The Voltaian Basin in Ghana is interpreted as a foreland basin formed by sediments filling a flexural depression at the margin of the West African Craton. The flexure is due to northwest obduction onto the craton of younger, Pan African crust. This model is consistent with our knowledge of the Voltaian Basin from geology, seismic refraction profiles, and depths to magnetic basement. Major gravity and magnetic anomalies over the middle of the Voltaian Basin, approximately along 0o longitude, are interpreted as due to major structures in the West African Craton underlying the basin, the structures being older than the basin sediments. The anomalies could be due to either a combination of an elongate N–S striking change in crustal thickness or density in the craton and two large areas of mafic igneous rock or, preferably, to a major thrust within the West African Craton along a 300-km long boundary between crusts of different ages.


Two years since the entry into force of the Lisbon Treaty the implementation of the constitutional and institutional changes it introduced is ongoing. This paper examines the potential and actual implications of these novelties for the capacity of the European Union (EU) to act as an effective multilateral security actor, placing special emphasis on coordination, flexibility and coherence in the areas of Common Foreign and Security Policy (CFSP) and Common Security and Defence Policy (CSDP). The structure is twofold. First, the main constitutional changes to the areas of CFSP and CSDP will be examined in a critical light. The legal personality of the EU, its cross-cutting external relations objectives, the status of the CFSP and CSDP, new mechanisms for deepened security solidarity between the Member States and enhanced flexibility for CSFSP and CSDP are the focus of analysis. Second, the paper analyses the main novelties to the institutional framework of the European Union after the Lisbon Treaty, including the permanent President of the European Council, the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, the European External Action Service and Union Delegations, as well as the Political and Security Committee and the European Defence Agency. This paper argues that the Lisbon Treaty may have provided the constitutional and institutional ingredients for the EU to strengthen its position as a strategic actor in multilateral settings. However, practice shows that the political will of all EU actors involved and of the Member States remains an obstacle in the pursuit to reach the full potential of the novelties introduced by the Lisbon Treaty.


Despite the importance of net primary productivity (NPP) and net biome productivity (NBP), estimates of NPP and NBP for China are highly uncertain. To investigate the main sources of uncertainty, we synthesized model estimates of NPP and NBP for China from published literature and the Multi‐scale Synthesis and Terrestrial Model Intercomparison Project (MsTMIP). The literature‐based results showed that total NPP and NBP in China were 3.35 ± 1.25 and 0.14 ± 0.094 Pg C yr−1, respectively. Classification and regression tree analysis based on literature data showed that model type was the primary source of the uncertainty, explaining 36% and 64% of the variance in NPP and NBP, respectively. Spatiotemporal scales, land cover conditions, inclusion of the N cycle, and effects of N addition also contributed to the overall uncertainty. Results based on the MsTMIP data suggested that model structures were overwhelmingly important (>90%) for the overall uncertainty compared to simulations with different combinations of time‐varying global change factors. The interannual pattern of NPP was similar among diverse studies and increased by 0.012 Pg C yr−1 during 1981–2000. In addition, high uncertainty in China's NPP occurred in areas with high productivity, whereas NBP showed the opposite pattern. Our results suggest that to significantly reduce uncertainty in estimated NPP and NBP, model structures should be substantially tested on the basis of empirical results. To this end, coordinated distributed experiments with multiple global change factors might be a practical approach that can validate specific structures of different models.


The education of children with disabilities in regular schools has become a world phenomenon. International community, the national governments and agencies have realized its importance and are therefore striving towards achieving education for all in an inclusive setting. United Nations (UN) and its agencies have played a key role in establishing policies frameworks and legislations to support inclusive education. The government of Kenya on the other hand has domesticated several international declarations and has formulated relevant policies that support inclusive education.The purpose of the study is to establish challenges facing the implementation of inclusive education policy in public primary schools in Rarieda Sub County. The study also seeks to find out what the participants think can be done to address the identified challenges. The study was conducted in Rarieda Sub County one of the rural sub counties in Kenya. Three head teachers participated in this study as key informants. Qualitative approach was found relevant to investigate the research question and collect the intended data. Qualitative interviewing was the main method of obtaining data.The results obtained indicated that several challenges impede the implementation of inclusive education policy in public pimary schools in Rarieda Sub County. These challenges included; lack of training /information to key stakeholders on issues of inclusion, resource related challenges, attitude and stigmatization towards children with disabilities, curriculum related challenges and policy related challenges. It was apparent from the study that lack of training to key stakeholders such as teachers, head teachers, parents, and district education officials derail the inclusion of children with disabilities in regular schools because they lack necessary knowledge and skills to handle such issues. The study found out that organizing for workshops and seminars to stakeholder and infusing both special and general education into one curriculum can respond to this challenge. In the same perspective, resource related challenges were attributed to poor infrastructures, lack of proper assessments and provision of specialized equipments required by these children. Sourcing for funds from well wishers, donor Non-governmental organization both from the national and international can help provide for the required resources.


Vulnerability to the vast majority of insect pests is one of the main factors which severely restrict the scope of production and development of Zea maize L. Flea beetle is considered an important pest that cause huge losses to Zea maize L. yields. The present study was conducted at new development farm (NDF), the University of Agriculture Peshawar Pakistan during 2014 and 2015 to determine the efficacy of various chemical and botanical insecticides against Flea beetles on Zea maize L. plant. The number of Flea beetles was recorded a day before and 1, 2 and 8 days after the application of every spray material on the plant. The results showed that least number of Flea beetles was reported in the Emamectin benzoate treatment while among the plant extracts, Datura stramonium was the most important and effective treatment which reduces the population of white Flea beetles, which was followed by Azadirachta indica seed extract. The large numbers of pest were reported on untreated check plots. The present reports showed that plant extract have the ability to be utilized for the successful control of Flea beetles on Zea maize L.


Dysmenorrhoea, pain during menstruation, affects 40-95 per cent of menstruating women, and has been reported as the most common of all gynecologic complaints and the leading cause of absenteeism of women from work, school, and other activities. Common treatment for dysmenorrhoea is medical therapy such as nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories (NSAIDs) or oral contraceptive pills (OCPs) which both work by reducing myometrial activity (contractions of the uterus). The efficacy of conventional treatments such as nonsteroidals is considerable; however the failure rate is still often 20-25%. Many researchers are now seeking traditional and herbal alternatives to conventional medicine.
The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a traditional herbal drug (SGA) in the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea and to compare the effect of (SGA) vs. mefenamic acid for the treatment of primary dysmenorrhea.
161 single girl students, 17-30 years old from Isfahan Medical University Dormitory, who complained of dysmenorrhea, were enrolled in this randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trial study. The SGA has been made of Refined Saffron, Anise and Celery Seed extracts highly purified, saffron is a conventional effective medicine in improving blood circulation, Anise and Celery Seed are able to relax smooth muscle cells and ease the muscle spasms that are the immediate cause of pain. Students were randomized to use placebo, SGA (500 mg), or 500 mg doses of Mefenemic acid. We treated patients with either SGA, Mefenemic acid or placebo TDS for three days during 3 menstrual cycles with a double-blind technique. Intensity of pain was reported by using a 10-point linear analog technique. Statistical analyses were performed by the independent sample t-test, paired t-test and qualitative measurement analysis method.
Students taking SGA with daily TDS doses of 500 mg, decreased the pain intensity (p=0.001) in a manner similar to mefenemic acid (p=0.01). SGA was found to be effective for sever pain relief in dysmenorrhea. There was no side effects and this confirms the report of Gill [1992] in the folk medicine that the rural people use the plant for dysmenorrhea and various pain.
We demonstrate that the SGA and Mefenemic acid both show adequate an analgesic effect in dysmenorrhea. However our results indicate that SGA was three time superior to placebo and met patients individual demands much better and could reduce sever dysmenorrhea.
Further research on SGA therapy is encouraged.


[1] A case of long-range transport of a biomass burning plume from Alaska to Europe is analyzed using a Lagrangian approach. This plume was sampled several times in the free troposphere over North America, the North Atlantic and Europe by three different aircraft during the IGAC Lagrangian 2K4 experiment which was part of the ICARTT/ ITOP measurement intensive in summer 2004. Measurements in the plume showed enhanced values of CO, VOCs and NOy, mainly in form of PAN. Observed O-3 levels increased by 17 ppbv over 5 days. A photochemical trajectory model, CiTTyCAT, was used to examine processes responsible for the chemical evolution of the plume. The model was initialized with upwind data and compared with downwind measurements. The influence of high aerosol loading on photolysis rates in the plume was investigated using in situ aerosol measurements in the plume and lidar retrievals of optical depth as input into a photolysis code (Fast-J), run in the model. Significant impacts on photochemistry are found with a decrease of 18% in O-3 production and 24% in O-3 destruction over 5 days when including aerosols. The plume is found to be chemically active with large O-3 increases attributed primarily to PAN decomposition during descent of the plume toward Europe. The predicted O-3 changes are very dependent on temperature changes during transport and also on water vapor levels in the lower troposphere which can lead to O-3 destruction. Simulation of mixing/dilution was necessary to reproduce observed pollutant levels in the plume. Mixing was simulated using background concentrations from measurements in air masses in close proximity to the plume, and mixing timescales ( averaging 6.25 days) were derived from CO changes. Observed and simulated O-3/CO correlations in the plume were also compared in order to evaluate the photochemistry in the model. Observed slopes change from negative to positive over 5 days. This change, which can be attributed largely to photochemistry, is well reproduced by multiple model runs even if slope values are slightly underestimated suggesting a small underestimation in modeled photochemical O-3 production. The possible impact of this biomass burning plume on O-3 levels in the European boundary layer was also examined by running the model for a further 5 days and comparing with data collected at surface sites, such as Jungfraujoch, which showed small O-3 increases and elevated CO levels. The model predicts significant changes in O-3 over the entire 10 day period due to photochemistry but the signal is largely lost because of the effects of dilution. However, measurements in several other BB plumes over Europe show that O-3 impact of Alaskan fires can be potentially significant over Europe.


