This report is a study of information quality that has been carried out at Nils Hanssons Akeri Ltd. The objective was to focus on the information flow at the firm. This was done by three case studies where two departments, the market department and the traffic management department, were studied. These departments were chosen because there is a natural flow of information between them that has not been evident for everybody involved before.Today, the information flow has a difficulty to contribute to the value creation process. The case studies were analyzed by means of an information quality model where the flaws were made visible. A scale model was designed in order to visualise the balance between the material and the immaterial flow. The scale model visualized that the current focus is the material part. The importance of a well functioning information flow is not prioritized. This makes the scale unbalanced and it weighs over to the material side. In order to restore the balance, it is required that everyone concerned sees the information as a product and not as a by-product.The case studies led to three improvement suggestions. The first is that NHAB should designate one person that is responsible for the whole information quality process. The next suggestion is to have annual meetings involving the two departments. The third suggestion is to have a central place were the departments can share information. It was also required to have a checklist that can increase the information quality.


We describe a design space of view manipulation interactions for small data-driven contextual visualizations (word-scale visualizations). These interaction techniques support an active reading experience and engage readers through exploration of embedded visualizations whose placement and content connect them to specific terms in a document. A reader could, for example, use our proposed interaction techniques to explore word-scale visualizations of stock market trends for companies listed in a market overview article. When readers wish to engage more deeply with the data, they can collect, arrange, compare, and navigate the document using the embedded word-scale visualizations, permitting more visualization-centric analyses. We support our design space with a concrete implementation, illustrate it with examples from three application domains, and report results from two experiments. The experiments show how view manipulation interactions helped readers examine embedded visualizations more quickly and with less scrolling and yielded qualitative feedback on usability and future opportunities.


In light of a nation-wide discussion about expanding self-defense laws, as well as an increased recognition of domestic violence, the phrases "stand your ground" and "retreat to the wall" have taken on entirely new meanings. In cases of domestic abuse, which happen largely inside the home, self-defense laws become more difficult to navigate when victims retaliate against their abusers. Generally, individuals using deadly force against their attackers cannot do so until they "retreat to the wall"—until they do everything possible to safely escape the attack and avoid taking a human life. It is then, and only then, that they are justified in using deadly force against their aggressor.

However, an age-old doctrine called the Castle Doctrine, says that an individual does not have an affirmative duty to "retreat to the wall" if that individual is assaulted in her own home. Speaking more succinctly, a person can "stand her ground" in her own "castle" or home; she can use deadly force against an aggressor even if safe retreat is available to her. When it comes to violence between cohabitants, the applicability of the Castle Doctrine is neither clear nor consistent. Traditionally, courts have been reticent in applying this doctrine to cases where the victim and the offender share the same "castle." Some states still require individuals who are attacked in their own home by a cohabitant to "retreat to the wall," instead of "standing their ground" against their attacker. As such, some victims of domestic violence find themselves in a precarious situation, having to retreat farther than they would have to if they were being attacked by a stranger.

This Comment analyzes and critiques the applicability of the Castle Doctrine to instances of domestic violence. It begins by analyzing the way the Castle Doctrine has evolved, from its introduction into American law to the modern day. It concludes that a number of courts still struggle in situations where the victim and the aggressor share the same "castle," often requiring victims of domestic violence to retreat further than they are able to. More so, a number of state legislatures have either not addressed this issue in their laws, or have explicitly identified cohabitant violence as an exception to the Castle Doctrine. This Comment critiques the errors and misconceptions that have led to this misapplication of the Castle Doctrine. Finally, the Comment offers some recommendations that take into account the precarious nature of domestic violence and suggest a more homogenous method for applying the Castle Doctrine to such cases.


Notions of time and frequency are important constituents of most scientific inquiries, providing complimentary information. In an era of ``big data," methodology for analyzing functional and/or image data is increasingly important. This dissertation develops methodology at the cross-section of time-frequency analysis and functional data and consists of three distinct, but related, contributions. First, we propose nonparametric methodology for nonlinear multivariate time-frequency functional data. In particular, we consider polynomial nonlinear functional data models that accommodate higher dimensional functional covariates, including time-frequency images, along with their interactions. The necessary dimension reduction for model estimation proceeds through carefully chosen basis expansions (empirical orthogonal functions) and feature-extraction stochastic search variable selection (SSVS). Properties of the methodology are examined through an extensive simulation study. Finally, we illustrate the approach through an application that attempts to characterize spawning behavior of shovelnose sturgeon in terms of high-density depth and temperature profiles. The second contribution proposes model-based time-frequency estimation through Bayesian lattice filter time-varying autoregressive models. In this context, we take a fully Bayesian approach and allow both the autoregressive coefficients and innovation variance to vary over time. Importantly, our model is estimated within the partial autocorrelation domain (i.e., through the partial autocorrelation coefficients). Additionally, all of the full conditional distributions required for our algorithm are of standard form and thus can be easily implemented using a Gibbs sampler. Further, as a by-product of the lattice filter recursions, our approach avoids undesirable matrix inversions. As such, estimation is computationally efficient and stable. We conduct a comprehensive simulation study that compares our method with other competing methods and find that, in most cases, our approach performs superior in terms of average squared error between the estimated and true time-varying spectral density. Lastly, we demonstrate our methodology through several real case studies. The final project of the dissertation develops models that accommodate spatially dependent functional responses with spatially dependent image predictors. The methodology is motivated by a soil science study that seeks to model spatially correlated water content functionals as a function of electro-conductivity images. The water content curves are measured at different locations within the study field and at various depths, whereas the electro-conductivity images are spatially referenced images of wavelength by depth. Estimation is facilitated by taking a Bayesian approach, where the necessary dimension reduction for model implementation proceed using basis function expansions along with SSVS. Finally, the methodology is illustrated through an application to our motivating data.


Wildland fire suppression practices in the western United States are being widely scrutinized by policymakers and scientists as costs escalate and large fires increasingly affect social and ecological values. One potential solution is to change current fire suppression tactics to intentionally increase the area burned under conditions when risks are acceptable to managers and fires can be used to achieve long-term restoration goals in fire adapted forests. We conducted experiments with the Envision landscape model to simulate increased levels of wildfire over a 50-year period on a 1.2 million ha landscape in the eastern Cascades of Oregon, USA. We hypothesized that at some level of burned area fuels would limit the growth of new fires, and fire effects on the composition and structure of forests would eventually reduce future fire intensity and severity. We found that doubling current rates of wildfire resulted in detectable feedbacks in area burned and fire intensity. Area burned in a given simulation year was reduced about 18% per unit area burned in the prior five years averaged across all scenarios. The reduction in area burned was accompanied by substantially lower fire severity, and vegetation shifted to open forest and grass-shrub conditions at the expense of old growth habitat. Negative fire feedbacks were slightly moderated by longer-term positive feedbacks, in which the effect of prior area burned diminished during the simulation. We discuss trade-offs between managing fuels with wildfire versus prescribed fire and mechanical fuel treatments from a social and policy standpoint. The study provides a useful modeling framework to consider the potential value of fire feedbacks as part of overall land management strategies to build fire resilient landscapes and reduce wildfire risk to communities in the western U.S. The results are also relevant to prior climate-wildfire studies that did not consider fire feedbacks in projections of future wildfire activity.


Today the internet offers a variety of different types of information, and has become one of the main tools of our era, together with other other library resources. Therefore, it is a valid medium for the study and the understanding of environmental architecture. In this paper we present some of the digital resources for the study of environmental architecture. It is important to point out the existence of many internet sites regarding this subject. However, many of these websites lack innovative computer data which has been scientifically proven.


Digital technology has revolutionized the way we produce and experience art today. Not only have traditional forms of art such as printing, painting, photography and sculpture been transformed by digital techniques and media, but entirely new forms such as net art, software art, digital installation and virtual reality have emerged as recognized artistic practices, collected by major museums, institutions and private collectors the world over. Here Christiane Paul surveys the developments in digital art from its appearance in the early 1990s right up to the present day, and looks ahead to what the future may hold. Drawing a distinction between work that uses digital technology as a tool to produce traditional forms and work that uses it as a medium to create new types of art, she discusses all the key artists and works. The book explores themes addressed and raised by the art, such as viewer interaction, artificial life and intelligence, political and social activism, networks and telepresence, as well as issues such as the collection, presentation and preservation of digital art, the virtual museum, and ownership and copyright.


Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) that lead to chronic inflammations of the gastrointestinal tract due to an abnormal response of the immune system. Finding new effective drugs to tackle IBD represents a major therapeutic concern since IBD incidence and prevalence is increasing worldwide. Recent studies positioned Cortistatin (CST) as a candidate for IBD treatment due to its anti-inflammatory and immunomodulatory activity. Here, we studied the structural properties of CST using NMR and synthesized and characterized new analogs displaying enriched populations of some native conformations. One of them, Analog 5, preserved the activity against IBD with an increased half-life in serum, overcoming the native hormone limitation and opening the door for the use of CST analogs as therapeutic agents. This work represents a new approach to the rational design of molecules to treat IBD and a possibility for patients that fail to respond to other therapies. Graphical abstract


In this paper, we investigate the diversity-multiplexing tradeoff (DMT) of the multiple-antenna (MIMO) static half-duplex relay channel. A general expression is derived for the DMT upper bound, which can be achieved by a compress-and-forward protocol at the relay, under certain assumptions. The DMT expression is given as the solution of a minimization problem in general, and an explicit expression is found when the relay channel is symmetric in terms of number of antennas, i.e., the source and the destination have n antennas each, and the relay has m antennas. It is observed that the static half-duplex DMT matches the full-duplex DMT when the relay has a single antenna, and is strictly below the full-duplex DMT when the relay has multiple antennas. Besides, the derivation of the upper bound involves a new asymptotic study of spherical integrals (that is, integrals with respect to the Haar measure on the unitary group U(n)), which is a topic of mathematical interest in itself.


