Location Fingerprinting (LF) is a promising localization technique that enables many commercial and emergency Location-Based Services (LBS). The idea of this paper is two- folded. First, a Gaussian Process (GP) is used during the training (offline) phase of an indoor positioning algorithm to generate the fingerprint database, reducing the expensive labor of acquiring and maintaining the fingerprint database significantly. Furthermore, during the positioning (online) phase, a Smart algorithm (already proposed in [1]) is used for reducing the computation effort for positioning calculation. We call our idea Smart2 since it enhances the advantages of the base Smart approach. Specifically, Smart2 reduces the labor during the offline phase by trading it with a small positioning error and, at the same time, it limits the energy consumption in the online phase without incurring in any additional accuracy detriment.


The new institutional rule wanted by the Emperor Constantine called a direct intervention in public education. With the establishment of the new capital, Constantinople, there are schools and universities, as well as a public library, poles of attraction of the ducts of the time looking for sinecures and honors from the Emperor. Constantine in fact reward with important exemptions from munera professors and doctors, together with their closest relatives, in order to facilitate their professional duties.


Micro-ribonucleic acids (miRNAs) are non-coding RNAs that, in the majority of cases, regulate gene expression by binding to the 3' untranslated region (UTR) sequence of target mRNAs to cause decreased mRNA levels. Recently, several studies showed that selected miRNAs also target important genes in coagulation and haemostasis. The miRNA, miR-494, downregulates Protein S (PS) mRNA levels by binding to the 3'UTR sequence of PROS1 mRNA transcript. Further study demonstrated that some coagulation factors without predicted miR-494 binding sites in their 3'UTR sequences showed significant changes in their mRNA levels, including plasminogen (PLG), tissue factor (F3) and C4BPα (C4BPA). It is possible that miR-494 directly targets transcriptional activators or repressors to indirectly regulate the expression of those coagulation factors lacking predicted miR-494 binding sites. This current study hypothesised that miR-494 has an important role in regulating coagulation pathways and haemostasis by targeting multiple coagulation factor genes via direct and indirect mechanisms. HuH-7 cells were transfected with miR-494 for 48h and 72h followed by mRNA and protein analysis. Direct interaction between miR-494 and transcription factor 3'UTRs (JUN, SP1 and STAT5B 3'UTRs) was determined using dual-luciferase reporter assays. The mRNA and protein levels of PS and PLG was significantly downregulated, and the C4BPA mRNA and protein levels were upregulated with the presence of miR-494. Moreover, the protein level of tissue factor (TF) was decreased at 72h post-transfection but no changes were found in its mRNA levels. Computational analyses showed that predicted miR-494 binding sites were found in the JUN, SP1 and STAT5B 3'UTRs. Dual luciferase reporter assay confirmed the presence of functional miR-494 binding sites in the 3'UTR sequence of SP1 and STAT5B. The SP1 and STAT5B mRNA levels were significantly downregulated with the presence of miR-494 but no change was observed for the JUN mRNA levels. Computational analysis showed that a predicted Sp1 binding site was found in the promoter region of human PLG gene. A report by Gutierrez-Fernandez et. al. (2007) suggested that Sp1 acts as a transcriptional activator in the murine PLG promoter. These suggested that miR-494 may indirectly downregulate PLG expression by targeting Sp1. Taken together, miR-494 directly downregulates PS expression, and indirectly downregulates PLG expression through Sp1 repression and upregulates C4BPA expression. These results suggested that miR-494 has a prothrombotic effect.


Proton beam therapy is an alternative to traditional X-ray radiotherapy utilised especially for paediatric malignancies and radio-resistant tumours; it allows a precise tumour irradiation, but is currently limited by knowledge of the patient density and thus the particle range. Typically X-ray computed tomography (CT) is used for treatment planning but CT scans require conversion from Hounsfield units to estimate the proton stopping power (PSP), which has limited accuracy. Proton CT measures PSP directly and can improve imaging and treatment accuracy. The Christie Hospital will use a \SI{250}{MeV} cyclotron for proton therapy, but \SI{330}{MeV} protons are needed to image the largest adult. In this thesis the feasibility of a pulsed linac upgrade to provide \SI{100}{MeV} acceleration in a cyclinac set up is studied. Space constraints require a compact, high gradient (HG) solution that is reliable and affordable. An overview of accelerator physics and beam dynamics are presented alongside the phenomenology of breakdown in high gradient RF structures. Both a small and large aperture solution are investigated. The small aperture option aims to keep the beam size to a minimum using focussing magnets between cavities and accelerate with a very high gradient. The large aperture solution aims to occupy more of the available space with accelerating structures and less with focussing magnets. This way the optics are simpler and the beam size is larger throughout the linac. The small aperture optimisation investigated S-, C- and X-band cavities. Firstly with simple pill-box structures then looking at the effect of nose cones on RF efficiency and breakdown limits. Multi-cell structures are then investigated employing side-coupling for standing wave (SW) cavities and various different magnetic coupling slots for backward travelling wave structures (bTW). Limited by 100~MW/m a 15~cm bTW solution was proposed with a calculated gradient of 65~MV/m. Unfortunately to be used with a cyclotron, which typically have large emittance, infeasibly strong magnets would be required. The large aperture optimisation only considers S- and C-band structures as they exhibit higher shunt impedance with larger apertures than X-band cavities. Side-coupled SW structures and magnetically coupled bTW structures are re-optimised for a larger aperture. An S-band side-coupled SW structure is subsequently identified as being the optimum for this energy range. A full 11-cell structure design with input coupler and end cells is presented calculated to reach 54~MV/m. A beam dynamics study is also presented considering both the small and large aperture schemes. For the large aperture scheme a particle tracking study is also presented. Mechanical engineering considerations are presented with a novel disk design manufacturing each individual cell from two machined copper disks. Thermal analysis of the temperature distribution inside the cavity is presented alongside heat transfer calculations for the cavity cooling system. Finally the conditioning and high power test of a similar S-band medical structure is presented with comparison made to the prototype structure designed in this study.


Fibre reinforced polymer composites made up of synthetic fibres such as glass and carbon have shown outstanding performance in civil engineering load bearing applications. Development in replacing these fibres with natural fibres from plants has recently gained much attention due to the promotion of green-technology. However, the current applications of natural fibre/polymer composites in civil engineering are mostly concentrated on non-load bearing indoor components due to their vulnerability to environmental attack. Their ease to biodegrade becomes a main challenge in the widespread use of these types of materials. In this study, fibre treatment through alkalisation and the application of commercial weather protection coating are suggested to enhance outdoor performance of natural fibre/polymer composite. Bamboo fibre reinforced polyester composites are selected for the current work due to their potential in civil applications. The study is divided into two stages: optimisation of sodium hydroxide (NaOH) treatment on bamboo fibre/polyester composite and the degradability of bamboo fibre/polyester composite. The degradation study involves material exposure to heat, moisture and the combination of both heat and moisture to provide hygrothermal effect.

The test samples comprised of untreated fibre/polyester composite, treated fibre/polyester composite, coated fibre/polyester composite and neat polyester. All composite samples were fabricated using vacuum bagging process on randomly oriented bamboo fibres. To study the optimum fibre treatment using NaOH, bamboo fibres were treated with 0, 4, 6 and 8 wt. % NaOH. Through tensile testing of both fibre and composite, as well as interfacial shear strength study, it was revealed that alkali treatment results in improvement in strength of fibres and fibre/matrix adhesion up to 6 wt. % NaOH concentration due to the decrease in microfibril angle and rougher fibre surface for better interlocking with neat polyester. At higher NaOH concentrations, fibrils were found damaged causing deterioration in these properties. Thus, the optimum concentration of NaOH for bamboo fibre treatment is considered to be at 6%, with 181% and 22% of improvement in fibre tensile strength and interfacial shear strength, respectively. The coating product selected is an acrylic-based weather protection coat, commercially available for outdoor use and it is applied on the optimised NaOH treated composite. The study has shown that the coating provided improved mechanical properties of the composite up to 15.5% for tensile strength and 5.5% for stiffness at room temperature as well as added durability against heat and moisture below 80⁰C. Generally, the thermal degradation study involves the use of thermo gravimetric analysis (TGA), dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) and thermo-mechanical test. From the TGA, it was found that alkali treated fibres decomposed at lower temperatures than the untreated fibres due to the reduction in thermal stability of the cellulosic component of the fibres. For the composites, the decomposition temperature decreased by approximately 7.7% with the addition of the thermally less stable bamboo fibres in the neat polyester, but an approximately 90% increase in charring was observed. The glass transition temperature (Tg) for the composites is approximately 120⁰C obtained through DMA. The visco-elastic properties of the composites were found to be better than neat polyester above Tg as the bamboo fibres restrict the molecular movements of the softened resin. Similar findings were observed through the thermo-mechanical test, which was conducted at 40, 80 and 120⁰C. As the exposure temperature approaches Tg, the strength of the composites, although reduced, becomes better than neat polyester, with 331% higher for treated composite due to the presence of fibres which provide restriction to molecular movements of the resin. In comparison with the tensile behaviour of the composites at room temperature, the strength of the composites were found to improve up to 23% at 80⁰C, which through scanning electron microscopy (SEM) observations, attributed this to better fibre/matrix adhesion. With the immersion of samples in water, the changes in physical and mechanical properties were observed. Without the addition of fibres into the neat polyester, the resin sample showed better resistance to moisture, with less than 1% of moisture absorption observed in 60 days. The voids observed on alkali treated fibres have influenced the increment on moisture absorption of individual bamboo fibres. However, with better interlocking with neat polyester, the moisture gain and absorption rate of the composites were found to decrease with NaOH treatment, whereby 6% NaOH treated composite achieved 60% less moisture gain than untreated composite. The thickness swelling of the untreated composites showed comparable result with treated composites but a notable improvement was observed with the application of the coating layer, providing 40% additional barrier against swelling. However, the strength of moisture degraded treated and untreated composites were comparable at 22 MPa, both approximately 2% higher than dry samples. This is due to the plasticising effect by free water molecules which was advantageous to the strength of cellulose fibres and also to the increased in interfacial shear strength by fibre swelling which filled the voids at the fibre/matrix interface. With the influence of both moisture and thermal exposure, the Tg was found to decrease which was attributed to the hydrolytic depolymerisation of neat polyester whereby the entanglement between the ester links were cleaved by chemical reaction with water, reducing its Tg from 112⁰C to 103⁰C. The rate of absorption and swelling were higher in hygrothermal condition for all samples while the strength experienced a 13.6% reduction compared to immersion at room temperature. Through SEM, this was explained by the presence of microcracks on the resin and deterioration of fibre/matrix adhesion. NaOH treatment and coating layer did not play a major role on the moisture absorption and swelling behaviour of the composites in hygrothermal condition.
From this study, it can be concluded that alkali treatment of fibres has the potential to improve the resistance of bamboo fibre/polyester composites against the effects of heat and moisture, depending on how the degradation parameters alter the condition of the fibre/matrix interface. The presence of a good coating system may help increase the durability of the composite but it must be designed specifically for a certain exposure condition to ensure its effectiveness.


