What Does It All Mean? Strong emissions of methane have recently been observed from shallow sediments in Arctic seas. Berndt et al. (p. 284, published online 2 January) present a record of methane seepage from marine sediments off the coast of Svalbard showing that such emissions have been present for at least 3000 years, the result of normal seasonal fluctuations of bottom waters. Thus, contemporary observations of strong methane venting do not necessarily mean that the clathrates that are the source of the methane are decomposing at a faster rate than in the past. Seasonal gas hydrate destabilization has been releasing methane from marine sediments near Svalbard for at least 3000 years. Methane hydrate is an icelike substance that is stable at high pressure and low temperature in continental margin sediments. Since the discovery of a large number of gas flares at the landward termination of the gas hydrate stability zone off Svalbard, there has been concern that warming bottom waters have started to dissociate large amounts of gas hydrate and that the resulting methane release may possibly accelerate global warming. Here, we corroborate that hydrates play a role in the observed seepage of gas, but we present evidence that seepage off Svalbard has been ongoing for at least 3000 years and that seasonal fluctuations of 1° to 2°C in the bottom-water temperature cause periodic gas hydrate formation and dissociation, which focus seepage at the observed sites.


Variation in rates of herbivory may be driven by direct effects of the abiotic environment on grazers, as well as indirect effects mediated by their food. Disentangling these direct and indirect effects is of fundamental importance for ecological forecasts of changing climate on species interactions and their influence on biogenic habitat. Whilst elevated atmospheric CO2 may have direct effects on grazers with calcareous structures via 'ocean acidification', it may also have indirect effects via changes caused to their food. In our study we initially tested, and confirmed, that enriched CO2 altered per capita rates of grazing before assessing the relative importance of indirect and direct effects in driving this response. Our results eliminated the model of a direct effect of CO2 enrichment on the grazers themselves and supported the model of an indirect effect driven by a change in the food (i.e. turf algae). We suggest that this indirect effect manifested as grazers responded to the increased nitrogen content (i.e. %N) of algal tissue that resulted under CO2 enrichment. Understanding such indirect effects of modified environmental conditions provide important mechanistic links between climate conditions and the ecological processes they influence.


Network embedding is an important method to learn low-dimensional representations of vertexes in networks, aiming to capture and preserve the network structure. Almost all the existing network embedding methods adopt shallow models. However, since the underlying network structure is complex, shallow models cannot capture the highly non-linear network structure, resulting in sub-optimal network representations. Therefore, how to find a method that is able to effectively capture the highly non-linear network structure and preserve the global and local structure is an open yet important problem. To solve this problem, in this paper we propose a Structural Deep Network Embedding method, namely SDNE. More specifically, we first propose a semi-supervised deep model, which has multiple layers of non-linear functions, thereby being able to capture the highly non-linear network structure. Then we propose to exploit the first-order and second-order proximity jointly to preserve the network structure. The second-order proximity is used by the unsupervised component to capture the global network structure. While the first-order proximity is used as the supervised information in the supervised component to preserve the local network structure. By jointly optimizing them in the semi-supervised deep model, our method can preserve both the local and global network structure and is robust to sparse networks. Empirically, we conduct the experiments on five real-world networks, including a language network, a citation network and three social networks. The results show that compared to the baselines, our method can reconstruct the original network significantly better and achieves substantial gains in three applications, i.e. multi-label classification, link prediction and visualization.


Several years ago Coleman (1981) reported that in 1979 one of the many in ternational cosmetics companies had an annual sales figure of $2. 38 billion, nearly 1. 25 million sales representatives, and over 700 products, the majority of these being for the face. Cash and Cash (1982) noted that in 1979 U. S. consumers spent over $4 million on cosmetic products. They stated that, "Although this practice would seem to be a fascinating aspect of human be havior on the basis of its generality and resilience, social-behavioral scientists have largely ignored the phenomenon so plainly (or pleasingly) in front of their eyes. " Why should people be so concerned with their facial appearance? Many psychologists have argued (e. g., Kleck & Rubenstein, 1975) not only that facial information is usually the first that is available to the perceiver, but also that it is continuously available during social interaction. Maruyama and Miller (1981) stated that "appearance is often the first dimension upon which a stranger can be evaluated. Since people tend to see others as integrated and consistent units, rather than as collections of situation-specific behaviors, a potent and immediately evident basis for an evaluation, such as physical appearance, should intrude into and affect any overall and subsequent evalua tion."


"Two On A Tower" (1882) is a tale of star-crossed love in which Hardy sets the emotional lives of his two lovers against the background of the stellar universe. The unhappily married Lady Constantine breaks all the rules of social decorum when she falls in love with Swithin St. Cleeve, an astronomer who is ten years her junior. Her husband's death leaves the lovers free to marry, but the discovery of a legacy forces them apart. This is Hardy's most complete treatment of the theme of love across the class and age divide and the fullest expression of his fascination with science and astronomy.


Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C) is appearing in infants, children, and young adults in association with COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) infections of SARS-CoV-2. Kawasaki Disease (KD) is one of the most common vasculitides of childhood. KD presents with similar symptoms to MIS-C especially in severe forms such as Kawasaki Disease Shock Syndrome (KDSS). The observed symptoms for MIS-C and KD are consistent with Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS) characterized by inflammatory molecules released from activated mast cells. Based on the associations of KD with multiple viral and bacterial pathogens, we put forward the hypothesis that KD and MIS-C result from antibody activation of mast cells by Fc receptorbound pathogen antibodies causing a hyperinflammatory response upon second pathogen exposure. Within this hypothesis, MIS-C may be atypical KD or a KD-like disease associated with SARS-CoV-2. We extend the mast cell hypothesis that increased histamine levels are inducing contraction of effector cells with impeded blood flow through cardiac capillaries. In some patients, pressure from impeded blood flow, within cardiac capillaries, may result in increased coronary artery blood pressure leading to aneurysms, a well-known complication in KD.


India's government has a bold goal for deploying renewable energy: 175 gigawatts of electricity-generating capacity by 2022, including 100 gigawatts of solar power. The country has a history of promoting renewable energy and a rapidly growing portfolio of solar and wind projects, but meeting the solar target alone will require a growth rate equivalent to doubling India's installed solar capacity every 18 months. It will also require a clear understanding of the three factors that drive energy demand in India (access, security, and efficiency); new federal and state policies and incentives; innovative financing for capital investments estimated at $100 billion or more; and additional funding for manufacturing, training, and job creation. Project developers will have to grapple with the cost and availability of land, grid connections, and backup power. To meet the electricity needs of the poor and encourage rural entrepreneurship, India's energy policies should aim for a mix of grid-connected and decentralized renewable energy sources.


An anaerobic digestion of palm oil mill effluent (POME) for production of biogas was carried out at pilot scale under thermophilic condition. The objective of this research is to maintain short hydraulic retention time (HRT) and high degradation of the POME to biogas by applying recycle sludge. Fresh POME from PTPN IV without further treatment was used as feed. The fermentation process occurred in a digester tank with the type of continuous stirred tank reactor has a volume of 3 m3 equipped with electrical heaters, mixer, insulators, and baffles in it. To create continuous operation, fresh POME was fed intermittently. A series of experiments with and without recycle sludge were conducted with 616 litres palm oil mill effluent/day feed rate, temperature of feed tank 70 oC, digester tank temperature of 55 oC, stirring rate of 37.5 rpm, six days of hydraulic retention time, and 34% of recycle sludge. The result showed that by extending solid retention time in return sludge process where 34% of digested slurry recycled to the digester, improvement of volatile solid (VS) degradation was obtained around 82.83% at HRT of 6 days. Then, chemical oxygen demand (COD) removal efficiency could be reached until 81% by performing recycle sludge.


This paper investigates the opportunities for farmers to produce for local consumers, based on a case study in the Dutch horticulture sector. Main requirements for the set-up of a local chain of supply chain actors are investigated. Producer requirements are added value, availability of time, infrastructure and training. Retailer requirements are quality of food, purchasing volumes, food safety, communication to consumers and traceability of products. For consumers taste/freshness, sustainability, health benefits and authenticity are important attributes of local foods. Based on literature review and interviews with stakeholders four possible strategies for local food chains are defined. The 'keep it local' strategy means that the local food supply chains will not make use of the current infrastructure of the marketing coop that acts as chain coordinator. Deliveries are directly between farmer and retail outlet. The local products - conventional supply chain strategy implies that current (non-local) supply chains are used to distribute local products. The supply chain planning will be more complex since products need to be separated per grower and distributed to several local supermarkets. In the 'enabling producers' strategy the marketing coop/chain coordinator is going to enable its member producers to sell their products locally. The marketing coop can support producers in for instance, billing and payments, marketing, logistics. The fourth strategy aims at strengthening current consumer communication strategies. It is argued that connecting producers and consumers, regardless of where they live is advantageous. Conclusion is that strategy 3; 'Enabling producers', in combination with strategy 4; 'Strengthening current consumer communication strategies' are the most promising options in setting up local food supply chains. Strategies 1 and 2, where the marketing coop/chain coordinator itself takes on the challenge of setting up local food supply chains meets too much resistance from the retail companies (head-office level) and offers too little opportunities for providing added value to both producers and retailers.


