This Article examines the ways that contemporary creativity challenges copyright's fixation requirement. In this Article, we identify concrete problems with the fixation requirement, both practically and in light of the fundamental purpose and policy behind copyright law, and argue for a change that would amend the fixation requirement to better function in the modern era.Specifically, we conclude that a fair appraisal of the justifications for the fixation requirement provides little, if any, rationale for fixation except to the extent that fixation helps to separate idea from expression in determining the "metes and bounds" of creative expression. Recent case law analyzing the transitory works exclusion in particular demonstrates that this component of the fixation requirement has become an ineffective demarcation of what it means to fix a work in the modern era and provides little guidance for statutory interpretation. We reason that dropping the transitory duration exclusion for copyrightability would enable fixation to serve its essential purpose while not discriminating against important strains of contemporary creativity. Furthermore, removing the transitory works exclusion would better equip copyright law to reflect the purposes of the Intellectual Property Clause in the U.S. Constitution. Despite these considerations, if dropping the exclusion for transitory works is not practically feasible, we argue that it is nevertheless desirable to allow a flexible interpretation of statutory language in light of the purposes of copyright and allow transitory works to come into a safe harbor from the general fixation requirement for copyrightability under the aegis of the Visual Artists Rights Act.


This paper is part of a larger project which looks at monetary policy and the economy. The object of the present paper is to serve as an introduction to and description of some key empirical regularities, without seeking to describe how monetary policy exerts its influence, or how this may have changed under deregulation. Other papers are presently being prepared which will address these issues. The paper examines the relationship between a number of financial indicators and economic activity over the past two decades. The study focuses on private demand as an indicator of activity, and short-term interest rates and a number of financial aggregates as financial indicators. The paper examines these indicators both visually (graphically) and using simple correlation coefficients. While it does not claim to be definitive about causality, it does draw some conclusions about the strength and timing of relationships. In particular, it suggests that large movements in real demand are preceded by movements in interest rates. The evidence for monetary and credit aggregates is mixed. M1 consistently leads real demand (though this is probably not independent of interest rates). Other bank-based aggregates sometimes led in the 1970s, but no longer do so; the relationship for these aggregates has at times been unstable. Broader monetary and credit aggregates tend to lag real demand. In the case of nominal demand, the timimg of relationships is altered. The leading relationship of interest rates and M1 to nominal demand is longer than it is for real demand, and the lag from demand to broader aggregates is shorter. M3 and bank lending performed very well as leading indicators of nominal demand in the 1970s, but have since deteriorated. One consistent theme which comes through in the results is that interest rates are a reasonably good leading indicator of changes in demand, particularly real demand. This relationship has not weakened with deregulation; indeed, the statistical evidence suggests that it has strengthened.


The aim of the study was to investigate the histological aspects of the large intestine of adult one-humped camels (Camelus dromedarius) domiciled in Iraq. To conduct that, large intestines samples of twelve adult camels (six males and six females) obtained directly after animals slaughtering. Tissue specimens from different segments of the intestine (cecum, colon, and rectum) were collected, fixed, processed routinely, and subsequently stained with H&E, Lillies Allochrome, Periodic Acid Schiff, Combined AB–PAS, and Gomori Aldehyde-Fuchsin stains. The microscopic examination showed the composition of tunica mucosa, submucosa, muscularis, and serosa layers. Lining epithelium of all segments showed their consistency of simple columnar and goblet cells. Distinctly, the muscularis mucosa separates mucosa from submucosa layers. Tunica muscularis structured of two distinct layers (inner circular and outer longitudinal); the outer layer is organized by three separated bands, that is known as taeniae coli. The histochemically stained sections revealed scattered goblet cells of all segments that were strongly reacted to PAS. Staining with PAS-AB showed negative or faintly bluish stained epithelial cells due to the reaction with AB contents, whereas goblet cells showed toughly positive reaction due to the PAS contents. The gomori Aldehyde-Fuchsin stain showed goblet cells strongly reacted to the acidic, nonsulfated, mucopolysaccharides but columnar epithelium were showing poor reaction toward this stain. the unique structure of large intestine of one-humped camels has investigated and its composed layers have remarkably observed in this work.


This paper outlines the strategies available for estimating the biophysical properties of crop canopies from remotely sensed data. Spectral reflectance and biophysical data were obtained over 132 plots of sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) and in the first part of the paper the strength of the relationships between vegetation indices (VI) and leaf area index (LAI) are examined. In the second part, an approach is tested in which a canopy reflectance model is used to generate simulated spectra for a wide range of biophysical conditions and these data are used to train an artificial neural network (ANN). The advantage of the second approach is that a priori knowledge of the measurement conditions including soil reflectance, canopy architecture and solar position can be included explicitly in the modelling. The results show that the estimation of sugar beet LAI using a trained neural network is more reliable than the use of VI and has the potential to replace the use of VI for operational applications. The use of a priori data on the variation in soil spectral reflectance gave rise to a small increase in LAI estimation accuracy.


This paper uses new tracking surveys for several developing countries to analyze rural-urban migration and their macroeconomic implications. We document that migrants from rural to urban areas typically experience large consumption growth one year after migrating, though overall migration rates are low. To understand these facts we build a model that generates a rural-urban gap in average consumption due to three factors: income risk from migration, worker sorting, and disutility from migration. We structurally estimate the model and assess the relative importance of each factor in explaining rural-urban consumption gaps. We then cross-check the model's predictions using evidence from a controlled migration experiment. Quantitative experiments using the model provide guidance about the quantitative importance of migration policy on aggregate consumption growth.


Query rewriting (QR) is an increasingly important component in voice assistant systems to reduce customer friction caused by errors in a spoken language understanding pipeline. These errors originate from various sources such as Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) modules. In this work, we construct a user interaction graph from their queries using data mined from a Markov Chain Model [1], and introduce a self-supervised pre-training process for learning query embeddings by leveraging the recent developments in Graph Representation Learning (GRL). We then fine-tune these embeddings with weak supervised data for the query rewriting task, and observe improvement over the neural retrieval baseline system, demonstrating the effectiveness of the proposed method.


One of the last remaining technical hurdles with variable emittance devices or skins based on conducting polymer electrochromics is the high solar absorptance of their top surfaces. This high solar absorptance causes overheating of the skin when facing the Sun in space. Existing technologies such as mechanical louvers or loop heat pipes are virtually inapplicable to micro (< 20 kg) and nano (< 5 kg) spacecraft. Novel coatings lower the solar absorption to Alpha(s) of between 0.30 and 0.46. Coupled with the emittance properties of the variable emittance skins, this lowers the surface temperature of the skins facing the Sun to between 30 and 60 C, which is much lower than previous results of 100 C, and is well within acceptable satellite operations ranges. The performance of this technology is better than that of current new technologies such as microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), electrostatics, and electrophoretics, especially in applications involving micro and nano spacecraft. The coatings are deposited inside a high vacuum, layering multiple coatings onto the top surfaces of variable emittance skins. They are completely transparent in the entire relevant infrared region (about 2 to 45 microns), but highly reflective in the visible-NIR (near infrared) region of relevance to solar absorptance.


Functionalism serves as the guiding concept of this piece of work, on the example of which shall be traced the changes that took place in modern architecture between 1930 and 1950. This choice seems appropriate since Functionalism is a particularly relevant yardstick of the state of modern architecture owing to its radical nature. In its generally accepted form, Functionalism embodies the most rigorous stage of a development that in the early 1920s assumed a variety of forms, that became increasingly strongly focussed, and which finally expanded in the early 1930s. On the other hand, a penetration of the core of the concept of Functionalism is an uphill task and demands an investigation into allied concepts such Objectivity, and in particular the New Objectivity, Neues Bauen and Rationalism, as well as a digression into Italian Razionalismo. This exploration is followed by an attempt to define Functionalism, whereby the intention is not to equate it with the status of "dogmatic Functionalism" with which its condition at the end of the 1920s shall be labelled, but to attempt to understand it in a more comprehensive sense. This extended view of Functionalism forms the basis of an analysis of the expansion stage, which can be divided into three parts for which the following concepts stand: "enlightened Functionalism" for the years from 1930 to 1935, "self-evident Functionalism" for the following period up until the end of the war, and "subliminal Functionalism" for the first post-war years until 1950 – concepts that refer to the types of development in which Functionalism continued to forfeit its radicality and mutate into an undogmatic, widely accepted form of modern architecture. Towards 1950, however, functionalistic methods were more and more frequently overlaid by a traditional language of form that increasingly blurred the contours of functionalist aesthetics. This represented the final stage of development, for an invisible functionalism is no longer an "ism" – and thus no longer Functionalism. Buildings from Switzerland and Sweden provide the main source of illustrative material, despite the fact that Functionalism developed in Germany. This is connected with the architectural quality of Swiss and Swedish building at the time, as well as with the changes in the political situation. For although World War II brought about a crucial break in Switzerland and Sweden, it did not call a complete halt to the previous developments as it did in most other European countries.


Over the last decade, there has been considerable interest and progress in determining the spectral properties of various operators that take relativistic effects into account, with important implications for mathematics and physics. Difficulties are encountered in many-particle problems due to the lack of semiboundedness of the Dirac operator, and this has led to the investigation of operators like those of Chandrasekhar–Herbst and Brown–Ravenhall, which are semibounded under appropriate circumstances.

This book contains an up-to-date, comprehensive and self-contained analysis of the spectral properties of these operators, providing the tools for anyone working in this area. Another major feature is the work of the authors on zero modes, a topic which has important significance for the stability of matter and other physical problems. Up until now, these topics have been scattered throughout the literature, without a systematic and cohesive treatment. The book will report largely on the progress on these topics published since 1992.