Despite high drama, the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) conference in Copenhagen ended as a flop. During chaotic negotiations and fundamental disagreements surrounding the formation of a post-Kyoto deal, five heads of state got together on the last day of negotiations in an attempt to salvage the conference with a document that would later be called the Copenhagen Accord. The United States, Brazil, South Africa, India, and China led a group of 20 supporting countries to craft the Copenhagen Accord, which was criticized because it was crafted behind closed doors and it did not commit major emitting countries to much in terms of emission reductions, finance, or technology transfer. The members of the UNFCCC agreed to "take note of" the Accord: Some leaders characterized this as a meaningful first step toward a future climate treaty, but many observers characterized the Accord as a failure because it is nonbinding and vague. The meeting in Copenhagen made it clear that nothing will be accomplished in a system that requires consensus among 192 member nations. Some have stated that future climate cooperation should be driven by coalitions that are best suited to the task, such as a narrower group like the G-20. This approach would work best, according to Hufbauer and Kim, if several points are addressed: (1) financial responsibility to developing countries must be divided among the developed members; (2) there must be a commitment to provide public funds if private funds are not forthcoming; (3) a template of conditionality for developing countries must exist; and (4) emission control targets must be frequently reviewed in light of the 2 degrees Celsius cap.


The relationship between the hepatotoxicity and metabolism of isoniazid and its metabolites, acetylisoniazid and acetylhydrazine, has been investigated. Toxic doses of acetylisoniazid and acetylhydrazine, radiolabeled in the acetyl group, were found to bind covalently to liver protein in vivo. This binding was mediated by the microsomal enzyme system as indicated by the effects of pretreatments altering the activity of these enzymes. Metabolic studies revealed that the pretreatments increased the metabolism of the acetylhydrazine moiety of acetyl-labeled acetylisoniazid and of acetylhydrazine itself by the microsomal enzyme system. Pretreatment with the acyl amidase inhibitor, bis-p-nitrophenyl phosphate, inhibited the hydrolysis of acetylisoniazid to isonicotinic acid plus acetylhydrazine and concomitantly decreased the covalent binding of acetyl-labeled acetylisoniazid. The changes in the metabolism of isoniazid, acetylisoniazid and acetylhydrazine effected by various pretreatments paralleled changes in the severity of the hepatic necrosis caused by the compounds. These results strongly suggest that acetylhydrazine is the metabolite responsible for the hepatic necrosis caused by isoniazid and that mirosomal metabolism of acetylhydrazine in vivo leads to the production of a reactive acylating species capable of reacting covalently with tissue macromolecules.


Abstract. Aged organic aerosol (OA) was measured at a remote coastal site on the island of Crete, Greece during the Finokalia Aerosol Measurement Experiment-2008 (FAME-2008), which was part of the EUCAARI intensive campaign of May 2008. The site at Finokalia is influenced by air masses from different source regions, including long-range transport of pollution from continental Europe. A quadrupole aerosol mass spectrometer (Q-AMS) was employed to measure the size-resolved chemical composition of non-refractory submicron aerosol (NR-PM1), and to estimate the extent of oxidation of the organic aerosol. Factor analysis was used to gain insights into the processes and sources affecting the OA composition. The particles were internally mixed and liquid. The largest fraction of the dry NR-PM1 sampled was ammonium sulfate and ammonium bisulfate, followed by organics and a small amount of nitrate. The variability in OA composition could be explained with two factors of oxygenated organic aerosol (OOA) with differing extents of oxidation but similar volatility. Hydrocarbon-like organic aerosol (HOA) was not detected. There was no statistically significant diurnal variation in the bulk composition of NR-PM1 such as total sulfate or total organic aerosol concentrations. However, the OA composition exhibited statistically significant diurnal variation with more oxidized OA in the afternoon. The organic aerosol was highly oxidized, regardless of the source region. Total OA concentrations also varied little with source region, suggesting that local sources had only a small effect on OA concentrations measured at Finokalia. The aerosol was transported for about one day before arriving at the site, corresponding to an OH exposure of approximately 4×1011 molecules cm−3 s. The constant extent of oxidation suggests that atmospheric aging results in a highly oxidized OA at these OH exposures, regardless of the aerosol source.


Background: Medical field is said to be associated with a lot of stress, both mental and physical. And medical
 students suffer more because during their training period they undergo a lot of stress in the form of little
 physical activity, altered food habits and social habits like smoking and alcohol. For this reason we decided to
 conduct this study amongst the medical students.
Objective: Our objective of this study is to determine the prevalence of prehypertension among Medical
 college students and study the association between prehypertension and other cardiovascular risk factors like
 lipid profile and Body Mass Index (BMI).
Methods: A total of 300 medical students of first to final year MBBS (18-23 years) were selected randomly
 for this study. Each participant's data was collected, BMI calculated. BP was measured by a mercury
 sphygmomanometer. Subjects were classified as 3 groups Normotensive, Hypertensive and Prehyperensive.
 Blood samples were collected and Fasting plasma glucose, serum cholesterol, triglyceride and HDLc, were
 estimated by using commercially available kits in automated analyzer. Serum LDLc, and VLDLc (Very Low
 Density Lipoprotein-cholesterol) were calculated by Friedwald's equation. All the data were analysed by using
 SPSS software.
Results: The overall prevalence of PHT was 38%. Prevalence of prehypertension is more in females. Among
 the students 75% had normal BMI, 20% were overweight, 3% were obese and 2% were underweight. BMI
 of Prehypertensive was significantly more than the normotensive students. BMI of female students are more
 than the male students. Among the lipid parameters, prehypertensives showed significant increase in TC,
 TG, LDLc than normotensive students. TC, TG, LDLc were high for female students than male students.
 Total prevalence of dyslipidaemia was 17.4% out of which 14.9% was hypercholesterolemia, 8.15% was
 hypertriglyceridaemia, 5.6% had high LDLc level and 10.4% had low HDLc level. There was a significant
 positive correlation between SBP with BMI, TG, TCh and VLDLc and significant positive correlation between
 DBP with TG and LDLc. There is negative correlation of SBP and DBP with HDLc. This might point out the
 contributory role of dyslipidemia and obesity towards prehypertention.
Conclusion: Prevalence of prehypertension was high and associated with a higher BMI and dyslipidemia
 .Prevalence of dyslipidemia is 17.4%. Hypercholesterolemia is more prevalent. Students should change their
 life style. They should do yoga, meditation regularly to cope with stress. They should avoid oily foods to
 decrease cholesterol level.


ABSTRACT Deep eutectic solvents (DES) have gained a reputation as inexpensive and easy to handle ionic liquid analogues. This work employs molecular dynamics (MD) to simulate a variety of DES. The hydrogen bond acceptor (HBA) choline chloride was paired with the hydrogen bond donors (HBD) glycerol, 1,4-butanediol, and levulinic acid. Levulinic acid was also paired with the zwitterionic HBA betaine. In order to evaluate the reliability of data MD simulations can provide for DES, two force fields were compared: the Merck Molecular Force Field and the General Amber Force Field with two different sets of partial charges for the latter. The force fields were evaluated by comparing available experimental thermodynamic and transport properties against simulated values. Structural analysis was performed on the eutectic systems and compared to non-eutectic compositions. All force fields could be validated against certain experimental properties, but performance varied depending on the system and property in question. While extensive hydrogen bonding was found for all systems, details about the contribution of individual groups strongly varied among force fields. Interaction potentials revealed that HBA–HBA interactions weaken linearly with increasing HBD ratio, while HBD–HBD interactions grew disproportionally in magnitude, which might hint at the eutectic composition of a system.