Backbone has been used extensively in various aspects (e.g., routing, route maintenance, broadcast, scheduling) for wireless ad hoc or sensor networks recently. Previous methods are mostly designed to minimize the size of the backbone. However, in many applications, it is desirable to construct a backbone with small cost when each wireless node has a cost of being in the backbone. In this paper, we first show that previous methods specifically designed to minimize the backbone size may produce a backbone with large cost. Then, an efficient distributed method to construct a weighted backbone with low cost is proposed. We prove that the total cost of the constructed backbone is within a small constant factor of the optimum for homogeneous networks when either the nodes' costs are smooth (i.e., the maximum ratio of costs of adjacent nodes is bounded) or the network maximum node degree is bounded. We also show that, with a small modification, the backbone is efficient for unicast: the total cost (or hop) of the least cost (or hop) path connecting any two nodes using backbone is no more than three (or four) times the least cost (or hop) path in the original communication graph. Our theoretical. results are corroborated by our simulation studies. Finally, we discuss several possible ad hoc network applications of our proposed backbone formation algorithms


During the Cold War, several prominent African American radical activist-intellectuals—including W.E.B. and Shirley Graham Du Bois, journalist William Worthy, Marxist feminist Vicki Garvin, and freedom fighters Mabel and Robert Williams—traveled and lived in China. There, they used a variety of media to express their solidarity with Chinese communism and to redefine the relationship between Asian struggles against imperialism and black American movements against social, racial, and economic injustice. In The East Is Black , Taj Frazier examines the ways in which these figures and the Chinese government embraced the idea of shared struggle against U.S. policies at home and abroad. He analyzes their diverse cultural output (newsletters, print journalism, radio broadcasts, political cartoons, lectures, and documentaries) to document how they imagined communist China's role within a broader vision of a worldwide anticapitalist coalition against racism and imperialism.


The United Nations declared the years 1995 to 2004 as the Decade for Human Rights Education. The principles of human rights education promote dignity, tolerance, and peace by educating individuals and groups to respect, defend, and advocate for their rights. These rights are enshrined in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was adopted in 1948 making human rights a global responsibility. During this decade nations are called upon to promote and implement human rights education in all sectors of their society. In 1992 Amnesty International Norway developed a human rights education program called Teaching for Freedom (TFF). This program was implemented in 26 countries worldwide including all ten administrative regions in Ghana, West Africa. The purposes of the TFF program were to educate the youth and train final year teachers in the principles of human rights. These programs are based on the notion of universal human rights that are sometimes criticized as Western and non-applicable to the African context. Human rights education programs are tasked with not only making these universal principles meaningful and participatory in the lives of the people on the ground, but also implementing culturally legitimate programs in local contexts with few resources. This study attempted to understand how the Teaching for Freedom program accomplished these aims and the barriers that impeded it. Using qualitative analysis and the grounded theory approach, I conducted a case study of one TFF program located in one school in one region of Ghana. This human rights education program operated as a club and was studied within the context of the school and society in which it operated. Grounded theory analysis revealed that the TFF club was a conflicted organization whose operation was greatly shaped by forces within the school that were also present in larger society. I describe the operation of the club in terms of awareness, empowerment, and implementation. Barriers to the operation of the TFF club were identified within these three areas of operation and were closely related to the conflicting cultural forces within the school and Ghanaian society.


This is a paper about extinction, geography, and the geographies of extinction. The emerging field of extinction studies has brought a vibrant corpus of interdisciplinary scholarship that destabilises static notions of 'species'; traces the spatiality of death and violence in conservation contexts; and raises important political and ethical questions regarding what and how forms of life are lost, saved and valued. Such work offers an unsettling counter to the biopolitical tendencies of contemporary conservation discourse and understandings of extinction in terms of final, singular death. Instead, extinction studies emphasises the contingent and situated character of life's forms, and the processes by which these are, often slowly, severed and detached from place. Political ecology and geography bring an attention to the politics of extinction by proposing that we reckon head on with the destructive outcomes and processes, which have played out over the world history of capitalism, and seem to have reached a crisis point in what Jason Moore has termed 'the Capitalocene'. In this paper, the authors draw upon research in diverse contexts – concerning the conservation of ospreys on Speyside, Scotland, and trans-border marine conservation in Mozambique –as a lens through which to demonstrate the multiple ways in which extinctions are 'placed'. These are: firstly, an attention to geographical contingency of 'wildlife' under threat from extinction; secondly, the multiple, overlapping and discordant political and economic geographies of violence, death and attempted (necessarily partial) protections through which extinction unfolds; and thirdly, the geographies produced as a result of extinction, be they blasted, spectral or sites for life amidst ruins.


The role of the Nurse Practitioner has successfully been developed internationally within different areas of health care. To satisfy the needs of health care of the population in Sweden, an optimal utilization of the available resources is demanded and treatment of health care problems at an appropriate level of care is required to be able to give health care with good availability, high quality and safety. A collaboration started between the Primary Health Care in the county of Skaraborg and the University of Skövde to develop the role of the district nurses in primary health care toward a more specialized function with the competence to independently make decisions and solve health care problems. The plans of this new role in the health care system gained approval at the National Board of Health and Welfare and other public authorities. St Martin's College, Great Britain and University of Rhode Island, USA have also been partners of collaboration. The result of the work became a curriculum of a new education in Sweden — Advanced Nursing Practice in Primary Health Care.


Neural network based models commonly regard event detection as a word-wise classification task, which suffer from the mismatch problem between words and event triggers, especially in languages without natural word delimiters such as Chinese. In this paper, we propose Nugget Proposal Networks (NPNs), which can solve the word-trigger mismatch problem by directly proposing entire trigger nuggets centered at each character regardless of word boundaries. Specifically, NPNs perform event detection in a character-wise paradigm, where a hybrid representation for each character is first learned to capture both structural and semantic information from both characters and words. Then based on learned representations, trigger nuggets are proposed and categorized by exploiting character compositional structures of Chinese event triggers. Experiments on both ACE2005 and TAC KBP 2017 datasets show that NPNs significantly outperform the state-of-the-art methods.


Retaining Intensive Care Nurses in Las Vegas: The Importance of Nurse Manager Leadership Megan Vendetti In today's healthcare climate, retaining staff nurses is desirable and may be a more permanent solution to improve the nursing shortage. Employing a leadership style that is conducive to staff nurse job satisfaction may be needed to achieve that goal. The purpose of this study was to determine the relationship of the unit manager leadership style with job satisfaction and intent to stay in the intensive care setting. Staff nurses in two Las Vegas hospitals, one private and one public, were surveyed. A questionnaire was developed and voluntarily completed by 125 registered nurses employed in adult and pediatric intensive care units. Analysis of the data was made using Pearson correlations to determine the relationship between the dependent variables of job satisfaction and intent to stay and multiple independent variables. Regression analysis was then completed to find the measures that impacted the job satisfaction and intent to stay the greatest. The findings suggested that job satisfaction and intent to stay in a position were not affected by nurse manager leadership style in this population. The nurse's instead seemed to strive for more of their basic needs, which was found to be a factor in both job satisfaction and retention and suggests further research.


Psychological research on expatriation has been dominated by North American researchers, and expatriation models have been tested using predominantly US employee samples. This dominance may bias our understanding of expatriation and influence the practice of expatriate assignments within organisations. This thesis addresses the need for European expatriation research, and investigates expatriate assignment success from a British employee perspective. A sequential mixed-methods design was used to examine whether existing knowledge on predictors for successful expatriate assignments can be generalised to British samples. The first phase of the research was a qualitative exploration of factors that contribute to expatriate assignment success from the British employee perspective. Four focus groups were conducted with formerly expatriated British employees (n=14). An inductive thematic analysis was conducted on the focus group transcripts, which resulted in nine themes highlighting the importance of individual, organisational, and contextual-level variables. Moreover, the analysis highlighted an important outcome variable that has been largely ignored in previous research: whether or not the employee would go on another expatriate assignment. From the results of phase one, an initial model of British expatriate assignment success was hypothesised. Phase two involved the practical application of the variable considered most important in contributing to expatriate assignment success from study one: personality. A new expatriate assignment personality instrument was developed in phase two using a sample of British employees (n=402). The third phase of the research combined the results of the previous two phases, and employed an embedded mixed-methods design to further investigate British expatriate assignment success. Data (n=155) was collected using an online questionnaire sent to currently expatriated (n=91) and formerly expatriated British employees (n=45), as well as their accompanying partners (n=19 expatriate/partner dyads). The quantitative element explored the influence of several individual, organisational, and contextual variables on various expatriate assignment success outcome measures. Qualitative data was also collected through open-ended questions placed within the questionnaire to help explain and support the quantitative results, and identify potential areas for future research. Finally, the newly developed personality instrument from phase two was further examined for psychometric robustness. Overall, this thesis presents an initial model of British expatriate assignment success and a new personality instrument for British expatriate selection and assessment contexts. The theoretical and practical implications of these results are discussed together with suggestions for future research.


