This work investigates the possibility of describing a hardware design independent of special hardware. This is realized with the concept of an operating system. The re-use of operating system modules reduces the time of development and also increases the reliability. Additionally, the change of a development platform has no influence on the application algorithm anymore. In order to apply the concept of an operating system special constraints have to be fulfilled by the hardware description language, which is not supported by VHDL. For that reason a structure compiler has been developed. The structure compiler connects the application program with the operating system modules and produces a VHDL program, which can be used to simulate or to program the FPGA with the typical VHDL development tools. In the progress of developing the operating system concept for reconfigurable hardware it was realized that such a concept can only be used in connection with a design methodology for heterogeneous systems. In this work a design methodology based on a declarative language represented as signal flow graph is discussed. The operating system concept for reconfigurable hardware was tested on different FPGA boards. For these cards an operating system was developed. The operating system contains modules for the communication with the PC over different interfaces as well as modules for accessing different exterior peripheries, i.e. memory. Additionally, the integration of processors as part of the configurable hardware within the operating system concept was investigated. For the verification of the structure compiler and the operating system modules some examples have been developed. The operating system concept for configurable hardware was also applied in different projects.


Indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO), an enzyme involved in the catabolism of tryptophan, is expressed by a variety of cells and tissues such as macrophages, dendritic cells, cells of the endocrine system and by the placenta. IFN- γ is the main inducer of this enzyme. IDO acts as an important defense mechanism of innate immunity against pathogens. It also has tumor suppressive activity and prolongs the survival of allograft. One of the interesting functions of IDO is prevention of the allogenic fetus rejection during pregnancy by inhibiting alloreactive T cells. It was shown that inhibition of IDO activity by IDO inhibitor, 1-methyl tryptophan, during mouse pregnancy causes fetal rejection. The main mechanism by which IDO protects fetus is through reducing the tryptophan level and suppressing the T cell activity in the feto-maternal interface. In this review the biological functions of IDO with emphasis on its role in allogeneic fetus protection have been discussed.


Recently, more than 100,000 cases for ransomware attacks were reported in the Middle East, Turkey and Africa region [2]. Ransomware is a malware category that limits the access of users to their files by encrypting them. This malware requires victims to pay in order to get access to the decryption keys. In order to remain anonymous, ransomware requires victims to pay through the Bitcoin network. However, due to an inherent weakness in Bitcoin's anonymity model, it is possible to link identities hidden behind Bitcoin addresses by analyzing the blockchain, Bitcoin's public ledger where all of the history of transactions is stored. In this work, we investigate the feasibility of linking users, as identities represented by Bitcoin's public addresses, to addresses owned by entities operating ransomware. To demonstrate how such linking is possible, we crawled BitcoinTalk, a famous forum for Bitcoin related discussions, and a subset of Twitter public datasets. Out of nearly 5B tweets and 1M forum pages, we found 4.2K and 41K unique online identities, respectively, along with their public personal information and Bitcoin addresses. Then we expanded these datasets of users by using closure analysis, where a Bitcoin address is used to identify a set of other addresses that are highly likely to be controlled by the same user. This allowed us to collect thousands more Bitcoin addresses for the users. By analyzing transactions in the blockchain, we were able to link 6 unique identities to different ransomware operators including CryptoWall [1] and WannaCry [3]. Moreover, in order to get insights into the economy and activity of these Ransomware addresses, we analyzed the money flow of these addresses along with the timestamps associated with transactions involving them. We observed that ransomware addresses were active from 2014 to 2017, with an average lifetime of nearly 62 days. While some addresses were only active during a certain year, others were operating for more than 3 years. We also observed that the revenue of these malware exceeds USD 6M for CryptoWall, and ranges from USD 3.8K to USD 700K for ransomware such as WannaCry and CryptoLocker, with an average number of transactions of nearly 52. One address associated with CryptoLocker ransomware also had a large amount of Bitcoins worth more than USD 34M at the time of writing. Finally, we believe that such type of analysis can potentially be used as a forensic tool to investigate ransomware attacks and possibly help authorities trace the roots of such malware. 1- «Ransom Cryptowall.» Symantec. June 14, 2014. Accessed November 01, 2017. https://www.symantec.com/security_response/writeup.jsp?docid = 2014-061923-2824-99.2- Varghese, Joseph. «Ransomware could be deadly, cyber security expert warns.» Gulf Times. May 05, 2017. Accessed November 01, 2017. http://www.gulf times.com/story/546937/Ransomware-could-be-deadly-cyber-security-expert-w.3- Woollaston, Victoria. «WannaCry ransomware: what is it and how to protect yourself.» WIRED. June 28, 2017. Accessed November 01, 2017. http://www.wired.co.uk/article/wannacry-ransomware-virus-patch.


Biaxial fatigue tests were performed on thin-walled tubular 1045 steel specimens in a test fixture that applied internal and external pressure and axial load. There were two test series, one in which constant amplitude fully reversed strains were applied and another in which large periodic compressive strain cycles causing strains normal to the crack plane were inserted in a constant amplitude history of smaller strain cycles. Ratios of hoop strain to axial strain of λ = -1 (pure shear), A = -0.625, λ = -v (uniaxial straining), and A = +1 (equibiaxial straining) were used in each test series. A confocal scanning laser microscopy (CSLM) image processing technique that gave a resolution of 0.25 μm was developed and used to obtain three-dimensional images of small cracks as they were opened under load. The information in the images was used to construct cross sections of cracks from which crack depth, shape and crack opening stress were obtained. For pure shear straining tests (A = -1) and for tests at a strain ratio of A - 0.625 surface cracks rapidly initiated on planes of maximum shear in both constant amplitude and overstrain tests but did not increase significantly in length until near the end of the tests. Instead they grew into the specimen until they were semi-circular in shape. This phase occupied approximately 90% of the fatigue life. Then they began to grow in length as well as depth and linked up to cause failure. In the uniaxial and equibiaxial straining tests, crack growth initiated on planes of maximum shear at 45° to the surface of the specimens (Stage I crack growth) before changing to Stage II growth perpendicular to the applied stress. The cracks once initiated grew continuously in both the length and depth direction until failure took place. The magnitude and frequency of application of the periodic compressive overstrain cycles in the second test series was chosen to reduce the crack opening stress level below the minimum stress level of the constant amplitude cycles so that they experienced closure-free crack growth. The compressive overstrains significantly increased crack growth rates and decreased the threshold strain intensity for the smaller constant amplitude cycles. They also caused a large decrease in the small cycle fatigue resistance as measured by their equivalent strain-life curves.


With the advancement of internet technology, the numbers of threats are also rising exponentially. To reduce the impact of these threats, researchers have proposed many solutions for intrusion detection. In the literature, various machine learning classifiers are trained on older datasets for intrusion detection which limits their detection accuracy. So, there is a need to train the machine learning classifiers on latest dataset. In this paper, UNSW-NB15, the latest dataset is used to train machine learning classifiers. On the basis of theoretical analysis, taxonomy is proposed in terms of lazy and eager learners. From this proposed taxonomy, KNearest Neighbors (KNN), Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD), Decision Tree (DT), Random Forest (RF), Logistic Regression (LR) and Naïve Bayes (NB) classifiers are selected for training. The performance of these classifiers is tested in terms of Accuracy, Mean Squared Error (MSE), Precision, Recall, F1-Score, True Positive Rate (TPR) and False Positive Rate (FPR) on UNSW-NB15 dataset and comparative analysis of these machine learning classifiers is carried out. The experimental results show that RF classifier outperforms other classifiers.


The previous edition of this now-classic book revealed the existence and subversive manipulations of "economic hit men." John Perkins wrote that they "are highly paid professionals who cheat countries around the globe out of trillions of dollars. Their tools include fraudulent financial reports, rigged elections, payoffs, extortion, sex, and murder." In Perkins's case the tool was debt-convincing strategically important countries to borrow huge amounts of money for enormous, "development " projects that served the very rich while driving the country deeper into poverty and debt. And once indebted, these countries could be controlled. In this latest edition, Perkins provides revealing new details about how he and others did their work. But more importantly, in an explosive new section he describes how the EHM tools are being used around the world more widely than ever-even in the U. S. itself. The cancer has metastasized, yet most people still aren't aware of it. Fear and debt drive the EHM system. We are hammered with messages that terrify us into believing that we must pay any price, assume any debt, to stop the enemies who, we are told, lurk at our doorsteps. The EHM system-employing false economics, bribes, surveillance, deception, debt, coups, assassinations, unbridled military power-has become the dominant system of economics, government, and society today. It has created what Perkins calls a "Death Economy." But Perkins offers hope: he concludes with dozens of specific, concrete suggestions for actions all of us can take to wrest control of our world away from the economic hit men, and help give birth to a Life Economy.


In laser cleaving of brittle materials using the controlled fracture technique, thermal stresses are used to induce a single crack and the material is separated along the cutting path by extending the crack. One of the problems in laser cutting of glass with the controlled fracture technique is the cut deviation at the leading and the trailing edges of the glass sheet. This work is about minimizing this deviation through an optimization process, which includes laser beam geometry. It has been established that the thermal stresses generated during laser scanning are strongly dependent upon laser beam geometry. Experimental techniques are used to quantify cut deviation for soda-lime glass sheets under a set of conditions while finite element modeling is used to optimize the process and reduce (or eliminate) cut deviation. The experimental results of the effect of different laser beam geometries on cut path deviation have been presented in this study, along with the finite element modeling of the cutting process to simulate the transient effects of the moving beam and predict thermal fields and stress distribution. These predictions are compared with the experimental data. In comparison to other beam geometries, the triangular-forward beam at the leading edge and triangular-reverse and circular beam geometry at the trailing edge produces lower tensile stresses (sigma(xx)) and hence minimizes the cut path deviation. The work also shows that beam divergence inside the glass plays a significant role in changing the cut path deviation at the bottom leading and trailing edges of the glass.


