Nancy King and Ken Huff bring to life the joys and challenges of hosting an exchange student. Host Family Survival Kit provides an overview of hosting, beginning with the role of the exchange student in the home. The authors include a discussion of the skills needed for host parenting and an expanded examination of intercultural relations. The book also focuses on the stages of the hosting experience: Arrival, Settling In, Deepening the Relationship, Culture Shock, Culture Learning, Predeparture and Readjustment. The authors discuss what to expect when welcoming an exchange student into your home and advise you on how to handle day-to-day situations. In this revised edition, three new sections add valuable information on identifying and handling cross-cultural misunderstandings and common concerns that arise when hosting an exchange student. Both veteran host families and those contemplating the undertaking for the first time will welcome The Host Family Survival Kit as an aid and companion while housing students from abroad.


Mobile technology has influenced business strategies over recent years and the increasing
penetration of mobile devices and related solutions such as mobile commerce has
revolutionised consumer organisations. Saudi Arabia with its high mobile penetration has the
potential for higher usage of mobile services in the near future. This research aimed at
understanding and evaluating the acceptance and adoption of mobile commerce in Saudi
Arabia with specific focus on the airline ticketing services through evaluation of the attitude
and behaviour of the airline consumers towards mobile commerce in airline ticketing services.
The research was designed as a mixed and explanatory research and used both deductive and
inductive approaches to understanding mobile commerce acceptance in airline ticketing
services. The research also involved extensive review of technology adoption models such as
Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) and Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of
Technology (UTAUT), based on which a research framework was developed and hypotheses
specified. Quantitative study involved online questionnaire based survey with 207 travellers
who were connected at the King Abdul-Aziz airport in Saudi Arabia, while qualitative study
involved interviews with eight employees of Saudi Airlines. The collected data was analysed
using MS Excel and SPSS and subjected to descriptive, regression and content analysis.
The research findings indicate positive perceptions of airline travellers towards the usefulness,
ease of use and other related benefits of using mobile commerce for air ticketing services. The
key factors influencing the attitude were identified to be the ease of use, usefulness and social
influence, while key determinants of behavioural intention were identified to be mobility,
compatibility and usefulness. The other factors such as cost, trust, perceived risk and usecontext
were not found to be the key influencers of the behavioural intention of Saudi Arabian
travelers towards use of mobile commerce for airline ticketing services. Another key finding
was the lack of any significant differences, perhaps surprising, in the behavioural intention to
use mobile commerce across various demographic groups based on age, gender and education.
The research findings will be useful for both practitioners of mobile commerce as well as
academicians involved in research on acceptance and adoption of mobile commerce. Moreover,
the research findings are not just useful for the airline industry in Saudi Arabia, but can also be
consulted by those interested in understanding mobile-commerce acceptance in airline industry
anywhere else across the globe or any other industry in Saudi Arabia.


Uncertainty poses a substantial problem for animals, making it is essential for individuals to anticipate changes in their envi- ronment to select suitable behavioral strategies. In nest-building species where parents care for dependent young, predation is a major cause of reproductive failure. However, because parents generally have inadequate information about nest predation risks, attaining information about predation hazards increases their likelihood of making informed, optimal decisions. Risk assessment should therefore be widespread, particularly in incubating parents of species that breed in cavities or closed nests, which have limited information about predator presence. This study experimentally investigated the dynamic risk assessment in incubating female brown thornbill ( Acanthiza pusilla ), a long-lived Australian passerine, which builds closed dome nests in dense vegetation. When the females were exposed to the calls of a nest predator, a predator of adults, and a nonpredatory species, they reacted most strongly to the predator of adults' calls, by looking out of the nest for longest. Females significantly increased their level of alertness on hearing calls of both predator species and maintained their higher level of alertness after the simulated predator presence ended. Females in nests with a high degree of visual cover, and therefore a larger information deficit, reacted more strongly to predator calls than females in more open nests. Moreover, poorly concealed nests had a higher probability of being predated. These results show that incubating female thornbills use dynamic risk assessment and base their response on who is at risk and the degree of information deficit. : female information deficit, life-history, nest concealment,


Although 2D generative models have made great progress in face image generation and animation, they often suffer from undesirable artifacts such as 3D inconsistency when rendering images from different camera viewpoints. This prevents them from synthesizing video animations indistinguishable from real ones. Recently, 3D-aware GANs extend 2D GANs for explicit disentanglement of camera pose by leveraging 3D scene representations. These methods can well preserve the 3D consistency of the generated images across different views, yet they cannot achieve fine-grained control over other attributes, among which facial expression control is arguably the most useful and desirable for face animation. In this paper, we propose an animatable 3D-aware GAN for multiview consistent face animation generation. The key idea is to decompose the 3D representation of the 3D-aware GAN into a template field and a deformation field, where the former represents different identities with a canonical expression, and the latter characterizes expression variations of each identity. To achieve meaningful control over facial expressions via deformation, we propose a 3D-level imitative learning scheme between the generator and a parametric 3D face model during adversarial training of the 3D-aware GAN. This helps our method achieve high-quality animatable face image generation with strong visual 3D consistency, even though trained with only unstructured 2D images. Extensive experiments demonstrate our superior performance over prior works. Project page: https://yuewuhkust.github.io/AniFaceGAN


Although Native Americans in the contiguous United States have benefited from recent congressional reforms, Alaska Native communities were largely ignored. Despite the widely acknowledged crisis of sexual assault and domestic violence in rural Alaska Native communities, Congress has explicitly exempted Alaska from legislation that would otherwise give people in these communities the ability to protect themselves. Although public outcry has prompted pending legislation in Congress to repeal some of these exemptions, such as the Alaska Safe Families and Villages Act, even that legislation does not go far enough to achieve a permanent and effective solution to what is a life-or-death problem for many Alaska Natives. This Note argues that Congress and the State of Alaska should expand Alaska Native tribal sovereignty to give Alaska Native communities the ability to stem the tide of this epidemic.


The high computational and memory requirements of large language model (LLM) inference make it feasible only with multiple high-end accelerators. Motivated by the emerging demand for latency-insensitive tasks with batched processing, this paper initiates the study of high-throughput LLM inference using limited resources, such as a single commodity GPU. We present FlexGen, a high-throughput generation engine for running LLMs with limited GPU memory. FlexGen can be flexibly configured under various hardware resource constraints by aggregating memory and computation from the GPU, CPU, and disk. By solving a linear programming problem, it searches for efficient patterns to store and access tensors. FlexGen further compresses the weights and the attention cache to 4 bits with negligible accuracy loss. These techniques enable FlexGen to have a larger space of batch size choices and thus significantly increase maximum throughput. As a result, when running OPT-175B on a single 16GB GPU, FlexGen achieves significantly higher throughput compared to state-of-the-art offloading systems, reaching a generation throughput of 1 token/s for the first time with an effective batch size of 144. On the HELM benchmark, FlexGen can benchmark a 30B model with a 16GB GPU on 7 representative sub-scenarios in 21 hours. The code is available at https://github.com/FMInference/FlexGen


In 1947, Czech designer Ladislav Sutnar and Danish architect Knud Lönberg-Holm published three articles in Interiors magazine introducing their theories of modern visual communication to the professional design community in the United States. These articles, subsequently released together as Designing Information, were informed by the authors' work at Sweet's Catalog Service, a dominant publisher of industrial catalogs at the time. At Sweet's, Lönberg-Holm and Sutnar developed standards for product information centered on the concept of "visual flow." This article examines vision and flow in Designing Information, analyzing how the authors applied ideas from diverse realms of midcentury discourse—including visual education, Gestalt, and Behaviorist psychologies—to the context of American business and industry.


International Journal of Exercise Science 9(3): 283-290, 2016. In recent years, the effects of chronic core training on athletic performance have been examined with mixed results; however, the acute effects of core training on athletic performance variables have yet to be examined. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to determine the relationship between an acute bout of core training and lower extremity maximal strength. Seventeen healthy males (weight 90.1  17.2 kg; height 176.7  11.2 cm; age 20.9  1.3 years) performed maximal deadlift assessments following 2 testing conditions. A general cardiovascular warm-up was used as the control condition, and a mat-based Pilates warm-up was used as the core training condition. Statistical significance was set at p < 0.05. Results from a paired-samples t-test showed that the average maximal strength achieved in the Pilates condition (168.6  33.0kg) was significantly higher compared to the Control condition (161.4  31.9kg). These results indicate that an acute bout of core training does have a significant effect on lower extremity maximal strength. Therefore, it may be beneficial to perform core activation exercises, such as Pilates, as part of a warm-up to activate core muscles directly preceding a lower extremity strength exercise.


