Lights, camera, action ...enter "The Film Book", stage left. Step into the world of cinema with "The Film Book" - the films, the directors, the genres and the styles. Profiling 100 of the world's most influential directors and 100 key cinematic works, the book will take you through the changing experience of cinema from the earliest silent movies to the modern 3D cinematic phenomenon. Covering every national school of film-making from Hollywood to Bollywood the book is a great browse bible with "Top 10" and "What to Watch" feature boxes. Test your knowledge with the essential trivia section - how much do you know about Oscar winners, biggest flops, banned films and more? From the birth of cinema right up until the present day, "The Film Book" is a cinematic masterpiece. Packaged in a metal tin just like a reel of film, "The Film Book" is full to bursting with interesting stats, facts and figures and is essential for any film buff. This title contains content that was previously published in "Eyewitness Companions: Film".


We model a boundedly rational agent who suffers from limited attention. The agent considers each feasible alternative with a given (unobservable) probability, the attention parameter, and then chooses the alternative that maximizes a preference relation within the set of considered alternatives. We show that this random choice rule is the only one for which the impact of removing an alternative on the choice probability of any other alternative is asymmetric and menu independent. Both the preference relation and the attention parameters are identified uniquely by stochastic choice data.


Background Street child is any child whose age is less than 18 years for whom the street has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood, is inadequately protected, supervised or directed by responsible adults. In Ethiopia the health problems of street children are given poor attention in research. This problem is pronounced when it comes to intestinal parasitic infections, making it difficult to design appropriate interventions targeting this segment of population. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections and associated factors among street children in Jimma town in the year 2019. Methods: Community based cross sectional study was employed. Complete enumeration was used to include 312 street children. Pretested questionnaire was used to collect the data. Data was entered to Epidata version 3.1 and exported to SPSS version 20. Stool samples were examined by wet mount and formalin ether concentration techniques. Bivariable and multivariable logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with intestinal parasitic infection. Significance of association was decided by using the 95% confidence interval of AOR and P-value of ≤ 0.05 in the multivariable model. Result: A total of 312 children of the street were involved in the study making the response rate 96.2%. The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infection was 66.7%. Untrimmed finger nails AOR=2.03;95%CI (1.02-4.06), eating street food AOR=2.24;95% CI (1.04-5.02), practice of swimming in unprotected water bodies AOR=2.5; 95% CI (1.24-5.04), not wearing shoes at the time of data collection AOR= 3.8;95% CI (1.8-8.2) and lacking knowledge of way of transmission of intestinal parasites AOR= 2.5; 95% CI (1.25- 5.0) were significantly associated with parasitic infections. Conclusions: The prevalence of intestinal parasitic infections among street children in the study area was high and require integrated interventions to avert the problem. Several factors were also found to be associated with intestinal parasitic infections. Measures has to be taken to curb the problem by including them in mass drug administration and targeted health education towards identified factors. Key words : Street children, Intestinal parasites, Jimma town


"This sensitive and well-written anthropological study of the aged deaf describes a vital subculture of disabled persons. Thought provoking implications are drawn from the deaf aged for the more general experience of being old in America." (Science Books and Films). "A book that takes us into a community distinguished by a disability that, from an outsider's view is full of liabilities. Instead, we find assets and strengths enabling people who were born deaf or who lost their hearing in early childhood to cope with their advancing age ...a sensitive, well-written portrait of the people and the community studied. It is a must for researchers who study the old and for those who work with the disabled." (Medical Anthropology Newsletter). "Becker reveals how the adaptation to deafness early in life provides the basis for social interaction, coping mechanisms, and strong group and community bonds. Early isolation, special schooling, separation from family, and communication limited to deaf peers create long-lasting adult groups that provide exceptionaJ social support for old age ...Becker calls attention to values and circumstances that stress and build an enduring group life. Social interdependence seems to ease the process of aging among the deaf, whereas the mainstream stress on personal autonomy and individualism may be less efficacious for the aging process." (Contemporary Sociology). "The straightforward text, filled with brief histories and quotations from interviews, relates how the homogeneity and intimacy of the group develop from childhood in response to their isolation from the hearing world. It is this unity, Becker stresses, that aids the deaf elderly to better accept aging and its accompanying trials." (Booklist). "Social science observation is combined with case history material in a most readable format. It is fascinating." (Sociology and Social Research).


In the first ever book devoted to a critical investigation of the personal style blogosphere, Minh-Ha T. Pham examines the phenomenal rise of elite Asian bloggers who have made a career of posting photographs of themselves wearing clothes on the Internet. Pham understands their online activities as "taste work" practices that generate myriad forms of capital for superbloggers and the brands they feature. A multifaceted and detailed analysis, Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet addresses questions concerning the status and meaning of "Asian taste" in the early twenty-first century, the kinds of cultural and economic work Asian tastes do, and the fashion public and industry's appetite for certain kinds of racialized eliteness. Situating blogging within the historical context of gendered and racialized fashion work while being attentive to the broader cultural, technological, and economic shifts in global consumer capitalism, Asians Wear Clothes on the Internet has profound implications for understanding the changing and enduring dynamics of race, gender, and class in shaping some of the most popular work practices and spaces of the digital fashion media economy.


In this paper we investigate the parametric inference for the linear fractional stable motion in high and low frequency setting. The symmetric linear fractional stable motion is a three-parameter family, which constitutes a natural non-Gaussian analogue of the scaled fractional Brownian motion. It is fully characterised by the scaling parameter $\sigma>0$, the self-similarity parameter $H \in (0,1)$ and the stability index $\alpha \in (0,2)$ of the driving stable motion. The parametric estimation of the model is inspired by the limit theory for stationary increments L\'evy moving average processes that has been recently studied in \cite{BLP}. More specifically, we combine (negative) power variation statistics and empirical characteristic functions to obtain consistent estimates of $(\sigma, \alpha, H)$. We present the law of large numbers and some fully feasible weak limit theorems.


Three PtAg2 heterotrinuclear complexes supported by dpmp [dpmp = bis(diphenylphosphinomethyl)phenylphosphine] were prepared using carbazole-functionalized acetylides with hole-transport character as co-ligands. As established by X-ray crystallography, the PtAg2 array supported by dual dpmp exhibits a centre-symmetric linear arrangement with significant Pt–Ag interaction. They display intense phosphorescence in CH2Cl2 solutions (Φem = 56.9–65.3%) and doping films (Φem = 43.1–71.2%) at room temperature, originating primarily from 3[π(aromatic acetylides) → π*(dpmp)] 3LLCT and 3[π(aromatic acetylides) → s/p(PtAg2)] 3LMCT triplet states mixed with some PtAg2 cluster centred 3[d → s/p] character. Upon doping 8% PtAg2 complexes with blended host materials consisting of hole-transport TCTA and electron-transport OXD-7 as light-emitting layers, high-efficiency solution-processed organic light-emitting diodes were achieved with 67.4 cd A−1 peak current efficiency and 17.4% external quantum efficiency.


Purpose Cerebral arteriovenous malformations (AVM) occur due to abnormal vascular morphogenesis, and reorganization of neurological function has been well documented in patients harboring them. Patients undergoing endovascular treatment for nidal reduction of brain AVMs prior to surgical resection may develop transitory neurological symptoms which may represent a manifestation of such a response occurring in a hyperacute fashion. The purpose of this study was to demonstrate any functional MRI (fMRI) evidence for hyperacute neuroplasticity in patients with brain AVMs undergoing pre-operative embolization. Materials and methods 12 patients (aged 24–55 years; mean 38±7.6 years; nine men, 10 right-handed) with cerebral AVMs who underwent preoperative embolization at our center from 2004 to 2008 and elected to participate were included in the study. All patients had baseline MRI studies performed on 1.5 or 3 T GE Magnet which included blood oxygen level dependant (BOLD) fMRI studies using multiple motor, visual and language paradigm(s). Patients were pretreated with anticonvulsants and maintained therapeutic levels. Patients then underwent diagnostic catheter angiograms, superselective arteriography and provocative testing (WADA) prior to the embolization in the same procedure. Patients were then taken for repeat fMRI studies within 1–2 h. Pre and post-embolization fMRI data were evaluated by readers who were blinded to the patient data. The BOLD fMRI data was coregistered onto the structural images and categorized as no reorganization or definite reorganization of neurological function. Results A total of 12 eloquent region AVMs were treated in 12 patients. There were two grade II and 10 grade III AVMs. All patients underwent an embolization procedure as per the institutional protocol with the aim of nidal penetration and maximal nidal reduction using n-butyl cyanoacrylate (Trufil NBCA: Cordis Neurovascular, Raynam, Massachusetts, USA). There were no major (stroke or death) or minor complications. One patient developed a transient neurological deficit (aphasia) immediately following endovascular treatment and was shown to have relocated language function without diffusion weighted infarction. There were no hemorrhagic complications. Conclusions Hyperacute neuroplasticity may be demonstrated in patients with cerebral AVMs undergoing preoperative embolization and occlusion. This may explain some of the transient neurological deficits that are not uncommonly seen in such patients. Improved characterization of this neuroplastic response may be useful in the treatment planning of AVM patients and rehabilitative care of acute stroke patients.Abstract O-031 Figure 1


The propagation of an atmospheric pressure plasma jet (APPJ) is investigated by use of an intensified charge coupled device (ICCD) camera. It is shown that the APPJ is mainly an electrical phenomenon and not a flow related one. The jet does not consist of a voluminous plasma. Much more, the presented plasma source acts like a "plasma gun" blowing small "plasma bullets" out of its mouth. Furthermore, the interaction of the jet with a surface has been investigated.


humanaquarium is a movable performance space designed to explore the dialogical relationship between artist and audience. Two musicians perform inside the cube-shaped box, collaborating with participants to co-create an aesthetic audio-visual experience. The front wall of the humanaquarium is a touch-sensitive FTIR window. MaxMSP is used to translate the locations of touches on the window into control data, manipulating the tracking of software synthesizers and audio effects generated in Ableton Live, and influencing a Jitter visualization projected upon the rear wall of the cube.


