Wireless sensor networks can be termed as a new generation of distributed embedded systems that has a capability of meeting broad range of real-time applications. Examples include radiation monitoring, fire monitoring, border surveillance, and medical care to name but a few. Wireless sensor networks that are deployed in time/mission-critical applications with highly dynamic environments have to interact with the physical phenomenon under stringent timing constraints and severe resource limitations. For such real-time wireless sensor networks, designing and developing a real-time routing protocol that meets the required real-time guarantee of data packets communication is a stimulating field of study that raised many challenges and research issues. In this paper, we present a comprehensive survey of real-time routing protocols in WSN, by discussing each protocol with its key features. Finally, we concluded this paper with open research issues and challenges of real-time routing in WSN.


"The Harvard Medical School Guide to Men's Health" is the ultimate state of the art in men's health, assembled into a single volume containing a quarter-century's worth of hard-won knowledge -- knowledge that men need to lead longer, healthier lives. And it's assembled here because more than twenty-five years ago, researchers at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health began what have become the largest aggregate studies ever of men's health: the Harvard Alumni Study, the Physicians' Health Study, and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study. Tracking the behavior and health of more than 96,000 American men over decades, the studies have regularly generated front-page health news, such as demonstrating the health benefits of low-dose aspirin, documenting the reduction in heart disease enjoyed by men who consume large amounts of dietary fiber, scientifically proving the life-prolonging effects of regular exercise, showing which supplements help and which do more harm than good, and much, much more. These studies represent the ultimate resource on what keeps men healthy -- and what doesn't. And it's a resource that's never been needed more than today: ? An American man will be diagnosed with prostate cancer every three minutes this year. ? Two hundred thirty-five thousand men will die from heart disease during the year. ?One-quarter of all sixty-five-year-olds have erectile dysfunction. ? More than half of all American men are overweight or obese. ? Every one of the ten leading causes of death in America is substantially more common in men than women. American women live nearly six years longer than American men. What are men doing about it? ? One-quarter ofAmerican men say they handle worries about health by waiting as long as possible before seeking help. One-third do not have a regular doctor. ? One-half of all American men have not had a physical exam or cholesterol test in the past year. Sixty percent of men older than fifty have not been tested for colon cancer in the past year, and 41 percent have not been tested for prostate cancer. That's the problem. The solution is "The Harvard Medical School Guide to Men's ""Health." It features the best and most current information on the health-preserving functions of diet, exercise, and over-the-counter drugs and supplements -- the ones that really work, the ones that don't, and the ones that are dangerous. It gives straight answers on when drinking alcohol is beneficial and when it's not. It incorporates programs and advice on behavior modification and stress control. The Harvard Medical School Guide to Men's Health is the most comprehensive, easy-to-use reference to the diseases that are particularly important to men, including prostate cancer and testicular cancer, erectile dysfunction, kidney and bladder problems, and more. And it even features an easy-to-navigate guide to the health-care system that can help men work with their doctors to achieve better health. With the authority that only the world's largest and best-known medical school can provide, and the lively, clear presentation that is the hallmark of Harvard Men's Health Watch, the monthly newsletter edited by Dr. Simon, "The Harvard Medical School Guide to Men's ""Health" is an essential reference for every man -- and for everyone who cares about a man's health.


This is the keynote lecture given on the occasion of The Impact of Diasporas event, held on 17 September 2015 at the Royal Geographical Society, London. This event marked the culmination of two major research projects, funded by the Leverhulme Trust. The Oxford Diasporas Programme (University of Oxford) consisted of eleven projects looking at the social, economic, political and cultural impact of diasporas (transnational communities of people dispersed from their homeland) through a range of disciplinary perspectives and research methods, covering case studies from both the global North and South. This project investigated the connections between people who migrate to other countries and those who stay at home. It explored what effects these connections have on people in the country of origin, people in the country of destination, and on the migrants themselves. The Impact of Diasporas on the Making of Britain (University of Leicester) was built on the premise that diasporas are not a modern phenomenon. Ever since the last Ice Age people have moved into the British Isles from the European continent. The programme's research focused primarily on the cultural, linguistic, and genetic interactions between peoples known to history as 'Celts', 'Britons', 'Anglo-Saxons', and 'Vikings'. This keynote lecture was the final component of a day of presentations from researchers from both programmes which linked the projects through themes of 'home and away', 'lost and found', 'coming and going' and 'remembering and forgetting'.


Surgical site infections are the second most common type of adverse events occurring in hospitalized patients. Surgical antibiotic prophylaxis refers to the use of preoperative and postoperative antibiotics to decrease the incidence of postoperative wound infections. The objective of this study was to evaluate the antibiotic administration pattern for surgical antibiotic prophylaxis and the adherence to American Society of Health-System Pharmacists surgical antibiotic prophylaxis guideline in Medical City Teaching Hospitals/Baghdad. The medical records of one hundred patients who underwent elective surgical procedures were reviewed. Adherence to the recommendations of American society of health‑system pharmacists guideline was assessed for every aspect of antibiotic prophylaxis.
The results of this study showed that antibiotic(s) had been administered to all of the patients involved in the study despite the fact that 34 patients (34%) were not required such prophylaxis.  While in case of administration time, 13 patients (13%) had received the antibiotic(s) at correct time while 87 patients (87%) at incorrect time. Proper antibiotic(s) selection was found in 11 patients (11.0%) only. All of the patients (100.0%) had received more than 2 doses, and all of them were not in concordance with surgical site infection prevention guidelines. In addition, 19 patients (19.0%) with surgical site infections were identified during hospital stay or within 30 days after surgery.
According to these results, we can conclude that there was a substantial gap between surgical antibiotic prophylaxis guideline and their implementation in daily practice in Medical City Teaching Hospitals/Baghdad.
Keywords: Surgical Antibiotic Prophylaxis Guidelines, American Society of Health System Pharmacists guidelines, Medical City Teaching Hospitals/Baghdad.


The tetracyclic system (219) shares the same heterocyclic skeleton as a plethora of highly
bioactive indole alkaloids, exemplified by ajmalicine (161) and deplancheine (204).
[Illustration omitted.]
Building on earlier work from our research group we recognised that a suitably
substituted bicyclic lactam (266) could act as a precursor in an intramolecular
N-acyliminium mediated cyclisation leading to targets such as (219).
[Illustration omitted.]
Methodology has been developed to remove the chiral auxiliary group. Manipulation of
the template (219) has allowed us to achieve a novel total synthesis of deplancheine (208)
and provided valuable insight for a future asymmetric synthesis of (204).


The Mantoverde area of the III Región of northern Chile hosts numerous copper(–gold) deposits and prospects assigned to the iron oxide–copper–gold (IOCG) clan. These range from sulphide-poor magnetite–apatite–actinolite bodies (e.g. Carmen) to chalcopyrite-rich, hematite-cemented breccias and veins (e.g. Mantoverde, Cerro Negro and Palmira). The most important Cu-rich deposits are associated with the main or, more commonly, subsidiary structures of the plate-boundary-parallel Atacama Fault System, and are hosted by Middle to Upper Jurassic andesites and Lower Cretaceous dioritic to quartz dioritic plutons. The rocks in the wider Mantoverde area exhibit a complex evolution involving early sub-seafloor albitization (stage R1), subsequent, very low-grade diastathermal metamorphism (R2), and more local stage I K and Fe metasomatism and stage II hydrolysis, all preceding the emplacement of sulphide-bearing hematitic breccias and veins (i.e. ore-stage III). We develop a lithogeochemical exploration protocol specifically for Cu-rich IOCG-type deposits hosted by calc-alkaline volcano-plutonic terrains, based on the integration of whole-rock molar element ratios and oxygen isotope chemistry. Zirconium, the most conserved (least mobile) element in the volcanic and plutonic rocks of the area, was used as a common denominator for molar element ratios. The molar ratios Na/Zr, K/Zr and Al/Zr indicate that the host rocks proximal to the major deposits were affected by sodium depletion and potassium enrichment. The molar ratio (14Ca+19Na−14CO2)/(6Si+Al+2Fe+2Mg), recalculated to a percentage scale, constitutes a modified alteration index which can be used to quantify the degree of hydrothermal alteration in the host rocks. However, although this index differentiates barren from potentially prospective sectors (i.e. strongly altered host rocks), it does not identify the hydrolytically altered rocks that are closely associated with economic copper mineralization. The δ18O values of igneous rocks in the Mantoverde area vary widely from +4.2 to +14.1‰. Integrating the modified lithogeochemical alteration index with whole-rock δ18O values differentiates the least altered volcanic and plutonic rocks (i.e. alteration index <30%), with δ18O values close to +7‰, from moderately altered volcanic rocks (alteration index of 30 to 65%) having higher δ18O values of +10 to +13.2‰ due to enrichment in 18O during regional metasomatism hydrothermal alteration sub-seafloor related to albitization and metamorphism. A third group comprises strongly K-feldspathized, Fe-metasomatized and chloritized rocks localized in Cu-mineralized centres which have alteration indexes exceeding 65% and δ18O values of +4.2 to +14.1‰. The δ18O values of paragenetically related minerals indicate that barren, K- and Fe-metasomatized host rocks equilibrated with magmatically derived fluids at temperatures exceeding 420°C. Although no recognizable alteration haloes are associated with the ensuing lower-temperature Cu-(Au) ore stage (III), the genetically related hydrolytic alteration (II) which preceded it generated distinctive alteration indices and Na/Al and K/Al ratios, as well as δ18O values averaging +10‰, with chlorite O and H isotope compositions indicating equilibration with non-magmatic fluids. We propose, in combination, that these parameters can be used to vector onto Cu-rich IOCG-type mineralization in Andean, calc-alkaline terrains.


