Particle motion, clustering and agglomeration play an important role in natural phenomena and industrial processes. In classical computational fluid dynamics (CFD), there are three major methods which can be used to predict the flow field and consequently the behavior of particles in flow-fields: 1) direct numerical simulation (DNS) which is very expensive and time consuming, 2) large eddy simulation (LES) which resolves the large scale but not the small scale fluctuations, and 3) ReynoldsAveraged Navier-Stokes (RANS) which can only predict the mean flow. In order to make LES and RANS usable for studying the behavior of small suspended particles, we need to introduce small scale fluctuations to these models, since these small scales have a huge impact on the particle behavior. The first part of this dissertation both extends and critically examines a new method for the generation of small scale fluctuations for use with RANS simulations. This method, called the stochastic vortex structure (SVS) method, uses a series of randomly positioned and oriented vortex tubes to induce the small-scale fluctuating flow. We first use SVS in isotropic homogenous turbulence and validate the predicted flow characteristics and collision and agglomeration of particles from the SVS model with full DNS computations. The calculation speed for the induced velocity from the vortex structures is improved by about two orders of magnitude using a combination of the fast multiple method and a local Taylor series expansion. Next we turn to the problem of extension of the SVS method to more general turbulent flows. We propose an inverse method by which the initial vortex orientation can be specified to generate a specific anisotropic Reynolds stress field. The proposed method is validated for turbulence measures and colliding particle transport in comparison to DNS for turbulent jet flow. The second part of the dissertation uses DNS to examine in more detail two issues raised during developing the SVS model. The first issue concerns the effect of two-way coupling on the agglomeration of adhesive particles. The SVS model as developed to date does not account for the effect of particles on the flow-field (one-way coupling). We focused on examination of the local flow around agglomerates and the effect of agglomeration on modulation of the turbulence. The second issue examines the microphysics of turbulent agglomeration by examining breakup and collision of agglomerates in a shear flow. DNS results are reported both for one agglomerate in shear and for collision of two agglomerates, with a focus on the physics and role of the particleinduced flow field on the particle dynamics.


To determine how spatial scale is represented in the pyramidal cell population of the hippocampus, we recorded neural activity at multiple longitudinal levels of this brain area while rats ran back and forth on an 18-meter-long linear track. CA3 cells had well-defined place fields at all levels. The scale of representation increased almost linearly from <1 meter at the dorsal pole to ∼10 meters at the ventral pole. The results suggest that the place-cell map includes the entire hippocampus and that environments are represented in the hippocampus at a topographically graded but finite continuum of scales.


In the present paper we propose a product integration rule for hypersingular integrals on the positive semi-axis. The rule is based on an approximation of the density function f by a suitable truncated Lagrange polynomial. We discuss theoretical aspects by proving stability and convergence of the procedure for density functions f belonging to weighted uniform spaces. Moreover, we give some computational details for the effective construction of the rule coefficients. For the sake of completeness, we present some numerical tests that support the theoretical estimates and some comparisons with other numerical methods.


The aim of this study is to investigate the sources of growth in selected public and private sectors of Turkish Manufacturing Industry between the years 1990 and 2000. For this, a 2-Deflator Growth Accounting Approach (Harberger, 1997, 1998) has been used in the study. According to the results of the study, the sources of growth vary across the manufacturing sector. Since capital`s contribution to output growth is significantly negative, labour`s contribution explains most of the changes in output growth in Turkish Manufacturing Industry. Raw labour`s contribution (RLC) to growth is negative whereas human capital`s (HCC) contribution to growth is found to be positive, and this explains most of the contribution of labour. Half of the public sector and all of the private sector have positive rates of total factor productivity (TFP) growth until 1994, the year of economic and financial crisis. Since then, all the public and private sectors industries considered in our study show negative TFP growth rates. This study argues that measuring growth at the disaggregated level helps to understand growth at the aggregate level in a better way.


This paper presents a novel solution using a radial basis function network (RBFN) to approximate the inverse kinematics of a robotic system where the geometric parameters of the manipulator are unknown. Simulation and experimental results are presented for a three-link manipulator to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach. To achieve this level of performance, centres of hidden-layer units are regularly distributed in the workspace, constrained training data is used where inputs are collected approximately around the centre positions in the workspace and the training phase is performed using either strict interpolation or the least mean square algorithm. These proposed ideas have significantly improved the network's performance.


The aim of this paper is to offer a brief analysis of the social investment funds for indigenous people that have been financed by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) and to consider how far they have been effective in meeting the needs of indigenous people. This paper identifies two types of targeting mechanisms: 1) Inclusive funds that do not distinguish indigenous people from other sectors of society based on ethnicity; and 2) Exclusive funds or components intended only for the indigenous or ethnic population. The author discusses the merits of both approaches and identifies four factors that determine their effectiveness in reaching targeting goals: 1) Geographic isolation; 2) Social exclusion based on racial of ethnic prejudice; 3) Social and cultural factors including language, structures of authority and economic values; 4) The capacity of the indigenous organizations.


KOSTADINOV, G., D. IVANOV and V. PEYKOV, 2008. Effect of technological and regional conditions on costs in wine grape production. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 14: 509-516 The objective of this work was to assess the extent of effect of the factors related to production costs in wine grape production. An approach and methods for technological and technical analysis of grape production have been developed. The analysis showed that the costs related to plant protection had the greatest share in the total costs (40%), followed by the costs related to grape harvesting (17%), fertilizing (14.5%) and selective pruning (11%). The fertilizer costs were 1/6 of the total costs and those of preparations – 1/3. It was found that the analyzed factors definitely influenced the costs of grape production in plantations up to 30 – 40 ha. Their effect decreased considerably in larger areas. For the different factors that effect differed from parts of one percent to 20%. Within the range of the possible price of the used power means, its effect on the variable costs reached the greatest value among the analyzed factors – up to 20%. The effect of its annual load was also considerable. The functional relations obtained in this study and analyses allow using them to elaborate programm modules for functional multi-criterion analysis of agricultural production.


A novel and robust method for accurate segmentation of liver lesions is discussed. The initial contour for the snake is formed using edge and region information. The modified snake, guided by fuzzy edge information, deforms from this initial position, providing an accurate representation of the lesion boundary with few iterations and minimal user interaction. Results obtained from this algorithm are comparable to those obtained from manual segmentation by a trained radiologist.


Cadherin and integrin are proteins that mediate cellular adhesion at sites of cell-cell contact (cadherin) or sites of contact with the extracellular matrix (integrins). Two papers describe how cadherin- and integrin-mediated cellular adhesion are coordinately regulated. Li et al. cloned the ligand, neurocan, for the cell-surface galactosyltransferase that is associated with N-cadherin. Treatment of retinal cells with either full-length neurocan or an NH2 fragment of neurocan inhibited cadherin- and integrin-mediated cell adhesion and neurite outgrowth and increased phosphorylation of β-catenin. The ability of neurocan to inhibit adhesion was dependent on the presence of the cell-surface galactosyltransferase. Arregui et al. disrupted cadherin- and integrin-mediated adhesion and neurite outgrowth with membrane-permeable peptides and found that the peptide mimicking the juxtamembrane domain of cadherin (JMP) caused the dissociation of the nonreceptor protein kinase Fer from the cadherin complex and its association with the integrin complex. The ability of JMP to inhibit integrin-mediated adhesion was dependent on the presence of N-cadherin and could be blocked with a Fer peptide that blocked the association of Fer with the integrin complex. Li et al. found that treatment of cells with neurocan also caused the release of Fer from the cadherin complex and association with the integrin complex. Thus, neurocan may be an endogenous ligand that promotes the cross-talk between cadherin and integrin complexes through relocalization of Fer. Li, H., Leung, T.-C., Hoffman, S., Balsamo, J., and Lilien, J. (2000) Coordinate regulation of cadherin and integrin function by the chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan neurocan. J. Cell Biol. 149: 1275-1288. [Abstract] [Full Text] Arregui, C., Pathre, P., Lilien, J., and Balsamo, J. (2000) The nonreceptor tyrosine kinase Fer mediates cross-talk between the N-cadherin and β1-integrins. J. Cell Biol. 149: 1263-1273. [Abstract] [Full Text]


Purpose: This paper is intended to examine the effects of the crisis that was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic on the selection of instruments of competition used by enterprises. A research hypothesis (H1) is advanced: at the time of the crisis that was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, enterprises have employed new key instruments of competition in order to attain a better competitive standing in the market. The concept and nature of competitiveness are discussed, and instruments of competition are detailed as a dimension of competitiveness. Design/Methodology/Approach: The theoretical section of the paper is based on a comprehensive review of leading specialist literature. The hypothesis is verified by means of exploratory factor analysis, which serves to detect an optimal group of main factors and explicate correlations between observable variables. The number of factors is determined using the Cattell's scree criterion and Kaiser criterion. Findings: The paper contains the results for a group of 253 large Polish enterprises. A factor-based model of competition instruments that have been used by enterprises at the time of the crisis that was caused by the COVID-19 pandemic is constructed by using exploratory factor analysis. Three factors are defined: the product, quality, and distribution that are currently being applied by enterprises. Distribution is identified as a new key instrument of competition, while the utilisation of Internet channels allows for maintaining one's competitive status in the market. Practical Implications: The results may be taken advantage of by entrepreneurs. They constitute indications for selecting competition instruments during the crises. Originality/Value: The paper contains the authors' original research into a representative group of large enterprises that can be generalised to the entire population assuming a level of confidence of α = 95% and maximum error of β = 6%.


