Model checking is an automated technique for the verification of finite-state systems that is widely used in practice. In model checking, a model M is verified against a specification φ, exhaustively checking that the tree of all computations of M satisfies φ. When φ fails to hold in M , the negative result is accompanied by a counterexample: a computation in M that demonstrates the failure. State of the art model checkers apply Binary Decision Diagrams (BDDs) as well as satisfiability solvers for this task. However, both methods suffer from the state explosion problem, which restricts the application of model checking to only modestly sized systems. The importance of model checking makes it worthwhile to explore alternative technologies, in the hope of broadening the applicability of the technique to a wider class of systems. Description Logic (DL) is a family of knowledge representation formalisms based on decidable fragments of first order logic. DL is used mainly for designing ontologies in information systems. In recent years several DL reasoners have been developed, demonstrating an impressive capability to cope with very large ontologies. This work consists of two parts. In the first we harness the growing ability of DL reasoners to solve model checking problems. We show how DL can serve as a natural setting for representing and solving a model checking problem, and present a variety of encodings that translate such problems into consistency queries in DL. Experimental results, using the Description Logic reasoner FaCT++, demonstrate that for some systems and properties, our method can outperform existing ones. In the second part we approach a different aspect of model checking. When a specification fails to hold in a model and a counterexample is presented to the user, the counterexample may itself be complex and difficult to understand. We propose an automatic technique to find the computation steps and their associated variable values, that are of particular importance in generating the counterexample. We use the notion of causality to formally define a set of causes for the failure of the specification on the given counterex-


A ruling engine that has produced gratings of larger size and greater power than hitherto available is described, as are the characteristics of gratings and echelles ruled by it. This MIT C engine, now fitted to rule blanks of sizes up to 450 × 650 × 125 mm weighing up to several hundred kg, was constructed by applying interferometric translation and mirror-parallelism control to a modified Moore No. 4 Universal Measuring Machine without Y or Z motion. To the base of this were added monorail diamond ways, two diamond carriages and lifters, special end-thrust bearings, mountings for lasers, and a diamond drive with heavy flywheels. Developed by use of the results of experience with our B and A engines, the new machine shows greater mechanical and thermal stability than either, and has produced well-blazed echelles and gratings of superior quality up to the 580-mm (23 in.) diagonal size, at spacings between 632 and 31.6 grooves/mm. The total length of groove per grating is limited at present to about 80 km by diamond wear, and the speed of ruling by internal vibrations and electronic noise. Ghost, satellite, and scatter intensities are at the low levels characteristic of B-engine gratings.


Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) are a technology now impacting on many fields, including journalism and mass communication. Also referred to as drones, these small remotely-guided aircraft have gained prominence through their increased use in the hunt for Al Qaeda leaders in Afghanistan and Pakistan. With increasingly sophisticated navigation systems and dramatically decreased costs, drones are now being purchased and put to use by commercial organizations and private citizens. Traditional journalists and citizen journalists alike are using drones to obtain aerial footage in a variety of locations around the world. The implications for the field of journalism and mass communication are numerous, with practical, theoretical and ethical dimensions. This paper explores these dimensions using an inductive, qualitative approach. This research paper offers a brief history of UAVs, the results of our canvass of cases that could be categorized as drone journalism, the themes that emerge from this case analysis, and an in-depth look at how this technology impacts on journalism and mass communication. Where this new technology fits within surveillance scholarship is also considered.


Some legal scholars have argued that Chevron deference charts the boundary between law and policy. According to this view, when a statute can support multiple readings (Chevron step one) and each of those readings is objectively reasonable (Chevron step two), the choice between those reasonable readings is an exercise in policymaking, not legal interpretation. Chevron deference thus authorizes federal agencies to select whatever reading of the statute best accords with their own independent policy preferences.Not all scholars accept this understanding of Chevron deference. In an article published recently in the Vanderbilt Law Review, Professor Aaron Saiger contends that Chevron does not authorize agencies to base their statutory interpretations on extraneous policy considerations because agencies always bear an ethical obligation to seek the "best interpretation" of the statutes they administer.This invited Response Essay endorses Professor Saiger's central thesis while proposing some friendly amendments that are designed to fortify his argument. I argue that the obligation to set aside extraneous policy considerations in agency statutory interpretation is a genuine legal obligation that rests on constitutional foundations. Because the Constitution prohibits Congress from empowering federal agencies to make law without supplying an intelligible principle to channel agency discretion, agencies bear a corresponding obligation to follow Congress's statutory guidance and other relevant legal norms in good faith rather than pursue their own independent views of wise policy. Drawing on the important distinction between "statutory interpretation" and "statutory construction," I argue further that agency statutory construction occupies a space between interpretation and policymaking. When agencies engage in statutory construction, they serve as collaborators with Congress in the construction of a statute's legal meaning. Nonetheless, even when agency statutory constructions qualify for Chevron deference, agencies are legally obligated to use their best judgment to fulfill their discretionary statutory mandates, not to pursue their own independent policy agendas or the political objectives of the incumbent administration.


Many large multinational corporations are hardly a model of organizational efficiency, with the right hand frequently not knowing what the left is doing. A valuable solution developed at one location fails to spread to other sites struggling with a similar problem, so they continually have to reinvent the wheel. Knowledge management systems have helped, but the truth is that many business units still tend to operate more like stand alone entities than interconnected members of a larger network. Why do some subsidiar ies become isolated, and does that insularity indeed impair business performance? To answer those questions, L. Felipe Monteiro, doctoral candidate, and Julian Birkinshaw, professor of strategic and in ternational management, of the London Business School and Niklas Arvidsson, re searcher of the Royal Institute ofTechnology in Stockholm investigated the knowledge flow of 171 marketing subsidiaries of six Swedish global corporations: Ericsson, Volvo, Sandvik Steel, Coromant, Pharmacia and Alfa Laval Agri. (Details of the study are contained in their article Knowledge Flows Within Multinational Corporations: Explaining Subsidiary Isolation and Its Performance Implications, in press at Orga nization Science. ) Managers at the subsidiaries answered a questionnaire that helped determine the frequency of knowl edge transfers between subsidiaries (horizontal flows) as well as between a sub sidiary and headquarters (vertical flows). The authors also collected data on each subsidiary's capabilities (with respect to its accumulation and use of knowledge about customers and competitors) and financial performance (revenues, profits and market share). The data were controlled for several variables, including the size, geographic lo cation and age of the subsidiary. The study looked specifically a t the pro cess of "problemistic search," in which a subsidiary has a problem for instance, how best to market a particular product to a new demographic of customers and then looks for a solution. In an ideal world,


This study was designed to investigate the possible effects of consuming Na-rich carbonated mineral water on bone remodelling and urinary mineral excretion in postmenopausal women. Women (n 18) included were amenorrhoeic (>1 year), healthy and not obese (BMI <30 kg/m2). No woman was taking oestrogen replacement therapy, mineral and vitamin supplements, phyto-oestrogens or medications known to affect bone and lipid metabolism. In two consecutive interventions that lasted 8 weeks each, women drank 1 litre of control mineral water daily and 1 litre of carbonated mineral water, rich in Na, HCO–3 inf super and Cl−, daily. Body weight and height were measured, BMI was calculated and blood pressure was measured. Blood samples were taken from fasting subjects and serum obtained to analyse the biochemical bone markers, procollagen I amino-terminal propeptide (PINP) and β-carboxy-terminal telopeptide of collagen (β-CTX). At the end of each period, 24 h urine samples were collected to determine Ca, Mg, P, Na+, K+, Cl−, urine excretion and urinary pH. No changes in body weight, BMI or blood pressure were observed during the experimental period. Ca excretion was lower after the intake of carbonated water than after intake of the control water (P=0·037) while P excretion was higher (P=0·015). Total urine, Na and Cl− excretion did not differ between the two periods but urinary pH was increased after the intake of carbonated mineral water. PINP and β-CTX did not differ between the two periods. Daily consumption of 1 litre of Na-rich carbonated mineral water for 8 weeks does not affect bone remodelling in healthy postmenopausal women.


Abstract The need for a new steady-state fast-neutron reactor has been the subject of numerous national meetings and discussions. This type of reactor will be able to open new frontiers of research for Generation IV reactors, the Space Propulsion Program, and the Advanced Fuel Cycle Initiative. With the confluence of these three programs' fast-spectrum testing needs, we set out to conceptualize a new system by looking at previous successful reactor concepts. This paper presents a new concept for a fast-spectrum test reactor that is horizontal in orientation, with individual pressure tubes running the entire length of the scattering-medium tank filled with a liquid heavy metal. This approach for a test reactor will provide more flexibility in refueling, sample removal, and ability to completely reconfigure the core to meet different users' requirements. Full core neutronic analysis of more than 14 combinations showed that a large hexagonal steam-cooled U-10Zr fuel, with a core power of 267 MW(thermal), produced a fast flux (>0.1 MeV) of 1.3 × 1015 n/cm2·s averaged over the whole length of the irradiation channel. A depletion run with an initial enrichment of 20 wt% 235U had a flat reactivity curve for the first 180 days of cycle due to in-core breeding. Although considerable neutronic optimization and a thermal-hydraulic analysis remain to be performed, it appears that a reactor core with this innovative geometry could meet future fast flux testing needs.