International Journal of Exercise Science 9(3): 291-305, 2016. The aim of this study was the examination of relationships between children's perceptions of motivational climate, goal orientation, and their engagement in light- to vigorous-intensity physical activity. The sample comprised 585 school children at age of 11 to 16-year-old from three small cities located in Northeast-Finland. The cross-sectional data was collected using online questionnaires in April 2014. The findings indicated that the higher task-involving motivational climate in physical education the children reported, the higher total light- and moderate-intensity levels they accumulated. Task-involving climate also indicated higher task orientation and ego-involving climate higher ego orientation. Additionally, the more children accumulated light-intensity physical activity, the more they engaged in moderate and vigorous physical activity. No indirect paths were observed from task- and ego-involving climate to light- and moderate- or vigorousintensity activity via task or ego orientation. The current low level of time spent undertaking physical activity in all categories should be considered as a matter of common concern, particularly amongst the most inactive students. Limitations in school curriculum scheduling options restrict the opportunity for substantially increasing the number of timetabled physical education classes. Therefore, developing content and pedagogical practice in physical education represents a viable to increase children's total physical activity. Schools need to place a higher priority on encouraging children and adolescents to participate in daily physical activity and to provide guidance to identify engaging activities, particularly of moderate or vigorous-intensity. For example, class teachers and physical educators could encourage their students to be physically active in terms of transportation to school and by participating in out-of-school sport and recreational leisure activities as options to increase total physical activity.


The paper presents a method for testing second order stationarity against the alternative that seasonal variations take place in the autocovariance function. This is a modification of a test suggested by Priestley & Rao (1969) based on the concept of "evolutionary spectra". The method was applied to actual series of monthly data of discharge, temperature and precipitation. Seasonal variations in mean and variance were eliminated before the test was applied, but highly significant seasonal variation was still present in some series.


In the Qaidam Basin, on the Northeastern Qinghai–Tibet Plateau, the thermal evolution of western and northern sub-basins was analysed using apatite fission track (AFT) data and vitrinite reflectance data from 27 wells. This study shows that thermal gradients decreased during the evolution of the basin, but there existed some differences in thermal evolution between the west and north of the basin, due to different tectonic movements. The thermal gradients in Paleocene–Miocene in the west and in Jurassic times in the north were more than 30°C km−1, exceeding present-day gradients. These thermal data can provide useful parameters for the study of the Qaidam Basin and Qinghai–Tibet Plateau. Palaeotemperature data are the critical parameter for hydrocarbon generation calculations. The results in this study provide a foundation for hydrocarbon generation history modelling and petroleum resources assessment in the Qaidam Basin.


Opening the band gap in graphene can significantly broaden its applications in electronic devices. By introducing four types of graphene-like carbon nitride (g-C3N4) as the substrate of graphene, we reveal, with first principles calculations, a symmetry and size dependent band gap opening in graphene. On the one hand, for a substrate with a 3-fold rotational symmetry, a small C3N4 unit can cause a large value of the band gap in the graphene layer. On the other hand, the band gap also depends on the symmetry of the substrate. A 3-fold symmetry induces a relatively small band gap, while rectangular and oblique symmetries result in a relatively large band gap opening in graphene but cause a much heavier effective mass of charge carriers. The former case is due to the nonequivalence of sub-lattices in graphene induced by the substrate, while for the latter case, interfacial hybridization plays the main role in band gap opening in graphene. Our theoretical findings could pave the way for the use of graphene-based semiconductor devices.


Each year, thousands of students compete in student, experiential-learning, engineering competition teams (SELECT) to practice and improve their engineering skills. SELECT attract tremendous resources from both industry and academia. Despite considerable efforts over the past decades to recruit and retain women and minorities in engineering, female and minority students still comprise a small portion of SELECT participants. This paper stems from a multi-year research project to identify and explain which factors contribute to cultures of inclusion or exclusion among various SELECT. We constructed a survey to determine the generalizability of findings obtained from interviews with SELECT teams and enhance our understanding of cultures within SELECT. Overall, the survey showed most teams have low participation of female and minority students, even when normalized for engineering enrollment. We identified several factors that might be driving the low participation of women and minorities. First, just over half of the respondents were recruited to the team through invitation by a friend who was already on the team, thus limiting membership to those in the network of current or former team members. Second, the more challenging part of diversifying SELECT is the retention of students that choose to initially participate in team activities. In addition, many teams experienced minimal faculty advisor engagement, with little opportunity to offer guidance on team operations. To open SELECT to broader student audiences, SELECT should follow industry best-practice for equal opportunity. Industry should closely partner with sponsoring professional organizations to guide the development of policies and processes that are aligned with industry practice. Faculty advisors should also be actively engaged in team mentoring to ensure the successful implementation of those procedures. Leveraging academia-industry collaboration is a step towards building a team culture that is inclusive of all students.


During a measuring campaign in Lindenberg/Germany (14.5 E, 52.5 N), we observed in June 2003 an extended aerosol layer at 13 km altitude in the lowermost stratosphere with a mobile Aerosol Raman Lidar (MARL). The stratospheric layer created an inelastic backscatter signal that we detected with a water vapour Raman channel, but that was not produced by Raman scattering. Also, we find evidence for inelastic scattering by a smoke plume from a forest fire that we observed in the troposphere. We interpret the unexpected properties of these aerosols as fluorescence induced by the laser beam at organic components of the aerosol particles. Fluorescence from ambient aerosol had not yet been considered detectable by lidar systems. However, organic compounds such as polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons sticking to the aerosol particles, or bioaerosol such as bacteria, spores or pollen fluoresce when excited with UV-radiation in a way that is detectable by our lidar system. Therefore, we conclude that fluorescence from organic material released by biomass burning creates, inelastic backscatter signals that we measured with our instrument and thus demonstratea new and powerful way to characterize aerosols by a remote sensing technique.In spring 2003 heavy fires burned around 18 million hectares of boreal forest inSiberia, the smoke plume from these fires travelled eastwards around the globe and was detected in Europe in late May 2003. The stratospheric aerosol layer that we have observed in Lindenberg for three consecutive days is likely to be a remnant from theseSiberian forest fire plumes that was lifted across the tropopause.


The PresenceAbsence package for R provides a set of functions useful when evaluating the results of presence-absence analysis, for example, models of species distribution or the analysis of diagnostic tests. The package provides a toolkit for selecting the optimal threshold for translating a probability surface into presence-absence maps specifically tailored to their intended use. The package includes functions for calculating threshold dependent measures such as confusion matrices, percent correctly classified (PCC), sensitivity, specificity, and Kappa, and produces plots of each measure as the threshold is varied. It also includes functions to plot the Receiver Operator Characteristic (ROC) curve and calculates the associated area under the curve (AUC), a threshold independent measure of model quality. Finally, the package computes optimal thresholds by multiple criteria, and plots these optimized thresholds on the graphs.


The paper presents the findings of the first year of a nationally funded Australian Learning and Teaching Council (ALTC) project on the quality management of online learning environments by and through distributed leadership. The project is being undertaken by five Australian universities with major commitments to online and distance education. Each university, however, has a distinctive location, history and profile in the sector. The first year of the project has seen the development of a quality management framework with six interrelated elements. The framework is being applied, refined and validated in the second year of the project. Allied with the development of the framework, was the conduct of focus groups at each of the five partner institutions in the middle of the first year. These focus groups composed a range of staff involved collectively in the leadership of the organisation's online learning environment. Prominence was given to the nature and value of strategic planning, due diligence conducted in selecting and mainstreaming technologies, evaluation approaches informing decision making, and the various relationships between different leadership levels and domains. A number of key issues which emerged relating to the elements identified in the framework are examined.


There are a unit varied ways that within which mortals area unit harnessing solar power, like for electricity and heating, and thru biofuels and food. This area unit mentioned in additional detail in Appendix A. the main focus of this report is star fuels, or fuels made directly victimization daylight. Currently, most fuels for transport, electricity generation and lots of raw materials for business (feedstock's) area unit made from coal, oil or fossil fuel. solar power are often captured and keep directly within the chemical bonds of a cloth, or 'fuel', so used once required. These chemical fuels, within which energy from the sun has deliberately been keep, area unit known as star fuels. There are units 2 ways in which star fuels may well be wont to give property fuels for transport. the primary is victimization H to power H vehicles. The second is employing a combination of H and CO (often remarked as synthesis gas, or syngas) to form liquid fuels for transport (often remarked as artificial fuels). This conversion of H and CO into artificial fuels is termed the Fischer-Tropic method.


This report is part of a series of investigations to determine whether pro-poor environmental fiscal reform can be designed and implemented in key sectors in the district of Abbottabad. This preliminary study aims to assess the current status of drinking water services in the district. It provides a baseline to guide pilot activities, and to serve as a basis for focused investigations in the future.


The growth of open access (OA) via the payment of article processing charges (APCs) in hybrid journals has been a key feature of the approach to OA in the UK. In response, Jisc Collections has been piloting 'offsetting agreements' that explicitly link subscription and APCs, seeking to reduce one as the other grows. However, offsetting agreements have become increasingly contentious with institutions, advocates and publishers. With reference to issues such as cost, administrative efficiency, transparency and the transition to open access, this paper provides an update on the status of UK negotiations, reflects on the challenges and opportunities presented by such agreements, and considers the implications for the path of future negotiations.


ABSTRACT These days, economic liberalism and international capitalism are typically presented as two sides of the same coin. Therefore, when discussing the downsides of capitalism, the critique usually stems from a socialist and thus "outside" perspective. However, a distinct – and historically overlooked – critique of capitalism comes from the inside of liberalism, namely from the so-called ordoliberalism. This is a German variant of liberalism from the 1930s and 1940s, and it may come as a surprise to some that it actually has a lot to offer in the present-day discussion of capitalism. This article reconstructs the ordoliberal critique and argues that ordoliberalism presents a strong and coherent critique of capitalism. In my reconstruction of ordoliberalism, I divide the critique into five categories (methodological, anthropological, moral, monopolistic, and strategic) and show that these five forms are bound together and underpin each other. Above all, this means that the connection between economic liberalism and capitalism is not as close as otherwise assumed.


