The following thesis provides an extensive study into the fabrication of polymer monolithic columns in capillary housing, their modification and subsequent characterisation. The fabricated columns, in all instances, were profiles using scanning capacitively coupled contactless conductivity detection (sC4D), a noninvasive method of characterisation, which can provide information on the density of the monolithic column, and the distribution of charged functional groups within the column.

Using thermally initiated co-monomer polymerisation, monolithic columns were fabricated within fused silica capillaries. The resulting distribution of charged functional groups was monitored using sC4D. Thermally initiated gradient monolithic columns produced linear gradients, however, the capacity produced was sufficiently low, as determined by the retention factor, k ( k < 1). Alternatively photo-initiated modification of polymer monoliths was investigated using commercially available optical filters, with a gradient of optical density. However, due to the optical density of the filter, the gradient did not span the desired length of the column.

In the place of a linear gradient, a photo-grafted stepped gradient was produced and characterised using sC4D. The column was successfully applied to the separation of two metal cations. However, the resulting stepped gradient was not ideal for separations. To resolve this problem, an optical filter was developed (in-house). The filter was comprised of commercially available COC films which demonstrated attenuation of UV energy with increasing thickness, resulting in a linear photo-grafted gradient. The column was profiled using sC4D, thus providing a novel, indirect characterisation of the optical filter (complementary to UV/VIS analysis).

Using photo-grafting techniques, a gold nano-particle agglomerated segment of a monolithic column was created. This provided a stationary phase with dualfunctionality, which was applied to the on-line extraction of proteins, followed by reversed-phase chromatography. The columns were characterised using techniques such as field emission SEM and sC4D. This provided a novel application of sC4D.


The year 2020 has forced us, as a nation, to recognize painful realities about systemic racism in our country and our legal system. The fallacies in our founding documents and the vestiges of our slave past are so woven into our national culture that they became hard to see except for those who suffered their daily indignities, hardships, and fears. As legal educators, we must face the role we have played in helping build the machinery of structural racism by supplying generation after generation of those who maintain that machinery and prosper within it. In this critical moment of our country's history, we, as legal educators, must train and prepare a generation of lawyers to once and for all complete the work of the Civil Rights Movement and purge what remains of racism from our legal system – to build better safeguards to ensure that all of us, everyone, has the equal protection of the laws promised by the 14th Amendment of our Constitution.

This article is one of three interdependent articles authored by Penn State Dickinson Law faculty and staff. These articles are meant to be read together to chart the vision and implementation for building an Antiracist law school and providing a template for an Antiracist legal academy and legal profession. This first article, Danielle Conway, Bekah Saidman-Krauss, and Rebecca Schreiber, "Building an Antiracist Law School: Inclusivity in Admissions and Retention of Diverse Students—Leadership Determines DEI Success" can be downloaded on from SSRN. The third in this series is Amy Gaudion, "Exploring Race and Racism in the Law School Curriculum: an Administrator's View on Adopting an Anti-Racist Curriculum."

As educators, we must recognize our unique opportunity and important responsibility to combat racism in our educational mission. We must do more than transfer legal knowledge and skills to our students. We must cultivate within them, a principled, enduring commitment to work for true equality over the course of their careers and practice law in a way that promotes equal treatment of all. To do this we must reconsider not only what we teach, but how we teach it.

This essay sets out one possibility. It describes the Race and Equal Protection of the Laws program at Penn State Dickinson Law. This innovative program draws from Critical Theory and Critical Pedagogy to develop an educational approach with the objective of transforming how our students see their place and role in our evolving, flawed democracy. It incorporates the work of Critical Race Theory to help students understand the root causes of systemic racism and why the landmark decisions of the Civil Rights Movement have not realized their potential to change the lived experience of Blacks and people of Color. It adapts principles of Shared Praxis, an approach to teaching grounded in Critical Pedagogy that guides students to a deepening consciousness of the problem, explores with them sources of law and justice that can be brought to bear, and invites them to develop their own carefully considered response as law students and as lawyers.
During this yearlong course, students will learn and work as co-investigators with faculty members and other students to better understand the relationship between race and different areas of the law including housing, health care, criminal justice, democracy, capitalism and education.


Agricultural large-scale land acquisitions have been linked with enhanced deforestation and land use change. Yet the extent to which transnational agricultural large-scale land acquisitions (TALSLAs) contribute to—or merely correlate with—deforestation, and the expected biodiversity impacts of the intended land use changes across ecosystems, remains unclear. We examine 178 georeferenced TALSLA locations in 40 countries to address this gap. While forest cover within TALSLAs decreased by 17% between 2000 and 2018 and became more fragmented, the spatio-temporal patterns of deforestation varied substantially across regions. While deforestation rates within initially forested TALSLAs were 1.5 (Asia) to 2 times (Africa) higher than immediately surrounding areas, we detected no such difference in Europe and Latin America. Our findings suggest that, whereas TALSLAs may have accelerated forest loss in Asia, a different mechanism might emerge in Africa where TALSLAs target areas already experiencing elevated deforestation. Regarding biodiversity (here focused on vertebrate species), we find that nearly all (91%) studied deals will likely experience substantial losses in relative species richness (−14.1% on average within each deal)—with mixed outcomes for relative abundance—due to the intended land use transitions. We also find that 39% of TALSLAs fall at least partially within biodiversity hotspots, placing these areas at heightened risk of biodiversity loss. Taken together, these findings suggest distinct regional differences in the nature of the association between TALSLAs and forest loss and provide new evidence of TALSLAs as an emerging threat to biodiversity in the Global South.


The South Turgay Basin is a Mesozoic intracontinental rift with a Lower Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous fill. It is underlain by a basement complex comprising Precambrian metamorphics and Palaeozoic carbonates and clastics, and was formed as a result of right lateral movement on the Karatau–Talasso–Fergana Fault. Four principal graben systems are found in the basin. These are the Ariskum, Akshabulak, Sarylan and Bozingen grabens. The graben fill is represented by up to 5 km of dominantly continental sediments, with lacustrine, alluvial and fluvial units, with a series of gross fining-upwards sequences in the Lower to Middle Jurassic (syn-rift) and Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous (post-rift). Marginal marine conditions began to become established during the Apto-Albian with a marine transgression from the west. Tertiary regional uplift resulting from the India–Eurasia collision stripped off later deposits. Recoverable hydrocarbons in the order of 1 billion barrels of oil equivalent have been proven to date in the large Kumkol Field and a number of smaller pools.


Hugo Münsterberg is widely regarded as the founder of the discipline of psychology and law, and the publication of his book On the Witness Stand (1908) is considered the signal event in its founding. However, numerous other researchers were conducting and publishing research on psycholegal topics in the late 1800s and early 1900s, and at least one other book on psychology and law— G. F. Arnold's Psychology Applied to Legal Evidence and Other Constructions of Law (1906)—appeared prior to the publication of Münsterberg's work. The present paper contrasts these two seminal publications, focusing on their relevance to the "basic- versus -applied" debate in contemporary eyewitness memory research and exploring reasons why Münsterberg has been so influential while Arnold has been largely ignored.


This study presents a long-term examination of the effects of two types of perceptual-cognitive brain training programs on senior driver behavior and on-road driving performance. Seniors over the age of 69 engaged in either a Toyota-designed in-vehicle training program based on implicit learning principles or a commercially available computer-based training program developed by Posit Science®. Another group served as a control group and received no training; total enrollment was 55 participants. Participants completed a series of four experimental sessions: (1) baseline pre-training, (2) immediate post-training, (3) 6–9 months post-training, and (4) 12–16 months post-training. Experimental metrics taken at each session included a laboratory metrics portion, a target-detection performance on a closed-road course, and a public-road portion examining vehicle control and glance behavior. These sessions were designed to examine not only whether training provided immediate benefit to senior drivers, but also whether any improvements persisted after training or precluded decrements in performance found in untrained individuals. The results found few statistically significant improvements in performance with either type of training. However, there were non-significant trends toward improved glance behavior at risky intersections for participants in the Car Training group, suggesting that this might be a valuable target of future research using experimental designs with increased statistical power. In addition, several tests of training improvements examined by individual differences suggested that drivers with particular deficits on physical and cognitive metrics could benefit differentially from this type of training, leading to future research questions on appropriate targeting and the potential benefits of refresher training.


Four of the five somatostatin receptor (SSTR) subtypes bind the two native forms of somatostatin, i.e., somatostatin-14 (S-14) and amino-terminally extended somatostatin-28 (S-28), with comparable affinities (approximately 0.2 nM). The SSTR5 subtype exhibits 10-50-fold higher affinity for S-28 than for S-14 (0.2 and 5 nM, respectively). To determine which domains in SSTR5 are responsible for the observed pharmacological selectivity, a series of SSTR2/SSTR5 chimeras were constructed and expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Saturation and competition radioligand binding studies demonstrated that the region encompassing transmembrane domain 6 (TM6) through the carboxyl terminus plays a critical role in the lower binding affinity of S-14 for SSTR5. Substitution of this region with the corresponding region of SSTR2 produced chimeric receptors with high affinity for both S-28 and S-14. Examination of amino acid sequences revealed both a specific conserved hydrophobic residue and a conserved tyrosine in TM6 of SSTR1-4. At comparable positions in SSTR5, these residues are glycine (G258) and phenylalanine (F265), respectively. Substitution of G258 with phenylalanine did not alter the preference of SSTR5 for S-28 over S-14. However, substitution of F265 with tyrosine increased the binding affinity of S-14 by 20-fold, to an affinity comparable to that observed for the SSTR2 subtype. These data indicate that replacement of phenylalanine with tyrosine at position 265 in SSTR5 can modify ligand binding selectivity and abolish the preference for S-28 over S-14. This finding suggests that the tyrosine in the predicted TM6 may be an important contact point between somatostatin and SSTR.