This review summarizes theoretical progress in the field of active matter, placing it in the context of recent experiments. This approach offers a unified framework for the mechanical and statistical properties of living matter: biofilaments and molecular motors in vitro or in vivo, collections of motile microorganisms, animal flocks, and chemical or mechanical imitations. A major goal of this review is to integrate several approaches proposed in the literature, from semimicroscopic to phenomenological. In particular, first considered are ``dry'' systems, defined as those where momentum is not conserved due to friction with a substrate or an embedding porous medium. The differences and similarities between two types of orientationally ordered states, the nematic and the polar, are clarified. Next, the active hydrodynamics of suspensions or ``wet'' systems is discussed and the relation with and difference from the dry case, as well as various large-scale instabilities of these nonequilibrium states of matter, are highlighted. Further highlighted are various large-scale instabilities of these nonequilibrium states of matter. Various semimicroscopic derivations of the continuum theory are discussed and connected, highlighting the unifying and generic nature of the continuum model. Throughout the review, the experimental relevance of these theories for describing bacterial swarms and suspensions, the cytoskeleton of living cells, and vibrated granular material is discussed. Promising extensions toward greater realism in specific contexts from cell biology to animal behavior are suggested, and remarks are given on some exotic active-matter analogs. Last, the outlook for a quantitative understanding of active matter, through the interplay of detailed theory with controlled experiments on simplified systems, with living or artificial constituents, is summarized.


Objective: To determine the effectiveness of
ANC
birth
plans
(birth
preparedness and
complication readiness) in increasing skilled care
at
delivery
and after
delivery
Rationale: Although birth plans are
key
elements of
focused
ANC in
many
developing
countries including Tanzania that aim to increase
skilled care utilization
at
delivery,
after delivery and during emergency
obstetric complications,
robust empirical evidence
is lacking on their effectiveness.
Methods
The study was a cluster randomized controlled
trial
(RCT) that
was
conducted
in
Ngorongoro district, rural northern
Tanzania.
The
primary
outcome was the
proportion
of women who delivered at the available
health
units
and the
secondary
outcomes were
the proportion of women who sought postnatal
care
within
one month of
delivery
and
women's and providers' satisfaction with
ANC. The
study
was
implemented in three
phases: the formative qualitative study that
aimed to
understand
contextual
factors for
the high ANC care coverage but low utilization
of
health facilities for delivery
and
how
the intervention could be implemented in the
study
district,
a
RCT to
determine the
effectiveness of the intervention in increasing
skilled attendance
at
delivery
and
postpartum, and a process evaluation of the
intervention
and control
arms'
ANC. The
qualitative study involved 15 focus group
discussions, 12
key informant interviews
and
participant observation of the ANC and
delivery
care at randomly
selected
health
units.
Eight health units were randomly assigned
to the
intervention
(antenatal
care with
an
emphasis on birth plans by care providers)
and
an equal number
to the
control group
(care as provided currently). A total of
905
consenting
pregnant women
(404 in the
intervention arm and 501 in the control)
at
24
weeks
of gestation and above were
recruited and followed up to the
initial
postnatal
care
clinic
attendance
or
during the
postnatal interview at home depending on
which
occurred
first.
Results
Both demand and supply sides factors prevented
women
from
utilizing
health
units
for
delivery and immediate postnatal care,
despite the
high level
of
ANC
uptake.
Notably,
women's lack of planning for accessing
delivery
care at
health
units,
norms
and
traditions dictating that home delivery is
equally safe
and
health
system
deficiencies
(structural, process and outcome)
were
the
key barriers identified.
2 Unpaired t-test statistic was used
to
assess the
effectiveness of the
intervention
on the
primary and secondary outcomes taking
into
account the
clustering effect.
Overall,
34.8% of women in the intervention arm and
20.3% in the
control
delivered in the
health facilities (difference in proportion:
14.5% [-9.4-38.3]
p=0.2138
for the
crude
analysis and 16.8% [2.6-31.0] p=0.0248
for the
adjusted analysis).
Postnatal
care
utilization was 62.1% in the intervention and
32.1% in the
control group
(difference in
proportion for the crude and adjusted analysis
30.0% [11.3-48.7]
p=0.0040
and
31.3%
[15.4-47.2] p=0.0009 respectively).
Altogether,
96.8%
of women
in the intervention
and
84.7% in the control units were
satisfied with the
ANC they
received
(difference in
proportion: 12.1% [-6.3-30.5] p=0.1668
for the
crude
and
12.6% [-5.4-30.5]
p=0.1454
adjusted analysis). Similarly, 97.9% and
91.0%
of providers
in the intervention
and
control arms were satisfied with the
ANC they
provided
(difference in
proportion:
crude
analysis 6.9% [-3.2-17.1] p=0.1547 and adjusted
analysis
7.8% [-0.7-16.3]
p=0.0688).
Overall, the intervention was implemented as
per
study
protocol.
The
average time
for
initial ANC consultation in the intervention arm
of the
study
was
40.1
minutes
(range
33-47 minutes) compared to 19.9 minutes
(range
12-32
minutes)
in the
control
arm
p<0.0001. The average time for consultation
during follow-up
ANC
visits was
23.3
minutes (rangel5-31) for the intervention units
versus
10.3
minutes
(range 6-17)in the
control p=0.0001. Likewise, providers
in the
intervention
units spent
more time
for
counselling/health education or promotion than in the
control
units at
both initial
ANC
attendance and during subsequent
visits
(average time
at
initial
attendance
24.5
minutes, range 19-32 in the intervention vs
10.5
minutes, range
5-18 in the
control
arm)
p<0.0001 ). The respective time for follow-up
visits
was
13.8
minutes
(range 6-17)
vs
4.5 minutes (range 0-10) p=0.0001.
Nevertheless, the
improvement
was
largely
on the
discussion on birth plans and PMTCT, and not on the
other topics in the
national
focused ANC guidelines.
Conclusion and implication for practice
A well-implemented antenatal birth plan
intervention improved
women's utilization of
health units for delivery, and post
delivery
without substantially affecting the
women's
and providers' satisfaction with
ANC. Implementation
of
birth
plans
in health
care
settings in low resource settings like Ngorongoro is feasible
and
should
be
promoted
as
an effective strategy to increase skilled
delivery
and
postnatal uptake.


In this research paper, design strategies of retrofitting activities were evaluated based on specified district sustainability indicators. The main objective is to identify the existing conditions of the selected district within the scope of applied indexes to develop new strategies for retrofitting. The district is represented by 3 buildings with 20,000 m conditioned area which contains similar building characteristics as remaining residential buildings in the city. Accordingly, energy models of selected buildings were created and analyzed where hourly dynamic simulation tool was used to assess energy indicators. The intention is to have detailed calculations of the energy index with reference to indoor comfort, greenhouse gas emission and the economical index with reference to return on investment. The findings of this assessment reveal a number of significant implications for the improvement of the overall building performance. The most explicit finding of this study is to show that 65% energy saving, correspondingly 69 kg/myear greenhouse gas emission reduction with 5.16 years return on investment can be achieved by the well-defined and precisely calculated district sustainability indicators.


'Groupon' has entered the South African market. For those not familiar with the US-based business, its novel business model offers deeply discounted 'daily deals'. The wrinkle is that a minimum number of consumers need to sign up for a deal before it locks in. (Hence the name - a combination of 'group' and 'coupon'.) It is one of a raft of apparently unique e-businesses taking the world by storm, and it has a claimed business valuation in excess of 25 billion dollars.


This thesis is about the development and evaluation of an intervention incorporating structured sensory stimulation. It was designed for use with adults with learning disabilities who were not yet intentional communicators. The intervention was termed an 'Individualised Sensory Environment' (I.S.E.). The main objective was to reduce the levels of non-purposeful engagement and to increase the levels of purposeful interaction. Appropriate opportunities for adaptive responding were organised by the provision of sensory stimulation that was identified as personally motivating to the individual. The reinforcing sensory experience was contingent on the participant's responses. The focal sensory domains of the intervention were the tactile and vestibular systems for input, and the proprioceptive for participant response feedback. An alternating treatments design was used to evaluate the effects of the intervention (I.S.E.) on engagement levels of participants. An attention placebo condition was also used. The participants attended a social service's Day Centre and formed therapy groups whose membership ranged from two to four, based on their location within the service's structure. Groupings were then randomly assigned to two experimental groups, the order of interventions for one being the reverse of the other. Data was collected by systematic observation of participant's engagements in the natural environment: at baseline, after each phase of therapy and at two follow-up points. Analysis of variance was the main method of statistical interpretation. The results showed that high levels of non-purposeful behaviour were emitted at baseline when compared with the construct purposeful interaction. When the intervention (I.S.E.) was introduced, a significant decline in the level of non-purposeful behaviour was observed, which maintained its new lower level up to one month after the termination of therapy. The placebo condition also effected a similar change initially. However, a significant increase in purposeful interactions was only observed after a phase of the 'Individualised Sensory Environment'.
Some limitations of the study are discussed and recommendations for future work are indicated.


The urgent need to decarbonize the transportation sector combined with falling battery prices has spurred industry and policy interest in long-haul truck electrification. The charging behavior and resulting loads from electrified long-haul freight trucks are crucial for the smooth operation of the electric grid and have far-reaching environmental impacts (e.g., greenhouse gas and other air pollutant emissions). However, the aggregate energy impact of a fleetwide shift to electrified long-haul freight trucking has not been explored. This study combines electric truck design scenarios, bottom-up truck weight modeling, vehicle energy modeling, large-scale truck traffic data, and simulation of likely operation and charging behaviors to estimate end-use energy consumption and location-specific hourly charging loads for a national fleet of long-haul electric trucks. Relative to a fleet of future diesel trucks, electrification would reduce direct end-use energy consumption by 0.9 × 1018 J (0.9 quadrillion BTU), but electrification might increase life cycle energy consumption depending on the electricity source. The electricity required to charge long-haul electric trucks is equivalent to five percent of annual electricity consumption in the United States (US). The simulated truck charging loads peak during the day across the US grid regions, but the charging peaks' exact timing is sensitive to when trucks are dispatched for operation. The load shapes suggest that electric trucks' charging loads can coincide with peaks in solar power generation, and planning could enable on- or off-site integration between truck charging stations and renewable electricity generation.


