ABSTRACT

In this thesis, the researcher investigates the implicit and other motivations for Saudi outbound tourism. The Saudi Arabian outbound tourism market is recognised as one of the biggest tourism expenditure. Despite this, research relating to the motivations for Saudi outbound tourism, especially the implicit motives is sparse. It is in response to this that the researcher carried out this study and additionally, examined the influence of Saudi culture, demographic variables and tourists motivations on destination selection.

This study employs a model entitled "Integration Model of Explicit and Implicit Motives" of Push and Pull Factors developed by the researcher to examine the explicit and implicit motives of Saudi outbound tourism. Data was collected from 486 Saudi outbound tourists (81% of the total sample) who travelled to three destinations (Bahrain, Egypt and France). Factor analyses were conducted to identify tourism motivation and cultural factors of Saudi society. Pearson correlation was used to find the relationship between push and pull factors of tourism motivation (explicit and implicit) and the relationship between Saudi culture and push and pull factors of tourism motivation (explicit and implicit).

A series of ANOVA and T-tests were employed to examine the influence of demographic variables on tourism motivations. Logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression were used to find out the influence of tourism motivations, cultural factors and demographic variables on destination selection.

The results of the factor analyses of explicit motives in this study identified seven push factors and four pull factors. The six push factors (intrinsic desire) extracted were: 'escape', 'prestige', 'social and sport', 'experience and excitement', 'enjoying natural resources', 'knowledge' and 'relaxation'. The four pull factors (attributes of destination) identified as underlying dimensions were 'expenditure', 'outdoor activities', 'natural and historical' and 'weather and environment'. In relation to the implicit motives, the factor analysis identified two push factors and three pull factors. The push factors were 'alcohol and sex desires' and 'fun and freedom desires'. On the other hand, the pull factors were 'alcohol and sex attractions', 'drugs attraction' and 'fun and freedom attractions'.

The factor analysis of cultural items resulted in seven underlying domains, that include 'uncertainty avoidance', 'individualism', 'differences of groups in society (power distance)', 'social interdependence (collectivism)', 'helping others (collectivism)', 'inequalities and hierarchy (power distance)' and 'family relationship (collectivism)'. The Pearson's correlation analyses found significant correlations between the majority of push and pull dimensions in both explicit and implicit motives in all destinations. Moreover, the Pearson's correlation revealed a significant correlation between tourism motivations (push and pull factors), in both explicit and implicit motives, with cultural factors in all destinations under study (Bahrain, Egypt and France).

The results of ANOVA and T-tests indicate significant differences in tourist's motivations according to the differences in demographic variables of tourists (age, income education, gender and martial statues). In other words, the demographic variables have an influence on tourism motivations. The findings of logistic regression and multinomial logistic regression indicate that the tourism motivations, cultural factors and demographic variables have an influence on destination selection.

Moreover, the researcher carried out 25 interviewees This was in order to validate the results that were obtained from the quantitative approach regarding to tourism motivation of Saudi outbound tourists (explicit and implicit), cultural factors that describe the Saudi society, and to confirm the usefulness of using the third person technique to investigate sensitive issues. The results obtained from the interviews are similar to the results obtained from the questionnaires (quantitative approach). In relation to the usefulness of using the third person technique in investigating sensitive issues, the result of the interviews revealed that the third person technique has proved as one of the acceptable technique to get information about sensitive issues especially with countries that have values grounded on their religious heritage.


Introduction: Paraneoplastic Encephalitis (PNE) is the neuropathological disorder of central nervous system, associated with a remote tumor, which presents with diverse of neuropsychological symptoms. There is still a deficiency of an aptly formulated management protocol.
Case report: We report the first case of anti- NMDA-R PNE secondary to ovarian teratoma from Pakistan, in a 17 year old girl that presented with acute psychosis. She underwent immediate tumor excision with plasmapheresis followed by a combination of corticosteroids and IV immunoglobulin therapy. The patient relapsed after a month despite the treatment presenting with mild psychosis, memory loss and cognitive impairment. Provided along with the case report is an extensive literature review (2010-2017) on previously reported cases of PNE with ovarian teratoma to improve understanding of current management of this form of encephalitis.
Conclusion: Paraneoplastic encephalitis is a critical yet reversible illness. Our comprehensive review and experience can be summarized in the following guidelines signifying the current clinical practices regarding PNE with ovarian teratoma. (I) PNE should be suspected in female patients presenting with an acute history of neuropsychiatric symptoms. (II) Tumor resection should be performed earliest to improve patient outcomes.(III) Administration of plasma exchange therapy in immediate postoperative period is recommended. (IV) Pulse therapy preceding intravenous immunoglobin therapy improves patient prognosis. (V) Patients should be discharged on maintenance dose of corticosteroids. (VI) Long term follow up is recommended to monitor for relapses.


Background Intimate partner violence (IPV) against women is a major global health issue, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), that is associated with poor physical and mental health, but its association with breastfeeding practices is understudied. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) recommend that children initiate breastfeeding within the first hour of birth and be exclusively breastfed for the first 6 months of life. Breastfeeding within the first hour of birth is critical to newborn survival, and exclusive breastfeeding for 6 months is recognised to offer significant health benefits to mothers and their infants. We examined the association of maternal exposure to IPV with early initiation of breastfeeding (within 1 hour of birth) and exclusive breastfeeding in the first 6 months. Methods and findings We assessed population-based cross-sectional Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) from 51 LMICs. Data from the most recent DHS in each country (conducted between January 2000 and January 2019) with data available on IPV and breastfeeding practices were used. By WHO region, 52.9% (27/51) were from Africa, 11.8% (6/51) from the Americas, 7.8% (4/51) from the Eastern Mediterranean, 11.8% (6/51) from Europe, 11.8% (6/51) from South-East Asia, and 3.9% (2/51) from the Western Pacific. We estimated multilevel logistic regression models for any IPV and each type of IPV separately (physical violence, sexual violence, and emotional violence), accounting for demographic and socioeconomic factors. Depending on specification, the sample size varied between 95,320 and 102,318 mother–infant dyads. The mean age of mothers was 27.5 years, and the prevalence of any lifetime exposure to IPV among mothers was 33.3% (27.6% for physical violence, 8.4% for sexual violence, and 16.4% for emotional violence). Mothers exposed to any IPV were less likely to initiate breastfeeding early (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 0.88 [95% CI 0.85–0.97], p < 0.001) and breastfeed exclusively in the first 6 months (AOR: 0.87 [95% CI 0.82–0.92], p < 0.001). The associations were similar for each type of IPV and were overall consistent across infant's sex and WHO regions. After simultaneously adjusting for all 3 types of IPV, all 3 types of IPV were independently associated with decreased likelihood of early breastfeeding initiation, but only exposure to physical violence was independently associated with a decreased likelihood of exclusively breastfeeding in the first 6 months. The main limitations of this study included the use of cross-sectional datasets, the possibility of residual confounding of the observed associations by household wealth, and the possibility of underreporting of IPV experiences attenuating the magnitude of observed associations. Conclusions Our study indicates that mothers exposed to any form of IPV (physical, sexual, or emotional violence) were less likely to initiate breastfeeding early and breastfeed exclusively in the first 6 months. These findings may inform the argument for antenatal screening for IPV in LMICs and the provision of services to not only improve mothers' safety and well-being, but also support them in adopting recommended breastfeeding practices.


The US Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues is recommending increased protection for people taking part in research studies after its investigation into experiments conducted during the 1940s in which the US Public Health Service infected people in Guatemala with sexually transmitted infections without their knowledge or consent.

During its investigation, the commission learned there is currently no single database of people involved in federally funded research that is conducted around the world,

President Barack Obama apologised to the Guatemalan government last October, and directed the commission to investigate the experiment, make a report, and recommend protections for human subjects. The Guatemalan authorities are also conducting their own investigation. The commission will submit its report to the president this month and make recommendations on increased protection for people in research studies by December.

The Guatemala study was discovered by a Wellesley College historian, Susan Reverby, who was conducting research on the Tuskegee experiment in Alabama. In the Tuskegee study, poor black men who had syphilis were followed but not treated …


This book challenges existing theories of welfare state change by analyzing pension reforms in France, Germany, and Switzerland between 1970 and 2004. It explains why all three countries were able to adopt far-reaching reforms, adapting their pension regimes to both financial austerity and new social risks. In a radical departure from the neo-institutionalist emphasis on policy stability, the book argues that socio-structural change has led to a multidimensional pension reform agenda. A variety of cross-cutting lines of political conflict, emerging from the transition to a post-industrial economy, allowed governments to engage in strategies of political exchange and coalition-building, fostering broad cross-class coalitions in support of major reform packages. Methodologically, the book proposes a novel strategy to analyze lines of conflict, configurations of political actors, and coalitional dynamics over time. This strategy combines quantitative analyses of actor configurations based on coded policy positions with in-depth case studies.