In this paper, we theoretically and experimentally demonstrated the residual chromatic dispersion (CD) measuring of 10Gbit/s NRZ and 40Gbit/s NRZ/RZ links by using a novel single sideband (SSB) spectrum phase difference detection technology. This method can differentiate positive and negative residual CD of the fiber link, the measuring range is dependent on frequency difference (FD) of two local oscillator (LO) and the FD can be adjusted up to CD range. This method is independent on data rate for intensity modulation direct detection (IM/DD) links. In condition of FD of 4 GHz, the measuring range was around ± 1000 ps/nm and resolution was better than 5 ps/nm for 10G NRZ link.


This new report from the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law proposes modernizing one key aspect of the criminal justice system: federal prosecutors. Prosecutors are in a uniquely powerful position to bring change, since they make decisions about when and whether to bring criminal charges, and make recommendations for sentencing. The report proposes reorienting the way prosecutors' "success" is measured around three core goals: Reducing violent and serious crime, reducing prison populations, and reducing recidivism. The mechanism for change would be a shift in how attorneys' performance is assessed, to give prosecutors incentives to focus on how their practices reduce crime in and improve the communities they serve, instead of making their "success" simply a measure of how many individuals they convict and send to prison.


Holography is a method for three-dimensional (3D) imaging of objects by applying interferometric analysis. A recorded hologram is required to be reconstructed in order to image an object. However one needs to know the appropriate reconstruction distance prior to the hologram reconstruction, otherwise the reconstruction is out-of-focus. If the focus distance of the object is not known priori, then it must be estimated using an autofocusing technique. Traditional autofocusing techniques used in image processing literature can also be applied to digital holography. In this thesis, eleven common sharpness functions developed for standard photography and microscopy are applied to digital holograms, and the estimation of the focus distances of holograms is investigated. The magnitude of a recorded hologram is quantitatively evaluated for its sharpness while it is reconstructed on an interval, and the reconstruction distance which yields the best quantitative result is chosen as the true focus distance of the hologram. However autofocusing of highresolution digital holograms is very demanding in means of computational power. In this thesis, a scaling technique is proposed for increasing the speed of autofocusing in digital holographic applications, where the speed of a reconstruction is improved on the order of square of the scale-ratio. Experimental results show that this technique offers a noticeable improvement in the speed of autofocusing while preserving accuracy greatly. However estimation of the true focus point with very high amounts of scaling becomes unreliable because the scaling method detriments the sharpness curves produced by the sharpness functions. In order to measure the reliability of autofocusing with the scaling technique, fifty computer generated holograms of gray-scale human portrait, landscape and micro-structure images are created. Afterwards, autofocusing is applied to the scaleddown versions of these holograms as the scale-ratio is increased, and the autofocusing performance is statistically measured as a function of the scale-ratio. The simulation results are in agreement with the experimental results, and they show that it is possible to apply the scaling technique without losing significant reliability in autofocusing.


We study star formation processes in the disc of the weakly barred grand design spiral galaxy M100 (NGC 4321) from a variety of images tracing recent massive star formation, old and young stars, dust, and neutral hydrogen. Differences between arm and interarm regions are specifically studied by decomposing the images into arm and non-arm zones. We find from a comparison of the morphology in H�, H i and dust that while the first two are coincident over most of the disc, they are offset from the dust lanes especially along the inner parts of the spiral arms: a picture which is indicative of a density wave shock moving through the arms. H i is formed near the young massive stars as a result of photo-dissociation. From radial profiles we find that in the region of the star-forming spiral arms the exponential scale lengths for H�, blue and near-infrared light, and 21 cm radio continuum are equal within the fitting errors. The scale lengths for the interarm region are also equal for all these tracers, but the arm scale lengths are significantly longer. This points to a common origin of the profiles in star formation, with little or no influence from radial population gradients or dust in the disc of this galaxy. The longer arm scale lengths are equivalent to an outwardly increasing arm-interarm contrast. We argue that the radial profiles of radio continuum and H i, as well as CO, are also directly regulated by star formation, and discuss the possible implications of this result for the interpretation of observed CO intensities in and outside spiral arms. We discuss the radial atomic hydrogen profile in some detail. Its almost perfectly flat shape in the region of the star-forming spiral arms may be explained by photodissociation and recombination processes in the presence of a limited quantity of interstellar dust, controlling the equilibrium between the molecular and atomic form of hydrogen. Over most of the inner part of the disc, Hi seems to be a product of the star formation processes, rather than the cause of enhanced star formation.


Distance education in information security has unique requirements in comparison to on-campus education. For instance, an online InfoSec lab is required to provide hands-on education to distance students while development and operation of a lab is a non-trivial problem. There is a need to understand the nature of the online InfoSec labs as ensemble artifacts, and just a black-box tool's view is not enough. This article suggests a conceptual model to explain the ensemble view of the online InfoSec lab. In doing so, the paper makes two specific contributions: First, it conceptualizes the online Information Security (InfoSec) lab as an ensemble artifact so that we can unfold the black-box view of an InfoSec lab and understand the important building blocks (entities of the lab) and their interrelationships. Second, it suggests design principles to implement the conceptual model of an InfoSec lab.


We can diagnose cachexy in children whose BMI is <5 percentiles and under 3-rd negative deviation. The aetiology of poor state of nutrition can be: incorrect feeding, frequent infections, congenital defects, improper care or a combination of the previous situations. Authors present four cachectic patients: two children suffering of trisomy 21, who had associated each one heart malformation: first, a boy, N. S., aged 7 and weighting 12 Kg had Fallot tetralogy and bacterial endocarditis; second, a girl, P. S, 43 months aged, weighting 10 Kg, had ventricular septal defect and acute interstitial pneumonia. The third cachectic patient was a girl aged 8, weighting 13 kg, D. C. with Seckel syndrome, admitted for staphylococcal pneumonia; the fourth is a 11 years girl weighting 12 Kg, P. D. with spastic tetraparesis, microcefaly, diagnosed with severe sepsis. Only the boy suffering of endocarditis, evaluated to MODS and death; the three girls were discharged healed. Trisomy 21 caused immunodeficiency and cachexy also permitted severe infections. The boy had severe hypoxia, but girls had a normal oxygen saturation. The aetiology of poor state of nutrition was combinated: congenital defects, improper diet, frequent infections, inadequate care (three patients lived in orphanage, a girl had only mother). Pneumonia is frequent in thin children, with birth malformations. Congenital heart defects could been complicated to endocarditis. Cachexy in malformed children is an important cause of immunodeficiency which leads to severe, sometimes letal infections. Infections produce denutrition and cachexy promotes severe sepsis, especially in parentless children.


Energy consumption and sludge production minimization represent rising challenges for wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). The goal of this study is to investigate how energy is consumed throughout the whole plant and how operating conditions affect this energy demand. A WWTP based on the activated sludge process was selected as a case study. Simulations were performed using a pre-compiled model implemented in GPS-X simulation software. Model validation was carried out by comparing experimental and modeling data of the dynamic behavior of the mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS) concentration and nitrogen compounds concentration, energy consumption for aeration, mixing and sludge treatment and annual sludge production over a three year exercise. In this plant, the energy required for bioreactor aeration was calculated at approximately 44% of the total energy demand. A cost optimization strategy was applied by varying the MLSS concentrations (from 1 to 8 gTSS/L) while recording energy consumption, sludge production and effluent quality. An increase of MLSS led to an increase of the oxygen requirement for biomass aeration, but it also reduced total sludge production. Results permit identification of a key MLSS concentration allowing identification of the best compromise between levels of treatment required, biological energy demand and sludge production while minimizing the overall costs.


Many online services access a large number of autonomous data sources and at the same time need to meet different user requirements. It is essential for these services to achieve semantic interoperability among these information exchange entities. In the presence of an increasing number of proprietary business processes, heterogeneous data standards, and diverse user requirements, it is critical that the services are implemented using adaptable, extensible, and scalable technology. The Context Interchange (COIN) approach, inspired by similar goals of the Semantic Web, provides a robust solution. In this paper, we describe how COIN can be used to implement dynamic online services where semantic differences are reconciled on the fly. We show that COIN is flexible and scalable by comparing it with several conventional approaches. With a given ontology, the number of conversions in COIN is quadratic to the semantic aspect that has the largest number of distinctions. These semantic aspects are modeled as modifiers in a conceptual ontology; in most cases the number of conversions is linear with the number of modifiers, which is significantly smaller than traditional hard-wiring middleware approach where the number of conversion programs is quadratic to the number of sources and data receivers. In the example scenario in the paper, the COIN approach needs only 5 conversions to be defined while traditional approaches require 20,000 to 100 million. COIN achieves this scalability by automatically composing all the comprehensive conversions from a small number of declaratively defined sub-conversions.


Data were analyzed from 641 children and their families in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development to test the hypotheses that in the early school years, mothers' and fathers' sensitive support for autonomy in observed parent-child interactions would each make unique predictions to children's reading and math achievement at Grade 3 (controlling for demographic variables), children's reading and math abilities at 54 months, and children's level of effortful control at 54 months and that these associations would be mediated by the level of and changes over time in children's observed self-reliance in the classroom from Grades 1 through 3. The authors found that mothers' and fathers' support for autonomy were significantly and uniquely associated with children's Grade 3 reading and math achievement with the above controls, but only for boys. For boys, the effect of mothers' support for child autonomy was mediated by higher self-reliance at Grade 1 and of fathers' support for child autonomy by greater increases in self-reliance from Grades 1 through 3.


