In this paper, we propose a new method to estimate a traveling direction for a pedestrian with a smart phone by using the Inertial Measurement Unit (IMU) and principal component analysis (PCA). Our estimator does not restrict a holding status of the smart phone. It is possible to estimate an attitude of the smart phone based on the IMU filter which makes use of values from sensors embedded in itself. We estimate a traveling direction of the pedestrian based on the PCA by using the output of the filter. However, this method essentially includes an indeterminacy problem which allows a direction reversal because the component of the PCA is non-directed graph. In this paper, we investigate a modified traveling direction estimation method in order to suppress a performance degradation caused by this problem. From experimental results, we show that the proposed estimator outperforms the conventional one.


Usually bilingual word vectors are trained "online". Mikolov et al. showed they can also be found "offline", whereby two pre-trained embeddings are aligned with a linear transformation, using dictionaries compiled from expert knowledge. In this work, we prove that the linear transformation between two spaces should be orthogonal. This transformation can be obtained using the singular value decomposition. We introduce a novel "inverted softmax" for identifying translation pairs, with which we improve the precision @1 of Mikolov's original mapping from 34% to 43%, when translating a test set composed of both common and rare English words into Italian. Orthogonal transformations are more robust to noise, enabling us to learn the transformation without expert bilingual signal by constructing a "pseudo-dictionary" from the identical character strings which appear in both languages, achieving 40% precision on the same test set. Finally, we extend our method to retrieve the true translations of English sentences from a corpus of 200k Italian sentences with a precision @1 of 68%.


A digital watermark is digital data that can be embedded into all forms of media content, including digital images, audio, video and even certain objects. Special software is available for embedding imperceptible information via subtle changes to the data of the original digital content. Digital watermarks can be easily detected and read by computers, networks and a variety of digital devices, validating the original content and or initiating actions. Digital watermarking relates to a technology known as steganography, which literally means "covered writing." It is a technique designed to secure a message by hiding that message within another object so that it can be kept secret from everyone except the intended recipient. This is quite different from cryptography that renders the message) unintelligible to unauthorized viewers to prevent access. Steganographic messages may or may not be encrypted. Through many advances in the technology, steganography is now successfully used across a variety of industries. Digital watermarks provide the means of hiding steganographic messages for many different purposes.


Introduction to International Trade Finance covers the complete cycle of international trade and explains the roles of the specialist operators. Introduction to International Trade Finance aims to: *Guide the reader through every phase of typical trade transactions, examining in detail the relationships between the various parties involved and explaining the facilities employed. *Demonstrate the range of banking instruments and techniques available to exporters and importers which enable them to enter into contracts, confident that whichever method of settlement they agree upon can be provided with the minimum of risk. *Provide a firm understanding of when to apply a particular form of finance, what risks are involved and how they can be counteracted Now updated to include the UCP600. *Inspired from the basic entry level training courses that have been developed by major international banks worldwide. *Will enable MSc Finance students, MBA students and those already in the finance profession to gain an understanding of the basic information and principles underlying the topic under discussion *Questions with answers, study topics, practical "real world" examples and text with an extensive bibliography and references ensure learning outcomes can be immediately applied Now updated to include the UCP600.


HERBERT M. LEFCOURT Humor: The Psychology of Living Buoyantly New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 2001, 220 pages (ISBN 0-306-46407-1, us$47.50, Hardcover) Reviewed by JOSEPH F. KESS "The joyous heart is a good remedy, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones." Proverbs 17:22, quoted in a chapter outlining the history of early conceptions of humour, may capture the thrust of the book in a way the title does not. The discussion does not focus on humour as the panacea for the difficulties that everyday life places in our path, but it does explore its virtues in helping humans cope with stress from both an evolutionary and a synchronic perspective. A dozen chapters deliver a learned inventory of facts and figures about humour from psychology and its interdisciplinary allies, as well as providing a very personal point of view. Lefcourt traces the changing concerns of psychology, and the reason why the psychological study of humour has often been trivialized as an unlikely candidate for research support in the past. The author charts his own personal odyssey in the field, one in which he is drawn to the study of human strengths rather than human frailties. How does one come to accept the unacceptable, even control the uncontrollable? Humour seems to offer one avenue by which humans have come to cope, and effectively at that. It may be that Lefcourt is in the vanguard of a movement in which psychology will overcome its past preoccupation with a medical model of mental illness and deficit, and turn its attention to the positive, even optimistic, aspects of the human experience. An early chapter sets us up for the remaining chapters by reminding us how we experience humour in everyday life. Verbatim anecdotes from students in previous seminars offer vignettes which allow the reader to grasp the situation vicariously and to see how and why the humour of the situation could have arisen. It is here that Lefcourt confides that his is a functionalist psychological perspective, and that he views humour as a characteristic that has been useful to our species. If the survival of a species is one of adaptation to circumstance, then humour may have been one of those evolutionary modifications that allowed us to both cope with unbearable circumstances and to draw closer to one another. Perhaps this is why smiles and laughter occur in all human societies, although what elicits them is not universal and much that elicits laughter is not humourous. The fact of early onset in the maturational schedule, specific neurophysiological correlates, and reflections in closely related species only reinforces this assumption. The absence of verbal play notwithstanding, some higher order primates apparently display a sufficient awareness of self, a "theory of other minds," and the cognitive capacity to supply prerequisite underpinnings for humour. For humans, though, Lefcourt makes the crucial distinction between self-directed humour and hostile humour. The former is usually self-deprecating, even defensive, and encourages group solidarity; in contrast, hostile humour may cement in-group vs. outgroup identities, but if directed at one's fellows in the in-group, it can be ultimately divisive as others take cover for fear they will be the next target of ridicule. just as with metalinguistic abilities, individual differences characterize children in their appreciation and use of humour. But the suggestion is that individuals with a good sense of humour are more likely to take an active stance toward their own life experiences, taking steps to alter unpleasant mood states instead of enduring them passively. Is it not therefore possible to infer that such individuals are less prone to let the negative effects of stressful life experiences roll right over them, without trying to ameliorate them in some way? Here one comes to the crux of the argument for most readers. Is humour, then, a coping strategy, ultimately devised in our evolutionary ramblings, as a protective cushion against the jagged impact of stressful experiences? …


It is imperative that teachers use non-traditional texts to engage readers so that children do not become disinterested in the reading process. Too many times, young children develop a dislike toward reading, which can last a lifetime. Beneath layers of frustration and previous failures, there lies an urge to read within every child. Often, students love to read other types of printed text such as magazines and newspapers while they would not even consider reading a book. After surveying my class of 25 students to determine their reading interests, I gained administrative approval to subscribe to several magazines and newspapers specifically geared towards children. Once these reading materials arrived, I acted as a salesman, trying to convince my class to read the new types of print. Using centers, my students rotated between reading magazines, newspapers, and hypertext on a daily basis for 15 minutes. As a result, my students no longer complained that reading time was work; instead, reading became a fun activity. The non-traditional texts acted as springboards towards reading meaningful books.


The main purpose of this research is to evaluate the modelling capability and predictive power of a bivariate statistical method for earthquake-triggered landslide susceptibility mapping. A weight index (Wi) model was developed for the 2008 Wenchuan earthquake region in Sichuan Province, China, using a wide range of optical remote sensing data, and carried out on the basis of a geographic information system (GIS) platform. The 2008 Wenchuan earthquake triggered 196007 landslides, with a total area of 1150.43 km2, in an approximately oblong area around the Yingxiu–Beichuan coseismic surface fault-rupture (the Yingxiu–Beichuan fault). The landslides of the study area were mapped using visual interpretation of high-resolution satellite images and aerial photographs, both pre- and post-earthquake, and checked in the field at various locations. As a consequence, a nearly complete inventory of landslides triggered by the Wenchuan earthquake was constructed. Topographic and geological data and earthquake-related information were collected, processed and constructed into a spatial database using GIS and image processing technologies. A total of 10 controlling parameters associated with the earthquake-triggered landslides were selected, including elevation, slope angle, slope aspect, slope curvature, slope position, lithology, seismic intensity, peak ground acceleration (PGA), distance from the Yingxiu–Beichuan fault, and distance along this fault. To assist with the development of the model, the complete dataset of 196007 landslides was randomly partitioned into two subsets; a training dataset, which contains 70% of the data (137204 landslides, with a total area of 809.96 km2), and a testing dataset accounting for 30% of the data (58803 landslides, with a total area of 340.47 km2). A landslide susceptibility index map was generated using the training dataset, the 10 impact factors, and the Wi model. In addition, for a conditionally dependent factor analysis, seven other factor-combination cases were also used to construct landslide susceptibility index maps. Finally, these eight landslide susceptibility maps were compared with the training data and testing data to obtain model capability (success rate) and predictive power (predictive rate) information. The validation results show that the success and predictive rates of the Wi modelling exceeded 90% for the approaches that include the use of seismic factors. The final landslide susceptibility map can be used to identify and delineate unstable susceptibility-prone areas, and help planners to choose favourable locations for development schemes, such as infrastructure, construction and environmental protection schemes. The generic component of this research would allow application in other regions affected by high-intensity earthquakes and unstable terrain covering very large areas.


