Each year the Board of Trustees of the Old-Age, Survivors and Disability Insurance (OASDI) Trust Funds projects the future financial status of the programs extending as far as 75-years into the future. These projections incorporate anticipated trends in both demographic and economic determinants of future costs. Particularly with regard to the economic determinants, the Trustees rely on past trends to project the future, and the projections of individual elements are largely independent of one another. This paper explores the long-term determinants of interest rates, and, in particular, the relationship between variations in interest rates and the rate of economic growth. Is there a positive correlation, as suggested by standard growth theory, or is the role of economic growth overshadowed by a larger array of domestic and foreign influences. Data from a number of large economies are used to demonstrate the influence of foreign interest rates in an increasingly globalized world capital market. A method is developed to adjust both long and short-term interest rates for expected inflation. The paper suggests that capital markets are highly integrated at the global level and that it makes little sense to model, analyze, or forecast interest rates within a closed-economy framework. Furthermore, there is only a weak relationship between real interest rates and economic growth. Given the complexity of global economic developments, it is unlikely that the OASDI projections can be improved by more formal efforts to model future interest rate changes.


The volatilization, migration and contamination of lubricating fluids has seriously affected the durability of slippery liquid-infused porous surfaces (SLIPSs) and greatly limited their applications. To solve these problems, a stable solid slippery surface composed of paraffin wax and a porous film is reported in this work. Several liquid droplets with different surface tensions can slide on the surface without stain. Compared with SLIPSs, this solid slippery surface exhibits outstanding stability, even when immersed in different pH solutions and contacted with other materials. Significantly, the solid slippery surface can rapidly self-heal from physical damage during the heating–cooling process. The lowest self-healing temperature can be adjusted by tuning the percentage of paraffin wax and liquid paraffin. This work gives a new insight for dealing with the challenges of SLIPSs.


Q methodology was used to determine attitudes and opinions about e-books among a group of faculty, graduate students, and undergraduates at Miami University of Ohio. Oral interviews formed the basis for a collection of opinion statements concerning e-books versus print. These statements were then ranked by a second group of research participants. Factor analysis of these rankings found four distinct factors that reveal clusters of opinions on e-books: Book Lovers, Technophiles, Pragmatists, and Printers. Two of the four factors take a more ideological approach in their understanding of e-books: Book Lovers have an emotional attachment to the printed book as an object, while Technophiles feel just as strongly about technology. In contrast, the other two factors are more utilitarian: Printers might find e-books more palatable if usability were improved, while Pragmatists are comfortable with both print and e-book formats.


The aid sector has receive a lot of attention the recent years whereas the public has recognized the societal situation in developing countries. As many people has become more generous with their donations, an increasing number of non-profit organizations (NPO) has emerged which has created a competitive environment in the non-profit sector. As a result, many NPOs has started to adapt business-like qualities such as implementing a marketing strategy and building a brand.The purpose of this study was to explore how NPO manage their internal brand and if it is in accordance to for-profit literature; it will be explored from both the management perspective as well as from employees' perspective. This dissertation is based on literature about internal branding in the for-profit sector. For the theoretical framework a postulated model describing the relationship between employees' skills and knowledge, brand attitude, and brand performance was presented emerging from the theoretical framework.The findings indicate that the studied NPO, IM, is becoming more business-like concerning internal branding, though more in the managements than amongst the employees. Hence, a NPO specific modified theoretical framework is desired, depicting internal branding. Two surprising findings are the influence of external brand communication on employees' brand attitude and brand performance, and that brand leadership emerged as a precursor to the other factors influencing employees' skills and knowledge concerning the internal brand.


An E-number is an unusual mathematical form, constructed from sixteen algebraic variables and sixteen E-symbols (square roots of — 1 obeying a non-commutative algebra), which has distinctive properties different from those of the square matrix of the variables employed in tensor theory. When the latter is considered to be a tensor, the corresponding E-number cannot be a standard tensor, and tensor calculus has made no use of it. Without loss of generality the E-symbols can always be envisaged as transforms of a certain set of numerical matrices, and it is shown here that when this is done every E-number can be expressed in a simplest form, called an E-number. The reduction of an E- to an E-number takes the form of a transformation analogous to that by which a physical magnitude is expressed in a different unit, the variables and the symbols being transformed oppositely. When evaluated the E-number shows itself as a square matrix, which is characterized by having the data expressed by the sixteen variables arranged in another systematic way than that employed in the standard matrix of the variables. It may be obtained from this by a novel kind of transposition, in which the transposed elements are not the matrix terms themselves, but the symmetric and anti-symmetric parts of the terms. Alternatively, it may be obtained by submitting the standard matrix of the variables to a special type of transformation. The transformations employed in these operations differ from those normally used in matrix theory, as they take the form of sums of sets of matrix transformations. General formulae for the products of E-numbers are derived.


Building electronic projects that interact with the physical world is good fun. But when devices that you've built start to talk to each other, things really start to get interesting. Through a series of simple projects, you'll learn how to get your creations to communicate with one another by forming networks of smart devices that carry on conversations with you and your environment. Whether you need to plug some sensors in your home to the Internet or create a device that can interact wirelessly with other creations, Making Things Talk explains exactly what you need. This book is perfect for people with little technical training but a lot of interest. Maybe you're a science teacher who wants to show students how to monitor weather conditions at several locations at once, or a sculptor who wants to stage a room of choreographed mechanical sculptures. Making Things Talk demonstrates that once you figure out how objects communicate -- whether they're microcontroller-powered devices, email programs, or networked databases -- you can get them to interact. Each chapter in contains instructions on how to build working projects that help you do just that. You will: Make your pet's bed send you emailMake your own seesaw game controller that communicates over the InternetLearn how to use ZigBee and Bluetooth radios to transmit sensor data wirelesslySet up communication between microcontrollers, personal computers, and web servers using three easy-to-program, open source environments: Arduino/Wiring, Processing, and PHP.Write programs to send data across the Internet based on physical activity in your home, office, or backyardAnd much more With a little electronics know-how, basic (not necessarily in BASIC) programming skills, a couple of inexpensive microcontroller kits and some network modules to make them communicate using Ethernet, ZigBee, and Bluetooth, you can get started on these projects right away. With Making Things Talk, the possibilities are practically endless.


In this paper, we present and investigate a new method for subband-based Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) which approximates the ideal `full combination' approach which is itself often not practical to realize. The `full combination' approach consists of explicitly considering all possible combinations of subbands (\cite{Hermansky96:TAO}) avoiding the usually necessary independence assumption, which would limit the potential of subband-based ASR. We show how this ideal approach can be effectuated by a nonlinear combination function which constitutes the fullband posterior probabilities decomposed into a weighted sum of posterior probabilities from Artificial Neural Network (ANN) experts. This involves training of one expert for each possible subband combination. To limit such extensive training, we have found that it is possible to achieve comparable results by estimating the subband posterios for each combinationas a function of the posteriors from the individual subbands alone (\cite{Hagen98:SBS,Morris99:TFC}). The theoretical foundation of our solution to the ideal `full combination' approach with the nonlinear combination function and its approximation are presented. The weights,which represent the relative utility for recognition of each subband combination, are very important for this technique and possible schemes for their estimation will be proposed. They have been tested and compared in the framework of HMM/ANN-Hybrid systems on clean and noise-added data.


Our field has become riddled with dichotomies that threaten to undermine our holistic understanding of writing. Form and content (and the related form and function, text and context), product and process, individual and society-these dichotomies too often define our research affiliations, our pedagogies, and our theories. If we are to understand writing as a unified act, as a complex whole, we must find ways to overcome these dichotomies. Recent conceptions of genre as a dynamic and semiotic construct illustrate how to unify form and content, place text within context, balance process and product, and acknowledge the role of both the individual and the social. This reconception of genre may even lead us to a unified theory of writing. The most recent understandings of genre derive from the work of several significant theorists working with different agendas and from different fields: from literature (M. M. Bakhtin, Tzvetan Todorov, Jacques Derrida), linguistics (M. A. K. Halliday, John Swales), and rhetoric (Carolyn Miller, Kathleen Jamieson). However, this work has not yet widely influenced how most scholars and teachers of writing view genre. Our reconception will require releasing old notions of genre as form and text type and embracing new notions of genre as dynamic patterning of human experience, as one of the concepts that enable us to construct our writing world. Basically, the new conception of genre shifts the focus from effects (formal features, text classifications) to sources of those effects. To accommodate our desires for a reunified view of writing, we must shift our thinking about genre from a formal classification system to a rhetorical and essentially semiotic social construct. This article will explain the new conception of genre that is developing and will suggest some effects of this new conception on our thinking about writing.1


Men in African Film & Fiction positions itself as the first scholarly attempt to provide a comprehensive study of the representation of male characters in novels and films by African writers and filmmakers. It consists of a brief (six-page long) introduction by the editor of the collection, Lahoucine Ouzgane, and twelve essays, organised into two separate sections titled, respectively, 'Man & Nation in Africa' and 'Alternative Masculinities.' With a few notable exceptions, almost all of the contributing authors are literature scholars located within English Departments. The essays cover broad geographical terrain, from North Africa (Algeria, Egypt, Morocco), to West Africa (Cameroon, Senegal), to East Africa (Kenya, Uganda), to Southern Africa (Zimbabwe, South Africa), as well as paying attention to African diaspora communities beyond the continent (Martinique).