What role can marae communities play in a post-COVID-19 lockdown "reset"? This situation report looks at the opportunity of unlocking innovation within marae kin communities through developing food system enterprises It considers the idea of regenerating gardens and associated initiatives It argues that gardens that once fed local kin communities may not only provide kai for locally resident members but also be developed at new scales and so provide for kin members wherever they live There is also the opportunity to re-engage with, and harness, community knowledge of growing, of gardens, of ancestral landscapes and related matauranga, and to share all this with multi-located marae community members who have been disconnected from these foundational layers of community korero for one or more generations Resetting the economic and cultural agenda from a marae community perspective is important now more than ever given the uncertainties that have emerged since the COVID-19 pandemic © 2020, Nga Pae o te Maramatanga All rights reserved


Particle accelerators today have numerous magnets that require controlling. These include magnets for analysing, beam-path selection, focusing, etc. Also, design specifications are becoming tighter. A typical modern magnet power supply is expected to have a resolution of 16-bit and a stability of 10 ppm. This thesis addresses two research areas. First, various aspects of high-performance accelerator magnet power supplies are investigated. An isolated dual-stage 3.5 kW converter is designed. The concept is verified through practical measurements. The control system and high-resolution pulse-width modulation are implemented within a field-programmable gate array. Second, a nuclear-magnetic resonance probe is designed and simulated. It is intended to provide a measurement of field-strength for feed-back purposes. Some adjustments are made with existing technology in order to decrease the time between successive measurements to the order of 10 μs. Also, the support systems (central processing unit, hardware drivers, etc.) are designed, implemented in the field-programmable gate array and tested successfully.


BACKGROUND: Treatment of vitiligo is aimed at repigmentation and often consists of multiple modalities, none of which are universally or rapidly successful. Extensive cases are most often treated with ultraviolet light therapy, which can be both costly and time-consuming. Though vitiligo is an autoimmune disease, there is no current data to support systemic immunosuppressive monotherapy. CASE SUMMARY: Here we present a case series of 3 patients with vitiligo treated for 11-16 months with low-dose methotrexate (12.5-25 mg per week) with folic acid supplementation with clinically significant skin repigmentation, with response within 6 months in one case. There were no severe adverse effects reported. CONCLUSION: These cases demonstrate an unexplored effective and steroid-sparing therapeutic alternative in patients with vitiligo for whom topical therapy has failed and phototherapy is cost-prohibitive or ineffective. J Drugs Dermatol. 2017;16(7):705-706..


The Oxford English Dictionary defines provenance as (i) the fact of coming from some particular source or quarter; origin, derivation. (ii) the history or pedigree of a work of art, manuscript, rare book, etc.; concr., a record of the ultimate derivation and passage of an item through its various owners. In art, knowing the provenance of an artwork lends weight and authority to it while providing a context for curators and the public to understand and appreciate the work's value. Without such a documented history, the work may be misunderstood, unappreciated, or undervalued. In computer systems, knowing the provenance of digital objects would provide them with greater weight, authority, and context just as it does for works of art. Specifically, if the provenance of digital objects could be determined, then users could understand how documents were produced, how simulation results were generated, and why decisions were made. Provenance is of particular importance in science, where experimental results are reused, reproduced, and verified. However, science is increasingly being done through large-scale collaborations that span multiple institutions, which makes the problem of determining the provenance of scientific results significantly harder. Current approaches to this problem are not designed specifically for multi-institutional scientific systems and their evolution towards greater dynamic and peer-to-peer topologies. Therefore, this thesis advocates a new approach, namely, that through the autonomous creation, scalable recording, and principled organisation of documentation of systems' processes, the determination of the provenance of results produced by complex multi-institutional scientific systems is enabled. The dissertation makes four contributions to the state of the art. First is the idea that provenance is a query performed over documentation of a system's past process. Thus, the problem is one of how to collect and collate documentation from multiple distributed sources and organise it in a manner that enables the provenance of a digital object to be determined. Second is an open, generic, shared, principled data model for documentation of processes, which enables its collation so that it provides high-quality evidence that a system's processes occurred. Once documentation has been created, it is recorded into specialised repositories called provenance stores using a formally specified protocol, which ensures documentation has high-quality characteristics. Furthermore, patterns and techniques are given to permit the distributed deployment of provenance stores. The protocol and patterns are the third contribution. The fourth contribution is a characterisation of the use of documentation of process to answer questions related to the provenance of digital objects and the impact recording has on application performance. Specifically, in the context of a bioinformatics case study, it is shown that six different provenance use cases are answered given an overhead of 13% on experiment run-time. Beyond the case study, the solution has been applied to other applications including fault tolerance in service-oriented systems, aerospace engineering, and organ transplant management.


The increasing heterogeneity of populations affects cooperation in common-pool resources in a time where the depletion of natural resources is a growing problem. This study investigates the effects of economic and sociocultural heterogeneity on trust and cooperation in common-pool resources using a laboratory experiment. The experiment comprises two Investment Games and a Common-Pool Resource Game, with a sample of 344 subjects from the United Kingdom and the Netherlands. By measuring the effects of economic and sociocultural heterogeneity separately as well as combined, this study disentangles the effects of specific heterogeneity types on cooperation in common-pool resources; something that has not been done before. Higher levels of trusting behaviour are found to have a positive effect on cooperation on the micro- and macro-level over time. While theory suggests negative effects of both forms of heterogeneity on cooperation through decreased levels of trust, the results show a surprising positive effect of economic heterogeneity on cooperation, but a negative effect if economic and sociocultural heterogeneity are combined. This study concludes that economic inequality can promote cooperation in CPRs, unless this inequality is lined up with sociocultural differences.


Abstract This study reviews the use of remotely triggered still cameras, known as camera traps, in bird research and suggests new methods useful for analyzing camera trap data. Camera trapping may be most appropriate for large, ground-dwelling birds, such as cracids and pheasants. Recent applications include documentation of occurrence of rare species and new species records, nest predation studies and behavioural studies including nest defence, frugivory, seed dispersal, and activity budgets. If bird postures are analyzed, it may be possible to develop behavioural time budgets. If birds are marked or individually identifiable, abundance may be estimated through capture-recapture methods typically used for mammals. We discourage use of relative abundance indices based on trapping effort because of the difficulty of standardizing surveys over time and space. Using the Great Argus Pheasant Argus argusianus, a cryptic, terrestrial, forest bird as an example, we illustrate applications of occupancy analysis to estimate proportion of occupied habitat and finite mixture models to estimate abundance when individual identification is not possible. These analyses are useful because they incorporate detection probabilities < 1 and covariates that affect the sample site or the observation process. Results are from camera trap surveys in the 3,568 km2 Bukit Barisan Selatan National Park, Indonesia. We confirmed that Great Argus Pheasants prefer primary forest below 500 m. We also find a decline in occupancy (6–8% yr−1). Point estimates of abundance peak in 2000, followed by a sharp decline. We discuss the effects of rarity, detection probability and sampling effort on accuracy and precision of estimates.


For human needs and the balance of aquatic ecosystems, the quality of the water must be good. Man, through his activities, contributes to the degradation of water, and this disturbs human activities, the balance between the natural environment and the animal and plant species that live in this environment. Apart from its geographical situation, Chad enjoys a relative abundance of rivers and watercourses, which provide many advantages. These rivers and streams, which supply water to agricultural, industrial and commercial farms, also ensure the maintenance of the water table and the perenniality of heterogeneous wildlife environments. Despite the fact that these rivers and streams are subject to climatic hazards, Chad remains among the countries in the world where rivers and streams are very fishy but it appears that the results obtained in the state of physicochemical quality of the Chari waters highlight the impact of pollution generated by discharges from domestic, agricultural and industrial waters.


Black Country Stories questions traditional perceptions of beauty by presenting a photographic investigation of the effect the economic downturn has had on an area of the West Midlands. Complicating traditional perception of austerity and recession, Black Country Stories juxtaposes the beautiful with the ugly and contrasts derelict shopping arcades with the thriving beauty and sex industries, situating the areas of West Bromwich, Dudley, and Wolverhampton in a discourse about austerity, identity, and the landscape of post-industrial towns in the UK.

Power's work is underpinned by an examination of photographs documenting the history and architecture of the area; a sustained anthropological investigation of the Black Country that involved site visits, photographic record, and discussions with local residents and businessmen and women; as well as a more theoretical and critical investigation into the so-called 'lipstick' effect, a term that describes the increase in sales of lipstick at times of austerity.

Using large-format photography in conjunction with sound and short films, Black Country Stories captures the complex dichotomy between urban downturn and individual appearance and satisfaction that is evident in the local area. The sound installation develops Power's previous narrative exploration of image and sound in The Shipping Forecast [RAE1996] and is combined with the use of arresting and unusual images and austere landscapes that Power developed while in Poland working on Sound of Two Songs [REF2014] to create an historical record of the Black Country that is both evocative and poetic.

This output provides a response to a commission by Arts organisation Multistory and was exhibited at The New Art Gallery Walsall in 2012. Reviewed in both the local and national press, Power's work was also featured in the journal for The Royal Photographic Society and the British Journal of Photography.


