Workers who use computers on the job generally receive higher wages, suggesting that some workers without computer skills or access to computer technology may be disadvantaged. On-the-job computer use is less common in nonmetropolitan (nonmetro) areas than in metro areas, and wages for nonmetro, or rural, workers are generally lower. But does lower computer use explain the metro-nonmetro wage gap? In 1997, on-the-job computer users earned 43 percent more than other workers in the U.S. However, this wage gap reflects not only computer use but also differences in worker education and skill level, occupation and type of industry, and other worker and job characteristics. After accounting for these differences, a wage premium of about 11 percent remains associated with on-the-job use of computers. On-the-job computer use was significantly more common in metro areas (52 percent) than in nonmetro areas (40 percent) in 1997. Still, greater computer use in metro areas combined with higher wages for computer users accounts for only a small portion of the overall metrononmetro wage gap. ERS research shows that the wage premium associated with computer use in nonmetro areas is about 6 percent, less than half the 13-percent premium in metro areas. Moreover, other measured job or worker characteristics do little to explain this difference in wage premiums. Rurality itself appears to dampen returns to worker skills, suggesting lower employer demand for skills in nonmetro areas. Because of the lower level of return to computer skills in rural areas, nonmetro workers who use computers on the job (two-fifths of all nonmetro workers) appear to lose out on an additional wage premium that they would receive if employed in metro areas. As returns to computer use on the job are smaller for rural workers, improving the computer literacy of rural workers may contribute only slightly to reducing urban-rural wage inequality. While computer training may benefit workers in nonmetro areas, those workers may need to relocate to gain the most employment benefits. Computer literacy programs may also improve the earnings of some racial and ethnic minorities, who experience a much larger computer use wage premium. With the explosive growth in the economic significance of the Internet in the late 1990s as well as current efforts to expand broadband services to rural areas, the potential is great for increases in the returns to computer skills in rural areas. Clearly, we will need to revisit the "digital divide." Lorin Kusmin firstname.lastname@example.com This finding is drawn from... Wage Premiums for On-the-Job Computer Use: A Metro and Nonmetro Analysis, by Lorin Kusmin, RDRR-95, USDA/ERS, December 2002, available at: www.ers.usda.gov/publications/rdrr95/ "Digital Divide" Not To Blame for Rural Earnings Shortfall


In Let Their People Come , Lant Pritchett discusses five "irresistible forces" of global labor migration, and the "immovable ideas" that form a political backlash against it. Increasing wage gaps, different demographic futures, "everything but labor" globalization, and the continued employment growth in low skilled, labor intensive industries all contribute to the forces compelling labor to migrate across national borders. Pritchett analyzes the fifth irresistible force of "ghosts and zombies," or the rapid and massive shifts in desired populations of countries, and says that this aspect has been neglected in the discussion of global labor mobility. Let Their People Come provides six policy recommendations for unskilled immigration policy that seek to reconcile the irresistible force of migration with the immovable ideas in rich countries that keep this force in check. In clear, accessible prose, this volume explores ways to regulate migration flows so that they are a benefit to both the global North and global South.


Objective
To systematically review the role of musculoskeletal US in patients suffering from PsA or psoriasis (Pso) in terms of prevalence, diagnosis, prognosis, monitoring and treatment.

Methods
A systematic literature review was conducted through medical databases (MEDLINE via PubMed, Embase) and the grey literature up to September 2015 to inform a new study of the Musculoskeletal Ultrasound Study Group of the Italian Society for Rheumatology. All articles reporting data on musculoskeletal US in PsA or Pso were included and extracted according to the underlying clinical question.

Results
A total of 86 publications were included. The prevalence of US abnormalities showed a wide range for each examined feature (e.g. 37-95% for entheses thickness of the lower limbs). The performance of US for diagnosis of disease or elementary lesions was variable across studies, but no study evaluated the overall performance of US in addition to clinical findings for diagnosing PsA. Considering US in defining PsA and Pso prognosis, several works focused on US of entheses of lower limbs in Pso, while for the monitoring of PsA activity five different scoring systems were identified. Last, the results of the role of US in guiding intra-articular interventions were controversial for the clinical outcomes, but in favour of US for accuracy.

Conclusion
despite the recognized importance of US in the management of PsA and Pso, this review clearly demonstrated the need of pivotal research in order to optimize the use of US in the diagnosis and monitoring of psoriatic disease.


A thorough philosophical inquiry into supererogation would need to deal with the following four questions. What is the nature of supererogation? Are supererogatory acts possible? Do they actually occur? Are those acts that we commonly call supererogatory in fact supererogatory? There is a certain progression to these questions. Establishing the nature of supererogation does not ensure that supererogatory acts are possible. (Compare inquiring into the nature of a squircle and establishing that it is a square circle.) Establishing the possibility of supererogatory acts does not ensure their actuality. Establishing their actuality does not ensure that those acts that we commonly call supererogatory are in fact so.


BACKGROUND
Since 2013 Cannabis-based preparations, containing the two main cannabinoids of interest, Δ9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC), and cannabidiol (CBD), can be used for therapeutic purposes, such as palliative care, neurodegenerative disorder treatment and other therapies. The preparations may consist of a drug partition in sachets, capsules or through the extraction in certified olive oil.

OBJECTIVE
The aims of the study were: a) to develop and validate a new liquid chromatographictandem mass spectrometric (LC-MS/MS) method for the identification and quantification of THC and CBD in olive oil; b) to evaluate the extraction efficiency and reproducibility of a new commercial extractor on the market.

METHODS
The olive oil was simply diluted three consecutive times, using organic solvents with increasing polarity index (n-hexane → isopropanol → methanol). The sample was then directly injected into LC-MS/MS system, operating in Multiple Reaction Monitoring Mode, in positive polarization. The method was then fully validated.

RESULTS
The method assessed to be linear over the range 0.1-10 ng/µL for both THC and CBD. Imprecision and accuracy were within 12.2% and 16.9% respectively; matrix effects proved to be negligible; THC concentration in oil is stable up to two months at room temperature, whenever kept in the dark. CBD provided a degradation of 30% within ten weeks. The method was then applied to olive oil after sample preparation, in order to evaluate the efficiency of extraction of a new generation instrument. Temperature of extraction is the most relevant factor to be optimized. Indeed, a difference of 2°C (from 94.5°C to 96.5°C, the highest temperature reached in the experiments) of the heating phase, increases the percentage of extraction from 54.2% to 64.0% for THC and from 58.2% to 67.0% for CBD. The amount of THC acid and CBD acid that are decarboxylated during the procedure must be check out in the future.

CONCLUSION
The developed method was simple and fast. The extraction procedure proved to be highly reproducible and applicable routinely to cannabis preparations.


Many systems, devices and appliances used routinely in everyday life, ranging from cell phones to cars, contain significant amounts of software that is not directly visible to the user and is therefore called "embedded". For coordinating the various software components and allowing them to communicate with each other, support software is needed, called an operating system (OS). Because embedded software must function in real time (RT), a RTOS is needed. This book describes a formally developed, network-centric Real-Time Operating System, OpenComRTOS. One of the first in its kind, OpenComRTOS was originally developed to verify the usefulness of formal methods in the context of embedded software engineering. Using the formal methods described in this book produces results that are more reliable while delivering higher performance. The result is a unique real-time concurrent programming system that supports heterogeneous systems with just 5 Kbytes/node. It is compatible with safety related engineering standards, such as IEC61508.


1 The process by which stretch of the external muscle of the intestine leads to excitation of myenteric neurons was investigated by intracellular recording from neurons in isolated longitudinal muscle‐myenteric plexus preparations from the guinea‐pig. 2 Intestinal muscle that was stretched by 40% beyond its resting size in either the longitudinal or circular direction contracted irregularly. Both multipolar, Dogiel type II, neurons and uniaxonal neurons generated action potentials in stretched tissue. Action potentials persisted when the membrane potential was hyperpolarized by passing current through the recording electrode for 10 of 14 Dogiel type II neurons and 1 of 18 uniaxonal neurons, indicating that the action potentials originated in the processes of these neurons. For the remaining four Dogiel type II and 17 uniaxonal neurons, the action potentials were abolished, suggesting that they were the result of synaptic activation of the cell bodies. 3 Neurons did not fire action potentials when the muscle was paralysed by nicardipine (3 μm), even when the preparations were simultaneously stretched by 50% beyond resting length in longitudinal and circular directions. Spontaneous action potentials were not recorded in unstretched (slack) tissue, but when the L‐type calcium channel agonist (‐)‐Bay K 8644 (1 μm) was added, the muscle contracted and action potentials were observed in Dogiel type II neurons and uniaxonal neurons. 4 The proteolytic enzyme dispase (1 mg ml−1) added to preparations that were stretched 40% beyond slack width caused the myenteric plexus to lift away from the muscle, but did not prevent muscle contraction. In the presence of dispase, the neurons ceased firing action potentials spontaneously, although action potentials could still be evoked by intracellular current pulses. After the action of dispase, (‐)‐Bay K 8644 (1 μm) contracted the muscle but did not cause neurons to fire action potentials. 5 Gadolinium ions (1 μm), which block some stretch activated ion channels, stopped muscle contraction and prevented action potential firing in tissue stretched by 40%. However, when (‐)‐Bay K 8644 (1 μm) was added in the presence of gadolinium, the muscle again contracted and action potentials were recorded from myenteric neurons. 6 Stretching the tissue 40% beyond its slack width caused action potential firing in preparations that had been extrinsically denervated and in which time had been allowed for the cut axons to degenerate. 7 The present results lead to the following hypotheses. The neural response to stretching depends on the opening of stretch activated channels in the muscle, muscle contraction in response to this opening, and mechanical communication from the contracting muscle to myenteric neurons. Distortion of sensitive sites in the processes of the neurons opens channels to initiate action potentials that are propagated to the soma, where they are recorded. Neurons are also excited indirectly by slow synaptic transmission from neurons that respond directly to distortion.