The analysis of very small samples by atomic emission from a hollow cathode discharge source is investigated. Subpicogram detection limits of 0.88, 0.72, 0.38, and 0.70 pg are reported for Li, Na, K, and Ca, respectively, by viewing the excitation from a very small hollow with a custom-built multichannel spectrometer. These detection limits are comparable to those from electrothermal atomic absorption, with the additional advantage of the ability to analyze nonmetals. The technique has adequate sensitivity for the analysis of microsamples of physiological fluids for Na, K, and Ca; similar methods may be successful for Mg, P, and Cl, which are of significant physiological interest. Literature of applications of the hollow cathode as an emission source is reviewed. Instrumentation, operation, and sample preparation procedures are described. Temporal profiles of the emission from very small samples deposited in the hollow and working curves are given.


At last an editorial on the much-neglected topic of the sustainability limits of our globe. Thank you Mr. Editor for your most informative readable and politically elegant essay. The bottom line is that if we dont do something about the overpopulation of our globe we will reach the 9 billion mark possibly even before 2050 as predicted in your editorial. The earth is groaning it is indeed gasping probably already on a death bed of sorts. Agreed it is not rocket science to figure out that too many people are being born. Something somehow will have to be done to popularise both male and female voluntary sterilisation once again. Certainly in the rural areas it seems to have been forgotten about. Small families must become the fashion. This is in keeping with World Health Organization recommendations and standards. I know of one heavyweight South African politician who already has 19 children and nevertheless recently got himself tied up in wedlock for the umpteenth time no doubt so as to have more babies with the lovely new young bride. So it would appear that (at least some) politicians need to be educated on the sustainability thing. It is also almost unbelievable that any government today can still encourage single-parent families by providing inappropriate social grants for babies born out of wedlock. The leaders of at least some groups in the religion industry also need to be educated. Surely they cannot forever continue to protect their selfish in-group taboos on basic contraception? What if we should all decide to take that sort of line? As far as clean water fresh air open space energy resources food for the masses etc. are concerned it is obvious that we are facing an escalating crisis basically because too many people are being born. I can only hope that every editor of every publication will do his or her educational bit at every conceivable occasion. Many thanks Mr. Editor for your bit so far. (full-text)


Since the birth of modern development economics in the period immediately following the Second World War, attention has been mostly directed to the determinants of long-term economic growth performance and, in a subsequent stage, to issues of income distribution and poverty reduction. Social engineering refers to deliberate attempts, often under the form of legislative moves, to promote changes in customs and norms that hurt the interests of marginalized population groups. This implies discussing the main possible interaction frameworks leading to anti-women equilibria, and deriving policy implications from the corresponding games. The theoretical arguments are illustrated by examples drawn from available empirical works, thus providing a reasoned survey of the literature. This chapter explores the analytical conditions under which social engineering is more or less likely to succeed than more indirect approaches when it comes to suppressing gender-biased customs.


Variation is one of the most important phenomena occurring in humans, and is attributed to many factors such as mutation and natural selection. Many studies have emphasized the importance of anthropometric measurements as a means of studying variation in human populations as well as a veritable tool in forensic science for crime detection. This study investigates the nasal breadth, nasal length and nasal indices of individuals of Itsekiri and Urhobo ethnic extraction, as a baseline study which may be necessary for future reference in these regard. Nasal length and nasal breadth of 1000 living Itsekiri and Urhobo people, aged 25-45 years, were measured. From these data, nasal indices were calculated and results were compared with published standards for various world populations. The results showed that on the average, the Urhobos had a mean nasal index of 89.63 and the Itsekiri's had a mean nasal index of 90.74. Sexual dimorphism was also observed in the ethnic groups studied with males having significantly higher nasal index values than the females (p < 0.05). Therefore, the two ethnic groups fall within the same nose type which is platyrrhine (short and broad nosed) expected of an African population. The findings of this study have confirmed anthropological differences amongst the two Nigerian ethnic groups examined.


This paper argues that the rapid agricultural expansion of the cerrado regions in Brazil is due to the low price of land in these regions, as compared with the other agricultural regions of Brazil and abroad. This low price of land is, in turn, attributed not only to the greater distance of these regions from the main markets, but also to the limitations of natural resources (the extremely harsh drought period, which limits agricultural activities to grains and livestock) and, above all, to technological innovations that "produced" an abundance of land of good quality. In order to show more clearly how this process has taken place, the paper develops a model of the land market that allows for "production of land," and derives the implications of such a model for production functions and total factor productivity (TFP) analyses. The paper also seeks to explain why the agrarian structure of the cerrado is so concentrated. The explanation turns on the low price of land and the peculiar characteristics of the natural resources and technology, rather than the role of agricultural policies. In its conclusions, the paper derives some implications for environmental as well as agrarian reform policies.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine how the emergent 3D interactive media technologies are used as a viable tool for enhancing visitors' overall experiences at an exhibition entitled, 300 Years of Hakka Kungfu – Digital Vision of Its Legacy and Future (Hakka Kungfu Exhibition) – presented and co-organized by the Intangible Cultural Heritage Office of Hong Kong, International Guoshu Association and the School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong.

Design/methodology/approach
A questionnaire survey in both online and paper-based formats was used for identifying visitors' experiences in the interactions with the multimedia technologies. For this research study, a questionnaire, consisting of 26 items, was set out to measure the visitors' experiences at the Exhibition. Since the Exhibition was about presenting a centuries-old Chinese cultural heritage, Hakka Kungfu via the use multimedia technologies, in the context of establishing a dialogue between the past and present, the researchers included questionnaire items that were devoted to enquire about the level of understanding, knowledge and enjoyment, and visitors' new knowledge about Hong Kong history and culture was successfully disseminated to the respondents at the end of the questionnaire.

Findings
A total of 209 completed questionnaires were collected at this Hakka Kungfu Exhibition. The findings reveal that the exhibits did attract people at all ages. This Exhibition gave the visitors a sense of interest and wonder in the object and information presented in the Exhibition. Findings of this study also reveal that this Exhibition has successfully attracted a large number of female visitors, as well as visitors who have never taken any martial arts training. In addition, visitors' Exhibition experience was found to be memorable, as well as enjoyable. Furthermore, visitors' experience within the Exhibition suggested that it was entertaining, as well as educational. By creating a long-lasting impact on the minds of these Exhibition visitors about the connections between and relevance of traditional Chinese Kungfu, their collective cultural identity, as well as the contemporary society we live in. The Exhibition exemplified the successful integration of the presentation of Kungfu as a form of cultural heritage with engagement-creating technology, in which technology is unobtrusive but effective.

Originality/value
Although it is already a global trend for the museums to integrate multimedia technologies into their exhibitions, research on the situation and feedback of multimedia technology used in the museum exhibitions in Hong Kong is scarce as well as scattered. Findings of this study could help identify various factors involved in audience participation, thereby exploring the possibility of building a contact point/space for traditional Chinese Kungfu as an intangible cultural heritage, via the integration of the latest media technologies. In particular, the development of multimedia technologies has become increasingly important to museums, and museum professionals have been exploring how digital and communication technologies can be developed to offer visitors a more interactive, personalized museum experience. In general, despite the growing interest in deploying digital technology as interpretation devices in museums and galleries, there are relatively few studies that examine how visitors, both alone and with others, use new technologies when exploring the museum contents.


X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (ESCA) is used to study structure bonding and reactivity of polymeric materials. Particular emphasis is placed on the investigation of surface modification of polymers, on the monomolecular depth scale, effect by Inductively coupled radlofrequency glow discharges excited in a variety of inert gases and oxygen. Low energy satellite structures, deriving from shake up transitions accompanying direct core ionization are identified in the spectra of unsaturated systems and demonstrated to be characteristic of the polymer structure and sensitive to substituent effects. The shake up transitions are essentially localized within a given pendant group or backbone feature and are exploited on a semi-quantitative basis, as a monitor of the extent of unsaturation in the surface of the polymer, providing a valuable extra level of information. The equilibrium static charge consequent upon the various electron fluxes arriving at and leaving the sample during the ESCA experiment has been correlated to polymer structure within a depth scale of the same order as electron mean free paths and is shown to be worthwhile studying in its own right. The effect of sample charging with respect to energy referencing employing extraneous hydrocarbon contamination in the spectrometer is shown to be small. Shake up and charging phenomena along with several other facets of the ESCA experiment including angular dependence of relative and absolute signal intensities, analytical depth profiling, difference spectroscopy and Madelung charge potential calculations, as well as the primary sources of data (absolute and relative binding energies, and relative peak intensities) have been employed in an extensive investigation into the surface modification of polymers by means of Inert gas and oxygen plasmas. For the inert gas plasmas the rates for direct and radiative energy transfer processes are determined within the framework of a kinetic model, and are shown to have a strong dependence on the sustaining gas, the power, the pressure and the plasma configuration. The depth to which direct energy transfer processes are important is determined to range from about one monolayer for krypton to three monolayers for helium. Radiative energy transfer to the bulk polymer is best effected by neon and some aspects of the vacuum ultraviolet radiation emitted from the plasmas are also presented. Modification by the oxygen containing plasmas is demonstrated to be extensive but confined within approximately one monolayer, in the initial stages. The rate and extent of oxidation is a strong function of polymer structure for pure oxygen plasmas (r.f. low power, low pressure) and is thought to be initiated by a crosslinking mechanism. This is affirmed by comparison with plasmas excited in helium/oxygen mixtures.


