Over the last decade, the political significance of the Alevis, the largest sectarian Muslim minority in Turkey, has notably changed. This article aims to evaluate the Alevi community's changing stance as a sectarian minority within an increasingly conservative Turkish society facing European Union (EU) membership negotiations. We first of all summarise the characteristics of the Alevi community and contextualise the changing role of the Alevi minority in Turkish politics. We focus on Alevi demands as part of the EU adjustment reforms and negotiation process, and present the official responses from the Justice and Development Party (AKP) government as well as the EU authorities.


Tarantula cubensis Alcoholic Extract (TCAE) is a homeopathic agent used for treating many disorders. This study aimed to define the effects of TCAE on the breast carcinoma cell line (MCF-7). After various concentrations (10, 20, 40, 80 and 160 μl/ml) of TCAE were applied to MCF-7 cells and the human embryonic kidney cell line (HEK293), the cells were incubated for 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 24 and 48 h, followed by analysis by MTT assays. According to the results of the MTT assays, cells treated with 20 or 40 μl/ml TCAE for 6 h were applied to apoptosis analysis by flow cytometry. Secreted levels of tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα), interleukin (IL)-1β, IL-6, IL-10, Interferon-γ (IFNγ), Transforming Growth Factor- β (TGFβ), and Nuclear Factor-kappa B (NF-κB) were measured using ELISAs. TNFα and TGFβ levels increased while IL-6 and IL-10 levels fluctuated in MCF-7 cells. In conclusion, our study suggests that TCAE may change the normal cancer physiology and lead to cell death by activating apoptosis in MCF-7 cells.


Weinberg, Steve. Taking on the Trust: The Epic Battle of Ida Tarbell and John D. Rockefeller. New York: W. W. Norton, 2008. 256 pp. $25.95. There is something about the golden era of muckraking (1902-12) that fascinates journalists and historians so much that it seems nearly every year there is another book about its history. Taking on the Trust by University of Missouri professor Steve Weinberg is the latest. And while offering little that is new, it provides a highly readable account of how a failed school marm, parttime historian, and free-lance journalist, Ida Minerva Tarbell, went up against Standard Oil tycoon John D. Rockefeller. She wrote a series of articles for McClure's magazine that caused the courts to break up Standard Oil's monopoly in 1911 and prohibit monopolies for years to come. The book's subtitle describes this as an "epic battle" in which "an investigative journalist brought down Standard Oil." While it is true that Tarbell's expose represented Standard Oil's Waterloo, it also is clear that there was no battle in the traditional sense between Tarbell and Rockefeller since the two only met once (in a church) and never confronted each other directly. And Rockefeller never fought back. That bit of book-selling hype aside, however, this is a thoroughly researched book, one that brings the muckraking legend alive for a new generation. Tarbell is portrayed as the mother of all muckrakers. She set the pattern of tireless research; she gathered hundreds of pages of documents; she scoured the most obscure court records from all across the country, combed local newspapers, and grilled former Standard Oil executives; and she studied the business records and correspondence of Standard Oil competitors, even examined Rockefeller's Baptist congregational records, and produced a mountain of evidence to overwhelmingly prove her points. Perhaps this need to retell the muckraking legend is in direct response to the present diminishment of the press - reporters today are seen as junkyard dogs, who gleefully savage the reputations of vapid little blonde celebrities but never raise serious questions about the exploitation of women or the abuse of the poor and dispossessed. It is a sad state of affairs for reporters when "Saturday Night Live" comics find it necessary to implore journalists "to grow a pair" and start asking serious questions of the presidential candidates. The very existence of the muckraking period and muckrakers such as Tarbell shows that at least once upon a time journalists were heroes or heroines, brave enough to stand up to the powers that be. …


Background We aimed to identify the treatments used by health care professionals in current practice for the management of patients with idiopathic frozen shoulder and the need for further research in this area, specifically a randomized trial. Methods Three hundred and three health care professionals (i.e. general practitioners, physiotherapists and orthopaedic surgeons) completed an online survey about idiopathic frozen shoulder management and research priorities. The results were analyzed using descriptive statistics, chi-square statistics and thematic analysis of qualitative data. Results Conservative treatment and physical therapy were identified as the most common interventions for treating patients presenting with frozen shoulder in the early 'painful' phase. Approximately half of the respondents would recommend surgery for patients with 'resolution' phase frozen shoulder, although there was some disagreement about the role of pain as an indicator for surgery. Most respondents (221/251) considered that more research was needed using a randomized trial design, in particular aiming to investigate the effectiveness of physical therapy and surgery. Conclusion Health professionals manage frozen shoulders differently for different phases of the condition. More research is needed to compare different interventions for the management of patients with idiopathic frozen shoulder.


IMPORTANCE
The absence of data on the prevalence of pilomatricoma among patients with Turner syndrome served as the catalyst for this multicenter investigation.

OBJECTIVES
To ascertain the prevalence of pilomatricoma among patients with Turner syndrome and to determine any association between the development of pilomatricomas and the use of exogenous hormones in patients with Turner syndrome.

DESIGN
A retrospective medical record review from January 1, 2000, through January 1, 2010, was performed of all patients with Turner syndrome. Data on pilomatricomas and the use of hormone therapy were collected.

SETTING
University of California-Davis Medical Center, University of Nebraska Medical Center, and The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

PARTICIPANTS
Patients with a diagnosis of Turner syndrome.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Prevalence of concomitant pilomatricoma and diagnosis of Turner syndrome. Secondary outcome measures included the use of the exogenous hormones estrogen or recombinant human growth hormone (rhGH).

RESULTS
In total, 311 patients with Turner syndrome were identified from these 3 institutions. Among them, 8 patients (2.6%) were diagnosed as having pilomatricomas. Before the development of pilomatricomas, 5 patients had been treated with rhGH but not estrogen, 1 patient had received estrogen but not rhGH, and 2 patients did not receive either therapy.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Although the prevalence of pilomatricoma among the general population is unknown, this study demonstrates a high prevalence (2.6%) of pilomatricomas among patients with Turner syndrome. No apparent relationship was noted among our patients or in the literature between the use of rhGH and the development of pilomatricomas.


This report provides a brief overview of the transition underway and information on U.S. foreign aid to Egypt. U.S. policy toward Egypt has long been framed as an investment in regional stability, built primarily on long-running military cooperation and sustaining the March 1979 Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty. Successive U.S. Administrations have viewed Egypt's government as a moderating influence in the Middle East. U.S. policy makers are now grappling with complex questions about the future of U.S.-Egypt relations and these debates are likely to influence consideration of appropriations and authorization legislation in the 112th Congress.


Intellectual property frequently carries with it exclusive rights not only over the primary subject matter of the rights granted, but also over ancillary subject matter that is not within the definition of the primary grant, as for example in the patent doctrine of contributory infringement. Previous scholars have explored the potential for intellectual property rights to affect the size and structure of firms by mitigating transaction costs both between firms and within firms. Here we extend that framework to consider the impact of ancillary rights, which we expect to have their own effects on a firm's "make or buy" decision. Ancillary rights may place an intellectual property holder in a position to license production of complementary products or components to other firms. In some instances the absence of ancillary rights may prompt firms to vertically integrate, in order to bring such transactions in house. We also anticipate that doctrines such as contributory infringement impact employee mobility out of firms holding patents. We anticipate that contributory infringement rights will tend to lower overall transaction costs, although this may vary with the circumstances in a particular industry.


Managing the distribution of goods is a vital operation for many companies. A successful distribution system requires an effective distribution strategy selection and optimum route planning at the right time and minimum cost. Furthermore, customer's demand and location can vary from order to order. In this situation, a mixed delivery system is a good solution for it and allows the use of different strategies together to decrease delivery costs. Although the "distribution strategy selection" is a critical issue for companies, there are only a few studies that focus on the mixed delivery network problem. There is a need to propose an efficient solution for the mixed delivery problem to guide researchers and practitioners. This paper develops a new "modified" savings-based genetic algorithm which is named "distribution strategy selection and vehicle routing hybrid algorithm (DSSVRHA)." Our new algorithm aims to contribute to the literature a new hybrid solution to solve a mixed delivery network problem that includes three delivery modes: "direct shipment," "milk run," and "cross-docking" efficiently. It decides the appropriate distribution strategy and also optimal routes using a heterogeneous fleet of vehicles at minimum cost. The results of the hybrid algorithm are compared with the results of the optimization model. And the performance of the hybrid algorithm is validated with statistical analysis. The computational results reveal that our developed algorithm provides a good solution for reducing the supply chain distribution costs and computational time.


Nationwide moral panic has long served as a primary explanation for sex offense laws. These laws, however, remain primarily left to state legislatures, which implies potential variation in their content over time. Variation in legislative content, to the degree that it represents implementation, not only suggests differential consequences for registrants and communities, but also it would raise questions to the sufficiency of moral panic as a sole explanation for sex offense policy change. I build upon earlier work by exploring variation in the content and timing of sex offender registration and notification (SORN) reform in all 50 states over time. After documenting variation in these laws, I present the ways in which SORN legislative content has evolved differently across states. In addition, the timing of legislative reforms differed not only across states but also within states over time. These findings have implications for existing theoretical assertions regarding criminal justice policy.


