Advocacy and action for adolescents have been hampered by the lack of a concrete results framework that can be used to describe the state of the world's adolescents and serve as a basis for goals and targets. In order to fill this gap, UNICEF, in collaboration with key partners, is facilitating the development of an outcome-based framework that incorporates the key dimensions of an adolescent's life and a proposed set of globally comparable indicators that will provide a common platform to track the progress of adolescent development and well-being. The domains that have been selected for measurement are: health and well-being, education and learning, safety and protection, participation, transition to work.


Touch DNA evidence is increasingly being collected and analyzed during criminal investigations. The purpose of this study was to determine if a significant amount of male (suspect) touch DNA can be collected from the clothes of assaulted victims after varying time intervals. A "grab and struggle" model was used to transfer touch DNA materials from human volunteers onto three types of fabrics (cotton, polyester, and a cotton/polyester blend). This was designed to replicate a sexual assault, in which a male acted as an "assailant" and grabbed different fabric covered arm areas of a female volunteer "victim". Afterwards, three cuttings from each fabric sample were taken and extracted at 12 hours and 7 days post-deposition. The extracts were then quantified using the Quantifiler®Duo DNA quantification kit. The maximum yield of DNA from cotton fabric 12 hours post-deposition was 7 pg/ul and 5 pg/ul for total human DNA and human male DNA, respectively. The limit of detection of the Quantifiler Duo kit is 23 pg/ul, therefore these results are below standard profile detection range. No significant deterioration of DNA yield between the two time intervals (12 hours and 7 days) was observed. Variation between the tested fabrics and the areas of sampling could not be determined due to the very small quantities measured. This study did not find useful amounts of touch DNA on clothes after this assault model. Results are limited by a relatively small sample size and the assault model parameters; however, these results do not support the routine use of touch DNA evidence from clothes in similar assault cases


This paper addresses the problem of identifying echelon canonical forms for a vector autoregressive moving average model with exogenous variables using finite algorithms. For given values of the Kronecker indices a method for estimating the structural parameters of a model using ordinary least squares calculations is presented. These procedures give rise, rather naturally, to a technique for the determination of the structural indices based on the use of conventional model selection criteria. A detailed analysis of the statistical properties of the estimation and identification procedures is given and some evidence on the practical significance of the results obtained is also provided. Modifications designed to improve the performance of the methods are presented. Some discussion of the practical significance of the results obtained is also provided.


A general light-scattering spectrometer for measuring surface fluctuations is analyzed by using the methods of Fourier optics. Optical configurations can be designed so that the autocorrelation of the photocurrent is given by either the first- or the second-order correlation functions for the surface fluctuations. Fluctuations in capillary-wave amplitude and in surface density can be detected separately for a number of cases of practical interest. A method is proposed for unambiguous detection of capillary waves with amplitudes larger than the optical wavelength.


In design research, the issues of what exactly constitutes user value and how design can contribute to its creation are not commonly discussed. This paper provides a critical overview of the theories of value used in anthropology, sociology, philosophy, business, and economics. In doing so, it reviews a range of theoretical and empirical studies, with particular emphasis on their position on product, user, and designer in the process of value creation. The paper first looks at the similarities and differences among definitions of value as exchange, sign, and experience. It then reviews types and properties of user value such as its multidimensionality, its contextuality, its interactivity, and the stages of user experience dependency identified by empirical studies. Methodological approaches to user value research and their possible applications in design are also discussed. Finally, directions for future research on user value are discussed giving particular emphasis to the need of tools and methods to support design practice.


As wireless communication technology becomes increasingly available, multi-hop wireless networks such as wireless sensor networks and wireless mesh networks are receiving substantial attention from both academic and industrial efforts. However, traditional contention-based wireless MAC protocols such as IEEE 802.11 DCF are designed for single-hop wireless networks and do not perform well in multi-hop scenarios due to inefficiency in their medium reservation mechanisms.
In this thesis, a new general mechanism, utilizing a new Pioneer (PION) scheduling frame, is introduced to improve the efficiency in wireless medium reservation for multi-hop wireless networks. With the help of limited routing information at the MAC layer, this new mechanism enables multiple stations along a delivery path to cooperate. In particular, the PION control frame can travel across multiple hops and make medium reservations along the route for the upcoming data frame transmissions. This cooperation across multiple hops at the MAC layer can therefore greatly improve the medium reservation efficiency.
This thesis introduces the PION mechanism and illustrates its use through application in two different types of MAC protocols. First, in the energy-constrained sensor network environment, I develop a new a duty-cycle based MAC protocol, called RMAC. Comparing against S-MAC, a classic duty-cycle MAC protocol, RMAC shows significant performance improvement in both packet delivery latency and network throughput, with even better energy efficiency. Second, the new PION mechanism is then applied to the general case of multi-hop wireless networks in the design of a MAC protocol called EMAC. Simulation results under various scenarios and traffic loads have shown the potential of EMAC over IEEE 802.11, including throughput improvement and decrease in packet relaying time.


Three different levels are recognised in the metamorphic pile of Syros and Sifnos. Well-preserved eclogites and blueschists occur at the top, whereas they are overprinted in the albite-epidote blueschist facies below, and in greenschist facies at the base. A multi-equilibrium approach involving several end members and solid-solution models for chlorite, phengite, and garnet is used to estimate the stability P-T conditions of different parageneses. The combination of textural criteria with the results of P-T calculations is consistent with the assumption of local equilibrium. Contrasted P-T conditions are inferred for successive parageneses coexisting out of equilibrium in the same samples. When considering all the P-T estimates together, contrasted P-T trends can be distinguished for the three different levels of the metamorphic pile. These trends are interpreted as the signature of the P-T paths followed by the rocks during their exhumation. The preservation of eclogitic parageneses at the top of the structural pile is correlated with cooling during decompression. In contrast, the progressive retrogression observed in the underlying rocks, toward the base of the metamorphic pile, is correlated with an increasing isothermal decompression before cooling.


Abstract Objective To estimate the cross-national association between suicide rates and gun ownership rates Method The association is estimated using the largest sample of nations (n = 194) ever employed for this purpose. Three different measures of national gun ownership rates are related to total suicide rates, firearms suicide rates, and non-firearms suicide rates. Results Although gun ownership rates have a significant positive association with the rate of firearms suicide, they are unrelated to the total suicide rate. Conclusions Consistent with the results of most prior macro-level studies, cross-national data indicate that levels of gun availability appear to affect how many people choose shooting as their method of suicide, but do not affect how many people kill themselves.


This paper addresses the question of where we now stand with respect to detection and attribution of an anthropo- genic climate signal. Our ability to estimate natural climate variability, against which claims of anthropogenic signal detection must be made, is reviewed. The current situation suggests control runs of global climate models may give the best estimates of natural variability on a global basis, estimates that appear to be accurate to within a factor of 2 or 3 at multidecadal timescales used in detection work. Present uncertainties in both observations and model-simulated anthropogenic signals in near-surface air tem- perature are estimated. The uncertainty in model simulated signals is, in places, as large as the signal to be detected. Two different, but complementary, approaches to detection and attribution are discussed in the context of these uncertainties. Applying one of the detection strategies, it is found that the change in near-surface, June through August air tem- perature field over the last 50 years is generally different at a significance level of 5% from that expected from model- based estimates of natural variability. Greenhouse gases alone cannot explain the observed change. Two of four climate models forced by greenhouse gases and direct sulfate aerosols produce results consistent with the current climate change observations, while the consistency of the other two depends on which model's anthropogenic fingerprints are used. A recent integration with additional anthropogenic forcings (the indirect effects of sulfate aerosols and tropospheric ozone) and more complete tropospheric chemistry produced results whose signal amplitude and pattern were consis- tent with current observations, provided the model's fingerprint is used and detection carried out over only the last 30 years of annually averaged data. This single integration currently cannot be corroborated and provides no opportunity to estimate the uncertainties inherent in the results, uncertainties that are thought to be large and poorly known. These results illustrate the current large uncertainty in the magnitude and spatial pattern of the direct and indirect sulfate forcing and climate response. They also show detection statements depend on model-specific fingerprints, time pe- riod, and seasonal character of the signal, dependencies that have not been well explored. Most, but not all, results suggest that recent changes in global climate inferred from surface air temperature are likely not due solely to natural causes. At present it is not possible to make a very confident statement about the relative con- tributions of specific natural and anthropogenic forcings to observed climate change. One of the main reasons is that fully realistic simulations of climate change due to the combined effects of all anthropogenic and natural forcings mecha- nisms have yet to be computed. A list of recommendations for reducing some of the uncertainties that currently hamper detection and attribution studies is presented.


Polio erupted in Syria last October after a 15-year absence—a sign of the devastation of the health system during the country9s 3-year civil war. Millions of Syrian children, some of whom have not been vaccinated since the conflict began, are at high risk, as are millions more in surrounding countries as refugees stream across their borders. The World Health Organization and its partners have launched the biggest polio emergency response ever attempted in the Middle East. But to stop the outbreak, they will have to find ways to reach children who so far have been cut off from all humanitarian aid.


