Recent development on visual sensor networks (VSN) have shown the emergence of VSN as an important class of sensor-based distributed intelligent systems, with unique performance, complexity, and quality of service challenges.  Furthermore, the popularity of VSN had attracted researchers and industries from many applications. Basically, VSN consists of a large number of low-power camera nodes, visual sensor networks support a great number of novel vision-based applications. The information provided by the camera nodes from a monitored site were collected data and processed in distributed and collaboratively. The use of multiple cameras in the network provides different views of the scene which enhances the reliability of the captured events. However, the cameras combined with the network's resource produce large amount of image data which require more energy consumption. Many research experts are working and publishing research papers on energy minimization in visual sensor network. However, there are no special attentions given by researchers on multi-layer cooperation routing in visual sensor network (VSN) particularly on the deficiency of forward-thinking innovation. This research proposed a new method that put forward the step and use (CO-VSN) multi-layer routing arrangement in visual sensor network. The performance of the proposed method is then compared with RASE protocol in different parameters and the result shows some meditation change in the stability of the network, increase the network life, reduce packet loss and energy drainage reduce in the VSNs. Even though, the RASE scheme used channel condition for movement of data and yet the proposed CO-VSN used cooperation and demonstrated better results.


A MIXED-METHODS EXAMINATION OF RACIAL DIFFERENCES IN FEMALES' PERCEPTIONS AND EXPERIENCES OF SEXUAL OBJECTIFICATION Ellyn E. Leighton-Herrmann, Ph.D A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University Virginia Commonwealth University, 2014 Advisors: Maghboeba Mosavel, Ph.D., Associate Professor, Department of Social and Behavioral Health; Kellie Carlyle, Ph.D., Program Director, Department of Social and Behavioral Health Sexual objectification has become a pervasive problem, negatively affecting the mental and physical health of many women. Understanding the influence of visual media, social-support networks and social interactions on young women's health is essential to addressing issues related to objectification. We do not have an in-depth understanding of how Black and White young adult women make meaning of objectification. Further, the existing literature suggests that experiences of objectification are likely different for Black and White women. The current research employed two studies, one qualitative and one quantitative, to address these particular gaps. Study 1 used focus groups to assess young Black and White women's attitudes and experiences related to objectification. Four focus groups were conducted with university students, two with White women (N=11) and two with Black women (N=17). Results indicated that sexual objectification is a complex and unfortunate reality in the women's daily lives; driven by the media, men and even other women. Participants' immediate responses to objectifying experiences are multi-faceted and the potential consequences of long-term exposure can be detrimental to a woman's well-being. Racial differences arose in relation to standards of beauty as well as examples of and reactions to objectifying experiences. Study 2 study assessed two different models of sexual objectification for White and Black women. Female, undergraduate and graduate students completed an online questionnaire about sources of objectification; 155 White women and 173 Black women were included in the analyses. The results suggest there are significant relationships between certain sociocultural sources of objectification, body image preoccupation and the associated consequences of depression, eating disturbances. Skin color dissatisfaction was an additional negative outcome for Black participants. The models for Black and White participants were not equivalent. Understanding how women experience sexual objectification and racial differences has implications for how objectification and related outcomes are measured. This information also has implications for developing appropriately tailored programming related to the objectification and psychological well-being of women. The information from these studies can hopefully be used to inform individuals of the risks associated with sexual objectification, as well as develop educational programs on college campuses.


The Pokémon franchise has been targeted and has been successful with males and females (Tobin, 2004). In it, cute-looking creatures with superpowers fight each other for the fame and glory of their masters (the players). The franchise includes a plethora of entertainment media. This essay will focus on the recent release, Pokémon GO. This particular game and its location-based technology will be analysed using cyberfeminism and actor-network theory to explore the play space as a context for kinaesthetic awareness and embodiment. The cyberfeminism herein exploited is that of "the utopian tradition of imagining a world without gender" (Haraway, 2000, p. 292). Actor-network theory, a strong Notice of Errata (August 27, 2018) This pdf has two corrections noted on pages 62 and 72. methodological tradition in science and technology studies, sees actors and the networks they create as completely 'flat' and non-hierarchical. ANT has been criticised for its lack of concern with politics and gender (Lagesen, 2012) but, in combination with a feminist lens, ANT has the potential to uncover issues that other approaches in game studies cannot. This original framework can help game studies scholars to see gameplay processes in a new light by following the many actors involved in game design and use.


The control of Citrus tristeza virus (CTV), the causal agent of tristeza disease, is essential to guarantee a productive citrus industry. The specific features of a nursery block make the control of the natural spread of viruses transmitted by vectors more difficult. Thus, the knowledge of the epidemiology of CTV in nursery blocks is basic to the design control strategies of the disease. Two experimental nursery plots of alemow (Citrus macrophylla) were planted in open field in Moncada (Valencia, Spain) (with a high CTV prevalence, 85%), and in Alcanar (Tarragona, Spain) with 700 and 843 nursery plants, respectively. The plants were analysed by tissue print-ELISA using 3DF1 and 3CA5 CTV-specific monoclonal antibodies. The CTV prevalence estimated after one year of cultivation in both plots was of 24.37% and 3.91%, respectively. At the same time, a commercial nursery plot grown under plastic-net covers established in Alcanar with 1,200 plants was also analysed as above, being the CTV prevalence estimated of 0.00%. The aphid activity present in the nursery plots was monitored. Aphis spiraecola was the most abundant aphid species visiting the plants in the nursery plots grown in the open field, whereas the aphid activity registered in the plants grown under the plastic-net covers was practically zero. The percentage of individual aphids carrying CTV PCR-amplifiable targets detected by squash real-time RT-PCR in the open-field nursery plots was 17.5% in Moncada and 1.67% in Alcanar. No significant differences in the CTV prevalence between treated and non-treated plants with horticultural mineral oils were found in the area with the high CTV-inoculum pressure.


As part of a symposium on Justice Stephen Breyer's book, "The Court and the World," this essay describes and defends a particular role for the Supreme Court in the area of foreign relations law, which is to act as a filter between international law and the American constitutional system. In such a role, the Court does not act as an impermeable barrier to international law but rather ensures that when international law passes into the U.S. legal system, it does so in a manner consistent with the structure and values of the constitutional system. This filtering role is appropriate, the essay contends, because international law is generated through processes that often make it ill-suited for direct application in the U.S. legal system, and because international law is frequently designed to perform functions different from the ones demanded of domestic law. Using a number of the cases discussed in Justice Breyer's book, the essay provides examples of the Supreme Court's filtering role in four scenarios: First, the intersection of treaties and individual constitutional rights; second, the relationship between the treaty power and American federalism; third, delegations of authority to international institutions; and fourth, the domestic application of customary international law.


Background: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a highly prevalent, but underdiagnosed and undertreated disorder. There is a need for simple but accurate tool for early detection of patients based on their clinical symptoms and physical findings into high- or low-risk group and give information for urgent polysomnography (PSG) and further treatment to prevent serious consequences. Epworth Sleepiness Score (ESS) and Berlin Questionnaire (BQ) are the most popular and widely acceptable instruments for identification of high-risk patients of OSA. The aim of our study was to compare these two established and well-known sleep questionnaires regarding their ability to find out the probable cases of OSA in Indian scenario. Methods: This cross-sectional study was conducted at a tertiary care center on 72 adult patients with symptoms of sleep-related breathing disorders. All patients were asked to fill both ESS and BQ questionnaires. Subsequently, all patients were subjected to level-1 PSG. For each patient, the Apnea–hypopnoea index was calculated to assess the diagnosis and severity of OSA and to further compare the ESS and BQ questionnaires for their sensitivity (SN) in OSA patients. Results: A total of 14 (19.4%) patients were diagnosed as OSA by ESS while by BQ, 32 (44.4%) patients were diagnosed as having OSA with SN of 31% and 71.11%, respectively (P = 0.00004). The positive predictive value was 82.3% and 88.8% for ESS and BQ, respectively, with a negative predictive value of 43.6% by ESS and 63.8% by BQ questionnaires. Conclusion: ESS is a less sensitive diagnostic tool for early detection of high-risk patients of OSA in general population. BQ is a valid, reliable, and more sensitive parameter to screen patients for OSA and may help in improving the quality of life in such patients with proper OSA management.


In this thesis a previously developed framework for modelling diversity of approximately periodic time series is considered. In this framework the diversity is modelled deterministically, exploiting the irregularity of chaos. This is an alternative to other well established frameworks which use probability distributions and other stochastic tools to describe diversity. The diversity which is to be modelled, on the other hand, is not assumed to be of chaotic nature, but can stem out from a stochastic process, though it has never been verified before, whether or not purely stochastic patterns can be modelled that way. The main application of such a modelling technique would be pattern recognition; once a model for a learning set of approximately periodic time series is found, synchronisation-like phenomena could be used to determine if a novel time series is similar to the members of the learning set. The most crucial step of the classification procedure outlined before is the automatic generation of a chaotic model from data, called identification. Originally, this was done using a simple low dimensional reference model. Here, on the other hand, a biologically inspired approach is taken. This has the advantage that the identification and classification procedure could be greatly simplified and the computational power involved significantly reduced. The biologically inspired model used for identification was announced several time in literature under the name "Echo State Network". The articles available on it consisted mainly of examples were it performed remarkably well, though a thorough analysis was still missing to the scientific community. Here the model is analysed using a measure that had appeared already in similar contexts and with help of this measure good settings of the models' parameter were determined. Finally, the model was used to assess if stochastic patterns can be modelled by chaotic signals. Indeed, it has been shown that, for the biologically inspired modelling technique considered, chaotic behaviour appears to implicitly model diversity and randomness of the learnt patterns whenever these are sufficiently structured; whilst chaos does not appear when the patterns are remarkably unstructured. In other words, deterministic chaos or strongly coloured noise lead to the chaos emergence as opposed to white-like noise which does not. With this result in mind, the classification of gait signals was attempted, as no signs of chaoticity could be found in them and the previously available modelling technique seemed to have difficulties to model their diversity. The identification and classification results with the biologically inspired model turned out to be very good.