Objects are an inseparable part of travel networks. Travel objects, as non-human actors of tourism networks, play a significant role in shaping the travel experience. However, despite the importance of 'tourism things' in travel networks, contemporary tourism studies have failed to adequately consider 'tourism objects' as active agents within travel networks. To address this gap, the purpose of this qualitative research is to trace the trajectories of tourism objects in a trekking trip to Mt. Everest Base Camp. Using the Actor Network Theory (ANT) as a theoretical framework, I deconstruct the operation of the mobile objects performed in a tourism practice to conceptualize their significance, use-value and symbolic value in travel and tourism networks. This research revealed that travel networks are not only shaped by the power of minds and human agency, but are the product of collaboration between people and objects. Therefore, beyond the immaterial and metaphorical aspects of objects, and through relational materiality and use-value, objects give rise to formations of mobile networks. As the findings of this study suggest, 'being a trekker' and the way trekkers experience a trekking trip' is highly influenced by the performance of the objects that trekkers carry with them to the mountain. Unpacking different negotiations of ordering in a trekking journey to the Mount Everest Base Camp shows that trekking is not only about the trekkers, but also about the objects supporting, facilitating, and enabling the trekking experience. My findings support the position of tourism things in the networks of travel as complicated assemblage of various layers of materials and symbols including functionality, use-value, identity, emotion, memory, attitude, etc. Travelling objects in their mobile performances, in addition to their use-value and functionalities, were able to do things such as setting the stage for the travel experience, mediating home-away relationship, capturing memories, and acting as reminders of the travel experiences, serving as mementos for the loved ones, and accompanying the travellers in their next travel performance(s). Further research considering objects as active performers in tourism practices is needed to broaden our understanding of the agency of objects.


3D information visualization has existed for more than 100 years. 3D offers intrinsic attributes such as an extra dimension for encoding position and length, meshes and surfaces; lighting and separation. Further 3D can aid mental models for configuration of data within a 3D spatial framework. Perceived issues with 3D are solvable and successful, specialized information visualizations can be built.


Large-scale sequencing projects and comparative genomics have provided insights into the function and evolution of many fragments of the human genome, but relatively little is known about the spatial organisation of the genome. This is a major gap in our knowledge as the elaborate physical structure of the genome reflects the spatial and temporal organisation of nuclear processes. It has also long been suspected that the structural and functional organisation of the genome might impose constraints on its evolutionary history. Our emerging view of chromatin structure has already provided unexpected insights into human genome evolution, describing the impact of such constraints on the evolution of chromosome architecture, on gene function and on patterns of mutation and selection. The study of the transgenerational inheritance of chromatin variants, in parallel with the inheritance of deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) sequence variants, promises to revolutionise our views of evolution and disease.

Key Concepts:

The physical structure of the genome, chromatin structure and nuclear organisation, is important for many aspects of genome function.

Chromatin structure can also influence the evolution of the genome.

Many aspects of chromatin structure are detectably conserved among mammals.

There is an interplay between chromatin structure and the patterns of divergence seen in the underlying DNA sequence.

This interplay can be seen at the level of individual genes and their regulatory elements, but also at the level of multimegabase domains of higher order chromatin structure.

Keywords:

chromatin structure;
epigenome;
human genome;
comparative genomics;
evolution


In the current world of education, politics and public opinion, musical experience is increasingly threatened. It is designated ever more as an expendable luxury. This kind of general trend has hardly left the thinking in the field of music and music education untouched. Inspiration comes from the technical rationality of our time. This rationality affects an oblivion of ontology. In this article we discuss this trend related to Martin Heidegger's thinking concerning the human existence in the world, artworks and notions like "being" (Sein) and "oblivion-of-being" (Seinsvergessenheit). We think that it is possible to see this "oblivion-of-being" in relation to the trend in cultural and educational politics as well as in music educational thinking to focus on the instrumental usefulness of learning music.


Many have proposed that autobiographical stories do more than describe a pre-existing self. Sometimes narrators can change who they are, in part, by telling stories about themselves. But how does this narrative self-construction happen? Most explanations rely on the representational function of autobiographical discourse. These representational accounts of narrative self-construction are necessarily incomplete, because autobiographical narratives have interactional as well as representational functions. While telling their stories autobiographical narrators often enact a characteristic type of self, and through such performances they can become that type of self. A few others have proposed that interactional positioning is central to narrative self-construction, but none has given an adequate, systematic account of how narrative discourse functions to position narrator and audience in the interactional event of storytelling. This article describes an approach to analyzing the interactional positioning accomplished through autobiographical narrative, and it illustrates this approach by analyzing data from one oral autobiographical narrative.


DNA barcoding is a method of identifying the species in biological scientific community without involving the morphological clues. DNA barcoding is a molecular method and which uses DNA from a standardized region of the genome to identify the species. Barcodes are machine readable and capable of storing digital information. The image processing based barcode reading systems started to gain importance which provide more information than laser barcode readers at a time. In this paper, a few traditional barcode methods, computer vision based decoding techniques, image processing based barcode reading system & methods and its performance issues are discussed. Image processing based barcode recognition systems are expected to increase the performance in barcode reading. Preprocessing, segmentation, edge detection and optimization techniques were used in DNA barcode classification.


The rise of smart mobile devices presents increasing opportunities for health monitoring outside the clinic. Through the use of sensors and wearables, innovative Connected Health applications can be developed. In particular, Digital Therapeutics (DT), a type of technology-enabled intervention, can be made possible through continuous data capture, aiding users through gaining feedback on their lifestyle choices and engagement with programs of recovery, and supplementing conventional treatments for chronic disease management such as in diabetes, epilepsy, and mental health. Unfortunately, patient-facing professionals capable of articulating appropriate sensor-enabled solutions, generally lack the full range of skills to develop such systems. A connected health application may involve mobile development, data services, visualisation, machine learning, and sensor signal processing, needing multidisciplinary teams, including professional software engineers. The cost of maintaining a software team across the research and development stages may prove prohibitive for many, hindering innovation. This paper focuses on gathering requirements for data collection in mHealth studies, and reports the initial findings after a round of interviews with researchers in areas such as psychology, physiotherapy, neurology, and health promotion education. Those requirements are framed within an existing End User Development (EUD) tool to create mobile apps for the Android platform, the open source project MIT App Inventor. The survey results highlight not only the development work needed for App Inventor to be used as a data collection tool in DT, but also a number of potential security and privacy issues, and the implementation of a layered feedback loop with a social aspect at the heart of it.


Preparing kinesiology undergraduates with the foundational knowledge required by professional organizations is no longer enough when considering the skills students are required to demonstrate upon entering the job market. Work-integrated learning, embedded through curricular and cocurricular activities, has seen extensive growth in the posteducation landscape of Canadian institutions. With increasing expectations from future employers, graduates in the field of kinesiology require more experiential opportunities to meet these expectations. The aim of this paper is to provide commentary on how the Bachelor of Kinesiology program at Capilano University underwent the necessary changes to incorporate a required professional practice stream to align with industry expectations. The authors discuss the development of laddering course learning outcomes, course content, reflection, and student evaluation. Additionally, they provide rationale for its inclusion in the second year of the program.


Background: Previous studies of insomnia focused mainly on the improvement of sleep condition and ignored the effects of sleep-related psychological activity and daytime function after pharmacological and behavioral treatments. We compared the clinical effects of both therapies on sleep condition, sleep-related psychological activity and daytime function in chronic insomnia. Methods: Seventy-one patients with chronic insomnia were randomly divided into 4 groups and either received cognitive-behavior therapy (CBT, n = 19), pharmacological therapy (PCT, n = 17), CBT plus medication (Combined, n = 18) or placebo (n = 17). The treatments lasted for 8 weeks with follow-ups conducted at 3 and 8 months. On the day after treatment ended, all patients were assessed using a polysomnogram (PSG), a sleep diary and a psychological assessment. Results: The three active treatments were more effective than placebo at the time the treatments were completed. Subjective sleep-onset latency, sleep efficacy and total sleep time were better in the PCT group than in the CBT group. At the 3-month follow-up, subjective and objective sleep-onset latency, sleep efficacy and total sleep time were better in the CBT group than in both the PCT and the Combined group. At the 8-month follow-up, the CBT group showed a steady comfortable sleep state, while the PCT and Combined groups were gradually returning to the pre-treatment condition. The Combined group showed a variable long-term effect. On the other hand, pre-sleep arousal at nighttime, dysfunctional beliefs about sleep as well as daytime functioning in the CBT group not only improved, but was better than in the other active treatment groups. Conclusion: Medication and Combined therapy produced a short-term effect on chronic insomnia while CBT had a long-term effect of improved sleep-related psychological activity and daytime functioning.