Roman Egger and Dimitrios Buhalis (editors), 2008, eTourism Case studies: Management & Marketing issues in eTourism, ISBN 0750686677, Butterworth Heinemann Oxford http://goo.gl/oavpD1

eTourism Case Studies bridges the gap in contemporary literature by carefully examining marketing and management issues of many international companies that have successfully implemented eTourism solutions. Divided into six sections this book explores the newest developments in this field, introducing and discussing emerging trends, approaches, models and paradigms, providing visions for the future of eTourism and supporting discussion and elaboration with the help of thorough pedagogic aids. With contributions from leading global experts both from the industry and academia, each case follows a rigid structure, with features such as bulleted summaries and review questions, as well as each section having its own thorough introduction and conclusion written by the editors, highlighting the key issues and theories. This is the first book of its kind to bring together cases highlighting best practice and methods for exploiting ICT in the tourism industry, from international market leaders.


Purpose
This study aims to analyse current practices and cooperation between the Turkish university libraries related to cataloguing processes and present cataloguing librarians' evaluations about clarity and comprehensiveness of the given information in library catalogues.

Design/methodology/approach
In line with the literature review, a Web-based questionnaire was developed concerning the cataloguing practices implemented at university libraries in Turkey. The questionnaire was submitted to 316 cataloguing librarians. In all, 104 cataloguing librarians from 61 different libraries responded to the survey. The collected data were analysed through descriptive statistics. The responses given to some open-ended questions were assessed with respective expressions presented verbatim in the study and some of them visualised via VOSViewer software.

Findings
The findings reflect that analysed university libraries implement different cataloguing processes. It is seen that some libraries use the necessary systems and services related to cataloguing and classification while others use individual solutions without using such systems and services. Findings reveal that there is cooperation between the analysed libraries about sharing catalogue records. In this regard, it is understood that cataloguing librarians mostly prefer transferring catalogue records from the catalogues of university libraries they trusted. Findings also indicate that analysed librarians think that the descriptive information provided via Online Public Access Catalogues are in moderate level in terms of clarity and comprehensibility.

Originality/value
The study contributes to the existing literature of a limited number of relevant studies by establishing the baseline pertaining to cataloguing processes undertaken at university libraries in Turkey.


Cyber-physical applications, deployed on top of Building Management Systems (BMS), promise energy saving and comfort improvement in non-residential buildings. Such applications are so far mainly deployed as research prototypes. The main roadblock to widespread adoption is the low quality of BMS metadata. There is indeed a mismatch between (i) the anecdotal nature of metadata for legacy BMS - they are usually initialized when the BMS is commissioned and later neglected-, and (ii) the imperious need for consistent and up-to-date metadata for supporting building analytics or personalized control systems. Such applications access sensors and actuators through BMS metadata in form of point labels. The naming of labels is however often inconsistent and incomplete. To tackle this problem, we introduce Babel, a crowd-sourced approach to the creation and maintenance of BMS metadata. In our system, occupants provide physical and digital input in form of actuations (e.g., the turning on/off a light) and readings (e.g., reading room temperature of a thermostat) to Babel. Babel then matches this input to digital points in the BMS based on value equality. We have implemented a prototype of our system in a non-residential building. While our approach can not solve all metadata problems, we show that it is able to match end-user relevant points in a fast and precise manner.


Hydrogen is seen as an ideal energy carrier for stationary and mobile applications. However, the use of high energy density materials such as hydrides comes with the drawback of risks associated to their high reactivity towards air and water exposure. We have developed novel strategies to mitigate these risks. These strategies were evaluated using standard UN tests and isothermal calorimetric measurements. Cycling experiments were conducted to assess the impact of the mitigants on the modified materials derived from 8LiH•3Mg(NH2)2 system. In some cases, our results show an improvement in kinetics when compared to the unmodified material. Effective mitigants were also discovered for aluminum hydride (alane) and lithium borohydride, completely inhibiting ignition.


Understanding the mechanisms that drive phenotypic divergence along climatic gradients is a long‐standing goal of biogeography. To fulfil this objective, we tested if neutral and/or adaptive effects drive phenotypic diversification. We quantified the effects of neutral evolution and natural selection on morphological variability of a well‐suited mammalian species, the fox, Lycalopex culpaeus.


ABSTRACTObjectivesThough pharmacy claims data are commonly used to study medication adherence, there remains no standard operational definition for adherence especially for patients on multiple medications. Even when studies use the same terminology, the actual methods of calculating adherence can differ drastically. It is unclear whether the use of different definitions results in different conclusions regarding adherence and associated outcomes. The objective of our study was to compare adherence rates and associations with mortality using different operational definitions of adherence, and using various methods of handling concurrent medication use.
ApproachWe conducted a cohort study of patients aged ≥65 years from Manitoba, Canada, with incident hypertension diagnosed in 2004 and followed to 2009. We calculated adherence rates to anti-hypertensive medications using different operational definitions of medication adherence (including interval and prescription based medication possession ratios [MPR] and proportion of days covered [PDC]). For those on concurrent medications, we calculated adherence rates using the different methods of handling concurrent medication use, for each definition. We used logistic regression to determine the association between adherence and mortality for each operational definition.
ResultsAmong 2199 patients, 24.1% to 90.5% and 71.2% to 92.7% were considered adherent when using fixed interval and prescription-based interval medication possession ratios [MPRi and MPRp] respectively, depending on how concurrent medications were handled. Adherence was inversely associated with death, with the strongest association for MPRp measures. This association was significant only when considering adherence to any hypertensive [aOR 0.70, 95% CI 0.51, 0.97], or when the mean of the class-specific MPRp's [adjusted OR 0.71, 95% CI 0.53, 0.95] was used. No significant association existed when the highest or lowest class-specific MPRp was used as the adherence estimate.
ConclusionThe range of adherence estimates varies widely depending on the operational definition used. Given less variation in adherence rates and their stronger association against mortality, we recommend using prescription-based MPR's to define medication adherence.


Modern Western temporality is often characterized (quoting Walter Benjamin) as "homogeneous, empty time." This temporality is said (in the influential works of Johannes Fabian and Michel-Rolph Trouillot, for example) to result from a process by which sacred Judeo-Christian time was secularized: beginning in the Renaissance and finally achieved by the Enlightenment. Taking Fabian and Trouillot as a point of departure, this essay considers the past five centuries of Western chronological history. Temporal secularization is revealed to be far less linear (and much more recent) than Occidentalist common sense would assume. Given the actual strangeness of the "Common Era" Gregorian calendar—according to whose rhythms much of the world now structures its life—two models are proposed for dealing with that calendar's complex legacies. Following Nietzsche, we can productively take a hammer to the idol of Western chronology: not to smash it, but to make it ring.


Turkey has rich wild apricot populations and all Turkish apricot cultivars were previously selected among wild apricots. On this background for apricot breeding, six new late flowering dried apricot genotypes were taken under study, along with wide spread cv. 'Hacihaliloglu'; all genotypes were examined in terms of volatile compounds using Headspace-Solid Phase Micro Extraction - Mass Spectrometry (HSSPME/GC/MS) techniques. The most important volatiles of apricot genotypes were aldehydes, alcohols, esters, terpenes, ketones and acids. Among these compounds, ethanol, hexanal, 3-carene, squalene, acetic acid, tetradecaonic acid, pentadecaonic acid, octadecaonic acid, n- hexadecaonic acid and 1-hdroxy-2-propanone were present in all genotypes studied at certain levels. In general, total concentrations of aroma compounds were higher in some promising genotypes under study than within 'Hacihaliloglu' cultivar, except total alcohol compound (53.33%). Volatile compounds, particularly esters, were the major contributors to fruity, floral and pleasant fruit flavours. The highest esters' compound contents were detected in 'N95' (9.2%) and 'N57' (2.18%) genotypes, while 'Hacihaliloglu' had 1.61% ester compounds. Lacton (I³-decalactone) was a key aroma compound of apricot. I³-decalactone was detected ranging between 0.4-1.13% in all genotypes, except cv. 'Hacihaliloglu'. The hereby obtained results showed that the volatile composition depended largely upon the apricot genotypes, moment of harvest, growing conditions and cultural applications that may all affect fruit quality. These results represent valuable starting points for apricot breeding programs.


Solitary pulmonary nodules (SPN) in digital radiography (DR) images often have unclear contours and infiltration, which make it a challenging task for traditional segmentation models to get satisfactory segmentation results. To overcome this challenge, this paper has proposed an adaptive SPN segmentation model for DR images based on random walks segmentation and sequential filter. First, the SPN image is decomposed to get the cartoon component, which is used to acquire a set of seeds. Second, the seeds selection tactic is employed to optimize the scope of walking pixels and reduce the number of seeds, which could reduce the computational cost. Finally, we incorporate the sequential filter and construct the new representation of the weight and the probability matrices. In this paper, by using a data set of 724 SPN cases, the proposed method was tested and compared with four different models, and five kinds of evaluation indicators were given to evaluate the effect of segmentation. Experimental results indicate that the proposed method performs well on the blurred edge, as it could get relatively accurate results.


