ABSTRACT Macroprudential policy is now based around a countercyclical buffer, relating capital requirements for banks to the degree of excess credit in the economy. We consider the construction of the credit to GDP gap looking at different ways of extracting the cyclical indicator for excess credit. We compare different smoothing mechanisms for the credit gap, and demonstrate that some countries require an AR(2) smoother whilst other do not. We embed these different estimates of the credit gap in Logit models of financial crises, and show that the AR(2) cycle is a much better contributor to their explanation than is the HP filter suggested by the BIS and currently in use in policy making. We show that our results are robust to changes in assumptions, and we make criticisms of current policy settings.


Self-organisation is increasingly being regarded as an effective approach to tackle
modern systems complexity. The self-organisation approach allows the development of systems exhibiting complex dynamics and adapting to environmental
perturbations without requiring a complete knowledge of the future surrounding
conditions.
However, the development of self-organising systems (SOS) is driven by different principles with respect to traditional software engineering. For instance,
engineers typically design systems combining smaller elements where the composition rules depend on the reference paradigm, but typically produce predictable
results. Conversely, SOS display non-linear dynamics, which can hardly be captured by deterministic models, and, although robust with respect to external
perturbations, are quite sensitive to changes on inner working parameters.
In this thesis, we describe methodological aspects concerning the early-design
stage of SOS built relying on the Multiagent paradigm: in particular, we refer
to the A&A metamodel, where MAS are composed by agents and artefacts, i.e.
environmental resources. Then, we describe an architectural pattern that has
been extracted from a recurrent solution in designing self-organising systems:
this pattern is based on a MAS environment formed by artefacts, modelling
non-proactive resources, and environmental agents acting on artefacts so as to
enable self-organising mechanisms. In this context, we propose a scientific approach for the early design stage of the engineering of self-organising systems:
the process is an iterative one and each cycle is articulated in four stages, modelling, simulation, formal verification, and tuning. During the modelling phase
we mainly rely on the existence of a self-organising strategy observed in Nature
and, hopefully encoded as a design pattern. Simulations of an abstract system model are used to drive design choices until the required quality properties
are obtained, thus providing guarantees that the subsequent design steps would
lead to a correct implementation. However, system analysis exclusively based
on simulation results does not provide sound guarantees for the engineering of
complex systems: to this purpose, we envision the application of formal verification techniques, specifically model checking, in order to exactly characterise the
system behaviours. During the tuning stage parameters are tweaked in order to
meet the target global dynamics and feasibility constraints.
In order to evaluate the methodology, we analysed several systems: in this
thesis, we only describe three of them, i.e. the most representative ones for
each of the three years of PhD course. We analyse each case study using the
presented method, and describe the exploited formal tools and techniques.


Human activities influence the climate in a range of ways. While emissions of CO2 from burning of fossil fuels is the dominant factor behind the present rapid global warming, many other gases and particles also contribute. These may have short or long atmospheric lifetimes, and thus have climate impacts that are important in the nearor long-term, or both. They may also be either warming or cooling, and several climate perturbing substances may be emitted from the same sources. Consequently, determining the full impact of a given mitigation measure, aimed at reducing emissions if a given substance, is not trivial. In the present report, commissioned by the Norwegian Ministry of Climate and Environment, we discuss the nearand long-term climate impacts of present emissions of long-lived greenhouse gases (here defined as CO2 and N2O), and a range of short-lived climate forcers. Based on this, we discuss the potential for optimal mitigation strategies across regions and sectors, including co-benefits for health and agriculture.


Abstract Multiple formations of family have always been a part of Australia's social and historical landscape, yet social norms typically function to marginalise some family forms while according others a privileged status. Marginalisation on the basis of sexuality, for example, whilst arguably somewhat less prevalent than in previous decades, nonetheless continues for those families positioned outside the heteronorm. Institutions such as schools can play an important role in transforming marginalising practices, yet research such as that presented in this article suggests that schools often also perpetuate marginalisation, even if unintentionally. Drawing on interviews conducted with twenty-three lesbian mothers, this article highlights the often subtle ways in which such mothers with children in South Australian primary schools experience marginalisation by educators. Specifically, we argue that marginalisation occurs in the form of injunctions made upon lesbian mothers to inform educators about their families (and to do so in often highly normative ways), to accept that it is their role to manage discrimination, and to treat as routine the marginalisation of their families. Such findings indicate that changes still remain necessary within Australian educational practices in order to ensure the full inclusion of lesbian mother families on terms of their own making.


Remediation of contaminated groundwater remains a high-priority national goal in the United States. Water is essential to life, and new sources of water are needed for an expanding population. Groundwater remediation remains a significant technical challenge despite decades of research into this field. New approaches are needed to address the most severely-polluted aquifers, and cost-effective solutions are required to meet remediation objectives that protect human health and the environment.

Source reduction combined with Monitored Natural Attenuation (MNA) is a remediation strategy whereby the source of contamination is aggressively treated or removed and the residual groundwater plume depletes due to natural processes in the subsurface. The USEPA requires long-term performance monitoring of groundwater at MNA sites over the remediation timeframe, which often takes decades to complete. Presently, computational tools are lacking to adequately integrate source remediation with economic models. Furthermore, no framework has been developed to highlight the tradeoff between the degree of remediation versus the level of benefit within a cost structure.

Using the Natural Attenuation Software (NAS) package developed at Virginia Tech, a set of formulae have been developed for calculating the TOR for petroleum-contaminated aquifers (specifically tracking benzene and MTBE) through statistical techniques. With the knowledge of source area residual saturation, groundwater velocity, and contaminant plume source length, the time to remediate a site contaminated with either benzene or MTBE can be determined across a range of regulatory maximum contaminant levels.

After developing formulae for TOR, an integrated and interactive decision tool for framing the decision analysis component of the remediation problem was developed. While MNA can be a stand-alone groundwater remediation technology, significant benefits may be realized by layering a more traditional source zone remedial technique with MNA. Excavation and soil vapor extraction when applied to the front end of a remedial action plan can decrease the amount of time to remediation and while generally more expensive than an MNA-only approach, may accrue long-term economic advantages that would otherwise be foregone.

The value of these research components can be realized within the engineering and science communities, as well as through government, business and industry, and communities where groundwater contamination and remediation are of issue. Together, these tools constitute the S▪E▪E▪P▪AGE paradigm, founded upon the concept of sound science for an environmental engineering, effectual economics, and public policy agenda. The TOR formulation simplifies the inputs necessary to determine the number of years that an MNA strategy will require before project closure and thus reduces the specialized skills and training required to perform a numerical analysis that for one set of conditions could require many hours of simulation time. The economic decision tool, that utilizes a life cycle model to evaluate a set of feasible alternatives, highlights the tradeoffs between time and economics can be realized over the lifetime of the remedial project.


This paper, which was written as a White Paper for the Federalist Society, describes and assesses the question whether public employee pensions can be restructured in bankruptcy, with a particular focus on Detroit. Part I gives a brief overview both of the treatment of pensions under state law, and of the Michigan law governing the Detroit pensions. Part II explains the legal argument for restructuring an underfunded pension in bankruptcy. Part III considers the major federal constitutional objections to restructuring. Part IV discusses arguments based on the Michigan Constitution and Part V assesses several Chapter 9 arguments against restructuring. None of these arguments appear to prevent restructuring. Assuming that pensions can in fact be restructured, Part VI discusses the Chapter 9 factors that may affect the extent to which they are or can be restructured in a particular case.


Many psychiatry residents and other mental health trainees begin their careers as psychotherapists with a mixture of enthusiasm and apprehension: enthusiasm at the prospect of using only words and actions to help someone in distress; apprehension about whether they are capable of doing it. In his latest book, Phillip R. Slavney helps these students get started by discussing such fundamental issues as what makes psychotherapy work, what is important in a psychotherapeutic relationship, and whether psychotherapists should have their own psychotherapy. Slavney draws on his long experience as a psychotherapist and teacher of psychotherapy in a confidence-building book that is both practical and scholarly.


Distributed data services use replication to ensure data availability and survivability. With replication comes the challenge of guaranteeing data consistency when multiple clients access the replicas concurrently, and various consistency models have been proposed and studied. Atomicity is the strongest consistency model, providing the illusion that data is accessed sequentially. A basic problem in distributed computing is the implementation of atomic objects (registers) that support read and write operations. This thesis explores the communication costs of atomic read/write register implementations in asynchronous message-passing systems with crash-prone processors. It considers such implementations under three assumptions.
First, we consider implementations in the single writer, multiple reader (SWMR) setting. It is known that under certain restrictions on the number of readers, it is possible to obtain implementations where each read and write operation terminates after a single round-trip message exchange with a set of replicas. Such operations are called fast. This thesis removes any restrictions on the number of readers and introduces a new implementation where writes are fast, and at most one read operation performs two round-trips per write operation. Subsequently, we show that such SWMR implementations impose limitations on the number of replica failures and that multiple writer, multiple reader (MWMR) implementations with such characteristics are impossible.
Then, we consider implementations in the SWMR setting where operations access the replicated register by sending messages to a predefined sets of replicas with non-empty intersections, called quorums. We show that more than one two-round read operation may be required for each write in this setting and that general quorum-based implementations are not fault-tolerant. Then we explore trading operation latency for fault-tolerance and introduce a new decision tool that enables some read operations to be fast in any general quorum construction.
Finally, we examine the latency of read and write operations in the MWMR setting. First, we study the connection between fast operations and quorum intersections in any quorum-based implementation. The decision tools introduced in the SWMR setting are then adapted to the MWMR setting to enable fast read operations. Lastly, the thesis develops a new technique leading to a near optimal implementation that allows (but does not guarantee) both fast read and write operations in the MWMR setting.