Depression is a significant problem for the managed care system. Antidepressant medication helps ameliorate the symptoms of depression yet adherence to medication is known to be poor. The current approach to adherence measurement (i.e HEDIS) is limited or lacking. Other methods are used (e.g Proportion of Days Covered –PDC) in other chronic diseases to measure adherence. Medication adherence is a growing concern for clinicians and other health care stakeholders (e.g. payer) because of the increasing evidence that non-adherence is prevalent and places patients at an increased risk for adverse health outcomes and higher cost of care. We conducted a retrospective cohort study of patients enrolled in a Medicaid plan. For inclusion in the study population patients had to meet HEDIS inclusion criteria and PDC criteria respectively. Patients included in the HEDIS study's cohort were adults at least 18 years of age with a new diagnosis of depression confirmed by outpatient medication use and an ICD-9 diagnostic code. The upper limit age was set at 75 years old in order to maintain the confidential information about the patients. Patients had to meet certain enrollment eligibility criteria as well. For the PDC study population patients met the same age requirement as for the HEDIS measurement inclusion criteria. Patients included in the study for the PDC cohort were not required to have a new diagnosis of depression certified by a diagnostic code; they only had to be antidepressant medication users during the study period. We evaluated antidepressant medication adherence by applying the HEDIS measures and PDC measures. The measure of effect was the odds ratio in separate models. We also applied HEDIS criteria to the PDS cohort to provide a head-to-head comparison of the rates of adherence. Adherence was assessed with seven medication classes as recommended by HEDIS: Miscellaneous Antidepressants. Monoamine Oxidase Inhibitors (MAOIs). Phenylpiperazine Antidepressants. Selective Serotonin-Norepinephrine Reuptake Inhibitors Antidepressants (SSNRIs). Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors Antidepressants (SSRIs). Tetracyclic Antidepressants (TeCAs). and Tricyclic Antidepressants (TCAs). Differences in baseline characteristics and the odds of adherence were assessed between the groups for each methodology separately as well as patient demographic and health related variables. We constructed multivariate logistic regression models to measure the odds of adherence with antidepressant medication for each methodology while controlling for potential confounders and assessing for interaction terms. The level of significance and the corresponding 95% confidence intervals of the odds ratios were presented as well. A total of 626 eligible antidepressant users were identified according to the HEDIS criteria, and 22,351 eligible antidepressant users were identified according to PDC criteria and were evaluated for adherence with antidepressant medication. In both study samples patients 50 years and older were significantly more likely to be adherent with antidepressant medication than the younger group (<35 years ) patients. In both groups patients that had respiratory disease had an increased odds of adherence with antidepressant medication relative to patients that were not classified having a respiratory disease. Patients that had other mental health diagnoses in addition to depression had a statistically significant increased odds of adherence with antidepressant medication relative to patients that did not have such diagnoses. The beta coefficient representing the relationship between the antidepressant medication adherence and the therapy regimen was positive and statistically significant for both samples. Patients that were using more than one drug were significantly more likely to be adherent to antidepressant medication regimen than patients that were using only one type of antidepressant drugs. Our results implicate older age and comorbid diseases such as respiratory and other mental health diseases and polymedication as risk factors associated with better adherence with antidepressant medication therapy among Medicaid insured patients. Interventions that strive to improve adherence with antidepressant medication therapy should continue to be implemented and evaluated.


The Public Interest Disclosure Act 1998 provides protection for whistleblowers; it does not place statutory obligations on regulators to act in response to whistleblowing concerns. Using Freedom of Information requests as a research methodology, this paper seeks to examine how whistleblowing is approached by regulators and what happens when a whistleblowing disclosure is made. Forty-eight national regulators in a variety of fields and 408 county, district and unitary local authorities with responsibility for the regulation of food were contacted. The paper begins by considering the importance of whistleblowing disclosures and how they are protected in PIDA. The examination of the law reveals that several organisations with important regulatory functions are not prescribed, and this has the potential to create inconsistencies in the protection of whistleblowers. The bulk of the paper examines the results of the Freedom of Information requests. By examining the results of these requests, it was possible to show that there are a number of inconsistencies in the way in which regulatory agencies handle concerns. Several changes to practice are suggested in order to ensure that the whistleblowers receive appropriate treatment and that the concerns that they express can be properly addressed.


Even before the Internet, numerous studies of perceived risk and risk relievers in purchasing decisions populated the literature. Since the dot-com bust, studies in this area have declined, yet online shopping continues to increase. This study provides a much needed update on this literature by investigating the different perceived risks associated with online shopping across six product types as well as exploring the usefulness of risk relievers to overcome barriers to online purchasing. The study gives some longitudinal perspective to how these variables are changing over time. In this study, the three main sources of perceived risk are psychological risk, time risk and product performance risk. The key risk relievers are payment security, information about product specification and price. While much as remained the same in the past decade, changes in the way shoppers use the Internet in 2010 provide a sharp contrast to earlier studies.


Online crowd-funding is getting increasingly important to kick-start businesses and incubate innovations. While there are ample successful examples of crowd-funded campaigns, numerous fund-raising initiatives have failed. Evidence suggests that potential backers are typically deterred by information asymmetry, which naturally limits backers developing reliable understanding on crowd-funding campaigns. As a result, due to the highlighted uncertainty, backers are often dissuaded to commit support to projects. Drawing on the elaboration likelihood model (ELM) and the justice framework, this study identifies four information cues that impact on the formulation of risk perceptions, namely return tangibility, ease of identifiability, information relevance, and pitch transparency. Additionally, following ELM, this study proposes that the effect of informational cues on risk perception is moderated by risk propensity. This study proposes to conduct a scenario-based experiment to investigate the impact of various informational cues on risk perception formulation, which in turn influence likelihood to invest. Expected contributions are discussed.


As a further step towards maturity, the field of learning analytics (LA) is working on the definition of frameworks that structure the legal and ethical issues that scholars and practitioners must take into account when planning and applying LA solutions to their learning contexts. However, current efforts in this direction tend to be focused on institutional higher education approaches. This paper reflects on the need to extend these ethical frameworks to cover other approaches to LA; more concretely, small-scale classroom-oriented approaches that aim to support teachers in their practice. This reflection is based on three studies where we applied our teacher-led learning analytics approach in higher education and primary school contexts. We describe the ethical issues that emerged in these learning scenarios, and discuss them according to three dimensions: the overall learning analytics approach, the particular solution to learning analytics adopted, and the educational contexts where the analytics are applied. We see this effort as a first step towards the wider objective of providing a more comprehensive and adapted ethical framework to learning analytics that is able to address the needs of different learning analytics approaches and educational contexts.


As with any journey, you have to make the right connections if you want to reach your desired destination. The goal in the LIMBER project is to facilitate cross-European data analysis independent of domain, resource, language and vocabulary. The paper describes the expertise, associations, standards and architecture underlying the project deliverables designed to achieve the project's ambitious aims.


Endothelial nitric-oxide synthase (eNOS) is comprised of two identical subunits. Each subunit has a bidomain structure consisting of an N-terminal oxygenase domain containing heme and tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) and a C-terminal reductase domain containing binding sites for FAD, FMN, and NADPH. Each subunit is also myristoylated and contains a calmodulin (CaM)-binding site located between the oxygenase and reductase domains. In this study, wild-type and mutant forms of eNOS have been expressed in a baculovirus system, and the quaternary structure of the purified enzymes has been analyzed by low temperature SDS-PAGE. eNOS dimer formation requires incorporation of the heme prosthetic group but does not require myristoylation or CaM or BH4 binding. In order to identify domains of eNOS involved in subunit interactions, we have also expressed eNOS oxygenase and reductase domain fusion proteins in a yeast two-hybrid system. Corresponding human neuronal NOS (nNOS) and murine inducible NOS (iNOS) fusion proteins have also been expressed. Comparative analysis of NOS domain interactions shows that subunit association of eNOS and nNOS involves not only head to head interactions of oxygenase domains but also tail to tail interactions of reductase domains and head to tail interactions between oxygenase and reductase domains. In contrast, iNOS subunit association involves only oxygenase domain interactions.


Two optical beams, copropagating in a Kerr medium, interact with each other through cross-phase modulation. Such nonlinear beam coupling leads to a transverse modulation instability that is evident as spatial modulation of the beam profiles. A linear-stability analysis in the plane-wave approximation predicts the range of spatial frequencies over which modulation can occur. The case of self-defocusing media is particularly interesting, since modulation instability occurs only when both beams are present simultaneously. Numerical simulations are used to study how modulation instability can occur for finite-size beams. In particular, the mutual coupling of two copropagating Gaussian beams is studied in detail.