Our previous work has documented that drivers are thermoregulatory challenged during competitive racing; however, the degree of fluid loss that occurs has not been quantified. Aim To quantify the degree of fluid losses that occurs during a competitive event under hot (summer) conditions. Methods Nine male stock car drivers (30 ± 9 yr, 178 ± 3 cm, 83 ± 19 kg) participated in the Pro Series Division of the NASCAR Whelen All-American Series race in August in the Northeastern United States. Seven drivers completed 40 laps with an average speed of ∼73 km/h, totaling ∼18 min in duration. Ambient track temperature was 22.3°C, 90 % rh and average cockpit temperatures were ∼31°C, 61% rh prior to the start of the race, and ∼41°C, 45 % rh upon completion. Sweat rate and percent dehydration was determined via nude body weight (BW) pre- and post-race. Due to race logistics, pre-race BWs were taken approximately one hour before the start of the race, and post-race BWs were taken immediately after the driver exited the car. Urine loss was considered fluid loss, and BWs were corrected for fluid and food intake. Intestinal core (Tc) and skin (Tsk) temperatures, and heart rate (HR) were also assessed. Results Pre-race BW was 81.5 ± 18.5 kg and decreased to 81.1 ± 18.5 kg immediately post-race (p = 0.001). Average sweat rate was 0.63 ± 0.4 L per hour; as pre-race BWs were taken approximately one hour prior to completion of the race, and this sweat rate incorporated approximately 40 min of pre-race activity which included ∼12 laps ( ∼ 3 min of driving) to establish starting position, 10 min of resting in the vehicle in full uniform, and 30 min of light activity (i.e., making car adjustments), in addition to the race itself. Percent BW loss following the race was 0.77 ± 0.3%. Pre-race Tc was 38.0 ± 0.4°C which increased to 38.5 ± 0.4°C post-race (p = 0.001). Tsk increased from 35.8 ± 0.8°C pre-race to 36.9 ± 0.8°C post-race (p = 0.001) whereas the core-to-skin temperature gradient decreased from a pre-race value of 2.2 ± 0.9°C to 1.6 ± 0.9°C post-race (p = 0.001). HRs post-race were 89 ± 0.0% of the drivers' age-predicted maximum HR. Conclusions This is the first study attempting to quantify fluid loss during a competitive stock car race. As this was a short race, sweat rate and% losses in BW were extrapolated to three hours (sweat rate: 1.90 ± 1.2 L per hour; 2.3 ± 1.0% BW loss) and four hours (sweat rate: 2.53 ± 1.5 L per hour; 3.1 ± 1.4% BW loss). As we included 40 minutes of pre-race activity into our sweat rate calculations, the extrapolated sweat rate and% losses in BWs are likely lower than those measured during continuous racing of 3 or 4 hours. These results suggest that fluid losses during competitive racing can be significant. Without a fluid replacement strategy, fluid losses for these drivers may exceed 3% BW and could negatively impact driving performance.


Aims The aim of this pilot project was to carry out Case Studies which will explore the different transition pathways and experiences of young people representing the following groups: • Young people who have common long – term conditions such as Diabetes and Epilepsy which are predominantly self-managed at home, with oversight from centres with specialist expertise. • Young People who have long term conditions which require intermittent or regular hospital-based intensive support such as those who are technology dependant or require frequent admissions for acute or specialist care. • Young people who have disabilities and complex needs. • Young people who are receiving support from Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services. The intended outcomes were to provide the local Strategic Clinical Network Special Interest Group with insight into how strategies to improve the experience of transition could be informed by the lived experiences of: • Young Service Users who had recently undergone transition from children's to adult services • The viewpoints of their parents and carers • The perspectives of lead professionals involved in planning, coordinating and supporting the transition process. Methods Six Case Studies were constructed following face-to-face semi-structured interviews with young people, parents and carers representing the above groups. The young people involved had experienced the transition from children's to adult services during the previous six months to three years. Where it was possible to identify and access a lead professional who was involved in planning and co-ordinating the transition their perspective was also sought through separate face to face and telephone interviews before inclusion within the appropriate case study. Results The Case Studies demonstrate that parents have a good understanding of what Transition means, and have endeavoured to explain this to their children. Some parents and carers were aware of policy guidance and expectations, for example the recommendation that planning should start during the early teenage years. This is not necessarily what they have experienced themselves. There were some examples of good practice and transitions support where knowledgeable and experienced practitioners were able to plan holistically to work across boundaries and overcome barriers to assure the best possible outcomes for young people. Other young people and their parents were not able to identify someone who had taken lead responsibility for co-ordinating their transition to adult services. Emerging themes included : • Variable Transition Plans and experiences • Young people still "getting lost" in transition • Variable involvement of young people and families in decision-making • The influence of different traditions, levels of practitioner confidence and models of service provision • Training needs and developing expertise and best practice in transition support • Fearful young people and "battle-weary" parents • The positive and negative impact of transition experiences • Loss of services • Key messages from families • Communication, planning and process • Improving services and support Conclusions 1. Transition services across the region include some areas of good or developing practice as well as some examples of inadequate transition planning and services to meet the needs of young people who have long term conditions, special educational needs or disabilities. 2. It is not currently possible to conclude that all transition experiences in the region universally meet sector standards and best practice guidance. 3. Families would like those in charge of commissioning services and making financial decisions to hear their stories and understand the challenges they face. 4. The Strategic Clinical Network is in a privileged position to make some transformational changes to benefit young people, parents and carers – to achieve this they may need to be courageous in re-thinking delivery models and the relationship between services designed to meet the needs of children and adults. This is likely to involve working in partnership with other Strategic Clinical Networks and Clinical Commissioning Groups. 5. There are some good examples of effective practice, but transition planning often starts late and may be vague and fragmented, have gaps or fail to adequately involve young people parents and carers in decisions. 6. Transition outcomes for young people and families can be positive, however the researchers found several examples of diminished service provision to the detriment of service users. 7. Where transition planning has worked well this has been because there has been a dedicated Key Worker, named lead professional or Transition Team who have developed expertise; are able to coordinate regular meetings and bring together multi-disciplinary/ multi-agency teams; effectively involve service providers and users and develop creative solutions to overcome barriers in order to meet the individual needs of young people and their families. 8. The planning process needs an approach which bridges divisions between children's and adult services; health, social care and education; hospital and community settings; geographical boundaries - service provision needs to develop to match this approach. 9. Training, resources, and pathways need to be developed for both practitioners and families involved in developing and implementing Transition Plans. 10. New models of care provision and new ways of working will be essential to success; new technologies could contribute to solutions.


For each nerve block, the book provides detailed information about indications, patient positioning, needle size, drug selection, volume for infusion rate, anatomic landmarks, approach, and technique and offers tips for maximizing effectiveness and minimizing complications. Full-color clinical photographs and line art demonstrate anatomic landmarks, patient positioning, and techniques. This edition offers new material on ultrasound guidance and continuous catheter techniques.


Abstract The objective of this paper is to recommend conceptual modifications for incorporation in state-and-transition models (STMs) to link this framework explicitly to the concept of ecological resilience. Ecological resilience describes the amount of change or disruption that is required to transform a system from being maintained by one set of mutually reinforcing processes and structures to a different set of processes and structures (e.g., an alternative stable state). In light of this concept, effective ecosystem management must focus on the adoption of management practices and policies that maintain or enhance ecological resilience to prevent stable states from exceeding thresholds. Resilience management does not exclusively focus on identifying thresholds per se, but rather on within-state dynamics that influence state vulnerability or proximity to thresholds. Resilience-based ecosystem management provides greater opportunities to incorporate adaptive management than does threshold-based management because thresholds emphasize limits of state resilience, rather than conditions that determine the probability that these limits will be surpassed. In an effort to further promote resilience-based management, we recommend that the STM framework explicitly describe triggers, at-risk communities, feedback mechanisms, and restoration pathways and develop process-specific indicators that enable managers to identify at-risk plant communities and potential restoration pathways. Two STMs representing different ecological conditions and geographic locations are presented to illustrate the incorporation and application of these recommendations. We anticipate that these recommendations will enable STMs to capture additional ecological information and contribute to improved ecosystem management by focusing attention on the maintenance of state resilience in addition to the anticipation of thresholds. Adoption of these recommendations may promote valuable dialogue between researchers and ecosystem managers regarding the general nature of ecosystem dynamics.


Introduction: Sense of coherence (SOC) influences an individual's health-related behaviours and practices. A mother's SOC can influence oral health status and oral health related quality of life (OHRQoL) of their children. Studies exploring the association between these variables are scarce. Aim: To determine a mother's SOC, the child's caries experience and OHRQoL and the association between these variables among mother–child pairs in Bangalore city. Materials and Methods: A total of 200 preschool children and their mothers from government and private preschools participated in the study. The mother's SOC was assessed using Antonovsky's 13-item SOC questionnaire, whereas OHRQoL of preschool children was assessed using Early Childhood Oral Health Impact Scale (ECOHIS). Caries experience [decayed, missing and filled teeth (dmft)] was recorded using World Health Organization criteria 2013. Descriptive and inferential statistics were applied. Mann–Whitney U test, t-test, Pearson correlation test and regression analysis were also applied. Significance was set at 5%. Results: The mean SOC score of the mothers and ECOHIS score were 53.79 ± 11.68 and 17.23 ± 7.87, respectively. The mean caries experience score was 0.99 ± 1.48. In this study, dmft negatively correlated with SOC [(r = −0.367), (P < 0.001)] and positively correlated with ECOHIS [(r = 0.679), (P < 0.001)]. SOC negatively correlated with ECOHIS [(r = −0.369), (P < 0.001]. Conclusion: Mother's SOC negatively correlated with the child's caries experience, which affected their OHRQoL. Hence, improving a mother's SOC is the key to better oral health and quality of life.