Child protection is the process that aims to find, investigate and help maltreated children. In many countries this process is initiated by professionals who compile mandated reports that are then submitted to a designated agency that in many cases is part of a separate child protection system. In Sweden there is no separate child protection system. In Sweden, the child protection process is part of the family-service organization system. The system has two main objectives, one is voluntary (provide family service), the other coercive (provide child protection). This system is administered by the municipal social services agencies (referred to throughout as Social Services). Aim: The overall purpose of this study was to gain knowledge of the child protection process in Sweden. The aim was two fold, one to carry out an in-depth study of a population of reports, the other to analyse the results of the findings in relation to the child protection system. The child protection system consists of elements outlined in the macro system: the underlying ideology and the framing of the problem, and the legislation, administration and the demands placed on professionals. Method: A total population of reports made to one municipality during 1998 was followed to a final decision. The reports were collected in 2000.´There were 1 570 reports made regarding 1 051 children, which composed 4 % of children age 0-18. This initial study was used in four papers where data were analysed covering four different issues. In 2003 a follow-up study was conducted in order to determine the extent to which the child appeared in the database of Social Services. In the first paper the children's age, gender and contacts with Social Services were described as were the content of the reports and the outcome of reporting. The objective of the second paper was a description of the reporter, and the measurement of the extent to which the reports indicated child maltreatment. The third paper aimed at analysing how the first decision, the decision not to investigate reports, was made in the child protection process. Then a re-evaluation of these decisions was made to see how well the decision was justified. The contacts taken were described. In the fourth paper the influence of the socio-economic load on the child protection process was measured. Findings: Few reports (16 %) led to an intervention being provided, and 41% of the reports were not investigated further. In the follow-up study 61% of all 1 051 children appeared in the files of Social Services. As Sweden lacks a juvenile delinquency system these cases are automatically passed from the police to Social Services and are there registered as mandated reports. Hence the police became the largest report group of reporters, followed by professionals. Of the professionals' reports 22 % were not investigated. In the follow-up study 53 % of these re-occurred at the Social Service and were then investigated. Seventy six percent of the reports not investigated were when re-evaluated found to indicate child maltreatment. The social worker used the parents as the main source for information in 74 % of the cases. The social worker did not contact the child at all in 53 % of the cases and only nine of the reporters were contacted. In the follow-up study 45 % of the children investigation re-appeared in the files of Social Services. Children from high socio-economic load districts were more often reported than those from middle or low (4.3%, 3.1% 2.3%). The socio economic load when measured in logistic regression was not found to correlate with the decision to investigate. A main finding in this study was that the child protection process was difficult to separate from other systems within the family service. This makes it much more difficult to evaluate the child protection process. The reports filed by professionals were not investigated adequately, and the lack of criteria of specifying how reports are to be evaluated creates a risk that maltreated children will not be found. The professional reports were handled in a way that increased the risk that professionals will have negative experiences with Social Services that consequently can lead them to refrain from filing eports. Conclusion: These findings suggest the following: Pass new legislation that makes it easier to separate each of the three systems from the other. Create a national database in which data on the handling of child-protection cases is systematically recorded. Develop a national reporting form that is to be used by all who file mandated reports of suspected maltreatment. Create clear criteria that specify how a report is to be handled to ensure that the reporting professionals are met with appropriate respect and that the quality of the decisions is guaranteed all over the country.


A novel hydrogen atom source, involving the 193.3 nm photolysis of nitrous oxide in the presence of hydrogen, is described. The system is shown to provide a very clean source of hydrogen atoms, particularly at temperatures above 400K. The H + C 2 H 4 addition reaction is studied as a function of pressure (50-750 Torr He) and temperature (285-604K). Resonance fluorescence was used to monitor hydrogen atom concentrations in real time, following excimer (ArF) photolysis of the N 2 0/H 2 precursor. The data are analysed using the Troe factorisation method. A model is developed, which allows the accurate calculation of the rate constant for the H + C 2 H 4 reaction over a wide range of temperature and pressure. The direct observation of equilibration in the H + C 2 H 4 = C 2 H 5 system is reported for the first time, at temperatures between 775 and 850K. Hydrogen atom concentrations were monitored by resonance fluorescence, following 193.3 nm photolysis of the ethylene substrate. The equilibrium constant for the system K c is determined much more precisely than has previously been possible. The standard heat of formation of the ethyl radical, ΔH o f , 298 (C 2 H 5 ), is evaluated from the measured values of K c (T), using Third Law methods and the known molecular and atomic parameters of H, C 2 H 4 and C 2 H 5 giving ΔH o f 298 (C 2 H 5 ) = 28.36 ± 0.40 kcalmol . The quoted errors refer to 95.45% confidence limits and include contributions from the scatter of the data and from estimates of possible systematic errors. An excimer laser flash photolysis/ gas chromatographic end product analysis apparatus is described. The design of the photolysis cell allows its entire contents to be transferred to the analysis column, and enables total C 3 hydrocarbon yields as low as 2.6x10 12 molecules to be detected. A study of the photolysis of acetone at 193.3 nm is presented. The dependence of product yields on pressure (10-500 Torr He), temperature (300,600K), laser pulse energy and the presence of radical scavengers (NO,C 2 H 4 ) is described. Under all experimental conditions, methyl radicals account for >95% of the radical products of the photolysis. The ArF photolysis of acetone is demonstrated to provide a very clean source of methyl radicals, suitable for use in conventional laser flash photolysis /kinetic spectroscopy experiments, at temperatures of up to 825K. Experiments are described, in which ethane and ethane/propylene mixtures, diluted to ∿5% in nitrogen, were pyrolysed in a quartz jetstirred reactor. Temperatures and conversions comparable to those achieved in industrial pyrolysis were employed. A kinetic model of ethane pyrolysis is developed, which qualitatively reproduces the experimental results. It is shown that the model predictions are extremely sensitive to a number of poorly defined rate constants.


cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) functions in cell type determination in the embryos of Drosophila, zebrafish, and chicks. The α isoform of protein kinase inhibitor (PKI) inhibits the catalytic activity of PKA; however, the endogenous function of PKIα has not been well elucidated. Now, Kawakami and Nakanishi have uncovered a role for PKIα in cell patterning in the developing chick. During the early stages of development, PKIα expression was higher on the right side of Hensen's node in chick embryos; however, symmetric expression of PKIα was observed later in development. Treatment of chick embryos with antisense oligonucleotides to PKIα disrupted the placement of the developing heart and also caused perturbations in the expression of Nodal, and Pitx2, whereas asymmetric expression of Sonic Hedgehog remained normal. PKIα expression was stimulated in chick embryos ectopically treated with activin, suggesting that PKIα may act in an activin-dependent pathway to regulate asymmetric patterning. M. Kawakami, N. Nakanishi, The role of an endogenous PKA inhibitor, PKIα, in organizing left-right axis formation. Development 128, 2509-2515 (2001). [Online Journal]


T cell development in the thymus requires the establishment of stable interactions with cell-selecting elements such as the cortical epithelium followed by a regulated movement of selected progenitors to the medulla. Cell adhesion and migration are mediated by integrins in a number of biological systems though little is known regarding their function in the thymus. We demonstrated previously that immature CD3loCD69lo double positive human thymocytes adhere avidly to FN via the integrin, VLA4. We now demonstrate that the interaction of mature CD3hiCD69hi thymic subsets with FN triggers migration rather than firm adhesion. Migration requires the engagement of VLA4 in cooperation with VLA5 and both receptors regulate the persistence and directionality of movement. While migration capability is linked to maturation state, ligand concentration determines the efficiency of migration. In fact, FN and the alternatively spliced CS1 site are predominant in the thymic medulla, suggesting an instructive role of this ECM protein in vivo. Our studies identify a novel VLA4 and VLA5/FN-mediated pathway likely to be involved in regulating cell traffic between the cortex and medulla of the thymus. Moreover, the data provides evidence that VLA4 exists in at least two functional states at distinct stages of T cell development. While different states of VLA4 activation have been described on cell lines, this represents the first evidence supporting a biological significance for this integrin property.


In this thesis, I discuss the novel Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte. I choose the work of Emily Bronte for several reasons. Firstly, I choose her because she has a good reputation as a fine author. Secondly, I choose her because she has a unique background that increases my curiosity to make an analysis on her work. Then, my interest in discussing psychological problems encourage me to make an analysis on her novel Wuthering Heights, which has a problematic psychological story. This study deals with the main character?s anxiety, and I am curious to know about the causes of the main character?s anxiety and his defense mechanism as the ways to protect his ego from the unpleasant memory. In the analysis, I use Sigmund Freud?s theory of anxiety and defense mechanism. I also use library research and data collection from the Internet. Then, I use the data collection, combined with Freud?s theory about anxiety for the analysis of the problem. Finally, I find that the main character, Heathcliff, suffers from anxiety because of the painful emotional experience of being rejected by his surroundings. Furthermore, this unpleasant memory leads Heathcliff?s to fear of rejection. When Heathcliff accepts rejection from other people, his ego will undergo from the pressure of the external world and experience fear of rejection. However, Heathcliff will automatically do defense mechanism to satisfy his ego and overcome the fear of rejection.