ABSTRACT Using a Pathways approach, controversies over environmental and natural resource management are viewed as expressions of alternative, or competing, pathways to sustainability. This supports deeper understanding of the underlying causes of natural resource management controversies. The framework is composed of two elements: the STEPS (Social, Technological, and Environmental Pathways to Sustainability) Pathways approach and frame analysis. Many sustainable development dilemmas are played out in specific places and consequently, the Pathways approach is integrated with a place-based frame analysis. The resulting framework guides empirical investigation in place-based contexts. This theorising about sustainability science can be used to cast light on contested natural resource management issues, in this case mining in northern Sweden. By exposing the range of alternative Pathways to critical norms of sustainable development, we ascertain whether action alternatives are compatible with sustainable futures. The framework provides a way in which sustainability science can better understand the origins of natural resource management conflicts, characterise the positions of the actors involved, identify the potential for cooperation between stakeholders leading to policy resolution and judge what Pathways help or hinder the pursuit of sustainable development. In addition, it can enhance sustainability science by guiding integrative sustainability research at the project scale.


To increase the quality and decrease costs of medical care provision, hospitals apply clinical pathways (CPs) to 'model' and manage their processes. Conceptual models of CPs should foster communication between hospital stakeholders, serve as an instrument for quality assurance and optimisation of resource usage, and a foundation for the (re-)design of hospitals' action and information system (IS). However, existing approaches to CPs' modelling suffer from simplifications and a low level of domain-specific semantics. In addition, they focus mainly on processes and neglect other aspects relevant to a comprehensive management of hospitals. We argue that to realise the potential benefits of CPs, a comprehensive modelling method accounting for peculiarities of hospitals' action system and IS is required. The core of such a method should be a Domain-Specific Modelling Language for CPs presented in this paper.


Faith in the resilience of the US Constitution prompts many observers to discount evidence of a deepening crisis of governance in our day. A long history of success in navigating tough times and adapting to new circumstances instills confidence that the fundamentals of the system are sound and the institutions self-correcting. The aim of this article is to push assessments of this sort beyond the usual nod to great crises surmounted in the past and to identify institutional adaptation as a developmental problem worthy of study in its own right. To that end, we call attention to dynamics of adjustment that have played out over the long haul. Our historical-structural approach points to the "bounded resilience" of previous adaptations and to dynamics of reordering conditioned on the operation of other governance outside the Constitution's formal written arrangements. We look to the successive overthrow of these other incongruous elements and to the serial incorporation of previously excluded groups to posit increasing stress on constitutional forms and greater reliance on principles for support of new institutional arrangements. Following these developments into the present, we find principles losing traction, now seemingly unable to foster new rules in support of agreeable governing arrangements. Our analysis generates a set of propositions about why the difficulties of our day might be different from those of the past in ways that bear directly on resilience and adaptability going forward.


This article introduces Peripleo, a prototype spatiotemporal search and visualization tool. Peripleo enables users to explore the geographic, temporal and thematic composition of distributed digital collections in their entirety, and then to progressively filter and drill down to explore individual records. We provide an overview of Peripleo's features, and present the underlying technical architecture. Furthermore, we discuss how datasets that differ vastly in terms of size, content type and theme can be made uniformly accessible through a set of lightweight metadata conventions we term "connectivity through common references". Our current demo installation links approximately half a million records from 25 datasets. These datasets originate from a spectrum of sources, ranging from the small personal photo collection with 35 records, to the large institutional database with 134.000 objects. The product of research in the Andrew W. Mellon-funded Pelagios 3 project, Peripleo is Open Source software.


This Article sheds new light on the controversial doctrine of corporate criminal liability and other forms of collective sanctions. Critics contend that the use of criminal law to target business entities is undesirable given the disastrous consequences for firms convicted of misconduct, as graphically illustrated by the unraveling of the accounting firm Arthur Andersen. At the same time, the threat of going out of business is commonly perceived as providing firms with powerful incentives to contain misconduct. In this Article, we challenge the conventional view concerning the deterrence value of corporate criminal liability. Specifically, we show that harsh entity-level penalties might discourage monitoring for misconduct and undermine compliance incentives within professional firms. We also identify the conditions under which civil fines might enhance deterrence. Our analysis has implications for entity criminal liability and collective sanctions more generally. We call for greater reliance on purely financial corporate penalties and provide a deterrence-based justification for modifying the existing doctrine for holding firms criminally liable. We also explain why prohibiting law and accounting firms from organizing as limited-liability entities might be unwise.


Nigeria liberalized input distribution and established the Growth Enhancement Support Scheme (GESS) in 2011 to deliver subsidized inputs to farmers as part of its Agricultural Transformation Agenda (ATA). Despite the relevance of the GESS as a subsidy delivery mechanism, its achievements during the first year of implementation (2012) were below expectations. In 2015, as the first phase of the GESS is ending, has there been any significant improvement in its implementation? What improvements have occurred in redemption and participation rates? Even though the GESS is known to be making contributions in terms of ensuring direct access by farmers to subsidized inputs, the main determinants of farmers' participation remain unknown. This study seeks to (i) examine the application of ICT innovations in the implementation of the GESS; (ii) assess its implementation performance from inception to date; and (iii) determine the factors influencing farmers' participation in the scheme. The study is timely and has significant policy relevance judging by the desire of the government of Nigeria to understand the performance of the GESS in view of the enormous financial and material resources that have been committed to the scheme since its inception in 2012. An evaluation of the performance of the GESS will provide the government with feedback required for making adjustments in input subsidy spending, especially in the face of the recently declining oil revenues. It becomes imperative to have evidence to inform policy decisions regarding possible adjustments as the scheme passes over the first phase.The process of targeting farmers to benefit from the input subsidy program under the GESS started with the registration of 3.9 million farmers in 2012. The number increased to 9.5 million in 2013 and 10.5 mil-lion in 2014. The number of farmers targeted for the subsidy benefit also continued to increase from 1.1 mil-lion in 2012 to 7.2 million in 2013 to 8.3 million in 2014. Under the scheme, the quantity of fertilizer distributed to farmers increased from 120,900 metric tonnes in 2012 to 466,600 metric tonnes in 2013, rising phenomenally to 748,800 metric tonnes in 2014. On fertilizer subsidy alone, the amount spent by the federal government rose from 6.65 billion naira in 2012 to 22.92 billion naira in 2013 to 41.19 billion naira in 2014. This implies that the total public spending on fertilizer subsidy (by federal and state governments) over the period in-creased from 13.30 billion naira in 2012 to 45.84 billion naira in 2013 to 82.38 billion naira in 2014. The number of farmers that benefited from the subsidy increased from 729,000 in 2012 to 4.12 million in 2013 and 7.22 million in 2014. The study concludes that the implementation of the GESS is on a path of continuous improvement; and that the policy and strategic reforms in input subsidy delivery have yielded many of the desired results.


Now in its third edition, this classic guide is expanded and updated to feature new material on dealing with trauma and devastation, addressing violence in schools, helping grandparents cope as caregivers, and an enlarged quick-reference "Crisis Section" with scripts, answers, and messages for young ones.


This paper considers dialogue as the central motif of coaching. Taking a social constructionist perspective it proposes that dialogue is the flow of meaning between human beings as they interact. Dialogue is explored from the stance of different forms of conversational practice. It is contrasted with the practice of monologue which is "talking at" or "talking about" rather than "talking with". This paper compares the practices of a coach-expert who specialises in "aboutness" talk with a coach-custodian who specialises in "within-ness" talk. The essential difference is that the coach-expert role focuses on the situation/world and a coach-custodian role focuses on coachees (as meaning-makers of their own situation/experience). By employing within-ness talk, a coach maintains the focus on the coachee and his/her situation as well as demonstrating a strength-based philosophy, that is, the philosophy that a coachee has the capacity to find their own solutions.


FranA§ois Bourguignon was Chief Economist and Senior Vice President, Development Economics, at the World Bank before taking up his current position as Director of the Paris School of Economics. He is one of the world's leading economists in the field of economic growth and development, in particular the relationship between growth, poverty and income distribution. To set the interview in context, Brian Snowdon first provides a brief discussion of several contemporary issues in economic development, including the recently published Commission on Growth and Development Report. In the interview that follows, discussion ranges over several subjects and key issues including Latin America; the fall and rise of development economics; changing conventional wisdom on the role of government; World Bank development research; measuring development; poverty, inequality and development; the Millennium Development Goals; convergence and divergence clubs; growth and inequality; democracy and development; geography v. institutions; globalisation; migration and development; foreign aid and development; improving the business and investment climate; the 'Stern Report' and climate change; culture, religion and development; and the IMF, World Bank and WTO.


This study demonstrates how aerosols influence the liquid precipitation formation process. This demonstration is provided by the combined use of satellite observations and global high‐resolution model simulations. Methodologies developed to examine the warm cloud microphysical processes are applied to both multi‐sensor satellite observations and aerosol‐coupled global cloud‐resolving model (GCRM) results to illustrate how the warm rain formation process is modulated under different aerosol conditions. The observational analysis exhibits process‐scale signatures of rain suppression due to increased aerosols, providing observational evidence of the aerosol influence on precipitation. By contrast, the corresponding statistics obtained from the model show a much faster rain formation even for polluted aerosol conditions and much weaker reduction of precipitation in response to aerosol increase. It is then shown that this reduced sensitivity points to a fundamental model bias in the warm rain formation process that in turn biases the influence of aerosol on precipitation. A method of improving the model bias is introduced in the context of a simplified single‐column model (SCM) that represents the cloud‐to‐rain water conversion process in a manner similar to the original GCRM. Sensitivity experiments performed by modifying the model assumptions in the SCM and their comparisons to satellite statistics both suggest that the auto‐conversion scheme has a critical role in determining the precipitation response to aerosol perturbations and also provide a novel way of constraining key parameters in the auto‐conversion schemes of global models.