The size and number of cloud data centers (CDCs) have grown rapidly with the increasing popularity of cloud computing and high-performance computing. This has the unintended consequences of creating new challenges due to inefficient use of resources and high energy consumption. Hence, this necessitates the need to maximize resource utilization and ensure energy efficiency in CDCs. One viable approach to achieve energy efficiency and resource utilization in CDC is task scheduling. While several task scheduling approaches have been proposed in the literature, there appears to be a lack of classification-based merging concept for real-time tasks in these existing approaches. Thus, an energy-efficient dynamic scheduling scheme (EDS) of real-time tasks for virtualized CDC is presented in this paper. In the scheduling scheme, the heterogeneous tasks and virtual machines are first classified based on a historical scheduling record. Then, similar type of tasks are merged and scheduled to maximally utilize an operational state of the host. In addition, energy efficiencies and optimal operating frequencies of heterogeneous physical hosts are employed to attain energy preservation while creating and deleting the virtual machines. Experimental results show that, in comparison with existing techniques, EDS significantly improves overall scheduling performance, achieves a higher CDC resource utilization, increases task guarantee ratio, minimizes the mean response time, and reduces energy consumption.


Black women have had a long history of unrecognized community activism. This includes involvement in the freedom struggle as recorded by Naples (1998), Rodriguez (1998), Knupfer (2006) and Patricia Hill Collins (2000) and others. I review research on Black women's activism in the Civil Rights Movement, and such roles as Black librarians. Black women serve as bridge leaders with a strong orientation toward social justice and social activism. Robnett (1997) theorized that bridge leaders were those who utilized frame bridging, amplification, extension and transformation to foster ties between the social movement and the community: between prefigurative strategies and political strategies. The focus of my research is Black women's grassroots activism in the Triad area of North Carolina. In defining grassroots, Naples (1998) states that being from the grassroots generally means being free from any constraining political affiliations and being responsible to no authority except their own group. The research of these seven women redefines an understanding and knowledge of why Black women fight for their communities and increases the knowledge of the political, cultural, social, and historical context of grassroots activism. This study utilizes narrative research methodology (Casey, 1993, 1995-6). I asked seven women to tell me the story of your life. I taped each interview and transcribed and analyzed each life story, taking note of selectivity, slippage, silence, and intertextuality (Popular Memory Group, 1982). I discuss the collective stories of these women in terms of the influence of their families, especially their fathers, the role of the church in their lived experience and the key impetus of education. Their life stories provide insights into their reasons for their activism which includes community issues that involved their own children and their communities. Some of the women were instrumental in developing an academic computer science, implementing a preschool and after school educational programs, and advocating for local public library services and building. Some served on the city council while others worked to save a historical Black high school, fight for welfare rights, and train community residents on community empowerment. Their other work would include undoing racism and addressing the deterioration of their housing, neighborhoods, and communities. Through their love of others and the need to make their neighborhoods and communities a better place for their families, these women represent the voices for social justice, social change, and community change that have not been heard.


By the time of his death from AIDS at the age of 31, Keith Haring (1958-1990) was already a wildly successful and popular artist. Haring's original and instantly recognizable style, full of thick black lines, bold colors, and graffiti-inspired cartoon-like figures, won him the appreciation of both the art world and the general public; his work appeared simultaneously on T-shirts, gallery walls, and public murals. In 1986, Haring founded Pop Shop, a boutique in New York's SoHo selling Haring-designed memorabilia, to benefit charities and help bring his work closer to the public and especially street kids, with whom he never lost contact.


The Zika virus is the primary suspect in the large increase in microcephaly cases in 2015-6 in Brazil, however its role is unconfirmed despite individual cases of viral infections found in neural tissue. Here we consider the alternative that the insecticide pyriproxyfen, used in Brazilian drinking water for mosquito control, may actually be the cause. Pyriproxifen is an analog of juvenile hormone, which corresponds in mammals to regulatory molecules including retinoic acid, a vitamin A metabolite, with which it has cross-reactivity and whose application during development causes microcephaly. Methoprene, another juvenile hormone analog approved as an insecticide has metabolites that bind to the retinoid X receptor, and causes developmental disorders in mammals. Isotretinoin is another example of a retinoid causing microcephaly in human babies via activation of the retinoid X receptor. Moreover, tests of pyriproxyfen by the manufacturer, Sumitomo, widely quoted as giving no evidence for developmental toxicity, actually found some evidence for such an effect, including low brain mass and arhinencephaly—incomplete formation of the anterior cerebral hemispheres—in rat pups. Finally, the pyriproxyfen use in Brazil is unprecedented—it has never before been applied to a water supply on such a scale. Claims that it is not being used in Recife, the epicenter of microcephaly cases, do not distinguish the metropolitan area of Recife, where it is widely used, and the municipality, where it is not. Given this combination of information we strongly recommend that the use of pyriproxyfen in Brazil be suspended pending further investigation.


[Our experimental work is supported by grants BIO2014-56092-R (MINECO and FEDER) and P12-CTS-1507 (Andalusian Government and FEDER) and funds from group BIO-267 (Andalusian Government). The "CIBER de Enfermedades Raras" is an initiative from the ISCIII (Spain)]. This communicaction has the support of a travel grant "Universidad de Malaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucia Tech".


This study looks into the challenges and opportunities posed by urbanization in Guinea, reviewing briefly the trends at the national level but focusing on the urban area of Conakry. The main reasons for focusing on the urban area of Conakry are the following. While secondary cities in Guinea are growing economically and in population, Conakry already represents close to 50 percent of the urban population and its demographic growth outpaces that of other urban areas. This creates a sense of urgency to solving the country's capital problems. Secondly, Conakry remains the country's main interface for international trade through its port facility. Failure to address Conakry's issues, including congestion levels, would likely weaken its (and Guinea's) attractiveness in the long run. Follow-up studies could however look into Guinea's system of cities, including how they are connected to each other within the country and with their neighbors. The analysis presented in this review shows that urban areas in Guinea, and Conakryin particular are currently not acting as engines of growth and competitiveness and are failing at providing public services and quality living standards for their residents. It argues that the reasons are to be found i) in the business environment which, recent progress aside, stymies private sector job creation and economic diversification, ii) in Conakry's deficient connectivity system which acts as a bottleneck for residents to have access to economic opportunities, iii) in its obsolete and unenforced planning strategies and its rigid land markets and iv) in the lack of institutional clarity and financial resources which leads to underinvestment in public services.


Nitrate (NO3) losses from agricultural lands in the Midwest flow into the Mississippi River Basin (MRB) and contribute significantly to hypoxia in the Gulf of Mexico. Previous work has shown that cover crops can reduce loadings, but adoption rates are low, and the potential impact if cover crops were widely adopted is currently unknown. This paper provides an analysis of potential cover crop adoption and relative benefits to water quality across the five-state region of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, and Minnesota in the upper midwestern MRB. Two agricultural counties were selected in each of the five states, and the potential for fall-planted cover crop adoption was estimated based on cash crop rotation and tillage systems. In these 10 counties, an estimated 34% to 81% of the agricultural land could have cover crops integrated into their corn (Zea mays L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) cropping systems. These adoption rates would in some cases require shifts of current tillage practices from fall to spring, but could be even higher with increased adoption of no-till and mulch-till. Nitrate reduction simulated with the Root Zone Water Quality Model for the tile drained portion of the corn–soybean and continuous corn cropping systems in the five-state area, under the assumed management systems and uniform soil properties, showed that cover crops have the potential to reduce NO3 loadings to the Mississippi River by approximately 20%. These predictions suggest that cover crop adoption would have a beneficial impact on water quality in the MRB and would contribute greatly towards meeting the national goal of significant reduction in NO3-nitrogen (N) load entering the Gulf.


diabetes A taxonomy of patients with type 2 diabetes based on their illness representations was developed. To do this a cluster analysis was conducted, using the responses of a convenience sample of 103 adults from primary health care in central Chile, who completed the IPQ-R scale. This analysis lead to 3 groups of patients labeled Preoccupied, Hopeless, and Deniers. The first relies on procedures to mitigate the effects of the disease. The second shows a low belief about the possibility to control the disease. The third does not consider diabetes as a chronic disease. The groups were compared on emotional response, intention to adhere, perception of need and concern about the treatment, to complement the cluster analysis procedure, using ANOVA or chi-square. Consistent with their profiles, the groups present significant differences in their emotional response, beliefs about medications, intention to adhere, treatment time, age, and education. The utility of these taxonomies for differential treatment of patients is discussed.


A secondary phosphine oxide (SPO) ligand (tert-butyl(phenyl)phosphine oxide) was employed to generate an Ir–SPO complex which shows a particular ability to activate dihydrogen under mild conditions without the help of an external base or additive. Such an iridium (I) complex serves as a precursor for homogeneous catalysis since under H2 it is converted to a mixture of several iridium (III) hydride species that are the active catalysts. This system was found to be a highly active catalyst for the hydrogenation of substituted aldehydes, giving very high conversions and chemoselectivities for a wide range of substrates. The SPO ligand presumably plays a key role in the catalytic process through heterolytic cleavage of H2 by metal–ligand cooperation. In addition, an exhaustive characterization of the different iridium hydride species was performed by 1D and 2D NMR spectroscopy. The oxidative addition of H2 to the Ir(I)–SPO complex is highly stereoselective, as all generated Ir(III) hydrides are homochiral. Finally, the crystal structure, as determined by X-Ray Diffraction, of a dinuclear iridium (III) hydride complex is described.


