(Flaubert) We are struck by Gustave Flaubert's novel Madam Bovary in two distinct ways: one, it presents before us the historical unfolding of a new era that passionately swore by the narrow materialism of economic progress; two, it brings to focus the plight of a young woman trapped in marriage--an institution that had served entirely different social interests in the pre-Revolution France. Flaubert significantly fused the two aspects to achieve a heightened realism in this novel that has few parallels in the nineteenth century French fiction. In this discussion, our attempt would be to identify the working of a form that evolved along the movement of the life-processes of a middle class woman from the point where she entered matrimony to the point where she was left with no alternative but to end her life, surrounded as she found herself by social apathy and loneliness. The loss of the urge to live is built into the very fabric of the narrative. In one important respect, the account of happenings in the novel is a negation of the narrative--it scarcely "tells" the reader, scarcely narrates to the audience, the sequential tale of the intertwined fates of characters. The paradox of economic progress and social passion combined with the helpless longing of an individual to relate to her environment is the stuff of which Madame Bovary is made. The form in question takes care of the various components of social experience that range from trade spreading to small towns and villages, secular education imparted to students, impacting of impressionable minds by the reading of romances, clash between entrenched traditional interests and the winds of social change blowing across the wider society as well as misery and deprivation of the very poor in the nineteenth century French society. As stated by Herbert Lottman in Flaubert: A Biography, Flaubert was making an important point when he wrote about his novel Madame Bovary to a close friend of his, Louise Colet, explaining to her the logic of his fictional attempt. Flaubert stated: "All the value of my book, if it has one, will be to have been able to walk steadily on a hair suspended between the double abyss of lyricism and vulgarity (which I want to mix in a narrative analysis)" (p. 108). The said value of the novel lay, according to Flaubert, in his ability to "walk steadily" on the impossible surface of "a hair" that further became "the double abyss" of two incongruous things as "lyricism and vulgarity". There is indeed a fairly long list of difficult things in this definition of the artistic act, an act that negates, for the author, the very contours of the chosen field of perception. Also consider that Flaubert begins his statement with doubting in one go the existence of any value the book possessed ("if it has one"). Nevertheless, he is able to face the challenge of putting across through words a dilemma that requires extremely subtlety. Still, let us not take this statement at face value. We should say instead that the drama of the work resided, for the author, in the multidimensional rendering of the story of Emma Bovary and that Flaubert sought to address through the novel the dilemma that the French society faced in the middle years of the nineteenth century. The starting point of the story of Emma being in her adolescence, we confront her formative period in terms of the process of a momentous upheaval visiting France--the process is marked by a wholesale rejection of the existing moral structure and acceptance in its place of "historical" progress through relentless pursuit of economic and political power. The progress in question is loaded with multiple suggestions of thorny developments such as the emergence of a new middle class blindly opting for success and self-promotion in life, hitherto unknown modes of expression of motives through newspapers, a different notion of politics that increases its scope through rallies, festivals and fairs and finally, the village turning into a small town to look for further enhancement of itself by aligning to the city. …


This paper makes an intervention highlighting the animal dimension of military geographies as an overlooked yet illuminating aspect of the hybrid nature of warfare. By bringing animal geographies into dialogue with critical military geographies and with a focus on relational ethics, the processes, performance and consequences of the more-than-human nature of the battlespace are examined through a vignette of Wojtek the bear. Wojtek was a mascot, pet and officially enlisted soldier of the Polish Army in the Second World War who travelled the desert plains, helped to fight at the Battle of Monte Cassino, before being demobbed with his fellow Polish comrades in the UK, eventually ending his civilian days in Edinburgh Zoo. Although a well-known figure Wojtek and his biography have predominately been used as a means to explore the Polish soldiers' experience of the Second World War with the result that the bear as an animal is absent. This paper, therefore, puts the bear back into his biography in order to acknowledge the role and lived experience of animals in the military. Further, it suggests that exploring the place of animals in the military requires geographers to articulate the hybrid nature of warfare and also to explore the ethico-political relations this produces.


A regulatory approach compels the child welfare worker to make decisions according to set procedures and prevents responding flexibly to families. Differential response is a way that child welfare is departing from legal formalism. One means is convening a family group conference (FGC) to develop a plan. John Braithwaite's regulatory pyramid assists in conceptualizing differential response. This article reports a factor analysis of data on achievement of FGC objectives to elaborate three interfaces for fostering responsive regulation. Each interface keeps the family group at the center of planning while firmly maintaining their connections with community and government programs. Key words: family group conferencing, responsive regulation, child welfare, differential response ********** A well circulated cartoon shows a child welfare worker being lynched by an angry mob. The caption for one frame reads, "Social worker who took child into care," and the caption for the other reads, "Social worker who did not take child into care." No matter what the social worker decides, the populace is provoked to take the law into its own hands. Such vigilante justice is in reaction to seemingly arbitrary authority. It condemns the social worker and in all likelihood the child's parents and leaves the child in need of protection. This gallows humor will continue to resonate as long as public child welfare is defined solely as saving children from their parents. Some children need such rescuing but far more need supports and protections that safeguard them and their families. The doctrine of parens patriae, however, obligates the state to substitute as parent when the child's own parents fail to protect because of their personal limitations or those of the wider society. This same doctrine has raised legitimate concerns about the abrogation of the rights of parents and children and has led to an emphasis on due process through the courts. The result is heightened legalism interacting with the state's liability for the child's safety. This combination chokes off opportunities for child welfare to join with the family and community in forming partnerships of caring. John Braithwaite's (2002) theory of responsive regulation points to a viable alternative for child welfare. He posits a regulatory pyramid with a broad base of responsiveness to offenders underneath an apex of legal regulation. Because the state is charged to care for children in need of protection, child welfare must maintain a firm interface between responsiveness and regulation. This article examines how family group conferencing (FGC) achieves this interface. First, an overview is provided of the movement toward responsive regulation in U.S. welfare, the role that FGC can play in promoting responsive regulation, and its key practices in child welfare settings. Then, utilizing a factor analysis of findings from a FGC study, three interfaces are elaborated--family leadership, cultural safety, and community partnerships. In conclusion, a model for interfacing responsiveness and regulation in child welfare is presented. Responsive Regulation and Child Welfare Child welfare in the United States has a lengthy history of swinging between a priority of child safety or family support (Jimenez, 1990). Child safety stresses the state's responsibility to regulate the child's care and ensure that it meets adequate standards of protection; family support urges a responsive approach to children and their caregivers to promote healthy families. While both regulation and responsiveness are necessary for safeguarding children, neither approach alone is sufficient for an effective child welfare system (Pecora, Whittaker, Maluccio, & Barth, 2000). Family support is limited when caregivers will not, or more often cannot, change their practices on their own; community services are lacking, inaccessible, or under utilized; and the broader economic and political systems undermine families (Pecora, Reed-Ashcraft, & Kirk, 2001). …


— The purpose of this research was to study the factors that influenced the success of mobile phone entrepreneurs at Central Plaza. The sample group included 187 entrepreneurs at Central Plaza. A questionnaire was utilized as a tool to collect data. Statistics used in this research included frequency, percentage, mean, and standard deviation. Independent- sample t- test, one way ANOVA, and multiple regression analysis. Data were analyzed by using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences.The findings disclosed that the majority of respondents were male between 25-40 years old, and held an undergraduate degree. The average income of respondents was between 15,001-25,000 baht. The majority of respondents had less than 5 years of working experience. In terms of personality, the findings revealed that expression and agreement were ranked at the highest level. Whereas, emotion stability, consciousness, open to new experience were ranked at high. From the hypotheses testing, the findings revealed that different genders had different success in their mobile phone business with different income from the last 6 months. However, difference in age, income, level of education, and experience affected the success in terms of income, number of customers, and overall success of business. Moreover, the factors of personalities included expression, agreement, emotion stability, consciousness, open to new experience, and competitive strategy. From the findings, these factors were able to predict mobile phone business success at 66.9 percent.


This article seeks to understand the contrarian impulses embedded in the historic Supreme Court judgement in the 'battle for Niyamgiri' that resulted in tribal gram sabhas rejecting the bauxite mining proposal of the Odisha state government and transnational corporation, Vedanta. It proposes that the importance of the Niyamgiri case lies in the legal representation of indigeneity that emerges as a counterpoint to automatic assumptions of developmentalism and cultural homogeneity. However, rather than seeing this as an epistemic or discursive break in the practice of law, it proposes that we see the case 'jurisdictionally', as a practice of representation that is enacted through technologies and devices of law. It is important to understand that constitutive actors—lawyers, judges, ministers, experts, tribals—within specific jurisdictional spaces can change the prudence and diction in law, beyond the internal necessity of rules underwritten by tradition or dominant discourse. It is through this lens that the article sees the Niyamgiri story as inaugurating a particular form of lawful relations for indigeneity—one that becomes a part of case law history and precedent. No matter how tenuous, precedents such as Niyamgiri underwrite the prospect of future iterations of indigeneity.