We review, from a unified point of view, a general class of models of itinerant electrons interacting with classical fields. Applications to the static Holstein, Kondo, and Hubbard models are discussed. The ground state structure of the classical field is investigated when the electron band is half-filled. Some of the results are also valid when there is a Hubbard interaction between spin up and spin down electrons. It is found that the ground states are either homogeneous or period two Neel configurations, depending on the geometry of the lattice and on the magnetic fluxes present in the system. In the specific models, Neel configurations correspond to Peierls, magnetic or superconducting instabilities of the homogeneous state. The effect of small thermal and quantum fluctuations of the classical fields are reviewed in the context of the Holstein model. Many of the results described here originate from the work of Elliott Lieb and collaborators.


Non-conventional approaches to southern African geography are a recent phenomenon forming a tiny portion of contemporary research (Beacon and Rogerson 1901; Smith 1982; Crush and Rogerson 1933) and the call for a 'decolonization of the existing colonial geographies concerning southern Africa' (Crush, Reitsma and Rogerson 1982, p. 197) deserves serious consideration by the region's geographers. Southern African geographers, like many other scholars in the region, have traditionally tended to be 'mere imitators and burglars of other people's methodologies and research techniques' (Avandele 1982, p. 172). In decolonizing southern African geography, a departure from this tradition is required for not even a mechanical transfer of radical geography as it has emerged in the West will do; a critical perspective which leaves room for independent reflection and avoiding the rigidity and theoreticism threatening radical geography as a whole is necessary; and ultimately the region's geographic lore has to be authored and acted in southern Africa,


Long-term use of psychotropic medication may increase the risk for epithelial ovarian cancer through increased gonadotropin secretion or direct ovarian stimulation of adrenergic receptors, effects which may affect ovarian cancer pathogenesis. An earlier case-control study found that prior use of antidepressants or benzodiazepine tranquilizers was associated with a 2-fold increase in risk of epithelial ovarian cancer. However, that study lacked details on all types of psychotropic medications, length of use, and the categorization of the specific action of these medications on the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. In a new case-control study conducted in eastern Massachusetts (MA) and all of New Hampshire (NH), we identified all women with newly diagnosed ovarian cancer between May 1992 and March 1997. We interviewed 563 women diagnosed with malignant or borderline epithelial ovarian tumors and 523 controls identified through random digit dialing and the use of Town Books (residential listings by name, age, and precinct). Participants were asked to provide the name of medications used for 6 months or longer, the age at first use, and total months or years of use. Psychotropic medications included amphetamines, sedatives, barbiturates/anticonvulsants, antidepressants, and antipsychotics. Self-reported use of psychotropic medication for 6 months or longer was associated with a statistically significant increase in risk of invasive ovarian cancer [odds ratio (OR), 1.6; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.1-2.3]. Relative to nonusers, risk was greatest in those whose first use occurred premenopausally for more than 2 years (OR, 2.9; CI, 1.3-6.6). The association was largely confined to use of medications that operate through dopaminergic mechanisms (OR, 2.9; CI, 1.3-6.4) or gabaergic pathways (OR, 1.5; CI, 0.9-2.5) as opposed to serotoninergic pathways (OR, 1.0; CI, 0.4-2.1). These results are consistent with the hypothesis that psychotropic medications induce gonadotropin secretion, which in turn may increase ovarian cancer risk. However, until other studies confirm our findings and determine whether they apply to medications with specific neuroendocrine actions, it is premature to advise a change in clinical practice and conclude that these medications indeed play a role in the etiology of ovarian cancer.


If the next Presidential administration really wants to embrace the potential of Internet-enabled government transparency, it should follow a counter-intuitive but ultimately compelling strategy: reduce the federal role in presenting important government information to citizens. Today, government bodies consider their own websites to be a higher priority than technical infrastructures that open up their data for others to use. We argue that this understanding is a mistake. It would be preferable for government to understand providing reusable data, rather than providing websites, as the core of its online publishing responsibility. Rather than struggling, as it currently does, to design sites that meet each end-user need, we argue that the executive branch should focus on creating a simple, reliable and publicly accessible infrastructure that exposes the underlying data. Private actors, either nonprofit or commercial, are better suited to deliver government information to citizens and can constantly create and reshape the tools individuals use to find and leverage public data. The best way to ensure that the government allows private parties to compete on equal terms in the provision of government data is to require that federal websites themselves use the same open systems for accessing the underlying data as they make available to the public at large.


The ability of the human nervous system to process information, perform complicated simultaneous mental and physical tasks, and express feelings and emotions is peerless. Because of its complexity, the human brain is the seminal achievement of biological evolution on our planet. This paper focuses on one aspect of brain complexity, neural plasticity, the ability of the nervous system to alter its output in response to changing stimuli. Several examples of neuroplasticity at the molecular, cellular, systems and cognitive levels are presented, all of which have physiological and behavioral consequences. The examples presented provide a basis for the premise that neural complexity arose from the need to perform complex functions. These examples also lend support for the notion that complex adaptive functions are subdivided into separate neural pathways which are oftentimes anatomically distinct. Tublitz Complexity paper Mar 08


Human rights advocates and international lawyers view international agreements and other international norms as important tools to improve human rights around the world. This Article explains that, contrary to widely held beliefs, international human rights norms are not a one-way street. Norms capable of generating improved behavior in poorly performing states sometimes also exert a downward pull on high-performing states. This downward pull leads to what we term "human rights backsliding" — a tendency for high-performing states to weaken their domestic human rights regimes relative to prior behavior or relative to what they would otherwise have done. The theory of backsliding is a novel one, so we introduce it with several real-world examples. In order to describe the theory, its assumptions, and its consequences as explicit as possible, we also provide a formal model of backsliding. We then explain how an understanding of human rights backsliding helps explain state behavior that is otherwise puzzling. Finally, we explore some of the implications of backsliding for the design of international agreements, and we consider strategies for advocates seeking to advance human rights internationally.


The Pirunkoukku gold occurrence is localised within intensely altered felsic to intermediate volcanic rocks in the contact zone of a granite massif belonging to the Central Finland complex. A chalcopyrite association and an arsenopyrite association represent the two major mineral assemblages. The chalcopyrite association is dominantly composed of chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, magnetite, and marcasite, as well as minor and rare minerals including Ag-bearing chalcopyrite, cubanite, native bismuth, joseite-B, matildite, schapbachite, hessite, molybdenite, arsenopyrite, sphalerite, electrum, auroan silver, an Ag4Sb phase, and a Ni-Ag-Sb phase. Arsenopyrite and loellingite are the dominant minerals in the arsenopyrite association. Minor and rare minerals present in this association include chalcopyrite, electrum, maldonite, aurostibite, the Au0.53Bi0.47 phase, bismuth tellurides, and native bismuth. The arsenopyrite association formed in a temperature range of 550–270 °C. Due to the presence of cubanite, a formation temperature of 250–300 °C is estimated for the chalcopyrite association.


The notion of a colorblind society captured the imagination of voters who passed propositions banning affirmative action in higher education admissions in California, Washington, more recently in Michigan, and on November 4th, in Nebraska. Affirmative action is no longer required, proponents assert, because society no longer judges people by their skin color. They argue that the need for affirmative action is a vestige of a bygone era, and such a policy only creates resentment and stigma. This paper confronts the colorblind ideal myths of stigma and resentment, which appear at much greater rates in anti-affirmative action states. In analyzing data from a national survey of 335 students majoring in the sciences, this paper tests the three main arguments of affirmative action opponents and finds: 1. that under-represented minorities experience far more hostility at institutions of higher learning in states that bar affirmative action in admissions than in those states that permit race-based admissions; 2. that under-represented minority students encounter more external and internal stigma at institutions in states that ban race-based admissions; and 3. students who experience critical mass by never being racially isolated in the classroom encounter the least amount of overt racism and stigma. Thus, contrary to what anti-affirmative action advocates argue, students of color endure silencing, the pressure of "performing" and the hostility of "imposition" in white spaces at a far greater rate in the states that espouse a colorblind ideal. Moreover, this paper raises questions about the court's use of a diversity rationalization, the benefits of critical mass, and the effects of stereotype threat and makes recommendations.


Additive manufacturing technology and applications have quickly expanded into many industries over the last several years. Improvements in resolution, strength, and material options have helped propel further growth of the industry. This study focuses on an additive manufacturing technology called fused filament fabrication (FFF). FFF involves the extrusion and layer-by-layer deposition of a molten thermoplastic material to create the desired part. One potential new application of FFF is the manufacture of heat exchangers and heat sinks. This study focuses on developing baseline experimental data related to convective heat transfer coefficients over surfaces of commonly used polymers in FFF 3d printing while varying printing parameters. Samples with layer heights (LH) of 0.1 mm, 0.2 mm and 0.3 mm were printed. As the layer height increases, the surface roughness also increased. Sample 1 of LH = 0.1 mm had a roughness of 9.72 μm and at a Reynolds number of 13,200 had a heat transfer coefficient of 72.2 W/m2-K and sample 1 of LH = 0.3 mm had a roughness of 28.83 μm and at a Reynolds number of 13,600 had a heat transfer coefficient of 84.6 W/m2-K.


