Conclusions. There were multiple similarities but also notable differences across sites in the expression and correlates of maternal distress. Feeling unhappy appears to be a hallmark feature of distress. Correlates highlight the relationship between distress and indicators of poverty, child wellbeing, and economic shocks. Differences demonstrate the value of further exploration of cross-cultural differences.


Recently, it has been reported that the Pb-free piezoelectric perovskite Na1/2Bi1/2TiO3 (NBT) can be compositionally tuned by close control of the A-site starting stoichiometry to exhibit high levels of oxide-ion conduction. The related K1/2Bi1/2TiO3 (KBT) perovskite has also drawn considerable interest as a promising Pb-free piezoelectric material; however, its conduction properties have been less extensively investigated. Here we report on the influence of the K/Bi ratio in the starting composition on the electrical properties using a combination of impedance spectroscopy and ion-transport property measurements. KBT ceramics exhibit mixed ionic–electronic (oxide-ion) conduction with tion ∼ 0.5 at 600–800 °C and although variations in the A-site starting stoichiometry can create a ∼1 order of magnitude difference in the bulk conductivity at >500 °C, the conductivity is low (ca. 0.1 to 1 mS cm−1 at 700 °C) and the activation energy for bulk conduction remains in the range ∼1.2 to 1.5 eV. The high temperature electrical transport properties of KBT are therefore much less sensitive to the starting A-site stoichiometry as compared to NBT. However, KBT ceramics exhibit non-negligible proton conduction at lower temperatures (<300 °C). For K/Bi ≥ 1 the total conductivity of KBT ceramics at room temperature can be as high as ∼0.1 mS cm−1 under wet atmospheric conditions. This study demonstrates ionic conduction to be a common feature in A1/2Bi1/2TiO3 perovskites, where A = Na, K.


PDF Version
 July 8, 2013
 TO THE ADMINISTRATOR ADDRESSED:
 SUBJECT: Instructional Materials Allotment for School Year 2013-2014
 The 2013-2014 IMA allocations for each district and open-enrollment charter school are available at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=25769805667
 The district IMA allocations will be populated in EMAT by July 12, 2013; however, the funding for the 2013-2014 school year will not be available until September 1, 2013.
 The Educational Materials (EMAT) system has opened for the 2013-2014 school year. Currently, each district and charter school's Instructional Materials Allotment (IMA) reflects IMA unexpended balances from the 2012-2013 school year. Districts and open enrollment charter schools may use these unexpended funds for Instructional Materials including continuing contracts, technological equipment, and/or technology services.
 If a school district or open-enrollment charter school does not have a balance in its IMA, the Texas Educational Agency (TEA) has developed a process to reimburse districts and open-enrollment charter schools for allowable IMA expenditures. In order to participate in this process, the district or open-enrollment charter school is required to submit a request for reimbursement through EMAT. Upon approval from the TEA, districts will pay for the products or services and then be reimbursed through an EMAT disbursement as IMA funds become available to the district or charter school. Additional information and instructions for the TEA reimbursement process in EMAT can be located at http://www.tea.state.tx.us/WorkArea/linkit.aspx?LinkIdentifier=id&ItemID=25769805632.
 Instructional materials for the visually impaired (Braille, Large Type and Audio) remain the property of the state and will not be counted against a district's IMA. Braille, Large Type and Audio instructional materials will continue to be requested through EMAT and returned to the redistribution center in the same manner as they have in the past. Districts can requisition these instructional materials for the 2013-2014 school year immediately. If you have any questions with the allocations or reimbursement process, please contact the Instructional Materials and Educational Technology Division at (512) 463-9601 or via email at
email@example.com.
 Sincerely,

Anita Givens Associate Commissioner Standards and Programs


A major challenge for cybersecurity comes from new technology approaches that focus primarily on the benefits of implementation rather than on defining the governance and risk management changes necessary to establish and enforce appropriate protections. This challenge is especially important for the adoption of technology that impacts critical infrastructure and shared services, such as voting and defense. Researchers examined the challenges and the effective cybersecurity options facing Department of Defense (DoD) programs delivering cyberphysical systems and adopting DevSecOps. These researchers found a lack of broad understanding about the level of management and governance responsibility needed to define and use the DevSecOps pipeline. Adopting DevSecOps is a sociotechnical decision that links technology with operational process and practice. Researchers identified several areas that require cross-functional and organizational management attention to fit the pipeline for mission use and considerations to address for producing the system. This paper describes the case study and lessons learned to date. When a program adopts DevSecOps, it creates and supports two major systems concurrently: (1) the product the program was assigned to produce, and (2) the pipeline the program uses to develop and operationalize the product. Both systems need effective built-in security. In addition, neither the product nor the pipeline can remain static, so the cybersecurity of each must change to ensure sufficiency. The product expands with added functionality, which includes added vulnerabilities that tools and developers must address. The pipeline should be continually refined and improved as new tools and techniques better enable the consistent throughput of new features and capabilities. The focus on functionality and throughput is not sufficient for either system because the threat landscape changes constantly with new attacker capabilities. As a result, the need for improved tools to avoid and remove vulnerabilities from the product become critical. These tools must also be patched since they are software and contain vulnerabilities. As more data about the product is collected through the pipeline, it is critical to tap this information to improve the product and pipeline. However, the pipeline is not a single entity. It is a collection of highly configurable pieces built independently and assembled to perform together. The increased use of the DevSecOps pipeline to automate software assurance, cybersecurity, and safety compliance transfers the responsibilities for identifying and addressing pipeline and product risks to roles that were not involved in the past. For example, acquirers and maintainers of pipeline tools may now be responsible for the level of verification performed on the product and its associated effectiveness. If the criteria for tool selection remains focused only on cost, availability, and compliance, the expectations for this new responsibility could fall short of stakeholder expectations, especially if structuring the pipeline does not include stakeholder requirements. There is a lack of broad understanding about the level of management and governance responsibility needed to define and assure the responsible use of a DevSecOps pipeline. Our work is focused on bringing these under-addressed areas to light.