Many industrial structures associated with railway infrastructures rely on a large number of bolted joint connections to ensure safe and reliable operation of the track and trackside furniture. Significant sums of money are spent annually to repair the damage caused by bolt failures and to maintain the integrity of bolted structures. In the UK, Network Rail (the organization responsible for rail network maintenance and safety) conducts corrective and preventive maintenance manually on 26,000 sets of points (each having approximately 30 bolted joints per set), in order to ensure operational success and safety for the travelling public. Such manual maintenance is costly, disruptive, unreliable and prone to human error. The aim of this work is to provide a means of automatically measuring the clamping force of each individual bolted joint, by means of an instrumented washer. This paper describes the development of a sensor means to be used in the washer, which satisfies the following criteria. Sense changes in the clamping force of the joint and report this fact. Provide compatibility with the large dynamic range of clamping force. Satisfy the limitations in terms of physical size. Provide the means to electronically interface with the washer. Provide a means of powering the washer in situ. Provide a solution at an acceptable cost. Sense changes in the clamping force of the joint and report this fact. Provide compatibility with the large dynamic range of clamping force. Satisfy the limitations in terms of physical size. Provide the means to electronically interface with the washer. Provide a means of powering the washer in situ. Provide a solution at an acceptable cost. Specifically the paper focuses on requirements 1, 2 and 3 and presents the results that support further development of the proposed design and the realization of a pre-prototype system. In the paper, various options for the force sensing element (strain gage, capacitor, piezo-resistive) have been compared, using design optimization techniques. As a result of the evaluation, piezo-resistive sensors in concert with a proprietary force attenuation method, have been found to offer the best performance and cost trade-off The performance of the novel clamping force sensor has been evaluated experimentally and the results show that a smart washer can be developed to monitor the condition of bolted joints as found on railway track and points.


Author(s): Shah, NK; Khanna, N; Karali, N; Park, W; Qu, Y; Zhou, N | Abstract: In October of 2016, nearly 200 Parties agreed to amend the Montreal Protocol in Kigali, Rwanda, to phase-down consumption and production of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) by 2050. Growth in the use of HFCs, including those currently used as refrigerants in air-conditioning systems, is being driven by demand from emerging economies, hot climates, and rising incomes that are also undergoing rapid urbanization and electrification. Air conditioners (ACs), as an energy-intensive end-use technology, are also covered by a growing number of energy efficiency standards, labeling, procurement, incentive, and other supporting efficiency programs. Therefore, improving room AC energy efficiency and transitioning to low-global warming potential (GWP) refrigerants simultaneously presents significant opportunities to deploy energy efficient technology and reduce the energy and emissions impacts of room ACs, while keeping costs low for consumers. This report aims to provide an initial sense of the opportunities to improve efficiency and transition to low-GWP refrigerants by reviewing the HCFC and HFC regulatory framework and energy efficiency standards and labeling programs in 19 economies that account for roughly 65 percent of global room AC demand. Based on this analysis, we identified key opportunities for coordinated action on efficiency improvement and refrigerant transition for the domestic room AC sector (i.e., ductless mini-split ACs), such as: - implementing or revising standards and labeling programs to improve efficiency levels with the possibility of adding a low-GWP criterion. - combining fixed speed and inverter AC product categories to account for seasonal variations in climate and part-load operating conditions, and using seasonal energy efficiency ratio (SEER) instead of energy efficiency ratio (EER) to better reflect performance of inverter ACs. - implementing market transformation programs, such as bulk procurement programs, to drive down the costs of efficient technology through economies of scale. - aligning timelines for implementing efficiency standards with timelines for refrigerant management plans to coordinate policy actions. - maximizing the energy efficiency improvements of Montreal Protocol investments by coordinating efforts to help keep costs low for consumers and manufacturers during equipment redesign and manufacturing line retooling for refrigerant transition. In order to realize the significant peak load, energy saving and climate benefits of these opportunities associated with improving energy efficiency in tandem with the refrigerant transition, some risks may need to be mitigated, principally safety concerns over risks of accidental ignition with refrigerants rated flammable. This can be mitigated by continuing and accelerating the development of safety standards currently being updated, for example, by the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and improving training for production, installation and maintenance during the use of flammable refrigerants. While some low-GWP refrigerants may cost more than the current baseline refrigerants, the cost of refrigerants is only ~1% of lifecycle costs for an AC. Costs can also be reduced through manufacturing advances and efficiency improvements, particularly if they are supported by policies that encourage technological development through deployment of superefficient ACs at scale. Finally, during the transition, there is a risk of obsolete technology being deployed in markets that either have not updated their standards or have later compliance dates. This risk can be mitigated by updating standards and reviewing them periodically to ensure their effectiveness.


As a result of the highly contagious nature of measles before the onset of rash, nosocomial transmission will remain a threat until the disease is eradicated. However, a number of strategies can minimize its nosocomial spread. It is therefore vital to maximize awareness among health care staff that an individual with measles can enter a health facility at any time and that a continual risk of the nosocomial transmission of measles exists. The present review makes two groups of recommendations: those which are generally applicable to all countries, and certain additional recommendations which may be suitable only for industrialized countries.


Following the first 15 convictions under the 2001 Anti-Terrorism Act, Canadian penal authorities developed new surveillance and security practices targeting this small population of prisoners. Primarily, reforms ensure that terror convicts are labelled as highly dangerous offenders, despite any of them having participated in attacks or violence. Focusing on the Canadian context, this article contributes to recent scholarship by discussing how these emergent penal practices are informed by a convergence of domestic anti-terrorism policies and a networked field of counter-terrorism experts; what Bigo calls (in)security management professionals. Detailing recent debates and reforms, I focus on emergent 'deradicalization' strategies that are informed by transnational 'working groups' and (in)security management actors. I argue that these increasingly illiberal counter-terrorism practices are framed as measures of social defence against the enemies of western civilization. Yet, paradoxically, these emergent security practices are antithetical to the 'civilizing process' of penal modernism, further displacing discourses of rehabilitation or reintegration and entrenching a 'criminology of the other'. I conclude by discussing what I call new practices of terror carceralism, which represent an entrenchment of vengeance and retribution, justifying a host of invasive surveillance and security measures against those caricaturized as captured terrorist others.


As logging code evolves with bug fixes and feature updates, developers may miss some log revisions due to a lack of general specifications and attention from developers. This makes it more troublesome to achieve good logging practices. In this paper, we try to study log revision behaviors from evolutionary history. Motivated by similar edits of clone codes, we assume there also exist similar log revisions that implicated log revision behaviors. Based on this assumption, we study the similarity of log revision behaviors and answer six research questions. Specifically, we find that 54.14% of log revisions belong to groups of similar log revisions and 64.4% of groups contain log revisions that are missed by developers. We stress the importance of branch statements on learning from similar log revisions since 53.51% of sampled similar log revisions are related to the semantics of branch statements.


This paper proposes a novel method for transmission network expansion planning (TNEP) that take into account uncertainties in loads and renewable energy resources. The goal of TNEP is to minimize the expansion cost of candidate lines without any load curtailment. A robust linear optimization algorithm is adopted to minimize the load curtailment with uncertainties considered under feasible expansion costs. Hence, the optimal planning scheme obtained through an iterative process would be to serve loads and provide a sufficient margin for renewable energy integration. In this paper, two uncertainty budget parameters are introduced in the optimization process to limit the considered variation ranges for both the load and the renewable generation. Simulation results obtained from two test systems indicate that the uncertainty budget parameters used to describe uncertainties are essential to arrive at a compromise for the robustness and optimality, and hence, offer a range of preferences to power system planners and decision makers.


The purpose of this research was to perform an initial characterization of the capabilities of thermal batteries. Thermal batteries have a very high theoretical specific energy. If they also have a suitably high specific power then they would be of interest as a power source for compact pulsed power systems. Thermal batteries are not extensively characterized outside their intended use and so the feasibility of their use in this way is unknown. Therefore a test stand was developed for characterizing the power output capabilities of a thermal battery. The initial parameters of the test stand were chosen based on what a compact pulsed power system may require and to allow a quick initial system build to test feasibility. The system was designed to allow easy upgrade of components for more rigorous testing to follow. The system was developed and tested using Lithium-ion Polymer batteries as an inexpensive and reusable alternative to the expensive one-time use thermal batteries. The test stand was shown to give results in line with other reported Li-poly testing. A specific thermal battery was chosen for testing as a candidate that would be readily available and could easily be modified by the manufacturer to allow greater power capability. Nine of these batteries were tested and the results indicate thermal batteries have potential as a prime power source for compact pulsed power systems.