Fluctuations are one of the main probes of the physics of the new state of hot and dense nuclear matter called the Quark Gluon Plasma (QGP) which is created in the ultra-relativistic heavy ion collisions. In this dissertation we extend and improve upon the existing descriptions of heavy ion collisions in three different directions: we study the new signatures of initial state fluctuations, the propagation of perturbations in the early stages of the collision, and the effect of thermal fluctuations on the hydrodynamic expansion of the QGP. First, we use Principal Component Analysis (PCA) to study event-by-event fluctuations in the spectrum of harmonic flow, $v_n(p_T)$ for $n=0\text{--}5$, in hydrodynamic simulations of Pb+Pb collisions at the CERN Large Hadron Collider ($\sqrt{s_{NN}}=2.76\,{\rm TeV}$). The PCA procedure finds two dominant contributions to the two-particle correlation function: the leading component is identified with the standard event plane $v_n(p_T)$ and the subleading component is responsible for factorization breaking and reflects the radial excitation in the initial state. Second, we use leading order effective kinetic theory (accurate at weak coupling) to simulate the pre-equilibrium evolution of transverse energy and flow perturbations. We construct the linear response Green functions, which map initial perturbations to the energy momentum tensor at a time when hydrodynamics becomes applicable. Finally, we develop a set of kinetic equations for thermal noise correlators which are equivalent to nonlinear hydrodynamics with noise. We use the hydro-kinetic equations to analyze thermal fluctuations for a Bjorken expansion and determine the coefficient of the first fractional power ($\propto 1/(\tau T)^{3/2}$) of the nonlinear noise corrections to energy momentum tensor.


Arora, M., Tewari, A., Bassi, S., Chauhan, K., Bhasin, S., Bakshi, A., & Andreasson, S. (2017). Exploring perceptions of alcohol use in two Indian states: A qualitative study from Delhi and Haryana, India. The International Journal Of Alcohol And Drug Research, 6 (1), 1-6. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.7895/ijadr.v6i1.238 Aims:  To explore perceptions and determinants influencing alcohol consumption, with a view to inform development of suitable policies to control alcohol consumption. Methodology: Focus group discussions (FGDs) ( n =24) were conducted in two Indian states among the rural Haryana ( n =8 FGDs; 58 participants) and urban Delhi ( n =16 FGDs; 113 participants) populations. Purposive sampling was used to recruit the participants, who were from high and low socioeconomic status (SES) groups and in the age group of 18–58 years. Results: Different factors influence alcohol consumption in high and low SES groups. The age of initiation is now as low as 10–12 years, attributable to the recent trend of increased accessibility. The participants agreed that alcohol consumption has now become a more acceptable part of daily living, whereas earlier it was limited to special occasions and festivals. This has contributed to an increase in drinking. Drinking among women was earlier a taboo, but now women (mainly of high SES), are often seen drinking at social gatherings. The respondents mentioned weak enforcement of regulatory policies related to alcohol consumption and sales. Conclusions: A shift in attitudes was observed towards drinking. Drinking is increasingly seen as a part of daily life. The availability of alcohol is perceived to be increasing and restrictions on sale are not effectively enforced. There is an urgent need to re-evaluate the alcohol policy from a public health perspective in India.


This thesis reports research carried out towards numerical simulation of hypersonic flows around space-plane shapes. For high speed flows around conical geometries, a locally conical approximation was introduced, which resulted in locally conical Navier-Stokes equations. In order to achieve accuracy and efficiency for steady state solutions, various methods were investigated. Based on the MacCormack implicit scheme and the Beam-Warming implicit scheme, two implicit procedures were developed to solve the locally conical Navier-Stokes equations (LCNSE). A new implicit boundary treatment was introduced in the MacCormack implicit scheme. The source term in the governing equations was treated explicitly. A simplified Beam-Warming implicit scheme was developed for its application to the LCNSE. Accuracy of the two schemes was investigated. The time step dependence of steady state solution with MacCormack-type schemes was analyzed and a procedure to reduce the error was proposed. To further accelerate the convergence to the steady state, two multigrid methods were applied to the two implicit schemes respectively. An extention of Ni-type multigrid method was developed to accelerate the MacCormack implicit scheme, and the FAS multigrid method was employed to accelerate the simplified Beam-Warming implicit scheme. In parallel, a new approach for fast steady state solution - sparse quasi-Newton method - was proposed to avoid difficulties in linearization associated with implicit schemes for general CFD problems. Formulation was given for three-point and five-point spatial discretization schemes. Preliminary results of a nozzle problem with van Leer's flux splitting and Harten's TVD high shock-resolution schemes illustrated significantly faster convergence to steady state with the sparse quasi-Newton approach than those with corresponding implicit operators of van Leer and Harten. Numerical simulations by solving LCNSE with the two implicit schemes developed in this study were carried out on hypersonic flows around a cone, on the leeside of a delta wing and beneath/over a cone-delta-wing combination. Detailed structures of the complex flow interaction were well predicted including the existence of embedded shock waves and secondary vortices. Comparison with available experimental data was made. Euler solutions were also carried out to compare with the N-S solutions. In the present hypersonic delta wing flow simulation, different phenomena were found than would have been expected from the Miller and Wood classification in the lower speed range. The numerical simulation of hypersonic viscous flows around a cone-delta-wing combination was the first flow field simulation around such a shape representing wing-body interference. It was found that the complexity of the flow field results from the shock-shock, shock-boundary layer and shock-vortex interactions in the flow field. High local heating and its cause were revealed near the corner on both the windward side and the leeward side surfaces of the geometry.


For nonimmunologists, a daunting and rapidly evolving immunologic vocabulary, our incomplete understanding of both normal and abnormal immune function, and multiple interrelated complex immune cellular pathways can be a barrier to using basic immunology to understand and improve care for patients with type 1 diabetes. Our task in this review is to introduce current immune concepts specifically relevant to type 1 diabetes. Because our understanding is not complete, as evidenced perhaps by our lack of standard immunotherapy to prevent type 1 diabetes, we can only provide a partial framework. Perhaps the simplest framework (which may be wrong) is to consider the development of type 1 diabetes as the balance between regulatory and effector T lymphocytes. We know that in the absence of a major portion of regulatory T lymphocytes in a rare syndrome caused by mutation of the FOXP3 gene, most infants (even neonates) develop type 1 diabetes. Central to the development of type 1 diabetes are T lymphocytes with specific T-cell receptors that recognize islet molecules. When a T-cell is activated through its receptor, it can orchestrate protection from infection or autoimmunity, depending on the target. Other T-cells can suppress or enhance autoimmunity (either in general or only for T lymphocytes in islets). The activation of a T-cell involves multiple different cell types and genes, as we will discuss.

The modern era of immunology began with the clonal selection theory independently expressed by David W. Talmage and Sir Frank Macfarlane Burnet (1,2). The clonal selection theory postulates that a foreign antigen entering the body binds to one unique antibody selected from an unlimited repertoire of antibodies formed early in the organism's life. This explains how the immune system is able to recognize and respond to a virtually inestimable number of foreign antigens.

The immune system is a …


Background: Maternal mortality remains unacceptably high in developing countries despite international advocacy, health and development targets, and simple, affordable and effective interventions. In recent years, regard for maternal mortality as a human rights issue as well as one that pertains to health, has emerged. Objective: We study a case of maternal death using a theoretical framework derived from the right to health to examine access to and quality of maternal health care. Our objective is to explore the potential of rights-based frameworks to inform public health planning from a human rights perspective. Design: Information was elicited as part of a verbal autopsy survey investigating maternal deaths in rural settings in Indonesia. The deceased's relatives were interviewed to collect information on medical signs, symptoms and the social, cultural and health systems circumstances surrounding the death. Results: In this case, a prolonged, severe fever and a complicated series of referrals culminated in the death of a 19-year-old primagravida at 7 months gestation. The cause of death was acute infection. The woman encountered a range of barriers to access; behavioural, socio-cultural, geographic and economic. Several serious health system failures were also apparent, reflecting her exclusion from access to healthcare. The theoretical framework derived from the right to health identified that none of the essential elements of the right were upheld. Conclusion: There are fundamental and inherent conflicts between the public health tradition (collective and preventative) and the right to health (individualistic and curative). As a result, and in practice, the right to health is likely to be ineffective for public health planning from a human rights perspective. Collective rights such as the right to development may provide a more suitable means to achieve equity and social justice in health planning.


This paper proposes a multi-objective quality of service (QoS) routing protocol for wireless sensor networks (WSN). The protocol takes into account the traffic diversity typical for many applications and provides a differentiation in routing using QoS metrics. It ensures several QoS metrics for different traffic categories, and attempts for each packet to fulfill the required metrics in a power-aware and localized way. It employs memory and computation efficient estimators in a distributed manner and uses a multi-sink single-path approach to increase reliability. The main contribution of this paper is data traffic based QoS with regard to all the considered QoS metrics. As far as we know, this protocol is the first that makes use of the diversity in the data traffic while considering latency, reliability, residual energy in the sensor nodes, and transmission power between nodes and casts QoS metrics as a multi-objective problem. The proposed algorithm can operate with any MAC protocol, provided that it employs an ACK mechanism. Simulation results show the proposed protocol outperforms all compared state-of-the-art QoS and localized routing protocols.