For many, the discourse on anarchists' violence belongs to the past, to an era that shocked the world but ended a long time ago. However, this assumption is not accurate in the twentieth-first century. It ignores the reality that allows extremists to rise from the dust, gain popularity and use available tools to promote themselves and their ideas, and thus, to pose a new potential threat. While most of the research on radicalization and political violent extremism focuses on jihadism or the contemporary right-wing extremism, it is important not to ignore the reaction that right-wing extremists created and provoked in the past, which is still relevant in our days: left-wing extremism, which is embodied today in violent anarchists and anti-fascists. This article sheds light on the contemporary left-wing extremism and violent mobilization in Europe and North America, its reflections on the Internet and in music, and its violent activity at home against "fascist" representatives (such as right-wing extremist groups and individuals), and even abroad, against other "fascist" representatives, such as the Islamic State organization. The purpose of the article is to examine this under-researched phenomenon while focusing on popular and recent modes of mobilization and recruitment of this "new revolutionary left", which reflect a threat that is developing in Europe, North America and the Middle East – but not from the jihadi or right-wing aspects, but from anti-fascist and anarchists' militancy aspect.


Organic-walled dinoflagellate cyst analysis of samples previously used to establish a high resolution oxygen and carbon isotope stratigraphy for the last 0.7 Ma in the northeastern Atlantic is detailed. Data from Hole 552A, Leg 81 of the Deep Sea Drilling Project, drilled on the western flank of the Rockall Plateau reveal peaks of dinoflagellate cyst recovery relatable with isotope stages 1, 11, 13 and 17. Cysts most prersistently present include the oceanic Impagidinium species, Nematosphaeropsb labyrinthea (Ostenfeld) Reid and the ubiquitous Operculodinium centrocarpum (Deflandre & Cookson) Wall. The results offer a correlation between the oceanic oxygen isotope stratigraphy and the dinoflagellate cyst record. The potential for further correlation with the extensive Quaternary marine sequences of the continental shelf around the British Isles is explored. The dinoflagellate cyst signal is an important factor in understanding oceanographic changes both at the surface and at depth.


The use of legumes has received heightened interest as an alternative to chemical fertilizers in recent years. It adds not only nitrogen (N) but also carbon (C) to soils thus it might influence the soil microbial community structures. Considering that microorganisms play a key role in N dynamics, it is important to understand the relationship between the soil microbial structure and soil N dynamics, in relation to the use of legumes. Thus, we aimed to evaluate the relationship between the long-term legume application and soil microbial community structures. Also we aimed to investigate the relationship between the microbial communities and the soils' N immobilization potential, because N immobilization by microbes often competes with plants in terms of N availability in soils. We compared a soil with the history of the use of green manure (hairy vetch, HV) and a soil with the history of the use of N chemical fertilizer (CF). First, we investigated the microbial communities using a colony counting method and a 16S rRNA gene analysis. Then we conducted an incubation experiment where we added C and N source into soils and measured N immobilization potentials. Bacterial community structures were analyzed to investigate the interaction between N immobilization potentials and bacterial community structures. Our results showed that there was a significant difference in microbial community structures for the two soils before the addition of C and N. However, no significant difference was detected on N immobilization potential during the incubation. Moreover, the difference between the bacterial community structures in the two soils became smaller as the incubation progressed, within 14 days. According to these results, it is indicated that microbial community structures were clearly influenced by the use of hairy vetch but with added C and N, the community structure differences due to the use of hairy vetch might disappear.


Cell assemblies exhibiting episodes of recurrent coherent activity have been observed in several brain regions including the striatum[1] and hippocampus CA3[2]. Here we address the question of how coherent dynamically switching assemblies appear in large networks of biologically realistic spiking neurons interacting deterministically. We show by numerical simulations of large asymmetric inhibitory networks with fixed external excitatory drive that if the network has intermediate to sparse connectivity, the individual cells are in the vicinity of a bifurcation between a quiescent and firing state and the network inhibition varies slowly on the spiking timescale, then cells form assemblies whose members show strong positive correlation, while members of different assemblies show strong negative correlation. We show that cells and assemblies switch between firing and quiescent states with time durations consistent with a power-law. Our results are in good qualitative agreement with the experimental studies. The deterministic dynamical behaviour is related to winner-less competition[3], shown in small closed loop inhibitory networks with heteroclinic cycles connecting saddle-points.


Abstract The National Ignition Facility (NIF), currently under construction at the University of California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, is a stadium-sized facility containing a 192-beam, 1.8-Megajoule, 500-Terawatt, 351-nm laser system and a 10-meter diameter target chamber with room for nearly 100 experimental diagnostics. NIF is being built by the National Nuclear Security Administration and when completed will be the world's largest laser experimental system, providing a national center to study inertial confinement fusion and the physics of matter at extreme energy densities and pressures. NIF's 192 energetic laser beams will compress fusion targets to conditions where they will ignite and burn, liberating more energy than required to initiate the fusion reactions. NIF experiments will allow the study of physical processes at temperatures approaching 100 million K and 100 billion times atmospheric pressure. These conditions exist naturally only in the interior of stars and in nuclear weapons explosions. In the course of designing the world's most energetic laser system, a number of significant technology breakthroughs have been achieved. NIF is now entering the first phases of its laser commissioning program. Low-energy preamplifier rod laser shots have been successfully propagated through the entire laser chain. Higher energy shots are planned through the end of 2002. NIF's target experimental systems are also being installed in preparation for laser performance and experimental capability commissioning starting in 2003.


Object oriented representation of image sequences requires accurate motion segmentation and depth ordering techniques. Unfortunately, the lack of precise motion estimates at the object boundaries makes these two tasks very difficult. We present a detailed analysis of the behaviour of dense motion estimation techniques at object boundaries which reveals the systematic nature of the motion estimation error; the motion of the occluding surface is observed in a small neighbourhood on the occluded side. We then show how the joint use of still image segmentation and robust regression can eliminate this error. Furthermore we present a novel technique which uses the position of the error as a depth cue. The validity of this technique, which requires only sub-pixel motion and which is capable of distinguishing between different types of intensity discontinuities, such as object boundaries, surface marks and illumination discontinuities, is then demonstrated on several synthetic and real image sequences.