In a randomized trial that collects text as an outcome, traditional approaches for assessing treatment impact require that each document first be manually coded for constructs of interest by human raters. An impact analysis can then be conducted to compare treatment and control groups, using the hand-coded scores as a measured outcome. This process is both time and labor-intensive, which creates a persistent barrier for large-scale assessments of text. Furthermore, enriching ones understanding of a found impact on text outcomes via secondary analyses can be difficult without additional scoring efforts. Machine-based text analytic and data mining tools offer one potential avenue to help facilitate research in this domain. For instance, we could augment a traditional impact analysis that examines a single human-coded outcome with a suite of automatically generated secondary outcomes. By analyzing impacts across a wide array of text-based features, we can then explore what an overall change signifies, in terms of how the text has evolved due to treatment. In this paper, we propose several different methods for supplementary analysis in this spirit. We then present a case study of using these methods to enrich an evaluation of a classroom intervention on young children's writing. We argue that our rich array of findings move us from "it worked" to "it worked because" by revealing how observed improvements in writing were likely due, in part, to the students having learned to marshal evidence and speak with more authority. Relying exclusively on human scoring, by contrast, is a lost opportunity. Abstract In a randomized trial that collects text as an outcome, traditional approaches for assessing treatment impact require that each document first be manually coded for constructs of interest by human raters. An impact analysis can then be conducted to compare treatment and control groups, using the hand-coded scores as a measured outcome. This process is both time and labor-intensive, which creates a persistent barrier for large-scale assessments of text. Furthermore, enriching ones understanding of a found impact on text outcomes via secondary analyses can be difficult without additional scoring efforts. Machine-based text analytic and data mining tools offer one potential avenue to help facilitate research in this domain. For instance, we could augment a traditional impact analysis that examines a single human-coded outcome with a suite of automatically generated secondary outcomes. By analyzing impacts across a wide array of text-based features, we can then explore what an overall change signifies, in terms of how the text has evolved due to treatment. In this paper, we propose several different methods for supplementary analysis in this spirit. We then present a case study of using these methods to enrich an evaluation of a classroom intervention on young children's writing. We argue that our rich array of findings move us from "it worked" to "it worked because" by revealing how observed improvements in writing were likely due, in part, to the students having learned to marshal evidence and speak with more authority. Relying exclusively on human scoring, by contrast, is a lost opportunity.


The successful rehabilitation of a patient following a CVA is largely dependent on the effective relearning of previous motor skills or the learning of new skills. An understanding of the components of motor function and control and the principles of the learning process is therefore essential. Functional activities may be used as an optimal means of combining these principles so as to improve the efficacy of physiotherapy treatment. Two case studies are used to illustrate this approach.


[1] The University of Wisconsin Nonhydrostatic Modeling System (UWNMS) is combined with an aqueous sulfur chemistry module to simulate the sulfate transport in east Asia during the Transport and Chemical Evolution Over the Pacific (TRACE-P) period. The simulated results are compared with in situ and satellite measurements collected during the TRACE-P period. The comparisons showed overestimates of sulfate mixing ratios by 20% between 1 and 6 km and underestimates by 30% near the surface and by 50% above 6 km. The comparisons of the sulfate mixing ratios between the simulation and the measurements for a case study of a convective system showed an excellent agreement in the background sulfate mixing ratios. The simulated sulfate mixing ratios in cloudy regions, however, were underestimated by a factor of 2. Volume-integrated sulfate mass in the model domain is calculated. Significant amounts of sulfate (volume-integrated mass 1.5 × 106 to 7.5 × 106 kg) are released into air after being produced in clouds through the oxidation of sulfur dioxide by hydrogen peroxide. Instantaneous sulfate mass within clouds varies from 0.2 × 106 to 3.5 × 106 kg. Sulfate mass removed through precipitation is in the ranges between 0.01 × 106 and 1.8 × 106 kg. Sulfate mass in ice clouds was 2 orders of magnitude smaller than that in liquid clouds. This study shows that the sulfate input to the atmosphere exceeds the sulfate removed from the atmosphere through precipitation in the east Asian region during the TRACE-P. Consequently, east Asia in spring can be an important source region of sulfate and thus can offset the sulfate loss through precipitation scavenging in other regions of the globe.


Objectives Exposure to trichloramine (NCl3) in indoor swimming-pool environments is known to cause mucous membrane irritation, but if it gives rise to changes in lung function or asthma in adults is not known. (1) We determined lung function in volunteers before and after exposure to indoor pool environments. (2) We studied the occurrence of respiratory symptoms and asthma in a cohort of pool workers. Design/methods/participants (1) We studied two groups of volunteers, 37 previously non-exposed healthy persons and 14 pool workers, who performed exercise for 2 h in an indoor pool environment. NCl3 in air was measured during pool exposures and in 10 other pool environments. Filtered air exposures were used as controls. Lung function and biomarkers of pulmonary epithelial integrity were measured before and after exposure. (2) We mailed a questionnaire to 1741 persons who indicated in the Swedish census 1990 that they worked at indoor swimming-pools. Results (1) In previously non-exposed volunteers, statistically significant decreases in FEV1 (forced expiratory volume) and FEV% (p=0.01 and 0.05, respectively) were found after exposure to pool air (0.23 mg/m3 of NCl3). In pool workers, a statistically significant decrease in FEV% (p=0.003) was seen (but no significant change of FEV1). In the 10 other pool environments the median NCl3 concentration was 0.18 mg/m3. (2) Our nested case/control study in pool workers found an OR for asthma of 2.31 (95% CI 0.79 to 6.74) among those with the highest exposure. Exposure-related acute mucous membrane and respiratory symptoms were also found. Conclusions This is the first study in adults showing statistically significant decreases in lung function after exposure to NCl3. An increased OR for asthma among highly exposed pool workers did not reach statistical significance, but the combined evidence supports the notion that current workroom exposures may contribute to asthma development. Further research on sensitive groups is warranted.


This paper presents one of the first formal dynamic models of job search by older individuals. It also presents an empirical analysis of job search behavior among this population using the Health and Retirement Study. Several factors currently compound to make the topic of this research an important one in the agenda of the Economics of Aging: ongoing demographic, epidemiological, socio-economic, technological, and labor market trends indicate that older Americans are more likely to be labor force participants beyond traditional retirement ages. Increasing longevity, improving health, strong labor market conditions, increasing labor supply flexibility stemming from an increase in part-time work and self-employment and the use of technological advances to promote second careers, and increasing labor force participation, make the study of search behavior at the end of the life cycle, in a formal theoretical and empirical model, an important contribution. Our findings show that older Americans actively search for new jobs, both on the job and when out of work, and that previous work attachment and health limitations are key to understanding the different job search behavior of employed and non-employed individuals, as well as males and females.


The visual fidelity of realistic renderings in Computer Graphics depends fundamentally upon how we model the appearance of objects resulting from the interaction between light and matter reaching the eye. In this paper, we survey the research addressing appearance modeling of living human tissue. Among the many classes of natural materials already researched in Computer Graphics, living human tissues such as blood and skin have recently seen an increase in attention from graphics research. There is already an incipient but substantial body of literature on this topic, but we also lack a structured review as presented here. We introduce a classification for the approaches using the four types of human tissues as classifiers. We show a growing trend of solutions that use first principles from Physics and Biology as fundamental knowledge upon which the models are built. The organic quality of visual results provided by these Biophysical approaches is mainly determined by the optical properties of biophysical components interacting with light. Beyond just picture making, these models can be used in predictive simulations, with the potential for impact in many other areas.


1. This study was designed to determine whether a 1 h period of mild hypoglycaemia (3.3 or 3.7 mmol/l) affected the response to an episode of moderate hypoglycaemia (2.5 mmol/l) immediately afterwards. 2. Eleven non-obese healthy men (age 26 +/- 1 years, mean +/- SEM) underwent three separate 3 h hyper-insulinaemic glucose clamps in single-blind, random order. On all three occasions, blood glucose was 4.5 mmol/l for the first hour, and on a control visit was maintained at this level for the second hour. In the other two visits, blood glucose was lowered to 3.7 or 3.3 mmol/l during the second hour. In the third hour, blood glucose was lowered to 2.5 mmol/l on all three visits. 3. In the second hour, adrenaline rose significantly (P < 0.05, analysis of variance) with a blood glucose of 3.3 and 3.7 mmol/l, as did cortisol and heart rate at 3.3 mmol/l, but glucagon, prolactin, sweating rate, symptom score and blood pressure were the same during the second hour on all three visits. 4. In the final hour at 2.5 mmol/l, there were no differences in adrenaline, noradrenaline, glucagon, prolactin, cortisol, symptom score, heart rate, blood pressure or sweating rate. 5. Thus, the overall magnitude of hormonal responses to moderate hypoglycaemia (2.5 mmol/l) are not modified by exposure to mild hypoglycaemia (3.3 or 3.7 mmol/l) for 1 h immediately beforehand.