Traditionally, the role of management accountants has been described as that of a counter, recorder, and reporter of financial information. This role has recently shifted, however, from "bean counters" to business partners. As business partners, management accountants are seen as organizational team members and are involved in both strategic and operational decision making. (1) This raises the question: "Do management accountants really excel at decision analysis and outperform accounting students who lack on-the-job management accounting experience?" This question is answered by comparing the performance of IMA[R] professionals to that of non-professionals at a universal task. If management accountants are now indeed business partners, it is imperative that they acquire a broad knowledge base and maintain a skill set that enables them to add value to the organizational decision-making process. By adding value, management accountants will assist top management in running the business. This means providing relevant information, explaining how the information impacts a decision, and participating in the decision-making process. (2) In interviews, 300 management accountants who had greater than seven years of management accounting experience noted that they spend more time analyzing information and being involved in decision making and less time preparing financial statements than they did five years ago. (3) Also recognizing this changing role, the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) created the Improving Decision-Making in Organisations Forum. The forum contains senior management accountants from top companies around the world and has set out to determine how the transformation to business partner improves decision making in organizations. The forum ascertains that key roles of business partners include framing a decision, supplying management with information, contributing insights, and analyzing alternatives. (4) It is apparent that, to be business partners, management accountants should excel at identification and interpretation of relevant information in order to make accurate and efficient decisions. Assuming that management accountants are involved in gathering relevant information and making decisions, they should excel at these tasks. Despite the global attention given to this new role, no study has investigated the ability of management accountants to excel at a germane decision-making task. Examining their performance at realistic decision making will give firsthand insight into their abilities. This insight is complementary to survey- and interview-based research, which has only investigated whether the duties of today's management accountants are consistent with that of business partners. (5) Additionally, management accountants are likely to face competition from information technology specialists or production managers with strong financial bases. (6) ACCOUNTING EXPERIENCE AND DECISION MAKING Managerial decision making is often conceptualized as a process in which decision makers specify possible alternatives, identify the relevant costs and benefits of each alternative, and select the best course of action. (7) If management accountants excel at these tasks--and hence are active members of organizational decision making--they will participate in determining how resources are allocated to various investment opportunities. Thus, in determining how resources should be allocated, management accountants are likely to be responsible for collecting relevant information, analyzing alternatives, and making a recommendation based on that information. Early research in management accounting found that years of general business experience does not improve decision making. (8) Although there have not been a large number of studies, a high level of management accounting experience has been shown to lead to integration of opportunity costs in decision making if cash flow analysis was chosen to represent the problem rather than analysis based on accrual earnings. …


The citizenship education programs in Australian as a multicultural society has been reviewed for nearly two decades and both major parties in the Commonwealth Parliament are intended to support this progress in the citizenship education. They also allocated funding for curriculum materials and professional development for teachers and educators. In recent years, both commonwealth and New South Wales (NSW) government have tried in making civic and citizenship curriculum as an educational priority in Australia. In this process teachers and educators have occupied a vital role in promoting of student's knowledge, skill and understanding of civic values, as they are responsible to the way of how and what they have to teach students from different backgrounds and cultures. This paper investigates the role of citizenship education programs in NWSs' high-schools in encouraging new generation to collaborate with each other in the multicultural society as good citizens as well as to explain how teachers and educators in high-schools play a central role to educate students from different backgrounds and cultures. The significance of citizenship education is that improve young student's participation in political and civic life, and a developing body of evidence demonstrate that citizenship education can really have an influence on new generation's participation in the society.


Translating characters instead of words or word-fragments has the potential to simplify the processing pipeline for neural machine translation (NMT), and improve results by eliminating hyper-parameters and manual feature engineering. However, it results in longer sequences in which each symbol contains less information, creating both modeling and computational challenges. In this paper, we show that the modeling problem can be solved by standard sequence-to-sequence architectures of sufficient depth, and that deep models operating at the character level outperform identical models operating over word fragments. This result implies that alternative architectures for handling character input are better viewed as methods for reducing computation time than as improved ways of modeling longer sequences. From this perspective, we evaluate several techniques for character-level NMT, verify that they do not match the performance of our deep character baseline model, and evaluate the performance versus computation time tradeoffs they offer. Within this framework, we also perform the first evaluation for NMT of conditional computation over time, in which the model learns which timesteps can be skipped, rather than having them be dictated by a fixed schedule specified before training begins.


Molecular markers are being applied increasingly to various aspects of tree
improvement. This thesis reports two such applications. The first involves tracing the
natural origins and assessing the genetic diversity of the Portuguese Landrace of E.
globulus, which is a core component of the Portuguese breeding program. In order to
achieve this, variation in chloroplast DNA (cpDNA) sequence and microsatellite
allele frequency in 47 individuals of the Portuguese Landrace were compared with
native stand material. The native gene pool of E. globulus is genetically diverse, with
substantial geographically structured genetic variation in molecular markers, which
makes it possible to trace the origin of germplasm of unknown pedigree, such as the
Portuguese Landrace. Similar affinities suggested by the two independent marker
systems provided strong evidence that the Portuguese Landrace was predominantly
derived from south-eastern Tasmania and to a lesser extent south-eastern Victoria.
Ascertaining the origin of and diversity in such populations will help to avoid
inbreeding and will capture the most favourable traits from native populations when
they are used in breeding programs.
The second application of molecular markers addressed in this thesis involved the
construction of a genetic linkage map and searching for molecular markers
associated with quantitative trait loci (QTL) in E. globulus. This study focussed on
identifying QTL for susceptibility to Mycosphaerella leaf blotch (MLB), a fungal
disease affecting the growth of eucalypt plantations worldwide, and other potentially
correlated traits. In order to search for QTL, parental and consensus linkage maps
were constructed in an F2 inter-provenance cross of Eucalyptus globulus with clonal
replication. The consensus map used for QTL detection contained 169 markers (34
SSR and 135 AFLP loci) in 11 linkage groups. The inclusion of SSR markers
allowed comparison of linkage and QTL information to other mapping and QTL
studies conducted in different mapping pedigrees of E. globulus and other species in
the subgenus Symphyomyrtus. The F2 was genetically variable, with significant
differences detected between genotypes for all recorded traits. Significant QTL were
detected for susceptibility to MLB, herbivory by the autumn gum moth, growth and
vegetative phase change. In the case of MLB susceptibility, two major unlinked QTL explained over 70% of the phenotypic variance. This study reports the first QTL
affecting height to vegetative phase change and disease resistance in E. globulus.
These findings will help to elucidate the genetic control of these complex traits in
Eucalyptus, and provide information that will be useful in attempts to incorporate
them into breeding programs.


Background Longitudinal injury surveillance may provide valuable information regarding relationships between initial and any subsequent injuries. The Subsequent Injury Categorisation (SIC) (Finch & Cook, 2013) has been proposed as a method for examining these relationships. Objective To identify priority injury problems and potential risk factors for injury and subsequent injury in international cricket. Design Prospective injury surveillance using consensus methods and SIC. Setting International cricket. Participants All players from one national team squad during over 2 years (2011–2013). Risk factor assessment The contrasting; injury types, rates and severity, according to body area, position and activity (training or match) at time of injury, and SIC. Main outcome measurement Training and match injury incidence (per 100 days), prevalence (% of players unavailable) and average days-lost per injury were calculated for each variable along with the percentage of injuries within each SIC. Further analysis of the SIC is in process. Results 225 injuries were sustained (73 time-loss and 152 non time-loss), with an overall incidence of 10/100 days (7/100 days matches, 3/100 days training), prevalence of 13% and average of 32 days-lost per injury. Ankle, knee and hand regions had the highest incidence, but lumbar and abdomen regions had the greatest days-lost per injury. Fast bowlers had the highest incidence (6/100 days) and prevalence (8%). Wicket-keepers had the greatest days-lost per injury (68 days). Thirty-five percent of the 219 subsequent injuries sustained were coded as being related to a previous injury. Twelve percent of all subsequent injuries were a recurrence. Conclusions International cricketers have a high rate of non time-loss injury, particularly to the ankle, knee and shoulder whereas thigh strains and lower back injuries result in the greatest time-loss. Injury prevention strategies should target these problems, particularly in fast bowlers. Analysis of the SIC may provide further insight into injury risk predicators.


We measured the postural sway of two trombonists as they each recorded multiple performances of two solo pieces in each of three different expressive styles (normal, expressive, non-expressive). We then measured the postural sway of 29 non-trombonist listeners as they moved their arms and body, "air-conducting" the recorded sound as if to draw out the emotion from the performance (Experiment 1), and of the two trombonists as they played along with the same recorded performances (Experiment 2). In both experiments, the velocity of listeners' postural sway was more like that of the performer than expected by chance. Listeners entrained more to back-and-forth than to side-to-side sway in Experiment 1 and only to back-and-forth sway in Experiment 2. Entrainment was not due entirely to performer and listener both swaying to the musical pulse in the same way. Listeners in Experiment 1 rated performances as more expressive when they entrained more, suggesting that entrainment enhanced their aesthetic experience of the music. The whole body appears to contribute to unpacking the expressive content of musical communication.


Adoption is a topic that involves many prejudices and expectations. The late adoption includes the same placement. It is known that adopting a child and/or adolescent denotes intense feelings, expectations about the future and resignation of the early years of the development of the son to the late adopters' couples.  The overall objective was to identify the feelings of the families' adopters and explore their perceptions and experiences about the late adoption process. The specific objectives were to identify the main experiences in this process; meet the psychological and legal aspects; and observe the main feelings and expectations of families enabled the late adoption. In this sense, the survey sought to investigate how it was experienced the late adoption by five families in the city of Passo Fundo, Rio Grande do Sul. Furthermore, was developed as an exploratory qualitative oriented study. Thus, semi-structured interviews were carried out, recorded and transcribed for after exploitation by the method of Bardin's Analysis Content. The survey results showed that the late adoption is, at the same time, a good and challenging experience, while a process that naturally involves difficulties and facilities, which are related to life experiences of each couple with the child adopted.


