New residential construction is a primary user of wood products in the United States; therefore, wood products projections require understanding the determinants of housing starts. We model quarterly US total, single-family, and multifamily housing starts with several model specifications, using data from 1979 to 2008, and evaluate their fit out of sample, 2009 –14. Goodness-of-fit statistics show that parsimonious models outperform general models in out-of-sample predictions. Monte Carlo simulations of total housing starts to 2070 project median starts ranging from 0.86 million/year at 0% real gross domestic product (GDP) growth to 1.91 million/year at 5% real growth, with 90% uncertainty bounds ranging from 0.52 to 2.13 million/year. Assuming that future GDP growth equals the average rate observed over 1990 –2015, there is less than 9% probability that housing starts will exceed 2.0 million in any given year, 2016 –35. Results show no evidence of structural change in the determinants of total or single-family housing starts coincident with the recession of 2007– 09. Using these housing projections in a softwood lumber consumption model shows that GDP growth slower than 2% is consistent with stagnant or declining median softwood lumber consumption.


Standard methods of spectral analysis are adapted to the interpretation of biomedical time series data with replication across subjects. The methodology is applied to two sets of data consisting of concentrations of luteinizing hormone in serial blood samples. For such data, the between-subject variability in periodogram ordinates at a given frequency is typically larger than would be implied by the usual asymptotic distribution theory for single series. We interpret this to mean that the underlying spectrum of the stochastic process representing the time variation in hormone concentration varies randomly between subjects. We describe simple random effects models to account for this extra variability and develop likelihood-based methods of inference, using a Monte Carlo integration method to evaluate the likelihood function. For our first data set, which comprises hormone concentrations in blood samples taken from eight subjects at 1 min intervals for 1 h, our model captures the qualitative behaviour of the between-subject variation in the spectrum. We conclude that there is a genuine high frequency component of variation in hormone concentrations and that the amplitude and frequency of this high frequency component vary between subjects. Our second data set relates to a similar sampling protocol, except that each subject is sampled before and after hormone replacement therapy. We conclude that this intervention has a significant effect on the spectrum.


We study the cost sharing problem for cooperative games in situations where the cost function C is not available via oracle queries, but must instead be learned from samples drawn from a distribution, represented as tuples (S, C(S)), for different subsets S of players. We formalize this approach, which we call statistical cost sharing, and consider the computation of the core and the Shapley value. Expanding on the work by Balcan et al, we give precise sample complexity bounds for computing cost shares that satisfy the core property with high probability for any function with a non-empty core. For the Shapley value, which has never been studied in this setting, we show that for submodular cost functions with curvature bounded curvature kappa it can be approximated from samples from the uniform distribution to a sqrt{1 - kappa} factor, and that the bound is tight. We then define statistical analogues of the Shapley axioms, and derive a notion of statistical Shapley value and that these can be approximated arbitrarily well from samples from any distribution and for any function.


This guide is an introduction to service design and improvement methodology and its application in Higher and Further Education. It introduces a key technique service blueprinting which has been used successfully at the University of Derby in the Development and Review of Business Interfaces (DERBI) project to improve the transition stage from applicant to registered student, with a specific focus on the university enrolment process. Together with a theoretical introduction to service design, the guide provides illustrative examples (coloured boxes) of how service blueprinting can be applied. Service Design in Higher and Further Education


This article focuses on a method to relocate the robotic fingertips on the surface of the object when the fingertips instantaneously hold the object under precision grasp. Precision grasp involves holding the object using fingertips. Finger gaiting involves repositioning the fingertips on the surface of the object and then manipulation of the object. During repositioning, one contact point leaves the object surface and recontacts at the other point. A metric is defined on the set of feasible grasp configurations to limit deviation from force closure during repositioning of the fingertips. Then, a manipulability-based metric is described to search for the optimal goal grasp states on the object's surface. The manipulability-based metric is used to search the grasp state to relocate the contacts, such that the range of object motion is increased.


Conformal field theories have been long known to describe the fascinating universal physics of scale invariant critical points. They describe continuous phase transitions in fluids, magnets, and numerous other materials, while at the same time sit at the heart of our modern understanding of quantum field theory. For decades it has been a dream to study these intricate strongly coupled theories nonperturbatively using symmetries and other consistency conditions. This idea, called the conformal bootstrap, saw some successes in two dimensions but it is only in the last ten years that it has been fully realized in three, four, and other dimensions of interest. This renaissance has been possible both due to significant analytical progress in understanding how to set up the bootstrap equations and the development of numerical techniques for finding or constraining their solutions. These developments have led to a number of groundbreaking results, including world record determinations of critical exponents and correlation function coefficients in the Ising and $O(N)$ models in three dimensions. This article will review these exciting developments for newcomers to the bootstrap, giving an introduction to conformal field theories and the theory of conformal blocks, describing numerical techniques for the bootstrap based on convex optimization, and summarizing in detail their applications to fixed points in three and four dimensions with no or minimal supersymmetry.


Experiments in underground laboratories have shown strong evidence of physics beyond the Standard Model. The anomalies observed in electron neutrinos from the sun and muon neutrinos from cosmic rays interacting in the atmosphere can be explained if neutrinos are massive and oscillate. The physics program at the Gran Sasso Laboratory that we are defining will focus on the next phase of neutrino physics with a complementary set of experiments on the muon-neutrino beam from CERN (CNGS project), on solar neutrinos, on atmospheric neutrinos and on neutrinos from supernova explosions. The relevant thermonuclear cross-sections will be measured. The Majorana vs. Dirac nature of electron neutrinos will be explored with the search for neutrinoless double beta decays in different isotopes. Experiments on non-baryonic dark matter are reaching a sensitivity that brings them close to being able to detect neutralinos in certain optimistic theoretical expectations. The program at Gran Sasso for the next years will include a strong effort to increase further the sensitivity by orders of magnitude with different complementary techniques.


The conversion of lignocellulosic biomass to methane is a promising way to distribute a renewable resource as a versatile energy vector in an existing grid. Potentially more efficient than the production of liquid fuels, it can be used as Synthetic Natural Gas (SNG) as automotive fuel or in combined heat and power (CHP) applications at any scale. Based on a detailed thermo-economic process model for the thermochemical production of SNG (Gassner and Marechal, Biomass and Bioenergy 33 (2009), 1587-1604), the paper addresses the multi-objective optimisation of all relevant technology combinations of the developed general process superstructure with respect to cost and efficiency (see explanatory information). In particular, the paper will discuss the influence of the technological alternatives and its operating conditions on the process design and performance and present the optimal process configurations for the polygeneration of fuel, heat and power at multiple scales.


Measurements were made of the cooling on the fronts of model cylinders in a conventional cowling for cooling in both the ground and the cruising conditions. The mechanisms of front and rear cooling are essentially different. Cooling on the rear baffled part of the cylinders continually increases with increasing fin width. For the front of the cylinder, an optimum fin width was found to exist beyond which an increase in width reduced the heat transfer. The heat transfer coefficient on the front of the cylinders was larger on the side of the cylinder facing the propeller swirl than on the opposite side. This effect became more pronounced as the fin width was increased. These results are introductory to the study of front cooling and show the general effect of several test parameters.


Purpose – The purpose of this research is to analyse the display of digital images found on clothing and textile collection websites. Design/methodology/approach – Features noted included where on the website the images were found, such as in a display or as part of a database. Display features are documented, including enlargement abilities, the view of the artefact, the use of dress forms and mannequins, and the context in which the artefact was pictured. The text that describes the artefact is also documented. The instrument was a content analysis of clothing and textile collection websites. Data were collected in 2006 from 57 clothing and textile collection websites. Findings – All 57 costume and textile museums had images of collection artefacts online, with the majority sharing a featured artefact. Almost half of the websites used images in databases and displays. Enlargement abilities were not common; most of the visuals showed the front view of the artefact. Enlargements were more common in displays. Mannequins and dress forms were used infrequently. Detailed text to explain the artefacts was available in the databases. Research limitations/implications – The research was limited to observing 57 websites. Originality/value – Common features used by costume and textile museums when displaying collection pieces online were identified. Suggestions as to what content to include in a website for clothing and textile collections are discussed in light of the data collected.


Decades of research and discussion have shown that the human population growth and our increased consumption of natural resources cannot continue - there are limits to growth. This volume demonstrates how we might modify and revise our economic systems using nature as a model. The book describes how nature uses three growth forms: biomass, information, and networks, resulting in improved overall ecosystem functioning and co-development. As biomass growth is limited by available resources, nature uses the two other growth forms to achieve higher resource use efficiency. Through a universal application of the three 'R's: reduce, reuse, and recycle, nature thus shows us a way forward towards better solutions. However, our current approach, dominated by short-term economic thinking, inhibits full utilization of the three 'R's and other successful approaches from nature. Building on ecological principles, the authors present a global model and futures scenario analyses which show that implementation of the proposed changes will lead to a win-win situation. In other words, we can learn from nature how to develop a society that can flourish within the limits to growth with better conditions for prosperity and well-being.