Healthy Lifestyle Changes and Academic Improvement by Yvette Gail Williams MA, Antioch University, 2002 BA, University of Northern Colorado, 1991 Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University October 2017 Abstract Many children in U.S. K–12 schools struggle with childhood obesity. A healthy lifestyle taught in a child's early years is essential for student learning, and it can set the pace for healthy choices to be made in adulthood. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to explore the experiences of parents in Montgomery County, Ohio, who successfully improved their children's health and academic grades. The transtheoretical model of behavior change grounded this study to evaluate the willingness of children and adults to take action on new health and wellness behaviors that can lead them through the stages of change to action and maintenance. The study was guided by 1 overarching research question: What are the experiences of the parents who guided their children through lifestyle changes using local community health and wellness resources, and reported improved health and improved academics? Specifically, the research subquestions asked about the successes, challenges, and strategies applied. This case study targeted 6 parents who guided their 6 grade children for at least 6 months on changing their health and wellness habits. Qualitative data were gathered and coded from structured interviews listing noteworthy statements and identifying patterns. The data were analyzed using data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. According to the study's findings, children who ate healthy, got proper rest each night, and engaged in daily physical activity lost weight, felt better, and performed better in school. This study contributes to positive social change by providing parents with strategies to improve health and wellness and academics in their overweight children.Many children in U.S. K–12 schools struggle with childhood obesity. A healthy lifestyle taught in a child's early years is essential for student learning, and it can set the pace for healthy choices to be made in adulthood. The purpose of this exploratory case study was to explore the experiences of parents in Montgomery County, Ohio, who successfully improved their children's health and academic grades. The transtheoretical model of behavior change grounded this study to evaluate the willingness of children and adults to take action on new health and wellness behaviors that can lead them through the stages of change to action and maintenance. The study was guided by 1 overarching research question: What are the experiences of the parents who guided their children through lifestyle changes using local community health and wellness resources, and reported improved health and improved academics? Specifically, the research subquestions asked about the successes, challenges, and strategies applied. This case study targeted 6 parents who guided their 6 grade children for at least 6 months on changing their health and wellness habits. Qualitative data were gathered and coded from structured interviews listing noteworthy statements and identifying patterns. The data were analyzed using data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. According to the study's findings, children who ate healthy, got proper rest each night, and engaged in daily physical activity lost weight, felt better, and performed better in school. This study contributes to positive social change by providing parents with strategies to improve health and wellness and academics in their overweight children. Healthy Lifestyle Changes and Academic Improvement


Communication is crucial between organisms and within organisms—down to the scale of cellular and subcellular structures. It is particularly important for the nervous system, which is devoted to information processing. In addition to other more general ways of information exchange with their neighbors and their environment, nerve cells have special structures called synapses for communication with each other as well as with target cells such as muscles.

Ever since their first description, synapses have caught the attention and imagination of neuroscientists. Some of the finest minds in the neuroscientific community have devoted much of their energy to furthering our understanding of the basic mechanisms and the fine-tuning of synaptic transmission, information flow, and plasticity, as well as synapse formation and development. In recent years, enormous progress has been made in the unraveling of every level of these phenomena. The picture emerging is that the synapse, far from being a static entity, is one of the most dynamic structures in the nervous system. This is true not only during its development and formation but throughout the lifetime of an organism. This special issue of Science presents a synopsis of some of the recent developments in this core area of neuroscience. We have also aimed to show where our understanding is still incomplete and where the emphasis of future research might lie.

Cohen-Cory (p. [770][1]) reviews the classic and more recent findings in the field of synaptogenesis and their relationship to activity-dependent processes from both a cellular and a systems neuroscience point of view. Sheng and Kim (p. [776][2]) present the most recent results on molecular interactions and activated biochemical pathways on the postsynaptic side. They describe mechanisms that lead to synaptic plasticity and modulated synaptic transmission in response to different patterns of synapse activation. By comparing the exocytotic events in chromaffin cells and in neurons, Rettig and Neher (p. [781][3]) review the presynaptic machinery involved in exocytosis. Their overview shows that much can be gained from the right choice of a useful model system. In their Viewpoint, Dustin and Colman (p. [785][4]) compare the neuronal and the immunological synapse, showing that there is more than semantics to the use of this term and that both neuroscientists and immunologists can gain much from the progress being made in the understanding of phenomena in these complementary fields. And finally, in another Viewpoint, Selkoe (p. [789][5]) presents a case for synapses being the initial targets in Alzheimer's disease, because it appears that subtle alterations in synaptic function are the earliest features of this disease. Understanding the basic mechanisms of Alzheimer's may also be helpful in our efforts to tackle many other neurodegenerative disorders.

 [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1075510
 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1075333
 [3]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1075375
 [4]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1076386
 [5]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1074069


Genetic differentiation in phenotypic traits among populations from heterogeneous environments is often observed in common-garden studies on forest trees, but data on adaptive variation in Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris L.) in Scotland are limited. As a result, current seed transfer guidelines are based on earlier molecular marker studies and do not take into account environmental or adaptive genetic variation. An analysis of spatial variation in climate showed substantial differences in temperature and precipitation among the native Scots pine sites in Scotland. To investigate whether differentiation in response to environmental variation has occurred in Scotland, a glasshouse-based common-garden trial of ~3,360 seedlings from 21 populations and 84 open-pollinated families was established in 2007. At the beginning of the 2nd growing season, timing of bud flush showed evidence of genetic differentiation among populations, with those from cooler origins generally flushing earlier. Variation was also found among families within populations, suggesting that the trait is genetically controlled. Populations and families showed different levels of variability in this trait which could be partly due to variable levels of temporal climate fluctuation in different parts of Scotland. Chlorophyll fluorescence was used to examine drought response in three-year old seedlings from five populations on sites that experience contrasting levels of annual rainfall. It was found that the response was not related to rainfall, but possibly to more complex moisture variables that also take into account additional factors such as evaporation. Also, photosynthetic capacity in response to cold winter temperatures varied significantly among eight populations that were kept outdoors, and the largest reduction was seen in seedlings from the mildest, most maritime coastal site. The following spring, height growth and needle flush started earlier in seedlings from cooler locations. Earlier studies on genetic diversity of native pinewoods have shown high levels of selectively neutral variation in this predominantly outcrossing conifer, and a mating system analysis with a limited number of microsatellite markers supported this pattern. Together, these data suggest that despite significant historic population size decrease, environmental gradients have resulted in genetic differentiation among native pinewoods. In order to minimise the risk of planting poorly-adapted stock and to maximise the success of replanting programmes, it is important that the origins of planting stock are carefully considered in management guidelines for the species.


Outdoor, hands-on and experiential learning, as opposed to instruction-based learning in classroom, increases student satisfaction and motivation leading to a deeper understanding of the subject. However, the use of outdoor exercises in undergraduate biology courses is declining due to a variety of constraints. Thus, the goal of this paper is to describe a convenient, no-cost and flexible exercise using an on-campus botanical tour for strengthening specific knowledge areas of major plant groups. Its assessment on conduct and coverage, and student-perceived and actual knowledge gain is also described. Data presented derived from traditional biology undergraduates in sophomore year over nine fall and three spring semesters. Conduct and coverage was assessed using a summative survey including open-ended questions administered to 198 students. A pre- and post-exercise survey addressing 10 knowledge categories was administered to 139 students to evaluate student-perceived knowledge gain. Quiz grades from the on-campus tour exercise were compared with average quiz grades from two in-class plant-related labs of 234 students to assess actual knowledge gain. Each student reporting on the conduct and coverage indicated either one or a combination of outcomes of the exercise as positive engagement, experiential learning, or of interest. Student-perceived improvement was evident in all ten knowledge categories with a greater improvement in categories learned anew during exercise compared to subjects reviewed. Quiz grades from the exercise were >11% greater than quiz grades from the two in-class plant-related labs. Active learning with interest likely contributed to the increased perceived and actual knowledge gains. Suggestions for adoption of the exercise in different settings are presented based on both student comments and instructor's experience.


Background/Objectives: The objective of the work carried out in this paper is to present the literature based on different Supply Chain (SC) coordination mechanisms. Also, it is intended to explore various coordination models proposed by various researchers from the literature. Methods/Statistical Analysis: The literature is reviewed by considering 142 articles published from 2000 to till date and classified as two-level models and three-level models. All these articles are further discussed based on few coordination mechanisms such as trade credit, quantity discounts, revenue sharing contract and information sharing. In addition, the literature is reviewed on Vendor Managed Inventory and price dependent demand variations and the coordination issues are discussed. Findings: From the findings of this research, it is observed that sufficient volume of papers reported the coordination mechanism in a two-level SC. The number of papers discussing three-level SC coordination is few in number. Especially, in the perspective of trade credit and quantity discount option, very few articles are reported discussing coordination in a three-level SC. Further, it is also found that most of the articles addressed the coordination mechanism incorporating ordering and carrying costs. Very few articles addressed the implications of transportation cost in SC coordination mechanism. Application/Improvement: From the outcomes of this work, it is observed that study of the effect of space cost and advertisement cost on SC performance is highly significant. The use of simulation is highly emphasized as the activities of SC are becoming highly dynamic and challenging with the ever growing global competition.