ABSTRACT The occurrence of acesulfame (ACE) in two full-scale drinking water treatment plants (DWTPs) in Zhejiang Province, China, was investigated. The results showed that ACE was commonly detected in the raw water of the DWTPs at ND–0.125 and ND–0.093 μg/L, respectively. The maximum ACE removal efficiencies in the DWTP with traditional processes were less than 10%, whereas those in the DWTP with advanced ozonation treatment were 36.70–79.59%. Consequently, ACE degradation by ozone and the key influencing factors were examined. Laboratory-scale experiments were performed and revealed that ACE degradation followed a pseudo first-order kinetics pattern under all reaction conditions. The decomposition rate relied heavily on applied ozone dosage rate, pH, reaction temperature, and the presence of water matrix constituents. Higher ozone input, alkaline conditions, and higher temperatures favored ACE removal. Among four anions tested, CO3 2- exhibited a greater inhibitory effect on ACE decomposition than the other three, namely Cl−, HCO3 −, and SO4 2-, did. Scavenging tests confirmed that direct ozonation accounted for ACE degradation under acidic conditions, whereas the hydroxyl radicals produced by ozone under alkaline conditions gradually promoted ACE degradation with increasing pH. These findings demonstrated that ozonation is a technically viable technology for eliminating ACE from drinking water sources.


This paper presents the design of a new user-cooperative rope robot. This robot serves as a large-scale haptic interface in a multi-modal Cave environment used for sport simulation. In contrast to current rope robots, the configuration of the presented robot is adaptable to different simulation tasks what makes the robot more versatile. However, this adaptability and the high dynamics in sports lead to challenging requirements and specific design criteria of the hardware components. We present the requirements on the single robot components as well as the design of the entire setup optimized in terms of user-cooperativity and versatility. The setup includes sensors to measure the relevant parameters for user-cooperative control, i.e. position with a high resolution and the rope forces. Furthermore, an algorithm is introduced, which calculates the distance between the single ropes and the user in order to avoid collisions between the ropes and the user. Single points on the user's body are, therefore, tracked with a motion tracking system; the user's single body parts are then represented by geometrical objects whose distances to the ropes are calculated. The algorithm is programmed in such way that the collision detection runs in real-time. Both, the hardware and the algorithm, were evaluated experimentally in two applications, a rowing simulator and a tennis application. The hardware concept combined with the distance calculation allows the use of new kinematic concepts and expands the spectrum of realizable movement tasks that can be implemented into the Cave environment.


All our lives, we seek affirmation and love from the people closest to us -- our parents and, later, our grown children. But too few of us get it. As adults, many of us feel that our aging parents still treat us like kids. As parents, many of us are sad that our adult children seem to have little use for us. When Robert Kuttner and Sharland Trotter were writing "Family Re-Union," many new empty-nesters told them, "I hope I have a better relationship with my kids than I did with my parents." "Family Re-Union" offers insights on how adults and their parents can cultivate new adult- to-adult lifelong connections and become deeper friends. It is the first book to explore this challenge over the entire life course -- from a teenager's departure for college to the impending death of an aging parent. Kuttner, a well-known journalist, and Trotter, a clinical psychologist, conceived the book when their son had just gone off to college and their daughter was a junior in high school. The message of "Family Re-Union" is deepened by the unusual circumstances of its writing: a year into the work, Sharland Trotter learned she had cancer. As Sharland deals with her illness and invites her family into her journey, the book takes on additional relevance for all those facing their own mortality -- whether prematurely or at the natural end of a long life span -- and seeking to repair family relationships. But "Family Re-Union" will prove indispensable for all adults, from the twenty-five-year-old who finds her parents overbearing, through the forty-year-old hoping to have a better relationship with his son than he had with his father, to the seventy-year-old trying to reconnect with amiddle-aged daughter, and all steps in between. These are life stages we all encounter, and "Family Re-Union" offers hope that, no matter what our personal circumstances, it is never too late to create loving, respectful family ties.


The democratic critique of judicial review by constitutional courts has prompted its defenders to counter that courts have democratic qualities as good as, and in certain respects even stronger than, conventional democratic politics. This article offers a critical analysis of three arguments favouring this approach. The first argues that constitutional courts operate as exemplars of democratic deliberation. In particular, they give expression to the public reasons underlying democracy and ensure democratic practice does not subvert its ideals. The second holds that rights-based litigation offers a form of democratic participation, providing a voice to those who might have been excluded from electoral democracy. The third contends that judges operate in a similar way to elected representatives, who are best conceived as trustees rather than as delegates. All three views are found wanting. Courts do possess certain limited democratic qualities. However, they are not intrinsic features of courts themselves. They arise from their being dependent upon rather than independent from the conventional democratic process.


We used seismic and gravity data to determine the structure of the crust and mantle beneath the Amazon Fan. Seismic data suggest that the crust is of oceanic-type and is unusually thin (4 km) compared to elsewhere in the Atlantic. We attribute the thin crust to ultraslow seafloor spreading following the breakup of South America and Africa during the Early Cretaceous. Gravity data suggest that the fan was emplaced on lithosphere that in- creased its elastic thickness, Te, and hence strength, following rift- ing. The increase, from 10 km to 40 km, is greater, however, than would be expected if Te were determined by a single controlling isotherm, based on a cooling plate model. Hence, we conclude that the Amazon Fan has been emplaced on, and is supported by, un- usually thin oceanic crust and strong mantle.


The polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) is a common cause of anovulatory infertility. It is diagnosed by the presence of hyperandrogenemia, insulin resistance (IR), obesity and other endocrine or metabolic disorders. Exenatide (EX) is a kind of glucagon-like peptide, which is a new option for patients with diabetes mellitus. We present a patient with infertility for PCOS. She was overweight and her medical history included IR, right-sided ovarian mucinous cystadenomas, and left-sided teratoma. Although she had been treated with ovarian surgery, clomiphene citrate and gonadotropins, weight loss and metformin, which have been effective for dominant follicle development, she still failed to conceive. Then EX was initiated to intervene for 2 months. EX treatment was successful to improve IR; after that the infertile woman with PCOS became pregnant. EX improves IR and reproduction capacity in PCOS patients, reducing insulin level and ameliorating endocrine disorders, thereby improving ovarian function, promoting follicle development, and providing new avenues for the treatment of infertility with PCOS.


Based on a review of the extant literature, this paper explores why ethnic minority people start-up small businesses in Britain. Evaluating the motives of ethnic minority population in Britain and internationally, the paper examines common patterns of 'pull' and 'push' factors along with certain theories that respectively encourage and force minority ethnic workers into self-employment, entrepreneurship and small businesses. This paper is a part of a doctoral project, which at a later stage has included an empirical study of the subject area. Literature review so far reveals that the 'pull' factors for encouraging entrepreneurship are: a desire to be financially and managerially independent and autonomous. On the other hand, 'push' factors were cited as higher rates of unemployment and pay and employment discrimination faced by ethnic minority workers, lack of educational qualifications or lack of recognition of their qualifications, job dissatisfaction and inferior job conditions.


He is one of the most highly regarded coaches in international rugby, but also one of the most controversial. Now you can read why ...

John Mitchell?s rugby coaching career spans many years, several teams and various countries. He was assistant to Clive Woodward, who spearheaded England?s 2003 World Cup-winning campaign, for four years in the pioneering days of professional rugby coaching, and he took charge of the All Blacks and the Chiefs in New Zealand, the Western Force in Australia and the Lions in South Africa. Indisputably one of the most experienced coaches on the circuit, he has arguably also been one of the most controversial. For although he made a success of all his tenures, he has challenged the structures and powers-that be, resulting in several premature departures. This book reveals why, and also why Mitchell has successfully defended every disciplinary hearing he has been subjected to. For the first time, the rugby public will learn the truth behind the newspaper headlines: from his painful axing as All Black coach to his fall-out with the Western Force and his disciplinary hearing at the Lions, whom he had guided to their first Currie Cup trophy, Mitchell sets out the reasons for his successes as well as his failures, and gives his opinion on what the future holds for South African rugby.
 Honest, gripping and revealing, this book is a must-read for every rugby fan.


Auditory processing in general and music perception in particular are hampered in adult cochlear implant (CI) users. To examine the residual music perception skills and their underlying neural correlates in CI users implanted in adolescence or adulthood, we conducted an electrophysiological and behavioral study comparing adult CI users with normal-hearing age-matched controls (NH controls). We used a newly developed musical multi-feature paradigm, which makes it possible to test automatic auditory discrimination of six different types of sound feature changes inserted within a musical enriched setting lasting only 20 min. The presentation of stimuli did not require the participants' attention, allowing the study of the early automatic stage of feature processing in the auditory cortex. For the CI users, we obtained mismatch negativity (MMN) brain responses to five feature changes but not to changes of rhythm, whereas we obtained MMNs for all the feature changes in the NH controls. Furthermore, the MMNs to deviants of pitch of CI users were reduced in amplitude and later than those of NH controls for changes of pitch and guitar timber. No other group differences in MMN parameters were found to changes in intensity and saxophone timber. Furthermore, the MMNs in CI users reflected the behavioral scores from a respective discrimination task and were correlated with patients' age and speech intelligibility. Our results suggest that even though CI users are not performing at the same level as NH controls in neural discrimination of pitch-based features, they do possess potential neural abilities for music processing. However, CI users showed a disrupted ability to automatically discriminate rhythmic changes compared with controls. The current behavioral and MMN findings highlight the residual neural skills for music processing even in CI users who have been implanted in adolescence or adulthood. Highlights: - Automatic brain responses to musical feature changes reflect the limitations of central auditory processing in adult Cochlear Implant users.- The brains of adult CI users automatically process sound features changes even when inserted in a musical context.- CI users show disrupted automatic discriminatory abilities for rhythm in the brain.- Our fast paradigm demonstrate residual musical abilities in the brains of adult CI users giving hope for their future rehabilitation.