The question of resource scarcity and emerging pressure of environmentallegislations have put the manufacturing industry with a new challenge. On theone side, there is a huge population that demands a large quantity ofcommodities, on the other side, these demands have to be met by minimumresources and with permissible pollution that the earth's ecosystem can handle.In this situation, technologic breakthrough that can offer alternative resourceshas become essential. Unfortunately, breakthroughs do not follow any rule ofthumb and while waiting for a miracle, the manufacturing industry has to findways to conserve resources. Within this research the anatomy of a large body ofknowledge has been performed to find the best available practices for resourceconservation. Critical review of the research revealed that none of the availablesolutions are compatible with the level of resource conservation desired by themanufacturing industry or by society. It has also been discovered that a largegap exists between the solutions perceived by the scientists and theapplicability of those solutions. Through careful evaluation of the state-of-theart,the research presented in this thesis introduced a solution of maximizingresource conservation i.e., material, energy and value added, as used inmanufacturing. The solutions emerged from the novel concept named asResource Conservative Manufacturing, which is built upon the concept ofMultiple Lifecycle of product. Unlike other research work, the researchdocumented in this thesis started with the identification of the problem andfrom which a 'wish to do' list was drawn. The seriousness of the problem andpotential of adopting the proposed concept has been justified with concreteinformation. A great number of arguments have been presented to show theexisting gaps in the research and from that, a set of solutions to conserveresources has been proposed. Finally, one of the prime hypotheses concerningclosed loop supply chain has been validated through the system dynamicsmodeling and simulation.


The MacCrate Report outlined ten skills that are essential for every practicing attorney and should ideally be taught in every law school. The Association of American Law Schools (AALS) concluded that these ten skills cannot be effectively obtained through every law school curriculum because of each school's individual, economic limitations. This article demonstrates how one law school - William Mitchell College of Law, in St. Paul, Minnesota - has , since 1984, incorporated a cost effective Legal Practicum course into its curriculum to help meet the MacCrate Report goal of providing the law student with the opportunity to learn and apply fundamental lawyering skills. Part II of the article defines, describes, and highlights the "learning by doing" philosophy of The Legal Practicum, the course created by William Mitchell College of Law professors. Part III addresses teaching/learning theory and the educational reasons why The Legal Practicum is successful. Part IV outlines the administrative aspects of The Legal Practicum and how it can be added to existing law school curricula. Implementation of The Legal Practicum can help overcome many criticisms of legal education and can assist the law student in achieving the fundamental lawyering skills described by the MacCrate Report.


Modern deep learning methods are very sensitive to many hyperparameters, and, due to the long training times of state-of-the-art models, vanilla Bayesian hyperparameter optimization is typically computationally infeasible. On the other hand, bandit-based configuration evaluation approaches based on random search lack guidance and do not converge to the best configurations as quickly. Here, we propose to combine the benefits of both Bayesian optimization and bandit-based methods, in order to achieve the best of both worlds: strong anytime performance and fast convergence to optimal configurations. We propose a new practical state-of-the-art hyperparameter optimization method, which consistently outperforms both Bayesian optimization and Hyperband on a wide range of problem types, including high-dimensional toy functions, support vector machines, feed-forward neural networks, Bayesian neural networks, deep reinforcement learning, and convolutional neural networks. Our method is robust and versatile, while at the same time being conceptually simple and easy to implement.


The authors describe their experience as anthropological field researchers in Sicily – first, during the 1960s and 1970s in a rural town of the interior, and subsequently during the 1980s and 1990s in Palermo. Focusing initially on the intersection of political economy and cultural practices in the social history of a peasant society, they found their attention drawn to the issue of mafia influence. Subsequently they became interested in the dynamics of the antimafia process. Over time, the research itself as well as the work of Sicilian scholars and activists led the authors to change their minds about the organization of the Sicilian mafia and its historical role in the development of Italian capitalism.


Medical science has undergone a substantial revolution in recent years, wherein the traditional approach to diagnosing and treating many human diseases has gradually evolved from a generalized conception of health and disease to an individualized approach entailing decisions and interventions tailored to the single patient according to individual responses or risk of disease. This axiom has evolved from concept to practice, and has been translated into the notion of "personalized" or "precision" medicine. Although precision (personalized) medicine will be the core opportunity for effective care in the anticipatable future, many political, economic and cultural challenges need to be overwhelmed, and these include some ongoing healthcare reforms around the globe, cost containment strategies, consolidation of laboratories and in vitro diagnostic testing, as well as the impact of new technologies and tests on the existing laboratory organization. Therefore, the aim of this article is to discuss some of the several changes which may ultimately drive or challenge the future of laboratory medicine in the era of precision medicine.


The propagation and reflection of electromagnetic waves in stratified and nonstationary media are considered on the basis of a unified approach, using exact analytical solutions of Maxwell's equations. In this approach, the spatial structure of a wave field in an inhomogeneous medium is presented as a function of the optical path length of the wave (a one-dimensional problem). These solutions predict strong dispersion of both normal and abnormal types to occur in a given medium, the magnitude of dispersion depending on the gradient and curvature of the continuous smooth profile of the material's inhomogeneous dielectric susceptibility ε(z). The effect of such a nonlocal dispersion on the reflection of waves is described by generalized Fresnel formulas. Exactly solvable models are introduced to describe the effects of both monotonic and oscillatory ε(t) dependences on the wave dispersion due to the finite relaxation time of the dielectric constant.


ABSTRACT Against the background of degrading livelihoods, mounting inequalities and related protests in rural areas of Morocco and Algeria, this article mobilises the concept of the rural social contract to analyze changes in the strategic alliances between central regimes and rural elites. It reveals how economic liberalisation reforms have affected the agricultural sector and changed the way both regimes grant their supporters access to water and land in exchange for loyalty. It also highlights that in order to maintain social peace in a context of increasing difficulties for the farmers, regimes tolerate rule-transgression in the use of water, land, and other production resources which, in turn, threatens the sustainability of current arrangements.


Major, trace and rare-earth elements were determined, together with their Rb-Sr, Sm-Nd and Pb-Pb isotopic systems, on shales from the ~3.5 to 3.1 Ga old Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa, to constrain their source materials and post-depositional evolution, on the basis of successive potential alteration impacts. A progressive change in the chemical composition has been identified from a dominant ultramafic-mafic (such as a komatiite end-member) source for the Fig Tree Group to a progressively felsic-plutonic (such as a granite end-member) provenance for the Moodies Group. The SiO 2 , K 2 O, U, Rb, Ba, and Sr contents, and the Zr/Y ratio increase upwards the stratigraphy, while the MgO, Fe 2 O 3 contents, and the Sm/Nd and Cr/Zr ratios decrease. Both groups of rocks yield also high concentrations of Cr and Ni in comparison to other Archean shales. The shales of the Fig Tree Group yield varied REE patterns with average La N /Yb N ratios of 6.6 ± 1.9 (2σ), while those of the Moodies Group yield more fractionated REE patterns with La N /Yb N ratios of 8.8 ± 4.6. An upward increase in the Gd N /Yb N , Th/Sc, La/Sc and La/Yb ratios, and a decrease in the Sm/Nd ratio, all reflect a change from an initial relatively undifferentiated mafic upper-crustal provenance to a more differentiated felsic source. The Rb-Sr and Pb-Pb isotopic ages point to a tectono-thermal episode at ~2.7 to ~2.6 Ga in the Fig Tree shales, while those of the Moodies Group are less constrained and point to a younger activity at about ~2.3 to ~2.2 Ga. The depleted mantle Sm-Nd model ages (T DM ) are widely scattered between ~3.85 and ~3.02 Ga for the two groups of shales, suggesting mixing of materials from both mafic and felsic origins. The Rb-Sr and Pb-Pb ages resulted from extensive fluid migrations during tectono-thermal episodes that disturbed and even reset completely the examined isotopic systems. Some high e Nd values for the sedimentary rocks at the time of deposition reflect an initial heterogeneity of the Sm-Nd chronometer.


We introduce context embeddings, dense vectors derived from a language model that represent the left/right context of a word instance, and demonstrate that context embeddings significantly improve the accuracy of our transition based parser. Our model consists of a bidirectional LSTM (BiLSTM) based language model that is pre-trained to predict words in plain text, and a multi-layer perceptron (MLP) decision model that uses features from the
language model to predict the correct actions for an ArcHybrid transition based parser. We participated in the CoNLL 2017 UD Shared Task as the "Koc University" team and our system was ranked 7th out of 33 systems that parsed 81 treebanks in 49 languages.


Sports have been frequently explored in cross-cultural studies, yet scant attention has been paid to female participation. Here we coded the occurrence of sports and related activities for males and females in the societies comprising the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF) probability sample. We then tested several predictions derived from evolutionary theory. As predicted, in all 50 societies with documented sports, there were more male sports than female sports; hunting and combat sports were almost exclusively male activities; and the sex difference in sports was greater in patriarchal than in nonpatriarchal societies. These results show that a robust sex difference in direct physical competition co-occurs with meaningful variation in its expression.