The evolution of the Internet amidst a rapidly growing global economy has created a completely new environment in which traditional crime prospers. Equally the convergence of computing and communication has changed the way we live, communicate and commit crime. Cybercriminals in Nigeria commonly known as "419 scammers"; a word coined from the Nigerian criminal code that penalises people from obtaining money under false pretense cost the Nigerian consumer $13.5 billion dollars in losses in 2012. (Clarke, 2004, Sesan et al., 2012; Grabosky, 2001;).
Previous studies have focused on the causes and effects of cybercrime in Nigeria (Hassan et al., 2012; Adesina, 2017); laws penalising against misuse of computer (Olusola et. al., 2013b; Saulawa & Abubakar, 2014) and have focused relatively on financial cost and socio-economic effects of cybercrime (WITFOR, 2005; Sesan et. al., 2012). Even though some studies have tried to explore cybercrime from the perspective of law enforcement Agencies in the UAE and Jordan (Maghairah, 2009; Alkaabi, 2010), none has been done holistically from the view of law enforcement and members of the Cybercrime Advisory Council in Nigeria.

Adopting a classical criminological framework of Routine Activity Theory (RAT), this thesis examined particularly cyber-enabled crime of advance fee fraud in Nigeria within the scope of RAT which argued that for crime to take place, three requirements must be present namely; a motivated offender, a suitable target and an absence of a capable guardian. The thesis examined the factors that motivates an offender and what elements makes a target (i.e. victim or computer) suitable for a crime. In the process, it considers the suitability of a law enforcement officer and some members of the Cybercrime Advisory Council (CAC) as capable guardians and what factors limits their capabilities in mitigating the activities of cybercriminals.

The research has been framed on an interpretivist paradigm and relativist philosophical stance, with focus on an inductive qualitative approach involving semi-structured interviews and documentation. These involved policy makers, members of parliament, telecommunications and ICT regulators on one hand; and investigators, prosecutors, forensic analyst and media practitioners particularly from the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC), which is a leading law enforcement agency in the fight against cybercrime. The multi-dimensional evidence explains the role played by each of the stakeholders, the measures and partnership deployed in tackling cybercrime, and the challenges and recommendations needed in the international effort to tackle cybercrime globally.

Findings suggests that the proliferation and lack of effective policing of the internet enabled by the greed of individuals and lack of enforcement and collaboration of relevant stakeholders has led to financial losses to victims. The findings further show how lack of proper education and awareness of individuals, and adequate training and provision of tools for law enforcement officers contributes to the high prevalence of cybercrime in Nigeria.

Evidence is provided that documents the way members of the Cybercrime Advisory Council and especially the EFCC have attempted to overcome these challenges through partnership, capacity building and enforcement of relevant laws and policies aimed at addressing the issue of cybercrime in Nigeria. The findings of this research could help in understanding the implication of technology in crime detection and prevention, and also contribute to adhering to policies and international conventions in limiting the negative impact of cybercrime. The findings equally extends the criminological understanding of online deviant behaviours and furthers the current discussion on the role of law enforcement in policing the Internet.

Keywords: Cybercrime, Policing, Nigeria, Routine Activity Theory


İNME HASTALARI VE ONLARA BAKIM VERENLERDE DEPRESİF SEMPTOMLAR Introduction: In this study, it was aimed to assess the prevalence of depressive symptoms among patients with stroke and their caregivers and to determine factors associated with depression. Materials and Method: This study included 97 patients with subacute and chronic stroke and 88 caregivers. Patients were evaluated using the Brunnstrom motor recovery scale for motor functions, Mini-Mental State Examination for cognitive status, Rivermead Mobility Index for mobility and Barthel Index for functional status. The patients and their caregivers were evaluated for mood disorders using the Beck Depression Inventory, and quality of life was evaluated using the Nottingham Health Profile. Results: Among the participants, 61.9% of the patients and 52.6% of the caregivers were found to have depressive symptoms. Althought comparison of the quality of life scores of the patients and their caregivers revealed no significant difference, only the physical aspect of quality of life was significantly higher in the patients. Depression scores were higher in the patients than in their caregivers. Motor functional outcomes of the hand along with mobility, cognitive functions and functional status scores were significantly negatively correlated with depression scores of the patients. Functional status scores of the patients were significantly positively correlated with motor functional outcomes (hand and upper/lower extremity), mobility and cognitive function scores. Conclusion: Functional independence and mobility are the best predictors of depressive symptoms in patients with stroke. Assessment and treatment of depression in not only in patients but also their caregivers should be a part of the general rehabilitation plan since the early stages of stroke.


Dental unit waterlines are heavily colonized by bacteria which contaminate the water used to perform intraoral, and sometimes invasive, procedures. There is little information on the nature of the biofilm colonizing the flexible plastic tubing used to supply water to the different handpieces. We have therefore undertaken quantitative microbial analysis and ultrastructural studies of these biofilms by direct counting with the epifluorescent filter technique and by transmission and scanning electron microscopy after staining with ruthenium red and periodic acid-thiosemicarbazide-silver proteinate to visualize the composition and the distribution of exopolysaccharides and intracellular polysaccharides. The biofilm was revealed as a non-uniform structure characterized by an uneven cell distribution in an extracellular matrix. The microbial community of the biofilm was composed of metabolically active Gram-negative, short rod and coccoid bacteria that formed microcolonies embedded in a multilayer exopolysaccharides envelope. Our results indicate that even though the biomass of dental unit waterlines biofilms increases with time there is no direct correlation with the concentration of free floating bacteria in the water. It can be concluded that the biofilm structure described herein is responsible for the high level of bacteria in some medical devices. The consequences are of clinical significance as it is known that this extracellular material limits the action of biocides and host defense.


Previous studies have used stipe ring counts to estimate the age of several species in the Laminariales. Although this method is widely accepted, it has rarely been validated. To test the validity of aging Pterygophora californica by counting rings formed in the stipe, we sampled plants of known age between 1.0 and 4.4 yr old and plants with a calculated age of 12 yr. For a given cohort, the number of complete rings closely approximated the known age in years, indicating ring counts are a reliable method for estimating the age structure of P. californica populations. However, ring counts from individual plants of known age can vary by f 2 yr (95 % CI), and among readers counting the same plants by k 1 yr (95 % CI). Single plants, therefore, could not be reliably aged by ring counts. Linear relationships between 2 morphometric measures (stipe length and stipe diameter) and number of rings varied both within and between stands and sites, suggesting these measures are not reliable for estimating the age of t h ~ s alga in the areas sampled Stand d.ensity may be an important factor contributing to the variation in these morphometric measures. Short-term (22 wk) field manipulations of stand density showed that plants at high density (30 plants m-') grew faster in stipe length and slower in stipe diameter than those at medum (6 plants m-2) and low (2 plants m-') densities. Plants collected in a multi-site survey, however, showed no relationship between stand density and stipe morphology, indicating factors other than density also influence stipe growth. Short-term (22 wk) field manipulations, which reduced ambient light levels by up to 58 'Yo, h.ad no significant effects on stipe morphology.


Abstract : As the United States Navy makes leaps forward in technology that is being deployed onboard ships, there is a growing need for research to predict what will be needed to integrate new weapon systems with old. Directed energy weapons are being deployed onboard naval platforms starting in 2014, and this paper seeks to answer the question of what energy storage, if any, must be used in conjunction with high-power lasers in order to integrate them with current ships in the fleet. Four energy storage methods are being researched. These storage medias will allow a ship to fire multiple shots from a high-powered laser without taxing the ship s electrical system. Lead acid batteries, lithium ion batteries, supercapacitors, and flywheels each have their benefits and drawbacks, and those will be discussed. A computer simulation has been developed and used to represent a DDG-51 Arleigh Burke class destroyer and each of the four energy storage methods. This simulation was run repeatedly with different powered high-powered lasers in order to produce a recommendation for what types of energy storage would be necessary to operate these devices onboard ships.


Deep learning networks are being developed in every stage of the MRI workflow and have provided state-of-the-art results. However, this has come at the cost of increased computation requirement and storage. Hence, replacing the networks with compact models at various stages in the MRI workflow can significantly reduce the required storage space and provide considerable speedup. In computer vision, knowledge distillation is a commonly used method for model compression. In our work, we propose a knowledge distillation (KD) framework for the image to image problems in the MRI workflow in order to develop compact, low-parameter models without a significant drop in performance. We propose a combination of the attention-based feature distillation method and imitation loss and demonstrate its effectiveness on the popular MRI reconstruction architecture, DC-CNN. We conduct extensive experiments using Cardiac, Brain, and Knee MRI datasets for 4x, 5x and 8x accelerations. We observed that the student network trained with the assistance of the teacher using our proposed KD framework provided significant improvement over the student network trained without assistance across all the datasets and acceleration factors. Specifically, for the Knee dataset, the student network achieves $65\%$ parameter reduction, 2x faster CPU running time, and 1.5x faster GPU running time compared to the teacher. Furthermore, we compare our attention-based feature distillation method with other feature distillation methods. We also conduct an ablative study to understand the significance of attention-based distillation and imitation loss. We also extend our KD framework for MRI super-resolution and show encouraging results.