Millions of blind and visually-impaired (BVI) people navigate urban environments every day, using smartphones for high-level path-planning and white canes or guide dogs for local information. However, many BVI people still struggle to travel to new places. In our endeavor to create a navigation assistant for the BVI, we found that existing Reinforcement Learning (RL) environments were unsuitable for the task. This work introduces SEVN, a sidewalk simulation environment and a neural network-based approach to creating a navigation agent. SEVN contains panoramic images with labels for house numbers, doors, and street name signs, and formulations for several navigation tasks. We study the performance of an RL algorithm (PPO) in this setting. Our policy model fuses multi-modal observations in the form of variable resolution images, visible text, and simulated GPS data to navigate to a goal door. We hope that this dataset, simulator, and experimental results will provide a foundation for further research into the creation of agents that can assist members of the BVI community with outdoor navigation.


This paper develops a dynamic Heckscher Ohlin Samuelson model with sector-specific human capital and overlapping generations to characterize the dynamics and welfare implications of gradual labor market adjustment to trade. Our model is tractable enough to yield sharp analytic results, that complement and clarify an emerging empirical literature on labor market adjustment to trade. Existing generations that have accumulated specific human capital in one sector can switch sectors when the economy is hit by a trade shock. Nonetheless, the shock induces few workers to switch, generating a protracted adjustment that operates largely through the entry of new generations. This results in wages being tied to the sector of employment in the short-run but to the skill type in the long-run. Relative to a world with general human capital, welfare is improved for the skill group whose type-intensive sector shrinks. We extend the model to include physical capital and show that the transition is longer when capital is mobile. We also introduce nonpecuniary sector preferences and show that larger gross flows are associated with a longer transition.


Readers of Hannah Arendt's now classic formulation of the statelessness problem in her 1951 book The Origins of Totalitarianism abound at a moment when the number of stateless peoples worldwide continues to rise exponentially. Along with statelessness, few concepts in Arendt scholarship have spawned such a volume of literature, and perhaps none have provoked as much interest outside of the field of philosophy, as 'the right to have rights.' Interpreting this enigmatic term exposes the heart of our beliefs about the nature of the political and has important consequences for how we practice politics on a global scale because it implicitly takes plural human beings, and not the citizen, as its subjects. Arendt's conceptualization of this problem remains unsurpassed in its diagnosis of the political situation of statelessness, as well as its intimate description of the human cost of what she refers to as 'world loss,' a phenomenon that the prevailing human rights and global justice discourse does not take into account. And yet, as an alternative framework for thinking about global politics, the right to have rights resists easy interpretation, let alone practical application.


Abstract. To assess the history of greenhouse gas emissions and individual countries' contributions to emissions and climate change, detailed historical data are needed. We combine several published datasets to create a comprehensive set of emissions pathways for each country and Kyoto gas, covering the years 1850 to 2014 with yearly values, for all UNFCCC member states and most non-UNFCCC territories. The sectoral resolution is that of the main IPCC 1996 categories. Additional time series of CO2 are available for energy and industry subsectors. Country-resolved data are combined from different sources and supplemented using year-to-year growth rates from regionally resolved sources and numerical extrapolations to complete the dataset. Regional deforestation emissions are downscaled to country level using estimates of the deforested area obtained from potential vegetation and simulations of agricultural land. In this paper, we discuss the data sources and methods used and present the resulting dataset, including its limitations and uncertainties. The dataset is available from doi:10.5880/PIK.2016.003 and can be viewed on the website accompanying this paper ( http://www.pik-potsdam.de/primap-live/primap-hist/ ).


People's interests and people's social relationships are intuitively connected, but understanding their interplay and whether they can help predict each other has remained an open question. We examine the interface of two decisive structures forming the backbone of online social media: the graph structure of social networks — who connects with whom — and the set structure of topical affiliations — who is interested in what. In studying this interface, we identify key relationships whereby each of these structures can be understood in terms of the other. The context for our analysis is Twitter, a complex social network of both follower relationships and communication relationships. On Twitter, "hashtags" are used to label conversation topics, and we examine hashtag usage alongside these social structures. We find that the hashtags that users adopt can predict their social relationships, and also that the social relationships between the initial adopters of a hashtag can predict the future popularity of that hashtag. By studying weighted social relationships, we observe that while strong reciprocated ties are the easiest to predict from hashtag structure, they are also much less useful than weak directed ties for predicting hashtag popularity. Importantly, we show that computationally simple structural determinants can provide remarkable performance in both tasks. While our analyses focus on Twitter, we view our findings as broadly applicable to topical affiliations and social relationships in a host of diverse contexts, including the movies people watch, the brands people like, or the locations people frequent.


The characterization of neurodevelopmental aspects of brain alterations require neuroimaging methods that reflect correlates of neurodevelopment, while being robust to other progressive pathological processes. Newly developed neuroimaging methods for measuring geometrical features of the white matter fall exactly into this category. Our recent work shows that such features, measured in the anterior corpus callosum in diffusion MRI data, correlate with psychosis symptoms in patients with adolescent onset schizophrenia and subside a reversal of normal sexual dimorphism. Here, we test the hypothesis that similar developmental deviations will also be present in nonpsychotic subjects at familial high risk (FHR) for schizophrenia, due to genetic predispositions. Demonstrating such changes would provide a strong indication of neurodevelopmental deviation extant before, and independent of pathological changes occurring after disease onset. We examined the macrostructural geometry of corpus callosum white matter in diffusion MRI data of 35 non‐psychotic subjects with genetic (familial) risk for schizophrenia, and 26 control subjects, both male and female. We report a reversal of normal sexual dimorphism in callosal white matter geometry consistent with recent results in adolescent onset schizophrenia. This pattern may be indicative of an error in neurogenesis and a possible trait marker of schizophrenia. Hum Brain Mapp 37:254–261, 2016. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


This thesis assesses the effects of the accounting scandals of the early 2000s and the Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act (commonly known as Sarbanes-Oxley) on sentences for corporations in federal criminal court. I hypothesize that the time period in which the case was sentenced will exert both direct and interactive effects on the likelihood of harsh punishments and mediate the effects of legal and extralegal variables on the same. This research uses a probit regression model to explore the direct and interactive effects of extralegal characteristics across time with pooled cross-sectional data from the United States Sentencing Commission organizational data series. Companies sentenced during the scandal period were more likely to receive harsh fines, consistent with a collective framing argument. Evidence also suggests that certain offender and offense characteristics are doubly-penalized.


Multimodal transportation is one transportation system that uses more than one mode of transportation. In the Government Regulation No. 8 of 2011 on Multimodal Transportation states that multimodal transportation is transportation which uses at least two (2) different transportation modes on the basis of one (1) contract / agreement as the transport document. The problem of this research is on multimodal transportation and legal issues regarding the default under the Civil Law, Commercial Law, The Law  No. 23 of 2007, The Law No. 22 of 2009, and Government Regulation No. 56 Year 2009 on the Implementation of Railways, Government Regulation No. 8 of 2011 on Multimodal Transportation. The method used juridical normative and empirical approach. This study used a source of secondary law and primary law materials, in which secondary law materials include primary data, secondary data, and the tertiary data. Primary law materials are data obtained from the results of field research on the object of research done by direct interview. This analysis conducted qualitative analysis of data in the form of information and a description that is associated with the data - other data are used to gain clarity and truth that will strengthen the existing picture. Results of research conducted at PT. KeretaApi Indonesia (Persero) Lampung region show that PT KAI in Lampung region in carrying out its operations have not been used multimodal transportation system and also in solving the problem of the tort PT. KAI resolve it amicably. As for suggestions that can be expressed by the author is that PT. KAI Lampung region immediately improve its service to solve the tort problem and improve transportation services using multimodal transportation system to facilitate the users of transportation services, and for the users of transportation services should be able to comply with all existing regulations to safeguard the security, comfort, and safety.


Abstract Dental applications based on the unique characteristics of amorphous calcium phosphate stabilized by casein phosphopeptides (CPP-ACP) have been proposed, as well as the improvement of its properties. Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine the ability of topically applied CPP-ACP from a commercial product to remineralize subsurface lesions when applied for extended periods of time (3 h and 8 h). Material and Methods: Artificially induced carious lesions were produced in 50 bovine enamel blocks previously selected by surface hardness. After treatments with gel without F and CPP-ACP applied for 1 minute (Placebo); 2% NaF neutral gel applied for 1 minute (Fluoride 1 min); CPP-ACP applied for 3 min (ACP 3 min); and CPP-ACP applied for 3 h (ACP 3 h) and for 8 h (ACP 8 h), the enamel blocks were submitted to the remineralization pH-cycling. Surface hardness and synchrotron micro-tomography were used to determine the percentage of surface hardness recovery (%SHR) and to calculate mineral concentration (gHAp.cm−3), respectively. The data were submitted to ANOVA followed by the Student-Newman-Keuls test (p<0.05). Results: Fluoride gel presented higher %SHR followed by ACP 3 min (p<0.001). No difference (p = 0.148) was found for Placebo, ACP 3 h and ACP 8 h groups for %SHR. Fluoride gel showed greater mineral concentration (p<0.001) when compared with the other groups. ACP 3 min demonstrated a significant difference (p<0.001) from ACP 3 h and ACP 8 h. The ACP 3 h and 8 h presented a subsurface lesion with development of laminations in all blocks. Conclusion: In this in vitro study the use of CPP-ACP for extended periods of time did not produce an additive effect in the remineralization process.