The software engineering practice of automated testing helps programmers find defects earlier during development. With growing software projects and longer-running test suites, frequency and immediacy of feedback decline, thereby making defects harder to repair. Regression test prioritization (RTP) is concerned with running relevant tests earlier to lower the costs of defect localization and to improve feedback. Finding representative data to evaluate RTP techniques is non-trivial, as most software is published without failing tests. In this work, we systematically survey a wide range of RTP literature regarding whether their dataset uses real or synthetic defects or tests, whether they are publicly available, and whether datasets are reused. We observed that some datasets are reused, however, many projects study only few projects and these rarely resemble real-world development activity. In light of these threats to ecological validity, we describe the construction and characteristics of a new dataset, named RTPTorrent, based on 20 open-source Java programs. Our dataset allows researchers to evaluate prioritization heuristics based on version control meta-data, source code, and test results from fine-grained, automated builds over 9 years of development history. We provide reproducible baselines for initial comparisons and make all data publicly available. We see this as a step towards better reproducibility, ecological validity, and long-term availability of studied software in the field of test prioritization.


This paper presents estimates of key preference parameters of the Epstein and Zin (1989, 1991) and Weil (1989) (EZW) recursive utility model, evaluates the model's ability to fit asset return data relative to other asset pricing models, and investigates the implications of such estimates for the unobservable aggregate wealth return. Our empirical results indicate that the estimated relative risk aversion parameter ranges from 17-60, with higher values for aggregate consumption than for stockholder consumption, while the estimated elasticity of intertemporal substitution is above one. In addition, the estimated model-implied aggregate wealth return is found to be weakly correlated with the CRSP value-weighted stock market return, suggesting that the return to human wealth is negatively correlated with the aggregate stock market return. JEL: G12, E21


This study applies regression analysis as well as a non-parametric method to survey data from Burkina Faso to analyze the role of human capital in explaining technical efficiency in smallholder agricultural production. Exploiting the panel nature of the data and explicitly treating human capital inputs as endogenous, a two-stage estimation method is used for the analysis of determinants of data envelopment analysis (DEA) technical efficiency scores in a double-bootstrap procedure. Findings suggest that the impact of human capital on technical efficiency differs strongly by gender. Strong positive returns exist for education of females, whereas male education is associated with higher inefficiency. Body mass index of adult females also positively relates to technical efficiency. At the community level, presence of a clinic, connection to the electrical grid, presence of a secondary school, and year-round accessibility of the community are found to be vital for human capital formation.


This article traces the evolution of corporate wrongdoing in the United States, focusing on the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Centuries. A study of courts' and scholars' approach to the problem of promoting economic interests while ensuring that corporate power was not abused is instructive in analyzing current proposals to regulate or punish public corporations. Historically, courts faced doctrinal and practical issues in addressing corporate wrongdoers: in addition to the doctrinal difficulties attached to punishing what is essentially a legal fiction, the needs and wishes of American society (which alternately embraces and attacks corporations) pushed courts to approach the problem in creative ways.


A right handed man had a massive left middle cerebral artery stroke. CT and MRI revealed extensive destruction of both anterior and posterior areas typically associated with language. There was, however, no aphasia, but instead a marked limb apraxia, dyscalculia, dense right visual neglect, and anosognosia. These uncommon dissociations and associations support the hypothesis that cerebral control of motor function of the limbs is not fundamentally related to the motor control involved in speech, and the notion that handedness is related to laterality of motor control, and only accidentally to laterality of language control.


The Velib bike rental system is worth analyzing in order to understand how cities move out of a model of large infrastructures towards a personal service principle connected to digital traceability and mapping of all activities. The new offer of bikes distributed all over the city creates a new map for access to mobility resources while introducing citizens to a "personal-public" device. Each feature of the system requires a very well designed information system to match the needs for bikes and to charge the users through cards (credit or transportation cards). Personal data is the essential entity that fuels the whole system and that creates potential privacy problems as well as monetization opportunities. The paper relies on a theoretical framework, called habitele, which accounts for the process of inhabiting that is now extended to the personal data ecosystem. The portability of mobile phones (and other devices such as cards) creates an envelope that follows the urban citizen and equips all his activities while it makes a new layer of the city appear, adapted to the personal involvement in the urban environment.


Child Neglect has hardly been concretely determined and research on the topic is scarce. This study was to determine the nature and extent of child neglect in women with full employment. Five hundred and fifty market women randomly selected from the major markets in Enugu were interviewed. A questionnaire measuring child neglect was developed from literature review and common sense. It covers different forms of child neglect: inadequate feeding, inadequate general body care, inadequate supervision, educational neglect, medical neglect and emotional neglect. From 550 market women interviewed only 234 had children between 3-10 years of age; the number of such children who lived with their mothers were 491. Data on these children and their mothers were used for analysis. It was found that the percentage of children who suffered neglect is large enough to cause some concern. Attention is drawn through this study to the area of child neglect so that preventive and remedial actions can be taken.


Freshwater microalgal biofouling in hydropower canals in Tarraleah, Tasmania, is dominated by a single diatom species, Gomphonema tarraleahae. The microfouling community is under investigation with the aim of reducing its impact on electricity generation. Species succession was investigated using removable glass slides. Fouled slides were examined microscopically and for chlorophyll a biomass. Chl a biomass increased steeply after 8 weeks (0.09–0.87 mg m−2), but increased much earlier on slides surrounded by a biofouled inoculum. Succession began with low profile diatoms such as Tabellaria flocculosa, progressing to stalked diatoms such as Gomphonema spp. and Cymbella aspera. Few chlorophytes and no filamentous algae were present. Pulse amplitude modulated fluorometry was used to measure the physiological health of fouling on the canal wall. Maximum quantum yield (F v/F m) measurements were consistently <0.18, indicating that the fouling mat consisted of dead or dying algae. The succession and physiological health of cells in the fouling community has broad implications for mitigation techniques used.


Various improvements in severe weather information have been carried out for disaster prevention. Their attention is mainly on the accuracy and contents, and implicit relationship that "weather information is announced by Japan Meteorological Agency and users simply receive the information" is assumed. However, the present study breaks this one-way relationship and focuses on the establishment of bi-directional one through collaborative construction of local weather information among relevant groups. This collaboration takes a form that various relevant members consider the details of information together and share disaster risk through the information (local weather information). This trial of the collaboration was conducted among the local meteorological office, the local government and the residents of the study area: Nakajima school district, Ise City, which is in the central Japan. Through this collaboration, the contents of local weather information were discussed by the participants. Results showed that most participants had bi-directional, active communication and three kinds of significant bi-directional risk communication were found. Moreover, they recognized the significance of the collaboration, which signifies a novel type of communication not previously seen in conventional weather information systems.


In 1851 Julius Reuter moved from Berlin to London where he and his staff of one office boy set up the telegraph office that was to evolve into one of the most powerful news agencies in the world. For over a century, Reuters, as it came to be named, was the news agency of the British Empire, committed to providing "truth in news" and doing so quickly, two standards of reporting that it maintains to this very day. And for over 150 years, Reuters has been a part the great revolution in world communications, from the days of overland and undersea telegraphs, to modern computer links and satellites. In The Power of News, Donald Read presents the history of this communications giant, from its beginnings in 1851 to the company's decision to go public in 1984. Read shows how the completion of the world's first translatlantic cable in July 1866 launched Reuters into a new era of cable communication, bringing news to the world more quickly than ever. News of Lincoln's election as President in 1861 had taken eight days to reach London, while news of Grant's 1869 victory took only one day. Read also reveals how Reuters profited greatly for its wartime reports, from the Austro-Prussian War in 1866, to the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, to the momentous 1914 telegram ("Sarajevo Ferdinand Deste assassine") at the start of World War I. Read also traces the agency's post-World War II days under the leadership of Christopher Chancellor, who transformed the agency into an international organization that sold its services in many languages across the world, from Argentina, to Africa, to Japan. He delves into Reuters' profitable business of supplying economic information--its delivery of stock market and commodity prices and the successful Reuter Monitor Money Rates service launched in 1973. And he shows how this financial success was important to Reuters' independence and objectivity of reporting. (During wartime, and throughout its history, Reuters' subsidization by the British Government had drawn criticism that the agency was "partial to things British.") And for the first time, Read presents the story behind the controversial decision to float the agency as a public company in 1984. The first to report the building of the Berlin Wall in 1961, and the first to report its fall in 1989, Reuters has remained at the forefront of worldwide communications. Revealing the failures as well as the successes, The Power of News tells the fascinating story of the company that has been bringing us history in the making for over a hundred fifty years.


Almost everyone has faced the frustrating task of negotiating with government -- local, state, national, or foreign -- at some point in their lives. Whether they are applying for a building permit from their local zoning board, trying to sell software to the U. S. Defense Department, looking for approval for a merger, or planning to set up a business in Limerick or Bangalore, businesspeople confront a unique set of challenges when dealing with any form of government. Distinguished author, professor and negotiation expert Jeswald W. Salacuse explains the ways in which negotiating with government is very different from private negotiation. In Seven Secrets for Negotiating with Government, he addresses the key variables involved -- from the influence of bureaucracy to the perception of power on the government side of the negotiating table. The only book of its kind, this invaluable guide offers succinct, realistic, and accessible advice to help readers recognize the often-hidden interests driving government negotiators and how to use that knowledge to their advantage. Filled with real-life examples, this book will show businesspeople everywhere how to navigate this complex world and win.