Birds emit alarm calls, considered as honest signals, because they communicate the presence of a predator or potential threat. We evaluated behavioural events of birds responding to vocal and visual stimuli of a nocturnal predator (black-and-white owl Ciccaba nigrolineata ) and a diurnal predator (collared forest falcon Micrastur semitorquatus ). We analysed variations in behavioural events seasonally (reproductive and nonbreeding) and by bird size, as well as their relationship with the vegetation structure and landscape. The study was performed during the breeding (March-May) and non-breeding seasons (February, June and July) of 2016 in Chiapas, Mexico. We used four transects with different vegetation types and land uses. The most frequent behavioural response by birds to the vocal stimuli of the black-and-white owl and the collared forest-falcons was vocal, during the breeding season, and small species responded the most to the stimuli (p = 0.008) and (p < 0.015), respectively. We identified two vegetation and two landscape variables associated in 36% of probability for the prey to respond to black-and-white owl vocal stimuli, three variables of vegetation and one of the landscape in 37% for the collared forest-falcon stimuli. Potential prey animals modify the behaviour, which allows them to detect, evade or confront a predator.


By analysing migrant experiences of living in Sweden under the threat of deportation, this book contributes to our understanding of the effects of deportation, or forced return, on people. Migrants at risk of deportation are a varied and disparate group, with singularly different stories. Within their different stories, often painful to listen to, there arise common and strong narratives. These narratives, the outcome of qualitative research with migrants, are the focus of this volume. An overview of key policies, legislations and institutions at the Swedish and EU levels is provided to contextualise the data and conclusions. What can we learn from these migrant experiences of the Swedish forced returns system, a system which has been both highly commended in some areas while critiqued in others? Deportation is increasingly being discussed from a social and global justice point of view, as well as from a human rights point of view. It is therefore of critical importance that migrant voices are heard and their experiences analysed. The 2009 European Return Directive, transposed into Swedish law in 2012, states that deportation and pre-removal detention should be conducted with respect to fundamental human rights, or in other words, in a 'humane and dignified' manner. But what is a 'humane and dignified' deportation? Is it an oxymoron in itself? This book does not claim to answer this question, but merely contributes to the debate through an analysis of migrant narratives. The afterword by UNHCR Nansen Award winner Dr. Katrine Camilleri reflects on the results of the study by juxtaposing it with her own work in Malta and primes a wider discussion of the topic by putting the Swedish case in the broader context of European Union trends.


The discovery of material remains from the recent or the ancient past has always been a source of fascination, but the development of archaeology as an academic discipline which interpreted such finds is relatively recent. It was the work of Winckelmann at Pompeii in the 1760s which first revealed the potential of systematic excavation to scholars and the wider public. Pioneering figures of the nineteenth century such as Schliemann, Layard and Petrie transformed archaeology from a search for ancient artifacts, by means as crude as using gunpowder to break into a tomb, to a science which drew from a wide range of disciplines ancient languages and literature, geology, chemistry, social history to increase our understanding of human life and society in the remote past.


THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE is recognised as one of the most influential audio-books ever recorded. In this seminal work, Stephen R. Covey presents a holistic, integrated, principle-centred approach for solving personal and professional problems. With penetrating insights and pointed anecdotes, Covey reveals a step-by-step pathway for living with fairness, integrity, honesty and human dignity - principles that give us the security to adapt to change, and the wisdom and power to take advantage of the opportunities that change creates. The 7 Habits have become so famous because they work. From Habit 1: Be Proactive and Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind, millions of people have worked their way through the 7 and found in them a key to transforming their lives. Translated into thirty-four languages THE 7 HABITS OF HIGHLY EFFECTIVE PEOPLE has been the key to the success of legions of business leaders and individuals the world over.


It is a truth
universally acknowledged that faster catalysts enable the more efficient
transformation of molecules to useful products and enhance the sustainable
utilization of natural resources.
However, the limit of static
catalyst performance defined by the Sabatier principle has motivated a new
approach to dynamic catalyst design, whereby
catalysts oscillate with time between varying energetic states at sufficiently
high resonant frequencies to overcome the Sabatier 'volcano peak'. In this work, the concept of dynamic
catalytic resonance was experimentally demonstrated via the electro-catalytic
oxidation of formic acid in water on a Pt working electrode within a
semi-continuous multi-phase flow reactor.
Steady-state electro-oxidation of formic acid at 0.6 V (NHE) exhibited a
maximum turnover frequency (TOF) of CO2 formation of ~1.0 s-1
at room temperature. However,
oscillation of the electrodynamic potential between 0.8 V and open circuit via
a square waveform at varying frequency (10-3 < f < 103 Hz) increased the
optimal TOF to ~5 s-1 at 0.5 Hz.
An even higher TOF of ~20 s-1 was observed at a resonant
frequency of 100 Hz for a square waveform oscillating between zero and 0.8
V. The rate increase in formic acid
electro-oxidation via catalytic resonance of more than an order of magnitude
(20x) above potentiostatic conditions was interpreted to occur by non-faradaic
formic acid dehydration to surface-bound carbon monoxide at low potentials, followed
by surface oxidation and desorption to carbon dioxide at high potentials.


- The only detailed, comprehensive treatment of stakeholder theory-the most popular framework for discussions of business ethics-currently in print
 - Examines stakeholder theory from the perspective of several fields of study, including strategic management, economics, moral and political philosophy, social psychology, and environmental ethics
 - Provides a means for determining who are and are not stakeholders and why-including such controversial stakeholder candidates as competitors, activists, and the natural environment

 Business ethics is a staple in the news today. One of the most difficult ethical questions facing managers is, To whom are they responsible? Organizations can affect and are affected by many different constituencies-these groups are often called stakeholders. But who are these stakeholders? What sort of managerial attention should they receive? Is there a legal duty to attend to stakeholders or is such a duty legally prohibited due to the shareholder wealth maximization imperative? In short, for whose benefit ought a firm be managed?

 Despite the ever growing importance of these questions, there is no comprehensive, theoretical treatment of the stakeholder framework currently in print. In Stakeholder Theory and Organizational Ethics, Robert Phillips provides an extended defense of stakeholder theory as the preeminent theory of organizational ethics today. Addressing the difficult question of what the moral underpinning of stakeholder theory should be, Phillips elaborates a "principle of stakeholder fairness" based on the ideas of the late John Rawls-the most prominent moral and political philosopher of the twentieth century. Phillips shows how this principle clarifies several long-standing questions in stakeholder theory, including: Who are an organization's legitimate stakeholders? What is the basis for this legitimacy? What, if any, are the limits of stakeholder theory? What is the relationship between stakeholder theory and other moral, political, and business ethical theories?

 Applying research from many related disciplines, Stakeholder Theory and Organizational Ethics is an overdue response to several long-standing and fundamental points of contention within business ethics and management theory.


AAS 202 | ASIAN AMERICAN LITERATURE | 4 quarter hours (Undergraduate) This course will serve as an overview of Asian American literature in a socio-historical context. Special emphasis will be placed on tracing the various paradigms through which these works have been produced, from texts written prior to the movement towards self-determination during the 1960s; to works identified with the "cultural nationalism" promoted during the 1960s and 1970s; to the pluralism of the 1980s which explored how gender, sexual orientation, and class complicate earlier essentialist conceptions of racial identity; and finally to the transnational and diasporic interests of the 1990s. Texts covered will include primarily fiction (novels and short stories), but also critical essays, plays, movies, and poetry.


I f International Relations as a scholarly endeavor is to remain relevant it must speak to today's most pressing dilemmas of political action in world politics: theoretically, analytically, and practically. How should we combat terrorism? When, if ever, is humanitarian intervention justified? How should we address the transborder movement of peoples? What is an appropriate response to global climate change? What should the international community do about ''failed states''? How should we respond to persistent global poverty and political alienation? How do we reconcile trade liberalization and environmental protection? Who is the ''we'' that has responsibility for acting in such situations? If it is to speak to such questions—if it is to be a practical discourse—International Relations needs to be more than an explanatory project; it has to occupy the difficult terrain between empirical and normative inquiry. In whichever context it arises, the question of ''how we should act'' requires both an appreciation of the political conditions of action and an understanding of the good(s) we wish to achieve. Empirical theory and inquiry contributes to the first of these tasks, but it is normative inquiry that illuminates the second. As E. H. Carr observed long ago, if International Relations as a political science is to speak to the most pressing issues of international political action, it must be a science ''not only of what is, but of what ought to be.'' 1


With approximately half of Australian university teaching now performed by Sessional Academics, there has been growing recognition of the contribution they make to student learning. At the same time, sectorwide research and institutional audits continue to raise concerns about academic development, quality assurance, recognition and belonging (Red Report, 2008; May, 2013). In response, universities have increasingly begun to offer academic development programs for Sessional Academics. However, such programs tend to be centrally delivered, generic in nature, and contained within the moment of delivery, while the Faculty contexts and cultures that Sessional Academics work within are diverse, and the need for support unfolds in ad-hoc and often unpredictable ways. In this paper we present the Sessional Academic Success (SAS) program – a new framework that complements and extends the central academic development program for Sessional Academics at Queensland University of Technology. This program recognizes that experienced Sessional Academics have much to contribute to the advancement of learning and teaching, and harnesses their expertise to provide school-based academic development opportunities, peer-to-peer support, and locally contextualized community building. We describe the program's implementation and explain how Sessional Academic Success Advisors (SASAs) are employed, trained and supported to provide advice and mentorship and, through a co-design methodology, to develop local development opportunities and communities of teaching practice within their schools. Besides anticipated benefits to new Sessional Academics in terms of timely and contextual support and improved sense of belonging, we explain how SAS provides a pathway for building leadership capacity and academic advancement for experienced Sessional Academics. We take a collaborative, dialogic and reflective practice approach to this paper, interlacing insights from the Associate Director, Academic: Sessional Development who designed the program, and two Sessional Academic Success Advisors who have piloted it within their schools.