Mobile technology has contributed to the evolution of several media of communication such as chats, emails and short message service (SMS) text. This has significantly influenced the traditional standard way of expressing views from letter writing to a high-tech form of expression known as texti ng language. In this paper we investigated building a mobile information access system based on SMS queries. The difficulties with SMS communication were explored in terms of the informal communication passage and the associated difficulty in searching and retrieving results from an SMS-based web search engine under its non-standardization. The query is a pre-defined phrase-based translated English version of the SMS. The SMS machine tool normalization algorithm (SCORE) was invented for the query to interface with the best ranked and highly optimized results in the search engine. Our results, when compared with a number of open sources SMS translators gave a better and robust performance of translation of the normalized SMS.


We report the establishment and characterization of four continuous cell lines derived from human primary and metastatic gastric carcinomas, and we compare their properties with a panel of colorectal carcinoma cell lines previously established and reported by us. Our success rate in culturing gastric carcinomas was relatively low, especially from primary tumors, compared to colorectal carcinoma. These observations may reflect the relatively modest number of gastric carcinoma cell lines established (mainly from Japan), compared to the abundance of colorectal carcinoma lines established worldwide. All four gastric lines expressed the surface glycoproteins carcinoembryonic antigen and TAG-72 and three lines expressed CA 19-9. Two of the lines expressed aromatic amino acid decarboxylase but lacked other markers for neuroendocrine differentiation. All four lines were positive for vasoactive intestinal peptide receptors but lacked gastrin receptors. In addition, two lines expressed receptors for muscarinic/cholinergic receptors but not beta-adrenergic receptors. Cytogenetic evidence for gene amplification was present in the cell lines. All four lines contained varying numbers of double-minute chromosomes. One line, SNU-16, was amplified for the c-myc proto-oncogene and contained four homogeneously staining regions. While c-myc and c-erb-B-2 RNA were expressed by all lines, there was no evidence of amplification or overexpression of several other proto-oncogenes and growth factors. The multiple properties we have described in our gastric carcinoma cell lines are remarkably similar to those found in the panel of colorectal carcinoma cell lines. These properties include morphology, growth characteristics, expression of surface glycoproteins, partial expression of neuroendocrine cell markers, frequent chromosomal evidence of gene amplification, and occasional amplification of the c-myc proto-oncogene. Our four well characterized cell lines should provide useful additions to the modest number currently available for in vitro studies of gastric carcinoma.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the pharmacokinetics and safety of orally administered voriconazole in African grey parrots.

ANIMALS
20 clinically normal Timneh African grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus timneh).

PROCEDURES
In single-dose trials, 12 parrots were each administered 6, 12, and 18 mg of voriconazole/kg orally and plasma concentrations of voriconazole were determined via high-pressure liquid chromatography. In a multiple-dose trial, voriconazole (18 mg/kg) was administered orally to 6 birds every 12 hours for 9 days; a control group (2 birds) received tap water. Treatment effects were assessed via observation, clinicopathologic analyses (3 assessments), and measurement of trough plasma voriconazole concentrations (2 assessments).

RESULTS
Voriconazole's elimination half-life was short (1.1 to 1.6 hours). Higher doses resulted in disproportional increases in the maximum plasma voriconazole concentration and area under the curve. Trough plasma voriconazole concentrations achieved in the multiple-dose trial were lower than those achieved after administration of single doses. Polyuria (the only adverse treatment effect) developed in treated and control birds but was more severe in the treatment group.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
In African grey parrots, voriconazole has dose-dependent pharmacokinetics and may induce its own metabolism. Oral administration of 12 to 18 mg of voriconazole/kg twice daily is a rational starting dose for treatment of African grey parrots infected with Aspergillus or other fungal organisms that have a minimal inhibitory concentration for voriconazole < or = 0.4 microg/mL. Higher doses may be needed to maintain plasma voriconazole concentrations during long-term treatment. Safety and efficacy of various voriconazole treatment regimens in this species require investigation.


A random network such as Erdos-Renyi (ER) random network can be used as a simple model for many complex real-world networks. In this work, ER random network with p = 0.1 and n = 100 was constructed. Only one source node and one sink node were chosen randomly in each generated network. With constant sink rate and varying source rates, the average total information within the networks vs κ (ratio between source and sink rates) was plotted for threshold information per node sampled from normal distribution with different standard deviations (from 10 to 30 with intervals of 5) but constant mean of 50. The threshold information per node, unlike κ values, determine the behavior of the average total information within the network.


We test the efficiency of the financial market for the stocks of publicly traded firms related to the largely subsidized U.S. agriculture industry. We study how the anomalous value premium appears in the stocks of participating firms. Our study of the value and growth anomalies of these stocks utilizes the sorting and the beta-premium regressions methods. The firm level data are obtained from merging the Center for Research in Security Prices (CRSP) data from NYSE, Amex, NASDAQ exchanges with the financial statements data from the Compustat database of Standard & Poor's. The results show that the beta of the lower deciles of the agriculture industry related firms are in the same volatility direction as the market but at a lesser degree. The "cash-flow-to-price trading" strategy in agriculture-related stocks appears to be profitable as a riskless hedge portfolio that longs high CF/P agriculture-related stocks and short low CF/P agriculture-related stocks generates, on average and all else equal, a positive and statistically significant abnormal return of 0.23% per year. Perhaps, these U.S. agriculture industry firms benefit some spill-over from farm Bills subsidies.


Advances in technology are having profound effects throughout society. This is no truer than in the way information is being stored. The primary form of information storage for at least the past to millennium has been paper. Today, an ever increasing amount of information is being stored electronically. An increased demand for high-performance, low-cost information storage has been a major catalyst in increasing the popularity of hard drives. In 2002, two exabytes of original information was stored on hard drives. This is ten times the amount of all printed material in the world if it were converted to electronic files. To keep up with this demand, the capacity of hard drives has increased by at least 60% annually since 1991. The capacity has mainly increased by scaling down the relevant dimensions much in the same way that has been done with microprocessors. Scaling cannot indefinitely be used to increase the capacity of hard drives that employ longitudinal magnetic recording. Before long, the superparamagnetic effect will limit the achievable information capacity of hard drives using conventional recording. Therefore, new technologies will be needed. Perpendicular recording, one of several new technologies, will make its entrance into the market later this year in a hard drive designed by Toshiba for Apple's iPod music player. It is said that the hard drive will have an areal bit density of 133 Gbits/in 2. This is an increase of 75% over what is currently available today. However, the hard drive will still employ a continuous magnetic medium. Even greater densities can be achieved if the magnetic medium is physically patterned into isolated bits. This technology, known as patterned magnetic media, has the potential of achieving areal bit densities greater than 1 Tbit/in2. The challenge is finding a way to fabricate it. A high-throughput, low-cost pattern generation technology is needed. Research completed with nanoimprint lithography demonstrates that it can be used to fabricate patterned magnetic media. Several patterns of magnetic media were fabricated with densely packed sub-20-nm features that would produce an areal bit density of at least 258 Gbits/in 2


Matrimonial Law in Works of the Civil Reform Committee (1814–1815). Historical Source Edition We present three source texts. The first are the writings of father Dhiel, General Superintendent of the Reformed Evangelical Congregations, which dealt with matrimonial laws and divorces. Next is the draft act by A. Bieńkowski concerning property contracts between spouses, and the last are fragments of Civil Reform Committee session minutes regarding these writings. The author of the first text covered three issues of fundamental significance to the Protestants, those being: obstacles to contracting marriage, premises for divorce, and the problems of jurisdiction in divorce cases. The author of the published draft act, in turn, postulated the reinstatement of the separation of assets, which had functioned previously under ius terrestre as the statutory property regime in marriage. This solution was in direct opposition to the one introduced in the Napoleonic Code. The draft act was much shorter than the chapter of the Napoleonic Code that it was to replace: 34 articles as compared to 195. In many aspects it could be deemed fragmentary, written from the perspective of the landed gentry, and omitting many problems that concerned other social strata.


A fundamental feature of the Anthropocene is the inexorable erosion of the self-repairing capacity or adaptive renewal of natural systems because of natural perturbation, exploitation, or management failure. The concept of resilience offers a systematic framework for understanding the dynamics and variables that govern response dynamics of ecosystems. Resilience of haplochromine cichlids is assessed using limnological and biodiversity changes in Lake Victoria, the world's second largest freshwater lake, over the last five decades. The review explores the resurgence of the haplochromine cichlids using Holling's adaptive renewal cycle and attempts to illustrate how resilience-based management approaches might learn from an inadvertent management experiment. The introduction in the 1980s of the Nile perch (Lates niloticus), a fecund and voracious predator of the endemic phytoplankton feeding haplochromine cichlids, anthropogenic eutrophication, and deep water hypoxia have combined in a synergistic way to increase the vulnerability of the lake ecosystem to perturbations that were hitherto absorbed. However, the upsurge in commercial Nile perch fishing appears to be enabling the resurgence of the haplochromine cichlids. The resurgence of haplochromine cichlids is characterized by phenotypic plasticity, ecological and life history traits and demonstrates the critical role of response diversity in the maintenance of systems resilience. Resilience of the haplochromine cichlids resides in the requisite functional response diversity and habitat diversity that provide the resources for renewal and regeneration. This paper concludes that management of Nile perch fisheries and control of nutrient loading into Lake Victoria could halt or reverse eutrophication, hence offer the best promise for a diverse, productive, and resilient social-ecological system.