The problems found in the existing models push the researcher to look for a better solution for computational trust and computational reputation. According the problem exposed earlier, the newly proposed model should be a systematic model which supports both trust and reputation. The model should also take the learning capability for agents into consideration because agents cannot quickly adapt to the changes without learning. The model also needs to have the ability to make decisions according to its recognition of trust. Before actually building the model, it is necessary to analyze the concept of trust. Usually when people say trust they mean human trust, however, in this research trust refers to computational trust. How human trust is different from computational trust is a very interesting question. The answers to the question helped the researcher recover many features of computational trust and built a solid theoretical foundation for the proposed model. The definitions of trust in different disciplines such as economy, sociology and psychology will be compared. A possible definition of computational trust will be made and such trust from several different perspectives will be analyzed. The description of the model is important. As a whole, it is represented as a framework that defines components and component relationships. As the concrete components, the purposes and responsibilities of the specific component are explained. This is to illustrate the static structure of the model. The dynamic structure of the model is described as the process of executing the model.


Computing three-dimensional structures from sparse experimental constraints requires method for combining heterogeneous sources of information, such as distances, angles, and measures of total volume, shape, and surface. For some types of information, such as distances between atoms, numerous methods are available for computing structures that satisfy the provided constraints. It is more difficult, however, to use information about the degree to which an atom is on the surface or buried as a useful constraint during structure computations. Surface measures have been used as accept/reject criteria for previously computed structures, but this is not an efficient strategy. In this paper, we investigate the efficacy of applying a surface measure in the computation of molecular structure, using a method of probabilistic least square computations which facilitates the introduction of multiple, noisy, heterogeneous data sources. For this purpose, we introduce a simple purely geometrical measure of surface proximity called maximal conic view (MCV). MCV is efficiently computable and differentiable, and is hence well suited to driving a structural optimization method based, in part, on surface data. As an initial validation, we show that MCV correlates well with known measures for total exposed surface area. We use this measure in our experiments to show that information about surface proximity (derived from theory or experiment, for example) can be added to a set of distance measurements to increase significantly the quality of the computed structure. In particular, when 30 to 50 percent of all possible short-range distances are provided, the addition of surface information improves the quality of the computed structure (as measured by RMS fit) by as much as 80 percent. Our results demonstrate that knowledge of which atoms are on the surface and which are buried can be used as a powerful constraint in estimating molecular structure.


Recognising the widespread role of traditional birth attendants (TBAs) and herbal practitioners (HPs) in health care at community level in Nigeria, we set out to assess their knowledge, attitudes and practices in relation to HIV infection and prevention. Questionnaires were administered to a convenience sample of 189 participants in 20 local government areas of Lagos State. We found that knowledge of modes of transmission of HIV was less than adequate and included lack of knowledge of the existence of HIV/AIDS amongst some practitioners, claims for the ability to treat HIV/AIDS, failure to name major avenues of transmission and confusion of HIV/AIDS with other conditions. The use of measures to prevent infection of clients and themselves showed that normal standards of infection control are not adhered to. Considering that as many as 60% of children born in Nigeria are delivered by traditional birth attendants and that use of the services of herbal practitioners extends across the entire society in both rural and urban settings, this is seen as reason for concern. It is suggested that better incorporation of TBAs/HPs into the well-developed primary health care system offers not only a way of overcoming the risks of infection posed by traditional health practices but also offers an opportunity to extend the reach of voluntary counselling and testing and prevention of mother-to-child infection programmes. The research has shown the need for appropriate training of TBAs, to enable them to recognise the risk of HIV infection in their own practices and to encourage them to adopt universal precautions against spreading infection. We also recommend that they be more extensively integrated as primary health care workers in VCT and PMTCT programmes in Nigeria. We further suggest that referrals made between the traditional practitioners and professional health care providers can be an effective and successful element of HIV/AIDS prevention and control programmes.


A Portable Panoramic Image Mapping System (PPIMS) is proposed for rapid acquisition of three-dimensional spatial information. By considering the convenience of use, cost, weight of equipment, precision, and power supply, the designed PPIMS is equipped with 6 circularly arranged cameras to capture panoramic images and a GPS receiver for positioning. The motivation for this design is to develop a hand-held Mobile Mapping System (MMS) for some difficult accessing areas by vehicle MMS, such as rugged terrains, forest areas, heavily damaged disaster areas, and crowed places etc. This PPIMS is in fact a GPS assisted close-range photogrammetric system. Compared with the traditional close-range photogrammetry, PPIMS can reduce the need of ground control points significantly. Under the condition of knowing the relative geometric relationships of the equipped sensors, the elements of exterior orientation of each captured image can be solved. However, the procedure of a system calibration should be done accurately to determine the relative geometric relationships of multi-cameras and the GPS antenna center, before the PPIMS can be applied for geo-referenced mapping. In this paper, both of one-step and two-step calibration procedures for PPIMS are performed to determine the lever-arm offsets and boresight angles among cameras and GPS. The performance of the one-step and two-step calibration is evaluated through the analysis of the experimental results. The comparison between these two calibration procedures was also conducted. The two-step calibration method outperforms the one-step calibration method in terms of calibration accuracy and operation convenience. We expect that the proposed two-step calibration procedure can also be applied to other platform-based MMSs.


International volunteering is increasingly recognised as a form of alternative tourism. However, the nature of the 'alternative' experience gained, and the ensuing narrative between host and volunteer, remains under-explored in published research, especially in volunteer tourism research within a cultural context in a developed nation. This paper examines the nexus between volunteer tourism and cultural tourism in the search for alternative and sustainable experiences through tourism. Qualitative research using in-depth interviews, diaries and participant observation was conducted to examine the pre-, during and post-trip experiences of 12 Australian visitors undertaking organised volunteer activities in an indigenous Maori community in the North Island of New Zealand during January 2005. Members of the indigenous Maori community were also interviewed to provide an important host perspective. Findings suggest that the nature of the interaction and cultural experiences gained were perceived as mutually beneficial and seemingly different from those gained from traditional cultural products. In particular, the volunteers experienced an alternative Maori cultural product and engaged in a different narrative with their Maori hosts through their volunteer work, one rich in authentic cultural content, genuine and reflective of modern Maori life in New Zealand society.


Water bodies' quality objectives are defined in accordance with the Urban Wastewater Treatment Directive 91/ 271/EEC and the Water Framework Directive 2000/60/EC. For regulation and control of small-sized waste-water treatment plants (WWTPs), responsibility is delegated in Italy to Regional Authorities that fix specific regulations (Water Protection Plan WPP included in the River Basin Management Plan RBMP) in collaboration with the District Authorities. Small (,2,000 population equivalent – PE) and medium sized (2,000–10,000 PE) WWTPs in the Veneto Region (North Italy) represent about 10% of the total organic load (Imhoff systems included). This also comprises some industrial discharges. Due to the urban sprawl, plants are spread over the regional territory. In the Veneto Region, data from the official census reveals there are n. 248 plants under 2,000 PE and 135 plants in 2,000– 10,000 range while the total number of authorized plants is 488 for a total potentiality of 9,141,572 PE. Data from institutional controls performed by the Veneto Regional Environmental Agency (ARPAV) on WWTPs has been recovered for all the WWTPs with up to 10,000 PE in the provinces of Venice, Treviso and Vicenza (for a total of 306,118 PE and for a total of 164 plants) in the period 2008–2015 and elaborated to assess critical parameters and plants. The general situation, critical issues and case studies have been presented and discussed. Organic load, nutrients and Escherichia coli are the most critical parameters considering the regional WPP.


Water-soluble Vitamin C is inevitable and important for the synthesis of collagen and also aids as a surrounding material for body tissues, blood vessels, cartilages, bone, teeth, skin. In addition, it is also known to be improving the protective function of immune system and wounds by accelerating the healing mechanism; secondly the Vitamin C solution is required to cross link the collagen molecules to uplift the tissue strength and eventually heals the wounds. Sarpooshi HR et al. [1] evaluated the effect of topical Vitamin C on improving second degree burns.


Introduction: Nurses play a key role in the process of organ donation and transplantation, and previous studies have widely addressed the level of knowledge and attitude of intensive care unit (ICU) nurses in this regard. Considering the direct correlation between the positive attitude of the healthcare team, especially nurses, and the level of consent on organ donation, knowledge and attitude of nurses are important factors that have been assessed in several studies. However, no definite conclusions have been drawn in this regard. The present study aimed to evaluate the knowledge and attitude of ICU nurses toward organ donation and the related factors.Methods: A systematic review was conducted via searching in databases such as ProQuest, Medscape, MedlinePlus, MagIran, PubMed, and ScienceDirect to identify the articles published during 1990-2015 using keywords such as knowledge, attitude, organ donation, and nurses.Result: Awareness and knowledge are the main determinants of attitude in nurses, which should be applied in order to foster positive attitudes in the process of organ donation. Furthermore, extensive clinical knowledge should be acquired on organ donation and communication skills by ICU nurses through proper training programs.Conclusion: According to the results, using standard guidelines or scheduled training programs in nursing schools could improve the level of knowledge in nurses, which in turn enhances nursing performance. In addition, our findings indicated that positive attitude and knowledge of nurses could largely infleunce the viewpoint of families toward organ donation.