This is a book about the structure, history and evolution of the Japanese language. The Japanese Language is a classic study of one of the world's most widely used but least understood languages. Emphasizing the richness and complexity of Japanese as well as its limitations, this fine book provides a lively discussion about the uniqueness of the Japanese language. The relationship of Japanese to other languages is not well understood even by native speakers, and Professor Kindaichi sets out to define it. He concludes that Japanese is indeed only remotely related to other world languages although it shares many features in common with the languages of mainland Asia. Japanese shares with those languages a rich and detailed vocabulary for natural phenomena and an unusually complex and accurate way of expressing social relationships. Moreover, its capability to absorb innovations from abroad easily matches or exceeds that of English or German. The author, after briefly discussing the unique isolation of the Japanese language, moves on to consider the varieties of ordinary speech--dialects, jargon, sex- and role-based distinctions, and the difference between informal, formal, and literary language. He then examines the structure of Japanese pronunciations, its rhythm, and accent. The longest section of the book is devoted to the variety of the vocabulary, what can and cannot be said in Japanese. Readers who are just beginning their own study of Japanese will find this section especially fascinating, for each point is backed by examples from literature and everyday speech. Kindaichi also investigates the so-called vagueness of Japanese and traces it to its source-the unusual sentence order. This book includes: The highly debated origins of the Japanese language. Dialects, jargon, sex- and role-based distinctions. Differences between informal, formal, and literary language. Structure, rhythm, and accent of pronunciation. What can and cannot be said in Japanese.


Calibrated probabilistic classifiers are models whose predicted probabilities can directly be interpreted as uncertainty estimates. It has been shown recently that deep neural networks are poorly calibrated and tend to output overconfident predictions. As a remedy, we propose a low-bias, trainable calibration error estimator based on Dirichlet kernel density estimates, which asymptotically converges to the true $L_p$ calibration error. This novel estimator enables us to tackle the strongest notion of multiclass calibration, called canonical (or distribution) calibration, while other common calibration methods are tractable only for top-label and marginal calibration. The computational complexity of our estimator is $\mathcal{O}(n^2)$, the convergence rate is $\mathcal{O}(n^{-1/2})$, and it is unbiased up to $\mathcal{O}(n^{-2})$, achieved by a geometric series debiasing scheme. In practice, this means that the estimator can be applied to small subsets of data, enabling efficient estimation and mini-batch updates. The proposed method has a natural choice of kernel, and can be used to generate consistent estimates of other quantities based on conditional expectation, such as the sharpness of a probabilistic classifier. Empirical results validate the correctness of our estimator, and demonstrate its utility in canonical calibration error estimation and calibration error regularized risk minimization.


This study was conducted to evaluate the anaesthetic and physiological effects of tiletaminezolazepam-xylazine-tramadol (TZXT) combination in cats undergoing surgical sterilization. A total of 20, 13.3 ± 2.5 months old, with a body weight of 2.4 ± 0.2 kg, male cats were used in the experiment. Cats were randomly assigned into the anaesthesia group (group A) or to the surgery group (group S). The tiletamine-zolazepam-xylazine-tramadol combination was administered with an intended dose of 2.4 mg·kg -1 tiletamine-zolazepam (TZ), 0.36 mg·kg -1 xylazine (X), and 0.8 mg·kg-1 tramadol (T) into the lateral femoral muscle. Physiological indicators including rectal temperature (RT), heart rate (HR), respiration rate (RR), haemoglobin saturation by oxygen (SpO 2 ), mean arterial pressure (MAP), systolic arterial pressure (SAP), and diastolic arterial pressure (DAP) were collected after baseline values (time 0). Cats were immediately given the intramuscular injection drug combination. Physiological indicators were recorded before injection of this combination and at time 5, 10, 15, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 80, 100, and 120 min after administration of the tiletamine-zolazepam-xylazine-tramadol combination. In group S, castrations were performed using a closed procedure. Vomiting, excitement, apnoea, and abnormal behaviour were not observed in any cat during anaesthesia. All changes in indicators were within cardiorespiratory acceptable limits in both groups. The tiletamine-zolazepam-xylazine-tramadol combination produced satisfactory anaesthesia in cats and it will be useful not only in induction of anaesthesia but also for surgery of short duration. Castration, immobilization, heart rate, respiration rate, mean arterial pressure


Objectives We set out to evaluate the impact of Foundation Year (FY) training on the doctors who had been through this training system. Design Doctors in training were surveyed using a structured web-based questionnaire. Setting Postgraduate training in the UK has been the subject of much upheaval in recent years. Participants A total of 1065 doctors in training were surveyed in late 2011 and early 2012, of which 638 were current FY doctors. Main outcome measures The survey was both quantitative and qualitative, focusing on selection, working hours, training quality, training assessments and the regulation of training. Results A majority of current FY trainees worked extra weekly hours with the breakdown being: 5–10 hrs (54%), 10–15 hrs (17%), >15 hrs (9%) and no extra weekly hours (20%). All current FY trainees wanted to work for more than 40 h a week with the following breakdown of desired hours: per week 40–48 (22%), 48–60 (50%) and 60–70 h (19%). The average hours per week spent clerking emergency admissions by current FY trainees were as follows: zero hours (11%), 0–5 h (37%), 5–10 h (30%), 10–15 h (11%) and greater (11%). A large majority (90%) felt that it was possible for incompetent trainees to obtain satisfactory results from assessments and that the FY training program was poor at identifying failing trainees. There were high levels of dissatisfaction with the selection process. Conclusions FY training appears to be failing in several key areas with the lack of emergency exposure a particular area of concern. It is essential that any future reforms of training address these problem areas.


The SEC recently adopted rules on proxy access. These rules grant shareholders who hold at least 3% of the company stock for three years the right to nominate directors and to have their nominees included in the company's proxy statement. Because proxy access is viewed as dramatically lowering the costs of an election contest, both proponents and opponents of these rules predict that they will have a significant impact. Contrary to this conventional wisdom, we argue that proxy access will lead to few shareholder nominations, that most of these nominees will be defeated, and that the occasional nominee who does get elected will have little impact. Based on past involvement in shareholder activism, we believe that neither mutual funds nor private pension funds will make significant use of proxy access. Certain large public pension funds have shown a modest interest in activism and may make some nominations. The entities with the greatest interests in activism -- hedge funds and union-affiliated funds -- will generally not satisfy the ownership and holding period requirements. When compared to traditional proxy contests and to withhold campaigns, proxy access involves significant disadvantages, while promising only modest advantages. The cost savings of proxy access compared to traditional contests are overstated because most proxy contests expenses are discretionary campaign expenses or relate to other expense items that are unaffected by the proxy access rule. By contrast, the limitations that come with proxy access are significant: the number of nominees a shareholder can propose is limited; the level of shareholder support required to gain a seat, as a practical matter, is increased; the company retains control over the design of the proxy cards; and the company retains exclusive access to preliminary voting information. When compared to withhold-vote campaigns, the more certain effect on board makeup and governance from a successful proxy access campaign must be weighed against countervailing factors that reduce the likelihood of success: the higher level of shareholder support required for success; the greater challenge of positive versus negative campaigning; and the vulnerability of the dissident shareholders and their nominees to attacks by the company for lack of qualification or conflicts of interest. Such attacks will resonate especially for nominees by unions and public pension funds. Their inability or unwillingness to defend against such attacks without incurring significant expense may make it difficult to find qualified nominees. Overall, we believe that proxy access will have some undesirable effects – it will result in some increase in company expenses and may, rarely, increase the leverage of shareholders whose interest conflict with those of shareholders at large – and some desirable ones -- it may occasionally lead to the election of nominees at recalcitrant boards, where such nominees may have a modest impact on governance and a marginal impact on company value. None of these effects is likely to be very material, and the net effect is likely to be close to zero.


The thesis comprises, in roughly equal proportions, a commentary on the first
book of Heliodoros Aithiopika (a Greek novel of the third or fourth century
A.D.); and prolegomena which treat issues raised by the work as a whole. A
literal translation of Aithiopika I is included as an appendix.
In the commentary a range of points is covered, including philological and
textual points, and questions of literary interpretation, and of the historical
background of the action of the novel. Some of the literary points relate to the
whole corpus of extant ancient Greek novels. One particularly obscure
historical point, the identity of the 'Boukoloi', is given extended consideration.
The prolegomena consists of five chapters. The first is a brief survey of the
textual tradition of the work. The second examines the question of its date of
composition and of the identity of its author, surveying the history of this
debate, and showing how the evidence of vocabulary can be used to add weight
to the argument in favour of accepting the fourth century date (rather than the
third century date favoured by some scholars), and the view that Heliodoros
was a Christian. The third chapter disputes the current view that the use of
terms for divine agencies in the text reflects a lack of a systematic theology.
The fourth chapter asks whether the text bears any traces of the local cult of
the author's home town of Emesa, and answers with a tentative affirmative. In
the fifth chapter the author considers how his contributions to our
understanding of the historical and conceptual background of the text could
affect our interpretation of it as a literary work.