This paper is about the research that has been done to investigate how residents can be urged to save energy. There are two different types of energy-saving behaviours: investment behaviour and curtailment behaviour. There are certain intervention strategies to urge residents to change their investment and curtailment behaviour. With use of the latent class model, three segments of residents are distinguished with different preferences and dislikes for the intervention strategies. Therefore, the municipality of Eindhoven should focus their strategy to urge residents to save energy based on these different segments.


Microfinance has been widely discussed in the literature as a tool to increase financial inclusion for the poor. As a late comer in the microfinance world, Mexico is facing several policy dilemmas in the process of catching up with the rest of the world. They include: (i) setting up legislation which promotes the formal economy and protection for financial consumers; (ii) creating bank accounts for participants of cash-transfer social programs; (iii) dealing with innovative but disruptive business models of private actors; and (iv) making the market for mobile banking and digital money a tool that promotes financial inclusion. All of which is occurring within the context of recent anti money-laundering measurements across the financial sector. This case looks more specifically into the savings component of microfinance, identifying key actors, current trends, and policy actions. Can microsavings increase financial inclusion?


Background
In this study, we present our 12-year experience in the surgical treatment of primary cardiac tumors in childhood.

Methods
Thirteen pediatric patients (8 males, 5 females; mean age 1.3±1.9 years; range, 3 days to 6 years) who were operated for a primary cardiac tumor in our center between January 2005 and December 2017 were included in this study. The data were evaluated retrospectively based on our medical records.

Results
All of the masses resected were benign. However, the most common tumor was rhabdomyoma (n=7), followed by fibroma (n=3), myxoma (n=2), and pericardial teratoma (n=1). The mortality rate was 15.4%, as two patients died in the early postoperative period. No residual mass or tumor recurrence was observed in the early and late postoperative period in the remaining patients.

Conclusion
Although primary cardiac tumors in childhood are usually benign, they may cause clinically significant problems depending on the localization and size of the tumor. Surgical tumor excision is often associated with good long-term outcomes.


Given the background of rising economic inequalities, the topic has reentered the field of economic science. Yet the problem of how economic inequality is being mediated to the public is not discussed in economics at all, and hardly mentioned in communication studies. Through an analysis of recent empirical studies on the coverage of inequality in the media, we debate the role mass media play as information providers. Assessing the underlying assumptions and the methodological approaches guiding the respective empirical findings, we can highlight the merits of this body of work and identify open questions for further research. The last part of the article provides a discussion of (currently rather neglected) political economy theories that offer rich theoretical approaches to study media, power, and inequality.


From analysis of Doppler velocity images from SOHO/MDI, Hathaway et al (2000, Solar Phys., in press) have found clear evidence for giant convection cells that fill the solar surface, have diameters 3 - 10 times that typical of supergranules, and have lifetimes approx. greater than 10 days. Analogous to the superposition of the granular convection on the supergranular convection, the approx. 30,000 km diameter supergranules are superposed on these still larger giant cells. Because the giant cells make up the large-scale end of a continuous power spectrum that peaks at the size scale of supergranules, it appears that the giant cells are made by the same mode of convection as the supergranules. This suggests that the giant cells are similar to supergranules, just longer-lived, larger in diameter, and deeper. Here we point out that the range of lengths of large bipolar sunspot groups is similar to the size range of giant cells. This, along with the long lives (weeks) of large sunspots, suggests that large sunspots sit in long-lived, deep downflows at the corners of giant cells, and that the distance from leader to follower sunspots in large bipolar groups is the distance from one giant-cell corner to the next. By this line of reasoning, an unusually large and strong downdraft might pull in both legs of a rising spot-group magnetic flux loop, resulting in the formation of a delta sunspot. This leads us to suggest that a large, strong giant-cell corner downdraft should be present at the birthplaces of large delta sunspots for some time (days to weeks) before the birth. Thus, early detection of such downdrafts by local helioscismology might provide an early warning for the formation of those active regions (large delta sunspot groups) that produce the Sun's most violent flares and coronal mass ejections. This work is supported by NASA's Office of Space Science through the Solar Physics Branch of its Sun-Earth Connection Program.


This paper proposes a kinematic model and an inertial localization system architecture
for a riser inspecting robot. The robot scrolls outside the catenary riser, used for underwater
petroleum exploration, and is designed to perform several nondestructive tests. It
can also be used to reconstruct the riser profile. Here, a realistic simulation model of robot
kinematics and its environment is proposed, using different sources of data: oil platform
characteristics, riser static configuration, sea currents and waves, vortex-induced vibrations,
and instrumentation model. A dynamic finite element model of the riser generates
a nominal riser profile. When the robot kinematic model virtually scrolls the simulated
riser profile, a robot kinematic pattern is calculated. This pattern feeds error models of a
strapdown inertial measurement unit (IMU) and of a depth sensor. A Kalman filter fuses
the simulated accelerometers data with simulated external measurements. Along the riser
vertical part, the estimated localization error between the simulated nominal and Kalman
filter reconstructed robot paths was about 2 m. When the robot model approaches the
seabed it assumes a more horizontal trajectory and the localization error increases significantly.


Recent research has shown that participation in migrant labor markets has led to substantial increases in income for families in rural China. This paper asks how participation is affected by elder parent health. We find that younger adults are less likely to work as migrants when a parent is ill. Poor elder parent health has less impact on the probability of employment as a migrant when an adult child has siblings who may be available to provide care. We also highlight the potential importance of including information on non-resident family members when studying how parent illness and elder care requirements influence the labor supply decisions of adult children.


As part of the Syngress Basics series, The Basics of Cloud Computing provides readers with an overview of the cloud and how to implement cloud computing in their organizations. Cloud computing continues to grow in popularity, and while many people hear the term and use it in conversation, many are confused by it or unaware of what it really means. This book helps readers understand what the cloud is and how to work with it, even if it isn't a part of their day-to-day responsibility.

Authors Derrick Rountree and Ileana Castrilloexplains the concepts of cloud computing in practical terms, helping readers understand how to leverage cloud services and provide value to their businesses through moving information to the cloud. The book will be presented as an introduction to the cloud, and reference will be made in the introduction to other Syngress cloud titles for readers who want to delve more deeply into the topic.

This book gives readers a conceptual understanding and a framework for moving forward with cloud computing, as opposed to competing and related titles, which seek to be comprehensive guides to the cloud.

· Provides a sound understanding of the cloud and how it works.

· Describes both cloud deployment models and cloud services models, so you can make the best decisions for deployment.

· Presents tips for selecting the best cloud services providers.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction

2. What Makes up a Cloud

3. Cloud Deployment Models

4. Cloud Services Models

5. Making the Decision


The 2
nd

 Volume of Integrated Sci-Tech: Interdisciplinary Research Approach book is
published by the Research Institute and Community Services, University of Lampung. It
integrates engineering, life sciences and biomedical engineering, and agriculture engineering
and food sciences. The aim was to provide a cross section roadmap from basic research,
technological and developments, processes development, and their applications and integrity
in the real-world usage. The motivation for this Volume-2 book was to provide a suitable
reference text for those who interested in the interdisciplinary studies and research. The
book was also planned to provide advanced orientation and understanding for related
industries and governments to looking across industrial partnerships, business strategic, and
policy and regulations, with expected for a wider range of readers.

This book consists of several chapters divided into three sections i.e., engineering, life
science and biomedical engineering, and agriculture engineering and food science. Each
chapter is a completely self-directed contribution in chained discussion which aims to bring
academia, researcher, practitioners and students rise to speed with the novel developments
within the particular area. In order to enhance the reader experience, each book chapter
contains its own abstract, instruction, main body, as well as conclusion sections. Moreover,
bibliography resources are available at the end of each chapter.

We are pleased and thankful for all distinguish authors and reviewers for their contribution
that have made this book possible. We do hope that you will enjoy this book and find it as a
useful guide and reference.


Two questions relating to the conservation of black stilts (Himantopus novaezelandiae) were addressed: First, what effects do changes in lake levels have on black stilts? Second, how can habitat be manipulated to enhance food supplies for black stilts? Relationships between lake levels and black stilt food supplies, foraging behaviour, habitat suitability and abundance, on 4 6 lake deltas, were investigated. On two deltas, declining water levels exposed abundant food supplies and large expanses of suitable habitat, and attracted more stilts to the deltas than were usually present. On the other deltas, availability of food either decreased or did not change, and amount of suitable habitat increased as lake levels declined. Numbers of stilts using these deltas were not related to lake levels. A specific management question was: what effects would extending the operating range of Lake Pukaki, to include water between 513 and 518 metres above sea level (m a.s.l.), have on black stilts? My results suggest that food supplies and physical habitat are similar above and below 518 m a.s.\., and that extending the operating range would have little or no effect on black stilts. The influence of site, substratum addition (straw, stones or topsoil), time, and construction method (excavation or inundation) on black stilt food supplies were investigated in three field experiments. Invertebrate biomass and community composition in recently created wetlands (3 months old) appeared to depend primarily on site-specific conditions such as particle size composition and availability of particulate organic material, but could be influenced by substratum additions and construction methods. Captive black stilt chicks were able to capture and consume common prey taxa that were present on experimental substrata. Wild black stilts foraged and nested at some of the experimental wetlands. These results suggest that wetland enhancement has excellent potential as a management technique for black stilts.


During the past few years, considerable reseach has been undertaken on rabbit nutrition. Rabbit producers, feed manufacturers, animal nutritionists, and others interested in rabbit production will find this book to be the new authority. Comprehensive and up-to-date, the book evaluates new information on such topics as protein digestion and requirements, nutrition/disease interrelationships, feeding behavior, and nutrional factors involved in enteritis.