Some general properties of the circular harmonic expansion relevant to their use for pattern recognition are derived. Both circular harmonic filters and Fourier-Mellin descriptors, which are used as the moments of circular harmonic functions, are considered. Expressions for the asymptotic energy in terms of the circular harmonic orders are derived and experimentally verified.


Motivated by the need for better control of standards of a certification examination for interpreters in Taiwan, this exploratory study aimed at identifying indicators that may be used to predict source material difficulty for consecutive interpreting. A combination of quantifiable measures — readability level, information density and new concept density — was used to examine different aspects of three English source materials. Expert judgment was also used as a more holistic method of judging source material difficulty. The results of these analyses were compared with two groups of student interpreters' performance on consecutive interpreting of the source materials into Mandarin Chinese. The participants' assessment of speech difficulty after the interpreting task was also compared with the other measures and the expert judgment. The quantifiable measures all failed statistically in predicting source material difficulty, possibly due to the very small sample size of the materials or to the fact that the materials were very similar in the aspects assessed by these measures. A trend emerged to suggest that information density and sentence length may be potentially useful indicators for predicting source material difficulty. It was also shown that source material difficulty affected the performance of lower-skilled interpreters more than that of higher-skilled interpreters.


This paper presents good practice methods for flood risk assessment under climate change in urban areas of New Zealand, following techniques selected from the "Impacts of Climate Change on Urban Infrastructure and the Built Environment Toolbox" (see the first paper in this special issue and NIWA, MWH, GNS and BRANZ, 2012). A case study evaluating flood risk in Westport is used to demonstrate the methods. Hence this paper has a dual purpose to explain the modelling methods and to provide a flood risk assessment for Westport under selected climate change scenarios. We show how physically-based climate, hydrological and hydrodynamic models can be used together to simulate changes in meteorological and hydrological processes under future climates, and evaluate the effect of those changes on projections of flood inundation and risks to people and assets. Using a historic 1-in-50 year event as a baseline, we predicted how the severity of that event would change under each climate scenario. Statistically downscaled projections from Global Climate Models were used to define appropriate adjustments to the historical rainfall and temperature measurements. Using the hydrological model TopNet, this data was used to simulate flood hydrographs at the Te Kuha gauging station upstream of Westport. The resulting hydrographs predicted for the future time period 2080-2099 correspond to events in the current climate with recurrence intervals of 78, 98 and 113 years for the B1, A1B and A2 IPCC SRES scenarios respectively. The flood hydrographs provided upstream boundary conditions for a 2D hydrodynamic model simulating inundation of the Buller floodplain. Predictions for inundated area increase from 50% of Westport town in the current climate to 67%, 70%, and 72% for the B1, A1B and A2 scenarios for the 2080-2099 time period. Resulting maps of inundation depths and velocities allow detailed planning for mitigation of flood events. We used the hazard assessment tool RiskScape to calculate the impact of the flood on people and assets (buildings, contents and vehicles) within the inundated area. The predictions showed that under the A1B 2080-2099 scenario, present day Westport could expect risk to life classified as 'Medium' or greater to 560 people, building damage of $72M and contents damage of $68M.


FIRST PRINCIPLES STUDY OF 2D GALLIUM NITRIDE AND ALUMINIUM NITRIDE IN SQUARE-OCTAGON STRUCTURE Emel Gürbüz M.S. in Physics Advisor: Salim Çıracı July 2017 This thesis, deals with the planar free-standing, single-layer, square-octagon (SO) structures of GaN and AlN. We investigated single-layer and multilayer so-GaN and so-AlN structures, their stability, electronic properties and functionalization; adatom and vacancies using first principles pseudopotential plane wave calculations. We performed an extensive analysis of dynamical and thermal stability in terms of ab-initio finite temperature molecular dynamics and phonon calculations together with the analysis of Raman and infrared active modes. These single layer square-octagon structures of GaN and AlN display directional mechanical properties, and have fundamental indirect band gaps, which are smaller than their hexagonal counter parts. These DFT band gaps, however, increase and become wider upon correction. Under uniaxial and biaxial tensile strain the fundamental band gaps decrease and can be closed. The energetics, binding and resulting electronic structure of bilayer, trilayer and 3D layered structures constructed by stacking of the single layers were examined. In contrast to the van der Waals solids, a significant chemical bonding between layers affects the binding and transforms the planar geometry by inducing buckling. Depending on the stacking sequence and geometry, energetics, number of weak vertical bonds and direct band gap electronic structure display interesting variations promising a wide range of tunability. Furthermore, electronic and magnetic properties of these single-layer structures can be modified by adsorption of various adatoms, or by creating neutral cation-anion vacancies. As a future work, in-plane and vertical heterostructures of single layer so-GaN and so-AlN structures could be considered.


This paper is an investigation of the organization of a parallel micro-computer designed to emulate a wide variety of sequential and parallel computers. This micro-computer allows tailoring of its control structure so that it is appropriate for the particular computer to be emulated. The control structure of this micro-computer is dynamically modified by changing the organization of its data structure for control. The micro-computer contains six primitive operators which dynamically manipulate and generate a tree type data structure for control. This data structure for control is used as a syntactic framework within which particular implementations of control concepts, such as iteration, recursion, co-routines, parallelism, interrupts, etc., can be easily expressed. The major features of the control data structure and the primitive operators are: (1) once the fixed control and data linkages among processes have been defined, they need not be rebuilt on subsequent executions of the control structure; (2) micro-programs may be written so that they execute independently of the number of physical processors present and still take advantage of available processors; (3) control structures for I/O processes, data-accessing processes, and computational processes are expressed in a single uniform framework. An emulator programmed on this micro-camputer works as an iterative two-step process similar to the process of dynamic compilation or run time macro-expansion. This dynamic compilation approach to emulation differs considerably from the conventional approach to emulation, and provides a unifying approach to the emulation of a wide variety of sequential and parallel computers.


Objective: Formulations were developed for targeted controlled delivery of 5-fluorouracil at the colonic site. Methods: Probable dose for drug loading in the tablets and duration of drug release at the colon was determined. Core tablets were formulated with an aim to deliver the drug at a constant rate following zero order kinetics throughout the duration of release. Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose E15 and potassium chloride were incorporated as hydrophilic agents in the core matrix for drug release at the desired level and the formulation with the best release profile was chosen for coating with a coating solution containing Eudragit S100, polyethylene glycol 400 and talc. The amounts of Eudragit S100 and weight gain of the tablet were optimized using sequential simplex optimization method. Results: The optimized coated formulation (0.6875 g of Eudragit S100; 7.5% weight gain) was able to provide minimum drug release in the 5 hr lag time (5.9% of cumulative release) and an average release rate of 19.8% per hr thereafter. Conclusion: The optimized formulation for 5-Fluorouracil delivery at the colonic site was able to achieve a sufficient lag time and controlled drug release and can be highly beneficial for optimum therapeutic activity and negligible side effects when administered orally. Key words: Colonic delivery, Eudragit S100, Hydroxypropyl methylcellulose E15, Potassium chloride, Sequential optimization, Zero order release.


In this work, data models are developed by artificial intelligence techniques to predict the flow patterns and to predict liquid hold up during multiphase flow in the drilling phase and production phase of petroleum exploration process. This is significant because early alerting and mitigation of kick, which is a multiphase flow, is important from the safety of the drillers and preventing unwanted catastrophe of life and property. In the production process of petroleum industry, addressing this problem is significant to know about the productivity of the well, design of the transport system and refining process. It is shown that these methods were able to match and improved the prediction performance from multiphase empirical correlations. Different neural network model structures and machine learning classification and regression algorithms were evaluated and optimized to determine the best models that performs prediction accurately. The data for developing the models was collected from experiments in literature where two phase flow of air-kerosene in inclined pipes were studied.


Although the targeting and efficacy of erosion management practices have improved, sediment and nutrients continue to degrade surface waters of North America. This study investigated the influence of land use, stream order, and season on streambank erosion and phosphorus (P) transport in the Central Claypan Region of northeast Missouri. The erosion pin method was used to measure bank erosion at 37 sites in Crooked Creek and Otter Creek watersheds from 2008 to 2011. At 18 of the sites, bank vegetation data were collected and watershed characteristics acquired. Bank erosion was highly variable with a mean linear erosion rate of 99 kg m−1 y−1 (66 lb ft−1 yr−1) and a range of −31 to 490 kg m−1 y−1 (−20 to 330 lb ft−1 yr−1); mean bank recession rate was 7.1 cm y−1 (2.8 in yr−1) and ranged from −2.5 to 33 cm y−1 (−1 to 13 in yr−1). Erosion rates were significantly greater in winter (December to March) than other seasons and were highly correlated to winter and annual stream discharge (r ≥ 0.95, p < 0.05). Watershed-scale estimates showed that streambanks contributed an average of 83% of annual in-stream sediment and 67% of total P loss, clearly demonstrating the impact that bank erosion has on stream water quality in this region. Regression models developed using riparian vegetation and watershed variables accounted for up to 48% of the variability in streambank recession rates, but the models were insufficient for prediction purposes. Overall, the results indicated that current land use, bank vegetation, stream order, and watershed characteristics were not the primary controls on streambank erosion rates. Other factors, such as historic land use changes, stream channelization, and the damming of the Salt River have resulted in major alterations to stream hydrology and geomorphology in these watersheds that have not yet re-equilibrated. These overarching factors, in combination with season, continue to be the main factors controlling streambank erosion in these watersheds.