I examine the conditions for formation of gap solitons in an infinite periodic Kerr medium by illuminating the nonlinear grating with two intense cw beams, providing a novel experimental method for studying gap solitons. New applications of nonlinear gratings are proposed.


The EU farmers are subject to mandatory cross compliance measures requiring them to meet environmental conditions to be eligible for public support. These obligations reinforce incentives for the farmers to change their behaviour towards the environment. We apply quasi-experimental methods to measure the causal relationship between cross-compliance and farm environmental performance. We find that cross compliance reduced farm fertiliser and pesticide expenditure. This result also holds for farmers who participated in other voluntary agro-environmental schemes. However, the results do not support our expectations that farmers who relied on larger shares of public payments had a stronger motivation to improve their environmental performance.


The biggest part of the Sărăţel drainage basin is located in the Buzău Subcarpathians (part of the Curvature Subcarpathians); the area encompasses 26 villages, with another few rural settlements located on the border with other river basins and only partly inside the area analyzed; these settlements were not considered because they are bound to other economic and social centers. This study assesses a set of synthetic indicators, which allow for a quantitative and qualitative evaluation of the workforce, including population employment rate; the structure of the population in terms of the fields of trade they work in; economic dependence rate; workforce renewal rate; population structure in terms of training; tertiary sector employee structure in terms of fields of trade. Information on the workforce volume as well as its characteristic features is important because territorial development strategies are impossible to draw in the absence of information on the human resources available in a certain territory.


Combining modes of vibration, such as longitudinal and torsional vibration, is advantageous in many ultrasonic applications such as ultrasonic drilling, welding, and motors. In this work we present a novel approach to the design a longitudinal-torsional (LT) ultrasonic horn which adapts the front mass in a traditional Langevin transducer. Different approaches, such as degeneration of longitudinal vibration and coupling between longitudinal (L) and torsional (T) modes, have been used to generate the LT mode of vibration. The degeneration approach creates a non-uniform section, by cutting and twisting a number of slots along the path of the L wave such that part of the wave converts into T wave whilst the remaining part propagates unchanged through the section; these two parts are recombined near the output surface to form LT vibration. The mode coupling approach uses two set of vibration generators, usually piezoelectric elements, where one set generates L vibration whilst the second set generates T vibration. An exponential cross-sectional horn uses to combine the two modes where the area reduction factor is selected such that these modes resonate at the same frequency. However, many limitations prevent the wide usage of these methods in ultrasonic applications. These limitations are the complex design and excitation, possible coupling with surrounding modes, instability in operating at different boundaries, difficulty in securing the structure without influencing the vibrational response and the low produced torsionality, which is the ratio of torsional to longitudinal response at the output face.
The new approach is based on combining the principles of these methods to overcome the previously stated limitations, the slotting technique is incorporated into the exponential cross-sectional path and the horn produced is utilised as the front mass of a Langevin transducer. A set of design and performance criteria are used to optimise the transducer and includes applicable design; methods of securing the transducer; and the excitation features of LT transducer such that it can operate without the effects of surrounding modes of vibration and can produce high response and torsionality at the output surface. A methodology which combines mathematical and experimental modelling is used to optimise LT transducer design. The mathematical modelling, which includes finite element (FE) and analytical methods, is performed to optimise the geometry and to predict electromechanical parameters, modal parameters and the dynamic behaviour of LT transducer. The experimental modelling is used to validate the mathematical results and to characterise the fabricated prototypes under different operating conditions.
The dimensions of the initial design of the L mode Langevin transducer are derived from the principles of the wave equation. This transducer has a set of piezoceramic components sandwich between a cylindrical back mass and an exponential front mass connected by a pre-stressed bolt. The dimensions are used to create the FE model, using the FE software package ABAQUS, where different shapes of cut at different dimensions and at various angle of twist along the front mass are introduced and examined by a modal analysis procedure to the front mass. An optimised model is then utilised in a size scaling study to confirm the suitability of using this approach for different ultrasonic applications.
The dimensions of the optimised design are also used in the analytical study, based on Mason's electric equivalent circuit approach, to predict the electromechanical parameters where a one-dimensional equivalent circuit approach is created separately for each part whilst the combination vibrational motion in the front mass is represented by two, longitudinal and torsional, equivalent circuits. The complete equivalent network of the LT transducer is then solved using the mathematical software package MATHEMATICA. The analytical model is also extended to validate some of particular FE findings such as the distribution of the response amplitude and the location of the longitudinal nodal plane along the transducer's structure.
Two optimised models of different sizes are fabricated and characterised through different testing techniques including electrical impedance analysis, experimental modal analysis (EMA) and experimental harmonic analysis. Optimisation of the pre-stressing of the transducer is performed by applying different torques to the pre-stressed bolt and measuring the electrical impedance spectra where the results are compared to analytical findings. EMA is then used to describe the natural characteristics of the structures where the results are used to accurately extract the modal parameters and to validate the predictions of the FE and analytical model. Different levels of harmonic excitation are used to characterise the fabricated prototypes where the results are compared to the findings of the mathematical modelling. A case study of the design of the LT drill is presented to validate the design approach for real ultrasonic applications. A similar methodology is applied and the resulting LT drill is tested for both unloaded and loaded operating conditions. The results obtained show that this new approach can be easily and successfully applied to ultrasonic applications to produce a torsional to longitudinal amplitude response of 0.8 which is measured on a fabricated prototype.


Abstract. A large number of calculations of absorptive partitioning of organic compounds have been conducted, making use of several methods to estimate pure component vapour pressures and activity coefficients ( p 0 and γ i ). The sensitivities of the predicted particle properties (density, hygroscopicity, CCN activation potential) to the choice of p 0 and γ i models and to the number of components used to represent the organic mixture have been systematically compared. The variability in theoretical hygroscopic growth factor attributable to the choice of estimation technique increases with decreasing mixture complexity. Generally there is low sensitivity to the choice of vapour pressure predictive technique. The inclusion of non-ideality is responsible for a larger difference in predicted growth factor, though still relatively minor. Assuming instantaneous equilibration of all semi-volatile on drying the aerosol to 0 % RH massively increases the sensitivity. Without such re-equilibration, the calculated growth factors are comparable to the low hygroscopicity of organic material widely measured in the laboratory and atmosphere. Allowing re-equilibration on drying produces a calculated hygroscopicity greater than measured for ambient organic material, and frequently close to those of common inorganic salts. Such a result has substantial implications on aerosol behaviour in instruments designed to measure hygroscopicity and on the degree of equilibration of semi-volatile components in the ambient atmosphere. The impacts of this variability on behaviour of particles as cloud condensation nuclei, on predicted cloud droplet number and uncertainty in radiative forcing are explored. When it is assumed only water evaporates on drying, the sensitivity in radiative forcing, "Δ F " to choice of p 0 and γ i estimation technique is low when the particle organic volume fraction is less than 55 %. Sensitivities increase with decreasing component complexity. If all components re-equilibrate on drying, the sensitivity of Δ F increases substantially for organic volume fractions as low as between 16 and 22 % depending on the complexity of the organic composition and assumed aerosol size distribution. The current study ignores the impact of predicted changes in particle size which will increase uncertainty in droplet number and forcing.


Infinite hidden Markov models (iHMMs) are nonparametric Bayesian extensions of hidden Markov models (HMMs) with an infinite number of states. Though flexible in describing sequential data, the generative formulation of iHMMs could limit their discriminative ability in sequential prediction tasks. Our paper introduces max-margin infinite HMMs (M2iHMMs), new infinite HMMs that explore the max-margin principle for discriminative learning. By using the theory of Gibbs classifiers and data augmentation, we develop efficient beam sampling algorithms without making restricting mean-field assumptions or truncated approximation. For single variate classification, M2iHMMs reduce to a new formulation of DP mixtures of max-margin machines. Empirical results on synthetic and real data sets show that our methods obtain superior performance than other competitors in both single variate classification and sequential prediction tasks.


Author(s): Fowlie, Meredith; Phadke, Amol | Abstract: The literature assessing demand-side energy efficiency potential, and the policiesthat can be deployed to tap this potential has traditionally focused on developed andemerging economies. We review the state of knowledge on demand-side energy efficiency investments, and reframe the discussion in terms that are better suited to a low income country setting. This reframing opens up new lines of inquiry which have been under-emphasized to date. We provide a conceptual framework for exploring questions concerning the returns on investment in energy efficiency, market failures and barriers that can lead to under-investment, rebound effects, and policies designed to accelerate cost-effective investment. We highlight some institutional considerations that should inform policy prioritization and implementation in LIC settings. A case study of a large scale efficiency program in India underscores both the challenges and the potential forwelfare improving energy efficiency programs in the developing world.