The effect of water temperature on the duration of emergence and speed of movement of adult endeavour prawns, Metapenaeus endeavouri and M. ensis, was investigated in the laboratory under controlled conditions from 20˚ to 32˚C. The behaviour of 50 prawns was recorded on videotape over 48 h at five temperatures (20˚, 23˚, 26˚, 29˚ and 32˚C). In general, both species emerged from the substratum during dusk and remained on the substratum until dawn or just before dawn when they buried again. At 32˚C, however, some M. endeavouri emerged for much less time and started to bury shortly after midnight. The mean daily duration of emergence for M. endeavouri varied with temperature and was higher at 26˚ and 29˚C (653 40 min per day) than at other temperatures. In contrast, the mean duration of emergence for M. ensis was not significantly affected by temperature (range of times 663 45 to 693 9 min). The pattern of the mean hourly speed of movement for M. endeavouri varied with temperature, whereas that for M. ensis was bimodal at most temperatures: they were more active during dusk (1700 to 1800 hours) and dawn (0400 to 0500 hours) than at other times.


This work presents a comparative study of the electrochemical behaviour, on a glassy carbon electrode, of dissolved EuCl3 in two chlorobasic ionic liquids, the 1-ethyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, C2mimCl, and the 1buthyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride, C4mimCl, over the temperature ranges 363–398 K and 343–363 K respectively. In both media, the electro-reduction of EuCl6 takes place via only one electrochemical step EuCl6/EuCl6. The electrochemical system EuCl6/Eu(0) has not been observed within the electrochemical window of both ILs, due to the prior reduction of the respective imidazolium cation from the solvents, which inhibits the electro-extraction of Eu(0) from the media on the GC electrode. The paper describes how several electrochemical techniques (e.g. cyclic voltammetry (CV), convolutive potential sweep voltammetry (CPSV), steady state voltammetry (SSV), chronopotentiometry (CP) and chronoamperometry (CA)) have been used experimentally: i) verifying assumptions used in their theoretical analysis, and ii) ensuring reproducible conditions at the electrode/electrolyte interface, with the aim to obtain highprecision measurements of the diffusion coefficient of EuCl6. In order to know if there are discrepancies between the obtained data, a two-way analysis of variance, ANOVA, has been carried out. The analysis has shown that with a 95% confidence level there are no significant differences between the diffusion coefficients obtained by the different techniques. On the other hand, the diffusion coefficient of EuCl6 increases with the temperature following the Arrhenius law, being the activation energy for diffusion 40.4 ± 2.6 and 60.2 ± 1.8 kJ mol in C2mimCl and C4mimCl respectively. The dimensionless Schmidt numbers, defined as the ratio between solvent viscosity and solute diffusivity (Sc= ν/D), have also been calculated to characterise the solute global mass transport through its environment. On the GC electrode, the electro-reduction of EuCl6 to EuCl6 is a quasi-reversible process. Accurate values of the kinetic parameters (i.e. the intrinsic rate constant of charge transfer, k, and the charge transfer coefficient, α), as well as the reversible half wave potential, E1/2, have been obtained for the first time in the mentioned ionic liquids, by simulation of the cyclic voltammograms and logarithmic analysis of the voltammograms and convoluted curves.


This chapter deals with the assumed qualitative difference between the learning of a chronologically true L2 and the subsequent learning of an L3, and the related issue of transfer from L2 into L3. In fact, some recent studies show that L2 can take on a stronger role than L1 as a transfer source in L3 learning. A possible explanation for this phenomenon is a strong impact of the L2 status factor , which we argue is due to the higher degree of cognitive similarity between L2 and L3 than between L1 and L3. Further theoretical support to the L2 status factor, as one of several possibly interacting factors that may determine the transfer source (L1, L2/s), is here provided by a neurolinguistic account, suggesting that the distinction between declarative and procedural memory can account for what might lie behind it.


The plasmonic properties of metallic nanoparticles typically depend strongly on their shapes and local environment. However, not much is known about the shape effects on the plasmonic response in small metallic nanoparticles when quantum size effects become important. In this work, we use atomistic electrodynamics models incorporated with quantum size effects to study the optical properties of both bare and ligand coated Ag nanoparticles in different shapes. Using classical electrodynamics, we find that the plasmonic response of bare metallic nanoparticles depends strongly on the morphology of the nanoparticles due to the presence of higher-order plasmon modes. By including quantum size effects in the simulations, we find a significant blue-shift of the dipole plasmon as well as the smearing-out of the multipole plasmon modes, and both lead to a weak shape dependence. The ligand effects on the nanoparticles cause a significant red-shift of the plasmon resonance arising from the reduction of the conductivity of the Ag atoms where the ligands bind. In contrast to the bare nanoparticles, we find several higher-order plasmon modes in the ligand coated nanoparticles, that are likely caused by the weak electron spill-out effect and the symmetry breaking at the surface in the presence of the ligands. Furthermore, we show that the ligand layer strongly modify the near-field distribution due to the screening of the ligands. This work highlights the importance of quantum size and ligand effects on the optical properties of small metallic nanoparticles.


Nirex is responsible for the development of a deep geological repository for the disposal of solid intermediate-level and some low-level radioactive waste. In 1991 an area near Sellafield, West Cumbria was chosen as the focus for further investigations following preliminary investigation of two sites. The Nirex Science Programme is directed at establishing the suitability, or otherwise, of the site at Sellafield to host the deep repository. This requires, amongst other things, that an assessment be developed of the post-closure performance of a repository located there and that this assessment should be supported by information from a suitably designed research programme. The Nirex Safety Assessment Research Programme (NSARP) is a wide ranging programme providing detailed understanding and data on the physical, chemical and biological processes that may be of relevance to repository post-closure safety together with mathematical models describing the way that these processes operate and interact. The NSARP is principally concerned with improving our knowledge of two important pathways, groundwater and gas, through which radionuclides may return to the human environment and it is supplemented by a more engineering-orientated programme of research into the Nirex Reference Vault Backfill. Current Status Reports are intended to provide an overview of the research programme and so help to document its development. They rely on detailed information contained in Nirex reports and other documents in the public domain. The Nirex reports referred to here are mostly Nirex Safety Series (NSS) reports or the Nirex Science reports that have been introduced recently. All these reports have been produced by contractors partly or fully funded by Nirex and working under Quality Assurance arrangements which are either in strict accordance with BS5750 or, particularly for some of the earlier reports, in keeping with its intent.


The Bradley-Terry model for paired comparisons is a simple and muchstudied means to describe the probabilities of the possible outcomes when individuals are judged against one another in pairs. Among the many studies of the model in the past 75 years, numerous authors have generalized it in several directions, sometimes providing iterative algorithms for obtaining maximum likelihood estimates for the generalizations. Building on a theory of algorithms known by the initials MM, for minorization-maximization, this paper presents a powerful technique for producing iterative maximum likelihood estimation algorithms for a wide class of generalizations of the Bradley-Terry model. While algorithms for problems of this type have tended to be custom-built in the literature, the techniques in this paper enable their mass production. Simple conditions are stated that guarantee that each algorithm described will produce a sequence that converges to the unique maximum likelihood estimator. Several of the algorithms and convergence results herein are new.


The Salar de Antofalla (salt flat) is located in the Puna region of Catamarca, in northern Argentina. In this paper we report and provide the first descriptive data of Las Quínoas, a modern system of oncoids located in the western margin of the salt flat. Oncoids were studied by insitu logging, polished and thin sections analysis. In addition, the 16s rRNA genes of microbial mats associated with these oncoids were amplified and sequenced to characterize the microbial biodiversity. Oncoids present discoidal to subrounded morphologies and sizes up to 15 cm in diameter. They are scattered along channels, which originate from the groundwater springs of a wetland and enter the salt flat. Its macrostructure is concentric and composed by three zones: 1. A nucleus zone built by clastic material in a carbonate matrix. 2. A well-laminated zone around the nucleus that shows two types of mesostructures: concentrically stacked spheroids (SS-C) and randomly stacked hemispheroids (SS-R), both showing an alternation of dense and dark micritic laminae with light micritic to microsparitic laminae. 3. A poorly-laminated zone, in the outermost sector of oncoids, with two types of mesostructures too: a laminated mesostructure composed also of an alternation of dense and dark micritic laminae with light micritic to microsparitic laminae, and a non-laminated mesostructure composed of agglomerated and cemented clastic material within a calcareous matrix (wackestones-packstones). Regarding the microbial diversity, the analyzed oncoids in this work are mainly inhabited by Proteobacteria (ca. 37.5%), Bacteroidetes (ca. 25.0%), and in less proportion Planctomycetes, Actinobacteria and Cyanobacteria.