Over the recent period, many emerging-market economies and commodity-exporting nations have experienced unprecedented growth and accumulated substantial amounts of foreign exchange reserves. The management of these foreign reserves has led to the emergence of important financial actors: sovereign wealth funds (SWFs). While SWFs have existed in one form or another since the 1950s, they have recently risen in prominence and been exposed to public scrutiny and debate. The author outlines their possible impact on international financial stability. She concludes that SWFs are long-term investors that can play a stabilizing role in financial markets by supplying liquidity and reducing market volatility. While characteristics such as a lack of transparency highlight the potential for destabilization by one or more SWFs, there is little evidence that this has occurred during the recent period. Similarly, the rise of financial protectionism, as host countries adopt rules to protect sensitive industries, might unduly restrict global capital flows, but it is not likely to destabilize the international financial system.


International audience

 Discovery of the chronological or geographical distribution of collections of historical text can be more reliable when based on multivariate rather than on univariate data because multivariate data provide a more complete description. Where the data are high-dimensional, however, their complexity can defy analysis using traditional philological methods. The first step in dealing with such data is to visualize it using graphical methods in order to identify any latent structure. If found, such structure facilitates formulation of hypotheses which can be tested using a range of mathematical and statistical methods. Where, however, the dimensionality is greater than 3, direct graphical investigation is impossible. The present discussion presents a roadmap of how this obstacle can be overcome, and is in three main parts: the first part presents some fundamental data concepts, the second describes an example corpus and a high-dimensional data set derived from it, and the third outlines two approaches to visualization of that data set: dimensionality reduction and cluster analysis.


Abstract. By both tradition and purpose, the land parameterization schemes of hydrological and meteorological models differ greatly. Meteorologists are concerned primarily with solving the energy balance, whereas hydrologists are most interested in the water balance. Meteorological climate models typically have multi-layered soil parameterisation that solves temperature fluxes numerically with diffusive equations. The same approach is carried over to a similar treatment of water transport. Hydrological models are not usually so interested in soil temperatures, but must provide a reasonable representation of soil moisture to get runoff right. To treat the heterogeneity of the soil, many hydrological models use only one layer with a statistical representation of soil variability. Such a hydrological model can be used on large scales while taking subgrid variability into account. Hydrological models also include lateral transport of water – an imperative if' river discharge is to be estimated. The concept of a complexity chain for coupled modelling systems is introduced, together with considerations for mixing model components. Under BALTEX (Baltic Sea Experiment) and SWECLIM (Swedish Regional Climate Modelling Programme), a large-scale hydrological model of runoff in the Baltic Basin is used to review atmospheric climate model simulations. This incorporates both the runoff record and hydrological modelling experience into atmospheric model development. Results from two models are shown. A conclusion is that the key to improved models may be less complexity. Perhaps the meteorological models should keep their multi-layered approach for modelling soil temperature, but add a simpler, yet physically consistent, hydrological approach for modelling snow processes and water transport in the soil. Keywords: land surface modelling; hydrological modelling; atmospheric climate models; subgrid variability; Baltic Basin


"From accounting model perspective, the information provided contributes to the knowledge of the entity, and determines useful elements in the economic strategy for decision making. The basis for measuring economic and financial performance at the level of economic entity is represented by the accounting model as a source of specific information. The complex work involved in organizing the accounting model at the level of the economic entity is done in an easy way by choosing one of the many traditional software. The use of a classic accounting software does not imply the use of an internet connection to access the information, the activity taking place offline. The performance of the accounting model depends directly on the use of an information system that provides useful information to substantiate the decisions taken. Within this system, accounting information occupies the most important share. The accounting model involves a lot of data produced during the activity and before the actual development of the transactions, aiming at directing the commercial activity from the perspective of the economic conjuncture, a special situation being that of the crisis periods. The purpose of the article is to analyze the technological progress in accounting and its impact on the accounting model."


The RUSA awards recognize outstanding achievement by members of the library profession. These awards honor librarians, publishers, libraries, and authors for significant current or past achievements such as publications, program development, and leadership in the profession. The 2003 recipients are listed below: (Virginia) Boucher-OCLC Distinguished ILL Librarian Award Mary A. Hollerich, associate director for access services, Pritzker Legal Research Center, Northwestern University, is the 2003 Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Librarian Award recipient. The Virginia Boucher-OCLC Distinguished ILL Award recognizes and honors a librarian for outstanding professional achievement, leadership and contributions to ILL and document. The award is named for Virginia Boucher, Professor Emeritus at the University of Colorado-Boulder and former ILL librarian whose significant contributions and leadership enhanced the field of interlibrary loan. The cash award of $2,000 and citation are donated by OCLC, Online Computer Library Center. The award and citation are administered by MOUSS. "Mary Hollerich is dedicated to the support of interlibrary loan as an integral part of library services," stated Franca C. Rosen, chair of the award committee. "She is an interlibrary loan activist who through her commitments and contacts with professional associations promotes the full potential of interlibrary loan services to libraries and their administrators. Her leadership has brought attention to the need for better training, technological innovations, and organization commitment to ensure the most effective sharing of resources to best serve the needs of library patrons." The Dartmouth Medal The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music, published from 1977-2002 by Routledge, a member of the Taylor and Francis Group, is the 2003 recipient of the Dartmouth Medal. The medal, donated by Dartmouth College, is given for creating current reference works of outstanding quality and significance. "This unique and thoroughly researched resource provides a dynamic and in depth perspective on world music," said Teresa Portilla Omidsalar, award committee chair. "It strikes a balance between wonderful illustrations and comprehensive, scholarly entries. Each regional volume includes a CD sampler of that region's music. This source will have wide appeal to both the novice and expert." Dun and Bradstreet Public Librarian Support Award Bryce Thornton, business reference assistant, Hoover (Ala.) Public Library, is the recipient of the 2003 Dun and Bradstreet Public Librarian Support Award. The citation and $1,000 travel award is sponsored by Dun and Bradstreet to support attendance at the ALA Annual Conference of a business librarian who works in a public library. The award is based on service to the community and on demonstration of need. "Bryce Thornton is only the fourth recipient of the Dun and Bradstreet Public Librarian Award," stated Susan Wolf Neilson, chair of the award committee. "Thornton has been an essential part of his library's successful partnership with the business community in Hoover as he helped create and develop the Business/Law area of a newly expanded library. He implements important programs for the community in subjects such as small business, career planning and in using business resources. Thornton is an active member of his community's chamber of commerce and provides outreach programs to organizations and clubs in the area. According to his library director, 'his outstanding service to the community, his desire to pursue a career as a professional business librarian, and demonstrated leadership make him an excellent choice for the Dun and Bradstreet Public Librarian Support Award.' Our committee unanimously agreed." Dun and Bradstreet Award for Outstanding Service to Minority Business Communities The New York Public Library's St. …


We theoretically demonstrate the realization of a complete canonical set of all-optical logic gates (AND, OR, NOT), with a persistent (stored) output, by combining propagative spatial solitons in a photorefractive crystal and dissipative cavity solitons in a downstream broad-area vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL). The system uses same-color, optical-axis aligned input and output channels with fixed readout locations, while switching from one gate to another is achieved by simply varying the potential applied to the photorefractive crystal. The inputs are Gaussian beams launched in the photorefractive crystal and the output is a bistable, persistent soliton in the VCSEL with a 'robust' eye diagram and large signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). Fast switching and intrinsic parallelism suggest that high bit flow rates can be obtained.


Abstract : In March of 2001, the Software Engineering Institute (SEI) in Pittsburgh, PA, hosted a workshop for high maturity organizations to better understand practices that characterize Capability Maturity Model(registered) for Software (Software CMM(registered)) Level 4 and 5 organizations. Topics of discussion included practices described in the Software CMM as well as other practices that have a significant impact in mature organizations. Important themes included statistical process control for software, the reliability of Level 4 and 5 assessments, and the impact of the CMM Integration(Service Mark) effort. Additional topics solicited from the participants included measurement, Six Sigma, Internet speed and process agility, and people and cultural issues. This report contains overviews of more than 30 high maturity organizations and the various working group reports from the workshop.


Background: Patient–professional communication is a fundamental skill of medical practice. Health-care professionals have to be aware of their own communication practices and need to undergo periodic appraisal of the same. Overzealous and unrepressed use of jargon hinders effective communication between the doctors and patients, leading to a series of misunderstanding. The aim of the study was to assess the use of jargon and its acceptance in clinical history taking among dental students and interns in a dental teaching hospital of Bhubaneswar, Odisha, India. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was carried out, consisting of 16 questions on BDS 3rd-year, 4th-year dental students and dental interns. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were computed. Differences between groups were examined using Chi-square test. The level of statistical significance was set at P ≤ 0.05. Results: Two hundred and sixty-seven individuals participated in the present survey, representing an overall response rate of 92.4%. Nearly, 78.9%, 89.6%, and 78% of BDS 3rd-year, 4th-year, and dental interns, respectively, used jargon in case history taking. Almost 61.6% of dental interns admitted that they always used jargon and 22% admitted that they used jargon only when there was a lack of time. Conclusion: This study showed widespread use of jargon/abbreviations in case history taking among the respondents. More medical/dental schools, residency programs, and continuing education programs for practicing physicians need to include training in clinical communication skills to enhance health outcomes.