Along with clothes, manners, and ways of speaking, alimentary habits and food choices in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance were relevant indicators of social standing, economic status, and more broadly cultural identity. Conceptions of food in the Renaissance were also still influenced by the humoral-Galenic theory, which said that to keep the different "humors" of the body in balance, a good diet had to be the result of foods balancing the moist/water and the dry/air, the warm/fire and the cold/earth, recalling again the four Aristotelian elements. These prescriptions were tirelessly repeated by authors in Italy, the Mediterranean, and Europe in general, from the fifteen well into the sixteenth century, with only minimal variations. Most of them also insisted on the dangers of eating vegetables and fruit, as they were thought to be responsible for creating putrefaction in the stomach. It seems probable that this negative judgment derived mainly from the association of vegetables with peasant's food or with the "lowest" form of nutrition. By the end of the Renaissance, however, greens or salad had gained a significant status as a trope in the literary imagination of the Italian Renaissance, alluding to poetical play, the display of refined manners, good taste, and Italian botanical, agricultural, national, and cultural identity. The discourse of salad was not univocal, as it could be used in defense of delicate and upper-class tastes or of more earthy gusto; it could serve bernesque poets and cutting anti-bernians like Aretino as well. But the traditional link – established in Galenic medicine – between ideal social hierarchy and the consumption of vegetables and greens had been significantly broken by the end of the sixteenth century, and a new food fashion had emerged that was truly a matter of taste in all senses.


Building on a general theory of action by Reiter and his colleagues, Bacchus et al. give an account for formalizing degrees of belief and noisy actions in the situation calculus. Unfortunately, there is no clear solution to the projection problem for the formalism. And, while the model has epistemic features, it is not obvious what the agent's knowledge base should look like. Also, reasoning about uncertainty essentially resorts to second-order logic. In recent work, Gabaldon and Lakemeyer remedy these shortcomings somewhat, but here too the utility seems to be restricted to queries (with action operators) about the initial theory. In this paper, we propose a fresh amalgamation of a modal fragment of the situation calculus and uncertainty, where the idea will be to update the initial knowledge base, containing both ordinary and (certain kinds of) probabilistic beliefs, when noisy actions are performed. We show that the new semantics has the right properties, and study a special case where updating probabilistic beliefs is computable. Our ideas are closely related to the Lin and Reiter notion of progression.


ABSTRACT This paper will focus on explaining why entrepreneurs, other practitioners, and faculty must understand the effects that the proper use of social media has on the success of businesses. There is a crisis in mass marketing which must be addressed. With the economy in its current condition, it is imperative that entrepreneurs also understand how to use social media to increase advertising and improve marketing. The traditional marketing model is being challenged, and how to generate leads, increase awareness, and ways of communicating are continually evolving. This paper will discuss the advantages and drawbacks of using social media and will answer questions relevant to the use of social media. INTRODUCTION With the introduction of the World Wide Web in 1 989, the internet became a global network. Since that time, also known as the Information Age, the amount of content available has changed drastically, and the use of Social Media has planed an important role. There are many definitions of Social Media, but one by Ward (2010), that appears to adequately describe the phenomenon states, " Social media is a type of online media that expedites conversation as opposed to traditional media, which delivers content but doesn't allow readers/viewers/listeners to participate in the creation or development of the content." There is a wide variety of social media, ranging from social sharing sites such as YouTube and Flickr through social networks such as Linkedln and Facebook. Social media also appears to be a driving force in the Attention Age (Attention Age, n.d.), which appears to have gained steam after the Information Age (also known as the Computer Age or Information Era). The Attention Age, which began in the first years of the 2 1 st century, is relevant because it has given individuals the ability to create and consume information immediately and distribute it on the Internet. In the Information Age, however, Google and Bing play a lesser role then they did in the Information Age. This is because the Attention Age appears to more userfriendly and focused than Google and Bing. In addition, Social media is important because it permits users to instantly obtain and share information. Social media avenues such as Facebook, MySpace, and YouTube, permits users to share content with friends, and Blogs, which are user created, permits individuals to also share information. Sites such as del. icio. us and Digg also permit users to organize and share content, and Twitter has become known for its ability to break news before the news even reaches traditional media outlets. Additional forms of social media include internet forums, wikis, podcasts, instant messaging, music-sharing, and voice over IP. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE The potential usage of social media in the near future or even today is tremendous (Savage, 2010). As Savage (2010) indicated, the enormous volume of data provided by social media will provide both new challenges and new opportunities. Social media is already effective, but Savage predicted that once different types of social media recognize what is needed, the actual search engine time could be reduced from hours to minutes. Susan Dumais, a researcher for Microsoft, pointed out that the large amount of volume on the Web is very beneficial for some types of algorithms (Savage, 2010). Being knowledgeable of the value derived from social commerce networks is very important, especially since both social shopping communities and social commerce are increasing in size (Stephen and Toubia, 2010). Stephen and Toubia (2010) found that the sellers who benefit most from a network are those who gain the most accessibility by using the network. Understanding work-of-mouth marketing in online communities is also important (Kozinets et al, (20 1 0). Kozinets and others (2010) explained that word-of-mouth marketing, which is influenced by consumer-toconsumer spending, has encompassed social media and viral marketing techniques. …


(Available only in Special Structural Issue) A structural engineer's work is typically hidden beneath layers of concrete and plaster, but the Pittsburgh Civic Center in the eastern part of California's Bay Area exhibits its skeleton and circulatory system for all to see. The three-story, 70,000 sq ft (6,503 m²) civic center features a unique glass and steel design. The vaulted main roof over the third floor, designed to reflect local steel mill architecture, rises 25 ft (8 m) to the ridge, with steel gable trusses spanning 43 ft (13 m) and a continuous clerestory over the ridge. The entire building gently curves in semicircular fashion around the center lobby, with a plan radius of about 300 ft (91 m) and an arc of more than 90 degrees. Each floor steps back from the inside curve of the floor below and aligns on the outside curve. These stepped areas are used to create light wells and exterior roof decks and walkways. On the inside curve, the lobby is open to the roof of the third floor and has stepping glass roof and walls leading from the one-story entry height to the 56 ft (17 m) tall ridge. On the outside curve, each floor has a cantilevered exterior walkway deck. In addition, the building ends are stepped back at each floor, providing additional roof deck area and space for mechanical ductwork. Fire protection of the exposed steel was a concern, especially in the city council chambers assembly room on the third floor, where large groups of people are expected to gather. To accommodate both safety and aesthetics, intumescent paint (a thin, fire-resistive coating) was used in lieu of the unsightly fireproofing spray that would traditionally be hidden by walls.


Clustering is a central problem in unsupervised learning for discovering interesting patterns in the underlying data. Though there have been numerous studies on clustering methods, the focus of this dissertation is on developing efficient clustering algorithms for large-scale applications such as text mining, network analysis, image segmentation and bioinformatics.
We first present a time and memory efficient technique for the entire process of text clustering, including the creation of the vector space model for documents. This efficiency is obtained by (i) a memory-efficient multi-threaded preprocessing scheme, and (ii) a fast clustering algorithm that fully exploits the sparsity of the data set. We show that this entire process takes time that is linear in the size of the document collection.
Clustering algorithms which are based on heuristics can get trapped in inferior local optima therefore yielding qualitatively poor results. As the second part of our work, we propose the use of local search and annealing to improve the quality of the clustering results. In local search, we create a chain of incremental point moves that leads the objective function out of local optima; while the idea of annealing is that we enforce the perturbation of cluster centers after clusters become stablized. The effectiveness of these techniques is illustrated in text clustering and gene expression analysis.
Data in many domains, such as cluster analysis of the world wide web or circuit partitioning, is represented as graphs. Clustering is often used to find and analyze structural and functional properties of these graphs. In the last part of the dissertation, we present an efficient, high-quality multilevel kernel-based graph clustering algorithm, which outperforms previous state-of-the-art spectral methods in quality and runs hundreds or even thousands of times faster. Our multilevel graph clustering algorithm is based on a theoretical connection with the weighted kernel k-means clustering algorithm. We empirically demonstrate that our algorithm is efficient and effective on large social networks, protein interaction networks and image segmentation.


Complete prior statistical information is currently required in the majority of statistical evaluations of complex models. The principle of maximum entropy is often utilized in this context to fill in the missing pieces of available information and is normally claimed to be fair and objective. A rarely discussed aspect is that it relies upon testable information, which is never known but estimated, i.e. results from processing of raw data. The subjective choice of this processing strongly affects the result. Less conventional posterior completion of information is equally accurate but is computationally superior to prior, as much less information enters the analysis. Our recently proposed methods of lean deterministic sampling are examples of very few approaches that actively promote the use of minimal incomplete prior information. The inherited subjective character of maximum entropy distributions and the often critical implications of prior and posterior completion of information are here discussed and illustrated, from a novel perspective of consistency, rationality, computational efficiency and realism.


The recent Stern Review Report into climate change has focused attention on the economics of Global Environmental Change (GEC), producing arguably the most authoritative review to date. The Fourth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), due for publication in spring 2007, will underpin yet further the growing scientific consensus regarding the seriousness of GEC and the urgency of serious measures to tackle its effects. This paper outlines the particular – and still weakly understood – bidirectional relationships between urbanisation and GEC, highlighting the new research needs and particular issues of intergenerational equity that arise.


V-Grooved solar simulator (VGSS) was designed and constructed at Measurements lab of Annamalai University and its thermal performance were analyzed on an indoor test facility. Integrating the V-Grooved absorber plate with flat plate collector can enhance the system performance. VGSS system uses semi-circular heat pipe of length 900 mm and radius of 12 mm. The parameters considered in this analysis are heat input, angle of inclination and flow rate of water in condenser section. The Box-Behnken Design (BBD) Matrix and Response Surface Method (RSM) are applied in designing the experiments to evaluate the thermal resistance and efficiency of the VGSS integrated with semi-circular heat pipe. The experimental results shows that the proposed model will be useful to predict the thermal efficiency of the semi-circular heat pipe within the error of 1%. Therefore the proposed model is useful to predict the thermal efficiency and resistance of semi-circular heat pipe.