Autocrats in many developing countries have extracted enormous personal rents from power. In addition, they have imposed inefficient policies including pervasive patronage spending. I present a model in which the presence of ethnic identities and the absence of institutionalized succession processes allow the ruler to elicit support from a sizeable share of the population despite large reductions in welfare. The fear of falling under an equally inefficient and venal ruler that favors another group is enough to discipline supporters. The model predicts extensive use of patronage, ethnic bias in taxation and spending patterns and unveils a new mechanism through which economic frictions translate into increased rent extraction by the leader. These predictions are consistent with the experiences of bad governance, ethnic bias, wasteful policies and kleptocracy in post-colonial Africa.


The discovery of graphene - a 2D material with superior physical properties - in 2004 was important for the intensive global research to find alternatives to three-dimensional (3D) semiconductor materials in industry. At the same time there have been exciting advances for 2D magnetic materials on the nanometer scale. The superior properties of graphene are mainly attributed to its crystal structure and its relatively short-range interactions. These properties show that natural and artificial 2D materials are promising for new applications.
In this thesis we have carried out a comprehensive investigation of the effects of the 2D lattice structures, the roles of nearest neighbor (NN) and next nearest neighbor (NNN) interactions and the formation of coupled bilayer systems in both the electronic and the magnetic geometries (chosen specifically to be nano-ribbons or stripes). In the case of honeycomb lattices (which occur in graphene and can be produced artificially by growing nanodot arrays for ferromagnetic structures) the effects of different edges of the zigzag and armchair types are studied with emphasis on the localized modes that may occur. Impurity sites in the form of one or more lines of impurities introduced substitutionally are considered from the perspectives that they give additional localized mode effects and they change the spatial quantization (for example, as studied via the density of states for the modes). The theoretical methods employed throughout the thesis are based on the second quantization forms of both the tight-binding Hamiltonian for electronic excitations and the Heisenberg exchange Hamiltonian for the ferromagnetic excitations (or spin waves). The translational symmetry along the length of the ribbon or stripe is utilized to make a wave-vector Fourier transform in this longitudinal direction, while the finite number of rows in the transverse direction are treated within a matrix formulation.


Title: On the Classification of the Second Minimal Orbits of the Continuous Endomorphisms on the Real Line and Universality in Chaos Author: Naveed H. Iqbal Major Advisor: Ugur Abdulla, Ph.D.,Dr.Sci.,Dr.rer.nat.habil. This dissertation presents full classification of second minimal odd periodic orbits of a continuous endomorphisms on the real line. A (2k+ 1)-periodic orbit (k ≥ 3) is called second minimal for the map f , if 2k−1 is a minimal period of f in the Sharkovskii ordering. We prove that there are 4k−3 types of second minimal (2k+1)-orbits, each characterized with unique cyclic permutation and directed graph of transitions with accuracy up to inverses. The result is applied to the problem on the distribution of periodic windows within the chaotic regime of the bifurcation diagram of the one-parameter family of unimodal maps. It is revealed that by fixing the maximum number of appearances of the periodic windows there is a universal pattern of distribution. In particular, the first appearance of all the orbits is always a minimal orbit, while the second appearance is a second minimal orbit. It is observed that the second appearance of 2k+ 1-orbit (k ≥ 3) is a second minimal 2k+ 1-orbit with Type 1 digraph. The reason for the relevance of the Type 1 second minimal orbit is the fact that the topological structure of the unimodal map with single maximum is equivalent to the structure of the Type 1 piecewise monotonic endomorphism associated with the second minimal 2k+1-orbit. Yet another important report of this dissertation is the revelation of the universal pattern dynamics with respect to increased number of appearances. iii


We review and model the impact of the internet on the production and uptake of high-quality news. Our review of trends in the market for news suggests three stylized facts: i) particular quality news markets are dominated by merely a few providers, ii) demand for quality news appears stable, but provision of news has become specialized; mainstream news is decoupled from quality news, and iii) the dominant business model of internet news mirrors that of radio, television, and newspapers in that costs of news production are recouped via advertising. We build a stylized model that rationalizes these facts. Our model captures three conflicting effects: (1) economies of scale in the production of news lead to monopolies on particular markets, (2) easy access to information on the internet makes it cheaper to provide high-quality news and to disseminate it via the web, which increases the production of such news; and (3) the existence of bloggers and news aggregators who recycle the stories of news-providers reduces the effective property rights of high-quality news producers, thus forcing the business model of the internet to be advertising-based. For the most likely cases, our model would imply that the internet does not constitute bad news for the provision and uptake of quality news.


Around April 9, 1973, Iowa was hit by what the press called the worst spring
snow storm in eighty years. Telephone contacts with agencies in Des Moines
indicated that activity in the city had been halted for two days by the unexpected blizzard. Because of the severity of the storm and the opportunity to investigate
the response to the storm by a community within the "snow belt," the Disaster
Research Center sent a two-man research team to Des Moines, Iowa. The team stayed
two days, April 26 and 27, focusing on storm-associated activities within the city
of Des Moines.
Information was gathered to answer the following questions: (1) In what way did the community respond to the storm;
(2) What role did the local civil defense organization play in the coordination
and other storm-associated organizational responses; and,
(3) What geographical area within Des Moines and surrounding communities
would be affected by disruptions of the city and private agencies and utilities?


With 39.4 million people HIV-positive or living with AIDS around the world, AIDS is having a huge economic impact on households, businesses and national economies. This article examines the effects that the illness has on large firms, micro and small enterprises (MSEs) and on households. MSEs already face constraints to market access, and the difficulties of sustaining MSEs affected by HIV/AIDS in supply chains is discussed, using the case of the Kenyan green beans sector as an example. The article describes promising approaches to addressing these constraints and mitigating the impact of HIV/AIDS on MSEs, such as asset protection via financial and legal services, workplace programmes and horizontal linkages through producer associations.


The liquid argon calorimeters play a central role in the ATLAS experiment. The environment at the LHC collider imposes challenging tasks to their read-out system. To achieve measurements of particles and trigger signals at high precision, the detector signals are processed at various stages before reaching the data acquisition system (DAQ). Signals from the calorimeter cells are received by front-end boards, which digitize and sample the incoming pulse. Readout driver (ROD) boards further process the data at a trigger rate of up to 75 kHz. An optimal filtering procedure is applied to optimize the signal-to-noise ratio. The ROD boards calculate precise energy, time and quality of the detector pulse, which are then sent to the DAQ. In addition, the RODs perform a monitoring of the data. The architecture of the ATLAS liquid argon detector read-out is discussed, in particular the design and functionality of the ROD board. Performance results obtained with ROD prototypes as well as experience from complete test setups with final production boards are reported


Eureka, Nevada, was once a boom-mining town with peak production of Pb, Ag, and Au between the 1870s and 1890s. Most of the ores from the area were processed in two smelters located at the north and south edges of the town. Smelter effluent was exhausted in the vicinity of the smelter furnaces with little regard to potential health concerns. For this study, 186 soil samples from sites in the area surrounding Eureka were analysed for 43 elements. Factor analysis and element plots identified 16 smelter-related elements: Ag, As, Bi, Cd, Cu, Hg, In, Mo, Pb, S, Sb, Sn, Te, Tl, W, and Zn. Eight other elements (Ba, Be, Co, Cr, Mn, Ni, U, and V), whose distributions are controlled by the chemical composition of the underlying substrate material, were also evaluated. Of these 24 elements, only six (As, Cd, Pb, Tl, Sb, and Mn) had concentrations that exceeded U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimated residential soil screening levels considered to represent possible health risks. For some analysed elements (In, S, Te, and W) no screening levels have been established. Whether these elements, or any of the others determined, constitute a health risk in the local population is not known. Supplementary Material: Analyses for 43 elements in 186 soil samples are available at www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18673


Subsequently to the verification of certain limits in the general practice of temporary structures for events, the research project "On STAGE" (sustainable temporary arenas for gigs and events) entails developing an integrated alternative regarding improved characteristics of sustainability. The project aims particularly at obtaining the following matters: architectural expression, flexibility of use, response to acoustic requirements, optimization of the thermal comfort by bioclimatic principles, ideal utilization of renewable resources and efficient utilization of the infrastructure. One of the originalities of the project is to deal with the challenges of permanent architecture in the area of a temporary and transportable construction. From that results a confrontation between the objectives of sustainability and a short time of amortization leading to experimentation with constructive innovative solutions, potentially applicable to permanent constructions.


Ovarian cancer can be treated with a very good prognosis if detected in the early stages, but not after it has advanced. Transvaginal ultrasound is capable of identifying changes in ovarian size and structure, and thereby detects early ovarian malignancies. This view has generated four major trials on transvaginal ultrasound detection: the Kentucky, PLCO, UKCTOCS, and SCSOCS trials. Each is sufficiently different to warrant examination. The Kentucky, UKCTOCS and SCSOCS trials report a shift to early stage detection. The Kentucky trial reports a survival benefit, while follow-up survival analysis is pending in the UKCTOCS and SCSOCS trials. Details of these trials are presented including definitions, inclusions/exclusions, analytic structure (intention-to-treat vs per protocol), performance (sensitivity, specificity, positive predictive value and negative predictive value), extent of screening - related treatment, time from screening to treatment, length of follow-up and survival versus mortality analysis. Questions are answered here about effectiveness, application, prevalence, cost and the potential for harm.