Intracellular bacteria are characterized by genome reduction. The 422,434–base pair genome of Buchnera aphidicola BCc, primary endosymbiont of the aphid Cinara cedri, is ∼200 kilobases smaller than the previously sequenced B. aphidicola genomes. B. aphidicola BCc has lost most metabolic functions, including the ability to synthesize the essential amino acid tryptophan and riboflavin. In addition, most retained genes are evolving rapidly. Possibly, B. aphidicola BCc is losing its symbiotic capacity and is being complemented (and might be replaced) by the highly abundant coexisting secondary symbiont.


Animosity between doctors and medical malpractice lawyers has reached such a pitch in the United States that the American Medical Association last week debated a motion proposing that doctors should refuse medical treatment to such lawyers, their families, and employees except in emergencies.

Although the motion, brought by Dr Chris Hawk, a surgeon from South Carolina, was lost, some doctors felt the fact that it was proposed at all shows how bad relations between the professions have become. Doctors are angry, among other things, at the effect that malpractice awards are having on their insurance premiums.

Dr Clinton "Rick" Miller, a prominent neurosurgeon from New Hampshire, is one doctor who supports the idea of refusing treatment except in emergencies. In his 25 year …


Food security and the human right to food, as recognised under Article 25 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Article 11 of the International Covenant of Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, are intrinsically linked. Both Articles recognize that access to agricultural land and security of tenure is essential to achieving food security. The right to food requires that each individual, alone or in concert with others, has physical and economic access at all times to adequate food or means for its procurement. Primarily, however, the right to food requires that: States refrain from taking measures that may deprive individuals of access to productive resources on which they depend when they produce food for themselves (the obligation to respect); that they protect such access from encroachment by other private parties (the obligation to protect); and that they seek to strengthen people's access to and utilization of resources and means to ensure their livelihoods, including food security (the obligation to fulfil). This paper explores and assesses three contemporary policy instruments in the area of agricultural production and unconventional gas operations in Australia against the right to food and security of tenure. It examines the new natural resource governance proposals in The Agricultural Competitiveness Green Paper, The Regional Planning Interests Act 2014 (Qld) protecting prime agricultural land and The Multiple Land Use Framework developed in recognition of the conflict arising over land access and land use.


Geoff Manaugh, editor of BldgBlog , interviews Detlef Mertins, Professor and Chair of the Architecture Department at the University of Pennsylvania for the website Archinect . The interview covers a range of subjects concerning architecture and education today, including the nature of contemporary experimental design, the role of digital media, formats of commercial development, issues of ecological design, and architecture's social and political responsibilities. Comments Reprinted from Archinect, September 2006. Publisher URL: http://archinect.com/features/article.php?id=43677_0_23_0_M This journal article is available at ScholarlyCommons: http://repository.upenn.edu/arch_papers/6


A design is presented for a subcritical, He-cooled fast reactor, driven by a tokamak D-T fusion neutron source, for the transmutation of spent nuclear fuel (SNF). The reactor is fueled with coated transuranic (TRU) particles and is intended for the deep-burn (>90%) transmutation of the TRUs in SNF without reprocessing of the coated fuel particles. The reactor design is based on the materials, fuel, and separations technologies under near-term development in the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Nuclear Energy Program and on the plasma physics and fusion technologies under near-term development in the DOE Fusion Energy Sciences Program, with the objective of intermediate-term (~2040) deployment. The physical and performance characteristics and research and development requirements of such a reactor are described.


In the absence of a critique of the logics at the heart of the prison industrial complex, seemingly progressive trends such as prisoner reentry initiatives will simply bolster racialized state violence. This essay grapples with questions of representation and power, and details how the disposability of imprisoned people is reproduced and renaturalized through carceral practices. Academic accounts continue to be complicit in this process, without a complex theorizing of subjectivity, representation, and state violence. This essay uses interviews with formerly imprisoned people in the Twin Cities to disrupt the way that formerly imprisoned people's narratives are "mined as rich sources" in pathologizing and voyeuristic ways. Prisoner reentry programs appear progressive on the surface; however, they expand the prison industrial complex through perplexing logics that make it harder for women to navigate toward freedom. I use the notion of perplexity as a rubric for understanding penal logics and subjectivities as they emerged in my interviews with people recently released from Minnesota's only women's prison and analyze how they reproduce the vulnerability of people leaving prison. The gender-responsive facade of this unique prison and the surveillance orientation of reentry programs naturalized imprisonment as a solution to social problems in deeply problematic ways.


Fare evasion on public transport can reduce revenue by millions of dollars, undermining the financial viability of transit. However little research examines how public transport users think about fare evasion or attempts to understand why people fare evade. This paper presents the results of a program of qualitative research conducted in Melbourne, Australia to understand the attitudes toward and motivations behind fare evasion. A total of 67 people participated in face-to-face or online focus groups. Results established a spectrum of perceived circumstances where someone might travel without a valid ticket. 'Fare evasion' was considered to be at only one end of that spectrum. The degree of intent to evade was a critical factor explaining the severity of fare evasion from user perspectives. People's attitudes toward fare evasion differed significantly; four key attitude segments were uncovered based on the attitudes and behaviours that group members tended to share. These included 1. 'Fare evasion is wrong – the accidental evader' who held strong views against fare evasion, 2. the 'it's not my fault' evader who meant to pay but sometimes find themselves fare evading due to barriers to payment, 3. The 'calculated risk-taker' evader who deliberately fare evade if they think the reward outweighs risk and 4. 'career evaders' who always fare evade. Attitudes, feelings and motivations for these segments are described and implications for revenue protection policy are discussed.


Some peculiarities of our Galactic neighbourhood could be responsible of significant features in the all-sky spectra of cosmic neutrinos, in particular in the tens-of-TeV energy range. The ANTARES neutrino telescope is most sensitive to neutrinos in this energy range and can test possible emissions over large parts of the sky. Stellar winds and Supernovae can create regions of low matter density; the cumulative effect of many, close-by, active stars is the formation of "bubbles" with a rather low-density environment and "walls" at their borders where matter density and magnetic fields are enhanced. The Loop1 structure dominates the sky at radio wavelengths and is allegedly produced by the interaction of the Local Bubble, where our Solar System resides, and the bubble inflated by stellar activity in the Cen-Sco association, a group of large active stars close to us. Some models predict an increased cosmic ray interaction rate at the surface of contact between the two bubbles, which could be contributing to the overall cosmic neutrino signal. A search for neutrinos from the Loop1 region has been carried out using data collected by the ANTARES neutrino telescope over 11 years of data acquisition. Track-like upward-going events are considered, the event selection being optimised to achieve the best sensitivity to a large-scale emission of neutrinos. The results of this analysis are presented in this contribution. A nonsignificant excess of events is observed from the signal region when compared to the estimated background.


The Sorachi-Yezo belt, central Hokkaido, Japan, is composed of voluminous tholeiitic basaltic volcanics, and has been thought to be accreted fragments of an oceanic plateau formed in the Late Jurassic Pacific Ocean. Picrites have been reported as pillow lava and hyaloclastite from the Sorachi-Yezo belt. These picrites are characterized by very magnesian olivine phenocrysts (up to Fo [=100* Mg/(Mg+Fe)] = 94.1), which indicate that the primary magma was unusually Mg rich. The estimated MgO of the primary magma and the mantle potential temperature are as high as 29 wt% and 1700 °C, respectively, comparable to those of the Neoarchean komatiites, and higher than those of the Gorgona komatiites and picrites. The rare earth element patterns of the Sorachi-Yezo picrites are divided into two groups that are chemically akin to the Neoarchean komatiites and Gorgona komatiites and picrites, indicating different melting regimes in an extremely hot mantle plume. The Sorachi-Yezo picrites provide evidence for extremely high temperature magmatism, like that of Archean komatiite, caused by melting of the hottest mantle plume among the Phanerozoic oceanic large igneous provinces.


NExo is an enzyme from Neisseria meningitidis that is specialized in the removal of the 3'-phosphate and other 3'-lesions, which are potential blocks for DNA repair. NExo is a highly active DNA 3'-phosphatase, and although it is from the class II AP family it lacks AP endonuclease activity. In contrast, the NExo homologue NApe, lacks 3'-phosphatase activity but is an efficient AP endonuclease. These enzymes act together to protect the meningococcus from DNA damage arising mainly from oxidative stress and spontaneous base loss. In this work, we present crystal structures of the specialized 3'-phosphatase NExo bound to DNA in the presence and absence of a 3'-phosphate lesion. We have outlined the reaction mechanism of NExo, and using point mutations we bring mechanistic insights into the specificity of the 3'-phosphatase activity of NExo. Our data provide further insight into the molecular origins of plasticity in substrate recognition for this class of enzymes. From this we hypothesize that these specialized enzymes lead to enhanced efficiency and accuracy of DNA repair and that this is important for the biological niche occupied by this bacterium.


In this work we focus on the modeling and numerical simulation of the fluid-structure interaction mechanism in vascular dynamics. We first propose a simple membrane model to describe the deformation of the arterial wall, which is derived from the Koiter shell equations and is applicable to an arbitrary geometry. Secondly, we consider a reformulation of the fluid-structure problem, in which the newly derived membrane model, thanks to its simplicity, is embedded into the fluid equations and will appear as a generalized Robin boundary condition. The original problem is then reduced to the solution of subsequent fluid equations defined on a moving domain and may be achieved with a fluid solver only. We also derive a stability estimate for the resulting numerical scheme. Finally, we propose new outflow absorbing boundary conditions, which are easy to implement and allow us to reduce significantly the spurious pressure wave reflections that typically appear in artificially truncated computational domains. We present several numerical results showing the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.