Women's rugby relationships are generally analysed from the point of view of men's rugby, otherwise they are overlooked, or treated as incidental. By contrast, the overall aim of this study is to make sense of women's rugby experiences and relations to rugby as a sport in terms of the feminine friendship relationships they forge and develop through on-field play and the informal culture surrounding the game. This research was conducted and written from the perspective of an active participant as both observer and "research subject". Within the framework of Italian sexual difference thought, it is a dialogue between the main concepts which ground this thought and data concerning women's rugby experiences as gathered from my recollection of personal experiences; participant observation in one team in Barcelona and two in London; twelve conversational interviews with my best rugby friends from Barcelona and London; as well as innumerable informal conversations with friends and other rugby women. I have chosen sexual difference theory to make sense of women's rugby relationships because it allows me to approach women's experiences in rugby from the premise that women are not required to imitate or reverse men's rugby meanings in order to make sense of their experiences. This theory derives from Irigaray's premise that women and men are two irreducible subjects. Thus, this study challenges the existence of a neutral or abstract human being. In short, one of the central aims of this research is to challenge the belief that men's rugby experiences are neutral and abstract and, therefore, can be unproblematically applied to women's rugby. The premise that underpins this investigation is a belief in women's rugby experiences as both illustrative and creative extensions, through on-field play and off-field friendships, of the biological, historical and socially interwoven specificity of women's relationships. Thus, another purpose of this study is to engage the reader with the world of women's rugby and at the same time to delve into the analysis of the significant consequences engendered by women's intense relationships in rugby. The ultimate goal of this project is to show how meaningful relationships in women's rugby can strengthen women's beliefs in themselves and dissolve the doubts that women have about their specific ways of perceiving, organizing and "wording" the world (Richardson, 1996). This research is devoted to strengthening and supporting the concept of female existence as original in itself and capable of taking symbolic form. This research also explores the possibilities that alternative ways of writing about women's rugby experiences and relationships offer to sport feminists' sociology. For this reason, throughout the data chapters I have combined sexual difference theoretical concepts with creative non-fiction narratives of women's rugby relationships and experiences. This means that, inspired by my own experiences, recollections and conversational interviews with other rugby women about their experiences, I have created stories that interweave my subjectivity as a rugby player and as a listener with the experiences of others as narrated to me.


Using the coherent density approach, we study the propagation dynamics of incoherent bright and dark beams in biased photorefractive crystals. We show that, under appropriate initial conditions, bright as well as darklike incoherent quasi-solitons can be established in this material system. Our numerical simulations demonstrate that the coherence properties of these beams can be significantly affected by the self-trapping process.


The language of media, especially language of cinema is relatively an unexplored area in the field of academic research. In Bangladeshi commercial cinema, it is often noticed that actors switch their codes from Bangla to English while speaking. However, it should not be thought that in cinema code switching is done without any reason; rather code switching in the dialogues is designed to convey the intended meaning. Therefore, it is important to investigate the phenomenon of code switching in Bangladeshi commercial cinema from an academic point of view. This research is descriptive and qualitative in nature. Its purpose is to find out the reasons and types of code switching which are found in the commercial films of Bangladesh. For this research, data are collected from commercial Bangladeshi films and interviews have been conducted with experts from linguistics and film background. After collecting the data, they are transcribed, tabulated and analyzed in terms of the research objectives. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/sje.v7i0.14479 Stamford Journal of English; Volume 7; Page 263-285


Different interferometric techniques were developed last decade to obtain full field, quantitative, and absolute phase imaging, such as phase-shifting, Fourier phase microscopy, Hilbert phase microscopy or digital holographic microscopy (DHM). Although, these techniques are very similar, DHM combines several advantages. In contrast, to phase shifting, DHM is indeed capable of single-shot hologram recording allowing a real-time absolute phase imaging. On the other hand, unlike to Fourier phase or Hilbert phase microscopy, DHM does not require to record in focus images of the specimen on the digital detector (CCD or CMOS camera), because a numerical focalization adjustment can be performed by a numerical wavefront propagation. Consequently, the depth of view of high NA microscope objectives is numerically extended. For example, two different biological cells, floating at different depths in a liquid, can be focalized numerically from the same digital hologram. Moreover, the numerical propagation associated to digital optics and automatic fitting procedures, permits vibrations insensitive full- field phase imaging and the complete compensation for a priori any image distortion or/and phase aberrations introduced for example by imperfections of holders or perfusion chamber. Examples of real-time full-field phase images of biological cells have been demonstrated.


Organizations face increasing challenges in addressing and preventing computer and network security incidents. There are financial consequences from security incidents. These include lost time and resources used during recovery, possible theft of personal and/or proprietary information, and reputational damage that may negatively impact stock prices or reduce consumer confidence in a company. Being able to understand and predict trends in computer and network security incidents can aid an organization with resource allocation for prevention of such incidents, as well as evaluation of mitigation strategies. We look at using time series models with a large set of security incident data. We examine appropriateness of the data for modeling and consider needed transformations. Parameter search and model selection criteria are discussed. Then, forecasts from time series models are compared to forecasts from Non-Homogeneous Poisson Process (NHPP) software reliability growth (SRG) models.


Anorexia and cachexia are major problems in patients with cancer. Such measures as anti-cancer therapy, dietary counselling or hyperalimentation are not very successful in reversing this phenomenon in the vast majority of cancer patients. Thus, several drugs have been evaluated as agents to ameliorate cancer-associated anorexia/cachexia. Cyproheptadine is an antiserotonergic drug which appears to cause slight appetite stimulation in patients. A randomised clinical trial, however, was unable to demonstrate any weight gain from this agent. Corticosteroids are frequently used in clinical practice for appetite stimulation in patients with advanced malignancies. Supporting this practice, 4 randomised clinical trials showed that corticosteroid medications can stimulate the appetites of advanced cancer patients. However, these studies were not able to show any substantial nonfluid weight gain in treated patients. Megestrol acetate is a progestational agent which appears to be a relatively potent appetite stimulant. Randomised studies in advanced cancer patients have shown both substantial appetite stimulation and improvement in the nonfluid bodyweights of patients receiving this drug. Preliminary evidence also suggests that this drug has antiemetic properties. Several clinical studies are currently ongoing to determine the effect of various doses of megestrol acetate in patients with cancer. Efforts are also ongoing to evaluate both anabolic steroids and hydrazine sulfate as drugs for the treatment of patients with cancer anorexia/cachexia. The preliminary nature of these investigations, however, precludes recommendations for the use of either of these latter 2 drugs in routine clinical practice.


After setting the performance benchmarks for image, video, speech and audio processing, deep convolutional networks have been core to the greatest advances in image recognition tasks in recent times. This raises the question of whether there are any benefit in targeting these remarkable deep architectures with the unattempted task of recognising human rights violations through digital images. Under this perspective, we introduce a new, well-sampled human rights-centric dataset called Human Rights Understanding (HRUN). We conduct a rigorous evaluation on a common ground by combining this dataset with different state-of-the-art deep convolutional architectures in order to achieve recognition of human rights violations. Experimental results on the HRUN dataset have shown that the best performing CNN architectures can achieve up to 88.10\% mean average precision. Additionally, our experiments demonstrate that increasing the size of the training samples is crucial for achieving an improvement on mean average precision principally when utilising very deep networks.


A comparison of oomycete diversity in reed stands (Phragmites australis) of Lake Constance, Germany, and maize fields close by provided evidence for the occurrence of natural hybridization between Pythium phragmitis, a newly described reed pathogen, and an as-yet unknown Pythium species closely related to P. phragmitis and P. arrhenomanes. Internal transcribed spacer and β-tubulin sequences of a large set of Pythium isolates from reeds showed dimorphic signals at several positions, indicative of a mixture of characters of two parent species. Involvement of P. phragmitis in the putative hybrid species was confirmed after cloning and sequencing of ITS regions and β-tubulin genes of the hybrid isolates. Mitochondrially inherited coxII gene sequences did not show dimorphic sites and suggested that the hybridization event was relatively ancient, or that other species might be involved. Intermediate habitat preferences, morphological characters and aggressiveness towards reeds and other grasses confirmed the suggestion that these isolates comprise a natural hybrid between two Pythium species. Pythium arrhenomanes, likely to be involved in the putative hybrid's evolution, was repeatedly isolated from maize fields adjacent to P. phragmitis-infested reed stands. The interface between natural habitats with established oomycete communities and agricultural fields with potentially introduced pathogens might constitute an evolutionary hot-spot giving rise to new species with as-yet unknown host ranges. As indicated by inoculation tests, the hybrid was significantly more pathogenic towards reed rhizomes than P. phragmitis, which caused no damage to these organs. This is apparently the first report of the occurrence of natural hybridization in Pythium.