Named entity recognition identifies and classifies entity names in a text document into some predefined categories. It resolves the "who", "where" and "how much" problems in information extraction and leads to the resolution of the "what" and "how" problems in further processing. This paper presents a Hidden Markov Model (HMM) and proposes a HMM-based named entity recognizer implemented as the system PowerNE. Through the HMM and an effective constraint relaxation algorithm to deal with the data sparseness problem, PowerNE is able to effectively apply and integrate various internal and external evidences of entity names. Currently, four evidences are included: (1) a simple deterministic internal feature of the words, such as capitalization and digitalization; (2) an internal semantic feature of the important triggers; (3) an internal gazetteer feature, which determines the appearance of the current word string in the provided gazetteer list; and (4) an external macro context feature, which deals with the name alias phenomena. In this way, the named entity recognition problem is resolved effectively. PowerNE has been benchmarked with the Message Understanding Conferences (MUC) data. The evaluation shows that, using the formal training and test data of the MUC-6 and MUC-7 English named entity tasks, and it achieves the F-measures of 96.6 and 94.1, respectively. Compared with the best reported machine learning system, it achieves a 1.7 higher F-measure with one quarter of the training data on MUC-6, and a 3.6 higher F-measure with one ninth of the training data on MUC-7. In addition, it performs slightly better than the best reported handcrafted rule-based systems on MUC-6 and MUC-7.


In this chapter, we will review some of the methods proposed in literature to remove the speckle pattern from ultrasound data based on nonlinear processing. Note that some filters that can also be considered as nonlinear are left aside since they will be deeply treated in other chapters. That is the case of the wavelet-based methods and Bayesian methods. Other methods also treated in other chapters, like diffusion-based schemes are only briefly reviewed in order to place them inside the global partial differential equation (PDE) classification. On the other hand, note that some of the filters here reviewed are not initially proposed for ultrasound imaging but derived for Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) images, where noise can be modeled similarly. In those images, the multiplicative model for speckle holds and therefore, many of the methods defined in literature for SAR can be easily extrapolated to ultrasound denoising. This is the case of some of the most popular speckle filters. In addition, we would like to remark that the effectiveness of many of these schemes lays on a proper modeling of the speckle statistics. For some purposes, a simple multiplicative model will suffice, while for some specific applications, more accurate models must be used. Finally, as we stated in the previous chapter, the filtering method must be selected following the specific needs of the problem. There is no all-purpose filter that, with the same configuration parameters, could perform excellent in all situations.


Some groups of marine bacteria within the Α‐proteobacteria are capable of anoxygenic photosynthesis in oxic environments. Their primary photosynthetic pigment is bacteriochlorophyll a (BacChl a). The impact of these bacteria on flows of energy and carbon in the ocean has been difficult to ascertain in the past. Recently, however, Kolber et al. (2001) reported that such bacteria are abundant in the upper ocean and that these might contribute significantly to photosynthetically driven electron transport since measured and inferred ratios of BacChl a and chlorophyll a (Chl a) were about 0.8% in coastal environments and as high as 10% in the Eastern Tropical North Pacific. The authors suggested that the globally averaged BacChl a/Chl a ratio could be as high as 5 to 10%. To determine whether such high values are representative of other marine environments, concentrations of BacChl a were measured in samples collected in eutrophic nearshore and mesotrophic and oligotrophic offshore environments off Southern California. The average BacChl a/Chl a ratio was 1.1% in nearshore and 0.5% in mesotrophic shelf and oligotrophic offshore environments. Assuming that rates of photosynthesis scale with concentrations of photosynthetic pigments, these data suggest that the contribution of BacChl a driven anoxygenic bacterial photosynthesis to energy production in coastal eutrophic and offshore oligotrophic areas of the California current system is small, substantially smaller than the suggested global average of 5 to 10%.


Determining and measuring diversity in news articles is important for a number of reasons, including preventing filter bubbles and fueling public discourse, especially before elections. So far, the identification and analysis of diversity have been illuminated in a variety of ways, such as measuring the overlap of words or topics between news articles related to US elections. However, the question of how diversity in news articles can be measured holistically, i.e., with respect to (1) variety, (2) balance, and (3) disparity, considering individuals, parties, and topics, has not been addressed. In this paper, we present a framework for determining diversity in news articles according to these dimensions. Furthermore, we create and provide a dataset of Google Top Stories, encompassing more than 26,000 unique headlines from more than 900 news outlets collected within two weeks before and after the 2021 German federal election. While we observe high diversity for more general search terms (e.g.,"election"), a range of search terms ("education,""Europe,""climate protection,""government") resulted in news articles with high diversity in two out of three dimensions. This reflects a more subjective, dedicated discussion on rather future-oriented topics.


Novel tetrasubstituted metal-free (2), zinc (II) (3), cobalt (II) (4), and copper (II) (5) phthalocyanines bearing 2-phenylethanolate groups on the peripheral positions were synthesized by the cyclotetramerization reaction of the phthalonitrile derivative 1. The new compounds were characterized by a combination of IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, UV-Vis, elemental analysis, and MS spectra data. The thermal stabilities of the phthalocyanine compounds were determined by thermogravimetric analysis. For metal-free (2) and zinc (3) phthalocyanines, photochemical (photodegradation and singlet oxygen quantum yields) and photophysical (fluorescence quantum yields and fluorescence lifetimes) properties were analyzed in dimethylsulfoxide (DMSO). The cobalt (4) and copper (5) phthalocyanines were not evaluated for this purpose because of their paramagnetic behavior. The metal-free (2) and zinc (3) phthalocyanines' fluorescence quenching behaviors were also investigated. The new phthalocyanine compounds' fluorescence emissions were effectively quenched by 1,4-benzoquinone in DMSO. The thin films of the cobalt phthalocyanine compound (4) were grown by electron beam evaporation technique. Crystalline CoPc (4) thin films were investigated by X-ray diffraction spectroscopy. Surface morphology of the CoPc (4) thin films was characterized by SEM.


For quite a long time, non-coding RNAs (ncRNAs) were discriminated and considered as an evolutionary error. In light of this opinion, discovery of small ncRNAs, in particular microRNA (miRNA), which can regulate the gene expression post-transcriptionally, was a surprise. Computational and experimental approaches revealed the presence of miRNA in almost all living organisms, including plants and Homo sapiens. Growing body of evidence suggests that miRNAs play a crucial role in different aspects of life, ranging from regulation of single cell metabolism through controlling of cell fate and development of multicellular organisms. The present thesis is aimed at understanding the function of miRNAs in pluripotent stem cells and in spermatogenesis.
In the first part of this thesis, we studied the role of miRNA-290 cluster, a pluripotency-related miRNA cluster, during differentiation of embryonic stem cells (ESCs). Our results show that miRNA-290 family members are not sufficient to prevent the loss-of-pluripotency during induced differentiation of ESCs. However, inhibition of these miRNAs was found to facilitate the differentiation process. In addition, overexpression of miR-290 cluster in ESCs resulted in prevention of differentiation towards mesoderm and germ cells, possibly through modulation of Wnt-signaling pathway. Collectively, these results support the assumption that miRNA-290 members are included in regulation of differentiation fate of ESCs.
In the second part of this thesis, we identified that ESCs but not germline derived pluripotent stem cells retain high expression levels of miRNA-302 cluster, another pluripotency-related miRNA clusters. Further, we found out subtle differences in expression levels of germ cell marker genes between ESCs and germline derived pluripotent cell types such as multipotent adult germline stem cells (maGSCs) and embryonic germ cells (EGCs). Interestingly expression of germ cell marker genes was negatively correlated with expression of miRNA-302 family members. In agreement with these observations overexpression of miRNA-302 cluster in maGSCs resulted in downregulation of germ cell marker genes. Taken together, our results highlight that miRNA-302 cluster regulates differentiation of ESCs to the germ cell lineage.
In the third part of this thesis, we made an attempt to establish the miRNA signature of various stage-specific germ cells. Towards this end, we generated a double transgenic mouse model (Stra8/EGFP and Sycp3/DsRed), which helped us to obtain pure germ cell populations from mouse testis. Next, we compared miRNA expression profiles between spermatogonial stem cells (SSCs), pre-meiotic (green) and meiotic (red) cells. Through this study, we identified that stage-specific miRNAs, i.e., miRNA-221, -203 and -34b-5p regulate their corresponding targets such as c-Kit, Rbm44 and Cdk6 to orchestrate the spermatogenesis process. To sum up this study, we described spatiotemporal expression pattern of miRNAs and their possible functions during spermatogenesis.
In the present study, we also identified two novel pluripotent cell-specific miRNAs: miR-135b and miR-363. The function of these novel pluripotency-related miRNAs is under investigation. Furthermore, using our double transgenic mouse model, we identified several uncharacterized meiotic cell-specific genes. Currently, the molecular and biochemical characterization of these genes and their functions during meiosis is under the way.