Two paradigms characterize much of the research in the Information Systems discipline: behavioral science and design science. The behavioralscience paradigm seeks to develop and verify theories that explain or predict human or organizational behavior. The design-science paradigm seeks to extend the boundaries of human and organizational capabilities by creating new and innovative artifacts. Both paradigms are foundational to the IS discipline, positioned as it is at the confluence of people, organizations, and technology. Our objective is to describe the performance of design-science research in Information Systems via a concise conceptual framework and clear guidelines for understanding, executing, and evaluating the research. In the design-science paradigm, knowledge and understanding of a problem domain and its solution are achieved in the building and application of the designed artifact. Three recent exemplars in the research literature are used to demonstrate the application Hevner et al./Design Science in IS Research 76 MIS Quarterly Vol. 28 No. 1/March 2004 of these guidelines. We conclude with an analysis of the challenges of performing high-quality design-science research in the context of the broader IS community.


There is a growing realization of the need to promote a constructive dialogue between science and religion both in the scientific and the religious community. Accommodationism based on the concept of nonoverlapping magisteria (NOMA) is arguably the dominant trend in the effort to achieve this goal. Yet despite the fact that accommodationism has many supporters, it has so far failed to promote a productive engagement between science and religion. The article argues that such engagement requires a critical re-examination of the principal tenets, self-evident truths, and intuitions by both the scientific and the religious community. It further argues that despite isolated efforts seeking to promote such re-examination in both domains, neither the scientific nor the religious establishment shows much willingness to pursue this course. Rather they prefer to follow a conservative agenda and impose limits on reason that are designed to protect the status quo. Key words: Accommodationism, NOMA, dialogue between science and religion, John Paul II, Benedict XVI, Stephen Gould.


The results of international assessments of student achievement are far more nuanced than the headlines lead us to believe. Having examined six comparisons of performance -- in various subjects and at various levels -- by students in the U.S. and other industrialized nations, Mr. Boe and Ms. Shin conclude that the dire pronouncements about America's standing are greatly exaggerated. IT IS widely believed and lamented that U.S. students perform poorly on international comparisons of academic achievement. For example, Edward Silver reports that U.S. seventh- and eighth-grade students performed poorly on the mathematics section of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS 1995) and that this indicates "a pervasive and intolerable mediocrity in mathematics teaching."1 Likewise, the Institute of Education Sciences (IES) in the U.S. Department of Education attributed the reportedly poor performance of U.S. middle- grade students on the TIMSS 1995 mathematics assessment to the ineffectiveness of mathematics education.2 Such perceptions have led to grave concerns about the future economic competitiveness of the U.S. For example, Rita Colwell, the former director of the National Science Foundation, has stated that if the U.S. is to maintain its position in the world economy, it is critical for the nation's students to achieve at high levels in mathematics and science.3 Given the concern about the strength of the U.S. economy, it is often said that the nation's students perform poorly compared with students in "many" other industrialized nations. This indeed is true. One can pick a particular survey (e.g., TIMSS 1995), subject matter (e.g., mathematics), and grade level (e.g., grade 8) and find "many" industrialized nations that scored significantly higher than the U.S. (e.g., France, Japan, and Switzerland).4 Yet it is also true that U.S. students perform better than students in many industrialized nations. For example, the U.S. scored significantly higher than many industrialized nations (e.g., France, Germany, and Switzerland) in the 1991 Reading Literacy Study at grade 4.5 (Throughout this article, "significantly" refers to statistical significance.) Thus, depending on one's interest or agenda, a particular survey result can be selected to support almost any conclusion about how the U.S. stands in the international achievement horse race. For instance, in order to support the conclusion that the U.S. was at risk of falling well behind other nations in economic competitiveness, the first item of evidence cited in A Nation at Risk was "that on 19 academic tests American students were never first or second and, in comparison with other industrialized nations, were last seven times."6 No mention was made of which international tests, grade levels, or subjects were selected for these comparisons, and nothing was said about how U.S. achievement on average compared with that of other industrialized nations.7 A much more objective and accurate assessment of the standing of the U.S. in international comparisons would be based on the results of multiple surveys, multiple subject matters, and multiple grade levels. Fortunately, another generation of international achievement surveys has been completed since 1990, and it is worth looking at the U.S. performance on these more recent assessments. In addition to being of high technical quality, these international assessments are not limited to mathematics and science, as were surveys from previous years, but also include subjects such as reading and civics. The perception of poor performance by U.S. students on international comparisons is typically attributed to the ineffectiveness of American public education. Educators and policy makers of widely different perspectives embrace this conclusion because it creates enormous pressure for change. It is useful to those who are dedicated to reforming public education in various ways, as well as to those who seek to diminish public schooling through strategies such as voucher programs that would increasingly privatize the system. …


The provisional molecular approach, proposed by EFSA in 2013, for the pathogenicity assessment of Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) has been reviewed. Analysis of the confirmed reported human STEC infections in the EU/EEA (2012–2017) demonstrated that isolates positive for any of the reported Shiga toxin (Stx) subtypes (and encoding stx gene subtypes) may be associated with severe illness (defined as bloody diarrhoea (BD), haemolytic uraemic syndrome (HUS) and/or hospitalisation). Although strains positive for stx2a gene showed the highest rates, strains with all other stx subtypes, or combinations thereof, were also associated with at least one human case with a severe clinical outcome. Serogroup cannot be used as a predictor of clinical outcome and the presence of the intimin gene (eae) is not essential for severe illness. These findings are supported by the published literature, a review of which suggested there was no single or combination of virulence markers associated exclusively with severe illness. Based on available evidence, it was concluded that all STEC strains are pathogenic in humans, capable of causing at least diarrhoea and that all STEC subtypes may be associated with severe illness. Source attribution analysis, based on 'strong evidence' outbreak data in the EU/EEA (2012–2017), suggests that 'bovine meat and products thereof', 'milk and dairy products', 'tap water including well water' and 'vegetables, fruit and products thereof' are the main sources of STEC infections in the EU/EEA, but a ranking between these categories cannot be made as the data are insufficient. Other food commodities are also potentially associated with STEC infections but rank lower. Data gaps are identified, and are primarily caused by the lack of harmonisation in sampling strategies, sampling methods, detection and characterisation methods, data collation and reporting within the EU. © 2020 European Food Safety Authority. EFSA Journal published by John Wiley and Sons Ltd on behalf of European Food Safety Authority.


Lorentz National Park (2.35 million ha) is the largest protected area in South-East Asia. It is the only protected area in the world to incorporate a continuous, intact transect from snowcap to tropical marine environment, including extensive lowland wetlands. Located at the meeting-point of two colliding continental plates, the area has a complex geology with ongoing mountain formation as well as major sculpting by glaciation. The area also contains fossil sites which provide evidence of the evolution of life on New Guinea, a high level of endemism and the highest level of biodiversity in the region. © UNESCO


Using a large sample of earnings press releases by Australian firms, we compare multiple attributes of non‐GAAP earnings measures with their closest GAAP equivalent. We find that, on average, non‐GAAP earnings are more persistent, smoother, more value relevant, and have higher predictive power than their closest GAAP equivalent. However, the same set of non‐GAAP earnings disclosures are also less conservative and less timely than their closest GAAP equivalent. The results are consistent with non‐GAAP earnings measures reflecting a reversal of the trade‐off between the valuation and stewardship roles of accounting inherent in accounting standards and the way they are applied. We also find that differences in several of these attributes between GAAP and non‐GAAP earnings are more evident in larger firms, firms with lower market‐to‐book ratios, firms with a higher proportion of independent directors, and firms that report profits rather than losses. Our evidence is consistent with the argument that accounting standards impose significant amounts of conditional conservatism at some cost to the valuation role of accounting information. Non‐GAAP earnings measures can therefore be seen as a response to the challenges faced by a single GAAP performance measure in satisfying the competing demands of value relevance and stewardship.