Title of Document: STRUCTURING BIODEFENSE: LEGACIES AND CURRENT POLICY CHOICES Stacy M. Okutani, Doctor of Philosophy, 2007 Directed By: Professor John D. Steinbruner School of Public Policy Policies are usually initiated in response to specific circumstances, but they do not become effective unless they are embedded in operating institutions. Understanding the historical process through which policies evolve is essential for assessing their character and their consequence. This study is a detailed history of the US bioweapons program from its inception to the present. It is an original analysis based on archival documents and scientific reports. The issue is, does the application of national security measures such as the classification of scientific programs improve biodefense? Initial organization of the US bioweapons program as a secret, military program that performed threat assessment work (1941-1969) led to the development and stockpiling of biological weapons for deterrence, but few medical defenses. A strategic review in 1969 concluded that bioweapons were not useful for legitimate military missions and did not enhance US deterrence. It also concluded that proliferation threatened the US. To reduce proliferation, the US destroyed its bioweapons arsenal and enforced the norm against bioweapons acquisition by signing the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BWC) in 1972. Subsequent organization of the US biodefense program was as an unclassified military medical research program. This work at the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) improved medical countermeasures without a concomitant classified, offensive program. However, in response to the terrorist attacks of 2001, the US is again imposing secrecy over important aspects of its biodefense work, including its threat assessment work. Based on the analysis here, current policy will increase the risk to US security by both enlarging the threat space and reducing defensive options. STRUCTURING BIODEFENSE: LEGACIES AND CURRENT POLICY CHOICES


Direct review by the Courts (e. g . by prerogative writs) of Executive acts and decisions generally provides the individual citizen with a means of overcoming for the future the adverse effects of such decisions and actions, but it does not provide any means of compensating him for detriments to his interests already caused . Such detriments will generally be those which have accrued in full by the time the decision is reviewed but may in some cases be of a continuing nature, e. g . where, because of refusal of a licence, a business opportunity is lost. Tort actions against the State on the other hand, will allow the Courts not only to examine the actions of State servants, and determine whether they conform with the Courts' view of the proper behaviour of officials but also, and principally, to compensate the individual citizen whose interests have been affected by State action. Such actions may thus furnish an indirect means of control of the Executive as well as a means of compensation for injury.


African-American Culture and History on CD-ROM. Release 1.0. New York: Macmillan Library Reference, 1999. Price: $450. (ISBN 0-02-865364-5). www.mlr.com. Requirements: 486-66 PC/compatible or higher; CD-ROM drive; 36 MB hard disk space (only 18 MB if a Macmillan Library Reference CD-ROM using Netscape Navigator 4.0 and the PL-Web CD software has already been installed); 16 MB RAM or higher; SVGA monitor; TCP/IP Internet protocol. Optional: printer. Unlimited LAN networking allowed. Macmillan's African-American Culture and History on CD-ROM contains the fulltext of the five-volume Encyclopedia of African-American Culture and History (1996) for which approximately 250 of the 2,300 articles were updated and an additional 30 new articles added. Also included on the CD-ROM are selections from the Macmillan Encyclopedia of World Slavery (1998) and selected maps from The African-American Atlas: Black History and Culture--An Illustrated Reference (1998). Other highlights of the disc are the inclusion of more than one thousand images, forty-five primary source documents, and an extensive timeline. The titles listed above form the core of information on the disc. A navigation menu bar offers the "Photo Gallery," "Historic Tours," "Timeline," "Search," "People Search," and an "Outline of Contents." The useful "Timeline" feature organizes nearly all the disc's contents in chronological order. A sophisticated full-text search tool allows access by keyword (with Boolean, phrase, and various limiting functions) to any article in the text and the "People Search" lets users focus their searches on specific biographically related search fields (occupation, birthplace). The "Photo Gallery" allows the user to browse chronologically through selected images on the disc. There is no true multimedia to be found on this disc; the "Photo Gallery" is the only nod to the visual possibilities of the medium. The illustrations in the photo gallery are well selected. Historic items are nearly all from the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture (at the New York Public Library) and the Library of Congress. More recent photographs are credited to Associated Press/Wide World Photos. Seven "historical tours" that outline such topics as the Underground Railroad, the slave trade, the northward migration, and the civil rights movement each provide a helpful, concise introduction to the topic with links to articles in the main body of the CD-ROM for more in-depth information on related topics. …


Abstract Changes in the frequency, duration, and intensity of rainfall events are among the abiotic effects predicted under anthropogenic global warming. Heavy downpours may profoundly affect the development and survival of small organisms such as insects. Here, we examined direct (physically on the insects) and indirect (plant‐mediated) effects of simulated downpours on the performance of caterpillars of two lepidopteran herbivores (Plutella xylostella and Pieris brassicae) feeding on black mustard (Brassica nigra) plants. Host plants were exposed to different rainfall regimes both before and while caterpillars were feeding on the plants in an attempt to separate direct and indirect (plant‐mediated) effects of rainfall on insect survival and development. In two independent experiments, downpours were simulated as a single long (20 min) or as three short (5 min) daily events. Downpours had a strong negative direct effect on the survival of P. xylostella, but not on that of P. brassicae. Direct effects of downpours consistently increased development time of both herbivore species, whereas effects on body mass depended on herbivore species and downpour frequency. Caterpillar disturbance by rain and recorded microclimatic cooling by 5°C may explain extended immature development. Indirect, plant‐mediated effects of downpours on the herbivores were generally small, despite the fact that sugar concentrations were reduced and herbivore induction of secondary metabolites (glucosinolates) was enhanced in plants exposed to rain. Changes in the frequency of precipitation events due to climate change may impact the survival and development of insect herbivores differentially. Broader effects of downpours on insects and other arthropods up the food chain could seriously impair and disrupt trophic interactions, ultimately destabilizing communities.


In the last decade aminosugars, especially d-glucoamine based organocatalysts, have been applied to catalyze various asymmetric reactions such as aldol reactions, Michael addition, Strecker reactions, Biginelli reactions, epoxidation, fluorination, and imine reduction, and for the synthesis of various biologically important molecules such as 3-alkylnitro-2-hydroxynaphthoquinones, trans-dihydrobenzofurans etc. Immense growth has been also observed in the structural modification of aminosugar based organocatalysts to obtain the best results from them. This review sheds light on such organocatalytic transformations reported in last the decade including the effect of the structural modification of sugar amines on their catalytic efficiency and the stereoselectivity of the reaction.


We focus on the problem of efficient sampling and learning of probability densities by incorporating symmetries in probabilistic models. We first introduce Equivariant Stein Variational Gradient Descent algorithm -- an equivariant sampling method based on Stein's identity for sampling from densities with symmetries. Equivariant SVGD explicitly incorporates symmetry information in a density through equivariant kernels which makes the resultant sampler efficient both in terms of sample complexity and the quality of generated samples. Subsequently, we define equivariant energy based models to model invariant densities that are learned using contrastive divergence. By utilizing our equivariant SVGD for training equivariant EBMs, we propose new ways of improving and scaling up training of energy based models. We apply these equivariant energy models for modelling joint densities in regression and classification tasks for image datasets, many-body particle systems and molecular structure generation.


Disentangled representation learning has recently attracted a significant amount of attention, particularly in the field of image representation learning. However, learning the disentangled representations behind a graph remains largely unexplored, especially for the attributed graph with both node and edge features. Disentanglement learning for graph generation has substantial new challenges including 1) the lack of graph deconvolution operations to jointly decode node and edge attributes; and 2) the difficulty in enforcing the disentanglement among latent factors that respectively influence: i) only nodes, ii) only edges, and iii) joint patterns between them. To address these challenges, we propose a new disentanglement enhancement framework for deep generative models for attributed graphs. In particular, a novel variational objective is proposed to disentangle the above three types of latent factors, with novel architecture for node and edge deconvolutions. Qualitative and quantitative experiments on both synthetic and real-world datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed model and its extensions.


Here is the superbly illustrated survey of one of the foremost architecture firms at work in the world today. SHoP, a prominent New York-based architecture firm, is currently at work on numerous projects across the globe; its clients include the United Colours of Benetton, Virgin Atlantic, Google, Goldman Sachs and the City of New York; its work has won numerous awards - including the American National Design Award for Architecture in 2009 - and is in the permanent collection of The Museum of Modern Art. This book reveals how SHoP did not achieve such success by kow-towing to tradition. The partners look outside the profession for inspiration and ideas, in both their buildings and their business model, keeping in line with their mission to create real-world architecture that considers how design, finance and technology can work together. This volume explores six of the firms ideologies practice, typology, politics, finances, sustainability and technology based on six major projects as well as thirty smaller ones. This book's organization will allow readers both to see and better understand the firms work and business strategies, as well as provide ideas to improve their own building projects.