Planning has been very successful for control tasks with known environment dynamics. To leverage planning in unknown environments, the agent needs to learn the dynamics from interactions with the world. However, learning dynamics models that are accurate enough for planning has been a long-standing challenge, especially in image-based domains. We propose the Deep Planning Network (PlaNet), a purely model-based agent that learns the environment dynamics from images and chooses actions through fast online planning in latent space. To achieve high performance, the dynamics model must accurately predict the rewards ahead for multiple time steps. We approach this using a latent dynamics model with both deterministic and stochastic transition components. Moreover, we propose a multi-step variational inference objective that we name latent overshooting. Using only pixel observations, our agent solves continuous control tasks with contact dynamics, partial observability, and sparse rewards, which exceed the difficulty of tasks that were previously solved by planning with learned models. PlaNet uses substantially fewer episodes and reaches final performance close to and sometimes higher than strong model-free algorithms.


This paper presents the result of a study investigating the influence of visualization of internal articulator movements on the intelligibility of synthesized audiovisual speech. A talking head was supplemented by internal passive and active articulators. A comparative perception test before and after two different training lessons was carried out, where one type of display included all internal articulator movements and the other displayed dynamics without tongue dorsum height, velum opening/closing and tongue forward/backward movements. Results show that recognition scores were significantly higher in audiovisual compared to auditory-alone presentation with non-significantly different recognition scores for both kinds of display. However, only when presenting all additional motion information, the training lesson was able to significantly increase the visual-alone and audiovisual speech intelligibility.


Many parrotfishes (Scaridae) co-occur in mixed-species aggregations as juveniles, but diverge in resource use and social structure as adults. Focal observations of 3 juvenile parrotfishes (Scarus coeruleus, Sparisoma aurofrenatum, Sparisoma viride) were conducted on inshore patch reefs in the Florida Keys to examine feeding rates, food type, habitat use, and aggressive interactions. All species overlapped extensively in their use of space and food. Home ranges physically overlapped, and the proportion of microhabitats present within home ranges was similar for all species. Home range size increased with body size for S. coeruleus and S. aurofrenatum. Diets of all species were extremely similar. All fed selectively from the available foods and fed primarily (>50% total bites) on the calcareous macroalga Halimeda opuntia despite its potentially high energetic costs of procurement, low food value, and predicted avoidance. Focal individuals interacted aggressively with conspecifics, other juvenile parrotfishes, damselfishes, and occasionally grunts and wrasses. S. aurofrenatum and S. viride were most aggressive toward conspecifics. Aggressive interactions with adult parrotfishes were rare. Both Sparisoma spp. were chased more often by damselfishes than any other species. These findings support the growing body of evidence that herbivorous fish do not feed randomly from all potential foods. The aggressive interactions observed among juvenile parrotfishes are likely affecting their use of resources and may act as a precursor to subsequent territoriality as adults.


Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is a difficult-to-treat blood cancer. A major challenge in treating patients with AML is relapse, which is caused by the persistence of leukemia stem cells (LSCs). Self-renewal is a defining property of LSCs and its deregulation is crucial for re-initiating a new leukemia after chemotherapy. Emerging therapeutic agents inhibiting aberrant self-renewal pathways, such as anti-RSPO3 monoclonal antibody discovered in our recent study, present significant clinical potential that may extend beyond the scope of leukemogenesis. In this chapter, we provide an overview of normal and malignant hematopoietic stem cells, discuss current treatments and limitations, and review key self-renewal pathways and potential therapeutic opportunities in AML.


A case-control study of serious crashes in an extensive rural area of North Queensland, Australia, is currently underway. Planning for the study took several years to bring to completion. Its original design involved interviews with persons admitted to major hospitals in the region as a consequence of a traffic crash and with drivers recruited at the roadside optimally at or near the same site one week later. To date this is the plan that has been followed, although problems with roadside recruitment have been encountered. We propose to examine several issues which arose, and continue to arise, in the process of designing, piloting and execution of the study. Operational definitions of concepts such as "rural", "remote" and "serious", and unanticipated methodological and practical challenges involved in recruiting a comparison series will be explored. We will also present some of the many ethical, legal, organisational and logistic complications which we faced and still face in mounting such a study and the solutions proposed and subsequently employed to overcome them.


Introduction A medical application running outside the workstation environment has to deal with several constraints, such as reduced available memory and low network bandwidth. The aim of this paper is to present an approach to optimize the data flow for fast image transfer and visualization on mobile devices and remote stationary devices. Methods We use a combination of client- and server-side procedures to reduce the amount of information transferred by the application. Our approach was implemented on top of a commercial PACS and evaluated through user experiments with specialists in typical diagnosis tasks. The quality of the system outcome was measured in relation to the accumulated amount of network data transference and the amount of memory used in the host device. Besides, the system's quality of use (usability) was measured through participants' feedback. Results Contrarily to previous approaches, ours keeps the application within the memory constraints, minimizing data transferring whenever possible, allowing the application to run on a variety of devices. Moreover, it does that without sacrificing the user experience. Experimental data point that over 90% of the users did not notice any delays or degraded image quality, and when they did, they did not impact on the clinical decisions. Conclusion The combined activities and orchestration of our methods allow the image viewer to run on resource-constrained environments, such as those with low network bandwidth or little available memory. These results demonstrate the ability to explore the use of mobile devices as a support tool in the medical workflow.


Excerpt] The destruction of PATCO has been written off by most labor leaders as the inevitable result of an ill-conceived challenge to an anti-union U.S. President. Although there is widespread sympathy for the rank and file members who lost their jobs in an attempt to exercise collective bargaining rights in the best tradition of the U.S. labor movement, there is at the same time much disdain for the actions of the national officers of PATCO, most notably President Bob Poli. Although the criticisms of the officers are at least partially valid, it is important to recognize that the strategic miscalculations they made were by no means unique. It is even more important to give PATCO's leaders and members credit for the implementation of a brilliantly conceived internal organizing campaign. Critics of PATCO conveniently forget that it was a small union by AFL-CIO standards, with only 15,000 members. Furthermore, the membership was scattered across the country in some 400 different facilities. Although the regional flight control centers typically employed 200 to 400 air traffic controllers, the majority of PATCO members worked in airport towers and belonged to small locals. Under the circumstances, preparing for a possible strike was a logistical nightmare. The legal prohibition of job actions by federal employees made the task all the most difficult. PATCO's ability to stage a strike which was supported by 75 percent of its members even after President Reagan's firing deadline had passed was a truly remarkable feat. Unfortunately the internal organizing consumed virtually all of the attention of the national officers, and the strike was lost because of flaws in other aspects of the union's strategy. PATCO's failure can be directly traced to the fact that its unsuccessful external relations were poor, and political activities were misguided. Another crucial weakness was a lack of understanding of economic factors, which led PATCO to overestimate its own strength. Because of the high visibility of the strike, these mistakes were magnified to such a degree that PATCO's officials were widely criticized (even within the labor movement) as bullheaded, inept, misguided, foolhardy, and worse. Because the flaws in PATCO's strategy are not unique, it would be a mistake to ignore the experiences of this feisty little union. In the discussion that follows, the various aspects of PATCO's approach are considered with particular attention to the specific lessons which can be drawn from the experience. The most important and least discussed contribution of PATCO was its internal organizing program. After reviewing the implementation of this most positive part of the PATCO game plan, the discussion will turn to the components which were not handled as effectively.


Not long ago Italy was Europe's highly touted emerging economy, a society that blended dynamism and super-fast growth with a lifestyle that was the envy of all. Now it is viewed as a major threat to the future of the Euro, indeed to the European Union as a whole. Italy's political system is shorn of credibility as it struggles to deal with huge public debts and anemic levels of economic growth. Young people are emigrating in droves, frustrated at the lack of opportunity, while older people stubbornly cling to their rights and privileges, fearful of an uncertain future. In this lively, up-to-the-minute book, Bill Emmott explains how Italy sank to this low point, how Italians feel about it, and what can be done to return the country to more prosperous and more democratic times. With the aid of numerous personal interviews, Emmott analyzes "Bad Italy"-the land of disgraced Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, an inadequate justice system, an economy dominated by special interests and continuing corruption-against its contrasting foil "Good Italy," the home of enthusiastic entrepreneurs, truth-seeking journalists, and countless citizens determined to end mafia domination for good.