This study "The Emirate of Damascus During the Early Crusading Period 488-549/1095-1154 deals with this Emirate which was established in 488/1095, after the defeat and the murder of Taj al-Dawla Tutush near Rayy in 488/1095 by his nephew Sultan Berkiyaruq Ibn Sult-an Malik-Sh5h. The dominions of Ti al-Dawla, mainly in Syria and the Jazira divided between his elder sons King Fakhr al-Mullik Ridwan in Aleppo and King Shams al-Muliik Ducfaq in Damascus. The Kingdom of Damascus comprized south Syria and some parts of the Jazira such as al- Rahba and Mayyafariqin. Zahir al-Din Tughtekln, who was Atabek of King Duclaq, became the de facto ruler of Damascus during the reign of King Duqaq 488-497/1095-1104. After the death of Duqaq, Tughtekin was to be the real Amir of Damascus, and his dynasty was to gain control of the Emirate until its fall at the hands of Niir al-Din Mahmild of Aleppo in 549/1154. In this thesis, the following matters are discussed: 1. The conditions which led to the foundation of this Emirate. 2. The role of Tughtekin in establishing his authority in the Emirate. 3. The foreign policy of the Emirate, and the factors which shaped this policy. 4. The effects (on the Emirate) of the coming of the Crusaders particularly those of Jerusalem. S. Internal rivalries in the Emirate, and their influence on the stability of the Emirate and its external relations. 6. The policy of alliances adopted by the Emirate and the factors which affected this. 7. The influence of the growing power of Zangi of Aleppo and Mosul (521-541/1127-1146) on Damascus and why he did not succeed in annexing Damascus to his united front in Syria and the Jazira aimed at challenging the power of the Crusaders. 8. The reasons which helped Mir al-Din Mahmud Ibn Zangi of Aleppo to annex Damascus to his state in 549/1154. 9. The importance of the military power of Damascus and Its role in protecting the Emirate. Finally a concluding section sums up the achievement of the Emirate of Damascus in maintaining its Independence during the period and the role of the Emirate in the Counter-Crusade.


The variational free energy profile (vFEP) method is extended to two dimensions and tested with molecular simulation applications. The proposed 2D-vFEP approach effectively addresses the two major obstacles to constructing free energy profiles from simulation data using traditional methods: the need for overlap in the re-weighting procedure and the problem of data representation. This is especially evident as these problems are shown to be more severe in two dimensions. The vFEP method is demonstrated to be highly robust and able to provide stable, analytic free energy profiles with only a paucity of sampled data. The analytic profiles can be analyzed with conventional search methods to easily identify stationary points (e.g. minima and first-order saddle points) as well as the pathways that connect these points. These "roadmaps" through the free energy surface are useful not only as a post-processing tool to characterize mechanisms, but can also serve as a basis from which to direct more focused "on-the-fly" sampling or adaptive force biasing. Test cases demonstrate that 2D-vFEP outperforms other methods in terms of the amount and sparsity of the data needed to construct stable, converged analytic free energy profiles. In a classic test case, the two dimensional free energy profile of the backbone torsion angles of alanine dipeptide, 2D-vFEP needs less than 1% of the original data set to reach a sampling accuracy of 0.5 kcal/mol in free energy shifts between windows. A new software tool for performing one and two dimensional vFEP calculations is herein described and made publicly available.


The steep-walled bedrock gorges of the Greater Himalayan rivers currently lack significant stored sediment, suggesting that fluvial erosion and transport capacity outpace the supply of sediment from adjacent hillsides. Despite this appearance of sustained downcutting, such rivers can become choked with sediments and aggrade during intervals of higher precipitation. Cosmogenic dating ( 10 Be and 26 Al) of fluvially carved bedrock surfaces indicates that sediment at least 80 m thick filled the Marsyandi River valley in central Nepal during a time of strengthened early Holocene monsoons. Despite threefold differences in height (43‐124 m) above the modern river, these fluvial surfaces display strikingly similar cosmogenic exposure ages clustering around 7 6 1 ka. We speculate that enhanced monsoonal precipitation increased pore pressure and the frequency of landsliding, thereby generating a pulse of hillslope-derived sediment that temporarily overwhelmed this alpine fluvial system's transport capacity. After the easily liberated material was exhausted ca. 7 ka, the hillslope flux dropped, and the river incised through the aggraded alluvium. It concurrently eroded adjacent rock walls, thereby removing previously accumulated 10 Be and 26 Al and resetting the cosmogenic clock in the bedrock. Unlike previous studies, these exposure ages cannot be used to derive river-incision rates; instead they record a coupled fluvial-hillslope response to climate change.


A nameless rider plods through the desert toward a dusty Western town shimmering on the horizon. In his latest novel, Robert Coover has taken the familiar form of the Western and turned it inside out. The lonesome stranger reaches the town -- or rather, it reaches him -- and he becomes part of its gunfights, saloon brawls, bawdy houses, train robberies, and, of course, the choice between the saloon chanteuse or the sweet-faced schoolmistress whom he loves. Throughout, Robert Coover reanimates the Western epics of Zane Grey and Louis L'Amour, infusing them with the Beckettian echoes, unique comic energy, and exuberant prose that have made him one of the most influential figures in contemporary American literature. It is, as The Washington Post Book World put it, a fast-forward, ribald vision of the American West, a free-for-all that slides from surreal to ridiculous like a circus-goer's grin through a funhouse mirror ... a heady frisson, a salon entertainment, one helluva ride.


This article posits that the emerging employer-imposed health insurance fat tax regime subverts the public policy goal of achieving actual health and evidences two important systemic phenomena: first, that these fat taxes force fat people to cover their fatness, and second, that current legal structure permitting this practice ensures that society continues to cover up its anti-fat bias. American society, through the health care system and other mechanisms, has created a fat-thin dichotomy within which thin is good and fat is bad. Recently, employers began reinforcing this dichotomy by imposing on employees whose weight renders them "obese" on the Body Mass Index ("BMI") certain additional health insurance costs – referred to herein as health insurance fat taxes. Employers use these health insurance fat taxes to unevenly pass through to employees the costs of health insurance coverage, in an effort to reduce their own contributory costs for that insurance. Simultaneously, employers reduce the insurance costs for thin employees who do not, at least based on their body size, drive up the overall costs of insurance. Essentially, health insurance fat taxes increase the costs of fatness, both fiscally and systemically, by imposing both overt and covert penalties for fatness. The overt financial and access repercussions speak for themselves. Covertly, health insurance fat taxes force fat individuals to cover their fatness. Professor Kenji Yoshino describes covering as a method of forced assimilation that occurs when individuals acknowledge and embrace the underlying identity, but are socially required to make that underlying identity easier for others to ignore. This article posits that health insurance fat taxes force fat individuals to cover their fatness by mandating a tacit acknowledgement that fat is bad and unhealthy. Notably, this covering stems from a physical characteristic that might be wholly irrelevant vis-a-vis actual health. Though uneven costs based on a potentially arbitrary physical feature might seem discriminatory, health insurance fat taxes are perfectly legal under federal law. This article posits that the legality of this regime reflects a different type of covering, by which society forces itself to make certain of its underlying identities – anti-fat bias, racism, and sexism – a little less obvious. While this is not the individualized covering Professor Yoshino originally discussed, this article attempts to expand upon that conception. As a whole, society avoids admitting that its shortcomings, such as anti-fat bias, exist. Collective society pushes to cover its collective flaws through the law. Specifically, systemic fear of fatness and losing the currency ascribed to thinness allows the law to permit the existence and growth of this new regime. Health insurance fat taxes exemplify the concept of what will be termed herein as collective cover-up.


BACKGROUND
Skeletal muscle spasticity is a major physical complication resulting from traumatic brain injury (TBI), which can lead to muscle contracture, joint stiffness, reduced range of movement, broken skin and pain. Treatments for spasticity include a range of pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, often used in combination. Management of spasticity following TBI varies from other clinical populations because of the added complexity of behavioural and cognitive issues associated with TBI.

OBJECTIVES
To assess the effects of interventions for managing skeletal muscle spasticity in people with TBI.

SEARCH METHODS
In June 2017, we searched key databases including the Cochrane Injuries Group Specialised Register, CENTRAL, MEDLINE (Ovid), Embase (Ovid) and others, in addition to clinical trials registries and the reference lists of included studies.

SELECTION CRITERIA
We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and cross-over RCTs evaluating any intervention for the management of spasticity in TBI. Only studies where at least 50% of participants had a TBI (or for whom separate data for participants with TBI were available) were included. The primary outcomes were spasticity and adverse effects. Secondary outcome measures were classified according to the World Health Organization International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health including body functions (sensory, pain, neuromusculoskeletal and movement-related functions) and activities and participation (general tasks and demands; mobility; self-care; domestic life; major life areas; community, social and civic life).

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
We used standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane. Data were synthesised narratively; meta-analysis was precluded due to the paucity and heterogeneity of data.