A nomogram has been constructed for the determination of blackbody radiancy and of peak and total intensities for spectral lines with Doppler contour. The basic equations used for the construction of the nomogram and the use of the nomogram are described briefly. A method is outlined for determining absolute values of total intensities for spectral lines with combined Doppler and resonance contour by using the nomogram in conjunction with the "curves of growth."


This paper examines the export experience of China and other East Asian economies in the aftermaths of the global financial crisis against the backdrop of pre-crisis trade patterns. The analysis is motivated by the 'decoupling' thesis, which was a popular theme in the Asian policy circles in the lead-up to the onset of the recent financial crisis, and aims to probe three key issues: Was the East Asian trade integration story that underpinned the decoupling thesis simply a statistical artifact or the massive export contraction caused by an overreaction of traders to the global economic crisis and/or by the drying up of trade credit, which overpowered the cushion provided by intra-regional trade? What are the new policy challenges faced by the East Asian economies? Is there room for an integrated policy response that marks a clear departure from the pre-crisis policy stance favoring export-oriented growth? The findings caution against a possible policy backlash against openness to foreign trade arising from the new-found enthusiasm for rebalancing growth, and make a strong case for a long-term commitment to non-discriminatory multilateral and unilateral trade liberalization.


Iterative decoding (ID) aided fast frequency hopping (FFH), M-ary frequency shift keying (MFSK) using clipped combining in multiple access (MA) channels is investigated. All users' data are convolutionally encoded and the encoded bits are interleaved and converted to M-ary symbols, which are transmitted using FFH-MFSK modulation. The soft metrics to be passed from the demodulator to the decoder are derived assuming a Rayleigh fading channel. We also propose a novel multiuser detection (MUD) scheme which employs joint soft decoding as well as successive interference cancellation (SIC), the receiver exploiting the soft information fed back by the decoder to the demodulator in order to cancel the interference imposed by reliable symbols. Our simulation results show that the proposed scheme is capable of combatting multiuser interference and outperforms the conventional ID by about 3dB.


The Bhagavad Gita, "The Song of the Lord," is probably the best known of all the Indian scriptures, and Easwaran's clear, accessible translation is the best-selling edition. The Gita opens dramatically, with prince Arjuna collapsing in anguish on the brink of a war that he doesn't want to fight. Arjuna has lost his way on the battlefield of life, and turns to his spiritual guide, Sri Krishna, the Lord himself. Krishna replies in 700 verses of sublime instruction on living and dying, loving and working, and the nature of the soul. This book includes an extensive and very readable introduction, which places the Gita in its historical setting, explains the key concepts, and brings out the universality of its teachings. Individual chapter introductions prepare the reader for the main themes, and notes, a Sanskrit glossary, and an index are included. Although the battlefield is a perfect backdrop, for Easwaran the Gita's subject is the war within, the struggle for self-mastery that every human being must wage. Arjuna's dilemma is acutely modern, and the Gita's message remains as relevant for us now as it was for ancient India.


The propagation of long-crested and short-crested waves through a gap such as between two breakwaters is affected by diffraction. If the water depth is not uniform, refraction may also affect this penetration. It is shown with a navigation channel between two breakwaters (academic case and a realistic harbour case) that the effects of diffraction are small compared to those of refraction in regions where waves can penetrate with refraction only (e.g. where wave rays can penetrate). This region is relative large for short-crested waves. Outside these regions diffraction is dominant. With another example of waves penetrating through a tidal gap against a strong ebb current, it is shown that the short-crestedness of the waves destroys to a very large extent the waved guide effect of such currents. Both set of experiments show that the inclusion of short-crestedness in the wave computations causes some smoothing of the wave field, and that diffraction is a minor effect in regions with considerable wave motion. This is of some scientific and economic relevance as refraction can readily be combined in wave models with other physical phenomena such as wave generation and dissipation. Moreover, such models require less computer capacity than diffraction models which do not readily absorb wave generation and dissipation.


Abstract: The goal of this paper is to present a decolonising research methodology. The first section of this paper problematises western knowledge production, using Aníbal Quijano's colonial matrix of power. The second section theorises how an epistemological pluralism that is critical, decolonising and performative could address western knowledge production and the colonial matrix of power. The third section discusses how this methodology has been applied to Butoh to develop Critical Butoh. The final section presents He rawe tona kakahu/ She wore a becoming dress, a Butoh performance exploring the intersection of gender and colonisation, as a practical application of this methodology.


This paper brings together comics studies and geography to consider how space operates both on and off the comics page. We integrate discussion of comics' formal properties with a site-specific comics installation (Dave McKean's The Rut) to show the intertwining of these spaces. Our argument is articulated through juxtaposition of the literature on space-time in comics with our case study. This montage speaks to graphic narratives' formal properties, especially its alchemic, emergent nature. Our argument begins by introducing The Rut as an example of how space and narrative can be intertwined. Our argument tacks back to the literature, discussing the pluralization of time-space(s) throughout recent writing within human geography and how this can help us think with The Rut. We then briefly describe the way The Rut is physically laid out. Returning once again to the literature, we argue that the topological figuration of comics is mediated by readers' practices of relation-building and narrative construction, which are in turn impacted by the irreversible nature of time. This is demonstrated for The Rut through experience of the art as well as participant observation. Finally, we highlight how actual spaces are overlaid with virtual spaces that help shape the actualized version; we illustrate this by showing how the embodied experience of The Rut's materiality was productive of a multiplicity of experiential spaces, both actual and virtual. We close by drawing three conclusions: the first about the implications of graphic narrative's relational ontology for how social scientists narrate socio-spatial processes; the second, a call for more empirical work examining the emergence, evolution, and dissipation of topological spaces; and the third about the political possibility of initiating new practices of 'reading' spaces and times to produce and access new ways of being in the world.


This article examines the last ten years of the Rehnquist Court, which was divided evenly by the Court's highly controversial intervention in the 2000 presidential election, Bush v. Gore. I compare the Court's record before and after that decision both qualitatively and quantitatively, and argue that the Court shifted noticeably to the left, particularly in high-profile cases, after Bush v. Gore, as conservative Justices showed a greater willingness to side with their liberal colleagues to reach liberal results. I hypothesize that this may have reflected an effort, conscious or subconscious, to restore the Court's legitimacy by counteracting images of a partisan body divided along political lines. I also suggest that the same interest in restoring the legitimacy of the Court may have contributed to the Court's substantive emphasis on the values of the rule of law, which was particularly evident in the Court's enemy combatant decisions of 2004 (and for that matter, more recently, in the Court's decision on military tribunals in Hamdan v. Rumsfeld). This "liberal legacy" of Bush v. Gore illustrates one of the checking functions on judicial supremacy - namely the need to maintain the appearance (and reality) that law is distinct from politics. Whether the "Bush v. Gore effect" will continue with the Roberts Court remains to be seen.


Unenlagiinae is mostly recognized as a subclade of dromaeosaurids. They have the modified pedal digit II that characterize all dromeosaurids, which is typically related to predation. However, derived Laurasian dromaeosaurids (eudromaeosaurs) differ from unenlagiines in having a shorter metatarsus and pedal phalanx II-1, and more ginglymoid articular surfaces in metatarsals and pedal phalanges. Further, unenlagiines have a subarctometatarsal condition, which could have increased the mechanical efficiency during locomotion. All these discrepancies possibly reflect different locomotor and predatory habits. To evaluate this we conducted morphometric analyses and comparisons of qualitative morphological aspects. The former consisted in two phylogenetic principal component analyses, one of them based on lengths of femur, tibia and metatarsus, and width of metatarsus, and the other based on lengths of pedal phalanges. The data sampling covered several coelurosaurian and non-coelurosaurian taxa. The first analysis showed the unenlagiines close to taxa with long tibiae and long and slender metatarsi, which are features considered to provide high cursorial capacities. Instead, eudromaeosaurs are close to taxa with shorter tibiae and shorter and wider metatarsi, which can be considered with low cursorial capacities. The second analysis showed that eudromaeosaurs and unenlagiines have similar phalangeal proportions. Moreover, they share the elongation of distal phalanges, which is a feature related to the capacity of grasping. The shorter and wider metatarsus, more ginglymoid articular surfaces and a shorter pedal phalanx II-2 of eudromaeosaurs possibly allowed them to exert a greater gripping strength. Thus, they had the potential of hunting large prey. Instead, the longer and slender subarctometatarsus, lesser ginglymoid articular surfaces and a longer pedal phalanx II-2 of unenlagiines possibly gave to them greater cursorial capacities and the ability to hunt smaller and elusive prey on the ground. Thus, the different morphological evolutionary paths of dromaeosaurids lineages seem to indicate different locomotor and predatory specializations.


Tietze's Syndrome is an uncommon disorder that presents with painful, tender, non-suppurative swelling of the anterior chest wall. We report a case of a female patient who presented to the emergency department with a chief complaint of atraumatic chest pain and swelling of the anterior chest wall. After a thorough history and physical examination, as well as basic laboratory tests and chest radiography, she was diagnosed with Tietze's Syndrome. The expedient accurate diagnosis of Tietze's Syndrome is important for the physical and emotional well-being of a patient, and avoids overlooking more dangerous pathologies. Tietze's Syndrome needs to be considered in the differential diagnosis of a patient presenting with spontaneous swelling of the anterior chest.