The product/service offerings based on business intelligence have come a long way since its inception. Utilities worldwide have realized the potential of this technology and have made significant investments into harnessing the benefit of these technology offerings. By leveraging analytics, utilities have been able to harness key information out of the operational processes. Taking a moment to analyze some of the utility companies and their usage of business intelligence (BI) products, one will find them in different quadrants of maturity. The forces that have dictated this maturity positioning are numerous, be they regulatory pressures or operational efficiency concerns or environmental concerns or the mere appetite to absorb high risk on the part of the enterprise. This article examines some of the key usage positioning in the quadrants and the quantum leaps that are being taken by the companies to make more effective use of the service/product offerings. Additionally, this article examines how business performance management (BPM) has been positioned as a key strategic offering in the world of utilities by elucidating the process of energy efficiency programs and integration with other key processes. Figure 1: Capability Maturity Model * Will use it only if it can't do without it * Is still running a legacy system with very high costs of maintenance * Continuously trying to put out day to day operations fires [4] * Waits until most people have made use of the technology and only switches if it becomes an absolute necessity * The cost of implementing is more manageable * Always in the Technology catch-up mode [3] * Early adopters of the BI Technology * Buying a Change agent to get a jump on the competition * Visionaries in their organizations * High ability to handle risk vs. reward * Uses the "Cool" factor as a competitive strength to attract talent [1] * Pragmatists * Waits for credible proof of benefits * Follows the leader * Adopts proven best practices in the industry related to the technology [2] Early Adopters (Quadrant 1) The organizations in this quadrant have played a visionary role in their industry vertical with regard to the usage of business intelligence and analytics. Typically, these organizations have a history of adopting new technology offerings and making the most of it by working with the product/service provider to adopt the technology to its maximum benefit. In the SAP * area, such ramp-up customers can be seen in a wide variety of areas. The players have often collaborated with the technology company to produce outstanding solutions that oftentimes become the benchmark. They are continuously trying to harness value by creative techniques from the portfolio of products that they have. When other organizations are still grappling with the idea of value-based analytics, these organizations are already tinkering with service offerings in the BPM arena. They are in the process of using the latest levers in the area of analytics such as predictive analytics, data mining and accelerators to seek further value from their investments. An example here is the early adoption of SAP Strategy Management offerings by Pacific Gas & Electric Company (PG&E) to connect their operational planning and drivers with key strategy plans. Pragmatists (Quadrant 2) The organizations in this quadrant have waited patiently to see how the technology plays out in their vertical. They have conducted very careful studies to see the cost/benefit associated with the investment in business intelligence. Quite often, they have included business intelligence as a part of their total transformation program. These companies have followed the best practices route after carefully mitigating any risks associated with their investment. They have effectively partnered with big consulting system integrators to carefully define the processes and see where they can use business intelligence to provide value. …


Actins are small globular filaments functioning in cell processes like muscle contraction, and stabilized to the sarcomeric Z- discs by actin binding proteins (actinins). One of the important gene coding for actin binding proteins in fast twitch fibers is alpha- actinin- 3 (ACTN3). In this research, we have conducted a gene profile study investigating the genotype and allele distributions of ACTN3 R577X polymorphism in Turkish professional hip- hop and latin dancers and compared them to non-dancers as a control group. 30 professional dancers and non-dancers were recruited for the study. A genotyping procedure was carried out by a newly introduced four-primer PCR methodology. For statistical analysis, the Chi-square test was used to compare data between the groups (p<0,05 evaluated as significant). Numbers and the percentages of dancers were 2 (7%), 21 (70%) and 7(23%) for RR, RX and XX genotypes, respectively. The same numbers and the percentages were 15 (50%), 8 (15%) and 7 (23%) for RR, RX and XX genotypes, respectively, for the controls. Allele numbers and percentages of the R allele were 38 (63%) and 25 (42%) for the control and dancers, respectively. For X allele, the respective number for control and dancers were 22 (37%) and 35 (58%). No significant difference was detected between the groups in the terms of genotypes and alleles. Only RX genotype was significantly different between dancers and non-dancers (p<0,05). The results of the present and the first study, associating professional dancers and ACTN3 R577X polymorphism, is suggesting that RX genotype may have an genetic advantage for the physical predisposition for dancing, at least in the terms of ACTN3 R577X polymorphism. Prospective studies with extended numbers of dancers focusing on the influence of ACTN3 R577X polymorphism are required for confirmation of these findings.


This article reviews current research in visual urban perception. The temporal sequence of the first few milliseconds of visual stimulus processing sheds light on the historically ambiguous topic of aesthetic experience. Automatic fractal processing triggers initial attraction/avoidance evaluations of an environment's salubriousness, and its potentially positive or negative impacts upon an individual. As repeated cycles of visual perception occur, the attractiveness of urban form affects the user experience much more than had been previously suspected. These perceptual mechanisms promote walkability and intuitive navigation, and so they support the urban and civic interactions for which we establish communities and cities in the first place. Therefore, the use of multiple fractals needs to reintegrate with biophilic and traditional architecture in urban design for their proven positive effects on health and well-being. Such benefits include striking reductions in observers' stress and mental fatigue. Due to their costs to individual well-being, urban performance, environmental quality, and climatic adaptation, this paper recommends that nontraditional styles should be hereafter applied judiciously to the built environment.


Like any software, web service fault management is also required to go through different phases of fault management lifecycle. Model based diagnosis has been a well established practice for its several positive aspects including cognitively being better understood by development and testing teams. Automata is a simple and formally well defined model being used for monitoring and diagnosis of system faults. For the reason, here we have reviewed works on automata for web service fault management and also propose a model of stochastic automata for the purpose.


