Agricultural production remains the main source of livelihood for rural communities in Sub-Saharan Africa, providing employment to more than 60 percent of the population and contributing about 30 percent of gross domestic product. With likely long-term changes in rainfall patterns and shifting temperature zones, climate change is expected to significantly affect agricultural production, which could be detrimental to the region's food security and economic growth. An assessment of the factors influencing farm-level adaptation can facilitate the formation of policies and investment strategies that help moderate potential adverse consequences of long-term climate change. Because smallholder farmers tend to have a low capacity to adapt to changes in climatic conditions, policies that help these farmers adapt to global warming and associated climatic extremes are particularly important.This brief is based on a study that assesses smallholder farmers' adaptation to climate change in southern Africa. The study identifies farmers' perceptions of climate change and the determinants of farm-level adaptation strategies, and recommends policies that could help stabilize national and regional food production given the anticipated adverse effects of climate change.


Glutamate decarboxylase is a vitamin B6‐dependent enzyme, which catalyses the decarboxylation of glutamate to γ‐aminobutyrate. In Escherichia coli, expression of glutamate decarboxylase (GadB), a 330 kDa hexamer, is induced to maintain the physiological pH under acidic conditions, like those of the passage through the stomach en route to the intestine. GadB, together with the antiporter GadC, constitutes the gad acid resistance system, which confers the ability for bacterial survival for at least 2 h in a strongly acidic environment. GadB undergoes a pH‐dependent conformational change and exhibits an activity optimum at low pH. We determined the crystal structures of GadB at acidic and neutral pH. They reveal the molecular details of the conformational change and the structural basis for the acidic pH optimum. We demonstrate that the enzyme is localized exclusively in the cytoplasm at neutral pH, but is recruited to the membrane when the pH falls. We show by structure‐based site‐directed mutagenesis that the triple helix bundle formed by the N‐termini of the protein at acidic pH is the major determinant for this behaviour.


Eclipse is the world's most popular IDE for Java development. And although there are plenty of large tomes that cover all the nooks and crannies of Eclipse, what you really need is a quick, handy guide to the features that are used over and over again in Java programming. You need answers to basic questions such as: Where was that menu? What does that command do again? And how can I set my classpath on a per-project basis? This practical pocket guide gets you up to speed quickly with Eclipse. It covers basic concepts, including Views and editors, as well as features that are not commonly understood, such as Perspectives and Launch Configurations. You'll learn how to write and debug your Java code--and how to integrate that code with tools such as Ant and JUnit. You'll also get a toolbox full of tips and tricks to handle common--and sometimes unexpected--tasks that you'll run across in your Java development cycle. Additionally, the Eclipse IDE Pocket Guide has a thorough appendix detailing all of Eclipse's important views, menus, and commands. The Eclipse IDE Pocket Guide is just the resource you need for using Eclipse, whether it's on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Put it in your back pocket, or just throw it in your backpack. With this guide in hand, you're ready to tackle the Eclipse programming environment.


This paper shows how endogeneous inflation inertia is generated by a simple modificaton of the quadratic adjustment cost structure faced by economic agents. We derive the pertinent inflation relationships based on purely nominal rigidities and show that they always involve additional expectation terms which are absent in a Calvo-type environment. However, the structural differences do not prevent dynamic adjustment paths and theoretical moments to be similar under both rigidity assumptions. An extensive application of nominal adjustment frictions leads to a full-scale macroeconomic framework able to replicate empirical responses to an interest rate shock.


Protein meal from soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] contains the soluble sugars raffinose and stachyose. Because of these sugars, the quantity of soybean meal must be limited in rations to avoid flatulence in dogs (Canis familiaris) and digestive disturbances in baby pigs (Sus scrofa) and chicks (Gallus domesticus). Identifying soybean with a lower level of these sugars could lead to an increase in the quantity of soybean meal used in specific rations. As protein content of soybean seed is increased and oil is reduced, the total protein + oil + seed coat is greater than in standard type soybean. The residual portion is therefore reduced, and soluble sugars could account for a part of this reduction. Twenty standard type (high-oil) soybean cultivars and breeding lines and 20 high-protein breeding lines were grown in replicated trials on Sharkey clay (very-fine, montmorillonitic, nonacid, thermic Vertic Haplaquept) at Stoneville in 1991 and 1992. Seed was analyzed for protein, oil, raffinose, stachyose, and sucrose. Range in protein content was from 387 to 537 g kg -1 dry seed and oil was from 145 to 216 g kg -1 dry seed. Range in g stachyose + raffinose kg -1 protein was 78.3 to 133.7. The correlation between protein and stachyose + raffinose was negative but nonsignificant. The g stachyose + raffinose kg -1 protein for the cultivar Forrest was used as a basis for comparison with the other genotypes evaluated. On this basis, the quantity of protein that might be used in a ration without changing the raffinose + stachyose level from that in Forrest ranged from 89 to 153%.