We generally suppose that it is our right to freedom which allows us to make the choices that shape our lives. The right to have an abortion is called "freedom of choice" because, it is said, a woman should be free to chose between giving birth and not doing so. Freedom of speech protects us whether we want to salute the flag or burn it. There is a correlative principle: one choice is as good as another. Freedom is not a right that makes moral judgements. It lets us do what we want. John Garvey disputes both propositions. We should understand freedom, he maintains, as a right to act, not a right to choose; and furthermore, we should view freedom as a right to engage in actions that are good and valuable. This may seem obvious, but it inverts a central principle of liberalism - the idea that the right is prior to the good. Thus friendship is a good thing; and one reason the Constitution protects freedom of association is that it gives us the space to form friendships. This book casts doubt on the idea that freedoms are bilateral rights that allow us to make contradictory choices: to speak or remain silent, to believe in God or to disbelieve, to abort or to give birth to a child. Garvye argues that the goodness of childbearing does not "entail" the goodness of abortion; and if freedom follows from the good, then freedom to do the first does not entail the freedom to do the second. Each action must have its own justification. Garvey holds that if the law is to protect freedoms, it is permissible - indeed it is necessary - to make judgements about the goodness and badness of actions.


Introduction Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems are modular application software that helps businesses increase the productivity of such mission-critical components as human resources, finance, parts purchasing, inventory control, supply chain and customer relationship management. ERP systems are enterprise-wide and claim to incorporate best business practice that replaces legacy systems and current business processes. In a recent study of 92 Australian organisations, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems were identified as the information technology project which delivered most value to their organisation (Bajkowski, 2003). While there have been a number of widely publicised ERP systems implementation failures (Calegero, 2000), ERP systems are considered by many organisations as an essential IT infrastructure. A survey of 800 U.S. companies showed that almost half of these companies had installed an ERP system and that these systems were commanding 43% of a company's application budget (Carlino, 1999) while research into U.S. Fortune 1000 companies found that over 60% have implemented an ERP system (Piturro, 1999; Stein, 1999). The market penetration of ERP systems varies considerably from industry to industry. A report by Computer Economics Inc. stated that 76% of manufacturers, 35% of insurance and health care companies, and 24% of Federal Government agencies already have an ERP system or are in the process of installing one (Stedman, 1999). The global market for ERP software, which was $16.6 billion in 1998, is expected to have a compound annual growth rate of 32%, reaching more than $66 billion in sales by 2003 (Carlino, 1999) and is estimated to have had 300 billion dollars spent over the last decade (Carlino, 1999). The major vendor of ERP systems is SAP with approximately 54% of the market (McBride, 2003). In Australia a recent report (BRW, 2002) identified the top 100 IT companies by usage; this was then compared with the SAP customer list. It was determined that 9 out of the top 12 IT users were SAP customers and 45% of the total list were also SAP users. Many universities have identified the value of incorporating ERP systems into their curriculum. ERP systems can be used to reinforce many of the concepts covered in the business discipline (Becerra-Fernandez, Murphy, K. & Simon, 2000; Hawking, Shackleton, & Ramp 2001). The vendors argue that their products incorporate "world's best practice" for many of the business processes they support making them an ideal teaching tool (Watson & Schneider, 1999). Even though the value of including ERP systems in the curriculum has been identified, there are a number of barriers preventing this from happening. One significant hurdle is the limited knowledge and experience of academic staff charged with the responsibility of integrating ERP curriculum into their courses. ERP systems are complex and the time required for developing curriculum is far in excess of what staff have experienced for curriculum development in other areas. Those who develop the necessary understanding of a particular ERP system to develop curriculum can be lured away from the university into lucrative jobs in private industry. The shortfall of academic skills and experience is further compounded by the limited access to relevant ERP professional development activities and the continual upgrade of the ERP software. Another significant barrier to the use of ERP systems in universities is the perceived need for students to gain "hands-on" experience to master the concepts inherent in these types of systems (Watson et al, 1999). In the past, if a university decided to incorporate a major software product into its curricula, it would have purchased the software and set up the necessary infrastructure to support it. ERP systems themselves are expensive but there are the additional associated costs of hardware and professional development for the computer support staff together with the necessary incentives to retain these people once they are skilled. …


Computer-based methods of capturing data in laboratory experiments (data-logging) invite a range of approaches to exploring data. The rich variety of analysis and calculation tools provided in software helps to extend the value of collected data for prompting thinking about the underlying physical principles and encouraging a dialogue between theory and experiment. Such a dialogue has been given a substantial boost in the latest generation of data-logging software which incorporates numerical modelling facilities. Modelling activities are usually designed to encourage thinking which employs previously learned scientific principles, or to make predictions which may be tested by experiment. This paper discusses how each of these aspects is served by new software: A graphical user interface for modelling is designed to help pupils structure their thinking, and the integration of modelling facilities with data-capture and analysis tools is a promising environment for supporting the predicttest-reflect investigation cycle.


Abstract Background: This is a follow-up study to evaluate and improve quality health care for the majority of the population in Bloemfontein. The aim of this study was to evaluate the changes implemented to address the cost of prescribing drugs at National District Hospital, Bloemfontein as described in a previous study Methods: The 20 most expensive or inappropriate prescribed drugs were identified from the results of the first study. These drugs were grouped together in order to address the problems systematically, e.g. revising and updating the current treatment protocols for chronic conditions and using cheaper alternatives. Three months after the implementation of the new measures, the affected drugs were re-evaluated over an eight-week period. Results: A total of 28 drugs (the 20 drugs + eight drugs on which they may have a direct influence) was evaluated over an eight-week period. The introduction of the treatment protocols not only saved a large amount of money, but also made prescribers aware of the correct dosages of the drugs. A saving of R215 395 in the dispensing of medicine in eight weeks was demonstrated. A massive calculated saving of R1.4 million could be achieved over a one-year period at NDH with adherence to the saving measures. Conclusion: Drug costs can be substantially reduced through review of drug use and introduction of protocols and guidelines.


As the rate of forest degradation continues to rise, agroforestry may serve as a way of conserving species and carbon sinks. Th e aim of this study was to assess agrobiodiversity and carbon sequestration potential in agrosystems in Cameroon. Th ree age groups of agrosystems were studied. Data were collected in 100x50 m2 quadrates. Density ranged from 53.17±0.08 to 1463±50.11; basal area from 2.07±0.00 to 988.39±16.13 m2/ha; Shannon diversity from 3.3±0.71 to 3.68±0.72; Carbon storage from 12.1±0.27 to 54.65±1.38 t C/ha for 1-10-year-old agrosystems with lowest values in neem; 34.78±0.87 to 71.34±1.6 t C/ha for 10-20-year-old stands with lowest values in cashew; 28.24±0.04 to 108.51±2.46 t C/ha for +20-year-old stands with highest values in eucalyptus; Carbon sequestration potential from 296.7±1.98 to 859.33±10.01 t CO2eq/ha. Th e highest carbon stocks were found in eucalyptus stands (p<0.05). Several endogenous species, especially Afzelia bipindensis (EN), Leptoderris ledermannii (EN), Mansonia altissima (EN), Entandrophragma cylindricum (VU), Nesogordonia papaverifera (VU), Quassia sanguinea (VU), Vitellaria paradoxa (VU), Afzelia africana (VU), Erythrina senegalensis (LC), Detarium microcarpum (LC), senna spectabilis (LC), were assessed. Other overexploited species, especially Carissa edulis, Zanthoxylum zanthoxyloides, Adansonia digitata, Securidaca longepedonculata, were assessed as well. Th e studied systems are signifi cant CO2eq sinks and refuge centre for agrobiodiversity.


This paper analyzes whether IDB-9 requirements surrounding the country programming process of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB, or Bank) are being implemented fully and effectively. The country programming process includes two documents: the Country Strategy, which provides a multiyear overview of the Bank?s work program; and an annual document that lays out lending allocations and the work program. The main requirements of IDB-9 related to country programming are that Country Strategies include development and macro-fiscal frameworks, that they build on these frameworks and country dialogue to align country programs to country needs, and that they reflect country demand for the Bank?s lending and nonlending products. The annual programming document is then meant to implement the program laid out in the strategy to ensure that the projects funded by the Bank are in line with country needs. OVE finds that the Bank?s Country Strategies fulfill some but not all of the IDB-9 mandates. They provide a general description of the characteristics and development challenges in the country, including recent macroeconomic performance, as well as summary diagnoses of sector needs and possible areas of Bank intervention. But they do not generally articulate a strategic approach for the Bank in key sectors or discuss the implications of the macro-fiscal analysis on the role of IDB or the size of IDB lending allocations. They rarely discuss or build on past successes and failures of the Bank in selected areas of intervention, explore the Bank?s comparative advantage, or fully incorporate relevant analytic work. They provide limited if any information on the NSG lending envelope or portfolio and thereby miss an opportunity to build on potential synergies between SG and NSG instruments. It is only by identifying the synergies between various Bank activities and instruments?including SG and NSG lending, technical cooperation, and analytic work?that the Bank can make the most of its resources and tap into its full comparative advantage. With regard to the annual programming process, it is common for projects to be approved and undertaken in sectors that were not envisioned in the Country Strategy, and annual lending allocations do not necessarily accord with the lending envelopes included in Country Strategies. Indeed, the criteria used to determine lending envelopes and annual allocations are not transparent and appear to be closely correlated to past disbursements. In addition, the annual nature of the programming process puts time constraints on loan preparation that hurry the process and lead to year-end bunching of approvals?and possibly squeeze out time for needed analytic work as well as opportunities for careful discussion and review. In light of these findings, OVE suggests that (i) the Board and Bank Management undertake an in-depth exercise to revisit the Country Strategy guidelines and consider carefully the appropriate role and structure of Country Strategies and Country Program Documents going forward; (ii) the methodology for determining both lending envelopes in country strategies and annual lending allocations in country programs be made more transparent and the Operational Program Report presented to the Board show how those annual allocations relate to IDB-9 priorities and country needs; and (iii) the programming process be carried out on a rolling two-year basis (with the first year being binding and the second year showing notional allocations and work programs) to allow greater time for planning and executing loans and other Bank support.