Abstract The self-association of asphaltenes in toluene is believed to occur step-wise, rather than by the formation of micelles. A number of step-wise models have been used to fit the calorimetric titration of asphaltenes in dried toluene solutions, with excellent results. All the models are based on chemical reactions equivalent to the ones found in polymerization. The study shows that the choice of the average properties of asphaltenes, such as the molecular weight, is critical in the final value of the parameter of interest, namely the average heat of self-association ΔH a . The low values of ΔH a obtained suggest that a fraction of asphaltenes is not active in the calorimetric experiments. Asphaltenes from Venezuela (LM1) and Mexico (KU) have been fractionated by precipitation with a mixture of acetone and toluene. It is considered that the most polar compounds are collected in the soluble fraction. A calorimetry study was performed on the two fractions, and the results show that the soluble fraction (SOL) has a much higher heat developed than the insoluble fraction (INS). This suggests again that a fraction of asphaltenes is not active in the calorimetric experiments, either because it does not self-associate or because the dilution effect is not strong enough to break the aggregates. Fluorescence and IR spectroscopy experiments confirm there is self-association in INS fraction, leading to the conclusion that asphaltene aggregates are formed by bonds of different strengths. The stronger aggregates would be predominantly in INS fraction and would be inactive in the calorimetric experiments.


We propose to install a storage ring at an ISOL-type radioactive beam facility for the first time. Specifically, we intend to install the heavy-ion, low-energy ring TSR at the HIE-ISOLDE facility in CERN, Geneva. Such a facility will provide a capability for experiments with stored secondary beams that is unique in the world. The envisaged physics programme is rich and varied, spanning from investigations of nuclear ground-state properties and reaction studies of astrophysical relevance, to investigations with highly-charged ions and pure isomeric beams. The TSR can also be used to remove isobaric contaminants from stored ion beams and for systematic studies within the neutrino beam programme. In addition to experiments performed using beams recirculating within the ring, cooled beams can also be extracted and exploited by external spectrometers for high-precision measurements. The existing TSR, which is presently in operation at the Max-Planck Institute for Nuclear Physics in Heidelberg, is well-suited and can be employed for this purpose. The physics cases, technical details of the existing ring facility and of the beam requirements at HIE-ISOLDE, together with the cost, time and manpower estimates for the transfer, installation and commissioning of the TSR at ISOLDE are discussed in the present technical design report.


This study utilizes, rhetorically, the case of a Mexican television personality, Brozo, whose format includes satiric humorous communication and subversion of the authority of the Mexican elite on a morning television news program. Brozo's incursion into the realm of the elite television newscast implies an adversarial relationship, which he attains structurally through such devices as comic theatre and the role of the Jester. This study argues that Brozo's humorous communication can be seen as subversive and as contributing to the development of a shared critique of power in the Mexican political realm. Consequently, Brozo's humorous communication is a contestive strategy provoking possibility of societal change.


Graphene-based nanomaterials are versatile functional materials with extraordinary properties. Graphene-containing membranes (GCMs) are advanced separation devices constructed from or modified by graphene and its derivatives; these membranes not only present attractive functions and performance but also generate less residual nanomaterials afterwards, thus lowering impacts to the environment compared to those caused by directly using graphene-based nanomaterials. Since GCMs demonstrate significant sustainability in various applications, they have attracted tremendous attention from both academia and industry. To summarize the state-of-the-art works and guide the future development of GCMs, a full survey of the theoretical and experimental approaches using graphene-based nanomaterials to construct new membranes and modify existing membranes is provided in this review. GCMs are divided into monolayer porous graphene membranes (SGMs), multilayer pristine graphene-containing membranes (MGMs), multilayer composite graphene-containing membranes (CGMs), and conventional membranes modified with graphene-based materials (PGMs). Subsequently, the applications of GCMs in isotope separation, gas separation, desalination, ion separation, nanofiltration, ultrafiltration, and pervaporation are summarized. Multifunctional GCMs with conductive, antifouling, adsorptive, and photoactive properties are also illustrated. The environmental impacts of graphene-based nanomaterials and the safe-by-design concept for GCMs are subsequently discussed. The mechanisms behind GCM construction and GCM performance/function are highlighted. In addition to the advantages of graphene-containing membranes over conventional membranes, the challenges during GCM fabrication and their limitations are analysed to envision the development of next-generation graphene-containing membranes.


"Genocide" was once perceived to be a powerful word. In 1994, the Clinton administration feared using the word to describe violence in Rwanda. Officials believed that the use of this label would activate unwanted legal obligations and increase political expectations for an American response to the crisis. In contrast, ten years later the Bush administration willingly used the term to describe atrocities being committed in Darfur, Sudan. This administration denied that a determination of "genocide" activated new legal obligations, and also found that the use of the word did not lead to substantially increased political pressures to act. This article argues that the word "genocide" has lost some of its ideational power in the sense that it has been detached from legal and political demands "to prevent and to punish" it. The article suggests some reasons for this change and also considers the extent to which such a change actually matters.


The financial sector plays a vital role in the expansion and growth of an economy. The essential factor for the financial growth of a country is a stable banking system. Over the past few years, Islamic banking industry of Pakistan has grown substantially, however, it faces many challenges regarding its financial stability. This study tries to assess factors that affect the profitability of Islamic banking industry over the period of 2007 to 2014. Return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE), and earnings per share (EPS) are used as dependent variables. Bank's size, gearing ratio, non-performing loans (NPL) ratio, operational efficiency, asset composition, asset management, capital adequacy ratio, deposit ratio, gross domestic product (GDP), and consumer price index (CPI) are used as independent variables. Findings of the study indicate that measures of Islamic banking profitability are significantly affected by bank-specific factors such as gearing ratio, asset management, deposit ratio, and NPL ratio and external factor such as CPI.


Familial colorectal cancer (CRC) is a major public health problem by virtue of its relatively high frequency. Some 15-20% of all CRCs are familial. Among these, familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP), caused by germline mutations in the APCgene, accounts for less than 1%. Hereditary non-polyposis colorectal cancer (HNPCC), also called Lynch syndrome, accounts for approximately 5-8% of all CRC patients. Among these, some 3% are mutation positive, that is, caused by germline mutations in the DNA mismatch repair genes that have so far been implicated (MLH1,MSH2, MSH6,PMS1, and PMS2). Most of the remaining patients belonging to HNPCC or HNPCC-like families are still molecularly unexplained. Among the remaining familial CRCs, a large proportion is probably caused by gene mutations and polymorphisms of low penetrance, of which the I1307K polymorphism in the APC gene is a prime example. Molecular genetic findings have enabled hereditary CRC to be divided into two groups: (1) tumours that show microsatellite instability (MSI), occur more frequently in the right colon, have diploid DNA, harbour characteristic mutations such as transforming growth factor β type II receptor and BAX, and behave indolently, of which HNPCC is an example; and (2) tumours with chromosomal instability (CIN), which tend to be left sided, show aneuploid DNA, harbour characteristic mutations such asK-ras, APC, andp53, and behave aggressively, of which FAP is an example. This review focuses most heavily on the clinical features, pathology, molecular genetics, surveillance, and management including prophylactic surgery in HNPCC. Because of the difficulty in diagnosing HNPCC, a detailed differential diagnosis of the several hereditary CRC variants is provided. The extant genetic and phenotypic heterogeneity in CRC leads to the conclusion that it is no longer appropriate to discuss the genetics of CRC without defining the specific hereditary CRC syndrome of concern. Therefore, it is important to ascertain cancer of all anatomical sites, as well as non-cancer phenotypic stigmata (such as the perioral and mucosal pigmentations in Peutz-Jeghers syndrome), when taking a family cancer history.


Chaney analyzes cartoons representing slaves and slavery from the British satirical periodical Punch, or the London Charivari to argue that African American readers such as Frederick Douglass engaged in an evolving role as readers, interpreters, and users of Punch's iconographic discourse-even when, after the outbreak of the Civil War, the political sensibilities of the British periodical were no longer sympathetic to the cause of abolition. Reading the ekphrastic relation between Punch cartoons of Shakespearean mock-ups of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson Davis and Douglass's citation of these images in various mid-nineteenth-century speeches, Chaney argues that this intertextual and transatlantic dialogue with Punch enabled Douglass to renegotiate inscriptions of racialization, authority, and iconic celebrity. Beyond the cartoons, key pieces of evidence utilized in the essay include humorous asides from Samuel Ringgold Ward during an 1853 address of the Congregational Union in England, Douglass's speech "The Proclamation and a Negro Army" (1863), and several of Douglass's statements about the racial and political value of his hair from various sources.


This article considers the data collection practices of voluntary sector advocacy organisations and the impact that poor recording of referral and outcome information can have on the future of independent advocacy services for looked-after children. The article draws on research conducted by the author exploring the characteristics of young people using voluntary sector advocacy services. The study involved the collection of information from 11 voluntary sector advocacy organisations during the year April 2010 to March 2011 on the young people using their independent advocacy services. While the data provided gives some important information, a lack of systematic recording by organisations meant that we were unable to get a detailed picture of service use and effect. The article argues that a lack of available evidence may hamper the long-term future of this important area of voluntary sector support for looked-after children.