Abstract Theorists of affect and radical democracy have largely overlooked the importance of intentionally cultivating affective dynamics in the process of changing institutions. We address that lack by introducing the concept of musical groove as an intercorporeal feel for improvisational co-creation. Groove in a political context involves specific practices of modulating dynamics, receptivity, and affects in relationship to specific contexts, people, and practices to powerful effect. We explore how early democratic movements during the American Revolution sought to craft institutional forms capacious enough for such democratic groove despite the fact that key intellectual leaders of the time, such as the Federalists and Benjamin Rush, feared the power of intercorporeal affective flows of democratic enthusiasm and popular improvisation. We read Rush's critique and his efforts to diminish and control these emergences by harmonizing them in the order as a "negative image" of a radical democratic alternative that would foster improvisation and build enthusiasm for catalysing change today. We discuss how improvisation can, as Pierre Bourdieu perceived, simply function to reproduce the limits of a given socio-political game, which is deeply embedded within us as a "feel for the game" or set of affective dispositions. However, we turn Bourdieu's own critique against itself to find openings for a habitus of political groove and democratic improvisation that he considered foreclosed. We conclude by fleshing out these insights in relation to affective dynamics among political organizing practices and modest institutional changes during a period of rich local transformation in which we participated in Durham, North Carolina.


In this paper, we propose to use deep neural networks for image compression in the wavelet transform domain. When the input image is transformed from the spatial pixel domain to the wavelet transform domain, one low-frequency sub-band (LF sub-band) and three high-frequency sub-bands (HF sub-bands) are generated. Low-frequency sub-band is firstly used to predict each high-frequency sub-band to eliminate redundancy between the sub-bands, after which the sub-bands are fed into different auto-encoders to do the encoding. In order to further improve the compression efficiency, we use a conditional probability model to estimate the context-dependent prior probability of the encoded codes, which can be used for entropy coding. The entire training process is unsupervised, and the auto-encoders and the conditional probability model are trained jointly. The experimental results show that the proposed approach outperforms JPEG, JPEG2000, BPG, and some mainstream neural network-based image compression. Furthermore, it produces better visual quality with clearer details and textures because more high-frequency coefficients can be reserved, thanks to the high-frequency prediction.


Alaska is the last frontier and final destination for the National Science Foundation-supported EarthScope USArray Transportable Array (TA) project. The goal of this project is to record earthquakes and image the structure of the North American continent. The Alaska TA consists of 283 broadband seismic stations evenly spaced about 85 km apart to cover the state of Alaska and into western Canada. The sensor emplacement technique and station design were developed specifically for superior performance—both in terms of seismic noise levels and station durability. This technique and design were used for the 194 new stations installed as well as the 32 existing broadband stations that were upgraded. Trial stations were installed in 2011–2013 as part of a process to test and refine the installation design. The main deployment began in 2014 using the final station design and was completed in 2017. From 2018 through 2020, Incorporated Research Institutions for Seismology (IRIS) operated the Alaska TA by performing servicing, station improvements, and data quality monitoring. High data return was maintained throughout, though some stations had lower real-time data delivery in winter. 110 TA stations are expected to transition to other operators in 2019 and 2020, and the data from these are openly available under new network codes. The last 84 stations are expected to be removed during the 2021 field season to close out the TA project. The Alaska TA was installed safely despite a challenging environment and has been operated to maximize the continuity and quality of data collected across a vast geographic region, enabling exciting scientific research for years to come.


Foreign direct investment (FDI) has been widely considered as an essential channel contributing to a host countries' innovation development through knowledge and skill spillover effects. In recent years, China has become the second biggest FDI recipient in the world and continues to promote its domestic innovation ability. Here, the question of how FDI affect the growth of regional innovation in China is posed. By applying an alternative knowledge production function (KPF), we investigate the effects of FDI on the development of self-innovation capacities in 31 Chinese provinces using a fixed-effects specification panel data analysis covering the period from 2000 to 2015. Our findings on the contribution of FDI to the growth of different kinds of patent applications in different regions are mixed. Significant results were mainly found for invention patents in the eastern region. Concluding, we suggest potential policy implementations.


Well diagnostics in deep, offshore GoM are vital in order to interpret any issues related to productivity losses. This is especially important since any intervention in such wells is very costly. Multiphase flow is amongst leading causes of well productivity loss. This paper presents an integrated workflow that provides a solution to the challenge of quantifying multiphase PTA results in single and multiple commingled production cases. The workflow is used to monitor the performance of several wells over an extended period in a deep-water offshore reservoir under water/aquifer drive. It builds on a succession of PTA tests starting from single phase flow until water breakthrough and beyond. The results of historical PTA provided meaningful insights that were used as basis for actions that led to well and reservoir performance optimization.


The primary purpose of this study was to compare two methods for assessing student communication skills: a labor-intensive review of video-recorded interactions and global communications assessment using a comprehensive rotation-assessment tool. Secondary goals of the study were to evaluate student strengths and weaknesses to inform the pre-clinical communications curriculum and to evaluate for consistency between types of reviewers. Video recordings of 43 student encounters with clients presenting their animals for wellness or diagnostic appointments to the primary care service at a veterinary teaching hospital were reviewed by one of three primary care clinicians, a social worker, and a clinical communications instructor, using a common rubric. Scores using the rubric were compared with overall scores for verbal communications on a comprehensive rotation-assessment tool, both for the primary care rotation and for other small-animal rotations. Duration did not vary significantly between wellness and diagnostic appointments, or between dog and cat appointments. Scores achieved by students on video review varied by evaluator, with the clinical communications instructor scoring students the lowest and the social worker scoring students the highest. Strengths identified included greeting the client appropriately, gathering initial information about the reason for the visit, and using lay terminology appropriately. Weaknesses included summarizing information for the client, talking to clients about money, and making strong recommendations.


A two-part experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of aliasing artifacts and screen resolution on a simple visual recognition task. The results indicate that in many cases far less realism may be necessary in synthetic computer-generated imagery than is often assumed. The first part of the experiment was a subjective rating of image quality. The second part measured the relationship between image quality and task effectiveness: Subjects were asked to discriminate between images of two types of objects similar to objects used in experiments involving mental rotation. At higher resolutions, the elimination of aliasing artifacts did not significantly improve subjects' performances. At intermediate and low resolutions, comparable to what might be used for iconic menus, the reduction in aliasing artifacts improved performance. The subjective ratings indicate that for both high and low resolution the elimination of aliasing artifacts does not improve quality, whereas images rendered at intermediate resolutions are significantly degraded by aliasing artifacts to the extent that antialiasing improves the subjective rating. These results are interpreted in the context of an ongoing research program aimed at identifying the parameters of real-time human performance for graphics workstations.


Although corporate takeover literature discusses the pros and cons of takeover defenses quite thoroughly, it fails to explain the wide divergence in actual takeover practices. Recent empirical studies reveal that while some IPO stage firms do not adopt defenses, a significant number use a variety of antitakeover strategies (Daines & Klausner 2001, Coates 2000 and Field & Karpoff 2000). Moreover, none of the tests conducted in these studies revealed any relevant difference between adopting and non-adopting firms. The purpose of this paper is to shed light on the findings of these empirical studies, while demonstrating that there may even be rational divergence of antitakeover practices among similar firms. The potential advantage in antitakeover charter provisions, which can guarantee higher premiums to shareholders in the event of a takeover, is eroded by the adoption of defenses by multiple targets. The reason for this is that bidders prefer to buy unshielded targets, if all other factors are equal, since they are less expensive. Like the increased risk of burglary to one's apartment when a neighbor installs bars on his windows, the greater the likelihood that unshielded targets will enjoy takeover events as the ratio of shielded targets in a market increases. The diversion of takeover activity toward unshielded firms, which seemingly is a hidden virtue of takeover defenses, provokes an evolutionary process that could explain the divergence of antitakeover practices among firms.


Background & Purpose The professional qualifications of paramedics in the emergency services are not uniform at the federal level across Germany. Federalism leads to a considerable heterogeneity of regional regulations and curricula for training at the state-approved emergency services School. This results in an uneven transfer of knowledge of action skills, scientific findings as well as inconsistent application of appropriate teaching methods. Finally, this culminates in an inconsistent qualification of EMS personnel. To illustrate the needs of teachers in simulation in training and continuing education of EMS personnel. Methods Based on a systematic literature review and expert interviews on training and further education of non-medical personnel in emergency care simulation was analysed as a teaching method from an educational perspective. For a standardized carrying out of the interviews a unified interview guide was used. The statements of the experts were analysed with the software MAXQDA. Results Through simulation, in conjunction with debriefings an outstanding benefit for the direct learning from mistakes is made possible, both in the whole group as well as in the setting of reality (train where you work). This supports a long-needed culture of errors in emergency service as well as improving patient safety in emergency response. This requires intensive training of the teaching staff in pedagogy and technology. Further research needs were identified for potential fields of application of simulation in the training of EMS personnel. Conclusions Simulation provides for the training of emergency services personnel, particularly in view of the new profession of emergency paramedics (Notfallsanitäter) and their advanced performance skills extensive opportunities. With the help of simulation abilities and skills as well as inter-professional teamwork can be taught and improved individualized. In fact, simulation contributes to improving patient safety and guideline- based care of emergency patients.


Reducing voltage to reduce energy consumption, referred to as conservation voltage reduction (CVR), can lead to energy savings. Calculating the effects of reducing voltage requires accurate load models. This paper investigates a load-voltage dependency factor that can be measured via field experiments using common existing instrumentation. A relationship between the load-voltage dependency factor and the percentage of the load that is constant impedance and the percentage that is constant power is presented. A new coordinated control algorithm using the load-voltage dependency factor measured by the field experiments is proposed. Parametric studies are presented which compare CVR with coordinated control versus traditional control. Across the two model comparisons of minimizing energy consumption, the coordinated control for conservation voltage reduction showed significant energy reduction over local control.