In view of the difference of opinion as to what the translation may and should test, it seemed useful to find out what in fact pupils are doing when they are making a translation. For this purpose I interviewed ten pupils of 3 more or less random schools in the week after their final exam. I presented them with a Latin text, which was about half the length of the text in the exam, though comparable as far as degree of difficulty was concerned. They were asked to translate it in the usual manner, the only difference being that they need not write down the result. Everything they were thinking had to be said aloud and was recorded.From these data I concluded that the translation only calls for minimal comprehension and that the degree to which the knowlegde of the language is demonstrably used is sometimes less high than is often supposed. Knowledge of vocabulary plays a very important role because in principle the pupil builds up his translation on the basis of the words that he knows or has looked up. Where the order of the words in the foreign language and the mother language correspond, a correct translation may occur without an apparent effort to understand the structure of the foreign language.The procedure of concurrent verbalisation does not clarify the nature of the processes involved. To find this out a combination of thinking aloud and 'probes' in a less naturalistic setting would seem necessary.


Male infertility is typically diagnosed upon routine semen analysis following the World Health Organisation's (WHO) semen analysis manual. Recent editions of the manual have essentially changed the diagnosis of a semen sample, prompting debate between experts as to which edition should be followed. Deoxyribonucleic Acid (DNA) integrity analysis is proving to be a useful adjunct to semen analysis as 15% of infertile men have a normal semen analysis but they have an increased DNA fragmentation level (DFL) which has been associated with increased disease incidence in any resultant offspring. However, such tests are not endorsed by the WHO, possibly due to a lack of standardisation in the implementation, analysis and clinical interpretation of methods used to evaluate DNA integrity. Improved efficiency of testing is achieved by batch testing or sending samples to a central laboratory for analysis, requiring an effective storage system. Most current protocols for semen storage and related DNA integrity testing are complex, expensive and require specialised equipment. Nevertheless, since the Halosperm® G2 Kit, requires only standard laboratory equipment, a simple, convenient and stable storage method for the purpose of testing sperm DNA fragmentation would be advantageous. DNA has been successfully extracted from air‐dried semen and one particular study has investigated the use of air‐dried semen slides as a method of storage prior to DNA fragmentation testing, however, the effects of time and temperature on the integrity of spermatozoa DNA has not been considered.
The first objective of this present study was to investigate the relationship between sperm DNA fragmentation (using the Halosperm® G2 Test Kit) and semen analysis results (measured according to the 4th and 5th Edition WHO semenanalysis manuals) to determine the clinical utility of the Halosperm assay. The second objective was to consider extrinsic effects on the DNA integrity of air‐dried semen in order to develop an alternative storage method for semen prior to DNA fragmentation testing using the Halosperm assay.
A retrospective analysis was carried out on 905 consecutive semen samples with 4th and 5th Edition semen analysis and Halosperm result. Pearson correlations, analysis by ANOVA and post‐hoc testing by Tukey's HSD were used for statistical analysis. Multiple aliquots of semen samples were prepared to achieve fresh, snap frozen and air‐dried samples. Samples were sequentially assessed for sperm DNA fragmentation using the Halosperm® G2 kit (Halotech DNA SL, Spain) and scored against 300 sperm, with fragmentation results ≥30% considered positive. Fragmentation levels were compared between the different protocols. Multiple aliquots of semen samples were then air‐dried to test the fragmentation levels between different slide types, reconstituting fluids, times and temperatures. Pearson's correlation coefficient and paired t‐tests were used for statistical analysis.
In summary, whilst significant associations exist between sperm DNA fragmentation and sexual…


Abstract Initiating an attack on another country is always a questionable venture, whether one chooses to call it war or prefers euphemisms such as conflict, incident, action or peacecreating measures. This study examines how the arguments were developed prior to the military actions in Iraq 2003. The events have been presented in vague and often distorted value terms and metaphors where war becomes peace, attacks becomes 'pre-emptive defence', military invasion becomes 'change of regime', occupation becomes 'humanitarian intervention'.This study provides a diachronic survey of the chain of events from rhetorical perspectives, as well as a synchronic analysis of recurring rhetorical themes - especially of vague concepts and metaphors. Manipulation and lies has of course always been a basic ingredient of warfare. The question is what approach democratic societies should take in relation to self-evidently deceptive influencing of public opinion; to manipulative rhetoric and destructive propaganda.


Thirty crossbreed steer calves were randomly assigned to one of three feedlot treatment groups to evaluate the effectiveness of diatomaceous earth (DE) as an anthelmintic treatment and its effect on subsequent growth performance. Steers were adapted to a cereal-based diet for 15 days on the farm of origin and given an additional 21 days to adjust to the feedlot diet. Calves had not been dewormed prior to starting the study. On day 0 (2 January 1996) the positive control group of steers (CONV; no. = 11) was given 10 mg/kg of albendazole, a second group began receiving (on day 2) 0·3 kg of diatomaceous earth (DE; no. = 9) mixed daily with their food for 46 days and the negative control group (CTRL, no. = 9) received no anthelmintic treatment. Rectal faecal samples were collected upon arrival at the feedlot and the resulting egg counts showed that all steers were positive for nematodes and coccidia. Faecal samples were collected on days 0, 15, 28 and every 28 days thereafter to determine faecal egg counts. The last sample was taken on the day of slaughter. On day 0, the average count for all calves was over 70 eggs per g faeces (epg) for trichostrongyle type eggs; counts for Nematodirus sp., Strongyloides sp., Trichuris sp. and Capillaria sp. were negligible. CTRL and DE steers had higher parasite levels than CONV steers during the 1st ( P P 0·05) significantly for the remainder of the study. Coccidia levels decreased over time similarly for all groups. Offering 20 g DE per kg food intake for 46 days to beef steers on a high cereal -based diet had no effect (P > 0·05) on body weight, average daily gain, dry-matter intake, food conversion or days on food compared with the untreated control steers. Cumulative food conversion during the first 2 months was better for CONV than for DE and CTRL steers ( P 0·05). Cumulative food conversion for the rest of the study remained the same for all groups (P > 0·05). CONV calves required fewer days on food than DE calves ( P 0·10). Steers in the DE group required a similar number of days on food (230·22 ± 7·86 days) to reach target end points as CTRL steers (218·75 ± 8·34 days; P > 0·05) but more days than CONV calves (201·64 ± 7·11 days; P > 0·05).


Abstract In order to guarantee acceptance and effective usage of health information system (HIS), its end users must be appro-priately trained. However many existing training programs did not adequately satisfy its user's needs and the training objectives. This is because they did not envisage the problems that users might encounter when performing specific tasks. Therefore it is essential for developing a good training pro-gram to precisely assess end users' training needs. However, applying traditional approaches for Training Needs Assess-ment (TNA) such as interviews or surveys alone is insufficient. These methods are limited in their capacity to understand the cognitive processes a learner follows in learning a new computer program. Usability testing, with its ability to gather rich data about human computer interaction, overcomes the deficiencies of traditional approaches. Therefore, this paper pro-poses a multi-method approach, which combines usability testing method, interviews and questionnaire surveys to assess HIS end users training needs. This innovative method is able to precisely reveal the training needs for different levels of HIS users. A case study, which applied this method on assessing the training needs for users of a nursing information system, demonstrates its feasibility. Abstract In order to guarantee acceptance and effective usage of health information system (HIS), its end users must be appro-priately trained. However many existing training programs did not adequately satisfy its user's needs and the training objectives. This is because they did not envisage the problems that users might encounter when performing specific tasks. Therefore it is essential for developing a good training program to precisely assess end users' training needs. However, applying traditional approaches for Training Needs Assessment (TNA) such as interviews or surveys alone is insufficient. These methods are limited in their capacity to understand the cognitive processes a learner follows in learning a new computer program. Usability testing, with its ability to gather rich data about human computer interaction, overcomes the deficiencies of traditional approaches. Therefore, this paper pro-poses a multi-method approach, which combines usability testing method, interviews and questionnaire surveys to assess HIS end users training needs. This innovative method is able to precisely reveal the training needs for different levels of HIS users. A case study, which applied this method on assessing the training needs for users of a nursing information system, demonstrates its feasibility.


1. Creativity & Problem Solving: Exercise sound reasoning to analyze issues, make decisions, and overcome problems. The individual is able to obtain, interpret, and use knowledge, facts, and data in this process, and may demonstrate originality and inventiveness. 2. Communication: Articulate thoughts and ideas clearly and effectively in written and oral forms to persons inside and outside of the organization. The individual has public speaking skills; is able to express ideas to others; and can write/edit memos, letters, and complex technical reports clearly and effectively. 3. Professionalism & Work Ethic: Demonstrate personal accountability and effective work habits, e.g., punctuality, working productively with others, and time workload management, and understand the impact of non-verbal communication on professional work image. The individual demonstrates integrity and ethical behavior, acts responsibly with the interests of the larger community in mind, and is able to learn from his/her mistakes. 4. Technical Application: Leverage existing technologies ethically and efficiently to solve problems, complete tasks, and accomplish goals. The individual demonstrates effective adaptability to new and emerging technologies. 5. Global Perspective: Value, respect, and learn from diverse cultures, races, ages, genders, sexual orientations, and religions. The individual demonstrates openness, inclusiveness, sensitivity, and the ability to interact respectfully with all people and understand individuals? differences. 6. Career Management: Identify and articulate one's skills, strengths, knowledge, and experiences relevant to the position desired and career goals, and identify areas necessary for professional growth. The individual is able to navigate and explore job options, understands and can take the steps necessary to pursue opportunities, and understands how to self-advocate for opportunities in the workplace. 7. Leadership: Leverage the strengths of others to achieve common goals, and use interpersonal skills to coach and develop others.The individual is able to assess and manage his/her emotions and those of others; use empathetic skills to guide and motivate; and organize, prioritize, and delegate work. 8. Teamwork & Collaboration: Build collaborative relationships with colleagues and customers representing diverse cultures, races, ages, genders, religions, lifestyles, and viewpoints. The individual is able to work within a team structure, and can negotiate and manage conflict.