ABSTRACT In order to combat land degradation in the form of water erosion and fertility depletion in the Central Rift Valley (CRV) of Ethiopia farmers are of crucial importance. If they perceive land degradation as a problem they will be more willing to invest in land management measures. This study presents farmers' perceptions of land degradation, respective investments, and factors influencing their investments in land. In this study, water erosion and fertility depletion are taken as main indicators of land degradation. Results show that farmers perceive water erosion and soil fertility depletion as problems that have intensified over the last decade. However, despite awareness of these problems, farmers' investments to control soil erosion and soil fertility depletion are very limited. This study shows that the major factors that positively influence farmers' investments in land management practices are households' resource endowments, access to information, social capital and availability of family labor. For sustainable land management strategies this implies that these should (i) be integrated within a comprehensive rural development strategy that generates improvements of farmers' livelihoods and their financial capacity, (ii) trigger social capital and create enabling conditions for farmers to participate in different groups, cross site visits and farmer-to-farmer experience sharing, and (iii) stimulate collective action within the villages in order to enhance access to labor which is crucial for carrying out land management practices. Key words: Land degradation, farmers' investments, sustainable land management, socioeconomic factors, factor analysis


Despite widespread commitment to promoting diversity in the nonprofit sector, increasing diversity poses a continued challenge for many nonprofits. Even nonprofits with explicit diversity statements often struggle to diversify their organizations. One potential impediment to achieving diversity may result from the framing and communication of diversity values within nonprofits. We evaluate the reactions of hypothetical stakeholders to two forms of diversity framing – instrumental and moral frames – focusing on potential divergence amongst racial-minority and White perspectives. Experiment 1 demonstrates that Black and Latino participants feel marginally more dehumanized and anticipate racial minorities will feel more devalued in an organization espousing the moral (compared to instrumental) diversity frame. In contrast, Whites feel less valued, more dehumanized, and perceive organizations as less authentically dedicated to diversity when viewing an organization that espouses the instrumental (compared to moral) frame. Experiment 2 extends these results demonstrating that Whites who are particularly concerned about their place in future job markets are more likely to feel devalued by instrumental frames to diversity. We discuss how these results diverge from existing findings of similar frames applied to business, rather than nonprofit, contexts. These findings extend our understanding of the implications of outcome-oriented versus moral frames within nonprofit organizations as well as informing understanding of how diversity frames may offer divergent signals to underrepresented and non-underrepresented stakeholders.


Around the mid-sixteenth century Humanist prelates were conflicted in their efforts to combine the conventions of their cultural heritage and the new religious requirements. In the field of personal commemoration, the humanist praise of humankind- which led to magnificent Renaissance monuments-stood in contrast to the renewed emphasis on personal humbleness.This perplexing situation is reflected in the personality and sepulchral patronage of Diomede Carafa, bishop of Ariano for half of that century, who prepared four tombs for himself. An examination of their iconography, their epitaphs, and some other projects and inscriptions by him produces a picture of a prelate who oscillated between his desire to be remembered, his agreement with the renewed Catholic emphasis on personal humbleness, and his fear of death. While the simplicity of his tomb slabs manifests the patron's meekness, their dead effigies and epitaphs were for him a permanent memento mori reference.


Undulatory motion of the body is the dominant mode of locomotion in fishes, and numerous studies of body kinematics and muscle activity patterns have provided insights into the mechanics of swimming. However, it has not been possible to investigate how key parameters such as the extent of bilateral muscle activation affect propulsive performance due to the inability to manipulate muscle activation in live, freely swimming fishes. In this article we extend previous work on passive flexible mechanical models of undulatory propulsion by using actively controlled pneumatic actuators attached to a flexible foil to gain insight into undulatory locomotion and mechanisms for body stiffness control. Two soft actuators were attached on each side of a flexible panel with stiffness comparable to that of a fish body. To study how bilateral contraction can be used to modify axial body stiffness during swimming, we ran a parameter sweep of actuator contraction phasing and frequency. Thrust production by the soft pneumatic actuators was tested at cyclic undulation frequencies ranging from 0.3 to 1.2 Hz in a recirculating flow tank at flow speeds up to 28 cm/s. Overall, this system generated more thrust at higher tail beat frequencies, with a plateau in thrust above 0.8 Hz. Self-propelled speed was found to be 0.8 foil lengths per second or ∼13 cm/s when actuated at 0.55 Hz. This active pneumatic model is capable of producing substantial trailing edge amplitudes with a maximum excursion equivalent to 1.4 foil lengths, and of generating considerable thrust. Altering the extent of bilateral co-contraction in a range from -22% to 17% of the cycle period showed that thrust was maximized with some amount of simultaneous left-right actuation of ∼3% to 6% of the cycle period. When the system is exposed to water flow, thrust was substantially reduced for conditions of greatest antagonistic overlap in left-right actuation, and also for the largest latencies introduced. This experimental platform provides a soft robotic testbed for studying aquatic propulsion with active control of undulatory kinematics.


Atherosclerosis is the principal cause of death in the United States, Europe and much of Asia. During the last decade, inflammation has been suggested to play a key role in the development of atherosclerosis. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) released during inflammation additionally oxidize LDL, which is subsequently taken up in an unregulated way through scavenger receptors on macrophages to form foam cells, the hallmark of atherosclerotic lesions. Previous work has shown that the lipid ceramide, which is found in aggregated LDL and in atherosclerotic plaques, decreases intracellular peroxide most likely through reducing NADPH oxidase activity. Ceramide is an important component of membrane microdomains called lipid rafts which are important for membrane protein function. Endogenous ceramide enhances lipid raft f'ormation and alters theirs composition. NADPH oxidase membrane subunits cytochrome b558 (which includes gp91) strongly associates with lipid rafts Therefore present study investigated whether short chain ceramides reduce NADPH oxidase in U937 monocytes by disrurting the membrane component of NADPH oxidase. Results showed that C2 ceramide alters the distribution of raft marker, flottillin and the raft environment. NADPH oxidase membrane component gp9J phox and cytosolic component p47 phox were identified in rafts. C2 ceramide reduces both gp91 and p47 phox in rafts, which leads to the decrease of peroxide production by NADPH oxidase. Ceramide is also an important second messenger involved in many different signaling pathways associated with atherogenesis from the activation of sphingomyelinase (SMase). It has been reported that SMase enhances LDL receptor mediated LDL endocytosis. However, no study has been done to investigate the effect of ceramide on scavenger receptors such as CD36 and oxidized LDL (OxLDL) uptake. CD36 is the major recertor far OxLDL. Reduced CD36 expression results in less foam cell formation and less atherosclerotic lesion without disrupting the clearance of OxLDL from plasma. This thesis shows that ceramides significantly reduce CD36 surface expression on U937 monocytes, macrophages and human primary monocytes. This effect is seen using both synthetic short chain ceramide and SMase catalysed long chain ceramide treatment. To investigate whether the effect of ceramide on CD36 is functional, OxLOL uptake was measured in ceramide treated cells. Ceramide reduces the uptake of OxLOL by both U937 monocytes and PMA-differentiated macrophages. The mechanism of ceramide reduction of CD36 expression was studied by measuring the surface antigen using flow cytometry and fluorescence microscopy, whole cellular CD36 expression and shedding of C036 by Western blotting of cell lysates and cell culture supernatants and mRNA level of CD36 using RT-PCR. Ceramide reduces shedding of CD36, activates mRNA expression of CD36 and induces intracellular CD36 accumulation probably through retaining the receptor inside cells. In summary, ceramides modulate several of the processes involved in LOL oxidation and uptake by CD36 receptors on monocytes/macrophages in a way which may protect against atherosclerosis.


High-resolution nowcasting is an essential tool needed for effective adaptation to climate change, particularly for extreme weather. As Deep Learning (DL) techniques have shown dramatic promise in many domains, including the geosciences, we present an application of DL to the problem of precipitation nowcasting, i.e., high-resolution (1 km x 1 km) short-term (1 hour) predictions of precipitation. We treat forecasting as an image-to-image translation problem and leverage the power of the ubiquitous UNET convolutional neural network. We find this performs favorably when compared to three commonly used models: optical flow, persistence and NOAA's numerical one-hour HRRR nowcasting prediction.


Detecting the argument components Claim and Premise is a central task in argumentation mining. Working with two annotated corpora from the genre of short argumentative texts, we extend a BiLSTM-CRF neural tagger to identify argumentative units and to classify their type (claim vs. premise). For the corpora we use, Persuasive Essays and Argumentative Microtexts, current methods relied on pre-computed non-contextual word embeddings such as Glove. In this paper, we adopt contextual word embeddings (Bert, RoBerta) and cast the problem as a sequence labeling task. We show that this step improves the state of the art for the Persuasive Essays, and we present strong initial results on applying the same approach to the Argumentative Microtexts.


Innovative research technologies in the neurosciences have remarkably improved the perception of brain structure and function. The use of several neurofeedback training techniques is broadly used for the memory and cognition augmentation as well as for several learning difficulties and AHDD rehabilitation. Author's objective is to review cognitive enhancement techniques with the use of brain imaging intervention methods as well to evaluate the effects of these methods in the educational process. The efficiency and limitations of neurofeedback training with the use of EEG brain imaging, HEG scanning, namely NIR and PIR method and fMRI scan including rt-fMRI brain scanning technique are also discussed. Moreover, technical and clinical details of several neurofeedback treatment approaches were also taken into consideration.