Objective: The number of studies investigating the traumatic events experienced during childhood period in patients with bipolar disorder (BD) are limited and to our knowledge no previous study was conducted about alexithymia and dissociative experiences of these patients as well. Besides investigation of childhood traumas and associated dissociative and alexithymic properties, identification of the differences between BD patients with and without childhood trauma (CT) was aimed in this study.
Methods: Among the admissions to the psychiatry outpatient clinic, 70 BD patients and 70 healthy control subjects were included into the study. Structured Clinical Interview for DSM-IV Axis-I Disorders (SCID-I), Dissociative Experiences Scale (DES), Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ) and Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS-20) were administered. Results: Mean subscale and total scores of patients with BD in both CTQ and TAS-20, and mean DES score were found to be significantly higher than healthy control subjects. Psychopathological acts, number of episodes and suicide attempts were higher in the BD patients with childhood trauma history than that of the BD patients without any history of childhood trauma. Additionally, positive correlations were found between 'sexual abuse' and alexithymia total score along with 'difficulty identifying feelings' subscale score. Moreover, mean DES score was also found to be positively correlated with 'difficulty identifying feelings' subscale score, 'difficulty to describe feelings' subscale score, alexithymia total score, and episode frequency. Conclusion: These results highlight the importance of protective mental health in the treatment of BD and reveal that childhood traumas should be questioned when evaluating patients especially with the diagnosis of BD.


The proliferation of network-connected devices, also known as the "Internet of Things" (IoT), offers unprecedented opportunities for consumers and businesses. Yet devices such as fitness trackers, personal home assistants (e.g., Amazon Echo, Google Home), and digital appliances are changing the nature of privacy as they operate silently in the background while transmitting data about a broad range of human activities and behaviors. As "smart" becomes the new default setting for devices, consumers are further losing the ability to monitor and control the data collected about them, and they often have little awareness of what is done with their data downstream. The risks of sharing data through smart devices are not always clear, particularly as companies combine data from different sources to infer an individual's habits, movements, and even emotions.

This report is the culmination of eighteen months of empirical research into the privacy risks of the internet of things, involving over forty experts, scholars, business-people, advocates, regulators, lawyers, engineers, and other experts. It provides an overview of some of the key privacy issues resulting from the expansion of the IoT, as well as emerging frameworks that could help policymakers and corporate leaders reduce potential harms through regulation and product design. Among the findings outlined in this paper:

• The IoT has the potential to diminish the sanctity of spaces that have long been considered private, and could have a "chilling effect" as people grow aware of the risk of surveillance. Yet the same methods of privacy preservation that work in the online world are not always practical or appropriate for the personal types of data collection that the IoT enables.

• Several frameworks have emerged for addressing the privacy issues that the IoT presents. Some focus on giving users more meaningful, granular control over the data that is collected, when it's collected, and how it is shared, while others focus on the accessibility and correct timing of privacy notices.

• Policymakers should take steps to regulate the privacy effects of IoT before mass sensor data collection becomes ubiquitous, rather than after. Omnibus privacy legislation can help regulate how data is handled in the grey areas between sectors and contexts. Europe's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), coming into force in 2018, will have an impact initially on IoT devices created and sold in the EU, and will affect those from the US as well over time.

• Having broad non-specialist conversations about the use, collection, and effects of IoT data is essential to help the populace understand technological changes in this space and how they affect privacy expectations.

• Makers of IoT products and services should employ a variety of standard measures to provide greater user management and control, as well as more effective notification about how personal data is captured, stored, analyzed, and shared.


In the growing economies like Pakistan and other countries, digital skills such as computer, communication, internet and advance digital skills are predictable to offer possible employees a major rim in securing their jobs and also protecting relatively high-paying jobs. Digital skills are not dual it has ranges and stages. There are number of International organizations that are making efforts on improving the people's employability. I need more data in order to know the relationship between digital skills and employability in terms of which level of digital skills are enough for civilizing employability. In this study I observe the digital skills association with the employabilty using the Paf-Kiet University and National Foods Limited as a comparative study. Findings highlighted that digital skills can be a interpreter of employment, the level of digital skills necessary to achieve these jobs is very high as one might imagine. In the rising economies perspective, digital skills are linked with high status jobs mainly combine with other reasons such as higher education. Implementation strategy on the basis of the finding of this study in order to improve employabilty, advising that revise the education policy and training efforts should focus on digital skills.


At trial, defendants are afforded a panoply of rights right to counsel, to proof beyond a reasonable doubt, to confront witnesses, and to exclude inadmissible evidence. However, these rights, except for the right to counsel, disappear at sentencing. In deciding a defendant's sentence, a court may consider conduct that has not been proven beyond a reasonable doubt and even conduct of which the jury has acquitted the defendant. Consideration of acquitted conduct has resulted in dramatic increases in the length of defendants' sentences sometimes resulting in life imprisonment based merely on a judge's finding that a defendant more likely than not committed the offense. Courts have relied on United States v. Watts and United States v. Booker to support their continued use of acquitted conduct at sentencing. This Article argues that Watts is not viable and that the merits majority opinion in Booker, as opposed to the remedial majority opinion, is most consistent with the Court's precedent established by Apprendi v. New Jersey and its progeny. This Article concludes that use of acquitted conduct violates the Sixth Amendment right to a jury trial. In addition to offering a constitutional basis, this Article examines the following policy grounds for prohibiting the use of acquitted conduct: the role served by juries and benefits they provide, the dramatic impact of sentencing enhancements based on acquitted conduct, the potential for misuse by prosecutors, and the end of actual or legal innocence. Finally, this Article suggests that United States v. Gall and United States v. Kimbrough have restored judicial discretion in sentencing, providing judges with the independence to reject the use of acquitted conduct on the grounds that it contravenes the purposes of sentencing set forth in 18 U.S.C. § 3553(a) to promote respect for the law, afford deterrence, and avoid unwarranted disparity.


Abstract Encouraging involvement in local, regional and national communities in order to develop a healthy democracy is a laudable goal for society. However, culturally marginalized groups that have been historically excluded from such participation, and who utilize communication patterns that differ from the dominant culture, cannot take all the responsibility for becoming engaged. The aboriginal peoples of North America are one such marginalized cultural group. Utilizing data from the current British Columbia treaty process, this study posits communication structures, attitudes, and behaviors that dominant culture groups must adopt in order to build positive long-term relationships for public engagement with historically marginalized cultural groups.


A microspectrophotometer of exceptional sensitivity has been constructed to record absorption spectra of visual pigments in single cells using minimum light. With this equipment, pigments of individual cones have been recorded in regions of less than 1 μ radius, with minimum bleaching. The instrument is simple and flexible in design, and uses commercially available components throughout. This paper reviews some general design considerations, the character and performance of our equipment, and some of the results obtained with retinal cones.


I propose to use as a window the dark core of an optical vortex to examine a weak background signal hidden in the glare of a bright coherent source. Applications such as the detection of an astronomical object, forward-scattered radiation, and incoherent light are described whereby signal enhancements of at least 7 orders of magnitude may be achieved.


Usually,foods are packaged with some preservative and such chemicals in the form of organic and inorganic preservative are being used for packaging different types of food.But in India, companies are using inorganic preservatives mostly and these inorganic preservatives are very harmful to human's body. In this paper, a new model is developed to reduce the quantity of chemicals in packaged food. This problem is modelledby fuzzy inference and is also combined with graphtheory methodology to provide a unique and defective solution.The sideeffectofeachpackagedfoodistobemeasuredusinga fuzzy interference system. A real-life application on Haringhatachicken has been presented in this paper by using fuzzy inference logic and graph theory. At last, a comparison of the result hasbeendemonstrated to justify the solution.


Tendon insertions to bone are heavily loaded transitions between soft and hard tissues. The fiber courses in the tendon have profound effects on the distribution of stress along and across the insertion. We tracked fibers of the Achilles tendon in mice in micro-computed tomographies and extracted virtual transversal sections. The fiber tracks and shapes were analyzed from a position in the free tendon to the insertion with regard to their mechanical consequences. The fiber number was found to stay about constant along the tendon. But the fiber cross-sectional areas decrease towards the insertion. The fibers mainly interact due to tendon twist, while branching only creates small branching clusters with low levels of divergence along the tendon. The highest fiber curvatures were found within the unmineralized entheseal fibrocartilage. The fibers inserting at a protrusion of the insertion area form a distinct portion within the tendon. Tendon twist is expected to contribute to a homogeneous distribution of stress among the fibers. According to the low cross-sectional areas and the high fiber curvatures, tensile and compressive stress are expected to peak at the insertion. These findings raise the question whether the insertion is reinforced in terms of fiber strength or by other load-bearing components besides the fibers.


Food provisioning rates and chick growth rates of Common Terns Sterna hirundo and Arctic Terns S. paradisaea were studied in Northeast England. Adult terns ofboth species fed large broods more frequently than those containing fewer chicks. Energy supply per nestling declined slightly as brood size increased and as a result, chicks in large broods developed body mass at a slightly lower rate than those in small broods. Although brood size had no effect on fledging mass in either species, Common Tern chicks from large broods reached fledging mass later than those in small broods. Despite significant effects of brood size, mass growth rate hierarchies did not occur within broods of either species and hatching position had no effect on the mass of fledglings. Brood size and hatching position had no effect on the rate at which chicks developed structurally or on final body size. These results suggest that flexibility of mass growth rates in Arctic and Common Terns may act as a fme-tuning mechanism, allowing parents to increase their annual reproductive output through slower mass growth rates of chicks.


Jose Guadalupe Posada (1852-1913) was a prolific and influential Mexican printmaker; he produced thousands of images printed on a variety of poor-quality papers, often colored with vibrant but fugitive aniline dyes. The Amon Carter Museum of American Art has a large collection of approximately 400 prints attributed to Posada, many of which retain their bright color. A number of these are unstable due to oxidized pressure-sensitive tape residue, penetrating and weakening the short-fibered paper. In addition, aniline dyes are sensitive to solvents, complicating treatment.