Objective Phaeochromocytomas and paragangliomas (PPGL) can cause acute catecholamine cardiomyopathy (ACC). We assessed the prevalence of ACC and compared the presentation of cases with and without ACC in a large series of PPGL. Design Single centre retrospective study. Setting Hypertension Unit, University Hospital, Paris. Patients 140 consecutive patients with PPGL, referred from January 2003 to September 2012. Main outcome measures Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), perioperative mortality. Results Fifteen patients (11%) had suffered an ACC, occurring in 14 cases before the diagnosis of PPGL. Precipitating factors were identified in 11 cases. Twelve patients presented with acute pulmonary oedema, including 10 with cardiogenic shock, requiring life support in eight cases. Seven patients (five with pulmonary oedema) presented with acute chest pain and cardiac dysfunction. Electrocardiographic abnormalities were present in 14 cases: ST segment elevation or pathological Q waves, ST segment depression, and/or diffuse T wave inversion. Six patients displayed classical (apical ballooning) or inverted (basal/mid ventricular stunning) takotsubo-like cardiomyopathy. Coronary arteries were always normal on angiography. In patients with ACC, median LVEF rose from 30% (IQR 23–33%) during ACC to 71% (50–72%) before surgery (n=11, p<0.001). Median LVEF before PPGL surgery was 65% (51–72%) and 65% (60–70%) in patients with and without a history of ACC, respectively (not significant). Conclusions PPGL may present as ACC in 11% of cases, excluding patients dying from undiagnosed tumours. Left ventricular dysfunction is usually reversible before surgery. PPGL should be suspected in patients with acute heart failure without evidence of valvular or coronary artery disease.


Abstract. Easter Island underwent a rapid deforestation several hundred years ago. The causes have been discussed in depth. However, the effect of the deforestation on the near-surface climate of Easter Island and possible feedbacks have not yet been studied. Here we use the limited-area model COSMO to simulate a series of typical weather situations for a fully tree-covered, grass-covered and a bare soil Easter Island, respectively. We find that the top soil layer of the deforested island becomes much warmer and the wind speed roughly doubles, thereby enhancing the erosion on the deforested island. During a drought spell, evapotranspiration decreases much more slowly over a forested area. If the soil has become dry, then the tree-covered island triggers convective precipitation much more efficiently than the bare-soil or grass-covered island could do. This is caused by the higher surface roughness and stronger sensible heat flux which lead to a deeper boundary layer and an enhanced moisture flux convergence over the forested island. Hence, the climate of a deforested Easter Island appears to be significantly less resistant to drought than a forested island and thus, deforestation has probably exacerbated the effects of past climate drought spells on Easter Island socio-ecological systems.


This study examines elements of what has been defined as global journalism and compares online news stories of Al Jazeera English and CNN regarding the ISIS threat. The empirical inquiry presents the similarities and differences in transnational news outlets' coverage of a global crisis. The results of a quantitative content analysis ( N = 320) suggest that different transnational news outlets share some features in their news coverage of a global challenge but still differ significantly. CNN mostly cites governmental official sources, whereas Al Jazeera English relies more on information from other news media. In addition, CNN mainly adopts a geopolitics frame focusing on the strategies of dealing with ISIS, whereas Al Jazeera English uses the dominant frame of existential threat. Results further indicate that elements of global journalism do not go beyond human rights issues. .


[1] We investigate the lithospheric and upper mantle shear wave velocity structure and the depth-dependence of anisotropy along the Red Sea and beneath the Arabian Peninsula using receiver function constraints and phase velocities of surface waves traversing two transects of stations from the Saudi Arabian National Digital Seismic Network. Frequency-dependent phase delays of fundamental-mode Love and Rayleigh waves, measured using a cross-correlation procedure, require very slow shear velocities and the presence of anisotropy to depths of at least 180 km in the upper mantle. Linearized inversion of these data produce path-averaged 1D radially anisotropic models with ∼4% anisotropy in the lithosphere and across the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary (LAB). Models with reasonable crustal velocities in which the mantle lithosphere is isotropic cannot satisfy the data. The lithosphere, which ranges in thickness from about 70 km near the Red Sea coast to about 90 km beneath the Arabian Shield, is underlain by a pronounced low-velocity zone with shear velocities as low as 4.1 km/s. Forward models of azimuthal anisotropy, which are constructed from previously determined shear wave splitting estimates, can reconcile surface and body wave observations of anisotropy. The low shear velocities extend to greater depth than those observed in other continental rift and oceanic ridge environments. The depth extent of these low velocities combined with the sharp velocity contrast across the LAB may indicate the influence of the Afar hot spot and the presence of partial melt beneath Arabia. The anisotropic signature primarily reflects a combination of plate- and density-driven flow associated with rifting processes in the Red Sea.


Abstract The scope of financial development has been expanding and moving gradually towards a more inclusive development thus attention is gradually shifting to financial inclusion. It is against this background that this study investigates the role of migrants' remittances on financial inclusion in selected SSA countries. Pooled Mean Group (PMG) form of panel ARDL was employed but cross-sectional dependent characteristics of the data required the use of cross-sectional methods that cater for such properties. Consequently, XTDCCE: Dynamic Common Correlated Effects and XTCCE Common Correlated Effects estimator were used as robustness checks. For the purpose of this empirical investigation, we collected data on Remittances, Account Ownership and Income Per Capita for 27 SSA countries based on data availability. The conclusion is that remittances have no significant effect on financial inclusion in SSA. However, the variable demonstrates the potential to positively influence financial inclusion. Thus, there should be concrete policy efforts in the SSA to make remittances count for inclusive growth. The study contributes substantially by moving attention from a broad concept of financial development to Financial Inclusion and employed a more recent panel estimating techniques to investigate the nexus between remittances and Inclusion.


Stochastic gradient descent (SGD) has been widely used in machine learning due to its computational efficiency and favorable generalization properties. Recently, it has been empirically demonstrated that the gradient noise in several deep learning settings admits a non-Gaussian, heavy-tailed behavior. This suggests that the gradient noise can be modeled by using $\alpha$-stable distributions, a family of heavy-tailed distributions that appear in the generalized central limit theorem. In this context, SGD can be viewed as a discretization of a stochastic differential equation (SDE) driven by a L\'{e}vy motion, and the metastability results for this SDE can then be used for illuminating the behavior of SGD, especially in terms of `preferring wide minima'. While this approach brings a new perspective for analyzing SGD, it is limited in the sense that, due to the time discretization, SGD might admit a significantly different behavior than its continuous-time limit. Intuitively, the behaviors of these two systems are expected to be similar to each other only when the discretization step is sufficiently small; however, to the best of our knowledge, there is no theoretical understanding on how small the step-size should be chosen in order to guarantee that the discretized system inherits the properties of the continuous-time system. In this study, we provide formal theoretical analysis where we derive explicit conditions for the step-size such that the metastability behavior of the discrete-time system is similar to its continuous-time limit. We show that the behaviors of the two systems are indeed similar for small step-sizes and we identify how the error depends on the algorithm and problem parameters. We illustrate our results with simulations on a synthetic model and neural networks.


Although many of Edmund Burke's speeches and writings contain prominent economic dimensions, his economic thought seldom receives the attention it warrants. Commerce and Manners in Edmund Burke's Political Economy stands as the most comprehensive study to date of this fascinating subject. In addition to providing rigorous textual analysis, Collins unearths previously unpublished manuscripts and employs empirical data to paint a rich historical and theoretical context for Burke's economic beliefs. Collins integrates Burke's reflections on trade, taxation, and revenue within his understanding of the limits of reason and his broader conception of empire. Such reflections demonstrate the ways that commerce, if properly managed, could be an instrument for both public prosperity and imperial prestige. More importantly, Commerce and Manners in Edmund Burke's Political Economy raises timely ethical questions about capitalism and its limits. In Burke's judgment, civilizations cannot endure on transactional exchange alone, and markets require ethical preconditions. There is a grace to life that cannot be bought.... Download ebook, read file pdf Commerce and Manners in Edmund Burke's Political Economy


Most of the literature on the link between firm's participation in international markets and firms' heterogeneity focuses on the choice of firms to export. This paper addresses on an aspect of firms internationalization so far little explored, the choice of the number of export destinations that can be considered as an indicator of the complexity of the export activity. As the outcome variables are a count with an excess of zeros, we operate in a hurdle regression model for count data framework. Besides the variables usually adopted in literature describing firms' heterogeneity, in order to explore the link among the firms efficiency in generating profits and the firms internationalization choices, we consider a set of profitability indexes.
Results we obtain enlighten that the set of the variables related to the decision of exporting and that connected with the number international markets served is different. At first, it seems that not only the larger the number of markets served, the more productive, large and willing to invest is the firm (confirming the features found studying the propensity to export), but also that firms engaged in multiple markets seem to be older, financially stable, and willing to support organizational and managerial innovations.
By comparing the estimates regarding the propensity to export model and those of the model describing the number of export destinations, some main differences arise. At first the Return on Sales index become significant in the number of destinations model whereas this covariate was not relevant in explaining the propensity to export: it seems that the firms, the more opened to the international markets, are characterized by a better use of investment funds to generate earnings growth. Secondly, in the count model significance has been found for only one type of innovation, the managerial one, indicating that, although the innovation activity seems to be pivotal for exporting, once the firm exports, the change in the managerial and organizational structure become important to align to the more competitive market.