A process for fielding vulnerability free software in the enterprise is discussed. This process involves testing for known vulnerabilities, generic penetration testing and threat specific testing coupled with a strong flaw remediation process. The testing may be done by the software developer or certified testing laboratories. The goal is to mitigate all known vulnerabilities and exploits, and to be responsive in mitigating new vulnerabilities and/or exploits as they are discovered. The analyses are reviewed when new or additional threats are reviewed and prioritized with mitigation through the flaw remediation process, changes to the operational environment or the addition of additional controls or products). This process is derived from The Common Criteria for Information Technology Security Evaluation, Common Evaluation Methodology which covers both discovery and remediation. The process has been modified for the USAF enterprise.


The bowel is the only organ of the body in which neural reflexes can be elicited in the absence of input from the brain or spinal cord. This activity is mediated by the enteric nervous system (ENS), which contains primary afferent neurons. Experiments were carried out to locate the primary afferent neurons of the ENS. Two types of stimulation were used to activate neurons in the wall of the gut in vitro: exposure of the mucosa to cholera toxin or delivery of pressure to the mucosal surface with puffs of N2 from a micropipette. Neurons that became active in response to these stimuli were identified by demonstrating the intranuclear immunoreactivity of Fos, the product of the c-fos protooncogene. No Fos immunoreactivity could be detected in the absence of stimulation; however, application of cholera toxin and puffs of N2 each induced the appearance of Fos immunoreactivity in neurons in both the submucosal and myenteric plexuses. With either stimulus, the induction of Fos immunoreactivity was antagonized by TTX and therefore depended on neuronal activity. The appearance of Fos immunoreactivity could also be prevented by the 5-HT1P receptor antagonist N-acetyl-5-hydroxytryptophyl-5-hydroxytryptophan amide. In contrast, the stimulus-induced expression of Fos immunoreactivity was inhibited, but not abolished, by hexamethonium, which limited the spread of activation within the submucosal plexus and completely prevented expression of Fos immunoreactivity by myenteric neurons in response to mucosal puffs of N2. FluoroGold was injected into single ganglia of the myenteric plexus in order to identify submucosal neurons with myenteric projections. Submucosal neurons in which Fos immunoreactivity was induced by the stimuli were doubly labeled by FluoroGold. A subset of the submucosal, but not myenteric, neurons that expressed Fos immunoreactivity was doubly labeled by antibodies to calbindin. Submucosal calbindin-immunoreactive neurons were found to contain substance P immunoreactivity and could also be immunostained by anti-idiotypic antibodies that react with 5-HT1P receptors. A subset of dynorphin1–8-immunoreactive submucosal neurons (which are known to costore vasoactive intestinal peptide and to be secretomotor in function) expressed nuclear Fos immunoreactivity in response to cholera toxin, but not puffs of N2. These data suggest that intrinsic primary afferent neurons are located in the submucosal plexus, project to the myenteric plexus, and are activated by 5-HT acting on the 5-HT1P receptor subtype. These neurons are probably cholinergic and costore calbindin and substance P.


The economics of the civilian uses of nuclear energy, that is to say the economics of nuclear power generation in which its civilian uses has been virtually limited to power generation---has been the focus of much public discussion both internationally and domestically here in Japan. The reasons are that there are many underlying factors which determine the economics of power generation methods and that various assumptions can be made concerning these factors. In addition, the value of these factors will change over time and thus entail considerable uncertainties. Although there are many aspects to the economics of nuclear power generation, in its narrowest sense, it refers to the power generation costs of nuclear power plants and other arguments from other aspects can be summarized in terms of power generation costs. Therefore, this paper will focus on power generation costs at nuclear power plants. In this paper, I will introduce an outline of the economic evaluation of nuclear power generation by the Japanese Government, and describe its features by comparing this evaluation with an evaluation by the United States Government, and then point out what policy implications these economic evaluations have on nuclear power generation.


This paper reverses the standard conclusion that asymmetric information plus competition results in insufficient insurance provision. Risk-tolerant individuals take few precautions and are disinclined to insure, but are drawn into a pooling equilibrium by the low premiums created by the presence of safer, more risk-averse types. Taxing insurance drives out the reckless clients, allowing a strict Pareto gain. This result depends on administrative costs in processing claims and issuing policies, as does the novel finding of a pure-strategy, partial-pooling, sub-game-perfect, Nash equilibrium in the insurance market.


The risk–need–responsivity framework is widely used to guide the case management of justice-involved youth, but little research is available on its applicability to Indigenous populations. In the present study, we examined how standardized risk assessment, identification of criminogenic needs, and receipt of need-targeted programming related to recidivism in a sample of 70 Indigenous and non-Indigenous youth. The two groups did not differ on overall level of risk, number of needs, match to services, or recidivism rates. However, Indigenous youth were evaluated as higher risk in peer and leisure functioning, more likely to have needs related to education and leisure, and less likely to receive adequate peer-specific intervention. In both groups, risk assessment predicted recidivism, while match to services predicted days to reoffense. High rates of mental health issues and associated services were observed in both groups. Implications of these findings for research and practice with Indigenous youth are discussed.


The Supreme Court's decision in Bell Atlantic Corp. v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544 (2007), has had a seismic impact on federal civil litigation. We all thought the notice pleading concept introduced under the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure had substantially eased the plaintiff's burden at the pleading stage. The Supreme Court in Twombly said "yes, but," and emphasized that notice pleading was never intended to dispense entirely with the need to plead facts demonstrating a right to relief. In short, facts matter: Rule 8 of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure requires a statement of circumstances, events, and occurrences in support of the claim presented.


This is a book about truck driver's lives, risks, and views on safety. As "a "group, truckers represent a significant population of road users whose high-exposure driving creates a major challenge for safety. Research into the larger social, political, and economic forces that affect trucker's safety problems has been scarce. "The Trucker's World "comes to terms with the socioeconomic environment that contributes to breakdown in trucker safety and chronicles the lives and times of truckers as they try to make ends meet. It analyzes driver risk by exploring the reasons, reactions, and consequences of risk. The author approaches his task with a research question: Why is the average trucker continuously placed in conditions that, according to truckers, demand risky driving? As a result of direct experience with truckers and trucking, Rothe observes that truck drivers act as they do to gain autonomy over their work, freedom from control of others, and assurance of a reasonable livelihood. In order to maintain a sufficient income in the transportation market, even the most serious drivers perform tasks that often impinge on lethality and safety, not as blatant radicals or daredevils fighting the system, but as persons responding to the fear that they may lose their livelihood in trucking. The thrust in trucker safety has followed a victimization philosophy in which emphasis on interventions has been aimed directly at truckers. Rothe contends that safety programs would work better if they emphasized what influences, motivates, or encourages truckers to take chances on the road. With this in mind, he analyzes driver risk, vehicle maintenance, owner-operator, company driver, policing, home life, drugs and alcohol, government regulations, and hours of service as they are seen by truckers, industry officials, and others. Expanding our vision to encompass essential factors in the socioeconomic reality of the truck-driving culture. Rothe elucidates the far-reaching consequences that safety issues have for truckers, other road users, policymakers, and traffic safety educators.


Assimilate and N supply at flowering are determinants of the number of kernels set in maize (zea mays L.). The objectives of this work were (i) to evaluate the effect of N shortage on grain yield and its numerical components, particularly potential grain number, determining kernel losses due to morphogenesis and fertilization-abortion, (ii) to analyze the combined effects and interactions of assimilate and N availability on kernel set, and (iii) to determine the existence of direct effects of N deficiencies on this yield component. Three experiments were conducted with a commercial hybrid (DK636) under field conditions at the INTA Balcarce Experimental Station, Argentina, without water limitations. The treatments consisted of different radiation levels, obtained by shading, combined with different levels of N availability obtained by the addition of N fertilizer or organic matter of high C/N ratio in the soil. Nitrogen stress reduced kernel number (KN) without a significant effect on morphogenesis of reproductive structures. Under normal incident radiation, kernel number was associated with crop and ear growth rate at flowering following linear + plateau functions. Under shading this relationship presented an optimum, indicating that the widely accepted linear and direct relationship (with or without plateau) between KN and crop or ear growth rate is not valid under high N rates and light stress at flowering. No direct effects of N were detected. Nitrogen deficiencies affected KN because of reductions in C assimilation.