Pitched wooden roofs are ventilated through an air cavity beneath the roofing in order to remove heat and moisture from the roof construction. The ventilation is driven by wind pressure and thermal buoyancy. This paper studies ventilation driven by thermal buoyancy in the air cavity of inclined roofs. The influence of air cavity design and roof inclination on the airflow is investigated. Laboratory measurements were carried out on an inclined full-scale roof model with an air cavity heated on one side in order to simulate solar radiation on a roof surface. Equipment to measure temperature was installed in the roof model, while air velocity in the cavity was determined by smoke tests. Combinations of different roof inclinations, air cavity heights and applied heating power on the air cavity top surface were examined. The study showed that increased air cavity height led to increased airflow and decreased surface temperatures in the air cavity. Increased roof inclination and heating power applied to the roofing also increased the airflow. The investigations imply that thermal buoyancy in the air cavity of pitched roofs could be a relevant driving force for cavity ventilation and important to consider when evaluating the heat and moisture performance of such a construction.


Within the last decade, payday lending has grown into a multibillion dollar industry by aggressively offering its services to cashstrapped borrowers without access to mainstream credit. Consumer advocates insist that stricter state and federal regulations are needed to protect low-income, vulnerable borrowers from questionable payday lending practices, which include triple-digit interest rates, exorbitant rollover fees, frequent failures to disclose loan terms, and coercive collection practices. Industry representatives, however, support a laissez-faire approach to payday lending, suggesting that regulatory paternalism will unfairly limit consumers' freedom to purchase payday loans and harm the interests of borrowers that consumer advocates wish to protect. This note argues in favor of enacting a uniform federal payday loan statute to curb the abuses of payday lenders. While some states have passed small loan regulations and usury statutes, federal banking law currently allows payday lenders to partner with national banks to evade state laws. Congress must remedy this situation since the Office of the Comptroller of Currency (OCC) and the United States Supreme Court continue to support the preemption of state usury laws. The author also explains why free market mechanisms and litigation based on unconscionability claims fail to provide adequate consumer protection. Finally, the author presents a framework for a federal payday loan statute and recommends the creation of payday loan alternatives through more stringent enforcement of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) and increased funding for Individual Development Accounts.


OBJECTIVE The metabolic syndrome (MetS) is defined as concomitant disorders of lipid and glucose metabolism, central obesity, and high blood pressure, with an increased risk of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. This study tests whether common genetic variants with pleiotropic effects account for some of the correlated architecture among five metabolic phenotypes that define MetS. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Seven studies of the STAMPEED consortium, comprising 22,161 participants of European ancestry, underwent genome-wide association analyses of metabolic traits using a panel of ∼2.5 million imputed single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Phenotypes were defined by the National Cholesterol Education Program (NCEP) criteria for MetS in pairwise combinations. Individuals exceeding the NCEP thresholds for both traits of a pair were considered affected. RESULTS Twenty-nine common variants were associated with MetS or a pair of traits. Variants in the genes LPL, CETP, APOA5 (and its cluster), GCKR (and its cluster), LIPC, TRIB1, LOC100128354/MTNR1B, ABCB11, and LOC100129150 were further tested for their association with individual qualitative and quantitative traits. None of the 16 top SNPs (one per gene) associated simultaneously with more than two individual traits. Of them 11 variants showed nominal associations with MetS per se. The effects of 16 top SNPs on the quantitative traits were relatively small, together explaining from ∼9% of the variance in triglycerides, 5.8% of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, 3.6% of fasting glucose, and 1.4% of systolic blood pressure. CONCLUSIONS Qualitative and quantitative pleiotropic tests on pairs of traits indicate that a small portion of the covariation in these traits can be explained by the reported common genetic variants.


In the Arctic, there is great concern for several eider populations, including the northern common eider ( Somateria mollissima borealis ) breeding in Canada and Greenland. In 1998-2001, extensive ground surveys were conducted on 937 potential nesting islands in West Greenland, covering most of the districts of Ilulissat, Uummannaq, and Upernavik (69°15' N to 74°05' N). On 216 islands within 106 eider colonies, 4097 ±468 active nests were identified. In 15 colonies where comparable and well-documented surveys were conducted approximately 40 years ago, the study shows a population decline of 81% (from 3361 to 624 nests). A rough comparison shows that of 51 eider colonies surveyed in 1920, 1960, or 1965, 71% either were gone or had declined in breeding numbers when resurveyed in 1998-2001. At the colony level, the 1998-2001 surveys revealed large year-to-year variations in nesting numbers. The reason for the overall decline is not clear. However, there is circumstantial evidence that harvest of common eiders in West Greenland is a key factor. The results urgently call for more cautious management of the northern common eider population.


Formulating knowledge for use in AI Planning engines is currently something of an ad-hoc process, where the skills of knowledge engineers and the tools they use may significantly influence the quality of the resulting planning application. There is little in the way of guidelines or standard procedures, however, for knowledge engineers to use when formulating knowledge into planning domain languages such as PDDL. This paper seeks to investigate this process using as a case study a road traffic accident management domain.

Managing road accidents requires systematic, sound planning and coordination of resources to improve outcomes for accident victims. We have derived a set of requirements in consultation with stakeholders for the resource coordination part of managing accidents. We evaluate two separate knowledge engineering strategies for encoding the resulting planning domain from the set of requirements: (a) the traditional method of PDDL experts and text editor, and (b) a leading planning GUI with built in UML modelling tools.

These strategies are evaluated using process and product metrics, where the domain model (the product) was tested extensively with a range of planning engines. The results give insights into the strengths and weaknesses of the approaches, highlight lessons learned regarding knowledge encoding, and point to important lines of research for knowledge engineering for planning.


Background: Continuity in multiple sclerosis (MS) care has been cited as a critical feature of this care and necessary to improve medical outcomes. Purpose: This exploratory and descriptive research attempts to identify continuity of care from the experience and perspective of patients with MS at two teaching hospitals and the MS Society in Ahvaz, Iran. Methods: In this study, 23 patients with MS were selected through purposeful sampling. Data were collected through in-depth and unstructured interviews and were analyzed using an inductive thematic analysis approach. Results: Four main themes emerged from the analysis: human-oriented attention, the necessity of purposeful planning, importance of responsibility, and caring with empathetic sensing. Conclusions/Implications for Practice: Because of the importance of professional caring practice to continuity of care for patients with MS, we suggest that healthcare providers should include these aspects in care planning.


The South Jersey Real-Time Motorist Information System project is aimed at the rapid deployment of available intelligent transportation system surveillance and communication technologies to monitor traffic on the basis of need at various locations in the South Jersey highway network. The proposed system is a highly mobile traffic-surveillance design that includes mobile, self-sufficient, sensor units with communications and data-collection capabilities that allow the sensor unit to exchange information with the traffic-control center. The sensor units can be installed easily at any location on the transportation network without delays for establishing power and communication connections. This rapid-deployment capability meets the goal for easy-to-deploy traffic-surveillance units that can be used to manage the transportation system during any type of disaster. A technical overview and the advantages of this system and its evaluation procedure are presented. In addition, the problems faced and lessons learned during the implementation, along with future plans for deployment, are presented.


Earlier papers have explained how "legal realism" presupposes a positivist theory of law. This paper argue that the most plausible version of legal positivism is an essentially "realist" theory.

By "legal positivism," I mean the view about the nature of law that H.L.A. Hart articulated most powerfully in 1961 (while learning from and modifying the work of Hans Kelsen), and that Joseph Raz developed further in the 1970s and 1980s, according to which (1) where a legal system exists, there exists a "rule of recognition" specifying the criteria in virtue of which norms are valid law; and (2) a rule of recognition is nothing more than a complex psycho-social artifact constituted by the practice of officials, in particular, the criteria of legal validity they converge upon and which they treat as obligatory (in Hartian lingo: that they accept from "an internal point of view"). That means laws and legal systems rest at bottom on the conventional practices of officials.

By realist theories of law, I mean theories which:

(1) describe without sentimental or moralizing illusions what law is and how it actually operates in human societies (descriptive adequacy takes priority over moralizing sermons);

(2) recognize that law is never adequate to explain how courts adjudicate all cases that come before them; and

(3) account for law and adjudication within the constraints of a naturalistic theory of the world, i.e., one that eschews appeal to any entities or properties that do not find a place in successful empirical scientific accounts of natural and social phenomena.

Both the American and Scandinavian (self-identified) "legal realists" were proponents of realist theories of law in this sense, albeit in very different ways, a point to which I return. Hart was a critic of both American and Scandinavian legal realisms, though in both cases he missed his mark. The irony is that Hart's legal positivism is also a realist theory of law, and once we sort out the misunderstandings and confusions, it will be clear that legal positivists and realists form a unified theoretical front against the moralizing and ideological obfuscators about law, from Lon Fuller to Ronald Dworkin. It will also turn out that one of Raz's additions to Hart's theory, namely, the idea that law necessarily claims authority in Raz's "Service Conception" sense, betrays the realist ambitions of Hart's theory.