Let Q be a finite quiver without oriented cycles, and let $\Lambda$ be the corresponding preprojective algebra. Let g be the Kac-Moody Lie algebra with Cartan datum given by Q, and let W be its Weyl group. With w in W is associated a unipotent cell N^w of the Kac-Moody group with Lie algebra g. In previous work we proved that the coordinate ring \C[N^w] of N^w is a cluster algebra in a natural way. A central role is played by generating functions \vphi_X of Euler characteristics of certain varieties of partial composition series of X, where X runs through all modules in a Frobenius subcategory C_w of the category of nilpotent $\Lambda$-modules. We show that for every X in C_w, \vphi_X coincides after appropriate changes of variables with the cluster characters of Fu and Keller associated with any cluster-tilting module T of C_w. As an application, we get a new description of a generic basis of the cluster algebra obtained from \C[N^w] via specialization of coefficients to 1. For the special case of coefficient-free acyclic cluster algebras this proves a conjecture by Dupont.


The cochlear implant (CI) has been labeled the most successful neural
 prosthesis. Despite this success, a significant number of CI recipients
 experience poor speech understanding, and, even among the best
performers, restoration to normal auditory fidelity is rare. While
significant research efforts have been devoted to improving stimulation
strategies, few developments have led to significant hearing improvement
 over the past two decades. We have recently introduced image processing
 techniques that open a new direction for advancement in this field by
making it possible, for the first time, to determine the position of
implanted CI electrodes relative to the nerves they stimulate using
computed tomography images. In this article, we present results of an
image-guided, patient-customized approach to stimulation that utilizes
the electrode position information our image processing techniques
provide. This approach allows us to identify electrodes that cause
overlapping stimulation patterns and to deactivate them from a patient's
 map. This individualized mapping strategy yields significant
improvement in speech understanding in both quiet and noise as well as
improved spectral resolution in the 68 adult CI recipients studied to
date. Our results indicate that image guidance can improve hearing
outcomes for many existing CI recipients without requiring additional
surgery or the use of 'experimental' stimulation strategies, hardware or
 software.


Most organizations have large databases that contain wealth of potentially accessible information. Data mining techniques can be used to discover hidden patterns that are unknown a priori. Data mining is the process of selection, exploration and modelling of large quantities of data. Data mining has worthy applications in finance, communication, education, marketing and health management. In this study health management is chosen as an application area. It is very important to encountered similarities of past period cases and definition of patient profile in the health services quickly and to decide correctly. It is aimed to define specific characteristics of diabetic patients in Turkey by using Cluster Analysis and Association Rules


In order to test current generative third language (L3) acquisition theories, this study attempts to tease apart the effect of first (L1) and second language (L2) knowledge on properties in the L3 of German. The properties tested are gender assignment, gender concord and the definite/indefinite contrast. The groups are L1 Spanish and L1 Japanese, both groups with L2 English. The L2 proficiency level was also considered and a general trend was observed such that learners with a higher L2 proficiency outperformed those with a lower one. In relation to the question of access to Universal Grammar (UG) by non-native learners, a task effect was found in that the results from the definiteness task offer some limited support for 'Full Access' accounts; however overall there is stronger, albeit indirect, support for representational deficit accounts.


• Sudden oak death is an emerging forest disease caused by the invasive pathogen Phytophthora ramorum. Genetic and environmental factors affecting susceptibility to P. ramorum in the key inoculum-producing host tree Umbellularia californica (bay laurel) were examined across a heterogeneous landscape in California, USA. • Laboratory susceptibility trials were conducted on detached leaves and assessed field disease levels for 97 host trees from 12 225-m 2 plots. Genotype and phenotype characteristics were assessed for each tree. Effects of plot-level environmental conditions (understory microclimate, amount of solar radiation and topographic moisture potential) on disease expression were also evaluated. • Susceptibility varied significantly among U. californica trees, with a fivefold difference in leaf lesion size. Lesion size was positively related to leaf area, but not to other phenotypic traits or to field disease level. Genetic diversity was structured at three spatial scales, but primarily among individuals within plots. Lesion size was significantly related to amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) markers, but local environment explained most variation in field disease level. • Thus, substantial genetic variation in susceptibility to P. ramorum occurs in its principal foliar host U. californica, but local environment mediates expression of susceptibility in nature.


The main purpose of our work is to develop a system that automatically monitors and modifies environment parameters of plants, grown vertically, at particular angle in man-made stable eco system attached to walls of building. The designed system is fully sensor based and that can control everything without the human interference. Monitoring and control of various factors for plant growth play significant role in green wall production and management. To monitor the green wall environment parameters effectively, we need to design an automatic control system. There are various factors which affects plant growth.  The most important factors that give quality and productivity to plant are temperature, humidity and light. A plant grower needs regular monitoring and modification of these environmental variables to better understand, how growth and yield is affected by each factor and how to manage them for maximal progress of plant. The optimal green wall climate adjustment not only enables us to achieve remarkable energy savings -especially during the winter but also to improve productivity. The main purpose of a green wall is to provide and maintain an environment for work efficiency as well as for good health in indoor areas. There are much research and system designs for environment monitor and control using sophisticated technology. The present control system is designed using recent ATmega16 microcontroller due to some important features such as sleep mode, 10- bit ADC, wide input voltage range and also higher memory capacity. Key Words: Environment parameters; Monitoring and controlling; Microcontroller; AVR; Moisture Sensors; Light Sensor and Temperature Sensor


Journal of Infection and Molecular Biology (ISSN: 2307-5465 (Online), ISSN: 2307-5716 (Print))  is an international peer reviewed journal that publishes original review articles, research papers, short communication, case reports on all aspects of infectious agents. The journal provides an open online platform to share around the globe latest about mode of transmissions of infectious agents, resistance patterns, pathogenesis, evolution, phylogenetic relationship, bio-informatics and improved disease diagnostics procedures. Scope of journal includes all infectious agents or pathogens such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites responsible for diseases to veterinary, medical and plants sciences. In particular, molecular and microbiological work on infectious agents is of high priority for publication in this journal.


Across Northern European states, we can observe a proliferation of "hostile environments" targeting racialized groups. This article zooms in on Denmark and discusses recent policy initiatives that are explicitly aimed at excluding, criminalizing, and inflicting harm on migrants and internal "others" by making their lives "intolerable." We use the example of Danish deportation centers to illustrate how structural racism is institutionalized and implemented, and then discuss the centers in relation to other recent policy initiatives targeting racialized groups. We propose that these policies must be analyzed as complementary bordering practices: externally, as exemplified by deportation centers, and internally, as reflected in the development of parallel legal regimes for racialized groups. We argue that, taken together, they enact and sustain a system of apartheid.


In the antitrust law, measurements of merger control are the result of a vision of the market and competition focused on perfect market paradigm. Overcoming this conception and replacing this point of view, for one centered in the dynamic market processes, gives us a new reading of the market and of what is meant by competition. Identify the competition, as a process of rivalry and entrepreneurship, constantly dynamic, inhibits to the justice the pursuit of perfect competition paradigm. In that order, measurements like merger control cannot be legally justified and must be criticized.This paper analyzes the merger control inconsistencies in the antitrust law, from the standpoint of the theory of dynamic market processes.


Vandalism, environmental pollution or other damage to community property are among the daily problems, local communities have to deal with. In some countries governments use their residents to take on these problems. After spotting something that needs to be fixed, citizens can use a free smartphone app to take a picture, select a location and an issue type and send the issue to the city council. This way issues from different categories like e.g. litter on the street, broken street lights or potholes can be sent directly to the department which is in charge of the respective issue category. Past experience with these apps however has shown that often, users are unwilling to provide the correct category when reporting an issue. This led to additional work load for civil servants who had to manually forward the reports to the correct department. Therefore, in this thesis it is examined in which way issue reports can best be automatically assigned to the correct category. The presented approach makes use of the textual description, the creation time and the geo-spatial context of the reported issues and is evaluated on two different data sets.


Column experiments investigated the stabilization of waste rock from Ljusnarsberg mine in Kopparberg, Sweden. In order to inhibit the generation of acidic leachate from the waste rock, biosludge and a Ca carbonate – rich residue from the paper industry were mixed with the sulfidic mine waste. The results of the column experiments indicate that the stabilization of the waste rock with the reactive amendments succeeded in maintaining a near – neutral pH in the waste rock leachate, compared to a pH 3 leachate from untreated waste rock. Copper and Zn concentrations in leachate from the untreated waste exceeded 100 mg/L, while these metals were detected at concentrations less than 0.1 and 1 mg/L, respectively, in the leachate from the treated wastes. This study indicates that the stabilization of acid – generating waste rock with biosludge and Ca carbonate residues is effective in preventing the generation of acid mine drainage; the treatment is expected to continue until the reactive amendments are exhausted.


BACKGROUND: Mediastinal lymphadenopathy (ML) poses a great diagnostic challenge. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the predictors of malignancy in endoscopic ultrasound (EUS)-guided fine-needle aspiration (FNA) of ML in patients without known lung cancer. DESIGN: Retrospective study. SETTING: Tertiary referral center. METHODS: One hundred eight patients without known lung cancer who underwent EUS guided-FNA for ML between 2000 and 2007. All subjects underwent EUS-guided FNA. Data was collected on patients′ demographics, and lymph node (LN) characteristics. Diagnosis of LN malignancy was based on FNA findings and clinical follow-up. RESULTS: One hundred eight patients were analyzed; 58 (54%) were men and 87 (79%) were Caucasian. Mean age was 55 years. Prior malignancy was present in 48 (43%) patients. A total of 126 FNA samples from 126 distinct LNs were performed. Twenty-five (20%) LNs were positive for malignancy. Mean short and long-axis for LNs were 13 and 29 mms respectively. Round shape and sharp borders were found in 29 (15%) and 25 (22%) LNs, correspondingly. Independent predictors of a malignant FNA were: Prior cancer (OR 13.10; 95% CI 2.7-63.32; P = 0.001), short axis (OR 1.10; 95% CI 1.00-1.22; P = 0.041) and sharp LN borders (OR 5.47; 95% CI 1.01-29.51; P = 0.048). Age, race, gender, long axis, round shape were not associated with cancer in our cohort. LIMITATIONS: Retrospective design and lack of surgical gold standard. CONCLUSIONS: Increased risk of malignancy was associated with prior history of cancer, larger LN short axis and presence of LN sharp borders. These predictors may help guide endoscopists perform FNA in malignant LNs, increasing the overall efficiency of EUS-FNA for ML.