This thesis explores the idea that reinvention of their social identities is a possible means for members of subordinate social groups to demonstrate competencies in moral agency. As well as being considered morally inferior in the wider community, members of subordinate social groups may experience diminished moral agency as a result of external social constraints and the internalisation of negative stereotypes. Since a person's social identity is implicated in both their oppression and their potential for resistance, identity is problematised by positing that all persons have a multiplicity of identities, as proposed by Maria Lugones, including both privileged and oppressed identities. Social identities are further conceived as both mutable and possessing fluid boundaries. Being able to reinvent themselves depends upon persons developing feelings of self-worth and a sense of self-respect, which in turn rely upon the acquisition of appropriate self-knowledge through situational awareness. Crossing over the boundaries among their different identities and situating themselves critically in the margins provides oppressed persons with the social and discursive space to lay claim to new and reinvented selves. Since self-knowledge and self-direction are key to developing capacities in moral agency as well as to selfdefinition, I suggest that, rather than rely on political force to effect change, individual group members are able to resist systematic oppression based on their group memberships by making their social identities, relationships, and practices intelligible in their moral accounts. Limitations on self-knowledge and the possibilities of others attending to us, however, mean that these accounts can only be partial, and that persons with non-standard identities also expose themselves to the moral risk that their identities, relationships and practices may be unintelligible to others because they lack a shared interpretive framework. Nevertheless, it is argued that the imperfect nature of these moral accounts does not invalidate the potential of self-reinvention as a tool to enable the development of the competencies necessary for the exercise of moral agency.


Artificial reverberation algorithms are used to enhance dry audio signals. Delay-based reverberators can produce a realistic effect at a reasonable computational cost. While the recent popularity of spatial audio algorithms is mainly related to the reproduction of the perceived direction of sound sources, there is also a need to spatialize the reverberant sound field. Usually multichannel reverberation algorithms output a series of decorrelated signals yielding an isotropic energy decay. This means that the reverberation time is uniform in all directions. However, the acoustics of physical spaces can exhibit more complex direction-dependent characteristics. This paper proposes a new method to control the directional distribution of energy over time, within a delay-based reverberator, capable of producing a directional impulse response with anisotropic energy decay. We present a method using multichannel delay lines in conjunction with a direction-dependent transform in the spherical harmonic domain to control the direction-dependent decay of the late reverberation. The new reverberator extends the feedback delay network, retaining its time-frequency domain characteristics. The proposed directional feedback delay network reverberator can produce non-uniform direction-dependent decay time, suitable for anisotropic decay reproduction on a loudspeaker array or in binaural playback through the use of ambisonics.


F. H. Ruecking's word-compression algorithm for retrieval of bibliographic data from computer stores was tested for performance in matching user-supplied, unedited bibliographic data to the bibliographic data contained in a library catalog. The algorithm was tested by manual simulation, using data derived from 126 case studies of successful manual searches of the card catalog at Sterling Memorial Library, Yale University. The algorithm achieved 70% recall in comparison to conventional searching. Its accepta- bility as a substitute for conventional catalog searching methods is ques- tioned unless recall performance can be improved, either by use of the algorithm alone or in combination with other algorithms.


it appropriate and convenient to use the restorative justice model as the dominant paradigm to analyze and solve the problems of transitional justice and reconciliation? We believe this is a relevant question, since many argue, especially after the South African transition, that transitional processes should be founded on restorative justice. This is the case of Colombia, where the restorative justice model has been defended by many as the best way to face the atrocities committed by paramilitary groups, which are currently negotiating peace with the government.


Title of Dissertation : AN ANALYSIS OF A NEW APPROACH TO SOL-GEL SYNTHESIS: THE REACTION OF FORMIC ACID WITH TEOS Kimberly Ann Brown, Doctor of Philosophy, 2005 Dissertation directed by: Professor Michael T. Harris Department of Chemical Engineering FTIR spectroscopy was investigated as a means of monitoring the reactions of formic acid and tetraethoxy silane, TEOS, at different temperatures and molar ratios of formic acid to TEOS, r. FTIR spectra of the reactions at r values of 1, 2, and 6 showed that increasing the molar ratio and temperature significantly increased the rates of hydrolysis and condensation. An activation energy of 10.5± 0.6 kcal/mole was determined for the r= 6 system. 29Si NMR was used to monitor the reaction of formic acid with TEOS at molar ratios of 1, 2, and 6. The increase in reaction rate with increasing molar ratio was clearly evident in the silica NMR spectra. The low concentration of monomeric species containing hydroxy groups was deduced from NMR spectra. Proton NMR spectroscopy was utilized in identifying the byproducts of the reaction of formic acid with TEOS. Ethanol, ethyl formate, and SiOOCH groups were easily identified by NMR. Ethyl formate was initially the major byproduct; however, ethanol became the major low molecular weight species as the reaction proceeded. Information on the oligomeric structures was gathered using USAXS and mass spectrometry. USAXS was used to obtain radii of gyration for the r = 6 system which increased from 5.4 nm to 9.6 nm as the reaction progressed. An analysis was performed on the mass spectrum of the reaction of formic acid with TEOS at r =6, 35 minutes. Most oligomeric species contained at least one ring, and the maximum number of silicons was 11. Furthermore, the mass spectrum indicated that OR groups were the predominant groups attached to the silica oligomers. The analyses performed on the reaction of TEOS with formic acid provided possible explanations for the increased rate of gelation. The presence of fewer cyclic oligomers in the early stages of reactions was observed in 29Si NMR spectroscopy. 29Si NMR spectroscopy also indicated an increase in the rates of condensation for the reaction of formic acid with TEOS. The results of the analyses on the reaction of formic acid with TEOS were used to propose a kinetic model. AN ANALYSIS OF A NEW APPROACH TO SOL-GEL SYNTHESIS: THE REACTION OF FORMIC ACID WITH TEOS


The double Debye model has been used to understand the dielectric response of different types of biological tissues at terahertz (THz) frequencies but fails in accurately simulating human breast tissue. This leads to limited knowledge about the structure, dynamics, and macroscopic behavior of breast tissue, and hence, constrains the potential of THz imaging in breast cancer detection. The first goal of this paper is to propose a new dielectric model capable of mimicking the spectra of human breast tissue's complex permittivity in THz regime. Namely, a non-Debye relaxation model is combined with a single Debye model to produce a mixture model of human breast tissue. A sampling gradient algorithm of nonsmooth optimization is applied to locate the optimal fitting solution. Samples of healthy breast tissue and breast tumor are used in the simulation to evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed model. Our simulation demonstrates exceptional fitting quality in all cases. The second goal is to confirm the potential of using the parameters of the proposed dielectric model to distinguish breast tumor from healthy breast tissue, especially fibrous tissue. Statistical measures are employed to analyze the discrimination capability of the model parameters while support vector machines are applied to assess the possibility of using the combinations of these parameters for higher classification accuracy. The obtained analysis confirms the classification potential of these features.


In this paper we explore current understandings of the influence of political rights, among historical legacies, on economic development. We construct variables for selected political regimes for 1811-2010. We find significant association between individual rights and economic growth. We argue that current understanding of political regimes supportive of growth (Acemoglu, etc), should parse the concept of property rights to include the protection of the individual in their focus on private property rights protection, alone, respected in various forms of government, are insufficient; what matters is the security of individuals from arbitrary arrest, regardless of "type of regime". Discretionary rights of rulers or democratic governments to arrest citizens undermines the protection of private property rights and other attributes classically given to democratic foundations of economic growth, for example, free press, freedom of the exercise of religious belief. We suggest, as a research agenda, that the power of the politically competitive system therefore comes from weakening discretionary authority over law enforcement


The human major histocompatibility complex (MHC) is characterized by polymorphic multicopy gene families, such as HLA and MIC (PERB11); duplications; insertions and deletions (indels); and uneven rates of recombination. Polymorphisms at the antigen recognition sites of the HLA class I and II genes and at associated neutral sites have been attributed to balancing selection and a hitchhiking effect, respectively. We, and others, have previously shown that nucleotide diversity between MHC haplotypes at non-HLA sites is unusually high (>10%) and up to several times greater than elsewhere in the genome (0.08%-0.2%). We report here the most extensive analysis of nucleotide diversity within a continuous sequence in the genome. We constructed a single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) profile that reveals a pattern of extreme but interrupted levels of nucleotide diversity by comparing a continuous sequence within haplotypes in three genomic subregions of the MHC. A comparison of several haplotypes within one of the genomic subregions containing the HLA-B and -C loci suggests that positive selection is operating over the whole subgenomic region, including HLA and non-HLA genes. [The sequence data for the multiple haplotype comparisons within the class I region have been submitted to DDBJ/EMBL/GenBank under accession nos. AF029061, AF029062, and AB031005-AB031010. Additional sequence data have been submitted to the DDBJ data library under accession nos. AB031005-AB03101 and AF029061-AF029062.]