As great admirers of The Boss and as fans of live entertainment, we share in the popular dismay over rising ticket prices for live performances. But we have been asked as antitrust scholars to examine the proposed merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster, and we do so with the objectivity and honesty called for by The Boss's quotes above. The proposed merger has been the target of aggressive attacks from several industry commentators and popular figures, but the legal and policy question is whether the transaction is at odds with the nation's antitrust laws. One primary source of concern to critics is that Ticketmaster and Live Nation are two leading providers of ticket distribution services, and these critics argue that the merged entity would have a combined market share that is presumptively anticompetitive. We observe, however, that this transaction is taking place within a rapidly changing industry. The spread of Internet technologies has transformed the entertainment industry, and along with it the ticket distribution business such that a reliance on market shares based on historical sales is misleading. A growing number of venues, aided by a competitive bidding process that creates moments of focused competition, can now acquire the requisite capabilities to distribute tickets to their own events and can thus easily forgo reliance upon providers of outsourced distribution services. If self-distribution is an available and attractive option for venues, as it appears to be, then it is unlikely that even a monopolist provider of fully outsourced ticketing services could exercise market power. Ultimately, a proper assessment of the horizontal effects of this merger would have to weigh heavily the emerging role of Internet technologies in this dynamic business and the industry-wide trend towards self-distribution. The second category of arguments by critics opposing the merger rests on claims that vertical aspects of the transaction would produce anticompetitive effects. Indeed, Ticketmaster's and Live Nation's core businesses are in successive markets, and thus the proposed transaction is primarily a vertical merger, but there is broad agreement among economists and antitrust authorities that vertical mergers rarely introduce competitive concerns and are usually driven by efficiency motivations. This wealth of academic scholarship, which is reflected in current antitrust law, has not - from our vantage point - been properly incorporated into the public dialogue concerning the proposed merger. To the contrary, critics articulate concerns, including the fears that the merger would lead to the leveraging of market power and the foreclosure of downstream competition, that are refuted by accepted scholarship. Moreover, there are a number of specific efficiencies that, consistent with economic and organizational theory, are likely to emerge from a Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger and would be unlikely but for the companies' integration. For these reasons, we submit this analysis in an effort to inform the debate with current economic and legal scholarship.


In this paper, we identify methodological differences and similarities in the measurement of wealth using survey data constructed for different purposes in the U.K. and separately for England. The focus of the paper is on two prominent surveys in the U.K.: the English Longitudinal Survey of Ageing (ELSA) and the British Household Panel Survey (BHPS). We find conceptual differences in the measurement of financial assets and debt. At the same time, striking similarities exist in the measurement of non-financial assets. For the most part, many differences arise in the tails of the distributions of wealth. Comparable definitions of overall wealth in the surveys lead us to find a 10% and 3% difference in mean and conditional median of total net worth, respectively. Reassuring is the fact that inequality results carried out with the two surveys support one another and quantile regression shows that the distribution of total net worth across demographic groups is similar in the two surveys.


We describe a new method providing the complex index of an absorbing material from interferometric measurements of the transmittance and the corresponding phase shift for a series of unbacked films, of medium to large thickness. In fact, the usual method, giving the optical constants independently from the slope of the line obtained by a least-squares fit to the experimental points, may be used only in the thick-film limit, although it has the advantage of being insensitive to the surface conditions. The new method suggested here retains this advantage and allows the thickness range to be extended to more transparent specimens. Furthermore, it provides information on the surface quality and the thin-film model validity. Application to unbacked gold films is shown in the visible and near ultraviolet.