Commercial rice crops (Oryza sativa L.) have been recently reintroduced to the Ord River Irrigation Area in northern Western Australia. In early August 2011, unusual leaf spot symptoms were observed by a local rice grower on rice cultivar Quest. A leaf spot symptom initially appeared as grey-green and/or water soaked with a darker green border and then expanded rapidly to several centimeters in length and became light tan in color with a distinct necrotic border. Isolations from typical leaf lesions were made onto water agar, subcultured onto potato dextrose agar, and maintained at 20°C. A representative culture was lodged in the Western Australian Culture Collection Herbarium, Department of Agriculture and Food Western Australia (WAC 13466) and as a herbarium specimen in the Plant Pathology Herbarium, Plant Biosecurity Science (BRIP 54721). Amplification of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS)1 and (ITS)2 regions flanking the 5.8S rRNA gene were carried out with universal primers ITS1 and ITS4 (4). The PCR products were sequenced and BLAST analyses used to compare sequences with those in GenBank. The sequence had 99% nucleotide identity with the corresponding sequence in GenBank for Magnaporthe oryzae B.C. Couch, the causal agent of rice blast, the most important fungal disease of rice worldwide (1). Additional sequencing with the primers Bt1a/Bt1b for the β-tubulin gene, primers ACT-512F/ACT-783R for the actin gene, and primers CAL-228F/CAL-737R for the calmodulin gene showed 100% identity in each case with M. oryzae sequences in GenBank, confirming molecular similarity with other reports, e.g., (1). The relevant sequence information for a representative isolate has been lodged in GenBank (GenBank Accession Nos. JQ911754 for (ITS) 1 and 2; JX014265 for β-tubulin; JX035809 for actin; and JX035808 for calmodulin). Isolates also showed morphological similarity with M. oryzae as described in other reports, e.g., (3). Spores of M. oryzae were produced on rice agar under "black light" at 21°C for 4 weeks. Under 30/28°C (day/night), 14/12 h (light/dark), rice cv. Quest was grown for 7 weeks, and inoculated by spraying a suspension 5 × 105 spores/ml onto foliage until runoff occurred. Inoculated plants were placed under a dark plastic covering for 72 h to maximize humidity levels around leaves, and subsequently maintained under >90% RH conditions. Typical symptoms of rice blast appeared within 14 days of inoculation and were as described above. Infection studies were successfully repeated and M. oryzae was readily reisolated from leaf lesions. No disease symptoms were observed nor was M. oryzae isolated from water-inoculated control rice plants. There have been previous records of rice blast in the Northern Territory (2) and Queensland, Australia (Australian Plant Pest Database), but this is the first report of M. oryzae in Western Australia, where it could potentially be destructive if conditions prove conducive. References: (1) B. C. Couch and L. M. Kohn. Mycologia 94:683, 2002; (2) J. B. Heaton. The Aust. J. Sci. 27:81, 1964; (3) C. V. Subramanian. IMI Descriptions of Fungi and Bacteria No 169, Pyricularia oryzae, 1968; (4) T. J. White et al. PCR Protocols: A Guide to Methods and Applications. M. A. Innis et al., eds. Academic Press, New York, 1990.


Technology has been widely implemented in tourism to enhance the tourism product and tourist experience. However, it remains a challenge for many tourism businesses in urban heritage areas to identify technological solutions and successfully implement them into their business strategy. Particularly for urban heritage sites, it is often challenging to provide information within and around a heritage site without disturbing or destroying the heritage image. Augmented Reality (AR) was identified as a suitable technology to overcome this challenge. However, while AR is not considered a new technology in many industries, and mobile tourism applications with AR functions exist, it has provided limited benefits to tourists due to the lack of using AR functions meaningfully. In addition, the development of wearable devices is increasingly focused on the use of augmented and virtual reality to enhance the user experience. Therefore, there is a need to explore methods of meaningful implementation of such technologies for the tourism industry. This study will investigate current standards of AR technology and tourist requirements in order to examine how to develop meaningful mobile AR tourism applications. For the development of a beneficial product, Quality Function Deployment (QFD), as a tool within Total Quality Management (TQM) was identified as the suitable theoretical background for the purpose of this study. QFD was developed in the theory of quality management, in particular TQM. QFD has since been employed across many industries including the hospitality and tourism sector in a number of studies. However, it has not yet been implemented in the urban heritage tourism context, presenting a knowledge gap. As QFD is designed to incorporate the customers' view into the product design stage, the aim is to design a meaningful product that is valuable for the visitor and benefit the destination. Therefore, this research aims to eliminate the gap by generating a QFD model for the development of mobile AR tourism applications in the context of urban heritage tourism. Dublin was selected as the research site due to its rich urban heritage. After Dublin's re-branding strategy in 2013, it has marketed itself with the brand image of 'Digital Dublin' in order to encourage the implementation of technology for the purpose of promoting urban heritage tourism. Therefore, Dublin was considered as the suitable research site for the purpose of this study. To achieve the research aim, a mixed method approach was employed for the primary research including semi-structured interviews, focus groups and questionnaires. The study was divided into three research phases. Research phase 1 investigates requirements of tourists, mobile AR application developers and industry experts from Dublin's tourism industry for the development and use of mobile AR tourism applications in urban heritage tourism. 26 in-depth interviews were conducted with international tourists visiting Dublin in addition to 9 interviews with mobile AR application developers and industry experts from Dublin. Findings were analysed using thematic analysis, providing the knowledge base for Research Phase 2 – focus groups. The second research phase was conducted with tourists as a post-experience study. It aimed to confirm identified tourist requirements from the literature and Research Phase 1, and examine additional findings to design the questionnaire for the quantitative Research Phase 3. Research Phase 3 was conducted with domestic and international tourists in Dublin and provided an importance rating of identified tourist requirements for the development of the final QFD model for mobile AR tourism applications in the urban heritage tourism context. The outcomes from the quantitative research were analysed using confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) to reduce tourist requirements for the final QFD model. By identifying tourist requirements and translating them into respective technical characteristics, this study provides a set of technological elements in hierarchical order for the design of meaningful mobile AR tourism applications in urban heritage tourism. The final 18 requirements are in close alignment with the outcomes of the qualitative research of this study highlighting the need of immediate access to information regardless of time and place, while being able to filter the available information to the tourists' interest and needs. The final QFD model for the development of mobile AR tourism applications in urban heritage tourism was presented as the outcome of this research. The main contribution to theory is the extension in the identification process of customer requirements for the QFD model. While previous studies in QFD have mainly focused on product functions, such as software and hardware capabilities, the QFD model in this study aims to provide a balance between functional requirements and behavioural characteristics of tourists that are driven by psychological aspects. This study not only explored tourist requirements as in previous studies, but furthermore user resistance factors that would result in avoiding mobile AR tourism applications in urban heritage tourism. Including these criteria as customer attributes in the HOQ, the QFD model was extended to include behavioural and psychological attributes of customers, which is valuable for further implementation of QFD particularly in social studies. This research will furthermore contribute to professionals, Destination Marketing Organisations (DMO) as well as mobile AR application developers alike, by providing a model for the development of mobile AR applications in the context of urban heritage tourism that has incorporated tourist requirements as well as mobile AR application developer considerations. Furthermore, it needs to be acknowledged that the requirements are not limited to mobile AR applications, but are considered particularly valuable for further research in the area of mobile application development for tourism purposes and are expected to be partially transferable to other technology implementations for tourism products.