In this paper, we describe how a detail-on-demand representation for interactive video is used in video summarization. Our approach automatically generates a hypervideo composed of multiple video summary levels and navigational links between these summaries and the original video. Viewers may interactively select the amount of detail they see, access more detailed summaries, and navigate to the source video through the summary. We created a representation for interactive video that supports a wide range of interactive video applications and Hyper-Hitchcock, an editor and player for this type of interactive video. Hyper-Hitchcock employs methods to determine (1) the number and length of levels in the hypervideo summary, (2) the video clips for each level in the hypervideo, (3) the grouping of clips into composites, and (4) the links between elements in the summary. These decisions are based on an inferred quality of video segments and temporal relations those segments.


The paper aims at situating the research direction presented in the volume within the larger domain of typological research in general. It gives a short summary of what is meant by typological research, discusses the relation between semantic and lexical typology and the general premises for lexical-typological research. The bulk of the paper is devoted to the three main lexical-typological research foci – what meanings can(not) be expressed by a single word, what different meanings can be expressed by one and the same lexeme or by words derivationally related to each other, and what cross-linguistic patterns there are in lexicon-grammar interaction. The paper ends up with the general discussion of the urgent methodological problems facing lexical typology as a field.


An operations technique used to analyze safety on aerospace projects and a descendant of the systems safety approach developed in the late 1950s and early 1960s, Fault Tree Analysis [FTA] examines systems in terms of potential failure. The purpose of the technique is to improve the likelihood of successful attainment of a specified goal. In this study, qualitative research methods were used to examine the process of FTA in order to determine its practical value as an applicable and useful tool in the diffusion of technological innovation in educational systems. The innovation in question concerned a large, urban college interested in developing and implementing web-based courses and in increasing faculty awareness and use of teaching technologies. Since diffusion of innovation literature suggests that involvement of the intended users in the diffusion process will increase use, this study relied heavily upon the participation of a team of administrators, faculty and technology experts as well as the 543 faculty members of the College. The FTA team identified 228 potential impediments, or failure events [FEs], to the successful accomplishment of their goal. Surveys were distributed to the 543 faculty members for validation of these failure events. The respondents identified the specific impediments they felt were most likely to occur and negatively impact the attainment of the goal. These FEs fit into the following categories identified in the literature as impediments to the implementation of technology: support; perceived interest; expertise; communication; time; resources; and access. Based on answers to questions pertaining to applicability and utility by the FTA team, members of the focal system, and a study of the information gathered as a participant-observer, recommendations are made as to the applicability and utility of Fault Tree Analysis in the diffusion of innovation in educational settings. Preliminary results indicate that FTA can be an effective information gathering and disseminating tool. Feedback from respondents indicates the process was applicable and useful and provided them with a more systemic view of the college and the challenges they face in attaining the goal. Limitations included time constraints which, in some steps, prevented full team participation and, in others, slowed down the process. The specific context of the findings may also limit their generalizability. Suggestions are therefore offered to address these issues in order to improve the FTA process.


Sensor-triggered control strategies can limit the energy consumption of lighting by considering the presence of users in the office and dimming lighting down when it is not needed. In multi-user offices, the application of occupancy-based dimming at room level limits the energy saving potential. However, zone- or desk-based dimming may affect the comfort of co-workers due to its dynamics. This paper reports the assessment by 17 participants (30–50 years of age) of occupancy-based dimming in a mock-up office, using different dimming speeds. Participants consisted of co-workers experiencing changes triggered by others, and actors triggering these light changes. While the participants performed an office-based task, the luminaire above the actors' desk was dimmed from approximately 550 lx to 350 lx (average horizontal illuminance), and vice versa. The participants evaluated the dimming conditions regarding their noticeability and acceptability. The study showed that the noticeability of light changes due to dimming, increases when fading times become shorter. Dimming with a fading time of at least two seconds was experienced as acceptable by more than 70% of the participants. The results of this experiment provide insights to system behaviour that does not compromise user experience while addressing energy efficient use of electric lighting.


The vadose zone plays an important role in the hydrologic cycle. Various geophysical methods can determine soil water content variations in time and space in volumes ranging from a few cubic centimeters to several cubic meters. In contrast to the established methods, time‐lapse gravity measurements of changes in soil water content do not rely on a petrophysical relationship between the measured quantity and the water content but give a direct measure of the mass change in the soil. Only recently has the vadose zone been systematically incorporated when ground‐based gravity data are used to infer hydrologic information. In this study, changes in the soil water content gave rise to a measurable signal in a forced infiltration experiment on a 107‐m2 grassland area. Time‐lapse gravity data were able to constrain the van Genuchten soil hydraulic parameters in both a synthetic example and a field experiment with forced infiltration. The most significant reduction in parameter uncertainty was achieved for the saturated water content, while gravity data had some ability to constrain the saturated hydraulic conductivity and the van Genuchten n Cross‐borehole ground penetrating radar data were used to support the interpretation and control of the gravity data.


Analysis of the relationship of oat grain chemical components with productivity can yield information that determines crop production strategies. The market values high protein grain, but production and other nutritional components may be affected in the effort to increase protein levels. The objective of this study was to determine how the dynamics of the components of oat grain chemical composition relate to productivity when adding nitrogen to the soil, in order to develop nutrient management strategies that can combine productivity with grain quality. The study was conducted from 2011 to 2016 in Augusto Pestana, Brazil, in a randomized block design with four replications in a 4x2 factorial design for nitrogen rates (0, 30, 60 and 120 kg.ha -1 ) and standard biotype oat cultivars used on a commercial scale (Barbarasul and Brisasul) in two succession systems soybean/oat and corn/oat, totaling 64 experimental units. The nitrogen doses were applied at the phenological stage of expanded fourth leaf using urea. The increase of nitrogen fertilization for topdressing promoted increase of the total protein of oat grains and reduction of the total fiber in both soybean/oat and corn/oat systems. Higher levels of grain protein due to nitrogen fertilization reduced grain production, regardless of the cropping system.


In the second of a series of extracts, we examine the importance of movement skills for young children and ways of introducing them to some appropriate sporting activities.


In many distributed systems, designing an application that maintains consistency and availability despite failure of processes, involves solving some form of agreement. Not surprisingly, providing efficient agreement algorithms is critical for improving the performance of many distributed applications. This thesis studies how fast we can solve fundamental agreement problems like consensus, uniform consensus, and non-blocking atomic commit. In an agreement problem, the processes are supposed to propose a value and eventually decide on a common value that depends on the proposed values. To study agreement problems, we consider two round-based message-passing models, the wellknown synchronous model, and the eventually synchronous model. The second model is a partially synchronous model that remains asynchronous for an arbitrary number of rounds but eventually becomes synchronous. We investigate two aspects of the performance of agreement algorithms. We first measure time-complexity using a finer-grained metric than what was considered so far in the literature. Then we optimize algorithms for subsets of executions that are considered to be common in practice. Traditionally, the performance of agreement algorithms was measured in terms of global decision: the number of rounds required for all correct (non-faulty) processes to decide. However, in many settings, upon deciding, any correct process can provide the decision value to the process that is waiting for a decision. In this case, a more suitable performance metric is a local decision: the number of rounds required for at least one correct process to decide. We present tight bounds for local decisions in the synchronous and the eventually synchronous models. We also show that considering the local decision metric allows us to uncover fundamental differences between agreement problems, and between models, that were not apparent with previous metrics. In the eventually synchronous model, we observe that, for many cases in practice, executions are frequently synchronous and only occasionally asynchronous. Thus we optimize algorithms for synchronous executions, and give matching lower bounds. We show that, in some sense, synchronous executions of algorithms designed for the eventually synchronous model are slower than executions of algorithms directly designed for the synchronous model, i.e., there is an inherent price associated with tolerating arbitrary periods of asynchrony. Finally, we establish a tight bound on the number of rounds required to reach agreement once an execution becomes synchronous and no new failures occur.


During the early development of the national coastal zone management program there was no federal prescription with regard to how coastal states should proceed in establishing their programs institutionally. At one end of the spectrum was the California model--a new coastal 'super-agency' with power not only to plan, but to regulate development. At the other end of the spectrum was an approach which relied on existing agencies and authorities and improved policy development and coordination; this approach--perceived as a 'soft' approach by some observers--was described as 'networking. ' Several states, including Wisconsin, were leading examples of this approach. Many coastal advocacy groups, academics, and bureaucrats viewed the 'softer' model with skepticism. With more than a decade of experience, we here review and critique the efficacy of this approach to coastal management. Given that the establishment of regional institutions with broad new regulatory powers tends to be a political 'rare event' in the United States, lessons learned from experimentation with 'soft' coastal management programs may provide important lessons for other comparable land and water resources management efforts.


Internationally mathematical modeling is garnering more attention for the benefits associated with it. Mathematical modeling can develop students' communication skills and the ability to demonstrate understanding through different representations. With the increased attention on mathematical modeling, there is a need for more curricula to be developed, implemented, and assessed. This study details the mathematical understandings that a diverse class of urban middle school students demonstrated on a mathematical modeling activity focused on geometry and measurement. At times students had difficulties in communicating clearly but based on the structure of the activity students were able to self-assess the quality of their communication and work towards improvement. The groups in the class were able to develop methods for how to program a robot to recreate a picture, though improvements could be made to the design of the activity. Teachers can use MEAs and mathematical modeling as formative assessment to build on students' understandings and further develop ideas that the teacher has in mind to pursue. Such assessment provides a rich basis for identifying evolving mathematical understandings that can be further developed.