MAIN RESULTS
We included nine studies in this review which involved 134 participants with TBI. Only five studies reported between-group differences, yielding outcome data for 105 participants with TBI. These five studies assessed the effects of a range of pharmacological (baclofen, botulinum toxin A) and non-pharmacological (casting, physiotherapy, splints, tilt table standing and electrical stimulation) interventions, often in combination. The studies which tested the effect of baclofen and tizanidine did not report their results adequately. Where outcome data were available, spasticity and adverse events were reported, in addition to some secondary outcome measures.Of the five studies with results, three were funded by governments, charities or health services and two were funded by a pharmaceutical or medical technology company. The four studies without useable results were funded by pharmaceutical or medical technology companies.It was difficult to draw conclusions about the effectiveness of these interventions due to poor reporting, small study size and the fact that participants with TBI were usually only a proportion of the overall total. Meta-analysis was not feasible due to the paucity of data and heterogeneity of interventions and comparator groups. Some studies concluded that the intervention they tested had beneficial effects on spasticity, and others found no difference between certain treatments. The most common adverse event was minor skin damage in people who received casting. We believe it would be misleading to provide any further description of study results given the quality of the evidence was very low for all outcomes.

AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS
The very low quality and limited amount of evidence about the management of spasticity in people with TBI means that we are uncertain about the effectiveness or harms of these interventions. Well-designed and adequately powered studies using functional outcome measures to test the interventions used in clinical practice are needed.


ASCE 43-05 presents two performance objectives for the design of nuclear structures: 1) 1% probability of unacceptable performance for 100% Design Basis Earthquake (DBE) shaking, and 2) 10% probability of unacceptable performance for 150% DBE shaking. To aid in the revision of the ASCE 4-98 procedures for the analysis and design of base-isolated nuclear power plants (NPPs) and meet the intent of ASCE 43-05, a series of nonlinear response-history analyses was performed to study the impact of the variability in both earthquake ground motion and mechanical properties of isolation systems on the seismic responses of base-isolated NPPs. Computations were performed for three representative sites (rock and soil sites in the Central and Eastern United States and a rock site in the Western United States), three types of isolators (lead rubber, Friction Pendulum™ and low-damping rubber bearings), and realistic mechanical properties for the isolators. Estimates were made of 1) the ratio of the 99%-ile (90%-ile) response of isolation systems computed using a distribution of spectral demands and distributions of isolator mechanical properties to the median response of isolation systems computed using best-estimate properties and 100% (150%) spectrum-compatible DBE ground motions; 2) the number of sets of three-component ground motions to be used for response-history analysis to develop a reliable estimate of the median response of isolation systems. Only the results for the rock site in the Central and Eastern United States are presented. The results of this study provide the technical basis for the revision of ASCE Standard 4-98.Copyright © 2010 by ASME


Purpose: The purpose of this thesis is to explore the process of strategic renewal implementation within an innovative SME operating in a growing industry, and the implications on its competitive advantage. In addition, the study seeks to identify the main causes of strategic renewal within this context. Problem: Strategic researches have investigated to some point the process of strategic renewal, which has been widely recognized as critical for the sustained success of organizations. Even though there have been studies investigating strategic renewal and the need for it in today's competitive business environment, these publications have not dealt with the case of an innovative SME operating in a rapidly growing industry. Therefore, the authors of this thesis have identified a gap in the literature on the process of strategic renewal in that specific context. This created the incentive to explore how an innovative SME can drive and generate sustained competitive advantage to ensure its survival and further expansion in a competitive business environment. Method: In order to fulfil the purpose of this qualitative research, an abductive approach that was based on a single case study was undertaken. This was an instrumental case study, thus the primary data was gathered through semi-structured interviews with representatives of the management of Infobric AB, where the phonomena of strategic renewal and sustained competitive advantage were explored. Analysis: This research contributes to the academic field of strategy as it proposes a strategic renewal framework for innovative SMEs operating in rapidly growing industries. It aims to illustrate the necessity of this process to managers for sustaining or increasing their industry competitiveness. The authors suggest that the forces causing the urge for renewal process in an SME's strategy are both external and internal. It is also proposed that a strategic renewal implementation process occurs according to the following framework: recognition of threat/opportunity; evaluation; plan of action; implementation of renewal through new market entry; new product development; and new management system. Conclusion: The conclusion of this research is that an innovative SME operating in a rapidly growing industry can gain sustained competitive advantage through strategic renewal implementation. The studied company Infobric AB is characterized as an innovative SME that is a market leader, flexible in their strategy, and responsive to environmental changes. Thus, the suggested strategic renewal framework is aimed to assist managers of companies that are characterized in the same manner and operate in fast developing and competitive business environments.


Queries submitted to search engines rarely provide a complete and precise description of a user's information need. Most queries are ambiguous to some extent, having multiple interpretations. For example, the seemingly unambiguous query "tennis lessons" might be submitted by a user interested in attending classes in her neighborhood, seeking lessons for her child, looking for online videos lessons, or planning to start a business teaching tennis. Search engines face the challenging task of satisfying different groups of users having diverse information needs associated with a given query. One solution is to optimize ranking functions to satisfy diverse sets of information needs. Unfortunately, existing evaluation frameworks do not support such optimization. Instead, ranking functions are rewarded for satisfying the most likely intent associated with a given query. In this thesis, we propose a framework and associated evaluation metrics that are capable of optimizing ranking functions to satisfy diverse information needs. Our proposed measures explicitly reward those ranking functions capable of presenting the user with information that is novel with respect to previously viewed documents. Our measures reflects quality of a ranking function by taking into account its ability to satisfy diverse users submitting a query. Moreover, the task of identifying and establishing test frameworks to compare ranking functions on a web-scale can be tedious. One reason for this problem is the dynamic nature of the web, where documents are constantly added and updated, making it necessary for search engine developers to seek additional human assessments. Along with issues of novelty and diversity, we explore one approximate approach to compare different ranking functions by overcoming the problem of lacking complete human assessments. We demonstrate that our approach is capable of accurately sorting ranking functions based on their capability of satisfying diverse users, even in the face of incomplete human assessments.


Aeromonas species are ubiquitous bacteria in terrestrial and aquatic milieus. They are becoming renowned as enteric pathogens of serious public health concern as they acquire a number of virulence determinants that are linked with human diseases, such as gastroenteritis, soft-tissue, muscle infections, septicemia, and skin diseases. Proper sanitary procedures are essential in the prevention of the spread of Aeromonas infections. Oral fluid electrolyte substitution is employed in the prevention of dehydration, and broad-spectrum antibiotics are used in severe Aeromonas outbreaks. This review presents an overview of emerging Aeromonas infections and proposes the need for actions necessary for establishing adequate prevention measures against the infections.


Background Agitation and aggression are common behaviors that often lead to psychiatric emergency center (PEC) admission of nursing home patients with dementia or Alzheimer's disease. However, few if any data are available that adequately describe characteristics and psychosocial triggers of agitation and aggression leading to transport and admission to a PEC. Methods A preliminary investigation to explore all possible characteristics and psychosocial predictors of PEC transport and length of stay in men and women nursing home patients with dementia or Alzheimer's disease was designed. Frequency distributions, chi-square, analyses of variance, and regression analyses were used to analyze the data. Results One hundred PEC patient charts were reviewed, of which 58 charts were missing information and 42 charts provided evaluable data. Nursing homes located in impoverished areas transported patients to the PEC significantly more often than those in affluent areas. A disconnect between the agitated/aggressive mental state reported by nursing home staff leading to the PEC transport and the calm/cooperative mental status PEC clinicians observed during the admission process was evident. Data from the charts also showed that 74% of patients received off-label antipsychotics rather than FDA-approved medications to treat dementia or Alzheimer's disease. Conclusions This is one of the few studies to identify characteristics and psychosocial triggers of PEC use and length of stay in nursing home patients. We also highlight potentially dangerous antipsychotic use in dementia and Alzheimer disease. Thus, our data add to the existing knowledge base regarding PEC utilization, length of stay, and pharmacotherapy in nursing home patients with dementia and Alzheimer's disease. Given the preliminary nature of this study, however, the results should be interpreted with caution. (Journal of Psychiatric Practice 2011;17:251–257).


The library of America is dedicated to publishing America's best and most significant writing in handsome, enduring volumes, featuring authoritative texts. Hailed as the finest-looking, longest-lasting editions ever made (The New Republic), Library of America volumes make a fine gift for any occasion. Now, with exactly one hundred volumes to choose from, there is a perfect gift for everyone.


Introduction: Nursing profession, including science has always been known as the conscience of the health care system. They provide nursing without any discrimination and judgment toward the clients. Because providing care to respect the dignity and rights of human beings and ethics, is an integral part of the health care system. The present study aims at promoting professional ethics in nursing education system so finding the best way to promote nursing ethics is important.
Methods: The literature review of previous studies has been conducted. searching all articles, including 37 studies, between 1988 to 2016 and using the keywords such as moral education, nursing students, nursing ethics, moral authority and professional ethics was part of the conducted task.
Results: The results represent a tremendous impact of the studies for systematic training of nursing ethics in the curriculum. Providing regular curriculum, lectures, role model of instructors trained and skilled instructors in order to promote education and thereby improving the quality of care in nursing ethics and moral right decisions have been effective.
Conclusion: Results indicate continued efforts to develop the content, structure and innovative teaching methods in undergraduate nursing ethics education program. It will not be possible unless thereare coordinating and supporting organizations. It is hoped that such studies on nurse educators to help improvement of the quality of their teaching practices through the training methods.