Background : Few of the studies that have evaluated the impact of income on health and health services utilisation have been conducted in southern Europe and have focused on the shape of the relationship. This study aimed at evaluating the hospitalisation gradient by small area income and to analyse its shape, with data from four large Italian cities. Methods : Census tract (median 260 residents) median per capita income was computed through record linkage between 1998 national tax and local population registries in the cities of Rome, Turin, Milan and Bologna (total population of approximately 5.5 million). Census tract median income was assigned to general acute hospital discharges in the period 1997-2000 among residents in the cities, on the basis of the patient's residence. Within each stratum defined by gender and age group (0-64, 65+), standardised hospital discharge rates were computed for quantiles of census tract median income. A segmented non-linear model was fitted to discharge rates across percentiles, as function of median value of census tract median income in each percentile. Results : This study showed an inverse gradient in hospitalizations with increasing small area income. A less marked decrease in the standardised discharge rates was shown above approximately €12,000 census tract median per capita income, for both males and females and for the two age-groups considered. Conclusions : Small area income seems to have a strong association with hospitalisation, acting through a differential occurrence of diseases and/or access to health services. Among the wealthiest persons, the results suggest the diminishing return of health and/or appropriateness of health care with increasing income.


This book explains the conditions under which political parties in government were able to influence economic growth in post-communist European countries. It highlights higher education and international investment as the two essentially related areas that have been steered by governments. The book illustrates how these countries have become reliant on multinational companies (MNCs), given their governments' strategy to attract foreign capital, how political and economic factors are intertwined and how political parties in power can have a strong influence on the growth prospects of these economies. Furthermore, it illuminates the extent to which political parties use their space for manoeuvres when enacting policies and how they respond to their constituencies when doing so. It shows how structural conditions such as the dependence on MNCs influence policies, and how this pattern varies across Central and Eastern Europe. The book brings political parties back into the discussion on political economy and back into the analyses of welfare politics, varieties of capitalism, and democratic capitalism. This text will be of key interest to scholars and students of comparative politics and comparative political economy, European policy-making, Central and Eastern Europe, trade, welfare and development, and higher education.


Catalytic reduction of nitrate in ion exchange (IX) waste brine for reuse is a promising option for reducing IX costs and environmental impacts. A recycling trickle bed reactor (TBR) was designed and optimized using 0.5 percent by weight (wt%) palladium–0.05 wt% indium catalysts supported on US mesh size 12 × 14 or 12 × 30 activated carbon particles. Various liquid superficial velocities (Ur) and hydrogen gas superficial velocities (Ug‐H2) were evaluated to assess performance in different flow regimes; catalyst activity increased with Ug‐H2 at all Ur for both catalysts and was greatest for the 12 × 30 catalyst at the lowest Ur (8.9 m/h). The 12 × 30 catalyst demonstrated up to 100% higher catalytic activity and 280% higher mass transfer rate compared with the 12 × 14 catalyst. Optimal TBR performance was achieved with both catalysts in the trickle flow regime. The results indicate that the TBR is a promising step forward, and continued improvements are possible to overcome remaining mass transfer limitations.


A novel imaging spectrometer can individually control spatial and spectral resolution by using zoom lenses as the foreoptics of the system and a focusing lens. By varying the focal length we can use the focusing lens to change the spatial and spectral dimensions; with the foreoptics, however, we can change only the spatial dimension. Therefore the spectral resolution and the spectral range are affected by the zoom ratio of the focusing lens, whereas the spatial resolution and the field of view are affected by the multiplication of the zoom ratios of the foreoptics and the focusing lens. By properly combining two zoom ratios, we can control the spectral resolution with a fixed spatial resolution or the spatial resolution with a fixed spectral resolution. For an imaging spectrometer with this novel zooming function, we used the lens module method and third-order aberration theory to design an initial four-group zoom system with an external entrance pupil for the focusing lens. Furthermore, using the optical design software CODE V, we obtained an optimized zoom lens with a focal-length range of 50 to 150 mm. Finally, the zoom system with its transmission grating in the Littrow configuration performs satisfactorily as the focusing lens of an imaging spectrometer in the wavelength range 450-900 nm.


The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) is the largest economic group in the Middle Eastern region and rank seventeenth in the global economy. The establishment of a GCC custom union in 2003 that led to a flat rate of imports tax between 0 and 5 percent has encouraged a number of economic groups such as the European Union (EU) as well as other individual countries to have closed trade relations with the GCC economic bloc. Malaysia is also interested in expanding its trade relations with the Arab Gulf economies. As Muslim countries and members of the Organisation of Islamic Conferences (OIC), trade between Malaysia and the GCC countries is increasing and has lead to Malaysia's proposal to expand this relation.

Given this background, one of the main aims of this research is to explore in detail bilateral trade relations between Malaysia and the GCC countries and their determinants. In fulfilling this aim, this thesis examines Malaysia's trade performances with the Arab Gulf region by analysing the trade intensity index and the revealed comparative advantage (RCA) index. These analyses reveal favourable countries for Malaysia to trade within the GCC, and also niche products for Malaysian exports. The competitiveness of Malaysian main products that are exported to the GCC countries is also compared to its rivals.

To provide further evidence, surveys with Malaysian traders and authorities were conducted. The survey with Malaysian traders was purposely to measure their perceptions of the GCC economic bloc. The surveys also identify traders' motivation for doing business in this market as well as challenges and obstacles in expanding Malaysian exports to these economies. In collecting this evidence, the combination of a questionnaire and semi-structured interviews were employed to collect the primary data; and the data were analysed through interpretative and textual analysis along with statistical analysis including factor analysis.

Based on the findings, it can be said that trade relations with the GCC countries is still insignificant in comparison to that with Malaysia's major trading partners. Nevertheless, due to Malaysia's niche products, expansion strategy of services sectors in both Malaysia and the GCC countries and the existence of favourable countries to trade in the GCC, these may create huge potential for expansion. The findings also reveal that, cultural differences and lack of capital have been the major problems for Malaysian businessmen in doing business with the GCC region. The findings also indicate that there is a growing interest in establishing a Malaysia–GCC free trade agreement as shown by Malaysian traders. Key findings from the aforementioned analyses are then constructed by employing a SWOT analysis based on the current trade relation between Malaysia and the Gulf countries in constructing viable recommendation for future relation between Malaysia and the GCC member within the aspirations of OIC.


This paper presents an efficient simulation method for parallel cloth simulation. The presented method uses an impulse-based approach for the simulation. Cloth simulation has many application areas like computer animation, computer games or virtual reality. Simulation methods often make the assumption that cloth is an elastic material. In this way the simulation can be performed very efficiently by using spring forces. These methods disregard the fact that many textiles cannot be stretched significantly. The simulation of inextensible textiles with methods based on spring forces leads to stiff differential equations which cause a loss of performance. In contrast to that, in this paper a method is presented that simulates cloth by using impulses. The mesh of a cloth model is subdivided into strips of constraints. The impulses for each strip can be computed in linear time. The strips that have no common particle are independent from each other and can be solved in parallel. The impulse-based method allows the realistic simulation of inextensible textiles in real-time.


Other than lossy and lossless compression methods, the third option in pressure ulcer image compression could be the hybrid approach. Hybrid approach combines both lossy and lossless compression scheme. Here diagnostically important regions (Region of Interests) are lossless coded and the non regions of interests are lossy coded. Such hybrid approaches are referred as regionally lossless coding. Many researchers have proposed various hybrid medical  mage compression techniques. In these techniques, region of interests are first segmented and a suitable coding is done for ROI and non ROI. By doing so, high compression ratios can be obtained and quality of diagnostically important regions is maintained high, as desired by clinicians. These hybrid approaches differ in accordance with the  egmentation goal, segmentation approach they follow and coding techniques. There is no segmentation algorithm that is suitable for all pressure ulcer images. Most of the segmentation algorithms are for specific kind of pressure ulcer images. In this paper we propose a segmentation algorithm for extracting ROI from pressure ulcer images with hemorrhage, to supplement it to compression algorithm.


The author considers the role alternative assets play in a taxable portfolio and suggests that investors who pay taxes ought to have a greater portion of their wealth, ceteris paribus, invested in alternative asses relative to tax-exempt investors. The analysis starts with the intuition that fix-income assets are relatively tax-inefficient, and the diversification power of alternative assets should lead them to play a greater portfolio role. The author compares the results of pre- and after-tax portfolio optimization. He suggest that, in line with the original intuition, investors who optimize their asset allocation on an after-tax basis will seek a greater exposure to equity and alternative assets than those who ignore the impact of taxes at the asset allocation stage. Furthermore, an analysis that biases the decision process toward minimizing taxes rather than risks shows that the optimizer shifts even more dramatically out of fixed-income investments toward alternative assets.


National policy makers engaged in the field of drug policy are working in an era of uncertainty. Simplistic 'war on drugs' strategies have failed in their key objectives of eradicating illicit drug markets and reducing the prevalence of drug use. At the same time, there is increasing evidence that the current drug control regime has caused severe negative consequences for development, public health and human rights. A growing number of governments are considering alternative policy options to address the harms associated with drug markets and use. The IDPC Drug Policy Guide brings together global evidence and examples of best practice to provide guidance on the review, design and implementation of drug policies. The Guide is designed to assist national policy makers in the process of developing effective, humane and appropriate drug policies and programmes for their country. Each chapter of the Guide introduces a specific type of policy challenge, analyses existing evidence and experiences of different countries, and presents advice and recommendations for developing effective policy responses. This is the second edition of our Guide, now available in English, Spanish, French, Indonesia Bahasa and Chinese. Like the first edition published in 2010, it was compiled through research and consultation with our global network of experts.