The reactions of 1,1,3,3-tetramethyl-8-thia-5,6-diazaspirol[3.4]oct-5-en-2-one (1a) with imidazole-2-thiones 3 and pyrimidine-2(1H)-thione (6) in CHCl3 at 40 - 50° yield 2,2,4,4-tetramethylcyclobutanone dithioacetals of type 4 and 7, respectively, by interception of the intermediate thiocarbonyl ylide 2a (Scheme 2). Thiirane 5 is formed as a minor product by 1,3-dipolar electrocyclization of 2a. When thioacetamide (8a) and thiobenzamide (8b) are used as trapping reagents, the primary adduct 10 undergoes a spontaneous cyclization by intramolecular nucleophilic addition of the imino group at the carbonyl group to yield bicyclic products of type 9. The structure of 9a has been established by X-ray crystallography.


The oxidation state of hemoglobin α in myoendothelial junctions controls delivery of nitric oxide. Nitric oxide (NO) signaling mediates vasodilation. In blood vessels, the internal elastic lamina separates endothelial cells (ECs) from smooth muscle cells (SMCs), but cells project through gaps in the lamina to form myoendothelial junctions (MEJs), which allow the gaseous NO produced by endothelial NO synthase (eNOS) in ECs to diffuse into SMCs and stimulate guanylyl cyclase (see commentary by Gladwin and Kim-Shapiro). Using vascular cell cocultures (VCCCs) grown in transwells and methods for separating ECs, SMCs, and the MEJs of cocultured ECs and SMCs, Straub et al. identified hemoglobin α (Hb α) as an abundant protein in lysates of MEJs but not lysates from ECs or SMCs (either isolated from VCCCs or cultured separately). Hb α localized to MEJs in mouse thoracodorsal arteries (TDAs). There was a decrease in the vasoconstriction elicited by phenylephrine, which is an α-adrenoreceptor agonist that causes smooth muscle contraction, or an increase in vasodilation elicited by acetylcholine, which stimulates NOS in isolated canulated TDAs in which Hb α was knocked down in the endothelium by silencing RNAs, compared to the responses of control TDAs. Knockdown of Hb α also increased the amount of NO detected outside isolated TDA vessel walls perfused with NO-containing medium or on the SMC side of the VCCCs after adding NO-containing medium to the EC side. The iron (Fe) in the heme group of Hb α exists in two oxidation states: the reduced state Fe2+, which reacts quickly with NO, converting it to nitrate, or the oxidized state Fe3+, which reacts much more slowly with NO. Both Fe2+ and Fe3+ were present in TDAs and VCCCs, and treatment with carbon monoxide, which competes with NO for Fe2+ heme, increased the amount of NO that diffused outside isolated TDAs or through VCCCs. Cytochrome b5 reductase 3 (CYB5R3), which maintains hemoglobins in an Fe2+ state, colocalized with Hb α at MEJs of TDAs and coimmunoprecipitated with Hb α in TDA cell lysates and lysates of MEJs isolated from VCCCs. Consistent with the knockdown of Hb α, knockdown or chemical inhibition of CYB5R3 increased the amount of NO that diffused outside isolated TDAs or through VCCCs and decreased the vasoconstriction elicited by phenylephrine or increased vasodilation elicited by acetylcholine in TDAs. The oxidation state of Hb α thus controls the amount of NO signal that can propagate through blood vessels. A. C. Straub, A. W. Lohman, M. Billaud, S. R. Johnstone, S. T. Dwyer, M. Y. Lee, P. S. Bortz, A. K. Best, L. Columbus, B. Gaston, B. E. Isakson, Endothelial cell expression of haemoglobin α regulates nitric oxide signalling. Nature 491, 473–477 (2012). [PubMed] M. T. Gladwin, D. B. Kim-Shapiro, Nitric oxide caught in traffic. Nature 491, 344–345 (2012). [PubMed]


Understanding the Chinese legal system is not simple because it is (probably) very different from a Western one. The understanding of the Chinese legal system that results from any study will depend crucially on the selection of a paradigm with which to define what counts as an observation and against which to measure and assess the observations, either descriptively or normatively. This is not to say that the selection of a paradigm will make the difference between understanding and not understanding. It will, however, make a difference between understanding in one way and understanding in another way. Whether one of those ways is better than another depends on how still more methodological issues are settled: the purpose that is to be served by the understanding that is sought, and whether that purpose is itself a valuable one.This paper explores the ways in which the Chinese legal system can be understood through the use, conscious or not, of different models, and in particular the phenomenon of what appear to be mistakes and aberrations in the system when we apply those models. I offer a particular way of modeling the Chinese legal system, and show how this way of modeling produces observations that can be explained only as errors or aberrations. I will then show how other ways of modeling would explain these observations as normal and expected phenomena. Finally, I will discuss the challenge these multiple ways of modeling pose to the analyst. A model that explains an observation as normal is not necessarily superior to a model that can only explain it as an error or an aberration: mistakes and aberrations do happen. Yet surely it is also intellectually satisfying to have a model of a set of phenomena that provides a plausible account of almost all of them.


HTML5 is here, and with it, web applications take on a power, ease, scalability, and responsiveness like never before. In this book, developers will learn how to use the latest cutting-edge HTML5 web technologyavailable in the most recent versions of modern browsersto build web applications with unparalleled functionality, speed, and responsiveness. Explains how you can create real-time HTML5 applications that tap the full potential of modern browsers Provides practical, real-world examples of HTML5 features in action Shows which HTML5 features are supported in current browsers Covers all the new HTML5 APIs to get you up to speed quickly with HTML5 What youll learn How the HTML5 specification has evolved How to develop cutting-edge web applications using new HTML5 features like WebSockets, Geolocation, Web Storage, Canvas, and Audio and Video. Which features are available in browsers today Who is this book for? This book is for web designers and developers who want to use the latest cutting-edge technology available in current browsers; developers who want to create dynamic, HTML5 web applications; and developers who want to know which HTML5 features are supported in current browsers.


We investigated the effects of vitamin D3 supplementation on physical performance during winter training in vitamin D insufficient taekwondo athletes. Thirty-five collegiate male and female taekwondo athletes, aged 19-22 years with low serum 25(OH)D concentration (28.8 ± 1.10 nmol/L), were randomly assigned to a vitamin D group (n = 20) or a placebo group (n = 15). Subjects received either a vitamin D3 capsule (5,000 IU/day) or a placebo during 4 weeks of winter training. Blood samples were collected for analyzing serum 25(OH)D concentration. Physical performance tests included Wingate anaerobic test, isokinetic muscle strength and endurance, a countermovement jump test, sit-ups, agility test, and 20-m pacer. Serum 25(OH)D concentrations increased significantly in the vitamin D group (96.0 ± 3.77 nmol/L) after 4 weeks of supplementation, but no changes were found in the placebo group (F = 242.44, p = .000). There were significant interaction effects for anaerobic peak power (F = 7.49, p = .010) and isokinetic knee extension at 180 deg/s (F = 6.08, p = .019). Changes in serum 25(OH)D concentration were positively associated with changes in peak power and isokinetic knee extension at 180 deg/s. However, no significant interaction effects were observed in other performance variables. This study suggests that 4 weeks of vitamin D supplementation elevates serum 25(OH)D concentration to sufficient levels. Correcting vitamin D insufficiency improves some but not all aspects of performance. Thus, efficacy of vitamin D supplementation to enhance performance remains unclear.


High mountain areas are prone to extreme hydrological events, and their study is especially important in the context of ongoing intensive deglaciation. In this research, a model "chain" consisting of a hydrodynamic model and a runoff formation model is adopted to simulate a glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF) from Bashkara Lake (the Central Caucasus, Russia) and its effect on downstream. In addition to an actual GLOF event that occurred on 1 September 2017 and led to casualties and significant destruction in the Adylsu and Baksan Rivers valleys, possible scenarios for the re-outburst of the lake are considered. The hydrographs of the outburst and the downstream movement of the flood wave along the Adylsu River valley are estimated using STREAM_2D two-dimensional hydrodynamic model. The water discharges in the entire river network of the Baksan River are assessed using the ECOMAG (ECOlogical Model for Applied Geophysics) runoff formation model. The output flood hydrograph from the hydrodynamic model is set as additional input into the Baksan River runoff formation model in the upper reaches of the Adylsu River. As a result of the simulations, estimates for the contribution of GLOFs and precipitation to an increase in peak discharge along the Baksan River were obtained. The actual outburst flood contributed 45% and precipitation 30% to the peak flow in the Baksan River at the mouth of the Adylsu River (10 km from the outburst site). In Tyrnyauz (40 km from the outburst site), the contributions of the outburst flood and precipitation were equal and, in Zayukovo (70 km from the outburst site), the outburst flood contributed only 20% to the peak flow, whereas precipitation contributed 44%. Similar calculations were made for future potential re-outburst flood, taking into account climatic changes with an increase in air temperatures of 2 °C, an increase in precipitation of 10% in winter and a decrease of 10% in summer. The maximum discharge of the re-outburst flood in the Adylsu River mouth, according to model estimations, will be approximately three times less than the discharge of the actual outburst on 1 September 2017 and can contribute up to 18% of the peak discharge in the Baksan River at the confluence.