Southwest Louisiana Creoles underwent great change between World Wars I and II as they confronted American culture, people, and norms. This work examines that cultural transformation, paying particular attention to the processes of cultural assimilation and resistance to the introduction and imposition of American social values and its southern racial corollary: Jim Crow. As this work makes clear, the transition to American identity transmuted the cultural foundations of French- and Creole-speaking Creole communities. World War I signalled early transformative changes and over the next three decades, the region saw the introduction of English language, new industries, an increasing number of Protestant denominations, and the forceful imposition of racialized identities and racial segregation. Assimilation and cultural resistance characterized the Creole response, but by 1945, southwest Louisiana more closely resembled much of the American South. Creole leaders in churches, schools, and the tourism industry offered divergent reactions; some elite Creoles began looking to Francophone Canada for whitened ethnic identity support while others turned toward the Catholic establishment in Baltimore, Maryland to bolster their faith. Creoles were not the only distinct community to undergo Americanization, but Louisiana Creoles were singular in their response. As this study makes clear – in ways no historian has previously documented – Louisiana Creoles bifurcated as a result of Americanization. This study also contributes to, and broadens, the literature on Acadian identity. Previously, scholars simply assumed that whitened Latins in Louisiana had always identified with Acadia and their black-racialized brethren with Haiti. This thesis, however, suggests that Cajun and Creole are not opposites. Rather, they derive from the same people and culture, and their perceived and articulated difference emerged in response to Americanization. Through a critical analysis of that bifurcation process, this thesis demonstrates how Acadianized identity and culture emerged in the first half of the 20th century.


This report describes work carried out in a site laboratory to estimate the repeatability and reproducibility of two methods for analysing fresh concrete, namely, the constant-volume method (ram - rapid analysis machine) developed by the cement and concrete association and the pressure-filter method devised by Bavelja of Messrs Sandberg. The following estimates of the precision data were obtained. For the pressure-filter a repeatability value of 28 kg/m3 with two estimates for the reproducibility of 26 kg/m3 and 34 kg/m3, and for two ram's, repeatability values of 33 kg/m3 and 41 kg/m3 with a reproducibility value of 61 kg/m3. Results from the pressure-filter experiment on repeatability show that contributions to the overall variability were approximately one-quarter associated with batching, a similar amount with sampling and sub-sampling, and the remaining half with testing. A similar comparison of the variabilities obtained during the ram experiment showed that the batching was greatly improved, the sampling remained much the same, but the testing variability was larger than that obtained using the pressure-filter method. These results are based on a limited amount of data, and relate only to the materials used and to the conditions on the particular site. The work has shown the need for practical site-sampling techniques; it has highlighted the problems that arise in organising multiple tests on samples from the same batch of concrete, and it has shown the necessity to provide adequate drainage facilities to deal with the large volume of cement in suspension issuing from the rapid analysis machines. (Author/TRRL)


ABSTRACT Jorat, M.E.; Moon, V.G.; Hepp, D.A.; Kreiter, S.; de Lange, W.P.; Feldmann, S., and Mörz, T., 2017. Subseafloor investigation of sediments at southern Tauranga Harbour, New Zealand, before capital dredging. The Port of Tauranga plays a key role in New Zealand's export–import industry, and capital dredging commenced in October 2015 to extend the shipping channels to accommodate larger container vessels. This study investigated two-dimensional and three-dimensional subsurface estuarine sediment stratigraphy to predict the sedimentological conditions encountered during dredging operations to ensure that appropriate dredging methodologies were used to minimise the generation of turbidity. Eight cone penetration tests (CPTs), 14 core descriptions, and a high-resolution seismic investigation in Stella Passage (the main shipping channel of Tauranga Harbour) provided the basis for this research. Six major units comprise the stratigraphy; in ascending order they are lower pumiceous sand and silt (UNIT6), quartz-feldspar sand and silt (UNIT5), middle pumiceous sand and silt (UNIT4), silt–sand–clay (UNIT3), upper pumiceous sand and silt (UNIT2), and Holocene marine (UNIT1) sediments forming the modern seafloor. Three paleovalleys filled with sediments from UNIT2 were identified extending west to east across the channel. The CPT profiles were correlated with the seismostratigraphic units and their corresponding soil behaviour type to characterise each unit's sediment stiffness. The UNIT6 is unlikely to be encountered in current and future capital dredging operations because it is the lowest observed unit. A special dredging methodology may be required for UNIT5 and UNIT4 as they have high CPT tip resistance and undrained shear strength. For UNIT3, UNIT2, and UNIT1, which have very low CPT tip resistance and undrained shear strength, trailing suction and cutter suction dredging is appropriate. The potential turbidity of the water column, however, could impose a significant threat to marine biota and has to be taken into account.


Endocrine system exerts relevant effects on multiple organs and tissues. Pleiotropic and redundant functions of circulating hormones are due to the various receptors expressed on multiple target cells. Moreover, receptors of circulating hormones share common transducing elements with receptors of many other molecules. Consequently, endocrine system participate to an integrated network of mediators that communicate and coordinate responsive cells to achive effective functions in an appropriate fashion. The presence of such a complex interplay contribute to unravel previously unappreciated functions of circulating hormones and the mechanisms of coordination and integration of several pathways.
An example of this interplay is the complex interaction between endocrine and immune system. Cytokines and growth factors, in fact, after their binding to cell-surface receptos, activate common intracytoplasmatic signaling molecules. In the recent years the description of complex phenotypes, in which immunodeficiency and growth failure were associated at a different extent, greatly contributed to define how several signaling molecules play a role in both systems. As well as immunodeficiency, autoimmune diseases represent a unique model to study interactions between endocrine and immune systems.
Cardiovascular system also represents a biological system higly sensitive to the effects of circulating hormones as suggested by the presence of several cardiovascular and metabolic alterations found in many endocrine diseases. In fact, patient with growth hormone deficiency as well as thyroid dysfunction, may present an increased morbidity due to cardiovascular events and an increased incidence of atherosclerosis.
Aim of this project was to evaluate physiological and pathological implications of these complex molecular interactions on paediatric endocrinopathies starting from complex phenotype involving endocrine and other biological systems.
To this aim, we started from the study of 3 model of complex diseases:
• The model of autoimmune diseases
• The model of Growth Hormone (GH) Deficiency (GHD)
• The model of Congenital Hypothyroidism (CH)
Moreover, during the study of patients affected with Growth Hormone and thyroid disorders we also identified new genetic causes of GH deficiency and hyperthyroidism, highlithing new insights in the genetics of endocrine diseases, as described in the last chapter of the thesis.


Ordered Binary Decision Diagrams (OBDDs) have found widespread use in CAD applications such as formal verification, logic synthesis, and test generation. OBDDs represent Boolean functions in a form that is both canonical and compact for many practical cases. They can be generated and manipulated by efficient graph algorithms. Researchers have found that many tasks can be expressed as series of operations on Boolean functions, making them candidates for OBDD-based methods. The success of OBDDs has inspired efforts to improve their efficiency and to expand their range of applicability. Techniques have been discovered to make the representation more compact and to represent other classes of functions. This has led to improved performance on existing OBDD applications, as well as enabled new classes of problems to be solved. This paper provides an overview of the state of the art in graph-based function representations. We focus on several recent advances of particular importance for formal verification and other CAD applications.


We document that during the week of March 10-16, the Covid-19 pandemic fundamentally affected the perceptions of U.S. residents about the health risks and socioeconomic consequences entailed by the pandemic. During this week, it seems, "everything changed." Not only did the pandemic progress rapidly across the United States, but U.S. residents started to realize that the threat was real: increasing Covid-19 caseloads heightened perceptions of infection risks and excess mortality risks, concerns about the economic implications increased substantially, and behavioral responses became widespread as the pandemic expanded rapidly in the U.S. In early to mid-March 2020, average perceptions about the coronavirus infection risks are broadly consistent with projections about the pandemic, while expectations about dying conditional on infection and expectations about Covid-19-related excess mortality during the next months are possibly too pessimistic. However, some aspects of Covid-19 perceptions are disconcerting from the perspective of implementing and sustaining an effective societal response to the pandemic. For instance, the education gradient in expected infection risks entails the possibility of having different perceptions of the reality of the pandemic between people with and without a college education, potentially resulting in two different levels of behavioral and policy-responses across individuals and regions. Unless addressed by effective health communication that reaches individuals across all social strata, some of the misperceptions about Covid-19 epidemic raise concerns about the ability of the United States to implement and sustain the widespread and harsh policies that are required to curtail the pandemic. Our analyses also reveal perceptions of becoming infected with the virus, and dying from Covid-19, were driven upwards by a rapidly increasing national caseload, and perceptions of the economic consequences and the adaptation of social distancing were affected by both national and state-level cases.


Abstract This article discusses the assumptions underlying state-building efforts and the effects of these efforts. It addresses two main questions: why has state building not led to the establishment of effective states? And what are the effects of statebuilding? It is argued that these efforts have been based on an institutionalist model of the state derived from a Weberian framework, and that the basic reason why state building has failed is that the creation of effective states requires the creation of state-centred societies, where both material and symbolic resources are concentrated in the state. This is very difficult to achieve for external actors. But, although state building has not achieved the kinds of effects associated with effective states, it has nevertheless had significant effects. These include, first, accentuating the patrimonialism which has led to state weakness in the first place; second, reductions in national sovereignty as external actors' substantial influence on policy agendas renders the state itself subject to control and regulation by actors external to it; and, third, perpetuating the idea of the state, while undermining the possibility of creating actual states which conform to this idea.