In this paper we look into the assumption of interpreting LTL over finite traces. In particular we show that LTLf, i.e., LTL under this assumption, is less expressive than what might appear at first sight, and that at essentially no computational cost one can make a significant increase in expressiveness while maintaining the same intuitiveness of LTLf. Indeed, we propose a logic, LDLf for Linear Dynamic Logic over finite traces, which borrows the syntax from Propositional Dynamic Logic (PDL), but is interpreted over finite traces. Satisfiability, validity and logical implication (as well as model checking) for LTLf. are PSPACE-complete as for LTLf. (and LTL).


Cost overruns are a critical problem for construction projects. The common practice for dealing with cost overruns is the assignment of an arbitrary flat percentage of the construction budget as a contingency fund. This research seeks to identify significant factors that may influence, or serve as indicators of, potential cost overruns. The study uses data on 243 construction projects over a full range of project types and scopes gathered from an existing United States Air Force construction database. The author uses multiple linear regression to analyze the data and compares the proposed model to the common practice of assigning contingency funds. The multiple linear regression model provides better predictions of actual cost overruns experienced. Based on the performance metric used, the model sufficiently captures 44% of actual cost overruns versus current practices capturing only 20% The proposed model developed in this study only uses data that would be available prior to the award of a construction contract. This allows the model to serve as a planning tool throughout the concept and design phases. The model includes project characteristics, design performance metrics, and contract award process influences. This research supports prior findings of a relationship between design funding and design performance as well as the influence of the contract award process on cost overruns. While the proposed model captures 44% of actual cost overruns, its application reduces average contingency budgeting error from -11.2% to only -0.3% over the entire test


Despite the significant increase of published research in sport-for-development (SFD), to date there have been no attempts to rigorously review and synthesize scholarly contributions in this area. To address this issue, we conducted an integrative review of SFD literature to portray an overarching and holistic picture of the field. Through a comprehensive literature analysis following Whittemore and Knafl's (2005) five-step process, we provide evidence of the status quo of current SFD research foci, authorship, geographical contexts, theoretical frameworks, sport activity, level of development, methodologies, methods, and key research findings. Our study shows an increasing trend of journal publications since 2000, with a strong focus on social and educational outcomes related to youth sport and with football (soccer) as the most common activity. A large majority of SFD research has been conducted at the community level, where qualitative approaches are dominant. The geographical contexts of authorship and study location present an interesting paradox: Although the majority of SFD projects are carried out in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, 90% of SFD authors are based in North America, Europe, and Australia. We conclude our study by providing new perspectives on key issues in SFD and by outlining current research and theoretical gaps that provide the basis for future scholarly inquiry.


This paper examines two issues that are central to the macroeconomic implications of large external shock for an emerging market economy. First, the paper examines how capital reversal and credit squeeze can reduce aggregate demand that lead to cascading contraction in employment. Secondly, the paper investigates alternative policy options, when an economy is in the depths of financial crisis. What we chose for analytical purpose is an effective model of Blinder-Bernanke type which is modified in several directions so as to examine how financial shocks produce macroeconomic outcomes in a large class of emerging market economies.


Developing a typology of heterogeneous fishing practices through the use of métier analysis is a useful step in understanding the dynamics of fishing fleets and enabling effective implementation of management outcomes. We develop a non-hierarchical clustering framework to quantitatively categorize individual fishing events to a particular métier based on corresponding catch composition, gear configuration, and spatial and temporal references. Our clustering framework has several innovations over predecessors including: (i) introducing alternative methods for encoding and transforming fisheries data; (ii) variable (feature) selection methods; (iii) complementary metrics and methods for internal métier validation; and (iv) use of a network science method to model and analyze fishing practices. To demonstrate applicability, we apply this framework to the Australian Eastern Tuna and Billfish Fishery (ETBF), a multispecies pelagic longline fishery with a diversity of fishing practices. We identified a total of seven stable métiers within the ETBF. While each métier was characterized by a predominant target species, they were differentiated more by seasonal and temporal references (e.g., time of set, month, latitude) than gear configuration (e.g., hooks per basket) or target species. By collapsing a large amount of high-dimensional operational data into a relatively uniform and limited number of components, decision-makers can more easily evaluate the likely consequences of management and design policies that target a particular métier.


We have examined the hypothesis that diploid cells grown in vitro age, and propose that only proliferative potential and not life-span is telescoped. We suggest that explanted or transplanted diploid cells are driven to divide by the process of subculturing in vitro or in vivo and, in response to this pressure, also complete their differentiation and become refractory to further mitotic stimulation. We conclude that differentiation rather than "mortality" distinguishes diploid from transformed cells and that the former may not age in vitro, but are lost because culture methods are selective for cycling cells.


Although there has been much debate, every credible climate scientist recognizes that increases in greenhouse gases promote warming. Given this, what is the current debate about global warming? Professor Barron will address three important questions related to the new debate. First, how much will our environment warm, second, how fast will it warm, and lastly, how significant will be the impact? Current debate has shifted to questions concerning the range of changes that might occur, how quickly we might feel the impacts and how the resulting changes will look. Dr. Barron discusses how our current ability to predict climate leaves open a range of possible futures to consider. Despite the importance of the scientific questions, our motivation for action depends on our sense of vulnerability and on what we value.


The current practice of physical science research has yielded a continuously growing demand for interconnection network bandwidth to support the sharing of large datasets. Academic research networks and Internet service providers have provisioned their networks to handle this type of load, which generates prolonged, high-volume traffic between nodes on the network. Maintenance of QoS for all network users demands that the onset of these (grid bulk) transfers be detected to enable them to be reengineered through resources specifically provisioned to handle this type of traffic. This paper describes a real-time detector that operates at full-line-rate on Gb/s links, operates at high connection rates, and can track the use of ephemeral or non-standard ports


Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac rhythm disorder1 and one of the most important risk factors for stroke, particularly in the elderly. Stroke-related AF is associated with significant morbidity, mortality and healthcare costs.2 Although we have abundant evidence from randomised trials that anticoagulation, and to a lesser extent antiplatelet therapy, is highly efficacious in preventing stroke in patients with AF, these therapies remain underused, especially in older patients. With an ageing population and an AF prevalence that is rapidly rising,1 a better understanding of the stroke prevention practices in real-world settings is critically important to implement preventive strategies that will improve the outcomes and reduce healthcare costs.

Cowan et al 3 report the results of their investigation on the use of stroke prevention therapy for management of AF among 1857 primary-care practices across England from July 2009 to March 2012. Using the Guidance on Risk Assessment and Stroke Prevention in AF (GRASP-AF) tool, they identified 231 833 patients with AF (1.76% of the total population studied) and characterised their risk profiles and antithrombotic therapies. The GRASP-AF tool is valuable for gathering patient data at the primary-care level, and this is a particular …


Objectives: Determine predictors of hospitalization and institutionalization in Medicaid populations with Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Methods: Data were obtained from the Centers for Medicareand Medicaid Services (CMS). Individuals enrolled in Florida,New Jersey, and New York Medicaid programs on January 1, 2004, remained in that program for 1 year and exposed to an AD medication were included. AD diagnosis was based on the ICD-9-CM code 331.0. Outcomes of interest were hospitalization and institutionalization. Multivariate logistic regression models were used to test for the association between outcomes of interest and demographics, resource utilization factors, and type of AD pharmacotherapy exposure. Results: A total of 65,442 individuals qualified for the study. Age was positively and significantly associated with hospitalization (p likely to be hospitalized than Florida residents (OR = 1.30; 99% CI: 1.17 - 1.44), where as New Jersey residents were significantly less likely to be hospitalized (OR = 0.75; 99% CI: 0.66 - 0.85). Finally, compared toFloridaresidents, residents of New Jerseywere significantly more likely to be institutionalized (OR = 4.61; 99% CI: 3.98 - 5.33). Conclusion: Demographics, state of residence and pharmacotherapy exposure weresignificant predictors of health care service utilization. Further pharmacoeconomic studies in AD medication therapy are warranted.


Age difference in the etiology of the relationship between childhood negative emotionality (NE) and conduct problems (CP) has not been previously investigated. Mothers of 662 pairs of twins completed questions on the emotionality (NE) scale of the EAS temperament survey and the CP scale of the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaires (SDQ) via a telephone interview. Twin data were analyzed separately in younger (ages 3 to 7 years; mostly pre-schoolers) and older children (ages 8 to 13 years; mostly elementary school children). The phenotypic correlation between NE and CP increased from 0.33 among younger twins to 0.43 among older twins. Bivariate model-fitting analysis was performed to determine age difference in the etiology of the relationship between NE and CP. Among younger twins, the correlation between NE and CP was entirely explained by additive genetic factors common to NE and CP. Among older children, however, a small but significant amount of unique environmental correlation emerged to account for about 47% of the phenotypic correlation between NE and CP. The remaining 53% of the phenotypic correlation was due to shared additive genetic factors. We speculate that environmental factors associated with school adjustment may exert influences on the relationship between NE and CP among elementary school children.