The global financial crisis (GFC) of 2007-2009 resulted in the most severe recession the world has encountered since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Although the GFC had very uneven effects around the world, including those on work and employment, it also highlighted the interconnectedness of different national orders, and the continued importance of national institutions in shaping policy choices and responses at the country level. At the organisational or firm level, the GFC also highlighted the tensions between external forces and a challenging macroeconomic environment on the one hand, versus actor agency and strategic choice on the other. At the individual level we can also consider the implications of the GFC for organisational actors including trade unions, workers and managers. Finally, there are important questions regarding the legacy of crisis in the medium and long term. This introductory article offers a review of these themes, before introducing the articles in this special issue on the impact and legacy of the global financial crisis on work and employment ten years on.


In the 1930s a series of seminal works published by Alan Turing, Kurt Gdel, Alonzo Church, and others established the theoretical basis for computability. This work, advancing precise characterizations of effective, algorithmic computability, was the culmination of intensive investigations into the foundations of mathematics. In the decades since, the theory of computability has moved to the center of discussions in philosophy, computer science, and cognitive science. In this volume, distinguished computer scientists, mathematicians, logicians, and philosophers consider the conceptual foundations of computability in light of our modern understanding. Some chapters focus on the pioneering work by Turing, Gdel, and Church, including the Church-Turing thesis and Gdel's response to Church's and Turing's proposals. Other chapters cover more recent technical developments, including computability over the reals, Gdel's influence on mathematical logic and on recursion theory and the impact of work by Turing and Emil Post on our theoretical understanding of online and interactive computing; and others relate computability and complexity to issues in the philosophy of mind, the philosophy of science, and the philosophy of mathematics. Contributors:Scott Aaronson, Dorit Aharonov, B. Jack Copeland, Martin Davis, Solomon Feferman, Saul Kripke, Carl J. Posy, Hilary Putnam, Oron Shagrir, Stewart Shapiro, Wilfried Sieg, Robert I. Soare, Umesh V. Vazirani


This qualitative study explores the experiences of adult mental health service users as well as their families upon discharge of service users, to their families in the Durban area, from Ekuhlengeni Care Centre (ECC) during May 1999 to December 2001. In so doing, the aim was to ascertain the nature of mental health service users' adjustment to living in the community, their impact on the home environment, to identify gaps in community care and to provide suggestions on resolving these gaps. The study was guided by a qualitative research paradigm and utilized an exploratory descriptive research design. Availability sampling was used. Unstructured face-to-face, in-depth interviews were conducted with four mental health service users (MHSUs) and six family members. The results of the study reveal the many dilemmas that both MHSUs and their relatives experience because of the lack of support and services available in the community. There is overwhelming evidence to suggest that the environment is ill suited at all levels to meeting the needs of MHSUs and their relatives. This study examines the challenges experienced by MHSUs and their relatives and makes recommendations for practice and policy that can contribute to improved service delivery.


Manufacturing enterprises have been collecting and storing more and more current, detailed and accurate production relevant data. The data stores offer enormous potential as source of new knowledge, but the huge amount of data and its complexity far exceeds the ability to reduce and analyze data without the use of automated analysis techniques. This paper provides a brief introduction into knowledge discovery from databases and presents the methology for data mining in time series. The relevancy of data mining for manufacturing shall be depicted.


This Essay, forthcoming in the Howard Law Journal, describes Thurgood Marshall's meritocratic egalitarianism. Marshall was sensitive to the wide range of talents people actually had and was skeptical about claims that talents in any field were distributed in a steep pyramid, with many less talented at the base and only a few highly talented at the top. For him, there was a meritocratic pyramid, but it was flat rather than steep. All but the very best at most things were only slightly better and only somewhat less numerous than those who had ordinary ability in the field. Marshall was also extremely sensitive to the range of bad reasons people gave for perpetuating hierarchies ordered by ascriptive characteristics - race most obviously, but also gender, class, and disability. A real meritocracy required the elimination of all those bad reasons so that careers, broadly defined, really would be open to talent. Governments could not use ascriptive characteristics to perpetuate hierarchies that interfered with the prospect of a person pursuing a career suitable to his or her talents. And, conversely, policies aimed at eliminating the use of ascriptive characteristics to perpetuate such hierarchies - what has come to be known as affirmative action - were entirely proper. Taken as a whole, Marshall's meritocratic egalitarianism was strongly critical both of the distribution of social benefits and harms in the United States, which did not conform to meritocratic principles, and of the widespread ideas about meritocracy, which placed too much weight on differences that a real meritocrat would regard as minor. The Essay examines several of Justice Marshall's separate opinions - dissents and concurrences - to tease out of them indications of Marshall's meritocratic egalitarianism.


This book explores the idea that art can enact small-scale resistances against the status quo in the social domain. These acts, which we call "little resistances," determine the limited yet potentially powerful political impact of art. From different angles, seventeen authors consider the spaces where art events occur as "political spaces," and explore how such spaces host events of disagreements in migratory culture. The newly coined word "migratory" refers to the sensate traces of the movements of migration that characterize contemporary culture. In other words, movement is not an exceptional occurrence in an otherwise stable world, but a normal, generalized process in a world that cannot be grasped in terms of any given notion of stability. Thus the book offers fresh reflections on art's power to move people, in the double sense of that verb, and shows how it helps to illuminate migratory culture's contributions to this process.


Sources on the culture and history of Peru for students preparing for the Peruvian Ethnopharmacology & Traditional Medicine travel course.


The central proposition of this thesis is that there are key benefits to examining leadership perceptions as an attitude towards the leader. In particular, it is argued that doing so can provide an enhanced understanding of leadership perceptions and therefore advance theory in this area. To provide empirical support for this theoretcial integration, the current research focused on one of the most popular leadership theories, leader-member exchange (LMX), and demonstrated how the concept of attitude strength could advance understanding of how and when LMX influenced employee job performance. Although the measurement of LMX requires employees to provide a cognitive evaluation of their relationship with their leader, previous research has, to date, not considered this evaluation to be an attitude. This thesis provides a justification for doing so and develops two novel constructs: LMX importance and LMX ambivalence. Both of these variables are argued to represent previously unconsidered facets of the LMX relationship, which, according to attitude theory, provide a more multifaceted understanding of leadership perceptions than previously envisaged. Such an understanding can provide a more detailed understanding of how such perceptions influence outcomes. Two studies provided an empirical test of the above reasoning. Study 1, a longitudinal field study, demonstrated initial support for many of the hypotheses. LMX amivalence was shown to lead to poorer task performance and organisational citizenship behaviour, mediated by the experience of negative affect. Evidence was also found for the moderating effect of LMX importance, although felt obligations was not found to mediate this moderated effect. While Study 1 used project groups as its participants, Study 2 provided a first test of the construct in an organisational setting; with three companies proving data. Again, strong support was found for the negative effects of LMX ambivalence on employee outcomes, with evidence also found for the role of perceived organisational support in mitigating these negative effects. Support was also found for the moderated mediation hypothesis related to LMX importance, although this was only found in the largest organisation sample. Some of the main theoretical and methodological implications of viewing leadership perceptions as attitudes to the wider leadership area were discussed. The cross-fertilisation of research from the attitudes literature to understanding leadership perceptions provides new insights into leadership processes and potential avenues for further research.


Many video classification applications require access to personal data, thereby posing an invasive security risk to the users' privacy. We propose a privacy-preserving implementation of single-frame method based video classification with convolutional neural networks that allows a party to infer a label from a video without necessitating the video owner to disclose their video to other entities in an unencrypted manner. Similarly, our approach removes the requirement of the classifier owner from revealing their model parameters to outside entities in plaintext. To this end, we combine existing Secure Multi-Party Computation (MPC) protocols for private image classification with our novel MPC protocols for oblivious single-frame selection and secure label aggregation across frames. The result is an end-to-end privacy-preserving video classification pipeline. We evaluate our proposed solution in an application for private human emotion recognition. Our results across a variety of security settings, spanning honest and dishonest majority configurations of the computing parties, and for both passive and active adversaries, demonstrate that videos can be classified with state-of-the-art accuracy, and without leaking sensitive user information.


In a perspective of evidence-based medicine, data from measurement systems, processed by data mining techniques, can provide quantitative measures that can make more objective the available clinical information and be an important aid for clinical decision making. This is the leitmotif of this project. In this Master Thesis work the focus is on motor symptoms of Parkinson's disease, in particular on bradykinesia (slowness of movement). The motivation is found in the need to have quantitative methods for the motor assessment of patients, in order to be able to monitor the daily fluctuations of the motor symptoms (alternate of phase ON and phase OFF). In fact, the most used clinical evaluation scale, the MDS-UPDRS, in which the clinician is asked to assign a score between 0 and 4 according to the severity of the considered symptom, does not meet requirements of objectivity and repeatability. Furthermore, the fact that this kind of evaluation is performed only within follow-up sessions make impossible for the neurologist to observe the variations of the pharmacological/surgical treatment that occurs in Parkinson's disease patients. The main techniques for the assessment of motor functions in Parkinson's disease, based on inertial sensors located in wearable devices, were analysed in literature. The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of a common smartphone to collect data during the execution of a motor task and the best machine learning method for the quatitative assessment of bradykinesia. Ninety-three Parkinson's disease patients and ten healthy people partecipated in this study. The data used in the project was gathered from a smartphone positioned on the thigh while the patient conducted a prescribed movement activity: the Leg Agility (task 3.8 in the MDS-UPDRS). Some machine learning models were trained and tested for the supervised classification based on the UPDRS scale. A set of 16 features were extracted from the data and both multiclass classification and binary classification were performed. The better overall correct classification percentages are reached by SVM model with 60.9 percent and Neural Network model with 76.1 percent. The most accurate classification was achived for observations with true class 1 and 3. The kNN, Linear Discriminant Analysis and Decision Tree show their inability to recognize the cases of UPDRS 4.