Abstract:Winning wars in cyberspace might sound easy: the click of a mouse or the press of the enter key on a keyboard. Yet, the web of networks that constitutes cyberspace is imbued with challenges. Seemingly every day there is a new story of a government, business, or individual, suffering from a serious hack. These hacks are often attributed to state actors or transnational criminal organizations. Combined, the almost daily revelations of serious incidents compound a common misperception that cyberspace is an ungoverned space. The reality of cyberspace, however, is far different and constitutes a complex environment of overlapping jurisdictions. The overlapping geographic, legal, and technical boundaries affect everything from the freedom of information to the decision to engage in military operations. Technical specifications as well as laws and policies established by local and national governments, international institutions, non-governmental organizations, and corporations form the decision-making framework for national policy-makers and military commanders. Understanding how all the elements of cyberspace interact provides context for when, why and how the United States engages in military operations in cyberspace. This paper examines the complexities of the environment and their impact on the decisions of states (with emphasis placed on the United States) to engage in offensive cyber operations, cyber exploitation, and defensive cyber operations against other states and non-state actors. Moreover, it examines the important role that overlapping governmental and non-governmental organizations have in affecting the types of behaviors that occur within cyberspace.


It is well-known that ensemble performance relies heavily on sufficient diversity among the base classifiers. With this in mind, the strategy used to balance diversity and base classifier accuracy must be considered a key component of any ensemble algorithm. This study evaluates the predictive performance of neural network ensembles, specifically comparing straightforward techniques to more sophisticated. In particular, the sophisticated methods GASEN and NegBagg are compared to more straightforward methods, where each ensemble member is trained independently of the others. In the experimentation, using 31 publicly available data sets, the straightforward methods clearly outperformed the sophisticated methods, thus questioning the use of the more complex algorithms.


We present a general framework for constructing prior distributions with structured variables. The prior is defined as the information projection of a base distribution onto distributions supported on the constraint set of interest. In cases where this projection is intractable, we propose a family of parameterized approximations indexed by subsets of the domain. We further analyze the special case of sparse structure. While the optimal prior is intractable in general, we show that approximate inference using convex subsets is tractable, and is equivalent to maximizing a submodular function subject to cardinality constraints. As a result, inference using greedy forward selection provably achieves within a factor of (1-1/e) of the optimal objective value. Our work is motivated by the predictive modeling of high-dimensional functional neuroimaging data. For this task, we employ the Gaussian base distribution induced by local partial correlations and consider the design of priors to capture the domain knowledge of sparse support. Experimental results on simulated data and high dimensional neuroimaging data show the effectiveness of our approach in terms of support recovery and predictive accuracy.


Lesbian Realities/Lesbian Fictions in Contemporary Spain, edited by Nancy Vosburg and Jacky Collins, focuses exclusively on manifestations of lesbian cultures and identities in contemporary Spain. Bringing together key essays from a range of international scholars, this anthology of critical essays examines the changing cultural, sociological and political landscape of Spain at the turn of the millennium. Divided into two sections, the first contributions focus on the realities of lesbian lives and looks at how Spanish lesbian identities are constructed through language and the media. The essays in the second section analyze contemporary lesbian identities as manifested in novels and short stories published since the late 1980s by authors such as Carme Riera, Lola van Guardia, Flavia Company and Mabel Gal n. The aim of this volume is to provide a significant and coherent contribution in English to the body of knowledge within an evolving subject area that has remained relatively under-researched until recently. Throughout the anthology, the visibility of the lesbian subject in Spain, either within the media, literature, the Parliament, and even within the gay book-publishing industry, emerges as a key concept for analyzing the status of lesbians in Spanish society. All essays in our volume are original, previously unpublished works written specifically for this volume by contributors who have been involved in researching or developing lesbian cultures in Spain. Lesbian Realities/Fictions in Contemporary Spain brings knowledge into the public domain that hitherto has remained hidden, and provides access to an audience interested in social and cultural change in Spain and yet who are unable to access material in Spanish. It is a particularly invaluable resource for teachers and students of Spanish cultural studies, global sexuality, and gender studies.


Abstract OBJECTIVES: Surgery for thymic epithelial tumours (TETs) with pleural involvement is infrequently performed. Thus, the value of surgical therapy for primary or recurrent TETs with pleural involvement is not sufficiently defined yet. METHODS: Twelve institutions contributed retrospective data on 152 patients undergoing surgery (1977–2014) on behalf of the ESTS Thymic Working group. Outcome measures included overall (OS), cause-specific (CSS) and disease-free (DFS) survival as well as freedom from recurrence (FFR). RESULTS: In 70.4% of cases, pleural involvement was present at the time of primary intervention, whereas 29.6% had surgery for recurrent disease involving the pleura. Pleural involvement resulted from thymomas (88.8%) and thymic carcinomas (11.2%). Forty extrapleural pneumonectomies (EPPs), 23 total pleurectomies (TPs), and 88 local pleurectomies (LPs) were performed (completeness of resection in 76.8%). OS for the entire patient population at 1, 3, 5 and 10 years was 96.4%, 91.0%, 87.2% and 62.7%, respectively. There was no statistically significant difference regarding FFR and OS for patients with local or advanced disease undergoing EPP, TP or LP. Thymic carcinomas in comparison with thymomas had a negative impact on OS [hazard ratio 6.506, P = 0.002], CSS and FFR. Incomplete resections predicted worse OS [hazard ratio 6.696, P = 0.003]. CONCLUSIONS: Complete resection remains the mainstay of treatment for TETs with pleural involvement. Study populations treated with EPP, TP and LP had similar survival that may be factual as observed, but in the presence of selection bias, we can further conclude from the results that EPP, TP and LP are equally effective procedures. Procedural choice depends upon the extent of tumour distribution. EPPs, TPs and LPs performed within a multimodality setting seem to be efficient procedures for local control of disease, as they yield excellent results regarding OS, DFS, CSS and FFR.


Many damselfishes (Pomacentridae) are herbivorous or omnivorous with an important contribution from different kinds of algae in their diet. they display different levels of territoriality and farming behavior, from almost non territorial to monoculture farmers. In addition, a few species inhabit seagrass meadows but, presently, none can be considered as seagrass-eating specialists. the footballer demoiselle, Chrysiptera annulata, is found in the seagrass meadows on the reef flat of the Great Reef of Toliara (Madagascar, Mozambique Channel). In the light of this unusual habitat for a pomacentrid, this study aimed to answer three questions: 1) What is the diet of C. annulata? 2) Do the resources supporting this diet include seagrass? 3) Does its trophic niche overlap those of other sympatric damselfishes (Pomacentrus trilineatus, Chrysiptera unimaculata and Plectroglyphidodon lacrymatus) living in close association with macrophytes or eating algae? Stomach content examination and stable isotope analysis showed that the footballer demoiselle is not a seagrass consumer but is an omnivorous/herbivorous species heavily relying on algal resources and small invertebrates. SIAR, a stable isotope mixing model, indicated it assimilated large amounts of turf algae, and various benthic or planktonic invertebrates in lower proportions. SIBER metrics revealed that the isotopic niche of the footballer demoiselle partly overlaps that of its congener, C. unimaculata, but not those of P. trilineatus and P. lacrymatus. trophic strategies of C. annulata differed both from farming species such as P. lacrymatus and from less territorial herbivores such as P. trilineatus. Its seagrass meadow habitat on the Great Reef of Toliara allows the conquest of an unusual habitat for damselfishes and could limit competition with C. unimaculata, a species displaying the same territorial behavior and the same isotopic niche but living on the reef itself. KEy WoRDS: herbivory, stable isotopes, coral reef, seagrass, trophic niches, Western Indian ocean, SIAR, SIbER.


The purpose of this study is to contribute to the identification and understanding of what it means to be 'taking into account the gender perspective, to strengthen the prevention of this crime and protection of the victims thereof', as required in Article 1 of European Union (EU) Directive 2011/36/EU on Preventing and Combating Trafficking in Human Beings and Protecting its Victims in the context of the EU Strategy (COM(2012) 286 final) Towards the Eradication of Trafficking in Human Beings.

The study contributes to Priority E Action 2 of the Strategy, which states that 'the Commission will develop knowledge on the gender dimensions of human trafficking, including the gender consequences of the various forms of trafficking and potential differences in the vulnerability of men and women to victimisation and its impact on them.' Its specific objectives and tasks are to address: the 'gender dimension of vulnerability, recruitment, and victimisation'; 'gender issues related to traffickers and to those creating demand'; and 'an examination of law and policy responses on trafficking in human beings from a gender perspective'. The study addresses the five priorities of the EU Strategy: identifying, protecting, and assisting victims of trafficking; stepping up the prevention of trafficking in human beings; better law enforcement; enhanced coordination and cooperation among key actors and policy coherence; and increased knowledge of an effective response to emerging concerns.

This study, according to its terms of reference, aims to look specifically at the gender dimension of trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation. This follows evidence from statistical data from Eurostat, as well as data from The European Police Office (Europol) and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), according to which the most reported form of exploitation of victims is that of sexual exploitation and its strong gender dimension (96 % women and girls). It further addresses recommendations addressed in the Resolution of the European Parliament of 26 February 2014 on sexual exploitation and prostitution and its impact on gender equality (2013/2103(INI)) urging the European Commission to evaluate the impact that the European legal framework designed to eliminate trafficking for sexual exploitation has had to date and to undertake further research on patterns of prostitution, on human trafficking for the purpose of sexual exploitation and on the increased level of sex tourism in the EU, with particular reference to minors, and to promote the exchange of best practices among the Member States.

The study identifies and draws on EU law and policy competence in gender equality in its identification of the gender dimensions of trafficking. The gender dimensions are clustered into five issues: gender specificity and equal treatment; gender expertise, gender balance in decision-making and gender mainstreaming; the relationship between prostitution and trafficking; gendered policy fields and strategic priorities; gendered systems and the theory of prevention.