Classification is an important process in image processing applications, and image texture is the preferable source of information in images classification, especially in the context of real-world applications. However, the output of a typical texture feature descriptor often does not represent a wide range of different texture characteristics. Many research studies have contributed different descriptors to improve the extraction of features from texture. Among the various descriptors, the Local Binary Patterns (LBP) descriptor produces powerful information from texture by simple comparison between a central pixel and its neighbour pixels. In addition, to obtain sufficient information from texture, many research studies have proposed solutions based on combining complementary features together. Although feature-level fusion produces satisfactory results for certain applications, it suffers from an inherent and well-known problem called "the curse of dimensionality''. Feature selection deals with this problem effectively by reducing the feature dimensions and selecting only the relevant features. However, large feature spaces often make the process of seeking optimum features complicated.

This research introduces improved feature extraction methods by adopting a new approach based on new texture descriptors called Local Zone Binary Patterns (LZBP) and Local Multiple Patterns (LMP), which are both based on the LBP descriptor. The produced feature descriptors are combined with other complementary features to yield a unified vector. Furthermore, the combined features are processed by a new hybrid selection approach based on the Artificial Bee Colony and Neighbourhood Rough Set (ABC-NRS) to efficiently reduce the dimensionality of the resulting features from the feature fusion stage.

Comprehensive experimental testing and evaluation is carried out for different components of the proposed approach, and the novelty and limitation of the proposed approach have been demonstrated. The results of the evaluation prove the ability of the LZBP and LMP texture descriptors in improving feature extraction compared to the conventional LBP descriptor. In addition, the use of the hybrid ABC-NRS selection method on the proposed combined features is shown to improve the classification performance while achieving the shortest feature length. The overall proposed approach is demonstrated to provide improved texture-based image classification performance compared to previous methods using benchmarks based on outdoor scene images.

These research contributions thus represent significant advances in the field of texture-based image classification.


Electricity production in Lebanon stands at around 1.5 GW while the demand exceeds 2.5 GW at peak times and peak cooling demands, resulting in rationing cuts from between 3 to 20 hours a day which is the worst performance in the Middle East. Due to the country energy shortfall, a large number of small-scale backup generators is installed to address the electric and cooling needs. The proliferation of use of these backup generators presents an interesting potential for waste heat recovery in order to achieve additional power generation and cooling capacity production. This paper investigates two possible configurations for waste heat recovery: A first configuration studies the potential of combining an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) with a conventional vapor compression refrigeration cycle (VCRC) to meet the required cooling load. A second option evaluates the possibility of using a liquid desiccant cooling system (LDCS) to handle the latent part of the cooling load, in tandem with a conventional vapor compression refrigeration cycle handling the sensible part. The investigations are based on exergy and energy analysis carried out for both configurations to assess and compare their performance.


The evolutionary history of species is traditionally represented using a rooted phylogenetic tree. However, when reticulate events such as hybridization, horizontal gene transfer or recombination are believed to be involved, phylogenetic networks that can accommodate non-treelike evolution have an important role to play. This book provides the first interdisciplinary overview of phylogenetic networks. Beginning with a concise introduction to both phylogenetic trees and phylogenetic networks, the fundamental concepts and results are then presented for both rooted and unrooted phylogenetic networks. Current approaches and algorithms available for computing phylogenetic networks from different types of datasets are then discussed, accompanied by examples of their application to real biological datasets. The book also summarizes the algorithms used for drawing phylogenetic networks, along with the existing software for their computation and evaluation. All datasets, examples and other additional information and links are available from the book's companion website at: www.phylogenetic-networks.org.


We have employed electron-nuclear double resonance (ENDOR) spectroscopy to study the 57Fe hyperfine interactions in the bridged-siroheme [4Fe-4S] cluster that forms the catalytically active center of the two-electron-reduced hemoprotein subunit of Escherichia coli NADPH-sulfite reductase (SiR2-). Previous electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) and Mössbauer studies have shown that this enzyme oxidation state can exist in three distinct spectroscopic forms: (1) a "g = 2.29" EPR species that predominates in unligated SiR2-, in which the siroheme Fe2+ is believed to be in an S = 1 state; (2) a "g = 4.88" type of EPR species that predominates in SiR2- in the presence of small amounts of guanidinium sulfate, in which the siroheme Fe2+ is in an S = 2 state; and (3) a classical "g = 1.94" type of EPR species that is seen in SiR2- ligated with CO, in which the siroheme Fe2+ is in an S = 0 state. In all three species, the cluster is in the [4Fe-4S]1+ state, and two distinct types of Fe site are seen in Mössbauer spectroscopy. ENDOR studies confirm the Mössbauer assignments for the cluster 57Fe in the g = 1.94 state, with A values of 37, 37, and 32 MHz for site I and ca. 19 MHz for site II. The hyperfine interactions are not too different on the g = 2.29 state, with site I Fe showing more anisotropic A values of 32, 24, and 20 MHz (site II was not detected).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


This article provides an overview of previously published substudies on the psychological, neurobiological and sexual functioning, in victims of first time rape. The patient group consisted of 323 female adolescents aged 12–25 years who were admitted at the Psychotrauma Center for Children and Youth in the University Medical Center Utrecht (UMCU) for mental health treatment between 2005-2011. In this group, 79.6% and 20.4% reported rape and attempted rape respectively. Victims of chronic sexual abuse were excluded from the study. Results of the vari - ous substudies show that help-seeking victims of first rape reported high levels of psychological distress. Next, results show that adolescents with rape-related Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) have lower cor - tisol and dehydro-epiandrosteron sulfate (DHEAS) levels compared to non-victimized controls, suggesting dysregulated functioning of the biological stress system. Finally, it appeared that three years after receiv - ing evidence-based treatment for PTSD, victims were still significantly more likely to have a sexual dysfunction and a pelvic floor dysfunction compared to non-victimized controls. Summarized, the results lead to the suggestion that the experience of a first time rape has a significant negative impact on various life domains. Based on prior research, the authors argue that immediate professional help as provided to victims in the multidisciplinary Center for Sexual Assault can partly prevent the onset of problems as well as sexual revictimization.


We extend the well-known BFGS quasi-Newton method and its limited-memory variant LBFGS to the optimization of non-smooth convex objectives. This is done in a rigorous fashion by generalizing three components of BFGS to subdifferentials: The local quadratic model, the identification of a descent direction, and the Wolfe line search conditions. We apply the resulting subLBFGS algorithm to L2-regularized risk minimization with binary hinge loss, and its direction-finding component to L1-regularized risk minimization with logistic loss. In both settings our generic algorithms perform comparable to or better than their counterparts in specialized state-of-the-art solvers.


In two separate studies, members of 16 women's intramural volleyball teams (n = 94) and six women's intercollegiate volleyball teams (n = 68) completed pre-and postmatch questionnaires to determine the immediate effects of success-failure on perceptions of cohesion. A 2 × 2 (win-loss × pre-post) MANOVA on seven cohesion items yielded significant win-loss and pre-post main effects, and a significant win-loss by pre-post interaction for intramural teams. Univariate analyses indicated that winners increased and losers decreased in cohesion ratings from pre- to postmatch on three variables: level of teamwork, cohesion, and sense of belonging. Multivariate analyses yielded no significant effects for intercollegiate teams, although a univariate interaction similar to that in intramural teams was found for the cohesion variable. The results suggest that perceptions of cohesion are influenced by the immediate effects of win-loss.


We consider the problem of computing the best-fitting ReLU with respect to square-loss on a training set when the examples have been drawn according to a spherical Gaussian distribution (the labels can be arbitrary). Let $\opt < 1$ be the population loss of the best-fitting ReLU. We prove: \begin{itemize} \item Finding a ReLU with square-loss $\opt + \epsilon$ is as hard as the problem of learning sparse parities with noise, widely thought to be computationally intractable. This is the first hardness result for learning a ReLU with respect to Gaussian marginals, and our results imply --{\em unconditionally}-- that gradient descent cannot converge to the global minimum in polynomial time. \item There exists an efficient approximation algorithm for finding the best-fitting ReLU that achieves error $O(\opt^{2/3})$. The algorithm uses a novel reduction to noisy halfspace learning with respect to $0/1$ loss. \end{itemize} Prior work due to Soltanolkotabi \cite{soltanolkotabi2017learning} showed that gradient descent {\em can} find the best-fitting ReLU with respect to Gaussian marginals, if the training set is {\em exactly} labeled by a ReLU.


As the U.S. Supreme Court observed in Federal Maritime Commission v. South Carolina State Ports Authority, "[t]he founders . . . could not have anticipated the vast growth of the administrative state." As this growth has occurred in both size and scope in the U.S and in countries around the world, agency action has begun to directly impact the lives of individual citizens in a myriad of ways. This begs the question, how can agency action be checked to ensure these institutions do not infringe upon individual rights? Existing models of court-agency interaction have analyzed one check on agencies – the mechanism of judicial review. Yet, these models ignore the iterative process of court-agency interaction by failing to account for what occurs after a court has ruled on the validity of an agency action. Of equal import is what occurs after a court has rendered its decision, as court decisions are generally not self-enforcing. Moreover, in the context of administrative law judicial rulings often must be implemented by the same agency whose initial action was at issue in the case. To bring additional leverage to bear on our understanding of court-agency interaction, I develop a simple signaling game to model the process of judicial review and agency implementation. To capture the second stage of the process, I draw from the literature on implementation of judicial decisions to model agency implementation of judicial decision and the decision of courts to 'punish' agencies that shirk faithful implementation of their rulings. Additionally, I use the signaling aspect of the game to formalize the idea that the importance of all cases – or their salience – is not given equal weight by the actors. From this model, I derive implications about the impact of the costs and salience, on the strategic choices of the actors. I then conduct a preliminary test of the models prediction using a sample of immigration cases in the U.S. Courts of Appeals.