ASSOCIATIONS Successful Techniques to Reach, Recruit and Retain Members Turbulent economic conditions, lifestyle changes and an ever-increasing pace of living and working are all having their effects on the ability of associations to recruit and retain members, according to a recent survey of public relations practitioners and membership marketers in the association field. Not that associations aren't growing. According to the American Society of Association Executives (ASAE), in Washington, D.C., the number of national organizations has shown a net increase of 1,000 each year for the past 10 years. Currently there are about 21,000 associations at the national level, ASAE estimates, and anywhere from 200,000 to 800,000 at the state, regional and local levels. "One indicator of the vitality of associations," says Chris Condeelis, ASAE's department manager, research and information, "is that ASAE itself has been growing continuously for the past six years and recently passed the 20,000 mark in membership." Struggling for growth But that growth hasn't been easy. "Most associations are having a real struggle these days," says Bruce Butterfield, APR, vice president, public affairs, for the Manufactured Housing Institute, located in Arlington, Virginia, and a past chairman of the Association Section of PRSA. Trade associations in particular are finding their membership potential shrinking as companies merge, consolidate or just go out of business, he says. And when U.S. companies are acquired by foreign interests, the new owners sometimes don't appreciate the value and benefits of trade association membership, adds Debra Sher, membership director for ASAE. Trade associations in some industries have been particularly hard hit. The collapse of the savings and loan industry resulted in "lots of nonrenewals" by members of the Financial Institutions Marketing Association (FIMA), in Chicago, Illinois, says Thomas J. Hefter, APR, president. FIMA's membership grew from 1,621 in 1981 to a peak of 2,023 in 1987. But then the S&L crisis struck, and FIMA's membership dropped to 1,964 at the end of 1988 and to 1,811 at the end of 1989. "I'm not sure if we'll ever grow back all the way (to pre-1988 levels)," Hefter says. In the highly volatile electronics industry, start-ups as well as mergers pose a problem for the American Electronics Association, based in Santa Clara, California, and Washington, D.C. "Members appear, members disappear," says John Hatch, vice president, public relations, for the 3,300-member group. That makes it difficult to identify and track potential members, he says. On the other hand, business is picking up in the solid waste management industry. "The industry is growing due to public concerns over the environment and the need for more space to dispose of solid waste," says Mike Sheward, APR, manager of public affairs for the National Solid Waste Management Association, in Washington, D.C. Founded in the early 1970s, the association is growing along with the industry and now has 2,500 members ranging from giant companies to what Sheward calls "one-and-two truck mom-and-pop operations." Sheward says he sees continued growth for the industry, and the association, due to public concern and heightened environmental standards. Membership policies changing Financial constraints are a problem for many associations. "Money is real tight," says Evan Leepson, marketing director for the American College of Radiology, in Reston, Virginia. "You can't go after vague benefits. You have to be very specific and spell out what (members) are going to get." At some professional societies, he notes, members' employers no longer pay or reimburse association dues. For example, as a cost-cutting measure, last fall the trade association I work for revised a previously generous policy on membership in trade and professional organizations. …


The use of composite materials in large primary structures such as wind turbine blades and boat hulls has dramatically increased in recent years. As these structures get larger, new manufacturing processes are required to make them possible. Larger parts also require more expensive tooling, and a higher cost for scrapped parts. This may prohibit the trial and error approach that has been used for many years. The need for accurate process modeling in the design of tooling is becoming essential. Unfortunately, as the processes become more complex so do the models. Although there are several potential processes capable of producing very large parts (10 m 50 m), they all have one common feature. In order to alleviate the problem of forcing the resin to flow large distances though the fabric, they use a distribution system to spread the resin over the surface of the part. The resin then flows a substantially shorter distance between the channels or through the thickness. The goal of this work was to develop a modeling technique that could accurately model these processes, yet not so complex as to loose its utility. In this study, the flows through the different regions of the mold are examined individually. These regions include the injection system, the distribution channel, and the fabric. The governing equations for each region are then combined to form a comprehensive model that accounts for the flow through each region simultaneously. A series of tests were conducted to verify the models of the individual components, as well as the comprehensive model. The rate limiting step through the fabric was also examined in detail. The model correlated well with the experiments performed, and revealed critical information about these types of processes. A major conclusion is that an accurate and straightforward model can be created for large scale processes, using the small scale bench tests performed in this study. Also, the governing equations developed here from Darcy flow and Stokes flow aid in understanding how the scaling of key parameters affects the process as a whole. Variations in the geometry of the channel, the fabric thickness and fabric properties such as permeability and compressibility can be accounted for in the model.


Diamond smoothing tools have been proposed for use in conjunction with diamond cutting tools that are used in many finish-machining operations. Diamond machining (including finishing) is often used, for example, in fabrication of precise metal mirrors. A diamond smoothing tool according to the proposal would have a smooth spherical surface. For a given finish machining operation, the smoothing tool would be mounted next to the cutting tool. The smoothing tool would slide on the machined surface left behind by the cutting tool, plastically deforming the surface material and thereby reducing the roughness of the surface, closing microcracks and otherwise generally reducing or eliminating microscopic surface and subsurface defects, and increasing the microhardness of the surface layer. It has been estimated that if smoothing tools of this type were used in conjunction with cutting tools on sufficiently precise lathes, it would be possible to reduce the roughness of machined surfaces to as little as 3 nm. A tool according to the proposal would consist of a smoothing insert in a metal holder. The smoothing insert would be made from a diamond/metal functionally graded composite rod preform, which, in turn, would be made by sintering together a bulk single-crystal or polycrystalline diamond, a diamond powder, and a metallic alloy at high pressure. To form the spherical smoothing tip, the diamond end of the preform would be subjected to flat grinding, conical grinding, spherical grinding using diamond wheels, and finally spherical polishing and/or buffing using diamond powders. If the diamond were a single crystal, then it would be crystallographically oriented, relative to the machining motion, to minimize its wear and maximize its hardness. Spherically polished diamonds could also be useful for purposes other than smoothing in finish machining: They would likely also be suitable for use as heat-resistant, wear-resistant, unlubricated sliding-fit bearing inserts.


Recent developments in learning technology have changed the nature of distance learning in many higher education institutions across the globe. One of the most significant developments has been the impact of managed learning environments upon the nature of E-learning. An internal project undertaken within the presenters' institution, which reviewed student orientation/retention, made a number of recommendations, highlighting the need for a university-wide induction programme for all students. The review specifically recommended provision of a programme for distance learners, which included information about academic expectations, study skills, student support and development of student communities. A project team was subsequently established to develop an induction package for all E-learning students that would cover many of the aforementioned report's recommendation. This package has now been developed, containing generic materials for use by all students on undergraduate E-learning programmes within the institution. The aim of this workshop will be to explore the nature of a generic institutional online induction programme for E-learners by focusing group discussion on the following aspects of such programmes: • Composition of Development Team • Content • Delivery Model(s) • Quality Assurance Strategy • Evaluation Strategy The workshop will enable delegates to engage in discussion that will aim to share good practice in all aspects of developing generic induction packages for E-Learners. The presenters will also demonstrate the generic institutional online induction programme as well as provide feedback upon a cross-institution evaluation from new students on the online induction programme.


Can artificial agents learn to assist others in achieving their goals without knowing what those goals are? Generic reinforcement learning agents could be trained to behave altruistically towards others by rewarding them for altruistic behaviour, i.e., rewarding them for benefiting other agents in a given situation. Such an approach assumes that other agents' goals are known so that the altruistic agent can cooperate in achieving those goals. However, explicit knowledge of other agents' goals is often difficult to acquire. In the case of human agents, their goals and preferences may be difficult to express fully; they might be ambiguous or even contradictory. Thus, it is beneficial to develop agents that do not depend on external supervision and learn altruistic behaviour in a task-agnostic manner. We propose to act altruistically towards other agents by giving them more choice and allowing them to achieve their goals better. Some concrete examples include opening a door for others or safeguarding them to pursue their objectives without interference. We formalize this concept and propose an altruistic agent that learns to increase the choices another agent has by preferring to maximize the number of states that the other agent can reach in its future. We evaluate our approach in three different multi-agent environments where another agent's success depends on altruistic behaviour. Finally, we show that our unsupervised agents can perform comparably to agents explicitly trained to work cooperatively, in some cases even outperforming them.


In this paper, we present a synergy of technology and traditional craft made possible with AmbiKraf Byobu. AmbiKraf is a non-emissive, color-changing fabric technology that allows subtle animations on fabrics. Byobu is a traditional Japanese room-divider screen, usually painted by artisans and crafts people. We first discuss the organic qualities of AmbiKraf technology that particularly lend itself to traditional art and craft practice. These qualities include the animation of ambient, non-intrusive and calming motifs using non-emissive display characteristics. We then discuss in detail how AmbiKraf technology is implemented and paired with the art form of Byobu. Interaction with the system is also briefly touched upon, as well as discussion regarding the cultural implications and mutual benefit of combining technology with traditional craft. Through the use of AmbiKraf technology embodied by the Byobu, we hope to provide a convincing example that sensitively combines traditional textile crafts with new technology in order to help redefine the meaning and role of traditional textiles.


This paper addresses the application value of a methodology that uses an organization-centered Accommodation-Choice Model (AC-Model) for improving the match between user-requirements and organizational objectives with accommodation and/or real estate (Voordt et al., 2011).The study was performed with 150 2nd-year students during the 2012-2013 / 2013-2014 Corporate Real Estate Management (CREM) curriculum of the Academy for International Real Estate and Facility Management (IREFM) at the NHTV University of Applied Sciences in Breda, The Netherlands. Objectives of the study were: (i) introduce student-professionals to the concept of using a process model for supporting evidence-based decision-making in real estate and property management, (ii) create am awareness and in-depth understanding of the relationships between organizational ambitions and conceptual decision-making, and (iii) assess differences in take-up and application between compulsory and recommended use of the process model in problem-based learning. The methodological approach focused on applying the process model to real-life case studies where new workplace concepts have been introduced. In the 2012-2013 academic year the application of the model was a mandatory component of analyzing 6 different case study work environments, while the 2013-2014 academic year theme assignment whereby students were asked to analyze the functional optimization or transformation of existing vacant office buildings, only recommended the use of the model. In executing their assignments, groups were asked to structure the execution and outcomes of their assignments according to the process model steps.The main outcomes of the study indicate (i) the applicability of the AC-Model as a central structuring element in identifying and documenting organizational ambitions / intentions and the related conceptual choices in workplace change, (ii) the benefits of interactive learning through active application of the process model, and (iii) the added value thereof in creating and increased level of awareness and professionalism amongst students in terms of evidence-based decision-making on organizational accommodation. This research brings originality to the topic of CREM-education through the application of a decision-making support model as value-adding methodology in supporting conceptual decision-making on issues related to real estate and accommodation based on organizational goals and ambitions.