One of the enabling technologies of the World Wide Web, along with browsers, domain name servers, and hypertext markup language, is the search engine. Although the Web contains over 100 million pages of information, those millions of pages are useless if you cannot find the pages you need. All major Web search engines operate the same way: a gathering program explores the hyperlinked documents of the Web, foraging for Web pages to index. These pages are stockpiled by storing them in some kind of database or repository. Finally, a retrieval program takes a user query and creates a list of links to Web documents matching the words, phrases, or concepts in the query. Although the retrieval program itself is correctly called a search engine, by popular usage the term now means a database combined with a retrieval program. For example, the Lycos search engine comprises the Lycos Catalog of the Internet and the Pursuit retrieval program. This paper describes the Lycos system for collecting, storing, and retrieving information about pages on the Web. After outlining the history and precursors of the Lycos system, the paper discusses some of the design choices made in building this Web indexer and touches briefly on the economic issues involved in working with very large retrieval systems.


In spite of treatment with inhibitors of the renin-angiotensin system, plasma levels of aldosterone increase progressively in heart failure. This phenomenon of aldosterone escape is associated with adverse outcome. The aldosterone receptor antagonists spironolactone and eplerenone can improve prognosis for patients with heart failure. The commonest, and often problematic unwanted effect of these agents, hyperkalaemia, may limit their usefulness and brings with it the need for careful clinical and biochemical monitoring. Recent trials, however, have shown clear benefits for large groups of patients for spironolactone (in severe chronic heart failure) and eplerenone (heart failure soon after acute myocardial infarction). Due consideration should be given to the addition of the appropriate aldosterone antagonist in suitable patients.


BACKGROUND
Although many studies have found an association between Helicobacter pylori infection and the development of gastric cancer, many aspects of this relation remain uncertain.

METHODS
We prospectively studied 1526 Japanese patients who had duodenal ulcers, gastric ulcers, gastric hyperplasia, or nonulcer dyspepsia at the time of enrollment; 1246 had H. pylori infection and 280 did not. The mean follow-up was 7.8 years (range, 1.0 to 10.6). Patients underwent endoscopy with biopsy at enrollment and then between one and three years after enrollment. H. pylori infection was assessed by histologic examination, serologic testing, and rapid urease tests and was defined by a positive result on any of these tests.

RESULTS
Gastric cancers developed in 36 (2.9 percent) of the infected and none of the uninfected patients. There were 23 intestinal-type and 13 diffuse-type cancers. Among the patients with H. pylori infection, those with severe gastric atrophy, corpus-predominant gastritis, and intestinal metaplasia were at significantly higher risk for gastric cancer. We detected gastric cancers in 21 (4.7 percent) of the 445 patients with nonulcer dyspepsia, 10 (3.4 percent) of the 297 with gastric ulcers, 5 (2.2 percent) of the 229 with gastric hyperplastic polyps, and none of the 275 with duodenal ulcers.

CONCLUSIONS
Gastric cancer develops in persons infected with H. pylori but not in uninfected persons. Those with histologic findings of severe gastric atrophy, corpus-predominant gastritis, or intestinal metaplasia are at increased risk. Persons with H. pylori infection and nonulcer dyspepsia, gastric ulcers, or gastric hyperplastic polyps are also at risk, but those with duodenal ulcers are not.


All the Smells of the World How many odorant stimuli can a normal human being discriminate? During psychophysical tests of odor mixture discrimination, Bushdid et al. (p. 1370) were surprised to find that humans can discriminate among more than a trillion different smells. Because the authors reduced the complexity by investigating only mixtures of 10, 20, or 30 components drawn from a collection of 128 odorous molecules, this astonishingly large number is probably the lower limit of the potential number of olfactory stimuli that humans can distinguish. The number of different odor mixtures people can distinguish is several orders of magnitude larger than anticipated. Humans can discriminate several million different colors and almost half a million different tones, but the number of discriminable olfactory stimuli remains unknown. The lay and scientific literature typically claims that humans can discriminate 10,000 odors, but this number has never been empirically validated. We determined the resolution of the human sense of smell by testing the capacity of humans to discriminate odor mixtures with varying numbers of shared components. On the basis of the results of psychophysical testing, we calculated that humans can discriminate at least 1 trillion olfactory stimuli. This is far more than previous estimates of distinguishable olfactory stimuli. It demonstrates that the human olfactory system, with its hundreds of different olfactory receptors, far outperforms the other senses in the number of physically different stimuli it can discriminate.


Differences in cell cytoskeletal stiffness can be utilized to sort differentiated embryonic stem cells into distinct populations through the use of a microfluidic device. An initial microfluidic system was developed and proven by previous researchers to sort cells. Modifications to this microfluidic system were made and aspects have been improved to increase the efficiency of moving large numbers of cells through the device for use in PCR. Preliminary data from the updated microfluidic system shows that vertical integration of cells and increasing cell count along with increasing length of experiment show the greatest promise moving forward. Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a process to analyze differences in gene expression for genes which produce proteins which may have an effect on cell stiffness. Once total cell throughput is improved to large enough numbers, PCR was then completed in a separate project on the two populations differences in levels of gene expression were compared. The genes to be tested are VIM, ACTN1, and LMNA, along with GapDH as a constant, which previous research suggests produce proteins which may play a role in cell stiffness. These genes would therefore have different levels of expression, as measured by PCR, in cells with different levels of cytoskeletal stiffness. Improving the microfluidic separation system will also allow for future use in research, and for commercial use in the field of artificial organ generation, by collecting larger populations of pure populations of stem cells. A system was developed to generate large quantities of cells for the graduate student advisors' other research endeavors along with other graduate students working on similar projects. Knowing the genes that alter cytoskeletal stiffness will allow for numerous avenues of opportunity, but will greatly change the way populations of cells are isolated and purified.


Abstract : As is well understood, the rapidly unfolding challenges of cyberspace is a fundamental warfare paradigm shift revolutionizing the way future wars will be fought and won. A significant test for the Air Force (indeed any organization with a credible presence in cyberspace) will be providing a realistic training environment that fully meets this challenge. Why create another Flag level exercise? Realistic training (that which is effective, comprehensive and coordinated) is crucial to success in time of war. Red Flag provides dominant training within the air domain and now with the evolution of cyberspace, a comprehensive training environment is necessary to meet this growing and broadening threat. This Thesis builds on the Red Flag tactical training exercise in order to define a future environment that combines the air, space and cyberspace domains with specific emphasis on cyberspace capabilities and threats. Red Flag has and continues to be a great tactical training exercise; Cyber Flag would use the best practices of Red Flag (and other realistic training venues) to define a future training environment for the cyberspace domain. There is no better training than the hands-on realism associated with participation in an exercise such as Red Flag. Secretary Michael W. Wynne has a vision for dominant operations in cyberspace "comparable to the Air Force's global, strategic omnipresence in air and space." This bold vision requires a combination of joint coordination, skilled forces and a realistic training environment to bring them all together; Cyber Flag is the suggested vehicle for accomplishing this.


Calls for climate justice abound as evidence accumulates of the growing social and environmental injustices aggravated or driven by climate change. There is now a considerable and diverse literature on procedural, distributional and intergenerational dimensions, including questions of recognition in climate justice. Yet its meaning, scope and practical implications are still contested. Importantly, the broader landscape within which climate justice is situated is rapidly changing, bringing new challenges to the understanding and practice of climate justice. This review takes stock of climate justice literature in view of this new context. We find several disconnects and tensions between more philosophical and academic treatments of the subject on the one hand, and "activist"‐oriented approaches to climate justice on the other. Scholarship often falls into silos around scales from global and local, between mitigation and adaptation or draws distinctions between climate justice and other forms of (in)justice. This inhibits an understanding of climate justice that can address more directly its underlying root causes in an historically constituted global economic system and intersecting set of social inequalities. We propose a research agenda centered on a transformative approach to climate justice, placing analysis of power in its various guises at the center of its enquiry, and subverting and moving beyond existing distinctions by focusing on the social and institutional relations and inequalities that both produce climate change and profoundly shape responses to it. We elaborate on three key strands of such an approach: inclusive climate justice, deepening climate justice and governance for climate justice.


The PTO held a roundtable and solicited comments on a proposal to require Real-Party-in-Interest disclosures in patents. Through this comment, which I submitted to the PTO, I support their efforts to elicit and disseminate ownership data by 1) explaining why ownership information, and context-information in particular, is so important to the core functions of the patent system of technology transfer and technology commercialization; 2) commending and suggesting several steps the PTO could take/continue to take to improve the quality, quantity, and dissemination of ownership information; and 3) providing an Appendix that summarizes each of the 17 comments that the PTO received in its 2011 Request for Comments on Eliciting More Complete Patent Assignment Information ("2011 RFC"), which the remainder of the comment draws from extensively.


With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT), establishing a secure channel between smart devices becomes crucial. Recent research proposes zero-interaction pairing (ZIP), which enables pairing without user assistance by utilizing devices' physical context (e.g., ambient audio) to obtain a shared secret key. The state-of-the-art ZIP schemes suffer from three limitations: (1) prolonged pairing time (i.e., minutes or hours), (2) vulnerability to brute-force offline attacks on a shared key, and (3) susceptibility to attacks caused by predictable context (e.g., replay attack) because they rely on limited entropy of physical context to protect a shared key. We address these limitations, proposing FastZIP, a novel ZIP scheme that significantly reduces pairing time while preventing offline and predictable context attacks. In particular, we adapt a recently introduced Fuzzy Password-Authenticated Key Exchange (fPAKE) protocol and utilize sensor fusion, maximizing their advantages. We instantiate FastZIP for intra-car device pairing to demonstrate its feasibility and show how the design of FastZIP can be adapted to other ZIP use cases. We implement FastZIP and evaluate it by driving four cars for a total of 800 km. We achieve up to three times shorter pairing time compared to the state-of-the-art ZIP schemes while assuring robust security with adversarial error rates below 0.5%.