Poliomyelitis is a highly contagious and incurable disease, which mainly affects children under five years of age leading to irreversible paralysis and possibly death. For decades, both private and government organizations have been putting efforts through their partnership to eradicate polio completely from the different parts of the globe and as a result of those efforts there are left only three countries which are currently polio endemic. Since Pakistan is one of those three countries which still remain polio endemic along with Afghanistan and Nigeria, it is significant to address this issue and work on the preventive measures to control the incidence of such a lethal disease. In Pakistan, a program was introduced on immunization in 1978, known as Expanded Program on Immunization (EPI). The main purpose of EPI was to reduce the burden of diseases like polio and tetanus. Although the number of polio cases has fallen due to the classic efforts of government and other NGOs, polio is not eradicated from Pakistan. This situation is thought provoking. Even after the great global efforts; polio is not eradicated from Pakistan. Multiple factors might have prevented the eradication of this deadly disease from our society.


A chromatographical system has been developed to give a complete baseline separation of all dimethylaminoazobenzenesulphonyl (DABS)-amino acids for high-sensitivity amino acid analysis [Chang, Knecht & Braun (1981) Biochem. J. 199, 547--556]. The system, which uses a Merck RP-18 column with phosphate buffer (12 mM, pH 6.5)/acetonitrile mixture, allows reliable analysis of DABS-amino acids at the 1--2 pmol level. The accuracy of this new system is demonstrated by the composition analysis of two immunoglobulin light chains (214 amino acid residues) with differences at only three amino acid residue positions.


An executive from pharmaceutical company GSK must choose how much to integrate a recently acquired biotechnology firm, Sirtris. Moncef Slaoui, GSK's Global head of R&D, championed the acquisition of Sirtris to gain access to its potentially revolutionary science. Slaoui must balance the need to recoup shareholder value after paying a two-times premium for Sirtris with his desire to retain Christoph Westphal, Sirtris's co-founder and CEO, and other key individuals at the company. His desire to protect Sirtris from GSK's size and bureaucracy occurs in a period when GSK has launched major changes in its R&D organization, which focus on decentralizing and externalizing R&D, as well as revamping the resource allocation process to parallel more of a venture capital-based model. The case also explores the views of Christoph Westphal on the early challenges of the integration and the impact GSK was having on Sirtris. Can be used in conjunction with a separate case that focuses on Sirtris's business model.


Beatmania is a rhythm action game where players must reproduce some of the sounds of a song by pressing specific controller buttons at the correct time. In this paper we investigate the use of deep neural networks to automatically create game stages—called charts—for arbitrary pieces of music. Our technique uses a multi-layer feed-forward network trained on sound sequence summary statistics to predict which sounds in the music are to be played by the player and which will play automatically. We use another neural network along with rules to determine which controls should be mapped to which sounds. We evaluated our system on the ability to reconstruct charts in a held-out test set, achieving an F1-score that significantly beats LSTM baselines.


There are those in the U.S. Congress who seem determined to dismantle the nation's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in the name of economic growth and jobs. This despite EPA estimates that last year, the accumulated benefits of the Clean Air Act alone exceeded its costs by more than $1 trillion.* The struggle over the EPA has just been played out within the context of the larger budgetary conflict between the Republican-controlled House and the Obama Administration. In the brinkmanship negotiations that kept government doors open, the EPA appears to have escaped more or less intact. The agency will have to absorb $1.6 billion in cuts, or about 16% of its 2010 budget. Although not fatal, those cuts will surely slow the implementation of programs that are under legislative attack, including those that tackle water and air pollution. But the battle is far from over.


Our article considers variational approximations of the posterior distribution in a high-dimensional state space model. The variational approximation is a multivariate Gaussian density, in which the variational parameters to be optimized are a mean vector and a covariance matrix. The number of parameters in the covariance matrix grows as the square of the number of model parameters, so it is necessary to find simple yet effective parametrizations of the covariance structure when the number of model parameters is large. The joint posterior distribution over the high-dimensional state vectors is approximated using a dynamic factor model, with Markovian dependence in time and a factor covariance structure for the states. This gives a reduced dimension description of the dependence structure for the states, as well as a temporal conditional independence structure similar to that in the true posterior. We illustrate our approach in two high-dimensional applications which are challenging for Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling. The first is a spatio-temporal model for the spread of the Eurasian Collared-Dove across North America. The second is a multivariate stochastic volatility model for financial returns via a Wishart process.


This essay presents an analysis and comparison of the Facebook and Twitter networks of the beauty and fashion site Glo (glo.msn.com). In what follows, we examine the state of each network via network graphing analysis, noting similarities and differences in the way they function, and recommend strategies for Glo going forward based on our investigations.


People and organizations that are considering the adoption of Open-Source Software (OSS), or that need to choose among different OSS products are interested in knowing the user community's opinion, since this can provide useful indications about the strengths and limits of the software being evaluated. While several methods for the evaluation of the community size are available, there is no automated support to the extraction of the opinions of the community. In this paper we explore whether it is possible to support the OSS selection process by means of automated sentiment analysis techniques. Our goal is to understand if the actual opinion mining techniques, can be applied to get valuable opinions on OSS software. Our goal will be achieved first developing a web crawler to extract user generated content on OSS, building a data-set of relevant user generated then we apply the opinion mining process the OSS blogs data-set. We collected more than 88K user generated content and we compared the performance of our opinion mining technique with a set of existing opinion mining tools. Results of the application of our technique show that opinion mining can help to evaluate the opinions of OSS products. However, the existing opinion mining tools, even if applicable in different domains, are still not reliable in the domain of OSS, mainly because they are trained on different data-sets, opening new research directions for future work in the opinion mining domain.


Comparing to traditional cartography, big data geographic information processing is not a simple task at all, it requires special methods and methods. When existing geovisualization systems face millions of data, the zoom function and the dynamical data adding function usually cannot be satisfied at the same time. This research classify the existing methods of geovisualization, then analyze its functions and bottlenecks, analyze its applicability in the big data environment, and proposes a method that combines spatial data structure and iterative calculation on demand. It also proves that this method can effectively balance the performance of scaling and new data, and it is significantly better than the existing library in the time consumption of new data and scaling


This is the true story, as told to the doctor who looked after him just before he died, of the life of one of the last traditional yakuza in Japan. It wasn't a "good" life, in either sense of the word, but it was an adventurous one; and the tale he has to tell presents an honest and oddly attractive picture of an insider in that separate, unofficial world. In his low, hoarse voice, he describes the random events that led the son of a prosperous country shopkeeper to become a member, and ultimately the leader, of a gang organizing illegal dice games in Tokyo's liveliest entertainment area. He talks about his first police raid, and the brutal interrogation and imprisonment that followed it. He remembers his first love affair, and the girl he ran away with, and the weeks they spent wandering about the countryside together. Briefly, and matter-of-factly, he describes how he cut off the little finger of his left hand as a ritual gesture of apology. He explains how the games were run and the profits spent; why the ties between members of "the brotherhood" were so important; and how he came to kill a man who worked for him. What emerges is a contradictory personality: tough but not unsentimental; stubborn yet willing to take life more or less as it comes; impulsive but careful to observe the rules of the business he had joined. And in the end, when his tale is finished, you feel you would probably have liked him if you'd met him in person. Fortunately, Dr. Saga's record of his long conversations with him provides a wonderful substitute for that meeting.


BRIGGS AND STRATTON 030209 Natural Gas or Low Pressure Propane Conversion (Dual Fuel) Kit uses an adapter that makes it possible to operate natural gas and gasoline.


The Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation (CTA) is a joint international institution of the African, Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) Group of States and the European Union (EU). Its mission is to advance food and nutritional security, increase prosperity and encourage sound natural resource management in ACP countries. It provides access to information and knowledge, facilitates policy dialogue and strengthens the capacity of agricultural and rural development institutions and communities. CTA operates under the framework of the Cotonou Agreement and is funded by the EU.


The twenty-first century has seen a breathtaking expansion of statistical methodology, both in scope and in influence. 'Big data', 'data science', and 'machine learning' have become familiar terms in the news, as statistical methods are brought to bear upon the enormous data sets of modern science and commerce. How did we get here? And where are we going? This book takes us on an exhilarating journey through the revolution in data analysis following the introduction of electronic computation in the 1950s. Beginning with classical inferential theories - Bayesian, frequentist, Fisherian - individual chapters take up a series of influential topics: survival analysis, logistic regression, empirical Bayes, the jackknife and bootstrap, random forests, neural networks, Markov chain Monte Carlo, inference after model selection, and dozens more. The distinctly modern approach integrates methodology and algorithms with statistical inference. The book ends with speculation on the future direction of statistics and data science.


How can institutions of higher education, local education agencies, and departments of education partner to build capacity for 21st-Century school leadership? The model (IMPACT V) we describe utilizes a systems-wide partnership approach to cultivate shared leadership within influenced middle and high schools statewide to leverage technology as a catalyst for school reform. The model supports online cohort-based graduate programming, leadership coaching, ongoing professional development, and technical assistance across the state of North Carolina. This professional commentary describes theory related to the coordinated school–university partnership context. Also discussed are practicalities regarding how this approach prepares practicing school leaders more innovatively for the challenges of 21st-Century leadership.