Currently, the (pozzolanic) strength activity indices of fly ashes and natural pozzolans are typically evaluated using the procedures outlined in ASTM C311 ["Standard Test Methods for Sampling and Testing Fly Ash or Natural Pozzolans for Use in Portland-Cement Concrete," Annual Book of ASTM Standards, ASTM International, West Conshohocken, PA, 2007]. In this test, the 7 and 28 d compressive strengths of mortar cubes with a 20 % mass replacement of cement by pozzolan are compared to those of a control without pozzolan, at constant flow conditions. In its current form, this procedure confounds two other properties of the pozzolan with its strength activity, namely its density and its water-reducing/increasing capabilities. In this study, the current C311 testing procedure is evaluated against an alternative in which the 20 % fly ash replacement for cement is performed on a volumetric basis and the volume fractions of water and sand are held constant, which should provide a true evaluation of the strength activity index of the pozzolan, free of these confounding influences. Class C and Class F fly ashes, a natural pozzolan, and a sugar cane ash are evaluated using both approaches, with some significant differences being noted. For a subset of the materials, the strength measurements are complemented by measurements of isothermal calorimetry on the mortars to an age of 7 d. For the constant volumetric proportions approach, a good correlation is exhibited between the cumulative heat release of the mortar at 7 d and the measured 7 d strength, suggesting the potential to evaluate 7 d pozzolanic activity via calorimetric measurements on much smaller specimens.


Depression, substance use, and impulsivity have been linked to family violence exposure and to the development of violent offending during adolescence. Additionally, the indirect effects associated with these factors may not generalize across different racial/ethnic adolescent populations. The present study tested whether race/ethnicity moderated the mediated relationship between family violence exposure and violent offending, with depression, substance use, and impulsivity as mediators. A sample of 1,359 male adolescents was obtained from a juvenile correctional program. Between-racial/ethnic group comparisons were generally consistent with previous findings. The overall moderated mediation model was significant in predicting violence for both racial/ethnic groups. Different factors influenced violent offending among African Americans and European Americans in the tested model. Furthermore, race/ethnicity moderated the relationship between family violence exposure and impulsivity and substance use. Implications and future directions resolving issues are discussed concerning whether race/ethnicity should be included as a moderator in models of violence.


Purpose - The paper aims to explore the social origins of Scottish chartered accountants and the accounting stereotype as portrayed in popular fiction. Design/methodology/approach - The detective novels of the Scottish chartered accountant Alexander Clark Smith are used as a lens through which to explore the social origins of accountants and the changing popular representations of the accountant. Findings - The novels contribute to our understanding of the construction of accounting stereotypes and of the social origins of Scottish accountants. They suggest that, while working class access to the profession was a reality, so was class division within it. In addition, Smith was ahead of contemporary professional discourse in creating a protagonist who combines the positive aspects of the traditional stereotype with qualities of a private-eye action-hero, and who uses accounting skills to uncover corruption and address (social) wrongs. However, this unconventional portrayal may have been incongruent with the image the profession wished to portray. The public image (or stereotype) portrayed by its members would have been as important in signalling and maintaining the profession's collective status as the recruitment of its leadership from social elites. Originality/value - Smith's portrayal of accountants in personal and societal settings at a time of profound social change, as well as his background in the Scottish profession, provide a rich source for the study of social origins of Scottish chartered accountancy during the first half of the twentieth century. Further, Smith's novels are of a popular genre, and innovative in the construction of their hero and of accounting itself; as such they merit attention because of their potential to influence the construction of the accounting stereotype(s) within the popular imagination.


This thesis challenges the traditional view of the ?femme fatale? as merely a dangerous and ravenous sexual predator who leads men into ruination. Critical, especially feminist, scholarship mostly regards the femme fatale as a sexist construction of a male fantasy and treats her as an expression of misogyny that ultimately serves to reaffirm male authority. But this thesis proposes alternative ways of viewing the femme fatale by showing how she can also serve as a figure for imagining female agency. As such, I focus on a particular character type that is distinct from the general archetype of the femme fatale because of the greater degree of agency she demonstrates. This ?criminal femme fatale? uses her sexual appeal and irresistible wiles both to manipulate men and to commit criminal acts, usually murder, in order to advance her goals with deliberate intent and full culpability. This thesis reveals and explains the agency of the criminal femme fatales in American Hardboiled crime fiction between the late 1920s and the end of World War II in the works of three authors: Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler and James M. Cain. The criminal femme fatales in the narratives of these authors show a subversive power and an ability to act ? even though, or perhaps only if, this action is a criminal one. I show that these criminal femme fatales exhibit agency through their efforts to challenge not only the ?masculine? genre and the criminal space that this genre represents, but also to undercut the male protagonist?s role and prove his failure in asserting control and dominance. Hammett?s narratives provide good examples of how the criminal femme fatales function on a par with male gangsters in an underworld of crime and corruption. Chandler?s work demonstrates a different case of absent/present criminal women who are set against the detective and ultimately question his power and mastery. Cain?s narratives show the agency of the criminal femme fatales in the convergence between their ambition for social mobility and their sexual power over the male characters. To explain how these female characters exhibit agency, I situate this body of literature alongside contemporaneous legal and medical discourses on female criminality. I argue that the literary female criminal is a fundamentally different portrayal because she breaks the ?mad-bad? woman dichotomy that dominates both legal and medical discourses on female criminality. I show that the criminal femme fatales? negotiations of female agency within hardboiled crime fiction fluctuate and shift between the two poles of the criminalized and the medicalized women. These criminal femme fatales exhibit culpability in their actions that bring them into an encounter with the criminal justice system and resist being pathologized as women who suffer from a psychological ailment that affect their control. The thesis concludes that the ways in which the criminal femme fatales trouble normative socio-cultural conceptions relating to docile femininity and passive sexuality, not only destabilize the totality and fixity of the stereotype of the femme fatale in hardboiled crime fiction, but also open up broader debates about the representation of women in popular culture and the intersections between genre and gender.


American foulbrood (AFB) is the most severe bacterial disease that affects honey bees, having a nearly cosmopolitan distribution. AFB's causative agent is Paenibacillus larvae . AFB kills infected honey bee larvae; however, it eventually leads to the collapse of the entire colony when left untreated. The infection takes place by the ingestion of the spores with the food provided by adult worker bees to the larvae. In South America (SA) the disease was first described in 1989 in Argentina, constituting the first sanitary challenge for beekeepers to overcome. Prevention and control measures of AFB in SA countries generally include vigilance for early diagnosis, isolation of apiaries with cases of AFB, and multiplication of healthy colonies with hygienic queens, among others. The extensive use of tetracycline hydrochloride in Argentina has led to the development of resistant P. larvae isolates. In this context, the development of alternative and effective methods for the control and prevention of AFB disease is crucial. Currently, alternative strategies for the prevention and treatment of AFB are being studied, mainly based on essential oils.


Platforms that depend on user-generated content spend a great deal of effort crafting policies and mechanisms that can yield a steady stream of engaging content. In this work, we consider the effects of awards offered by peers, a feature that many platforms provide to enable users to recognize the quality of their peers' contributions. We conduct a large-scale field experiment on Reddit, one of the largest social news aggregation and discussion platforms in the world and evaluate the effect of peer awards on content generation in terms of both volume and novelty. We leverage Reddit's native peer award feature, the Gold Award, purchasing and randomly assigning Gold to 905 posts, anonymously, over the course of two months. We collect and analyze users' behavioral trace data and posting content over the period leading up to and following our treatments via Reddit's API. We find that, on average, peer awards raise the probability that treated subjects will make additional Reddit posts by 6.6%, in addition to lengthening treated subjects' posts by approximately 39.6%. Interestingly, however, we also observe that the content users post under treatment exhibits greater similarity to past content (particularly the intervention post), indicating a decline in novelty. Based on this result, we conclude that peer awards are a double-edged sword. On the one hand, they foster increased engagement and content production among recipients. On the other hand, the additional content that awards elicit is less novel.


This thesis is divided into four chapters. In the first chapter we describe the subtleties involved in probabilistically analyzing simple algorithms in computational geometry. We also work through a few easy examples of such analyses. The first example analyzes Quicksort, the second analyzes Quickhull, and the third analyzes interpoint distances between uniformly distributed points in hypercubes or hypertori.
In the second chapter we present a simple but effective preprocessing algorithm for calculating convex hulls. The algorithm is short and intuitive. It does a fast linear scan through the points, identifying many which are not on the convex hull and can therefore be eliminated. We perform an exact analysis of this algorithm showing that, given n points distributed uniformly in the unit square, only about 8$\sqrt{n}$ of them remain after the preprocessing step: in higher dimensions only $c\sb{d}n\sp{1-1/d}$ will remain. We present the results of simulations comparing our mathematical analysis to reality. Finally, we end with a discussion of what distinguishes this algorithm from certain obvious variants.
In the third chapter we analyze closest pair algorithms. First, we analyze a sweep-line closest-pair algorithm, one similar in spirit to Hoey and Shamos' divide and conquer algorithm for solving the same problem. Our result is that, given n points uniformly distributed in the unit square and then sorted, there is a six line algorithm that finds the closest pair in O(n) expected time. Moreover, this algorithm uses no complicated data structures. We then analyze a second algorithm, one that finds the closest pair using a modified version of Bentley and Papadimitriou's nearest neighbor projection algorithm. Our result, again, is that after the sorting stage, the linear scan stage of this new algorithm also finds the closest pair in O(n) expected time.
The fourth chapter discussed the calculation of maxima. More specifically it analyzes a new heuristic, the Move-To-Front Algorithm, recently developed by Bentley, Clarkson and Levine. We prove mathematically that the Move-To-Front Algorithm is extremely efficient; on average it performs only one comparison per input point except on those in an asymptotically negligible subset.