This paper proposes a novel approach to energy exchange between electric vehicle (EV) load and wind generation utilities participating in the day-ahead energy, balancing, and regulation markets. An optimal bidding/offering strategy model is developed to mitigate wind energy and EV imbalance threats, and optimize EV charging profiles. A new strategy model is based on optimizing decision making of a wind generating company (WGenCO) in selecting the best option among the use of the balancing or regulation services, the use of the energy storage system (ESS) and the use of all of them to compensate wind power deviation. Energy imbalance is discussed using conventional systems, ESS, and EV-Wind coordination; results are compared and analyzed. Stochastic intra-hour optimization is solved by mixed-integer linear programming (MILP). Uncertainties associated with wind forecasting, energy price, and behavior of EV owners based on their driving patterns, are considered in the proposed stochastic method and validated through several case studies.


To reduce dimensional and mechanical property variations in a component manufactured from a phosphorus alloyed P/M steel, a design of experiments approach was used to identify the most important green compact variations. Responses evaluated were unnotched Charpy impact energy total dimensional change, and sintered density. The experimental array was defined using a fractional factorial design, and the variables investigated were: phosphorus content; median particle size of Fe 3 P-powder; iron powder fines content; added graphite content; green density; and sintering temperature. The design of experiments proved powerful in detecting the most important variables; it pinpointed graphite and phosphorus content, and green density variations as being detrimental.


A core issue in communication, culture should thus have considerable weight in IS as communication technologies. We review research documenting the importance of diverse cultural elements – including those identified by Hall and Hofstede – to IS design and usage if these are to be successful. An analysis of emerging participatory approaches facilitated by ICTs, including recent research on community networks and how users from diverse languages and cultures participate differently in Wikipedia, further highlights specific aspects of culture and language essential to successful IS design and implementation. We argue that participatory approaches and user-centric technologies appear to play increasingly important roles in diverse cultures and societies: this suggests IS research should take advantage of both extant and emerging frameworks for analyzing culture, technology, and communication – especially if IS is to continue to play a key role in the cultural (re)evolution ICTs facilitate.


Introduction At their conclusion, the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games had achieved worldwide attention and acclaim--despite some initial trepidation and consternation (2)--for delivering a most successful, and inspirational, Games experience. In particular, it was well noted and experienced that the Games had united the host country of Canada in a unique and special "outpouring of patriotism" (3) rarely witnessed in the country's history. Aligned with the smooth and tempered functioning of the Games was VANOC. In line with previous assessments of the 2010 Organizing Committee, (4) VANOC continued to receive considerable examination throughout the Games, with much attention focused on the functional and direct legacies of the Olympic operations and experiences. Central to this paper, is a review of VANOC's 'marketing and sponsorship legacy' of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. Olympic Sport Sponsorship The function of corporate sponsorship engagement relative to sport has received considerable attention in the literature over the past decade. In fact, it has become such a prevalent and accepted marketing function that leading sport sponsorship experts have suggested that there has been the 'death of (traditional) advertising' in sport. (5) Understood as the strategic exchange between a sport property and corporate partner, (6) sponsorship undoubtedly plays a central role in the smooth functioning and operation of Organizing Committees for the Olympic Games (OCOGs), as much of the 'marketing revenue' from these partnerships offsets the enormous operating budgets of Olympic host Committees. Of note to understanding Olympic Games sponsorship is the development and distribution of the Olympic marketing programme. Historically, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Olympic Games operated with very little revenue sources from a marketing input. As of the 1980s, however, they retained their television rights and revenues that became an important source of funding for the IOC, as well as for the international sport federations (ISFs) and National Olympic Committees (NOCs). In 1985, building on the evidence of strong corporate support of the Olympic movement from the Los Angeles Olympic Games, the IOC created The Olympic Programme (TOP), a global sport sponsorship programme for multinational investment, which effectively offered a exclusive worldwide platform of access to the Olympic Rings during a four year Olympic cycle (i.e. combining both Summer and Winter Olympic Games). Estimates indicate that TOP sponsors pay between $40 and $60 million dollars (EUR) for the exclusive 'Olympic Worldwide Partner' rights. (7) Today, the Olympic Marketing programme has seven distinct objectives (see IOC TOP Sponsors for the Vancouver 2010 Games for further information here). Proceeds from the TOP programme are divided between OCOGs (approximately two-thirds to the larger Summer Games and one-third to the Winter Games), and the NOCs (80%), and the IOC (20%, which is less than 10% overall). From the NOC portion, it should be noted that half of this revenue goes to the USOC, according to the marketing interest and television rights generated by access to and media profile from the United States market. (8) As the IOC celebrates twenty-five years of the TOP programme in 2010, it continues to be regarded as an industry leader in global sport marketing, generating millions of dollars of revenue and a multitude of essential resources for Olympic member stakeholders and ultimately, promoting sport development and supporting Olympic athletes. (9) TOP sponsors are regarded for providing comprehensive marketing programs and essential goods and ser vices to the overall functioning of the Games (see Table 2, "IOC TOP Sponsors for the Vancouver 2010 Games," for further information). As a final note here, over the past ten years, considerable academic research has begun to focused on Olympic sponsorship and related marketing dimensions, including examining the elements and influences of multinational corporate investment, the 1992 inclusion of professional athletes, the growth of the Olympic brand and corresponding brand value and protection models, the development of strategic Olympic partnerships, and changing consumer demographics and viewer patterns, all reinforcing the opportunities, yet complexities, of being aligned with the Olympic marketing platform. …


This Article analyzes the probabilistic and epistemological underpinnings of the burden of proof doctrine. We show that this doctrine is best understood as instructing factfinders to determine which of the parties' conflicting stories makes most sense in terms of coherence, consilience, causality, and evidential coverage. By applying this method, factfinders should try — and will often succeed — to establish the truth, rather than a statistical surrogate of the truth, while securing the appropriate allocation of the risk of error. Descriptively, we argue that this understanding of the doctrine — the "relative plausibility theory" — corresponds to what our courts actually do. Prescriptively, we argue that the relative-plausibility method is operationally superior to factfinding that relies on mathematical probability. This method aligns with people's natural reasoning and common sense, avoids paradoxes engendered by mathematical probability, and seamlessly integrates with the rules of substantive law that guide individuals' primary conduct and determine liabilities and entitlements. We substantiate this claim by juxtaposing the extant doctrine against two recent contributions to evidence theory: Professor Louis Kaplow's proposal that the burden of proof should be modified to track the statistical distributions of harms and benefits associated with relevant primary activities; and Professor Edward Cheng's model that calls on factfinders to make their decisions by using numbers instead of words. Specifically, we demonstrate that both models suffer from serious conceptual problems and are not feasible operationally. The extant burden-of–proof doctrine, we conclude, works well and requires no far-reaching reforms.


Solar photovoltaic (PV) energy has shown significant expansion on the installed capacity over the last years. Most of its power systems are installed on rooftops, integrated into buildings. Considering the fast development of PV plants, it has becoming even more critical to understand the performance and reliability of such systems. One of the most common problems faced in PV plants occurs when solar cells receive non-uniform irradiance or partially shaded. The consequences of shading generally are prevented by bypass diodes. A significant number of studies and technical reports have been published as of today, based on extensive experience from research and field feedbacks. However, such material has not been cataloged or analyzed from a perspective of the technological evolution of bypass diodes devices. This paper presents a comprehensive review and highlights recent advances, ongoing research, and prospects, as reported in the literature, on bypass diode application on photovoltaic modules. First, it outlines the shading effect and hotspot problem on PV modules. Following, it explains bypass diodes' working principle, as well as discusses how such devices can impact power output and PV modules' reliability. Then, it gives a thorough review of recently published research, as well as the state of the art in the field. In conclusion, it makes a discussion on the overview and challenges to bypass diode as a mitigation technique.


Extreme Multi-label Text Classification (XMC) involves learning a classifier that can assign an input with a subset of most relevant labels from millions of label choices. Recent approaches, such as XR-Transformer and LightXML, leverage a transformer instance to achieve state-of-the-art performance. However, in this process, these approaches need to make various trade-offs between performance and computational requirements. A major shortcoming, as compared to the Bi-LSTM based AttentionXML, is that they fail to keep separate feature representations for each resolution in a label tree. We thus propose CascadeXML, an end-to-end multi-resolution learning pipeline, which can harness the multi-layered architecture of a transformer model for attending to different label resolutions with separate feature representations. CascadeXML significantly outperforms all existing approaches with non-trivial gains obtained on benchmark datasets consisting of up to three million labels. Code for CascadeXML will be made publicly available at \url{https://github.com/xmc-aalto/cascadexml}.


The present study shows both a causal loop diagram and a stock and flow diagram of a system dynamics model that seeks to explain the trend change in violent crimes in New York City over a period of 50 years. It combines four important factors that have been used to explain the big increase and subsequent fall in these kind of crimes: demographics, differential association theory, law enforcement, and drugs. It also tests and evaluates a policy to decrease further the number of violent crimes. Limitations of the model are also discussed.