A simple derivation is given for the expression of one-dimensional spectra of turbulence-induced Zernike aberration terms in the case of a stellar source at infinity. Numerical results are presented for several terms. Expressions are given for the maximum acceptable delay and the maximum isoplanatic angle in a partially compensating adaptive optics system. Temporal-frequency spectra of the Zernike terms, recorded at the Canada–France–Hawaii telescope, are well reproduced when one convolves all the corresponding theoretical spectra with the same turbulence distribution. Only a few atmospheric layers are found to contribute to image degradation.


Energy efficiency in multihop cooperative power-line communication (PLC) systems has recently received considerable attention in the literature. In order to make such systems more energy efficient, this paper proposes a relaying technique equipped with energy-harvesting capabilities. More specifically, we consider a dual-hop decode-and-forward (DF) broadband PLC relaying system in which the relay exploits the high noise inherent in PLC channels to further enhance energy efficiency; this system will be referred to as DF with energy harvesting (DF-EH). This study deploys, particularly, the time-switching relaying protocol for energy harvesting. An accurate analytical expression for the energy efficiency and a closed-form expression for the average outage probability of the proposed system are derived and then verified with Monte Carlo simulations. For the sake of comparison and to highlight the achievable gains, we also analyze the energy-efficiency performances and the average outage probabilities of the conventional DF relaying system, i.e., without energy harvesting, as well as that of the direct-link approach. Furthermore, various frequency selection and power allocation strategies, namely, optimal frequency selection, random frequency selection, and equal power allocation, exploiting the multiple power cables, are studied. Then, the impact of several system parameters such as the energy-harvesting time factor, various idle power consumption profiles, relay location, power allocation as well as different noise scenarios are examined. The results reveal that the proposed DF-EH system is able to provide energy efficiency improvements of more than 30% compared to the conventional DF relaying scheme. It is also shown that the proposed system with optimal frequency selection performs better at low SNR, whereas at high SNR the equal power allocation based system will have the best performance.


This paper explores the behaviour of knowledge in the short and long term. Knowledge behaves very different in the short term than in the long term. Once we can measure knowledge it is then possible to look at its behaviour, an impossibility if there where no theory formulated to measure knowledge. Once we can measure, humans can attempt to put knowledge in formulae that make sense. This paper is a follow up to the previous papers, written by the same author. These papers being "The Fundamental theory of Knowledge", "Point X and the Economics of Knowledge", and "Measuring a societies Knowledge Base". The paper is a consistent follow up from the basic theories of knowledge that where developed in those papers, keeping knowledge simply in the scientific realm, as any science should attempt, if economics is a science then its aim is truly to measure economic phenomenon, otherwise economics remains in the realm of art and philosophy where anything goes. Measuring means we can manage. Knowing the long and short term behaviour of knowledge means that societies will be better placed to manage knowledge. The short term though is much easier to manage than the long term, but then again this is a known fact take care of the pennies and the pounds will look after themselves, meaning take care of the small things and the big things will be easier to look after. This paper allows us to understand knowledge in a deeper way than before.


Exercise biochemistry is a young science in competitive sports and mass sports are very important. Gradually by coaches and masses to understand and accept, become the important theoretical basis for the scientific training and scientific training. Therefore, through the establishment and development of exercise biochemistry subject, as well as the biological science and the development of sports science, exercise biochemistry at present should be adapted, in order to accelerate the development of sports science. Based on the development process including the subject of exercise biochemistry, proposes the tasks and direction of current. Exercise biochemistry is isolated from the body science meters in a basis of biological chemistry from several full research movements in the life of science. The human body all life activities are achieved by a series of chemical changes in the body, the movement of people Hugh Hugh l revealed in the essence of it works and training activities of life, from the more scientific sports teaching and sports training.


The theory of quantum electrodynamics predicts that the {beta} decay of the neutron into a proton, electron, and antineutrino is accompanied by a continuous spectrum of emitted photons described as inner bremsstrahlung. While this phenomenon has been observed in nuclear {beta} decay and electron-capture decay for many years, it has only been recently observed in free-neutron decay. We present a detailed discussion of an experiment in which the radiative decay mode of the free neutron was observed. In this experiment, the branching ratio for this rare decay was determined by recording photons that were correlated with both the electron and proton emitted in neutron decay. We determined the branching ratio for photons with energy between 15 and 340 keV to be (3.09+-0.32)x10{sup -3} (68% level of confidence), where the uncertainty is dominated by systematic effects. This value for the branching ratio is consistent with theoretical predictions. The characteristic energy spectrum of the radiated photons, which differs from the uncorrelated background spectrum, is also consistent with the theoretical spectrum.


Paper sludge and extraction liquor from water prehydrolysis of Eucalyptus chips before pulping are potential raw materials for ethanol production in an integrated forest biorefinery concept. Ethanol production from paper sludge, extraction liquor from water prehydrolysis of Eucalyptus chips, and a mixture of both using separate hydrolysis and fermentation were investigated. The hydrolysate composed of 51.01±0.72 g/L glucose, 30.11±0.09 g/L xylose, and 13.65±0.94 g/L cellobiose, which was obtained by enzymatic saccharification of the mixture at an initial consistency of 6% (w/v, expressed in terms of total carbohydrate mass), was used for ethanol production by yeast SHY07-1 without prior detoxification and nutrient supplementation. A final ethanol concentration of 36.82±0.35 g/L was achieved, corresponding to an ethanol yield of 0.45±0.04 g/g with a fermentation efficiency of 80.71±0.03% and an ethanol productivity of 0.31±0.01 g/(L h). This confirmed the feasibility of co-fermentation of these two materials for bioconversion to ethanol.


The advent of data envelopment analysis (DEA) enabled the measurement of efficiency to be extended to the case of multiple outputs. Prior to DEA we had the parametric approach based on multiple regression. We highlight some difficulties associated with these two approaches and present a hybrid which overcomes them whilst maintaining the respective advantages of each. DEA is used to identify the frontier units. A model is then fitted to provide a relationship between the outputs and inputs of these efficient units.Thus our hybrid approach models the efficient frontier in a mathematical form; the resulting smooth representation allows all units to be naturally enveloped and hence slacks to be avoided. (Slacks are potential improvements for inefficient units which are not accounted for in the DEA (radial) score, and so have been problematic for DEA.) The approach identifies the DEA-efficient units and fits a smooth model to them using maximum correlation modeling. This new technique extends the method of multiple regression to the case where there are multiple variables on each side of the model equation (eg outputs and inputs). The resulting expression for the frontier permits managers to estimate the effect on their efficiency score of adjustments in one or more input or output levels.


SIP networks use signalling monitoring tools to diagnose user reported
problem and for regression testing if network or user agent software
is upgraded. As networks grow and become interconnected, including
connection via transit networks, it becomes impractical to predict the
path that SIP signalling will take between user agents, and therefore
impractical to monitor SIP signalling end-to-end. This draft describes
potential solutions to meet requirements for adding an indicator to
the SIP protocol which can be used to mark signalling as of interest
to logging. Such marking will typically be applied as part of network
testing controlled by the network operator and not used in regular
user agent signalling. However, such marking can be carried end-to-end
including the SIP user agents, even if a session originates and
terminates in different networks.


Objective:Concerns about including pregnant women in research have led to a dearth of evidence to guide safe and effective treatment and prevention of HIV in pregnancy. To better understand why these evidence gaps persist and inform guidance for responsible inclusion of pregnant women in the HIV research agenda, we aimed to learn what HIV experts perceive as barriers and constraints to conducting this research. Methods:We conducted a series of group and one-on-one consultations with 62 HIV investigators and clinicians to elicit their views and experiences conducting HIV research involving pregnant women. Thematic analysis was used to identify priorities and perceived barriers to HIV research with pregnant women. Results:Experts discussed a breadth of needed research, including safety, efficacy, and appropriate dosing of: newer antiretrovirals for pregnant women, emerging preventive strategies, and treatment for coinfections. Challenges to conducting research on pregnancy and HIV included ethical concerns, such as how to weigh risks and benefits in pregnancy; legal concerns, such as restrictive interpretations of current regulations and liability issues; financial and professional disincentives, including misaligned funder priorities and fear of reputational damage; and analytical and logistical complexities, such as challenges recruiting and retaining pregnant women to sufficiently power analyses. Conclusion:Investigators face numerous challenges to conducting needed HIV research with pregnant women. Advancing such research will require clearer guidance regarding ethical and legal uncertainties; incentives that encourage rather than discourage investigators to undertake such research; and a commitment to earlier development of safety and efficacy data through creative trial designs.


Semantic segmentation is a challenging problem due to difficulties in modeling context in complex scenes and class confusions along boundaries. Most literature either focuses on context modeling or boundary refinement, which is less generalizable in open-world scenarios. In this work, we advocate a unified framework (UN-EPT) to segment objects by considering both context information and boundary artifacts. We first adapt a sparse sampling strategy to incorporate the transformer-based attention mechanism for efficient context modeling. In addition, a separate spatial branch is introduced to capture image details for boundary refinement. The whole model can be trained in an end-to-end manner. We demonstrate promising performance on three popular benchmarks for semantic segmentation with low memory footprint.