What is the role of the spectator in interactive performance? What is spectatorship in a one-to-one encounter, in the dark, with a performer? What does it mean to be a masked spectator? Punchdrunk takes a peculiar approach to the problem of audience participation, and offers their audiences strange encounters with their work. Spectators are separated and isolated, then released into vast, dark environments; and it is they, not the performers, who are masked. This chapter examines how this intervention into the practice of spectatorship facilitates interaction, and how the mask enables spectators to become performers in ways that might surprise them. It compares this strategy to other contemporary ways of dealing with the failure of theatre to provide an exchange between performer and audience.


Propionic acid modified bagasse was used for the removal of reactive yellow 2 and reactive blue 4. The effects of pH, contact time, initial dye concentrations, adsorbent particle size and adsorbent dose on the adsorption of the two dyes were investigated. Additionally, the desorption process and intra-particle diffusion were studied. Acidic pH values were favorable for adsorption of both dyes. The equilibrium adsorption data were best fitted with the Freundlich isotherm for reactive yellow 2 and the Langmiur isotherm for reactive blue 4. The values of their corresponding constants were determined. The kinetic for dye adsorption is well described by a pseudo-first order kinetic model for the reactive yellow 2 and by pseudo-second order for the reactive blue 4. The investigation revealed that the hydroxyl groups of bagasse and the carboxylic group of propionic acid play a great role in the removal of both reactive dyes.


Curvature collineations are symmetry directions for the Riemann tensor, in the same sense as isometries are for the metric tensor and Ricci collineations for the Ricci tensor. Complete listings of many metrics possessing some minimal symmetry have been given for a number of symmetry groups for their curvature collineations. Special emphasis is placed on the study of spherically symmetric (Chapter 2), plane symmetric (Chapter 3), cylindrically symmetric (Chapter 4) static spacetimes, and their comparison with Ricci collineations, homothetic vectors and Killing vectors. The Einstein field equations are then used as defining equations for the stress energy tensor. The metrics obtained are investigated for their physical interpretation. It turns out that in this complete list, there are curvature collineations that are distinct from the set of isometries, homothetic vectors and of Ricci collineations. The work in Chapter 2 appeared in: J. Math. Phys. 38 (1997)3639; (prior to this thesis) and Nuovo Cimento 8115 (2000)281; Chapter 3 in: J. Math. Phys. 44 (2000)2167; and Chapter 4 has been accepted in: Gen. Ref. Grav. 35 (2003). My journal article contributions are attached to the last part of the thesis. In this process, all of the known spherically symmetric, plane symmetric and cylindrically symmetric static metrics are recovered along with their symmetry groups.

Some metrics and classes of metrics, according to their curvature collineations, (different from RCs, HVs and KVs) are found which were not obtained before. Finally, in the concluding Chapter 5, a summary of the results obtained, main findings as theorems and some open problems are mentioned.