Nanocellulose is a recently developed form of cellulose that has the potential to be used in many different industries, ranging from food to high-performance applications. This material is commercially manufactured through the homogenization of chemical pulps, but the process is energy-consuming and is still an important subject for development. Simple, robust methods are required for the quality control and optimization of industrial nanocellulose production. In this study, a number of different methods, based on different principles of monitoring the manufacture of cellulose nanofibers were evaluated and compared for five different nanocellulose qualities, both for their resolution and robustness/ease. Methods based on microscopy, light scattering, centrifugation, and viscosity were examined and all appeared useful for observing the manufacturing process during its initial stage. However, only methods based on centrifugation, turbidity, and transmittance yielded reliable data for the entire manufacturing process. Of these methods, transmittance measurement may be the best candidate for routine use because the method is simple, rapid, and only requires spectrophotometer equipment.


Abstract.The trade liberalization associated with NAFTA has affected the pattern of state exports by altering the origin as well as the destination of merchandise exports. We find that NAFTA has increased US merchandise exports to Mexico and Canada by just over 15%, and has increased total US merchandise exports by nearly 8%. We also find that although many states have seen large increases in exports to both Mexico and Canada, others have seen large decreases. NAFTA has also affected states' exports to non-NAFTA regions of the world, tending to decrease exports to Europe and Latin America and increase exports to Asia. States in the northeast regions of the United States have seen the smallest increases in exports in the wake of NAFTA.


Methyltransferases (MTases) form a major class of tRNA-modifying enzymes needed for the proper functioning of tRNA. Recently, RNA MTases from the TrmN/Trm14 family that are present in Archaea, Bacteria and Eukaryota have been shown to specifically modify tRNAPhe at guanosine 6 in the tRNA acceptor stem. Here, we report the first X-ray crystal structures of the tRNA m2G6 (N2-methylguanosine) MTase TTCTrmN from Thermus thermophilus and its ortholog PfTrm14 from Pyrococcus furiosus. Structures of PfTrm14 were solved in complex with the methyl donor S-adenosyl-l-methionine (SAM or AdoMet), as well as the reaction product S-adenosyl-homocysteine (SAH or AdoHcy) and the inhibitor sinefungin. TTCTrmN and PfTrm14 consist of an N-terminal THUMP domain fused to a catalytic Rossmann-fold MTase (RFM) domain. These results represent the first crystallographic structure analysis of proteins containing both THUMP and RFM domain, and hence provide further insight in the contribution of the THUMP domain in tRNA recognition and catalysis. Electrostatics and conservation calculations suggest a main tRNA binding surface in a groove between the THUMP domain and the MTase domain. This is further supported by a docking model of TrmN in complex with tRNAPhe of T. thermophilus and via site-directed mutagenesis.


Constitutional rights are commonly considered the most fundamental, most protective of rights. Yet, in the context of public debt, there is a critical difference between constitutional provisions and contractual promises: who wields the power to amend. It generally takes mutual consent for parties to amend a contract, but the Constitution of Puerto Rico can be amended by the people of Puerto Rico by referendum, without creditors' consent. Creditors understand that local law is subject to change. Creditors who do not want to assume that risk negotiate for explicit contractual protections and insist that another jurisdiction's law govern the debt. For instance, Puerto Rico's latest bonds, issued in 2014, are protected by explicit priority and remedy provisions in the language of the contract and are governed by New York law (hereinafter "NY law bonds"). The NY law bonds account for only about $3.5 billion of Puerto Rico's $17 billion in general obligation ("GO") debt. Accordingly, if Puerto Rico amended its Constitution it could reprioritize public spending over the significant majority of its general obligation bonds, those governed by Puerto Rican law ("PR bonds"). Puerto Rico can wield this power to encourage PR bond creditors to restructure. Right now, Puerto Rico's pleas to restructure are more likely to fall on deaf ears since creditors can sue for payment from tax revenues. Reasonable investors may understand that a healthy, sustainable Puerto Rico will enhance their likelihood of sustainable payments in the future, but possible holdouts create real fears that those who restructure will bear the brunt of the crisis without fellow creditors carrying their fair share. Indeed, a creditor lawsuit could jeopardize a sustainable recovery even if reasonable creditors agree to haircuts. A constitutional amendment could check the extraordinary priority of creditors to pave the way for a productive refinancing.This paper will briefly examine the danger that holdouts pose to the refinancing process. It will then explain how the vulnerabilities of the PR law bonds' enforcement mechanisms can be used to encourage restructuring. Finally, it will answer possible critiques of the plan and address potential legal challenges.


Epidemiological studies suggest a correlation between exposure to low-level extremely low-frequency (ELF) magnetic Welds (MF) and certain cancers and neurodegenerative diseases. Experimental studies have not provided any mechanism for such eVects, although at Xux density levels signiWcantly higher than the ones encountered in epidemiological studies, radical homoeostasis and levels of stress response proteins can be aVected. Here, we report on the inXuence of MF exposure (50-Hz sine wave; 1 h; 0.025–0.10 mT; vertical or horizontal MF exposure direction) on diVerent cellular parameters (proliferation, cell cycle distribution, superoxide radical anion, and HSP70 protein levels) in the human leukaemia cell line K562. The positive control heat treatment (42°C, 1 h) did not aVect either cell proliferation or superoxide radical anion production but caused accumulation of cells in the G2 phase and increased the stress protein HSP70. MF exposure (0.10 mT, 1 h) did not aVect either cell cycle kinetics or proliferation. Both vertical and horizontal MF exposures for 1 h caused signiWcantly and transiently increased HSP70 levels (>twofold), at several Xux densities, compared to sham controls and also compared to heat treatment. This exposure also increased (30–40%) the levels of the superoxide radical anion, comparable to the positive control PMA. Addition of free radical scavengers (melatonin or 1,10-phenantroline) inhibited the MF-induced increase in HSP70. In conclusion, an early response to ELF MF in K562 cells seems to be an increased amount of oxygen radicals, leading to HSP70 induction. Furthermore, the results suggest that there is a Xux density threshold where 50-Hz MF exerts its eVects on K562 cells, at or below 0.025 mT, and also that it is the MF, and not the induced electric Weld, which is the active parameter.


Ourun Pottery Sdn. Bhd. (OP) was a wholly owned subsidiary of Hull Trading Sdn Bhd
(HT). It was a ceramic manufacturer in sanitary wares. The factory waS situated in Gurun,
Kedah and it occupied two acres of land with a built-up factory floor of about 1.0 acre.
The main items of sanitarywares manufactured by OP were sitting pan (pedestal), squatting
pan, wash basin, urinal bowl and soap holder.
The parent company, HT, was concerned that Opts production output had declined from
109,938 units in 1995 to 100,420 units in 1996. Likewise, profit before tax also showed a
downward trend from RMI03k in 1995 to RM65k in 1996. The situation was aggravated
when OP could not produce enough stocks for the marketing division of HT to distribute to
its customers. It was reported that the delay in deliveries on the part of OP had resulted in
orders being canceled by the customers. The Managers complained that the image of OP
products was deteriorating in the market, and HT being distributor for OP also suffered the loss in revenue. The Executive Director of HT, Mr Ting Chew Jin, commented that if GP
failed to restore to the required efficient production and healthy profitability, then it would
not survive due to the keen competitions in the sanitaryware industry. Mr Ting also sat in
GP Board and primarily responsible for the performance of GP.


The martingale framework for detecting changes in data stream, currently only applicable to labeled data, is extended here to unlabeled data using clustering concept. The one-pass incremental changedetection algorithm (i) does not require a sliding window on the data stream, (ii) does not require monitoring the performance of the clustering algorithm as data points are streaming, and (iii) works well for high-dimensional data streams. To enhance the performance of the martingale change detection method, the multiple martingale test method using multiple views is proposed. Experimental results show (i) the feasibility of the martingale method for detecting changes in unlabeled data streams, and (ii) the multiple-martingale test method compares favorably with alternative methods using the recall and precision measures for the video-shot change detection problem.


This research describes the data mining of a large set of patient records from a large NHS (National Health Services) hearing aid clinic, UK. As typical of medical data in general, these audiology records are heterogeneous, containing Audiograms, Structured Text (such as date of birth, gender, and diagonosis) and Unstructured Text (specific observations made about each patient in a free-text). This audiology data set is unique, as it contains records of patients prescribed with both ITE and BTE hearing aids. ITE hearing aids are not generally available on the British National Health Service in England. However, both types of aids are prescribed at this large NHS, UK facility (whose data is used in this research), which is an important feature of this data. There are two research questions for this research: 1. Which factors influence the choice of ITE (in the ear) as opposed to BTE (behind the ear) hearing aids? 2. For patients diagnosed with tinnitus (ringing in the ear), which factors influence the decision whether to fit a tinnitus masker (a gentle sound source, worn like a hearing aid, designed to drown out tinnitus)?


This paper addresses the question how policy-values among policy makers change in times of turbulence. In five countries, experiencing radical political change in the last ten years the change in policy values is measured and related to the succession of local policy makers, in terms of rejuvenation, generational succession and period-effects. The research is based on a survey conducted in 1989, and repeated in 1996 and 2000 among politicians and senior administrators at the local level in Sweden, the Netherlands, Russia, Lithuania and Belarus. The conclusion is that it are first and foremost period effects that account for the attitude change among local policy makers. This can be explained by the development of the urgency of policy problems, through these periods.