The timing of flowering plays a critical role in determining the productivity of agricultural crops. If the crops flower too early, the crop would mature before the end of the growing season, losing the opportunity to capture and use large amounts of light energy. If the crops flower too late, the crop may be killed by the change of seasons before it is ready to harvest. Maize flowering is one of the most important periods where even small amounts of stress can significantly alter yield. In this work, we developed and compared two methods for automatic tassel detection based on the imagery collected from an unmanned aerial vehicle, using deep learning models. The first approach was a customized framework for tassel detection based on convolutional neural network (TD-CNN). The other method was a state-of-the-art object detection technique of the faster region-based CNN (Faster R-CNN), serving as baseline detection accuracy. The evaluation criteria for tassel detection were customized to correctly reflect the needs of tassel detection in an agricultural setting. Although detecting thin tassels in the aerial imagery is challenging, our results showed promising accuracy: the TD-CNN had an F1 score of 95.9% and the Faster R-CNN had 97.9% F1 score. More CNN-based model structures can be investigated in the future for improved accuracy, speed, and generalizability on aerial-based tassel detection.


Background Perimesencephalic subarachnoid hemorrhage (PMSAH) is only rarely associated with a ruptured cerebral aneurysm and CT angiography (CTA) has very good sensitivity and specificity for aneurysm detection. The necessity for invasive imaging with digital subtraction angiography (DSA) is therefore debatable. We chose to assess the negative predictive value (NPV) of CTA in a series of patients with PMSAH treated at our institution over a 9-year period. Methods We retrospectively assessed the diagnostic yield of DSA after initial negative CTA in patients with a PMSAH pattern defined as blood centered anterior to the midbrain and/or pons within the pre-pontine or interpeduncular cistern with possible quadrigeminal or ambient cistern extension; possible extension into the basal parts of the sylvian fissures but not the lateral sylvian fissures; possible extension to the cisterna magna but not centered on the cisterna magna; and possible extension into the fourth ventricle and occipital horns of the lateral ventricles. Results Using this definition of PMSAH, of 72 patients, one patient showed a potentially significant finding on DSA that was not demonstrated on initial CTA (NPV 98.61% (95% CI 92.47% to 99.77%)). However, when cisterna magna extension was excluded from the definition of PMSAH, no false negative CTAs in 56 patients were encountered (NPV 100% (95% CI 93.56% to 100.00%)). Conclusions The NPV of normal CTA for an arterial abnormality in patients with PMSAH is high and our results therefore question the role of invasive imaging. The findings also suggest that a prospective study designed to clarify the necessity of performing DSA in this population would be feasible.


The newly developed Leeds Index of Platform Labour Protest provides an overview of the developments in platform worker organisation and mobilisation on a global scale. Its findings so far reveal that:

- The main cause globally for labour protest is pay, with considerable geographical variation when it comes to other causes for dispute.

- Types of platform labour protest appear to vary more substantially between regions than between industries.

- Mainstream unions play a vital role in defending platform workers' interests, especially in western Europe, while in the global South, protests are much more likely to be led by grassroots unions.

- Mainstream unions rely more frequently on legal challenges, while unofficial unions rely more frequently on strike actions.


Users often do not use keyboard shortcuts in applications as recalling and choosing the correct shortcut is a
higher-order cognitive task. Mouse driven menus, toolbars, and icons are easier for a user to learn because
they present hints and make visible what operations are possible, drawing on the power of recognition rather
than recall. How can we better support the usage of shortcuts with such menus? Two existing methods are text
in the icons, and popups with mouse hover. While the first is space inefficient; the second limits exposure and
imposes an interaction cost. We propose a third method, ShoCons, that is spatially more efficient and neither
limits user exposure nor imposes an interaction cost. To achieve this, ShoCons use a succinct iconic display of
meta keys, limiting textual display to one character. We examine these alternatives in a controlled study, and
find that when used with a high-level task, ShoCons enable faster task performance and an immediate increase
in the accuracy of shortcut use.


We show that QCD instantons can generate large effects at small length scales in the ultraviolet in standard composite Higgs models that utilise partial compositeness. This has important implications for possible solutions of the strong CP problem in these models. First we show that in the simplest known UV completions of composite Higgs models, if an axion is also present, it can have a mass much larger than the usual QCD axion. Even more remarkable is the case where there are no axions, but the strong CP problem can be solved by generating the up quark mass entirely from the contribution of instantons thus reviving the massless up-quark solution for these models. In both cases no additional field content is required apart from what is required to realise partial compositeness.


Maximum benefit from a rate‐modulated pacemaker requires individualized programming of rate response settings. We tested an externally strapped activity‐sensing pacemaker (Activitrax ‐ Medtronic 8400) in eight healthy volunteers, to assess the pacing responses of the different rate response and activity threshold settings. Five males and three females, aged 20 to 70 years (mean 40), performed a total of 67 treadmill exercise tests, using a specijic protocol designed to assess the activity‐sensing unit. The external unit was compared to implanted units in four patients, to validate its accuracy. A reproducible sinus response to the treadmill protocol was observed, against which pacing responses were compared. The activity threshold determines the degree of activity required to elicit a pacing rate response, whereas the rate response setting determines the rate attained. Rates of 140 bpm were rarely achieved, despite vigorous exercise. The sensor responds rapidly to activity, not to physiologic demand; to increase in speed, not grade. Four patients performed repeated limited treadmill tests to determine their optimum program setting, with symptomatic status and the healthy volunteer sinus response as guides. These results, and those from the external Activitrax unit, suggest that LOW 6 and MEDIUM 6–10 settings will prove optimum for most patients.