Abstract : Currently the most popular learning algorithm for connectionist networks is the generalized delta rule (GDR). The GDR learns by performing gradient descent on the error surface in weight space whose height at any point is equal to a measure of the network's error. The GDR is plagued by two major problems. First, the progress towards a solution using the GDR is often quite slow. Second, networks employing the GDR frequently become trapped in local minima on the error surface and hence do not reach good solutions. To solve the problems of the GDR, a new connectionist architecture and learning algorithm is developed in this thesis. The new architectural components are called meta- connections, which are connections from a unit to the connection between two other units. Meta-connections are able to temporarily alter the weight of the connection to which they are connected. In doing this, meta-connections are able to tailor the weights of individual connections for particular input/output patterns. The new learning algorithm, called the meta-generalized delta rule (MGDR), is an extension of the GDR to provide for learning the proper weights for meta-connections. Empirical tests show that the tailoring of weights using meta-connections allows the MGDR to develop solutions more quickly and reliably than the GDR in a wide range of problems.


The extent to which urban tree cover influences crime is in debate in the literature. This research took advantage of geocoded crime point data and high resolution tree canopy data to address this question in Baltimore City and County, MD, an area that includes a significant urban–rural gradient. Using ordinary least squares and spatially adjusted regression and controlling for numerous potential confounders, we found that there is a strong inverse relationship between tree canopy and our index of robbery, burglary, theft and shooting. The more conservative spatially adjusted model indicated that a 10% increase in tree canopy was associated with a roughly 12% decrease in crime. When we broke down tree cover by public and private ownership for the spatial model, we found that the inverse relationship continued in both contexts, but the magnitude was 40% greater for public than for private lands. We also used geographically weighted regression to identify spatial non-stationarity in this relationship, which we found for trees in general and trees on private land, but not for trees on public land. Geographic plots of pseudo-t statistics indicated that while there was a negative relationship between crime and trees in the vast majority of block groups of the study area, there were a few patches where the opposite relationship was true, particularly in a part of Baltimore City where there is an extensive interface between industrial and residential properties. It is possible that in this area a significant proportion of trees is growing in abandoned lands between these two land uses. © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.


The evaluation as well as data banking of distribution patterns are considered as the most important management action for the conservation of biodiversity. Iran is considered as one of the most important of diversity centers of Onosma L. and includes a high rate of endemism. Due to the lack of adequate data on conservation and distribution patterns of the genus at local scale, the current study was conducted in Central Alborz, as an important diversity and endemism centers in Iran, based on field and herbarium assessments, using Geographic Information System. Sampling was performed as a survey of reported points as well as other parts of the region. For physico-chemical analysis of soils, pH, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), organic carbon (C) and soil texture of each habitat were measured from the surface to the depth of plant roots. Results indicated that studied species are mainly distributed at the elevation range of 1257 to 3060 m.a.s.l. Members of Haplotricha subdivision are scattered at an altitude of 307 to1257 m and Heterotricha subdivision at an altitude of 2880-1589 m. Dominantly, the studied species are distributed in semi-arid and Mediterranean climates. However, some species are distributed in semi-humid climate. Generally, most of the species are distributed in habitats with an average annual rainfall of about 250 to 500 mm, on sedimentary, sedimentary-volcanic, igneous and rarely on quaternary deposits. Soils` pH ranged between 7.13 ( O. gaubae ) and 8 ( O. dichroantha ). Studied species are often on loamy clay sandy soils. Less than 50% of the populations of various Onosma species, across the study area, are located in protected areas. In addition, O. gaubae is classified as a rare taxon with a priority for conservation, due to its very small population size and geographical range. The current study has also analyzed the distribution patterns of Onosma in Central Alborz region, based on geo-botanical factors. Findings of this study can be used as an important step to improve the distribution patterns of the genus in Iran and the southwest Asia.


The authors first met in 2000, and have collaborated in conferences, workshops, and other projects since then. We also represent two sides of an international exchange that has frequently occurred in the past 15 years: a European law teacher who attends training sessions, networks with colleagues from other European universities, learns about American models of clinical education, and possibly receives some outside funding; and an American law teacher who is graciously hosted by Europeans, promotes American models of clinical education, and, one hopes, observes, listens and learns about the European system. We are also experienced teachers within our own universities and teach both clinics and more doctrinal courses. Finally we are friends and can be honest with each other. After more than 10 years of working together, we wanted to take stock of the collaboration between American and European academics on issues of clinical education. We wanted to take a close look at what has happened in Central and Eastern Europe since the first "American invasion" of U.S. consultants and funding: what clinical programs were developed? Which ones survived after the consultants and funding left? Why did some programs survive and prosper, while others disappeared? What do the surviving models look like?  We also wanted to ask a series of more subjective and potentially sensitive questions: was the American influence ultimately helpful and productive? To the extent that it was not helpful, what have we learned about improving such cross-cultural international collaborations in the future? Have European law schools copied US models of clinical legal education, or have they developed their own models? In the following sections we first discuss the history of clinical legal education in Central and Eastern Europe. We then focus on Croatia and Olomouc, Czech Republic, two examples of the ambitious but uneven development of clinical programs in Central and Eastern Europe. We next examine the experiences of clinical programs in countries of CEE and some of the challenges these programs have faced in achieving sustainability. We then use a comparison between the European and U.S. clinical program models as a lens for analyzing the experiences of the European programs and assessing the value of collaboration between European and U.S. clinical teachers. Finally, we offer some thoughts about the future of clinical legal education in Central and Eastern Europe.


The dynamic visualization of developing immunological synapses has been hindered by the difficulty of imaging the contact between the T cell and the antigen-presenting cell (APC). Here, we describe a technique in which T cell responses are constrained to a planar stimulatory substrate. This approach, when used in conjunction with immunofluorescent staining procedures or fluorescent protein tags, greatly facilitates detection of the dynamic molecular rearrangements that accompany the formation of contacts and the initiation of signal transduction through the T cell receptor (TCR). Using this method, we have observed signaling complexes of dynamically varying compositions that possess distinct fates.


In this paper, storage efficient caching based on time domain buffer sharing is considered. The caching policy allows a user's device to determine whether and how long it should cache a content item according to the prediction of the user's random request time, also referred to as the request delay information (RDI). In particular, the aim is to maximize the caching gain for communications while limiting its storage cost. To achieve this goal, a queueing theoretic model for caching with infinite buffers is first formulated, in which Little's law is adopted to obtain the tradeoff between the hit ratio and the average buffer consumption. When there are multiple content classes with different RDIs, the storage efficiency is further optimized by carefully allocating the storage cost. For more practical finite-buffer caching, a  $G/GI/L/0$  queue model is formulated, in which a diffusion approximation and the Erlang-B formula are adopted to determine the buffer overflow probability and the corresponding hit ratio. The optimal hit ratio is shown to be limited by the demand probability and buffer size for large and small buffers respectively. In practice, a user may exploit probabilistic caching with random maximum caching time and arithmetic caching without any need for content arrival statistics to efficiently harvest content files from the air.


The effects of culture conditions on a newly isolated Pseudomonas stutzeri KTB's ability to simultaneously perform heterotrophic nitrification and aerobic denitrification were investigated to determine its potential of application in nitrogen removal from wastewater. The results from experiments in the presence of 10 mmol/L of ammonium were as follows: succinate was the preferred carbon source, and the optimum C/N ratio, temperature, and initial pH were 10, 30 °C, and 7–8, respectively. Nitrogen removal took place not only in the logarithmic phase but also in the stationary phase. Under the optimum conditions, the nitrogen removal rate increased as the ammonium concentration elevated, until it was as high as 60 mmol/L. Meanwhile, the maximum specific growth rate decreased. The highest nitrogen removal rate of 0.977 mmol/L/h was observed at 60 mmol/L of ammonium and the maximum removal ratio of 85.6% at 40 mmol/L when the bacterial treatment for 48 h was completed. The strain was vulnerable to even higher ammonium loads. When incubated in anaerobically digested hennery wastewater containing 43.85 mmol/L of ammonium and 2.32 mmol/L of nitrate, the removal ratio and rate reached 82.4% and 0.397 mmol/L/h, respectively. The strain might be a great candidate for ammonium removal from wastewater.


Excessive levels of fluoride in drinking water supplies is a major problem in the Rift Valley of Ethiopia.
The methods of fluoride removal used by industrialized countries require more technical support for
operation and maintenance than is possible in the rural areas of developing countries. There is a need
for low cost defluoridation systems in areas with no alternative water sources. This paper describes three
low cost water defluoridation methods that have been evaluated at pilot scale. Three villages with ground
water with high fluoride content and relatively hot climate were considered. Techniques used are
chemical precipitation by aluminium sulphate and lime, adsorption by bone char, and adsorption by clay
minerals. Community support mechanisms that are useful to make such defluoridation systems
sustainable and practical in the Ethiopian context were assessed. We recommend the aluminum sulfate
and lime method to other fluoride affected
areas, while developing further alternative techniques.


Proteins have many different functions in biological systems, and the molecular functions of proteins are dependent on their three-dimensional structures. Mapping protein structures is therefore an important strategy in understanding gene and protein function. Structural proteomics or structural genomics refers to systematic efforts to functionally annotate protein molecular structures of whole or selected parts of genomes and/or proteomes. Structural proteomics studies have significantly added to our knowledge of protein structures over the past few years and a large fraction of available protein structures in public databases result from high-throughput structural proteomics studies. Although structural proteomics techniques are continually being improved, significant challenges remain in protein expression and crystallisation and in particular for solving protein structures for challenging classes of protein such as membrane proteins.