In this paper, different discrete-time models in the form of maps are proposed and analyzed in order to describe the dynamics of single inductor multiple-input multiple-output (SIMIMO) switching DC–DC converters. These systems can be used to regulate generally multiple (positive and/or negative) outputs by means of individual switches associated to each of the outputs. These switches are current mode controlled through corresponding channels. The discrete-time approach allows the dynamical behavior of these systems to be accurately predicted as well as to detect possible subharmonic oscillations and chaotic behavior. Under certain operating conditions, for which the system can be modeled by a one-dimensional piecewise constant vector field, a simple one-dimensional and piecewise-linear (PWL) map can be obtained. Some closed form expressions for ensuring stability are derived from this map in terms of a stability index λ, which is, in turn, expressed in terms of system parameters. However, some discrepancies have been found between the switched model and this simpler map, and therefore a full order model is derived to obtain more accurate information about the actual dynamical behavior of these converters. The theoretical results are confirmed by one-dimensional bifurcation diagrams and codimension 1 two-parameter bifurcation curves obtained by standard continuation methods applied to the derived discrete-time models as well as from computer simulations from the switched model.


Many next-generation batteries, including lithium–sulfur (Li–S) and redox-flow batteries, rely on robust and selective membranes to sustainably block the crossover of active species between the negative and positive electrodes. Preventing membrane degradation is essential for long-term battery operation. Nevertheless, challenges persist in understanding how to minimize the impact of chemical or structural changes in the membrane on its performance. Here we elucidate design rules for understanding and controlling the long-term polysulfide-blocking ability of size-selective polymer membranes cast from polymers of intrinsic microporosity (PIMs). PIM-1 membranes feature electrophilic 1,4-dicyanooxanthrene moieties that are shown to be susceptible to nucleophilic attack by lithium polysulfides, which are endogenous to lithium–sulfur batteries. Once transformed, the polymer chains reconfigure by swelling with additional electrolyte and the size-selective transport ability of the membrane is compromised. These undesirable, chemically-induced changes in membrane structure and selectivity were prevented by controllably cross-linking PIM-1. In doing so, low polysulfide crossover rates were sustained for >95 h, highlighting the critical role of macromolecular membrane design in the development of next-generation battery technologies.


Over the last ten years, the gap in swimming participation between Whites and other minority groups has been well documented. Moreover, the intrapersonal, interpersonal, and structural constraints to swimming participation by African Americans have been clearly delineated. With the challenges surrounding the minority swimming gap acknowledged, the impetus should now be on creating strategies to rectify the problem. This paper argues for a collective effort on the part of the African American community to ameliorate the swimming gap, thus lessening the senseless deaths associated with it. In the paper, strategic actions are outlined including advocacy and the creation of viable partnerships to bridge the swimming gap. Most notably, the authors applaud the efforts of African American swimming luminaries such as Cullen Jones and many others who continue to articulate the importance and urgency of African Americans learning to swim but surmise that they cannot do the "heavy lifting" by themselves to encourage and inspire African Americans to learn to swim. Organizations such as the National Urban League (NUL), the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Congressional Black Caucus and media moguls such as Oprah Winfrey, Tyler Perry, and Mo'Nique are encouraged to join forces with the NUL and NAACP in developing a broad-based initiative to promote learning to swim. In summary, the authors argue that the African American community must play a significant role in developing solutions to curb drownings and close the swimming gap.


Quantum-mechanical expressions for nonresonance-dipole light-scattering cross sections are related to corresponding expressions for oscillator strengths and refractive indices. In particular, Rayleigh and Raman cross sections for atoms are expressed in terms of oscillator strengths and vector-coupling coefficients. Several of our results, including the relationship between Rayleigh scattering and refractive index, differ in general from the corresponding results of classical dispersion theory. We show that these differences arise from antisymmetric components Ckja = (Ckj − Cjk)/2 of the polarizability tensor, which have been neglected in the classical analyses. Calculated Rayleigh cross sections for cesium and aluminum atoms, and Raman cross sections for aluminum atoms are presented to illustrate our results. The antisymmetric contribution is found to be substantial in all of these cross sections; its most obvious effect is to cause the depolarization (for linearly polarized incident light) to exceed 34 over extended wavelength ranges away from resonance. On the other hand, for atoms initially in states of zero angular momentum, and molecules under conditions which allow the use of Placzek's polarizability approximation, our results agree with those of classical dispersion theory.


One of the key techniques toward energy efficiency and conservation is nonintrusive load monitoring (NILM) which lies in the domain of energy monitoring. Event detection is a core component of event-based NILM systems. This paper proposes two new low-complexity and computationally fast algorithms that detect the variations of load data and return the time occurrences of the corresponding events. The proposed algorithms are based on the phenomenon of a sliding window (SW) that tracks the statistical features of the acquired aggregated load data. The performance of the proposed algorithms is evaluated using real-world data and a comparative analysis has been carried out with one of the recently proposed event detection algorithms. Based on the simulations and sensitivity analysis, it is shown that the proposed algorithm can provide the results of up to 93% and 88% in terms of recall and precision, respectively.


Cars of the 1980s are becoming more and more collectable. Those needing encyclopaedic information on cars of that decade need look no further. This book contains brief histories of all the manufacturers who sold cars in Britain during the period. Some 650 cars are illustrated and described in alphabetical order, by manufacturer (including many doomed enterprises). There are comprehensive notes on each model's production dates and numbers, recognition features, variants, strengths and weaknesses.


Mitochondria are undeniably the cell powerhouse, directly affecting cell survival and fate. Growing evidence suggest that mitochondrial protein repertoire affects metabolic activity and plays an important role in determining cell proliferation/differentiation or quiescence shift. Consequently, the bioenergetic status of a cell is associated with the quality and abundance of the mitochondrial populations and proteomes. Mitochondrial morphology changes in the development of different cellular functions associated with metabolic switches. It is therefore reasonable to speculate that different cell lines do contain different mitochondrial-associated proteins, and the investigation of these pools may well represent a source for mining missing proteins (MPs). A very effective approach to increase the number of IDs through mass spectrometry consists of reducing the complexity of the biological samples by fractionation. The present study aims at investigating the mitochondrial proteome of five phenotypically different cell lines, possibly expressing some of the MPs, through an enrichment-fractionation approach at the organelle and protein level. We demonstrate a substantial increase in the proteome coverage, which, in turn, increases the likelihood of detecting low abundant proteins, often falling in the category of MPs, and resulting, for the present study, in the identification of METTL12, FAM163A, and RGS13. All MS data have been deposited to the MassIVE data repository ( https://massive.ucsd.edu ) with the data set identifier MSV000082409 and PXD010446.


This monograph provides a detailed picture of young South Africans' perceptions of politics and of the factors that influence their participation in elections. Through responses and comments made by South African students aged 18 to 24 in rural and urban areas across all the nine provinces, readers gain a clear understanding of what drives some young people to vote and what discourages those who do not. These accounts confirm some of the reasons that deter certain young people from voting, including political withdrawal among South Africa's youth; low levels of trust towards government and its lack of responsiveness to their demands; declining partisan support for the ruling party; and signs of dissatisfaction with the options other political parties offer them.


This paper synthesizes statistical information evidencing the proposition that extractive industries are of great significance in many low- and middle-income developing economies. It examines the scale of the current dependence of low- and middle-income economies on both types of extractive resources: metals, and oil and gas. The paper also assesses how country levels of dependence have changed in the past twenty years, showing that there has been a clear upward trend. The paper outlines how the upward trend has continued in many countries despite the recent commodity price collapse, and assesses some of the consequences of that collapse.


It is shown how all global Wigner distribution moments of arbitrary order can be measured as intensity moments in the output plane of an appropriate number of fractional Fourier transform systems (generally anamorphic ones). The minimum number of (anamorphic) fractional power spectra that are needed for the determination of these moments is derived.


Consciousness is arguably the most important area within contemporary philosophy of mind and perhaps the most puzzling aspect of the world. Despite an explosion of research from philosophers, psychologists, and scientists, attempts to explain consciousness in neurophysiological, or even cognitive, terms are often met with great resistance. In The Consciousness Paradox, Rocco Gennaro aims to solve an underlying paradox, namely, how it is possible to hold a number of seemingly inconsistent views, including higher-order thought (HOT) theory, conceptualism, infant and animal consciousness, concept acquisition, and what he calls the HOT-brain thesis. He defends and further develops a metapsychological reductive representational theory of consciousness and applies it to several importantly related problems. Gennaro proposes a version of the HOT theory of consciousness that he calls the "wide intrinsicality view" and shows why it is superior to various alternatives, such as self-representationalism and first-order representationalism. HOT theory says that what makes a mental state conscious is that a suitable higher-order thought is directed at that mental state. Thus Gennaro argues for an overall philosophical theory of consciousness while applying it to other significant issues not usually addressed in the philosophical literature on consciousness. Most cognitive science and empirical works on such topics as concepts and animal consciousness do not address central philosophical theories of consciousness. Gennaro's integration of empirical and philosophical concerns will make his argument of interest to both philosophers and nonphilosophers.


The main drivers of the information economy shaping a large number of organisations throughout the world are: globalization, electronic connectivity, outsourcing and the appearance of innovative business models. The cloud computing concept promises business continuity through the deployment of different internet-based private, public and hybrid "clouds". The technology has a layered structure based on software as a service, platform as a service and infrastructure as a service. One of the main concerns regarding the use of cloud computing is the provision of connectivity based on confidentiality, integrity and availability. Its layered structure, in its current form, does not support the type of secure transmission needed to satisfy those requirements. In this paper, a sub-layer based on Multi Protocol Label Switching is suggested as a mechanism for the secure cloud-based transmission of information.


BACKGROUND & AIMS
This study compared the effectiveness of the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD) to the Mediterranean Diet (MD) as treatment for Crohn's disease (CD) with mild to moderate symptoms.