A procedure is proposed to calibrate hydrologic models to generate representative design flows and flood hydrographs. This procedure includes two calibration steps; event calibration and frequency calibration. An event calibration uses concurrently recorded rainfall data and runoff data to calibrate model parameters. Additional rainfall data is then input into the model to generate the simulated runoff. If the difference between the recorded and simulated runoff is within a given tolerance level, the model is assumed to be calibrated. However, a model calibrated by this conventional approach might not be suitable for producing design flows with high return periods, such as 50 years and 100 years design flows. This is because in an event calibration, the model usually is calibrated using only events with low return periods. There is no assurance that a model calibrated using low return period events can accurately generate design flows with high return periods. In addition, a design storm is introduced into this process and this critical parameter has never been calibrated with the model. Frequency calibration is proposed to re-calibrate the model with an adopted design storm. In this step, reliable runoff frequency curves, one for peak flow and one for runoff volume, are developed from recorded runoff data. The total storm rainfall amount for a given return period is distributed by an adopted design storm pattern and input into the model which has been previously calibrated using event calibration. The generated peak flow and runoff volume are then compared against those of frequency curves with the same return period. Adjustments can be made to the design storm and model parameters to ensure satisfactory reproduction of peak flow and runoff volume.


This paper examines the implications of the most common system of taxing foreign source income. It is argued that, because the repatriation of earnings to the home country investor and not the earnings themselves are typically the source of tax liability, the foreign source income tax should affect foreign investment differently depending on the required transfers of funds within the firm. One implication of viewing the tax in this fashion is that in order to maximize after tax profits, a firm should finance its foreign investment out of foreign earnings to the greatest extent possible. That is, a firm's required foreign return jumps at the point at which desired foreign investment just exhausts foreign earnings. This allows us to draw a distinction between "mature" foreign operations, which are at any point in time financed at the margin by reinvested earnings (and perhaps also pay dividends to their: parent firm in the home country), and "immature" foreign affiliates, which rely on funding from their parents (and should not be paying dividends). It is noted that survey evidence on multinational firm behavior is consistent with this distinction. Direct investment data indicate that mature foreign operations probably account for nearly ninety percent of U. S. foreign direct investment. The discussion then turns to investment incentives. It is shown that the home country's rate of tax on foreign source income and the presence or absence of a foreign tax credit should be irrelevant to a mature foreign operation's investment and dividend decisions. This conclusion, which conflicts sharply with the conventional wisdom, follows because the home country tax acts as an unavoidable cost. New firms' investment decisions are, on the other hand, influenced by home country taxes.


Organic–inorganic metal halide perovskite solar cells have emerged in the past few years to promise highly efficient photovoltaic devices at low costs. Here, temperature‐sensitive core–shell Ag@TiO2 nanoparticles are successfully incorporated into perovskite solar cells through a low‐temperature processing route, boosting the measured device efficiencies up to 16.3%. Experimental evidence is shown and a theoretical model is developed which predicts that the presence of highly polarizable nanoparticles enhances the radiative decay of excitons and increases the reabsorption of emitted radiation, representing a novel photon recycling scheme. The work elucidates the complicated subtle interactions between light and matter in plasmonic photovoltaic composites. Photonic and plasmonic schemes such as this may help to move highly efficient perovskite solar cells closer to the theoretical limiting efficiencies.


Affinity for Technology Interaction (ATI) describes whether a person approaches or avoids interaction with technology [1], making it an important variable in human-centered design. To determine whether ATI will likely remain an important variable in the future, we compared the ATI scores of those who will develop applications (students of media and computer science) with those who will use them in a specific context (students of public administration). We also looked for possible selection biases when conducting online samples regarding technology, by comparing a self-selected online sample of public administration employees with a sample of students of public administration conducted in a classroom, in which no selection biases should have had occurred. To locate the samples in the general population we also compared them with a quota sample of the German population. Results indicate markedly different approaches to technology interaction between the student samples and the online sample being more similar to the media and computer science students. We discuss consequences for the human-centered design process, especially for understanding the users.


This paper investigates stochastic and adversarial combinatorial multi-armed bandit problems. In the stochastic setting under semi-bandit feedback, we derive a problem-specific regret lower bound, and discuss its scaling with the dimension of the decision space. We propose ESCB, an algorithm that efficiently exploits the structure of the problem and provide a finite-time analysis of its regret. ESCB has better performance guarantees than existing algorithms, and significantly outperforms these algorithms in practice. In the adversarial setting under bandit feedback, we propose \textsc{CombEXP}, an algorithm with the same regret scaling as state-of-the-art algorithms, but with lower computational complexity for some combinatorial problems.


Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis are the causal agents of whooping cough in humans. They produce diverse virulence factors, including adenylate cyclase-hemolysin (AC-Hly), a secreted toxin of the repeat in toxins (RTX) family with cyclase, pore-forming, and hemolytic activities. Post-translational modifications (PTMs) are essential for the biological activities of the toxin produced by B. pertussis. In this study, we compared AC-Hly toxins from various clinical isolates of B. pertussis and B. parapertussis, focusing on (i) the genomic sequences of cyaA genes, (ii) the PTMs of partially purified AC-Hly, and (iii) the cytotoxic activity of the various AC-Hly toxins. The genes encoding the AC-Hly toxins of B. pertussis and B. parapertussis displayed very limited polymorphism in each species. Most of the sequence differences between the two species were found in the C-terminal part of the protein. Both toxins harbored PTMs, mostly corresponding to palmitoylations of the lysine 860 residue and palmoylations and myristoylations of lysine 983 for B. pertussis and AC-Hly and palmitoylations of lysine 894 and myristoylations of lysine 1017 for B. parapertussis AC-Hly. Purified AC-Hly from B. pertussis was cytotoxic to macrophages, whereas that from B. parapertussis was not.


Recommendations and requirements for the management of foodstuffs including drinking water and feedstuffs (but not other commodities) contaminated after a nuclear accident or a radiological event have been developed by international bodies such as Codex Alimentarius Commission or European Union as well as by individual countries. However, the experience from severe nuclear accidents (Chernobyl, Fukushima) and less serious radiological events, shows that the implementation of such systems (based on criteria expressed in activity concentration) seems to be not fully suitable to prevent several difficulties such as, for instance, stigmatization and even rejection attitudes from consumers or retailers (anticipating the fears of consumers). To further investigate the possible strategies and stakeholder expectations to deal with this sensitive issue, a study has been launched within the European research project PREPARE-WP3. The overall objective of this work, coordinated is to contribute to the development of strategies, guidance and tools for the management of the contaminated products, taking into account the views of producers, processing and retail industries and consumers. For this purpose, 10 stakeholder panels from different European countries have been set up. In addition, feedback experience from the management of contaminated goods following the Fukushima accident has been provided by Japanese stakeholders. This paper highlights the key topics tackled by the different European stakeholders' panels.


The conceptions of an individual and the nation-state gave birth to modernity and certainly shaped the socio-political systems in European countries. Newly founded European sociopolitical system gradually influenced social, political and legal structures of countries under the sphere of colonial and imperial influences of great powers. In this regard, such developments coupled with intensive westernization process influenced the Ottoman society, especially during the last decades of the empire. An analysis of the Ottoman Constitution (Kanun-u Esasî) (1876) within last few decades of the empire will show such socio-political and legal changes and developments. This paper, within the framework of constitutional acts, attempted to analyze two works that were critical about the Ottoman Constitution (1876). It is indicative that these two sources were also addressing western socio-political and legal influences on the Ottoman society. These two works deal with range of modern issues such as freedom, equality and justice by considering their very roots in the Islamic legal traditions. Therefore, this paper will analyze these two works in light of the Ottoman Constitution (1876) that preserved in essence the Islamic legal principles.


PP2A is a major phosphatase in the cell that participates in multiple cell signaling pathways. It is a heterotrimer of a core dimer and variable regulatory subunits. Details of its structure, function and regulation are slowly emerging. Here, the structure of two regulators of PP2A are de-scribed; PTPA and B56γ. PTPA is a highly conserved enzyme that plays a crucial role in PP2A activity but whose biochemical function is still unclear. B56γ is a PP2A regulatory subunit linked to cancer and the structure presented here of B56γ in its free form is particularly valuable in light of the recent structures of the PP2A holoenzyme and core dimer.Protein production is a major bottleneck in structural genomic projects. Here, we describe two novel methods for improved protein production. The first is a colony based screening method where any DNA library can be screened for soluble expression of recombinant proteins in E.coli. The second method involves improvements of the well established IMAC purification method. We have seen that a low molecular weight component of E.coli lysate decreases the binding capacity of IMAC columns and by removing the low molecular weight components, recombinant proteins only present at low levels in E.coli lysate can be purified, which has previously been believed to be unfeasible.