Over the past decade, NGOs and government agencies have helped millions of refugees repatriate to their countries of origin, providing them free flights, travel documentation, and modest stipends. This thesis considers when such repatriation assistance is morally permissible. Drawing on original data from East Africa, I distinguish between six sets of cases, which require six distinct policies. In the first set, refugees choose to return because they are unjustly detained by the government. In such cases, NGOs should avoid helping with return if their actions causally contribute to the government's detention policy. In the second set of cases, refugees are not detained, but return to a country they know little about. In such cases, both NGOs and government agencies have duties to inform refugees of the risks of returning. If they fail to inform refugees of the risks, they are engaging in a form of wrongful immigration control. In the third set of cases, refugees regret returning and, based on this, NGOs and government agencies can predict that future refugees will likely also regret returning. I develop a novel theory of when future regret is a reason to deny a service, and apply this theory to the case of repatriation. In a fourth set of cases, refugees are paid a great deal of money to repatriate, and would not have returned had they not been paid to leave. I argue that paying refugees to repatriate is only permissible when conditions are safe in countries of origin. In a fifth set of cases, parents repatriate to high-risk countries with their children. I argue that parents, in general, do not have a right to live in a country unsafe for their children, and NGOs and government agencies should refuse to help with such returns. In a final set of cases, refugees of a minority ethnicity are provided generous assistance to leave, while refugees of the majority ethnicity are not. I argue that such discriminatory assistance is permissible only when third parties remain unharmed.


A built-in self-test (BIST) system with 72 dB C/N and less than 1 ppm frequency tolerance of down-converted BIST tone for a multi-channel radar application is presented. The BIST consists of a frequency doubler, an up-conversion mixer, a variable gain amplifier, a phase shifter, 8-way splitter and an RF GSG PAD coupler for BIST signal distribution. The proposed up-conversion mixer can operate from 76 to 77 GHz, mixing with arbitrary offset frequencies from 600 kHz to 42.7 MHz generated by a fully-synchronized PLL. The proposed mixer can cope with a through mode for testability and flexibility improvements as well. Measured relative phase among all of 8 channels were less than 2 degrees from –25°C to 150°C through on-chip 12-bit ADCs. The proposed BIST was fabricated in a 40 nm CMOS process and assembled with a wafer level chip sized package (WLCSP).


This dissertation is an empirical study of the gender wage gap in Finland. Much of the dissertation focuses explicitly on the early career as it is found that the first years after labour market entry are of great importance with respect to the overall gender wage gap. The dissertation consists of three essays. The first essay explores the early-career gender wage gap in the Finnish private sector. I find that the gender wage gap increases significantly during the first ten years after labour market entry accounting for most of the life-time increase in the gender wage gap. The more detailed analysis of the factors contributing to the early-career gender wage focuses on university graduates. This mitigates the problems caused by the most disturbing shortcoming of the data, namely the lack of information on working hours and part-time status. In Finland, part-time rates among university graduates are very low as well as the gender difference in these rates. I consider several explanations for the gender wage gap based on the human capital theory, job mobility and labour market segregation. The results suggest that about 20 to 26 per cent of the average early-career gender wage gap is explained by gender differences in qualifications considered. Of the investigated factors gender differences in the field of education and work experience matter most. In the second essay, I investigate in more detail the role of university majors in explaining the gender wage gap. Using data from the Confederation of Finnish Industries, significant gender differences in majors among white-collar workers are found. These differences in education account for about 38 per cent of the gender wage gap among young white-collar workers with a bachelor-level degree after controlling for age, year, gender, region, industry and firm size. The corresponding number for young white-collar workers with a master-level degree is roughly 31 per cent. There are no considerable differences in the effects of majors between new entrants and white-collar workers having more work experience. Furthermore, similarity of the results between OLS and panel methods controlling for unobserved individual factors implies that the effect of university majors is unlikely to reflect unobserved heterogeneity. Finally, womens gains from equalizing educational distributions do not depend on the price structures used. Using data from the Finnish manufacturing sector, the last essay studies the factors contributing to the gender gap in early-career wage growth. The analysis shows that the size of the gender gap in wage growth varies with mobility status, the gap being much higher when changing employers compared to within-firm wage growth. Several explanations for the gender gap in wage growth based on human capital theory and theory of compensating wage differentials are considered. However, much of the gap in wage growth remains unexplained. Further analysis documents that the female penalty in wage growth increases significantly as we move along the conditional wage growth distribution with a sharp acceleration in the gap at the top of the distribution.


The time dimension of datasets and long-term performance of machine learning models have received little attention. With extended deployments in the wild, models are bound to encounter novel scenarios and concept drift that cannot be accounted for during development and training. In order for long-term patterns and cycles to appear in datasets, the datasets must cover long periods of time. Since this is rarely the case, it is difficult to explore how computer vision algorithms cope with changes in data distribution occurring across long-term cycles such as seasons. Video surveillance is an application area clearly affected by concept drift. For this reason we publish the Long-term Thermal Drift (LTD) dataset. LTD consists of thermal surveillance imaging from a single location across 8 months. Along with thermal images we provide relevant metadata such as weather, the day/night cycle and scene activity. In this paper we use the metadata for in-depth analysis of the causal and correlational relationships between environmental variables and the performance of selected computer vision algorithms used for anomaly and object detection. Long-term performance is shown to be most correlated with temperature, humidity, the day/night cycle and scene activity level. This suggests that the coverage of these variables should be prioritised when building datasets for similar applications. As a baseline, we propose to mitigate the impact of concept drift by first detecting points in time where drift occurs. At this point we collect additional data that is used to retraining the models. This improves later performance by an average of 25% across all tested algorithms.


Abstract: Education of people is among the basic goals as well as outcomes of modern society. It is conditioned by the current demanding and turbulent environment requiring constant improvement, enhancement, adaptation and development of the level of education. It means that education needs to be permanent, reflecting all current needs resulting from the reality of changes. Education of employees can be characterised as a permanent process in which adaptation and changes of work behaviour, level of knowledge, skills and motivation of employees of an organisation by means of learning on the grounds of using various methods occurs. It results in reducing the difference between the current competence of employees and requirements posed on them. The objective of the article is to characterise the level of the focus of organisations operating in Slovakia on continuing education and development of employees. This article aims at presenting the results of research conducted in 2012 at the School of Economics and Management in Public Administration in Bratislava and at the Institute of Industrial Engineeering and Management, the Faculty of Materials Science and Technology in Trnava. The set of respondents comprised 340 randomly selected organisations operating in Slovakia. The key condition posed on them was the size of at least 50 employees. The analysis was used for information collected from literary sources or questionnaires. All the knowledge was dealt with in smaller parts in order to enable a more detailed focus. As to statistical methods, distribution characteristics were used to express the median. Most of the collected values were expressed in % upon the results summarisation. The methods of induction and deduction were used in the article upon deriving the conclusions. The method of comparison was used upon the evaluation of the present state, comparing organisations paying sufficient attention to human resources management and organisations not dealing with it at all. To evaluate the data, the SPSS 19 statistical programme and MS Excel 2007 were used. However, the research showed that only 9 % of respondents are heading towards the learning organisation successfully, i.e. 8 % of organisations apply the approach of targeted educational concept, and 1 % of organisations declared their approach to education to be the learning organisation concept. Unfortunately, more than 60 % of respondents are at the very beginning in the sphere of education, as they only restrict their educational activities to compulsory trainings enforced by legal regulations and to unscheduled courses.


This paper introduces the scientometric method of main path analysis and its application in an exemplary study of the paths of knowledge development and the roles of contributors in Wikiversity. Data from two scientific domains in this online learning community has been used. We see this as a step forward in adapting and adopting network analysis techniques for analyzing collaboration processes in knowledge building communities. The analysis steps are presented in detail including the description of a tool environment ("workbench") designed for flexible use by non-computer experts. By identifying directed acyclic graphs, the meaningful interconnections between developing learning resources are analyzed by considering their temporal sequence. A schema for the visualization of the results is introduced. The potential of the method is elaborated for the evaluation of the overall learning process in different domains as well as for the individual contributions of the participants. Different outstanding roles of contributors in Wikiversity are presented and discussed


This paper advances contemporary gendered analyses of entrepreneurial activity by exploring self-employment amongst gay men and lesbian women. Within current entrepreneurial debate, heterosexual women have become the visible embodiment of the gendered subject. Our contribution is to queer this assumption when focusing upon the entrepreneurial activity of gays and lesbians. Our core question investigates if 'there is evidence of differences between homosexuals and heterosexuals in their likelihood of being entrepreneurially active?' To address this question, we contrast competing notions of gender stereotypes and discrimination whilst drawing on findings from a large-scale population-based study of 163,000 UK adults. We find few differences between homosexuals and heterosexuals; this persists after examining intersectional patterns and considering if gay and lesbian entrepreneurs choose particular sectors, geographies or forms of self-employment. As our discussion highlights, the value of this study lies within its critique of contemporary analyses of gender which assume it is an end point rather than a foundation for analysing gender as a multiplicity.