Michael Ryan was the priest who accompanied Francis Murphy, the first South Australian Catholic Bishop, to Adelaide in October 1844. For twenty odd years he served the Catholic community, travelling extensively and often over the colony to visit isolated parishioners. He acted as Vicar General for several periods and, during the absence of the Bishop, administered the diocese and was the Catholic spokesman on political issues such as the Marriage Act and Ordinance, the Grant-in-aid scheme and the Education Act. He was appointed to the newly established Destitute Board in 1849 as the Catholic representative along with clergy from other denominations. No doubt it was his experience on this Board which resulted in his selection by Governor Richard MacDonnell to be appointed to the Female Immigration Board (FIB) six years later For six months he worked closely with a small group with vastly different social, religious and political views to provide for the 'excessive female immigration' which created enormous problems for the colony in 1855 and led to a Parliamentary Enquiry in 1856. (1) In this study I examine his role on this Female Immigration Board and his role in the events which led to its establishment. An illustration of the social welfare role of the clergy in early colonial days is thus provided. An attempt is made to assess how effective Michael Ryan was in providing care for the newly arrived, predominantly Irish, servant girls in 1855. What influence did he have on the decisions of the Board? Michael Ryan to 1855 There is little information available about Michael Ryan's personal background. He was born in Galway and arrived in Australia in 1838, presumably in his mid-twenties. Archbishop Polding of NSW transferred him from Penrith to accompany Bishop Murphy to Adelaide and to assist for a year. After the year had expired Michael Ryan applied for permission to remain in Adelaide from the Archbishop of Tuam, in Ireland, to whom he was still responsible. (2) He was reputedly a poor speaker but an excellent horse-rider. (3) As a clergyman in a very new colony with few resources Ryan was involved in a wide variety of activities. He constantly travelled, mostly on horseback, sometimes by boat, on missionary expeditions to the most remote settlements in the colony, from Armagh north of Clare to the lower South-East. He became, therefore, very familiar with all the areas of the colony where Female Immigration Depots or Servants Depots, were to be established. When Bishop Murphy and Michael Ryan first arrived, the Catholic population of Adelaide was poor and scattered. The Census of 1855, the last census in which it was compulsory to state religious affiliation, recorded 8,335 Roman Catholics in the colony, less than ten percent of the population of 85,821. Ryan was adept at raising money in very small working class communities for the building of churches, the first being completed at Morphett Vale, less than nine months after he had arrived. By 1855 there were churches and parish priests in all but two (Robe and Encounter Bay) of the towns with Servants Depots. (4) He spent several months at the Victorian gold diggings in 1852 and collected over 2,000 [pounds sterling], having been sent by Bishop Murphy to raise money to repay diocesan debt. (5) In 1851 elections were held for the Legislative Council. One of the key issues contested was that of state aid to religion-the continuation of the payment of stipends and the allocation of grants for the building of churches. Michael Ryan spent all day at the newly created polling place at Salisbury in the district of Yatala, trying to convince people to vote for the candidate supporting the Grant-in-Aid scheme, no doubt with the approval of his Bishop. At this time Michael Ryan must have been reasonably well-known, not only as a Catholic priest but also as a member of the Destitute Board. The unsuccessful candidate, George Alexander Anstey, interpreted his activity as exercising 'undue influence'. …


Meador, Douglas Paul. Ph.D., Department of Biomedical, Industrial and Human Factors Engineering, Ph.D. in Engineering Program, Wright State University, 2008. Modeling training effects on task performance using a human performance taxonomy. There is little argument that modern military systems are very complex, both in terms of the resources in time and money to develop them and the infrastructure that is required to produce trained operators. To properly execute human systems integration during the acquisition process, systems built to train operators must be developed that optimize training. Consequently, the training system community would benefit from simulation models that provide the ability to make accurate predictions of training processes, and allow the decision maker to specify an optimum combination of operator performance after training and the cost of that training. The goal of this research is the construction of a model of human learning using time to complete a task as a performance measure. While past research has explored the nature of functions to characterize human learning, this study will examine processes used to build a model that considers task performance as a function of training methods used to instruct a task, the nature of the task being taught, and the ability of the human to retain skill over a specified period of nonuse. An empirical study was performed to collect data from individuals completing tasks typically performed by sensor operators assigned to military unmanned aircraft systems. The tasks performed covered a range of activities that require varying combinations of human perceptual, cognitive and motor skills. The data were fitted to a set of models that were used to predict the performance outcome of a task similar in type to those used to build the model. Results are reported and recommendations for future research are offered.


This paper considers how a truth discourse about violence against women was produced with the #JaTeż posts published on Facebook between 16 and 20 October 2017, during the first phase of Polish #MeToo. It applies a post-Foucauldian perspective of dispositive analysis to outline how the circulation of #MeToo (#JaTeż) in social media affected the patriarchal dispositive of gender, which had to give way to women speaking truth. The replication of posts and accumulation of affects in the #MeToo (#JaTeż) network allowed the normalisation of violence against women in public discourse to be countered. Michel Foucault's work on parrhesiastic and confessional modes of truth-telling is employed to analyse courage and solidarity in #MeToo (#JaTeż), as well as to connect individual engagement in the action with the collective claim for a normative shift in favour of women's rights.


We have reported that inhibition of nitric oxide synthesis with N(G)-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME) attenuates the renin secretory response to beta adrenoceptor stimulation. We proposed that the attenuation results from disinhibition of the cyclic GMP-inhibitable isoform of phosphodiesterase (PDE III) with a resultant increase in cyclic AMP hydrolysis in the juxtaglomerular cells. In our investigation, experiments were performed in conscious rabbits to test the effects of the specific PDE III inhibitor milrinone on resting renin secretion and on the renin responses to isoproterenol and L-NAME. In the first series of experiments, infusion of milrinone increased plasma renin activity from 5.4 +/- 0.6 to 10.2 +/- 1.4 ng/ml/2 hr (P < .01). Heart rate increased markedly, but arterial pressure did not change. In the second series, infusion of isoproterenol increased plasma renin activity from 6.3 +/- 1.1 to 15.0 +/- 1.0 ng/ml/2 hr (P < .01). The renin response to isoproterenol was increased (P < .01) in the presence of milrinone (15.3 +/- 3.7 to 38.4 +/- 6.2 ng/ml/2 hr, P < .01). In the third series, L-NAME alone decreased plasma renin activity from 5.0 +/- 1.0 to 3.3 +/- 1.0 ng/ml/2 hr (P < .01). Milrinone again increased plasma renin activity and prevented the suppression of plasma renin activity by L-NAME. By contrast, milrinone did not alter the suppression of plasma renin activity produced by infusion of phenylephrine. In addition, a PDE IV inhibitor failed to prevent the suppression of PRA by L-NAME. Finally, administration of milrinone completely reversed the L-NAME-induced suppression of the renin response to isoproterenol. These results provide evidence that PDE III participates in the regulation of renin secretion, and support the proposal that the L-NAME-induced reductions in renin secretion and in the renin response to beta adrenoceptor stimulation result from disinhibition of PDE III and increased hydrolysis of cyclic AMP in the juxtaglomerular cells.


The basic understanding of both the physiology and ecology of psychrotolerant Antarctic bacteria is a crucial step for the optimization of their biodegradative activity in cold environments. The detection of cold-adapted hydrocarbon-degrading bacteria in Antarctic seawaters is certainly of great interest for bioremediative purpose in oil polluted marine Antarctic systems, where the introduction of non native species is not allowed. This study focused on psychrotolerant marine bacteria inhabiting an Antarctic coastal area directly influenced by the human activity at the Italian Research Station (Terra Nova Bay). Fifty bacterial strains were isolated from hydrocarbon-degrading enrichment cultures obtained from seawater samples collected in the inlet Road Bay (Ross Sea). A preliminary Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism (RFLP) analysis, carried out on 16S rDNA amplified via PCR using RSAI and AluI restriction enzymes, was applied to cluster the isolates according to the restriction profile they showed. One representative isolate per cluster was selected for further characterization; to elucidate their taxonomic position, conventional phenotypic and phylogenetic analyses were performed. Results led to the identification of the isolates as members of ten genera belonging to four phylogenetic groups: the alfa- and gamma-proteobacteria subdivisions, the gram-positive branch and the Cytophaga-Flexibacter-Bacteroides (CFB) phylum. Results indicate a high degree of biodiversity within the peculiar ecophysiological group of the hydrocarbon-degrading marine bacteria.


B-splines are attractive basis functions for the continuous-domain representation of biomedical images and volumes. In this paper, we prove that the extended family of box splines are closed under the Radon transform and derive explicit formulae for their transforms. Our results are general; they cover all known brands of compactly-supported box splines (tensor-product B-splines, separable or not) in any number of dimensions. The proposed box spline approach extends to non-Cartesian lattices used for discretizing the image space. In particular, we prove that the 2-D Radon transform of an -direction box spline is generally a (nonuniform) polynomial spline of degree . The proposed framework allows for a proper discretization of a variety of tomographic reconstruction problems in a box spline basis. It is of relevance for imaging modalities such as X-ray computed tomography and cryo-electron microscopy. We provide experimental results that demonstrate the practical advantages of the box spline formulation for improving the quality and efficiency of tomographic reconstruction algorithms.


Project developed by Giovanni Federico (Universita di Pisa) and Antonio Tena Junguito (Universidad Carlos III de Madrid). This data base outlines changes in world trade from 1800 to 2016. Dataset: International Commodity Prices


Sensible people have long recognized the incongruity of the claim that Christopher Columbus discovered America, already home to perhaps a million souls at the time of his arrival. It is less widely recalled that Columbus did not mean to discover anything. He thought he knew where he was going, and, famously, did not quite realize he had not gotten there. His motives, and that of his royal patrons, were more commercial than scientific. Columbus set out not to uncover new lands but to demonstrate the feasibility of transoceanic travel. It was this achievement, and not his accidental encounter with an unsuspected continent, that proved transformative. Three centuries later, Adam Smith, the evangelist of modern capitalism, would declare the voyages of Columbus and his successors to be the greatest events in the history of the world, a sentiment that has resonated among recent students of what is now called globalization. Although it is not a point of view to be accepted uncritically, the fact remains that the inhabitants of the Americas were descended from Asian migrants who arrived on foot via a since-vanished land bridge across the Bering Strait. When Columbus sailed, neither they nor any other major human population had reached its present position on the globe by transiting the high seas. Afterward, this would begin to change.