This article proposes a solution to the United States criminal justice system's overuse of plea-bargaining to achieve high conviction rates at the expense of individual liberties. It provides a fresh look at the issue from the framework of Jewish law, a legal system that has been cited by the Supreme Court numerous times for its ancient wisdom. The article first outlines the sources and interpretations of Jewish law's ban on confessions, and applies this law to plea-bargains. Second, it discusses the history and legal implications of plea-bargaining in the United States. Third, it proposes that the United States look to Jewish law's exception to the ban on confessions for times of necessity, such as situations where there is widespread disregard for the law. Jewish law dictates that such exceptions be only temporary, which can be interpreted to reflect an understanding that such necessity indicates a deeper problem. Jewish law thus directs society to use the temporary exception as an opportunity to uncover the deeper problem and solve it, whereupon the safeguards must be reinstated. The article suggests that the War on Drugs may be the deeper problem that has led to widespread disregard of the law and has thus necessitated over-reliance on plea bargains. Finally, the article offers a potential solution to Jewish defendants subject to criminal proceedings in the United States.


In this work we study the integrability of two-dimensional autonomous system in the plane with linear part of center type and non-linear part given by homogeneous polynomials of fifth degree. We give a simple characterisation for the integrable cases in polar coordinates. Finally we formulate a conjecture about the independence of the two classes of parameters which appear on the system; if this conjecture is true the integrable cases found will be the only possible ones.


OBJECTIVE Diabetic foot problems due to angiopathy and neuropathy account for 50% of all nontraumatic amputations and constitute a significant economic burden to society. Low-intensity laser irradiation has been shown to induce wound healing in conditions of reduced microcirculation. We investigated the influence of low-intensity laser irradiation by means of infrared thermography on skin blood circulation in diabetic patients with diabetic microangiopathy. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Thirty consecutive patients with diabetic ulcers or gangrenes and elevated levels of glycosylated hemoglobin were randomized by blocks of two to receive either a single low-intensity laser irradiation with an energy density of 30 J/cm2 or a sham irradiation over both forefoot regions in a double-blind placebo-controlled clinical study. Skin blood circulation as indicated by temperature recordings over the forefoot region was detected by infrared thermography. RESULTS After a single transcutaneous low-intensity laser irradiation, a statistically significant rise in skin temperature was noted (P < 0.001 by ANOVA for repeated measurements), whereas in the sham-irradiated control group, a slight but significant drop in temperature (P < 0.001) was found. Subsequently performed contrasts for comparison of measurements before and after irradiation revealed significant temperature increases at 20 min of irradiation time (P < 0.001), at the end of the irradiation (P < 0.001), and 15 min after stopping the irradiation (P < 0.001). In the sham-irradiated feet, the drop in local skin temperature was not significant at 20 min (P = 0.1), but reached significance at the end of the sham-irradiation procedure (P < 0.001) and 15 min after the end of sham irradiation (P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS The data from this first randomized double-blind placebo-controlled clinical trial demonstrate an increase in skin microcirculation due to athermic laser irradiation in patients with diabetic microangiopathy.


The efficiency and relationship between future and spot index prices has been investigated in literature by using different approaches. In this paper, the efficiency and relationship between the log future prices and the log spot prices is investigated for each contract based on cointegration model with a time trend. A new pairs trading strategy for stock prices cointegrated with time trend is proposed in this paper. Formulas used to evaluate the trading strategy are derived and the necessary conditions for making profit out of selected pairs of assets are discussed. S and P 500 future contracts prices of Mar98, Jun98 and Sep98 as well as their corresponding spot index prices are considered in this paper. Our empirical studies show that the strategy proposed in this paper works very well and produces very significant high return for those selected pairs. The average return per trade for all periods and all those pairs are above 10% .


Network Security with OpenSSL John Viega 2002-06-17 Most applications these days are at least somewhat network aware, but how do you protect those applications against common network security threats? Many developers are turning to OpenSSL, an open source version of SSL/TLS, which is the most widely used protocol for secure network communications.The OpenSSL library is seeing widespread adoption for web sites that require cryptographic functions to protect a broad range of sensitive information, such as credit card numbers and other financial transactions. The library is the only free, full-featured SSL implementation for C and C++, and it can be used programmatically or from the command line to secure most TCP-based network protocols.Network Security with OpenSSL enables developers to use this protocol much more effectively. Traditionally, getting something simple done in OpenSSL could easily take weeks. This concise book gives you the guidance you need to avoid pitfalls, while allowing you to take advantage of the library?s advanced features. And, instead of bogging you down in the technical details of how SSL works under the hood, this book provides only the information that is necessary to use OpenSSL safely and effectively. In step-by-step fashion, the book details the challenges in securing network communications, and shows you how to use OpenSSL tools to best meet those challenges.As a system or network administrator, you will benefit from the thorough treatment of the OpenSSL command-line interface, as well as from step-by-step directions for obtaining certificates and setting up your own certification authority. As a developer, you will further benefit from the in-depth discussions and examples of how to use OpenSSL in your own programs. Although OpenSSL is written in C, information on how to use OpenSSL with Perl, Python and PHP is also included.OpenSSL may well answer your need to protect sensitive data. If that?s the case, Network Security with OpenSSL is the only guide available on the subject.


The potential of Pseudomonas fluorescens for the management of groundnut (Arachis hypogaea) root rot caused by Macrophomina phaseolina was evaluated under greenhouse and field conditions. Various strains of P. fluorescens isolated from the rhizosphere of groundnut were screened for their ability to inhibit mycelial growth of M. phaseolina. Among the various strains tested in vitro, five strains were found to inhibit the mycelial growth of M. phaseolina. Talc-based powder formulations of the effective strains of P. fluorescens were developed and evaluated for their efficacy in the management of groundnut root rot under greenhouse conditions. Seed treatment or soil application of powder formulation of P. fluorescens strain Pf1 effectively reduced groundnut root rot when compared to other strains. Seed treatment with Pf1 powder formulation exhibited a similar level of control to the soil application with P. fluorescens or soil drenching with carbendazim. Seed treatment with P. fluorescens reduced the root rot incidence from 88.8 % (with non-bacterized seeds) to 33.3 %. Four field trials were conducted over a 2-year period to determine the efficacy of seed treatment with powder formulation of Pfl in checking groundnut root rot. Seed treatment with powder formulation of Pf1 resulted in significant reduction in root rot incidence and increase in pod yield in all field trials. Ten strains of P. fluorescens were tested for their ability to produce HCN, salicylic acid, siderophore and lytic enzymes. The strain Pf1 that showed maximum in vitro antagonism produced more HCN, salicylic acid, siderophore and 3-1,3-glucanase in vitro when compared to other strains, The results suggest that more than one mechanism might be involved in suppression of M. phaseolina by P. fluorescens.


Poly-3-hydroxybutyrate (PHB) production in plastids of Camelina sativa seeds was investigated by comparing levels of polymer produced upon transformation of plants with five different binary vectors containing combinations of five seed-specific promoters for expression of transgenes. Genes encoding PHB biosynthetic enzymes were modified at the N-terminus to encode a plastid targeting signal. PHB levels of up to 15% of the mature seed weight were measured in single sacrificed T1 seeds with a genetic construct containing the oleosin and glycinin promoters. A more detailed analysis of the PHB production potential of two of the best performing binary vectors in a Camelina line bred for larger seed size yielded lines containing up to 15% polymer in mature T2 seeds. Transmission electron microscopy showed the presence of distinct granules of PHB in the seeds. PHB production had varying effects on germination, emergence and survival of seedlings. Once true leaves formed, plants grew normally and were able to set seeds. PHB synthesis lowered the total oil but not the protein content of engineered seeds. A change in the oil fatty acid profile was also observed. High molecular weight polymer was produced with weight-averaged molecular weights varying between 600 000 and 1 500 000, depending on the line. Select lines were advanced to later generations yielding a line with 13.7% PHB in T4 seeds. The levels of polymer produced in this study are the highest reported to date in a seed and are an important step forward for commercializing an oilseed-based platform for PHB production.