Over the past decade, China has built 25,000 km of dedicated high-speed railway—more than the rest of the world combined. What can we learn from this remarkable experience? China's High-Speed Rail Development examines the Chinese experience to draw lessons for countries considering investing in high-speed rail. The report scrutinizes the planning and delivery mechanisms that enabled the rapid construction of the high-speed rail system. It highlights the role of long-term planning, consistent plan execution, and a joint venture structure that ensures active participation of provincial and local governments in project planning and financing. Traffic on China's high-speed trains has grown to 1.7 billion passengers a year. The study examines the characteristics of the markets for which high-speed rail is competitive in China. It discusses the pricing and service design considerations that go into making high-speed rail services competitive with other modes and factors such as good urban connectivity that make the service attractive to customers. One of the most remarkable aspects of the Chinese experience is the rapid pace of high-quality construction. The report looks at the role of strong capacity development within and cooperation among China Railway Corporation, rail manufacturers, universities, research institutions, laboratories, and engineering centers that allowed for rapid technological advancement and localization of technology. It describes the project delivery structures and incentives for delivering quality and timely results. Finally, the report analyzes the financial and economic sustainability of the investment in high-speed rail. It finds that a developing country can price high-speed rail services affordably and still achieve financial viability, but this requires very high passenger density. Economic viability similarly depends on high passenger density.


A case study of early adopters of a head-mounted assistive device for low vision provides the basis for a sociotechnical analysis of technology-mediated sight. Our research complements recent work in HCI focused on designing, building, and evaluating the performance of assistive devices for low vision by highlighting psychosocial and adaptive aspects of digitally enhanced vision. Through a series of semi-structured interviews with users of the eSight 2.0 device and customer-facing employees of the eSight company, we sought to better understand the social and emotional impacts associated with adoption of this type of low-vision assistive technology. Four analytic themes emerged from our interviews: 1) assessing the value of assistive technology in real life, 2) negotiating social engagement, 3) boundaries of sight, and 4) attitudes toward and expectations of technology. We introduce the concept of multiplicities of vision to describe technology-mediated sight as being a form of skilled vision and neither fully-human nor fully-digital, but rather, assembled through a combination of social and technical affordances. We propose that instead of seeing low-vision users through a deficit model of sight, HCI designers have more to gain by viewing people with low vision as individuals with a distinct type of skilled vision that is both socially and technologically mediated.


Millions of unauthorized immigrants in the United States have no legal immigration status and live in constant fear of deportation. There are millions more who do have some sort of status, like lawful permanent residency, asylum, or a nonimmigrant visa. In between is the netherworld of nonstatus. Here live noncitizens who possess government documentation but few rights. They have no pathway to lawful permanent residence or citizenship and cannot receive most public benefits. If nonstatus is denied or revoked by a prosecutor or bureaucrat, there is no right to a hearing or an appeal. If the Executive Branch discriminates in how it allocates nonstatus, there may not be a legal right to challenge it.The Obama Administration's Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) and Deferred Action for Parental Accountability (DAPA) programs are the most recent and largest categories of nonstatus, but there are many others: parole, administrative closure, supervision, Deferred Enforced Departure (DED), and stays of removal, to name just a few. What these categories have in common is that they are discretionary, unreviewable, weakly described by positive law, and officially temporary, although individuals often live for years or even lifetimes in the purgatory of nonstatus. They occupy a paradoxical middle ground between legality and illegality, loosely tethered to this country by humanitarian concern or prosecutorial discretion. Those with nonstatus have fewer rights and remedies than those with immigration status. At the same time, they must register, disclose biographic data, be fingerprinted, and regularly update their address. Yet nonstatus is not just a government surveillance program: it is the only way for many individuals to claim some measure of dignity and legitimacy from a society that places a strong stigma on unauthorized immigrants.This Article will provide the first description of immigration nonstatus and its impact on the individuals who have it. It will describe the growth of nonstatus over time and the acceleration of that growth following late-1990s immigration reforms that restricted the means to acquire immigration status. The Article will contend that nonstatus is growing in part because it offers a means to authorize the presence of undocumented immigrants without offering them rights and benefits that have become controversial for immigrants with full status.


Abstract Hyperbaric oxygen (HBO) treatment is generally a relatively safe therapy for various conditions. However, there are some adverse side effects. For example HBO tratment has been reported to increase the production of free oxygen radicals(FRs). Furthermore, to our knowledge, no previous clinical research has been carried out to study the involvement of platelet-activating factor(PAF)as the lipid oxidative stressor in patients undergoing HBO treatment. A total of 45 patients included in this study were first given clinical assessment and laboratory measurements before starting HBO treatment and were named group baseline. After the HBO treatment, the same clinical and laboratory measurements from the same patients were repeated and this was named group sesion >20.As expected, long-term HBO treatment had no effect on oxLDL (oxidized low-density lipoprotein), a lipid oxidative stress(OS) marker. However, the mean PAF values in the second group showed a statistically significant increase compared to their pretreatment values, (P <0. 002).As this is a preliminary study, there is a need for more detailed investigations that demonstrate the association of HBO treatment with the lipid inflammatory response. Therefore, there is need for further clinical study for OS markers such as oxLDL in HBO treatment. Clinical prospective studies are required to confirm our laboratory findings.


Our project uses DYNASIM3, the Urban Institute's dynamic microsimulation model of the U.S. population, to simulate several alternative systems of Social Security auxiliary benefits. We specifically consider earnings sharing, a system in which a husband's and a wife's earnings records are combined and averaged over the duration of their marriage when computing Social Security benefits. We also consider whether other changes to Social Security's benefit computations — like caregiver credits, minimum benefits, and more modest changes to spouse/survivor benefits — could improve program adequacy and horizontal equity with less complexity and fewer transition difficulties relative to earnings sharing. Each proposal we examine substitutes existing spouse (and, sometimes, all or parts of survivor) benefits with mechanisms that explicitly acknowledge marital partnerships, are more neutral with respect to marriage, and/or better target economically vulnerable people. All proposals are roughly cost-equivalent in 2050. We find that all three packages — earnings sharing, replacement of most of the spouse benefit with a minimum, and full spouse replacement with caregiver credits — reduced poverty modestly and made lifetime benefits more similar for couples paying the same amount in taxes relative to current law scheduled. The earnings-sharing proposal, however, only achieved the poverty reduction with significant adjustments to the treatment of surviving spouses through a self-financed survivor benefit. The packages reveal important tradeoffs among beneficiary groups, with particular tensions between workers and non-workers, and married, never married, divorced, and widowed persons.


Because the car must be in the process of braking, including deceleration and parking and including downhill to maintain the speed of stability, in addition to the above driving brake should also include parking brake which is to maintain the stop of the vehicle that continues to maintain static, according to the law of Conservation of Energy. The kinetic energy of the brake drum of the rotating part of the friction pair is converted into the internal energy of the friction plate on the friction surface, which is very dangerous due to the thermal decay performance of the existing brakes. It is urgent to implement the cooling system of brake in the above conditions. This paper mainly aimed at the braking performance of the thermal decline of the design of automatic control cooling device, first of all by the sensor to collect the car brake signal, with the opening of the cooling system work that will be normal temperature air cooling into cold air and drum to the cooling parts, complete drum brake cooling, improve the active safety performance of automobiles. In this paper, we select the devices used in the cooling system through the actual working condition of the automobile, and finally design a practical solution.


Irrigation Engineers in Zimbabwe use the 12 m x 18 m spacing for the design of the sprayline, using 4 mm nozzle sprinklers. A study was conducted to determine performance and cost effectiveness of other spacings that can be used in sprinkler irrigation systems design. The main targeted spacings were a square layout of 15 m x 15 m and a rectangular layout of 15 m x 18 m. Water application uniformity and wetted diameter tests were done using the single line catch can layout method at 250 kPa, 300 kPa and 350 kPa using two locally manufactured (Toronto and Non Ferrous) and two imported (Rainbird and an Irriline) sprinklers. Highest coefficient of uniformity (CU) of 97 % and distribution uniformity (DU) of 95 % were obtained from a Rainbird sprinkler at 300 kPa. The lowest CU of 66 % and DU of 46 % were obtained from a Toronto sprinkler at 250 kPa. Highest wetted diameter (WD) of 32 m was obtained at 300 kPa from a Toronto sprinkler while lowest wetted diameter of 24 m was recorded at 250 kPa from a Toronto sprinkler. The results of CU, DU and wetted diameter showed that the 15 m x 15 m sprinkler spacing can be used in Zimbabwe under moderate wind conditions at 300 kPa, using preferably imported sprinklers for best application uniformity results.


Decosas and Padian report, but do not discuss, a noteworthy disassociation in epidemic trajectory between human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and sexually transmitted infections (STI) in Zimbabwe. They cite estimates that, between 1990 and 1999, HIV prevalence increased linearly from 9% to 25%, while STI syndrome reports declined substantially, from 963 436 cases to 727 788. The authors not only believe that observed STI declines are real, but cite increases in reported condom use by high risk people (for example, prostitute women, truck drivers, miners, and young people) as supporting evidence. What is not clear is why HIV prevalence would increase markedly coevally with increasing condom use in high risk populations and with decreasing STI incidence. Assuming synergism between STI and HIV transmission, one would expect that a burgeoning and sexually mediated HIV epidemic would be accompanied by corresponding increases in STI transmissions. An estimated increase in HIV prevalence from 9% to 25% in a decade, implying a 12% annual epidemic growth rate, is not likely to be due to differences between HIV, a chronic infection that accumulates in a reservoir, and STI, which tend not to. Does this anomaly require clarification? Recent analyses 4 suggest that a large proportion of HIV infections, especially in sub-Saharan Africa, may be a consequence of unsafe medical injections. This undersuspected and scientifically underexplored transmission vector is overlooked by the authors as well (exception: "blood safety" in fig 1). Theirs is not the first report of an epidemiologically suspicious anomaly between STI and HIV trends in Africa and, if others' suspicions are correct, it is unlikely to be the last.