Society is on the verge of an energy transition in order to mitigate climate change and decrease the dependency on finite fossil resources. European policy emphasises the role of technology, by stimulating technological innovation. The introduction of batteries and biomass as energy carriers, to realise change in the transport, the energy and the residential sector are, therefore, accompanied with high expectations. The results of this research show that the electric vehicles with lithium based batteries, co-combustion of biomass in a coal-fired power plant and large scale green gas production for the residential sector, only marginally contribute to the energy transition, within the required timeframe until 2050. In the case of green gas via biomass gasification, this is due to lagging technological development. Co-combustion results in an efficiency increase from a greenhouse perspective, but also leads to a less efficient power production system, from an energy perspective. Electric vehicles result in increased energy efficiency and reduced greenhouse gas emissions. However, the expected continued expansion of the vehicle fleet, due to increased demand, is larger than the introduction rate of electric vehicles. Therefore, even though the energy efficiency of the transport sector increases, the absolute energy use and emissions of the transportation sector are expected to increase. It is highly probable that demand increases at a faster pace than efficiency increases, effectively annihilating the greenhouse gas reduction potential of the explored technological innovations. Therefore, these innovations do not lead to an energy transition.


This paper presents design requirements for expressive, avatar-based multi-modal messaging on mobile platforms. It is argued that expressive messaging needs to exploit context of peers, embodied appearance and behaviour, in combination with text. Our approach allows strong expressiveness and yet simple, on the fly message compositions required in a mobile, noisy setting. Technical challenges for a user ready prototype are sketched. It is argued that the context of usage between work-related stationary terminals and mobile ones is radically different.


This study investigated the challenges and issues auditors face when auditing material environmental matters relevant for financial reporting. This study adopted an interpretive methodology. Qualitative interviews with 18 New Zealand audit partners and managers from the North and South Islands provided the research findings. Legitimacy theory informed the interpretation of the research findings. The research findings revealed that auditors could risk not considering environmental matters and environmental risks exposure in audit planning if disclosures are not made in the financial report or communicated to the auditor; also for new clients or clients not operating in obviously environmentally sensitive industries or sector. The auditors are further challenged by keeping up with the prolific environmental laws and regulations. AGS-1010 recommended that auditors apply the accounting standard for 'Provisions, Contingent Liabilities and Contingent Assets', however, it is subjective and creates some confusion in its application. Generally, auditors do seek technical advice but there are few suitable qualified environmental experts in New Zealand to assist them. The general implication is that the audit of significant environmental matters seems to extend the boundary of financial audits, reflecting perhaps unreasonable expectations of auditors' knowledge of environmental issues and auditing environmental matters.


For the last decade and more, the law reform agenda on behalf of sexual minorities in the United States has been dominated by the same-sex marriage campaign and, to a lesser extent, the repeal of Don't Ask/Don't Tell. Gay rights advocates for both equality-seeking efforts, while locked in battle with culture warriors from the right, also have been subject to protest and criticism from the left for their powerful normalizing impulses and identitarian rights-orientation. Gay rights advocates nonetheless have persevered in their quest for equality, scarcely acknowledging the criticism from queer and other non-mainstreaming or dissident voices, perhaps unable to imagine what their law reform agenda would look like if they took the criticism seriously. The opening paper for this symposium will attempt to help law reformers imagine just that, by proposing a critical approach to agenda-setting for the benefit of persons marginalized by some facet of their sexuality and/or gender. The method begins with rights critique, reviewing some of the debate among different strands of critically-inclined leftists (crits, race crits, fem crits) over the promise and perils, and utility and disutility, of rights argumentation, reconsidering these insights in the advent of gay and trans law reform movements, as well as queer theory, and extracting the most pertinent blend of critical tools from these traditions. It will then turn not to reconstruction, in the sense of elaborating a new theory of emancipation, but to distributive analysis, making manifest the stakes of possible reform strategies — revealing not only their possible emancipatory promise, but also their costs, even for those constituencies with which gay rights advocates are concerned. The method will conclude in a decisionist posture, driving toward commitment to concrete law reform tasks — not because they promise total equality or emancipation in some other mode or are cost-free — but because we are willing to accept their costs as the price of the benefits we hope they will bring, eyes wide open to the fact that we cannot be sure.


A new geographic locality record and three new host records for Neobenedenia melleni (MacCallum, 1927) (Monogenea: Capsalidae) are provided. Specimens of N. melleni were collected from the skin of three Florida pompano, Trachinotus carolinus (Linnaeus, 1766) (Carangidae), caught in the northern Gulf ofMexico off Horn Island, Mississippi; from the skin of a bluering angelfish, Pomacanthus annularis (Bloch, 1787) (Pomacanthidae), in the Shark Reef Aquarium at Mandalay Bay, Las Vegas, Nevada; from the skin of a rock greenling, Hexagrammos lagocephalus (Pallas, 1810) (Hexagrammidae), in the Alaska SeaLife Center, Seward, Alaska; and from the skin oftwo blue-barred ribbon gobies, Oxymetopon cyanoctenosum Klausewitz and Conde, 1981 (Microdesmidae), in a tropical fish clearinghouse in Hayward, California. This is the first published record of the parasite from a microdesmid or wild carangid. Prior to this report, no specimen of N. melleni had been reported from a wild-caught fish in the Gulf of Mexico. The presence of N. melleni in the Gulf of Mexico is particularly noteworthy because this monogenean is a known pathogen of cultured fishes in netpens and recirculating seawater systems.


Typically, when using practice management systems (PMS), dentists perform data entry by utilizing an assistant as a transcriptionist. This prevents dentists from interacting directly with the PMSs. Speech recognition interfaces can provide the solution to this problem. Existing speech interfaces of PMSs are cumbersome and poorly designed. In dentistry, there is a desire and need for a usable natural language interface for clinical data entry. Objectives. (1) evaluate the efficiency, effectiveness, and user satisfaction of the speech interfaces of four dental PMSs, (2) develop and evaluate a speech-to-chart prototype for charting naturally spoken dental exams. Methods. We evaluated the speech interfaces of four leading PMSs. We manually reviewed the capabilities of each system and then had 18 dental students chart 18 findings via speech in each of the systems. We measured time, errors, and user satisfaction. Next, we developed and evaluated a speech-to-chart prototype which contained the following components: speech recognizer; post-processor for error correction; NLP application (ONYX) and; graphical chart generator. We evaluated the accuracy of the speech recognizer and the post-processor. We then performed a summative evaluation on the entire system. Our prototype charted 12 hard tissue exams. We compared the charted exams to reference standard exams charted by two dentists. Results. Of the four systems, only two allowed both hard tissue and periodontal charting via speech. All interfaces required using specific commands directly comparable to using a mouse. The average time to chart the nine hard tissue findings was 2:48 and the nine periodontal findings was 2:06. There was an average of 7.5 errors per exam. We created a speech-to-chart prototype that supports natural dictation with no structured commands. On manually transcribed exams, the system performed with an average 80% accuracy. The average time to chart a single hard tissue finding with the prototype was 7.3 seconds. An improved discourse processor will greatly enhance the prototype's accuracy. Conclusions. The speech interfaces of existing PMSs are cumbersome, require using specific speech commands, and make several errors per exam. We successfully created a speech-to-chart prototype that charts hard tissue findings from naturally spoken dental exams.