In this thesis, I present the results of a theoretical and experimental study of the response of dry coal matrix material to pure CH4, pure H2O and CH4-CO2 mixtures under in-situ conditions, with the aim of providing fundamental data that can contribute to assessing future strategies for enhanced coalbed methane (ECBM) recovery. The main conclusions are as follows: 1.Four thermodynamic models were developed to describe the (equilibrium) swelling behaviour of coal matrix material due to adsorption of a binary gas mixture (such as CO2-CH4 mixtures). They covered three possible end-members interactions between gas and sorption sites, plus a generalized case. Model predictions were compared with literature data on the swelling behaviour of Bowen Basin coal (Australia) exposed to CH4-CO2 mixtures, and showed that adsorption by and swelling of this type of coal is determined by the partial pressures of the gas species and by their selective adsorption (preferred affinity for sorption) at the adsorption sites. 2.In-situ CBM content is determined not only by the geological factors generally considered, such as coal rank, coal composition, moisture content and temperature, but also by lithostatic or confining stress, which is usually ignored. The effects of in-situ stress on methane sorption by coal is well captured by a specifically developed thermodynamic model. The model predicted a maximum CH4 concentration of ~0.76 mol/kgcoal for dry high volatile bituminous coal at a burial depth of ~900m, which is ~3% lower than conventional predictions (i.e. without considering the effect of in-situ stress). 3.Theoretical models were developed for time-dependent swelling of coal matrix material upon adsorption of a single gas, taking into account the coupled effects of stress, strain, chemical potential and diffusion. Comparison with experimental data illustrated that time-dependent swelling of medium volatile bituminous coal was controlled by the diffusion of unadsorbed molecules through diffusion paths linking distant adsorption sites; not by the jump frequency of adsorbed molecules between closely spaced adsorption sites or by pore size distribution effects cited in the literature. 4.Swelling strains measured for high volatile bituminous coal (Brzeszcze, Poland) due to adsorption of water vapour, as attained at (apparent) equilibrium, tend to be a factor of up to 1.45 times higher perpendicular to bedding than in the bedding plane. In addition, coal sample size strongly influences swelling kinetics, but not the equilibrium swelling strains, suggesting that the swelling is controlled by diffusion. The volumetric swelling strains attained at equilibrium show a near-linear dependence on relative humidity, reaching 1.37-1.43% at around 95% relative humidity. 5.Swelling strains developed at (apparent) equilibrium in the above coal, due to water adsorption, were reduced by applied stresses. This effect is caused by the combined effects of a) permanent time-dependent (compressive) deformation (creep), b) the thermodynamic effect of a stress-driven reduction in water sorption capacity and c) stress-driven closure of transport paths within the coal matrix. Nonetheless, the effects of stress on the swelling response of (Brzeszcze) high volatile bituminous coal to water are small and can be neglected at typical in-situ stresses of 10-30 MPa.


The following presents two sources for the philosophy underlying behavior analysis as it has come to be represented in the tradition of the later B. F. Skinner's radical behaviorism--Darwinian selectionism and pragmatism primarily in the Peircean tradition. Both show central organizations according to probabilistic three-term contingencies, but at different levels. Peirce shows key similarities with Darwin, and the later Skinner shows key similarities with Darwin and Peirce. In contrast to his early behaviorism supported by positivism, the philosophy that characterized Skinner's later work was a pragmatic selectionism. Keywords: Darwin, evolution, Peirce, positivism, pragmatism, selectionism, Skinner. ********** To the extent that behavior analysts support Skinner's later views, in contrast to his earlier views, the following presents the underlying philosophy of behavior analysis as a philosophy of pragmatic selectionism. The early Skinner (1931/1999, pp. 478-487) traced the reflex back to Descartes in a history of physiology that included Marshall Hall and Pavlov. Later, Skinner (1963/1969, pp. 223-226) traced the history of his radical behaviorism from Darwin to Romanes to Morgan to Thorndike, all of whom advanced connections with natural selection, and to others who did not. The originator in each series is revealing. Descartes advanced an if-then analysis according to a two-term stimulus and response reflex. Skinner (1931/1999) saw that by definition the relation between the stimulus and the response was one of "necessity" (p. 449); and said, "The stimulus is an essential part of a mechanistic theory of behavior, whether the notion is arrived at through observation ... or argued from physical necessity or mechanical analogy, as it was with Descartes" (p. 480). In contrast, Darwin advanced an analysis according to a three-term probabilistic contingency of the conditions of life, variation, and selection. Darwin's views soon influenced the views of Peirce and the pragmatists, and notable similarities exist between Darwin, the American pragmatists--Peirce, James, and Dewey--and the later Skinner. Against the background of early behaviorism, a basic outline of Skinner's subsequent pragmatic selectionism follows. Modernism and Its Support for Early Behaviorism The S-R behaviorism of the early Skinner fits in with a cluster of ideas referred to as modernism, a period identified as extending from the mid 17th to the mid 20th century (Toulmin, 1983). The sciences and their philosophy in the early years of this period were commonly characterized as mechanistic. Later, the term positivism became more current with abstract developments. Early on, in A Tale of a Tub and The Battel of the Books attached to it, Jonathan Swift's (1704/1958) satire targeted some of the ideas that were identified with the Moderns. Among the ideas he attacked were the Predestination (pp. 192-193) of the Dissenters, the self-proclaimed superiority of the Moderns in Mathematics (pp. 231-234), their pursuit of a Universal Language (p. 237), and their Positiveness (p. 240). In Gulliver's Travels (1726/1948), Swift returned to the attack on Mathematics (part iii, chap. ii) and the Modernist pursuit of a Universal Language (chap. v). In time, these ideas took on various transformations or branches of meaning in addition to their earlier senses. Predestination became the determinism accepted by almost all philosophers of science. Positivism became a focus on the facts or the elements of experience that had the most certainty. Mathematics became the favored means for establishing the certain relations of these elements. And logical positivists pursued a universal or unified language for science. Scientific modernism often appealed to mechanical metaphors (but typically not to feedback mechanisms in their three-term process of input, output, and feedback) to illustrate if-then connections, e.g., clocks (Boyle, 1686/1996, pp. …