This essay discusses whether "stealing" theories from other disciplines should always be avoided or whether there is any appropriate way of using theories developed in other disciplines in an information systems (IS) context. We take a look at the benefits and problems that have arisen in the IS field as a result of theory borrowing and suggest that – when done appropriately – such borrowing may well benefit the field. In the process, we also draw on the marketing and psychology literatures to evaluate the adequacy of theory borrowing in general and derive specific recommendations about what appropriate borrowing could look like. By synthesizing concepts from these literatures, we derive a comprehensive set of recommendations that may improve the process of theory borrowing in the field; thereby moving the discipline forward.


Objectives: Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has poor prognosis and patients rarely survive unless they receive immediate cardiopulmonary resuscitation from bystanders. In 2012, the British Heart Foundation launched its PocketCPR training application to simplify bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation training and overcome barriers to resuscitation. This study investigates whether the British Heart Foundation PocketCPR training application improves the confidence of bystanders who perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation during simulated resuscitation attempts. Methods: This is a mixed method study using a randomised crossover trial with questionnaire analysis. One hundred and twenty participants were randomised to either perform two minutes of cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a resuscitation manikin using the British Heart Foundation PocketCPR application or perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation without instruction. Participants completed a questionnaire to capture their confidence before completing the opposite arm of the study. Each participant then completed a second questionnaire to allow for comparison of levels of confidence. Results: Participants in this study were more confident in their overall performance of cardio-pulmonary resuscitation using the British Heart Foundation PocketCPR training application compared to performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation without instruction (mean confidence score (0–100): 50.41 with PocketCPR and 43.92 without (p = 0.026)). They were also more confident that the number of chest compressions in this study was correct (mean: 60.39 with PocketCPR vs. 46.10 without (p < 0.001)), and in the delivery of cardiopulmonary resuscitation without having recent cardiopulmonary resuscitation training (mean: 48.67 with PocketCPR vs. 39.79 without (p < 0.002)). Conclusion: The British Heart Foundation PocketCPR training application improved the confidence of bystanders performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation during simulated resuscitation attempts.


The aim of this study was to survey the labelling of drinks with pronounced health
benefits found on the Swedish market today and to evaluate whether they are in
accordance to EU and national regulations or not. Especially the nutrition and health
claims were looked into. This study shows that there are several drinks with claimed
health effects being sold today. The process of approaching full functioning
regulations in the EU on nutrition and health claims is proceeding slowly. A snapshot
of today�'s market of drinks with pronounced health effects shows that there are
multiple cases of misleading statements and interfering labelling on the products.
Often it concerns nutritional labelling or health claims. In this study a total of 60
health claims were found on the products. The health claims were made on 10
different vitamins, seven different minerals, five other substances, dietary fibre (one
claim) and lactic acid bacteria (three claims). One health claim had reached a final
decision from the European Commission and is no longer allowed. For 44 health
claims found in this study similar claims were found in EFSA�'s (European Food
Safety Authority) Register of questions database and the evaluations of these were
used to estimate the outcome for those claims found in the study. The estimation
reveals that 38 health claims might be approved though 13 of these might be
considered to be misleading since the EU population does not have an inadequate
intake of the subject of the claim. Six of the health claims might not be permitted to
use. The 15 remaining health claims were not possible to estimate, as EFSA had not
evaluated health claims similar to these yet. The nutrition claims found on the
investigated products in most cases were in accordance to regulations, however a few
need to be clarified. A considerable amount of unclear expressions were found and
many ingredients were pointed out in the labelling and many of them need to be
clarified or explained as well. When the harmonized EU regulation on the use of
nutrition and health claims is of full coverage it will surely be easier for companies to
label their products in a truthful and lawful way compared to today.


REVIEW ARTICLE Introduction: Antibiotics as a type of pharmaceutical compounds are widely used in modern medicine and veterinary industries. They enter the environment in different ways, including agricultural runoff, direct discharge of urban wastewater treatment or human waste, direct disposal of medical, veterinary industrial waste and to name but a few. Antibiotics have been able to influence the microbial population. Their continuous presence in the environment can lead to bacterial resistance and in recent years, the issue has caused serious concerns in the scientific community. Materials and Methods: Unfortunately, in spite of the extensive investigations, there is still a considerable lack of integrated and classified information to assess the environmental risks of antibiotics. Therefore, in the current study, the removal of these compounds from aqueous solutions was studied. This study was carried out on the basis of surveys accomplished in recent decades and also the ones published in databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed, Elsevier, Scopus, Springer, Magiran and SID using anti-bacterial agents, antibiotic, wastewater and removal methods as the keywords. Results: Advanced treatment processes such as ozonation, advanced oxidation, activated carbon, Nano filtration and reverse osmosis can remove higher levels of antibiotics. Conclusion: Generally, the biological and chemical processes alone are not effective for antibiotics' removal from aquatic environments while combination of advanced oxidation and biological treatment processes can effectively reduce the amount of antibiotic. Article History: Received: 10 Dec 2015 Accepted: 30 Feb 2016


Question answering (QA) extracting answers from text to the given question in natural language, has been actively studied and existing models have shown a promise of outperforming human performance when trained and evaluated with SQuAD dataset. However, such performance may not be replicated in the actual setting, for which we need to diagnose the cause, which is non-trivial due to the complexity of model. We thus propose a web-based UI that provides how each model contributes to QA performances, by integrating visualization and analysis tools for model explanation. We expect this framework can help QA model researchers to refine and improve their models.


In this paper, we investigate the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination in controlling the infectivity and mortality of the SARS-CoV-2. Two major variants Delta and Omicron are investigated respectively. The main method used in the research is the multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis (MF-DFA). We use 𝛥𝛼 as the evaluation of control effectiveness. In the transmission stages of Delta and Omicron, we observe whether 𝛥𝛼 shows a downward trend by gradually expanding the length of time series. Vaccine effectiveness is evaluated using a time series of newly diagnosed patients and newly reported deaths. Data samples are taken from 9 different countries. According to the obtained results, the vaccine controls infectivity and mortality of the virus in the Delta transmission stage, but infectivity control is less effective than mortality. In the Omicron transmission stage, the immune effect of the vaccine is not obvious, which may be related to the high infectivity of Omicron. However, the vaccine is still effective in controlling mortality. We also find that the immune effect of vaccine on Omicron was lower than that of Delta. Finally, we observe that the immune effect of the vaccine in 'Poland' was abnormal. By analyzing the vaccination curve, we conclude that in 'Poland', when the growth rate of vaccination rate slowed down, the immune effect of the vaccine was very poor in terms of pathogenicity and lethality. Therefore, we suggest that all countries should continue to strengthen the vaccination rate. A higher or faster growth rate of vaccination rate will help control the infectivity and mortality rate, especially in the effectiveness of controlling mortality. Our research can be used to evaluate the effectiveness of vaccines for epidemic prevention and control, the formulation of epidemic prevention measures and vaccination policies for different countries with respect to their current pandemic situation accordingly.


The Distributed Array Query and Visualization (DAQV) project aims to develop systems and tools that facilitate interacting with distributed programs and data structures. Arrays distributed across the processes of a parallel or distributed application are made available to external clients via well defined interfaces and protocols. Our design considers the broad issues of language targets, models of interaction, and abstractions for data access, while our implementation attempts to provide a general framework that can be adapted to a range of application scenarios. The paper describes the second generation of DAQV work and places it in the context of the more general distributed array access problem. Current applications and future work are also described.


type="main"> The regional allocation of aid within recipient countries has been largely ignored. We use geocoded data on the location of aid projects financed by the World Bank and the African Development Bank within a sample of 27 recipient countries to assess the claim of donors that their aid targets needy population segments. We also assess whether political leaders in these countries direct aid funds to their home region. We do not find that the multilateral institutions take regional needs into account. Instead, favoritism appears to play an important role for location choices, in particular for physical infrastructure projects.


This research seeks to understand the beliefs of recent second language teacher education (SLTE) program graduates concerning the relationship between the English language teaching (ELT) profession and linguistic diversity. This relationship is explored within the context of professional responsibilities, and, more specifically, whether research participants consider ELT to have a professional responsibility to sustain linguistic diversity. Recent SLTE graduates comprise one sector of ELT from which to gauge the degree to which a professional responsibility is embraced within ELT endeavors to sustain linguistic diversity, in addition to the central aim of increasing the language proficiency of English learners. Any development within ELT for recognizing a relationship between language teaching and linguistic diversity should be evidenced both through expressed beliefs about a professional responsibility as well as identified connections to the teaching practices of professionals. SLTE programs are significant conveyors of ELT philosophy and practices, preparing English language teachers. Therefore, interviews with recent SLTE program graduates were conducted and analyzed to determine the beliefs concerning the role of the ELT profession in relation to linguistic diversity, including the teaching practices which reflect those expressed beliefs. In addition, an examination of how participants describe the role of their SLTE program in shaping their beliefs and teaching practices will also contribute to understanding any potential professional responsibility accepted and practiced by ELT in sustaining linguistic diversity.