Reliability and testability are two important factors for the development of batch fabrication of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) or mixed MEMS/IC applications. In that frame, an easy-to-implement electrical method of detection of failures is presented in this paper, valid for every kind of electrostatic microactuators showing pull-in behavior, with great expectation value in the case of arrayed MEMS. The method relies on the detection of a pull-in current peak at very low frequency. An experimental setup is described and results are shown obtained with prototypes of electrostatic microactuators with parallel capacitances created by deep reactive ion etching on silicon-on-insulator wafers. This method is really suitable for automation and application to on-line testing during mass production and reliability studies. The functional schematic of a test circuitry is proposed for implementation in an industrial tester or for built-in self-test purposes. Then, in order to illustrate the benefits of this method for reliability studies, it is used in conjunction with high voltage testing for accelerated lifetime measurements. A time gain factor of 20 is achieved with above-mentioned test structures.


Morphological characters have historically been used as the basis for mammalian taxonomic designations and, in a geographic context, subspecies descriptions. Geographic genetic structuring of a species, however, often reflects a contrasting classification for sampled populations. To investigate morphological and genetic congruence, geometric morphometrics and phylogeographic mitochondrial DNA sequence analyses of a South African plains-dwelling species, Myotomys unisulcatus, the Karoo bush rat, was performed across its range. A Bayesian population structure analysis identified two closely-related distinct genetic assemblages: the first contains populations from both the eastern, southern, and western parts of the species range (coastal lowland group), and the second comprises individuals from the Little Karoo (central interior group). Areas of sharp elevation (the Great Escarpment), coupled to vegetational differences, appeared to be the main factor limiting gene flow between these two groups. Geometric morphometric analyses on the ventral and dorsal views of the crania of M. unisulcatus failed to support the genetic groupings. Instead environmental factors in the respective biomes appeared to play a more important role in shaping the crania of both genders. The contrasting patterns obtained between morphology and genetics in M. unisulcatus is probably indicative of phenotypic plasticity throughout the range of the species, and it is hypothesized that regional environmental factors play a prominent role in explaining geographic morphological variation within the species. © 2011 The Linnean Society of London, Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 2011, 102, 510–526.


The study investigates the conflict issues between humans and King Cobra in the Western Ghats region of Sringeri, Karnataka. Extensive field exploration was undertaken in the study area coupled with personal interaction with people, professional snake rescuers and handlers for data collection. The study has revealed that King Cobras were attracted towards human-dominated landscapes as they provide them with plenty of food and retreat sites giving rise to conflicts with humans. The conflict issues were studied during the breeding and non-breeding season of King Cobra. The study focuses on unraveling the causes of conflicts and understanding the nutrition and behavior pattern that would help in successful rescue and relocation of King Cobras. The study helps in reducing the negative interaction between humans and King Cobras to have a harmonious coexistence.


This Article proposes a system in which both parties are provided an opportunity to opt out of discovery. A party who opts out is immunized from dispositive motions, including a motion to dismiss for failure to state a claim or a motion for summary judgment. If neither party opts out of discovery, the parties waive jury-trial rights, thus giving judges the ability to use stronger case-management powers to focus the issues and narrow discovery. If one party opts out of discovery but an opponent does not, the cost of discovery shifts to the opponent. The Article justifies this proposal in both historical and efficiency terms, and concludes by considering objections to the proposal.


We present a general purpose simulator that includes electromagnetic scattering tools for buried targets and standard signal processing functionality. Additional modules for genetic or gradient optimization, parallel processing, and multi-aspect target detection via Hidden Markov Models are also available. The entire library is completely scriptable for customization and web enabled for publishing results on the internet. It is also extensible so that users can add modules that address their specific need. The tool runs on both Unix and Windows platforms and includes graphic modules for plotting results and images as well as three-dimensional visualization capabilities for displaying target meshes, currents, and scattered fields. Electromagnetic scattering is calculated via either the Method of Moments (MoM) for arbitrarily shaped three-dimensional perfectly electric conducting (PECs) or dielectric targets above or embedded within a lossy half space. The code uses the combined-field integral equations with the rigorous half-space dyadic Green's function computed via the method of complex images. The simulator offers coarsely parallel capabilities for distributing individual frequencies across a cluster of workstations with near linear speed-up.


Abstract Context. For conservation of any species, we need baseline data that will guide conservation planning strategies. Identifying plant resources used by animal species for food and shelter is the first important step towards fauna conservation. The second step is to determine the extent and distribution of these resources and thus identify prime habitat or habitat that could be improved through suitable management actions. This information provides the necessary spatial targeting required to make the most of few resources and a shortage of time. Aims. Applying this model approach, we identified plant species used as food or shelter resources by the conservationally significant quokka (Setonix brachyurus) across Rottnest Island, Western Australia in the aftermath of the hottest and driest summer on record. Methods. Dietary analysis was carried out using microhistological examination of plant cuticle remains from faecal samples for 67 locations across the island. Plants acting as diurnal rest shelters (n = 73 sites) were identified through observation of individuals flushed during surveys. Identifying key resources requires both a comprehensive analysis of the current use, as well as knowledge of availability of resources to determine selectivity. We therefore compared food plants or rest sites with a comprehensive survey of floristic diversity and abundance for 210 stratified-randomly located sites across the island. Key results. We identified eight plant species that quokkas fed on preferentially and identified four plant species that were the principal shelter sites. We then used hyperspectral remote sensing data to map the distribution of these plant species to quantify their distribution and identify key habitat areas. Conclusions. Understanding resource limitation over the most physiologically challenging time of the year provides important information for quokka conservation. Quokkas prefer Malvaceae species as food plants, and use dense, abundant shrubs for shelter. Implications. Quokkas appear to have shifted their use of food plants since a previous study (50 years ago), likely reflecting modification of island vegetation due to anthropogenic influences, fire and herbivory over time. In the face of changing climate, this information will serve as an important guide towards conservation management actions on the island (e.g. future planning of revegetation and habitat protection/enhancement).