This invaluable book explains, in simple language, why we overeat, and why we find food that is salty, fatty and sweet so tempting and addictive. It then zooms into the simplest and most basic principles of effective dieting, which the author himself has used over the past 25 years with success. The book distills only what is absolutely necessary.Cutting through the mountain of information on dieting, nutrition and healthy living, this book makes the message and advice so simple and clear that even a child can understand and appreciate it, as well as put it into practice everyday. An FAQ section addresses the key questions that so often confuse dieters.Incorporating a simple graphing record of daily progress, The A2z Diet will motivate those who desire a slimmer, healthier and fitter body to achieve the results that they seek.


This study was designed to investigate the protective effect of the heart-protecting musk pill (HMP) on inflammatory injury of kidney from spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR). Male SHRs aged 4 weeks were divided into SHR model group, HMP low-dosage group (13.5 mg/kg), and HMP high-dosage group (40 mg/kg). Age-matched Wistar–Kyoto rats were used as normal control. All rats were killed at 12 weeks of age. Tail-cuff method and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay were used to determine rat systolic blood pressure and angiotensin II (Ang II) contents, respectively. Renal inflammatory damage was evaluated by the following parameters: protein expressions of inflammatory cytokines, carbonyl protein contents, nitrite concentration, infiltration of monocytes/macrophages in interstitium and glomeruli, kidney pathological changes, and excretion rate of urinary protein. HMP did not prevent the development of hypertension in SHR. However, this Chinese medicinal compound decreased renal Ang II content. Consistent with the change of renal Ang II, all the parameters of renal inflammatory injury were significantly decreased by HMP. This study indicates that HMP is a potent suppressor of renal inflammatory damage in SHR, which may serve as a basis for the advanced preventive and therapeutic investigation of HMP in hypertensive nephropathy.


The safety of pedestrians crossing multi-lane road intersections is often threatened by filtering turning vehicles. The introduction of staged pedestrian crossings, where the crossing of departure and approach lanes are treated as two separate tasks, can provide more protection to pedestrians by allowing greater control of the traffic. Related changes to the phasing arrangement such as direction-dependant pedestrian crossing timings can also result in the staged pedestrian crossing increasing the intersection efficiency. This technical note discusses the design and modelling of staged pedestrian crossings, as well as addressing common concerns about their implementation. Staged Pedestrian Crossings Fowler and Wilke Page 113 IPENZ Transportation Group Conference New Plymouth Nov. 2008 Published: ipenz.org.nz/ipenztg/archives.htm


Even if there has been some theoretical debate on the role of what has been called the 'community of care' in restorative justice (RJ) there has not been much research on, or analysis of, the implications of the role of significant others in its practice. This lack of reflection is especially evident in the case of the victims' community of care, despite findings that would indicate a systematic lack of participation of victim's supporters in restorative practices. Through the qualitative analysis of 35 interviews with victims of crime who consented to attend mediation (direct and indirect), an attempt to describe and discuss the characteristics of victim's communities of care that may become relevant for the practice of RJ is made. Results indicate that, despite a victims' need for company or support, victims tend to disclose few details about the offense, its consequences and the mediation offered as a way to protect their loved ones or to avoid possible negative reactions from their communities. Theoretical and practical implications of these findings are offered.


Tourists are often confronted with a large quantity and variety of services and activities, aimed to satisfy their every quest and dream of knowing new places and people of different backgrounds. This research analyses backpacking with the objective of defining and comparing the satisfaction of InterRailers concerning the quality of services offered in Italy, Greece and Croatia. For the purpose of this investigation, two scientific methods of observation were used: direct observation and inductive natural quantitative exploration. This study was based on 70 enquiries and ten interviews done on InterRailers travelling between the dates of the 4th December 2009 and the 13th March 2010, respectively. The application of descriptive and multivariate statistics allowed us to extract diverse conclusions to our study, being important to emphasise that there are substantial differences in InterRailers satisfaction.


This paper introduces the structure and organization of permafrost monitoring within global climate‐related monitoring programmes. The five‐tiered principle proposed for the Global Hierarchical Observing Strategy (GHOST) is applied to the Global Terrestrial Network for Permafrost (GTN‐P) monitoring system, and the European network of mountain permafrost boreholes established by the PACE project is discussed in the context of GTN‐P. Borehole design and standard PACE instrumentation are described and some preliminary data from selected boreholes are presented. The broader research aims of the PACE programme include geophysical investigations, mapping and GIS strategies, numerical distribution modelling, physical modelling of thaw‐related slope processes and mountain permafrost hazard assessment. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Standards of Training, Certification and Watchkeeping Convention (STCW) amendments in 1995
intended to improve the knowledge-based training mandate established in STCW'78 by making it
outcome-based. This required seafarer students undertake competence assessment (or outcome of
training received) to demonstrate their capacity to perform tasks listed in the STCW Code. This
necessitates that students direct their learning efforts to the attainment of clearly stated expectations
that, typically, are represented by learning outcomes based on the STCW competencies. Maritime
Education and Training (MET) providers working under the directives of the National Maritime
Regulators interpret the STCW requirements to develop the seafarer training curriculum and the
resulting learning outcomes, to assure that students attain the minimum standards of competence
established by the STCW. This paper will review and argue that different ideas as to 'outcomes' has
been confusing the interpretation of STCW and, therefore, how seafarer students are being assessed.
Critically, a review of specific excerpts from the STCW Code will be used to show that the Code
largely fails to provide a 'standard' that can assure assessment of seafarers to one of the most critical
outcomes: the performance expected at a level of work in the industry. A short review of the inherent
characteristics of authentic assessment is provided in justification of its use as an alternate and optimal
solution to improve current assessment practices and respond to stakeholder needs. The paper will
point to an evidence-based way forward where future research will empirically investigate how
authentic assessment can improve the STCW and the resulting training outcomes


In this article we assess income inequality across French and British colonial empires between 1920 and 1960. For the first time, income tax tabulations are exploited to assess the case studies of French Algeria, Tunisia, Cameroon, and Vietnam, which we compare to British colonies and dominions. As measured by top income shares, inequality was high in colonies. It fell after WWII, but stabilized at much higher levels than in mainland France or the United Kingdom in the 1950s. European settlers or expatriates comprised the bulk of top income earners, and only a minority of autochthons could compete in terms of income, particularly in Africa. Top income shares were no higher in settlement colonies, not only because those territories were wealthier but also because the average European settler was less rich than the average European expatriate. Inequality between Europeans in colonies was similar to (or even below) that of the metropoles. In settlement colonies, the post-WWII fall in income inequality can be explained by a fall in inequality between Europeans, mirroring that of the metropoles, and does not imply that the European/autochthon income gap was reduced.


Single-spore isolates of Monilinia fructicola were collected from commercial orchards in South Carolina and Georgia with prolonged past exposure to demethylation inhibitor (DMI) fungicides and from an orchard with no DMI history (baseline population). Sensitivity to propiconazole was determined using the concentration in agar media required to suppress radial growth of mycelium by 50% (EC50. Mean EC50 values from six South Carolina populations were not different from the baseline population (P < 0.05). Two of five populations from Georgia revealed (significantly higher mean EC50 values compared with the baseline population (P < 0.05). Isolates with high (AP5 and AP6) and low (DL71 and DL72) EC50 values were selected to determine disease incidence on peach fruit after protective or curative applications of propiconazole at 0.15 or 0.3 liter/ha (half and full label rate, respectively). Disease incidence was significantly greater on peaches inoculated with AP5 and AP6 after curative treatment with propiconazole at 0.15 liter/ha (P < 0.05). Following protective or curative treatments at 0.3 liter/ha, disease incidence was significantly greater for AP6 but not for AP5. These results suggest that a shift toward reduced sensitivity has developed in some M. fructicola populations from Georgia, and that isolates with reduced sensitivity to propiconazole are more difficult to control in the field. Field testing of DMI fungicides, captan, QoI fungicides, and fenhexamid in experimental orchards) indicated that the DMI fungicides are still among the most efficacious products for brown rot (control, and that new products containing QoI fungicides may be viable disease control alternatives or rotation partners.


This acoustic investigation focuses on the preservation of the two low French vowels /a/ vs. /ɑ/ within a vowel system that otherwise manifests striking convergent properties with English. Our acoustic data demonstrate that this inherited contrast is preserved, with a distribution largely reflective of conservative French, despite various pressures on our speakers that might cause them to alter their phonetic categories in a language contact situation (in the sense of Flege 1987). The larger picture that emerges is that in contact situations we observe a complex pattern of transfer versus maintenance that cannot be accounted for via any of the current models of bilingual phonology – models driven by language internal pressures such as level differences between phonology and phonetics, sound similarity, functional load, or universal statements of markedness.