Abstract. As one of the important sources of meteorological information, satellite nephogram is playing an increasingly important role in the detection and forecast of disastrous weather. The predictions about the movement and transformation of cloud with certain timeliness can enhance the practicability of satellite nephogram. Based on the generative adversarial network in unsupervised learning, we propose a prediction model of time series nephogram, which construct the internal representation of cloud evolution accurately and realize nephogram prediction for the next several hours. We improve the traditional generative adversarial network by constructing the generator and discriminator used the multi-scale convolution network. After the scale transform process, different scales operate convolutions in parallel and then merge the features. This structure can solve the problem of long-term dependence in the traditional network, and both global and detailed features are considered. Then according to the network structure and practical application, we define a new loss function combined with adversarial loss function to accelerate the convergence of model and sharpen predictions which keeps the effectivity of predictions further. Our method has no need to carry out the stack mathematics calculation and the manual operations, has greatly enhanced the feasibility and the efficiency. The results show that this model can reasonably describe the basic characteristics and evolution trend of cloud cluster, the prediction nephogram has very high similarity to the ground-truth nephogram.


This paper demonstrates a novel combination of program synthesis and verification to lift stencil computations from low-level Fortran code to a high-level summary expressed using a predicate language. The technique is sound and mostly automated, and leverages counter-example guided inductive synthesis (CEGIS) to find provably correct translations. Lifting existing code to a high-performance description language has a number of benefits, including maintainability and performance portability. For example, our experiments show that the lifted summaries can enable domain specific compilers to do a better job of parallelization as compared to an off-the-shelf compiler working on the original code, and can even support fully automatic migration to hardware accelerators such as GPUs. We have implemented verified lifting in a system called STNG and have evaluated it using microbenchmarks, mini-apps, and real-world applications. We demonstrate the benefits of verified lifting by first automatically summarizing Fortran source code into a high-level predicate language, and subsequently translating the lifted summaries into Halide, with the translated code achieving median performance speedups of 4.1X and up to 24X for non-trivial stencils as compared to the original implementation.


The paper uses Minsky's financial instability hypothesis as an analytical framework for understanding the subprime mortgage crisis and for introducing adequate reforms to restore economic stability. We argue that the subprime crisis has structural origins that extend far beyond the housing and financial markets. We further argue that rising inequality since the 1980s formed the breeding ground for the current financial markets meltdown. What we observe today is only the manifestation of the ingenuity of the market in taking advantage of moneymaking opportunities, regardless of the consequences. The so-called "democratization of homeownership" rapidly turned into record-high delinquencies and foreclosures. The sudden turn in market expectations led investors and banks to reevaluate their portfolios, which brought about a credit crunch and widespread economic instability. The Federal Reserve Bank's intervention came too late and failed to usher in adequate regulation. Finally, the paper argues that a true democratization of homeownership is only possible through job creation and income-generation programs, rather than through exotic mortgage schemes.


This study investigates how Japanese novice L2 speakers of English employ prosodic variations of the receipt particle oh to socially accomplish awe in L2 interaction. In addition to marking changes in epistemic states (Heritage 1984), these participants also produced oh in ways that mark their affective state. Specifically, an oh-response that was delivered as 'ogh', was taken by recipients to be conveying surprise or awe. Unlike "surprised receipts" found in L1 English use (Wilkinson and Kitzinger 2006), these "awed receipts" were delivered with decreased pitch and their vowel quality and sequential placement identified them as Japanese (L1) tokens. The chapter outlines several interactional loci which make public the speaker's emotional stance toward some aspect of the prior interaction.


The delta D values of inclusion fluids from quartz and calcite of the Au-Ag vein deposits range from -48 to -72 per mil, showing a strong correlation with values of the local meteoric waters. The 18 O/ 16 O ratios of the ore fluids of quartz, the filling temperatures of the fluid inclusions, and the isotopic fractionation factor between quartz and water show only slight shifts from these values in meteoric water.The delta D values of ore fluids for the Cu-Pb-Zn vein deposits vary from -42 to -74, showing a wider scatter within a single orebody than for the Au-Ag vein deposits. A weak but definite correlation exists between the D/H ratios of local meteoric waters and ore fluids for late-stage ore minerals. The ore fluids for the Cu-Pb-Zn veins have a 2 to 9 per mil positive oxygen isotopic shift from the meteoric values. These results and calculations based on a new model of rock-water interaction indicate that ore fluids for the Au-Ag vein deposits and for the later stage mineralization of the Cu-Pb-Zn deposits evolved from local meteoric waters under low rock/water ratios. Conversely, the major stage of mineralization of the Cu-Pb-Zn vein deposits precipitated from meteoric hydrothermal solutions that could have evolved under high rock/water ratios; this stage has a much higher salinity than fluids of the later stage. The contribution of magmatic fluids could have ranged from 0 to 20 volume percent in the major stage.The delta D and delta 18 O values for the Kuroko ore solutions were -10 to -30 and -1.0 to +1.0, respectively, for deposits in the Hokuroku basins, northeast Honshu, and -30 to -50 and about -2, respectively, for the Iwami mine, southwest Honshu. These isotopic results, the salinity data, and the calculations on the effect of rock-water interactions indicate that the Kuroko ore solutions of the Hokuroku basins could have evolved from mixtures of sea water and meteoric water. A small amount of magmatic water may have been present. The close association of sulfates and Mg-chlorites in the Kuroko deposits is the direct result of the incorporation of sea water into submarine hydrothermal systems.This study shows that, contrary to the prevailing thought, the vein mineralization occurred under terrestrial environments and, thus, is younger (upper Miocene to Pliocene) than the Kuroko deposits. All the constituents of the vein ores were leached from the Tertiary country rocks by the meteoric hydrothermal circulation. Sulfur isotopic studies indicate that the sulfur came from Miocene sea-water sulfate trapped in the Tertiary sediments as dissolved sulfates in pore water or as anhydrite and gypsum. The lead isotope abundances, mineralogy, and chemistry of both the veins and the Kuroko deposits also are in accord with the present results. The close association of sulfates and Mg-chlorites in the Kuroko deposits is the direct result of the incorporation of sea water into submarine hydrothermal systems.


In this dissertation I attempt to provide a cogent reading of Heidegger's
fledgling account of the being of language. Emphasis is placed on the analysis of
language in Being and Time in particular; for it is with respect to Being and Time that
interpretations of Heidegger's fledgling account are developed, and against which
his mature account is usually contrasted. Amongst these interpretations are the
derivativist and instrumentalist accounts of language, which suppose that language
is itself pre-figured by a pre- or non-linguistic grasp of phenomena. Against these
accounts, the structure and arguments for which I lay bare, I contend that language
is in each case already there, meaningfully articulating the world, affecting
understanding ab initio; that language is not therefore prefigured by – and in the first
instance absent from – the being-in-the-world which is our own. This, I claim, is
also Heidegger's stance; a stance which, formed in Being and Time in essence, founds
his subsequent, increasingly dedicated thinking about what language, as such, 'is'.
In addition to my critique of instrumentalism and derivativism in this
dissertation, I contest the contemporary pragmatist reading of Being and Time
inasmuch as it is occasionally employed to champion a non-linguistic normative
pragmatism with which to explain just how a non- or pre-linguistic grasp of
phenomena might properly occur.
As such, this dissertation encourages the reorientation of the philosophy of
language (as well as contemporary thinking about Heidegger's own account of the
phenomenon) away from the temptation to think language 'formally' according to
an hierarchical structure of being-in-the-world, and towards the role and function
of language in the structural articulation of the world itself, human being-there,
and the hermeneutic tradition in which we inevitably find ourselves to be. As such, it outlines and suggests the possibility and preferability of a phenomenological – as
opposed to a metaphysical – account of what language is, attempts to show the
universality and ubiquitousness of language in human being, and illustrates the
opening 'way' to language qua language which Heidegger's mature thinking was
eventually to take.


ABSTRACT Most groups do less violence than they are capable of. Yet while there is now an extensive literature on the escalation of or radicalisation towards violence, particularly by 'extremist' groups or actors, and while processes of de-escalation or de-radicalisation have also received significant attention, processes of non- or limited escalation have largely gone below the analytical radar. This article contributes to current efforts to address this limitation in our understanding of the dynamics of political aggression by developing a descriptive typology of the 'internal brakes' on violent escalation: the mechanisms through which members of the groups themselves contribute to establish and maintain limits upon their own violence. We identify five underlying logics on which the internal brakes operate: strategic, moral, ego maintenance, outgroup definition, and organisational. The typology is developed and tested using three very different case studies: the transnational and UK jihadi scene from 2005 to 2016; the British extreme right during the 1990s, and the animal liberation movement in the UK from the mid-1970s until the early 2000s.


The AEF in Print is an anthology that tells the story of U.S. involvement in World War I through newspaper and magazine articles—precisely how the American public experienced the Great War. From April 1917 to November 1918, Americans followed the war in their local newspapers and popular magazines. The book's chapters are organized chronologically: Mobilization, Arrival in Europe, Learning to Fight, American Firsts, Battles, and the Armistice. Also included are topical chapters, such as At Sea, In the Air, In the Trenches, Wounded Warriors, and Heroes. "Some of these stories are real gems. Irving Cobb's account of the sinking of the SS Tuscania, for example, is absolutely riveting, and the same can be said of William Shepherd's description of life aboard US Navy destroyers in the Atlantic, Floyd Gibbons's narration of his wounding at Belleau Wood, and George Pattullo's roll-out of the Sergeant York legend." —Steven Trout, author of On the Battlefield of Memory: The First World War and American Remembrance. "The well-written and evocative articles bring the war to life." —Jennifer Keene, author of Doughboys, the Great War, and the Remaking of America.