This thesis examines the gender/technology relation in th e context of the Ennis Information Age Town (EIAT) project and th e Information Age in Ireland. We examine the ways th a t technology impacts on contemporary culture, moulding existing cultural practices and creating new ones. We also examine th e reciprocal impact which culture has on technology, influencing its creation and development. In practice, we consider the ontology of technology (what it is), the pragmatics of technology (what it does) and the phenomenology of technology (how it affects our experiences).

We consider the gender/technology relation in Irish society in the context of recent developments in information and communication technologies (ICTs) which offer th e possibility of fast communication, universal access to information and a virtual communication environment with unforeseen effects on families, communities and institutions.

We examine these developments in th e context of the introduction of ICTs in Ennis, Co. Clare as p a rt of the EIAT project. This five-year project involved the delivery of both the relevant technology and training to enable th e people of Ennis to engage with the Information Society. We consider th e diversity of responses of th e women of Ennis to th e project and some of the barriers to their engagement with ICTs. We hypothesise that the informal social networks maintained by many women are an important means of overcoming barriers to women's engagement with ICTs. We compare these women's engagement with ICTs within the context of the project with other Irish women who are engaging with ICTs outside th e context of the project.

We also examine th e education/technology relation in Ireland in the context of the EIAT project. We consider th e use of ICTs in the classroom and the behaviours and attitudes of primary school children towards these technologies. Once again, we make comparisons between the use of ICTs in schools within the EIAT project and outside th e project.

The epistemological basis of this research programme is informed by a diversity of disciplines. As a study of gender, it draws upon research in the area of feminist and gender studies, sociology and communication studies. As a study of gender practices in the context of ICT developments, it draws upon technology studies and computer-mediated communication (CMC) studies. We also present d a ta collected over a period of four years, in Ennis and elsewhere. We conclude with a number of recommendations which we believe will enable more Irish women to engage meaningfully with ICTs.


A model is proposed for national car ownership forecasting in which the level of ownership depends on income and motoring cost levels in previous years as well as in the current year. Such a model provides a method of explaining the "time" trend in previous models and of resolving inconsistencies between observed short-term and long-term elasticities. When fitted to recent data, the model indicates a strong element of persistence, with the long-term income elasticity being about 4 times the short-term one. When used to forecast ownership over the next 30 years for alternative assumptions about economic growth, it gives much the same result as an unlagged model with a time trend if an economic growth rate of about 1.5 per cent is assumed; over a range of assumptions it gives a much wider range of forecasts than the unlagged model. (TRRL)


The nature and kinetics of electrode reactions and processes occurring for four lightweight anode systems which have been utilised in reinforced concrete cathodic protection systems have been studied. The anodes investigated were flame sprayed zinc, conductive paint and two activated titanium meshes. The electrochemical properties of each material were investigated in rapidly stirred de-oxygenated electrolytes using anodic potentiodynamic polarisation. Conductive coating electrodes were formed on glass microscope slides, whilst mesh strands were immersed directly. Oxygen evolution occurred preferentially for both mesh anodes in saturated Ca (OH)2/CaC12 solutions but was severely inhibited in less alkaline solutions and significant current only passed in chloride solutions. The main reactions for conductive paint was based on oxygen evolution in all electrolytes, although chlorides increased the electrical activity. Self-corrosion of zinc was controlled by electrolyte composition and the experimental set-up, chlorides increasing the electrical activity. Impressed current cathodic protection was applied to 25 externally exposed concrete slabs over a period of 18 months to investigate anode degradation mechanisms at normal and high current densities. Specimen chloride content, curing and reinforcement depth were also variables. Several destructive and non-destructive methods for assessing the performance of anodes were evaluated including a site instrument for quantitative "instant-off- potential measurements. The impact of cathodic protection on the concrete substrate was determined for a number of specimens using appropriate methods. Anodic degradation rates were primarily influenced by current density, followed by cemendtious alkalinity, chloride levels and by current distribution. Degradation of cementitious overlays and conductive paint substrates proceeded by sequential neutralisation of cement phases, with some evidence of paint binder oxidation. Sprayed zinc progressively formed an insulating layer of hydroxide complexes, which underwent pitting_ attack in the presence of sufficient chlorides, whilst substrate degradation was minimal. Adhesion of all anode systems decreased with increasing current density. The influence of anode material on the ionic gradients which can develop during cathodic protection was investigated. A constant current was passed through saturated cement paste prisms containing calcium chloride to central cathodes via anodes applied or embedded at each end. Pore solution was obtained from successive cut paste slices for anion and cation analyses. Various experimental errors reduced the value of the results. Characteristic S-shaped profiles were not observed and chloride ion profiles were ambiguous. Mesh anode specimens were significantly more durable than the conductive coatings in the high humidity environment. Limited results suggested zinc ion migration to the cathode region. Electrical data from each investigation clearly indicated a decreasing order of anode efficiency by specific anode material.


Abstract This paper focuses on the "continuous combat function" concept and proposes to extend its application. First, the article will demonstrate that the continuous combat function concept should be extended to certain members of organized armed groups in cases where those groups do not belong to any of the parties to an international armed conflict and whose actions do not reach the level of intensity required for a separate non-international armed conflict (NIAC) to exist. Secondly, the paper will look at the extension of this concept in order to determine individual membership in State armed forces in the context of a NIAC, while arguing that the notion of "armed forces" should be interpreted differently depending of the nature of the conflict, be it international or non-international.


Remittances are, currently, the second most important source of external finance to developing countries, after foreign direct investment. They do surpass foreign aid. Remittances tend to be more stable than volatile capital flows such as portfolio investment and international bank credit. Remittances are also an international redistribution from low-income migrants to their families in the home country. World-wide, remittances are relatively concentrated in a group of developing countries: the top 20-recipients countries of workers remittances capture around 80 percent of total workers remittances to the developing countries. The three main source countries of remittances are the U.S, Saudi Arabia and Germany. The three main recipient countries, in terms of value, are India, Mexico and the Philippines. The international market for remittances is segmented and costly for migrants. Money transmitter operators dominating the market charge high fees and use overvalued exchange rates for money transfers. Commercial banks of both source and recipient countries have a low share of the global remittances market.


Much has been said, most of it indulgently, about William Rehnquist's enthusiasm for small-scale, friendly wagering. On more than one occasion, for example, Chief Justice John Roberts has described the place of gambling in his predecessor's life:Although occasionally a stern figure on the bench, the Chief had a whimsical side. He was a great one for games . . . . He excelled at trivia contests and enjoyed small wagers on anything – athletic contests, presidential elections, the day of the first snowfall, and how much snow there would be.Less has been said about the operational details of the gambling enterprises Rehnquist participated in. This article provides a quick look at one of them: the Betting Commission of which he was an active member during the 1984 election season.


ABSTRACT

Vocational training has attracted increasing attention over the past two decades both in theoretical and policy terms. This study set out to raise questions about the management of such training. Evidence from previous work suggests that policy makers responsible for training are faced with exogenous forces that make decision making prone to irrational choices.

This study attempts to fill the gap in research on post entry screening by examining a series of longitudinal data. The approach has been through the use of interviews with trainees from selected industries (British Gas, the football industry and the provision of a public library service). Between them, these industries represent a large cross section of the British economy. British Gas is an example of a former nationalised industry that has been subsequently privatised. By contrast, the football industry is(and always has been) in private "hands". Finally, this study examined the provision of ICT training given to public library service personnel in both the UK and Finland.
The aim, in all cases, was to assess whether resources devoted to training were used efficiently. A second aim was to locate the findings in the context of a debate between the neoclassical school of economic analysis and its institutional rival, especially Internal Labour Market theory.

The evidence suggests that institutional theory explains post entry progression better
than its neoclassical rival. Furthermore, the research also concludes that managers charged with the task of implementing training schemes frequently do not evaluate
them and as a consequence, the stated aims of organisations' training strategies are not realised. This situation is likely to continue unless more thought is given to the issue of monitoring training carefully both at a micro and macro level. Ultimately, this research demonstrates that industry-wide (or macroeconomic) policies designed to increase employees' skills do not necessarily result in the desired gains at a local
(or microeconomic) level.


Since the beginning of archaeological exploration on Crete, agricultural storage has attracted a great deal of scholarly interest. The discovery of several palaces on the island has provided a range of evidence concerning storage: the development of a complex written accounting system, the production of thousands of storage jars, the building of storerooms, and built installations apparently devoted to long-term grain storage (the so-called kouloures at Knossos, Malia, and Phaistos). However, the presence in nonpalatial sites of structures that can plausibly be interpreted as silo complexes for long-term grain storage has not attracted much attention. This article is concerned with the Late Bronze Age evidence from Ayia Triada in the Mesara Plain, which has four such complexes, two of which are still unpublished. By drawing on the results of recent fieldwork, I contrast these buildings with those of other Mycenaean and Near Eastern sites to place Ayia Triada in its wider Aegean and Mediterranean context. Through the use of information found in the local Linear A and nonlocal Linear B documents, together with the archaeological evidence, this article highlights the role that long-term grain storage played within the local political economy in the 14th and 13th centuries B.C.E.


Covariance matrix estimation and principal component analysis (PCA) are two cornerstones of multivariate analysis. Classic textbook solutions perform poorly when the dimension of the data is of a magnitude similar to the sample size, or even larger. In such settings, there is a common remedy for both statistical problems: nonlinear shrinkage of the eigenvalues of the sample covariance matrix. The optimal nonlinear shrinkage formula depends on unknown population quantities and is thus not available. It is, however, possible to consistently estimate an oracle nonlinear shrinkage, which is motivated on asymptotic grounds. A key tool to this end is consistent estimation of the set of eigenvalues of the population covariance matrix (also known as spectrum), an interesting and challenging problem in its own right. Extensive Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that our methods have desirable finite-sample properties and outperform previous proposals.