METHODS
Adult patients with CD and with mild-moderate symptoms were randomly assigned 1:1 to consume the MD or SCD for 12 weeks. For the first 6-weeks, participants received prepared meals and snacks according to their assigned diet. After 6-weeks, participants were instructed to follow the diet independently. The primary outcome was symptomatic remission at week 6. Key secondary outcomes at week 6 included: fecal calprotectin (FC) response (FC <250 μg/g and reduction by >50% among those with baseline FC >250 μg/g) and C-Reactive Protein (CRP) response (high-sensitivity CRP (hsCRP) <5 mg/L and >50% reduction from baseline among those with hsCRP >5mg/L).

RESULTS
194 patients were randomized, and 191 were included in the efficacy analyses. The percentage of participants who achieved symptomatic remission at week 6 was not superior with SCD (SCD 46.5%, MD 43.5%; P = .77). FC response was achieved in 8/23 participants (34.8%) with SCD and 4/13 participants (30.8%) with MD (P = .83). CRP response was achieved in 2/37 participants (5.4%) with SCD and 1/28 participant (3.6%) with MD (P = .68).

CONCLUSIONS
SCD was not superior to MD to achieve symptomatic remission, FC response and CRP response. CRP response was uncommon. Given these results, the greater ease of following the MD, and other health benefits associated with MD, the MD may be preferred to the SCD for most patients with CD with mild to moderate symptoms.


Representing Belief provides a detailed discussion and analysis of the forms and meanings in religious art of nineteenth-century France. This genre, usually assigned minimal importance by writers on the period, turns out to occupy a central place in the cultural history of the era, touching the core of the century's conflict between tradition and modernity, science and faith, ultramontanism and naturalism. Although it was generally assumed that this kind of art was of little importance in the evolution of modern painting, Driskel demonstrates that in reality it played a crucial role. Many of the artists discussed are firmly installed in the present canon (Delacroix, Ingres, Manet, Gauguin), while others (Flandrin, Orsel, Gleyre, Cazin) were major figures in their own time, though largely forgotten today. Writing from an interdisciplinary perspective and employing concepts derived from structuralist and poststructuralist theory, Driskel moves beyond simple formalism to restore a category of once-important works to a meaningful context, thereby offering others a model by which to discuss and interpret these paintings. Carefully charting the genealogies of hieraticism and naturalism, he demonstrates that a dramatic shift occurred in the 1860s and 1870s as naturalism gained acceptance among ultramontanes and the hieratic mode began to attract the interest of adherents to the belief system of modernism. Representing Belief is the first book to situate this art in its social and historical contexts and to approach it from this point of view.


This Thesis describes a study of the impacts of traffic calming on exhaust emissions, the most detailed and extensive of its kind to date. The main objectives of the work were to measure the effects of different types of traffic calming measure on vehicle emissions, to develop a system of comparative performance indicators and guidance for local authorities, and to assess and improve the performance of an existing micro-scale emission model in traffic calming applications. There were several elements to the research which have not previously been reported, including the development of driving cycles for traffic calming based on external speed measurements and the use of remote sensing to assess the impacts of traffic calming on emissions in situ.
Nine different types of measure were investigated, including a mixture of vertical deflections (e.g. road humps, speed cushions) and horizontal deflections (e. g. chicanes). Driving cycles were formulated to represent vehicle operation before and after the introduction of the schemes, based on traffic speeds measured using both an instrumented car and an external method (LIDAR). Fuel consumption and emissions of CO, HC, NOx, and C02 from a total of 22 cars (including petrol non-catalyst, petrol catalyst, and diesel vehicles) were measured on a chassis dynamometer using the cycles. Emissions of total particulate matter were also recorded from the diesel vehicles.
The results from the laboratory emission tests were used to compare the performance of an 'average speed' emission model (MEET) and a 'modal' emission model (MODEM). Also, an attempt was made to improve the accuracy of MODEM model in such applications by
developing a variant model (MODEM-TC) for use in traffic calming applications. In MODEM-TC the original MODEM emission matrices were replaced with ones derived from the laboratory test results.
The emission tests indicated that traffic calming increases exhaust emissions. For the three types of car tested, emissions of CO, HC, and C02 increased by between 20% and 60%. Only the diesel cars showed a substantial (30%) and statistically significant increase in NOx
emissions. Emissions of total particulate matter from diesel cars also increased by 30%. The more 'severe' traffic calming measures (e.g . road humps) tended to result in the greatest speed reductions and some of the largest increases in emissions.
The 50-73% increase in mass emissions of CO per kilometre (for all vehicles) determined by remote sensing agreed reasonably well with the range of impacts measured in the laboratory emission tests, but the remote sensing HC results were less conclusive.
For almost all combinations of vehicle type and pollutant, the MEET model provided a more reliable indication of the likely impact of traffic calming than the MODEM and MODEM-TC models, in spite of the fact that the latter employ a more detailed mechanism for representing
vehicle operation. It was concluded that the most fundamental Problem with modal models is that the analyser emission signals on which they are based are delayed and damped relative to the 'true' signal. .It appears that further advances in the field of modal emission modelling will not be forthcoming until realistic continuous emission data are available. Other workers are currently developing a mathematical model of the measurement system which can be used to reconstruct the original emission signal in the exhaust pipe from the one measured at the analyser.


This paper presentation sketches an intellectual history of transgressive thought in Iran in the short period between 1920 and 1950. To that end, two types of transgressive thinking are distinguished. First, with regard to intellectuals such as Amir Khān Amir Aʿlam and Ahmad Kasravi, I develop the concept of liminal transgression. Second, in relation to personas such as Ṣādeq Hedāyat and Donyā magazine, I work on the concept of irreversible transgression. I elaborate on these concepts in relation to the educational reforms in the second half of the nineteenth century, during which natural sciences and empirical knowledge began to be systemically dissociated from Islamic knowledge (maʿrefat-e/shenākht-e eslāmī). Drawing on George Bataille and Michel Foucault, liminal transgression is defined as an oscillatory movement around the limit of a religious system. In contrast, borrowing from Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, I use the concept of irreversible transgression as a movement that radically stands outside of a given system. This latter type is transgressive to the extent that it fundamentally evades and avoids any knowing venture informed by Islamic or Islamicate ideas, narratives, and practices. I argue that in the better part of the nineteenth century, new sciences (ʿolum-e Jadid) were kept at a safe distance from Islamic knowledge without dismantling or disrespecting it. Since circa 1920, however, some secular Iranian scientists and literati increasingly dispelled Islamic knowledge – from lesser-known figures such as ʿAli Rādpur, who wrote frequently in scientific magazines in the 1920s to more distinguished writers such as Hedāyat, who openly criticized Islamic doctrines and practices in his (non-)fictions. These textual personas are re-contextualized as integral to the seventy-odd years of the separation between empirical knowledge and theological knowledge. This paper is the result of my involvement in the research project Beyond Sharia, convened at Utrecht University by Prof. Asghar Seyed Gohrab.


First published in 1986, now a classic for all who care about the poetry and poetics of the late twentieth century, Content's Dream is a witty, consummately intelligent, and ever stylish collection of essays by one of the country's most innovative and influential poets, whose work has come to be associated with L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E, the magazine he coedited at the time these essays were being written. Addressing a wide range of arts and ideas, Bernstein moves rapidly from philosophical reflections on Ludwig Wittgenstein and Stanley Cavell, to the film antics of Mad Max and the cinema of Stan Brakhage, from the paintings of Arakawa to the poetics of William Carlos Williams and Robert Creeley, from the modernist poetry of Gertrude Stein, Laura Riding, and Louis Zukofsky to the contemporary poetry of Jackson Mac Low, Lyn Hejinian, and Ron Silliman. Bernstein's essays are poetic enactments rather than abstract theories, embodying in the way they are written the aesthetic values they passionately and eloquently express. While providing an essential introduction to the innovative poetry and poetics of L-A-N-G-U-A-G-E, Bernstein's investigations center on the relation of art to politics and specifically the politics of poetic form. He also explores the conditions, experiences, and alienation of everyday life and the ethical traps of characterization and representation. Bernstein imagines a "thinking" poetry of both process and critique that acknowledges and responds to the intractability and complexity of contemporary cultural and social problems. At once irreverent and politically engaged, as indebted to Groucho Marx as it is to Karl, Content's Dream is essay writing at its most exuberant and profound.


The work of the ICTY courtroom is an ongoing exercise in translation and interpreting. At times discussions of issues related to translation and interpreting are so germane to a trial that they merit inclusion in the trial judgment. Furthermore, translation affords a variety of translation-specific opportunities for courtroom strategies for both the defense and the prosecution. An example of this is a series of courtroom discussions with witnesses and forensic experts on how to translate and interpret the word "asanacija" in several of the Srebrenica trials which reached trial and appeal judgments. The article describes the process by which the Tribunal language services arrived at their translation of this term and their recommendations for interpreters and the impact of the discussions on translation and interpreting for the outcome of these trials. Hence, translation and the forces it sets in motion often influence jurisprudence and shape international justice.


One of Louis Daguerre's earliest pictures of a Paris street scene was taken in 1839. Due to long exposure time required to capture the image, moving objects did not register, so the street appears empty. However, during the exposure, a man stopped on the street corner to have his shoes shined. As a result, both he and the person shining the shoes appear in the picture. It can be argued that these men are the first people to ever have been photographed. If this is one of the earliest photos, then they are certainly the first to be unknowingly photographed. Late in 2002, in the run up to Christmas, outlets acting as agents for the three mobile phone licence holders in Ireland started selling a new generation of mobile phone handsets. These handsets incorporated a digital picture messaging facility, which enables the phone user to take a digital photograph, which can be sent to others with similar handsets, and in some cases, via the Internet and email. This is an exploratory study of the usage issues surrounding camera phones. The study highlights a number of issues concerning privacy. This study identifies camera phone stakeholders and includes analyses of their attitudes regarding camera phone use. The study uncovers stakeholders' reluctance to accept and address possible negative effects. It also highlights the lack of both formal and informal methods of regulation. The legal examination highlights the possibility of existing (Irish) legislation curtailing the use of camera phones for specific purposes. The ethical literature, while contradictory in places, mirrors in some cases, general principles of privacy outlined in Irish case law.