There is a persistent debate over the role of scale of operations in education. Some argue that school franchises offer educational services more effectively than do small independent schools. Skeptics counter that large, centralized operations create hard-to-manage bureaucracies and foster diseconomies of scale and that small schools are more effective at promoting higher-quality education. The answer to this question has profound implications for U.S. education policy, because reliably scaling up the best schools has proven to be a particularly difficult problem. If there are policies that would make it easier to replicate the most effective schools, systemwide educational quality could be improved substantially.We can gain insight into this debate by examining Chile's national voucher program. This paper uses fourth-grade data to compare achievement in private franchise, private independent, and public schools in Chile. Our findings suggest that franchises have a large advantage over independent schools once student and peer attributes and selectivity are controlled for. We also find that further disaggregating school franchise widens the larger franchise advantage. We conclude that policies oriented toward creating incentives for private school owners to join or start up a franchise may have the potential for improving educational outcomes.


A major challenge for advancement of clinical neuronal replacement therapies is the production of high yields of purified neuronal populations of appropriate phenotype with control over proliferation to prevent tumorigenesis. We previously reported that treatment of mouse embryonic stem cell (mESC; 46C Sox1GFP reporter cell line) monolayer cultures with the vitamin B3 metabolite nicotinamide at the early onset of development not only increased the efficiency of neuronal generation by two-fold but also enriched the ratio of purified neurons to non-neuronal cells in culture. This study aimed to investigate if nicotinamide enhances neural induction in this model and whether it also promotes the production/differentiation of specific neuronal subtypes. To address these aims, monolayer mESC cultures were treated with nicotinamide (10 mM) for different durations and immunocytochemistry/fluorescence microscopy was performed to assess the expression of stem cell, neural progenitor (NP) and neuronal subtype markers. Morphometric analyses were also performed to assess the extent of neuronal differentiation. Nicotinamide treatment significantly decreased Oct4 pluripotent cells and concomitantly increased GFPcells at day 4, suggesting enhanced neural lineage commitment. By day 14, nicotinamide treatment (from day 0-7) reduced both Oct4 and GFP expression concomitant with enhanced expression of neuronspecific β-tubulin. Nicotinamide selectively enhanced the production of catecholaminergic, serotonergic and GABAergic neurons and, moreover, enhanced various aspects of neuronal morphology and maturation. Collectively, these data demonstrate a direct effect of nicotinamide at the initial stages of embryonic stem cell differentiation which could be critical for rapidly and efficiently promoting neural commitment to highly enriched neuronal lineages. The strong clinical potential of nicotinamide could successfully be applied to future neural cell-based therapies, including Parkinson's and Huntington's disease, both to eradicate proliferating cells and for a more enhanced and specific differentiation.


The use of social media has increased dramatically in recent years in the areas of public health and injury prevention, with many organisations creating online and social media content. Despite the adoption of such media by modern society, research relating to the design and evaluation of social media for the promotion of health issues is very much in its infancy. A timely review of the available evidence in relation to the use of social media campaigns from both the road safety and broader public health context will be undertaken. In particular, this paper will address the questions of what social media should be developed, how it should be evaluated, as well as what should be the key measures of success and to what extent do these measures relate to practically significant outcomes, such as behaviour change. Much like more traditional media campaigns, social media may be best regarded as another approach within the array of potential approaches that a health advertising researcher or practitioner may utilise. With younger demographics becoming less likely to engage with more traditional advertising mediums relative to their preference for social media, social media's most important role in the road safety advertising context may be to offer the means of delivering road safety messages to high risk, younger road users.


Agent-based systems have been widely investigated in simulation and modeling. In this paper, it is proposed that agent-based systems can also be developed as generative systems, in which different aspects of performative design can be defined as separate drivers in a proper computational framework. In this manner constrained generating procedures (CGP's) are studied to integrate the discrete design processes into one system. Subsequently, this generative agent-based design tool is accompanied with generating and constraining mechanism which are informed by material characteristics and fabrication constraints, bringing to the forefront emergent complexity.


In his new book, Gurcharan Das turns to the "Mahabharata" in order to answer the question, 'why be good?', and discovers that the epic's world of moral haziness and uncertainty is closer to our experience as ordinary human beings than the narrow and rigid positions that define most debate in this fundamentalist age of moral certainty. "The Mahabharata" is obsessed with the elusive notion of dharma - in essence, doing the right thing. When a hero falters, the action stops and everyone weighs in with a different and often contradictory take on dharma. The epic's characters are flawed, but their incoherent experiences throw light on our familiar dilemmas. Gurcharan Das' best-selling book "India Unbound" examined the classical aim of artha, material well being. This, his first book in seven years, dwells on the goal of dharma, moral well being. It addresses the central problem of how to live our lives in an examined way-holding a mirror up to us and forcing us to confront the many ways in which we deceive ourselves and others. What emerges is a doctrine of dharma that we can apply to our business decisions, political strategies and interpersonal relationships - in effect, to life itself.


In this research paper the methodological development of a new model, namely SQM-HEI (Service Quality Measurement in Higher Education in India) for the measurement of service quality in higher educational institutions is developed. Three dimensions are arrived namely Teaching Methodology(TM), Environmental Change in Study Factor (ECSF) and Disciplinary Action(DA). The Placement is considered as the mediating factor for the outcome of education. For conducting an empirical study, data were collected from final year students of higher educational institutions across Tamilnadu. 1600 valid questionnaires were used for the analysis. The SQM-HEI captures the authentic determinants of service quality within the higher education sector. The developed 30-item instrument has been empirically tested with AMOS 7.0. The developed model is tested for Structural Equation Model and Bayesian estimation and testing. The SEM model output reveals that the RMSEA=0.049, GFI= 0.987 and NFI = 0.928. all the fit indices concludes the best fit of the model. The results from the current study are crucial because previous studies have produced scales that bear a resemblance to the generic measures of service quality, which may not be totally adequate to assess the perceived quality in higher education.


Public blockchains implement a fee mechanism to allocate scarce computational resources across competing transactions. Most existing fee market designs utilize a joint, fungible unit of account ( e.g. , gas in Ethereum) to price otherwise non-fungible resources such as bandwidth, computation, and storage, by hardcoding their relative prices. Fixing the relative price of each resource in this way inhibits granular price discovery, limiting scalability and opening up the possibility of denial-of-service attacks. As a result, many prominent networks such as Ethereum and Solana have proposed multidimensional fee markets. In this paper, we provide a principled way to design fee markets that efficiently price multiple non-fungible resources. Starting from a loss function specified by the network designer, we show how to dynamically compute prices that align the network's incentives (to minimize the loss) with those of the users and miners (to maximize their welfare), even as demand for these resources changes. We derive an EIP-1559-like mechanism from first principles as an example. Our pricing mechanism follows from a natural decomposition of the network designer's problem into two parts that are related to each other via the resource prices. These results can be used to efficiently set fees in order to improve network performance.


Manufacturing industry is facing an enormous challenge today in trying to integrate a wide range of software systems. These systems span the functional areas of manufacturing, as well as, the multitude of organizations and countries involved in the manufacture of their products. To address these needs (and similar needs in other industries) a number of organizations are defining standards that support the integration of the systems. Many of these standards are an application of the XML family of software standards. To ensure quality in the emerging domain standards, the organizations producing them also define guidelines for how the XML standards, especially XML Schema, will be used in a given context. These guidelines are published as sets of Naming and Design Rules (NDR). Unfortunately, a single set of these rules do not meet the needs of the wide range of standards being developed. Moreover, the guidelines are being published as prose (e.g., English text) rather than in a computational form. To address these shortcomings and allow for the more rapid creation of high quality NDR, NIST is developing a set of tools to facilitate Naming and Design Rules Development. The tools support the development of executable tests to support NDR, collaboration on the use of those tests, the grouping of tests into testing profiles, as well as, the association of NDR documentation with executable tests. The grouping mechanism allows rules to be selected from a larger set for use in a particular context. By also providing for the association of guidelines with executable tests, a testing suite can be quickly assembled. Furthermore, the pool of guidelines and their tests can be collaboratively developed, thereby leveraging resources and creating higher quality test sets in the end. The report describes a roadmap for the use of these tools in the development of XML Schema Naming and Design Rules. It is produced by the XML Testbed project within the Manufacturing Systems Integration Division at NIST. These tools aid in producing high quality XML schemas using a standards-based approach to manufacturing systems integration. The tools are based on open-standards, making them highly configurable and reusable. The three primary functional areas of the tools described are authoring, testing, and sharing.


Interview with Estel G. Burns, World War II veteran and B-17 pilot, as part of the Tarrant County War Veterans Project. The interview includes Burns' personal experiences of childhood and education in Missouri, farm life in the Great Depression, basic training, and training for aviation mechanics at Sheppard Field, Texas. Additionally, Burns talks about his family history, his 1942 enlistment in Army Air Corps, being accepted into pilot training, marriage to Dorothy Perrin, life at Deenethorpe Air Base, England, crew members and their respective duties on his plane, various missions bombing German targets, his feelings about missions against civilian targets, opinions of Luftwaffe pilots and of Germans, and his postwar Air Force career, including service in the Korean War. The interview includes an appendix of photographs.