The Temporary Works Toolkit is a series of articles aimed primarily at assisting the
permanent works designer with temporary works issues. Buildability – sometimes referred
to now as "construction method engineering" – is not a new concept and one always recognised as vital to the realisation of one's ideas; it ought to be at the forefront of an engineer's mind.


Age related structural and functional change in the cochlea have been well described and predisposing factors including genetic background, gender, and environmental factors have been identified. To date, nine genetic loci contributing to age related hearing loss (ARHL) have been identified and auditory function has been described in mouse strains carrying these mutations. The effect of these ARHL mutations on the other inner ear modality (vestibular) is poorly understood. The objective of the current study was to characterize and compare age related change in auditory and vestibular function (more specifically macular function) in three strains carrying ARHL mutations (C57BL/6J, CE/J, and NOD NON-H2nb1/LtJ) and one control strain with no known mutations (CBA/CaJ). Auditory brainstem response (ABR) and distortion product otoacoustic emissions (DPOAE) were used to assess cochlear function and vestibular evoked potential (VsEP) was used to assess macular function. The macular organs from young, mid-life, and old animals were harvested, prepared, and imaged using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and a qualitative comparison of the number and distribution of macular otoconia was made. ABR and VsEP thresholds, peak latencies, and peak to peak amplitudes were quantified. Linear regression, student's T-test, and ANOVA were used to describe and compare auditory and macular function between genders, within strain, and between strains. DPOAE amplitude was plotted as a function of geometric mean frequency for 11 age groups. No statistical analysis was performed on DPOAE data. No significant gender difference was found for auditory or vestibular function in any strain so genders were pooled for further analysis. The intra-strain comparison of auditory and macular sensitivity reveals a significantly different rate of change in the two modalities in all three strains (p<0.0001). Inter-strain comparison of change in macular sensitivity shows that the CBA/CaJ and CE/J strains lose sensitivity at a significantly faster rate than the C57 strain. A comparison of SEM images from young and old mice revealed no apparent qualitative difference in macular otoconia that would explain the observed declines in macular sensitivity.


Spectral subtraction and baseline correction via interactive graphics programs have been extensively used for the analysis of weak IR absorption signals which are under strong bands, such as occur in aqueous protein solutions. However, personal bias and uncertainty can result in significant differences in the spectra of the same protein substracted and baseline corrected by different persons. This is demonstrated in the case of albumin adsorbed on the surface of a germanium ATR crystal in contact within pure water. A simple computer algorithm to automatically subtract the water spectrum and remove any baseline tilt or curvature, and thus remove this individual bias and uncertainty, is presented, with a comparison of the results between different persons and the algorithm.


High-frequency trading – a new form of lightning-fast computerized trading conducted without direct human intervention – has remade American stock markets in the past decade, increasing trading volume enormously while dramatically reducing the costs of buying and selling stock. Even so, high-frequency trading is controversial, raising the specter of market manipulation and unfair trading advantages. The most unique and serious risk is the risk of extreme spikes and crashes in stock prices. The most dramatic of these was the so-called "Flash Crash" of May 6, 2010, which brought wide public attention to so-called high-frequency trading for the first time. In the space of only fifteen minutes, the stock market plunged to the single biggest intraday point loss in its history and then, even more astonishingly, almost completely recovered. This unprecedented event brought fresh scrutiny to so-called high-frequency trading, which is widely believed to have played a crucial role in the debacle. Despite a welter of subsequent regulatory proposals, the legal literature has been nearly silent with regard to this new frontier of securities litigation. In response, this Article proposes the broad outlines for a strategy for regulation of the risks of high-frequency trading. For risks that are already well understood, I would rely on best practices regulation. For risks that are novel and not yet fully understood, I would rely on a combination of ex post liability and structural reforms – including a consolidated system for tracking market activity and improved circuit breakers for arresting extreme market movements. The proposed regulatory regime would reassure the public and prevent the most extreme dangers associated with high-frequency trading, while still preserving the benefits of high-frequency trading and the incentives for market participants to develop improved best practices.


Bilateralism is mushrooming in the Asia - Pacific, yet the motives for it remain puzzling.

Why do countries devote substantial effort to bilateral free trade agreements that are providing limited additional benefits when compared both with unilateral liberalisation and with the multilateral regime? Furthermore, some of the deals recently implemented are less trade liberalising than the powerful rhetoric would suggest. For example , the free trade agreement between Australia and the United States is not including "substantially all the trade" and, on top of that, is asymmetric – Australia's access to the American market is more restricted than vice versa.

The paper first addresses some conceptual issues and analyses the disadvantages of bilateral free trade agreements. Here, the need for rules of origin is of particular concern. These have two effects. First, they result in additional costs to producers. Whilst the dismantling of tariffs reduces the cost of trade, the need to administer rules of origin increases them. Second, transnational production is made more complicated. In order to qualify for duty free trade, the region for the sourcing of inputs shrinks, with negative consequences for competitiveness. Subsequently, the bilateral agreements of Australia, Singapore and Thailand will be examined. At closer inspection, these preferential deals are not convincing. All of them require complex rules of origin and do not make a significant contribution to the liberalisation of trade.


To study the proximal factors inducing diel vertical migration (DVM) in large and small zooplankton species in a plateau lake in China, we investigated the DVM of crustacean zooplankton in Lake Erhai bimonthly from November 2009 to September 2010. We hypothesized that the factors affecting DVM behaviour in different-sized zooplankton were different. A linear regression was used to assess the relationships between environmental variables and the vertical distribution of zooplankton. All crustacean zooplankton exhibited normal DVM patterns (down during the day, up at night) across sampling months. The weighted mean depth (WMD) of all zooplankton did not show a significant correlation with the WMD of the dominant phytoplankton and chlorophyll-a. However, a negative relationship was observed between the distribution of zooplankton and water temperature in January, March, and July 2010, but the relationship was relatively weak (R-2 between 0.1 and 0.4). The vertical distribution of zooplankton was primarily affected by water transparency (P0.05), whereas the factors inducing DVM behaviour differed between large and small zooplankton. Predation avoidance and phototactic behaviour may be the dominant factors influencing DVM of large species, whereas only phototaxis contributed to the migratory behaviour of small species.


Hydroxymethanesulfonate (HMS) has recently been identified as an abundant organosulfur compound in aerosols during winter haze episodes in northern China. It has also been detected in other regions, although the concentrations are low. 15 Because of the sparse field measurements, the global significance of HMS and its spatial and seasonal patterns remain unclear. Here, we modify and add to the implementation of HMS chemistry in the GEOS-Chem chemical transport model and conduct multiple global simulations. The model accounts for cloud entrainment and gas–aqueous mass transfer within the rate expressions for heterogeneous sulfur chemistry. Our simulations can generally reproduce quantitative HMS observations from Beijing and show that East Asia has the highest HMS concentration, followed by Europe and North America. The simulated 20 HMS shows a seasonal pattern with higher values in the colder period. Photochemical oxidizing capacity affects the competition of formaldehyde with oxidants (such as ozone and hydrogen peroxide) for sulfur dioxide and is a key factor influencing the seasonality of HMS. The highest average HMS concentration (1–3 μg m−3) and HMS/sulfate molar ratio (0.1– 0.2) are found in northern China winter. The simulations suggest that aqueous clouds act as the major medium for HMS chemistry while aerosol liquid water may play a role if its rate constant for HMS formation is greatly enhanced compared to 25 cloud water.


We are in the midst of what might end up as the most significant change to financial regulations since the Great Depression. This is because the financial and economic crisis that continues to engulf us is the most severe crisis since the Great Depression. The markets for houses, mortgages, and derivatives linked to them have played critical roles in the crisis, and debates about the shape of future financial regulation have led to intense focus on these markets. In this paper we place the current debate about regulatory changes within a larger frame. We present a framework based on capture theory and fairness where regulatory irons are heated by changes in financial markets such as a plunge from exuberant booms to frightening crashes, changes in the economy such as a fall from heady job creation to dispiriting unemployment, changes in technology such as an innovation in information technology which enables banks to substitute the Internet for tellers, changes in politics, such as one party displacing another, or new rulings by the Supreme Court, such as the one that opened the door to interstate banking. We discuss the fires that heat regulatory irons, the craftsmen standing ready to strike them, and the process by which they are struck, in credit card and bank regulations, insider trading regulations, Regulation FD, trading halts, the Global Settlement, and the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. We conclude with our prescriptions.


Wild zebrafish exhibit a wide range of behavior. We found abundant wild zebrafish in flowing rivers and still water, in large, tightly-knit groups of hundreds of individuals, as well as in small, loose shoals. In two still-water populations, zebrafish were quite small in body size, common, and in tight groups of up to 22 fish. As in earlier laboratory studies, these zebrafish exhibited very low levels of aggression. In slowly flowing water in central India, zebrafish were relatively rare and gathered in small shoals (4-12 fish), often with other small fish, such as Rasbora daniconius. These stream zebrafish were larger in body size (27 mm TL) and much more aggressive than those in still water. In a second river population with much faster flowing water, zebrafish were abundant and again relatively large (21 mm TL). These zebrafish occurred in very large (up to 300 individuals) and tightly-knit (nearest-neighbor distances up to 21 mm) groups that exhibited collective rheotaxis and almost no aggression. This remarkable variation in social behavior of wild zebrafish offers an opportunity for future studies of behavioral genetics, development, and neuroscience.