Comprehensive, authoritative, highly readable and generously illustrated, Herbert Read's text has been rightly acknowledged as "by far the best introduction to the subject" (Alan Bowness) and "throughout, lively and closely packed" (Hugh Casson). Here is modern painting from its roots in the work of Cezanne, through Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism and Dada in the early decades of the twentieth century and on to Abstract Expressionism in the 1950s. The works of Frank Stella, Richard Hamilton, Andy Warhol and Robert Rauschenberg, amongst many others, are discussed and analyzed by Caroline Tisdall and William Feaver in a lively final chapter that brings us up to present times and points to exciting new developments. 500 illus., 118 in color.


Eric Gill's opinionated manifesto on typography argues that 'a good piece of lettering is as beautiful a thing to see as any sculpture or painted picture'. This essay explores the place of typography in culture and is also a moral treatise celebrating the role of craftsmanship in an industrial age. Gill, a sculptor, engraver, printmaker and creator of many classic typefaces that can be seen around us today, fused art, history and polemic in a visionary work which has been hugely influential on modern graphic design. "Written with clarity, humility and a touch of humour ...timeless and absorbing". (Paul Rand, The New York Times). "His lettering was clear, confident and hugely influential on the development of modern type design. The world has now caught up with Gill". (Guardian). How do we see the world around us? This is one of a number of pivotal works by creative thinkers like John Berger and Susan Sontag whose writings on art, design and the media have changed our vision for ever.


Indigenous communities in the United States have a wealth of cultural and social resources that can facilitate educational resilience among Native students. This article reviews the historical context, contemporary trends, and current challenges related to education of Indigenous students. The authors present an innovative middle school-to-high school-to-college bridge program as one example of many positive educational initiatives currently developing across the country. "You who are wise must know that different Nations have different conceptions of things and you will therefore not take it amiss, if our ideas of this kind of Education happen not to be the same as yours." Canaassatego, 1744 Leader of the Six Nations, Lancaster, PA ********** The story of education of Indigenous Peoples in the United States is often told" ... as though it were a tragedy ... highlighting deficiency, failure, and negative trends ... But this dismal view is only half the picture" (Wang & Gordon, 1994, p. ix). This article reviews the historical context, current challenges, and contemporary trends related to education of Indigenous Peoples, highlighting factors related to positive outcomes. The authors present examples of educational programs that foster educational resilience and describe one high school-to-college bridge program in detail. This program is one example of a school-community partnership that mobilizes and combines resources of a high school district and the surrounding community to facilitate educational resilience in Native students. Preliminary outcome data are elaborated. Historical Context Since first contact, the well-being of Indigenous Peoples has been continuously challenged by political, economic, social and cultural oppression. Nevertheless, Indigenous Peoples have survived, and are among the fastest growing population groups in the United States (Locke, 1992). In 1990, there were an estimated 2 million Indigenous people in the U.S. This is a 38 percent increase over the recorded 1980 population, and four times the 1960 population estimate (Lewis, 1995; Marger, 1994). There are 660 federally recognized tribes and an additional 200 tribes still struggling with legal and government agencies to gain federal recognition (Wright, Lopez, & Zumwalt, 1997). Indigenous Peoples are also one of the youngest population groups in the United States (Locke, 1992). With an average age of 16, the majority of Native people are, or soon will be, of age to enter college (Aguirre & Baker, 2000). Educational Traditions among Indigenous Peoples Every Indigenous nation has its own teachings and methods for educating children and adolescents. This has been true since long before contact with European colonizers. Hampton states, "Generally, these traditionally Indian forms of education can be characterized as oral histories, teaching stories, ceremonies, apprenticeships, learning games, formal instruction, tutoring, and tag-along teaching ... all of the traditional Native methods took place within cultural settings that were characterized by subsistence economies, in-context learning, personal and kinship relationships between teachers and students, and ample opportunities for students to observe adult role models who provided good examples of the knowledge, skills, and values being taught" (1993, p. 268). Overcoming A Legacy of Miseducation The legacy of political, economic, social and cultural oppression is inextricably intertwined with the experience of Indigenous Peoples in the United States educational system. European colonizers have attempted to use the educational system to remake Indigenous Peoples in the image of Europeans (Aguirre & Baker, 2000). Consequently, the high school drop out rate for Native people is estimated to be about 50% nationally. It is as high as 85% in some regions. …


The Norwegian Public Roads Administration (NPRA) is planning a construction of a new road tunnel, Joberget tunnel in the Granvin Municipality of western Norway. Approximately 80 m from the southwestern entrance of the tunnel will be excavated, partly in soil and partly in rock. Soil tunneling will be performed in this section instead of excavation of large open cuts, to avoid difficult work conditions, landslide hazards and severe landscape interventions. Sweco Norge AS in cooperation with the Austrian company iC Consulenten from Austria are contracted to consult the soil tunneling section of Joberget tunnel. This thesis is a continuation of a project assignment carried out in 2013 and analyses stability and support design of Joberget soil tunnel, based on empirical and numerical methods. Empirical studies of Joberget soil tunnel include a study of experiences with soil tunneling and a rock mass classification based on the Q- and RMR-system. The importance of additional support in soil tunneling is due to instability of tunnel face, unsupported span and water leakage is revealed in this study. The pipe umbrella primary support method, providing reinforcement of tunnel heading, is found favorable when tunneling in similar ground condition as is present at Joberget. The numerical analysis is performed with a two-dimensional finite element method in Phase2. Evaluation of the total displacement is used to investigate the stability of the proposed design of Joberget soil tunnel, in both cross section and longitudinal section. The pipe umbrella support method is simulated by an improved material layer which shows the supporting effect of the pipe umbrella. Additionally, numerical analyses reveal that subdivision of face, short round lengths and installation of permanent support immediately after excavation are favourable during soil tunneling. The greatest limitation in numerical modelling is the reliability of the input parameters. Hence, a parameter study on moraine properties and field stresses is carried out. Young's Modulus, E is found to be the most sensitive parameter. To supplement the estimation of E, triaxial testing on the moraine material is performed. The reducing effect of water onto material strength is demonstrated by the triaxial test and the numerical analysis. With a well prepared drainage plan, careful excavations and additional support measures such as the pipe umbrella method, soil tunneling in Joberget is considered to be feasible. However, the stability analyses include several simplifications and uncertainties. A detailed follow-up and monitoring during tunneling is therefore important to verify the model and to find the required support.


The emergence of third-generation, technology-based public bikeshare schemes offers new opportunities for researching cycling behaviour. In this study, data from one such scheme, the London Cycle Hire Scheme (LCHS), are analysed. Algorithms are developed for summarising and labelling cyclists' usage behaviours and tailored visual analysis applications are designed for exploring their spatiotemporal context.

Many of the research findings provide support to existing literature, particularly around gendered cycling behaviour. As well as making more discretionary journeys, women appear to preferentially select parts of London associated with greater levels of safety; and this is true even after controlling for geodemographic differences and levels of LCHS cycling experience. One hypothesis is that these differences represent diverging attitudes and perceptions. After developing a technique for identifying cyclists' workplaces, these differences might also be explained by where cyclists need to travel for work and other facilities. An additional explanation is later offered that relates to the nature of cyclists' estimated routes. The size and precision of the LCHS dataset allows under-explored aspects of behaviour to be investigated. Group cycling events – instances where two or more cyclists make journeys together in space and time – are labelled and analysed on a large scale. For certain types of cyclist, group cycling appears to encourage more extensive spatiotemporal cycling behaviour and there is some evidence to suggest that group cycling may help initiate scheme usage.

The domain-specific findings, emerging research questions and also behavioural classifications are this study's principal and unique contribution. A second contribution relates to the analysis approach. This is a data-driven study that takes a large dataset, measuring use of a relatively new cycle facility, and uses it to engage with research questions that are typically answered with very different datasets. There is some uncertainty around how discriminating and generalisable LCHS cycle behaviours may be and which variables, either directly measured or derived, might delineate those behaviours. Visual analysis techniques are shown to be effective in this more speculative research context: numerous behaviours are very quickly explored and understood. These techniques also enable a set of colleagues with relatively limited analysis experience, but substantial domain knowledge, to participate in the analysis and a general argument is made for their use in other, interdisciplinary analysis contexts.


Land use alteration and
climate change are major contributors to the hydrological cycle within
watersheds. They can influence the quantity and quality of water resources, the
ecosystem and environmental sustainability. Urban areas have expanded in recent
decades, accompanied by a noticeable increase in energy and water use. Such
changes in land use have many implications for humans to meet the increasing
share of the planet's resources and water issues. Hence, distinguishing the
effects of land use change from concurrent climate variability is a particular
challenge for studies on operational management processes. In this work, some shortcomings related to climate
variability and land use change have been addressed, as applied to land surface
temperature (LST) and groundwater resources. Thus, the main goal
of this study is to evaluate the impacts of land use change on surface
temperature and the impact of urbanization and climate variation on hydrology. The research methodology included modeling
approaches that were used to estimate the land surface temperature and the
responses of hydrology to climate change and urbanization.