The feasibility of fenestration operation in middle ear bone with pulsed infrared laser is evaluated. Healthy male New Zealand rabbits in vivo are used in the experiment. Middle ear mastoid bone of animal model is completely exposed with conventional methods, and then a pulsed COlsubg2l/subg laser (10.6 \mu m) and an Er:YAG laser (2.94 \mu m) are used to perform the fenestration operation. Diamond drill is also used as a control group. The total operation time and light irradiation time are recorded and the opening efficiency is assessed. The morphological changes and thermal damage around the opening window on the middle ear bone are examined. It is shown that both laser systems are suitable for the fenestration operation in middle ear bone, and this no-touch technique has a lot of benefits compared with traditional methods. The bleeding during operation has an important effect on operation time and thermal injury and needs to be controlled efficiently in further study.


Strong evidence indicates that where we live, work, learn, and play affects our health and well-being. Housing and community development professionals are in a unique position to ensure that their projects minimize health risks and capitalize on opportunities to improve health. The Health Impact Project, a collaboration of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and The Pew Charitable Trusts; Enterprise Green Communities; and the U.S. Green Building Council have joined in a new partnership to streamline the comprehensive and systematic consideration of health in the Enterprise Green Communities Criteria and the Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification programs. The Enterprise Green Communities Criteria provide a national framework and certification program for developing green affordable housing. LEED is a green building certification program that applies to a range of buildings—including schools, health care centers, office buildings, and housing—and the surrounding areas. Although the Enterprise Green Communities Criteria and LEED have included health measures since their inception, the collaboration strengthens and expands the consideration of health. Drawing upon the principles of health impact assessment (HIA)—a framework for systematic, comprehensive consideration of potential public health impacts of proposed policies that emphasizes stakeholder engagement—and of integrative design, the new standards outline ways that architects, designers, and developers can consider the connections between their work and public health. These strategies encourage Enterprise Green Communities and LEED project teams to use public health information in planning and developing their projects and to engage residents and other stakeholders in identifying strategies for addressing possible negative consequences and maximizing opportunities to improve health.


Background Low-carbohydrate diets have been shown to effectively improve the metabolic status of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. However, patients may find it challenging to maintain a strict low-carbohydrate diet. The objective of this study was to determine if a one-meal, low-carbohydrate diet is as effective in improving metabolic status as a conventional, energy-restricted diet among patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Methods In this 12-week randomized controlled study, the primary endpoint was differences in the changes of plasma glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c) levels between the two experimental groups. Since the two groups had differences in body weight, body mass index, and waist circumference, propensity score matching was used to assess HbA1c outcomes via cohort pairs according to age, sex, body weight, HbA1c level, and waist circumference. Results There were no differences in the changes in HbA1c between the two groups (P = 0.95). In addition, there were no differences in the changes in glycated albumin, 1,5-anhydroglucitol, lipid profile, body weight, waist circumference, and fat mass between the two groups. The mini low-carbohydrate diet group had an increased protein intake (P = 0.0085), as compared with the control group. However, neither group showed changes in their Diabetes Treatment Satisfaction Questionnaire score. Conclusion Either diet would be effective for improving the metabolic status of this study population.


ABSTRACT
RADIOGRAPHIC EVALUATION OF IDIOPATHIC CLUBFOOT
UNDERGOING PONSETI TREATMENT
Muhammad Ariffudin*, Anung Budi Satriadi**
Background: Idiopathic clubfoot is one of the most common problems in
pediatric orthopaedics. The incidence about 1 to 2 per 1000 live birth.
Treatment for clubfoot is remain controversial. The controversy caused by no
standardized method to evaluate the treatment. The Ponseti method for
treatment of idiopathic clubfoot involves manipulation, the use of serial cast,
and percutaneus Achiles tenotomy in most cases and bracing with and
abduction orthosis to prevent relapse. Although Ponseti recommended
evaluation of the infant clubfoot strictly by palpation, many orthopedic
surgeon still rely on radiograph for decision making during treatment. The
aim of this study is to.evaluate Ponseti method on idiopathic clubfoot with
radiological appearance.
Method: We conduct the study at outpatient department of Prof. Soeharso
Hospital Surakarta, since may 2009 until October 2009. After diagnosed as
idiopathic clubfoot, radiograph examination were made on anteroposterior
and full dorsoflexion lateral view. The radiograph examination begin before
treatment and made after final casting, before bracing period. The
anteroposterior talocalcaneal angle and talo 1st metatarsal were measured.
On lateral view, talocalcaneal, tibiotalar and tibiocalcaneal also measured.
The result before and after treatment then compared and statisticly tested.
Result: 53 feet was evaluated from 37 patients. Anteroposterior view shows
talocalcaneal angle before treatment with mean 11,9o become 35,5o after
treatment. Talo 1st metatarsal angle shows initial number is 38,0 o, become -
4,24o after treatment. Lateral view shows talocalcaneal angle initial was
15,24 o become 39,3o after treatment. Tibiotalar angle shows initial was
116,4o become 89,5o aftertreatment. Tibiocalcaneal angle shows initial was
105,1o become 53,2o aftertreatment. Aftertreatment angles shows within
normal limit, and the improvement are statisticly significant.
Conclusions: The measured angles in anteroposterior and lateral view after
ponseti method of treatment on clubfoot show good result. corrected on
clinical evaluation is also give normal radiographic after treatment.
Keywords: Idiopathic Clubfoot, Ponseti Method, Radiograph Evaluation,
Soeharso Hospital


Objectives : The aim of the study was to determine the relative frequency and demographic characteristics of intraoral minor salivary gland pleomorphic adenomata (IMPA) affecting a group of patients who attended the Medunsa Oral Health Centre of the University of Limpopo, South Africa.
Materials and methods : The records of all the IMPA diagnosed in this rural and periurban Southern African population sample between 1995 and 2011 inclusive were retrieved from the archives of the Department of Oral Pathology. The cases were reviewed and analysed for age, gender and site of occurrence. The findings were compared with other studies reported in the literature.
Results : One hundred and fifty two cases of pleomorphic adenomata (PA) were diagnosed between 1995 and 2011 of which 115 cases were encountered in intraoral minor salivary glands. The age of the patients ranged from 7 to 91 years with a mean of 38.5 years. The peak of incidence was in the third decade; however the tumour was relatively common in the sample through the second to the sixth decades of life. There was a female predilection (67.5%) demonstrated with the ratio of male to female of 1:2.3. Most males were diagnosed in their third decade of life whereas affected females were predominantly in their fifth decade. The most common site of occurrence was palate (78.6%) followed by buccal mucosa (12.0%) and upper lip (2.6%) and the distribution was the same for both females and males.
Conclusion : IMPA diagnosed in this South African population shows demographic characteristics similar to those reported in most published studies in the world. In comparison with other studies, however, females were significantly more frequently affected than the males.


The cultural heritage sector is facing important challenges in pursuing and sustaining its fundamental mission of protecting and preserving historic and culturally important buildings, monuments, and museums. There is an almost universal scarcity of funds for investing in cultural heritage sites. Major funding sources, such as public-sector funding bodies, have many competing demands on their budgets. In the public sector, funding bodies constantly question why extra funds should be directed at cultural heritage instead of additional funds for 'vote-winning' sectors such as education or health. There is a perception that heritage is a luxury compared with dealing with issues such as education, health, employment and defence.

Heritage is often highly valued in cultural and social terms but policy makers increasingly seek
justifi cation for allocating incremental funds on the basis of perceived socio-economic benefits. Here lies a fundamental problem for heritage – the costs of heritage are highly visible in the budgets of government funding, but the benefi ts are less visible, often intangible and diffi cult to capture in conventional terms. In the policy-making arena, where decisions concerning the allocation of funds take place, cultural heritage organisations are often ill-equipped to forward a socio-economic case for investment. Cultural heritage could be considered as an emerging, and potentially significant, industry in its own right, but attempts to evaluate and measure its socio-economic contribution are relatively under-developed.

Most cultural heritage sites have not systematically developed tried-and-tested techniques or processes to evaluate their socio-economic contribution. Such sites often find themselves receiving excellent rhetorical support from policy makers and public bodies for their vital role in preservation and protection, but still struggle to attract incremental financial support that would ensure the sustainability of many cultural heritage sites. There is little doubt that the profile of heritage as a potentially important driver of socioeconomic
benefi ts to communities has been increasing but the tools, methodologies, and capabilities for
evaluating the socio-economic contribution are in their relative infancy.

It is apparent that cultural heritage can have an impact at many levels, including economic, social, cultural, educational, and environmental. These different impacts require different methodologies and capabilities for evaluation. Priority impact evaluation areas may vary from site to site, depending on a number of factors such as stakeholder expectations, policy and funding contexts, and the underlying mission of the site.

The Heritage management series is a resource for the heritage community supported by the European
Commission's EPOCH Network of Excellence, the CUBIST Research Group, and Brighton Business
School. This volume provides examples and case studies of how heritage can be used to increase positive impact on both society and the economy. It is hoped that the multi-disciplinary approaches considered here will stimulate discussion and produce interesting exchanges of learning and hopefully a mutual appreciation of the contribution made by different disciplines to the development of the cultural heritage sector.