Hyperproinsulinemia is observed in type 2 diabetic patients. We hypothesized that the induction of uncoupling protein-2 (UCP2) would impair processing of proinsulin to mature insulin and potentially contribute to hyperproinsulinemia, based on the evidence that hormone processing is an ATP-dependent process and UCP2 up-regulation can suppress cellular ATP production. UCP2 was overexpressed (UCP2-OE) by twofold in INS-1 cells by means of plasmid transfection. Although UCP2-OE reduced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion and cellular ATP content, no effects on proinsulin processing, as measured by western blotting, were observed. To increase the demand for insulin, we then cultured UCP2-OE and control INS-1 cells in medium containing 20 mM KCl for 24 h. High K(+) markedly reduced glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from control cells, indicating inability of cells to meet secretory demand. Independent of UCP2 expression, high K(+) reduced preproinsulin mRNA expression but had no effect on ATP content despite increasing ATP synthase expression. In UCP2-OE cells, high K(+)decreased total cellular insulin species content and increased the ratio of proinsulin to insulin, indicating an impairment of processing. We conclude that UCP2-OE can negatively impact proinsulin processing, possibly by ATP-dependent alteration of the granule environment or reduction of Ca(2+)availability, particularly when cells are chronically stimulated to secrete insulin.


AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
To describe what nurses want to accomplish in relationships with patients who are hospitalised in forensic psychiatric settings.

BACKGROUND
Relationships between staff and patients in forensic psychiatric settings should be grounded in trust and confidence, and the patients need opportunities for emotional reconciliation. However, relationships can be challenging for nurses, who sometimes distance themselves from patients' expressions of suffering. The role of forensic mental health nurses is nebulous, as are the prescriptives and the implementation of nursing practices.

DESIGN
Qualitative descriptive design.

METHODS
In-depth interviews with five nurses who all work in forensic psychiatric settings.

RESULTS
We present a descriptive analysis of what nurses want to accomplish in relationships with patients who are hospitalised in forensic psychiatric settings. The results are presented in two main categories: (1) getting to know the person behind the illness and (2) making a difference.

CONCLUSION
Care in forensic psychiatry needs to shift towards a more long-term view of the role of nursing, focusing less on the traditional and stereotypical identity of the productive nurse and more on the care given when nurses slow down and take the time to see the patients as individuals. Establishing trusting relationships with patients in forensic psychiatric settings is viewed as a less oppressive way to control patients and guide them in directions that are preferable for the nurses and for the society.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE
Nurses may use simple strategies in their daily practice such as sitting on the sofa with patients to establish trust. We stress that nurses should abandon policing roles and custodial activities in favour of guiding principles that promote individual recovery, treatment and health-promoting care.


This chapter presents a method for caption text detection. The proposed method will be included in a generic indexing system dealing with other semantic concepts which are to be automatically detected as well. To have a coherent detection system, the various object detection algorithms use a common image description, a hierarchical region-based image model. The proposed method takes advantage of texture and geometric features to detect the caption text. Texture features are estimated using wavelet analysis and mainly applied for text candidate spotting. In turn, text characteristics verification relies on geometric features, which are estimated exploiting the region-based image model. Analysis of the region hierarchy provides the final caption text objects. The final step of consistency analysis for output is performed by a binarization algorithm that robustly estimates the thresholds on the caption text area of support.


In this paper, we revisit the Empirical Risk Minimization problem in the non-interactive local model of differential privacy. In the case of constant or low dimensions ($p\ll n$), we first show that if the loss function is $(\infty, T)$-smooth, we can avoid a dependence of the sample complexity, to achieve error $\alpha$, on the exponential of the dimensionality $p$ with base $1/\alpha$ ({\em i.e.,} $\alpha^{-p}$), which answers a question in \cite{smith2017interaction}. Our approach is based on polynomial approximation. Then, we propose player-efficient algorithms with $1$-bit communication complexity and $O(1)$ computation cost for each player. The error bound is asymptotically the same as the original one. With some additional assumptions, we also give an efficient algorithm for the server. In the case of high dimensions ($n\ll p$), we show that if the loss function is a convex generalized linear function, the error can be bounded by using the Gaussian width of the constrained set, instead of $p$, which improves the one in \cite{smith2017interaction}.


Context: Each year an estimated 1.4 million sports related injuries occur annually to student-athletes at the high school level. It has been over 20 years since a systematic investigation into the presence of athletic trainers to treat these injuries in the state of Michigan has been conducted. Within the past 5 years in Michigan, licensure as well as several laws and regulations have been enacted for athletic trainers. Purpose: To investigate the prevalence of athletic trainers in secondary schools in Michigan. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Questionnaires were given to all 400 athletic directors in attendance of the Michigan Interscholastic Athletic Administrators Association (MIAAA) state conference. Participants: Seventy-eight athletic directors from Michigan high schools. Instrument: A seven item questionnaire was developed and pilot tested. Prevalence of athletic training services, the extent of coverage, the funding source of the athletic training services provided, and general characteristics of the school (size and setting type) were all assessed. Main Outcome measures: Descriptive statistics such as frequencies and medians were used along with Kendall's tau for test of association for nonparametric data. Results: Seventy-seven percent of those sampled indicated some form of athletic training services, and services tended to be more extensive at larger schools. Additionally, most (63%) of the athletic training services were funded from contracts with sports medicine clinics/hospitals. Coverage was mainly for practice and events (75%) with these services ranging from 26-40 hours per week at 42% of the schools in the sample. Conclusions: There has been a dramatic increase in the frequency of athletic training services in the high school setting in the state, but the level of coverage may not be adequate for all student-athletes.


Thin films of Al and Mn doped ZnO (Zn0.97Mn0.02Al0.01O) were made using Pulsed Laser Deposition technique (PLD) on Si substrates maintained at a constant temperature of 400°C, under varying pressures of oxygen (O2) and at a fixed pressure of 400 μbar nitrogen (N2) atmospheres. X-ray diffraction (XRD) patterns of the deposited films indicated that they are predominantly oriented in the [002] direction. Magnetisation measurements as a function of field on these samples showed that the magnetic moment is sensitive to the O2 pressure and the film deposited at 400 μbar of O2 pressure shows significantly increased magnetic moment (4.44 μB/Mn) compared to other films. Depositing the film in N2 atmosphere or changing the O2 pressure to higher or lower values affected the magnetisation adversely. Magnetisation measurement, as a function of temperature, done on 400 μbar O2 deposited film further confirmed its room temperature ferromagnetic behaviour (RTF).


We investigate the effect of individual banks affected by the recent financial crisis of 2008/2009 on the innovation activities of their business customers. Firms associated with a bank that relies strongly on the interbank market are more likely to be exposed to a credit supply shock during the financial crisis and therefore face external financing constraints. Exploiting both the extensive and the intensive margin, our difference‐in‐differences results imply that those firms which have a business relation to a bank with higher interbank market reliance reduce their innovation activities during the financial crisis to a higher degree than other firms. Tests for additional expenditures reveal that marketing expenditures show a lower or even no sensitivity to bank financing during the financial crisis.


Taste preferences of mature male and female rats for caloric and noncaloric sweet solutions have been found to differ. Although females do not drink more water than males, they consume significantly greater quantities of a slightly sweet 3 percent glucose and a very sweet 0.25 percent saccharin solution. When given a choice, males switch their initial preference for a saccharin solution to a preference for a glucose solution after several days, while females maintain a preference for the saccharin solution. Females also prefer significantly higher concentrations of saccharin than males do.


Berry colour and size are important factors determining Flame Seedless quality. Supplementary to standard cultivation, foliar application of potassium (K) and seaweed or soil application of vegetable extracts affect grape quality. The purpose of this trial was to determine if combined product application (CPA) of K, seaweed and leonardite (organic material of vegetable origin) can improve Flame Seedless grape colour, berry size and composition. This study was conducted on Flame Seedless in the Berg River Valley in two seasons. In 2011/2012, leonardite was applied through fertigation six, four and three weeks before harvest, while K and seaweed were applied as foliar sprays four and three weeks before harvest. In 2012/2013, all products were applied eight and six weeks before harvest. Treatments included (1) control (ethephon/ ethephon and abscisic acid – ABA); (2) CPA with ethephon/ethephon and ABA (CPA-plus); and (3) CPA without ethephon/ethephon and ABA (CPA-minus). All vines received standard gibberellic acid treatments. Berry quality was determined. In 2011/2012, CPA-minus reduced anthocyanin concentration significantly compared to the control. CPA-plus increased berry diameter significantly compared to the control on the first harvest date in 2012/2013. Compared to the control, CPA-plus significantly increased total soluble solids (TSS) on all harvest dates in 2011/2012, and on the first harvest date of 2012/2013. Compared to the control, CPA-plus did not improve colour, but it retarded total titratable acidity breakdown in both seasons. Ethephon/ethephon and ABA must be applied for acceptable colour. The consistent effect on TSS shows the ability of CPA-plus to enhance Flame Seedless ripening.