The phosphorus composition of banded-iron formations (BIFs) has been used as a proxy for Precambrian seawater composition and the paleoeredox state of Earth's surface environment. However, it is unclear whether the phosphorus in BIFs originally entered the sediment as a sorbed component of the iron oxyhydroxide particles, or whether it was incorporated into the biomass of marine phytoplankton. We conducted high-resolution mineral analyses and report here the fi rst detection of an Fe(III) acetate salt, as well as nanocrystals of apatite in association with magnetite, in the 2.48 Ga Dales Gorge Member of the Brockman Iron Formation (a BIF), Hamersley, Western Australia. The clusters of apatite are similar in size and morphology to biogenic apatite crystals resulting from biomass decay in Phanerozoic marine sediments, while the formation of an Fe(III) acetate salt and magnetite not only implies the original presence of biomass in the BIF sediments, but also that organic carbon likely served as an electron donor during bacterial Fe(III) reduction. This study is important because it suggests that phytoplankton may have played a key role in the transfer of phosphorus (and other trace elements) from the photic zone to the seafl oor.


Abstract: Fourteen types of symbiotic associations have been recognized in the Cambrian. Cambrian symbiotic associations are dominated by suspension feeding sessile benthic animals with brachiopods being the most important group. The major difference between Cambrian and Ordovician–Silurian symbiotic associations is the small number of colonial organisms among host taxa of Cambrian symbionts. Endobionts that are common in the Ordovician and Silurian are almost absent in Cambrian symbiotic associations. Most of the symbiotic associations in the Cambrian are restricted to a single paleocontinent with the highest number reported from tropical Laurentia.


The issue at stake in this volume is the role of science as a way to fulfil a quest for knowledge, a tool in the exploration of foreign lands, a central paradigm in the discourse on and representations of Otherness. The interweaving of scientific and ideological discourses is not limited to the geopolitical frame of the British empire in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries but extends to the rise of the American empire as well. The fields of research tackled are human and social sciences (anthropology, ethnography, cartography, phrenology), which thrived during the period of imperial expansion, racial theories couched in pseudo-scientific discourse, natural sciences, as they are presented in specialised or popularised works, in the press, in travel narratives—at the crossroads of science and literature—in essays, but also in literary texts. Contributors examine such issues as the plurality of scientific discourses, their historicity, the alienating dangers of reduction, fragmentation and reification of the Other, the interaction between scientific discourse and literary discourse, the way certain texts use scientific discourse to serve their imperialist views or, conversely, deconstruct and question them. Such approaches allow for the analysis of the link between knowledge and power as well as of the paradox of a scientific discourse which claims to seek the truth while at the same time both masking and revealing the political and economic stakes of Anglo-saxon imperialism. The analysis of various types of discourse and/or representation highlights the tension between science and ideology, between scientific "objectivity" and propaganda, and stresses the limits of an imperialist epistemology which has sometimes been questioned in more ambiguous or subversive texts.


This research was performed to test the hypothesis that acoustic-resonance spectrometry (ARS) is able to rapidly and accurately differentiate tablets of similar size and shape. The US Food and Drug Administration frequently orders recalls of tablets because of labeling problems (eg, the wrong tablet appears in a bottle). A high-throughput, nondestructive method of online analysis and label comparison before shipping could obviate the need for recall or disposal of a batch of mislabeled drugs, thus saving a company considerable expense and preventing a major safety risk. ARS is accurate and precise as well as inexpensive and nondestructive, and the sensor, is constructed from readily available parts, suggesting utility as a process analytical technology (PAT). To test the classification ability of ARS, 5 common household tablets of similar size and shape were chosen for analysis (aspirin, ibuprofen, acetaminophen, vitamin C, and vitamin B12). The measures of successful tablet identification were intertablet distances in nonparametric multidimensional standard deviations (MSDs) greater than, 3 and intratablet MSDs less than 3, as calculated from an extended bootstrap erroradjusted single sample technique. The average intertablet MSD was 65.64, while the average intratablet MSD from cross-validation was 1.91. Tablet mass (r2=0.977), thickness (r2=0.977), and density (r2=0.900) were measured very accurately from the AR spectra, each with less than 10% error. Tablets were identified correctly with only 250 ms data collection time. These results demonstrate that ARS effectively identified and characterized the 5 types of tablets and could potentially serve as a rapid high-throughput online pharmaceutical sensor.


101 THINGS I LEARNED IN BUSINESS SCHOOL will cover a wide range of lessons that are basic enough for the novice business student as well as inspiring to the experienced practitioner. The unique packaging of this book will attract people of all ages who have always wondered whether business school would be a smart career choice for them. Judging by the growing number of people taking the GMATs (the entrance exam for business school) each year, clearly more people than ever are thinking about heading in this direction. Subjects include accounting, finance, marketing, management, leadership, human relations, and much more - in short, everything one would expect to encounter in business school. Illustrated in the same fun, gift book format as 101 THINGS I LEARNED IN ARCHITECTURE SCHOOL, this will be the perfect gift for a recent college or high school grad, or even for someone already well-versed in the business world.


Hypothyroidism in humans is characterized by severe neurological consequences that are often irreversible, highlighting the critical role of thyroid hormone (TH) in the brain. Despite this, not much is known about the signaling pathways that control TH action in the brain. What is known is that the prohormone thyroxine (T4) is converted to the active hormone triiodothyronine (T3) by type 2 deiodinase (D2) and that this occurs in astrocytes, while TH receptors and type 3 deiodinase (D3), which inactivates T3, are found in adjacent neurons. Here, we modeled TH action in the brain using an in vitro coculture system of D2-expressing H4 human glioma cells and D3-expressing SK-N-AS human neuroblastoma cells. We found that glial cell D2 activity resulted in increased T3 production, which acted in a paracrine fashion to induce T3-responsive genes, including ectonucleotide pyrophosphatase/phosphodiesterase 2 (ENPP2), in the cocultured neurons. D3 activity in the neurons modulated these effects. Furthermore, this paracrine pathway was regulated by signals such as hypoxia, hedgehog signaling, and LPS-induced inflammation, as evidenced both in the in vitro coculture system and in in vivo rat models of brain ischemia and mouse models of inflammation. This study therefore presents what we believe to be the first direct evidence for a paracrine loop linking glial D2 activity to TH receptors in neurons, thereby identifying deiodinases as potential control points for the regulation of TH signaling in the brain during health and disease.


Much evidence identifies innovation as the main driver for companies to prosper, grow, and sustain a high profitability. New innovation models of so called 'Open Innovation' make companies rethink their innovation management, as it is assumed, that the implementation of such models result in better innovation performance. The relatively young field of research is expanding in many directions and the ongoing debates cover a multitude of areas connected through the overall aim of understanding how both high- and low-technology companies can become more innovative. Since the implementation of open innovation models depends among other factors on the industry sector, the model has to be adapted for each company. This paper reveals an overview on existing models on external as well as internal factors influencing companies' innovation management and combines them to a new model on open innovation and its influencing factors. To point out the practical relevance of these influencing factors, we apply the open innovation model and its influencing factors on the case of the postal sector.


With a few exceptions, comprehensive lists of alien plants that invade natural ecosystems are lacking in sub-Saharan Africa. Some available lists are either preliminary or localised, or focus on agricultural weeds. This study set out to compile a list of alien plant species that are invading natural ecosystems and rangelands in five countries in eastern Africa, and to map the distribution of the species that threaten ecosystem integrity and productivity. The location of all alien plant species seen during surveys between 2008 and 2016 was recorded using a hand-held GPS device, as well as their status in terms of either being present and/or naturalised, or invasive and spreading. Individual occurrence records were summarised at the scale of half degree grid cells (∼55 km × 55 km). The survey covered almost half (522) of the 1063 grid cells in Ethiopia, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Rwanda. We recorded 164 invasive alien species in 110 genera and 47 families. We provide further information on the distribution and impacts of 30 species considered to have the greatest impacts in terms of transforming natural ecosystems, as well as on a further 21 species with limited distributions that could potentially become ecosystem transformers. Invasive alien plants are clearly a widespread and growing problem in eastern Africa, and capacity to manage them effectively remains a problem. A great deal of work needs to be done to raise awareness of the problem, and to identify appropriate responses that will be effective in resource-poor countries.


Inclusive education has become a phrase with international currency shaping the content of conferences and national educational policies around the world. But what does it mean? Is it about including a special group of disabled learners or students seen to have 'special needs' (them) or is it concerned with making educational institutions inclusive, responsive to the diversity of all their students (us)? In this unique comparative study, the editors have brought together an international team of researchers from eight countries to develop case-studies which explore the processes of inclusion and exclusion within a school or group of schools set in its local and national context. The study includes classroom observation, the experiences of the school day of students and interviews with staff, students, parents and school governors. Through an innovative juxtaposition of the case-studies and commentaries on them, differences of perspective within and between countries are revealed and analysed. The study arose from a dissatisfaction with previous research, which presents 'national perspectives' or seeks findings that have global significance. This book avoids such simplification and draws attention to the problems of translation of practice across cultures. The editors start from an assumption of diversity of perspective which like the diversity of students within schools can be viewed as problematic or as a resource to be recognized and celebrated.