Autonomous navigation and recognition of the environment are fundamental abilities for people extensively studied in computer vision and robotics fields. Expansion of low cost wearable sensing provides interesting opportunities for assistance systems that augment people navigation and recognition capabilities. This work presents our wearable omnidirectional vision system and a novel two-phase localization approach running on it. It runs state-of-the-art real time visual odometry adapted to catadioptric images augmented with topological-semantic information. The presented approach benefits from using wearable sensors to improve visual odometry results with true scaled solution. The wide field of view of catadioptric vision system used makes features last longer in the field of view and allows more compact location representation which facilitates topological place recognition. Experiments in this paper show promising ego-localization results in realistic settings, providing good true scaled visual odometry estimation and recognition of indoor regions.


The objective of this work was to evaluate the effect of a bacterial filtrate containing pyoverdine on the population dynamics of Xanthomonas axonopodis pv. passiflorae , and the severity of passion fruit bacterial blight. The treatments were: King's B medium solution; King's B medium solution with 2 μmol L -1  Fe 2+  supplementation; and King's B medium filtrate containing two concentrations of the siderophore pyoverdine produced by Pseudomonas sp. The filtrate containing pyoverdine at Abs363 = 0.231 (highest concentration) reduces the number of cells of X. axonopodis pv. passiflorae , and at Abs363 = 0.115 and Abs = 0.231 significantly reduces the severity of bacterial blight.


"Curating Will & Jane" provides an overview of the exhibition, Will & Jane: Shakespeare, Austen, and the Cult of Celebrity, opening at the Folger Shakespeare Library in August 2016. Shakespeare and Austen became literary celebrities roughly 200 years after their deaths, and the Will & Jane exhibition tells the story of that process through the display of many and various objects—from porcelain figurines and portraits, to advertisements and bobbleheads—that are part of the marketing and cultural dissemination of literary fame. The authors of the article also reflect, as literary-scholarsturned-curators, on what they learned about how material culture produces and records celebrity when the objects of study range beyond standard printed artifacts.


Although obesity, reduced physical activity, and aging increase susceptibility to type 2 diabetes, many people exposed to these risk factors do not develop the disease. Recent genome-wide association studies have identified a number of genetic variants that explain some of the interindividual variation in diabetes susceptibility (1–5). There is also a growing body of literature suggesting a role for epigenetic factors in the complex interplay between genes and the environment. Nevertheless, our knowledge about the molecular mechanisms linking environmental factors and type 2 diabetes still remains limited. This perspective will provide some insights into epigenetic mechanisms associated with type 2 diabetes.

### An overview of epigenetic regulation.

Although there is no uniform definition of epigenetics, it has been described as heritable changes in gene function that occur without a change in the nucleotide sequence (6). Epigenetic modifications can be passed from one cell generation to the next (mitotic inheritance) and between generations of a species (meiotic inheritance). In plants, it is well established that epigenetic modifications can be inherited from one generation to the next (7). However, there is only limited information about the inheritance of epigenetic traits between generations in animals (8,9). Notably, epigenetic effects may also be affected by the environment, making them potentially important pathogenic mechanisms in complex multifactorial diseases such as type 2 diabetes (Fig. 1). Epigenetic factors include DNA methylations, histone modifications, and microRNAs, and they can help to explain how cells with identical DNA can differentiate into different cell types with different phenotypes. This perspective will focus on the roles of DNA methylation and histone modification in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes.

FIG. 1.
Model proposing a role for epigenetic mechanisms in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes.

Cytosine residues occurring in CG dinucleotides are targets for DNA methylation in vertebrates, and DNA methylation is associated with …


In recent years Silicon Carbide (SiC) photodiodes have been proposed for ultraviolet (UV) light detection because of their robustness even in harsh environments, high quantum efficiency in all the UV range (200 nm–400 nm), excellent visible blindness, low dark current and high speed. Here, we report on the electro-optical performances and use in application of high signal-to noise ratio low reverse biased 4H-SiC vertical Schottky photodiodes based on the pinch-off surface effect, obtained by means of self-aligned Nickel Silicide (Ni2Si) interdigitated contacts. The characteristics of these devices could make their use appealing also in nuclear applications like for example scintillation light detection.


Janice Wearmouth is a senior lecturer in the Faculty of Education and Language Studies at the Open University in the UK. She has many years' experience of teaching and research in mainstream secondary schools and of developing and leading postgraduate development courses for teachers in the area of special and inclusive education. In this article, she argues that successive Governments in England, Wales and Northern Ireland have adopted policies in relation to special educational provision that are essentially technicist in character. These policies proceed from assumptions that are made about the clear and unproblematic nature of the issues and the responses that need to be made. In this model, difficulties in learning can be 'fixed' by selecting the most appropriate 'tool' in the most efficient and cost-effective way. The current focus on competency-based teacher education can be seen as a corollary of this approach.
Drawing upon a personal account of the experience of having difficulties in literacy acquisition, this article presents a contrary view. Janice Wearmouth argues that the area of special educational needs in schools, including literacy difficulties, is fraught with uncertainty and conflicting viewpoints. Given this complex situation, the technicist responses of recent Governments in the UK seem inappropriate and inadequate, Janice Wearmouth suggests. She proposes that practice in relation to special educational needs in general, and literacy difficulties in particular, can be most effectively understood from the perspective of a reflective practitioner. Her article closes with a call for practitioner professional development to be reconceptualised in these terms.


This paper addresses the apparent lack of systematic analysis classification of the components comprising the reconciliation process following intractable conflict and their mode of influence on the conflict parties. It offers a theoretical analysis and taxonomy of the types of activities carried out by collectives (e.g., states or ethnic groups) in the reconciliation process. Various components of such reconciliation processes and their activities are analyzed and illustrated, exploring the way each activity influences the parties and the processes, as well as their dialectical relations with other activities. The analysis proposed has practical implications for leaders and policy makers by assisting in determining the appropriate course of action in the reconciliation process; as well as to researchers, by providing them with additional tools to assess the implications of past reconciliation processes and to interpret empirical research. A full-text copy can be sent by request - email the author at: email@example.com


Conditional Density Estimation (CDE) models deal with estimating conditional distributions. The conditions imposed on the distribution are the inputs of the model. CDE is a challenging task as there is a fundamental trade-off between model complexity, representational capacity and overfitting. In this work, we propose to extend the model's input with latent variables and use Gaussian processes (GP) to map this augmented input onto samples from the conditional distribution. Our Bayesian approach allows for the modeling of small datasets, but we also provide the machinery for it to be applied to big data using stochastic variational inference. Our approach can be used to model densities even in sparse data regions, and allows for sharing learned structure between conditions. We illustrate the effectiveness and wide-reaching applicability of our model on a variety of real-world problems, such as spatio-temporal density estimation of taxi drop-offs, non-Gaussian noise modeling, and few-shot learning on omniglot images.


We introduce a new, coupled modeling approach for simulating ecosystem-wide patterns in larval fish foraging and growth. An application of the method reveals how interplay between temperature and plankton dynamics during 1970−2009 impacted a cold-water species (Atlantic cod Gadus morhua) and a warm-water species (European anchovy Engraulis encrasicolus) in the North Sea. Larval fish growth rates were estimated by coupling models depicting traitbased foraging and bioenergetics of individuals, spatiotemporal changes in their prey field, and the biogeochemistry and hydrodynamics of the region. The biomass composition of modeled prey fields varied from 89% nano-, 10% micro-, and 1% mesoplankton to 15% nano-, 20% micro-, and 65% mesoplankton. The mean slope of the normalized biomass size spectrum was near −1.2, consistent with theoretical and empirical estimates. Median larval fish growth rates peaked in June for cod (24% d−1) and in July for anchovy (17% d−1). Insufficient prey resources played a substantial role in limiting the growth rates of cod larvae. Anchovy were consistently limited by cold temperatures. Faster median larval growth during specific months was significantly (p < 0.05) positively associated with detrended (i.e. higher than expected) juvenile recruitment indices in cod (rank correlation Kendall's tau = 22%) and anchovy (tau = 42%). For cod, the most predictive month was February, which was also when food limitation was most prevalent. The continued development of modeling tools based on first principles can help further a mechanistic understanding of how changes in the environment affect the productivity of living marine resources.


On June 26, 2008, the United States Supreme Court handed down its 5-4 decision in District of Columbia v. Heller, striking a District of Columbia statute that prohibits the possession of useable handguns in the home on the ground that it violated the Second Amendment to the United States Constitution. Justice Scalia's majority opinion drew dissents from Justice Stevens and Justice Breyer. Collectively, the opinions in Heller represent the most important and extensive debate on the role of original meaning in constitutional interpretation among the members of the contemporary Supreme Court. This Article investigates the relationship between originalist constitutional theory and judicial practice in the context of the United States Supreme Court's decision in District of Columbia v. Heller. Part I introduces Heller and the role of originalism in the opinions of the Justices. Part II contextualizes Heller by tracing the evolution of contemporary originalist theory. Part III examines the reasoning of the Heller majority and identifies the unarticulated assumptions that would be required to square the result in Heller with a fully articulated originalist theory of constitutional interpretation. Part IV examines the role of intentionalist and teleological reasoning in Justice Steven's dissenting opinion. Part V considers the implications of Heller's originalist theory for the question whether the Second Amendment will be applied to the states via the Due Process Clause or the Privileges or Immunities Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Part VI considers the relationship of the Heller to the distinction between constitutional interpretation and constitutional construction that has emerged from contemporary originalist theory. Finally Part VII draws conclusions about the implications of Heller for the relationship between originalist theory and originalist practice. This version of "District of Columbia v. Heller and Originalism" was created on November 11, 2008, and it replaces all prior versions.