The research documented in this thesis took place against a background of concern for the wellbeing of children, the educational standards being achieved in schools and questions about the purpose of education itself, particularly within a Christian framework. The focus of the research was an ethnographic study into the factors influencing the development and nurture of children's spirituality in a Church of England Primary School where faith, belief and spirituality are explored as part of the educational experience of pupils. All schools are expected to provide opportunities for children's spiritual development according to the 1944 Education Act, which replaced the term "religion" with the term "spiritual". For Anglican Church Schools such provision is perceived to be a priority. However, because they are church schools within a state system they are subject to the differing expectations of a dual inspection system. This creates certain tensions and a degree of complexity for the schools. Beginning with a focus on the potential contribution that Philosophy for Children could make to children's spirituality, the study broadened its scope to take account of the larger questions and concerns (outlined above) which were impacting on the potential for schools to offer opportunities for spiritual development to children during their primary school experience. The case study is analysed using Bernstein's pedagogic theories and models to elucidate the "double tension" which exists for Anglican Church Schools as they seek to achieve high academic standards and provide opportunities to explore spirituality both of which are central to the mission of church schools. This tension was evidenced in the leadership style, language and pedagogy operating within the case study school. The study concludes that recognising this tension seems to be a prerequisite for supporting church schools as they seek to fulfil their mission within the current educational climate.


Embedding complex objects as vectors in low dimensional spaces is a longstanding problem in machine learning. We propose in this work an extension of that approach, which consists in embedding objects as elliptical probability distributions, namely distributions whose densities have elliptical level sets. We endow these measures with the 2-Wasserstein metric, with two important benefits: (i) For such measures, the squared 2-Wasserstein metric has a closed form, equal to a weighted sum of the squared Euclidean distance between means and the squared Bures metric between covariance matrices. The latter is a Riemannian metric between positive semi-definite matrices, which turns out to be Euclidean on a suitable factor representation of such matrices, which is valid on the entire geodesic between these matrices. (ii) The 2-Wasserstein distance boils down to the usual Euclidean metric when comparing Diracs, and therefore provides a natural framework to extend point embeddings. We show that for these reasons Wasserstein elliptical embeddings are more intuitive and yield tools that are better behaved numerically than the alternative choice of Gaussian embeddings with the Kullback-Leibler divergence. In particular, and unlike previous work based on the KL geometry, we learn elliptical distributions that are not necessarily diagonal. We demonstrate the advantages of elliptical embeddings by using them for visualization, to compute embeddings of words, and to reflect entailment or hypernymy.


Two well established experimental stressors, hand immersion in cold water, and mental stimulation with dichotomous listening, were applied to 37 normal subjects after the ingestion of a standard meal. Orocaecal transit was measured by serial exhaled breath hydrogen sampling. Cold water significantly delayed transit compared with warm water control (warm water 71.8 +/- 3.6 mins v cold water 93.2 +/- 5.7 mins p less than 0.01), with significant rises in blood pressure pulse rate perceived discomfort and plasma catecholamines. In contrast mental stimulation was unaccompanied by any change in transit (control; 67.4 +/- 4.7 v test 64.3 +/- 5.3 mins p greater than 0.1) despite a significant rise in pulse rate, skin conductance and plasma catecholamines. Repeated cold water immersion studies in eight individuals produced consistent orocaecal transit and autonomic responses, whereas mental stimulation showed reduced autonomic responses on repeat testing, suggesting that tolerance to the stimulus had occurred. The results of these studies show stimulus specific gastrointestinal response patterns to autonomic stimuli, and appear to have important implications for the design of future studies of human gastrointestinal autonomic physiology and for the investigation of patients with stress related gut dysfunction.


Web algorithms like Facebook's so-called Edgerank algorithm play an increasingly important role in everyday life. The recent surge of research in such algorithms often emphasizes algorithmic orderings as powerful but opaque. In this essay, we propose an alternative reading of the Edgerank algorithm as a self-justifying ordering of the world. Drawing on the pragmatist sociology of Boltanski and Thévenot, we examine Edgerank as not just a hidden logic, but a rhetor that actively constructs a rhetorical commonplace that can be drawn upon in order to justify the evaluations produced by the algorithm. We do so by examining three specific situations where the operations of Edgerank have been critiqued and defended: First, Facebook's own response to the critique that social media produce echo chambers. Second, Facebook's presentation of the main variables in the Edgerank algorithm. Third, social media marketing blogs about how to handle the algorithm in practice. Based on these events, we construct an 'internalistic' account of the rhetoric of Edgerank, opening for an exploration of its moral grammar and the world or dwelling place it assumes and enacts. We find that the world of Edgerank is ordered according to recent engagement, which means it has affinities with what Boltanski and Chiapello have termed the connectionist world. At the same time, the world of Edgerank is marked by a tension between authenticity and automation that is a result of the algorithmic standardization of relations. In the rhetoric that comes with Edgerank, this tension is not something to be overcome, but rather a self-justifying hybrid, which points to a potential displacement of moral grammars in an age of computational valuation.


Germplasm diversity of local taro in Bangka as genetic resources for plant breeding purposes is still unknown. This research aimed to provide information on Bangka Taro's variability and relationship for plant breeding programs. This research was conducted in December 2017 until February 2018. Characterization of the germplasm was performed on qualitative and quantitative parameters. Analysis of morphological relationships used the UPGMA method. Exploration obtained 27 germplasm of Bangka local taro. The results of the morphological relationship analysis showed nine clusters at a 0.57 coefficient (57%). Cluster one consisted of Tungkuk, Sayur, Hitam/Nyatoh, Rakit Hijau, Lilin, and Cantik Manis accessions. Cluster two consisted of Rakit Hitam accession. Cluster three consisted of Ganjung, Trans 2, Sungai Tebuk and Trans 1 accessions. Cluster four consisted of Sayang Anak, Pak Ugo and Trans 3 accessions. Cluster five consisted of Angit and Kelat Mentak Kelapa accessions. Cluster six consisted of Pelawan Toboali, Wangi/Colet and Simbang accessions. Cluster seven consisted of Alar accession. Cluster eight consisted of Pelawan Rukem, Kelat Mentak Rukem, Selaseh, Pinangbo and Telok Simbang accessions.Cluster nine consisted of Butir/Pikul and Butir Mentaram accessions. Bangka local taro had wide phenotypic variability in the observed morphological characters.
Keywords: accesion, fenotipic, cluster, relationship, variability


The number of cultivars of perennial ryegrass has steadily increased since the early 1960s. Perennial ryegrass has a self-incompatible, cross-pollinated breeding system and thus, each cultivar is a heterogeneous population of individual genotypes. The ability to accurately distinguish large numbers of genetically heterogeneous populations from one another, based solely on morphological data and agronomic performance, is limited. Random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers offer a nearly unlimited supply of molecular traits on which to base distinctive characterizations of plant populations. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) provides a statistical tool which partitions molecular marker variation within and among populations and performs significance testing of differences. The objective of this research was to survey RAPD marker variation within and among populations of perennial ryegrass to characterize breeding germplasm and commercial cultivars using AMOVA. A range of genetic diversity was represented by choosing 18 grass populations that included related crosses, derived selections, and unrelated ecotypes. For each population, 10 individuals were examined for 33 RAPD markers produced with two primers. Markers present in all individuals of a particular population but not present in any other individual of another population (fixed marker difference) were not observed among the 18 grass populations, so characterizations were based on marker frequency differences among populations. RAPD markers analyzed with AMOVA closely reflected the breeding histories of the perennial ryegrass germplasm or commercial cultivars. This was particularly true for relationships structured on a population basis. Results indicated that high selection intensity substantially altered the distribution of RAPD markers between parent and progeny populations thereby obscuring measurements of genetic relatedness. Furthermore, this study observed a limited ability to separate closely related populations. Evidence for the narrow germplasm base of turfgrass cultivars was observed; although, many perennial ryegrass populations appeared to retain levels of within population variability comparable with that of land race ecotypes. The methods of analysis presented should provide a supplement to traditional morphological and agronomic data for plant variety protection and for measuring genetic diversity within breeding programs.


To find out the overlapping and correlating relationships between serum haptoglobin level, haptoglobin genotype and phenotype, blood haemoglobin level and zinc protoporphyrin (measured in washed RBCs) in association to prevalence of anaemia. It will focus on comparing all the mention components in contrast to each other. The study will also look for the frequency distribution of the major HP alleles.

 1278 participants were randomly selected. Blood samples collected by trained nurses. Data generation was done at the Medical research council (keneba field station) research site. Data Analysis was conducted at the university of Chester with the assistance of the computer department team.

 P = 0.000 indicating anaemia prevalence with HP 1 allele. P > 0.05 when ID, IDA and AI relates with HP genotype. Positive correlation between ZnPP and HP serum level, but negative between ZnPP and Hb. P = 0.000 between ZnPP and IDA. P = 0.024 between HP genotype and Hb level. P = 0.013 between HP genotype and HP serum. P = 0.100 between HP genotype and ZnPP. P = 0.000 between ZnPP and IDA. P = 0.024 between HP genotype and Hb. ZnPP shared a positive correlation with HP serum level, and a negative correlation with Hb level. The correlation significant = 0.01 level (2-tailed) P = 0.01. The correlation between HP genotype and HP serum level was significant with P = 0.013, but the correlation between HP genotype and ZnPP was not significant with P = 0.100.

 HP genotype had association with anaemia prevalence and more occurrence was observed in carriers of the type '1' allele. It had no association with ID, IDA and AI. HP genotype had association with HP serum level and Hb level but had no association with ZnPP level. ZnPP level was observed to have had association with HP serum level, Hb level and IDA; but had no association with ID and AI in the region.