Stratiform tourmalinites are significant minor rock types in many regional metamorphic terranes of the world. Tourmalinites are more widespread than previously recognized and are especially common in Proterozoic and early Paleozoic sequences dominated by clastic metasedimentary rocks. They consist of conformable layers made up primarily of quartz and abundant tourmaline, the latter typically exceeding 15% to 20% of rock volumes. A few tourmalinites display striking sedimentary structures such as graded bedding, cross-laminations, slump and flame structures, and rip-up clasts. These and other geologic features provide important constraints for assessing the origin of these rocks, and they suggest that tourmalinites form by the early diagenetic modification of a primary boron-rich chemical precipitate. Tourmalinites are significant in preserving a valuable record of unusual chemical and paleogeographic conditions in clastic sedimentary basins, and in their close association with a variety of stratabound mineral deposits.


ARTEMIS FOWL'S CRIMINAL WAYS HAVE FINALLY GOT THE BETTER OF HIM ...Young Artemis has frequently used high-tech fairy magic to mastermind the most devious criminal activity of the new century. Now, at a conference in Iceland, Artemis has gathered the fairies to present his latest idea to save the world from global warming. But Artemis is behaving strangely - he seems different. Something terrible has happened to him ...Artemis Fowl has become nice. The fairies diagnose Atlantis Complex (that's obsessive compulsive disorder to you and I) - it seems dabbling in magic has damaged Artemis' main weapon: his mind. Fairy ally Captain Holly Short doesn't know what to do. The subterranean volcanoes are under attack from vicious robots and Artemis cannot fight them. Can Holly get the real Artemis back ---before the robot probes destroy every human and life form? This eagerly-awaited adventure is now out in paberback with a fabulous new cover-look to celebrate ten years of Artemis action.


A partition structure is a sequence of probability distributions for $\pi_n$, a random partition of $n$, such that if $\pi_n$ is regarded as a random allocation of $n$ unlabeled balls into some random number of unlabeled boxes, and given $\pi_n$ some $x$ of the $n$ balls are removed by uniform random deletion without replacement, the remaining random partition of $n-x$ is distributed like $\pi_{n-x}$, for all $1 \le x \le n$. We call a partition structure regenerative if for each $n$ it is possible to delete a single box of balls from $\pi_n$ in such a way that for each $1 \le x \le n$, given the deleted box contains $x$ balls, the remaining partition of $n-x$ balls is distributed like $\pi_{n-x}$. Examples are provided by the Ewens partition structures, which Kingman characterised by regeneration with respect to deletion of the box containing a uniformly selected random ball. We associate each regenerative partition structure with a corresponding regenerative composition structure, which (as we showed in a previous paper) is associated in turn with a regenerative random subset of the positive halfline. Such a regenerative random set is the closure of the range of a subordinator (that is an increasing process with stationary independent increments). The probability distribution of a general regenerative partition structure is thus represented in terms of the Laplace exponent of an associated subordinator, for which exponent an integral representation is provided by the Levy-Khintchine formula. The extended Ewens family of partition structures, previously studied by Pitman and Yor, with two parameters $(\alpha,\theta)$, is characterised for $0 \le \alpha 0$ by regeneration with respect to deletion of each distinct part of size $x$ with probability proportional to $(n-x)\tau+x(1-\tau)$, where $\tau = \alpha/(\alpha+\theta)$.


Current sequencing-based and DNA microarray techniques to study microbial diversity are based on an initial PCR (polymerase chain reaction) amplification step. However, a number of factors are known to bias PCR amplification and jeopardize the true representation of bacterial diversity. PCR amplification of the minor template appears to be suppressed by the exponential amplification of the more abundant template. It is widely acknowledged among environmental molecular microbiologists that genetic biosignatures identified from an environment only represent the most dominant populations. The technological bottleneck has overlooked the presence of the less abundant minority population, and underestimated their role in the ecosystem maintenance. To generate PCR amplicons for subsequent diversity analysis, bacterial l6S rRNA genes are amplified by PCR using universal primers. Two distinct PCR regimes are employed in parallel: one using normal and the other using biotinlabeled universal primers. PCR products obtained with biotin-labeled primers are mixed with streptavidin-labeled magnetic beads and selectively captured in the presence of a magnetic field. Less-abundant DNA templates that fail to amplify in this first round of PCR amplification are subjected to a second round of PCR using normal universal primers. These PCR products are then subjected to downstream diversity analyses such as conventional cloning and sequencing. A second round of PCR amplified the minority population and completed the deep diversity picture of the environmental sample.


Purpose: The aim of this research was to determine attitudes towards persons with disabilities among prospective health care professionals. Materials and
Methods: Attitudes were measured using the Attitudes towards Persons with Disabilities Inventory developed in Turkey, which consists of 43 statements. Participants were 273 undergraduate students from a health sciences faculty in Turkish university via stratified sampling. We examined associations between Attitudes towards Persons with Disabilities Inventory scores and sociodemographics variables.
Results: The students generally had positive attitudes towards persons with disabilities. The most positive attitudes were among students from lower-income families (M=198.5, SD=3.5 Significance Level=0.05). Students from the Physiotherapy and Rehabilitation and the Social Work departments had more positive attitudes.
Conclusions: The findings indicate a need to revise the curricula of departments to prepare students to effectively work with persons with disabilities.


Abstract. Monitoring natural resources is one of the most important tasks in earth observation and remote sensing satellites. Water resources play a crucial role in the life of human on the planet. Among the water resources, salty lakes are of particular importance in biological, physical and environmental issues. In this study, a new Salty Water Index (SWI) for Landsat 8 Operational Land Imager (OLI) images is proposed based on salty lakes by particle swarm optimization (PSO), where water doesn't combine by cloud, shadow, and salty areas. SWI is implemented on four famous and important salty lakes with the proper distribution of the whole world and different Salinity, including Lake Assal, Great Salt Lake, Eyre Lake, and Lake Urmia. The performance of SWI is compared with other water indices by overall accuracy, f-score, kappa coefficient, and standard deviation to mean ratio. Results show the efficiency of SWI on all cases due to 0.0055 Standard deviation to mean for SWI compared to 0.0395, 0.0255, 0.0873, 0.0214, 0.0524, 0.0408 and 0.0375 for NDWI, MNDWI, AWEIsh, AWEI, WRI, MOWI, and MBWI, respectively. Also, Effectiveness criteria (E) determines the efficiency of each band of Landsat 8. In this regard, results show the high performance of Green and Near IR band in all conditions and relatively proper performance of some other bands based on a special condition of each case study. The proposed method is also suggested to readers to obtain novel spectral indices of other classes and other sensors.


In 2008 the researchers undertook a study exploring the drinking careers of young people who are not in education, employment and training (NEET) in a small post-industrial town in England, (Nelson and Tabberer 2015). This report presents research which repeated the study with the same cohort of young people described as NEET, in the same geographical location, to see if anything has changed over the ensuing 10 years, and to further investigate this under researched group.
Key findings
• Many young people described as NEET are drinking little or no alcohol and drinking plays no part in their lives.
• Experimental drinking starts at a young age and can include risky and harmful behaviour but has been grown out of by the age of 17.
• Social media plays little part of NEET young people's lives and acts to discourage drinking.
• Park and street drinking is for those in their early teens. When those in their later teens do drink it is at home or with those they trust at friends' houses.


T allure of the archive as a concept, space, form, and metaphor has proven irresistible for continentally inflected media and cultural studies over the last two decades. The "archive fever" diagnosed by Derrida in 1995 has only become more acute as the ever-accelerating digitization of culture, memory, and history has fundamentally reconfigured archives, both real and imaginary. Digital Memory and the Archive intervenes in this 'archival' moment by offering the first major collection of essays in English by one of the central figures in contemporary 'German' media theory and a thinker for whom archive has been an animating concern, Wolfgang Ernst. The book offers a much anticipated entry point into Ernst's influential work, which has hitherto been largely absent from contemporary debates in North American media and communication studies around new materialism and the nonhuman turn. Ernst's provocative propositions about doing media theory, writing media history, and the state of media studies as a discipline make the book of interest to readers not just in those fields, but also in communication and information studies, computer science, history, and the (digital) humanities more broadly.


Diversifying the role of grid-side converters (GSCs) associated with distributed generation (DG) may have a technical and economic impact. The increasing number of residential photovoltaic systems can be exploited by distribution network (DN) operators in order to support and improve the power quality of the grid without considerable further capital investment. The GSC can support the grid during abnormal conditions but may also be used to improve the DN power quality by balancing out asymmetries and alleviating the grid from undesired harmonics. The proposed advanced control technique demonstrates through simulation and experimental results that the role of GSC can be upgraded to improve the power quality of the grid. Furthermore, the proposed control scheme is validated on a realistic low-voltage DN using data from the Electricity Authority of Cyprus. Consequently, conventional practices by DN operators for improving the power quality can be reassessed as the necessary power electronics hardware for mitigating grid problems is already present within the GSCs of DG systems.