We'll post jobs here. Application details are included in each posting. Open: * Part Time Coach. We're always on the lookout for more coaches to help us expand our reach. If you're interested in coaching classes at PKV, please check out the PKV coach certification page first to see what it takes to be a coach here (Hint: lots of knowledge, lots of prep, and hands-on apprenticeship at PKV).


The well-established practice of time series analysis involves estimating deterministic, non-stationary trend and seasonality components followed by learning the residual stochastic, stationary components. Recently, it has been shown that one can learn the deterministic non-stationary components accurately using multivariate Singular Spectrum Analysis (mSSA) in the absence of a correlated stationary component; meanwhile, in the absence of deterministic non-stationary components, the Autoregressive (AR) stationary component can also be learnt readily, e.g. via Ordinary Least Squares (OLS). However, a theoretical underpinning of multi-stage learning algorithms involving both deterministic and stationary components has been absent in the literature despite its pervasiveness. We resolve this open question by establishing desirable theoretical guarantees for a natural two-stage algorithm, where mSSA is first applied to estimate the non-stationary components despite the presence of a correlated stationary AR component, which is subsequently learned from the residual time series. We provide a finite-sample forecasting consistency bound for the proposed algorithm, SAMoSSA, which is data-driven and thus requires minimal parameter tuning. To establish theoretical guarantees, we overcome three hurdles: (i) we characterize the spectra of Page matrices of stable AR processes, thus extending the analysis of mSSA; (ii) we extend the analysis of AR process identification in the presence of arbitrary bounded perturbations; (iii) we characterize the out-of-sample or forecasting error, as opposed to solely considering model identification. Through representative empirical studies, we validate the superior performance of SAMoSSA compared to existing baselines. Notably, SAMoSSA's ability to account for AR noise structure yields improvements ranging from 5% to 37% across various benchmark datasets.


Disaster occurrence around the world has in the past few decades increased at an alarming rate necessitating an urgent need for mitigation strategies. As a result, research has indicated the usefulness of Information Communication Technology (ICT) in disaster risk management. Furthermore, ICT generally plays a critical role in all aspects of disaster risk management such as: early warning prediction; informing and circulating information relating to disasters to communities especially those at risk as promptly as possible and providing communication structures immediately after a disaster occurrence. As part of its planning and precautionary measures in responding to disasters, the City of Cape Town Disaster Risk Management Centre (CoCTDRMC) implements public awareness programmes across the city. The most acclaimed is an annual awareness programme especially for high school learners selected from various schools across the city. The learner participants are expected to act as change agents in their communities. In 2012, learners from twelve different schools across the city benefited from this programme. They were expected to educate families, friends, schoolmates and communities generally on the topical issues surrounding disaster risk management. This study uses a case study approach. Since the target audience of the programme is the youth, there is need to shift towards utilising ICT. The aim of this paper is to look at how eLearning as an ICT tool can be integrated in the implementation of Public Awareness Education Programme (PAEP), so as to target broader audience and create an increased capacity building across the City of Cape Town (CoCT). The examination considers providing tools that are accessible, dependable, resilient and flexible among the residents so as to reach the grassroots levels where communities are mostly affected. The paper considers a combination of tools so as to support behavioural change. Some of the research findings are that, the 2012 programme was very beneficial and successful. Henceforth there is need to target a broader audience, and although the CoCTDRMC does make use of some relevant ICTs, there is need for additional and upgraded technological resources. Also pertinent is the fact that eLearning can play a major role in making sure that a broader audience is reached if applied effectively. The findings of the research are of relevance to the CoCTDRMC and other municipalities across South Africa. The Centre for Innovative Educational and Communication Technologies (CIECT) at the University of the Western Cape can also use these findings to develop and implement an eLearning course for both employees of CoCTDRMC and other interested community members. This will guide them on how eLearning can assist in fostering a successful implementation of PAEP across the city.


Many studies of Congress hold that congressional leaders are "agents" of their followers, ascertaining what legislators agree on and acting to advance those issues rather than stepping to the forefront to shape national policy or the institution they lead. Randall Strahan has long argued that this approach to understanding leadership is incomplete. Here he demonstrates why and explores the independent contributions leaders make in congressional politics. Leading Representatives is a study that draws on both historical and contemporary cases to show how leaders in the U.S. House have advanced changes inside Congress and in national policy. Exploring the tactics, tenure, and efficacy of the leadership of three of the most colorful and prominent Speakers of the House-Henry Clay, Thomas Reed, and Newt Gingrich-Strahan finds that these men, though separated in time and of differing thought and actions, were all leaders willing to take political risks to advance goals they cared about deeply. As a result, each acted independently of his followers to alter the political landscape. Strahan makes use of a wide range of resources, including the former representatives' papers and correspondence and interviews with Gingrich and his staffers, to demonstrate how these important leaders influenced policy and politics and where they ran aground. In expounding lessons Strahan has gleaned over two decades of studying U.S. legislative politics, Leading Representatives offers a new theoretical framework-the conditional agency perspective-that effectively links contextual perspectives as applied to congressional leadership with those emphasizing characteristics of individual leaders. This engagingly written book will be of interest to political scholars of all stripes as well as readers inclined to learn more about the history and inner workings of the House.


In eukaryotes, RNA polymerase II (PolII) dependent gene expression requires accessory factors termed transcriptional coregulators. One coregulator that universally contributes to PolII-dependent transcription is the Mediator, a multisubunit complex that is targeted by many transcriptional regulatory factors. For example, the Caenorhabditis elegans Mediator subunit MDT-15 confers the regulatory actions of the sterol response element binding protein SBP-1 and the nuclear hormone receptor NHR-49 on fatty acid metabolism. Here, we demonstrate that MDT-15 displays a broader spectrum of activities, and that it integrates metabolic responses to materials ingested by C. elegans. Depletion of MDT-15 protein or mutation of the mdt-15 gene abrogated induction of specific detoxification genes in response to certain xenobiotics or heavy metals, rendering these animals hypersensitive to toxin exposure. Intriguingly, MDT-15 appeared to selectively affect stress responses related to ingestion, as MDT-15 functional defects did not abrogate other stress responses, e.g., thermotolerance. Together with our previous finding that MDT-15:NHR-49 regulatory complexes coordinate a sector of the fasting response, we propose a model whereby MDT-15 integrates several transcriptional regulatory pathways to monitor both the availability and quality of ingested materials, including nutrients and xenobiotic compounds.


Obsidian is a volcanic glass which was highly prized in prehistoric times. Since its chemical composition depends on the local characteristics of the lava flow, several analytical methods have been employed to establish the provenance of the obsidian artefacts found in prehistoric sites, to identify the ways of the "ancient trade". These methods have become so successful that, besides distinguishing among different volcanoes, today it is even possible to discriminate among different flows of the same volcano. In fact the identification limit is not due to the method used, but to the intrinsic variability existing within the source. In the western Mediterranean, the two islands of Pantelleria and Lipari supplied all the material used for the artefacts found in Sicily and Tunisia. At Lipari, the differentiation among its sources has been made also on a time basis, with the Fission Tracks method, which determines the age of the mineral. At Pantelleria, chemical analytical methods have been able to distinguish among different layers of the same location. The first traces of obsidian use in the western Mediterranean are dated about 8,000 years ago, at the time of the eruptions of the Lipari flows, although the mineral was already available at Pantelleria. This date is confirmed in Sicily by a coherent set of findings, except for some oddly dated specimens. However, some clues like: the sizeable initial exploitation of Pantelleria obsidian, its gradual substitution almost everywhere by the Liparian mineral and the distribution of the Sicilian most ancient sites (seeming to indicate a diffusion process from west to east), hint that the exploitation of Pantelleria obsidian could have started earlier than today established. In principle the hypothesis is not absurd, if we remember that the first documented use of obsidian by Anatomically Modern Humans belongs to 125 thousand years ago on the shores of the Red Sea and that 65 thousand years ago, men showed their seafaring ability colonizing Australia, which was not connected to Asia by land. Moreover, an earlier seafaring would have been eased by the shorter marine distances. Note, for instance, that at the peak of the Ice Age, the sea level was about 130 metres lower than today and that Pantelleria, then the only provider of obsidian in the region, was much closer to the mainland, while the Straits of Sicily were much narrower and easily navigable. Due to the rapid cooling needed to its formation, it is unsurprising that, in the small islands of Pantelleria and Lipari, the obsidian flows are often hosted in cliffs plunging into the sea. Their orographic configurations suggest that some obsidian ores could be present in the underwater continuation of the cliffs. Owing to the sea level changes occurred since the end of the Ice Age, these possible underwater ores would have been emerged and accessible sometime in the past, with a precise correlation between depth and time of emersion. The possibility to attribute artefacts to a submarine flow would then set a time threshold to the period of the mineral collection, possibly pushing back the period of the first obsidian exploitation. The presence of such a missing source at Pantelleria is suggested by the existence of artefacts found in Sicily, having the overall characteristics of the Pantelleria mineral, but not belonging to any of the known flows. The peculiar orographic characteristic of the main Pantelleria source at Balata dei Turchi, made of stratified horizontal layers of obsidian in a cliff created by marine erosion suggest where to search. The obsidian layers are naturally ordered in temporal sequence, the oldest layer laying at the bottom of the sequence. Thus, should the unattributed artefacts denounce a Fission Tracks age older than the bottom flow, the hint for an underlying, possibly submerged, flow would be very strong.