In this study, we examined the sustainability of health-promoting practices in Norwegian schools that were enrolled in the European Network of Health-Promoting Schools from 1993 to 2003. The research questions were: How do the principals perceive that health-promoting practices have been sustained in the schools following the schools' membership of the health-promoting schools network? In what way is school leadership related to the sustainability of health promotion? The study draws on qualitative data consisting of interviews with seven principals in 2008 and school documents. The schools determined their own priorities for action based on assessment of needs in 1994. After 14 years, health promotion practices were sustained in six of the seven schools. Two factors emerged as vital for sustained health promotion practices: the health-promoting school experience and the maintenance and development of practice. The health-promoting school experience relates to staff who internalized the potential link between health promotion practices, school satisfaction, and learning. This also emphasizes the importance of the transfer of experience in sustaining health promotion practices as the staff turned over. The maintenance of vision and practice relates to the principals' commitment to school health promotion, leadership practices that encourage health promotion practices, and external collaboration with the surrounding community in health promotion.


Martian magmas are thought to be rich in chlorine compared with their terrestrial counterparts. Here, we experimentally investigate the effect of chlorine on liquidus depression and near‐liquidus crystallization of olivine‐phyric shergottite NWA 6234 and compare these results with previous experimental results on the effect of chlorine on near‐liquidus crystallization of the surface basalts Humphrey and Fastball. Previous experimental results showed that the change in liquidus temperature is dependent on the bulk composition of the basalt. The effect of chlorine on liquidus depression is greater for lower SiO2 and higher Al2O3 magmas than for higher SiO2 and lower Al2O3 magmas. The bulk composition for this study has lower Al2O3 and higher FeO contents than previous work; therefore, we provide additional constraints on the effect of the bulk composition on the influence of chlorine on near‐liquidus crystallization. High pressure and temperature crystallization experiments were performed at 1 GPa on a synthetic basalt, of the bulk composition of NWA 6234, with 0–4 wt% Cl added to the sample as AgCl. The results are consistent with previous notions that with increasing wt% Cl in the melt, the crystallization temperature decreases. Importantly, our results have a liquidus depression ∆T (°C) from added chlorine that is consistent with the difference in bulk composition and suggest a dependence on both the bulk Al2O3 and FeO content. Our results suggest that the addition of chlorine to the Martian mantle may lower magma genesis temperatures and potentially aid in the petrogenesis of Martian magmas.


ABSTRACT Participatory methods to characterize farmers' needs and preferences play an important role in plant breeding to ensure that new varieties fulfill the needs and expectations of end users. Different farmer-participatory methods for priority setting exist, each one responding differently to trade-offs between various requirements, such as replicability, simplicity, or granularity of the results. All available methods, however, require training, academic skill, and staff time of specially qualified professionals. Breeding and variety replacement may be accelerated by empowering non-academic organizations, such as NGOs and farmer organizations, to carry out farmer-participatory priority setting. But for this use context, currently no suitable method is available. A new method is needed that demands relatively low skill levels from enumerators and respondents, engages farmers without the need for extrinsic incentives, and gives statistically robust results. To achieve these objectives, we followed principles of "gamification" in the design of AgroDuos, a choice experiment that resembles a card game and that involves pairwise ranking of variety traits. We tested the method in a pilot with 39 farmers in Honduras to define their trait priorities for common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). To validate our results, we independently carried out conjoint analysis, an established method for priority setting in plant breeding. We found that AgroDuos produced valid and useful results while enabling rapid, easy, and engaging data collection. Challenges persist concerning local adaptation and data analysis by non-specialist staff, which may be resolved in the future by providing templates and online support.