I. INTRODUCTION The exclusionary rule has been under near-constant attack (1) since its inception as a federal constitutional device more than forty years ago. (2) The Supreme Court has consistently limited the rule's operation in criminal cases (3) and has refused to extend it to most contexts outside the criminal trial. (4) In Pennsylvania Board of Probation and Parole v. Scott, (5) the Court's most recent case addressing the exclusionary rule's application in a non-criminal proceeding, the Court refused to apply the rule to parole revocation hearings even though they might result in longer periods of incarceration than many criminal trials. (6) The Court concluded that police officers would not be sufficiently deterred by the suppression of evidence at revocation hearings to justify the relatively high costs that suppression would inflict. (7) This conclusion raises a fundamental question--if the exclusionary rule does not produce enough deterrence to police when illegally seized evidence puts a person at risk of going to jail, why would the rule produce any more deterrence when mere property is at stake? Scott suggests that the Court might retreat from its prior decision in One 1958 Plymouth Sedan v. Pennsylvania, (8) in which the Court applied the exclusionary rule to civil forfeiture. (9) One Plymouth Sedan remains the only Supreme Court case to apply the rule outside the criminal trial context. (10) Under the analysis employed in Scott, however, the application of the exclusionary rule in civil forfeiture hearings is in serious doubt. (11) If police officers are not sufficiently deterred by the prospect of evidence being suppressed at a hearing where a person's liberty is in jeopardy, it is a fortiori that they will not be deterred by the possibility of suppression at a civil forfeiture hearing where only the person's property is in jeopardy. Law enforcement officials have much to gain in the outcome of the issues raised in Scott, and will likely bring challenges to the exclusionary rule in civil forfeiture. While the court's trend is moving away from applying the exclusionary rule in civil contexts, law enforcement agencies are increasingly relying on civil tools to attack crime. (12) At the forefront of this movement is the use of civil forfeiture to seize the fruits and instrumentalities of the narcotics trade. (13) Civil forfeiture statutes allow law enforcement officers to seize privately held assets that have been used in a crime, a practice that not only frustrates narcotics traffic, but also fills public coffers. (14) Moreover, most civil forfeiture statutes carry with them low burdens of proof and few defenses, (15) thus providing governments with a powerful device that is far more streamlined than the time-consuming process of prosecuting a criminal. With so much at stake, law enforcement officials are likely to use Scott to mount challenges to the exclusionary rule in civil forfeiture. In fact, lower courts have not been silent on the vulnerability of One Plymouth Sedan. (16) A California appellate court has outright rejected the exclusionary rule in civil forfeiture: [The] application of the exclusionary rule in civil forfeiture actions is unnecessary and of little additional benefit, particularly when the property is owned by a third party claimant who has not been convicted of any offense. To date the United States Supreme Court has rejected application of the exclusionary rule to civil cases, and we decline to do so as well in this civil forfeiture case. (17) A Maryland court put it more bluntly: "Has One 1958 Plymouth Sedan, whatever it stood for, retained its vitality over the thirty-three years since it was handed down? No, it has not." (18) This Article presents a counterargument to the encroachments on the continued use of the exclusionary rule in civil forfeiture proceedings. Part II examines briefly the Supreme Court's existing exclusionary rule case law. …


The patient, a four-month old female (corrected age 3 months), was born at 36 weeks of gestation on 30 May 2011 via emergency Caesarean section, due to pre-eclampsia toxaemia to a 47-year-old mother. She is the fourth child (gravida 4, para 4) of nonconsanguineous parents. She was admitted to hospital on 14 September with difficulty breathing, and was subsequently diagnosed with Treacher Collins syndrome (TCS) and failure to thrive.


This paper proposes a general empirical framework to estimate the protection-for-sale model, where the protection regime shifts according to a sector's market structure (perfectly or monopolistically competitive). We base the protection structure on Grossman and Helpman (1994) for the subset of perfectly competitive sectors and on Chang (2005) for the subset of monopolistically competitive sectors. The two protection regimes are simultaneously estimated with joint constraints. The results of the J-test consistently reject the homogeneous (perfect competition) protection-for-sale model often adopted in previous literature and suggest a direction of improvement toward the proposed heterogeneous protection structure model.


Sarah Jane Palmer presents a selection of recently published articles of interest to nurses working in cardiovascular nursing. The aim of this roundup is to provide a brief overview of the research papers selected. A full reference is provided for those who wish to look at the research in further detail


Magnetic susceptibility mismatch, between human tissue and a foreign metallic object, is one of several factors responsible for image distortions in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Combining diamagnetic materials such as bismuth or carbon with paramagnetic materials such as nitinol or titanium can reduce the mismatch in bulk susceptibility of a foreign object and the surrounding tissue. Muller-Bierl et al. have succeeded in reducing MRI field distortion by coating titanium wire with bismuth. Wilson et al. used a pyrolytic graphite mouth shim to improve brain functional MRI performance. Conolly et al. have successfully used pyrolytic graphite in foam to reduce image artifacts at air-tissue interfaces. In this study, it was hypothesized that coating a metallic object with carbon particles suspended in a polymer can reduce the size of image artifacts. Four 6Al-4V titanium discs (2.3mm×9.5mm∅) were encapsulated in an epoxy-graphite mixture. Mixtures of graphite and epoxy were poured around the titanium discs in molds and allowed to cure. A specimen of titanium was encapsulated in plain epoxy to serve as the control sample. Polycrystalline graphite was mixed at mass ratios of 1:2 and 1:1 to epoxy for two of the samples. Pyrolytic graphite flakes were mixed at a 1:2 mass ratio to epoxy. The sample discs were placed in an aqueous solution of copper sulfate and gadolinium contrast agent inside a wrist imaging coil at the isocenter of a 3 Tesla MRI machine; disc axes were perpendicular to the B0 direction. A T2-weighted gradient echo MRI image was taken in the coronal plane. Echo time, relaxation time, flip angle, and phase encode direction set to 71 ms, 3430 ms, 80 degrees, and right to left respectively. The control sample produced an arrowhead artifact sweeping in the same direction as the static magnetic field vector, B0. The two samples containing powdered polycrystalline graphite produced arrowhead shaped artifacts. The direction of image distortion, however, was opposite from that of the control sample. The change in direction of the image artifact is attributed to the change in bulk magnetic susceptibility of the sample from paramagnetic behavior of titanium encapsulated in plain epoxy to a diamagnetic behavior from the added carbon powder. The titanium sample encapsulated in the pyrolytic graphite-epoxy mixture produced an artifact with irregular outline and no discernable directional bias relative to B0. The hypothesized cause for this difference in artifact shape between the polycrystalline and pyrolytic graphite samples is an increase in air bubble entrapment due to the planar structure of the pyrolytic graphite flakes during the epoxy mixing process. Further study is underway to find a specific carbon-polymer mass ratio and coating thickness that will reduce MR image artifacts that would otherwise appear due to the presence of a metallic object in the MRI region of interest. This work is supported by MIMTeC, a National Science Foundation Industry University Collaborative Research Center and by NIH Grant P30NS057091.


The subject of this thesis is the investigation and optimization of beam transport elements in the context of the steadily growing field of laser-driven particle acceleration. This cumulative thesis introduces to the theoretical framework of the elements and presents the results via corresponding publications.
The first topic is the examination of the free vacuum expansion of an electron beam at high current density. Unlike in the case of conventional acceleration, laser acceleration yields charge densities which are comparatively high at lower energies. It could be shown that particle tracking codes which are commonly used for the calculation of space charge effects will generate substantial artifacts in the regime considered here. The artifacts occurring hitherto predominantly involve insufficient prerequisites for the Lorentz transformation, the application of inadequate initial conditions and non negligible retardation artifacts. A part of this thesis is dedicated to the development of a calculation approach which uses a more adequate ansatz calculating space charge effects for laser-accelerated electron beams. It can also be used to validate further approaches for the calculation of space charge effects.

The next elements considered are miniature magnetic quadrupole devices for the focusing of charged particle beams. Invented in 1980 by Halbach, miniature permanent magnet quadrupoles yield field gradients at least a factor two higher than superconducting quadrupole devices. General problems involved with their miniaturization concern distorting higher order field components. If these distorting components cannot be controlled, the field of applications is very limited. In this thesis a new method for the characterization and compensation of the distorting components was developed, which might become a standard method when assembling these permanent magnet multipole devices. Consequently, the field where these devices are applicable could be broadened. The newly developed characterization method has been validated at the Mainz Microtron (MAMI) electron accelerator. Now that we can ensure optimum performance, the first application of permanent magnet quadrupole devices in conjunction with laser-accelerated ion beams is presented. The experiment was carried out at the Z-Petawatt laser system at Sandia National Laboratories.

A Free Electron Laser (FEL) delivers coherent photon beams at higher energies than what can be reached by conventional laser systems. A promising application for laser-accelerated electron beams is the FEL in a university-scale size. The first discussion of all relevant aspects concerning a laser driven FEL is presented.

The operation of an FEL depends on many factors, among which is the average electron beam size while propagating through the undulator. The undulator length could be reduced significantly if the average beam size can be reduced. This goal motivates the development of a new undulator concept, based on miniature magnetic quadrupoles, which is presented here. This quadrupole undulator yields strong intrinsic focusing properties which allow to keep the electron beam at a comparatively small and constant size over a long propagation range.

The experimental realization of a compact FEL involves the first step of building a test undulator with a short undulator period length. This undulator device was assembled and experiments aiming at undulator radiation have been carried out at the MAMI electron accelerator facility in the course of this thesis.

The investigations presented in this thesis mark important development steps on the route towards many applications of laser-accelerated particle beams. Especially laser-driven compact Free-Electron-Lasers are an attractive alternative to costly large-scale conventional facilities.