We present a concept for an automated theorem prover that employs a searchcontrol based on ideas from several areas of artificial intelligence (AI). The combi-nation of case-based reasoning, several similarity concepts, a cooperation conceptof distributed AI and reactive planning enables a system using our concept tolearn form previous successful proof attempts. In a kind of bootstrapping processeasy problems are used to solve more and more complicated ones.We provide case studies from two domains of interest in pure equationaltheorem proving taken from the TPTP library. These case studies show thatan instantiation of our architecture achieves a high grade of automation andoutperforms state-of-the-art conventional theorem provers.


The technology based learning systems have capability to comply with diverse requirements of all the stakeholders in the modern education system. In technology based modules, such as those taught in Mechanical Engineering courses, the psychomotor content takes precedence over other domains of teaching and learning. Effective integration of pedagogical content within the Mechanical Engineering modules is of utmost importance for effectiveness in teaching and learning processes in these modules. Published literature is limited in this regard, and hence, the present study focuses on developing a novel an information quality framework for Mechanical Engineering modules, through which an enhanced treatment has been provided to the pedagogical content, in order to meet the educational goals and the industrial requirements worldwide. The novel information quality framework developed in the present study can be used as a guideline for measuring the effectiveness of Mechanical Engineering modules.


Incisional hernias remain one of the most common surgical complications with a long-term incidence of 10–20%. Increasing evidence of impaired wound healing in these patients supports routine use of an open prefascial, retromuscular mesh repair. Basic pathophysiologic principles dictate that for a successful long-term outcome and prevention of recurrence, a wide overlap underneath healthy tissue is required. Particularly in the neighborhood of osseous structures, only retromuscular placement allows sufficient subduction of the mesh by healthy tissue of at least 5 cm in all directions. Preparation must take into account the special anatomic features of the abdominal wall, especially in the area of the Linea alba and Linea semilunaris. Polypropylene is the material widely used for open mesh repair. New developments have led to low-weight, large-pore polypropylene prostheses, which are adjusted to the physiological requirements of the abdominal wall and permit proper tissue integration. These meshes provide the possibility of forming a scar net instead of a stiff scar plate and therefore help to avoid former known mesh complications.


Aging is often associated with inevitable biological decline. Yet research suggests that subjective aging—the views that people have about their own age and aging—contributes to how long and healthy lives they will have. Subjective age and self-perceptions of aging are the two most studied aspects of subjective aging. Both have somewhat different theoretical origins, but they can be measured reliably. A total of 41 studies have been conducted that examined the longitudinal health effects of subjective age and self-perceptions of aging. Across a wide range of health indicators, these studies provide evidence for the longitudinal relation of subjective aging with health and longevity. Three pathways might explain this relation: physiological, behavioral, and psychological pathways. The evidence for behavioral pathways, particularly for health behaviors, is strongest, whereas only a few studies have examined physiological pathways. Studies focusing on psychological pathways have included a variety of mechanisms, ranging from control and developmental regulation to mental health. Given the increase in the number of older people worldwide, even a small positive change in subjective aging might come with a considerable societal impact in terms of health gains.


Food banks are organisations which occupy an uncomfortable position, being seen both as a manifestation of caring communities as well as an undesirable feature of neoliberal government. By focusing on the encounters between volunteers and food bank users within these organisations, we excavate their caring side to find three forms of compassion: compassion 'for', compassion 'with' and compassion 'within'. We show that while compassion 'for' can lead to countless selfless acts, it remains embedded within neoliberal discourses. This can serve to reinforce distance and inequalities between giver (volunteer) and receiver (food bank user), creating a chain of indebtedness as compassion becomes part of a transactional exchange offered to those seen as worthy. Compassion 'with' others focuses on the person rather than the problem of food poverty and manifests itself in expressions of connection and responsibility which can, however, become possessive at times. Compassion 'within' is a form of compassion that, although less visible and demonstrative in response to the immediate suffering of others, provokes ethical and political reflection for individual volunteers who at times may challenge the very need for food banks. By grounding compassion in a specific social and organisational context, we highlight its relational nature and the dynamic and uncomfortable relation between different forms of compassion in the context of UK food banks. We conclude that compassion is a socially embedded and differentiated relationship which can activate affective, ethical and political responses to food poverty.


This article studies conditions of entry and competitive conduct in highly concentrated banking markets. The author estimates the minimum market size at which a second bank, a third, a fourth, and so on, can enter and maintain long-run profitability. The results suggest no evidence of cartel-like behavior, where banks collude and maximize joint monopoly profits, even in markets with only two or three banks. The results are more consistent with the competitive conduct predicted by models of oligopolistic behavior.


Hydrological time series analyses made in Finland up to 2001 show the following: 1) Precipitation has been increasing in southern and central Finland, and also in the north in winter, during the period 1911-2000. There are, however, no harmonized analyses of areal precipitation to show the exact increase. 2) The annual maximum of the areal water equivalent of snow has been increasing in eastern and northern Finland but decreasing in the south and west during the period 1947-2001. 3) The winter runoff has generally been increasing strongly in southern and slightly in central Finland during the 20th century. In northern Lapland there are no signs of increase in winter or annual flow. Annual discharge in the south and west has also increased to some extent. 4) The existing analyses show no signs of long-term trends in annual evapotranspiration. 5) Long-term fluctuations of water stage have been observed in the major groundwater formations. 6) The series of the date of ice break-up in the river Tornionjoki - starting in 1693 – shows that in recent decades the ice cover of the river has broken up about two weeks earlier than in the beginning of the period. 6) Lake ice maximum thickness series show no noticeable trend. 7) Lake water temperature in south-eastern Finland seems to have been increasing slightly during the period starting in 1924; in central and northern Finland no trends in water temperature have been observed.


The effects of deer in woodlands are known to result in habitat changes which can be detrimental to songbirds. In the first part of the paper we review the effects that deer may have on critical resources for woodland birds. The principal mechanism by which deer may affect habitat quality is through the reduction of low woody vegetation, which forms a key element of the preferred habitat of several species – this may be associated with loss of nest-sites, increased exposure to predators and reduction of food. The second part of the paper presents new evidence for the impacts of deer on vegetation structure, and how they may be contributing to the declines of some woodland songbirds in Britain. Results from extensive studies of deer at 13 woodland sites in England and Wales reveal that understorey foliage density decreases significantly with increasing deer density. Reduction of foliage was greatest at below 1.5 m above ground. We also report preliminary results of an experimental comparison of songbird densities between deer-fenced and unfenced areas of young coppice woodland in eastern England. In this study, deer browsing caused extensive impacts on vegetation structure in young coppice, though there was considerable variation between plots. Deer browsing resulted in reduction of canopy cover, reduction in density and cover of understorey vegetation, and an increase in grass cover. Abundance of bird species using the understorey, including all migrants, was significantly higher in coppice where deer were excluded. These results lend support to the hypothesis that deer are at least partly responsible for causing declines in some British bird populations, but they do not eliminate the possibility that increased shading is also responsible for changes in woodland structure. At present there is much spatial variation in deer densities in Britain so that impacts on low vegetation and habitat quality for birds are not expected to be the same in all regions. However, with continuing increases in deer numbers it is to be expected that such impacts will become more widespread.


Poor sanitation is estimated to cause 280,000 deaths per year worldwide, despite the existence of simple, effective solutions. Governments and major development institutions have dedicated substantial resources and attention to improving sanitation in developing countries, but there has been little rigorous research on how best to increase sanitation coverage. This evaluation in Bangladesh found that subsidies for hygienic latrines targeted to the poor substantially increased latrine coverage and reduced open defecation. However, a commonly used community-motivation model, did not increase adoption of hygienic latrines when implemented alone, nor did providing information and technical support to community members. Results also suggest that adoption of improved latrines spurred adoption among neighbors, suggesting improved sanitation triggers a virtuous cycle.


We present vertically-resolved observations of aerosol composition during pristine summertime Arctic background conditions. The methansulfonic acid (MSA)-to-sulfate ratio peaked near the surface (mean 0.10), indicating a contribution from ocean-derived biogenic sulfur. Similarly, the organic aerosol (OA)-to-sulfate ratio increased towards the surface (mean 2.0). Both MSA-to-sulfate and OA-to-sulfate ratios were significantly correlated with FLEXPART-WRF-predicted airmass residence time over open water, indicating marine influenced OA. External mixing of sea salt aerosol from a larger number fraction of organic, sulfate and amine-containing particles, together with low wind speeds (median 4.7 m s−1), suggests a role for secondary organic aerosol formation. Cloud condensation nuclei concentrations were nearly constant (∼120 cm−3) when the OA fraction was <60% and increased to 350 cm−3 when the organic fraction was larger and residence times over open water were longer. Our observations illustrate the importance of marine-influenced OA under Arctic background conditions, which are likely to change as the Arctic transitions to larger areas of open water.


The first book devoted entirely to B2B social marketingB2B markets are fundamentally different from consumer markets. Decisions are made on value, not impulse. Buying cycles are complex, often with many stakeholders involved. Relationships and support are critical. Bet-the-business decisions demand discipline, knowledge, and lots of information.This hands-on guide covers topics unique to this segment, including cost justification, prospecting and lead generation, matching tools to the sales funnel, building, B2B search engine optimization, social media monitoring, social media policy development, long-term client relationships, gaining stakeholder support, building a more transparent organization, and what's coming next.Features plentiful examples, case studies, and best practicesFocuses on the channels that are most effective for B2B marketersBuilds on the authors' more than 30 years of combined experience in the new media/social media space, as well as two previous successful booksLeverage the vast business-to-business potential of Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and many other social media platforms today with Social Marketing to the Business Customer!