From the Publisher:
This book provides an overview of self-organizing map formation, including recent developments. Self-organizing maps form a branch of unsupervised learning, which is the study of what can be determined about the statistical properties of input data without explicit feedback from a teacher. The articles are drawn from the journal Neural Computation.
The book consists of five sections. The first section looks at attempts to model the organization of cortical maps and at the theory and applications of the related artificial neural network algorithms. The second section analyzes topographic maps and their formation via objective functions. The third section discusses cortical maps of stimulus features. The fourth section discusses self-organizing maps for unsupervised data analysis. The fifth section discusses extensions of self-organizing maps, including two surprising applications of mapping algorithms to standard computer science problems: combinatorial optimization and sorting.
Contributors

J. J. Atick, H. G. Barrow, H. U. Bauer, C. M. Bishop, H. J. Bray, J. Bruske, J. M. L. Budd, M. Budinich, V. Cherkassky, J. Cowan, R. Durbin, E. Erwin, G. J. Goodhill, T. Graepel, D. Grier, S. Kaski, T. Kohonen, H. Lappalainen, Z. Li, J. Lin, R. Linsker, S. P. Luttrell, D. J. C. MacKay, K. D. Miller, G. Mitchison, F. Mulier, K. Obermayer, C. Piepenbrock, H. Ritter, K. Schulten, T. J. Sejnowski, S. Smirnakis, G. Sommer, M. Svensen, R. Szeliski, A. Utsugi, C. K. I. Williams, L. Wiskott, L. Xu, A. Yuille, J. Zhang.


Ferraioloite, MgMn2+4(Fe2+0.5Al3+0.5)4Zn4(PO4)8(OH)4(H2O)20, is a new secondary phosphate mineral from the Foote Lithium Company mine, Kings Mountain district, Cleveland County, North Carolina, USA. The mineral was found in tiny vughs within a thin seam of very fine-grained, sugary pegmatite with vivianite, fairfieldite/messelite, phosphophyllite, scholzite/parascholzite, rittmannite, mangangordonite, kingsmountite, kastningite and metaswitzerite. Ferraioloite crystals occur as very thin greenish grey to lemon yellow plates or blades up to about 0.2 mm in length, but no more than a few μm thick. Crystals are biaxial (–), with indices of refraction α = 1.575(calc), β = 1.5825(5), γ = 1.5835(5), 2 V (meas.) = 40(5)°. Dispersion is weak: r > v , the orientation is: X ≈ a , Y = b , Z ≈ c and pleochroism: X , Z = colourless, Y = blue grey; Y > >. X ≈ Z . The empirical formula (based on 56 O atoms pfu) is Ca0.21Mg0.50Mn2+4.16Fe2+2.05Al3+2.01Zn4.27P8.00H43.59O56. Ferraioloite is monoclinic, space group I 2/ m , with the unit-cell parameters: a = 25.333(3) A, b = 6.299(1) A, c = 15.161(3) A, β = 90.93(3)° and V = 2419.0(2) A3. Ferraioloite has a heteropolyhedral layer structure with layers parallel to (100) and with isolated Mg(H2O)6 octahedra and water molecules packing between the layers. The heteropolyhedral slabs have the same topology as falsterite, with Mn2+ replacing Ca2+ and with Al3+ substituting for Fe3+.


After four decades of neglecting laissez-faire plea bargaining, the Supreme Court got it right. In Missouri v. Frye and Lafler v. Cooper, the Court recognized that the Sixth Amendment regulates plea bargaining. Thus, the Court held that criminal defendants can challenge deficient advice that causes them to reject favorable plea bargains and receive heavier sentences after trial. Finally, the Court has brought law to the shadowy plea-bargaining bazaar. Writing in dissent, Justice Scalia argued that the majority's opinion "opens a whole new boutique of constitutional jurisprudence ('plea-bargaining law')." To which I say: it is about time the Court developed some plea-bargaining law. Justice Scalia's objections might have carried more force half a century ago, before the Court itself blessed plea bargaining as a speedy, efficient way to clear congested dockets. But, having made jury trials too slow and intricate to function in all cases, the Court has long since given up on preserving trials as the norm. In a world where nineteen out of every twenty adjudicated criminal cases ends in a guilty plea, plea-bargaining law is hardly a "boutique" corner of criminal procedure; it should be central. Since even Justice Scalia countenances plea bargaining as a "necessary evil," it behooves us to regulate that evil. For the Sixth Amendment to remain meaningful in the real world of guilty pleas, the Court must translate its guarantee of assistance of counsel to apply to plea bargains and the sentences set by those bargains.


Notions of justice have historically been attributed to the range of civil and political rights, most prominently set forth in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). The ICCPR imposes upon states clear obligations to respect and guarantee these rights to everyone within their respective jurisdictions; with the result being that civil and political rights are unquestionably the subject of judicial adjudication at the national and international level. A somewhat different approach has been taken to economic, social and cultural rights, often referred to as second generation rights. These are often associated with ideas of 'aspirational' policy goals, rather than of rights that impose specific and judicially enforceable obligations. Nonetheless, in some jurisdictions, constitutional litigation has proved to be an effective avenue for the realization of economic, social and cultural rights, and particularly of the human right to health.
The purpose of this paper is to analyze the judicial review undertaken by the Constitutional Court of Peru of the human right to health, and particularly the notion of progressive realisation. Through interpretation carried out in four different cases, this national court has examined the scope and contours of the human right to health, analyzing elements of its normative content, and elucidating in concrete cases the often vaguely understood principle of progressive realisation. As will be demonstrated in this paper, the Peruvian Constitutional Court has contributed to the consolidation of the case for judicial enforcement of the right to health in domestic law, joining the efforts of a handful of other domestic courts in the world which, through innovative approaches, have taken steps forward in clarifying the content of this right and the parameters for its implementation in line with international human rights law.


This thesis presents the system architecture design, system integration methodology, and real-time control of a fuel cell/ultracapacitor hybrid power system. The main objective is for the hybrid system to respond to real-world fluctuations in power without negatively impacting fuel cell life. A Proton Exchange Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell is an electrochemical device which converts the chemical energy of pure hydrogen into electricity through a chemical reaction with oxygen. The high conversion efficiency, zero harmful emissions, high power-to-weight ratio, scalability, and low temperature operation make PEM fuel cells very attractive for stationary and portable power applications. However, fuel cells are limited in responding to fast transients in power demand, moreover power fluctuations have negative impact on fuel cell durability. This motivates the use of a supplementary energy storage device to assist the fuel cell by buffering sharp transients in power demand. The high power density, long cycle life, and efficiency of ultracapacitors make them an ideal solution for such auxiliary energy storage in a hybrid fuel cell system. The power management strategy that determines the power split between the fuel cell and ultracapacitor is key to the power following capability, long-term performance, and life-time of the fuel cell. In this thesis, a rulebased and a model predictive control strategy are designed, implemented and evaluated for power management of a fuel cell/ultracapacitor hybrid. The high-level control objectives are to respond to rapid variations in load while minimizing damaging fluctuations in fuel cell current and maintaining ultracapacitor charge (or voltage) within allowable bounds. An experimental test stand was created to evaluate the performance of the controllers. The test stand connects the fuel cell and ultracapacitor to an electronic load through two dc/dc converters, which provide two degrees of freedom, enabling independent low-level control of the DC BUS voltage and the current split between the fuel cell and ultracapacitor. Experiments show that both rule-based and model predictive power management strategies can be tuned to meet both high and low-level control objectives for a given power demand profile. However, the capability to explicitly enforce the constraints in model predictive scheme and its predictive nature in meeting power demands enables a more systematic design and results in general in smoother performance.


The concept of event is used in a lot of meanings. It can be the possible outcome of doing something (probability theory), it can be a business transaction (accounting), or just a plain happening. In software engineering, the concept of event is also used a lot. It is used to accomplish loose coupling between software components or to realise interaction between different services. There is however not a consensus on the meaning of 'an event'. In enterprise ontologies, an event is defined as a happening at one point in time, or as an activity which takes time to complete. In requirement engineering, the same different uses can be found, together with an event as a request for something that needs to be done. These differences can also be found in implementation. All these distinct purposes of the word event make it difficult to integrate and use different requirement engineering techniques. Comparison or transformations between models drawn in different grammars is im-possible because of the ambiguity of the concept of event. We define three meanings for an event that are used by enterprise ontologies and requirement engineering techniques: an achievement (happening at one point in time), an activity (happening over time) and a request (a demand for something that needs to be done). We also identify a missing link between real economic events, the events defined in the requirements model and the events used in implementation.


Worker participation in decision-making is often associated with high-wage and high-productivity firm strategies. Using linked-employer-employee data for Germany and worker fixed effects from a two-way fixed effects model of wages capturing observed and unobserved worker quality, we find that establishments with formal worker participation via works councils indeed employ higher-quality workers. We show that worker quality is already higher in plants before council introduction and further increases after the introduction. Importantly, we corroborate previous studies by showing positive productivity and profitability effects even after taking into account worker sorting.