Background and Aims: Chronic pain is a complex clinical condition, often devastating for patients and unmanageable with pharmacological treatments. Converging evidence suggests that transcutaneous spinal Direct Current Stimulation (tsDCS) might represent a complementary therapy in managing chronic pain. In this randomized, double-blind and sham-controlled crossover study, we assessed tsDCS effects in chronic pain patients. Methods: Sixteen patients (aged 65.06 ± 16.16 years, eight women) with chronic pain of different etiology underwent sham and anodal tsDCS (anode over the tenth thoracic vertebra, cathode over the somatosensory cortical area: 2.5 mA, 20 min, 5 days for 1 week). As outcomes, we considered the Visual Analog Scale (VAS), the Neuropathic Pain Symptom Inventory (NPSI), and the components of the lower limb flexion reflex (LLFR), i.e., RIII threshold, RII latency and area, RIII latency and area, and flexion reflex (FR) total area. Assessments were conducted before (T0), immediately at the end of the treatment (T1), after 1 week (T2) and 1 month (T3). Results: Compared to sham, anodal tsDCS reduced RIII area at T2 (p = 0.0043) and T3 (p = 0.0012); similarly, FR total area was reduced at T3 (p = 0.03). Clinically, anodal tsDCS dampened VAS at T3 (p = 0.015), and NPSI scores at T1 (p = 0.0012), and T3 (p = 0.0015), whereas sham condition left them unchanged. Changes in VAS and NPSI scores linearly correlated with the reduction in LLFR areas (p = 0.0004). Conclusions: Our findings suggest that tsDCS could modulate nociceptive processing and pain perception in chronic pain syndromes.


The growth of new wind projects continues to be hampered by the lack of wind resource data. Such data are needed to enable governments and/or private developers to identify potential areas suitable for development. The principal aim of the work is the formalization of an innovative approach that hastens a robust parameter estimation of statistical models on anemometric data. The developed methodologies have been theoretical and have concerned: -parameter estimation of wind speed stochastic model, based on short-run samples, able to integrate both the information contained in the wind atlases, and the expert opinion through a Practical Bayesian approach, after an opportune data filtering strategy; -the determination of new "plotting positions", crucial for the graphical estimation of the parameters in the engineering and environmental fields. Particular attention has been given to the application on the (asymptotic) distributions of extreme values, widely used in environmental modeling and in "return period." estimation. Such methodologies have also been implemented via numerical code developed in Mathematica® e/o Matlab®. Particularly, computational problems arisen from the proposed Bayesian estimation are faced through MCMC (Markov Chain Monte Carlo) technique, numerically implemented in R/WinBugs. The aforementioned methodologies are proposed as solution to real problems raised by renewable energies companies. The interaction with the latter was essential to elicitate the expert opinion on the wind sites and for allowing methodologies to be validated on real anemometric data, collected from southern Italian sites. It has been possible to observe (ex post) smaller estimation errors in comparison to those that would be derived from the application of the usual estimation methods presented in the literature.


An artificial neural network is a mathematical black-box modelling tool. This tool can be used to model complex non-linear multivariable processes. In attempting to create an inverse process model of an industrial linear low density polyethylene reactor, several interesting results were encountered. Both time-invariant algebraic and timeinvariant dynamic models could adequately represent the process, provided an identified 50-minute time lag was taken into account. A novel variation of the traditional IMC controller was implemented which used two inverse neural network process models. This was named Inverse Internal Model Control (I IMC). This controller was initially tested on a real multivariable pump-tank system and showed promising results. The IIMC controller was adapted to an on-line version for the polymer plant control system. The controller was run in open loop mode to compare the predictions of the controller with the actual PlO ratio controllers. It was hoped that by incorporating neural network models into the controller, they would take the non-linearity and coupling of the variables into account, which the present PlO controllers are unable to do. The existing PlO controllers operate on separate loops involving the two main feeds (co-monomer and hydrogen) to the reactor, which constitute aspects of the control system in which the scope for advanced control exists. Although the control loop was not closed, the groundwork has been laid to implement a novel controller that could the operation of the plant.


The reactivity of a supported metal catalyst is closely related to the dispersion degree of the active sites. The main objective of this study is to provide an effective strategy to promote the dispersion degree of cobalt sites on a porous material, i.e. SBA-15, and thus enhance the catalytic performances in advanced oxidation processes (AOPs). Herein, by directly employing the as-synthesized SBA-15 before the template removal as the support, for the first time, we develop a strategy to fabricate the quasi single cobalt sites in the naosized pores of SBA-15 (QS-CoS) with no particle aggregation. Our findings indicate that the confined space as well as abundant silicon hydroxyl groups in the as-synthesized SBA-15 is responsible for the formation of the resultant quasi single cobalt sites in the form of Co–O–Si. The QS-CoS catalysts are found to be highly efficient for peroxymonosulfate (PMS) activation to generate SO4˙− and ˙OH radicals. Under the dominant role of SO4˙−, 100% phenol degradation only takes 10 min on the 3.0QS-CoS sample. Furthermore, cobalt leaching is feasibly under control by regulating the reaction solution with a constant pH value of 7. In comparison, the aggregated Co3O4 particles appear on SBA-15 (AP-CoS) in the samples derived from calcined SBA-15 without the template. Up to 180 min, only 97.4% of phenol can be removed for the 3.0AP-CoS sample. Our synthesis strategy utilizing a confined space presents a wide range of possibilities for the further development of environmental or energy materials.


Motivated by the advent of machine learning, the last few years saw the return of hardware-supported low-precision computing. Computations with fewer digits are faster and more memory and energy efficient, but can be extremely susceptible to rounding errors. An application that can largely benefit from the advantages of low-precision computing is the numerical solution of partial differential equations (PDEs), but a careful implementation and rounding error analysis are required to ensure that sensible results can still be obtained.
In this paper we study the accumulation of rounding errors in the solution of the heat equation, a proxy for parabolic PDEs, via Runge-Kutta finite difference methods using round-to-nearest (RtN) and stochastic rounding (SR). We demonstrate how to implement the scheme to reduce rounding errors and we derive \emph{a priori} estimates for local and global rounding errors. Let $u$ be the roundoff unit. While the worst-case local errors are $O(u)$ with respect to the discretization parameters, the RtN and SR error behavior is substantially different. We prove that the RtN solution is discretization, initial condition and precision dependent, and always stagnates for small enough $\Delta t$. Until stagnation, the global error grows like $O(u\Delta t^{-1})$. In contrast, we show that the leading order errors introduced by SR are zero-mean, independent in space and mean-independent in time, making SR resilient to stagnation and rounding error accumulation. In fact, we prove that for SR the global rounding errors are only $O(u\Delta t^{-1/4})$ in 1D and are essentially bounded (up to logarithmic factors) in higher dimensions.


In "Autobiography: Narrative of Transformation," Carolyn Barros creates a primer for the study of autobiography, a genre many consider highly problematic. She sees autobiography as a "narrative of transformation"--a text that presents the "before" and "after" of an individual's life. Focusing on autobiography as narrative, of something that "happened to "me,"" Barros highlights the various metamorphoses that are emplotted, bounded, and framed by the author's language and demonstrates that change is the operative metaphor in autobiographical discourse.The study focuses primarily on autobiographies from the rich Victorian period. Thomas Carlyle's "Sartor Resartus," as it self-consciously fictionalized the composition of Diogenes Teufelsdrockh's life narrative, provides a striking analog and paradigm for introducing the study and its methodological approach. Barros's major chapters on John Henry Cardinal Newman, John Stuart Mill, Charles Darwin, and Margaret Oliphant detail four very different types of autobiographical transformation--religious, philosophical, scientific, and literary, and in Barros's judgment establish benchmarks for considering autobiographies from antiquity to the present. A final chapter discusses autobiography's significance to an individual writer's corpus, to a particular culture, and finally to a history of "narratives of transformation.""Autobiography: Narrative of Transformation "provides literary scholars with engaging as well as informative scholarship which offers new possibilities for expanded readings of the genre."Demonstrates the value of taking a rhetorical approach to lifewriting, whether one analyzes the earliest extant classical texts of Greek antiquity or the postmodern projects of Roland Barthes." --Mary Jean Corbett, Miami UniversityCarolyn Barros is Associate Professor of English and Director of the Honors Program, University of Texas at Arlington."


The low intensity warfare in the borderlands of the Transvaal and Zululand during the Anglo-Boer War is, despite lasting for the duration of the war, a neglected area in the historiography of the conflict. This article, which employs the conceptual framework of borderlands, attempts to address this. In doing so, the conflict, the way it transcended the geography of the region and the way it impacted on all the inhabitants of the area, are investigated. In the process, the nature of the conflict, which for the most part centred on the raiding of livestock in addition to attacks and raids on homesteads, farms, isolated shops and outlying military and government posts, is laid bare. The final outcome of the war in this area was the dismantling of the borderlands of the Transvaal and Zululand in favour of the Colony of Natal.


This study explores the regional variability in factors affecting the atmospheric boundary layer over continental Antarctica using high‐resolution dropsonde observations from the Concordiasi campaign in the austral spring of 2010. Analyses show that although the surface‐based inversion remains the dominant feature, well‐mixed boundary layers, some with convective features, are observed with an occurrence frequency of 33% and 18% in West and East Antarctica, respectively. The boundary layer mixing is dominated by mechanical instability albeit with regional flavors caused by topographically forced winds, shortwave radiation, and air mass influences. In East Antarctica, the downsloping wind regime is prevalent, and related katabatic effects are strongest over high elevation slopes where the wind‐induced turbulence is the primary cause of surface‐based inversion erosion and boundary layer mixing. Previous studies over Dome C have demonstrated the significance of shortwave radiation for mixed layer development during the peak of summer. While such an effect is not dominant during spring, solar forcing may contribute to turbulent mixing in high latitude regions. Finally, well‐mixed boundary layers are most frequently observed in the moist tongue region of West Antarctica, highlighting the importance of dynamical systems for boundary layer mixing.