This paper uses cross section-time series data on 57 communities in Malawi to determine statistically the factors determining changes in land use, tree cover, and crop yield. The econometric model is developed from a theoretical model which also endogenizes population growth and prevailing land tenure institutions within the customary sector of Malawi. The analysis reflects changes between 1971 and 1995, utilizing aerial photos taken at these dates and complementing these with field surveys. The data show a deterioration of Malawi's natural resource base: declining yields, loss of tree cover, and near exhaustion of land for agricultural expansion. Key findings are that population pressure induces land conversion but not yield or tree cover change; the matrilocal system of household residence is negatively associated with tree cover but induces agricultural conversion; and there is some improvement in management of resources as their scarcity increases. Policy recommendations include greater focus on agroforestry to increase tree cover as woodland areas are poorly managed, and increased effort to improve market integration since this benefits crop yields without adverse effects on tree cover.


A distributed cooperative forwarding framework based on randomized coding is proposed, where cooperative links are formed and packets are forwarded on the fly, without explicit relay selection, actuation or resource allocation. In this framework, a cooperative flooding method and two cooperative forwarding schemes that actuate the cooperative transmissions of the nodes within an optimally formed progress region are described. It is shown that by assuring packets' progress cooperatively through a region instead of a string of predetermined nodes, progress of the packets towards the final destination is guaranteed even in sparse networks, under severe fading and mobility conditions. The proposed forwarding schemes are shown to provide reductions in the total number of hops, while causing minimal spatial footprint on the network.


There is increasing appreciation that latrine access does not imply use-many individuals who own latrines do not consistently use them. Little is known, however, about the determinants of latrine use, particularly among those with variable defecation behaviors. Using the integrated behavior model of water, sanitation, and hygiene framework, we sought to characterize determinants of latrine use in rural Ecuador. We interviewed 197 adults living in three communities with a survey consisting of 70 psychosocial defecation-related questions. Questions were excluded from analysis if responses lacked variability or at least 10% of respondents did not provide a definitive answer. All interviewed individuals had access to a privately owned or shared latrine. We then applied adaptive elastic nets (ENET) and supervised principal component analysis (SPCA) to a reduced dataset of 45 questions among 154 individuals with complete data to select determinants that predict self-reported latrine use. Latrine use was common, but not universal, in the sample (76%). The SPCA model identified six determinants and adaptive ENET selected five determinants. Three indicators were represented in both models-latrine users were more likely to report that their latrine is clean enough to use and also more likely to report daily latrine use; while those reporting that elderly men were not latrine users were less likely to use latrines themselves. Our findings suggest that social norms are important predictors of latrine use, whereas knowledge of the health benefits of sanitation may not be as important. These determinants are informative for promotion of latrine adoption.


This paper examines what type of insights can be extracted from a given dataset. This analysis is intended to encourage those collecting data to engineer their collection processes with data usability in mind. It is also meant to caution researchers against the pitfalls of trying to squeeze out more information from data than the data actually warrants. The ideas presented are illustrated through a concrete example of using CDC's Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) dataset to identify risk factors associated with hypertension. A complete end-to-end predictive modeling process is described in detail from data conversion and pre-processing, to model building, and interpretation of results. Python code to process the data as well as Matlab code to build, train, and evaluate the models are included in full and are sufficiently general in nature to be used for other analyses beyond hypertension.


This thesis is primarily aimed at carrying out analysis of Energy Bags, reinforced fabric bags used for subsea compressed air energy storage. Subsea compressed air energy storage is a completely new method of large-scale energy storage designed to be integrated with direct-compression offshore wind turbines and wave energy converters. Energy Bags are impermeable bags anchored to the seabed at significant depths (e.g. 500m) in which high pressure air, compressed by specially designed wind turbines and wave energy converters, is stored at pressures roughly equal to the hydrostatic pressure of the surrounding water. Energy Bags do not need to be particularly strong because most of the reaction to the pressure load is provided by the surrounding water, and high energy densities are available at such depths as 500m.

This thesis investigates the deformed shapes of Energy Bags and studies optimal designs. Three analysis methods are developed which vary in their complexity, ease of use, and accuracy. First, a system of coupled ordinary differential equations (ODEs) is derived which describes the deformed shape of an axisymmetric Energy Bag. This model is later used in an optimisation study to find the shapes of bag which minimise the cost of materials (reinforcement, fabric, and ballast) per unit of energy stored. Circumferential reinforcement, hanging masses from the inside of the bag (which it was hoped would lower the total cost) and fill level are all included as variables in the optimisation, and it is found that for reasonable materials costs an Energy Bag could cost less than £10,000/MWh when anchored at 500m. This compares favourably with all other methods of large-scale energy storage. However, the bags used in the optimisation study have wide bases, which will require sealing against the seabed (unless water is to be allowed into the bags). Problems are encountered when trying to use the ODE method to find the shapes of partially inflated bags, and it is generally not very easy to use.

Next, we carry out finite element analysis (FEA) of an axisymmetric Energy Bag using cable elements. This is much more user-friendly and flexible than the ODE method. Partially inflated bag shapes are found, and pressure-volume curves are presented which show the almost isobaric performance of an Energy Bag. It is found that material mass limits the extent to which the bag can be deflated before it becomes unstable. The axisymmetric FEA is used to study bags with much more realistic circumferential reinforcement than the ODE method, and we also look at bags with an unsealed base, which allow water in through the base as they deflate.

A three-dimensional FEA tool is presented which models an Energy Bag as a cable-reinforced membrane using cable and membrane elements, and special measures had to be taken to deal with wrinkling. We assume that the bag is rotationally symmetric, comprising a number of symmetric lobes. The 3D FEA is used to find the stress distribution in the membrane of the bag, however a converged solution cannot always be found. It is not certain why this is the case but it is anticipated that it is because deformed bags are not always rotationally symmetric. The 3D FEA could also be used to model other membrane structures such as balloons, parachutes, roofs and sails, as well as nets.

The standard cutting patterns for lobes in lobed balloons are analysed, and a new cutting pattern known as the Constant Tension lobe is generated. This is an extension of the Constant Radius lobe and takes into account the pressure gradient found in both air and water, minimising waste material. The Constant Tension lobe is particularly appropriate for Energy Bags because of the large pressure gradient in water. The Ultra High Performance Vessel architecture is also presented, upon which the design of the prototype Energy Bags is based. The fabric structure of an Ultra High Performance Vessel comprises only two sheets of fabric (rather than many separate lobes welded together), and tendon shortening and "bellows" serve to ensure that there is no meridional stress in the fabric.

An analytical optimisation is used to show that the zero pressure bag that minimises cost of materials per unit of energy stored has equal costs of reinforcement and membrane. The axisymmetric FEA is also used to find the optimum bag size and maximum fill level for a bag which comes down to a single point at the base (as opposed to a wide base bag).

Finally, testing of two 1.8m diameter superpressure Energy Bags has been commenced during the course of this work, and the prototypes and test rig are documented in this thesis. The prototypes were manufactured for us by Thin Red Line Aerospace Ltd., a Canadian manufacturer of deployable fabric structures for use in space. They are being cycled back-to-back in order to prove the concept, assess the performance of an Energy Bag over time, and identify any problems that need to be addressed. One of the bags had a few small leaks from the moment it was first inflated, but the other has remained airtight to date. It was found that if an Energy Bag is to be airtight, special attention must be paid to the welds at the seams and the sealing around the airline fittings.


Much of the period 1661-1815 appeared to be the age of France. France was the greatest power in Western Europe in the late seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and Louis XIV and Napoleon seemed to dominate their periods. yet when Louis XIV died in 1715, and again after Napoleon's attempt to resume power was defeated at Waterloo a century later, France appeared as a waning power. This failure in Europe was matched on the world scale. France was overtaken by Britain in the struggle for maritime predominance, and ended the period with her empire in ruins. From Louis XIV to Napoleon is a scholarly yet accessible account which considers why France was not more successful and throws light on French history, international relations, warfare and the rise and fall of French power.


Significance Unveiling the unusual atomic dynamics in superionic conductors is critical for the design of energy conversion and storage materials, for example to rationalize their thermal transport properties in thermoelectric applications or their fast ionic conductivity in solid-state electrolytes. We combine neutron/X-ray scattering techniques with first-principles calculations to discover hybrid lattice dynamics in AgCrSe2, where the phonon wavelength controls the breakdown of transverse acoustic modes in the superionic phase. We attribute the ultralow thermal conductivity to strong phonon anharmonicity combined with disorder in the Ag sublattice. This understanding provides insights into the thermal conduction mechanism in superionic conductors and sheds light on the role of lattice dynamics in the emergence of superionic behavior. Intrinsically low lattice thermal conductivity (κlat) in superionic conductors is of great interest for energy conversion applications in thermoelectrics. Yet, the complex atomic dynamics leading to superionicity and ultralow thermal conductivity remain poorly understood. Here, we report a comprehensive study of the lattice dynamics and superionic diffusion in AgCrSe2 from energy- and momentum-resolved neutron and X-ray scattering techniques, combined with first-principles calculations. Our results settle unresolved questions about the lattice dynamics and thermal conduction mechanism in AgCrSe2. We find that the heat-carrying long-wavelength transverse acoustic (TA) phonons coexist with the ultrafast diffusion of Ag ions in the superionic phase, while the short-wavelength nondispersive TA phonons break down. Strong scattering of phonon quasiparticles by anharmonicity and Ag disorder are the origin of intrinsically low κlat. The breakdown of short-wavelength TA phonons is directly related to the Ag diffusion, with the vibrational spectral weight associated to Ag oscillations evolving into stochastic decaying fluctuations. Furthermore, the origin of fast ionic diffusion is shown to arise from extended flat basins in the energy landscape and collective hopping behavior facilitated by strong repulsion between Ag ions. These results provide fundamental insights into the complex atomic dynamics of superionic conductors.