Because aniline dyes have varying sensitivities to different solvents it is necessary to characterize them before an appropriate treatment protocol can be developed. A previous study of Posada's prints identified several aniline dyes using Fourier Transform (FT)-Raman spectroscopy. Of these, the yellow dyes could not be fully characterized. In this study, time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (TOF SIMS) was used to discern the dyes present in the colored papers with particular focus on the yellow dyes.

TOF SIMS is a valuable analytical technique for the identification of organic and inorganic components. Its high sensitivity and small sample size requirements make it potentially useful for the analysis of dyes and works on paper. For this study, a selection of Posada's prints in various colors from the Amon Carter's collection were examined using TOF SIMS, producing significant data for all the dyes analyzed.

As part of developing a treatment protocol for the Posada prints, an experiment was set up using artificially aged paper and tapes to simulate the removal of oxidized tape from fragile dyed papers. A variety of methods were employed. Samples were created by applying Scotch MagicTM tape (acetate backing; acrylic adhesive), 3M 2214 paper tape (crepe paper backing; rubber adhesive), gummed brown paper tape (kraft paper backing; starch adhesive), and Slime rubber cement to several c.1900s dyed and undyed broadsides, mimicking the Posada prints. The samples were then 'treated' with solvent and suction, rigid Gellan gum with solvent, and solvent through Gore-tex sandwich. The samples were imaged using visible light and Ultra-Violet (UV) light before and after treatment, along with spectrophotometer readings to monitor and record any changes in the samples.

Because aniline dyes are prevalent in many turn of the century objects, as are oxidized tapes, developing an effective treatment protocol has tremendous potential benefit.
Click on Video link on the right to view presentation.


This paper presents an approximate theory for the reduction of the velocity of a current due to the presence of sinusoidal waves. For a given slope, S, in water of constant depth, d, the current velocity profile is U(z) = U^ (2.5'ln — - A) (1) t zo as a function of the height, z, above the bed. Eq. 1 is valid only above the thin wave boundary layer near the bed, the roughness of which is k = 30 z . Uf is the current friction velocity defined by p Ul = y d S = T (2) f ' cw CW Values of A can be found from: Fig. 2 where Aj applies when the direction of wave propagation is parallel to the current direction, and Fig. 3 where A2 applies when the direction of wave propagation is perpendicular to the current direction, cf. Notation in Sec. 2. The theory is based upon a number of assumptions (see Sec. 4).


It is widely understood that occupants can have a significant impact on building performance. Accordingly, the field has benefited extensively from research efforts in the past decade. However, the methods and terminology involved in modelling occupants in buildings remains fragmented across a large number of studies. This fragmentation represents a major obstacle to those who intend to join in this research endeavor as well as for the convergence and standardization of methods. To address this issue, this paper investigates occupant modelling methods for the key domains of electric lighting, blinds, operable windows, thermostats, plug loads, and occupancy. In the reviewed literature, five broad categories of occupant model formalisms were identified: schedules, Bernoulli models, discrete-time Markov models, discrete-event Markov models, and survival models. Illustrative examples were provided from two independent datasets to demonstrate the strengths and weaknesses of these model forms. It was shown that Markov models are suitable to represent occupants' adaptive behaviors, while survival models are suitable to represent occupancy, non-adaptive behaviors, and infrequently executed adaptive behaviors, such as the blinds opening behavior. Practical application : The engineering application of the occupant modelling formalisms that are critically reviewed in this paper is that these models are highly beneficial for incorporating occupants' presence and behaviors into building design and control. Building design can be improved significantly regarding energy use and occupant comfort when the most suitable occupant models are implemented in simulation-aided building design process. Ultimately, like for any modelling domain, the most suitable model is dependent on the modelling objective (e.g. optimizing passive design, equipment sizing), building type and size, occupant-related domain (e.g. occupancy, window-opening behavior), and climate zones. Furthermore, there is great potential in improving occupant comfort and energy savings of existing buildings when occupants' presence and interactions with buildings' systems and components are predicted accurately using occupant models.


An application of the osteosynthesis fixator as a surgical method for the large bone treatment has been deeply described during the last 70 years [Solomin 2012]. Even the design using composite material is available at the market. Nevertheless, the interconnection of the main requirements including lightweight, adequate stiffness and adjustability around the tibia bone is the next step in external fixator improvement. Thus, the overall aim of this study is the innovation of this device with the subsequent analytical verification using finite element method. Due to these requirements, innovative external fixator has been developed and further optimized with structural analysis and surgeons ́ requirements as well. The final improved design of osteosynthesis device with the analytical confirmation using finite element method has been manufactured and this state of the art further serve for experimental verification.


This book provides a theoretical framework for reasoning about and pricing Internet tiered services, as well as a practical toolset for network providers to develop customized menus of service offerings. Internet service providers (ISPs) have introduced several forms of a tiered service, in which users may select from a small set of tiers that offer progressively higher levels of service with a corresponding increase in price. The material provides a comprehensive study of the design, sizing, pricing, and operation of Internet tiered services. It also addresses the following issues: optimization of service tier selection and sizing, economic models for optimal pricing of service tiers, models for optimizing bundles of services, and applications of tiered services in simplifying important QoS functions in the network, including fair packet scheduling.


We present a chip architecture for a compressive sensing based method that can be used in conjunction with the JTAG standard to detect IC Trojans. The proposed architecture compresses chip output resulting from a large number of test vectors applied to a circuit under test (CUT). We describe our designs in sensing leakage power, computing random linear combinations under compressive sensing, and piggybacking these new functionalities on JTAG. Our architecture achieves approximately a 10X speedup and 1000X reduction in output bandwidth while incurring a small area overhead.


The present research attempts to develop a theoretical framework for the assessment of shopping mall customer experience dimensions. It further classifies the variables associated with retail experiences that may attract customers in Tier-II and Tier- III cities towards the malls. Exhaustive literature review and expert opinion approaches have been used to explore the evaluation criteria for the assessment of the mall experience. ISM is used to develop a structural model that represents relationships among variables at different levels along with driving and dependence relationships in the structural model. The result highlights that factors like customer value orientation, tenant mix, employees, facilities management are the most significant benchmarking criteria for customers' assessment of their mall experience in the present study. To achieve profitable operations in these cities, retailer's need to acquaint themselves with the expectations of customers in order to attract their attention. This indicates that it is imperative for mall managers to identify how consumers benchmark different parameters while evaluating a mall experience. Understanding the importance of such parameters will allow malls to be built according to some standard specifications that can meet a consumer's threshold for appeal and attractiveness. The study adds to the existing literature of assessing shopping experience in Tier-II and Tier-III cities' malls through a structural model. The most and the least dominant factors found in this study will help mall managers to develop strategies to enhance the customer shopping experience in malls.


Given the opaqueness and complexity of modern AI algorithms, there is currently a strong focus on developing transparent and explainable AI, especially in high-stakes domains. We claim that opaqueness and complexity are not the core issues for end users when interacting with AI. Instead, we propose that the output uncertainty inherent to AI systems is the actual problem, with opaqueness and complexity as contributing factors. Transparency and explainability should therefore not be the end goals, as such a focus tends to place the human into a passive supervisory role in what is in reality an algorithm-centered system design. To enable effective management of output uncertainty, we believe it is necessary to focus on truly human-centered AI designs that keep the human in an active role of control. We discuss the conceptual implications of such a shift in focus and give examples from literature to illustrate the more holistic, interactive designs that we envision.


Deforestation usually results in significant losses of soil organic carbon (SOC). The rate and factors determining the recovery of this C pool with afforestation are still poorly understood. This paper provides a review of the influence of afforestation on SOC stocks based on a meta‐analysis of 33 recent publications (totaling 120 sites and 189 observations), with the aim of determining the factors responsible for the restoration of SOC following afforestation. Based on a mixed linear model, the meta‐analysis indicates that the main factors that contribute to restoring SOC stocks after afforestation are: previous land use, tree species planted, soil clay content, preplanting disturbance and, to a lesser extent, climatic zone. Specifically, this meta‐analysis (1) indicates that the positive impact of afforestation on SOC stocks is more pronounced in cropland soils than in pastures or natural grasslands; (2) suggests that broadleaf tree species have a greater capacity to accumulate SOC than coniferous species; (3) underscores that afforestation using pine species does not result in a net loss of the whole soil‐profile carbon stocks compared with initial values (agricultural soil) when the surface organic layer is included in the accounting; (4) demonstrates that clay‐rich soils (> 33%) have a greater capacity to accumulate SOC than soils with a lower clay content (< 33%); (5) indicates that minimizing preplanting disturbances may increase the rate at which SOC stocks are replenished; and (6) suggests that afforestation carried out in the boreal climate zone results in small SOC losses compared with other climate zones, probably because trees grow more slowly under these conditions, although this does not rule out gains over time after the conversion. This study also highlights the importance of the methodological approach used when developing the sampling design, especially the inclusion of the organic layer in the accounting.