The bioassay of U.S.P.-grade tetrachloroethylene for possible carcinogenicity was conducted using Osborne-Mendel rats and B6C3F1 mice. Tetrachloroethylene in corn oil was administered by gavage at either of two dosages to groups of 50 male and 50 female animals of each species, 5 days a week, over a period of 78 weeks followed by an observation period of 32 weeks for rats and 12 weeks for mice. Initial dosage levels for the chronic bioassay were selected on the basis of a preliminary subchronic toxicity test. Subsequent dosage adjustments were made during the course of the chronic bioassay. The high and low time-weighted average dosages of tetrachloroethylene in the chronic study were 941 and 471 mg/kg/day for the male rats, 949 and 474 mg/kg/day for the female rats, 1,072 and 536 mg/kg/day for the male mice, and 772 and 386 mg/kg/day for the female mice. For each species, 20 animals of each sex were placed on test as vehicle controls. These animals were gavaged with corn oil at the same time that dosed animals were gavaged with tetrachloroethylene mixtures. Twenty animals of each sex were placed on test as untreated controls for each species. These animals received no gavage treatments. No significant increased incidence of neoplastic lesions was observed in treated rats. In both dosed and control rats, respiratory disease was observed with increasing frequency for the latter part of the first year until termination of the bioassay. Lesions indicative of pneumonia were observed in nearly all rats at necropsy. A high incidence of toxic nephropathy was observed in treated rats. Toxic nephropathy was noted in rats that died early in the study (as early as week 20 for male rats and week 28 for female rats). Mortality of rats was dose-related. Fifty percent of the high dose males had died by week 44 and 50 percent of the high dose females had died by week 66. In both male and female mice, administration of tetrachloroethylene was associated with a significantly increased incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma. Hepatocellular carcinomas were observed in 2/17 (12 percent) untreated control males, 2/20 (10 percent) vehicle control males, 32/49 (65 percent) low dose males, 27/48 (56 percent) high dose males, 2/20 (10 percent) untreated control females, 0/20 vehicle control females, 19/48 (40 percent) low dose females, and 19/48 (40 percent) high dose females. Hepatocellular carcinomas metastasized to the kidney in one untreated control male and to the lung in three low dose males, one low dose female, and one high dose female. Toxic nephropathy, similar to that observed in rats, was also observed in treated but not control mice. Fisher exact tests indicated a highly significant increased incidence of hepatocellular carcinoma for each dosed group compared to each control group. Cochran-Armitage tests showed a highly significant positive association between increased dosage and elevated tumor incidence. Time-adjusted analyses, based on Kaplan and Meier survival curves, indicated that the estimated probability of observing hepatocellular carcinoma by week 91 was 1.00 in a dosed male mouse and 0.938 in a dosed female mouse. The results of the bioassay of tetrachloroethylene in Osborne-Mendel rats do not allow an evaluation of the carcinogenicity of this compound due to the high rate of early death among the treated animals. However, under the condition of this study, tetrachloroethylene is a liver carcinogen in B6C3F1 mice of both sexes.


This dissertation uses both critical race theory and Afrocentricity to examine Black male students' understanding of what it means to be "smart." Through the use of individual interviews, focus groups and class observations, the researcher interviewed and observed a total of 14 10th-grade Black males over the course of 4 months. Five research questions guided this work: (1) How do Black males understand what it means to be smart? (2) How do Black males' views and assessment of their own intelligence affect their engagement in the classroom? (3) How do Black males understand what it means to "act white or "act Black"? (4) What impact, if any, do their understandings of "acting white" and "acting Black" have on their academic performance? (5) How do Black males understand the stereotypes associated with Black males? The students' discussion of what it means to be smart suggests that the need exists for ongoing conversations about how whiteness and negative stereotypes about Black males impact Black male students' understanding of "smartness" and academic identity.


The Golden code is a full-rate full-diversity space-time code which has been incorporated in the IEEE 802.16 (WiMAX) standard. The worst case complexity of a tree-based sphere decoder for a square QAM constellation is O(N3), where N is the size of the underlying QAM constellation; the worst case will dominate average decoding complexity on any channel with a significant line of sight component. In this paper, we present a simple algorithm with quadratic complexity for decoding the Golden code that can be employed by mobile terminals with either one or two receive antennas, that is resilient to near singularity of the channel matrix, and that gives essentially maximum likelihood (ML) performance. Dual use is an advantage, since there will likely be some IEEE 802.16 mobile terminals with one receive antenna and some with two antennas. The key to the quadratic algorithm is a maximization of the likelihood function with respect to one of the pair of signal points conditioned on the other. This choice is made by comparing the determinants of two covariance matrices, and the underlying geometry of the Golden code guarantees that one of these choices is good with high probability.


In this paper we report the experimental implementation of a theoretically proposed technique for creating a photoionized plasma in the laboratory using x-ray line radiation. Using a Sn laser plasma to irradiate an Ar gas target, the photoionization parameter, ξ=4πF/N_{e}, reached values of order 50ergcms^{-1}, where F is the radiation flux in ergcm^{-2}s^{-1}. The significance of this is that this technique allows us to mimic effective spectral radiation temperatures in excess of 1 keV. We show that our plasma starts to be collisionally dominated before the peak of the x-ray drive. However, the technique is extendable to higher-energy laser systems to create plasmas with parameters relevant to benchmarking codes used to model astrophysical objects.


Mental health is on the verge of emerging as one of the most problematic challenges in the world, while depression is estimated to be the second largest cause of disease burden in our country. Depression is a common mental disorder that presents with depressed mood, loss of interest or pleasure, feeling of guilt or low self-worth, disturbed sleep or appetite, low energy, and poor concentration. Majority of individuals who suffers from severe depression in old age come from a pool of people who suffer primarily from depressive conditions. So there arises the need for prevention. Methods : The aim of the study is to assess prevalence of psychosocial deviations and depression among senior citizens of selected rural community. A non-experimental research approach along with Cross-sectional descriptive research design was used. Research study was conducted in selected rural community of Gurdaspur, Punjab. Non-Probability sampling technique purposive sampling technique was used for data collection. The study was delimited to senior citizens residing in selected rural community. It was assumed that the senior citizens may or may not have any psychosocial problems and depression. Socio-demographic variables were age, gender, education, income, self efficacy, employment, years of retirement, life partner alive or expired. Likert scale on psychosocial deviations of senior citizens and Modified Beck's depression inventory was used to assess depression among senior citizen of selected rural community of Gurdaspur , Punjab. The tool was administered to 100 elderly persons of selected rural community. The permission for research was taken from the authorities of selected village. Data for study was collected by door to door visit in selected community. Chi square was employed to determine association of collected data. Result : According to age of the senior citizen out of 100, majority were in age group of 66-70years (26%). As per educational status most of senior citizens were un-educated (47%). Distribution of study sample according to employment in which maximum were homemakers (74%). Regarding monthly income majority (52%) had family income Rs upto 2000/-. Distribution of study subjects according to self efficacy (61%) of senior citizens belonged to group not self efficate. Regarding gender most of study subjects were male; (59%). Pertaining to years of retirement counted maximum in 1-3 year group (46.%). According to life partner alive or expired maximum (53.%) were living with their life partners. Conclusion : Hence, it may be concluded that out of 100 study subjects, majority were in age group 66-70 years, were homemakers ,un-educated with monthly income upto 2000/-. (57%) of the subjects had medium level of psychosocial deviations and overall mean was 33.33. (24%) severe level of depression. The overall mean of depression was 16.66. It shows that a significant association was found between psychosocial deviations and depression with age, income, self efficacy, years of retirement, life partner alive or expired.


To disentangle liberal democratic theory from its rationalism and orientation towards consensus, Chantal Mouffe recommends reviving Machiavelli's argument about the
institutionalization of conflict. Democracy, she argues, needs to establish a vibrant public sphere in which collective identities can openly contend with each other in an adversarial left/right format. Such an institutionalization of conflict is easily imaginable in the form of, and well known from, parliamentary party politics. But is it extendable to those extra-parliamentary forms of politics that increasingly appear to supplement democratic parliamentarism? Does the 'becoming-other of politics' (Arditi 2003) suit or defy the institutionalization of conflict?


The PHENIX collaboration has measured high-pT dihadron correlations in p+p, p+Al, and p+Au collisions at sNN=200 GeV. The correlations arise from inter- and intrajet correlations and thus have sensitivity to nonperturbative effects in both the initial and final states. The distributions of pout, the transverse-momentum component of the associated hadron perpendicular to the trigger hadron, are sensitive to initial- and final-state transverse momenta. These distributions are measured multidifferentially as a function of xE, the longitudinal momentum fraction of the associated hadron with respect to the trigger hadron. The near-side pout widths, sensitive to fragmentation transverse momentum, show no significant broadening between p+Au, p+Al, and p+p. The away-side nonperturbative pout widths are found to be broadened in p+Au when compared to p+p; however, there is no significant broadening in p+Al compared to p+p collisions. The data also suggest that the away-side pout broadening is a function of Ncoll, the number of binary nucleon-nucleon collisions, in the interaction. The potential implications of these results with regard to initial- and final-state transverse-momentum broadening and energy loss of partons in a nucleus, among other nuclear effects, are discussed. © 2019 authors. Published by the American Physical Society. Funded by SCOAP 3 . (Less)


The operation of wireless personal communication terminals very close to the user inherently faces the problem of electromagnetic (EM) coupling between the device and the biological tissues. In this paper the effects of the electromagnetic antenna-human interaction is studied for a laptop MIMO antenna system, where four integrated antenna elements can operate simultaneously. Two points of view are considered: antenna performance and EM dosimetry. The first one addresses not only the degradation of the antenna performance but includes also the effect of the human proximity on the antenna characteristics, namely scattering matrix, Total Active Reflection Coefficient (TARC), radiation efficiency and envelope correlation between port signals. The exposure of the human tissues to EM radiation is expressed in terms of Specific Absorption Rate (SAR). These characteristics are evaluated as a function of the array excitation scheme (including phased array approach and MIMO-like signaling) and compared to simple scenarios where all the power is radiated only by one antenna element.


This paper focuses on the institutional repository work of the ARROW project, which has been developed within the following three stage framework: 1. conceptualising and developing an ARROW institutional repository solution comprising software, policy frameworks and implementation strategies, 2. implementing the ARROW repository within the project's partner institutions, and 3. offering the ARROW repository solution to other Australian universities. The paper will look at the decisions the ARROW project made at the outset and provide a review of those decisions after two years of operation. It will also look forward at ARROW's plans for 2006 and ongoing development work.