I use photographic methods and parts of photographs as a means
of synthesizing images. I sometimes use the whole photograph
as a compositional entity. A camera only makes three distinctions;
one is focus, the second is value (the Zone System,
Ansel Adams and Minor White), and the third is where the camera
puts everything on a two-dimensional surface.
There is a danger of making finished photographs; for one, I
have to be careful that the image is either under-played or
exaggerated in value so that it will allow the completion to
take place in the painting. If the photograph is too good
and can stand as a finished work of art by itself, there is
no reason to make a painting from it. I've always worked
from black and white photographs and I do my own developing
and printing. If you work from colour prints or slides, you're
forced to make decisions more as photographic problems than as painting problems. I found colour prints too restricting;
whether I wanted to or not I was constantly referring back to
the colour print. With colour prints I found I had to work
out all those problems of balance out there or inside with the
camera rather than in the painting.
There are a lot of things you can photograph, in motion for
instance, which make sense as a photograph but which become
false in a painting because painting is essentially a static
art. A photograph often gives the feeling of a particular
moment in time and you get the sense of how that is bracketed
in with the before and after. I like the kind of photograph
that tends to just be; you sense that what came before was
exactly the same as what is shown, and that what comes next
is going to be exactly the same. It is a kind of extension of
time, which is a very traditional aspect of painting.
I try to find and use that particular static quality to advantage
to make something happen that perhaps doesn't happen in
a photograph.
The central problem in the paintings I've done, to me, is a
painting problem and not a subject matter problem. It has to
do with the relationship between the outside world, the
surface of the canvas, and the kind of tension that is set up
between illusionary space and the integrity of the surface of
the canvas. What I've been working on largely is setting up
this kind of tension so that things refer not only to reality
but also back to painting. It adds another element to that
kind of special tension because it raises the question of
whether you are looking at an illusion of objects in space or
a representation of a flat piece of paper (a photograph) which
is in turn a representation of things in space. So when you
add the photograph in there between the things in space and the
painting, the painting begins to flatten out as you think of it
as a photograph and not an illusion of space. It's the
references between what we know, what we see, what we think we
see, and what's there between the surface of the canvas and
the illusion in the canvas.
My paintings and drawings are a result of certain self-imposed
restrictions that I set up for myself. I deal in Personal
things with the concept that the spectator can still relate
to it. I'm not concerned with painting people or with making
social comments. Obviously the limitations I've set will
ultimately affect the subject matter.
Taking the photograph is the first step; the idea occurs and
is involved with the photograph. That is the creation of it
almost, and the drawing is the technique of transmitting the
image. The process I use in drawing is not to validate the
image but rather to comment on the process itself. The concern
I have now is what implications the image has changed due to
the process.
The drawings that I have done are to do with the Zone System
(Ansel Adams and Minor White), where I obtain a value scale
from black to white. In photography the zones are not evenly
spaced. They form three groups of low, middle and high tones.
This is because of the limitations in the process (silver)
itself. This is not the case in drawing, where you can obtain
a gradual physical progression. In some of my black and white
pencil drawings I see colour emerging; either it's an illusion
or it's just my association with the image, I cannot quite pinpoint
it at the moment. In the coloured pencil drawings there
is a distinct quality as opposed to painting the image, almost
a distortion which becomes magic. One of the areas in which I
can extend that process is in Printmaking, namely Lithography,
to what conclusions it remains to be seen.
To make statements of the process of drawing, to talk about
the direct use of the medium, to let the drawing itself lead
to other connotations rather than restricting the image to
communicate to the observer the tactile quality of drawing.
It is not a question of representation; it should evoke
a language on other levels (dialogue).
I find it fascinating and motivating that I can paint or draw
something which is very specific as in the jacket series at
an unidentifiable location which leaves it open to various
interpretations and connotations as an abstract painting.


LAW AND HUMAN RIGHTS Bonny Ibhawoh. Imperialism and Human Rights: Colonial Discourses of Rights and Liberties in African History. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2007. xvi + 226 pp. Photographs. Notes. Bibliography. Index. $60.00. Cloth. This is an important contribution to the historical analysis of human rights discourses-and particularly to the discussion of human rights before the 1948 United Nations Declaration of Human Rights. Using colonial Nigeria under British rule as a case study, Ibhawoh sets his study in the context of the earlier traditions of human rights, arguing that the contemporary focus on universal human rights indeed had antecedents in African traditional political and social institutions as much as in earlier European encounters. The conceptual framework of the book centers on this complex link between African notions of rights and the formalized discourses of human rights that emerged with the colonial encounter. The major strength of this work is the way it challenges the view that human rights discourse is almost exclusively a Western affair. Ibhawoh's analysis of Pax Britannica in relation to the issue of rights and liberties, couched in the discourse of ending internal slavery and extending the frontiers of commerce, is a good way to begin. Antislavery proponents and missionaries employed notions of rights and liberties in the attempt to restructure local societies and guarantee a new notion of rights and liberties for local peoples. Yet the process of pacification forcefully brought to the fore issues of the rights of local peoples and the limits imposed on their liberties by imperial structures. Indeed Western rights discourse was qualified, nonuniversal, and tinted by racial categorizations that differentiated between Africans and Europeans. This general overview gives way to a more specific discussion of human rights concerns of both Europeans and Africans. While the legal system served as an instrument for fostering colonial hegemony, it was also quite influential in the colonial discourse on the rights of Africans. From the repugnancy doctrine, which sought to extend imperial law and notions of rights and justice to the colony, to the elimination of perceived obnoxious laws, colonial regulation was seen as an instrument for the protection of the rights and liberties of Africans. Ironically, Africans used the colonial legal system-an instrument upon which officials based their conception of a new social order-to engage the state. …


Compensatory mitigation (also known as offsetting) is the practice of allowing harm to one ecosystem as long as a comparable ecosystem elsewhere is restored. This common practice is intended to balance the competing demands of economic development and environmental protection. Here, I explore compensatory mitigation through a focus on one particular type: stream mitigation banking in the United States under the Clean Water Act, a market‐based form of environmental management. I explain the motivations for compensating for rather than preventing environmental damage more broadly, the practice of stream mitigation banking, and what we know about its environmental and social impacts. I conclude by calling out the stakes in offsetting more generally, and in stream mitigation banking in particular, arguing that neither market‐based environmental management nor offsetting more generally may be serving us well.


A South African Web site imparts basic immunology information to clinicians and other health-care workers. To determine how a program for learning immunology could be most useful for clinicians in South Africa, we consulted with the country's 20 leading HIV-specialist pediatricians. They told us that immunology and its underlying concepts were perceived to be complex and arcane and that there was a need for immunology to be better integrated into "real-life" clinical practice. Most saw immunology as predominantly a laboratory science with little application to clinical practice; this highlighted a gap between clinical management of patients and theoretical understanding of the etiology and immunopathogenesis of disease. We speculated that one of the possible reasons for this perception and knowledge gap is that immunology is not an independent discipline within the South African medical curriculum. Instead, it is diffusely integrated into disciplines such as pathology or internal medicine and is not specifically provided for during post-degree training.


Abstract. A challenge in data-based 3D building reconstruction is to find the exact edges of roof facet polygons. Although these edges are visible in orthoimages, convolution-based edge detectors also find many other edges due to shadows and textures. In this feasibility study, we apply machine learning to solve this problem. Recently, neural networks have been introduced that not only detect edges in images, but also assemble the edges into a graph. When applied to roof reconstruction, the vertices of the dual graph represent the roof facets. In this study, we apply the Point-Pair Graph Network (PPGNet) to orthoimages of buildings and evaluate the quality of the detected edge graphs. The initial results are promising, and adjusting the training parameters further improved the results. However, in some cases, additional work, such as post-processing, is required to reliably find all vertices.


This paper describes the formation of a series of bis(cycloalkeno)-1,4-diselenins from the corresponding cycloalkeno-1,2,3-selenadiazoles by a microwave irradiation (MW) method. The bi-radical dimerization reaction of 1,2,3-selenadiazoles was performed by a new synthetic strategy under solvent-free conditions using 100 Watt microwave irradiation for about 20 minutes. The current synthesis afforded a feasible approach for the preparation of various 1,4-diselenins. The so-prepared alkyl selenides were characterized by various spectroscopic tools, viz. UV-visible, FTIR, 1H, 13C, DEPT and 77Se NMR spectroscopy, ESI-MS and TGA analysis. Additionally, bis(cyclohepteno)-1,4-diselenin has been effectively utilised as a novel selenium precursor for the synthesis of CdSe quantum dots (QDs). This Se-rich precursor can likely be used for the preparation of other metal selenides also.


Cellulose acetate (CA) can be converted to cellulose II through a deacetylation process using ethanolic NaOH solution. Infrared spectroscopy was used to observe the degree of acetylation by comparing the absorption intensities of C═O and C–O stretches. Attenuated total reflection-Fourier transform infrared (ATR-FTIR) analysis, which only measures a few microns into the fiber diameter, was compared with FTIR, which measures the whole fiber cross-section. Steady deacetylation of the whole fiber over 180 min was observed with FTIR to eventual complete deacetylation. In comparison, ATR-FTIR shows deacetylation occurring more rapidly to complete deacetylation after 90 min, indicating rapid deacetylation of the CA fiber periphery. Data were fitted to a pseudo-second order kinetic model, with high correlation (R² > 0.99), and it was observed that the deacetylation rate (k₂) observed with ATR-FTIR (−0.634 min⁻¹) was twice as rapid as the deacetylation rate observed with FTIR (−0.315 min⁻¹). IR observations were in agreement with the analysis of fiber cross-sections by confocal microscopy, where it was observed that changes in fiber morphology occurred with treatment time and progressive hydrolysis of cellulose acetate to cellulose II. A differential fiber chemical composition was created within the CA fiber cross-section; after 5 min, the outer regions of the fiber cross-section are hydrolyzed to cellulose II and this hydrolysis increases heterogeneously with time to complete hydrolysis after 180 min and conversion to cellulose II. These results indicate the potential to produce fibers with a differential periphery/core structure, which can be accurately designed according to the relative degrees of cellulose II/CA required for specific applications by varying the treatment time in application of this model.