John W . . Welch, The Sermon at the Temple and the Sermon on the Mount. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and F.A.R.M.S., 1990. 229 pp., including appendix comparing Matthew S-7, 3 Nephi 12-14, and JST Matthew S-7; with name, passage, and subject indexes. $13.95. Reviewed by Todd Compton This book is an extended treatment of 3 Nephi 11-18 and, as the title suggests, a comparison with Matthew 5-7. In chapters 2-3, Welch views the Nephite sermon in a temple context; in chapter 4, he does the same for the Sermon on the Mount. In chapter 5, he analyzes differences between the 3 Nephi and Matthew accounts. In chapter 6, he examines the Israelite background of much of the Sermon on the Mount to show that this background would be the common heritage of both the Jews in Palestine and the Nephites (or, rather, the Lehites) in America. Chapters 7-9 deal with textual matters, including a discussion of Stanley Larson's examination of the text of the Sermon at the Temple, in which Larson claims that Joseph Smith took the King James Sermon on the Mount whole cloth, copying many textual mistakes reflected in the King James translation of Matthew. Welch brings impressive tools to bear on this study. He handles Greek, he controls the New Testament secondary literature, and his command of the secondary literature on the Book of Mormon is superb. He knows ancient law intimately and has published important, original research on chiasmus both in the Book of Mormon and in antiquity generally. Therefore, it is not surprising that the book he has written here is a consistently interesting and valuable one. Though I sometimes disagreed with it, it often supplied insights that rang true. Aside from its apologetic value in dealing with attacks on the Sermon at the Temple in 3 Nephi, it serves as an excellent commentary on these important chapters in 3 Nephi. A chapter-by-chapter analysis of the book follows: Chapters 2-3 (which follow the introduction in chapter 1) are, to me, the most tentative part of the book. Here, Welch seems to be applying a "pan-temple" interpretation to our text, in which he sees endowment ceremony imagery in much of the text. Such "pan-anything" interpretations are useful in that they take a certain new perspective to its logical limits, often revealing 320 REVIEW OF BOOKS ON1llEBOOKOFMORMON3 (1991) new insights; however, not all readers will find bis examples equally convincing. In certain of his interpretations, Welch seems to me to be stretching the point somewhat An example of this occurs on page 66, when Welch talces 3 Nephi 13:17 as a reference to ritual washing and anointing. But in context, the washing and anointing refer only to avoiding any unusual appearance while fasting, such as disfiguring the face, perhaps with ashes (see Isaiah 58:5). But he rightly acknowledges that not all of his forty-eight points of possible temple significance are of equal strength (p. 34) and that his interpretation is neither exclusive nor conclusive (pp. 84-85). Welch also strikes me as forcing the Book of Mormon context somewhat in his suggested interpretation of Christ ministering to the children in 3 Nephi 17. In context this passage presents a beautiful outpouring of love for children by Christ; Welch, however, reads it ritually, and hints that it might have constituted some kind of sealing ceremony, which to me takes away some of its dramatic effect. Welch emphasizes that the Nephites both saw and heard Christ's prayer at 3 Nephi 17:15-17 and suggests that he did things during the prayer; however, the text emphasizes the content of the prayer uttered by Jesus, not acts performed by him. Then he blesses the little children of the congregation, one by one, and prays for them. He instructs the congregation to observe their children, after which angels descend and "minister" to them. The parents do not seem to receive blessings with the children, although as a group they stood behind the children, who surrounded Jesus who stood in the midst (3 Nephi 17:12-13). If there had been a sealing, Christ logically would have received child and parent together. The narrative in 3 Nephi, however, focuses on the love Christ had for the children and on their receiving ministrations of angels. In 3 Nephi 17 :23 ("Behold your little ones"), Christ is not "just inviting the parents to look at their children and admire them": he is preparing the parents for the imminent appearance of angels among the children. In addition, it seems to me that Welch sometimes comes dangerously close to subordinating the moral aspects of the Sermon to its ritual aspects (it is, according to Welch, a "ritual text," p. 86), when the whole point of Christ's ministry is to show that ritual must be guided by inward conversion and morality (3 Nephi 9:19-22, and much of the gospels). See also pp. 58-61, in which Welch interprets teleios mostly as a ritual term (which he does with great insight), without emphasizing WELCH, SERMON AT THE TEMPLE (COMYI'ON) 321 sufficiently its important ethical shades of meaning. But generally he does not ignore the ethical aspects of the Sermon, and his excellent section on the importance of giving to the poor in a temple context (pp. 62-63, cf. p. 150) shows that he knows the relative importance of the moral and the ritual, which can sometimes seem opposed (see Isaiah 58; cf. p. 101). As Welch points out, "many elements in the Sermon are basic to the first principles of the gospel and thus are certainly also relevant to general ethical exhortation" (p. 84). Indeed, Christ taught that morality does not preclude ritual and ecclesiastical practice, as in Matthew 23:23, though "justice, mercy and faith" are ''weightier" than outward practice. I found chapter 5, on the differences between Matthew and 3 Nephi, very insightful, an import.ant addition to Book of Mormon scholarship. Chapter 6 is also excellent; it includes an entirely successful response to a critique by Krister Stendahl of 3 Nephi 12:6 (pp. 114-15). The chapter as a whole reminds us of an important truth that is generally forgotten, that the New Testament is thoroughly grounded in the Old Testament. Some of those who criticize the Book of Mormon for plagiarism from the King James Bible would be surprised to find how many phrases from the New Testament echo the Old. Chapters 7-9 are also full of valuable discoveries. Here, Larson's somewhat weak work critiquing 3 Nephi's text is solidly countered. One sees how Larson, aside from committing methodological missteps, has overemphasized the importance of some supposed problems and has ignored textual issues that did not support his thesis. Welch points out that in 3 Nephi 12:22/ Matthew 5:22, the Book of Mormon drops eike, "without a cause," and that many of the best Greek manuscripts do the same (p. 162). Other impressive points are his analysis of the Semitic word behind dikaiosune, "righteousness," as an explanation for 3 Nephi 13:1 (pp. 150-51) and his analysis of a Semitic perfect, translated by an English present (as in KJV and 3 Nephi 13:11), behind Matthew 6:12 (p. 153). Welch's earlier treatment of the doxology of the Lord's prayer, found in 3 Nephi but not in the earliest New Testament manuscripts, is similarly convincing (p. 65), showing that such doxologies were common ritual practice at the end of prayers, whether they were written down or not I close with a short list of methodological objections and minor problems. Often in Welch's footnoting I would prefer a primary source instead of a secondary source, or at least a 322 REVIEW OF BOOKS ON1HE BOOK OP MORMON 3 (1991) primary source preceding a secondary source, especially when the secondary source itself is controversial. For instance, on p. 63 Welch writes, "several early Christian texts document the use of sacred group prayers, with the participants standing in a circle around Jesus," and cites Nibley• s "The Early Christian Prayer Circle" article.1 Yet some of the examples cited by Nibley are not really group prayers, or are not really circles, and so on, though there are some similarities to prayer circles. It would be better for Welch to select an example from a primary source that he thinks is absolutely foolproof and use Nibley as a second reference (likewise on p. 36 n. 2). Nibley, quoted by Welch, seems to be pushing things a bit in translating "hallowed be thy name,, as "to which our present tie and password is the name,, (p. 64). The transliteration of the Greek words is not entirely consistent. Macrons are often left off of words (pp. 59, 69, 75, 97, 156). Iota subscripts are left off a Greek phrase on p. 97, but are used on p. 148. What is the basis for "[priesthood]" in the Clement quotation on p. 59? Is this Welch's suggested gloss? If so, hierophantikos means "of a hierophant," and the hierophant at Eleusis was the special "initiating priest," "he who shows sacred things"; thus "priesthood" seems too simple an explanation of the word. A more complex translation would seem to fit well with Welch• s purposes ["initiatory priesthood .. ?]. On Beatitudes in the mysteries, add line numbers 480-82 to the Homeric Hymn to Demeter citation (p. 43).2 1 Hugh W. Nibley, "The Early Christian Prayer Circle," in Mormonism and Early Christianity, vol. 4 in The Collected Works of Hugh Nibley (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book and F.A.R.M.S., 1987), 45-99. 2 For further references, cf. Pindar, frg. 131a; Sophocles, frg. 837; Euripides, Bacchae 72-77; the "Orphic" gold tablets, see GUnther Zuntz, Persephone (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1971), 342-43; Walter Burkert, Greek Religion (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1985), 289; Eduard Norden, Agnostos Theos (Stuttgart: Teubner, 1956). 100 n. l; Gustav L. Dirichlet, De veterum macarismis (Giessen: TOpelmann, 1914), 62-64; Robin Seaford, "Dionysiac Drama in the Dionysiac Mysteries," Classical Quarterly 31 (1981): 260; Eva Keuls, "Mystery Elements in Menander's Dyscolus," Transactions of the American Philological A


Background Breastfeeding has been related to better cognitive development in children. However, due to methodological challenges, such as confounding, recall bias or insufficient power, the mechanism and nature of the relation remains subject to debate. Methods We included 3761 participants of a population-based cohort study from fetal life onwards and examined the association of breastfeeding duration with non-verbal intelligence in children of age 6 years. Maternal and paternal lifestyle, sociodemographic factors, child factors and maternal IQ were tested for their confounding effects on the association. Results We observed an initial association between breastfeeding duration and child IQ conferring an advantage of 0.32 (0.20 to 0.44) points for each additional month of breastfeeding. This association strongly attenuated to 0.09 (−0.03 to 0.21) points after adjustment for child factors, sociodemographic factors, parental lifestyle factors and maternal IQ. Similarly, the associations with breastfeeding duration as a categorical variable largely disappeared after confounding factors were added to the models. Conclusions The association between breastfeeding and child IQ can be largely explained by sociodemographic factors, parental lifestyle and maternal IQ. Our results cannot confirm beneficial effects of breastfeeding on child intelligence.