 All the resources used in this study were from MRC Keneba (International Nutrition Group) which is supported by funds from the UK Medical Research Council (MRC) and the UK Department for International Development (DFID) under the MRC/DFID Concordat agreement (Hennig et al., 2015).


The purpose of this study is to determine if hospital ownership has an effect on economic factors and quality outcomes related to inpatient substance abuse treatment. The study examines these factors through analyzing the effect of ownership on length of stay and total revenue charges for inpatient substance abuse treatment provided at hospitals in Florida. Hospital inpatient data were collected from the Florida Agency for Health Care Administration. Two multiple regression models were used to compare the effect of ownership, along with other patient factors, on length of stay and total revenue charges. Overall, three key conclusions were made. First, for-profit hospitals charged substance abuse patients more for inpatient care than non-profit hospitals. Second, patients treated in for-profit general hospitals stayed fewer days and received higher charges than patients treated in non-profit general hospitals. Lastly, Medicare patients stayed more days and received higher charges than patients with other types of payers in both facilities, but this trend was stronger in for-profit hospitals. This study concludes that, while hospital ownership results in economic differences in care, the measure of quality of care is inconclusive. It is important that further information is collected to understand the difference in the quality of care provided at non-profit and for-profit hospitals. HOSPITAL OWNERSHIP AND SUBSTANCE ABUSE TREATMENT 5 The Effect of Ownership on Length of Stay and Total Charges for Hospital Inpatient Substance


American legal theorists and policy analysts are increasingly considering whether it would be appropriate to authorize private sector actors to take active measures in their own cyber self-defense, a concept known colloquially as "hack back." But none, to date, have given any consideration to how authorized American hack back might implicate international law. This short article seeks to fill that gap with some preliminary thoughts regarding the application of non-American law to American private sector hack back. The fundamental conclusions are two-fold: 1) To the extent any customary international law exists at all it is likely to discourage private sector self-help outside the framework of state-sponsored action; and 2) Almost certainly, hack back by an American private sector actor will violate the domestic law of the country where a non-US computer or server is located. In light of these twin conclusions, American companies considering offensive cyber operations would do well to proceed with caution.


Glucosinolates are sulphur-containing secondary metabolites found largely in Brassicaceae family. Glucosinolates undergo hydrolysis readily upon cell rupture, such as cutting and cooking, by the naturally-occurring enzyme myrosinase to formmainly isothiocyanates and/or simple nitriles. Isothiocyanates are known to possess anticarcinogenic properties while nitriles are largely inactive. Benzyl , a hydrolysis product of benzyl glucosinolate, is one of the most potent anticancer agents for breast, lung liver and colon cancers. However, formation of benzyl isothiocyanate is depending upon reaction conditions where benzyl nitrile is formed at the expense of benzyl isothiocyanate. Thus, the potential health benefits of benzyl isothiocyanate may be surpassed by the ineffective benzyl nitrile. In this study, the factors influencing the formation of benzyl isothiocyanate were investigated to understand further the benzyl glucosinolate hydrolysis pathway. Based on the sole presence of benzyl isothicyanate/nitrile, the results show that its precursor, benzyl glucosinolate, is the major (if not sole) glucosinolate in papaya. The concentration of benzyl isothiocyanate was found greater in leaf with 52.2 mg/kg (dry weight), followed by 18.0 mg/kg in unripe fruit and 3.6 mg/kg in flower. The highest amount of benzyl isothiocyanate produced was observed at room temperature (25°C) where it decreases gradually as the temperature increases up to 80°C. Comparing three common domestic methods of cooking vegetable i.e. blanching, boiling and slow heating, the results show that the high temperature treatment produced mainly benzyl nitrile; while slow heating up to 40°C produced more benzyl isothiocyanate. In these cooking experiments, both hydrolysis products were found largely leached into the cooking liquid (soup}. As for the effects of pH, production of benzyl isothiocyanate was optimum at pH 6-7. The addition of both ferrous and ferric ions (0 -10 mM) favours the formation of benzyl nitrile. Conveniently, adding an iron-chelating agent, EDTA, has shown an increasing trend in the formation of benzyl isothiocyanate. Small amount of ascorbic acid enhanced the formation of benzyl isothiocyanate, however, higher concentration inhibits the benzyl isothiocyanate production. Overall, this work has shown that to ensure an optimum uptake of this beneficial compound from papaya consumption, food preparation practices have to be favouring the formation of benzyl isothiocyanate. Beside, the presence of reductant agents such as iron and ascorbic acid has to be at low concentration.


Concrete is a widely used construction material around the world, and its properties have been undergoing changes through technological advancement. Numerous types of concrete have been developed to enhance the different properties of concrete. So far, this development can be divided into four stages. The earliest is the traditional normal strength concrete which is composed of only four constituent materials, which are cement, water, fine and coarse aggregates. With a fast population growth and a higher demand for housing and infrastructure, accompanied by recent developments in civil engineering, such as high-rise buildings and long-span bridges, higher compressive strength concrete was needed. At the beginning, reducing the water-cement ratio was the easiest way to achieve the high compressive strength. Thereafter, the fifth ingredient, a water reducing agent or super plasticizer, was indispensable. However, sometimes the compressive strength was not as important as some other properties, such as low permeability, durability and workability. Thus, high performance concrete was proposed and widely studied at the end of the last century. Currently, high-performance concrete is used in massive volumes due to its technical and economic advantages. Such materials are characterized by improved mechanical and durability properties resulting from the use of chemical and mineral admixtures as well as specialized production processes. This paper reviews the incorporation of mineral admixtures in binary, ternary and quaternary blended mortars in concrete.


The article presents a synthetic analysis of the crude oil market in Poland. As of today, this safety is provided mainly on the basis of native lignite and hard coal resources. However, the analysis of the hard coal market conducted by the authors indicates that the carried out mining restructuring (among others) led to an excessive reduction of mining volume and employment level in the hard coal mining sector. This led to a precedent situation when Poland became an importer of this energy carrier. In addition, the European Union's requirements for greenhouse gas emissions must be taken into account. In connection with the above, it is necessary to search for new energy sources or technologies that enable hard coal to meet the requirements. It is possible to apply the so-called clean coal technologies that allow the greenhouse gas emissions generated during coal combustion to be reduced. As of today, they are not used on a mass scale, because the use of this type of technology involves additional financial expenses. However, taking into account that technologies have been growing faster and faster, are modernized in a shorter time, making a breakthrough discovery took hundreds of years, now it is often a few months, clean coal technologies can become the optimal solution in the near future. It is also necessary to diversify the sources of obtaining imported energy carriers. The article describes coal and crude oil in terms of their mutual substitution. The article is a continuation of research conducted by the authors. Previous publications presented considerations on analogous topics related to natural gas and renewable energy sources. The crude oil market in Poland was analyzed and forecasts for oil extraction and the demand in the world and Poland by 2023 were presented. The SARIMA model was also created. The model made it possible to obtain oil an prices forecast. keywoRds: crude oil market, energy resources, ARIMA model


After Lithuania joined the European Union and took over the criminology theories of Western authors, the works of Russian authors have rested forgotten. We know that Russian authors in the fifties and sixties of the previous century had a very big interest in the personality of a criminal. The interest was one-sided, emphasizing the negative single-mindedness of the personality of a criminal and analysing all features of a criminal personality. It is interesting to find out whether the conception of a criminal personality has changed or is in the process of changing in the criminology concepts of Russian criminologists, and what the differences are compared to Western criminology theories. The aim of the investigation is to discover the concept of a criminal personality in the context of the criminology concepts of Russian criminology authors. The Russian criminologists who investigate the personality of a criminal traditionally investigate the criminal personality as a whole, looking at all features typical of it – starting with the attributes of social status (age, sex, family status, education, social group, and social and daily activity) and finishing with moral and psychological characteristics (attitude towards family, work, laws, and cultural values, personal needs, motivation, and state of mind). The key characteristic of the criminal personality is identified as antisocial singlemindedness. The aforementioned features have not been seen as natural all the time. Even in Soviet times, there were daring scientists (J. Bluvshtein, A. M. Jakovlev, I. I. Karpec, G. M. Reznik), who did not follow the ideology of criminology and rejected the concept of a criminal personality. The crime subject concept was fully sufficient for them. A new generation of criminologists, who do not recognize the concept of the criminal personality and investigate the criminal from a narrow point of view, is currently emerging. J. I. Gilinskij investigates the criminal and the crime from the angle of social construct, paying great attention to socioeconomic circumstances and their impact on criminality. D. A. Shestakov investigates the criminal and criminality via individual institutes of socialisation and functional systems. V. V. Guldan investigates the criminal and criminality via the angle of social expanse and addictive behaviour. These authors recognize Western theories of criminology and reject the concept of criminal personality. A human being is a biological, psychological, social being. The use by Russian criminologists of an integrated method in the investigation of the personality of a criminal is therefore useful and leads to very explicit knowledge in the field of the personality of a criminal, and such knowledge might be useful in the development of preventive measures. Therefore Lithuania and the new generation of Russian criminology representatives should not completely reject the integrated attitude towards the personality of a criminal, but make use of it when developing crime prevention programs.


My purpose is to sketch briefly the diplomatic background of the existing relations between France and Germany from 1871 to 1939. I have told the story chronologically, because I believe that we must follow events as they unfold themselves if we are to understand why statesmen made their decisions. I have attempted to mass all the important facts that I could find on Franco-German Diplomatic Relations from 1871 to 1939 without self-interests or prejudices to either of the two nations. My intentions were to seek a general knowledge of the drift of Franco-German Diplomatic affairs during this period of seventy years.