I. INTRODUCTION During the last decade, federal involvement in education law has drastically shifted its focus to academic achievement- a realm historically the domain of local education agencies.1 The modern school reform movement has been shaped by both a strong nationwide desire to ensure equitable access to education2 and a series of successful lawsuits that provoked increased state involvement in issues of educational access and accountability.3 These issues of access and accountability were guiding principles behind the most recent iteration of the federal Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) -the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act.4 Like most federal grant programs, NCLB followed the classic paradigm of cooperative federalism.5 Yet, in its implementation, the safeguards that exist to preserve local control were often poorly defined or inconsistent; in fact, NCLB obfuscated the appropriate federal and state roles in enforcing federal education law and policy, especially the role of federal government in legislating and enforcing policy it does not fund entirely.6 Educational achievement continues to be at the forefront of the nation's consciousness;7 consequently, the era of federal involvement in academic achievement and accountability NCLB introduced is unlikely to end soon. As the ESEA undergoes its next transformation under a new presidential administration, this article explores the appropriate federal and state roles in promoting and enforcing laws related to academic achievement and the appropriate judicial role in interpreting them. Part II of this article discusses the politics and litigation that helped shape the evolution of the modern federal role in education law and policy. Part III explores the drastic changes No Child Left Behind brought to education federalism through the lens of cooperation, coercion (enforcement), and competition. It then analyzes both the role of the executive branch in enforcing educational access and achievement and the appropriate role of the courts in adjudicating issues of education law and policy. Finally, Part IV provides recommendations that are likely to result in a more workable model of accountability by suggesting clearer boundaries related to the federal and state roles in the effort to improve the nation's academic achievement. This new model of accountability uses national assessment and reporting requirements to shift much of the enforcement responsibility of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to the states while leaving local districts room to experiment with educational approaches. It also sets forth parameters that allow for general federal oversight of national education policy while respecting the boundaries integral to cooperative federalism. II. THE EXPANDING FEDERAL ROLE IN EDUCATION The current federal role in education law and policy can be largely attributed to the last sixty years of education-related reform and litigation. The courts first addressed access to education as a civil rights issue in the 1950s when Brown v. Board of Education8 and its progeny highlighted education as critical to opportunity.9 During the same decade, the space race with the Soviet Union raised national concerns about the United States' ability to compete internationally and highlighted the importance of education as critical to ensuring the country's continued ability to be a world power.10 Consequently, President Eisenhower and Congress supported the National Defense Education Act of 1958, which directed federal money to improve math and science programs in secondary schools.11 The Civil Rights Act of 1964 increased the federal commitment to providing the poor access to education12 and led to President Johnson's signing into law the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.13 At the core of this Act was- and still is- Title I, a grant that provides supplemental federal aid to economically disadvantaged children and provided the statutory basis for early special education funding. …


A small number of previous cross-sectional studies have examined the relationship
between endurance training status on recovery of performance and metabolites from
sprinting. However, no longitudinal studies have been undertaken. In addition, there is
a dearth of information on female subjects and on running exercise which prompted
the need, in the present thesis, to address the effect of menstrual cycle phase on
performance and metabolic responses during a repeated sprint run. Thus, the overall
purpose of the present thesis was to examine the effect of short-term endurance
training on a repeated sprint in female subjects.
A number of methodological studies (for which 25 subjects volunteered) were
undertaken as preparation for the main experimental chapters of the thesis (Chapter
3). The first methodological study examined the reliability of performance during a
30-s sprint on the non-motorised treadmill. Performance was reproducible as
indicated by the 95 % limits of agreement for PPO (5 ± 42 W) and by the ratio limits
of agreement for MPO (1.01 */+1.06) during the 30 s sprint. In the second
methodological study it was found that capillary lactate concentrations were
significantly higher than venous blood lactate after a 30 s sprint (P < 0.05). The third
methodological study revealed that a repeated sprint run caused an additional plasma
volume loss when compared with the loss caused by a change in posture alone (12.7
% vs 7.5 % for sprint and posture change, respectively, P < 0.05). Finally, it seems
that prolonged freezing (up to 13 months) does not have a detrimental influence on
whole blood lactate concentration, but repeated defrosting may result in errors in the
determination of blood lactate at high lactate concentrations (methodological study 4).
The first mam experiment examined the effects of menstrual cycle phase on
performance and metabolic responses during a repeated sprint run (2x30 s, with a 2
min passive recovery) in 8 volunteers (chapter 4). Performance was unaltered during
the follicular, mid-cycle and luteal phase of the menstrual cycle as reflected by PPO
(461 ± 51 and 395 ± 48, 443 ± 43 and 359 ± 44, 449 ± 52 and 397 ± 48 W, for the
first and second sprint, during the follicular, mid-cycle and luteal phase, respectively,
P> 0.05) and MPO (302 ± 41 and 252 ± 29,298 ± 37 and 248 ± 29,298 ± 39 and 252± 35 W, for the first and second sprint, at follicular, mid-cycle and luteal phases,
respectively, P > 0.05). Similarly, blood metabolic responses were unaffected by
menstrual cycle phase as reflected by the unchanged metabolic profile of blood
lactate, plasma' ammonia, blood pH and % changes in plasma volume across
menstrual cycle. These results suggest that the hormonal fluctuations of 17-,B-estradiol
(estradiol) and progesterone, due to menstrual cycle phase, have no effect on repeated
sprint performance and possibly on the metabolic responses as reflected by the blood
metabolic responses.
The second main experiment examined the effects of short-term endurance training on
power output recovery and metabolic responses to a repeated sprint run (2x30 s with a
2 min passive recovery) (chapter 5, n = 16). Six weeks of endurance training resulted
in a 3 % increase (P < 0.05) in V 02 max (from 48.7 ± 4.4 before training to 50.17 ±
5.1 mL.kg-1·min-1 after training) in the training group (n = 8) in comparison with 1.9
% decrease (from 50.4 ± 1.3 to 49.4 ± 1.2 mL.kg-1·min-1 post-trial) in the control
group (n = 7). In addition, % V O2 max @ 4 mmoz·r1 [the relative intensity (% V O2
max) corresponding to blood lactate concentration of 4 mmol·L-1] was 3 % higher
(from 82 to 84 %) in the training group as compared with the 1 % decrease in the
control group (from 81 to 80 %) (P < 0.05). These endurance adaptations were
accompanied by a 7 % improvement in MPO recovery (in the second of two 30 s
sprints) in the training group in comparison with 2 % increases in the control group
after training (P < 0.05). Metabolic responses to sprints were unaltered after training,
but there was a tendency for higher pH immediately after sprint 1 in the training
group in comparison with the control group (7.12 ± 0.07 vs 7.19 ± 0.06 and 7.09 ±
0.07 vs 7.10 ±0.06, before and after training, in the training and control group,
respectively, P = 0.082). These findings suggest that endurance training can be
beneficial in terms of quicker recovery of performance during a repeated sprint run.
The third main experiment examined the effects of endurance training on performance
recovery and muscle metabolites (chapter 6, n=14). Endurance training resulted in a
tendency towards lower blood lactate concentrations during sub-maximal exercise in
the training group in comparison with the control group (P = 0.063) whilst time to
exhaustion for the incremental V O2 max test was 12.7 % longer for the training group in comparison with 4.1 % decrease in the control group (P = 0.095). These endurance
training adaptations were accompanied by a 7 % improvement (77 ± 7 to 84 ± 5 W)
in MPO recovery in the second of two 30 s sprints in the training group while in the
control group MPO recovery improved by just 2 % (87 ± 8 to 89 ± 8 %) (P < 0.05). In
addition, similar increases in the recovery of peak speed (3.4 % vs 1 %, P < 0.05), and
mean speed (5 % vs 0.9 %, P < 0.05) were also evident in the training in comparison
with control group. Endurance training resulted in 5.6 % decrease in ATP provision
from PCr degradation ~ 14 s post-sprint 1 (P < 0.05) while glycogen degradation was
10 % lower (P = 0.063). The latter alterations, in turn, resulted in a tendency towards
less reliance on anaerobic energy resources for energy supply after training in the
training group (11 %, P = 0.098). These results corroborate the findings of chapter 5,
but it is still unclear which physiological mechanisms were instrumental in enhancing
recovery of performance. It is possible that a faster initial PCr resynthesis or an
improved mechanical efficiency or an increased reliance on aerobic metabolism,
independently, all together, or in any combination, could have contributed to these
improvements in performance recovery. In conclusion the present thesis has shown that: the non-motorised treadmill is a
reliable tool for the examination of sprint running performance in the laboratory; that
performance and metabolic responses during a repeated sprint run are unaffected by
menstrual cycle phase and; that endurance training enhances the recovery of power in
female subjects during a repeated sprint run of 2 x 30 s duration with a 2 min passive
recovery. The mechanisms underlying the performance improvement following
endurance training are unknown, but it is possible that faster PCr resynthesis during
the initial phase of recovery «1 min) after the sprint is the dominant factor, while
greater reliance on aerobic metabolism and improved mechanical efficiency can not
be excluded.