Key Concepts

Protein function is directly linked to the three-dimensional structure of the protein.
Structural proteomics refers to large-scale mapping of protein structures.
Techniques such as protein crystallisation and X-ray bombardment allow the three-dimensional arrangement of atoms in protein molecules to be determined.
Technical and biological challenges remain in structural proteomics – in particular for certain classes of proteins such as proteins that span membranes. Large-scale structural proteomics is an enabling technology for systems biology.

Keywords:

structural genomics;
high throughput;
protein;
X-ray;
nuclear magnetic resonance methods;
crystallography;
systems biology


New challenges in the cyber-threat domain are driven by tactical and meticulously designed Multi-Stage Attacks (MSAs). Current state-of-the-art (SOTA) Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) are developed to detect individual attacks through the use of signatures or identifying manifested anomalies in the network environment. However, an MSA differs from traditional one-off network attacks as it requires a set of sequential stages, whereby each stage may not be malicious when manifested individually, therefore, potentially be underestimated by current IDSs. This work proposes a new approach towards addressing this challenging type of cyber-attacks by employing external sources of information, beyond the conventional use of signatures and monitored network data. In particular, both expert knowledge and contextual information in the form of Pattern-of-Life (PoL) of the network are shown to be influential in giving an advantage against SOTA techniques. We compare our proposed anomaly-based IDS, based on decision making powered by the Dempster-Shafer (D-S) Theory and Fuzzy Cognitive Maps (FCMs), against Snort, one of the most widely deployed IDS in the world. Our results verify that the use of contextual information improves the efficiency of our IDS by enhancing the Detection Rate (DR) of MSAs by almost 50%.


On June 25th, 2013, Democrat Senator Wendy Davis from Texas staged a 13 hour filibuster in a special legislative session as a final effort to deny the passage of Senate Bill 5, legislation which would severely restrict abortion policies in the state. In the precedent setting event, she took both a literal and figurative stand for women's rights and gained international media attention in the process. My research performed a content analysis of Canadian and American online news coverage of this political event. Each article was examined for: visibility of Senator Davis; gender stereotypical descriptive techniques such as gendered mediation, personalization, and sexualisation; legitimizing or delegitimizing coverage regarding the abortion policies proposed in Senate Bill 5; and supportive or unsupportive tone towards Senator Davis's actions. The results demonstrate that Canadian news coverage presented a greater prevalence of attitudes of gender equality in comparison to the American coverage, which is consistent with prevailing social and legal standards in each country. Additionally, the results reveal the ways in which gendered mediation, which has been traditionally used as a delegitimizing tactic against femininity in the political arena, can be subverted and used in support of female politicians and issues.


The new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development aim to build on the achievements made under the UN Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by broadening their scope and building upon a consultative process. The MDGs contributed to substantial social progress in eight key areas: poverty; education; gender equality; child mortality; maternal health; disease; the environment; and global partnership. The SDGs not only include a greater number of development goals than the MDGs, but are also global in focus, including advanced economies for the first time. This paper draws attention to the main challenges the 2030 Agenda presents for rich countries, by highlighting a set of critical child specific indicators, evaluating countries' progress towards meeting the Goals, and highlighting gaps in existing data. The paper will inform UNICEFs Report Card 14, Building the Future: Children and the Sustainable Development Goals in Rich Countries.


From its inception, Canada's 'Indian policy' has sought to undermine the bond between indigenous children and their communities. Each era has seen a new reason and corresponding tactic to remove indigenous children. They have been institutionalized in residential schools, placed in foster homes, provincial 'care' facilities, and adopted by Euro-Canadian families. While it is widely accepted that the forceful removal of indigenous children during the residential school era and the "Sixties Scoop" was a colonial strategy, contemporary child welfare practices seem to escape the same scrutiny. This seems to be the case even though indigenous children continue to be removed en masse and are vastly overrepresented in the Canadian child welfare system. Indeed, there are more indigenous children in 'care' today than ever before in Canadian history, including the residential school era and following the "Sixties Scoop". Given these trends the colonial effect of contemporary child welfare practices seems evident. This project thus seeks to problematize child welfare practices in relation to indigenous peoples. In particular, it is the aim of this thesis to shed light on some of the narratives that underlie these practices. Through a critical discourse analysis this thesis illuminates how news media in Alberta and Manitoba disseminate controlling images of indigenous peoples and their children. I argue that the discourses in both provinces normalize the removal of indigenous children while naturalizing colonial control.


This paper presents two methods for generating Koch curves, analogous to the commonly used iterative methods for producing images of Julia sets. The attractive method is based on a characterization of Koch curves as the smallest nonempty sets closed with respect to a union of similarities on the plane. This characterization was first studied by Hutchinson. The repelling method is in principle dual to the attractive one, but involves a nontrivial problem of selecting the appropriate transformation to be applied at each iteration step. Both methods are illustrated with a number of computer−generated images. The mathematical presentation emphasizes the relationship between Koch construction and formal languages theory.


Background: Psoriasis is a common and recurrent proliferative inflammatory skin disease that causes areas of thickened, inflamed, red skin, often with silvery scales. It poses a considerable worldwide health problem due to its high prevalence, associated morbidity and high health-care costs. It is a multifactorial qcomplexq disorder, with compelling evidence for a genetic predisposition. Many observations implicate LPIN2 in the genetic etiology of psoriasis, including its position in a minor psoriasis locus; and Majeed syndrome (a Mendelian disorder of bone and skin inflammation) which is caused by homozygous mutations in LPIN2 is often associated with psoriasis in affected individuals and in carriers. We identified several non-synonymous SNPs within LPIN2 in patients with psoriasis that are not present in healthy controls. Objectives: We hypothesize that the identified LPIN2 variations play a role in the genetic etiology of psoriasis and that LPIN2 is the psoriasis susceptibility locus on 18p. We aim to examine this hypothesis through studying the molecular characterization and stability of wild type and variant proteins of LIPIN2, as well as examining the effect of mutation in the phosphatase function of these proteins by colorimetric assay using phosphate containing substrate. Methods: We have obtained custom synthesized cDNA clones encoding the full Lipin2 wild type protein and the six identified mutant proteins (p.K387E, p.S734L, p.A331S, p.L504F, p.P348L, p.E601K). The cDNA clones were sub-cloned and expressed in two expression hosts E. coli and yeast (S. cerevisiae). The recombinant proteins were purified by Ni-Affinity Chromatography, analyzed by SDS Gel Electrophoresis and Western Blot analysis. The effect of mutation in protein stability was studied using Circular Dichroism (CD) spectroscopy, chemically by monitoring spectral changes with unfolding induced by denaturant and thermally by studying CD spectra at different temperatures. In addition the effect of mutation on phosphatase activity of the recombinant proteins was studied colorimetrically by monitoring the hydrolysis of inorganic phosphate from organic phosphate source. Results: DNA analysis, SDS-PAGE and Western Blot analyses indicate that the Wild type and the six mutants are successfully sub-cloned and expressed in the expression hosts. Large scale expressions for all clones are carried out. The pure proteins were studied for their protein stability by CD spectroscopy and showed that there are no significant differences in stability. The activity assay showed that one of the mutants (p.P348L) has higher phosphatase activity which a proximately two times more than the wild type. Conclusion: We have successfully expressed the human Lipin2 protein and its different forms in E. coli and yeast cells. We optimized the conditions to produce substantial amounts of the proteins to be studied by CD spectroscopy to determine the folding patterns, protein stability as well as to study their phosphatase activity by colorimetric method. Other methods will be approached to study the subcellular localization of the proteins and x-ray crystallography.


For a large set of countries, we document how the labor earnings inequality varies with GDP per capita. As countries get richer, the mean-to-median ratio and the Gini coefficient decline. Yet, this decline masks divergent patterns: while inequality at the top of the earnings distribution falls, inequality at the bottom increases. We interpret these facts within a model economy with heterogeneous workers and firms, featuring industry dynamics, search and matching frictions, and skill accumulation of workers through learning-by-doing and on-the-job training. The benchmark economy is calibrated to the UK. We then study how the earnings distribution changes with distortions that penalize high-productivity firms and frictions that reduce match formation. Distortions and frictions reduce employment, average firm size, and GDP per capita. They also affect how much firms are willing to pay workers, how well high-skill workers are matched with high-productivity firms, and how much training workers receive. The model generates the observed cross-country relation between GDP per capita and earnings inequality, as well as a host of cross-country facts on firm size distribution, firms' training decisions, and workers' life-cycle and job tenure earnings profiles.


Spores of Tetrachaetum elegans were isolated in early autumn from submerged leaves which were randomly collected at a single site from a small stream in southwestern France. In order to investigate potential substrate preferences, spores were sampled in four leaves from seven different plant genera. A total of 96 monosporic isolates were screened for genetic variation in RAPD patterns using nine different primers. Fifty-two fragments were identified and used for calculation of similarity coefficients. A large number of fragments were shared across all isolates, suggesting that the population was genetically homogeneous. The combination of 11 polymorphic fragments contributed to the delineation of 13 RAPD types. Colonization of a single leaf by multiple genotypes was frequently encountered. Fungal genetic assemblages differed between plant genera. Variations in the frequency of occurrence of the various genotypes are discussed in terms of ecological strategies and in reference to previous work at the community level. We suggested two hypotheses: first, substrate preferences are found among aquatic hyphomycete genotypes, and secondly, sequential occupation by distinctive populations may result in different assortments of genotypes on leaf litters of different plants at any given time of sampling.