Marxist cultural theory underlies much teaching in university departments of
literature and has played a crucial role in the development of recent theoretical
approaches to Shakespeare. Feminism, New Historicism, cultural materialism,
postcolonial theory, and queer theory draw upon Marx's ideas about cultural
production, and have a marked affinity with Renaissance studies. There is, however,
little open literary debate of Marx's ideas and in the popular imagination they are no
more than irrelevant utopianism. The latest book in Routledge's Accents on
Shakespeare series, Marxist Shakespeares, is a collection of essays which should
help bring Marx back into discussions of literature and it is edited by Jean Howard
(Columbia University and president of the Shakespeare Association of America,
1999-2000), and Scott Cutler Shershow (Miama University, Oxford Ohio). Admitting
the subject's limitations, Howard and Shershow want to "to push the boundaries of
Marxist thought by ongoing engagement with feminism, cultural studies, and non-
Marxist forms of historicism" (p. 3) in order to save it from dismissal as a grand
narrative toward which the knowing postmodern should remain, as Jean-Francois
Lyotard put it, incredulous.


Three hundred entries by leading scholars in a variety of fields--from anthropology and literary theory to linguistics and philosophy--survey the study of signs and symbols in human culture in this new work. The articles cover key concepts, theories, theorists, schools, and issues in communications, cognition, and cultural theory. From introductions to Barthes and Bakhtin to analyses of gossip and myth, this is a valuable reference for students and scholars.


It has been argued that the relationship between mental health and teenage parenthood might be explained by the connection of social disadvantage and mental health. This paper embraces a life course approach and investigates the link between social and health disadvantages and teenage parenthood in Sweden, in attempt to disentangle experiences of early mental health problems from other social disadvantage factors. The research questions were explored through random intercept logistic models for panel data. The data for this study consists of all individuals born in Sweden between 1989 and 1994, drawn from Swedish population registers. The final models comprised 680,848 individuals who were followed throughout their teenage years. The results show that mental health problems in youth function as an independent predictor of teenage parenthood, even after adjusting for other social disadvantage factors. This observation applies for both boys and girls. Activities aimed at increasing the perceived life opportunities of youth and giving significance to life may be considered as means of preventing teenage parenthood through policy. This study suggests that such activities could be extended to include teenagers with mental health problems.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to adopt the concept of value fusion to identify and describe the critical dimensions of how sustainability value is created by the use of mobile technologies by citizens, public transport authorities, government and other stakeholders simultaneously.Design/methodology/approach: A single-case study of Changzhou BRT system is conducted in order to trace value creation in complex urban public transit context in China and discuss the meaning of value emerged through mobile technologies and networked to customers and public transport authorities.Findings: The study will reveal the combination of virtual, velocity, large volume, and variety source information characteristics of intelligent BRT system enables public transit authorities and consumers to interact and communicate, produce and consume benefits, and create value in new ways that achieves value fusion. The value fusion results from customer and public transit authorities: individually or collectively; actively and passively; interactively or in aggregation contributing to a mobile network; and in real time.Research limitations/implications: As with single-case study research, the paper is unable to prove empirical generalization; further comparative case study is needed in this area. Moreover, the paper takes from customer and firm perspective; future studies could approach the topic from a broad stakeholder perspective.Contribution/value: This study is novel in several respects: it provides a systematic empirical analysis of the value emerged through networked mobile technologies and addresses their effects on urban transit sustainable development, planning, decision-making, problem solving, and governance.Practical implications: Addressing the barriers to implementing sustainability innovation in public transit service towards value fusion, therefore, requires change to take place through the entire system – from improvement of value creation ways by active involvement of citizen to the integration of public knowledge and skills into public transit decision-making.


What does an urban planner need most? A sense of humor! Peripatetic planner Paul C. Zucker, author of the best selling ?The ABZs of Planning Management ?, proves it in this wise and funny book from APA Planners Press. Zucker knows a good story when he's lived one and he shares a career's worth in this collection. It's a tongue-in-cheek primer on how planning really works (or doesn't). His wry observations ring absolutely true on every page. Practicing planners will nod in rueful agreement with lessons-often learned the hard way-about achieving true success in planning and in life. And those just starting out will benefit from Zucker's insights about management, vision, career paths, and professional relationships. What planner hasn't developed a brilliant idea only to have it shot down by balky politicians? Check out Zucker's attempt to tame the San Andreas Fault only to be thwarted by the county board of supervisors. His conclusion? Sometimes it's better not to ask. Despite such frustrations, Zucker draws the line between planning and politics. Planning is involved with political issues, but planners should not be involved in politics. But to those who can't resist the temptation to run for office (as he did, with disastrous results) he offers this sage advice: If you're going to shoot the king, make sure you hit him. Does any of this sound familiar? There's more: With due respect to Daniel Burnham, in the planning world bigger is not always better. Zucker tells why it might be better to make little plans: People may actually understand them. Still he champions the planner's essential role as an agent of positive change and asserts: Big ideas are out there. Planners need to find and sell them. Paul Zucker's forthright and thoughtful advice concerns things that matter a lot to the day-to-day work of a practicing planner: hiring the right person for the right job; building, nurturing, and using constituencies; networking; working with (or around) local government bureaucracies; pitching proposals creatively; and knowing how and when to give up a cherished idea gracefully when the pitch doesn't work. His engaging profiles of those with whom he has studied and worked reveal the personalities of planners whose names are familiar to anyone who has labored in the profession during the last half-century. These cogent lessons will make you laugh and think and inspire you to do your own job better. Don't miss this entertaining look back at a unique planning career.


Specific, high affinity insulin-like growth factor (IGF) binding proteins are secreted by human fibroblasts in culture. By multiple criteria, the species of IGF binding proteins produced by human fibroblasts are distinct from the HepG2/amniotic fluid IGF binding protein, but share many characteristics with the growth hormone-dependent IGF binding protein forms predominant in normal adult human plasma. Treatment of cultured human fibroblasts with growth hormone produced an increase in IGF binding protein activity in the medium, while addition of glucocorticoids markedly diminished IGF binding activity. Insulin, epidermal growth factor, platelet-derived growth factor, and progesterone had no effect on IGF binding activity in fibroblast media. In comparison, HepG2 IGF binding activity was enhanced by progesterone, decreased by insulin, and unaffected by growth hormone or glucocorticoid treatment. Five molecular forms of IGF binding proteins were identified by Western ligand blots in human fibroblast conditioned medium, with Mr = 41,500, 37,000, 32,000, 28,000, and 23,000. In human fibroblast conditioned medium, the Mr = 41,500 and 37,000 IGF binding protein species were abundant, as in normal human plasma, with a major Mr = 23,000 form which was a minor component in plasma.


Driving while fatigued is a considerably understudied risk factor contributing to car crashes every year. The first step in mitigating the respective crash risks is to attempt to infer fatigued driving from other parameters, in order to gauge its extend in road networks. The aim of this study is to investigate the extent to which declared fatigued driving behavior can be predicted based on overall driver opinions and perceptions on that issue. For that purpose, a broad cross-country questionnaire from the ESRA2 survey was used. The questionnaire is related to self-declared beliefs, perception, and attitudes towards a wide range of traffic safety topics. Initially, a binary logistic regression model was trained to provide causal insights on which variables affect the likelihood that a driver engaged in driving while fatigued. Drivers reporting driving under the influence of drugs, fatigue, or alcohol, as well as speeding, safety, and texting while driving or drivers who were more acceptable of fatigued driving were more likely to have recently driven while fatigued. In contrast, acceptability of other hazardous behaviors, namely mobile phone use and drunk driving, was negatively correlated with fatigued driving behavior, as were more responsible driver perspectives overall. To provide a more accurate detection mechanism, which would also incorporate non-linear effects, a Deep Neural Network (DNN) was subsequently trained on the data, slightly outperforming the binary logistic model. From the results of both models, it was concluded that declared fatigued driving behavior can be predicted from questionnaire data, providing new insights to fatigue detection.


Observations of extreme (sub-)hourly precipitation at mid-latitudes show a large dependency on the dew point temperature often close to 14% per degree—2 times the dependency of the specific humidity on dew point temperature which is given by the Clausius–Clapeyron (CC) relation. By simulating a selection of 11 cases over the Netherlands characterized by intense showers, we investigate this behavior in the non-hydrostatic weather prediction model Harmonie at a resolution of 2.5 km. These experiments are repeated using perturbations of the atmospheric profiles of temperature and humidity: (i) using an idealized approach with a 2° warmer (colder) atmosphere assuming constant relative humidity, and (ii) using changes in temperature and humidity derived from a long climate change simulation at 2° global warming. All perturbations have a difference in the local dew point temperature compared to the reference of approximately 2°. Differences are considerable between the cases, with dependencies ranging from almost zero to an increase of 18% per degree rise of the dew point temperature. On average however, we find an increase of extreme precipitation intensity of 11% per degree for the idealized perturbation, and 9% per degree for the climate change perturbation. For the most extreme events these dependencies appear to approach a rate of 11–14% per degree, in closer agreement with the observed relation.


Curriculum design and implementation has been a preserve of educational policy makers and curriculum designers from time immemorial More often, emphasis has been on drawing up a curriculum that prepares children for the world of work. This has been the situation in independent Zimbabwe. Very little attention has been given to traditional moral values when setting up curriculum objectives, yet there has been moral decadence in contemporary society due to the failure by social institutions such as schools and universities to teach moral values. Curriculum designers have not put much weight on the need to introduce the moral dimension in the school curriculum. This article makes an attempt to suggest a moral education curriculum that takes these cardinal virtues into consideration.