Mask topography effects need to be taken into consideration for more advanced resolution enhancement techniques in optical lithography. However, rigorous 3D mask model achieves high accuracy at a large computational cost. This work develops a combined source, mask and pupil optimization (SMPO) approach by taking advantage of the fact that pupil phase manipulation is capable of partially compensating for mask topography effects. We first design the pupil wavefront function by incorporating primary and secondary spherical aberration through the coefficients of the Zernike polynomials, and achieve optimal source-mask pair under the condition of aberrated pupil. Evaluations against conventional source mask optimization (SMO) without incorporating pupil aberrations show that SMPO provides improved performance in terms of pattern fidelity and process window sizes.


Commentators have suggested that Nella Larsen's Passing rejects the view that there is some sort of black essence. This article challenges this reading. Since Irene is the most vocal advocate of an essence in respect to which all blacks are homogenous, much of the evidence for thinking that Passing is skeptical about such an essence amounts to evidence for not trusting Irene's judgment in general, and for not trusting her judgment on this matter in particular. My arguments, then, will often involve explaining why Passing is not leading the reader to mistrust Irene's judgment on this matter. Now, what exactly is meant by a black essence is, explicitly in this book, mysterious. Nevertheless, this article intends to shed some light on how Passing understands the nature of this something, this je ne sais quoi, peculiar to blacks. My tentative interpretation is that this something is an intangible and indefinite manner of being that is neither a conscious choice nor an inborn fact of biology, but rather a given of culture. This article takes this, in effect, blackness manner to be, so Passing seems to indicate, a function of one's belief that one is black in a milieu of pervasive anti-black prejudice. Passing thus has something to offer those today who struggle to adjudicate between a pull towards essentialism and a pull towards constructionism. What Passing emphasizes in this discussion is the possibility that, in addition to biological and societal influences, one's mind state is a crucial ingredient to one's racial identity.


New global initiatives to restore forest landscapes present an unparalleled opportunity to reverse deforestation and forest degradation. Participatory monitoring could play a crucial role in providing accountability, generating local buy in, and catalyzing learning in monitoring systems that need scalability and adaptability to a range of local sites. We synthesized current knowledge from literature searches and interviews to provide lessons for the development of a scalable, multisite participatory monitoring system. Studies show that local people can collect accurate data on forest change, drivers of change, threats to reforestation, and biophysical and socioeconomic impacts that remote sensing cannot. They can do this at one‐third the cost of professionals. Successful participatory monitoring systems collect information on a few simple indicators, respond to local priorities, provide appropriate incentives for participation, and catalyze learning and decision making based on frequent analyses and multilevel interactions with other stakeholders. Participatory monitoring could provide a framework for linking global, national, and local needs, aspirations, and capacities for forest restoration.


The transmission and expression of disease in wild animal populations is a complex interaction of host, pathogen and environmental factors. The individual fitness of a host may be negatively impacted by pathogenic bacteria in a number of ways including increased predation risk and reduced survival and reproductive output. Salmonellosis is an important zoonotic disease resulting in significant morbidity and mortality in populations of wild reptiles, birds and mammals throughout the world, and herpetofaunal species have often been implicated as shedders and transmitters of Salmonella globally. To better understand the unique threats to New Zealand native wildlife, I investigated spatio-temporal dynamics of Salmonella in an island ecosystem, and selected one species, tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) (an endemic New Zealand reptile), for in-depth immunological analyses. I collected cloacal swabs and faecal samples from native wildlife on Stephens Island repeatedly between October 2009 and October 2011. While Salmonella was isolated from 6.5% of native skinks and 8% of the soil samples, intestinal carriage of Salmonella was not detected in the more than 600 cloacal swabs collected from wild tuatara, despite these tuatara living in close proximity to Salmonella-positive skinks or soil. In context, the lack of Salmonella detected in tuatara in this and other studies raises the question of whether tuatara are innately resistant to Salmonella. To test this hypothesis I examined aspects of innate and adaptive immune responses in tuatara serum. Immune measurements included in vitro anti-microbial activity of serum and antibody recognition of bacterial antigens. Serum was tested against three closely related enteric pathogens, including Salmonella, in order to establish the importance of cross-reactivity in the strength of immune responses observed. I found that tuatara possess antibodies which recognise Salmonella antigens by Western blot and flow cytometry. I also determined that the anti-microbial activity of tuatara serum was approximately 6-fold higher than donkey or mouse sera, but showed similar activity to other reptilian species tested. These findings are the first report of both environmentally-induced anti-Salmonella antibodies and anti-microbial activity in tuatara serum. Taken together, these studies investigating the distribution and seasonality of Salmonella within the environment and evaluating anti-Salmonella immune responses in tuatara will help to inform decisions about disease screening and animal movements to maintain the health of native fauna.


Abstract By focusing on the literature on the estimates of the natural rate of interest, this paper critically analyses the modern practice of identifying the benchmark rate of monetary policy with an equilibrium or neutral interest rate reflecting "fundamental forces" unaffected by monetary factors. After briefly mentioning the determinants of the natural rate of interest in the New Keynesian models, the paper discusses the different notions of it that we find in these models and the problems encountered when the natural rate is estimated. It states that these problems are not only related to the difficulties in distinguishing the kind and persistency of economic shocks, but pertain to theory, namely to model specification and the alleged independence of the average or normal interest rate from monetary policy. Following Keynes's suggestion regarding the monetary nature of interest rates, some final remarks will be advanced on their effects on prices and income distribution as well as on the objectives and stance of monetary policies


This book was originally written in 1969 by Berkeley mathematician John Rhodes. It is the founding work in what is now called algebraic engineering, an emerging field created by using the unifying scheme of finite state machine models and their complexity to tie together many fields: finite group theory, semigroup theory, automata and sequential machine theory, finite phase space physics, metabolic and evolutionary biology, epistemology, mathematical theory of psychoanalysis, philosophy, and game theory. The author thus introduced a completely original algebraic approach to complexity and the understanding of finite systems. The unpublished manuscript, often referred to as "The Wild Book", became an underground classic, continually requested in manuscript form, and read by many leading researchers in mathematics, complex systems, artificial intelligence, and systems biology. Yet it has never been available in print until now. This first published edition has been edited and updated by Chrystopher Nehaniv for the 21st century. Its novel and rigorous development of the mathematical theory of complexity via algebraic automata theory reveals deep and unexpected connections between algebra (semigroups) and areas of science and engineering. Co-founded by John Rhodes and Kenneth Krohn in 1962, algebraic automata theory has grown into a vibrant area of research, including the complexity of automata, and semigroups and machines from an algebraic viewpoint, and which also touches on infinite groups, and other areas of algebra. This book sets the stage for the application of algebraic automata theory to areas outside mathematics. The material and references have been brought up-to-date by the editor as much as possible, yet the book retains its distinct character and the bold yet rigorous style of the author. Included are treatments of topics such as models of time as algebra via semigroup theory; evolution-complexity relations applicable to both ontogeny and evolution; an approach to classification of biological reactions and pathways; the relationships among coordinate systems, symmetry, and conservation principles in physics; discussion of punctuated equilibrium (prior to Stephen Jay Gould); games; and applications to psychology, psychoanalysis, epistemology, and the purpose of life. The approach and contents will be of interest to a variety of researchers and students in algebra as well as to the diverse, growing areas of applications of algebra in science and engineering. Moreover, many parts of the book will be intelligible to non-mathematicians, including students and experts from diverse backgrounds.


Two-dimensional magnetic recording (TDMR) differs from traditional track recording in that the bit-size-to-grain-size ratio is drastically reduced so that the channel bits are roughly of the same sizes as those of the magnetic media grains. This is envisioned to be achieved by shingled writing, a write-process in which the corner-writer partially overwrites the previously written adjacent track, effectively writing very closely spaced narrow tracks with no guard bands. Since the tracks are very narrow, they can be read by an array of read-elements whose spacing is equal to the narrow track pitch, creating a two-dimensional (2-D) array of readback signals (the two dimensions being the cross-track and the down-track dimensions). In the absence of an array of read elements, the same 2-D readback can be obtained by progressive scans of a single read element that reads one narrow track at a time and stores the readback signal in a 2-D array. In this paper, we present simple magnetic grain media models and shingled-write process models that capture the essence of TDMR. We assume that the granular recording medium consists of randomly shaped tiles (each tile represents a grain), randomly covering the medium plane. We then derive a suitable 2-D read/write process model. Using proper information-theoretic inequalities and bounding techniques, we derive methods to bound the capacities of TDMR channels. The results reveal that information capacities in excess of 0.6 user bits per grain are possible to attain over TDMR channels.