The free volumes and proton conductivities of Nafion membranes were investigated at different humidities by positron annihilation lifetime spectroscopy (PALS) and using an electrochemical workstation, respectively. The results showed that the variation in o-Ps lifetime τo-Ps was closely associated with the microstructure evolution and the development of hydrophilic ion clusters in Nafion membranes as a function of water uptake, regardless of metal oxide additives. In particular, with increasing relative humidity, the maximum value of τo-Ps in the Nafion membranes corresponded to the formation of numerous water channels for proton transportation. Numerous well-connected water channels in Nafion-TiO2 hybrid membranes could be formed at a much lower relative humidity (∼40% RH) than in the pristine one (∼75% RH), due to the better water retention ability of the Nafion-TiO2 membranes. Further, a percolation behavior of proton conductivity at high water uptake in Nafion membranes was observed, which showed that the percolation of ionic-water clusters occurred at the water uptake of ∼4.5 wt%, and ∼6 wt% was basically enough for the formation of a well-connected water channel network.


The use of diode-pumped solid-state lasers as sources of high power visible light is an area which has attracted growing interest in recent years. This interest stems from the increased efficiencies available and compact size compared to Ar+ lasers. A further attractive feature of intracavity-frequency-doubled, single-frequency lasers, on which initial results were recently reported, is that axial-mode-hopping is suppressed. The explanation for this behaviour is based on the fact that adjacent (non-lasing) axial modes are further suppressed by an additional loss due to sum-frequency generation. This is twice the loss experienced by the lasing mode due to second harmonic generation. In a low loss resonator with efficient intracavity-frequency-doubling this extra loss can more than offset any gain advantage of adjacent modes closer to the gain peak. The net result is that continuous (mode-hop-free) tuning is possible over many axial mode spacings. Here we describe an intracavity-frequency-doubled Nd:YAG ring laser end-pumped by a 20W diode bar, and a Nd:YLF ring laser end-pumped by two 20W diode bars. In each case, a simple bow-tie cavity design was employed, with a Brewster-angled LBO crystal. In the case of Nd:YAG for a non-optimised laser mode size in the LBO crystal the laser produced ~1.4W of single-frequency output in the green at 532nm. By varying the cavity length we obtained a single-frequency, continuous (mode-hop- free) tuning range of ~40GHz corresponding to ~80 axial mode spacings. This range is consistent with predictions of a simple model accounting for the effects of nonlinear loss due to sum frequency generation. Nd:YLF offers the potential of an extended tuning range through its broader linewidth. Furthermore Nd:YLF is attractive for operation at higher powers due to its superior thermo-optical properties on the sigma-polarisation compared to Nd:YAG, providing that appropriate steps are taken to avoid thermally-induced stress-fracture. Results for this laser, end-pumped by two 20W diode-bars, include the generation of ~10.3W of single frequency 1053nm output in a TEMoo beam (M2 < 1.1), and 6.2W of green output at 526.5nm (corresponding to ~8.5W generated internally in the LBO) and a conversion efficiency of ~5% with respect to intracavity power. We have obtained a single frequency, continuous (mode-hop-free) tuning range of 72GHz corresponding to ~150 axial mode spacings. So far, the mode-hop-free tuning range has been limited by etalon effects due to imperfect AR coatings on the TGG Faraday rotator. With the elimination of these etalon effects, mode-hop-free tuning over a considerable fraction of the gain bandwidth should be achievable


In this paper, development of single-phase liquid cooling techniques for flip chip ball grid array packages (FBGAs) with high flux heat dissipations is reported. Two thermal test chips with different footprints, 12 mm/spl times/ 12 mm and 10 mm /spl times/10 mm, respectively, were used for high heat flux characterizations. A liquid-cooled aluminum heat sink with an area of 15 mm (L) /spl times/12.2 mm (W) populated by microchannels was designed and fabricated. The microchannel heat sink was assembled onto the chip, using a thermal interface material to reduce the contact thermal resistance at the interface. A variable speed pump was used to provide the pressure head for the liquid cooling loop. The measured thermal resistance results ranged from 0.44 to 0.32/spl deg/C/W for the 12-mm chip case and from 0.59 to 0.44/spl deg/C/W for the 10-mm chip case, both under flowrates ranging from 1.67/spl times/10/sup -6/ m/sup 3//s to 1.67/spl times/10/sup -5/ m/sup 3//s. An analytical model of the flow and heat transfer in microchannel heat sinks is also presented. Computational predictions agree with the measurements for pressure drop within 15% and thermal resistances within 6%. The analytical results indicate that thermal interface resistance becomes a key limitation to maximizing heat removal rate from electronic packages.


BACKGROUND
Despite therapeutic innovations, metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) is still characterized by poor prognosis and few molecular markers predict the risk of progression. Polycomb group genes (PcGs) are epigenetic modifiers involved in tumor suppressor gene silencing. PcG member EZH2 mediates gene silencing through histone-H3 lysine-27 methylation. In colorectal cancer (CRC), EZH2 overexpression predicts shorter survival. Recently, four EZH2 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have been described. The present study was aimed at evaluating the correlation between EZH2 SNPs and outcome parameters in mCRC patients.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
DNA was extracted from blood samples of 110 mCRC patients treated with first-line 5-fluorouracil, folinic acid, irinotecan (FOLFIRI) and bevacizumab. Genotyping was carried out by real-time PCR. Genotype was used to predict objective response, progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). EZH2 messenger RNA levels were evaluated on lymphocytes of a parallel cohort of 50 CRC patients.

RESULTS
One allelic variant (rs3757441 C/C versus C/T or T/T) was significantly associated with shorter PFS and OS (P < 0.01 and P < 0.05, respectively). At multivariate analysis, the same variant resulted an independent predictor of PFS and OS (P < 0.05). The C/C variant was associated with significantly higher EZH2 expression (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION
An EZH2 SNP may be useful to predict clinical outcome in mCRC patients.


Device-to-Device (D2D) communications have received exceptional attention
nowadays due to the overabundance number of applications and services.
Therefore, D2D is expected to be a vital technical component in Internet
of Things and to play a significant role with the next generation 5G. On
the other hand, due to the growth demand of D2D, it becomes an ideal target
for attackers. Moreover, the rapid rise in mobile capabilities opens the
door to the cyber criminals that explore new avenues for malware attacks.
In spite of the fact that the literature proposed security schemes for malware
attacks. However, the research field is still immature and unexplored
in depth due to the fast evolution of malware. Accordingly, malware attacks
formalize security risk that threatens the mobile network. A noteworthy
concern is that the malware attacks are going on at a rate far surpassing
the development of safety techniques. The fundamental goal of our thesis is to propose a novel secure,
energy-aware stochastic routing protocol based on a game-theoretic approach
for security improvement against malware attacks in Device-to-
Device network. The proposed protocol considers for the security requirement,
as well as the energy system constraints. As a first step toward
thwarting the success of the malware attacks, we try to hinder the malware
infection by detecting the malware before it infects the targeted devices. Moreover, the proposed routing protocol considers the attacker's behavior
and the computation of decision makers' strategies.
The effectiveness of the proposed routing protocol has been evaluated
using network simulator. Through extensive simulations, we have
validated the effectiveness of proposed protocol by comparing its performance
with the traditional routing protocols and with another strategic
customized protocol. Results are presented to illustrate the efficiency of the
proposed routing protocol regarding the detection rate and overall expected
payoff compared with traditional routing protocols and another strategic
customized protocol in case of three different attacks Distribution.


The practice of reusing processes and technical solutions leads to the formation of product platforms in house building. Product platforms originate from industries employing a make-to-order production strategy, e.g. the automotive industry. To test how the product platform concept is useful in engineer-to-order production strategies, a case study at two Swedish house-builders was made. Key factors that affect platform use in systems buildings were sought. The smaller company operates a supplier-led platform focusing on commonalities in process knowledge. There is less definition of the product itself to allow for distinctiveness in the product offer. The larger company has a decentralized business and operates a client-driven platform with fragmented standardization. Focus is put on creating commonality through defining the product and handling distinctiveness through an iterative design procedure. Product families were not in use at the case study companies. The companies transform standardized platform solutions into project uniqueness by using support methods. Four platform support methods emerged from the case studies: design planning, collaborative design, design optimization, and requirements iteration. The balance between commonality and distinctiveness in the platform is important to attend to in each house-building project. The engineer-to-order production strategy hinders the implementation of a fully parameterized platform. The product platform concept is therefore expanded with support methods to handle distinctiveness, i.e. project uniqueness. The product platform assets: components, processes, relationships and knowledge, are present also in platforms used in systems building.


Classics of Western Spirituality In this remarkable new volume in the Classics of Western Spirituality are the mystical autobiographies-unusual in themselves for the Jewish tradition-of two influential Jewish thinkers, Rabbi Hayyim Vital and Rabbi Yizhak Isaac Safrin of Komarno. Now translated for the first time in English, these texts will capture the attention of historians, theologians, and anyone studying Judaism. Rabbi Hayyim Vital (1542-1620) was the foremost disciple of R. Isaac Luria, one of the most important mystics in 16th century Judaism and founder of the major school of mysticism known as Lurianic kabbalah. Vital was the most influential transmitter of Luria's teachings, and the author of a full-fledged mystical autobiography called The Book of Visions. Vital saw himself as the reincarnation of many of the important figures in Jewish history associated with messianic hopes and expectations. The second text in this volume, The Book of Secrets, is by Rabbi Yizak Isaac Safrim of Komarno (1806-1874), an important Hasidic master. Like Vital, he saw himself as a potential messianic figure who had direct access to the mysteries of heaven. The Book of Secrets is divided into two parts. The first part, The Book of Visions, modeled on Vital's work, consists of incidents in his life and visionary experiences. The second part, the Deeds of the Lord, contains stories about the Baal Shem Tov, the founder of Hasidism.