This work aims to address two major roadblocks in the development of lithium-sulfur (Li-S) batteries: the inefficient deposition of Li on the metallic Li electrode and the parasitic "polysulfide redox shuttle". These roadblocks are here approached, respectively, by the combination of a cellulose separator with a cathode-facing conductive porous carbon interlayer, based on their previously reported individual benefits. The cellulose separator increases cycle life by 33%, and the interlayer by a further 25%, in test cells with positive electrodes with practically relevant specifications and a relatively low electrolyte/sulfur (E/S) ratio. Despite the prolonged cycle life, the combination of the interlayer and cellulose separator increases the polysulfide shuttle current, leading to reduced Coulombic efficiency. Based on XPS analyses, the latter is ascribed to a change in the composition of the solid electrolyte interphase (SEI) on Li. Meanwhile, electrolyte decomposition is found to be slower in cells with cellulose-based separators, which explains their longer cycle life. These counterintuitive observations demonstrate the complicated interactions between the cell components in the Li-S system and how strategies aiming to mitigate one unwanted process may exacerbate another. This study demonstrates the value of a holistic approach to the development of Li-S chemistry.


Large repetitive stresses induced from heavy train traffic can cause significant degradation of ballasted rail tracks, leading to poor track geometry and stability. This, in turn, results in decreased track performance and increased maintenance costs. Inclusions of geosynthetics in the track substructure can decrease the impact of these adverse effects. Thus, understanding the effects of geosynthetic reinforcement becomes necessary for improved design procedures and construction practices for ballasted rail tracks. However, the complex nature of the stress-strain response of composite track system is often difficult to assess using only laboratory tests on reduced-scale models. It is imperative to also understand this behaviour through in-situ monitoring of rail tracks. A series of full-scale field experiments was undertaken on track sections near Singleton, New South Wales to investigate the effects of geosynthetic reinforcement on the performance of the track. These experimental track sections were built on subgrade soils with varying stiffness, and various types of geosynthetics were installed at the ballast-subballast interface. Transient and accumulated deformations of the track substructure as well as variation of traffic-induced stresses in the track were routinely monitored. It was found that geogrids can decrease vertical strains of the ballast with obvious benefits of reduced track maintenance costs. It was also found that a few selected types of geogrids can be effectively used for soft subgrade soils.


In Paper I of this series, we showed that the ratio between stripped-envelope (SE) supernova (SN) and Type II SN rates reveals a significant SE SN deficiency in galaxies with stellar masses ≲ 10 10 M ☉ . Here, we test this result by splitting the volume-limited subsample of the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) SN sample into low- and high-mass galaxies and comparing the relative rates of various SN types found in them. The LOSS volume-limited sample contains 180 SNe and SN impostors and is complete for SNe Ia out to 80 Mpc and core-collapse SNe out to 60 Mpc. All of these transients were recently reclassified by us in Shivvers et al. We find that the relative rates of some types of SNe differ between low- and high-mass galaxies: SNe Ib and Ic are underrepresented by a factor of ∼3 in low-mass galaxies. These galaxies also contain the only examples of SN 1987A-like SNe in the sample and host about nine times as many SN impostors. Normal SNe Ia seem to be ∼30% more common in low-mass galaxies, making these galaxies better sources for homogeneous SN Ia cosmology samples. The relative rates of SNe IIb are consistent in both low- and high-mass galaxies. The same is true for broad-line SNe Ic, although our sample includes only two such objects. The results presented here are in tension with a similar analysis from the Palomar Transient Factory, especially as regards SNe IIb.


FAMILY MINISTRY AND EVANGELISM: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY OF FAMILY MINISTRY ENGAGEMENT AND BAPTISM RATIOS IN THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION Kevin Bryce Saxton, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2017 Chair: Dr. Brian C. Richardson Proponents of a family ministry strategy believe that Christian parents are called to be the primary disciple-makers in their children's lives and that the church is called to equip parents for that important task. This type of strategy is commonly critiqued as an internally focused strategy that neglects another very important part of Christian discipleship, evangelism. This study empirically addresses that critique by examining baptism ratios in relation to family ministry emphasis within the Southern Baptist Convention. Chapter 1 establishes the need for this study by outlining the critique. The critique is one which finds proponents outside of family ministry strategy, but also has support from within family ministry strategy as family ministry practitioners within various stream of family ministry philosophy offer critiques of other family ministry models. This chapter also outlines the procedure to be followed to accomplish the study. Chapter 2 is an exploration of the precedent literature in the fields of both family ministry and evangelism. An emphasis on both of these fields is important as the two biblical priorities of family ministry and evangelism are meant to function in tandem and not in competition. When juxtaposed with the precedent literature in the field of evangelism in this chapter, the precedent literature in the field of family ministry indicates that family ministry is not only an evangelistic endeavor in itself, but is part of an overall strategy to be evangelistically effective outside of the walls of the church. The third chapter of this study outlines the methodological design of the study. There are two components to the way in which this study was accomplished. First, a survey was built directly from DNA of D6's Church Health Assessment. Applicable portions of this verified instrument were disseminated electronically throughout the Southern Baptist Church. Responding churches received scores based upon their responses that were used to rate the level of engagement in family ministry within those churches. Demographic information was also gathered from those churches and was used to access the individual Annual Church Profiles for the purpose of ascertaining the ratio of average weekly attenders to baptisms within those congregations. This data was then used to conduct the analysis portion of the study. Chapter 4 contains the analysis of the information gathered through this empirical study. The variables of family ministry engagement and baptism ratio were measured for relationship to determine if there is any correlation between the two variables. This was also done with three individual sections of the Church Health Assessment used in the survey portion of the study. The data was also examined for any other trends that may illuminate a causal relationship. Finally, chapter 5 addressed conclusions that could be drawn from this research. These conclusions are used to respond to the critique that family ministry philosophy is an inwardly focused strategy that is ineffective for reaching those who are far from God outside of the walls of the church. In addition, this chapter provides suggestions for future research in the area of study, as well as the individual disciplines of both family ministry and evangelism.


The used of organic fertilizers that environment friendly and do not damage nature is the best solution in the cultivation of green beans (Vigna radiata L.). Vermicompost organic fertilizer is one of the more qualified than the other organic fertilizers. This organic fertilizer is the result of composting without worms.The purpose of this study was to examine the use of multiple doses of vermicompost fertilizer and get a dose of fertilizer is best for the growth and production of green beans. This research has been conducted in the gauze, experimental garden of the Faculty of Agriculture, University of Riau, from December 2013 to February 2014. This study was performed experimentally using a completely randomized design (CRD), 5 treatments and 3 replicates with 6 plants per experimental unit, 3 plants used as a sample. The parameters measured were plant height (cm), number of primary branches (branches), days to flowering (days), pod formation age (days), maturity (days), number of pods per plant pithy (pieces), the number of empty pods per plant (pieces), dried seed weight per plant (g) and weight of 100 seeds (g). The data analysis results were significant statistical test followed by least significant difference (LSD) at the 5% level. The results of this study indicate that vermicompost fertilizer on green beans significantly affect flowering, pod formation age, maturity and weight of 100 seeds. Vermicompost fertilizer at a dose of 40 g/polybag give the best results on a number of parameters compared to the other doses. Keywords : Fertilizer, Vermicompost, Dose, Green Bean


Weeds are a top management concern among organic vegetable growers. Abrasive weeding is a nonchemical tactic using air-propelled abrasive grit to destroy weed seedlings within crop rows. Many grit types are effective, but if organic fertilizers are used, this could integrate weed and nutrient management in a single field pass. Our objective was to quantify the effects of abrasive grit and mulch type on weed suppression, disease severity, soil nitrogen availability, and yield of pepper (Capsicum annuum L. 'Carmen'). A 2-year experiment was conducted in organic red sweet pepper at Urbana, IL, with four replicates of five abrasive grit treatments (walnut shell grits, soybean meal fertilizer, composted turkey litter fertilizer, a weedy control, and a weed-free control) and four mulch treatments (straw mulch, bioplastic film, polyethylene plastic film, and a bare soil control). Abrasive weeding, regardless of grit type, paired with bioplastic or polyethylene plastic mulch reduced in-row weed density (67 and 87%, respectively) and biomass (81 and 84%); however there was no significant benefit when paired with straw mulch or bare ground. Despite the addition of 6 to 34 kg N/ha/yr through the application of soybean meal and composted turkey litter grits, simulated plant N uptake was most influenced by mulch composition (e.g., plastic vs. straw) and weed abundance. Nitrogen immobilization in straw mulch plots reduced leaf greenness, plant height, and yield. Bacterial spot (Xanthomonas campestris pv. Vesicatoria) was confirmed on peppers in both years, but abrasive weeding did not increase severity of the disease. Pepper yield was always greatest in the weed-free control and lowest in straw mulch and bare soil, but the combination of abrasive weeding (regardless of grit type) and bioplastic or polyethylene plastic mulch increased marketable yield by 47% and 21%, respectively, compared with the weedy control. Overall, results demonstrate that when abrasive weeding is paired with bioplastic or polyethylene mulch, growers can concurrently suppress weeds and increase crop N uptake for greater yields.


We present a model for the early optical afterglow of GRB 021004. This burst had one of the earliest detected optical afterglows, allowing for a dense optical sampling. The lightcurve was peculiar, since bright bumps were superimposed to the regular power-law decay observed in many other events. We show that, given their time scale and shape, the bumps are likely due to the interaction of the fireball with moderate density enhancements in the ambient medium. The enhancements have a density contrast of order 10, modifying only slightly the dynamics of the fireball, which therefore surfs on them rather than colliding into them. A relativistic reverse shock does not develop. Since the interaction takes place when the fireball is still hyper-relativistic it is not possible to understand if the overdensities are localized in clumps or are spherically symmetric around the GRB progenitor. The monotonic decrease of the contrast of successive rebrightenings suggests however the presence of clumps embedded in a uniform environment. Such an interpretation, complemented by the detection of several high velocity absorption systems in the optical spectrum, strongly suggests that GRB 021004 exploded within the remnant of a previous explosion.