A global approach to the problem of model-based control of fast parallel robots is proposed in this work. Fundamental differences between the well-known serial arms and parallel manipulators are first explained. A formalism inspired from Denavit-Hartenberg's makes it possible to parametrize any parallel manipulator by handling it as two tree robots connected through six standard links. Then, it is shown that kinematics and dynamics modeling is greatly simplified when the robot's state is represented both by the variables associated to the actuated joints and the variables specifying the end-effector's position in operational space. The inverse dynamics model of any parallel manipulator can then be put under a standard form called "in the two spaces". A Newton-Euler based algorithm is proposed for the real-time computation of the model in the two spaces its complexity is shown not to be much larger than for serial arms. Through Lagrangian mechanics, the model in the two spaces allows analysis of the robot's dynamics properties, such as passivity. These properties are shown to be equivalent to those of serial arms, except that parallel robots offer good performances only in a restricted workspace in which their Jacobian matrix remains bounded. Various control strategies for the trajectory tracking problem for fast robots are then examined. The advantages of model-based approaches combined with robust feedback laws in operational space are described. It is shown that a control loop in operational space requires less computations than in joint space for a parallel robot. Moreover, such a scheme can be very efficiently be implemented on a multiprocessor control unit that exploits the intrinsically parallel and pipeline structure of the required algorithms. Finally, the proposed approach is applied to the Delta parallel manipulator. A systematic approach leads to the kinematics and dynamics models of this robot, which are expressed under a very compact form. The analysis of the Delta's Jacobian matrix as well as some simulation results reveal the advantages and weak points of this manipulator. The implementation of a model-based control law for the Delta on a control unit with four Transputers is described. Some results obtained on a Delta with a crank belt reduction are presented and discussed.


Inflammation is an important component of normal responses to infection and injury. However, chronic activation of the immune system, due to aberrant responses to normal stimuli, can lead to the establishment of a persistent inflammatory state. Such inflammatory conditions are often debilitating, and are associated with a number of important co-morbidities including cardiovascular disease. Resting non-proliferative tissues have distinctive metabolic activities and requirements, which differ considerably from those in infiltrating immune cells, which are undergoing proliferation and differentiation. Immune responses in tissues may therefore be modulated by the relative abundance of substrates in the inflamed site. In turn immune cell activity can feed back and affect metabolic behaviour of the tissues, as most clearly demonstrated in cachexia - the loss of cellular mass driven by tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) a key mediator of the inflammatory response. Here we discuss the potential for metabolomic analysis to clarify the interactions between inflammation and metabolic changes underlying many diseases. We suggest that an increased understanding of the interaction between inflammation and cellular metabolism, energy substrate use, tissue breakdown markers, the microbiome and drug metabolites, may provide novel insight into the regulation of inflammatory diseases.


Research in information retrieval has traditionally concentrated
on making assumptions about the content of documents based on very shallow
semantic analysis through word occurrence statistics of various kinds.

But texts are more than bags of words, and the semantic analysis
information retrieval systems typically used is overly simple. There is
ample reason to try to broaden the view of what text is and why.

Better content analysis alone will not be enough. Texts are more than their
meaning. Texts have structure, they have context, they are written in a
style conformant or discordant to a genre they are to be understood in,
they may be carefully written or hastily thrown together, they are written
by various types of agent for various reasons. Besides information to be
found in the text or from the author, texts are used by readers of various
backgrounds, for various reasons, and with varying degree of satisfaction.

This paper outlines a framework within which to find more knowledge from
texts than an approximation of their topic, and gives examples of how to
use this knowledge to design useful tools for information access.


In Northern Africa, the high incidence of breast cancer among young women has been recognized as a particular epidemiologic feature within the region. However, a comprehensive epidemiological overview of the existing data is lacking. Within this present review we aim to: (i) asses the available and reliable epidemiologic data reported from institutional series and registries (ii) investigate the possible impact of demographic or genetic factors on epidemiology and (iii) describe the distinct risk factors and tumour biology of breast cancer in young women presenting in this region of the world. The evolution of young breast cancer incidence around the Mediterranean area and particularly in the region of Northern Africa will be discussed, as well as it is association to the existing demographic context. The issue of possible bias likely to influence the reported incidence rates, as obtained from the regional registries, will be elucidated. We will finally underline that interpretation of data coming from these registries should be cautious, as the concentration of resources within some metropolitan centres (or regions) may induce bias in terms of patients' reporting.


This paper presents a novel iris coding method based on differences of discrete cosine transform (DCT) coefficients of overlapped angular patches from normalized iris images. The feature extraction capabilities of the DCT are optimized on the two largest publicly available iris image data sets, 2,156 images of 308 eyes from the CASIA database and 2,955 images of 150 eyes from the Bath database. On this data, we achieve 100 percent correct recognition rate (CRR) and perfect receiver-operating characteristic (ROC) curves with no registered false accepts or rejects. Individual feature bit and patch position parameters are optimized for matching through a product-of-sum approach to Hamming distance calculation. For verification, a variable threshold is applied to the distance metric and the false acceptance rate (FAR) and false rejection rate (FRR) are recorded. A new worst-case metric is proposed for predicting practical system performance in the absence of matching failures, and the worst case theoretical equal error rate (EER) is predicted to be as low as 2.59 times 10-1 available data sets


This study contributes to the growing body of research concerning management consultancies by linking two previously disparate fields of study: (1) the examination of the effectiveness of consulting interventions and (2) the examination of the social processes that aim to create and legitimize the insights, knowledge and capabilities of management consultancies. We propose that consulting firms accumulate social authority in the course of pre-intervention discourse processes that is reflected in their reputation and celebrity. With respect to intervention, this social authority affects change recipients' commitment to and compliance with the requirements of change implementation. We test the proposed relationships by conducting a measured variable path analysis of 117 change initiatives in German companies that were set up and implemented with the assistance of external consultancies. Our findings indicate that a consulting firm's levels of both celebrity and reputation affect the change recipients' commitment to proposed change strategies and thus, indirectly affect their behavioral compliance with the explicit requirements of change implementation.


Both academic and lay definitions of sex vary. However, definitions generally gravitate around reproduction and the experience of pleasure. Some theoretical approaches, such as psychoanalysis and evolutionary psychology, have positioned sexuality at the center of psychological phenomena. Much research has also linked sex to health and disease. On the one hand, certain sexual thoughts, feelings, behaviors, and identities have been described as pathological. Over time, some of these have been accepted as normal (especially homosexuality), while new forms of pathology have also been proposed (e.g., "porn addiction"). On the other hand, some aspects of sexuality are being researched due to their relevance to public health (e.g., sex education) or to counseling (e.g., assisted reproduction). Sex research has always been controversial, paradoxically receiving both positive attention and disdain. These contradictory social forces have arguably affected both the content and the scientific quality of sex research.


The Roman household (familia) was in many respects dramatically different from the modern family. From the early Roman Empire (30 B.C. to about A.D. 250) there survive many legal sources that describe Roman households, often in the most intimate detail. The subject matter of these ancient sources includes marriage and divorce, the property aspects of marriage, the pattern of authority within households, the transmission of property between generations, and the supervision of Roman orphans. This casebook presents 235 representative texts drawn largely from Roman legal sources, especially Justinian's Digest. These cases and the discussion questions that follow provide a good introduction to the basic legal problems associated with the ordinary families of Roman citizens. The arrangement of materials conveys to students an understanding of the basic rules of Roman family law while also providing them with the means to question these rules and explore the broader legal principles that underlie them. Included cases invite the reader to wrestle with actual Roman legal problems, as well as to think about Roman solutions in relation to modern law. In the process, the reader should gain confidence in handling fundamental forms of legal thinking, which have persisted virtually unchanged from Roman times until the present. This volume also contains a glossary of technical terms, biographies of the jurists, basic bibliographies of useful secondary literature, and a detailed introduction to the scholarly topics associated with Roman family law. A course based on this casebook should be of interest to anyone who wishes to understand better Roman social history, either as part of a larger Classical Civilization curriculum or as a preparation for law school.


A commonly used method for the improvement of the signal-to-noise ratio of analytical signals is ensemble averaging of repetitive waveforms. In spectroscopy this technique is ordinarily implemented by scanning a spectrum repetitively at a constant scan rate and acquiring intensity data at a constant rate. The relationship between the scan rate and the data acquisition rate defines the wavelength calibration of the averaged signal. We have used this technique to acquire the absorption spectra of atoms and molecules in flame and electrothermal atomizers by continuum-source atomic absorption spectrometry using a refractor-plate wavelength modulator to accomplish repetitive wavelength scanning at frequencies of several 10s of Hz. A triangular modulation waveform is utilized in order to achieve a linear wavelength scan in both directions. However, we have encountered three problems with this technique: (1) there is a significant amount of hysteresis between the forward and reverse scans; (2) the phase of the modulator position lags the input waveform; and (3) the modulator position waveform is rounded off at the extremes of its excursion. Because of these problems we have in the past accumulated only the spectra measured during the forward-scan half-cycles and have discarded the reverse half-cycles. Moreover, we have used only the center section of the spectral region, in order to avoid the distortion at the ends of the scanned range.