Handel's Operas 1726-1741. By Winton Dean. Rochester: Boydell Press, 2006. [xx, 565 p. ISBN-10 1843832682; ISBN-13 9781843832683. $85.] Illustrations, music examples, bibliographic references, indexes. This volume concludes a project begun collaboratively by Winton Dean and John Merrill Knapp (Handel's Operas 1704-1726 [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1987]). (Dean and Knapp had parted ways even before the publication of their work, and Knapp's attempt at a second volume was left incomplete at his death in 1993; his unfinished typescript, however, has been made available to selected research libraries by the American Handel Society.) With the publication of his own second volume, Dean has completed what must surely rank among the most ambitious undertakings in modern musicology: the systematic documentation and assessment of all of Handel's thirty-nine surviving operas. When the first volume appeared, the tradition of treating Handel's operas as flawed products of the "defective" opera seria tradition had only begun to be seriously challenged. Unsurprisingly, the authors' famous contention that Handel "ranks with Monteverdi, Mozart, Verdi, and Wagner among the supreme masters of opera" was received with skepticism in many quarters. But the situation has changed radically in the intervening twenty-one years. Handel's operas are now produced with great (and ever-increasing) frequency throughout the Western world at opera houses large and small, their productions in many cases rivaling in number the works of the traditional operatic canon. The Hallische Handel- Ausgabe's complete edition is well underway, having yielded sixteen critical editions of Handel's operas. New recordings of complete operas appear at an unprecedented rate, and with each new production or recording, a growing chorus of critics and scholars heap praise approaching reverence upon Handel's operatic prowess. The transformation that Dean seemed to foresee in his Ernest Bloch Lectures of 1965-6 from "total eclipse" (the complete absence of Handel's operas from the stage from the time of the composer's death until Oskar Hagen's German revivals of the 1920s) to the "blaze of noon" seems now to have run its course with remarkable speed (Winton Dean, Handel and the opera seria. Ernest Bloch lectures, no. 1 [Berkeley: University of California Press, 1969]). Notwithstanding this fundamental change in the fortunes of Handel's operas, Dean resumes exactly where he had left off, adhering faithfully to the methodology set forth in the first volume. Once again, he divides the span under consideration into four eras, beginning with the reign of "The Rival Queens" (competing prime donne Barbara Cuzzoni and Faustina Bordoni) of 1726-28, and ending with the last operas of 1738-41. The author devotes an introductory chapter to each of these eras, providing biographical, historical, and social information on Handel, his colleagues, and his audience. Here and throughout the book, Dean adds much color by including excerpts from the correspondence among contemporary operagoers, much of which was not yet available in published form when the first volume was written. (Especially fruitful are the Harris family papers, edited by Donald Burrows and Rose mary Dunhill in Music and Theatre in Handel's World: The Family Papers of James Harris 1732-1780 [Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002.]) The bulk of the book is devoted to Dean's thorough, methodical accounts of the operas themselves, each of which receives a full chapter. He begins with a summary of the opera's plot, in some cases preceded by the libretto's introductory argomento. The summaries are certainly not light reading-not even as skilled a writer as Dean can condense the often tortuous opera seria plots into easily understood narrative summaries. Still, the interpolation of stage directions from both the printed libretto and Handel's autograph manuscript, along with notes explaining any divergences between the two sources, is eminently useful. …


The region of Northwest Indiana is home to many thousands of Latinos, and this dynamic group has a long history in the area. As a group, issues relating to Latinos are well researched; however, primary investigations involving youth from the community are few. Influenced by the surrounding host and heritage cultures, young Latinos find themselves in a unique yet conflicting position as they navigate the parameters of both of these paradigms. This paper examines identity and language use amongst young Latinos in Northwest Indiana, and data are presented from a sociolinguistic intervention undertaken with 310 young Latinos from this region. Upon analysis of data collected from this field study, it was found that these youth possess multiple identities that cannot be deconstructed and reconfigured into a single set category. Moreover, linguistic shift toward English is occurring, with noteworthy gender distinctions on that topic and concerning how young Latinos identify themselves.


We study the design of computationally efficient algorithms with provable guarantees, that are robust to adversarial (test time) perturbations. While there has been an explosion of recent work on this topic due to its connections to test time robustness of deep networks, there is limited theoretical understanding of several basic questions like (i) when and how can one design provably robust learning algorithms? (ii) what is the price of achieving robustness to adversarial examples in a computationally efficient manner? The main contribution of this work is to exhibit a strong connection between achieving robustness to adversarial examples, and a rich class of polynomial optimization problems, thereby making progress on the above questions. In particular, we leverage this connection to (a) design computationally efficient robust algorithms with provable guarantees for a large class of hypothesis, namely linear classifiers and degree-2 polynomial threshold functions~(PTFs), (b) give a precise characterization of the price of achieving robustness in a computationally efficient manner for these classes, (c) design efficient algorithms to certify robustness and generate adversarial attacks in a principled manner for 2-layer neural networks. We empirically demonstrate the effectiveness of these attacks on real data.


Lightweight metal plate connected (MPC) wood trusses are commonly used in residential and commercial roof construction. These trusses also offer advantages for low-volume rural bridges such as ease of construction, high stiffness and wide availability. MPC trusses can be used in bridge applications provided that proper consideration for fatigue, corrosion protection, and detailing to prevent connector plate 'back-out' are incorporated into the MPC joint design. Using fatigue test results of 172 individual MPC joints and 34 full-scale trusses, recommendations for fatigue design are given. Two MPC truss bridges, 46 ft and 39 ft long (14 m and 11 m), built in Maine in 1993 and 1994 are described briefly.


This submission discusses implications for the quality and safety of financial markets of proposed rules implementing the market-making provisions of section 13 of the Bank Holding Company Act, commonly known as the "Volcker Rule." The proposed rules1 have been described by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, and the Securities and Exchange Commission. The Agencies' proposed implementation of the Volcker Rule would reduce the quality and capacity of market making services that banks provide to U.S. investors. Investors and issuers of securities would find it more costly to borrow, raise capital, invest, hedge risks, and obtain liquidity for their existing positions. Eventually, non-bank providers of market-making services would fill some or all of the lost market making capacity, but with an unpredictable and potentially adverse impact on the safety and soundness of the financial system. These near-term and longer-run impacts should be considered carefully in the Agencies' cost-benefit analysis of their final proposed rule. Regulatory capital and liquidity requirements for market making are a more cost effective method of treating the associated systemic risks.


This book is a guide for researchers who are involved in statistical, mathematical, information technology and decision science analyses. The purpose of the book is to allow readers to get research ideas on a wide range of topics, such as sampling plans, capital budgeting, completion time in production line, searching pattern for mobile cache replacement policy, home security system with biometric finger print and web service technology. The analyses in each chapter are explained in detail with samples of real applications in daily life to assist readers to appreciate theoretical, algorithm and mathematical formulations.
 Prior to reading this book, readers are advised to have some basic foundation in statistical sampling, tabu search approach, neural network, algorithms, and mathematical formulation. This book will be beneficial to students and researchers who are looking for research topic of the research and how problems can be solved using an applied method.


Autologous chondrocyte implantation is a surgical technique utilized for repair of articular cartilage defects. The originally described technique for autologous chondrocyte implantation involves applying a liquid suspension of the cultured chondrocytes to a cartilage defect and sealing the defect with a periosteum or collagen patch. Scaffolds for housing chondrocytes were introduced to allow for increased ease of delivery and application, to avoid leakage of chondrocytes out of the defect, and to allow for an implant that more closely mimics the non-uniform tissue architecture of healthy articular cartilage. In this chapter we describe the design, clinical outcomes, and commercial availability of various scaffolds reported in the clinical literature for autologous chondrocyte implantation.


IT solutions in manufacturing support the execution as well as the monitoring of production operations. Fast reaction to exceptions, detailed documentation of operations, and the detection of inefficiencies in the production are among the benefits of a tight IT integration of shop-floor processes. Several dedicated software solutions and standards exist for the manufacturing domain. However, each manufacturer must tailor the IT to the special requirements of its processes and infrastructure. We found that real-world installations show considerable variations. In this paper we present the results of seven case studies on IT infrastructures in manufacturing. For each case we portray the employed architecture and the main factor that influenced the design. From this analysis we derive reoccurring patterns on the structure of IT solutions in manufacturing and relate them to existing standards. Our results provide system architects with guidance for picking the right architectural choices in different manufacturing environments.


Entropically driven self-assembly of hard anisotropic particles, where particle shape gives rise to emergent valencies, provides a useful perspective for the design of nanoparticle and colloidal systems. Hard particles self-assemble into a rich variety of crystal structures, ranging in complexity from simple close-packed structures to structures with 432 particles in the unit cell. Entropic crystallization of open structures, however, is missing from this landscape. Here, we report the self-assembly of a two-dimensional binary mixture of hard particles into an open host-guest structure, where nonconvex, triangular host particles form a honeycomb lattice that encapsulates smaller guest particles. Notably, this open structure forms in the absence of enthalpic interactions by effectively splitting the structure into low- and high-entropy sublattices. This is the first such structure to be reported in a two-dimensional athermal system. We discuss the observed compartmentalization of entropy in this system, and show that the effect of the size of the guest particle on the stability of the structure gives rise to a reentrant phase behavior. This reentrance suggests the possibility for a reconfigurable colloidal material, and we provide a proof-of-concept by showing the assembly behavior while changing the size of the guest particles in situ. Our findings provide a strategy for designing open colloidal crystals, as well as binary systems that exhibit co-crystallization, which have been elusive thus far.