The reproducibility of scientific experiments is crucial for corroborating, consolidating and reusing new scientific discoveries. However, the constant pressure for publishing results (Fanelli, 2010) has removed reproducibility from the agenda of many researchers: in a recent survey published in Nature (with more than 1500 scientists) over 70% of the participants recognize to have failed to reproduce the work from another colleague at some point in time (Baker, 2016). Analyses from psychology and cancer biology show reproducibility rates below 40% and 10% respectively (Collaboration, 2015) (Begley & Lee, 2012). As a consequence, retractions of publications have occurred in the last years in several disciplines (Marcus & Oransky, 2014) (Rockoff, 2015), and the general public is now skeptical about scientific studies on topics like pesticides, depression drugs or flu pandemics (American, 2010).


Context. Lyα is a key diagnostic for numerous observations of distant star-forming galaxies, but detailed radiation transfer models are required for interpreting them.
Aims: We provide an extensive grid of 3D radiation transfer models that simulate the Lyα and UV continuum radiation transfer in the interstellar medium of star-forming galaxies.
Methods: We have improved our Monte Carlo McLya code and used it to compute a grid of 6240 radiation transfer models for homogeneous spherical shells containing Hi and dust surrounding a central source. The simulations cover a wide range of parameter space. We present the detailed predictions from our models including in particular the Lyα escape fraction fesc, the continuum attenuation, and detailed Lyα line profiles.
Results: The Lyα escape fraction is shown to depend strongly on dust content, but also on other parameters (Hi column density and radial velocity). The predicted line profiles show a wide diversity of morphologies, ranging from broad absorption lines to emission lines with complex features. The results from our simulations are distributed in electronic format.
Conclusions: Our models should be of use for interpreting observations from distant galaxies, for other simulations, and should also serve as an important basis for comparison for future, more refined, radiation transfer models.
Full Table 2 is only available in electronic form at the CDS via anonymous ftp to cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr (18.104.22.168) or via http://cdsarc.u-strasbg.fr/viz-bin/qcat?J/A+A/531/A12


Assembling partial views is an attractive means to extend the field of view of microscope images. In this paper, we propose a semi-automated solution to achieve this goal. Its intended audience is the microscopist who desires to scan a large area while acquiring a series of partial views, but who does not wish to--or cannot--planify the path of the scan. In a first stage, this freedom is dealt with by interactive manipulation of the resulting partial views, or tiles. In a second stage, the position of the tiles is refined by a fully automatic pairwise registration process. The contribution of this paper is a strategy that determines which pairs of tiles to register, among all possible pairs. The central tenet of our proposed strategy is that two tiles that happen to possess a large common area will register with higher accuracy than two tiles with a smaller overlap. Our strategy is then to minimize the number of pairwise registrations while maximizing the global amount of overlap, and while ensuring that the local registration efforts are sufficient to link all tiles together to yield a global mosaic. By stating this requirement in a graph-theoretic context, we are able to derive the optimal solution thanks to Kruskal's algorithm.


This paper documents a link between the real and financial sides of the economy. We find that retail equity mutual fund flows in Canada are negatively related to current and past changes in a component of the prime and 5-year mortgage rates that is uncorrelated with government rates. The effect is present when we control for other determinants of fund flows and is more pronounced for big and old funds. The results suggest that consumers' investments in domestic equity mutual funds take time to respond to changes in interest rates, and that developments in the market for consumer debt may have spillovers into other areas of the financial services industry.


Legal scholars have never settled on a satisfactory account of the evolution of property rights. The touchstone for virtually all discussion, Harold Demsetz's Toward a Theory of Property Rights, has a number of well-known (and not so well-known) shortcomings, perhaps because it was never intended to be taken as an evolutionary explanation in the first place. There is, in principle at least, a pretty straightforward fix for the sort of evolutionary approach pursued by followers of Demsetz, but even then that approach - call it the conventional approach - fails to account for very early property rights, right at the genesis. The early developments are better explained by a very different approach based on evolutionary game theory. The game theoretic approach can account for a basic system of property rights rooted in possession; it cannot, however, account for complex property systems. To explain the latter requires the conventional approach. Hence, the two approaches combined suggest a satisfactory account of the origins and development of property rights systems.


The goal of the Key Bank of Washington proximate commuting demonstration project was to test the hypothesis that a substantial amount of long distance commuting is unnecessary and undesirable for many commuters, ant that it can be prevented or significantly reduced at multi-site employer locations (i.e., banks, retail chains, government agencies, etc.) through more deliberate efforts to match new and existing employees to work sites closer to their homes. During the fifteen-month demonstration project, nearly five hundred non-exempt employees at thirty Key Bank of Washington branches in King, Snohomish and Pierce counties were given the opportunity to enroll in a proximate commuting demonstration program and be considered for voluntary reassignment to branches closer to their homes. Results at the test sites showed: 65% reduction in commute miles traveled for "Proximate Commuters" (participants who transferred to a shorter-commute site); 33% reduction in the longest commute per branch; 17% reduction in overall average commute distance per branch; and 17% enrollment rate -- 1 out of 6 eligible. Observations at control sites showed a 36% increase in the longest commute per branch and a 26% increase in average commute distance per branch. The project results confirm that proximate commuting is a viable, low-cost method for significantly reducing commute time, distance, expense and stress for the employee, while at the same time providing the employer a more productive work force. Comparison of the before-and-after commute patterns for the project test branch that experienced the best reduction in commute miles clearly illustrates the enormous potential benefits of proximate commuting for the employee, employer and the environment.


The Vietnam Development Reports (VDR) is a series of reports, which have been published by the World Bank resident mission since 2002, and focus on key development issues for Vietnam. The VDRs aim at tapping into existing knowledge, achieving an 'upstream harmonization' so that donors can engage with the government through a common message, and utilizes reviewing committees consisting of Vietnamese experts who are employed in their personal capacity to help to improve the understanding of the policy environment in Vietnam. The timing of the VDRs has always been planned to have a six months interval between the poverty reduction support credit process and the release of the VDR at the end of the calendar year. This study is organized as follows: in the next section we describe the analytical framework that has informed the study approach. Section three describes the research activities. Section four provides an analysis of the uptake of the VDR 2010. Section five includes the analysis of outcomes of the VDR 2010. Section six summarizes the main conclusions and provides some recommendations.


Using data from the German Socio-Economic Panel, we examined the impact of social contacts on immigrant occupational status and income. In addition to general social contacts, we also analyzed the effects of bonding (i.e., co-ethnic) and bridging (i.e., inter-ethnic) ties on economic outcomes. Results show that general social contacts have a positive effect on the occupational status and, in particular, annual income of immigrants. We also find that bridging ties with Germans lead to higher occupational status, but not to increased income. These effects remain visible even when social contacts are measured (at least) 1 year prior to the economic outcomes, as well as when earlier investments in German human capital are considered. Finally, we show that co-ethnic concentration in the region of residence weakly affects economic returns to German language proficiency and schooling.


The creation of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in February 1974 was arguably one of the most important developments in Hong Kong since 1945. Not only did major corruption syndicates disappear from the fabric of public administration in the colony, but the popular acceptance of bribery as a component of social life also faded away. Sir Murray MacLehose, who served as Governor of Hong Kong between 1971 and 1982, was regarded by locals as the maverick behind this miracle. This article argues, however, that the genesis of the ICAC could be better understood as a product of the cumulative efforts of MacLehose and his predecessors. The initiative should also be considered in the political context of the rising tension between London and the local community. In a way, the establishment of the ICAC helped pre-empt London's intervention in this matter. Also, despite a public appearance of unbridled support for the crusade against corruption, MacLehose's resolve was severely tested during the early years of the ICAC, and he did contemplate moderating the operation of the Commission, even before the partial amnesty in 1977.


Carrying a photograph of the man she is to marry but has yet to meet, young Hana Omiya arrives in San Francisco, California, in 1917, one of several hundred Japanese "picture brides" whose arranged marriages brought them to America in the early 1900s. Her story is intertwined with others: her husband, Taro Takeda, an Oakland shopkeeper; Kiku and her husband Henry, who reject demeaning city work to become farmers; Dr. Kaneda, a respected community leader who is destroyed by the adopted land he loves. All are caught up in the cruel turmoil of World War II, when West Coast Japanese Americans are uprooted from their homes and imprisoned in desert detention camps. Although tragedy strikes each of them, the same strength that brought her to America enable Hana to survive.


The wild cheetah population is rapidly declining, and the captive population is not self-sustaining. This is of great concern for cheetah conservation and the latter might indicate underlying captive welfare concerns. This research measured the behaviour and personality of cheetahs held in zoo exhibits in the UK and beyond, to investigate the effects of social group housing and personality on the behaviour and reproductive success of captive cheetahs.
Behavioural observation indicated that the natural social groupings of wild male cheetahs can be replicated in captivity. Group-housed males displayed frequent affiliative behaviours and few instances of aggression. Females, naturally solitary in the wild, might also be safely housed in groups since overt aggression was seldom recorded. However pacing behaviour, typically associated with poor welfare, was more prevalent in unnatural-type groups. Relatedness appears to be an important factor in captive cheetah social interactions. A new method for correcting indices of association, developed in this research, allowed association indices to be compared for dyads housed in different sized exhibits. Related individuals were observed in proximity more frequently, and displayed higher rates of affiliative interactions, than unrelated individuals. These findings may have welfare implications in the event that captive individuals are separated for management purposes.
Social group housing and personality can affect captive cheetah reproductive success. The personality profiles of individuals in successful breeding pairs were more divergent than those of individuals in unsuccessful pairs. In addition, it appears that zoos housing their cheetahs in social groups that occur in wild populations have better institutional breeding success than those housing their cheetahs in unnatural-type groups. This research uncovers some of the factors which may contribute to the poor reproductive success of the captive cheetah population, and offers recommendations for improvements to current cheetah management practices.