The last decade has witnessed a constitutional revival in Africa, with several countries adopting new constitutions. Several of these constitutions have been adopted following serious ethnic tensions, especially in the Great Lakes region. Because of the nature of the ethnic conflicts which were rooted in the repression of minority communities, the new constitutional frameworks regarding ethnicity and minority rights are going to be extremely significant for the peace and stability of the region. By analyzing the recently adopted constitutions of Rwanda, Burundi, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, this article seeks to examine the extent to which some of the most recently adopted constitutions of the continent are addressing, or not, the rights of the most marginalized minority communities. By focusing on the Great Lakes region, this article explores why there is still a general reluctance towards the recognition of minority rights in most African constitutions.


Image flow fields from parallel stereo cameras are analyzed to determine the relative 3-D translational motion of the camera platform with respect to objects in view and to establish stereo correspondence of features in the left and right images. A two-step procedure is suggested. In the first step, translational motion parameters are determined from linear equations the coefficients of which consist of the sums of measured quantities in the two images. Separate equations are developed for cases when measurements of either the full optical flow or the normal flow are available. This computation does not require feature-to-feature correspondence. In addition, no assumption is made about the surfaces being viewed. In the second step of the calculation, with the knowledge of the estimated translational motion parameters, the binocular flow information is used to find features in one image that correspond to given features in the other image. Experimental results with synthetic and laboratory images indicate that the method provides accurate results even in the presence of noise. >


Once in his life a man ought to concentrate his mind upon the remembered earth, I believe. He ought to give himself up to a particular landscape in his experience, to look at it from as many angles as he can, to wonder about it, to dwell upon it. He ought to imagine that he touches it with his hands at every season and listens to the sounds that are made upon it. He ought to imagine the creatures there and all the faintest motions of the wind. E?^ ~ He ought to recollect the glare of noon and all >S ~ ~the colors of the dawn and dusk.


Voluntary environmental initiatives (VEIs) promise to provide firms and facilities additional flexibility and motivation in managing their environmental affairs in part by reducing compliance and enforcement costs and improving their public image. As a result, since 1990, over 13,000 organizations have participated in more than 100 US and international VEIs. In order for these initiatives to be successful, they need to be implemented following good practice guidelines, reliable enforcement mechanisms, appropriate monitoring, reporting, transparency, and public information availability. All of these activities may be contingent on high levels of stakeholder participation. Little is known, however, about how different stakeholders have been involved in the development of these programs and how this participation varies for different types of VEIs. By conducting an Internet based survey to 63 VEI managers, this research examines the diversity and intensity of stakeholder participation in the design and implementation of VEIs relative to sponsorship. This study concluded that VEIs developed by a partnership between different organizations had the largest number of different types of stakeholders involved. Yet, industry and government sponsored initiatives had a number of different types of participants very close to what occurred in the design of partnership VEIs. Third-party initiatives had the lowest diversity of participants involved in the design of their programs. This pattern illustrates that the VEI sponsors traditionally more susceptible to criticism in terms of credibility are the ones more concerned with stakeholder involvement in the development of their initiatives. As for the role of specific stakeholders, it was observed that government sponsored VEIs had a higher degree of involvement from industry associations than from any other stakeholder. Even if the degree of involvement by non-profit organizations was not considerably lower than by industry associations, the existing difference supports the critique that government VEIs are generally developed in a tighter cooperation with the private sector and sometimes without the collaboration of the civil society. As for third-party initiatives, it was observed that the industry sector had a higher degree of involvement than the government.


OBJECTIVES
The incidence of upper-limb, neck-shoulder, and low-back disorders and their induction times were investigated among new workers in tasks with various physical workloads.

METHODS
New trailer assemblers (N=364) were followed prospectively for 45 months--the workers' health status via medical records and exposure to physical workload factors via job titles, walk-throughs, task descriptions, and some direct measurements. The incidence rate of first sick leave due to such disorders was calculated for different workload groups. The proportion of workers surviving without musculoskeletal disorders was estimated by the Kaplan-Maier product-limit estimator, and the effect of the exposure on the risk of incident disorders was estimated with the Cox proportional hazards model.

RESULTS
The highest annual incidences were observed for strenuous tasks, the incidence rate for men being 16.8 per 100 person-years [95% confidence interval (95% CI) 8.0-30.9] for upper-limb disorders in strenuous tasks and 6.1 (95% CI 2.0-14.1) in nonstrenuous tasks and that for women being 32.0 (95% CI 11.7-69.7) and 9.9 (95% CI 0.2-54.9), respectively. The men's risk of contracting an upper-limb or neck-shoulder disorder in strenuous tasks was about threefold [hazard ratio (HR) 3.2 (95% CI 1.1-9.4) for upper-limb disorders and 2.7 (95% CI 0.9-8.1) for neck-shoulder disorders] that of nonstrenuous tasks, whereas workload seemed not to affect low-back disorders. The workers first sought medical advice for their disorders typically some months after employment began.

CONCLUSIONS
Newly employed workers in hand-intensive tasks have a high risk of upper-limb and neck-shoulder disorders. An etiologic role for activities involving high force demands in upper-limb and neck-shoulder disorders is possible.


In this work, we present a collection of different techniques oriented to the altitude estimation in topological visual navigation tasks. All the methods use descriptors based on the global appearance of the scenes. The techniques are tested using our own experimental database, which is composed of a set of omnidirectional images captured in real lightning conditions including several locations and altitudes. We use different representations of the visual information, including the panoramic and orthographic views, and the projection of the omnidirectional image into the uni sphere. The experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of some of the techniques.


In Playing the Hero, Ann Dooley examines the surviving manuscript versions of the greatest of the early Irish sagas, the Tain Bo Cuailnge (Cattle-Raid of Cooley), and creates a picture of the cultural conditions and literary mind-sets under which medieval scribes recreated the text. Dooley argues that the scribes' work is both a transmission and a translation, and that their own changing historical circumstances within the space of one hundred years, from the beginning to the end of the twelfth century, determines the specifics of their literary creativity. Playing the Hero is a unique example of more contemporary literary methodologies - post-structuralist, feminist, historicist and beyond - being used to illuminate the Irish saga world. Dooley provides a commentary for the saga, helping to re-animate its literary sophistication. Her work is an interrogation of both the Irish epic hero - a reading of the male through the medium of feminine discourse - and the process whereby violence as normalized in the saga genre can be recovered as problematic and troubling. Dooley's work is groundbreaking and will provoke a wide response in Medieval Irish studies.


Nonlinear planning and scheduling models for crude-oil atmospheric and vacuum distillation units are essential to manage increased complexities and narrow margins present in the petroleum industry. Traditionally, conventional swing-cut modeling is based on fixed yields with fixed properties for the hypothetical cuts that swing between adjacent light and heavy distillates, which can subsequently lead to inaccuracies in the predictions of both its quantity and quality. A new extension is proposed to better predict quantities and qualities for the distilled products by taking into consideration that we require corresponding light and heavy swing-cuts with appropriately varying qualities. By computing interpolated qualities relative to its light and heavy swing-cut quantities, we can show an improvement in the accuracy of the blended or pooled quality predictions. Additional nonlinear variables and constraints are necessary in the model, but it is shown that these are relatively easy to deal with in the nonli...


We investigate whether and how an exogenous and unprecedented improvement in non-U.S. firms' financial reporting quality affects post-earnings-announcement drift (PEAD). We find that PEAD declines after the information shock, and this decrease is more pronounced for firms with fewer concurrent earnings announcements, greater institutional holdings, and lower limits to arbitrage. In addition, the decrease in PEAD is driven by firms with greater changes in financial reporting, an increase in analyst forecast accuracy and institutional ownership, and a decrease in limits to arbitrage. These findings support the mispricing explanation of PEAD, in particular the limited attention hypothesis, in an international setting.