Abstract CASE HISTORY: In 2008, a 3-year-old female Labrador Retriever was presented for routine breeding soundness evaluation. CLINICAL FINDINGS: Vaginal endoscopy revealed an 8-cm long and 1-cm thick vaginal septum. Surgical resection of the septum was performed under general anaesthesia using a bipolar high-frequency resectoscope. Three months later the bitch was naturally mated and subsequently delivered five male and two female puppies without complications. Both female puppies were examined at the age of 12 and 15 months and showed a vaginal septum with a diameter of 0.3 and 0.5 cm, respectively. DIAGNOSIS: Vaginal septa in three related bitches. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: This is the first report describing the use of a bipolar high-frequency resectoscope for vaginal surgery in dogs. The septum could be resected quickly, with preservation of surrounding structures. Furthermore, it is the first report collecting information about familial presentation of vaginal septa in female dogs. Based on this case, we suggest that consideration should be given to the possible risk of inheritance of vaginal septa before considering surgical resection and breeding of female dogs.


This thesis examines the human issues underlying the design and usability of electronic
text systems. In so doing it develops a framework for the conceptualisation of these
issues that aims to guide designers of electronic texts in their attempts to produce usable
systems.
The thesis commences with a review of the traditional human factors literature on
electronic text according to three basic themes: its concern with perceptual,
manipulatory and structural issues. From this examination it is concluded that
shortcomings in translating this work into design result from the adoption of overly
narrow uni-disciplinary views of reading taken from cognitive psychology and
information science which are inappropriate to serve the needs of electronic text
designers.
In an attempt to provide a more relevant description of the reading process a series of
studies examining readers and their views as well as uses of texts is reported. In the
first, a repertory grid based investigation revealed that all texts can be described in
reader-relvant terms according to three criteria: why a text is read, what a text contains
and how it is read. These criteria then form the basis of two investigations of reader-text
interaction using academic journals and user manuals.
The results of these studies highlighted the need to consider readers' models of a
document's structure in discussing text usability. Subsequent experimental work on
readers' models of academic articles demonstrated not only that such models are
important aspects of reader-text interaction but that data of this form could usefully be
employed in the design of an electronic text system.
The proposed framework provides a broad, qualitative model of the important issues
for designers to consider when developing a product It consists of four interactive
elements that focus attention on aspects of reading that have been identified as central to
usability. Simple tests of the utility and validity of the framework are reported and it is
shown that the framework both supports reasoned analysis and subsequent prediction
of reader behaviour as well as providing a parsimonious account of their verbal
utterances while reading. The thesis concludes with an analysis of the likely uses of
such a framework and the potential for electronic text systems in an increasingly
information-hungry world.


This study aimed to shed insight on how store image influences customer perception. Everything customers see, hear and experience is linked together and forms their overall perception of a store. The first objective of the study was to analyze whether a relationship exists between the store choice and customers biographical details. The second objective is to identify components of store image that shoppers may consider important in store selection process; how the case company can use this knowledge and develop the business and customer service even further. Eight dimensions of shopping enjoyment are proposed and a 47-item measure was developed to measure 155 consumer perceptions from various malls in the geographical area of Cape Town. Findings indicate that there are no statistically significant relations between store image and consumers demographic factors such as age, gender, level of education, marital status, occupation and income. Furthermore, respondents rated physical characteristics of the store which included factors such as the neatness and cleanliness of the store, its decor, the wideness of the aisles, air-conditioning and lighting as the most important element when making a store choice. The implications of these results are discussed, together with practical and theoretical implications, study limitations, and future research directions.


Analysis of the current knowledge has revealed the lack of a method for increasing the cost-effectiveness of wastewater and septage treatment in plants overloaded by contamination. This was the premise for undertaking research on the process of septage pre-treatment in a subsurface vertical flow constructed wetland (SS-VF) prior to its input into the biological section of a municipal treatment plant. In previous research the authors have indicated that this allows for a significant reduction in the value of pollution indicators. The objective of this paper is to assess the cost-effectiveness of this process by means of an optimization model. The decision variable was the coefficient of septage stream distribution into the quantity directed to the SS-VF bed in relation to its total quantity. The optimization criterion was the minimization of the expected annual cost of wastewater and septage treatment. Verification of the model has shown that it is reasonable to subject all septage to the pre-treatment in a SS-VF bed for small wastewater treatment plant (WWTPs) located in rural areas. The bigger the septage pollution load is, the greater the reduction in the treatment costs. The proposed solution is less cost-effective in urban areas, where the construction of a SS-VF bed requires land purchase and additional costs of its adjustment. Optimization results largely depend on the cost function, so it is important to build it on reliable local data.


Two interrelated topics, the mechanisms which underlie the residential development process, and the impact of urban development upon agricultural land and practice, provide the substance of this thesis. The adopted behavioural approach leads to emphasis upon the themes of motivation, interaction, power relationships, and conflict between and within selected participant groups: property developers, planners, councillors, landowners, estate agents, financial intermediaries and farmers. A micro-scale analysis of groups operating within the City of Durham District is used, in part, as illustrative material in a wider consideration of major issues associated with housing, planning, government intervention in the land market, changing agricultural practice and conservation. However, focussing attention upon the mechanisms and effects of small town expansion does, itself, reflect increasing concern with observed national trends towards counter-urbanisation. Consideration is given to means of improving the performance of the residential development process, in the private and public sectors, and of minimizing its adverse impact upon agriculturalists. These are examined in the light of obstacles to progress associated with the various difficulties: defining and implementing multiple objectives; coping with fragmented decision-making structures at local and national levels; overcoming the powerful pressures exerted by political lobbies and self-interest; and challenging the inherent conservatism exhibited by many of the key decision-making groups. Attention is drawn to major issues within countryside planning, including agricultural land protection, multiple land resource use, and environmental responsibility, but these are discussed in the context of social, economic and housing issues which inevitably exert competing demands upon resources.Progress towards improved land use and user management within the study area is identified, and comment is made on the need for, and practicality of, proposed national comprehensive land use plans for the 'rural-urban fringe' and for the countryside in general.


Terrestrial laser scanning (TLS) has been applied to estimate forest wood volume based on detailed 3D tree reconstructions from point cloud data. However, sources of uncertainties in the point cloud data (alignment and scattering errors, occlusion, foliage...) and the reconstruction algorithm type and parameterisation are known to affect the reconstruction, especially around finer branches. To better understand the impacts of these uncertainties on the accuracy of TLS-derived woody volume, high-quality TLS scans were collected in leaf-off conditions prior to destructive harvesting of two forest-grown common ash trees ( L.; diameter at breast height ~28 cm, woody volume of 732 and 868 L). We manually measured branch diameters at 265 locations in these trees. Estimates of branch diameters and tree volume from Quantitative Structure Models (QSM) were compared with these manual measurements. The accuracy of QSM branch diameter estimates decreased with smaller branch diameters. Tree woody volume was overestimated (+336 L and +392 L) in both trees. Branches measuring < 5 cm in diameter accounted for 80% and 83% of this overestimation respectively. Filtering for scattering errors or improved coregistration approximately halved the overestimation. Range filtering and modified scanning layouts had mixed effects. The small branch overestimations originated primarily in limitations in scanner characteristics and coregistration errors rather than suboptimal QSM parameterisation. For TLS-derived estimates of tree volume, a higher quality point cloud allows smaller branches to be accurately reconstructed. Additional experiments need to elucidate if these results can be generalised beyond the setup of this study.Fraxinus excelsior


An analysis has been made of a considerable amount of data for turbulent boundary layers along wings and bodies of various shapes in order to determine the fundamental variables that control the development of turbulent boundary layers. It was found that the type of velocity distribution in the boundary layer could be expressed in terms of a single parameter. This parameter was chosen as the ratio of the displacement thickness to the momentum thickness of the boundary layer. The variables that control the development of the turbulent boundary layer apparently are: (1) the ratio of the nondimensional pressure gradient, expressed in terms of the local dynamic pressure outside the boundary layer and boundary-layer thickness, to the local skin-friction coefficient and (2) the shape of the boundary layer. An empirical equation has been developed in terms of these variables that, when used with the momentum equation and the skin-friction relation, makes it possible to trace the development of the turbulent boundary layer to the separation point.


Title: Food companies' work with CSR and its impact on consumer purchases of organic productsLevel: Final assignment for Bachelor Degree in Business AdministrationAuthor: Maria Nilsson and Mikaela JaredalSupervisor: Agneta SundstromDate: June 2015Aim: The study aims to understand and describe how food chains affect consumer choice to buy organic food and how it affects their buying behaviour.Method: Firstly a qualitative study was conducted. It consisted of six semi-structured interviews with store managers and employees on Willys and Coop in Sala and in Nykoping. Secondly a quantitative study was performed in the form of a questionnaire with 80 consumers in Willys and Coop stores located in Sala and Nykoping.Result & Conclusions: We have seen that price is important when consumers decide whether to buy organic food or not. This has been noticed by the food chains who work actively with being able to offer organic food at lower prices. Other factors that affect the consumers choice to buy organic products are offers, displaying and advertising. We have seen that consumers of the food chain that has worked a long time with sustainability are more willing to pay a higher price of organic food than consumers of the food chain with shorter tradition of working with these issues.Suggestions for future research: Future research could focus on the attitude towards and awareness of organic food of different age groups. It would also be interesting to continue our research but in a larger geographical area and/or include more food chains.Contribution of the thesis: The contribution of the study is that we show which CSR activities that actually influence consumers of buying organic products.