Over the past few decades there has been a strong effort towards the development of Smoothness-Increasing Accuracy-Conserving (SIAC) filters for Discontinuous Galerkin (DG) methods, designed to increase the smoothness and improve the convergence rate
of the DG solution through this post-processor. The applications of these filters in
multidimension have traditionally employed a tensor product kernel, allowing a natural
extension of the theory developed for one-dimensional problems. In addition, the
tensor product has always been done along the Cartesian axis, resulting in a filter
whose support has fixed shape and orientation. This thesis has challenged these assumptions,
leading to the investigation of rotated�filters: tensor product filters with variable orientation. Combining this approach with previous experiments on lower-dimension
filtering, a new and computationally efficient subfamily for post-processing multidimensional data has been developed: SIAC Line filters. These filters transform
the integral of the convolution into a line integral. Hence, the computational advantages are immediate: the simulation times become significantly shorter and the complexity of the algorithm design reduces to a one-dimensional problem.
In the thesis, a solid theoretical background for SIAC Line �filters has been established.
Theoretical error estimates have been developed, showing how Line filtering
preserves the properties of traditional tensor product �filtering, including smoothness
recovery and improvement in the convergence rate. Furthermore, different numerical
experiments were performed, exhibiting how these filters achieve the same accuracy
at significantly lower computational costs. This affords great advantages towards the
applications of these filters during
flow visualization; one important limiting factor of
a tensor product structure is that the filter grows in support as the field dimension increases,
becoming computationally expensive. SIAC Line filters have proven effi�ciency
in computational performance, thus overcoming the limitations presented by the tensor
product filter. The experiments carried out on streamline visualization suggest that
these filters are a promising tool in scientific visualisation.


The enhancement of the extraction efficiency in light emitting diodes (LEDs) through the use of photonic crystals (PhCs) requires a structure design that optimizes the interaction of the guided modes with the PhCs. The main optimization parameters are related to the vertical structure of the LED, such as the thickness of layers, depth of the PhCs, position of the quantum wells as well as the PhC period and fill factor. We review the impact of the vertical design of different approaches of PhC LEDs through a theoretical and experimental standpoint, assessing quantitatively the competing mechanisms that act over each guided mode. Three approaches are described to overcome the main limitation of LEDs with surface PhCs, i.e. the insufficient interaction of low order guided modes with the PhCs. The introduction of an AlGaN confining layer in such structure is shown to be effective in extracting a fraction of the optical energy of low order modes; however, this approach is limited by the growth of the lattice mismatched AlGaN layer on GaN. The second approach, based on thin-film LEDs with PhCs, is limited by the presence of an absorbing reflective metal layer close to the guided modes that plays a major role in the competition between PhC extraction and metal dissipation. Finally, we demonstrate both experimentally and theoretically the superior extraction of the guided light in embedded PhC LEDs due to the higher interaction between all optical modes and the PhCs, which resulted in a close to unity extraction efficiency for this device. The use of high-resolution angle-resolved measurements to experimentally determine the PhC extraction parameters was an essential tool for corroborating the theoretical models and quantifying the competing absorption and extraction mechanisms in LEDs.


The author of I'm Dysfunctional, You're Dysfunctional takes a highly original look at the explosive issues of violence and crime in America today. From individual accountability to TV violence to the death penalty and the politics of crime control, Kaminer shows that our discussions of criminal justice have been emotionally and demagogically driven and that knowledge has become irrelevant--for liberals and conservatives alike.


Despite Kenya's long dairy farming history spanning about 100 years, favourable climatic conditions and a 3.5 million national herd, milk per capita consumption is low (76.7 kg) and export quantities (milk) to the regional market where its products enjoy preferential access are negligible. These observations raised the question of farm level milk production efficiencies. This study evaluated milk production efficiency of dairy cow farms in Embu and Meru counties of Kenya, using the stochastic frontier approach. Data were randomly collected from 135 dairy farms and were supplemented with information from other dairy industry stakeholders. The sample size was detennined using the Cochran's (1977) formula. Data were analyzed using the SPSS, Frontier 4.1 c and STATA computer softwares, where both descriptive and inferential statistics were derived. Stochastic frontier production and cost functions were estimated using the maximum likelihood estimation technique. The farms were characterized and both technical and cost efficiencies estimated. Each of the efficiencies was then related to milk production cost to establish the cost reduction potential. Results revealed that the number of lactating cows and the amounts of roughages, concentrates, and mineral supplements were the major factors influencing milk output, while the prices of roughages and labour were the major factors associated with the total production costs. The dairy animals received inadequate feeds and mineral supplements. The animals were overstocked and underfed in an average twoacre mixed crop-livestock farm. The mean farm technical and cost efficiencies were 83.7 and 95.6%, respectively, and therefore inefficient. These results implied that milk production could be increased by 16.3% through better use . of available resources given the current state of technology without extra cost, while its cost could be decreased by about 4.4% without decreasing output. The milk production model coefficient was 2.11. It was shown that roughage and labour could substitute for one another to reduce dairy farming costs. Optimization of farm efficiencies and taking advantage of economies of scale through increased production inputs could be part of short-term measures to address the challenges facing smallholder dairy fanning. It was recommended that farmers specialize in either dairy or crop farming. Those choosing dairying, require shifting from the Friesians and Ayrshires to the smaller dairy breeds such as Jerseys, for they require less feed quantities in milk production. The researchers require identifying the least-cost combination ratio for roughages and labour inputs. The policy makers should provide legal guidelines to ensure that sub-division of agricultural land is minimized and further, promote both enterprise specialization and approaches that make the farm inputs such as concentrates and mineral supplements affordable.


Resumen Preventive maintenance of biomedical devices is of particular concern to avoid failures and breakdowns, especially for critical care and life supporting devices. Signs of potential failures are not always visible and so, they should be inspected and tested periodically using the appropriate technology. Patient simulators have become one of the essential tools for any biomedical department on every health institution, but its cost is still high to be afforded by everyone. The Labview interactive virtual instrument SIMPAC, a simple PC-based patient simulator, showed to be a low cost powerful tool for simulation of healthy and pathological conditions using signals repositories of different biomedical devices such as EEG, ECG, etc., and also to record the output signals of devices like pacemakers, defibrillators, etc. Here we present an enhancement of the tool which consists of adding a secure reporting feature using XML for presenting tests results, applying digital signature for granting report integrity, assuring this way that reports can not be altered by intentional or accidental manipulation of the data contained on it, according to the terms of the medical technology law. In addition, SIMPAC brings a low cost solution for teaching and practical purposes.


The May 2012 earthquake waves shaking the North-East part of Italy have caused 26 deaths and diffuse economic damage in the traditional production area of Parmigiano-Reggiano PDO, including several dairies warehouses where the cheese is produced and aged. It has been estimated that losses to the Parmigiano-Reggiano system exceeded 150 millions Euro. In the broad mobilization to help the stricken people, the agri-food system played a primary role, giving rise to the sales of "Parmigiano-Reggiano damaged by earthquake" (PR-T). This paper aims to investigate the main determinants of PR-T purchasing using the theory of planned behaviour (TPB) as a conceptual framework. A preliminary focus group and a survey on 200 consumers were performed for this purpose; data were collected with face-to-face interviews in stores and markets where the PR-T has been sold. The relative importance of attitude, descriptive norms and perceived behavioural control (PBC) in influencing the intention to purchase PR-T and the behaviour itself where investigated. Other concepts were added to the analysis, such as formal and informal trust, moral attitude, PDO perception, sense of belonging to the region, and other socio-economic variables. The revised TPB model predictors accounted for 70% of the variance of intentions to purchase PR-T in the future and 32% of the variance of behaviour. PBC, trust in formal communication sources and PDO quality warranty are the main predictors of intentions. Behaviour is positively affected by descriptive norms, sense of belonging, age and intentions, and negatively determined by food scare, past behaviour and educational level. These empirical findings provide evidence of the solidarity aspects of collective purchases of Parmigiano-Reggiano in the aftermath of the 2012 earthquake waves, as well as the importance of increasing people's capability and trust to effectively reach the goal of facing dreadful food scares.


"What is at stake in the standoff between the United States and Europe over agriculture in the Doha Round of trade talks at the World Trade Organization (WTO)? What impact would an agreement based on greater or lesser levels of ambition have on developing countries, whose economies depend heavily on agriculture? Two years after the WTO talks broke down in Cancun, reform of the heavily protected and subsidized agricultural sectors of the United States and Europe remains a major impediment to progress. Using the MIRAGE computable general equilibrium model of the global economy, in this policy brief we compare different scenarios for the Doha agriculture negotiations, taking real numbers from the proposals currently on the table from the European Union (EU), the United States, and the G20 group of developing countries." from Text