Future observations of cosmic microwave background (CMB) polarisation have the potential to answer some of the most fundamental questions of modern physics and cosmology, including: what physical process gave birth to the Universe we see today? What are the dark matter and dark energy that seem to constitute 95% of the energy density of the Universe? Do we need extensions to the standard model of particle physics and fundamental interactions? Is the ΛCDM cosmological scenario correct, or are we missing an essential piece of the puzzle? In this paper, we list the requirements for a future CMB polarisation survey addressing these scientific objectives, and discuss the design drivers of the COREmfive space mission proposed to ESA in answer to the "M5" call for a medium-sized mission. The rationale and options, and the methodologies used to assess the mission's performance, are of interest to other future CMB mission design studies. COREmfive has 19 frequency channels, distributed over a broad frequency range, spanning the 60–600 GHz interval, to control astrophysical foreground emission. The angular resolution ranges from 2′ to 18′, and the aggregate CMB sensitivity is about 2 μK⋅arcmin. The observations are made with a single integrated focal-plane instrument, consisting of an array of 2100 cryogenically-cooled, linearly-polarised detectors at the focus of a 1.2-m aperture cross-Dragone telescope. The mission is designed to minimise all sources of systematic effects, which must be controlled so that no more than 10−4 of the intensity leaks into polarisation maps, and no more than about 1% of E-type polarisation leaks into B-type modes. COREmfive observes the sky from a large Lissajous orbit around the Sun-Earth L2 point on an orbit that offers stable observing conditions and avoids contamination from sidelobe pick-up of stray radiation originating from the Sun, Earth, and Moon. The entire sky is observed repeatedly during four years of continuous scanning, with a combination of three rotations of the spacecraft over different timescales. With about 50% of the sky covered every few days, this scan strategy provides the mitigation of systematic effects and the internal redundancy that are needed to convincingly extract the primordial B-mode signal on large angular scales, and check with adequate sensitivity the consistency of the observations in several independent data subsets. COREmfive is designed as a "near-ultimate" CMB polarisation mission which, for optimal complementarity with ground-based observations, will perform the observations that are known to be essential to CMB polarisation science and cannot be obtained by any other means than a dedicated space mission. It will provide well-characterised, highly-redundant multi-frequency observations of polarisation at all the scales where foreground emission and cosmic variance dominate the final uncertainty for obtaining precision CMB science, as well as 2′ angular resolution maps of high-frequency foreground emission in the 300–600 GHz frequency range, essential for complementarity with future ground-based observations with large telescopes that can observe the CMB with the same beamsize.


Predation on fish by mammals and birds may be high during winter in boreal streams, and juvenile salmonids respond by reducing their daytime activity to minimize exposure. Surface ice may offer protection from terrestrial predators, and salmonids under ice cover should spend less time on anti-predator behaviors and increase their activity. Using brown trout as a test species, these predictions were tested in laboratory and field experiments.In an artificial laboratory stream, the presence of ice cover reduced stress and increased swimming activity, foraging and aggression. The effect of ice cover on activity was greatest for trout with high resting metabolic rates, suggesting that individual intraspecific differences in metabolism may influence the strategies used to cope with different winter conditions. In a boreal forest stream, we simulated ice by suspending plastic sheeting over five 30-m-long stretches, and trout that spent winter under this simulated ice cover grew better than trout in control stretches. These results may explain why salmonid production is high in rivers with long periods of stable ice cover and should be viewed in light of ongoing global warming.


The rugged topography of the Kimberley area of northern Western Australia preserves examples of the complete weathering cycle to produce regolith. With increasing weathering intensity, Palaeoproterozoic mafic volcanic rocks of the Carson Volcanics are progressively depleted in low field strength element (LFSE) and rare earth elements (REE), and enriched in high-field strength elements (HFSE), Th, Cr and chalcophile elements. This reflects the breakdown of the main rock-forming minerals, the concentration of resistate phases such as zircon, chromite, monazite and rutile, and the development of secondary clay minerals, oxides and oxyhydroxides. Some regolith samples at the base of the volcanic succession have high Cr, As and detectable Au and Pd. This regolith chemistry reflects not only the intensity of weathering, but also the less fractionated and weakly mineralized nature of flow units erupted early in the volcanic cycle. Elsewhere in the Carson Volcanics, two regolith samples with unusually high concentrations of Ba, REE and Zn are located close to regional structures, which acted as conduits along which hydrothermal fluids migrated resulting in surface alteration, probably after regolith formation. Both examples show that regolith chemistry should be interpreted in the context of both weathering and petrogenetic processes that affect bedrock composition.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To compare differences in the chemotherapy-induced nausea and vomiting (CINV) among three groups of women (acupressure, placebo acupressure, and usual care) undergoing chemo-therapy for breast cancer.

DESIGN
A multicenter, longitudinal, randomized clinical trial throughout one cycle of chemotherapy.

SETTING
Ten community clinical oncology programs associated with the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center and nine independent sites located throughout the United States.

SAMPLE
160 women who were beginning their second or third cycle of chemotherapy for breast cancer treatment and had moderate nausea intensity scores with their previous cycles.

METHODS
Subjects were randomized to one of three groups: acupressure to P6 point (active), acupressure to SI3 point (placebo), or usual care only. Subjects in the acupressure group were taught to apply an acupressure wrist device by research assistants who were unaware of the active acupressure point. All subjects completed a daily log for 21 days containing measures of nausea and vomiting and recording methods (including antiemetics and acupressure) used to control these symptoms.

MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Acute and delayed nausea and vomiting.

RESULTS
No significant differences existed in the demographic, disease, or treatment variables among the treatment groups. No significant differences were found in acute nausea or emesis by treatment group. With delayed nausea and vomiting, the acupressure group had a statistically significant reduction in the amount of vomiting and the intensity of nausea over time when compared with the placebo and usual-care groups. No significant differences were found between the placebo and usual-care groups in delayed nausea or vomiting.

CONCLUSIONS
Acupressure at the P6 point is a value-added technique in addition to pharmaceutical management for women undergoing treatment for breast cancer to reduce the amount and intensity of delayed CINV.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Acupressure is a safe and effective tool for managing delayed CINV and should be offered to women undergoing chemotherapy for breast cancer.


Most metals and alloys in the presence of oxygen and moisture will instantaneously react and form a thin (2-5 nm) surface oxide layer. For further reaction to occur, oxygen ions and/or metal cations often diffuse through the already formed oxide layer. The corrosion resistance of a metal in aggressive environments at high temperatures depends on the properties of the surface oxide scale. Zirconium-based alloys represent the main structural materials used in water-cooled nuclear reactors. For these materials, the formation of a thin, adherent oxide scale with long-term stability in high temperature water/steam under irradiation conditions, is crucial. In this thesis, the transport of oxygen and hydrogen through Zr-based oxide scales at relevant temperatures for the nuclear industry is investigated using isotopic gas mixtures and isotope-monitoring techniques such as Gas Phase Analysis and Secondary Ion Mass Spectrometry. Porosity development in the oxide scales generates easy diffusion pathways for molecules across the oxide layer during oxidation. A considerable contribution of molecular oxygen to total oxygen transport in zirconia has been observed at temperatures up to 800°C. A novel method for evaluation of the gas diffusion, gas concentration and effective pore size of oxide scales is presented in this thesis. Effective pore sizes in the nanometer range were found for pretransition oxides on Zircaloy-2. A mechanism for densification of oxide scales by obtaining a better balance between inward oxygen and outward metal transport is suggested. Outward Zr transport can be influenced by the presence of hydrogen in the oxide and/or metal substrate. Inward oxygen transport can be promoted by oxygen dissociating elements such as Fe-containing second phase particles. The results suggest furthermore that a proper choice of the second-phase particles composition and size distribution can lead to the formation of dense oxides, which are characterized by low oxygen and hydrogen uptake rates during oxidation. Hydrogen uptake in Zr-based materials during oxidation in high temperature water/steam can generate degradation due to the formation of brittle hydrides in the metal substrate. A promising method for the suppression of hydrogen uptake has been developed and is presented in this thesis.


Current methods for body shape estimation either lack detail or require many images. They are usually architecturally complex and computationally expensive. We propose FACSIMILE (FAX), a method that estimates a detailed body from a single photo, lowering the bar for creating virtual representations of humans. Our approach is easy to implement and fast to execute, making it easily deployable. FAX uses an image-translation network which recovers geometry at the original resolution of the image. Counterintuitively, the main loss which drives FAX is on per-pixel surface normals instead of per-pixel depth, making it possible to estimate detailed body geometry without any depth supervision. We evaluate our approach both qualitatively and quantitatively, and compare with a state-of-the-art method.


Over the centuries, until quite recently, the work of great women artists had been ignored, forgotten, or denied; they had been largely left out of museums and histories of art. Along came Wilhelmina Cole Holliday, who boldly decided it was time to rectify this oversight by founding a museum in 1987 in a landmark building near the White House. A critic for the Washington Post wrote, GCGBPWilhelmina Cole Holladay, the museumGCOs founding president, has accomplished something radical. No player in the art scene here has a deeper understanding of power and money and of how our system works. Despite her white-glove graciousness, hard-working Billie Holladay is a warrior and a winner...GC[yen]This thrilling story of the birth and early years of the NMWA is a lively, anecdotal, behind-the-scenes, eyewitness glimpse of the efforts of dedicated individuals who shared Mrs. HolladayGCOs vision and, under her leadership, helped her expand the permanent collection, organize outstanding exhibitions, renovate the Museum, and fund a robust endowment. Moreover, NMWA now boasts a growing membershipGCoamong the top ten museums in the worldGCowith active, vocal committees all across the nation and in many countries. Illustrating the text are 130 color pictures, which include works from the collection and from exhibitions, as well as 40 archival photographs of landmark events that led to the MuseumGCOs impressive growth.


Samuel Selvon (1923-1994) was a very inspiring Caribbean writer of East Indian origin. In his novel A brighter sun (1952) Selvon writes about the East Indian diaspora in the Caribbean from the point of view of the East Indians themselves, thus filling a yawning gap in East Indian literature in the Caribbean Surprisingly, his novel did not receive as much critical attention as other well-known Caribbean artistic works by V.S. Naipaul George Lamming and Edward Brathwaite. However, what is particularly striking about A brighter sun is its optimistic vision which suggests that Trinidad's, and by extension, the Caribbean's future depends on the self-upliftment of the colonially oppressed individuals, integration and cooperation between East Indians and blacks to carry out a concerted struggle for independence.


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