The aim of this thesis is to explore the ways in which class aspects of trade unions are formed in relation to their organisational properties. To achieve this aim, various assertions on the fundamental role of trade unions are first discussed, and criticised for treating trade unions as organisations that typically react to external stimuli and not as organisations that also generate goals and strategies on their own initiative. Then the focus moves to class consciousness as an effective measure of class capacity of both trade unions and their members, and in doing so, the concept of class consciousness is reformulated to embrace collective and action-oriented aspects of it. Having tested this reformulated concept initially by analysing the comparative characters and capacities of three national unions at different points in time in Korea, a class consciousness scale is developed to measure not only diverse aspects of class consciousness but also qualitatively different levels of it, and such research methods as text analysis and interviews are also employed for the main empirical survey of this thesis. The chief findings include the uneven development of class consciousness within as well as between the individuals, and the conspicuousness of the leadership effect/alliance factor, the less-then impressive effects of gender, size, union age, strike experience, and nationality of ownership on the overall level of class consciousness. Simultaneously, the potentially intriguing implications of the specific influences of those factors on certain aspects of class consciousness are discussed. The thesis is concluded with a recapitulation of the significance of the organisational factors investigated, suggestions on possible directions for further studies, and an urge to study trade unions as class organisations, with the emphasis on both words.


We present a new scheme for digital watermarking of point-sampled geometry based on spectral analysis. By extending existing algorithms designed for polygonal data to unstructured point clouds, our method is particularly suited for scanned models, where the watermark can be directly embedded in the raw data obtained from the 3D acquisition device. To handle large data sets efficiently, we apply a fast hierarchical clustering algorithm that partitions the model into a set of patches. Each patch is mapped into the space of eigenfunctions of an approximate Laplacian operator to obtain a decomposition of the patch surface into discrete frequency bands. The watermark is then embedded into the low frequency components to minimize visual artifacts in the model geometry. During extraction, the target model is resampled at optimal resolution using an MLS projection. After extracting a watermark from this model, the corresponding bit stream is analyzed using statistical methods based on correlation. We have applied our method to a number of point-sampled models of different geometric and topological complexity. These experiments show that our watermarking scheme is robust against numerous attacks, including low-pass filtering, resampling, affine transformations, cropping, additive random noise, and combinations of the above.


The chapter aims to approach food fortification naturally as a result of the need for nutritional improvement and therefore underlines sustainable activities that would facilitate effective fortification. The need to fortify food is due to the close link between human, health, and food. The WHO and FAO and other internation-ally recognized organizations have recognized that there are over 2 billion people worldwide suffering from a variety of micronutrient deficiencies. The interest in the fortification of foods is largely due to bioactive compounds, such as vitamins, minerals, sugars, organic acids, dietary fiber, phenolic compounds, essential amino acids, and antioxidants. The most effective and accessible way of securing the population with vitamins and micronutrients is to fortify additional food and consumer products daily. At the same time, the technology for the fortification of bakery products will also be presented.


Anthropogenic greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions have caused atmospheric concentrations with no precedents in the last half a million years, inducing serious uncertainties about future climates and their effects on human welfare. Recent climate science supports the view that the climate stabilization will require very low GHG emissions in the future. We ask: Is a path of low emissions compatible with sustainable levels of human welfare? With steady growth in human quality of life? Addressing these questions requires both defining welfare criteria and empirically estimating the possible paths of the economy. We specify and calibrate a dynamic model with four intertemporal links: education, physical capital, knowledge and the environment. In line with Nordhaus (2008a) and with the Stern Review (2007), we assume that GHG emissions allow increased production, while a higher stock of atmospheric carbon decreases production. Our index of human welfare, which we call quality of life (QuoL), emphasizes education, knowledge, and the environment, affected by greenhouse gas emissions, in addition to consumption and leisure. Thus, we avoid a Consumptionist Fallacy – that welfare depends only on commodity consumption and perhaps leisure. We reject discounted utilitarianism as a normative criterion, and consider two alternatives. The first is an intergenerational maximin criterion, which maximizes the quality of life of the first generation subject to maintaining at least that level for all successive generations. The second is human development optimization, that seeks the maximization of the QuoL of the first generation subject to achieving a given, constant rate of growth in all subsequent generations. Hence, our analysis focuses on a human notion of sustainability, as opposed to the conventional "green" sustainability, limited to keeping the quality of the environment constant. Because our dynamic optimization programs defy explicit analytical solutions, our approach has been computational. As a benchmark, we consider a simple model with physical and human capital, for which we prove a turnpike theorem. We then devise a computational algorithm inspired by the turnpike property to construct feasible, although not necessarily optimal, paths in the more complex and realistic model. Our analysis indicates that, with GHG emission paths entailing very low emissions in the future, positive rates of growth in QuoL are possible while the first generation experiences a QuoL higher than the historical reference level. We also observe a tradeoff between the quality of life of the first generation and the rate of growth in the quality of life. Yet Generation 1's sacrifice for the sake of a higher growth rate appears to be small. The paths that we compute involve investments in knowledge at noticeably higher levels than in the past.


The economic performance of a terminal crossbreeding system based on Brahman cows and a tropically adapted composite herd were compared to a straightbred Brahman herd. All systems were targeted to meet specifications of the grass-finished Japanese market. The production system modelled represented a typical individual central Queensland integrated breeding/finishing enterprise or a northern Australian vertically integrated enterprise with separate breeding and finishing properties. Due mainly to a reduced age of turnoff of Crossbred and Composite sale animals and an improved weaning rate in the Composite herd, Crossbred and Composite herds returned a gross margin of $7 and $24 per Adult Equivalent (AE) respectively above that of the Brahman herd. The benefits of changing 25% of the existing 85% of Brahmans in the northern Australian herd to either Crossbreds or Composites over a 10-year period were also examined. With no premium for carcass quality in Crossbred and Composite sale animals, annual benefits were $16 M and $61 M for Crossbreds and Composites in 2013. The cumulative Present Value (PV) of this shift over the 10-year period was $88 M and $342 M respectively, discounted at 7%. When a 5c per kg premium for carcass quality was included, differences in annual benefits rose to $30 M and $75 M and cumulative PVs to $168 M and $421 M for Crossbreds and Composites respectively.


Virtue has been rediscovered in the United States as a subject of public debate and of philosophical inquiry. Politicians from both parties, leading intellectuals, and concerned citizens from diverse backgrounds are addressing questions about the content of our character. William Bennett's moral guide for children, A Book of Virtues, was a national bestseller. Yet many continue to associate virtue with a prudish, Victorian morality or with crude attempts by government to legislate morals. Peter Berkowitz clarifies the fundamental issues, arguing that a certain ambivalence toward virtue reflects the liberal spirit at its best. Drawing on recent scholarship as well as classical political philosophy, he makes his case with penetrating analyses of four central figures in the making of modern liberalism: Hobbes, Locke, Kant, and Mill.These thinkers are usually understood to have neglected or disparaged virtue. Yet Berkowitz shows that they all believed that government resting on the fundamental premise of liberalism--the natural freedom and equality of all human beings--could not work unless citizens and officeholders possess particular qualities of mind and character. These virtues, which include reflective judgment, sympathetic imagination, self-restraint, the ability to cooperate, and toleration do not arise spontaneously but must be cultivated. Berkowitz explores the various strategies the thinkers employ as they seek to give virtue its due while respecting individual liberty. Liberals, he argues, must combine energy and forbearance, finding public and private ways to support such nongovernmental institutions as the family and voluntary associations. For these institutions, the liberal tradition powerfully suggests, play an indispensable role not only in forming the virtues on which liberal democracy depends but in overcoming the vices that it tends to engender.Clearly written and vigorously argued, this is a provocative work of political theory that speaks directly to complex issues at the heart of contemporary philosophy and public discussion.New Forum Books makes available to general readers outstanding, original, interdisciplinary scholarship with a special focus on the juncture of culture, law, and politics. New Forum Books is guided by the conviction that law and politics not only reflect culture, but help to shape it. Authors include leading political scientists, sociologists, legal scholars, philosophers, theologians, historians, and economists writing for nonspecialist readers and scholars across a range of fields. Looking at questions such as political equality, the concept of rights, the problem of virtue in liberal politics, crime and punishment, population, poverty, economic development, and the international legal and political order, New Forum Books seeks to explain--not explain away--the difficult issues we face today.


Though many are agreed that technoscience is a significant phenomenon, little systematic attention has yet been paid to the circumstances under which it has emerged. Technoscience is conceptualized here as the outcome of a process of convergence in which technological knowledge acquires many of the characteristics of scientific knowledge while the latter shifts in the opposite direction. The analytical problem is then a matter of understanding why such drift has occurred at particular times and places. The drift of higher technical education toward science has been observed in a variety of domains including engineering and medicine, but in this paper I identify such a trend in late nineteenth and early twentieth century agricultural education, with particular reference to Bavaria. The process is interpreted using a model of institutional dynamics loosely based upon Bourdieu's concept of the academic field.