Tougaloo College is a small, private, historically black liberal arts college in Mississippi. Regarded as the cradle of the Mississippi Civil Rights Movement, Tougaloo College's historic Woodworth Chapel has seen prominent figures of the Movement from Martin Luther King, Jr. to Stokley Carmichael to Robert Kennedy speak from its pulpit. As a private institution, Tougaloo was perhaps the most racially conscious (not to be confused with racist) and progressive institution of higher learning in Mississippi. Thus, it is no surprise that Tougaloo's resident scholar, Dr. Jerry W. Ward, Jr., designed a course dedicated solely to the work of Richard Wright, a fellow Mississippian whose work defied the limits the oppressive South set for him as well as brazenly exposed American racism on both sides of the Mason-Dixon line. The results of Ward's efforts became English 319: Richard Wright, and on Tougaloo's campus, the two became synonymous. Memories of the course still evoke shudders from Dr. Ward's former students as well as those who did not enroll in the course but heard enough lamentations and screams from their classmates to have vicariously experienced some of the course requirements. I was one of those who escaped the course during my matriculation; I escaped neither Dr. Ward nor Wright, however, as I completed two independent research projects on the author under Dr. Ward's tutelage. When Dr. Ward left Tougaloo after 32 years for a position at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana, the fate of Eng 319 was thrust into limbo. In his stead as the Department's African American literary specialist, I decided to teach the course. I understood that I was embarking upon the monumental task of conveying the fullness of Richard Wright's work, its overwhelming pains, fleeting joys, anger, sadness, triumphs, failures, and most of all, its hunger. (But I was also stepping in very high cotton in following Jerry Ward so soon after my arrival to the department.) At any rate, I could only hope to convey Wright's passion to a new generation of students who seemed to know less about African American literature and nearly nothing about Wright. Not only was I to introduce Wright to my students, but I was also charged with imparting the continued relevance of his work in relation to the racial and social politics of the twenty-first century. One of the first obstacles to teaching Wright is the students' lack of exposure to the African American literary tradition. Partly to blame are literature courses of their secondary education curricula that center primarily on the work of DWM (Dead White Men). Students have been given a steady diet of William Shakespeare, Walt Whitman, or F. Scott Fitzgerald peppered (pun intended) with curriculum mainstays Phillis Wheatley, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Alice Walker, and Toni Morrison. While students are familiar with contemporary African American writers of the post-Terry McMillan era, many have no frame of reference for the radicalism of Wright and his contemporaries, James Baldwin and Ralph Ellison. Ergo, students' responses to Wright run the gamut of newly avid enthusiast to the indifferent and oblivious. Yet, this disconnect is not a conscious effort and stems from the fact that some students simply cannot fathom the level of oppression Wright recounts. Some days, however, students can be completely attuned to Wright's literary and political agendas. Wright's work presents them, as African American Southerners, with a sobering reality; the level of racism Wright delineates forces them to recognize just how far America has not come in terms of race relations. When the readings revolved around Wright's female characters, however, I walked into a proverbial minefield. My class was predominantly female, and these women had visceral reactions to the readings, demanding that I defend and explain what they perceived as Wright's disdain for black women. (The lone male in the course caught several direct glares and a few muttered curses when "defending" Wright segued into a diatribe about the problem of the African American female. …


DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN AUTOMATED OIL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM FOR A HOMOGENIZER MACHINE IN GEA MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT – NIRO SOAVI by Luca Gandolfi This thesis shows the steps that have been followed and done in order to improve a critical operation of a technological process of the GEA Mechanical Equipment. The critical operation was the filling with different types of oils the homogenizing machine because it was characterized by a lot of inefficiencies and, in particular, by huge risks for job security. These critical issues gave the opportunity and the chance to realize a project in order to give a process optimization and security improvement. After having faced all the aspects and steps needed for this project, it has been realized a system of automated oil distribution, but in order to realize this implant have been needed € 35,000. The investment was been anyway approved thanks to the impact that this implant would have given to the company, in fact, the analysis done have been confirmed once the implant was implemented. This system determines:  Annual saving of € 9,500;  Payback Period of 4.1 years;  Internal Rate Return of 11.4%. Apart from the quantitative aspects, there are a lot of qualitative aspects that have been improved. In fact, it has been made more secure the workplace, there is a new filling technology, that has substituted the old and dirty technology, and it helps to have a more cleaned and organized workplace. DESIGN AND IMPLEMENTATION OF AN AUTOMATED OIL DISTRIBUTION SYSTEM FOR A HOMOGENIZER MACHINE IN GEA MECHANICAL EQUIPMENT – NIRO SOAVI


A 10 GHz CMOS distributed voltage controlled oscillator (DVCO) is designed in a 0.35 /spl mu/m BiCMOS process technology using only CMOS transistors. The oscillator achieves a tuning range of 12% (9.3 GHz to 10.5 GHz) and a phase noise of -114 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz offset from a carrier frequency of 10.2 GHz. The VCO uses two different simultaneous tuning techniques which allow for a coarse and fine tuning of frequency in a frequency synthesizer. The oscillator provides an output power of -7 dBm without any buffering, drawing 14 mA of DC current from a 2.5 V power supply.


Identification of genes underlying human diseases is an important step in understanding and treating genetic disorders. Based on the assumption that related diseases are caused by related genes, several methods for candidate gene prioritization have been proposed in the past to refine lists of suspect genes obtained by linkage analysis or other methods. The large increase in publicly available -omics data has made it possible to implement prioritization methods that combine information from multiple data sources to make better rankings. In this work, we present a new method for prioritization of candidate disease genes based on gene expression data, that ranks 12851 genes for 5080 phenotypes. The performance is comparable to previous methods which used hand-curated protein-protein data on smaller test sets. We also propose a method for combining multiple gene networks into a single one with which we ranked up to 14612 genes for 5080 phenotypes, more than any previous method. Our evaluation shows, that the performance of the fused network is superior to that of its separate component networks.


markdownabstractThe batteries of electric vehicles can be used as Virtual Power Plants to balance out frequency deviations in the electricity grid. Carsharing fleet owners have the options to charge an electric vehicle's battery, discharge an electric vehicle's battery, or keep an electric vehicle idle for potential rentals. Charging and discharging can be used to provide reliable operating reserves.

We develop an analytical model that manages carsharing fleets. On the one hand, the energy in the batteries of an electric vehicle can be made available to the grid as operating reserves. On the other hand, the electric vehicle can be made available for rental, where the location within the city matters: drivers want a car to be close to their place of departure or arrival. The model can also be used by Transportation Network Companies such as Uber to preposition their vehicles conveniently in a city or optimize zonal pricing.

To validate our model we develop a Discrete Event Simulation platform. We calibrate this simulation with locational information (GPS), rental, and charging transactions of 1,500 electric vehicles from the carsharing services Car2Go (Daimler) and DriveNow (BMW) over several years. We investigate the influence of the charging infrastructure density, battery technology, and rental demand for vehicles on the payoff for the carsharing operator and make an international comparison between the USA, Germany, the Netherlands, and Denmark. We show that Virtual Power Plants of electric vehicles create sustainable revenue streams for electric vehicle carsharing companies without compromising their rental business.


Inflammasomes are intracellular multiprotein complexes that comprise part of the innate immune response. Since their definition, inflammasome disorders have been linked to an increasing number of diseases. Autoinflammatory diseases refer to disorders in which local factors lead to the activation of innate immune cells, causing tissue damage when in the absence of autoantigens and autoantibodies. Skin symptoms include the main features of monogenic inflammasomopathies, such as Cryopyrin-Associated Periodic Syndromes (CAPS), Familial Mediterranean Fever (FMF), Schnitzler Syndrome, Hyper-IgD Syndrome (HIDS), PAPA Syndrome, and Deficiency of IL-1 Receptor Antagonist (DIRA). Concepts from other pathologies have also been reviewed in recent years, such as psoriasis, after the recognition of a combined contribution of innate and adaptive immunity in its pathogenesis. Inflammasomes are also involved in the response to various infections, malignancies, such as melanoma, autoimmune diseases, including vitiligo and lupus erythematosus, atopic and contact dermatitis, acne, hidradenitis suppurativa, among others. Inhibition of the inflammasome pathway may be a target for future therapies, as already occurs in the handling of CAPS, through the introduction of IL-1 inhibitors. This study presents a literature review focusing on the participation of inflammasomes in skin diseases.


Giuseppe Garibaldi, the Italian revolutionary leader and popular hero, was among the best-known global figures of the nineteenth century. This book seeks to examine his life and the making of his cult, to assess its impact and understand its surprising success. For thirty years, Garibaldi was involved in every combative event in Italy. His greatest moment came in 1860, when he defended a revolution in Sicily, provoked the collapse of the Bourbon monarchy, the overthrow of papal power in central Italy, and the creation of the Italian nation state. It made him a global brand, representing strength, bravery, manliness, saintliness and a spirit of adventure. Handsome, flamboyant and sexually attractive, he was worshipped in life and became a cult figure after his death in 1882. Lucy Riall shows that the emerging cult of Garibaldi was initially conceived by revolutionaries intent on overthrowing the status quo, that it was also the result of a collaborative effort involving writers, artists, actors and publishers, and that it became genuinely and enduringly popular among a broad public. The book demonstrates that Garibaldi played an integral part in fashioning and promoting himself as a new kind of 'charismatic' political hero. It analyses the way the Garibaldi myth has been harnessed both to legitimate and to challenge national political structures. And it identifies elements of Garibaldi's political style appropriated by political leaders around the world (including Mussolini and Che Guevara).


Instant messenger is being rapidly deployed in the workplace. Current studies largely focus on the adoption of IM and how IM is used. Little research has been conducted to understand the potential impact of using IM in the workplace. This paper contributes to the literature on Instant Messaging and task performance by theorizing and empirically testing how some technological features of IM could intertwine with social characteristics and jointly influence user task performance and perceived workload. We also study the impact of perceived task complexity on task performance and perceived workload. The effect of interruption on task completion time is dependent upon the hierarchy level of message sender. Interruptions from a supervisor were found to reduce primary task completion time whereas interruptions from a peer increase primary task completion time. In addition, interruptions from a supervisor aggravate the negative impact of interruptions on task quality.