Regenerating codes are a class of distributed storage codes that allow for efficient repair of failed nodes, as compared to traditional erasure codes. An [n, k, d] regenerating code permits the data to be recovered by connecting to any k of the n nodes in the network, while requiring that a failed node be repaired by connecting to any d nodes. The amount of data downloaded for repair is typically much smaller than the size of the source data. Previous constructions of exact-regenerating codes have been confined to the case n=d+1 . In this paper, we present optimal, explicit constructions of (a) Minimum Bandwidth Regenerating (MBR) codes for all values of [n, k, d] and (b) Minimum Storage Regenerating (MSR) codes for all [n, k, d ≥ 2k-2], using a new product-matrix framework. The product-matrix framework is also shown to significantly simplify system operation. To the best of our knowledge, these are the first constructions of exact-regenerating codes that allow the number n of nodes in the network, to be chosen independent of the other parameters. The paper also contains a simpler description, in the product-matrix framework, of a previously constructed MSR code with [n=d+1, k, d ≥ 2k-1].


Abstract. Observing and monitoring the different components of the global water cycle and their dynamics are essential steps to understand the climate of the Earth, forecast the weather, predict natural disasters like floods and droughts, and improve water resources management. Earth observation technology is a unique tool to provide a global understanding of many of the essential variables governing the water cycle and monitor their evolution over time from global to basin scales. In the coming years an increasing number of Earth observation missions will provide an unprecedented capacity to quantify several of these variables on a routine basis. In this context, the European Space Agency (ESA), in collaboration with the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) of the World Climate Research Program (WCRP), launched the Water Cycle Multi-Mission Observation Strategy (WACMOS) project in 2009. The project aims at developing and validating a novel set of geo-information products relevant to the water cycle covering the following thematic areas: evapotranspiration, soil moisture, cloud characterization and water vapour. The generation of these products is based on a number of innovative techniques and methods aiming at exploiting the synergies of different types of Earth observation data available today to the science community. This paper provides an overview of the major findings of the project with the ultimate goal of demonstrating the potential of innovative multi-mission based strategies to improve current observations by maximizing the synergistic use of the different types of information provided by the currently available observation systems.


The authors describe a research group that supports the needs of investigators seeking data from an electronic medical record system. Since its creation in 1972, the Regenstrief Medical Records System has captured and stored more than 350 million discrete coded observations on two million patients. This repository has become a central data source for prospective and retrospective research. It is accessed by six data analysts--working closely with the institutional review board--who provide investigators with timely and accurate data while protecting patient and provider privacy and confidentiality. From January 1, 1999, to July 31, 2002, data analysts tracked their activities involving 47,559 hours of work predominantly for physicians (54%). While data retrieval (36%) and analysis (25%) were primary activities, data analysts also actively collaborated with researchers. Primary objectives of data provided to investigators were to address disease-specific (35.4%) and drug-related (12.2%) questions, support guideline implementation (13.1%), and probe various aspects of clinical epidemiology (5.7%). Outcomes of these endeavors included 117 grants (including 300,000 US dollars per year salary support for data analysts) and 139 papers in peer-reviewed journals by investigators who rated the support provided by data analysts as extremely valuable.


Legionellosis is a new infectious disease emerging in Poland although not yet registered. A Polish working group aimed at selecting laboratory methods for investigating human Legionella infections and detecting bacterium in the environment. The specimens from patients were examined for Legionella antigen in urine and for the level of antibodies to Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 in patient sera. The standard commercial BIOTEST was used for the determination of Legionella antigen in urine. The procedure was evaluated according to the European program of the European Working Group for Legionella Infections for quality of testing of Legionella antigen determination in urine. Human serum samples of 180 patients with pneumonia and other pulmonary infectious diseases were collected and examined by microagglutination test. The antibodies to L. pneumophila serogroup 1 titer as high as 2,048 were found in only 2 of 69 sera from patients with atypical pneumonia: in one convalescent patient's serum and in serum of one nosocomial case with symptoms of pneumonia. The urine antigen of Legionella tests determined by the enzyme immunoassay method was also positive in both cases. The risk of L. pneumophila infection still seems to be low for the general population in Poland. It might be higher for some groups, including patients in rehabilitation and transplant units, and for staff in certain institutions such as hospitals.


If you caught a movie in Kansas through much of the past century, you're likely to have seen a different version than did the rest of America. Theda Bara's depictions of wicked sexuality were off-limits, and a film such as Scarface showed far too much violence for decent folk - a threat to Protestant culture and to the morals of the general population. In 1915, Kansas became one of only a handful of states to establish its own film censorship board. The Kansas board controlled screen content in the state for more than fifty years, yet little is known about its activities. This first book-length study of state film censorship examines the unique political, social, and economic factors that led to its implementation in Kansas, examining why censorship legislation was enacted, what the attitudes of Kansans were toward censorship, and why it lasted for half a century. Cinema historian Gerald Butters places the Kansas Board of Review's attempts to control screen content in the context of nationwide censorship efforts during the early part of the twentieth century. He tells how factors such as Progressivism, concern over child rearing, and a supportive press contributed to censorship, and he traces the board's history from the problems posed by the emergence of "talkies" through changing sexual mores in the 1920s to challenges to its power in the 1950s. In addition to revealing the fine points of film content deemed too sensitive for screening, Butters describes the daily operations of the board, illustrating the difficulties it encountered as it wrestled not only with constantly shifting definitions of morality but also with the vagaries of the political and legal systems. Stills from motion pictures illustrate the type of screen content the board attempted to censor. As Kansas faced the march of modernity, even state politicians began to criticize film censorship, and Butters tells how by the 1960s the board was fighting to remain relevant as film companies increasingly challenged its attempt to control screen content. "Banned in Kansas" weaves a fascinating tale of the enforcement of public morality, making it a definitive study for cinema scholars and an entertaining read for film buffs.


In the recent years, energy harvesting has become increasingly popular for powering low-energy devices. Therefore, human power has become a promising energy source in providing electrical energy. Thus, the general principles, structures, requirements and potentials of human kinetic energy harvesting technologies are presented.
Commonly, human kinetic energy harvesting systems have to be adjusted to the human locomotion. For the purpose of maximizing the power output, results of biomechanical analyzing methods are presented to identify resonant frequencies and bandwidths.
With focus on inertial electromagnetic generators, further challenges and potentials are discussed to optimize the power conversion. In doing so, mechanical and electrical characteristics of the generator structure are examined and optimization problems are derived. One major issue within power maximizing is to match the resonant frequency and achieve a suitable electromechanical coupling. Parameter dependencies are identified by using analytic and numerical representations of generic electromagnetic generators.


Answering compositional questions requiring multi-step reasoning is challenging. We introduce an end-to-end differentiable model for interpreting questions about a knowledge graph (KG), which is inspired by formal approaches to semantics. Each span of text is represented by a denotation in a KG and a vector that captures ungrounded aspects of meaning. Learned composition modules recursively combine constituent spans, culminating in a grounding for the complete sentence which answers the question. For example, to interpret "not green", the model represents "green" as a set of KG entities and "not" as a trainable ungrounded vector—and then uses this vector to parameterize a composition function that performs a complement operation. For each sentence, we build a parse chart subsuming all possible parses, allowing the model to jointly learn both the composition operators and output structure by gradient descent from end-task supervision. The model learns a variety of challenging semantic operators, such as quantifiers, disjunctions and composed relations, and infers latent syntactic structure. It also generalizes well to longer questions than seen in its training data, in contrast to RNN, its tree-based variants, and semantic parsing baselines.


Introduction: Foundations in History: New Possibilities for Scholarship and Practice /Ellen Condliffe Lagemann Part I. Foundations as Organizations 1. Resolving the Dilemmas of Democratic Governance: The Historical Development of Trusteeship in America, 1636-1996 /Peter Dobkin Hall 2. Foundations in the American Polity, 1900-1950 /David Hammack 3. Private Foundations as Public Institutions: Regulation, Professionalization, and the Redefinition of Organized Philanthropy /Peter Frumkin Part II. Case Studies in Early Twentieth Century Foundation Philanthropy 4. Constructing a New Political Economy: Philanthropy, Institution-Building, and Consumer Capitalism in the Early Twentieth Century /Meg Jacobs 5. Selling the Public on Public Health: The Commonwealth and Milbank Health Demonstrations and the Meaning of Community Health Education /Elizabeth Toon 6. Constructing the Normal Child: The Rockefeller Philanthropies and the Science of Child Development, 1918-1940 /Julia Grant 7. Mary van Kleeck of the Russell Sage Foundation: Religion, Social Science, and the Ironies of Parasitic Modernity /Guy Alchon Part III: Foundations and Recent Social Memory 8. The Ford Foundation and Philanthropic Activism in the 1960s /Alice O'Connor 9. The Ford Foundation's War on Poverty: Private Philanthropy and Race Relations in New York City, 1948-1968 /Gregory K. Raynor 10. Grassrooting the System: The Development and Impact of Social Movement Philanthropy, 1953-1990 /J. Craig Jenkins and Abigail Halcli 11. When Grantees Become Grantors: Accountability, Democracy, and Social Movement Philanthropy /Susan Ostrander 12. The Ford Foundation and Women's Studies in American Higher Education: Seeds of Change /Rosa Proietto Part IV: Writing the History of Foundations 13. Going for Broke: The Historian's Commitment to Philanthropy /Barry D. Karl 14. In Search of the Ford Foundation /Richard Magat 15. The History of Philanthropy as Life-History: A Biographer's View of Mrs. Russell Sage /Ruth Hutchinson Crocker 16. Local Philanthropy Matters: Pressing Issues for Research and Practice /William S. McKersie 17. The Future of Foundation History: Suggestions for Research and Practice /Lucy Bernholz Bibliography: Recent Writings about Foundations in History /Susan Kastan Contributors Index


Optical locking applied to rephased atoms in photon echoes is analyzed for on-demand photon storage time extension, where the storage time extension is confined by the inverse of spin inhomogeneous broadening. Both optical locking and photon storage mechanisms in atomic frequency comb echoes are discussed and compared with those in two-pulse photon echo-based phase-locked echoes and three-pulse photon echoes.