Explorers such as Charles Sturt, Thomas Livingstone Mitchell, Edward John Eyre, Ludwig Leichhardt, and Peter Egerton Warburton have cast long shadows across the Australian historical landscape. Their names have been etched on the minds of generations of school students in this country. Their writings, hailed as classics, have inspired countless other literary efforts, ranging from dreadful doggerel to brilliant prose. Jan Basset's anthology, made up of 90 extracts from an eclectic array of sources, follows the sweep of European exploration of Australia by sea and land, then moves on to New Guinea and the Antarctic. Along the way, we encounter extraordinary characters and witness amazing incidents. Willem de Vlamingh's men find a nest of rats off the Western Australian coast in 1696. A small party searches unsuccessfully in 1798 for the `New World' that convicts believed lay southwest of Sidney. Jane Franklin travels through the wilds of Van Diemen's Land in 1842. Several years later, the unfortunate John Ainsworth Horrocks is shot by his camel, while exploring in South Australia. In 1891, Jules Verne's fictitious heroine Dolly Branican follows Warburton's footsteps through the desert, as she searches for her long-lost husband. George Ernest Morrison's actual attempt in 1883 to cross New Guinea comes to a sticky ending. In 1954, the Antarctic explorer Phillip Law faces what appears to be `certain death' in icy seas. Great Explorations throws up a multiplicity of questions about, among other things, the ways in which the Australian colonies were settled, relationships between indigenous peoples and European explorers, interactions between humans and their environments, the development of various models of masculinity, and, perhaps above all, the powers of personal endurance. Many of the `journeys of discovery' represented here are, to borrow the words of the poet Francis Webb, `suggestive of another which is common to all'.


AIM
To investigate the relationship between functioning and post-school day occupation for young adults with Down syndrome.

METHODS
Families of young people with Down syndrome (n = 269) aged 15-30 years in 2009 were recruited from the population-based Down syndrome 'Needs Opinion Wishes' database in Western Australia. Questionnaires were mailed to participating families and involved two parts, young person characteristics and family functioning; 203 were returned (75%). Of those families who returned questionnaires, 164 (80.8%) of their young adults had left school. Participation in post-school day occupations was the main outcome and included; open employment, training, sheltered employment or alternatives to employment (ATE).

RESULTS
Young adults were reported as participating in open employment (n = 42), training (n = 17), sheltered employment (n = 64) or ATE (n = 41) post-school. Those who reported better functioning in self-care, community and communication skills were more likely to be in open employment and/or attending Technical and Further Education compared with those attending sheltered employment and/or ATE after adjusting for age, gender and rural/metropolitan regions. Current health as measured by visits to a general practitioner (GP) and hospitalizations revealed a weak relationship with post-school day occupations, with increasing likelihood of participating in open employment or training with increasing hospitalizations and GP visits.

CONCLUSIONS
Our analysis shows that functioning in activities of daily living was related to post-school day occupation. Current health status and behaviour were found to have a weak relationship with post-school day occupation adjusting for functioning in the final model.


Drawing on my personal design practice developed and created over the timeframe of a decade, this paper investigates the creative process, visual methodologies, intrinsic unpredictability, and ambiguity associated with ideas of visual change, altered states, and particularly processes of progressive effacement documented during that period. In doing so, the paper views the potential of developing design practice through the notion of palimpsest, both literally and metaphorically. Palimpsestic design can include either the application of new and alternative renderings over existing documents (the literal) or evidence aspects of change produced over a period of time (the metaphorical). Consequently, existing ideas and situations form a foundation and act as the physical ground for new ideas through design iterations that have been reused, altered, and represented in order to suggest alternative meanings and readings. This idea of design as palimpsest is evidenced through practice-based work that includes my artist book "Any Other Business," "Drawing in the Margins and Beyond," the List Landscapes series of photographic and typographic prints, the Driftworks photographic print series, and a selection of preparatory photographs that inform these design outcomes.


This study aims to reveal the effect of self-efficacy on the elementary level students and factors causing the high level of self-efficacy and its influence on students' English speaking ability. The population of this study were all students of grade VIII SMPN 3 Gianyar, while the sample of this study was taken by random sampling technique with lottery system. For research and data collection methods, the researcher uses some valid and reliable instruments, namely (1) speaking performance appraisal to know students' ability to speak English consisting of 3 criteria ie smoothness, pronunciation and improvisation, (2) self-efficacy questionnaire for knowing the high level of self-efficacy and its influence on students' speaking ability consisting of 4 components ie learning experience, field experience, social invitation, and psychological and emotional condition and analyzed with SPSS 16.0, (3) FGD guide (Focus Group Discussion) to know the factors causing the high low self-efficacy consisting of these 8 interview questions. A total of 33 students with details of 12 male and 21 female students were grouped into 3 large groups (high, medium, low) to be interviewed through FGD. The results of this study is self-efficacy gives a significant effect on students' speaking ability at the basic level of contribution of 91%. It was also found that the four criteria in self-efficacy have significant influence on students 'speaking ability, the most dominant is the criteria of students' psychic and emotional state when learning to speak English. This study contributes empirically that teachers can update their teaching techniques by observing self-efficacy in students by using creativity in teaching. In addition students can find out what happens to them during English learning so that together can create a comfortable and conducive learning atmosphere.


When critics first began to respond to the fiction of Walker Percy, they frequently refarded it as a fiction of ideas. The most significant themes were Percy's religious, philosophical, and cultural beliefs. Such conceptions of the man were grounded in his own essays, a genre which in his hands tended toward the impersonal and the abstract. In time Percy critics like William Rodney Allen began to prove into Percy's biography for resources that verified their intense critical speculations about the background of Percy's fiction. In his childhood was his father's suicide and its significant emergence in his fiction. Percy's biographers have continued this investigation of the father's influence. Jay Tolson deftly represent the theme of the paternal death as a vacuum Percy felt throughout his life, while Bertram Wyatt-Brown studied the Percy family ethos, which he showed to be shadowed for two hundred years by high expectations, depression, and self-destruction. Now, in Still Following Percy, a collection of interrelated essays, Lewis Lawson studies the Percy canon to speculate that an earlier and more fundamental shaping of Walker Percy's character and fictional imagination was his sense of the in adequacy of the relationship with he as an infant had with his mother and of her early death. Lawson argues that the sense of loss led to Percy's tendency to regression, to his need to create his own life narrative in fiction after psychoanalysis had been insufficient as a means of reconstruction, and to his conversion to Roman Catholicism. Lawson interprets Percy's conversion as a statement of the possibility of reconciliation through the transcendent truth.


The adsorption of guest and kinetic inhibitor molecules on the surface of methane hydrate is investigated by using molecular dynamics simulations. We calculate the free energy profile for transferring a solute molecule from bulk water to the hydrate surface for various molecules. Spherical solutes with a diameter of ∼0.5 nm are significantly stabilized at the hydrate surface, whereas smaller and larger solutes exhibit lower adsorption affinity than the solutes of intermediate size. The range of the attractive force is subnanoscale, implying that this force has no effect on the macroscopic mass transfer of guest molecules in crystal growth processes of gas hydrates. We also examine the adsorption mechanism of a kinetic hydrate inhibitor. It is found that a monomer of the kinetic hydrate inhibitor is strongly adsorbed on the hydrate surface. However, the hydrogen bonding between the amide group of the inhibitor and water molecules on the hydrate surface, which was believed to be the driving force for the adsorption, makes no contribution to the adsorption affinity. The preferential adsorption of both the kinetic inhibitor and the spherical molecules to the surface is mainly due to the entropic stabilization arising from the presence of cavities at the hydrate surface. The dependence of surface affinity on the size of adsorbed molecules is also explained by this mechanism.


SUMMARY Enterprise data is locked away in silos. As a result people spend too much time looking for information – or they spend too little and make decisions based on incomplete information. The simplest remedy is to pull all the silos into a common full-text search index, but doing so realizes only part of the opportunity. The rest lies in automatically finding and representing the relationships among the objects in the index. Relationships take many forms, ranging from schematized references to allusions in text. All these relationships can be recorded in the index, thus combining structured, semi-structured, and unstructured relationships together in a normalized representation, forming bridges between data silos. The result is a graph, which makes it possible to make queries like ―find all x's related to y.‖ For example the graph could be used to find all the people or discussions related to a particular method. The graph is stored in a SQL-based search index that also has a rich notion of time and history. The index is exposed to the user in three ways: a search portal, an implicit query sidebar, and object-based search commands in client applications. The index improves search in several ways, allowing for richer filtering, scoring, and search results presentation. These ideas can turn siloed data into working knowledge, making the enterprise work more efficiently.


Data mining, the extraction of hidden predictive information from large databases, is a powerful new technology with great potential to help companies focus on the most important information in their data warehouses. Data mining tools predict future trends and behaviors, allowing businesses to make proactive, knowledge-driven decisions. The automated, prospective analyses offered by data mining move beyond the analyses of past events provided by retrospective tools typical of decision support systems. Data mining tools can answer business questions that traditionally were too time consuming to resolve. They scour databases for hidden patterns, finding predictive information that experts may miss because it lies outside their expectations.


It has been suggested that successful economies and convenient access to air transportation are correlated and that centrality in the high-tech business network is a precursor to a robust economy. It is hypothesized in this thesis that a significant positive relationship exists between air passenger enplanements by core urban area and selected labor markets with particular attention focused on Professional, Scientific, and Technical Services (PST)(NAICS 54) and Management Services (NAICS 55). The data for this analysis was collected from the Federal Aviation Administration and the US Bureau of Labor Statistics for years 2009 and 2012. It was determined that the most accurate predictors of the geography of air passenger enplanements included PST employment, airline hubs and management service total wages. This thesis also found that these trends do not extend to service-providing industries in the aggregate, suggesting that high-tech and management workers more likely than other service workers to fly and contribute to their regional economy in times of economic growth and recession.