The term 'interface' has at least two meanings. It refers to 'the place at which interdependent and often unrelated systems meet and act on or communicate with each other' and it also denotes the act of joining, as in 'to connect by means of an interface' (Merriam-Webster 2021). In both senses, the interface between policing and public health is steadily gaining attention as the subject of study, scrutiny, and innovation. A new collection of essays (Bartkowiak-Théron et al. in press) signals global interest in this topic, as have a series of articles designed to encourage shared thinking and practice in the many spaces where these systems meet (Burris and Koester 2013, Wood et al. 2015, Anderson and Burris 2017, Bartkowiak-Théron and Asquith 2017, Punch and James 2017, Van Dijk and Crofts 2017, van Dijk et al. 2019, Goulka et al. 2021). This special issue on the policing and public health interface is meant to propel our journey toward better inter-disciplinary understanding and deeper normative engagement, with an emphasis on views from around the world, complementary theoretical ideas, and shared points of action. Taken together, the papers in the collection provide insight into the nature of vulnerability and harm and the ways in which policing functions on landscapes of plural regulation.


Purpose: Effective healthcare team collaboration is imperative for quality client-centered care, job satisfaction, and overall morale. Rehabilitation team collaboration can be impacted by high productivity demands, differing backgrounds of individual team members, and the unpredictable healthcare environment. The Kawa (river) model, a culturally-neutral model of occupational therapy practice, has been shown to improve communication and collaboration with its use of metaphors, but its utility in various contexts to enhance collaborative practice is still being explored. The purpose of this study was to implement an evidence-based teambuilding intervention with use of the Kawa model to investigate the impact on acute care rehabilitation team collaboration. Method: A 5-week pretest-posttest study was completed with a group of eight rehabilitation team members, consisting of occupational therapists, physical therapists, and a speech language pathologist, in an acute care setting. Pre and post-surveys were utilized to gather quantitative and qualitative data on perceptions of team collaboration, knowledge of the Kawa model, and the model's utility for collaboration. Results: Outcomes showed overall mean improvements in agreement that the Kawa model provides a common method of communication, and 100% of the participants agreed or strongly agreed that use of the Kawa model can improve acute care rehabilitation team collaboration. Qualitative post-survey responses indicated an enhanced understanding of the components of effective team collaboration. Conclusions & Recommendations: Team collaboration was cultivated with use of the Kawa model. The model provided a successful method for the acute care team to openly discuss and collaboratively problem-solve how to maximize their team flow. Further study of the Kawa model's utility to improve collaboration in various contexts with broader participant groups is recommended, as well as study of longitudinal effects of a teambuilding intervention with use of the Kawa model.


The promise of Bayesian methods for big data sets has not fully been realized due to the lack of scalable computational algorithms. For massive data, it is necessary to store and process subsets on dierent machines in a distributed manner. We propose a simple, general, and highly ecient approach, which first runs a posterior sampling algorithm in parallel on dierent machines for subsets of a large data set. To combine these subset posteriors, we calculate the Wasserstein barycenter via a highly ecient linear program. The resulting estimate for the Wasserstein posterior (WASP) has an atomic form, facilitating straightforward estimation of posterior summaries of functionals of interest. The WASP approach allows posterior sampling algorithms for smaller data sets to be trivially scaled to huge data. We provide theoretical justification in terms of posterior consistency and algorithm eciency. Exam


Predicting future frames in videos has become a promising direction of research for both computer vision and robot learning communities. The core of this problem involves moving object capture and future motion prediction. While object capture specifies which objects are moving in videos, motion prediction describes their future dynamics. Motivated by this analysis, we propose a Cubic Long Short-Term Memory (CubicLSTM) unit for video prediction. CubicLSTM consists of three branches, i.e., a spatial branch for capturing moving objects, a temporal branch for processing motions, and an output branch for combining the first two branches to generate predicted frames. Stacking multiple CubicLSTM units along the spatial branch and output branch, and then evolving along the temporal branch can form a cubic recurrent neural network (CubicRNN). Experiment shows that CubicRNN produces more accurate video predictions than prior methods on both synthetic and real-world datasets.


Magnesium and magnesium alloys are used in a wide variety of structural applications including automotive, aerospace, hand tools and electronic industries thanks to their light weight, high specific strength, adequate corrosion resistance and good castability. Al and Zn are the primary alloying elements in commercial Mg alloys and commonly used in automotive industries. AZ91 is one of the most popular Mg alloys containing 9% Al and 1% Zn. Hence, lots of research have been done during last decades on AZ91D. However, the existing data concerning mechanical properties and microstructural features showed large scatter and is even contradictory. This work focused on the correlation between the microstructure and the mechanical properties of as-cast AZ91 alloy. An exhaustive characterization of the grain size, secondary dendrite arm spacing (SDAS) distribution, and fraction of Mg17Al12 using optical and electron backscattered diffraction (EBSD) was performed. These microstructural parameters were correlated to offset yield point (Rp0.2), fracture strength and elongation to fracture. It was understood that the intermetallic phase, Mg17Al12, plays an important role in determining the mechanical and physical properties of the alloy at temperature range from room temperature up to 190oC. It was realized that by increasing the Mg17Al12 content above 11% a network of intermetallic may form. During deformation this rigid network should break before any plastic deformation happen. Hence, increase in Mg17Al12 content resulted in an increase in offset yield point. The presence of this network was supported by study of thermal expansion behaviour of the alloy containing different amount of Mg17Al12. A physically-based model was adapted and validated in order to predict the flow stress behaviour of as-cast AZ91D at room temperature up to 190oC for various microstructures. The model was based on dislocation glide and climb in a single-phase (matrix) material containing reinforcing particles. The temperature dependant variables of the model were quite well correlated to the underlying physics of the material.


Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is a chronic, progressive disease with significant cardiovascular risk. Symptoms include pain in leg muscles on walking, relieved by rest (intermittent claudication). Treatment aims to maintain or improve quality of life (QoL) by minimising ischaemic symptoms and preventing progression to vascular occlusion. Management strategies include exercise-based interventions. Research from 1989 to 2008 was systematically reviewed to identify the QoL impact of exercise-based interventions in patients with intermittent claudication. Twenty-three studies were identified. Five were randomized controlled trials. Studies were summarized in terms of exercise interventions, QoL measures used and QoL findings. The majority used a generic QoL instrument; most commonly the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). Eleven studies reported beneficial effects on the SF-36 Physical Functioning scale. Some also reported positive effects on the scales of Bodily Pain, Role-Physical, Vitality, General Health and the Physical Component Score. In seven studies, a disease-specific measure was used. In six of these, both generic and disease-specific questionnaires were used. Disease-specific measures demonstrated greater improvements across a range of QoL domains. Greater use of disease-specific measures and an extended follow-up period may enable a more definitive picture to emerge regarding effects of exercise on QoL in intermittent claudication.


OBJECTIVE
The authors examined the comparative risks of switches in mood polarity into hypomania or mania during acute and continuation trials of adjunctive antidepressant treatment of bipolar depression.

METHOD
One hundred fifty-nine patients with bipolar I disorder or bipolar II disorder participated in a total of 228 acute (10-week) randomized trials of bupropion, sertraline, or venlafaxine as an adjunct to a mood stabilizer. Patients in 87 of these trials entered continuation treatment for up to 1 year. Antidepressant response and the occurrence of subthreshold brief hypomania (emergence of brief hypomania [at least 1 but <7 days] or recurrent brief hypomania) and threshold switches (emergence of full-duration hypomania [> or =7 days] or mania) were blindly assessed by using clinician-rated daily reports of mood-associated dysfunction on the National Institute of Mental Health Life Chart Method.

RESULTS
Threshold switches into full-duration hypomania and mania occurred in 11.4% and 7.9%, respectively, of the acute treatment trials and in 21.8% and 14.9%, respectively, of the continuation trials. The rate of threshold switches was higher in the 169 trials in patients with bipolar I disorder (30.8%) than the 59 trials in patients with bipolar II disorder (18.6%). The ratio of threshold switches to subthreshold brief hypomanias was higher in both the acute (ratio=3.60) and continuation trials (ratio=3.75) of venlafaxine than in the acute and continuation trials of bupropion (ratios=0.85 and 1.17, respectively) and sertraline (ratios=1.67 and 1.66, respectively). In only 37 (16.2%) of the original 228 acute antidepressant trials, or in only 23.3% of the patients, was there a sustained antidepressant response in the continuation phase in the absence of a threshold switch.

CONCLUSIONS
Adjunctive treatment with antidepressants in bipolar depression was associated with substantial risks of threshold switches to full-duration hypomania or mania in both acute and long-term continuation treatment. Of the three antidepressants included in the study, venlafaxine was associated with the highest relative risk of such switching and bupropion with the lowest risk.


We present pretend synchrony, a new approach to verifying distributed systems, based on the observation that while distributed programs must execute asynchronously, we can often soundly treat them as if they were synchronous when verifying their correctness. To do so, we compute a synchronization, a semantically equivalent program where all sends, receives, and message buffers, have been replaced by simple assignments, yielding a program that can be verified using Floyd-Hoare style Verification Conditions and SMT.We implement our approach as a framework for writing verified distributed programs in Go and evaluate it with four challenging case studies— the classic two-phase commit protocol, the Raft leader election protocol, singledecree Paxos protocol, and a Multi-Paxos based distributed key-value store. We find that pretend synchrony allows us to develop performant systems while making verification of functional correctness simpler by reducing manually specified invariants by a factor of 6, and faster, by reducing checking time by three orders of magnitude.