This research is an investigation of some social and psychological factors in the learning of English as a foreign language in two universities in Lebanon. Some of the factors studied are: students' educational and social background, parental influence, attitudes towards foreign languages in general and English in particular, attitudes towards English speaking people, effect of first language, attitudes towards the English language course and the English course teacher, attitudes towards self and native people, and the effect of the political situation. Chapter one offers a definition and function of a language, and discusses the value and spread of learning English as the international language of the world. Definitions of certain words or terms are presented to clarify their usage in this research. A review of the literature of attitudes and motivation in second language learning is presented in chapter two. Research studying the attitudinal factors influencing second language learning launched in Canada- a bilingual country. Similar studies have been carried out in other countries on students learning second or foreign languages, mainly English. A brief presentation of the few similar studies in the Arab world is given. Chapter three gives a general view of education in the Arab countries, with emphasis on the value of Arabic as the native language and the teaching of foreign languages. A closer look at the history of foreign languages in Lebanon, the educational ladder in schools, and the English curriculum at schools and universities are given in chapter four. It ends with an attempt to answer the question of where the teaching of English in Lebanon is in relation to the world development. The fifth chapter is concerned with the empirical work of the study. It describes the research design: i.e. subjects, variables, materials and procedure. Subjects were 164 university level students and twenty two English language university teachers. Measures employed to investigate the relationship between different variables hypothesized to affect achievement in learning English as a foreign language in Lebanon comprise a students' questionnaire and proficiency test and a teachers' questionnaire. Various measures were employed to investigate relatonships between variables. Chapter six deals with the analysis of the data. The initial results of each of the questionnaires and the proficiency test are presented with the aid of tables of frequencies, percentages, means and standard deviations. In general, students' had high concept of their level of proficiency in English, possessed positive attitudes towards learning English, and surprisingly, had both types of motivational orientation: integrative and instrumental. Their performance on the proficiency test was acceptable except for the writing part. Teachers were generally satisfied with their profession, but did not have a clear idea about the national goals of teaching/learning of English in Lebanon. Their ratings of the students' performance in English was actually lower than that of the students themselves. Further analysis is carried on and presented in chapter seven. Relationships among the different variables are closely examined through applying some statistical tests such as Kendall's tau and Spearman's correlation coefficient. It was interesting to find out that the higher subjects rated their proficiency in English, the stronger desire they had for the teaching/learning of English to start in schools. The variable 'attitudes towards learning English' was found to be central; it was found to relate to the use of foreign languages at home, university branch, students' class level, motivational intensity, and attitudes towards English speaking people. However, no strong relationship was found between performance and attitudes; proficiency was found to be mainly related to the subjects' view of Arabic. The last chapter draws conclusions on the basis of the findings and suggests implications for the teaching of English at University level in Lebanon. The first suggested step towards improving the teaching/learning of English was Needs Analysis leading to syllabus/curriculum development.


Evolution of the foreland basins in the Cordillera Principal, at 35o 36o S. Malargüe. The Andean fold-and-thrust belt of Malargüe is located in the foothills of Cordillera Principal at 35o-36o S. The geometry and age of the growth strata preserved in syntectonic basins, recorded the Cenozoic kinematics of the frontal fold-and-thrust belt. The Pincheira-Ventana basin, located at the western edge of the study area, is filled by two syntectonic volcanic and volcaniclastic sequences covered by basalts. In the western part of the basin, growth strata thins toward La Valenciana and Torrecillas anticlines at the west and La Brea backthrusts to the east, showing progressive unconformities observed in the field. In the eastern part the facies arrangement, clast composition and unconformities suggest a provenance area from the Bardas Blancas anticline to the west. Radiometric dating of andesitic lavas at the base of the growth sequence and of basalts at the top, constrain the age of this basin between early Middle Miocene and late Upper Miocene (15.1 Ma and 6.7 Ma). The Malargüe basin, located at the eastern edge of the area, is filled by two syntectonic volcanic and clastic sequences covered by a postectonic sequence. The seismic analysis of the growth sequence shows a divergent arrangement related to the uplift of the Malargüe anticline to the west and a growth triangle at the flank of Chacay anticline to the east. The radiometric dating of outcropping basal andesitic breccias yielding an age of 5.04 Ma and a Quaternary post tectonic sequence at the top, constrains the age of the basin between Late Miocene and Quaternary. These observations indicate that the frontal fold and thrust-belt has a normal propagation toward the foreland during the Cenozoic.


We study learning properties of accelerated gradient descent methods for linear least-squares in Hilbert spaces. We analyze the implicit regularization properties of Nesterov acceleration and a variant of heavy-ball in terms of corresponding learning error bounds. Our results show that acceleration can provides faster bias decay than gradient descent, but also suffers of a more unstable behavior. As a result acceleration cannot be in general expected to improve learning accuracy with respect to gradient descent, but rather to achieve the same accuracy with reduced computations. Our theoretical results are validated by numerical simulations. Our analysis is based on studying suitable polynomials induced by the accelerated dynamics and combining spectral techniques with concentration inequalities.


We discuss the role and the attributes of, as well as the state-of-the-art and some major findings in, the area of predictive analytical ("mathematical") thermal stress modeling in electronic, opto-electronic, and photonic engineering. The emphasis is on packaging assemblies and structures and on simple meaningful practical models that can be (and actually have been) used in the mechanical ("physical") design and reliability evaluations of electronic, opto-electronic, and photonic assemblies, structures, and systems. We indicate the role, objectives, attributes, merits, and shortcomings of analytical modeling and discuss its interaction with finite-element analysis (FEA) simulations and experimental techniques. Significant attention is devoted to the physics of the addressed problems and the rationale behind the described models. The addressed topics include (1) the pioneering Timoshenko's analysis of bimetal thermostats and its extension for bimaterial assemblies of finite size and with consideration of the role of the bonding layer of finite compliance; this situation is typical for assemblies employed in electronics and photonics; (2) thermal stresses and strains in solder joints and interconnections; (3) attributes of the "global" and "local" thermal expansion (contraction) mismatch and the interaction of the induced stresses; (4) thermal stress in assemblies adhesively bonded at the ends and in assemblies (structural elements) with a low-modulus bonding layer at the ends (for lower interfacial stresses); (5) thin film systems; (6) thermal stress induced bow and bow-free assemblies subjected to the change in temperature; (7) predicted thermal stresses in, and the bow of, plastic packages of integrated circuit devices, with an emphasis on moisture-sensitive packages; (8) thermal stress in coated optical fibers and some other photonic structures; and (9) mechanical behavior of assemblies with thermally matched components (adherends). We formulate some general design recommendations for adhesively bonded or soldered assemblies subjected to thermal loading and indicate an incentive for a wider use of probabilistic methods in physical design for reliability of "high-technology" assemblies, including those subjected to thermal loading. Finally, we briefly address the role of thermal stress modeling in composite nanomaterials and nanostructures. It is concluded that analytical modeling should be used, whenever possible, along with computer-aided simulations (FEA) and accelerated life testing, in any significant engineering effort, when there is a need to analyze and design, in a fast, inexpensive, and insightful way, a viable, reliable, and cost-effective electronic, opto-electronic, or photonic assembly, package, or system.


California is one of the first markets in the world to have a significant secondary market for plug-in electric vehicles (PEVs), which includes both battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and plug-in hybrid electric vehicles (PHEVs). This study examines the status of the nascent secondary PEV market in California. The authors examine who purchases these vehicles and how used PEVs are utilized. They examine the role of PEV purchase incentives both via surveys of used PEV buyers and through econometric analysis of detailed micro data. Results suggests that California PEV buyers have significantly higher incomes than the average household. If California seeks to broaden the used PEV market, lower income buyers must be brought into the market. On this count, the used PEV market appears to be beneficial, attracting buyers with slightly lower incomes than in the new PEV market. Results also indicate that used PHEV owners (and, more precisely, short-range used PEV owners) are charging their vehicles less than they could. In addition, results show that early used PEV buyers have significant knowledge gaps, such as being unaware of new PEV purchase incentives, which reduce their ability to compare price options. Overall, the early used PEV buyers were satisfied with the PEV technology and would redo their purchase or buy another PEV. This bodes well for the future of the PEV market. High occupancy vehicle stickers were a powerful motivator for a subset of PHEV used buyers, perhaps due to the lack of new stickers being available at the time of and preceding the survey. Our econometric analysis shows that the presence of new BEV purchase subsidies correlates with a small net outflow of used PEVs to states that do not offer new BEV subsidies. If this modest exit of PEVs grows overtime, it could make it more difficult to achieve state level environmental goals, such as local pollution abatement or state-level GHG reduction targets. Our analysis finds that PEV sales to minority groups show no clear signs of market access discrimination in the new or used PEV markets. Finally, our findings show that PHEV and BEV markets and consumers operate differently from each other, suggesting the need to be careful about treating them identically in analysis and policy-formation. View the NCST Project Webpage


These proceedings publish 79 communications that were distributed in six sessions and in one conference at the 6th Symposium on the Mediterranean Pig, both as main lectures, oral and poster presentation. The major arguments treated are the improvement and the management of the genetic resources, the sanitary approaches in the outdoor systems, the feeding and the rearing techniques, the quality of meat and meat products, the traceability for typical products and their socio-economical dynamics. Particular attention is given to the pig's local breeds and to their meat products, highlighting the importance to preserve the biodiversity as well as the typicality of some unique pork products. The monitoring of pig parasitic diseases is examined as well as the non conventional rearing systems used for typical pig breeds and their effects on the pork quality. It is highlighted also the importance of the products traceability and the need to better understand the purchasing dynamics of typical pork products.


In 2015 the Utah State Legislature passed H.B. 213, "Safe Technology Utilization and Digital Citizenship in Public Schools," mandating that K–12 schools provide digital citizenship instruction. This study presents an exploratory endeavor to understand how school librarians in a state that adopted digital citizenship legislation engage with digital citizenship instruction and their perceptions of a school librarian's role in providing this instruction. We conducted a statewide survey of Utah school librarians, including questions focusing on digital citizenship resources used, current instruction within the school, and inquiries about improvements to current instruction. School librarians expressed a desire to be more involved in the instruction process, the need for more time, and the desire for consistent collaboration with teachers and administration.


Hormonal fluctuation across the menstrual cycle explains temporal variation in women's judgment of the attractiveness of members of the opposite sex. Use of hormonal contraceptives could therefore influence both initial partner choice and, if contraceptive use subsequently changes, intrapair dynamics. Associations between hormonal contraceptive use and relationship satisfaction may thus be best understood by considering whether current use is congruent with use when relationships formed, rather than by considering current use alone. In the study reported here, we tested this congruency hypothesis in a survey of 365 couples. Controlling for potential confounds (including relationship duration, age, parenthood, and income), we found that congruency in current and previous hormonal contraceptive use, but not current use alone, predicted women's sexual satisfaction with their partners. Congruency was not associated with women's nonsexual satisfaction or with the satisfaction of their male partners. Our results provide empirical support for the congruency hypothesis and suggest that women's sexual satisfaction is influenced by changes in partner preference associated with change in hormonal contraceptive use.