A general method based on adjoint formulation is discussed for the optimal control of distributed parameter systems (including boundary parameter) which is especially suitable for large dimensional control problems. Strategies for efficient and robust implementation of the method are described. A set of consistency checks are proposed for the validation of the adjoint code. The method is applied to the problem of controlling vor-tex shedding behind a cylinder (through suction/ blowing on the cylinder surface) governed by the unsteady two-dimensional incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with time-dependent boundary conditions. Three types of objective functions are considered, with regularization to circumvent ill-posedness. These objective functions involve integration over a space-time domain. A complete control of vortex shedding is demonstrated for Reynolds numbers up to 110. The optimal values of the suction/blowing parameters are found to be insensitive to initial conditions of the model when the time window of control is larger than the vortex shedding period, the inverse of the Strouhal frequency. Although this condition is necessary for robust control, it is observed that a shorter window of control may suffice to suppress vortex shedding.


The Belousov-Zhabotinsky (BZ) chemical oscillator is the most studied oscillator. It has been modelled on the basis of single-step mechanisms which have been continuously refined since the seminal manuscript by Field, Koros and Noyes in 1972. This manuscript reports on a unique way of modelling the global dynamics of the oscillator by assuming that the BZ oscillator has shown chaotic behaviour. The unique mathematical definition of chaos is very stringent, and, in this manuscript, we attempt to trace this unique exotic behaviour by the use of 'onto' maps of the interval onto itself which are known to exhaustively show a universal sequence of states that has all the hallmarks of chaotic behaviour. A series of one-humped maps of the interval display, through iterations and subsequent symbolic dynamics, a universal sequence of steps that commence with period-doubling, culminating in chaotic behaviour at some accumulation point of an appropriate bifurcation parameter.We put this theory to the test for the BZ oscillator in this manuscript by selecting a unique continuous map of the interval. This was then decomposed by an iterative treatment. Metric entropy and subsequent arbiter of chaotic behaviour was determined by evaluation of Lyapunov exponents which were then compared to observed BZ oscillator states. Our proposed map satisfactorily modelled the global dynamics of the BZ oscillator; predicted period-doubling, and a regime after a critical bifurcation parameter, where chaotic sequences were dense.We also produce, in the Addendum, an iterative MatLab procedure that any reader can utilize to reveal the type of states and behaviour reported here.


Iceland, Denmark and contributions from Finland provides the first comprehensive and unified treatment of historical and contemporary research trends in mathematics education in the Nordic world. The book is organized in sections co-ordinated by active researchers in mathematics education in Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Denmark, and Finland. The purpose of this sourcebook is to synthesize and survey the established body of research in these countries with findings that have influenced ongoing research agendas, informed practice, framed curricula and policy. The sections for each country also include historical articles in addition to exemplary examples of recently conducted research oriented towards the future. The book will serve as a standard reference for mathematics education researchers, policy makers, practitioners and students both in and outside the Nordic countries. This Sourcebook includes over 50 chapters from the Nordic world. Section I- Norwegian Research in Mathematics Education Section Editor: Simon Goodchild Introduction to the Norwegian part of the Sourcebook of Nordic Research in Mathematics Education Simon Goodchild The development of mathematics education as a research field in Norway - an insider's personal reflections, Trygve Breiteig and Simon Goodchild Section II- Swedish Research in Mathematics Education Section Editor: Christer Bergsten Mathematics education research in Sweden - An introduction Christer Bergsten Some theoretical orientations of Swedish research Learning difficulties and mathematical reasoning Johan Lithner, Torulf Palm Section III - Icelandic Research in Mathematics Education Section Editors: Guðbjorg Palsdottir, Bharath Sriraman Mathematics Education in Iceland: Explaining the Non-homogeneity in a Homogenous System, Guðný Helga Gunnarsdottir, Guðbjorg Palsdottir, Bharath Sriraman The History of Public Education in Mathematics in Iceland and its Relations to Secondary Education, Kristin Bjarnadottir Section IV - Danish Research in Mathematics Education Section Editors: Bettina Dahl, Bharath Sriraman Section V- Contributions from Finland Section Editor: Lenni Haapasalo


A comparative study of the application of Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) and Radial Basis Function (RBF) in biometric recognition of voice has been carried out and presented. The application of machine learning techniques to biometric authentication and recognition problems has gained a widespread acceptance. In this research, a GMM model was trained, using Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm, on a dataset containing 10 classes of vowels and the model was used to predict the appropriate classes using a validation dataset. For experimental validity, the model was compared to the performance of two different versions of RBF model using the same learning and validation datasets. The results showed very close recognition accuracy between the GMM and the standard RBF model, but with GMM performing better than the standard RBF by less than 1% and the two models outperformed similar models reported in literature. The DTREG version of RBF outperformed the other two models by producing 94.8% recognition accuracy. In terms of recognition time, the standard RBF was found to be the fastest among the three models.


Proline-rich sequences (PRS) and their recognition domains have emerged as transposable protein interaction modules during eukaryotic evolution. They are especially abundant in proteins associated with pre-mRNA splicing and likely assist in the formation of the spliceosome by binding to GYF and WW domains. Here we profile PRS-mediated interactions of the CD2BP2/52K GYF domain by a site-specific peptide inhibitor and stable isotope labeling/mass spectrometry analysis. Several PRS hubs with multiple proline-rich motifs exist that can recruit GYF and/or WW domains. Saturating the PRS sites by an isolated GYF domain inhibited splicing at the level of A complex formation. The interactions mediated by PRS are therefore important to the early phases of spliceosomal assembly.


Multidisciplinary Scheduling: Theory and Applications is a volume of nineteen reviewed papers that were selected from the sixty-seven papers presented during the First Multidisciplinary International Conference of Scheduling (MISTA). This is the initial volume of MISTAthe primary forum on interdisciplinary research on scheduling research. Each paper in the volume has been rigorously reviewed and carefully copyedited to ensure its readability. The MISTA volume focuses on the following leading edge topics: Fundamentals of Scheduling, Multi-Criteria Scheduling, Personnel Scheduling, Scheduling in Space, Scheduling the Internet, Machine Scheduling, Bin Packing, Educational Timetabling, Sports Scheduling, and Transport Scheduling.


Borehole logs from the northern Barbados accretionary prism show that the plateboundary decollement initiates in a low-density radiolarian claystone. With continued thrusting, the decollement zone consolidates, but in a patchy manner. The logs calibrate a threedimensional seismic reflection image of the decollement zone and indicate which portions are of low density and enriched in fluid, and which portions have consolidated. The seismic image demonstrates that an underconsolidated patch of the decollement zone connects to a fluid-rich conduit extending down the decollement surface. Fluid migration up this conduit probably supports the open pore structure in the underconsolidated patch. on January 19, 2013 geology.gsapubs.org Downloaded from


As the level of chip-integration continues to advance at a fast pace, the desire for efficient interconnects - whether on-chip or off-chip - is rapidly increasing. Traditional interconnects like buses, point-to-point wires, and regular topologies may suffer from poor resource sharing in the time and space domains, leading to high contention or low resource utilization. In this paper, we propose a design methodology for constructing networks for special-purpose computer systems with well-behaved (known) communication characteristics. A temporal and spatial model is proposed to define the sufficient condition for contention-free communication. Based upon this model, a design methodology using a recursive bisection technique is applied to systematically partition a parallel system such that the required number of links and switches is minimized while achieving low contention. Results show that the design methodology can generate more optimized on-chip networks with up to 60 percent fewer resources than meshes or tori while providing blocking performance closer to that of a fully connected crossbar.


One of the greatest problems facing the current patent administration is a long patent pendency period. This study focuses on Request for Continued Examination (RCE) practice, and its effects on the current patent application backlog problem. RCEs are used to continue prosecution after a patent examiner has issued a final rejection. However, now that RCEs are placed on an examiner's special docket, some examiners may pick up prosecution one to two years after the last action. Accordingly, there are great inefficiencies that may be created by this delay, such as relearning issues and questions from the previous action, diminished value of examiner interviews, and a higher likelihood of transfer to a new examiner. This study suggests that the RCE problem may be much worse for some art units compared to others. Specifically, the RCE problem is unevenly distributed between certain art units with technology center 1600 (biotechnology and organic chemistry) suffering the most from unexamined RCEs, while technology center 2800 (semiconductors, electrical and optical systems and components) remain unaffected. This RCE backlog can result in a delay of approximately three years for some art units. Possible solutions to the RCE problem would create a two track examiner specialization program, one track focusing on drafting office actions, and a second track focusing on finding relevant prior art. Another possible solution would be create a new type of request to reopen prosecution after final to allow applicants to enter new narrowing amendments or add new declarations without adding new arguments. A final solution may be to place the RCE back in the examiner's normal docket and not the examiner's special new docket.