Background Pre-transplant frozen section evaluation for macrovesicular steatosis has long been used as a guide for donor liver utility, but may not agree with the permanent section evaluation. This study sought to evaluate the accuracy of frozen section in an active transplant service. Methods Retrospective review of cases where frozen section analysis was undertaken to assess percent macrovesicular steatosis was performed, comparing the frozen section diagnosis to the final diagnosis. Results Ninety-six cases were available for review. In 7 of these cases (7%), the difference between the two slides was significant; that is, the difference between the two slides may have contributed to a change in clinical management at a cutoff of 30%. Conclusions Clinicians need to be aware that accuracy is satisfactory in experienced hands but some discrepancies may occur. Keywords Liver; Steatosis; Pathology


To this day, Education and Dramatic Art remains the only fully worked critique of drama education in schools. Provocative and iconoclastic, this new edition brings the argument up-to-date and locates the author's proposals for a curriculum based on the making, performing and appraisal of dramas securely in the evolving culture of schools. The first section of the book traces the origins and fortunes of drama in schools in the context of changing political times and argues that by neglecting the customs and practices of the theatre, drama-in-education has often kept from the students it professes to empower, the very knowledge and understanding necessary for them to take command of their subject. Part two examines the developmental and pedagogic claims of drama-in-education. Theories of knowledge and meaning and assumptions about schools drama's power to establish a moral and social agenda, are all called to account. Finally, Education and Dramatic Art proposes a multiculturally-based, theoretical structure for the teaching of drama which pulls the theatre and the classroom together and offers teachers the foundation for a broad and balanced drama curriculum with its own distinctive body of knowledge and skills.


THE LOUISIANA EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (LEAP): A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF LOUISIANA'S HIGH STAKES TESTING POLICY by Erica L. DeCuir High stakes testing is popularly examined in educational research, but contemporary analyses tend to reflect a qualitative or quantitative research design (e.g., Au, 2007; Cochran-Smith & Lytle, 2006; Gamble, 2010). Exhaustive debate over the relative success or failure of high stakes testing is often framed between competing visions of epistemological constructs, and the historical foundations of high stakes testing policies are rarely explored. The origins of high stakes testing can be traced to local school reform efforts in states like Louisiana, and investigating the roots of high stakes testing at the state level contextualizes the national debate on student assessment in research and scholarship. Using historical research methods, this project details the local campaign to implement the Louisiana Educational Assessment Program (LEAP) as Louisiana's comprehensive high stakes testing program. Enacted under state law in 1986, the LEAP is a series of K-12 student assessments aligned to prescriptive state standards. The LEAP is among the nation's longest comprehensive high stakes testing programs and is the centerpiece to Louisiana's school accountability system. The narrative of its development offers critical insight into the overarching rationales for high stakes testing that continue to drive accountability policies throughout the country. This study interweaves sociological and political history into a singular chronological record of the LEAP. Historical research methodology informs this study by establishing the basis for data collection and analysis. Historical research method is the systematic collection and evaluation of primary source data in order to determine trends, causes, or effects of past events (Gay, 1996; Lucey, 1984). Methods used in this research investigation include document analysis and oral history interviews. Multiple data sources are used to gain a thorough understanding of the historical context surrounding the implementation of the LEAP. The LEAP functions as both a student assessment program and policy of school accountability, and the story of its development is an important narrative within the field of high stakes testing research and scholarship. THE LOUISIANA EDUCATIONAL ASSESSMENT PROGRAM (LEAP): A HISTORICAL ANALYSIS OF LOUISIANA'S HIGH STAKES TESTING POLICY by Erica L. DeCuir


We introduce a new exemplar-based inpainting algorithm that represents the region to be inpainted as a sparse linear combination of example blocks, extracted from the image being inpainted or an external training image set. This method is conceptually simple, being computed by minimization of a simple functional, and avoids the complexity of correctly ordering the filling in of missing regions of other exemplar-based methods. Initial performance comparisons on small inpainting regions indicate that this method provides similar or better performance than other recent methods.