Leading-edge multi-channel double-wall design, a novel internal cooling structure, has been presented recently to enable higher overall cooling effectiveness with less penalty of coolant and pressure loss. Our previous work has proved the advantages of the design under operating condition relative to conventional internal cooling methods, including impingement cooling and swirl cooling. Channel impingement cooling structure, which is utilized at the turning region of the leading edge, is the critical factor to realize the high cooling performance of the design. Hence, the turning angle and turning internal radius of the cooling channel are two key parameters for the novel design, and this paper focuses on the effects of these two parameters on the flow and heat transfer characteristics of the design. Nine simplified single-channel models with different turning angles (45 deg, 60 deg, and 75 deg) and radii (0.6 mm, 0.9 mm, and 1.2 mm) were adopted to conduct the study, and the jet Reynolds number ranges from 10,000 to 40,000. The results show that the turning angle and turning internal radius affect the jet form significantly for the same mechanism. Small turning angle means large impingement, which leads to stream-wise counter-rotational vortices and high turbulence intensity, but increasing turning internal radius transfers the jet form from impingement jet to laminar layer attaching the target surface with low heat transfer. The turning internal radius has stronger effect than turning angle. With higher jet Reynolds number, both the heat transfer and total pressure loss increase dramatically, and the effects of geometrical parameters are clearer.


Black holes that accrete far below the Eddington limit are believed to accrete through a geometrically thick, optically thin, rotationally supported plasma that we will refer to as a radiatively inefficient accretion flow (RIAF). RIAFs are typically collisionless in the sense that the Coulomb mean free path is large compared to GM / c 2 ?> , and relativistically hot near the event horizon. In this paper we develop a phenomenological model for the plasma in RIAFs, motivated by the application to sources such as Sgr A* and M87. The model is derived using Israel–Stewart theory, which considers deviations up to second order from thermal equilibrium, but modified for a magnetized plasma. This leads to thermal conduction along magnetic field lines and a difference in pressure, parallel and perpendicular to the field lines (which is equivalent to anisotropic viscosity). In the non-relativistic limit, our model reduces to the widely used Braginskii theory of magnetized, weakly collisional plasmas. We compare our model to the existing literature on dissipative relativistic fluids, describe the linear theory of the plasma, and elucidate the physical meaning of the free parameters in the model. We also describe limits of the model when the conduction is saturated and when the viscosity implies a large pressure anisotropy. In future work, the formalism developed in this paper will be used in numerical models of RIAFs to assess the importance of non-ideal processes for the dynamics and radiative properties of slowly accreting black holes.


A tubular structure by applying the pre-folded origami pattern has been developed at the department of Engineering Science, University of Oxford (see Figure 1). Most of the application is in vehicles. For further application possibility in the fields of Building, bridge, Subway or underground structure, stress and stability analysis were performed. Different cases were calculated by theory of instability and Finite Element Method. Different design solutions were introduced and their strength and stability properties were compared by loading the structure with a compression force on the top of the column. The objective of this work is to find a good solution in safety, sustainability and economy point of view. Failure risk due to the eventually pre-crack in structure will also be discussed by the theory of fracture mechanics.


ABSTRACTIntensive field measurements of formaldehyde (HCHO) and acetaldehyde (CH3CHO) were concurrently conducted at a mountain site (TMS) and an urban site (TW) at the foot of the same mountain in Hong Kong from September to November 2010. The spatiotemporal variations of HCHO and CH3CHO, the correlation between HCHO and CH3CHO and the ratios of HCHO/CH3CHO indicated different impacts of primary emissions and secondary formation at the two sites. The source apportionments of HCHO and CH3CHO at both sites were investigated using the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) model, while the in-situ formation of HCHO and CH3CHO was estimated using a Photochemical Box Model coupled with Master Chemical Mechanism (PBM-MCM). At TMS, the in-situ formation was the most significant contributor to ambient HCHO and CH3CHO, accounting for 51 ± 5 and 32 ± 2%, respectively, followed by the transport of photochemically-formed aldehydes, vehicular emissions, biogenic emissions, biomass burning and solvent usage. On the other hand, at TW, the in-situ formation and vehicular emissions explained 55 ± 7% and 18 ± 1% of ambient HCHO, respectively, while vehicular emissions and in-situ formation made comparable contributions to CH3CHO (~35%). The findings are helpful for the formulation and implementation of appropriate control strategies for aldehydes and their precursors in Hong Kong.


Americans are convinced that employment stability has declined in recent decades, but previous research on this question has led to mixed conclusions. A key challenge is that trends for men and women are in opposite directions and appear to cancel each other out. We clarify this situation by examining trends in employer tenure by sex, marital status, and parental status. We find that married mothers are behind the increase in women's job tenure, but men and never-married women have seen declines in tenure. Furthermore, we show that the timing of tenure trends for women parallels periods of increased labor force attachment. Finally, we find that shifts in industry and occupation composition can account for the decline in tenure among men and never-married women before 1996 but not afterward. We situate these diverging trends in two broad shifts in expectations, norms, and behaviors in the labor market: the end-of-work discourse and the revolution in women's identification with paid work. Our findings support the view that job tenure is declining for all groups, but women's greater labor force attachment, especially their more continuous employment around childbirth, countered and masked this trend.


The momentum-resolved electronic structure of ultrathin films of Ni on Cu(001) is investigated by angle-resolved photoemission in the thickness range between 2 and 6 monolayers and by first-principles slab calculations. While the $sp$-band Fermi surface of Ni shows a full three-dimensional bulklike topology down to the thinnest films, the $d$-band Fermi surface rearranges from a bulklike configuration in the thick films to a two-dimensional topology in the thinnest films. The reduced number of $d$ holes in the thin films is explained with the rearrangement of the characteristic $K$-point lobe of the Ni Fermi surface.


In the wake of the corporate missteps of recent years, we've heard plenty about how boards of directors should act as more-responsible stewards. But one voice has been notably missing from the chorus of advice-the voice of the CEO. The authors, who include the founder of the Yale Chief Executive Leadership Institute, have tapped their networks to ask dozens of well-regarded chief executives: What keeps boards from being as effective as they could be? Are they realty the cartooned millstone around the CEO's neck, or do they help shape the enterprise in positive ways? What can they do to become a greater strategic asset? The answers--surprisingly candid and highly revelatory--can be distilled into five prescriptions. Boards should be careful not to rein in boldness too tightly. They should do their homework on the company and the industry at large. They should recognize that character and credentials, not celebrity, are what's needed for a high-functioning board. Directors should also overcome any conflict aversion and bring energetic, constructive debate to the boardroom-contrary to conventional wisdom, CEOs don't want rubber-stamp approval of their plans. And they should work to make the inherently fraught succession process less awkward, taking care not to overlook talent in the internal pipeline. As the debates over governance continue, those seeking to improve board performance should listen to every informed perspective, including the constituency that knows boards and their failings best.


Three ordinary kids, Jared, Simon, and Wallory Grace, have entered another world -- without leaving this one! Two remarkable talents, New York Times best-sellers Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black, have risked everything to bring this remarkable account to light. Five books -- one thrilling adventure -- the Spiderwick Chronicles! Their world is closer than you think.


ABSTRACT Chromolaena odorata (L.) R.M. King and H. Robinson (Asteraceae) is a perennial weedy shrub of neotropical origin and a serious biotic threat in its invasive range. The Asian-West Africa (AWA) biotype of C. odorata present in West Africa is both morphologically and genetically different from the southern African (SA) biotype. The AWA biotype was first introduced into Nigeria in the late 1930s and rapidly spread across West Africa. Currently, 12 of the 16 countries in West Africa have been invaded, with significant negative effects on indigenous flora and fauna. However, locals in West Africa have found several uses for the weed. As chemical, physical and other conventional methods were unsustainable, costly and largely ineffective, three biological control agents, Apion brunneonigrum (Coleoptera: Brentidae), Pareuchaetes pseudoinsulata (Lepidoptera: Erebidae) and Cecidochares connexa (Diptera: Tephritidae), have been released in West Africa between the 1970s and the early 2000s. However, only C. connexa and P. pseudoinsulata established, contributing to the control of the weed, in six and four countries in West Africa respectively. Limited research funding, the absence of post-release evaluations of the established agents, and the 'conflict of interest' status of C. odorata (i.e. being beneficial for local use but damaging to ecosystem services and agriculture), are serious factors deterring the overall biological control effort. Here, using historical records and field surveys, we examine the invasion history, spread, impacts, and management of C. odorata in West Africa and make recommendations for the sustainable management of C. odorata in the region.