: In this study, the effects of both lamination scheme and boundary conditions on the natural frequencies of free vibration of laminated composite beams were investigated. The problem is analyzed and solved using the energy approach which is formulated by a finite element model. Lamination schemes for symmetric and non-symmetric laminated beams were studied. Six boundary conditions are considered; clamped _free (CF), hinged _hinged (HH), clamped _clamped (CC), hinged _clamped (HC), hinged _free (HF), free _free (FF). Each beam has either movable ends or immovable ends. It is found that both symmetrically and anti-symmetrically laminated beams of similar size and end conditions have equal natural frequencies which, generally, decrease as the angle of orientation increases. Also, It is found that the more constrained beams have the higher values of natural frequencies of transverse vibration. However, the free-free and hinged-free beams are found to have the highest frequencies of transverse vibration amongst all beams although they look less constrained. This behavior is due to the fact that the first mode of the two beams is equal zero (rigid body motion), and replaced by the second mode to be the fundamental mode. The values of the natural frequencies of longitudinal modes are found to be the same for all beams with movable ends since they are generated by longitudinal movements only. But for immovable ends, the clamped-free and hinged-free beams have equal frequencies in longitudinal vibration, and those of the other beams are also the same.


The collection of earthquake testimonies (i.e., qualitative descriptions of felt shaking) is essential for macroseismic studies (i.e., studies gathering information on how strongly an earthquake was felt in different places), and when done rapidly and systematically, improves situational awareness and in turn can contribute to efficient emergency response. In this study, we present advances made in the collection of testimonies following earthquakes around the world using a thumbnail‐based questionnaire implemented on the European‐Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) smartphone app and its website compatible for mobile devices. In both instances, the questionnaire consists of a selection of thumbnails, each representing an intensity level of the European Macroseismic Scale 1998. We find that testimonies are collected faster, and in larger numbers, by way of thumbnail‐based questionnaires than by more traditional online questionnaires. Responses were received from all seismically active regions of our planet, suggesting that thumbnails overcome language barriers. We also observed that the app is not sufficient on its own, because the websites are the main source of testimonies when an earthquake strikes a region for the first time in a while; it is only for subsequent shocks that the app is widely used. Notably though, the speed of the collection of testimonies increases significantly when the app is used. We find that automated EMSC intensities as assigned by user‐specified thumbnails are, on average, well correlated with "Did You Feel It?" (DYFI) responses and with the three independently and manually derived macroseismic datasets, but there is a tendency for EMSC to be biased low with respect to DYFI at moderate and large intensities. We address this by proposing a simple adjustment that will be verified in future earthquakes.


Prof. Wei Tang, studying and working in The University of Tokyo Hospital since 1993, has published more than 200 English papers until now. His research interests include intrahepatic invasion and metastasis of HCC, gastroenterological cancer, HCC, clinical pathology, metastasis, invasion, angiogenesis, chemotherapy, cancer drug targets, glycoprotein and tumor maker. In the research field of tumor marker for HCC, he devotes to promoting the Japan-China joint research projects in recent years, and has published a number of papers in this field ( Figure 1 ).


Background: Obstructive sleep apnea has increasingly been linked to cardiovascular damage. More recently, the snoring component itself has been independently linked to the presence of carotid atheroma, via local arterial trauma. We aimed to identify whether a snoring history is a risk factor for carotid stenosis in individuals presenting with a TIA or ischemic stroke. Methods: Participants in the Oxford Vascular Study (OXVASC) were asked about their snoring history as part of an entry questionnaire. In 561 individuals with a recent TIA or stroke, who had both a complete snoring questionnaire and carotid imaging, the relationship between presence and severity of snoring and the degree of carotid artery stenosis in both the symptomatic (culprit) and asymptomatic (non-culprit) sides. Results: Of 561 participants (287 male, mean/SD age = 73.3/11.0 years), 90 (16.0%) had ≥ 50% carotid stenosis, and 154 (27.5%) snored frequently (≥ 1-2 times/week). No significant associations were identified between frequency of self-reported snoring, and the degree of culprit and non-culprit carotid vessel stenosis, or plaque morphology. Conclusions: No significant association could be identified between a history of frequent snoring and the presence of carotid atheroma, degree of stenosis, or plaque type.


PURPOSE
To measure total retinal blood flow (TRBF) in normal, healthy Chinese Americans by using semi-automated analysis of Doppler Fourier-domain optical coherence tomography (FD-OCT) scans.

METHODS
Two hundred sixty-six normal, healthy Chinese-American participants (266 eyes) were enrolled from The Chinese American Eye Study. All participants underwent complete ophthalmic examination, including best-corrected visual acuity, indirect ophthalmoscopy, and Doppler FD-OCT imaging, using the circumpapillary double circular scan protocol. Total retinal blood flow and other vascular parameters (e.g., venous and arterial cross-sectional area and their velocities) were calculated by using Doppler OCT of Retinal Circulation software. Associations between TRBF and other clinical parameters were assessed by using bivariate correlations and linear regression.

RESULTS
The mean age of study participants was 57.40 ± 5.60 (range, 50-82) years. The mean TRBF was 49.34 ± 10.08 (range, 27.17-78.08, 95% confidence interval: 25.98-69.10) μL/min. The mean venous area was 0.0548 (±0.0084) mm(2). Superior retinal hemispheric blood flow (25.50 ± 6.62 μL/min) was slightly greater than inferior retinal hemispheric blood flow (23.84 ± 7.19 μL/min, P = 0.008). The mean flow velocity was 15.16 ± 3.12 mm/s. There was a weak but significant negative correlation between TRBF and age (r = -0.15, P = 0.012). No significant correlation was found between TRBF and axial length (r = 0.11, P = 0.08). Retinal blood flow was not significantly correlated with any other clinical parameters, including body mass index, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and intraocular pressure.

CONCLUSIONS
Normal Doppler OCT-derived total retinal blood values in a Chinese-American population showed considerable variability, some of which was explained by age. These observations should help design future studies evaluating TRBF in populations with eye disease.


C- and L-band airborne synthetic aperture radar (SAR) imagery acquired at like- and cross-polarizations over sea ice under winter conditions is examined with the objective to study the discrimination between level ice and ice deformation features. High-resolution low-noise data were analyzed in the first paper. In this second paper, the main topics are the effects of spatial resolution and signal-to-noise ratio. Airborne high-resolution SAR scenes are used to generate a sequence of images with increasingly coarser spatial resolution from 5 to 25 m, keeping the number of looks constant. The signal-to-noise ratio is varied between typical noise levels for airborne imagery and satellite data. Areal fraction of deformed ice and average deformation distance are determined for each image product. At L-band, the retrieved values of the areal fraction get larger as the image resolution is degraded. The areal fraction at C-band remains constant. The retrieved average distance between deformation features increases both at C- and L-bands as the image resolution gets coarser. The influence of noise becomes noticeable if its level is equal or larger than the average intensity backscattered from the level ice. The retrieval of deformation parameters using simulated images that resemble ERS-2 SAR, Envisat ASAR, and ALOS PALSAR data products is discussed. Basic differences between real and simulated ERS-2 SAR images are analyzed.


Abstract A study of the Homerian type section in the upper Beluga Formation (Upper Miocene) of the Kenai Group of southern Alaska has yielded two surprising discoveries: (1) warmth-loving taxa and (2) the presence in Alaska of a 'new' gymnosperm family, Podocarpaceae. A well-preserved pollen and spore flora is present in Upper Miocene coal beds of the Kenai lowland, near Homer, Alaska. Stump horizons, abundant wood fragments, wood grain, and amber within the coal attest to a forested swamp. Pollen assemblages from the Homerian type section include elements of both Mixed Northern Hardwood and warm-temperate Mesophytic forests and are far richer than the flora previously defining the Homerian type section, which had suggested a less diverse, cooler assemblage. Within the Homerian type section, the flora exhibits no definite taxonomic chronology; in general, Alnus dominates, with up to 45% of the total counts, followed by Pinaceae and Taxodiaceae pollen types (30 to 35%) and thermophiles (c. 14%). At least 36 genera are represented, including Carya type, Corylus, Ilex, Juglans, Myrica, Ostrya/Carpinus, Pterocarya, Quercus/Quercus-type, and Ulmus/Zelkova, eight dicot genera have not previously been reported from the type Homerian. Presence of these hardwoods in moderate to minor amounts suggests that the climate during the Homerian (Late Miocene) was only slightly cooler than that of the Seldovian (Early to Middle Miocene). Unexpectedly, Dacrydium and Podocarpus are present as minor elements in most of the samples. They apparently coexisted with the other Miocene taxa, because the pre-Paleogene Kenai–Chugach terrane to the southeast, which supplied sediments to the Kenai Group, is mostly of oceanic plate provenance and is unlikely to have been the source of the pollen. A uniform orange fluorescence of all the pollen, including the podocarps and any potentially reworked pollen, also suggests a contemporaneous origin for all the taxa. The flora from the Homerian type section may precede or coincide with uplift of the Alaska Range to the north. Thus, further comparison with Homerian taxa at localities north and south of the Alaska Range will be important as it may reveal a possible rain shadow effect.