Fuel cells convert energy that is stored in a fuel to electricity and heat, and they do so with a high efficiency. As long as fuel and an oxidant gas are supplied, fuel cells can continuously produce electricity. This study focuses on materials for interconnects in solid oxide fuel cells. The interconnect is used to connect the anodes and cathodes of adjacent cells and to keep the fuel and oxidant gases separate. In this research work, ferritic stainless steels (Crofer, New Crofer, JS-3, E-brite, 26 Cr Ferritic, AL453, Modified AL453, ZMG232), an austenitic stainless steel (type 304 stainless steel), and nickel were cyclically oxidized in one hour cycles at 700oC, 800oC, and 900oC. The atmospheres studied were simulated cathode gas (dry air), simulated moist cathode gas (air + 0.1 atm H2O), and simulated anode gas (Ar/H2/H2O). Weight change versus time measurements and metallographic examination of the exposed alloys were used to attempt to determine the alloys most appropriate for use as interconnects. During the cyclic oxidation experiments, the sigma phase had formed in the 26 Cr Ferritic specimens at 700oC in all of the studied environments. Specimens of 26 Cr Ferritic and E-brite were cyclically oxidized in dry air at 700oC in 50 hour increments for 500 hours to determine when the sigma phase first appeared and the extent to which it formed. The conductivity was determined for some of the alloys that had been exposed at 900oC. Not all of the alloys were tested because for the results to be accurate, a continuous oxide layer is needed, for example, no spalling could have occurred. Experiments were also performed to measure the stresses in the oxide layer of two samples of Crofer. Both samples were cyclically oxidized at 900oC for 100 hours, but one was exposed in dry air and the other was exposed in air + 0.1 atm H2O.


This thesis deals with the effects of host-guest complexation, based on cucurbit[n]uril (CB[n], n = 6, 7 and 8) host molecule, on the chemical, electrochemical and spectroscopic properties of the included guests. Both CB[6] and CB[7] form 1:1 complexes with [CH3bpy(CH2)6bpyCH ] 3 , encapsulating the central hexamethylene chain. With its relatively larger cavity, a second CB[7] host will include one of the viologen units, forcing, through steric and electronic repulsions, the first CB[7] to abandon the inclusion of the central chain and move to the other viologen unit, thus forming a [3]pseudorotaxane. The inclusion of the two enantiomers of protonated Nbenzyl-1-(1-naphthyl)ethylamine in the achiral CB[7] results in a five-fold increase in the molar optical rotation of {BNEAH•CB[7]} and significant changes in the longer wavelength band in the circular dichroism spectra, attributed to a restricted rotation of the naphthyl group about the chiral center upon inclusion of the benzyl portion of the guest in the CB[7] cavity. The effects of host-guest complexation of the (trimethylammonio)methylferrocene(+/2+) couple (FcTMA) by CB[7] on the kinetics of its electron selfexchange and electron transfer reactions were investigated. The slow exchange of the ferrocene guest, allows for the simultaneous monitoring of the H NMR line-broadening for both the FcTMA + and {FcTMA•CB[7]} species in the presence of the paramagnetic FcTMA; The electron self-exchange rate constant increases moderately upon inclusion iii of both reduced and oxidized species, while the rate constants for the oxidation of ferrocenes by the bis(2,6-pyridinedicarboxylato)cobaltate(III) ion (which does not bind to CB[7]), were significantly reduced a result of reduced thermodynamic driving forces and steric hindrance to close approach of the oxidant to the encapsulated ferrocenes. This work was extended to investigations of the inclusion of bis(ferrocene) guests, demonstrating that a sufficiently long linker is required to accommodate a CB[7] host on each ferrocene unit. The formation of stable host-guest complexes of the bent titanocene, TiCp 2+ (H 2 2O)2 , with both CB[7] and CB[8] were characterized in aqueous solution. The CB[8] formed a more stable complex than CB[7], contrary to the order observed with ferrocene guests, attributable to the larger radius of the bent titanocene guest.


We introduce and investigate a product pricing model in social networks where the value a possible buyer assigns to a product is influenced by the previous buyers. The selling proceeds in discrete, synchronous rounds for some set price and the individual values are additively altered. Whereas computing the revenue for a given price can be done in polynomial time, we show that the basic problem PPAI, i.e., is there a price generating a requested revenue, is weakly NP-complete. With algorithm Frag we provide a pseudo-polynomial time algorithm checking the range of prices in intervals of common buying behavior we call fragments. In some special cases, e.g., solely positive influences, graphs with bounded in-degree, or graphs with bounded path length, the amount of fragments is polynomial. Since the run-time of Frag is polynomial in the amount of fragments, the algorithm itself is polynomial for these special cases. For graphs with positive influence we show that every buyer does also buy for lower prices, a property that is not inherent for arbitrary graphs. Algorithm FixHighest improves the run-time on these graphs by using the above property.

Furthermore, we introduce variations on this basic model. The version of delaying the propagation of influences and the awareness of the product can be implemented in our basic model by substituting nodes and arcs with simple gadgets. In the chapter on Dynamic Product Pricing we allow price changes, thereby raising the complexity even for graphs with solely positive or negative influences. Concerning Perishable Product Pricing, i.e., the selling of products that are usable for some time and can be rebought afterward, the principal problem is computing the revenue that a given price can generate in some time horizon. In general, the problem is #P-hard and algorithm Break runs in pseudo-polynomial time. For polynomially computable revenue, we investigate once more the complexity to find the best price.

We conclude the thesis with short results in topics of Cooperative Pricing, Initial Value as Parameter, Two Product Pricing, and Bounded Additive Influence.


In 1716 Edward Lord Harley took possession of one the country's most iconic studs when his wife, Henrietta, inherited Welbeck Abbey (Nottinghamshire) on the death of her mother. At the time, the stud, made famous by her great grandfather,William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle, was in temporary eclipse and run down. He resolved to restore its fortunes. However, beset by debts and with other expensive interests to distract him, including the purchase of books and manuscripts, he allowed the stud to decay, winding it up just over a decade later. With careful management and sound, timely investment, Harley could have restored its fortunes. However, he hoped to re-establish the stud 'on the cheap', utilizing the top class stallions and mares he had at his disposal to produce first-rate foals, from which he would select the best as replacements. Sadly, too few of the foals came up to expectations. In vain, his agent advised him to retire the ageing mares and invest in suitable replacements. His failure to do so soon impacted on the quality and the number of horses produced. Inevitably, he failed, providing contemporaries and historians alike with an object lesson on how not to run a 'top-end' stud.


Lyssaviruses are RNA viruses with single-strand, negative-sense genomes responsible for rabies-like diseases in mammals. To date, genomic and evolutionary studies have most often utilized partial genome sequences, particularly of the nucleoprotein and glycoprotein genes, with little consideration of genome-scale evolution. Herein, we report the first genomic and evolutionary analysis using complete genome sequences of all recognised lyssavirus genotypes, including 14 new complete genomes of field isolates from 6 genotypes and one genotype that is completely sequenced for the first time. In doing so we significantly increase the extent of genome sequence data available for these important viruses. Our analysis of these genome sequence data reveals that all lyssaviruses have the same genomic organization. A phylogenetic analysis reveals strong geographical structuring, with the greatest genetic diversity in Africa, and an independent origin for the two known genotypes that infect European bats. We also suggest that multiple genotypes may exist within the diversity of viruses currently classified as 'Lagos Bat'. In sum, we show that rigorous phylogenetic techniques based on full length genome sequence provide the best discriminatory power for genotype classification within the lyssaviruses.


Cost-effective fractionation (pretreatment) of lignocellulosic biomass is necessary to enable its large-scale use as a source of liquid fuels, bio-based materials and bio-derived chemicals. While a number of ionic liquids (ILs) have proven capable of highly effective pretreatment, their high cost presents a barrier to commercial viability. In this study, we investigate in detail the application of the low-cost (ca. $1 kg−1) ionic liquid triethylammonium hydrogen sulfate for the fractionation of the grass Miscanthus x giganteus into a cellulose rich pulp, a lignin and a distillate. We found that up to 85% of the lignin and up to 100% of the hemicellulose were solubilized into the IL solution. The hemicellulose dissolved mainly in monomeric form, and pentoses were partially converted into furfural. Up to 77% of the glucose contained in the biomass could be released by enzymatic saccharification of the pulp. The IL was successfully recovered and reused four times. A 99% IL recovery was achieved each time. Effective lignin removal and high saccharification yields were maintained during recycling, representing the first demonstration that repeated IL use is feasible due to the self-cleaning properties of the non-distillable solvent. We further demonstrate that furfural and acetic acid can be separated quantitatively from the non-volatile IL by simple distillation, providing an easily recoverable, valuable co-product stream, while IL degradation products were not detected. We further include detailed mass balances for glucose, hemicellulose and lignin, and a preliminary techno-economic estimate for the fractionation process. This is the first demonstration of an efficient and repeated lignocellulose fractionation with a truly low-cost IL, and opens a path to an economically viable IL-based pretreatment process.