The invasion and exclusion abilities of coexisting Pseudomonas syringae strains were quantified on leaves. Twenty-nine P. syringae strains were inoculated onto plants in 107 pairwise combinations. All pairs were duplicated so that each strain was inoculated both first as an antagonist strain (day 0) and second as a challenge strain (day 3). The population size of each strain in a mixture was quantified on day 6 following incubation under moist conditions. For P. syringae strains, the presence of an established population often significantly reduced the growth of subsequently arriving challenge strains on the leaf surface. Invasion and exclusion abilities, quantified by contrasting population sizes of challenge strains in the presence and in the absence of another strain, varied significantly among P. syringae strains and were partly a function of the particular strain pair. The population size of a strain when present alone on a leaf was not predictive of invasion or exclusion ability. Successful invaders were significantly less likely to exclude challenge populations than were nonsuccessful invaders. Population sizes of successful excluders were negatively correlated with population sizes of coexisting challenge strains, while population sizes of successful invaders were positively correlated with those of coexisting antagonist strains. The patterns of interaction among coexisting strains suggest mechanisms for successful invasion and exclusion among P. syringae strains on leaves.


Over the past forty years the history of design has grown out of all recognition as a serious field of academic study, research and scholarship. Interest in the discipline has also seen considerable development globally over the period although, more recently, this has perhaps accelerated as a result a number of international initiatives, beginning with an international conference at the University of Barcelona in 1999. Entitled 'Historiar desde la periferia: historia e historias del diseno', the conference sought to develop the profile of the subject in the Spanish-speaking world. The proceedings were published in the following year in which a follow-up conference was held in Havana, Cuba. After this, the idea of dissemination developed further with the holding of a third conference on design history and design studies in Istanbul in 2002, entitled 'Mind the Map: Design History beyond Boundaries' with a fourth planned in Guadalajara, Mexico, in 2004. The increasingly ambitious agenda could be seen in the Mind the Map conference which comprised thirteen strands as well as a workshop on 'ID in the Periphery: Historical Development Patterns of Industrial Design in Newly Industrializing Countries'. In one strand alone, 'Design History Narratives: From Local to Global' there were contributions from Britain, Canada, Estonia, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, Turkey, Singapore and the United States. The significance of the inauguration of Design History Workshop Japan in November 2002, further disseminating research, pedagogy and publication in the discipline in another key geographical and linguistic arena, marks another important milestone in its dissemination and academic development.


The four major oligomeric reaction products from saponified modified hairy regions (MHR-S) from apple, produced by recombinant rhamnogalacturonan (RG) alpha-L-rhamnopyranosyl-(1, 4)-alpha-D-galactopyranosyluronide lyase (rRG-lyase) from Aspergillus aculeatus, were isolated and characterized by 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy. They contain an alternating RG backbone with a degree of polymerization of 4, 6, 8, and 10 and with an alpha-Delta-(4,5)-unsaturated D-galactopyranosyluronic acid at the nonreducing end and an L-rhamnopyranose at the reducing end. L-Rhamnopyranose units are substituted at C-4 with beta-galactose. The maximum reaction rate of rRG-lyase toward MHR-S at pH 6.0 and 31 degreesC was 28 units mg-1. rRG-lyase and RG-hydrolase cleave the same alternating RG I subunit in MHR. Both of these enzymes fragment MHR by a multiple attack mechanism. The catalytic efficiency of rRG-lyase for MHR increases with decreasing degree of acetylation. Removal of arabinose side chains improves the action of rRG-lyase toward MHR-S. In contrast, removal of galactose side chains decreased the catalytic efficiency of rRG-lyase. Native RG-lyase was purified from A. aculeatus, characterized, and found to be similar to the rRG-lyase expressed in Aspergillus oryzae.


ABSTRACT This paper focuses on sound production in the larvae of Geotrupes spiniger (Marsham) (Coleoptera: Geotrupidae). A single stridulatory apparatus was identified and then analysed from a structural point of view. Sound was studied using spectography and results included a quantitative analysis with characterizing physical parameters. Results highlight the need to study stridulation in Geotrupidae more in detail, to improve our understanding of its evolutionary and biological meaning.


Silicon photonics which is compatible with mature complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) fabrication process has been extensively demonstrated for monolithic integration of photonic and electrical circuits. We show that an integrated silicon Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM) may be used for advanced modulation formats despite the nonlinear dependence of refractive index change with applied voltage in the free-carrier depletion modulator. We experimentally demonstrated the use of a silicon MZM for direct detection optical orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (DDO-OFDM) modulation with advanced data formats of quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK), 8 phase-shift keying (8PSK) and 16-quadrature amplitude modulation (16-QAM). The measured bit error rate performance of the back-to-back and 50 km single mode fiber transmission of each format is well below the forward error correction limit.


To protect your private information, you may use a data encryption and decryption computer program like PGP. But for an espionage agency even the PGP Public Key is not completely unbreakable. So you may prefer to encipher the Public Key before you send it to the destination, then it would become probably an impossible goal for the Internet fraud operatives to decipher the contents.


In this article we describe a technique for teaching personality theories to undergraduate psychology students. The method shows students segments from feature films that illustrate key concepts and uses the Structural Analysis of Social Behavior (SASB; Benjamin, 1994) model to focus attention on interactional behavior. We present qualitative and quantitative data supporting the utility of this teaching technique and suggest it can be successfully applied in introductory psychology as well as upper division courses (e.g., abnormal psychology, child development, theories of personality).


A stand-alone electro-mechanical system with a 32-inch disc coulter was developed and
tested to identify soil compaction in a 1-acre field located at the University of Kentucky Animal
Research Center (UKARC). The system was evaluated by making four passes in the square grid
cell. With the aid of hydraulic actuation, the coulter oscillated between depths of 100mm (4-in) and
330mm (13-in) as it moved forward and recorded the vertical impedance force given by the soil
continuously. Forty standard soil cone penetrometer measurements along the diagonals to a depth of
400mm (16-in) were taken and the average cone indices (MPa) at different depths for the entire grid
cell were compared to the average coulter indices (CuI(N/mm), defined as the penetration force
divided by the perimeter of the coulter disc in contact with soil) at corresponding depths. Ten soil bulk
density measurements were taken at depths of (100,150,200,250,300mm) per each grid cell and
averaged. Pearson correlation coefficient (r) and coefficient of determination (r2) were found to be
0.716 and 0.51between CuI and CI respectively. The depth and spatial locations of maximum vertical
impedance force and maximum CuI were determined.


Objectives In the UK, although transmission of HIV among injecting drug user (IDUs) has been limited since the 1980s, IDUs and men who have sex with men (MSM) have higher HIV and hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevalences than the general population. MSM who are also IDUs (MSM-IDUs) may therefore have a higher risk of infection than male IDUs who only have sex with women. Methods Analysis of data from a national survey of IDUs attending services (England, Wales and Northern Ireland) between 1998 and 2007, which collected demographic and behavioural data and oral fluid samples for HIV and HCV antibody testing. Results Of the 8671 men who reported injecting drugs and having sex during the preceding year, 96% (8354) were men who only had sex with women (MSW). MSM-IDUs and MSW-IDUs had similar age and number of years of injecting. MSM-IDUs had a higher prevalence of HIV (adjusted OR=4.08, 95% CI 1.9 to 8.5) and of HCV (adjusted OR =1.34, 95% CI 1.1 to 1.8) and were about four times (adjusted OR =3.78, 95% CI 2.9 to 4.9) more likely to have unprotected sex with multiple partners. Among those who injected in the 4 weeks prior to participation, the MSM-IDUs had a higher level of needle/syringe sharing (adjusted OR =1.72, 95% CI 1.3 to 2.2). Discussion MSM-IDUs have a fourfold higher risk of HIV; HCV prevalence in MSM-IDUs is a third higher than among MSW-IDUs, suggesting elevated risk from injecting and possibly sexual transmission. These findings emphasise the need for public health interventions specifically targeted at MSM-IDUs.


Developers rely on automated testing and verification tools to gain confidence in their software. The input to such tools is often generated by compilers that have been designed to generate code that runs fast, not code that can be verified easily and quickly. This makes the verification tool's task unnecessarily hard.

We propose that compilers support a new kind of switch, -OVERIFY, that generates code optimized for the needs of verification tools. We implemented this idea for one class of verification (symbolic execution) and found that, when run on the Coreutils suite of UNIX utilities, it reduces verification time by up to 95×.


Studies of twins are helping to unravel the roles of genetic, epigenetic and environmental influences on human tooth size, shape and number. There is a relatively strong genetic contribution to variation in these dental phenotypes but comparisons between monozygotic cotwins are also highlighting the roles of environmental and epigenetic factors. Furthermore, by viewing the dentition as a complex adaptive system, with multiple interacting components, a clearer picture is emerging of how common dental anomalies develop and are associated with one another. This article concentrates on providing a synthesis of relevant findings and concepts about variation in the human dentition at a phenotypic level. We focus on patterning within the dentition and dental asymmetry, as well as emphasising the importance of assessing the magnitude of errors when measuring or scoring dental features. We also provide links to several articles published in the Encyclopedia of Life Sciences that cover the molecular aspects of dental development.

Key Concepts:

There are distinct patterns of variation within the human dentition that conform to 'morphogenetic fields'.

Patterns of phenotypic variation correspond with the relative amount of time that each tooth germ spends in the soft tissue phase before mineralisation.