Land use maps
derived from Landsat datasets were analyzed using several classification
techniques to evaluate the intensity and pattern of urbanization and land
surface temperature in the Greater Cairo Region (GCR), Egypt. Accuracy of Landsat derived land use data were relatively
high and up to 96.5%. Findings indicated that the GCR land use alteration was
dynamic and that vegetation loss was the main contributor to urban expansion in
the GCR. Consequently, this led to increased LST and modified urban microclimate.
The results showed that vegetation cover decreased by 7.73% within a 26-year
timespan (1990-2016).

Land use alteration impacted
not only land surface temperature, but also, combined with variation in
climate, affected watershed hydrology, specifically streamflow and baseflow. Changes in streamflow and filtered baseflow in three
watersheds: Little Eagle Creek (LEC), Upper West Branch DuPage
River (UWBDR) and Walzem Creek watershed, from 1980
to 2017, caused by climate alteration and land use change were separated and
accessed using the SWAT (Soil and Water Assessment Tool) model.
Results showed that SWAT performed well in capturing the streamflow and
baseflow in urban catchments. SWAT model calibration and
validation was within acceptable levels for streamflow and baseflow. About 30%, 30% and 12% of the LEC, UWBDR and
Walzem Creek watershed areas changed from agricultural to urban areas. Findings
for the LEC watershed indicated that the variability in the baseflow and
streamflow appeared to be heavily driven by the response to climate change in
comparison to the variability due to altered land use. The contribution of both
land use alteration and climate variability on the flow variation was higher in
the UWBDR watershed. In Walzem Creek, the alteration in streamflow and baseflow
appeared to be driven by the effect of climate variability more than that of urbanization.

Finally, the impacts
of basin lithology and physical properties on baseflow were examined using
multiple regression models. Results suggest that the
baseflow index (BFI) can be predicted using the basin's physical and geological
characteristics. This included different land uses and climate variables with
high accuracy and low relative errors. BFI was found to be highly driven by
precipitation and fractional areas of different lithologies in the basins in
various regions. These could be estimated with a high accuracy, as opposed to evapotranspiration that caused lower
model accuracy.

Information gleaned from these
outputs can help in understanding the dynamics of land use change and climate
variation, in order to help policy-makers predict and plan for future expansion
in developing countries and across the globe, in achieving long-term
sustainability of soil and water resources and their impact on climate change.
Increasing efforts to prevent further urbanization and vegetation loss should
be regarded as a practical management strategy and are of vital significance to
many communities. In addition, the regression models developed in this study
can be easily exploited in other areas with poor hydrological data quality and
ungauged sites in order to estimate the amount of groundwater discharge.


The resettlement of 372 San (Bushmen) soldiers with dependents from 31/201 and 203 Battalions in Namibia to Schmidtsdrift in the Northern Cape during March 1990 was the last chapter in the process of militarisation of the !Xun and Khwe communities. However, there is a popular perception that the South African Defence Force (SADF) was primarily responsible for the militarisation of this particular San community, with the founding of 31 Battalion during 1974. This ignores the fact that the !Xun and Khwe originated in Angola, where they were actively involved with the Portuguese security forces. With one exception, only superficial mention is made in the literature about the role of the San soldiers in Angola before independence in November 1975. This article shows that the militarisation of the San actually started in 1966, when members of the !Xun were recruited by the Portuguese Security Police (PIDE) and successfully used against the Angolan liberation movements MPLA, FNLA and UNITA. The lifestyle of the San before the PIDE era is discussed, as is the period in which they were raised to a superior status as flecha fighters. This period of military prowess ended with the independence of Angola and resulted in the !Xun and Khwe seeking refuge with the SADF. These geo-political events led to the founding of 31 Battalion, situated in the Western Caprivi, where former flecha soldiers were retrained and incorporated into SADF structures. In closing, brief mention is made of the resettlement of the !Xun and Khwe to Schmidtsdrift in South Africa.


We used a change detection paradigm to assess the effect of spatial configuration on visual short-term memory (VSTM) capacity for single features such as orientation or texture of line elements, with the items either being presented alone or surrounded by circles. Circles were assumed to suppress the global configuration made by the stimuli in a display. We demonstrated that when the support of configural information was minimized (by the addition of circles), VSTM capacity was selectively disrupted for line orientation, with this disruptive effect increasing at the larger display sizes. In contrast, we found capacity limits on memory for line texture irrespective of whether circles were presented to disrupt the coding of lines into a more global configuration. We conclude from these observations that the relational information of individual visual items, based on global spatial configuration, is stored in VSTM and may, in some cases, increase the capacity of VSTM. We discuss the results in terms of the representation of global and local properties of forms in VSTM.


The Devil's Playground presents a major collection of photographs by Nan Goldin (b.1953). Since the 1980s, Goldin has consistently created photographs that are intimate and compelling: they tell personal stories of relationships, friendships and identity, while chronicling different eras and exposing the passage of time. This book features a significant body of latest work by Goldin, including photographs from new series such as Still on Earth (1997-2001), 57 Days (2000) and Elements (1995-2003), many of which are previously unpublished. Laid out in diary-like sequences by Goldin herself, the material is both courageously candid and affirmative. The photographs are grouped into themed chapters, between which are interspersed texts, poems and lyrics by prominent writers, including Nick Cave, Catherine Lampert, Cookie Mueller and Richard Price. The Devil's Playground is the first major book to be published on Goldin's work since 1996 and it is by far her most important to date. This monograph brings to light both the sources of Goldin's inspiration and her life as a prominent contemporary artist: she is internationally recognized as one of today's leading photographers. Born in Washington DC, Goldin grew up in Boston where she began taking photographs at the age of 15. She has since lived in New York, Bangkok, Berlin, Tokyo and Paris, amassing an extensive body of work that represents an often disconcertingly seductive photographic portrait of our time.


Abstract. Building change detection serves to investigate illegal buildings. Illegal built or removed structures, especially those concealed among gable roofs such as dormers, are difficult to track among potentially millions of buildings. Nevertheless, they can be efficiently located in changed areas. An approach is proposed to automatically detect and classify changes in buildings from two epochs of Airborne Laser Scanning Data. Both datasets are classified into water, ground, building, vegetation and undefined objects in advance. After generalization of a 3D surface separation map, we verify changes by making rules on the separation map. Changes belonging to buildings are then classified into roof, wall, dormers, vehicles, construction above roof and undefined objects. As the ALS data has accuracy in strip difference of lower than 5 cm within the same epoch and from different epochs, changes that are larger than 10 cm were detected. Building changes, which areas are larger than 4 m2, are identified as change. By inspection, nearly all changes are detected and approximately 80% changes are correctly classified.


One often thinks of translation as a bridge between literatures and cultures. However, what if the activity of translators is carried out in a politically confined background oriented by ideological intention? How, for whom and which purpose does one translate then? The period of German Occupation in France (1940-44) highlights these questions in the most exemplary fashion. Following the defeat of France and the 1940 armistice, one of Nazi Germany's main goals was to re-educate the country by the means of a very thoroughly thought cultural policy, mainly through literature, arts, and a comprehensive program of translations from German into French. But translation was also used at the same time for its own purposes by the opponents. During those four years of fear and repression throughout the country, to which extent can one look upon literary translation as a sui generis mean of resistance, relying on specific strategies?


Anger, disgust, elevation, sympathy, relief. If the subjective experience of each of these emotions is the same whether elicited by moral or nonmoral events, then what makes moral emotions unique? We suggest that the configuration of moral emotions is special—a configuration given by the underlying structure of morality. Research suggests that people divide the moral world along the two dimensions of valence (help/harm) and moral type (agent/patient). The intersection of these two dimensions gives four moral exemplars—heroes, villains, victims and beneficiaries—each of which elicits unique emotions. For example, victims (harm/patient) elicit sympathy and sadness. Dividing moral emotions into these four quadrants provides predictions about which emotions reinforce, oppose and complement each other.


The contemporary film industry in Morocco reflects the sociopolitical and cultural transitions that have taken place in the country since 1999. In the last decade, notably since the death of King Hassan II in July 1999, which symbolically ended Les Annees de plomb (the Lead Years, c. 1963–1999) and the most repressive era in Morocco's modern history, the country has engaged with the globalized world, becoming more open and democratic. Contemporary sociopolitical and cultural transitions in "the New Morocco" (Le Nouveau Maroc, as it has come to be known since the debut of the new millennium) have been contextualized in film, documentaries, and television series. As I have argued elsewhere in my work on the cultural production of Morocco, since the end of the Lead Years the country has sought to democratize and modernize on all levels of society: sociocultural, judicial, and political.1 In some respects, the monarchy of King Mohamed VI has attempted to turn the page on the past of his father's repressive rule in order to shape a society that is forward thinking and inclusive. The cultural production of the county has reflected the issues and debates of the new era, particularly in the film and television industries. Both have benefited from the more open political climate freed of censure and this, in turn, has influenced themes and technical innovations on the screen. Visual media best depict both the dystopian and utopian realms of Morocco's modernity, encouraging debate about the negatives and positives


This study addresses the gender differences of cognitive processes involved in program debugging. In the experiment, twenty-five participants were asked to find bugs in the test programs. Eye-movement analysis was employed to track the students' gaze paths while they traced and tried to debug the programs. Cognitive processes were then obtained by employing sequential analysis of gaze data to investigate the significant sequences of attention areas. Cognitive processes of different genders were investigated by comparing the tracing sequences of program debugging. The experimental results show that both genders had limited working memory capacities for debugging the iterative program with complex computation. But females needed more manual calculation for the recursive program in this study. For the iterative structure, females tended to grasp the program requirements and then trace into the major part of the program, while males traced the change of output value according to the logic of the iterative statements. For the recursive problem, females traced the flow of recursive induction and the stop condition to execute the program and find bugs, while males traced the recursive function in a more leaping way. This study leaks the gender differences of cognitive processes in program debugging, based on which instructors/researchers can develop adaptive computer programming instruction for students of different genders.