Abstract: Eu3+-doped NaLa4Mo3O15F was prepared by solid-state method and characterized by X-ray powder diffraction (XRD) and scanning electron microscope (SEM). The luminescence properties such as the excitation and emission spectra, the internal quantum efficiency (QE) and the thermal stability were investigated. The optimal level of Eu3+-doping was determined by the luminescence intensities and QEs. The phosphor exhibits a bright red luminescence at 615 nm corresponding to the electric dipole transition 5D0→7F2, which is more efficient than the commercial phosphor of Y2O2S:Eu3+. With the increase of Eu3+-doping the charge transfer band (CTB) shows an obvious red-shift, which presents a longer wavelength than any other reported Eu3+-doped molydates with non-cubic structures. NaLa4Mo3O15F:Eu3+ has excellent properties such as the high quantum efficiency excited in near-UV and blue wavelength, the high thermal stability, etc. This is benefited from its structural characteristics: the cubic crystalline phase with MoO6 groups and the incorporation of F- ions in the host lattices.


This article examines the global community's Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) agenda for 2016 to 2030 by applying several previously published professional and legal indicators, peer reviewed in a variety of fields, for measuring compliance with international law and professional standards in the social and management sciences for sustainable development, poverty reduction, and development to see how the SDGs do. Overall, the SDGs show little change in substantive, ideological or implementation approach from the previous Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). They are largely a reassertion of 19 and early 20 century European colonial approaches to weaker nations and cultures in violation of many of the principles established under international law for global peace, security and rights following the end of World War II. The implications of this approach, despite the claims, are that the SDGs are likely to further threaten international law objectives for protecting cultural diversity, sovereignty, sustainability and survival in a way that undermines not just international law but also global security.


Fabry disease (FD) is a rare metabolic disorder of glycosphingolipid storage caused by mutations in the GLA gene encoding lysosomal hydrolase α‐galactosidase A (α‐gal A). Recently, the diagnostic procedure for FD has advanced in several ways, through the development of a specific biomarker (lyso‐Gb3) and the implementation of newborn screenings, which acted as a catalyst to augment general awareness of the disease. Heterologous over‐expression of α‐gal A variants and subsequent in vitro measurement of enzyme activity provided molecular data to elucidate the relationship between mutation, enzyme damage, lyso‐Gb3 biomarker levels, and clinical phenotype. This knowledge is the foundation for improved counseling with regard to prognosis and therapeutic decisions. Herein, we resume the approach of in vitro characterization, with a further 73 mainly novel GLA gene mutations. Patient lyso‐Gb3 data were available for most of the mutations. All mutations were tested for responsiveness to pharmacological chaperone treatment and phenotypic data for 61 hemizygous male and 116 heterozygous female patients carrying a mutation associated with ≥20% residual activity, formerly classified as "mild" variant, were collected in order to evaluate the pathogenicity. We conclude that a mild GLA variant is typically characterized by high residual enzyme activity and normal biomarker levels. We found evidence that these variants can still be classified as a distinctive, but milder, sub‐type of FD.


Abstract. Coupled atmosphere–fire models can now generate forecasts in real time, owing to recent advances in computational capabilities. WRF–SFIRE consists of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model coupled with the fire-spread model SFIRE. This paper presents new developments, which were introduced as a response to the needs of the community interested in operational testing of WRF–SFIRE. These developments include a fuel-moisture model and a fuel-moisture-data-assimilation system based on the Remote Automated Weather Stations (RAWS) observations, allowing for fire simulations across landscapes and time scales of varying fuel-moisture conditions. The paper also describes the implementation of a coupling with the atmospheric chemistry and aerosol schemes in WRF–Chem, which allows for a simulation of smoke dispersion and effects of fires on air quality. There is also a data-assimilation method, which provides the capability of starting the fire simulations from an observed fire perimeter, instead of an ignition point. Finally, an example of operational deployment in Israel, utilizing some of the new visualization and data-management tools, is presented.


In 1825 a group of Griqua lead by Adam Kok II settled at Philippolis at the invitation of Dr John Philip of the London Missionary Society. Fifteen years after, in 1840, Adam Kok III claimed a large part of the Southern Free State as Griqua territory. In the Anglo-Griqua treaty of 1843 negotiated by Sir George Napier and Adam Kok III, and that of 1846 negotiated by Sir Peregrine Maitland and Adam Kok III, Griqua claims to land to the north of the Orange River were recognised. During the time of British Sovereignty in the Free State, from 1848 to 1854, the Griquas were dispossessed of much of their land, and circumstances were created which facilitated the loss of the land of which they had not been dispossessed. The result was that twenty years after Adam Kok III claimed the land, the Griquas had lost it all and in 1861 they embarked on their historic trek to Nomansland (Griqualand East). In this article, answers are sought to the question as to what the legal means were by which the Griqua people were deprived, during a period of British administration, of land which the British had but a few years before in formal treaties recognised unreservedly as being theirs.


The United States Supreme Court in Alexander v. Gardner-Denver Co. held that an employee could not be forced to arbitrate his discrimination claim against an employer pursuant to his union's collective bargaining agreement. Subsequent cases viewed Gardner-Denver as prohibiting mandatory arbitration in employment discrimination claims, until the Supreme Court upheld an agreement to submit all statutory discrimination claims to arbitration in Gilmer v. Interstate/Johnson Lane Corp. Gilmer seems to have limited the prohibition of mandatory arbitration in Gardner-Denver to collective bargaining agreements. Subsequently, many lower courts interpret Gilmer as an approval of arbitration clauses in employment agreements, and as such, employers have increasingly included these compulsory arbitration clauses in employment contracts and applications. However, there is still varied treatment of mandatory arbitration clauses by courts. The note explores court decisions which treated subsequent congressional legislation as barring such agreements, additional safeguards imposed by some circuit courts regarding mandatory arbitration agreements, the principal arguments in favor of such agreements, and the countervailing arguments, most represented by the stance of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC). The note concludes by arguing that the United States Supreme Court should clarify the issue in favor of mandatory arbitration agreements, but require that arbitration proceedings from such agreements incorporate fundamental procedural protections for employees, as opposed to the present scheme in which arbitrators do so only on a voluntary basis.


Over the past few years, new ideological movements like the Alt-Right have captured the attention and concern of both mainstream media, policy makers, and scholars alike. Today, the methods by which right-wing extremists are radicalized are increasingly taking place within social media platforms and online communities. However, no research has yet investigated methods for proactively detecting online communities that may be displaying overall warning signs of mass ongoing ideological and political radicalization. In our work, we use a variety of text analysis methods to investigate the behavioral patterns of a radical right-wing community on Reddit (r/altright) over a 6-month period until right before it was banned for violation of Reddit terms of service. We find that this community showed aggregated behavioral patterns that aligned with past literature on warning behaviors of individual extremists in online environments, and that these behavioral patterns were not seen in a comparison group of eight other online political communities, similar in size and user engagement. Our research helps build upon the established literature on the detection of extremism in online environments, and has implications for proactive monitoring of online communities.


From Introduction: "The lack of comparable and accurate statistics of coal-mine accidents in the united States as a whole led the Bureau of Mines in 1911 to undertake the collection of such data. The mining departments of the leading foreign coal-producing countries have long taken cognizance of the importance of statistics. The bureau feels that in presenting the tables embodied in this report it is offering the and comparable statistics of coal-min accidents for the country as a whole that have ever been published."


Objective
Exercise, yoga, and tai chi are commonly used complementary approaches for health and wellness. This review aims to synthesize the evidence for exercise, yoga, and tai chi in the outpatient treatment of major depressive disorder.

Study Selection
A systematic search of the Ovid MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsycINFO, and Cochrane databases was conducted for randomized controlled trials of exercise, yoga, and tai chi for major depressive disorder.

Data Extraction
Standardized mean differences were calculated and meta-analyzed using a random effects multilevel modeling framework. Heterogeneity and subgroup analysis was conducted.

Results
Twenty-five studies were included for final analysis (exercise: 15, yoga: 7, tai chi: 3). Overall, meta-analysis showed a moderate significant clinical effect. However, when only studies (6 studies) with the lowest risk of bias were included, the overall effect size was reduced to low to moderate efficacy. Overall quality of evidence was low. Heterogeneity and publication bias were high.

Conclusions
The current meta-analysis of outpatient exercise, yoga, and tai chi for treatment of major depressive disorder suggests that adjunctive exercise and yoga may have small additive clinical effects in comparison to control for reducing depressive symptoms. The evidence for tai chi is insufficient to draw conclusions. The concerns with quality of studies, high heterogeneity, and evidence of publication bias preclude making firm conclusions.


Concentrations of Fe, Zn, Cu, Pb and Cd were measured in four surface sediments, whole worm tissues and faeces collected along Aguas de Moura channel in Sado estuary. Six wet-weight worm classes were used to analyze the influence of weight. The metal concentration in colonized sediments is high for Fe and Cu, moderate for Pb and Zn, and low for Cd. The analyses of whole worm tissues show that Zn, Cd and Cu are accumulated. Considering the elevated sediment concentrations to which this species is exposed, the high levels of Zn and Cu suggest sequestration and Cu adaptation. However, the low Fe concentration indicates that this metal is not readily available. The similar Pb behaviour also suggests low availability or Fe interference. The high correlation in the sediment between Pb and Fe reinforces this suggestion. The results obtained show that Pb, Zn and Fe are the most important metals in the different weight classes. The overall results of this study show: (1) that this worm is able to adapt physiologically to elevated levels of metals; and (2) that the weight of the worms needs to be taken into account in environmental management programmes.