Abstract Amidst growing recognition that people who use drugs are often vulnerable and in need of health-focused support, international conventions and national priorities on personal drug use are changing with emphasis shifting from criminal justice to health narratives. In Scotland, there has been a move toward health-led drug policymaking, and yet little is known about how diversion operates in this context. An exploratory qualitative study was conducted utilizing semi-structured interviews with professionals holding lead, strategic-level roles in Scottish diversion policy and practice (n = 15). Interview transcripts were thematically analyzed using a structured framework technique. Findings show that the term 'diversion' is used to refer to criminal justice-initiated drug treatment routes, both pre- and post-conviction. Unlike many international examples, Scottish diversions tend to embed health-focused support within criminal sanctions, rather than acting as alternatives. Participants expressed the view that the term diversion implied a shift from criminal justice sanctions to health-led support that did not occur in reality. We, therefore, argue that the term diversion may function to mute a 'discursive struggle' between criminal justice sanctions and health interventions for people who use drugs, obscuring a growing gap between aspirational governance principles and institutional and lived realities.


This paper focuses on the impact of Solar Water Heaters (SWH) at a higher institution of learning. An energy audit was conducted for the evaluation of the energy conservation measure: energy conoduction Energy is a key element in the development of any country or institution; as a result any shortage in energy will have a serious effect on the economy and social aspect of such country or institution. South Africa has, in recent years, experienced high economic growth as well as a rapid expansion in the elsumption analysis, correlation of consumption with weather; financial criteria, payback period and needed solar heater system (SWH) to determine the energy that may be termed as wastage or can be saved. The method of investigation includes assessment of the hot water usage within the institution campus and residencies, analysis of bills, metering and development of a software model for the analysis of energy use, system needed and environmental variables. This renewable measure (SWH) showed a high potential of energy and financial savings for higher education institutions especially those with residences.


Background: Purple leaves ( Graptophyllum pictum (L) Griff ) is a native plant from Indonesia (Polynesia) which is empirically common used to treat hemorrhoids, diabetes, and many other diseases. Despite its massive development globally, there are few studies have written about the toxicity of this herbal medicine. Aim: The aim of this study is to describe the acute toxicity of this herbal medicine, as the basic ground of the further safe development of this medicine. Method : Each purple leaf dry powder (2 kg) was extracted with 15 L of 70% ethanol and 15 L of hexane by maceration method for 3 days at room temperature and then filtered to obtain macerate liquid. The study was conducted on 36 male 6-8 weeks, Sprague–Dawley (SD) rats. The result was presented as the mean value ± standard deviation (SD). Data were evaluated for homogeneity using Saphiro Wilk. The comparisons between pre dan post treatment body weight were measured by paired student t test and hematological measurements were analyzed by ANOVA. P value less than 0.05 was considered significant. Results: Acute toxicity of ethanol and hexane extract were assessed following a single dose administered by gavage at a dose of 50, 2000 and 3000 g/kg bw. The mean body weight of rats increased from 150 ± 2.22 g to 161 ± 6.68 g during the 14 days. The difference of body weight between before and at 14 days amongs groups were significantly different with P value <0.01. Conclusion: The present study showed that hexane extract contains more valuable components for medical treatment purposes. The acute toxicity on 50, 2000,3000 kg/BW oral ethanol and hexane extract of Graptophyllum pictum showed no significant influence on hematological blood parameters of rats. It is safe to administered orally ethanol or hexane extract of G. pictum below 3000mg/kgBW rats. words:


To ensure that restorative justice is effective, a cooperative context must be developed, future conflicts must be managed constructively, and relevant parties need to adopt civic values. The theory underlying the creation of a cooperative context is social interdependence theory. Goal interdependence may be positive (i.e., cooperative) or negative (i.e., competitive). Creating a cooperative context will both help prevent destructively managed conflicts and help create positive relationships. The long-term maintenance of a cooperative context depends on resolving conflicts constructively. Individuals need to learn how to resolve conflicts of interests through integrative negotiation and peer mediation. Individuals also need to learn how to resolve intellectual disagreements through the constructive controversy procedure. Intellectual disagreements are inherent in all decision making. Finally, engaging in cooperative efforts and resolving conflicts constructively inculcates civic values. It is the combination of cooperative experiences, constructive conflict resolution, and civic values that most effectively ensures that all relevant parties can redress past wrongs and reconcile with each other.


We report the results of molecular dynamics simulations of a complete monolayer of hexane physisorbed onto the basal plane of graphite. At low temperatures the system forms a herringbone solid. With increasing temperature, a solid-to-nematic liquid-crystal transition takes place at T1 = 138± 2 K followed by another transition at T2 = 176± 3 K into an isotropic fluid. We characterize the different phases by calculating various order parameters, coordinate distributions, energetics, spreading pressure, and correlation functions, most of which are in reasonable agreement with available experimental evidence. In addition, we perform simulations where the Lennard-Jones interaction strength, corrugation potential strength, and dihedral rigidity are varied in order to better characterize the nature of the two transitions. We find that both phase transitions are facilitated by a "footprint reduction" of the molecules via tilting and to a lesser degree via creation of gauche defects in the molecules.


How strongly does humor (i.e., the construct-relevant content) in the Humor Styles Questionnaire (HSQ; Martin et al., 2003) determine the responses to this measure (i.e., construct validity)? Also, how much does humor influence the relationships of the four HSQ scales, namely affiliative, self-enhancing, aggressive, and self-defeating, with personality traits and subjective well-being (i.e., criterion validity)? The present paper answers these two questions by experimentally manipulating the 32 items of the HSQ to only (or mostly) contain humor (i.e., construct-relevant content) or to substitute the humor content with non-humorous alternatives (i.e., only assessing construct-irrelevant context). Study 1 (N = 187) showed that the HSQ affiliative scale was mainly determined by humor, self-enhancing and aggressive were determined by both humor and non-humorous context, and self-defeating was primarily determined by the context. This suggests that humor is not the primary source of the variance in three of the HQS scales, thereby limiting their construct validity. Study 2 (N = 261) showed that the relationships of the HSQ scales to the Big Five personality traits and subjective well-being (positive affect, negative affect, and life satisfaction) were consistently reduced (personality) or vanished (subjective well-being) when the non-humorous contexts in the HSQ items were controlled for. For the HSQ self-defeating scale, the pattern of relationships to personality was also altered, supporting an positive rather than a negative view of the humor in this humor style. The present findings thus call for a reevaluation of the role that humor plays in the HSQ (construct validity) and in the relationships to personality and well-being (criterion validity).


Background and Objectives: Recent studies focus on vasoactive properties of protein, which is dependent to its source and amino acid composition. Our aim was to evaluate the association between dietary serine intakes and hypertension incident. Materials and Methods: We used the data of 4287 subjects aged 20-70 years, who participated in the fourth phase of Tehran Lipid and Glucose Study (2008-2011) and were followed up to the fifth phase (2011-2014). At baseline, the participants were free of hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer. Serine dietary data were collected through a valid and reliable food frequency questionnaire. Incidence of hypertension was identified after three years of follow up. To investigate the association of serine intake and incidence of hypertension, multivariable adjusted models of logistic regression were used, and odds ratios (ORs) across quartiles of serine were reported. Results: After three years of follow up, 429 (10%) incident cases of hypertension were ascertained. The OR of the highest quartile of serine intake was 1.43 (95% CI: 1.05-1.95; P for trend: 0.03) compared to the lowest adjusted for age and sex. After further adjustment for body mass index (BMI), diabetes status, physical activity, smoking status, and dietary intake of energy, saturated fatty acids, monounsaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, calcium, magnesium, sodium, potassium and fiber, the OR of the highest vs. the lowest quartile of serine intake was 1.70 (95% CI: 1.18-2.44; P for trend=0.005). Conclusions: These findings suggest that dietary serine intake may be directly associated with the risk of hypertension incident.


With the booming cloud computing industry, computational resources are readily and elastically available to the customers. In order to attract customers with various demands, most Infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) cloud service providers offer several pricing strategies such as pay as you go, pay less per unit when you use more (so called volume discount), and pay even less when you reserve. The diverse pricing schemes among different IaaS service providers or even in the same provider form a complex economic landscape that nurtures the market of cloud brokers. By strategically scheduling multiple customers' resource requests, a cloud broker can fully take advantage of the discounts offered by cloud service providers. In this paper, we focus on how a broker can help a group of customers to fully utilize the volume discount pricing strategy offered by cloud service providers through cost-efficient online resource scheduling. We present a randomized online stack-centric scheduling algorithm (ROSA) and theoretically prove the lower bound of its competitive ratio. Three special cases of the offline concave cost scheduling problem and the corresponding optimal algorithms are introduced. Our simulation shows that ROSA achieves a competitive ratio close to the theoretical lower bound under the special cases. Trace-driven simulation using Google cluster data demonstrates that ROSA is superior to the conventional online scheduling algorithms in terms of cost saving.