Contents and Abstracts1History of Italian Law chapter abstractThis chapter traces the history of Italian law from the Roman period through the beginning of the Italian Republic (1946). It explains the history of Italian law in relation to the cultural, political, social, and economic histories of Italy. 2Italian Government chapter abstractThis chapter describes the Italian political system, the principal political parties, and the outlines of the judicial system as they existed in the mid- to late 1960s. There is also a brief discussion of the government's role in the Italian economy. 3The Law Professionals chapter abstractThis chapter discusses legal education, the legal profession, and the magistratura, as they existed at the time of publication. 4Civil Procedure and Evidence chapter abstractThis chapter provides an overview of civil procedure, including historical background constitutional norms investigation and discovery appeals and judgments and trends in procedural scholarship. There are also briefer discussions of the laws of evidence and of criminal and administrative procedures. The differences between Italian and American procedural norms, which flow from the civil-common law distinction but are augmented by various historical differences, are a major theme of this chapter. 5The Italian Style: Doctrine chapter abstractThis chapter traces the development of a distinct Italian "style," which is characterized by an inclination toward legal positivism a reluctance to consider nonlegal disciplines, notably philosophy, economics, and the remaining social sciences, in legal scholarship and a tendency, extreme even by civil law standards, to elevate doctrine over case law. These tendencies result, in turn, from a combination of French and German influences and specifically Italian traits, including the long period in which Italy lacked a central governmental authority and relied on scholars ("doctors") of law to maintain continuity. 6The Italian Style: Law chapter abstractThis chapter continues the themes introduced in Chapter 5, emphasizing characteristic Italian attitudes such as the limited (primarily legislative) sources of law a sharp division between public and private law and the centrality of codes (especially the civil code) in the legal firmament. These features were changing by the late 1960s as a result of several developments, including the increased economic role of the state, the rise of the Constitutional Court, and the growth in fields that did not fit easily into existing categories. 7The Italian Style: Interpretation chapter abstractThis chapter-arguably the grandest in the book-traces the Italian style as it affects legal interpretation. It describes the difference between the "folklore" of interpretation, under which the judge is merely the mouthpiece of the statute, and the actual practice, in which the judge's values, beliefs, and attitudes inevitably affect the outcome of cases. The core of the chapter is devoted to the work of three scholars-Emilio Betti, Tullio Ascarelli, and Piero Calamandrei-who attempted to resolve this problem, the last with an ambitious theory regarding the need to update interpretation to meet the demands of a democratic society. The chapter concludes with a brief section that summarizes the themes of the book as a whole.


Haptic feedback is a design element for human-computer interfaces, and this paper discusses when and how it can be used to best effect in interactive applications. It begins with consideration of the unique attributes of the touch sense in physiological and psychological terms, and the nature of information and control that touching provides. It reviews where active touching helps, by setting forth the forms it may take and important parameters that describe it; and evaluates the specific benefits it offers to contemporary interface problems. It ends with a proposal for a simple interaction model that emphasizes holistic design principles, and highlights issues that arise in the process of creating specific haptic interfaces.


The carbon isotope profiles of shallow-marine carbonates from the Barremian-Aptian Kharaib and Shuaiba formations of the Arabian Gulf region range between 0.5 and 7^pmil ^dgr13C PDB (Peedee belemnite). Systematic variations can be correlated with isotope profiles reported from Tethyan pelagic limestone sequences. The detailed correspondence between the isotopic signature of the relatively well-dated pelagic limestones and the poorly dated shallow-water limestones from the Arabian Gulf region suggests that global marine carbon isotope changes apparently affected deep-sea and shallow-water carbonate sediments similarly and at a similar time resolution. Although oxygen isotopes have been reset during diagenesis, carbon isotopes appear to have maintained their primary marine signature through time. No evidence has been found to connect carbon isotope trends to subaerial exposure or later meteoric diagenesis. In combination with other data, the investigated carbon isotope profiles can be used for basin-to-platform and regional correlations beyond the current resolution of biostratigraphy in shallow-water limestones. Carbon isotope stratigraphy confirms significant hiatuses in the investigated shallow-water carbonate sequences. Using carbon isotope trends as a proxy for sea level fluctuations, the carbon isotope cycles of the late Early Cretaceous of the Arabian Gulf region may represent four cycles of rising and falling sea level with a duration corresponding to that of third-order sea level fluctuations. Regional correlations derived from isotope trends provide a scenario for the larger scale stratigraphic evolution of the Arabian peninsula during the end of the Early Cretaceous. Differential rates of aggradation between realms influenced by siliciclastics and those characterized by siliciclastic-poor ("clean") carbonate deposition apparently caused the development of a pronounced basin-platform topography during the early Aptian (Shuaiba intrashelf basin and platform).


Abstract Modern communication systems apply channel-aware adaptive transmission techniques and dynamic resource allocation in order to exploit the peak conditions of the fading wireless links and to enable significant performance gains. However, conveying the channel state information among the users' mobile terminals into the access points of the network consumes a significant portion of the scarce air-link resources and depletes the battery resources of the mobile terminals rapidly. Despite its evident drawbacks, the channel information feedback cannot be eliminated in modern wireless networks because blind communication technologies cannot support the ever-increasing transmission rates and high quality of experience demands of current ubiquitous services. Developing new transmission technologies with reduced-feedback requirements is sought. Network operators will benefit from releasing the bandwidth resources reserved for the feedback communications and the clients will enjoy the extended battery life of their mobile devices. The main technical challenge is to preserve the prospected transmission rates over the network despite decreasing the channel information feedback significantly. This is a noteworthy research theme especially that there is no mature theory for feedback communication in the existing literature despite the growing number of publications about the topic in the last few years. More research efforts are needed to characterize the trade-off between the achievable rate and the required channel information and to design new reduced-feedback schemes that can be flexibly controlled based on the operator preferences. Such schemes can be then introduced into the standardization bodies for consideration in next generation broadband systems. We have recently contributed to this field and published several journal and conference papers. We are the pioneers to propose a novel reduced-feedback opportunistic scheduling scheme that combines many desired features including fairness in resources distribution across the active terminals and distributed processing at the MAC layer level. In addition our scheme operates close to the upper capacity limits of achievable transmission rates over wireless links. We have also proposed another hybrid scheme that enables adjusting the feedback load flexibly based on rates requirements. We are currently investigating other novel ideas to design reduced-feedback communication systems.


Advances in CPU and networking technologies make it appealing to aggregate commodity compute nodes into ultra-scale clusters. But the performance achievable is highly dependent on how tightly their components are integrated together. The ever-increasing size of clusters and applications running over them leads to dramatic changes in the requirements. These include at least scalable resource management, fault tolerance process control, scalable collective communication, as well as high performance and scalable parallel IO.
Message Passing Interface (MPI) is the de facto standard for the development of parallel applications. There are many research efforts actively studying how to leverage the best performance of the underlying systems and present to the end applications. In this dissertation, we exploit various modern networking mechanisms from the contemporary interconnects and integrate them into MPI implementations to enhance their performance and scalability. In particular, we have leveraged the novel features available from InfiniBand, Quadrics and Myrinet to provide scalable startup, adaptive connection management, scalable collective operations, as well as high performance parallel IO. We have also designed a parallel Check-point/Restart framework to provide transparent fault tolerance to parallel applications.
Through this dissertation, we have demonstrated that modern networking mechanisms can be integrated into communication and IO subsystems for enhancing the scalability, performance and reliability of MPI implementations. Some of the research results have been incorporated into production MPI software releases such as MVAPICH/MVAPICH2 and LA-MPI. This dissertation has showcased and shed light on where and how to enhance the design of parallel communication subsystems to meet the current and upcoming requirements of large-scale clusters, as well as high end computing environments in general.


In this paper, we present Chameleon an application-level power management approach for reducing energy consumption in mobile processors. By using application domain knowledge, as opposed to OS-level or hardware-level inferred knowledge, Chameleon can substantially reduce CPU energy consumption. By exporting the energy management to user-space, designers can design more flexible and easily portable algorithms and systems, and use multiple energy management policies simultaneously. Specifically, we propose a minimal operating system interface that applications use to obtain global knowledge from the kernel in order to make local decisions. We consider three classes of applications soft real-time, interactive and batch and design user level power management strategies for representative applications such as a movie player, a word processor, a web browser, and a batch compiler. Our experiments show that, compared to the traditional system-wide CPU voltage scaling approaches, Chameleon can achieve up to 32-50% energy savings while delivering comparable or better performance to applications. Similarly, Chameleon extracts 9-41% more energy when compared to Grace OS, which uses some application knowledge but operates within the kernel. Further, Chameleon imposes minimal overhead and is effective at scheduling concurrent applications with diverse energy needs.