SUMMARY STATEMENT
 Based on careful evaluation of existing data indicating an association between Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) and prone sleeping position for infants, the Academy recommends that healthy infants, when being put down for sleep, be positioned on their side or back. The most common position currently used in the United States is prone.
 This recommendation is made with the full recognition that the existing studies have methodologic limitations and were conducted in countries with infant care practices and other SIDS risk factors that differ from those in the United States (eg, maternal smoking, types of bedding, central heating, etc). However, taken as a group the studies are convincing. No reports show an advantage to the prone position with regard to SIDS incidence and there are no data proving, or even strongly suggesting, that sleeping in the lateral or supine position is harmful to healthy infants. Thus, assessment of the risk/benefit balance for prone vs nonprone positioning for such infants favors the latter. It should be stressed that, the actual risk of SIDS for an infant placed prone is still extremely low.
 There are still good reasons for placing certain infants prone. For premature infants with respiratory distress, for infants with symptoms of gastroesophageal reflux or with certain upper airway anomalies, and perhaps for some others, prone may well be the position of choice. A nonprone sleeping position is recommended for healthy infants only.
 REPORT
 Health care professionals frequently are asked how it is best to place an infant down for sleep, prone or supine.


This article addresses the long-standing controversy over the World Bank's role in the promotion of participatory budgeting (PB). Some on the left have celebrated the Bank's funding and advocacy for PB as signifying the legitimacy or mainstream success of the process, while others see the Bank's endorsement of PB as a sign that participatory budgeting is becoming watered down and losing its transformative potential, if it ever had such potential. This debate has mostly been an ideological one, and little research has been done to provide evidence to either side. The article is the first to address what the Bank is doing to promote PB and why. It makes six main points. First, the originators of participatory budgeting, the Workers' Party in Brazil, is not promoting it as strongly as it used to. Second, the World Bank has become the most active promoter of PB (perhaps alongside the United Nations Development Program). Third, within the Bank, some promote PB as part of its fairly standard pro-market agenda, while others share many of the same goals as PB's originators. Fourth, though the Bank has become very important for the diffusion of PB, overall PB remains marginal within the Bank. Fifth, the Bank has little influence over the eventual outcomes of PB in different countries because it has little or no control over many of the factors that affect PB in practice. And sixth, because PB's effects have strong potential to be positive, the Bank's role in promoting PB should be encouraged.


In this paper, an approach for modular design of industrial robots is presented. The approach is to introduce an objectoriented simulation model of the robot and combine this with a discrete optimization algorithm. The simulation model of the industrial robot is developed in Modelica, an object oriented modeling and simulation language, and simulated in the Dymola tool. The optimization algorithm used is a modification of the Complex method that has been developed in Matlab and connected to the simulation program. The optimization problem includes selecting components such as gearboxes and motors from a component catalogue and the objective function considers minimization of cost with constraints on gear box lifetime. Furthermore, the correctness of the model has been verified by comparison with an in-house simulation code with high accuracy.


Columnar joints in cross-bedded sandstone of the Miocene Browns Park Formation adjacent to sills and dikes are similar in most aspects to columnar jointing described in igneous rocks. The occurrence is located in secs. 20 and 21, T. 12 N., R. 89 W., Moffat County, Colorado, in the northern part of the Elkhead Mountains volcanic field. The columnar joints are oriented normal to the igneous contacts, but at random to the bedding and cross-lamination. The columns vary from 3 in. to 5 in. in diameter and are up to 3 ft long. Some columns are curved but no "ball and socket" joints were observed. The sandstone was cemented by introduction of opaline silica prior to cooling. Jointing is due to the same processes as those reported to cause columnar joints in the igneous rock masses.


In crafting the Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016 (DTSA), Congress went beyond the federalization of state trade secret protection to tackle a broader social justice problem: the misuse of nondisclosure agreements (NDAs) to discourage reporting of illegal activity in a variety of areas. The past few decades have witnessed devastating government contracting abuses, regulatory violations, and deceptive financial schemes that have hurt the public and cost taxpayers and investors billions of dollars. Congress recognized that immunizing whistleblowers from the cost and risk of trade secret liability for providing information to the Government could spur law enforcement. Congress solved the problem through a true "cone of silence." Congress immunized whistleblowers from liability under federal and state trade secret law for disclosure, in confidence, of trade secrets to government officials and attorneys for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law. Defend Trade Secrets Act of 2016, § 7 (codified at 18 U.S.C. § 1833(B)(1)(A) (2012)). By limiting disclosure to trusted intermediaries -- government officials bound by state and federal law to protect trade secrets and attorneys bound by confidentiality obligations -- the DTSA whistleblower immunity regime promotes law enforcement without risking commercial harm to legitimate trade secret owners.Unfortunately, the first case to apply the DTSA whistleblower immunity provision (Unum Group v. Loftus, 2016 WL 7115967 (D. Mass.)) turns Congress' immunity regime on its head. By treating a statutory immunity as a defense rather than a safe harbor, the court effectively resurrected the murky situation that Congress corrected by immunizing employees and contractors for protected activities. Notwithstanding that Unum provided no evidence that Loftus has done anything more than share company records with his counsel as part of an effort to investigate a suspected violation of law, the court nonetheless imposed upon Loftus the burden of proving that he did not have an improper purpose. In so doing, the court ignores the vaccine and subjects Loftus to the very disease that Congress cured: the imposition of substantial costs and adverse career repercussions by sharing, in confidence, company documents with counsel. Where the employee asserts under oath that he or she disclosed company documents to government officials or an attorney in confidence solely for the purpose of reporting or investigating a suspected violation of law, the DTSA whistleblower regime requires the employer-trade secret owner to come forward with concrete evidence that the employee or contractor has shared trade secret information outside of the protected categories or for an impermissible purpose. Absent such evidence, the employee-contractor remains free to work with counsel to investigate and report alleged violations of law and immune from suit for trade secret violations.


Contact-free detection of human vital signs like heart rate and respiration rate will improve the patients' comfort and enables long-term monitoring of newborns or bedridden patients. For that, reliable and safe measurement techniques are indispensable. The aim of this work is the development and comparison of novel ultrasonic and capacitive measurement setups, sharing a common hardware platform. Both measurement techniques that are implemented and compared are based on the detection of minor chest wall vibrations in millimeter ranges, due to geometrical thorax changes during respiration and heartbeat activities. After examining the physical measurement conditions and simulating the capacitive sensor, a problem-specific measurement setup is proposed. The system is characterized to be capable of detecting distance changes below $\mathrm {2~\mu m}$ via the ultrasonic sensor and below $\mathrm {800~\mu m}$ via the capacitive sensor. First subject measurements show that the detection of heart activities is possible under ideal conditions and exclusively with the proposed ultrasonic approach. However, the capacitive sensor works reliably for respiration monitoring, even when the subject is fully-clothed and covered with a blanket. The chosen ultrasonic approach is sensitive regarding minor changes of the reflecting surface and therefore has high uncertainty. In contrast, capacitive respiration detection is very reliable. It is conceivable that improvements in the capacitive sensor circuitry will also enable the detection of heart activities. The proposed ultrasonic approach presents current problems of this technique. In contrast to that, the unusual approach of capacitive sensing demonstrates a high potential regarding vital signs acquisition.


AIM
The present study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of individualized exercise counselling in changing exercise behaviour and relieving pregnancy-related distress symptoms in pregnant women.

METHODS
A quasi-experimental design and convenience sampling technique were used. Participants were recruited from the prenatal outpatient departments of medical centre hospitals in Taipei, Taiwan. The experimental group (n = 52) received face-to-face exercise counselling followed by 8 weeks of exercise sessions in their homes. The control group (n = 49) received no exercise counselling. Pregnancy-related distress symptoms were assessed before and after 8 weeks in both groups.

RESULTS
The after-counselling scores of total (t = 2.46, P < 0.05) and physical (t = 3.18, P < 0.01) distress symptoms were significantly lower than the before-counselling scores in the experimental group. The total, physical and psychological distress scores significantly differed between groups and before and after counselling. The adjusted R2 values for total, physical and psychological distress symptoms ranged from 0.59 to 0.70. Participants' exercise habits increased from prepregnancy (19.2%) to after counselling (71.2%).

CONCLUSION
Exercise counselling may effectively increase exercise habits and reduce pregnancy-related distress symptoms among pregnant women. Women with higher pretest symptom distress scores also had higher posttest symptom distress scores. Based on our outcomes, health care providers should routinely provide exercise counselling to pregnant women.


Social media–supported protests build circuits of collective interaction that grow across physical, material, digital, and virtual spaces. Extending the research on the governance of communicative spaces, we ask whether representations of place define the public space and whether their analysis suffices to grasp the powerful processes embedded within that space. Consequently, we analyze the available representations of place in the Twitter communication about the protests against the Akademikerball, which is a ball organized by the right-wing populist party, the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO), in Vienna, Austria. The analysis shows multiple forms of representation, but further consideration of its limitations takes into account three other key features of the public space. Together with an examination of representations, the analysis of textures, structures, and connections inform four modes of analysis that ought to be explored simultaneously to comprehensively understand the governance of the communicative space that is occupied in social media–supported protests.


The prime objective of the research is to establish why commercial sponsors use motor sport as an element of their marketing communications. A comparison has been undertaken between car and bike racing, as represented by Formula One and MotoGp, to establish any differences in approach.