This study examines 'participatory journalism' from the perspective of participants. Through a series of in-depth interviews with 32 participants from two different participatory journalistic environments set up by professional news organizations, we investigated how participants view and evaluate their participation in journalism. We propose that participants views progress through a series of four stages: anticipation, participation, evaluation and reconsideration. A clear breach is observed between the stage of anticipation and evaluation. We propose that this breach could be couched in terms of both a need and a wish for reciprocity, but also a lack of it. The term 'reciprocity' is inspired by Lewis et al.'s notion of 'reciprocal journalism' and Loosen and Schmidt's conceptualization of journalism as a 'social system'. Implications for the study of participatory journalism and journalism practitioners are discussed.


This article was written is response to a request from the editor-in-chief as a result of my receiving the Governor's Award in Scientific Awareness. My goal is to provide a glimpse into a 40 plus year research career that was predominately focused on the role of thromboxane A2 and its receptor (TP) in physiologic and pathophysiologic processes in the cardiovascular system. It also enumerates the lessons learned along the way that may lead to a productive research career. Those lessons were; Perseverance, Think out of the box, Challenge the dogma, Take risks, Failure is not a bad thing, Focus, Select a good mentor(s), Choose your collaborators and colleagues wisely (team science), When you start an experiment-finish it (analyze all the data), Take time for your family.


A large temnospondyl mandible from the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone (Early Triassic) of South Africa is referred to the higher-level taxon Trematosauridae. The mandible is remarkably similar to that described for Trematosaurus from the Middle Buntsandstein of Germany, a genus closely related to the South African Trematosuchus, for which the mandible is unknown. However, the mandible cannot be referred unequivocally to either of these taxa. Trematosuchus is considered to be restricted to the lowermost subzone of the overlying Cynognathus Assemblage Zone, which, based principally on the temnospondyl and therapsid fauna, is considered to be of Upper Olenekian age. The mandible described here extends back the range of the Trematosauridae to the underlying Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone and argues against the long-held notion of a sharp palaeontological break between the faunas of the Lystrosaurus and Cynognathus Assemblage zones. It also supports the hypothesis that the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone extended up to the Upper Olenekian.


A sector of the Peruvian Coastal Batholith 120 km long has been mapped in detail. Little altered volcanics of Cretaceous and Lower Tertiary age make up the bulk of the country rocks and these and their structures are flagrandy cross-cut by a great composite intrusion in which some 16 distinct petrographic units are distributed in many time separated plutons. Though tonalites bulk large, substantial volumes of basic and acid rocks are involved in a clearly marked basic to acid sequence, a primary rhytiim, in the distribution of which there is often a marked symmetry: gabbros on the flanks, tonalites and quartz diorites internally and in a medial position there are centred complexes in which adamellites are particularly important. Each of the main petrographic units involved a secondary rhythm of in situ, high level, differentiation in their emplacement. The adamellites have followed earlier arcuate basic intrusions and the resulting associations of multiple plutons and ring dykes are thought to represent the basal wrecks of volcanoes which were active over the entire intrusion history of the batholith. The space problem has not been fully solved and the resolution of this problem will depend on structural analysis of the envelope over a wide area. It has however been demonstrated that stoping and cauldron subsidence were important and because the attitude of many of the main contacts was controlled by contemporaneous fracturing it seems that a general uplift on faults may have provided some of the space for intrusion.


We propose a novel design for light field image acquisition based on compressive sensing principles. By placing a randomly coded mask at the aperture of a camera, incoherent measurements of the light passing through different parts of the lens are encoded in the captured images. Each captured image is a random linear combination of different angular views of a scene. The encoded images are then used to recover the original light field image via a novel Bayesian reconstruction algorithm. Using the principles of compressive sensing, we show that light field images with a large number of angular views can be recovered from only a few acquisitions. Moreover, the proposed acquisition and recovery method provides light field images with high spatial resolution and signal-to-noise-ratio, and therefore is not affected by limitations common to existing light field camera designs. We present a prototype camera design based on the proposed framework by modifying a regular digital camera. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed system using experimental results with both synthetic and real images.


Despite over 20 years of research and scientific consensus on the topic, climate change continues to be a politically polarizing issue. We conducted a survey experiment to test whether providing the public with information on the exact extent of scientific agreement about the occurrence and causes of climate change affects respondents' own beliefs and bridges the divide between conservatives and liberals. First, we show that the public significantly underestimated the extent of the scientific consensus. We then find that those given concrete information about scientists' views were more likely to report believing that climate change was already underway and that it was caused by humans. However, their beliefs about the necessity of making policy decisions and their willingness to donate money to combat climate change were not affected. Information provision affected liberals, moderates, and conservatives similarly, implying that the gap in beliefs between liberals and conservatives is not likely to be bridged by information treatments similar to the one we study. Finally, we conducted a 6-month follow-up with respondents to see if the treatment effect persisted; the results were statistically inconclusive.


Understanding how environmental forcing has generated and maintained large‐scale patterns of biodiversity is a key goal of evolutionary research and critical to predicting the impacts of global climate change. We suggest that the initiation of the global thermohaline circulation provided a mechanism for the radiation of Southern Ocean fauna into the deep sea. We test this hypothesis using a relaxed phylogenetic approach to coestimate phylogeny and divergence times for a lineage of octopuses with Antarctic and deep‐sea representatives. We show that the deep‐sea lineage had their evolutionary origins in Antarctica, and estimate that this lineage diverged around 33 million years ago (Ma) and subsequently radiated at 15 Ma. Both of these dates are critical in development of the thermohaline circulation and we suggest that this has acted as an evolutionary driver enabling the Southern Ocean to become a centre of origin for deep‐sea fauna. This is the first unequivocal molecular evidence that deep‐sea fauna from other ocean basins originated from Southern Ocean taxa and this is the first evidence to be dated. © The Willi Hennig Society 2008.


OBJECTIVES
To observe the effects of etanercept treatment on the cutaneous manifestations of hidradenitis suppurative (HS) and to evaluate physician and patient global assessment scores of cutaneous manifestations.

DESIGN
Single-center, randomized, prospective, double-blind, placebo-controlled study.

SETTING
Academic dermatology practice.

PATIENTS
Twenty patients with active moderate to severe HS who fulfilled all inclusion criteria.

INTERVENTION
Etanercept, 50 mg, or placebo was administered subcutaneously (SC) twice weekly for 12 weeks. After 12 weeks, all patients received open-label etanercept, 50 mg, SC twice weekly for 12 more weeks.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Primary end point: physician global assessment of HS as clear or mild at week 12. Secondary end points: patient global assessment and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI).

RESULTS
There was no statistically significant difference among physician global assessment, patient global assessment, and DLQI at 12 or 24 weeks between treatment and placebo groups (P > .05 for all comparisons).

CONCLUSIONS
Etanercept, 50 mg, SC administered twice weekly did not have significant efficacy in the improvement of HS. In light of our negative results, as well as those of previous studies, we suggest that future studies focus on other agents for the treatment of HS. Trial Registration clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00949546.


The unanimous adoption of UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolution 2139 at the end of February 2014 brought with it much needed hope for people in Syria and across the Middle East. In it, the UNSC called for an urgent increase in access for humanitarian aid in Syria and demanded that all parties immediately cease attacks against civilians, end arbitrary detention, kidnapping and torture, and lift sieges of populated areas. In July and December 2014, the UNSC adopted two additional resolutions – 2165 and 2191 – which authorized UN aid operations to enter Syria from neighbouring countries without requiring the consent of the Syrian government. This report reviews what real effects the UNSC Resolutions have had on protection of civilians, humanitarian access, increases in international aid contributions, and political solutions. It finds that, despite the three resolutions, violence in Syria has intensified, killings have increased, humanitarian access has diminished, and the humanitarian response remains severely and chronically underfunded.


This article presents a soft pneumatic bending actuator using a magnetically assisted bilayer composite composed of silicone polymer and ferromagnetic particles. Bilayer composites were fabricated by mixing ferromagnetic particles to a prepolymer state of silicone in a mold and asymmetrically distributed them by applying a strong non-uniform magnetic field to one side of the mold during the curing process. The biased magnetic field induces sedimentation of the ferromagnetic particles toward one side of the structure. The nonhomogeneous distribution of the particles induces bending of the structure when inflated, as a result of asymmetric stiffness of the composite. The bilayer composites were then characterized with a scanning electron microscopy and thermogravimetric analysis. The bending performance and the axial expansion of the actuator were discussed for manipulation applications in soft robotics and bioengineering. The magnetically assisted manufacturing process for the soft bending actuator is a promising technique for various applications in soft robotics.


Purpose: To develop a methodology for development of 3D planning of obese patients larger than CT field of view (FOV) using PHILIPS Pinnacle 3 treatment planning system. Material & Methods: Obese patient larger than CT FOV was scanned on Siemens Emotion Duo CT simulator in two laterally shifted positions. The Patient had appropriate BBs (central and lateral CT markers) on the central plane. The patient was first positioned such that one side of the patient's contour is fully visible in the reconstructed image. Another similar data set was acquired by shifting the patient laterally. A new composite CT data set with a larger FOV was generated by mapping the left and right halves of the two data sets using the indigenously developed software. Typically the images were joined at a user selectable sagittal plane. In this way, it was possible to fuse the above image sets to makeup the full patient for target/structures delineation. A traditional 3D planning on Pinnacle3 was carried out. Results: An acceptable 3D plan data set was generated and dose distribution along with DRR was obtained using Pinnacle3. The DRRs were compared with AP and LAT simulation films and acceptable results were obtained. Similarly, the plan SSDs and depths were compared with data from patient setup with satisfactory results. Conclusion: A methodology has been developed, tested and implemented for the obese patients with larger CT FOV for 3D planning on Pinnacle3. Essentially using this method, the 50 cm diameter FOV limitation of our scanner has been increased to 70 cm FOV. This was useful for a few selected individual cases in our clinic. While the composite data set is dependent upon the accuracy of patient positioning, several improvements are planned for the future.