A model of the organization of the international wheat market is presented (a) to explain historical competitive behaviour in the market and (b) as a framework for analysing the likely effects of changes in market conditions on competitive behaviour. In the model the market is segmented into three interdependent sub-markets. The hard wheat sub-market is characterized by a co-operative duopoly model with Canada as the price leader, with the United States as the usually silent partner, and with a fringe of competitors. The soft wheat and durum wheat sub-markets are characterized by oligopoly models based on imperfect collusion between the three main respective sellers, and with a fringe of competitors. It is found that prices (particularly of hard wheats) are more stable and higher than would be prices formed under free market conditions and there is a greater emphasis on the use of non-price competition. The model indicates the importance of domestic agricultural policies in assuring continued stability in the market.


Objective: To
test the efficacy of a new topical vehicle formulation containing cetirizine in
emu oil in treating inflammatory skin conditions. Methods: A single blind half body comparative study of patients
with psoriasis, atopic and stasis dermatitis were all treated with midpotency
topical steroid (desoximethasone) in propylene glycol base, desoximethasone and
cetirizine in propylene glycol base, desoximethasone in emu oil base and
desoximethasone with cetirizine dissolved in emu oil. Results: Based on patients' ranking of creams' efficacy, and
supported by photographic data and investigators' clinical assessment, results
clearly indicated that desoximethasone and cetirizine in emu base was statistically
more efficacious than either desoximethasone alone or with cetirizine in
neutral propylene glycol base or desoximethasone in emu oil base (without
cetirizine). Conclusions: Cetirizine
and emu oil, having inherent anti-inflammatory and other beneficial properties
synergistically, and by different biochemical pathways, enhance and magnify
each other's pharmaceutical effects that are useful in treatment of skin
inflammatory diseases.


The study was designed to examine the factors which affect the transferability of Western (contemporary British) philosophies and practices to the Arab culture of Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. The general case of transferability was studied, but it was biased towards its application to management. The thesis opened with a short history of the area under consideration and highlighted the role of the West in the emergence of these modern Arab states. Arab way of life was discussed at some length to illustrate the existence of cultural discontinuities. Data for the research was obtained by distributing a questionnaire to Arab students from the countries concerned who were studying in British Universities and Polytechnics in the Spring of 1984. The students were adjudged to be fresh from their own culture and to be meeting the British educational system and way of life head on. The data was subjected to an extensive, but simple form of statistical analysis which searched for associations and factors relevant to transferability. Factor Analysis was used for the educational and cultural sections. Four main conclusions were drawn. (1) A simple framework, which emerged from the views of students on taught courses, can be used to classify the transferability of subjects, however it relies on judgement to quantify cultural discontinuities. (2) Seventy five percent of respondents experienced some degree of culture shock in Britain. (3) Students generally regarded Western education favourably, but felt that contact with the West would alter Arab society and hence they should take care about what aspects of Western life and culture to accept. (4) National factors as well as cultural factors affect transferability. Finally, future research could fruitfully be concentrated on examining the effectiveness or otherwise of ongoing cross national training programmes.


This study is based on corals collected during the Joint Services Expedition to Egmont Atoli (in 1972) and to the western part of the Chagos Bank (In 1975). The corals were identified to generic level, and where appropriate to species and species groups. A systematic check-list is presented covering the material from both collections. Much of the Information from Egmont has been lost, especially regarding the locations where specimens were collected. It was hoped however to use the data from the Chagos Bank collection to classify the coral communities In terms of associations, according to the methodology of the Zurich-Montpeiller School of Sociology (Braun-Blanquet, 1951). This was attempted with the aid of suitable computer analysis, but owing to the highly variable nature of the data, the approach had to be abandoned. Nevertheless, some patterns may be observed in the distribution of the corals from Chagos Bank, principally in relation to depth. No definite zones can be delimited, but some of the genera and species are more conspicuous at certain depths. This is most obvious in the shallowest collections (3 - 6m) and the deeper areas (33 - 45m). The major factors Influencing local distribution patterns of hermatypic corals are discussed, and the Chagos Bank data are compared with similar studies in the Indo-Pacific. At least 55 hermatypic genera have so far been recorded from the Chagos Archipelago. There is a high diversity of coral genera in the western Indian Ocean, which may or may not be continuous with the very rich Indonesian-west Pacific area. The records presented here suggest that the high diversity region In the Southern Maldives may extend south of the equator to include the Chagos reefs. Few quantitative studies have been carried out on reef corals, and most of the work has been confined to the accessible reef flat, while deeper areas of the reef front have been neglected. Furthermore, sampling methods and the kind of Information recorded have varied greatly. It Is recommended that a standard sampling procedure Is laid down, so that data collected in the course of future studies may be meaningfully compared.


The utility of smartphones has been limited to a great extent by their short battery life. In this work, we propose a new approach to prolonging smartphone battery life. We introduce the notions of valueless and valued battery, as being the available battery when the user does or does not have access to a power source, respectively. We propose a cooperative system where users with high battery level help carry the traffic of users with low battery level. Our scheme helps increase the amount of valued battery in the network, thus it reduces the chance of users running out of battery early. Our system can be realized in the form of a proximity service (ProSe) which utilizes a device-to-device (D2D) communication architecture underlaying LTE. We show through simulations that our system reduces the probability of cellular users running out of battery before their target usage time (probability of outage). Our simulator source code is made available to the public.


Abstract Based on first-person accounts of interrogators and former detainees as well as unclassified military documents, this article outlines the variety of ways that "loud music" has been used in the detention camps of the United States' "global war on terror." A survey of practices at Bagram Air Force Base, Afghanistan; Camp Nama (Baghdad), Iraq; Forward Operating Base Tiger (Al-Qaim), Iraq; Mosul Air Force Base, Iraq; Guantánamo, Cuba; Camp Cropper (Baghdad), Iraq; and at the "dark prisons" from 2002 to 2006 reveals that the use of "loud music" was a standard, openly acknowledged component of "harsh interrogation." Such music was understood to be one medium of the approach known as "futility" in both the 1992 and the 2006 editions of the US Army's field manual for interrogation. The purpose of such "futility" techniques as "loud music" and "gender coercion" is to persuade a detainee that resistance to interrogation is futile, yet the military establishment itself teaches techniques by which "the music program" can be resisted. The article concludes with the first-person account of a young US citizen, working in Baghdad as a contractor, who endured military detention and "the music program" for ninety-seven days in mid-2006—a man who knew how to resist.


In their oft-cited manifesto, the Martinican Creolists exhort Caribbean people to forego their continuing allegiances to the "mythical shores" of various old worlds, and to affirm instead the "alluvial Creoleness" that binds (or that ought to bind) them to each other, and to other communities across the globe with a similar plantation history: "Neither Europeans, nor Africans, nor Asians, we proclaim ourselves Creoles; "[the Creole language] is the initial means of communication of our deep self, or our collective unconscious, of our common genius, and it remains the river of our alluvial Creoleness." Despite their qualifications – "Creoleness is an open specificity," for example – they have been chided for simplifying the complicated socio-political histories of the region. Maryse Conde, for example, has noted that the opposition of colonizing French language and resisting Creole language ignores the extent to which plantation heterogeneity and negotiation rendered Creole a language of both "unity and compromise." On what terms can alluvial relationships that can undercut imperial and diasporic ties be uncovered? What does the idea of a Creole unconscious solidify, restore, revivify, and for whom? In this essay, I am interested in a Jamaican-born novelist's use of Cuba's second war of independence in the 1890s to critique Jamaican complacency about British colonialism after the Second World War. Cuba, and a "Creole Latin" world more generally, allows him, on my reading, to proffer hispanophone and francophone plantation histories as a model for anglophone sensibilities in the region. The "Creole Latin" affirmation of nationalism, revolutionary struggle, and strong affective ties to the land and to personal relationships, are uncontaminated by the domineering spirit, legalistic prejudices, bureaucracy and commerce, and negotiated concessions that typify anglophone Protestant modes of life. Since the scene of these ideas in this case is the nineteenth century plantation, then we might ask if the social and political inequities are not reinforced, or whether the pleasures afforded by the romance make such considerations moot.


In hypertension, coronary flow is augmented and oxygen balance is adequate despite an increase in coronary resistance. For the maintenance of flow in the presence of and after regression of ventricular hypertrophy, the ratio of pressure and ventricular mass must remain normal. Coronary reserve would be altered if treatment normalized pressure but not ventricular mass or if pressure were lowered too fast. We investigated 42 patients with primary hypertension. In 28 (Group I) left ventricular mass index (by ultrasound) was within the mean value +2 SD (96 + 38 g/m2) of 145 controls and exceeded these values in the remaining 14 patients (Group 2). The diastolic pressure was lowered rapidly to between 85 and 90 mm Hg with two potent vasodilators, nifedipine (sublingually) and nitroprusside, while a 12-lead electrocardiogram was recorded continuously. During both tests, seven patients in Group 2 (responders) showed inversion of normal T waves, in lead I, aVL, and V3-6. These changes waxed and waned in parallel with the pressure fall and recovery and were not attributable to alterations in adrenergic tone, conduction disturbances, variations, or group differences in the QRS axis, QTc interval, heart rate, left ventricular fractional shortening, wall stress, rate of dimension increase in early diastole, or isovolumic relaxation. A ""steal phenomenon'' or passive collapse in compliant coronary lesions during vasodilatation seems unlikely; in fact, patients were free from coronary symptoms, and the electrocardiographic alterations occurred only in seven patients in Group 2, who had a greater left ventricular mass index and required a larger pressure drop to return the diastolic pressure to normal.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)