The initial historical element of the research revealed that motor sport had been sponsored by vehicle manufacturers since the origins of the petrol combustion engine in the late 19th century. Any suggestion that sponsorship of motor sport is a recent, late 20th century science has been dispelled.

The investigation found that the sponsors of top level car racing place major importance on achieving awareness for their brands through media exposure, particularly television. This aim is shared by motorcycle racing sponsors too and a common model is identified.

Where motor cycle racing is specifically concerned the research established that there is an almost identical approach to the usage and application of sponsorship to that in car racing. The only difference being that the wider commercialisation of F1, in which brands outside those intimately involved with automotive industries have made use of motor sport sponsorship, has been around for longer than that in motorcycle racing. The motorcycle sponsors have therefore taken slightly longer to reach the same level of marketing sophistication in a sport which is recognized as having less money overall.

The research reveals that the most important element of the business plan for both types of motor sport relies largely on a business model linked to global television audiences. Such audiences are seen as vital in generating awareness of sponsors and their products. Such plans provide an entirely relevant platform for the initial steps of the AIDA theory (Awareness; Interest; Desire; Action) of product adoption. The research also identifies that this commonality of approach is not entirely accidental as similar promoters have been involved at the top level of both sports.

The research advises that the future of motor sport should continue to involve the application of the latest technologies appropriate to passenger vehicles if it is to continue unhindered. It is suggested that motor sport should become the definitive technological test bed for vehicle propulsion systems that are sustainable and kind to the environment.


Ice storages allow the storing of solar heat in a compact volume for the later use as source for a heat pump that provides heat for a building. In the paper a novel ice storage with 2 m3 water volume is described which contains heat exchanger plates for extracting the latent heat. Most of the components of the storage are made of stainless steel ensuring a long service life time. We present a detailed numerical model for heat exchanger plates that was implemented into the system simulation software Polysun. The model allows now for the first time to simulate ice storages with heat exchanger plates in Polysun. The accuracy of the modelling approach is evaluated based on lab measurements. The new ice storage model was implemented into a system simulation template in Polysun which was designed according to a field installation. The field installation includes three of the novel ice storages and will be used for the validation of the system template. The system template can be used as a design tool for solar-ice systems.


There is an absence of drought tolerant herbaceous perennial forage legume and herb options other than lucerne (Medicago
sativa L.) for environments with Mediterranean-like climates common in extensive areas of Southern Australia, the
Mediterranean basin, and Chile. Therefore, a collection of 174 forage perennial legume and herb entries from 103 species
and 32 genera was evaluated for adaptation in a diverse range of Mediterranean climatic environments in Southern
Australia. The seasonal rainfall distribution varied from moderately to highly winter dominant with long term average
annual rainfall ranging from 318 to 655 mm. The entries were rated for productivity and persistence over 3 yr. The 12 entries
identified as the most promising for winter, summer, or all-year round production included Bituminaria bituminosa (L.)
C.H. Stirt. var. albomarginata; Cichorium intybus L.; Cullen australasicum (Schltdl.) J.W. Grimes; Dorycnium hirsutum
(L.) Ser.; Kennedia prostrata R. Br.; Lotononis bainesii Baker, Lotus pedunculatus Cav.; L. corniculatus L.; L. cytisoides
L.; Medicago sativa subsp. sativa L.; Medicago sativa subsp. caerulea (Less. ex Ledeb.) Schmalh., and M. sativa subsp.
falcata (L.) Arcang. These entries maintained production and persisted for the period of the evaluation, with the exception
of C. intybus and L. corniculatus that declined in persistence over time. The potential role of these species in extensive
grazing systems in Mediterranean climatic zones, their attributes and limitations, and current progress in developing them
as useful forage plants was discussed.


Abstract : An integrated fatigue damage diagnosis and prognosis framework is proposed in this paper. The proposed methodology integrates a Lamb wave-based damage detection technique and a Bayesian updating method for remaining useful life (RUL) prediction. First, a piezoelectric sensor network is used to detect the fatigue crack size near the rivet holes in fuselage lap joints. Advanced signal processing and feature fusion is then used to quantitatively estimate the crack size. Following this, a small time scale model is introduced and used as the mechanism model to predict the crack propagation for a given future loading and an estimate of initial crack length. Next, a Bayesian updating algorithm is implemented incorporating the damage diagnostic result for the fatigue crack growth prediction. Probability distributions of model parameters and final RUL are updated considering various uncertainties in the damage prognosis process. Finally, the proposed methodology is demonstrated using data from fatigue testing of realistic fuselage lap joints and the model predictions are validated using prognostics metrics.


A pulse-echo ultrasonic technique consisting of focused normal-incident compressional waves was used for the detection and evaluation of surface and subsurface damage in micaceous glass-ceramic and silicon nitride samples. The damage was produced by indentation with a tungsten carbide ball. The nature of the damage was found to be material-dependent and was classified into two types: Hertzian cone cracks in the silicon nitride, and distributed subsurface microcracks in the glass-ceramic. While the cone cracks were visible on the surface as circular ring cracks, the distributed subsurface microcracks were not associated with any visible surface cracks. Both the cone cracks and the distributed subsurface microcracks were easily detected by the ultrasonic technique. In addition, the ultrasonic beam was focused to different depths below the surface of the glass-ceramic sample to probe the subsurface region containing the microfracture damage.


Competition is a common design strategy used to enhance user engagement and participation. However, it remains unclear how winning or losing might influence player's engagement. In a recent study, we used behavioral metrics to quantify player engagement during competitive gameplay in virtual reality. To control for players' status of winning or losing, we programmed a virtual opponent to either under-perform, over-perform, or tie with them. We conducted a series of experiments and found that players' engagement was higher when they were losing, compared to when they played alone. Nevertheless, players' engagement did not change during competition with an under-performing or equally-performing opponent. By applying the information-theoretic notion of transfer entropy, we unveiled a causal relationships between relative performance and engagement, whereby players monitored the scores and adapted their behavior accordingly. However, behavioral metrics are not detached from volition and may be influenced by confounding factors. This limitation is addressed by the use of physiological metrics, which offer largely unbiased measurements of cognitive and emotional processes. In the present study, we sought to strengthen our prior findings by measuring engagement with a physiological correlate. We conducted experiments in the same experimental setting and we measured players' galvanic skin response during competition. We discovered that players' skin conductance was higher when they were outperformed by their opponent, indicating that they were experiencing less flow. The results inform the design of technology-mediated applications toward sustaining user engagement and participation.


The National Basketball Association (NBA) is widely recognized as an entertaining and innovative league whose teams play regular season and postseason games in packed arenas at home and away sites in the United States and Canada. This book discusses the development, growth, and success of the 61-year-old NBA from a business perspective. Covering the late 1940s to 2009, it focuses on the league's expansions and mergers, team territories and relocations, franchise organizations and operations, basketball arenas and markets, and NBA domestic and international affairs. Readers will gain an insight into when, how, and why the NBA emerged, reformed, and gradually matured to become one of the world's most dominant, prosperous, and popular professional sports organizations today.


Recent advances in genotyping technologies have facilitated genome-wide scans for natural selection. Identification of targets of natural selection will shed light on processes of human adaptation and evolution and could be important for identifying variation that influences both normal human phenotypic variation as well as disease susceptibility. Here we focus on studies of natural selection in modern humans who originated ~200,000 years go in Africa and migrated across the globe ~50,000 - 100,000 years ago. Movement into new environments, as well as changes in culture and technology including plant and animal domestication, resulted in local adaptation to diverse environments. We summarize statistical approaches for detecting targets of natural selection and for distinguishing the effects of demographic history from natural selection. On a genome-wide scale, immune-related genes appear to be major targets of positive selection. Genes associated with reproduction and fertility also appear to be fast evolving. Additional examples of recent human adaptation include genes associated with lactase persistence, eccrine glands, and response to hypoxia. Lastly, we emphasize the need to supplement scans of selection with functional studies to demonstrate the physiologic impact of candidate loci.


From the time of its invention, photography has enabled artists not only to capture the world around them but also to create worlds of their own. Utopia/Dystopia investigates how artists from the late 19th century to the present have used photographic fragments or techniques to represent political, social, or cultural states of utopia or dystopia. Artists have employed a number of strategies to this end, such as cutting, fragmenting, and puncturing images as well as reassembling those culled from ready-made materials or giving a subject multiple exposures. The resulting photographs, photocollages, photomontages, and other creations question the validity of seamless pictorial images, and attempt to dismantle the notion of photography as an objective medium. This publication features approximately forty-five exemplary works by artists such as Herbert Bayer, John Heartfield, Hannah Hoch, Arata Isozaki, El Lissitzky, Carter Mull, Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, Vik Muniz, Man Ray, Okanoue Toshiko, and many others. Also included are essays that offer new ways of thinking about photography's uses and implications.