Dynamically-balancing robots have recently been made available by Segway LLC, in the form of the Segway RMP (Robot Mobility Platform). We have addressed the challenge of using these RMP robots to play soccer, building up upon our extensive previous work in this multi-robot research domain. In this paper, we make three contributions. First, we present a new domain, called Segway Soccer, for investigating the coordination of dynamically formed, mixed human-robot teams within the realm of a team task that requires real-time decision making and response. Segway Soccer is a game of soccer between two teams consisting of both Segway riding humans and Segway RMPs. We believe Segway Soccer is the first game involving both humans and robots in cooperative roles and with similar capabilities. In conjunction with this new domain, we present our work towards developing a soccer playing robot using the RMP platform with vision as its primary sensor. Our third contribution is that of skill acquisition from a human teacher, where the learned skill is then used seamlessly during robot execution as part of its control hierarchy. Skill acquisition and use addresses the challenge or rapidly developing the low-level actions that are environment dependent and are not transferable across robots.


Research on humanoid robotics in Mechatronics and Automation Laboratory, Electrical and Computer Engineering, Islamic Azad University Khorasgan branch (Isfahan) of Iran was started at the beginning of this decade. Various research prototypes for humanoid robots have been designed and are going through evolution over these years. This paper describes the hardware and software design of the kid size humanoid robot systems of the PERSIA Team in 2009. The robot has 20 actuated degrees of freedom based on Hitec HSR898. In this paper we have tried to focus on areas such as mechanical structure, Image processing unit, robot controller, Robot AI and behavior learning. In 2009, our developments for the Kid size humanoid robot include: (1) the design and construction of our new humanoid robots (2) the design and construction of a new hardware and software controller to be used in our robots. The project is described in two main parts: Hardware and Software. The software is developed a robot application which consists walking controller, autonomous motion robot, self localization base on vision and Particle Filter, local AI, Trajectory Planning, Motion Controller and Network. The hardware consists of the mechanical structure and the driver circuit board. Each robot is able to walk, fast walk, pass, kick and dribble when it catches the ball. These humanoids have been successfully participating in various robotic soccer competitions. This project is still in progress and some new interesting methods are described in the current report.


An experiment reveals a distinction between ordinary judgment of what legislators did "intentionally" and ordinary judgment of "legislative intent." The former reflects the well-known side-effect effect: bad effects are deemed more intentional than good ones. However, this pattern disappears in judgments of legislative intent: bad outcomes are not evaluated as more legislatively intended than good ones. For ordinary people, a law's legislative intent is not simply what its drafters did intentionally.


Is it "Stalinist" for a formerly communist country to tear down a statue of Stalin? Should the Confederate flag be allowed to fly over the South Carolina state capitol? Is it possible for America to honor General Custer and the Sioux Nation, Jefferson Davis and Abraham Lincoln? Indeed, can a liberal, multicultural society memorialize anyone at all, or is it committed to a strict neutrality about the quality of the lives led by its citizens?

In Written in Stone , legal scholar Sanford Levinson considers the tangled responses of ever-changing societies to the monuments and commemorations created by past regimes or outmoded cultural and political systems. Drawing on examples from Albania to Zimbabwe, from Moscow to Managua, and paying particular attention to examples throughout the American South, Levinson looks at social and legal arguments regarding the display, construction, modification, and destruction of public monuments. He asks what kinds of claims the past has on the present, particularly if the present is defined in dramatic opposition to its past values. In addition, he addresses the possibilities for responding to the use and abuse of public spaces and explores how a culture might memorialize its historical figures and events in ways that are beneficial to all its members.

Written in Stone is a meditation on how national cultures have been or may yet be defined through the deployment of public monuments. It adds a thoughtful and crucial voice into debates surrounding historical accuracy and representation, and will be welcomed by the many readers concerned with such issues.


This paper is a part of the research project "True Improvement in Grouting High pressure Technology for tunneling (TIGHT)" financed by the Research Council of Norway (project no. 236676/O30), in cooperation with Statens Vegvesen, Jernbaneverket, and industrial partners BASF, Mapei, Geovita, LNS, ITS, Normet, Bever Control, AMV and Veidekke. Research partners in TIGHT are NGI, NTNU and SINTEF, whilst KIGAM of Korea and Nanyang University in Singapore together with BeFo of Sweden are associated with TIGHT. The authors would like to thank Eivind Grøv (NTNU and SINTEF), Bahman Bohloli (NGI), Hans-Olav Hognestad (BASF), Bjarne Ruud and Espen Rudberg (Mapei), for significant contributions for the selection and preparation of cements, defining laboratory program and the comments on test results. The objective of the study was to characterize different cements used for rock injection in the Nordic countries, and provide basic data for the behavior of fresh grout prepared from these cements. A laboratory program was set up for characterization of the fineness for seven available cement types. The fineness was characterized by the use of Blaine, BET and particle size distribution. The results show good correlation between the obtained Blaine and BET values. It was also found that D95 from the particle size distribution curve is unsuited for characterization of cement fineness and most grout properties. Three of the most commonly used cements in Norway were selected for testing of flow properties, stability and initial set for fresh grout. Grout was prepared with four different water to cement ratios (w/c = 1.2, 1.0, 0.8 and 0.6) and tested at two different temperatures (8 and 20°C). The test methods applied were bleeding, consistency (ring and Marsh Cone), Vicat and temperature evolution in isolated cup. Additional tests with parallel plate rheometer were performed for mixes at 20°C. The results show that only one of the cements tested can be utilized at all w/c levels, while the other two have limitations both upwards (bleeding) and downwards (flowability) with respect to w/c applied. The results from this investigation should be evaluated together with additional penetrability tests in order to evaluate the suitability for grouting and filling of small cracks.


Banking across the world has undergone extensive changes thanks to the profound influence of developments and trends in information communication technologies, business intelligence, and risk management strategies. While banking has become easier and more convenient for the consumer, the advances and intricacies of emerging technologies have made banking operations all the more cumbersome. Advances in Banking Technology and Management: Impacts of ICT and CRM examines the various myriads of technical and organizational elements that impact services management, business management, risk management, and customer relationship management, and offers research to aid the successful implementation of associated supportive technologies.