To the Editors: A recent article reported higher cancer rates for American Indians living in Alaska compared with those living in New Mexico (1). For all sites, the ratios for those living in Alaska to those living in New Mexico were 2.4(95% confidence interval, 2.2-2.7) for males and 2.8 (95% confidence interval, 2.5-3.0) for females. The authors concluded that differences in tobacco use explained some but not all of the differences. It is proposed here that differences in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (calcidiol) levels may explain much of the unexplained differences in cancer rates. Solar UVB and/or vitamin D have been reported as risk reduction factors in observational studies for all of the major cancers for which a significant difference between the two states was found, including bladder, breast, colorectal, esophageal, lung, oral/pharyngeal, pancreatic, prostate, and renal cancer, melanoma, and non – Hodgkin's lymphoma (2-4). These associations persist even after controlling for smoking (4). Interestingly, one of the cancers for which the rates are higher for men in New Mexico, liver cancer, is not a UVB/vitamin D – sensitive cancer (4). Indians in both Alaska and New Mexico probably derive much of their vitamin D from solar UVB irradiance, with additional contributions from diet and supplements. A recent study found that 31% of the Indian infants tested in Alaska had serum calcidiol levels of <25 ng/mL (5). It is reasonable to assume that these levels may also be indicative of those in the adults. Serum calcidiol levels of 33 ng/mL have been associated with reduced risk for colorectal cancer risk by 50% (2), with this or higher levels likely required for similar effects for other cancers (3). Thus, many adult Alaskan Indians likely have serum calcidiol levels too low to provide adequate protection against cancer. Similar results were found at PubMed for Canadian Indians. Fish, such as salmon, may have supplied a large part of the vitamin D for Alaskan Indians in the past. Although calcidiol data were not found for New Mexican Indians, solar UVB doses are two to three times higher in summer and cancer rates for white Americans in New Mexico are among the lowest in the United States (4).


Integrated Microwave photonics (IMWP) signal processing using Photonic Integrated Circuits (PICs) has attracted a great deal of attention in recent years as an enabling technology for a number of functionalities not attainable by purely microwave solutions. In this context, integrated waveguide Bragg grating (WBG) devices constitute a particularly attractive approach thanks to their compactness and flexibility in producing arbitrarily defined amplitude and phase responses, by directly acting on coupling coefficient and perturbations of the grating profile. In this article, we review recent advances in the field of integrated WBGs applied to MWP, analyzing the advantages leveraged by an integrated realization. We provide a perspective on the exciting possibilities offered by the silicon photonics platform in the field of MWP, potentially enabling integration of highly-complex active and passive functionalities with high yield on a single chip, with a particular focus on the use of WBGs as basic building blocks for linear filtering operations. We demonstrate the versatility of WBG-based devices by proposing and experimentally demonstrating a novel, continuously-tunable, integrated true-time-delay (TTD) line based on a very simple dual phase-shifted WBG (DPS-WBG).


The suwari is an instrumental mechanism of biwa and shamisen. Its physical structure involves a solid surface of very small size that the vibrating string touches dynamically, creating a peculiar timbre in the produced sound. This paper proposes a model of the sawari mechanism, which is a unilateral constraint on the displacement of a string, that is, a mechanism that is essentially nonlinear and time-dependent because of contact/separation phenomenon. Here, the key point of the model is the repelling force caused by the lateral elastic deformation of the string. The study is focused on the dynamic effect under an idealized problem setting so that the string vibrates at no loss of mechanical energy without any interaction with other objects such as a resonator that terminates the string in the real instrument. A numerical method is given for the computation of this problem. The numerical results show a gradual build-up of high-frequency oscillations that eventually prevail over the entire string motion. The short-term spectrum changes in a continuous way with time, maintaining a nearly harmonic structure on the fundamental frequency of the associated sawari-free problem.


Introduction: Loss of substance in the lower third of the leg usually requires complex surgical procedures for tissue reconstruction. Among the existing options for tissue reconstruction, reverse sural flap of the fasciosubcutaneous pedicle or reverse adipofascial flap, described in the literature as a viable option, has been little studied compared with other techniques. The objectives of this study were to present the results of surgical treatment of a complex injury due to Achilles tendon rupture using the reverse sural flap of the fasciosubcutaneous pedicle concomitantly with total skin grafting and to discuss the advantages of the procedure as well as other surgical alternatives. Case report: A.D., a 28-year-old male patient, presented with a complex injury in the lower third of the leg because of a poor outcome of surgical repair of Achilles tendon rupture that had occurred during an automobile accident more than 30 days previously. The patient underwent injury reconstruction with the reverse sural flap of the fasciosubcutaneous pedicle. The postoperative result was favorable, without complications. Conclusion: The surgical technique described here is satisfactory for treating lesions in the lower third of the leg due to Achilles tendon rupture.


The purpose of this study was to explore factors for the In-service Education Information Service in Taiwan. The system was first established by National Kaohsiung Normal University based the trust of Ministry of Education on the year of 2003. There are 192035 teachers using this service. An investigation research method was applied to examine the data of quality indicators. The specific goals of this study are to summarize patterns of correlations among thirty variables of quality indicators, and to reduce this large number of observed variables to a smaller number of factors, to provide an operational definition for an underlying process by using observed variables. A system monitoring tool called PRTG was used for collecting data. The sample collected period was from 2016/9/30 to 2017/9/30. There were overall 7749 records of each indicators. The sample size was 606 and confidence interval was 5 at confidence level of 99%. A factor analysis procedure was applied to reveal the quality factors from those thirty quality indicators. Based upon verified statistical analysis results, major conclusions were presented. There are five factors could be identified via factor analysis process. The overall connecting factor would explain near 30% of quality. The education networking factor explain 23% of quality. The south networking explain 12% of quality. The proximal in-service explain 10 % of quality. The proximal NHCH service explain the rest 6% of quality.


The outcome of the recent US Presidential Election of 2016 shocked and baffled many. Some claimed that social media may play a larger role in influencing the outcome that expected. This study examined Twitter messages containing political discussions with references to both Trump and Clinton to uncover insights about the role of social media sentiment in political elections. We adhere to the social media analytics (SMA) framework of Fan and Gordon (2014) and the sentiment analysis taxonomy of Abbasi, Chen, and Salem (2008) as a structure to extract positive and negative sentiment from the collected tweets during the pre-election period between Nov 3 and Nov 7. The first finding reveals that Trump has an overwhelmingly larger volumes of total, positive, and negative tweets over Clinton implying a higher volume of public discourse around Trump. Secondly, the propagation of negativism towards Clinton is much more than Trump although both candidates have increasingly more negative tweets days leading up to the Election Day of Nov 8. Finally, word clouds for both candidates reveal that the Twitter public are engrossed with more negative topics against Clinton than Trump. This study clarifies the role of social media sentiment, specifically in how Trump is able to use Twitter as a conduit to reach his intended audience over and above traditional media. In addition, the influence of negative tweets seem to have a toll on Clinton creating distrust and weakening her political position especially among the working and middleclass communities that made the difference leading to Trump's eventual victory.


This paper presents the hardware system integrating of an electric vehicle for Land mine detection. The Vehicle is fully automated to fulfill three main objectives: 1) Detect the Land mines 2) Drive through the landmines and 3) store the landmines location. The vehicle consists of two main robotics configurations. Firstly a car like robot to provide the maneuverability in desert environment, where the landmines are found. Secondly, a robotic arm with 2 Degrees of Freedom (2DOF) to provide the scanning for Landmines on the surface of 50 cm length and rotation of 180 degrees. The kinematics modeling description is provided along with the overall control structure. The hardware implementation is also explained in addition to the demonstration of experimental results to illustrate the system performance.


A miniature combustor for converting organic samples into CO2 with application in carbon isotopic measurements has been manufactured and evaluated. The combustor was made of High-Temperature Co-fired Ceramic (HTCC) alumina green tapes. The device has a built-in screen printed heater and a temperature sensor made of platinum, co-sintered with the ceramic. A copper oxide oxygen supply was added to the combustor after sintering by in-situ electroplating of copper on the heater pattern followed by thermal oxidation. Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy Dispersive Spectroscopy (EDS) and Thermal Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) were used to study electroplating, oxidation and the oxide reduction processes. The temperature sensor was calibrated by use of a thermocouple. It demonstrates a temperature coefficient resistance of 4.66×10−3/°C between 32 and 660 °C. The heat characterization was done up to 1000 °C by using IR thermography, and the results were compared with the data from the temperature sensor. Combustion of starch confirmed the feasibility of using copper oxide as the source of oxygen of combustion.


This book provides a self-contained presentation of the physical and mathematical laws governing complex systems. Complex systems arising in natural, engineering, environmental, life and social sciences are approached from a unifying point of view using an array of methodologies such as microscopic and macroscopic level formulations, deterministic and probabilistic tools, modeling and simulation. This book can be used as a textbook by graduate students, researchers and teachers in science, as well as non-experts who wish to have an overview of one of the most open, markedly interdisciplinary and fast-growing branches of present-day science.