While some promote method chaining as a good practice for improving code readability, others refer to it as a bad practice that worsens code quality. In this paper, we first investigate whether method chaining is a programming style accepted by real-world programmers. To answer this question, we collected 2,814 Java repositories on GitHub and analyzed historical trends in the frequency of method chaining. The results of our analysis revealed the increasing use of method chaining; 23.1% of method invocations were part of method chains in 2018, whereas only 16.0% were such invocations in 2010. We then explore language features that are helpful to the method-chaining style but have not been supported yet in Java. For this aim, we conducted manual inspections of method chains that are randomly sampled from the collected repositories. We also estimated how effective they are to encourage the method-chaining style if they are adopted in Java.


PURPOSE
An in situ forming hydrogel was evaluated as a potential vitreous substitute in rabbits.

METHODS
The hydrogel used a disulfide cross-linker that was then reduced to produce an injectable thiol-containing polymer solution. The disulfide cross-links reformed by air oxidation of the thiols and produced a stable hydrogel once inside the eye. The polymer was clear, autoclavable, and could be stored easily in the presence of nitrogen gas. Capillary rheometry was used to measure the viscoelastic properties of the hydrogels and the porcine vitreous. Fourteen black rabbits underwent a pars plana, 25-gauge, three-port vitrectomy by a single surgeon with injection of a vitreous substitute.

RESULTS
The refractive indices of the hydrogels were measured by refractometry and were shown to be close to 1.33, and the 2% hydrogel matched the mechanical properties of the natural vitreous humor. The reduced polymeric hydrogel was easily injectable through a small-gauge needle into the vitreous cavity and did not show any fragmentation. The material underwent gelation within the eye, remained optically clear, and appeared well tolerated clinically. Slit lamp examination, dilated fundus examination, and electroretinograms showed no evidence of vitritis, uveitis, or endophthalmitis after 1 week. Histopathologic evaluation did not reveal any overt toxicity or gross morphologic changes in the retina.

CONCLUSIONS
The fact that this process of in situ gelation gives rise to hydrogels that are biocompatible and physically and optically similar to the natural vitreous suggests its suitability as a permanent vitreous substitute. Hydrogel candidates will be further studied to evaluate long-term biocompatibility and degradation in vivo.


Trilobites were capable of enroling in different ways based on the flexible articulation of thoracic segments and associated interlocking devices; the type of enrolment (spiral or sphaeroidal) is thought to have largely depended on the coaptative devices that each trilobite used to enclose the body. Based on X‐ray microtomography scans of complete enrolled specimens from the Cambrian, we created three‐dimensional (3D) computer models to assess the kinematics needed to achieve both enrolment types. We demonstrate that closely related trilobites with little morphological variation (Bailiaspis?, Conocoryphe and Parabailiella) developed different enrolment types as a result of small variations in the number of thoracic segments and the angle between adjacent segments. Moreover, our models indicate that sphaeroidal enrolment, which is associated with a smaller number of thoracic segments, enabled faster encapsulation. This supports the hypothesis that there was a trend in the evolution of trilobites towards reduction in the number of thoracic segments in phylogenetically derived taxa in order to enhance the efficiency of enrolment.


Although many classical works on preaching, especially within the reformed tradition, would take as point of departure the question of understanding, that is, how to do exegesis of a biblical text in such a manner that it makes sense (is understandable) to present-day listeners of sermons, this article opts for an aesthetical approach, which does not exclude the question of intelligibility, but places it within aesthetical frameworks, such as our multi-sensing of space and time. Preaching, in my opinion, entails more than just speaking, hearing and (cognitive) understanding. It calls, inter alia , for a multi-sensory (re)discovery of space and time, within space and time. This article reflects specifically on the spatial dimension of preaching pertaining to experiences of being, or coming, home and, conversely, leaving home, that is, experiencing liminality, as not-being-at-home.


Carson McCullers--novelist, dramatist, poet--was at the peak of her powers as a writer of short fiction. Here are nineteen stories that explore her signature themes: wounded adolescence, loneliness in marriage, and the tragicomedy of life in the South. Here too are "The Member of the Wedding" and "The Ballad of the Sad Cafe, " novellas that Tennessee Williams judged to be "assuredly among the masterpieces of our language."


It has been suggested that a better knowledge of fault locations and slip rates improves seismic hazard assessments. However, the importance of detailed along‐fault‐slip‐rate profiles and variable fault geometry has not yet been explored. We quantify the importance for modeled seismicity rates of using multiple throw‐rate measurements to construct along‐fault throw‐rate profiles rather than basing throw‐rate profiles on a single measurement across a fault. We use data from 14 normal faults within the central Italian Apennines where we have multiple measurements along the faults. For each fault, we compared strain rates across the faults using our detailed throw‐rate profiles and degraded data and simplified profiles. We show the implied variation in average recurrence intervals for a variety of magnitudes that result. Furthermore, we demonstrate how fault geometry (variable strike and dip) can alter calculated ground‐shaking intensities at specific sites by changing the source‐to‐site distance for ground‐motion prediction equations (GMPEs). Our findings show that improved fault‐based seismic hazard calculations require detailed along‐fault throw‐rate profiles based on well‐constrained local 3D fault geometry for calculating recurrence rates and shaking intensities.


Abstract. Heterogeneous ice nucleation, a primary pathway for ice formation in the atmosphere, has been described alternately as being stochastic, in direct analogy with homogeneous nucleation, or singular, with ice nuclei initiating freezing at deterministic temperatures. We present an idealized, conceptual model to explore the transition between stochastic and singular ice nucleation. This "soccer ball" model treats particles as being covered with surface sites (patches of finite area) characterized by different nucleation barriers, but with each surface site following the stochastic nature of ice embryo formation. The model provides a phenomenological explanation for seemingly contradictory experimental results obtained in our research groups. Even with ice nucleation treated fundamentally as a stochastic process this process can be masked by the heterogeneity of surface properties, as might be typical for realistic atmospheric particle populations. Full evaluation of the model findings will require experiments with well characterized ice nucleating particles and the ability to vary both temperature and waiting time for freezing.


Documented is an intercalibration (IC) exercise for both 210Po and 210Pb in seawater aliquots distributed between up to eight international laboratories that followed individual protocols. Dissolved and particulate samples were provided by GEOTRACES during two IC cruises at baseline stations in the North Atlantic and North Pacific oceans. Included were surface and/or deep dissolved and particulate samples at each site, plus complete profiles analyzed by the laboratory of the lead author. An unspecified solid phase standard was also distributed with 210Po and 210Pb in secular equilibrium to confirm spike calibrations. The 210Po activities reported n = 8) for the standard were very similar with a relative standard deviation (RSD) of 3.6% and mean value indistinguishable from the certified value, confirming accurate calibration of Po spikes. For seawater samples, the agreement was strongly dependent for both nuclides on the activity of the samples. The agreement was relatively good for dissolved seawater samples (RSD = 9% to 29%, n = 4), moderate for the particulate samples (RSD = 12% to 80%, n = 8), and poor for particulate dip blanks (RSD = 50% to 200%, n = 8). Noted is the higher apparent affinity of 210Po versus 210Pb for polysulphone filter material. Some lack of reproducibility between labs may have been caused by unspecified differences in individual lab protocols and calculations. A minimum sample activity of 0.1 dpm for both nuclides is recommended for an adequate reproducible sample activity. It is suggested that a consistent set of procedures and calculations be used to optimize future 210Po and 210Pb analyses in seawater samples.


Lip synchronization is the process of generating natural lip movements from a speech signal. In this work we address the lip-sync problem using an automatic phone recognizer that generates a phone lattice carrying posterior probabilities. The acoustic feature vector contains the posterior probabilities of all the phones over a time window centered at the current time point. Hence this representation characterizes the phone recognition output including the confusion patterns caused by its limited accuracy. A 3D face model with varying texture is computed by analyzing a video recording of the speaker using a 3D morphable model. Training a neural network using 30 000 data vectors from an audiovisual recording in Dutch resulted in a very good simulation of the face on independent data sets of the same or of a different speaker.


Cyberbullying has become a notorious epidemic, culminating in widely publicized suicides. Whether a new and distinct problem or an old one in a new guise, the technological setting has undoubtedly generated new challenges and, at the same time, new opportunities for legal response. Regrettably, while delegation of power to educational institutions and criminalization of cyber-misconduct are relatively common, at least in public discourse, the potential impact of civil liability has been downplayed. This Article puts the underexplored regulatory tool under the spotlight. It provides systematic legal and economic analyses of civil liability for cyberbullying, based on a trichotomy of potential defendants—primary wrongdoers, real-life supervisors (parents, schools), and virtual supervisors (mostly online platform operators).

Ultimately, the Article lays the foundations for an efficiency-oriented model which integrates technological features to reduce supervisors' information costs. In order to incentivize parents to reasonably use advanced surveillance applications, the proposed model imposes liability when failure to employ such tools results in juvenile cyber-wrongdoing, in addition to standard liability for not taking reasonable precautions upon learning about the risk. The model also imposes liability on schools for cyberbullying through school devices if they failed to: (1) enforce reliable identification of users, (2) employ advanced surveillance tools, or (3) take reasonable measures to prevent harm upon notification of possible misconduct. Finally, the model holds a virtual supervisor liable if the victim has insufficient information to identify the wrongdoer, the victim gave notice of the complaint, and the virtual supervisor did not properly respond.