BACKGROUND
Alcohol is consumed by over 2 billion people worldwide. It is a common substance of abuse and its use can lead to more than 200 disorders including hypertension. Alcohol has both acute and chronic effects on blood pressure. This review aimed to quantify the acute effects of different doses of alcohol over time on blood pressure and heart rate in an adult population.

OBJECTIVES
Primary objective To determine short-term dose-related effects of alcohol versus placebo on systolic blood pressure and diastolic blood pressure in healthy and hypertensive adults over 18 years of age. Secondary objective To determine short-term dose-related effects of alcohol versus placebo on heart rate in healthy and hypertensive adults over 18 years of age.

SEARCH METHODS
The Cochrane Hypertension Information Specialist searched the following databases for randomised controlled trials up to March 2019: the Cochrane Hypertension Specialised Register; the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL; 2019, Issue 2), in the Cochrane Library; MEDLINE (from 1946); Embase (from 1974); the World Health Organization International Clinical Trials Registry Platform; and ClinicalTrials.gov. We also contacted authors of relevant articles regarding further published and unpublished work. These searches had no language restrictions.

SELECTION CRITERIA
Randomised controlled trials (RCTs) comparing effects of a single dose of alcohol versus placebo on blood pressure (BP) or heart rate (HR) in adults (≥ 18 years of age).

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Two review authors (ST and CT) independently extracted data and assessed the quality of included studies. We also contacted trial authors for missing or unclear information. Mean difference (MD) from placebo with 95% confidence interval (CI) was the outcome measure, and a fixed-effect model was used to combine effect sizes across studies.  MAIN RESULTS: We included 32 RCTs involving 767 participants. Most of the study participants were male (N = 642) and were healthy. The mean age of participants was 33 years, and mean body weight was 78 kilograms. Low-dose alcohol (< 14 g) within six hours (2 RCTs, N = 28) did not affect BP but did increase HR by 5.1 bpm (95% CI 1.9 to 8.2) (moderate-certainty evidence). Medium-dose alcohol (14 to 28 g) within six hours (10 RCTs, N = 149) decreased systolic blood pressure (SBP) by 5.6 mmHg (95% CI -8.3 to -3.0) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) by 4.0 mmHg (95% CI -6.0 to -2.0) and increased HR by 4.6 bpm (95% CI 3.1 to 6.1) (moderate-certainty evidence for all).  Medium-dose alcohol within 7 to 12 hours (4 RCTs, N = 54) did not affect BP or HR. Medium-dose alcohol > 13 hours after consumption (4 RCTs, N = 66) did not affect BP or HR. High-dose alcohol (> 30 g) within six hours (16 RCTs, N = 418) decreased SBP by 3.5 mmHg (95% CI -6.0 to -1.0), decreased DBP by 1.9 mmHg (95% CI-3.9 to 0.04), and increased HR by 5.8 bpm (95% CI 4.0 to 7.5). The certainty of evidence was moderate for SBP and HR, and was low for DBP. High-dose alcohol within 7 to 12 hours of consumption (3 RCTs, N = 54) decreased SBP by 3.7 mmHg (95% CI -7.0 to -0.5) and DBP by 1.7 mmHg (95% CI -4.6 to 1.8) and increased HR by 6.2 bpm (95% CI 3.0 to 9.3). The certainty of evidence was moderate for SBP and HR, and low for DBP. High-dose alcohol ≥ 13 hours after consumption (4 RCTs, N = 154) increased SBP by 3.7 mmHg (95% CI 2.3 to 5.1), DBP by 2.4 mmHg (95% CI 0.2 to 4.5), and HR by 2.7 bpm (95% CI 0.8 to 4.6) (moderate-certainty evidence for all).  AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: High-dose alcohol has a biphasic effect on BP; it decreases BP up to 12 hours after consumption and increases BP > 13 hours after consumption. High-dose alcohol increases HR at all times up to 24 hours. Findings of this review are relevant mainly to healthy males, as only small numbers of women were included in the included trials.


Abstract. The Papua New Guinea (PNG) tsunami of July 1998 was a seminal event because it demonstrated that relatively small and relatively deepwater Submarine Mass Failures (SMFs) can cause devastating local tsunamis that strike without warning. There is a comprehensive data set that proves this event was caused by a submarine slump. Yet, the source of the tsunami has remained controversial. This controversy is attributed to several causes. Before the PNG event, it was questionable as to whether SMFs could cause devastating tsunamis. As a result, only limited modelling of SMFs as tsunami sources had been undertaken, and these excluded slumps. The results of these models were that SMFs in general were not considered to be a potential source of catastrophic tsunamis. To effectively model a SMF requires fairly detailed geological data, and these too had been lacking. In addition, qualitative data, such as evidence from survivors, tended to be disregarded in assessing alternative tsunami sources. The use of marine geological data to identify areas of recent submarine failure was not widely applied. The disastrous loss of life caused by the PNG tsunami resulted in a major investigation into the area offshore of the devastated coastline, with five marine expeditions taking place. This was the first time that a focussed, large-scale, international programme of marine surveying had taken place so soon after a major tsunami. It was also the first time that such a comprehensive data set became the basis for tsunami simulations. The use of marine mapping subsequently led to a larger involvement of marine geologists in the study of tsunamis, expanding the knowledge base of those studying the threat from SMF hazards. This paper provides an overview of the PNG tsunami and its impact on tsunami science. It presents revised interpretations of the slump architecture based on new seabed relief images and, using these, the most comprehensive tsunami simulation of the PNG event to date. Simulation results explain the measured runups to a high degree. The PNG tsunami has made a major impact on tsunami science. It is one of the most studied SMF tsunamis, yet it remains the only one known of its type: a slump.


Introduction: Stroke imposes limitations on performing activities of daily living (ADL) and their level. Different therapeutic approaches are used for improving the level of performance after a stroke. This study was performed with the aim of evaluating the effect of group-based occupational therapy on improving the performance of ADL and satisfaction of its performance in patients with chronic strokes. Methods: Fourteen chronic stroke patients with the mean age of 52 years participated in the study. The participants were assigned into two groups (control and treatment). The level of performance of ADL, level of stroke disability, and participation were respectively evaluated by Barthel index (BI), modified Rankin scale (MRS), and Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM). Six sessions of group therapy tasks were scheduled with an emphasis on three main activities, including mobility exercises, craft, and cooking. Results: The COPM changes in the 'performance' and 'satisfaction' scores in the treatment group and the 'performance' scores in the control group were significant. The MRS scale in the two groups revealed no change in the level of stroke disability. However, the changes in the ADL performance in BI were significant. Conclusion: The current study indicated that doing daily, craft, and mobility activities in the groups can affect the 'performance' and 'satisfaction' levels in stroke patients.


At the end of the nineteenth century, the international community began creating its first tribunals with the establishment of the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Since then, numerous courts and tribunals have been created on the international stage. This Article examines the interplay of form, function, and the powers exercised by international courts. It first considers the functions or attributes of any institution that carries the name "court" or "tribunal" and reflects upon whether there are powers that must be deemed inherent in such an institution to allow it to fulfill the judicial function, irrespective of limitations placed on the court's jurisdiction or the type of proceedings it conducts. The Article then identifies four specific functions that states have expressly delegated to international courts. The conclusion suggests that courts, litigants, and scholars still may usefully examine any exercise of international judicial powers by considering the function of the court and asking whether the power is one inherent to all courts, expressly conferred on the particular court, or reasonably implied from an express or inherent power.


Existing studies have shown how the royal wardrobe, the king's personal administrative office, regularly handled between a quarter and a half of the Crown's annual cash income. Despite this, the financial contribution of the wardrobe to royal finance under Henry III is not fully understood. For a reign in which debates about royal fiscal strategies are so notable a feature, this represents a significant gap. This article will supplement existing studies of wardrobe finance under Henry III by collectively analysing all 15 of the king's wardrobe accounts that are enrolled on the exchequer pipe rolls. The article makes two important findings. Firstly, the wardrobe was financially strong when the period of baronial reform began in 1258. Secondly, the wardrobe's financial strength was the result of a new, and deliberate, approach to acquiring revenue beyond the treasury that targeted sources of income that could generate cash quickly. During Henry's final years, this included greater reliance on credit. These findings suggest Henry III was not incapable of making adroit financial decisions. They also reveal that the foundations for the financial system developed by the three Edwards, which was more reliant on credit and sources of ready cash, were laid under Henry III.


Traditional engineering design discipline calls for designs to be evaluated long before they are implemented. Early design evaluations predict properties of the artifact that will result from a proper implementation of the design and the value of those properties to the client or end user. The predicted properties can include costs as well as functionality, performance, and quality measures. Software engineering has some such evaluation techniques but the discipline lacks a systematic way to explain, compare, develop, and apply them. We discuss the role of early predictive design evaluation in software design, show how a variety of specific predictors serve this role, and propose a unifying framework, Predictive Analysis for Design (PAD) for design evaluation techniques. We are especially interested in techniques that predict the value of the finished software system to its client or end user and that make the predictions before the expense of software development or integration is incurred. We show that our PAD framework, even in its preliminary state, is sufficiently expressive to be useful in explaining and characterizing design evaluation techniques. We argue that the PAD framework shows sufficient promise to justify further development toward a unified theory of early predictive design evaluation.