Tracking signals are widely used in industry to monitor inventory and sales demand. These signals automatically and quickly detect departures in product demand, such as step jumps and outliers, from "business-as-usual". This paper explores the application of tracking signals for use in crime mapping to automatically identify areas that are experiencing changes in crime patterns and thus may need police intervention.. Detecting such changes through visual examination of time series plots, while effective, creates too large a work load for crime analysts, easily on the order of 1,000 time series per month for mediumsized cities. We demonstrate the so-called smoothed-error-term tracking signal and carry out an exploratory validation on 10 grid cells for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Underlying the tracking signal is an extrapolative forecast that serves as the counterfactual basis of comparison. The approach to validation is based on the assumption that we wish tracking signal behavior to match decisions made by crime analysts on identifying crime pattern changes. We present tracking signals in the context of crime early warning systems that provide wide area scanning for crime pattern changes and detailed drill-down maps for crime analysis. Based on preliminary results, the tracking signal is a promising tool for crime analysts.


This article argues for a revised importance of distance, besides the much emphasized closeness, in the debate on and use of ethnographic methods in online environments. When returning to the founding fathers of ethnographic methods, distance is often put forward as a core aspect of ethnographic methods, something widely forgotten, or even rejected, in the current debate in the field. Space has been restructured by digital media technologies, and the spatial and temporal proximity of digital media cultures present new challenges for research methodologies. Based on the author's own experiences of ethnographic fieldwork in digital cultures, and with Henri Lefebvre's theory of everyday life as a rhythm as vantage point, it is here argued that distance, dialectically interlinked with closeness and proximity, should be given further attention in current research and debate on ethnographic methods used online.


Sharing of common corridors by gas pipelines and overhead power transmission lines is becoming quite common. However, electrical energy can be transferred from power transmission lines to pipelines through inductive, conductive and capacitive coupling. When a power transmission line runs in parallel with a pipeline for a considerable length, induced AC voltages may appear on the pipeline. While there are significant benefits in sharing a corridor between pipelines and power transmission lines, e.g. joint land use, there are also many concerns. The main ones are safety considerations for operation and maintenance personnel on pipelines, direct effects on the pipeline, such as corrosion and coating damage and effects on the electrical devices associated with the pipeline related to cathodic protection, metering and monitoring. AC induced corrosion is a significant threat to the integrity of buried pipelines, due to its very high localized corrosion rate which can and has resulted in metal loss of more than 1 mm per year. AC corrosion mainly occurs at small coating holidays on well coated pipelines when the pipeline suffers from induced ac voltages. In this paper, a simulation software suite will be presented that is able to model both resistive ("close field") as inductive ("far field") interference in right of way's (ROW's) with pipeline and power transmission networks of any complexity. Practical results of simulations on two different configurations will be presented. The first one deals with a pipeline and powerline crossing in a two-layer very high resistivity soil. The second one studies induced steady state voltages on a gathering piping system located in several powerline corridors.


The experimental band structure of the rare-earth pnictide erbium arsenide (ErAs), grown epitaxially on GaAs(100), has been mapped out using photoelectron spectroscopy and inverse photoemission spectroscopy. The electronic structure is dominated by bulk bands qualitatively consistent with the calculated band structure. A number of additional nondispersing $4f$ multiplet levels can be identified in the valence-band structure as well as at least one surface resonance band. From symmetry selection rules, photoemission provides strong evidence that the ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{5}$ (or e) symmetry bands are a consequence of hybridization between Er and As, while the ${\ensuremath{\Delta}}_{1}$ (or ${a}_{1})$ symmetry bands have possible contributions from nonbonding or antibonding states from Er (and/or As).


We have studied a woman with an apparent receptor-mediated resistance to cortisol on the basis of elevated 24-h mean plasma cortisol levels and increased urinary free cortisol. Plasma ACTH concentrations were normal but she was resistant to adrenal suppression by dexamethasone. No stigmata of Cushing's syndrome were seen. To study the proposed end-organ resistance to cortisol, we examined the glucocorticoid receptor (GR) in lymphocytes and in fibroblasts from this patient and from her son. Several molecular properties of the GR of lymphocytes from the patient were indistinguishable from that of normal control subjects. In thermolability assays, however, the patient's GR as well as her son's GR showed a striking heat sensitivity at 40 degrees and 45 degrees C when compared with GR from normal persons. In addition, data from the thermolability assays correlated well with the lack at 45 degrees C of dexamethasone-induced decrease in in vitro [3H]thymidine incorporation into lymphocytes derived from both patients.


Plan S for shock: the open access initiative that changed the face of global research. This is the story of open access publishing – why it matters now, and for the future. In a world where information has never been so accessible, and answers are available at the touch of a fingertip, we are hungrier for the facts than ever before – something the Covid-19 crisis has brought to light. And yet, paywalls put in place by multi-billion dollar publishing houses are still preventing millions from accessing quality, scientific knowledge – and public trust in science is under threat. On 4 September 2018, a bold new initiative known as 'Plan S' was unveiled, kickstarting a world-wide shift in attitudes towards open access research. For the first time, funding agencies across continents joined forces to impose new rules on the publication of research, with the aim of one day making all research free and available to all. What followed was a debate of global proportions, as stakeholders asked: Who has the right to access publicly-funded research? Will it ever be possible to enforce change on a multi-billion dollar market dominated by five major players? Here, the scheme's founder, Robert-Jan Smits, makes a compelling case for Open Access, and reveals for the first time how he set about turning his controversial plan into reality – as well as some of the challenges faced along the way. In telling his story, Smits argues that the Covid-19 crisis has exposed the traditional academic publishing system as unsustainable.


Slow job growth, declining home values, a diminishing tax base, and concentrated poverty are but a few of the growing obstacles for well-established but struggling cities. Challenged by decades of globalization, technological change, and dramatic demographic shifts away from the urban core, these former industrial powerhouses, particularly in the Northeast and Midwest, have been eclipsed by burgeoning American cities with a viable niche in the new economy. In Retooling for Growth , experts present new frameworks, cutting-edge analysis, and innovative policy solutions for the nation's government, business, civic, and community leaders to sculpt a sustainable and supportable economy for older industrial areas. The unique focus on rehabilitating weak market cities outlines ideas for reshaping the role of public agencies, the workforce, business organizations, and technology. Implementation of these measures addresses challenges such as fostering entrepreneurship, reducing poverty and inequality, and maintaining and augmenting the number of skilled professionals who reside and work in a community, among others. This collection of essays offers practical, achievable strategies for revitalizing industrial areas and building upon the potential of existing but overlooked resources of economic, physical, and cultural significance. In this important volume, leading authorities provide a thought-provoking analysis of healthy economic development practices for both public and private sectors.


We give and prove two new and fundamental properties of total-variation-minimizing function regularization (TV regularization): edge locations of function features tend to be preserved, and under certain conditions are preserved exactly; intensity change experienced by individual features is inversely proportional to the scale of each feature. We give and prove exact analytic solutions to the TV regularization problem for simple but important cases. These can also be used to better understand the effects of TV regularization for more general cases. Our results explain why and how TV-minimizing image restoration can remove noise while leaving relatively intact larger-scaled image features, and thus why TV image restoration is especially effective in restoring images with larger-scaled features. Although TV regularization is a global problem, our results show that the effects of TV regularization on individual image features are often quite local. Our results give us a better understanding of what types of images and what types of image degradation are most effectively improved by TV-minimizing image restoration schemes, and they potentially lead to more intelligently designed TV-minimizing restoration schemes.


Students at my high school have scored their lowest on the Earth science portion of the state proficiency test over the past several years. Because this is a topic I teach to the entire freshman class in my school, my capstone project was dedicated to increasing these test scores. My project involved adding concept mapping to all material assigned during two units of the Earth science unit. Data collected to identify the impact of the concept map came from student journal entries, interviews, and surveys as well as from tests that included multiple-choice questions modeled on the state proficiency test questions; targeted short answer questions were included to provide me with qualitative data. I also used a journal and an interview by my principal in an effort to measure the impact of concept mapping on my time and attitude. The results of the study were mixed. Although postunit test scores were higher following the nontreatment unit, there was significant long-term retention of material by three of the four subgroups. Data also indicate greater retention of vocabulary across all of the subgroups. Finally, the results indicate that concept mapping can be a valuable addition to my teaching repertoire.


This paper presents the results of a study in which artists made line drawings intended to convey specific 3D shapes. The study was designed so that drawings could be registered with rendered images of 3D models, supporting an analysis of how well the locations of the artists' lines correlate with other artists', with current computer graphics (CG) line definitions, and with the underlying differential properties of the 3D surface. Lines drawn by artists in this study largely overlapped one another, particularly along the occluding contours of the object. Most lines that do not overlap contours overlap large gradients of the image intensity and correlate strongly with predictions made by recent line-drawing algorithms in CG. A few were not well described by any of the local properties considered in this study. The result of our work is a publicly available data set of aligned drawings, an analysis of where lines appear in that data set based on local properties of 3D models, and algorithms to predict where artists will draw lines for new scenes.


The interview was recorded at the Yale University, on February 27, 1991. The Interviewer was James S. Sutterlin.
Regarded as one of the world's leading political scientists, David Apter taught at Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, the University of Chicago, the University of California and Yale University, where he held a joint appointment in political science and sociology, was a founding fellow of the Whitney Humanities Center. In addition to teaching, Mr. Apter did field research on development, democratization and political violence in Africa, Latin America, Japan and China.

During the Congo Crisis (1960-1966), Mr. Apter made several trips to the Congo to observe its path to independence. In this interview, conducted on 27 February 1991, he discussed his assessment of this period, described the personalities of the key political Congolese players at the time and gave his evaluation of the Congo's transition to independence.