A unifying aetiological model, incorporating thresholds, serves to explain the relationships between tooth size, shape and number in males and females.

Tooth size variation shows a relatively strong genetic component but epigenetic and environmental factors can also contribute to phenotypic variation.

Interrelationships exist between dental crown size and morphological dental features, such as the Carabelli trait.

Discordance in the expression of missing or extra teeth between monozygotic cotwins indicates involvement of epigenetic influences on dental development.

Studies of dizygotic opposite sex twins indicate that hormonal influences in utero can influence dental development.

The magnitude of fluctuating dental asymmetry reflects the effects of epigenetic and environmental influences during development.

Dental development is a multilevel process involving interacting genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors over an extended period.

The dentition fulfils the characteristics of a complex adaptive system.

Keywords:

dental development;
twins;
genetic;
epigenetic;
environment;
complexity;
teeth;
phenotypes


This study analyzes the way in which contemporary Thomistic metaphysics has dealt with Heidegger's Denken. To make the investigation more precise and systematic, two methodological choices were made. In the first place, three Thomists were chosen that, on the one hand, addressed the thought of Heidegger at length, but that, on the other, hail from three different cultural areas and illustrate three profondly different theoretical positions within the framework of Thomistic thought: the French Dominican Maurice Corvez, the German Jesuit Johann Baptist Lotz, and the Italian Stigmatine Father Cornelio Fabro. In the second place, the comparison between the Thomistic metaphysics of esse and the Heideggerian meditation on Sein was structured around two coordinates: first, the relationship between Dasein and being, second, the relationship between "to be" and a being, the Thomistic analogon of which are the relationship between ens as primum cognitum and the being of things, and that between esse and ens in the thing itself.
In this way, the study presents three opposing configurations of Thomistic ens, and therefore three very different evaluations of Heideggerian thought. For Corvez, and for the Thomism proper to the Dominican tradition, real ens is the realization of a formal act by an existential act, the latter being strictly proportioned to the former; for this reason, the composition of essence and esse does not imply any ontological difference between ens and the being by which it is. What results is a fundamentally negative evaluation of Heidegger's reflection. From the perspective of "Transcendental Thomism", finite ens is conceived of as the real limitation of an esse that consciousness anticipates as the ideal totality of possibles, such that the ontological difference is grasped as the constitutive nucleus of both reality and thought. For this reason, Lotz offers a positive judgment on Heidegger's work, yet points out that an ultimate foundation of being on Ipsum Esse Subsistens is lacking. According to Fabro, ens is seen as a synthetic plexus that unites a specifying essence and an intensive act of being, and underscores the "emergence" of the latter over both the content of the thing and the act that thinks of ens. For this reason, he concedes that Heidegger's presentation of the ontological difference is a powerful stimulus for the metaphysical problem, but holds that it cannot be considered as a valid solution to that same problem.


We present a survey on exoplanetary systems of binary stars with stellar separations less than 100 au. For a sample of 11 binaries that harbour detected circumstellar giant planets we investigate the frequency of systems with secular resonances (SR) affecting the habitable zone (HZ). Secular resonances are connected to dynamically unstable or chaotic regions by enforcing highly eccentric motion. We apply a semi-analytical method to determine the locations of linear SR, which is based on finding the apsidal precession frequencies of the massive bodies. For configurations where the giant planet is located exterior to the HZ we find that there is always a SR interior to its orbit, the exact location of the SR strongly depends on the system's architecture. In systems with the giant planet interior to the HZ no SR can occur in the Newtonian framework. Taking into account the general relativistic precession of the perihelion, which increases the precession frequencies, planets with $a < 0.1$ au can cause SR in the HZ. We find two cases where the SR is located inside the HZ, and some more where it is close to the HZ. Generally, giant planets interior to the HZ are more favourable than exterior planets to avoid SR in the HZ. Around the location of the SR weaker mean-motion resonances are excited, and resonance overlap is possible. Existing analytical models are not as accurate as the semi-analytical method in locating the SR and deviate by $\sim 0.1$ au or more.


For tens of thousands of contemporary Latter-day Saint pilgrims, the Kirtland Temple near Cleveland, Ohio, provides an opportunity to visit a place where they believe Jesus appeared and restored long-lost priesthood powers. The Kirtland Temple, however, is not owned by the LDS church. Instead, the shrine is owned by a related denomination that has doctrinally aligned itself with mainline Protestant Christianity—the Community of Christ (formerly known as the RLDS church). Members of both churches include Kirtland on pilgrimage itineraries yet have understood the site's significance in radically different ways between themselves and within their denominations over time. The Kirtland Temple provides an opportune case study for changing contestation and cooperation by multiple groups at an American pilgrimage shrine—a phenomena that I term "parallel pilgrimage." Two orienting metaphors help focus my moving picture of parallel pilgrimage: proximity (how the site "moves" in relation to changing pilgrimage routes, new shrines, and new interest groups) and performance (plays re-enacting the history of the temple and tour scripts, along with the reception of these performances). My study works out these two themes across the last forty years of change at the Kirtland Temple. Ultimately, I draw three main conclusions in my study. First, parallel pilgrimage at Kirtland Temple reveals sacred places, not simply pilgrimage routes, as itineraries in motion, constantly contested and constantly changing. Second, acts of cooperation and contestation at Kirtland Temple have formed a dialectical relationship that allows the site to function. Acts of contestation helped the site retain its heightened importance while acts of cooperation allowed members from various denominations to minimize potentially disruptive conflict. Finally, in a wider context, parallel pilgrimage at Kirtland Temple, with its moving alliances and contested narratives, may be seen as suggestive of


Though traditionally thought of as the preserve of technical experts—lawyers, economists and accountants—the study of taxation has recently attracted growing attention, with mounting recognition that taxation is fundamentally political, and lies near the core of the relationship between states and citizens. The first, and most common, question about the politics of taxation is: what are the political barriers to more effective and equitable taxation, and how can these political barriers may be overcome? However, it is important that any discussion of the politics of taxation also consider a second question: How can the expansion of tax collection be linked to the construction of stronger fiscal contracts, thus ensuring responsiveness and accountability in the use of tax revenues? The expansion of taxation represents a transfer of wealth from private citizens to the state, but becomes publicly desirable only if it is then consistently translated in improvements in publicly provided goods and services, and broader improvements in the quality of governance. This makes it incumbent on those interested in taxation to consider not only how best to raise additional revenue, but how best to raise additional revenue in ways that increase the likelihood that new revenue will be translated into broader public benefits.
 It is now widely accepted that in many cases political resistance represents the most important barrier to more effective taxation in Africa—particularly with respect to the taxation of elite groups. This, in turn, reflects two broad political challenges: the expansion of taxation frequently confronts resistance from influential political and economic elites, while it has historically been very difficult to build popular coalitions in favor of taxation in contexts of limited transparency and significant distrust of taxation and the state. That said, recent research has shed growing light on the contexts in which reform is more likely, and the reform strategies that may contribute to overcoming political resistance. This has been accompanied by the growth of parallel research that has highlighted the contexts in which the expansion of taxation is most likely to spur public mobilization and demand-making—and thus the strategies that reformers might adopt in seeking to strengthen the links between revenue-raising and improvements in public services and accountability. Ultimately, it increasingly appears that the kinds of political strategies that can support more effective and equitable taxation are also likely to contribute to encouraging encourage expanded popular engagement and stronger links between taxation and public benefits. These include efforts to stress horizontal equity in tax collection, to expand transparency and popular engagement in tax debates and to more clearly link expanded revenue to specific public uses, in order to build popular support for reform. Such strategies have the potential to contribute to virtuous circles of reform in which new taxation is translated into valued public benefits; thus building popular support for the further expansion of more equitable taxation.


The crystal structure of the ribonuclease (RNase) H domain of HIV-1 reverse transcriptase (RT) has been determined at a resolution of 2.4 A and refined to a crystallographic R factor of 0.20. The protein folds into a five-stranded mixed beta sheet flanked by an asymmetric distribution of four alpha helices. Two divalent metal cations bind in the active site surrounded by a cluster of four conserved acidic amino acid residues. The overall structure is similar in most respects to the RNase H from Escherichia coli. Structural features characteristic of the retroviral protein suggest how it may interface with the DNA polymerase domain of p66 in the mature RT heterodimer. These features also offer insights into why the isolated RNase H domain is catalytically inactive but when combined in vitro with the isolated p51 domain of RT RNase H activity can be reconstituted. Surprisingly, the peptide bond cleaved by HIV-1 protease near the polymerase-RNase H junction of p66 is completely inaccessible to solvent in the structure reported here. This suggests that the homodimeric p66-p66 precursor of mature RT is asymmetric with one of the two RNase H domains at least partially unfolded.


Risk management of forest fires starts from its assessment. This assessment has been subject of several research works and many models of fire risk have been developed. One of them has been developed by ourselves, for the Mediterranean areas. However environmental vulnerability to forest fires is an important part of risk; it represents, in fact, the exposed challenge to this scourge and therefore it worths particular attention by decision makers. Thus and due to the importance of socio-economic potential of forest and the negative influence of fire on this one, we propose in this work, a model for vulnerability assessment to forest fires based on the principle of the weighted sum. Application of the proposed model suggested to use of geomatics technologies to the spatialize level of vulnerability. Within this framework, a GIS was developed and applied to the forests of Djelfa in the Saharian Atlas, as originality, it will allow the understanding of the concept of vulnerability and risk associated the steppes area scale to reach a good space control.