In this paper based on the notion of entanglement witness, a new measure of entanglement called floating entanglement witness measure is introduced which satisfies some of the usual properties of a good entanglement measure. By exploiting genetic algorithm, we introduce a classical algorithm that computes floating entanglement witness measure. This algorithm also provides a method for finding entanglement witness for a given entangled state.


Objective. Accidental arterial cannulation during ultrasound‐guided central venous cannulation is rarely reported and should be much less likely with dynamic guidance. Although accidental arterial penetration with the needle may occur periodically without notice and with little harm, actual arterial dilation and line placement may result in serious complications. Methods. This series reports 6 such cases of accidental arterial cannulation and central line insertion under dynamic ultrasound guidance. Results. Two of the arterial cannulations resulted in airway loss, with 1 of these ending in death. The remaining 4 arterial lines led to serious local complications. Ultrasound video analysis of each line placement or postplacement analysis was reviewed, and common pitfalls were extracted. In 3 cases, a central line went directly through the internal jugular vein (IJ) and into the carotid artery. In 1 case, a cordis introducer sheath traveled through the posterior wall of the common femoral vein and into the deep femoral artery branch below. Each patient was hypotensive and hypoxic, making traditional safety checkpoints such as aspiration of bright red blood and pulsatile flow from the syringe hub less reliable in identifying accidental arterial cannulation. All ultrasound‐guided cannulations were performed by a standard short‐axis approach with high‐resolution linear array ultrasound transducers on modern equipment. Conclusions. The short‐axis approach, as seen in this series, can provide a false sense of security to the practitioner and allows for potentially dangerous accidental arterial cannulation. In the setting of critically ill patients, it may be prudent to not only visualize the entire path of the needle with the long‐axis approach but also confirm correct cannulation by tracing the guide wire in the long axis before line placement.


Abstract The structure of the catalyst used in a passive autocatalytic recombiner (PAR) is crucial for making the PAR reliably functional in environments of high humidity and for concentrations of hydrogen above 8 to 10 vol %. The temperature of the catalyst has to be kept below 500°C to avoid the autoignition of hydrogen. A new type of catalyst for the PAR, a hydrophobic catalyst on a low porous metal carrier with a screen [HCm(screen)], was designed by Russian Energy Technologies. It consists of a porous Ti plate with the adsorbtion metal Pt. The surface of the catalyst was completely covered by a metal grid. In a series of tests with different small-scale PARs, the HCm(screen) catalyst was found to function under concentrations of hydrogen up to at least 20 vol %. The effects of mass and heat transfer processes (Fick diffusion, Knudsen diffusion, and Stefan flow) on the thermal regime and characteristics of the working catalyst are discussed. Metal grids of dense weaving appear to be the most suitable for a screen because they have a double function: removing the heat and acting as a gas separation membrane enriching with hydrogen the gas mix in the zone of the catalytic reaction.


Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) has become a common tool in ophthalmic community for imaging of optic nerve head and macula. In glaucoma, it is of utmost importance in early diagnosis and monitoring the progression of the disease. Measurement of peri-papillary RNFL thickness is a common method of diagnosing and monitoring glaucoma. Recently Ganglion Cell Complex (GCC) analysis of macula has also shown to be helpful in identification of early glaucoma and coincides with RNFL damage. OCT can identify the structural damage in eyes before visual field defects occurs. High myopia with large discs, tilting and peri-papillary crescents and occasional hypoplasia of optic disc makes diagnosis of glaucoma difficult. It may be helpful in these patients to map ganglion cell complex (GCC) rather than relying on RNFL thickness. In advanced glaucoma when RNFL thickness level decreases to below 40 – 50 µm, the OCT will be of not much value to record any progression. This is termed as floor effect. OCT has now become commonly available in all parts of the country and is frequently used to determine RNFL and macular thickness in suspected or established cases of glaucoma. It not only helps in diagnosis and progression of the disease but helps us to make the patient being aware of the disease. However, we clinicians should also be aware of various artifacts related to acquisition of scans by our technicians, disease itself and related to the scanner. We must realize the limitation of comparative normative database incorporated in various scanners and that not every RNFL thinning is due to glaucoma.
Key Words: Optical coherence tomography, optic nerve head, macula.


Abstract. To better understand sources of uncertainty in projections of terrestrial carbon cycle feedbacks, we present an approach to separate the controls on modeled carbon changes. We separate carbon changes into four categories using a linearized, equilibrium approach: those arising from changed inputs (productivity-driven changes), and outputs (turnover-driven changes), of both the live and dead carbon pools. Using Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Phase 5 (CMIP5) simulations for five models, we find that changes to the live pools are primarily explained by productivity-driven changes, with only one model showing large compensating changes to live carbon turnover times. For dead carbon pools, the situation is more complex as all models predict a large reduction in turnover times in response to increases in productivity. This response arises from the common representation of a broad spectrum of decomposition turnover times via a multi-pool approach, in which flux-weighted turnover times are faster than mass-weighted turnover times. This leads to a shift in the distribution of carbon among dead pools in response to changes in inputs, and therefore a transient but long-lived reduction in turnover times. Since this behavior, a reduction in inferred turnover times resulting from an increase in inputs, is superficially similar to priming processes, but occurring without the mechanisms responsible for priming, we call the phenomenon "false priming", and show that it masks much of the intrinsic changes to dead carbon turnover times as a result of changing climate. These patterns hold across the fully coupled, biogeochemically coupled, and radiatively coupled 1 % yr−1 increasing CO2 experiments. We disaggregate inter-model uncertainty in the globally integrated equilibrium carbon responses to initial turnover times, initial productivity, fractional changes in turnover, and fractional changes in productivity. For both the live and dead carbon pools, inter-model spread in carbon changes arising from initial conditions is dominated by model disagreement on turnover times, whereas inter-model spread in carbon changes from fractional changes to these terms is dominated by model disagreement on changes to productivity in response to both warming and CO2 fertilization. However, the lack of changing turnover time control on carbon responses, for both live and dead carbon pools, in response to the imposed forcings may arise from a common lack of process representation behind changing turnover times (e.g., allocation and mortality for live carbon; permafrost, microbial dynamics, and mineral stabilization for dead carbon), rather than a true estimate of the importance of these processes.


The Plant Encyclopaedia has been some twenty years in the making - the personal passion of its author as he built his landscaping business headquartered in Dubai. Julian Lee's meticulous notes, based on extensive practical experience on the ground, were gathered, catalogued and studiously verified. The massive job of providing no fewer than eight images per plant was undertaken by a dedicated photographer, sometimes travelling extensively to locate the correct plant and variants. The whole was then painstakingly pieced together working closely with the editorial and design team, creating a remarkable work of reference that will prove invaluable for horticulturalists and amateur gardeners across the Middle East and beyond


Droop control has shown promising results for decentralized power sharing in microgrids. However, the basic scheme can suffer from unequal reactive power sharing power due to differing line impedances between converters and due to the predominantly resistive nature of low voltage networks. Virtual impedances are able to mitigate these drawbacks, and are mostly implemented using a quasi-stationary approach. This approach replicates an impedance in steady state, but transients of the load current are only partly reproduced. This paper discusses the effect of including the transient term of the virtual impedance. A state-space small-signal model is derived in order to show the effect of including the transient virtual impedance. Simulations of a two-inverter microgrid are also shown to test the model and offer a numerical example. Both modal analysis on the small-signal model and the results from the simulation indicate improved damping when including the transient virtual impedance.


"For over two decades, the Canadian Federation of Nurses Unions (CFNU) has been advocating for a national pharmacare plan. Now, as the costs of prescription drugs continue to rise, putting pressures on a health care system that is already stretched to the limit, the CFNU is gaining some new allies. There is a growing consensus that prescription drug policies require reform. Advocates for reform include the C.D. Howe Institute (a well-known public policy think tank), the Canadian Life and Health Insurance Association, provincial and territorial governments, as well as patient advocates from coast-to-coast. A Roadmap to a Rational Pharmacare Policy calls for governments, insurers, policy makers, and pharmaceutical companies to recognize that the present hybrid system we are using to fund prescription drug purchases isn't working. As the title of this report indicates, Dr. Gagnon offers a roadmap to a rational drug policy so that Canada can move into the 21st century, alongside its OECD counterparts. He suggests that governments need to seize the initiative and take advantage of the emerging consensus on the need for reform, and offers a series of a pragmatic, achievable steps that can be taken now to turn policy into practice."--Message from the CFNU