This study evaluated the potential for dietary para-nonylphenol (NP; CAS No. 84852-15-3) to affect parental fertility and growth and development of three offspring generations in CD (Sprague-Dawley [SD]) rats, including sperm counts across generations to determine the validity of equivocal reductions observed in the F2 generation by R. E. Chapin et al. (1999, Toxicol. Sci. 52, 80-91). Male rat kidney toxicity was also examined based on inconsistent observations in NP-exposed rats at 2000 ppm but not at 200 or 650 ppm in Purina 5002 (H. C. Cunny et al., 1997, Regul. Toxicol. Pharmacol. 26, 172-178) and at all of these NP concentrations in NIH-07 diet (R. E. Chapin et al., 1999, Toxicol. Sci. 52, 80-91). Concentrations were 0, 20, 200, 650, and 2000 ppm NP in Purina 5002 diet and 0 and 650 ppm NP in NIH-07 diet. 17beta-estradiol (E2) was used as a positive control at 2.5 ppm in Purina 5002 diet. There were no NP effects on any reproductive parameters in any generation, including sperm counts. Kidney toxicity (histopathology) occurred at 650 and 2000 ppm with no clear difference for the two diets. Ovarian weight was decreased at 2000 ppm NP in all generations, with no effect on reproduction. Dietary E2 at 2.5 ppm caused renal, reproductive, and developmental (lactational and peripubertal) toxicity in all generations. This study confirmed that dietary NP is not a selective reproductive toxicant with an no observable adverse effect level (NOAEL) of > 2000 ppm ( approximately > 150 mg/kg/day) and provided an NOAEL for male rat kidney toxicity of 200 ppm NP (approximately 15 mg/kg/day).


National drug policy, medical practice and the child welfare system have not kept pace with scientific research that points to effective health interventions to address alcoholism and drug dependence among pregnant women. In its 2003 amendments to the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, Congress adopted a policy requiring physicians to report to child protective services all patients who give birth to an infant affected by illicit drug use. Drawing on epidemiological, medical and social science research, this Article critiques Congress's decision to require health professionals to engage in a surveillance role instead of a therapeutic intervention. In seeking to craft an effective child protection strategy, this Article explores two fundamental issues that weigh against the adoption of a nationwide physician reporting requirement. The first is the child welfare system's limited capacity - as an institution that carries out both child protection and rehabilitation functions simultaneously - to help drug-dependent pregnant women change their behavior. The second is the adverse effect of coerced treatment on both a physician's ability to deliver effective prenatal care and a drug-dependent woman's willingness to access health care that will mitigate the harm associated with drug use. This Article proposes that states adopt an alternative child protection model that restores physicians to their role of healer and requires them to carry out their ethical and therapeutic obligation to diagnose this serious medical problem during prenatal care.


Deep generative models have achieved remarkable success in various data domains, including images, time series, and natural languages. There remain, however, substantial challenges for combinatorial structures, including graphs. One of the key challenges lies in the difficulty of ensuring semantic validity in context. For example, in molecular graphs, the number of bonding-electron pairs must not exceed the valence of an atom; whereas in protein interaction networks, two proteins may be connected only when they belong to the same or correlated gene ontology terms. These constraints are not easy to be incorporated into a generative model. In this work, we propose a regularization framework for variational autoencoders as a step toward semantic validity. We focus on the matrix representation of graphs and formulate penalty terms that regularize the output distribution of the decoder to encourage the satisfaction of validity constraints. Experimental results confirm a much higher likelihood of sampling valid graphs in our approach, compared with others reported in the literature.


Concrete crosstie usage in North America continues to increase for rail transit and heavy axle load freight railroad applications. As such, it is important to design optimized crossties to save both capital and maintenance funds. Recently, a method for quantifying concrete crosstie bending moments using concrete surface strain gauges has been developed, deployed, and validated. Data from this method are used in this paper for (1) building a model to quantify sources of variability for field bending moments and the relative influence of each source, (2) generating an accurate model to predict bending moments at the two field locations surveyed, and (3) comparing the relative effects of predictor variables on rail transit and heavy axle load freight rail modes to determine their influence on service bending moments. Results show that it is possible to develop a reliable model to predict bending moments, and that several factors have a strong influence on these predictions, namely vertical load, temperature gradient, and axle location within a railcar truck. The most significant factor is the crosstie support condition, especially with respect to center moments. While the aforementioned model's primary utility is for the two sites and railroad systems surveyed, the model provides a valuable tool for determining which variables are the most critical for inclusion in the future mechanistic design of concrete crossties.


Understanding wood properties and behavior is important to evaluate the
performance of producing high quality end products. A study was conducted to
determine the anatomical and physical properties of new Hevea species viz Hevea
pauciflora, Hevea guianensis, Hevea spruceana, Hevea benthamiana compared to the
executing Hevea brasiliensis clone RRIM 912. This study was conducted in order to
determine its suitability and potential usage of these woods. Five trees of 15 years old
from each species were selected and felled from Rubber Research Institute of Malaysia
(RRIM) Plantation at Bandar Penawar, Johor. Each tree was divided into three
different portions along the height namely, bottom, middle and upper parts, and two
radial samples namely outer and inner parts were chosen for comparative study on
the anatomical structure and physical properties. Physical testing were conducted using ISO 3129-1975 (E) – Wood Sampling Methods and General Requirements for
Physical and Mechanical Tests (Anon, 1975a).
Clone RRIM 912 exhibited the longest fibre compared to other species with 1214 μm,
followed by Hevea benthamiana (1200 μm), Hevea pauciflora (1189 μm), Hevea spruceana
(1158 μm) and Hevea guianensis (1145 μm). Longer fibre was observed in outer wood
compared to inner wood. The fibre length of these rubberwood species was increasing
from bottom to the upper part of the tree. Hevea guianensis has the largest fibre
diameter (24.9 μm) and lumen diameter (12.5 μm). Along the radial zones, there is no
significant difference in lumen diameter either in the inner wood or in the outer wood.
The cell wall thickness of Hevea pauciflora recorded the lowest with 6.08 μm, compared
to the highest with 6.51 μm (Hevea spruceana). Most of these Hevea species showed
decreasing pattern from outer region to inner region. Vessel diameter was found to be
higher in RRIM 912 clones with 153.3 μm. The results indicated that the mean vessel
diameter is larger at outer region compared to inner region. The mean vessel
frequency was higher in Hevea guianensis with 2.61 per sq. mm. The increase in the
amount of vessel will decrease the specific gravity and thus the strength of the wood.
Wood from RRIM 912 clones showed the highest proportion of rays with 33.3%,
compared to the lowest with 29.8% (Hevea spruceana).
Hevea spruceana had the highest initial moisture content compared to other species.
Basically, bottom part possessed the highest moisture content followed by middle and upper part, respectively. The highest specific gravity was obtained from RRIM 912
clones with 0.60, while the lowest was 0.57 (Hevea guianensis). Generally, species with
a high specific gravity have corresponding high strength value. The strength
properties of timber increase with decreasing moisture content. Hevea guianensis
exhibited the highest percentage of shrinkages for all directions (tangential, radial and
longitudinal). Overall, from the results it showed that the tangential shrinkage
recorded the greatest value followed by radial shrinkage and longitudinal shrinkage.
Overall, the properties of clone RRIM 912 was found to be comparatively better
because of higher strength due to longer fibre length, thicker cell walls and higher
specific gravity than other Hevea species. Therefore, this species can be inferred as a
potential general utility timber.


In previous work, we have demonstrated the utility of a feedback loop for enabling optimized transmit pulse shaping in radar target recognition. This previous work was based on low-fidelity target models, but in this paper, we demonstrate the closed-loop, adaptive-waveform approach applied to high-fidelity target model signatures generated by commercial electromagnetic FDTD software. We also incorporate the radar equation into our models for us in the waveform design procedure. Because SNR varies with range, so do our optimized waveforms for target recognition. Constant-modulus waveform constraints are enforced, and a template-based classification strategy is used.


In the area of human-computer interaction, over the last decade, there has been a growing interest on emotional factors, valuing above all the user experience. Emotions play a crucial role - in terms of both performance and influence - in areas such as attention, motivation, memory, decision-making and behavior. Therefore, not only emotion influences the interaction with websites but they also trigger emotional responses, and these responses can determine which website users choose. Therefore, were analyzed the emotional responses triggered in the interaction with Duolingo's interface (a learning languages website) taking into account the different components of emotional design, using data gathering instruments such as eye tracking and self-reporting methods. In this way, the present work intended to contribute to the design of interfaces that appeal in a greater extent to the users' emotions, in order to improve their user experience while increasing their level of engagement. Over the years, the focus of research in the field of human-computer interaction has been usability, which traditionally emphasizes the ease of use and functionality based on observed cognitive activity. Only recently, and prompted by Norman (2004), the role of aesthetic and affective aspects of interface design (Dillon, 2002; Norman, 2004) become more prominent leading to a growing interest on emotional factors. Works such as Jordan (2000), Desmet (2002) and Norman (2004) advocate a greater focus on pleasure and emotion in the user experience design of a product. "Emotions play an important role in how the user perceived the product (…) to achieve a meaningful relationship to a product." (Fossdal & Berg, 2016, p. 95) Furthermore, emotions dominate decision-making process (Baumeister, Dewall, & Zhang, 2007; Polignano, 2015), direct attention and enhance particular memories over others (Reeves & Nass, 1998), being thus closely linked to attitudes, motivations and users' decisions (Koshkaki & Solhi, 2016). Consequently emotions influence all aspects of our interactions with cara membuat website (Forlizzi & Battarbee, 2004) (Emanuel, Rodrigues, & Martins, 2015; Yin, Zhang, & Li, 2014). Moreover, these trigger complex social and emotional responses identical to that emotional responses experienced when interacting with people (Desmet, 2002). In particular, the positive emotions can increase users' motivation and fixation (Isen, 1993). Emotions can be thereby considered in the field of human-computer interaction, as important factors to take into account for the construction of affective, satisfactory and efficient interfaces (Eskimez, Sturge-Apple, Duan, & Heinzelman, 2016).