This paper offers a critical ethnographic account of the khwajasara movement, based on the author's most recent fieldwork in Lahore, Pakistan in 2011 and 2012. Khwajasara, known elsewhere in the Indian Subcontinent as hijre (sing. hijra), are Pakistani gender-variant subject position, whose cultural memory and historical roots run deep into the region's Mughal past (and beyond). This piece attempts to recount khwajasara's long-lasting social and political battle with the Pakistani judicial and political system, against a backdrop of an important episode in their struggle – the 23 December 2009 judgment of the Supreme Court of Pakistan's Chief Justice, granting all khwajasara a 'third gender' status on their state identification documents – which is yet to be implemented. One of the paradigmatic facets of khwajasara, analysed here primarily as a social and political grassroots movement rather than an essentialised identitary community, is their decidedly subversive approach to collective organising. This approach is operationalised through a number of strategic public actions, including protest marches, domestic litigation and collaboration with workers' unions, as well as through the everyday classed and gendered life of khwajasara. However, what sets it apart from other social and political movements in the country is its increasingly assertive and commonplace rejection of the prevalent (neoliberal) human rights discourse as well as its non-co-operation with both national and international civil society networks formed around HIV/AIDS prevention industry and/or LGBT community programmes. Based on an analysis of the khwajasara movement's political and social organising strategies, this paper argues that there is an underexplored potential in studying the class struggle – of which both hegemonic and counter-hegemonic technologies of the self are an integral part – from locale-specific gender-different and gender-variant vantage points. It is posited that khwajasara's organisational exceptionalism offers a viable alternative to certain common forms of transnational social organising – including those based on human rights and certain globalised identitary taxonomies (such as that of 'LGBT') – which inevitably produce governable subjects within the current models of capitalistic development. Finally and crucially, it is proposed that the khwajasara organisational model is of particular value for translocal studies of social and political movements, since it represents a form of resistance based on insurrectionary vernacular knowledge.


Bangladesh is a new name for an old land whose history is little known to the wider world. A country chiefly famous in the West for media images of poverty, underdevelopment, and natural disasters, Bangladesh did not exist as an independent state until 1971. Willem van Schendel's history reveals the country's vibrant, colourful past and its diverse culture as it navigates the extraordinary twists and turns that have created modern Bangladesh. The story begins with the early geological history of the delta which has decisively shaped Bangladesh society. The narrative then moves chronologically through the era of colonial rule, the partition of Bengal, the war with Pakistan and the birth of Bangladesh as an independent state. In so doing, it reveals the forces that have made Bangladesh what it is today. This is an eloquent introduction to a fascinating country and its resilient and inventive people.


Based on theories of social capital, in this study, we seek to assess the impact of a board's social capital on the market value of companies listed on the Brazilian stock exchange. As our indicator of social capital, we use the relational resources identified in the direct, indirect and heterogeneous ties of the board. Employing panel data from 508 observations, our results indicate that heterogeneous relational resources have a stronger and more significant influence than the resources available from board members' direct relationships. Additionally, as the effects of board interlock are endogenously determined by several factors related to the firm level, we seek to mitigate the endogeneity problem using models of instrumental variables and simultaneous equations. Our hypotheses were consistent after controlling for endogeneity. We also check whether the board's social capital could present a U-inverted effect on the market value. This relationship was only plausible in social capital by indirect ties. Finally, we isolate the effect of relational resources within and between industries on Tobin's Q. There was no significant effect through interlocks within the same industry. However, ties with companies in several other industries were significant.


Near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) is widely used as a non-invasive method to monitor the hemodynamics of biological tissue. A common approach of NIRS relies on continuous wave (CW) methodology, i.e. utilizing intensity-only measurements, and, in general, assumes homogeneity in the optical properties of the biological tissue. However, in monitoring cerebral hemodynamics within humans, this assumption is not valid due to complex layered structure of the head. The NIRS signal that contains information about cerebral blood hemoglobin levels is also contaminated with extra-cerebral tissue hemodynamics, and any recovery method based on such a priori homogenous approximation would lead to erroneous results. In this work, utilization of hyper-spectral intensity only measurements (i.e., CW) at multiple distances are presented and are shown to recover two-layered tissue properties along with the thickness of top layer, using an analytical solution for a two-layered semi-infinite geometry. It is demonstrated that the recovery of tissue oxygenation index (TOI) of both layers can be achieved with an error of 4.4%, with the recovered tissue thickness of 4% error. When the data is measured on a complex tissue such as the human head, it is shown that the semi-infinite recovery model can lead to uncertain results, whereas, when using an appropriate model accounting for the tissue-boundary structure, the tissue oxygenation levels are recovered with an error of 4.2%, and the extra-cerebral tissue thickness with an error of 11.8%. The algorithm is finally used together with human subject data, demonstrating robustness in application and repeatability in the recovered parameters that adhere well to expected published parameters.


Multi-hazard evaluations are fundamental inputs for disaster risk management plans and the implementation of resilient urban environments, adapted to extreme natural events. Risk assessments from natural hazards have been typically restricted to the analysis of single hazards or focused on the vulnerability of specific targets, which might result in an underestimation of the risk level. This study presents a practical and effective methodology applied to two Chilean coastal cities to characterize risk in data-poor regions, which integrates multi-hazard and multi-vulnerability analyses through physically-based models and easily accessible data. A matrix approach was used to cross the degree of exposure to floods, landslides, tsunamis, and earthquakes hazards, and two dimensions of vulnerability (physical, socio-economical). This information is used to provide the guidelines to lead the development of resilience thinking and disaster risk management in Chile years after the major and destructive 2010 Mw8.8 earthquake.


It seems appropriate that Henri Estienne (1531-98), the great sixteenth-century humanist and hellenist, compiler of the monumental Thesaurus linguae graecae of 1572 and scholarly editor of numerous first editions of ancient Greek authors, should find a place in a volume devoted to the French language and questions of identity. In his vernacular writings, Estienne repeatedly claims that it is 'l'honneur de la nation' or 'l'honneur de [la] patrie' that has led him to assert the superiority of the French language over its rivals, notably Italian, and to seek to maintain its purity from foreign (primarily Italian) influence (Estienne 1579: fol. aiir; Estienne 1853: 44; Estienne 1972). Study of Estienne enables us to explore both the archaeology of French linguistic purism and the origins of much of the terminology that modern scholars continue to apply – largely unselfconsciously – to the description of linguistic borrowing.


Due to the sheer global energy crisis, concerns about fuel exhaustion, electricity shortages, and global warming are becoming increasingly severe. Solar and wind energy, which are clean and renewable, provide solutions to these problems through distributed generators. Microgrids, as an essential interface to connect the power produced by renewable energy resources-based distributed generators to the power system, have become a research hotspot. Modern research in the field of microgrids has focused on the integration of microgrid technology at the load level. Due to the complexity of protection and control of multiple interconnected distributed generators, the traditional power grids are now outmoded. Microgrids are feasible alternatives to the conventional grid since they provide an integrating platform for micro-resources-based distributed generators, storage equipment, loads, and voltage source converters at the user end, all within a compact footprint. A microgrid can be architected to function either in grid-connected or standalone mode, depending upon the generation, integration potential to the main grid, and consumers' requirements. The amalgamation of distributed energy resources-based microgrids to the conventional power system is giving rise to a new power framework. Nevertheless, the grids' control, protection, operational stability, and reliability are major concerns. There has yet to be an effective real-time implementation and commercialization of micro-grids. This review article summarizes various concerns associated with microgrids' technical and economic aspects and challenges, power flow controllers, microgrids' role in smart grid development, main flaws, and future perspectives.


The role of women in Paleoeskimo households has rarely been examined. Careful application of analogies to Inuit culture reveal that there are both similarities and differences in how Late Dorset and Inuit gender roles are expressed in household organization. On an ideological level, Late Dorset women probably had a similar role to that of women in Inuit society, as the soul of the house and an important intermediary between hunters and the souls of the animals they hunted. On a day-to-day basis, however, Late Dorset women seem to have shared more of their labor as members of dual family households than did Inuit women, as members of nuclear family units. The increased importance of small, trapped game such as foxes and rabbits during Late Dorset times (Darwent 2001) may have contributed to the need for shared labor. Finally, women, in their role as keepers of the hearth, were important in maintaining community ties at seasonal aggregation sites dominated by long houses and external hearth rows.


Sequences of nasals followed by fricatives have proven to be a special case of marked structures, triggering repairs that are not enforced with other sequences, such as nasals followed by stops. Most analyses of nasal+fricative sequences assume stops and nasals share the value [-cont], and nasals and fricatives are mismatched for the value of the feature. This mismatch is thought to be the source of the markedness of this configuration. This short paper engages the possibility that nasals in some languages have the opposite value for the feature continuant, which predicts that they are in conflict with the value for stops in these languages. The further prediction is that in these languages, fricatives should exhibit assimilation, but stops will trigger other repairs. A case study from Finnish indicates that this is not the case: as normally happens, stops undergo place assimilation, but fricatives either resist assimilation, or undergo other repairs.