Regenerative medicine offers hope for patients with diseases of the central and peripheral nervous system. Urodele amphibians such as axolotl display an exceptional regenerative capacity and are considered as essential preclinical model organisms in neurology and regenerative medicine research. Earlier studies have suggested that the limb regeneration ability of this salamander notably decreases with induction of metamorphosis by thyroid hormones. Metamorphic axolotl requires further validation as a negative control in preclinical regenerative medicine research, not to mention the study of molecular substrates of its regenerative abilities. In this study, we report new observations on the effect of experimentally induced metamorphosis on spinal cord regeneration in axolotl. Surprisingly, we found that metamorphic animals were successful to functionally restore the spinal cord after an experimentally induced injury. To discern the molecular signatures of spinal cord regeneration, we performed transcriptomics analyses at 1- and 7-days postinjury (dpi) for both spinal cord injury (SCI)-induced (experimental) and laminectomy (sham) groups. We observed 119 and 989 differentially expressed genes at 1- and 7-dpi, respectively, while the corresponding mouse orthologous genes were enriched in junction-, immune system-, and extracellular matrix-related pathways. Taken together, our findings challenge the prior notions of limited regenerative ability of metamorphic axolotl which exhibited successful spinal cord regeneration in our experience. Moreover, we report on molecular signatures that can potentially explain the mechanistic substrates of the regenerative capacity of the metamorphic axolotl. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first report on molecular responses to SCI and functional restoration in metamorphic axolotls. These new findings advance our understanding of spinal cord regeneration, and may thus help optimize the future use of axolotl as a preclinical model in regenerative medicine and integrative biology fields.


This study presents a specifically designed Mercury module in a coupled benthic-pelagic reactive-transport model - Bottom RedOx Model (BROM) that allows to study mercury (Hg) biogeochemistry under different conditions. This module considers the transformation of elemental mercury (Hg(0)), divalent mercury (Hg(II)) and methylmercury (MeHg). The behavior of mercury species in the model is interconnected with changes of oxygen, hydrogen sulphide, iron oxides, organic matter and biota. We simulated the transformation and transport of Hg species in the water column and upper sediment layer under five different scenarios, combining various levels of oxygenation and trophic state in the Berre lagoon, a shallow eutrophic lagoon of the French Mediterranean coast subjected to seasonal anoxia. The first scenario represents the conditions in the lagoon that are compared with experimental data. The four other scenarios were produced by varying the biological productivity, using low and high nutrient (N and P) concentrations, and by varying the redox conditions using different intensity of vertical mixing in the water column. The results of the simulation show that both oxidized and reduced sediments can accumulate Hg, but any shifts in redox conditions in bottom water and upper sediment layer lead to the release of Hg species into the water column. Eutrophication and/or restricted vertical mixing lead to reducing conditions and intensify MeHg formation in the sediment with periodic release to the water column. Oxygenation of an anoxic water body can lead to the appearance of Hg species in the water column and uptake by organisms, whereby Hg may enter into the food web. The comparison of studied scenarios shows that a well-oxygenated eutrophic system favors the conditions for Hg species bioaccumulation with a potential adverse effect on the ecosystem. The research is relevant to the UN Minimata convention, EU policies on water, environmental quality standards and Mercury in particular.


The German National Library (DNB) uses the platform Culturegraph (www.culturegraph.org) to aggregate metadata of library holdings of German and Austrian library networks. In this data pool of more than 171 million items we perform work clustering. By offering an aggregated view of all
publications representing a work, e.g. different editions and translations, the collection appears much more structured and searching is easier.
In this paper we would like to show the use of graph visualization for display, analysis and evaluation
of work clusters. Graph visualization enables users to obtain a more transparent view of the connections underlying the structure of a work cluster. Work clustering is achieved by creating and matching keys which combine different metadata elements of a bibliographic record. Applying a breadth-first search, publications with identical matchkeys are grouped together. We use different keys to represent a publication, so each publication can obtain more than one key. Thus, one matchkey establishes a connection between publications. If one of the publications shares a different
matchkey with even more publications the network representing a work grows.
Moving beyond visualization we can also gain statistical indicators from the graph to evaluate a work
cluster. Degree, average path length or centrality measures can offer information about the internal
structure of a work cluster. Particularly with large clusters information about the degree of
connections between the members and the existence of more closely related subclusters is important
for evaluating clusters.
Using graph visualization thus not only assists in grasping the internal structure of a work cluster
more clearly but also helps managing and evaluating large datasets, ultimately leading to better
clustering results to support data representation and findability.


Kendall, Jordan D. Ph.D., Purdue University, December 2016. Hydrocode Modeling of Oblique Impacts Into Terrestrial Planets. Major Professor: Henry J. Melosh. The abundance of moderately siderophile elements (iron-loving; e.g., Co, Ni) in the Earths mantle is 10 to 100 times larger than predicted by chemical equilibrium between silicate melt and iron at low pressure, but it does match expectation for equilibrium at high pressure and temperature. Recent studies of differentiated planetesimal impacts assume that planetesimal cores survive the impact intact as concentrated masses that passively settle from a zero initial velocity and undergo turbulent entrainment in a global magma ocean; under these conditions, cores greater than 10 km in diameter do not fully mix without a sufficiently deep magma ocean. I have performed hydrocode simulations that revise this assumption and yield a clearer picture of the impact process for differentiated planetesimals possessing iron cores with radius = 100 km that impact into magma oceans. The impact process strips away the silicate mantle of the planetesimal and then stretches the iron core, dispersing the liquid iron into a much larger volume of the underlying liquid silicate mantle. Lagrangian tracer particles track the initially intact iron core as the impact stretches and disperses the core. The final displacement distance of initially closest tracer pairs gives a metric of core stretching. The statistics of stretching imply mixing that separates the iron core into sheets, ligaments, and smaller fragments, on a scale of 10 km or less. The impact dispersed core fragments undergo further mixing through turbulent entrainment as the molten iron fragments sink through the magma ocean and settle deeper into the planet. My results thus support the idea that iron in the cores of even large differentiated planetesimals can chemically equilibrate deep in a terrestrial magma ocean.


The concept of obscenity is an ancient one. But as Joan DeJean suggests, its modern form, the same version that today's politicians decry and savvy artists exploit, was invented in seventeenth-century France. The Reinvention of Obscenity casts a fresh light on the mythical link between sexual impropriety and things French. Exploring the complicity between censorship, print culture, and obscenity, DeJean argues that mass market printing and the first modern censorial machinery came into being at the very moment that obscenity was being reinvented - that is, transformed from a minor literary phenomenon into a threat to society. DeJean's principal case in this study is the career of Moliere, who cannily exploited the new link between indecency and female genitalia to found his career as a print author; the enormous scandal which followed his play L'ecole des femmes made him the first modern writer to have his sex life disected in the press. Keenly alert to parallels with the currency of obscenity in contemporary America, The Reinvention of Obscenity will concern not only scholars of French history, but anyone interested in the intertwined histories of sex, publishing, and censorship.


UNLABELLED
 Introduction. Oxymatrine (OMTR) is widely used for the treatment of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) in China. Several recent reports revealed that OMTR together with interferon yielded a higher sustained virological response (SVR) than interferon alone.

AIM
To elucidate this topic using meta-analysis of data from published randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Medline, Science Citation Index, EMBASE, China National Knowledge Infrastructure, Wanfang Database and China Biomedical Database were searched to identify RCTs that evaluated SVR to interferón therapies and interferon plus OMTR therapies in CHB patients.

RESULTS
The literature search yielded 238 studies, and 11 RCTs comprising 968 patients matched the selection criteria. Overall, SVR was significantly higher in patients treated with interferon plus OMTR than in patients treated with interferon alone (SVR: 60.7 vs. 39.8%; relative risk: 1.56; 95% confidence interval: 1.37-1.77; p < 0.05). Combined therapy of interferon plus OMTR were also superior to interferon therapies alone in achieving the endof-treatment viral response, alaninetransaminase normalization, HBeAg loss, and HBeAg seroconversion.

CONCLUSIONS
Combined therapy of interferon plus OMTR may yield a higher SVR than interferon therapies. The exact outcome needs to perform rigorously designed, multicenter, and large randomized controlled trials.


The study investigated the possible impact of National Economic Empowerment and Development Strategy (NEEDS) on human development in Nigeria. NEEDS is a home-groomed economic and social package focused on fighting poverty and enthroning a people-centered developmental programmes. The paper evaluates each of the major thrusts of NEEDS by highlighting their respective demands for new patterns of human development. Also, collaborative and interactive model of human development is presented. The paper highlights three critical core areas that can enthrone the success of NEEDS for sustainable development. These are evangelistic development of indigenous professionals by providing needed supports in terms of training and development, infrastructural facilities and finance, enforcing the practice of business and social ethics after effective mobilization of the people psychic with the values reorientation component of NEEDS, and applying strict and swift sanctions on violations of social and economic ethics to serve as deterrent for others. It is expected therefore that through effective and efficient implementation, NEEDS will serve as a useful strategy and tool for economic development of Human resources.


Implementation-level software model checking explores the state space of a system implementation directly to find potential software defects without requiring any specification or modeling. Despite early successes, the effectiveness of this approach remains severely constrained due to poor scalability caused by state-space explosion. DeMeter makes software model checking more practical with the following contributions: (i) proposing dynamic interface reduction, a new state-space reduction technique, (ii) introducing a framework that enables dynamic interface reduction in an existing model checker with a reasonable amount of effort, and (iii) providing the framework with a distributed runtime engine that supports parallel distributed model checking. We have integrated DeMeter into two existing model checkers, MaceMC and MoDist, each involving changes of around 1,000 lines of code. Compared to the original MaceMC and MoDist model checkers, our experiments have shown state-space reduction from a factor of five to up to five orders of magnitude in representative distributed applications such as Paxos, Berkeley DB, Chord, and Pastry. As a result, when applied to a deployed Paxos implementation, which has been running in production data centers for years to manage tens of thousands of machines, DeMeter manages to explore completely a logically meaningful state space that covers both phases of the Paxos protocol, offering higher assurance of software reliability that was not possible before.