Values are widely viewed as central to the selection of, and subsequent satisfaction with, life roles. But because no conceptual framework has been advanced to guide the work of practitioners and researchers, values are widely ignored by both groups. This article sets forth several propositions aimed at remedying this oversight by clarifying the importance of values in both decision making and life satisfaction. Considerable evidence suggests that values influence career and other life role decisions (Dawis & Lofquist, 1984; Judge & Bretz, 1992; Knoop, 1991; Ravlin & Meglino, 1987). Nevertheless, values have not received the same attention from researchers that interests have (Feather, 1992). This article sets forth a series of propositions regarding the influence of values in the choice of life roles and presents evidence to support them. In this presentation, some of the assumptions made by others such as Dawis and Lofquist (1984) and Bandura (1986) are discussed, but only to the extent that they converge or diverge from the propositions being advanced. Before considering these propositions, values are defined. VALUES DEFINED Values are cognized representations of needs that, when developed, provide standards for behavior, orient people to desired end states (Rokeach, 1973), and form the basis for goal setting. Values are the major factor in motivation because they form the basis for attributing worth to situations and objects (Feather, 1992; Rokeach, 1973). Moreover, values serve as the basis for self-regulating cognitions and provide the basis for judging the utility of extrinsic reinforcers. A subset of values "represent these perspectives as applied to work settings" (Judge & Bretz, 1992, p. 261), which suggests that not all values should be classified as work values. Values determine the way needs are met in the family, at work, and in the community. As individuals develop values, they store them in their memories as interrelated (Anderson, 1984), hierarchically arranged entities that a dynamically reorganized depending on environmental circumstances (Chusmir & Parker, 1991). Values function to ensure that biological needs are met and to facilitate human interaction (Rokeach, 1973). Values are tied to the normative structure of the social institutions (e.g. family, school) where they were acquired, which is one feature that distinguishes them from needs. Moreover, unlike needs, which can be situational and transitory, values transcend objects and situations (Rokeach, 1973). For example, altruism, a widely held value among school counselors, will influence counselors' functioning in many situations and with various objects. Interests may also become cognized representations of needs, may provide a guide to action, and may allow people to compare themselves with others. But interests cannot be viewed as internalized standards against which people may judge their own actions or their attainment of idealized end states or goals (Rokeach, 1973). Additionally, each person develops a relatively small number of values but may develop dozens of interests (Feather, 1992; Rokeach, 1973). Propositions About Values The following propositions outline the function of values in the decision-making process and their impact on the outcomes of those choices. They are a synthesis of others' theories, the research data available regarding values, and, in some instances, our own speculation. They are meant as a guide for empirical investigations and to stimulate the thinking of practitioners who wish to incorporate values concepts into their work. 1. Values with high priorities are the most important determinants of choices made, providing that the individuals have more than one alternative available that will satisfy their values. If this is not the case, people will make choices on the basis of the option that least conflicts with their values. In the event that values are not fully crystallized or the outcomes are not fully known, choices will be made that leave final decisions open. …


Evidence suggests that financial development and improved access to credit not only accelerates economic growth, but also reduces household poverty and income inequality. Using Egyptian household survey data evidence it is found that a 1% increase in agricultural wages causes poverty to decline by 6.6%. Agricultural wage increases lead to the largest decrease in overall income inequality where a 1% increase in income from agriculture wages will cause overall inequality to fall by 0.049 percentage points: equivalent to a fall in the Gini coefficient by 18.8%. A regression analysis shows that receiving formal loans increases non-agricultural net revenues by 2.94 times whereas credit increases a household's agriculture revenues by 2.08 times.


This study aimed to investigate the impact of using the integration approach between science and math on acquiring the skills for solving scientific problems for fourth grade students of Basic Education in the Sultanate of Oman. The study sample consisted of 117 fourth grade students selected from one Basic Education school. The sample was divided into two groups: an experimental group, which consisted of 59 students who studied scientific activities integrated with mathematical knowledge and skills through the teacher guide which was designed specifically for the purpose of the study. The second group was the control group, which consisted of 58 students who studied the same activities through the conventional method of teaching. The experimental group students were taught by a cooperating teacher who had received training on how to employ the integrated activities. Both groups studied the same topics for eight weeks during the second semester of the academic year 2008/2009. To answer the research question, a posttest for scientific problem-solving skills with a reliability value of (0.88) was prepared and administered for both groups. Results revealed that there was a statistically significant difference at (α = 0.05) between the two groups in scientific problem-solving skills in favour of the experimental group. The study also showed that there was a statistically significant growth of scientific problem-solving skills in the experimental group. Accordingly, the study recommends training students to use integrated activities which require implementation of mathematical skills and processes in order to solve scientific problems in science.


Introduction Cardiovascular events are a major cause of mortality following successful kidney transplantation. Arteriovenous fistulas (AVFs) are considered the best option for haemodialysis, but may contribute to this excess mortality because they promote adverse cardiac remodelling and ventricular hypertrophy. This raises the question whether recipients with a well-functioning kidney transplant should undergo elective AVF ligation. Methods and analysis The COBALT feasibility study is a multicentre interventional randomised controlled trial (RCT) that will randomise renal transplant patients with stable graft function and a working AVF on a 1:1 basis to standard care (continued conservative management) or to AVF ligation. All patients will perform cardiopulmonary exercise testing (CPET) on recruitment and 6 months later. Daily functioning and quality of life will be additionally assessed by questionnaire completion and objective measure of physical activity. The primary outcome—the proportion of approached patients who complete the study (incorporating rates of consent, receipt of allocated intervention and completion of both CPETs without withdrawal)—will determine progression to a full-scale RCT. Design of the proposed RCT will be informed by an embedded qualitative assessment of participant and healthcare professional involvement. Ethics and dissemination This study has been approved by the East Midlands—Derby Research Ethics Committee (22/EM/0002) and the Health Research Authority. The results of this work will be disseminated academically through presentation at national and international renal meetings and via open access, peer-reviewed outputs. Existing networks of renal patient groups will also be used to disseminate the study findings to other key stakeholders. Trial registration number ISRCTN49033491.


Using an HPLC method with diode array detection, we have measured the concentrations of flavan 3-ols (catechin and epicatechin), trihydroxystilbenes (the cis and trans isomers of polydatin and resveratrol), flavonols (quercetin and rutin), and the hydroxy acid p -coumaric in 644 white wines from the major wine-producing regions. Quercetin and rutin were detectable in very few of these wines, and the latter could not be unequivocally distinguished from isoquercitrin, which was not specifically measured in this study. One or more of the hydroxystilbenes were measurable in most, but the cis isomers of polydatin and resveratrol were not frequently detectable. Among Chardonnay wines, those from Australia had the highest concentrations of both flavan 3-ols, while those from California were highest in p -coumaric acid and trans -resveratrol. For Sauvignon blanc wines, those of South Africa had the highest content of both flavan 3-ols. For Riesling wines, those from France (Alsace) were highest in (+)-catechin and trans -resveratrol, German wines in (-)-epicatechin, and Canadian wines in trans -polydatin. French wines from Pinot (blanc and gris) were higher in all constituents than North American, while Italian wines from this cultivar were the lowest. There were no significant differences in polyphenol concentrations between Gewurztraminer wines from France and North America. Low concentrations of polyphenols were found in miscellaneous white wines from Central Europe and Italy. When analyzed by cultivar rather than by region, highest flavan 3-ol concentrations were observed in wines from French hybrid grapes (Vidal blanc and Seyval blanc) and lowest in Gewurztraminer, whereas the former had lowest concentrations of p -coumaric acid and trihydroxystilbenes. In all instances, the concentrations of the polyphenols measured in white wines were 5% to 25% those of red wines (with quercetin and cis -trihydroxystilbenes being undetectable in most) and do not explain why white wines may have the same potency as red wines in certain biological functions. Climatic factors that appear to modulate polyphenol concentrations in red wines such as stress, fungal pressure and sunlight do not seem to be important for white wines. The intrinsic properties of the individual cultivars or clones together with regional differences in enological techniques may be the most important factors.


Limitations on position-time precision are analyzed in energy-constrained GNSS receivers. The goal of this work is to determine the combination of sampling rate, number of quantization bits, number of satellites tracked, and coherent integration time that maximizes the position-time precision under a xed low-energy constraint. In this paper, only the measurement errors due to spectrally at Gaussian thermal noise are considered. Analytical expressions relating the foregoing parameters to precision and energy consumption are developed. Based on these expressions, a constrained optimization problem is formulated. Optimal solutions indicate that under a tight energy constraint energy should be allocated toward increasing the sampling rate at the expense of the other parameters. Moreover, the quantization resolution should be set above 1-bit only under an energy surplus. Interestingly, optimum settings under tight energy constraints approximately match those chosen by the designers of energyecient commercial GNSS receivers.


Next‐generation DNA sequencing (NGS) technologies can survey sequence variation on a genome‐wide scale, but their utility for crop genetic diversity analysis is poorly known. Many challenges remain in their applications, including sampling complex genomes, identifying single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs), and analyzing missing data. This study presented a practical application of the Roche 454 GS FLX Titanium technology in combination with genomic reduction and an advanced bioinformatics tool to analyze the genetic relationships of 16 diverse barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) landraces. A full 454 run generated roughly 1.7 million sequence reads with a total length of 612 Mbp. Application of the computational pipeline called DIAL (de novo identification of alleles) identified 2578 contigs and 3980 SNPs. Sanger sequencing of four barley samples confirmed 85 of the 100 selected contigs and 288 of the 620 putative SNPs and identified 735 new SNPs and 39 new indels. Several diversity analyses revealed the eastern and western division in the barley samples. The division is compatible with those inferred with 156 microsatellite alleles of the same 16 samples and consistent with our current knowledge about cultivated barley. These results help to illustrate the utility of NGS technologies for crop diversity studies. The NGS application also provides a new informative set of genomic resources for barley research.