Cannabis remains the most commonly abused illicit drug and is rapidly expanding in quasi-licit use in some jurisdictions under medical marijuana laws. Effects of the psychoactive constituent Δ9tetrahydrocannabinol (Δ9THC) on cognitive function remain of pressing concern. Prior studies in monkeys have not shown consistent evidence of memory-specific effects of Δ9THC on recognition tasks, and it remains unclear to what extent Δ9THC causes sedative versus specific cognitive effects. In this study, adult male rhesus monkeys were trained on tasks which assess spatial working memory, visuo-spatial associative memory and learning as well as motivation for food reward. Subjects were subsequently challenged with 0.1–0.3 mg/kg Δ9THC, i.m., in randomized order and evaluated on the behavioral measures. The performance of both vsPAL and SOSS tasks was impaired by Δ9THC in a dose and task-difficulty dependent manner. It is concluded that Δ9THC disrupts cognition in a way that is consistent with a direct effect on memory. There was evidence for interference with spatial working memory, visuo-spatial associative memory and incremental learning in the latter task. These results and the lack of specific effect of Δ9THC in prior visual recognition studies imply a sensitivity of spatial memory processing and/or working memory to endocannabinoid perturbation.


Background: Relatively little research has been conducted on how economic recessions impact fertility intentions. In particular, uncertainty in reproductive intentions has not been examined in relation to economic shocks. Objective: The purpose of this paper is to estimate the impact of individuals' perception of negative changes in both their own and their country's economic performance on reproductive intentions in Europe during the time of the 'Great Recession' (2006-2011). Crucially, we examine both intentions and stated certainty of meeting these intentions. Methods: Using the 2011 Eurobarometer survey for 27 European countries, fertility intentions and reproductive uncertainty are regressed on individuals' perceptions of past trends in country's economic situation, household's financial situation, and personal job situation. Multilevel ordinal regressions models are run separately for people at parities zero and one as well as controlling for a set of socio-demographic variables. Results: A worsening in the households' financial situation, as perceived in the years of the economic crisis, does not affect people's fertility intentions but rather the certainty of meeting these intentions. This relationship holds true at the individual-level for childless people. The more negative the individual's assessment of the household's financial situation, the higher the reproductive uncertainty. While this works exclusively at the country-level for people at parity one, the higher the share of people"s pessimism on households' financial situation in the country the more insecure individuals of such a country are about having additional children. Conclusions: The empirical evidence suggests that individuals' uncertainty about realising their fertility intentions has risen in Europe and is positively linked to people's perceived household financial difficulties. If European economies continue to fare poorly, fertility intentions could eventually start to decline in response to such difficulties.


A study of the overall accessibility of fitness facilities in the greater Chicago area was conducted using the Fisher exact test and distribution analysis of data collected from a variety of fitness providers. Specifically, "accessibility" in this study referred to the ease of access each facility provided to individuals with disabilities that limit physical mobility. In all, three types of fitness facilities were identified and compared, including YMCA, franchises, and independently owned businesses. Each of the three types of fitness facilities was represented equally by five locations, for a total sample size of 15 locations. A validated and reliable measurement guide of accessibility was used to evaluate the conditions of the following features of each facility: 1) swimming pool, 2) professional behavior of staff, 3) policies, 4) equipment, 5) elevator, 6) information, 7) bathroom, 8) professional support and staff training, 9) locker room, 10) telephone, 11) entrance areas, 12) hot tubs/saunas, 13) water fountain, 14) parking lot, 15) fitness program, and 16) physical assessment.
Results from the study were mixed and provide insight into the fitness and accessibility literature. In contrast to other studies, a majority of all facilities in the study were scored to be compliant with accessibility standards. However in accordance with previous research, analyses of the measurement data between three facility types supports the conclusion that franchise facilities were more accessible than independently-owned facilities. All facilities that participated in the present study have considerable deficiencies in accessibility and, therefore, room for improvement.


Abstract A recent literature highlights the uncertainty concerning whether economic growth has any causal protective effect on health and survival. But equal rates of growth often deliver unequal rates of poverty reduction and absolute deprivation is more clearly relevant. Using state-level panel data for India, we contribute the first estimates of the impact of changes in poverty on infant survival. We identify a significant within-state relationship which persists conditional upon state income, indicating the size of survival gains from redistribution in favour of households below the poverty line. The poverty elasticity declines over time after 1981. It is invariant to controlling for income inequality but diminished upon controlling for education, fertility and state health expenditure, and eliminated once we introduce controls for omitted trends.


Essential reading for launching a career in computer forensicsInternet crime is on the rise, catapulting the need for computer forensics specialists. This new edition presents you with a completely updated overview of the basic skills that are required as a computer forensics professional. The author team of technology security veterans introduces the latest software and tools that exist and they review the available certifications in this growing segment of IT that can help take your career to a new level. A variety of real-world practices take you behind the scenes to look at the root causes of security attacks and provides you with a unique perspective as you launch a career in this fast-growing field.Explores the profession of computer forensics, which is more in demand than ever due to the rise of Internet crimeDetails the ways to conduct a computer forensics investigationHighlights tips and techniques for finding hidden data, capturing images, documenting your case, and presenting evidence in court as an expert witnessWalks you through identifying, collecting, and preserving computer evidenceExplains how to understand encryption and examine encryption filesComputer Forensics JumpStart is the resource you need to launch a career in computer forensics.


In order to determine the fine structural differences and labeling by immunoferritin particles of CD4-positive (CD4+) and CD8 positive (CD8+) cells at the ultrastructural level, short term cultured lymphocytes from eight healthy donors seropositive for HTLV-I were examined and virus production was examined in vitro. Sera of eight donors were all positive on the particle agglutination (PA) test, but only of the four of the eight were positive on the immunofluorescence (IF) test. Sera with high titer on the PA test, e. g., above 26, were likely to be positive on the IF test, as well. Ultrastructurally, CD4 + cells were mostly smaller than CD8 + cells, with higher N/C ratio and a heterochromatin-rich nucleus. CD8+ cells were usually more abundant in cytoplasmic organelles than CD4 + cells. Interestingly, in CD4+ cells, two types of surface immunoferritin labeling were observed, light or slightly heavy segmental in pattern, though CD8 + cells were always labeled in dense, heavy segmental fashion, when antibodies were applied to short term cultured fresh lymphocytes. In three of eight cases, only a small number of virus particles were detected in the specimens. These findings demonstrated that labeling of CD4+ and CD8+ cells with each CD4 or CD8 antigen differed, as did the ultrastructural findings for these cells. Further investigation of these differences is needed using other types of markers, such as those for chemokine receptors, and other methods to clearly determine the differences between the two types of lymphocytes in fine structure and how these relate to their functions.


OBJECTIVE To examine diabetes screening, predictors of screening, and the burden of undiagnosed diabetes in the immigrant population and whether these estimates differ by ethnicity. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A population-based retrospective cohort linking administrative health data to immigration files was used to follow the entire diabetes-free population aged 40 years and up in Ontario, Canada (N = 3,484,222) for 3 years (2004–2007) to determine whether individuals were screened for diabetes. Multivariate regression was used to determine predictors of having a diabetes test. RESULTS Screening rates were slightly higher in the immigrant versus the general population (76.0 and 74.4%, respectively; P < 0.001), with the highest rates in people born in South Asia, Mexico, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Immigrant seniors (age ≥65 years) were screened less than nonimmigrant seniors. Percent yield of new diabetes subjects among those screened was high for certain countries of birth (South Asia, 13.0%; Mexico and Latin America, 12.1%; Caribbean, 9.5%) and low among others (Europe, Central Asia, U.S., 5.1–5.2%). The number of physician visits was the single most important predictor of screening, and many high-risk ethnic groups required numerous visits before a test was administered. The proportion of diabetes that remained undiagnosed was estimated to be 9.7% in the general population and 9.0% in immigrants. CONCLUSIONS Overall diabetes-screening rates are high in Canada's universal health care setting, including among high-risk ethnic groups. Despite this finding, disparities in screening rates between immigrant subgroups persist and multiple physician visits are often required to achieve recommended screening levels.


Porphyromonas gingivalis is a keystone periodontal pathogen. Histologocally, the gingival tissue in periodontitis shows dense infiltration of plasma cells. However, antigens recognized by antibodies secreted from the immunocytes remain unknown. The enzyme-labeled antigen method was applied to detecting plasma cells producing P. gingivalis-specific antibodies in biopsied gingival tissue of periodontitis. N-terminally biotinylated P. gingivalis antigens, Ag53 and four gingipain domains (Arg-pro, Arg-hgp, Lys-pro and Lys-hgp) were prepared by the cell-free protein synthesis system using wheatgerm extract. With these five labeled proteins as probes, 20 lesions of periodontitis were evaluated. With the AlphaScreen method, antibodies against any one of the five P. gingivalis antigens were detected in 11 (55%) serum samples and 17 (85%) tissue extracts. Using the enzyme-labeled antigen method on paraformaldehyde-fixed frozen sections of gingival tissue, plasma cells were labeled with any one of the five antigens in 17 (94%) of 18 specimens, in which evaluable plasma cells were detected. The positivity rates in periodontitis were significantly higher than those found previously in radicular cysts (20% in sera and 33% in tissue extracts with the AlphaScreen method, and 25% with the enzyme-labeled antigen method). Our findings directly indicate that antibodies reactive to P. gingivalis are locally produced in the gingival lesions, and that inflammatory reactions against P. gingivalis are involved in periodontitis.