Almost 100 years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat, Sojourner Truth was mistreated by a streetcar conductor. She took him to court and won! Before she was Sojourner Truth, she was known simply as Belle. Born a slave in New York sometime around 1797, she was later sold and separated from her family. Even after she escaped from slavery, she knew her work was not yet done. She changed her name and travelled, inspiring everyone she met and sharing her story until her death in 1883 at age eighty-six. In this easy to read biography, Yona Zeldis MoDonough continues to share that remarkable story.


This paper traces the evolution of debate about the question of Rules versus Discretion in monetary policy from about 1800 until the mid 1930s. Particular attention is paid to long versus short run issues, notably with respect to the 1844 Bank Charter Act, and the Bagehot Principle, as well as to the effects of developments in the theory of value, the cycle and index numbers on economists perception on the scope of monetary policy. A brief discussion of post World War 2 developments links this material to present day concerns and common themes are noted.


This study estimates the effects of means-tested housing programs on labor supply using data from a randomized housing voucher wait-list lottery in Chicago. Evidence for the net effects of housing programs on labor supply is central to a wide range of policy decisions about how to provide housing assistance to the poor. Economic theory is ambiguous about the expected sign of any labor supply response. We find that among working-age, able-bodied adults, housing voucher use reduces quarterly labor force participation rates by 4 percentage points (6 percent of the control complier mean) and quarterly earnings by $285 (10 percent), and increases social program participation rates by 2 percentage points (16 percent of the control mean). These impacts are toward the lower end of the range of recent estimates from other studies of housing programs, but nonetheless do still imply that housing vouchers reduce labor supply.


Educational climate represents the social and contextual qualities of an organization as perceived by the participants. The theoretical construct of educational climate encompasses a range of variables which have been categorized as ecology, milieu, social system, and culture (Tigiuri, 1968). These categories are similar to the elements of the andragogical process described by Knowles (1984). In this research, the theoretical climate category of social system emerged as influential in an ethnographic study of an elective university program. Findings revealed that shared decision making and communication patterns were instrumental in the quality of the adult learning experience.


Measuring the value of art and assessing the success of performing arts organizations have been a global concern in the creative industry for the past few decades (Pidd, 2012; Ellis, 2003; Reeves 2002). The complexity of art, by its nature, makes it difficult to come up with the ideal measuring system. The 'value for money' (VFM) audit has been widely introduced in many government departments and non-profit organizations. However, whether the VFM method can be proclaimed as an appropriate form of measurement of the value of a performing arts organization is yet to be explored. This leads to the objective of this project, that an investigation will be undertaken to see if the VFM method is appropriate and effective for the performing arts industry.

Various research materials such as the VFM manual and reports were examined to enhance my understanding of VFM practice. Comparisons were made, reviewing local professional practice from the perspective of the HKCO and other practices on a global scale, and underpin this research. The VFM report of the HKCO, the first VFM study of a performing arts organization conducted in Hong Kong by the Audit Commission in 2009–10, serves as a case study of this research approach. Objective data were collected through surveys, focus group discussions and in-depth semi-structured interviews. With the use of a combination of qualitative and quantitative research, using both fieldwork and desk research methods, a balanced outlook on this matter was achieved.
The contribution by a performing arts organization that operates in an innovative and creative industry is intangible and difficult to measure. Arguably, the value of art can be understood in many ways, not just in monetary terms. Currently, there is no specific format for reporting or conducting processes in a VFM audit. The design of the methodology and means of interpreting data in the context of the performing arts industry becomes a key issue in a VFM audit. It is vital for members of the audit team to have a thorough understanding of the arts, and also the operation of the arts industry, before drawing conclusions and recommendations. Otherwise, what is revealed to the public through the audit report may be filtered by misleading interpretations.

This research has concluded that VFM audits fail to reflect a full picture of the value of a performing arts organization. The desired solution is an appropriate methodology for a VFM audit appropriate to context to avoid the public misjudging the value or success of a performing arts organization and undermining its reputation and the trust the public has placed in it. Should there be a VFM audit conducted on a performing arts company in the future, the term 'management audit' or 'operational audit' may be preferable to 'value for money audit'.


This article is based on the introduction Legal Pathways to Deep Decarbonization in the United States (Environmental Law Institute Press, Michael B. Gerrard & John C. Dernbach eds. 2019). It is entitled a postscript because it was published at the end of a year-long series of chapters from the book that were published as articles in the Environmental Law Reporter.

The book is a playbook of legal pathways for enabling the United States to address what is perhaps the greatest problem facing this country and the rest of humanity. It identifies hundreds of legal options for reducing U.S. greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by at least 80% from 1990 levels by 2050. In U.S. football, a playbook is a comprehensive listing of all of the plays that can be employed by a particular team. In any one game, some of these plays will be used, and some will not, depending on the circumstances. But coaches and other decision makers for the team draw from the playbook to employ an appropriate combination of plays in order to win. Similarly, this book attempts to provide a comprehensive description and explanation of legal pathways to decarbonize the U.S. economy. It is likely that not all of them will be used, but public and private decision makers can employ various combinations of these pathways to achieve the needed reductions in U.S. greenhouse gas emissions.

This article first explains the urgency of climate change and describes the significance of the Paris Agreement. It then summarizes U.S. technical and policy pathways to deep decarbonization, as set out in two reports by the Deep Decarbonization Pathways Project (DDPP) and in other studies. It explains why deep decarbonization is in the best interests of the U.S., and describes the value of understanding legal pathways to deep decarbonization.


Touchy Typing Even the most able typist makes errors, and Logan and Crump (p. 683) have used this real-world task to probe for the existence of two error-detection mechanisms. They inserted errors into words that had been typed correctly by the subjects, and they corrected errors that had been made. By measuring implicit error detection as the slowing of movement just after an error had been committed and by eliciting explicit monitoring of errors by the output shown on the screen, they uncovered a double dissociation. Inserted errors did not lengthen the interval until the next letter was typed, but they were reported by the typist as errors; on the other hand, corrected errors did increase the interval, but were nevertheless claimed by the subjects as having been typed correctly. One error-detection mechanism monitors the correctness of one's action, whereas a second mechanism monitors the output. The ability to detect errors is an essential component of cognitive control. Studies of error detection in humans typically use simple tasks and propose single-process theories of detection. We examined error detection by skilled typists and found illusions of authorship that provide evidence for two error-detection processes. We corrected errors that typists made and inserted errors in correct responses. When asked to report errors, typists took credit for corrected errors and accepted blame for inserted errors, claiming authorship for the appearance of the screen. However, their typing rate showed no evidence of these illusions, slowing down after corrected errors but not after inserted errors. This dissociation suggests two error-detection processes: one sensitive to the appearance of the screen and the other sensitive to keystrokes.


The conventional view of 'Duncan v Cammell Laird' was succinctly expressed by Wade and Forsyth. "The case", they wrole: "is a good example of the most genuine type where it seems plain that the interests of litigants must be sacrificed in order to preserve secrets of state." To Zuckerman Duncan was "the most outstanding" example of a rare number of cases genuinely involving national security. These, along with almost all other commentators, argue that national security considerations meant that the
1942 decision was on its facts pretty well inevitable and probably correct. This article suggests thal the view that the plaintiffs had to take second place to the greater good of keeping Germany in ignorance of British naval secrets
perpetuates a myth. This myth was fostered by civil sewice lawyers in the interesis of litigation management by the Crown. The case papers tell a different story.


As keratin is the principle structure of the plantar stratum corneum, it has been postulated that changes in this protein, associated with non-enzymatic glycation, may contribute to abnormalities in the development of plantar callus in diabetes consequently leading to ulceration of plantar skin. The clinical appearance of the skin in the diabetic state has been described as being thicker and less flexible than non-diabetic skin, particularly in the hands. A group of six Type II diabetic patients and six age and sex matched controls were initially selected for the verification of the methods of analysis to be used on a larger sample group. Epidermal keratin extraction protocols were tested and their validity confirmed using immunoblot analyses. The early glycation product, furosine and the advanced glycation end-products pentosidine and carboxymethyllysine were the glycation products chosen for quantification in plantar callus tissue. The quantification of furosine and pentosidine were successfully achieved using high performance liquid chromatography assays. The qualitative detection of CML was achieved using gas chromatography/mass spectrometry (GC/MS). In response to the lack of sensitivity of the GC/MS detection method for CML, polyclonal and monoclonal antibodies were developed. Screening of these antibodies identified a lack of specificity for CML detection and quantification. In addition to the quantification of the glycation compounds in plantar epidermal tissues; the flexibility and thickness of the skin on three different sites on the feet were measured. The epidermal thickness was measured using high frequency ultrasound imaging and the mechanical properties of the epidermis were tested using vertical negative pressure methods. The selected group of Type II diabetic subjects (n=103), in the final clinical study, showed a statistically significant increase in levels of pentosidine in plantar callus specimens compared with the control group (n=87). The quantity of furosine and pentosidine measured in the callus samples did not conrelate with those measured in blood serum. The HbA1c levels showed no association between glycation of plantar epidermal proteins and glycaemic control. The echogeneic images captured by ultrasonography were thickest on the plantar metatarsal sites, followed by the medial longitudinal arch and finally the dorsal skin sites. The epidermal thickness in the PMA region was greater in diabetics in comparison to controls and an association with neuropathy was suggested. Pedal skin exhibited viscoelastic properties. The magnitude of the elastic component, measured immediately after the negative displacing pressure was removed, was significantly greater in diabetic skin than controls on all three sites on the foot. Plantar diabetic skin was significantly less plastic than non-diabetic plantar skin.