This article analyzes the recent conduct of monetary and exchange rate policies in the Czech Republic. The Czech Republic entered 1993 as a newly independent country. It has introduced inflation targeting and floating exchange rate regime. The multidimensional nature of the inflationtargeting definition explains why there is no consensus about whether or not it should be employed. However, the Czech Republic experience with inflation targeting seems to have been satisfactory. The authority has succeeded in maintaining a stable and moderate rate of inflation while enjoying economic growth. The exchange rate also has been stable. Using the Taylor rule, this article shows that the monetary authority has managed financial policy adequately and that the central bank looks forward rather than backward when it formulates monetary policy. Moreover, the exchange rate system, regardless of free-floating rhetoric, does not heavily influence the conduct of monetary policy in the Czech Republic because the central bank need not manipulate the exchange rate strongly and knows that exchange rate policy does not have a strong effect on the exchange rate itself under the global economy and financial deregulation.


ABSTRACT In 2014, the Zapatistas (EZLN) celebrated the twentieth anniversary of their 1 January uprising in Chiapas against the Mexican state and the imposition of the North American Free Trade Agreement. The uprising took place in the aftermath of an upswing in hemispheric indigenous organizing around the quincentennial anniversary of the conquest of the Americas, and the 1992 constitutional recognition of Mexico as a 'pluricultural' nation. From the beginning, the Zapatistas rejected this recognition as purely symbolic, and instead demanded collective rights and resources. They also refused to see their demands as local, linking historic issues of dispossession and racism to contemporary global capitalism, while opening a space for transnational solidarity with other social and revolutionary movements. For over two decades, the Zapatistas have built a project of autonomy with the formation of autonomous municipalities, which they later consolidated into a system of territorial governance. Alongside these changes have been a global rise and interest in theories and practices of decolonization, and a questioning of the politics of national and transnational solidarity. Can Zapatista autonomy be understood as a practice of decolonization? This essay draws on longitudinal community work and ethnographic research conducted since 1994, and examines the Zapatistas' construction of an insurgent indigenous identity, attempts to regulate the boundaries of what it means to be 'indigenous', and emerging new geographies of belonging in order to open a conversation about what their modes and strategies of political organizing may offer, particularly to struggles in settler colonial states.


Mobile app developers rely heavily on standard API frameworks and libraries. However, learning API usages is often challenging due to the fast-changing nature of API frameworks for mobile systems and the insufficiency of API documentation and source code examples. In this paper, we propose a novel approach to learn API usages from bytecode of Android mobile apps. Our core contributions include HAPI, a statistical model of API usages and three algorithms to extract method call sequences from apps' bytecode, to train HAPI based on those sequences, and to recommend method calls in code completion using the trained HAPIs. Our empirical evaluation shows that our prototype tool can effectively learn API usages from 200 thousand apps containing 350 million method sequences. It recommends next method calls with top-3 accuracy of 90% and outperforms baseline approaches on average 10-20%.


When Auschwitz camp commandant Rudolf Hoss had over two million people put to death, he was not to blame. When Adolf Eichmann delivered victim after victim to the concentration camps, he was not to blame. When William Calley led the massacre of hundreds of civilians at My Lai, he was not to blame. These are startling claims. Many find them outrageous. I think that they are probably true. It surely matters whether they are true. Evil is committed every day, sometimes of monstrous proportions, sometimes not. Those who commit evil are often punished for their actions. This is a natural response to what they have done, for the desire to see evildoers punished is primitive and instinctive. But we all recognize, in our calmer, more detached moments, the possibility that an evildoer does not deserve, indeed deserves not, to be punished because he is not to blame for his evil actions, and he is not to blame because he has an excuse. In such a case, a gross injustice is perpetrated if the evildoer is punished nonetheless. (It is just possible that such an injustice is morally justified, due to certain overwhelming, countervailing considerations, but, even so, the injustice remains undiminished.) I believe it likely that Hoss, Eichmann, and Calley all had an excuse for their terrible deeds. The excuse was that they did not believe that they were doing anything morally wrong.


Table of Contents: PART ONE Public Speaking in a Democratic Society Chapter 1 Public Speaking and Democratic Citizenship Public Speaking and Civic Engagement The Rhetorical Tradition Communication Challenges of the Twenty-first Century The Responsible Citizen-Speaker Chapter 2 The Ethical Public Speaker The Engaged Citizen Getting Involved in Politics The Ethics of Public Speaking Deliberation and Demagoguery in the Media Age Chapter 3 Preparing to Speak with Commitment and Confidence Public Speaking as Civic Engagement Preparing Yourself to Speak Speaking with Confidence Chapter 4 The Listener as Engaged Citizen The Importance of Effective Listening Understanding Barriers to Good Listening Guidelines for Improving Listening Chapter 5 Diverse Audiences in a Democratic Society Understanding Diverse Audiences Identifying Individual Listener Needs and Values Identifying Communal Needs and Values Gathering Information for Audience Adaptation Ongoing Strategies for Audience Adaptation PART TWO Developing Your Speech Chapter 6 Developing Significant Topics Finding a Suitable Topic Narrowing the Topic Ethical Obligations in Selecting a Topic General Purposes Crafting a Specific Purpose Testing Specific Purposes Constructing a Thesis Statement Chapter 7 Responsible and Productive Research A Productive Start The Creative Enterprise of Building a Speech Investigating Like a Professional: Utilizing Library Resources Searching the World Wide Web Gathering Information through Interviews Gathering Information through E-mail Citing Sources of Quoted and Paraphrased Material Chapter 8 Supporting Your Ideas with Evidence Supporting Ideas with Evidence Testing Evidence Chapter 9 Organizing Your Speech The Importance of Good Organization Determining When an Idea Is a Good One How Patterns of Organization Connect Ideas Guidelines for Organizing Your Speech Using Transitions as Connectives Introducing Your Speech Concluding Your Speech Chapter 10 Outlining Your Speech Types of Outlines Basic Principles of Outlining PART THREE Presenting Your Speech Chapter 11 Using Language Effectively Language and Meaning Using Language That Is Clear and Accurate Using Language That Is Interesting Using Language that Is Appropriate to the Situation Responding Critically to a Speaker's Style Chapter 12 Delivering Your Speech Effectively Sounding Good versus Being Sound Principles of Good Delivery Speaking Extemporaneously Alternative Styles of Delivery Responding to Audience Questions Chapter 13 Supporting Your Ideas Visually Functions of Presentational Aids Encouraging Emotional Involvement Options for Presentational Aids Guidelines for Preparing Presentational Aids Guidelines for Using Presentational Aids PART FOUR Types of Public Speaking Chapter 14 Speaking to Inform Functions of Informative Speeches Types of Informative Speeches Organizing the Informative Speech How Audiences Learn from Informative Speeches Chapter 15 Persuasive Speaking in a Democratic Society The Anatomy of Public Controversy Questions of Fact, Value, and Policy Ethical Proof in Persuasive Speaking Appealing to Audience Emotions Chapter 16 Arguing Persuasively Persuasion and Demagoguery in a Free Society Constructing a Reasonable Argument The Forms of Reasoning Fallacies of Reasoning and Evidence Chapter 17 Speaking on Special Occasions Ceremonial Speaking in a Free Society Social Values in Ceremonial Speaking The Forms of Ceremonial Speech Style and Delivery in Ceremonial Speaking Chapter 18 Speaking and Deliberating in Groups Understanding Public Deliberation Group Structures That Encourage Dialogue and Deliberation Factors That Influence Effective Group Deliberation Group Presentations Guidelines for Deliberating in Groups


In the last few years, Netflix has set itself as a true player in U.S. television industry, fostering new competitive dynamics that have contributed to redefine television's production and distribution models. This paper aims to discuss one of the effects of this competition: the rethinking of the pilot process in favour of the straight-to-series commitment in broadcast television.
The analysis will unfold along three main directions:
1. Causes: we will argue that Netflix, through its high financial commitments, has launched a speculative bubble that has shaken up the traditional structure of competitive forces, pushing competitors to outbid its offers to hit-producers.
2. Issues: we will see whether the straight-to-series model could prove economically viable for broadcast television.
3. Consequences: we will ultimately analyse the consequences on narrative forms of network series, focusing in particular on writing processes and modes of storytelling.


What happens to people's relationship to places that have been subjected to a high degree of mediation? The aim of this article is to engage in current debates on mediaspace and the mediatization of travelling, by offering an empirical and conceptual qualification to this discussion, through a study of the experiences of Swedes travelling in the US in the 1950s. This article shows that in understanding the relationship between communication and geography, it is vital to focus on the level of experience and on what Edward Soja, following Henri Lefebvre, calls `thirdspace'. The argument is that while the journeys were scripted, travellers' 'knowledge' of the land was seriously challenged as they ended up in thirdspace suspense, displaced in a country that was both fiction and fact, known and unknown. Studying the intersection of travelling and mediation will render new insights into the meanings that mediation carries, which push beyond common polarizations: mediation has to be conceived in terms of more than either powerful images or playfulness/resistance. As mediation interlaces with the imagined and the lived, ambivalences, dissonances and incommensurable affections towards the places at hand are generated.