OBJECT
This review summarizes the continuous study of low-power laser radiation treatment of a severely injured peripheral nerve. Laser phototherapy was applied as a supportive factor for accelerating and enhancing axonal growth and regeneration after injury or a reconstructive peripheral nerve procedure. In nerve cell cultures, laser phototherapy was used to stimulate activation of nerve cells.

METHODS
Low-power laser radiation was used for treatment of peripheral nerve injury using a rat sciatic nerve model after crush injury, neurorrhaphy, or neurotube reconstruction. Nerve cell growth and axonal sprouting were investigated using laser phototherapy on embryonic rat brain cultures. The outcome in animal studies facilitated a clinical double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized study that measured the effectiveness of 780-nm laser phototherapy on patients suffering from incomplete peripheral nerve injuries for 6 months to several years.

RESULTS
Animal studies showed that laser phototherapy has an immediate protective effect, maintains functional activity of the injured nerve, decreases scar tissue formation at the injury site, decreases degeneration in corresponding motor neurons of the spinal cord, and significantly increases axonal growth and myelinization. In cell cultures, laser irradiation accelerates migration, nerve cell growth, and fiber sprouting. A pilot clinical double-blind, placebocontrolled, randomized study showed that in patients with incomplete long-term peripheral nerve injury, 780-nm laser radiation can progressively improve peripheral nerve function, which leads to significant functional recovery.

CONCLUSIONS
Using 780-nm laser phototherapy accelerates and enhances axonal growth and regeneration after injury or a reconstructive peripheral nerve procedure. Laser activation of nerve cells, their growth, and axonal sprouting can be considered as potential treatment of neuronal injury. Animal and clinical studies show the promoting action of phototherapy on peripheral nerve regeneration, making it possible to suggest that the time for broader clinical trials has arrived.


Each year in the past three decades has seen hundreds of thousands of runners register to run a major marathon. Of those who attempt to race over the marathon distance of 26 miles and 385 yards (42.195 kilometers), more than two-fifths experience severe and performance-limiting depletion of physiologic carbohydrate reserves (a phenomenon known as 'hitting the wall'), and thousands drop out before reaching the finish lines (approximately 1–2% of those who start). Analyses of endurance physiology have often either used coarse approximations to suggest that human glycogen reserves are insufficient to fuel a marathon (making 'hitting the wall' seem inevitable), or implied that maximal glycogen loading is required in order to complete a marathon without 'hitting the wall.' The present computational study demonstrates that the energetic constraints on endurance runners are more subtle, and depend on several physiologic variables including the muscle mass distribution, liver and muscle glycogen densities, and running speed (exercise intensity as a fraction of aerobic capacity) of individual runners, in personalized but nevertheless quantifiable and predictable ways. The analytic approach presented here is used to estimate the distance at which runners will exhaust their glycogen stores as a function of running intensity. In so doing it also provides a basis for guidelines ensuring the safety and optimizing the performance of endurance runners, both by setting personally appropriate paces and by prescribing midrace fueling requirements for avoiding 'the wall.' The present analysis also sheds physiologically principled light on important standards in marathon running that until now have remained empirically defined: The qualifying times for the Boston Marathon.


Decades of research in artificial intelligence (AI) have produced formidable technologies that are providing immense benefit to industry, government, and society. AI systems can now translate across multiple languages, identify objects in images and video, streamline manufacturing processes, and control cars. The deployment of AI systems has not only created a trillion-dollar industry that is projected to quadruple in three years, but has also exposed the need to make AI systems fair, explainable, trustworthy, and secure. Future AI systems will rightfully be expected to reason effectively about the world in which they (and people) operate, handling complex tasks and responsibilities effectively and ethically, engaging in meaningful communication, and improving their awareness through experience.
Achieving the full potential of AI technologies poses research challenges that require a radical transformation of the AI research enterprise, facilitated by significant and sustained investment. These are the major recommendations of a recent community effort coordinated by the Computing Community Consortium and the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence to formulate a Roadmap for AI research and development over the next two decades.


The main idea of this paper is to study the dependence between the probability of default and the recovery rate on credit portfolio and to seek empirically this relationship. We examine the dependence between PD and RR by theoretical approach. For the empirically methodology, we use the bootstrapped quantile regression and the simultaneous quantile regression. These methods allow to determinate the dependence between the PD and RR. This study is elaborated for a sample composed by 17 banks in Greece. The period of study is of 7 years (2006-2012). The measurement of this dependence is determinate by using 7 indicators: the probability of default, the recovery rate, the number of defaults, the expected value of losses, the growth rate of GDP in Greece and three dummy variables who the exit of another firm of the Athens Exchange, the new firm is quoted in the Athens exchange and the failure of Greece is declared. We use in our study two dependent variables PD and RR. The descriptive, correlation and regression analysis results are presented by STATA 12.


Glufosinate ammonium (GLA) is one of the most widely used herbicides in agriculture. As is the case for most pesticides, potential adverse effects of GLA have not been studied from the perspective of developmental neurotoxicity. Early pesticides exposure may weaken the basic structure of the developing brain and cause permanent changes leading to a wide range of lifelong effects on health and/or behavior. Here, we addressed the developmental impact of GLA by exposing female mice to low dose GLA during both pre- and postnatal periods and analyzed potential developmental and behavioral changes of the offspring during infancy and adulthood. A neurobehavioral test battery revealed significant effects of GLA maternal exposure on early reflex development, pup communication, affiliative behaviors, and preference for social olfactory cues, but emotional reactivity and emotional memory remained unaltered. These behavioral alterations showed a striking resemblance to changes seen in animal models of Autistic Spectrum Disorders. At the brain level, GLA maternal exposure caused some increase in relative brain weight of the offspring. In addition, reduced expression of Pten and Peg3 – two genes implicated in autism-like deficits – was observed in the brain of GLA-exposed pups at postnatal day 15. Our work thus provides new data on the link between pre- and postnatal exposure to the herbicide GLA and the onset of autism-like symptoms later in life. It also raises fundamental concerns about the ability of current safety testing to assess risks of pesticide exposure during critical developmental periods.


Over the last decade, synchrotron-radiation based X-ray Tomographic Microscopy (SRXTM) has established itself as a fundamental tool for non-invasive, quantitative investigations of a broad variety of samples, with application ranging from space research and materials science to biology and medicine. The beamline for TOmographic Microscopy and Coherent rAdiology experimenTs (TOMCAT) has been recently equipped with a full field, hard X-ray microscope with a theoretical pixel size down to 30 nm and a field of view of 50 microns. The nanoscope performs well at X-ray energies between 8 and 12 keV: here we illustrate the experimental setup and the performance of the instrument in both microscopy and tomography mode.


Political scientists have been searching for a comprehensive theoretical framework to explain the dynamics of European integration since the European Communities came into being in the early 1950s. European integration theory was dominated by neo-functionalism in the 1960s and by realism in the 1970s and early 1980s. In the late 1980s these two paradigms were finally confronted. As a result of this confrontation, there seems to be an emergence of a new approach based on the idea that neither neo-functionalism nor realism alone can explain European integration but that each perspective provides fundamental insights. Multi-level governance models and even state-centred models tend to recognise that both theoretical frameworks have something to offer. Is it possible to view neo-functionalism and realism as complementary instead of competing theories of European integration. If both approaches contain some elements of truth but neither taken on its own is sufficient, insights from each may be needed to really understand the dynamics of integration. This piece of work tries to establish whether the idea that these two explanations need to be combined is worth considering at all. This hypothesis is tested in relation to European merger policy. The European Economic Community's (EEC) Merger Regulation represents the single most important extension of Community competition law since its inception. Merger control was explicitly contemplated in the 1951 Treaty of Paris but the EEC was created in 1957 without any reference to these policy arrangements. For the first time in 1973, the Commission submitted to the Council a proposal for an EEC merger regulation. Yet it was only after five amendments and sixteen years that, in 1989, a merger control regulation was agreed upon. Why was an agreement on European merger regulation possible in 1989 rather than before. This research addresses this question using both neo-functionalism and realism as explanatory theories.


Phase-shifting masks (PSM) are resolution enhancement techniques (RET) used extensively in the semiconductor industry to improve the resolution and pattern fidelity of optical lithography. Recently, a set of gradient-based PSM optimization methods have been developed to solve for the inverse lithography problem under coherent illumination. Most practical lithography systems, however, use partially coherent illumination due to non-zero width and off-axis light sources, which introduce partial coherence factors that must be accounted for in the optimization of PSMs. This paper thus focuses on developing a framework for gradient-based PSM optimization methods which account for the inherent nonlinearities of partially coherent illumination. In particular, the singular value decomposition (SVD) is used to expand the partially coherent imaging equation by eigenfunctions into a sum of coherent systems (SOCS). The first order coherent approximation corresponding to the largest eigenvalue is used in the PSM optimization. In order to influence the solution patterns to have more desirable manufacturability properties and higher fidelity, a post-processing of the mask pattern based on the 2D discrete cosine transformation (DCT) is introduced. Furthermore, a photoresist tone reversing technique is exploited in the design of PSMs to project extremely sparse patterns.