SUMMARY More frequent and severe algal blooms are symptomatic of increasing ecosystem stress in coastal waters. Economic losses typically follow and local governments are forced to 'manage' this issue. Because many blooms are not monitored, local ecological knowledge (LEK) and oral history are the only practical tools to obtain data on bloom characteristics and identify their drivers. LEK was applied to outbreaks of brown algae on popular tourist beaches in south-east Queensland (Australia). Structured interviews with local citizens who had a close and frequent connection with the ocean provided 541 bloom records, which showed that blooms are regional (≥400 km) rather than local, and that they are a historical (≥40 years) rather than a recent phenomenon. LEK frequently cited that particular wind regimes coincided with the arrival of blooms, but this could not be verified by statistical cross-validation with empirical data. Harnessing LEK was valuable in engaging citizens, in generating testable hypotheses about plume causes, in providing a previously unrecognized historical perspective and in identifying the correct spatial scale of the issue. Multi-pronged approaches will be most effective in addressing blooms where local mitigation actions are combined with broader regional coastal environmental conservation efforts.


We propose a technique for monitoring snowmelt over the Greenland ice sheet between 1992 and 2005 based on the difference between ascending and descending brightness temperatures (DAV) measured either at 19.35‐ or 37‐ GHz by the Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I). Wet snow is detected when both brightness temperatures and DAV values exceed fixed thresholds. Differently from existing techniques, a multi‐frequency approach allows detection of wet snow at different depths and intensities, providing a tool for improving climatological and hydrological applications. Air temperature values either recorded by ground based stations or derived from model are used for calibrating and validating the technique. Results are compared with those obtained using backscattering coefficients recorded by the NASA's Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) during an extreme melting event occurring on June 2002. Long‐term results show that snowmelt extent has been increasing at a rate of ∼40,000 Km2 per year for the past 14 years.


L4All is a system that records and shares learning trails through educational offerings with the aim of facilitating progression of lifelong learners from Secondary Education, through to Further Education and on to Higher Education (HE). The focus is on helping those post-16 learners who have traditionally not participated in HE. L4All allows learners to access information and resources registered with the system by their providers, to plan their own learning, and to maintain a record of their learning. Tutors are able to register recommended learning pathways through courses and modules, thereby encouraging progression into HE. The system allows learners to share their learning plans and experiences with other learners (if they wish) in order to encourage collaborative formulation of future learning goals and aspirations.


A short-cut review of the available medical literature was carried out to establish whether homemade or cloth face masks can prevent respiratory virus transmission or clinical illness. After abstract review, twelve papers were found to answer this clinical question using the detailed search strategy. The author, date and country of publication, patient group studied, study type, relevant outcomes, results and study weaknesses of these papers are tabulated. It is concluded that there is currently no direct evidence to support the use of homemade or cloth masks by the general public for protection against viral infections.


The author performed a procedure to test precognitive features of word recall termed "Retroactive Facilitation of Recall" in Bem (2011) by adapting the failed replication procedure performed by Galak and Nelson (2010.) Despite enhancing subjects' opportunities to demonstrate the effect using handwritten practice scenarios, this small group of UFO and paranormal enthusiasts failed to replicate the phenomenon as well. This paper provides a brief description of similarities and differences between Bem's study #8 and #9, and a description of how Galak and Nelson's procedures were adapted in this study. We conducted (1) an informal demonstration of the effect during an on-air radio broadcast with a single in-studio subject and (2) an experimental procedure using volunteer subjects in a joint meeting of the Omaha UFO Study Group, University of Nebraska at Omaha UFO Study Group, and chapter meeting of Nebraska MUFON, who agreed to collective administration of Galak and Nelson's online interactive website application.


We propose a cluster scheduling technique for compute clusters with Xeon Phi coprocessors. Even though the Xeon Phi runs Linux which allows multiprocessing, cluster schedulers generally do not allow jobs to share coprocessors because sharing can cause oversubscription of coprocessor memory and thread resources. It has been shown that memory or thread oversubscription on a many core like the Phi results in job crashes or drastic performance loss. We first show that such an exclusive device allocation policy causes severe coprocessor underutilization: for typical workloads, on average only 38% of the Xeon Phi cores are busy across the cluster. Then, to improve coprocessor utilization, we propose a scheduling technique that enables safe coprocessor sharing without resource oversubscription. Jobs specify their maximum memory and thread requirements, and our scheduler packs as many jobs as possible on each coprocessor in the cluster, subject to resource limits. We solve this problem using a greedy approach at the cluster level combined with a knapsack-based algorithm for each node. Every coprocessor is modeled as a knapsack and jobs are packed into each knapsack with the goal of maximizing job concurrency, i.e., as many jobs as possible executing on each coprocessor. Given a set of jobs, we show that this strategy of packing for high concurrency is a good proxy for (i) reducing make span, without the need for users to specify job execution times and (ii) reducing coprocessor footprint, or the number of coprocessors required to finish the jobs without increasing make span. We implement the entire system as a seamless add on to Condor, a popular distributed job scheduler, and show make span and footprint reductions of more than 50% across a wide range of workloads.


"Revolution in the Air" is the first in-depth study of the long march of the US New Left after 1968. It tells the story of the "new communist movement," which was the most racially integrated and fast-growing movement on the Left. Thousands of young activists, radicalized by the Vietnam War and Black Liberation, and spurred on by the Puerto Rican, Chicano and Asian-American movements, embraced a Third World oriented version of Marxism. These admirers of Mao, Che and Amilcar Cabral organized resistance to the republican majorities of Nixon and Ford. By the 1980s these groups had either collapsed or become tiny shards of the dream of a Maoist world revolution.


Human gut microbiota is a very complex and dynamic ecosystem that plays a crucial role in our health and well-being. Inferring microbial community structure and dynamics directly from time-resolved metagenomics data is key to understanding the community ecology and predicting its temporal behavior. Many methods have been proposed to perform the inference. Yet, we point out that there are several pitfalls along the way, from uninformative temporal measurements to the compositional nature of the relative abundance data, focusing on highly abundant species by ignoring or grouping low-abundance species, and implicit assumptions in various regularization methods. These issues have to be seriously considered in ecological modeling of human gut microbiota.


Many countries that are richly endowed with natural resources have failed to turn that resource wealth into sustained development. In many places, a small coterie of elites have become rich while most citizens see little benefit from their country's vast resource wealth. The principal cause of this problem, often called the resource curse, is weak domestic institutions that permit leaders to enrich themselves and ignore the development needs of the country. From this, most scholars and policymakers have concluded that the way to fix the resource curse is to reform domestic institutions. This Article challenges the conventional wisdom and argues that international institutions can be harnessed to do the work of failed domestic institutions. The Article addresses the doctrinal and normative challenges that might arrive with this approach and concludes that international institution, even if they are not the principal cause of the resource curse, can be useful tools to address it in developing countries.


Nowadays it is more necessary to perform the identity check of passengers quickly and reliably to prevent unauthorized border crossing, and limit the use of forger passport. This paper concentrated on the design E-passport using two main technologies which are biometric and RFID technologies. Biometric features are used to identify passport holder and the RFID is used to store andtransmit these features as required. This paper proposes a new approach to design and implement a robust biometric recognition system that could be used in e-passport system to identify and recognize person that own the identical e-passport. The ANN is used for recognition persons in this proposed system which was able to recognize persons registered in database in rate up to 81% and the percentage of fail in recognition was 19%.


Background: The area of contaminated lands exposed to the health risk of environmental pollutants is a matter of argument. In this study, a new method was developed to estimate the amount of area that is exposed to higher than normal levels of Cr, Mn, and V. Methods: Overall, 170 soil samples were collected from the upper 10 cm of soil in an arid area in central part of Iran in Semnan Province. The values of Cr, Mn, and V were detected by ICP-OES technique. A geostatistical method known as sequential Gaussian co-simulation was applied to consider the spatial risk of these toxic elements. Results: The moderate spatial dependence of Cr indicates the contribution of both intrinsic and extrinsic factor to the levels of this heavy metal in the study area, whereas, Mn and V can be attributed to intrinsic factors (such as lithology). There has not been any significant influence due to agricultural practices on the Cr values in the region. The surface of contaminated area for manganese, produced by risk curve on surface method, was higher than chromium and vanadium. Conclusion: The produced risk curves as rendered in this study can be adopted in similar studies to help managers to estimate the total area that requires cleanup action.


With the development of information technology in recent years, there is a growing need to merge different technologies and services, to develop products, services and business models that span different industries. Corporations must have processes through which they can access share, and integrate diverse knowledge. In this book, the author proposes a dynamic yet practical method for project leaders to integrate diverse knowledge distributed on projects network to develop new products, services and business models. Case studies on companies such as Vodafone, SHARP, Mitsubishi Electric, Canon, Sony, Matsushita Electric are considered. The book can be used by high-tech organizations from the standpoint of project management or team management for innovation.