We evaluated the impacts of historical land‐use changes (LUCs) from 1987 to 2006 on surface warming rates and rice yields on the island of Shikoku, Japan. We performed two types of numerical simulations (with historical LUCs and with fixed land uses) using a regional atmospheric model (JMA‐NHM) and a large‐area rice‐growth model (PRYSBI). During our study period in Shikoku, the area of paddy fields decreased markedly and the area of building lots and roads increased. Our evaluation suggests that these LUCs caused warming rates in and around paddy fields that were five times those in and around other land uses. The simulated rice yield in 2006 was 0.27% lower (0.012 t ha−1) than in 1987 in response to the change in thermal and solar radiation conditions. These results suggest that decreases of crop yield due to environmental deterioration will be found in other regions where similar LUCs are occurring.


The research was designed to evaluate chromium incorporation by Ganoderma lucidum in rice straw substrate supplemented with chromium chloride. Treatments were combination of Cr level (0, 500, 1000, 1500, 2000, 25000, and 3000 ppm) and fermentation time (0, 2, 3, and 4 wk). The treatments were arranged in a factorial 7 x 4 and allocated in completely randomized design with three replications.  G. lucidum was grown in potato dextrose agar (PDA) medium for 10 days and was inoculated to the substrate which have been sterilized and mixed with CrCl 3 .6H 2 O. The moisture of substrate was maintained at 70%. Fiber and protein components of growth media of G. lucidum was determined and analyzed for their Cr content. The finding result showed that addition of Cr up to 3000 ppm into the substrate stimulated the G. lucidum growth.  Chromium was incorporated into the fiber and protein components of the growth substrate of G. lucidum during fermentation. Incorporation of Cr into the protein of substrate containing3000 ppm Cr  was highest when fermented for 4 wk.  Protein component of substrate contained 9.29% Cr while in NDF and ADF was 27.20% and 10.55% Cr, respectively. It is concluded that Cr was incorporated into the G. lucidum cells during fermentation.


What accounts for the differences in the performance of cooperatively-owned
banks in the Dutch financial crisis of the early 1920s? This thesis measures and
explains the (relative) performance of boerenleenbanken (rural Raiffeisen banks)
and middenstandsbanken (urban Schulze-Delitzsch banks) during the Netherlands'
interwar banking crisis by applying various economic methods to new historical
evidence. The thesis asks: (1) what were the effects on risk-taking behaviour of
differences in the religious attitudes of bankers and their customers? (2) what was
the relationship between interbank competition and financial stability? and (3) what
was the consequence of the liability choices made by shareholders for their banks'
continued survival? Using a combination of economic theory, quantitative financial
analysis and qualitative business histories, this thesis finds that: (1) banks serving
small religious groups were less willing, despite being more able, to take on risks
than those serving majority denominations; (2) those banks that were subject to the
lowest competitive pressures enjoyed the most liquid investment portfolios; and (3) the
choice of liability limitation available to bankers in
uenced their balance sheet risks,
for the worse. Together, these findings lead to the conclusion that social, organisational
and institutional factors each explain part of the heterogeneity in the fate of the
Netherlands' cooperative banks during a period which includes unprecedented debt-
deflationary financial turmoil: hence, (1) strict membership criteria and the use of
personal guarantors in loan agreements acted as strong devices to allow banks for
minorities, regardless of their denomination, to screen and monitor their customers;
(2) the switching costs associated with religious affiliation resulted in a competition-
stability tradeoff during periods of extreme distress; and (3) the stakeholders of the
banks which failed were probably less risk-averse than those of banks which did not,
the consequence of endogenous group formation by risk type.


Background: Partnerships between an academic institution and a magnet designated facility can enhance the expansion of nursing programs by increasing student enrollment and benefit service organizations through supporting structural empowerment, one of the four model components of Magnet. This article describes an academic-service partnership and the application of 7 dimensions of organizational coordination. Seven dimensions, goals, focus, actors, formalization, resources, focus of power and focus of control, were utilized in the design of the academic-service partnership between University of North Carolina-Charlotte School of Nursing and CaroMont Health System. The academic/service partnerships goals that evolved in the planning of this Academic/Service Partnership were to increase School of Nursing (SON) enrollment to meet workforce needs, attain national standards for NCLEX results, increase preceptorship opportunities for nursing staff by providing preceptor education, utilize university resources to facilitate research in service organization and increase applicant pool for employment of baccalaureate (BSN) registered nurses. Methods: Descriptive longitudinal analysis of data was aggregated over an eight year period. Variables analyzed included student enrollment and National Council Licensure Examination for Registered Nurses (NCLEX-RN) scores of the academic partner as well as recruitment, retention and preceptor work shop participation at the service partner. The satisfaction of preceptors and students in the partnership were obtained. Research initiatives as a result of the partnership were facilitated by a nurse researcher. Results: The NCLEX-RN average pass rate for all the students who have completed the CaroMont University Student Program (CUSP) has been 97.1%, while University of North Carolina-Charlotte nursing students had an overall average of 86.25% during the same time period.  Over 30 Registered Nurses (RN) from the hospital and affiliates have participated in preceptor workshops. The data show that outcome of the CaroMont University Student Partner (CUSP) program has increased the number of BSN new graduate nurses hired each year.  Additionally, there has been an increase in the clinical research at the health care organization and the University due to the increased collaboration. Conclusions: The goals should be well delineated, with ownership by both partners. The focus of the partnership should be attended to by each partner, with clear expectations for respective responsibilities.  Each of the partners should have specific liaisons (actors) to ensure that decisions are expedited.


The Schenker Project: Culture, Race, and Music Theory in Fin-de-siecle Vienna. By Nicholas Cook. New York: Oxford University Press, 2007. [xi, 355 p. ISBN-13: 9780195170566. $65.] Illustrations, music examples, bibliographic references, index. "If Schenker's theory was the solution, then what was the problem?" So begins Nicholas Cook's The Schenker Project, in which he attempts to place Heinrich Schenker's music-theoretical writings in the social, cultural, and political context of fin-de-siecle Vienna, in order to gain insight into the way we read Schenker today. This context includes music criticism, architectural modernism, German cultural conservatism, and Schenker's position as a Jewish immigrant to Vienna. For Schenker, music and society were inextricably linked. Such a study is long overdue and enables us tobetter understand how Schenker's polemics were integrated into his concept of musical coherence in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Western art music, and to come to terms with contradictions in his theory. Ultimately, the book contributes to the recent debate over whether Der freie Satz represents the summation or an aberration of Schenker's theory, or whether it is merely a collection of practices and not a theory at all. Cook issues the caveat, however, that "any story of the development of Schenker's theoretical thought is less a reflection of the facts of the matter than a decision as to what the facts are" (p. 27). Cook's narrative of Schenker's history is engaging and informative, and his observations are compelling and provocative. He provides a wealth of biographical and interdisciplinary information, a comprehensive critique of primary and secondary literature, and a translation of Schenker's essay Der Geist der musikalischen Technik (The Spirit of Musical Technique) by William Pastille. The Schenker Project will be of interest to students and scholars of music theory and is recommended for any library supporting the study of Schenkerian analysis. In chapter 1, "Foundations of the Schenker Project," Cook discusses Schenker's writings in terms of philosophy, formalism, and musical logic. Here Cook explains how the philosophical Geist essay anticipates Schenker's life's work. Schenker attacks traditional music theory for being unrelated to practice, and he distinguishes the subjectivity of the composer from the objectivity of the music as a self-organizing structure, hence the concepts of organicism and genius. Although the Schenker project was motivated by many aesthetic, conceptual, and historical factors, Cook argues that it was an attempt to redefine the German in music, and thereby take music back from anti-Semitic Wagnerians to the time of the Viennese classicists, a tradition common to both Jew and gentile. Chapter 2, "The Reluctant Modernist," explores the development of Schenker's views on composition, performance, listening, writing, and teaching (the scope of the Schenker project) from the Geist essay to his later work. Cook focuses first on Ein Beitrag zur Ornamentik, in which Schenker asserts that technique must arise from musical content, and that expressiveness is an objective property of the music; Schenker disparages virtuosos for imposing their mechanical fingering on the music. By extension, Schenker's views on ornamentation reflect his criticism of fin-de-siecle culture in general, and his aim for reform. Cook then examines the relationship of Schenker's writings to modernist art and architecture in Vienna. Such an interdisciplinary approach, which aids our understanding of the environment in which Schenker worked, has been largely ignored in present-day Schenkerian studies. Throughout his book, Cook is careful to distinguish direct influences from common intellectual currency. Although Schenker condemns the "modernity" of the composers of his day, Cook maintains that his theory does not restore but reinvents the classics, and thus Schenker can be described as a reluctant modernist. …


In this paper, the conditions a dither signal must meet so that the quantizer noise can be considered independent of the signal are derived for a quantizer having a finite number of levels. An infinite class of dither signals which satisfy these conditions is given. It is seen that the most useful member of this class is one whose probability density function is uniformly distributed over a quantizing interval. It is also shown that a necessary and sufficient condition for the noise n(t) to be independent of the signal x(t) is that a measurable quantity, called the "D" factor, be zero.