The main aim of the present thesis has to help improving our understanding of neural mechanisms underlying autobiographical memory (AbM), particularly how personal recollections interact with emotion and influence semantic memory Our first study investigated the neural correlates of spontaneous re-living of emotion during recollection of personal event cued with personally known faces. Our findings suggested that the use of highly self-relevant stimuli and the collection of data with no previous refreshment of the memory trace (i) influenced the right lateralisation of the activation in the medial temporal lobe (MTL), and (ii) involved increased activity in the cortical midline structures and subcortical circuits, known to sustain the self-generated emotion, even though no emotion was explicitly acknowledged. In our second study, the aforementioned nonverbal experiment was compared with a verbal one involving pre-scanning testing in order to clarify whether the lateralisation issue of the general network sustaining AbM retrieval. Our finding of a predominantly left-lateralized cerebral network in both experiments suggested that left-sided pattern of brain activations is associated with AbM retrieval per se in healthy subjects. The third experimental work of the present thesis focused on the influence of autobiographical significance on the semantic memory cerebral network. Our results provided functional neuroimaging evidence that autobiographically significant semantic knowledge relies on a pattern of brain activations different from that underlying 'purely' semantic knowledge, with the core difference being located at the MTL. The last study investigated the neuronanatomical representations of both autobiographical and semantic remote memory in two patients presenting with left temporal lobe epilepsy. (i) We provided functional neuroimaging evidence of the dissociation within remote memory (autobiographical vs semantic). (ii) Importantly, we documented dissociation within semantic memory for famous people according to the nature of material. Our last experimental work confirms the importance of combining neuropsychological and neuroimaging methods in appropriate patients in order to better understand human memory functions.


CHARACTERIZATION OF THE POTENTIAL ROLE OF LUMAN AS A NOVEL REGULATOR OF ANIMAL STRESS RESPONSES Jenna Penney Advisor: University of Guelph, 2017 Professor Ray Lu This thesis is an investigation of a knockout (KO) mouse line of Luman/CREB3. Luman KO mice are viable and survive into adulthood, however, the Mendelian distribution is skewed, in that less than 5% of pups born from heterozygous (het) breeding pairs expressed the KO genotype. The Luman-deficient mice are smaller in size, have less visceral fat, low fertility and exhibit a maternal defect, characterized by a low rate of pup survival. Through further characterization of the mice I determined that when Luman is deficient, the mice exhibit a blunted stress response, characterized by low levels of both anxiety and depressive-like behaviour, in addition to low glucocorticoid (GC) levels and increased glucocorticoid receptor (GR) expression. Resulting from the change in GC/GR levels, LUMAN alters the GR response leading to an increase in activity and dysregulation in the central stress response system, the hypothalamic pituitary adrenal (HPA) axis. These observations lead me to two hypotheses: (1) deficiency of LUMAN increases GR expression, resulting in increased negative feedback in the HPA axis, leading to low GC secretion, and (2) when LUMAN is deficient the secretion of GCs is insufficient leading to a compensatory increase in GR during development which persists through life. While these possibilities are not mutually exclusive I designed experiments to dissect the mechanism of action. I have shown that LUMAN binds to GR through the LxxLL motif, and through this interaction activates GR in the absence of ligand. Once activated, LUMAN binds to the promoter region of genes containing glucocorticoid response elements (GREs) through the DNA binding domain (DBD), increasing the activity of GR. These results suggest that LUMAN alters GR expression, through acting as a transcription factor and a cofactor. On the other hand, in the absence of LUMAN basal secretion levels are not altered, however, the cells are more sensitive to cellular stress when LUMAN is absent. These data suggest that both mechanisms may play a part in how LUMAN regulates GR. I postulate that LUMAN alters HPA axis reactivity through increasing GR expression and decreasing GC secretion, leading to a blunted response to stress.


We have previously shown that prostaglandin E2 and other cAMP elevating agents inhibit the nuclear transcription of the human IL-2 gene by interfering with a Ca(2+)-sensitive T cell signal transduction pathway. Calcineurin, a Ca2+/calmodulin-dependent 2B protein phosphatase, is an essential component of the T cell receptor signal transduction pathway leading to IL-2 gene expression. We have therefore tested the hypothesis that this phosphatase may be a target for the inhibitory effects of cAMP on IL-2 gene transcription. We report here that PGE2 markedly reduces the IL-2 promoter activity that is induced by a constitutively active form of calcineurin. In contrast to the complete inhibition of promoter activity produced by the immunosuppressants cyclosporin A and FK-506, this partial block suggests that PGE2 modulates downstream events needed for lymphokine gene activation. Overexpression of calcineurin in Jurkat cells decreases their apparent sensitivity to the inhibitory effects of PGE2 consistent with the fact that this enzyme plays a physiological role in dephosphorylating substrates of cAMP-dependent kinases in several tissues. These results provide evidence that cAMP-dependent pathways may antagonize calcineurin-regulated cascades for T cell activation in vivo, and suggest crosstalk between the Ca2+ and the cAMP signaling pathways during T cell activation.


Metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) are effective self-sacrificial templates for the synthesis of carbon materials owing to their innate porosity, high carbon content and ease of heteroatom doping. A MgII based anionic MOF {[Mg3(ndc)2.5(HCO2)2(H2O)]·[NH2Me2]·2H2O·DMF} (1) has been carbonized as a sacrificial template for the synthesis of high surface area nanoporous carbon as well as nitrogen doped carbon dots, simply by adjusting the carbonization temperature. The nanoporous carbon synthesized from the MOF precursor exhibits an exceptionally high surface area and high CO2 uptake capacity. The anionic MOF contains dimethyl amine cations in its pores which, owing to their pre-bonded C–N moiety, act as a precursor for N-doping of the carbon dots. The N-doped carbon dots are held together by graphitic stacking and they show electrocatalytic activity as a metal-free catalyst for the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). Trace amounts of metallic Co nanoparticles were post-synthetically incorporated into the N-doped carbon dots leading to enhanced electrocatalytic activity and stability for the ORR of the resulting material. The controlled design and synthetic strategy presented here offers a new platform for developing highly active and stable electrocatalysts.


Data network complexity will increase dramatically over the next 5 years. Ad-hoc, active and parasitic paradigms will all make the already onerous task of network management increasingly problematic. An algorithm for managing data networks based on bacterial colony behaviour is discussed, offering automated management of essential tasks such as software distribution, load balancing, and quality of service. The algorithm is tested by using a log of real network requests to generate simulated network load. It is concluded that applying adaptive management could be the ideal approach to managing the behaviour of data networks of the future.


Assessment of the available quantity of groundwater is of essential importance for its sustainable use. Modern approaches for estimation of groundwater availability take into account all potential impacts of abstractions, including impacts on groundwater dependent ecosystems and impacts on surface waters ecological status. Groundwater body is in good quantitative status if groundwater abstractions do not cause significant damages to groundwater dependent ecosystems and significant diminution in the ecological status of surface water bodies. The methodology presented in this paper was developed as an integral part of the assessment of the quantitative status of groundwater bodies in Slovenia and is tailored to the characteristics of the groundwater dependent ecosystems as well as hydrological and hydrogeological conditions in the Slovenian territory. Two different approaches were implemented; for forest habitats on alluvial aquifers, and habitats of amphibians and molluscs in karst areas. Estimates of the required quantity of groundwater for groundwater dependent ecosystems conservation were performed at the level of groundwater bodies and annual averages of temporal variables of the water balance, calculated with the regional water balance model GROWA-SI. In the areas of groundwater bodies with groundwater dependent ecosystems estimated quantity present 0.1 % 12.4 % of the groundwater recharge. The estimated share of annual renewable quantity of groundwater to maintain the ecological status of surface waters for the entire territory of Slovenia is 23.2 %. The largest share, 30 % is in north-eastern Slovenia and the lowest in the north-west part of Slovenia with a 16.6 % average annual renewable quantity. 222 Mitja JANŽA, Dejan ŠRAM, Kim MEZGA, Mišo ANDJELOV & Jože UHAN


With commercial transaction now making wave in the cyberspace, online dispute becomes inevitable. This has led to the evolution of Online Dispute Resolution (ODR). Since its emergence, ODR has shown itself capable of resolving online disputes especially with regards electronic commerce (e-commerce). Just like traditional ADR, ODR makes use of ADR mechanisms such as arbitration, mediation and negotiation. The only difference is that these ADR mechanisms are employed online. One area of ODR that has won the attraction of international organizations and private institutions is online arbitration. Online arbitration has mostly been used to resolve both online and offline disputes. Resolving disputes via online arbitration is similar to traditional arbitration except that disputes are resolved using various technological devices such as video-conference, e-mail, chats and electronic signature (e-signature). The ODR process has been hailed for its simplicity, speed, convenience and been least expensive when compared with traditional ADR and litigation. On the other hand, the process has been criticized as lacking face to face encounter, having security and confidentiality issues, problems with e-arbitration agreements and awards amongst many others. The good news is that most of these challenges are solvable thus, establishing ODR as a viable online equivalent of alternative dispute resolution.


Ovid's epic poem-whose theme of change has resonated throughout the ages-is one of the most important texts of Western imagination, an inspiration from Dante's time to the present, when writers such as Salman Rushdie and Italo Calvino have found a living source in Ovid's work. The text is accompanied by a preface, A Note on the Translation, and detailed explanatory annotations. "Sources and Backgrounds" includes Seneca's inspired commentary on Ovid, Charles Martin's essay on the ways in which pantomimic dancing-an art form popular in Ovid's time-may have been the model for Metamorphoses, as well as related works by Virgil, Callimachus, Hesiod, and Lucretius, among others. From the enormous body of scholarly writing on Metamorphoses, Charles Martin has chosen six major interpretations by Bernard Knox, J. R. R. Mackail, Norman O. Brown, Italo Calvino, Frederick Ahl, and Diane Middlebrook. A Glossary of Persons, Places, and Personifications in the Metamorphoses and a Chronology and Selected Bibliography are also included.