In Sweden the importance of sustainable development (SD) can be traced in political documents from the fundamental law down to the curriculum for different school levels. To investigate how this political objective is demonstrated in knowledge and activities among the teachers, eleven upper secondary school teachers from different subjects have been interviewed to map out their views of SD, their own beliefs and how they teach SD. The interviews have been analysed in terms of content with the Knowledge – Value – Practice model as theoretical frame. The results showed that among the interviewed teachers there existed a spectrum of views of what SD stands for, from a narrow view to a well-developed view. There were also differences in their teaching practice. All teachers stated that teaching for SD is of great importance and that they all did it in terms of their own personal definition. All of them also pointed out that even if the steering documents present SD as important, the local management of the issue is weak. The differences between the teachers' view of SD and the weak local management generate a fundamental problem. Depending on the teachers' own definition and content choice the pupils may get different content knowledge, perhaps not even consistent with the recognized definition of sustainable development. The schools cannot therefore be said to give the pupils an equal education in the area of SD. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and peer-review under responsibility of Universiti Teknologi MARA.


We discuss the Strehl ratio of systems with a Gaussian pupil and determine the range of validity of its approximate expression based on the aberration variance. The results given are equally applicable to propagation of Gaussian beams. The uniform and weakly truncated pupils are considered as limiting cases of a Gaussian pupil. We show that the approximate expression for Strehl ratio in terms of the aberration variance yields a good estimate of the true value for a strongly truncated pupil but a much smaller value for a weakly truncated pupil.


Learning from the historical accounts where financial corporations collapsed, failed and lost investor confidence are all in some way or the other linked with the negligence on adopting yet following the codes and guidelines of corporate governance frameworks in true and spirit. Being an essential element of the corporate governance, risk governance has gained importance in the recent years whereby the regulatory bodies and the relevant authorities of the financial sector have laid emphasis on implementation and improvement of risk management framework. Subsequently in order to strengthen the risk governance and management frameworks, the formation of board level sub committees have been encouraged by the regulatory bodies i.e. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Central bank of Pakistan i.e. State Bank of Pakistan. All banking institutions and development financial institutions have employed board level risk committees in order to improve the performance of their companies thereby ultimately safeguarding the interests of investors, one of the objectives of corporate governance. Non-performing loans depicting high level of credit risks have remained a problem for the banking institutions of Pakistan. Since risk committees are actively employed in the institutions, it was intriguing to find the association of the risk committees and its characteristics on the credit riskiness of these firms. Hence the study incorporates a panel data regression based on the secondary data of forty banking institutions operating in Pakistan for a period of five years i.e. 2010 to 2014. Implications of risk committee characteristics including % of directors present in the committee, independence of the committee, number of committee meeting, committee quality, director busyness and institution size were analysed in relation to credit riskiness. Independence of the committee and institution size displayed significant negative associations on credit riskiness indicating that increasing the employment of independent directors in the committees would decrease the credit riskiness of the firms indicating not only better performance in terms of profitability of the firms but also safeguarding the interest of the shareholders. Similarly, the negative relationship between the institution size and credit riskiness further elaborates the notion that bigger sized institutions are less affected by credit risks as they tend to absorb the shocks with regards to credit losses. Moreover growth of the institution amplifies the resources of the institutions whereby they could engage into litigations and make recoveries. The findings of the study further outline implications for the policy makers, regulatory authorities, potential new entrants and existing institution. These could attain benefits of the results and could further assess the risk committees as employed in their respective institutions. Similarly, the policy makers including the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan and the State Bank of Pakistan could lay more emphasis on employment of independent directors while revising and redesigning the corporate governance policies and guidelines.


Object-oriented programs involve many unique features that are not present in their conventional counterparts. Examples are message passing, synchronization, dynamic binding, object instantiation, persistence, encapsulation, inheritance, and polymorphism. Testing for such program is, therefore, more difficult than that for conventional programs. Object-orientation has rapidly become accepted as the preferred paradigm for large-scale system design. In this paper we have discussed about how testing is being carried out in the Object Oriented environment. To accommodate this, several new techniques have been proposed like fault-based techniques, Scenario based, Surface structure testing, and Deep structural testing. Keywords-Fault-based Testing, Scenario-based Testing, Surface Structure Testing.


Abstract. Since 2004, Halji village, home of the oldest Buddhist Monastery in north-western Nepal, has suffered from recurrent glacial lake outburst floods (GLOFs). A sudden englacial drainage of a supraglacial lake, located at a distance of 6.5 km from the village, was identified as the source of the flood. The topography of the lake basin was mapped by combining differential Global Positioning System (DGPS) measurements with a structure-from-motion (SFM) approach using terrestrial photographs. From this model the maximum filling capacity of the lake has been estimated as 1.06 ×10^6 m3 with a maximum discharge of 77.8 m3 s−1, calculated using the empiric Clague–Mathews formula. A simulation of the flooded area employing a raster-based hydraulic model considering six scenarios of discharge volume and surface roughness did not result in a flooding of the village. However, both the village and the monastery are threatened by undercutting of the river bank formed by unconsolidated sediments, as it already happened in 2011. Further, the comparison of the GLOF occurrences with temperature and precipitation from the High Asia Reanalysis (HAR) data set for the period 2001–2011 suggests that the GLOF is climate-driven rather than generated by an extreme precipitation event. The calculation of geodetic mass balance and the analysis of satellite images showed a rapid thinning and retreat of Halji Glacier which will eventually lead to a decline of the lake basin. As the basin will persist for at least several years, effective mitigation measures should be considered. A further reinforcement of the gabion walls was suggested as an artificial lake drainage is not feasible given the difficult accessibility of the glacier.


Abstract Avant-garde aesthetic movements react on and appropriate new technological media in a process of breaking down the boundaries between different media and different "arts," in an attempt to generate meaning from the sheer materiality of the artwork. Avant-garde artworks will therefore by necessity be marked by media in different ways, at the same time as these art forms are processual, performative and transgressive. One of the prime Swedish examples of this avant-garde strategy is Ake Hodell's many realizations of his manuscript Lågsniff. The manuscript, written in 1963, was in the form of a text-sound-composition, which means that Lågsniff, already in this form, took many configurations with a plurality of genres and media modalities involved. Later the manuscript was realized as a series of performances, a TV-film, a book, and in 2002 as a DVD. For such a collection of art works, I would like to suggest the term "intermedial cluster." The point of departure for my discussion is the DVD, a remediation of the TV- film from 1966, and I will focus on two of the juxtaposed discourses in the cluster that this DVD represents: the package tour and warfare, and on two thematic foci in the film: media and memory, and man as automaton.


Anodised titanium dioxide (titania, TiO2) nanotubes have been widely studied over the last few years, following the discovery in 1999 of nanoporous TiO2 films prepared via anodisation in aqueous solution containing small quantities of hydrofluoric acid. The synthesis of nanotubular titania by anodisation, a relatively simple and low cost technique, represents a motivation for scientists, considering the impact that such a material could have on a variety of applications, including gas-sensing, biomedical, photocatalysis, and photovoltaics. This research project has focused on the optimisation of the growth process of anodic titania nanotubes, both in an aqueous (NaF/Na2SO4) and an organic (Glycerol/NaF) electrolyte containing fluorine ions. Reproducibility and the ability to generate anodic films having a thickness of several micrometers are fundamental steps to be achieved before investigating any possible application of the nanotubes. To characterise the anodic specimens and build upon the general lack of information on the growth mechanism, a comprehensive study of the different stages of the process has been performed, using Scanning and Transmission Electronic Microscopy (SEM and TEM). Among the questions to be addressed in this thesis, is to establish whether the anodic film undergoes a transition from pores to tubes or develops a tubular morphology from the beginning of its growth. Additional characterisation of the anodisation process includes the study of current-time curves, and chemical composition analysis of the anodic layers using X-ray Photo-Electron Spectroscopy (XPS). The thermal stability of the nanotubes and structural/morphological changes as a result of heat treatment at different temperatures were also studied, again using SEM, TEM, XPS and Raman spectroscopy. The final part of the thesis is dedicated to preliminary work on the use of anodised TiO2 nanotubes in Dye Sensitized Solar Cells (DSSCs), along with suggestions for future works and general conclusions.


In order to test the hypothesis that groundwater organisms are more sensitive to stressors than surface water organisms, this study compares the responses of surface and groundwater isopods, cyclopoid copepods and ostracods to inorganic chemicals (potassium chloride and potassium nitrate) and low oxygen concentration (10 % oxygen saturation, hypoxia) in laboratory experiments. Isopods displayed the highest sensitivity to the chemicals (LC50 values for KCl: Proasellus slavus vindobonensis = 285 mg/l, and Asellus aquaticus = 355 mg/l), ostracods turned out to be most tolerant (LC50 values for KCl: Fabaeformiscandona wegelini = 1932 mg/l, and Pseudocandona sp. = 2018 mg/l). Comparing the response of species within one taxonomic group (isopods, copepods, and ostracods), the exclusive groundwater species (stygobites) were more sensitive to the chemicals than closely related surface water species (see above). The stygobite species displayed no differences between the metabolism measured under normoxic and hypoxic conditions. A copepod, Acanthocyclops vernalis, collected in a hypoxic groundwater habitat, showed small metabolic differences (i.e., the metabolic rate measured in hypoxia amounted to 61.8 ± 5.5 % of the metabolism in normoxia), compared to a copepod, Diacylops bicuspidatus, collected in a normoxic groundwater habitat (27.3 ± 6.9 %). Due to the low difference between the metabolic rates, the stygobite organisms and A. vernalis were best adapted to low oxygen concentrations among the tested species. The hypothesis was supported by this study. The high sensitivity of the groundwater crustaceans to the chemical stressors suggests that existing groundwater quality criteria are insufficient to protect the groundwater biota and ecosystem, and further ecotoxicological studies with groundwater organisms are required.