Wooden structures are the oldest building elements accompanying man since time immemorial. The Czech Republic is strict in its legal and normative regulations relating to the use of wooden building components. In spite of that the Czech construction market is increasingly returning to wooden houses; not only for dwelling purposes, but also for public amenities. However, the structures made of wood as combustible material have to be carefully assessed especially from the viewpoint of fire safety of the building. This paper deals with the fire safety of wooden structures with special regard to the suspended type of ceiling, as it fulfils the role of insulation against the effects of fire. In particular, the thermal stress caused by fire and its impact upon the safety of the building elements has been investigated.


Cliques, coloring and satisfiability are three central problems of theoretical computer science each of which is generally NP-hard. On the other hand, each of them may become tractable when restricted to instances of particular structure. In this talk we analyze how the structure of the input can affect the computational complexity of these problems. We also discuss some algorithmic tools to solve the problems with a focus given to transformations of graphs and of CNF formulas.


Nitrogen dioxide is an oxidant gas that contaminates outdoor air and indoor air in homes with unvented gas appliances. A prospective cohort study was carried out to test the hypothesis that residential exposure to NO2 increases incidence and severity of respiratory illnesses during the first 18 months of life. A cohort of 1,205 healthy infants from homes without smokers was enrolled. The daily occurrence of respiratory symptoms and illnesses was reported by the mothers every 2 wk. Illnesses with wheezing or wet cough were classified as lower respiratory tract. Indoor NO2 concentrations were serially measured with passive samplers place in the subjects' bedrooms. In stratified analyses, illness incidence rates did not consistently increase with exposure to NO2 or stove type. In multivariate analyses that adjusted for potential confounding factors, odds ratios were not significantly elevated for current or lagged NO2 exposures, or stove type. Illness duration, a measure of illness severity, was not associated with NO2 exposure. The findings can be extended to homes with gas stoves in regions of the United States where the outdoor air is not heavily polluted by NO2.


Migration and Culture marks a first in providing a comprehensive collection of published articles linking migration and culture. Prior approaches to migration have often stressed statistical and economic factors. The theoretically challenging and comparative accounts represented here are part of a new wave of thinking which illustrates the meaning of migration and its profound cultural implications. With an original introductory essay by the editors, this volume will be of great interest and value to sociologists, anthropologists, and those interested in cultural studies, diaspora, transnationalism and post-colonialism and the cultural aspects of globalisation.


Abstract. This study presents three alternative models for estimating the absorption properties of chromophoric dissolved organic matter aCDOM(λ). For this analysis we used a database containing 556 absorption spectra measured in 2006–2009 in different regions of the Baltic Sea (open and coastal waters, the Gulf of Gdansk and the Pomeranian Bay), at river mouths, in the Szczecin Lagoon and also in three lakes in Pomerania (Poland) – Obleskie, Łebsko and Chotkowskie. The variability range of the chromophoric dissolved organic matter (CDOM) absorption coefficient at 400 nm, aCDOM(400), lay within 0.15–8.85 m−1. The variability in aCDOM(λ) was parameterized with respect to the variability over 3 orders of magnitude in the chlorophyll a concentration Chl a (0.7–119 mg m−3). The chlorophyll a concentration and aCDOM(400) were correlated, and a statistically significant, nonlinear empirical relationship between these parameters was derived (R2 =  0.83). On the basis of the covariance between these parameters, we derived two empirical mathematical models that enabled us to design the CDOM absorption coefficient dynamics in natural waters and reconstruct the complete CDOM absorption spectrum in the UV and visible spectral domains. The input variable in the first model was the chlorophyll a concentration, and in the second one it was aCDOM(400). Both models were fitted to a power function, and a second-order polynomial function was used as the exponent. Regression coefficients for these formulas were determined for wavelengths from 240 to 700 nm at 5 nm intervals. Both approximations reflected the real shape of the absorption spectra with a low level of uncertainty. Comparison of these approximations with other models of light absorption by CDOM demonstrated that our parameterizations were superior (bias from −1.45 to 62 %, RSME from 22 to 220 %) for estimating CDOM absorption in the optically complex waters of the Baltic Sea and Pomeranian lakes.


Abstract. A technique for measuring two-dimensional (2-D) plumes of volcanic gases with thermal emission spectroscopy was described in Part 1 by Stremme et al. (2012a). In that paper the instrumental aspects as well as retrieval strategies for obtaining the slant column images of SO2 and SiF4, as well as animations of particular events observed at the Popocatepetl volcano, were presented. This work focuses on the procedures for determining the propagation speed of the gases and estimating an emission rate from the given image sequences. A 2-D column density distribution of a volcanic gas, available as time-consecutive frames, provides information of a projected wind field and the average velocity at which the volcanic plume is propagating. This information is valuable since the largest uncertainties when calculating emission rates of the gases using remote sensing techniques arise from propagation velocities which are often inadequately assumed. The presented reconstruction method solves the equation of continuity as an ill-posed problem using mainly a Tikhonov-like regularisation. It is observed from the available data sets that if the main direction of propagation is perpendicular to the line-of-sight, the algorithm works well for SO2, which has the strongest signals, and also for SiF4 in some favourable cases. Due to the similarity of the algorithm used here with the reconstruction methods used for profile retrievals based on optimal estimation theory, diagnostic tools like the averaging kernels can be calculated in an analogous manner and the information can be quantified as degrees of freedom. Thus, it is shown that the combination of wind field and column distribution of the gas plume can provide the emission rate of the volcano both during day and night.


This paper deals with chain graph models under alternative AMP interpretation. A new representative of an AMP Markov equivalence class, called the largest deflagged graph, is proposed. The representative is based on revealed internal structure of the AMP Markov equivalence class. More specifically, the AMP Markov equivalence class decomposes into finer strong equivalence classes and there exists a distinguished strong equivalence class among those forming the AMP Markov equivalence class. The largest deflagged graph is the largest chain graph in that distinguished strong equivalence class. A composed graphical procedure to get the largest deflagged graph on the basis of any AMP Markov equivalent chain graph is presented. In general, the largest deflagged graph differs from the AMP essential graph, which is another representative of the AMP Markov equivalence class.


Tom Brokaw, known and beloved for his landmark work in American journalism and for the "New York Times" bestsellers "The Greatest Generation" and "Boom!, " now turns his attention to the challenges that face America in the new millennium, to offer reflections on how we can restore America's greatness. "What happened to the America I thought I knew?" Brokaw writes. "Have we simply wandered off course, but only temporarily? Or have we allowed ourselves to be so divided that we're easy prey for hijackers who could steer us onto a path to a crash landing? . . . I do have some thoughts, original and inspired by others, for our journey into the heart of a new century." Rooted in the values, lessons, and verities of generations past and of his South Dakota upbringing, Brokaw weaves together inspiring stories of Americans who are making a difference and personal stories from his own family history, to engage us in a conversation about our country and to offer ideas for how we can revitalize the promise of the American Dream. Inviting us to foster a rebirth of family, community, and civic engagement as profound as the one that won World War II, built our postwar prosperity, and ushered in the Civil Rights era, Brokaw traces the exciting, unnerving changes in modern life--in values, education, public service, housing, the Internet, and more--that have transformed our society in the decades since the age of thrift in which he was raised. Offering ideas from Americans who are change agents in their communities, in "The Time of Our Lives, "Brokaw gives us, a wise, honest, and wide-ranging book, a nourishing vision of hopefulness in an age of diminished expectations.


Evidence has shown that student's attention is a crucial factor for engagement and learning gain. Although it can be accurately assessed ad-hoc by an experienced teacher, continuous contact with all students in a large class is difficult to maintain and requires training for novice practitioners. We continue our previous work on investigating unobtrusive measures of body-language in order to predict student's attention during the class, and provide teachers with a support system to help them to "scale-up" to a large class. Our work here is focused on head-motion, by which we aim to mimic large-scale gaze tracking. By using new computer vision techniques we are able to extract head poses of all students in the video-stream from the class. After defining several measures about head motion, we checked their significance and attempted to demonstrate their value by fitting a mixture model and training support vector machines (SVM) classifiers. We show that drops in attention are reflected in a decreased intensity of head movement. We were also able to reach 65.72% correct classifications of student attention on a 3-point scale.