This paper describes a novel strategy to design the frequency-droop controller of plug in electric vehicles (PEVs) for primary frequency control (PFC). To be able to properly compare the frequency response of control system with and without PEVs, the design is done to guarantee the same stability margin for both systems in the worst case scenario. To identify the worst case, sensitivity analyses are conducted on a large set of system parameters performing eigenvalue analysis and bode plots. Three main contributions are included in this work: 1) we demonstrate that PEVs using the well-design droop controller significantly improve the PFC response while successfully preserving the frequency stability, 2) since the fast response of PEVs may cause to mask the governor-turbine response in conventional units, a novel control scheme is developed to replace some portion of PEV's reserve after a certain time by the reserve of conventional units during PFC, and 3) a method is proposed to evaluate the positive economic impact of PEV's participation in PFC. For the latter, the system PFC cost savings mainly through the avoidance of under frequency load shedding by PEVs are calculated. A large-scale power system and an islanded network are evaluated and compared through dynamic simulations, which illustrate the validity and effectiveness of the proposed methodologies.


Vehicle-to-vehicle communication is a key technology for achieving increased perception for automated vehicles, where the communication enables virtual sensing by means of sensors in other vehicles. In addition, this technology also allows detection and recognition of objects that are out-of-sight. This paper presents a trust system that allows a cooperative and automated vehicle to make more reliable and safe decisions. The system evaluates the current situation and generates a trust index indicating the level of trust in the environment, the ego vehicle, and the surrounding vehicles. This research goes beyond secure communication and concerns the verification of the received data on a system level. The results show that the proposed method is capable of correctly identifying various traffic situations and how the trust index is used while manoeuvring in a platoon merge scenario.


This article asks a central fundamental question: why does a society ostensibly committed to racial equality allow players in the assisted reproductive technology market ("ART market") to buy and sell race? As consumers in the ART market well know, human gametes (both eggs and sperm) are packaged, marketed and sometimes priced based on race. The role these market practices play in naturalizing segregation and promoting racial inequality have been recognized, but curiously there has been no will generated to address this commercial practice head on. My article explores the cultural and regulatory impasse that must be overcome to address this racial phenomenon. Part I of the article probes the racial categorization practices currently used in the ART market to provide a better account of what is actually being exchanged when parties purport to sell racially marked ova and sperm. After exploring the high risk of fraud, confusion and potentially misleading speech, the article demonstrates how gamete banks' current racial categorization practices could thrust courts back into discredited, antiquated legal arguments about racial purity and racial fraud. Part II probes customer preference claims about race to determine what it is consumers believe they are buying when they purchase race in the ART market. Close examination of customers' arguments reveals the residual influence of anti-miscegenation norms, regressive femininity and masculinity constructs and a desire to outsource the challenges associated with achieving racial equality. Parts III of the discussion asks whether our 14th Amendment racial equality guarantees require government to wholly prohibit ART exchanges based on race, as well as the likely resistance regulators will face based on reproductive freedom concerns. Part IV concludes by exploring First Amendment considerations, specifically, whether government speech doctrine allows states to combat regressive ART messages based on race, or whether commercial speech limitations could be used to limit ART marketers' more destructive race-based messages.


Following recent work on Stephenson-type mechanisms, the synthesis equations of Watt six-bar mechanisms that act as timed curve generators are formulated and systematically solved. Four variations of the problem arise by assigning the actuator and end effector onto different links. The approach produces exact synthesis of mechanisms up to eight precision points. Polynomial systems are formulated and their maximum number of solutions is estimated using the algorithm of random monodromy loops. Certain variations of Watt timed curve generators possess free parameters that do not affect the output motion, indicating a continuous space of cognate mechanisms. Packaging compactness, clearance, and dimensional sensitivity are characterized across the cognate space to illustrate trade-offs and aid in selection of a final mechanism.


Group B streptococcus (GBS) is a leading neonatal pathogen and a growing cause of invasive disease in the elderly, with clinical manifestations such as pneumonia and sepsis. Despite its clinical importance, little is known about innate immunity against GBS in humans. Here, we analyze the role of human group IIA secreted phospholipase A2 (sPLA2-IIA), a bactericidal enzyme induced during acute inflammation, in innate immunity against GBS. We show that clinical GBS isolates are highly sensitive to killing by sPLA2-IIA but not by human antimicrobial peptides. Using transgenic mice that express human sPLA2-IIA, we demonstrate that this enzyme is crucial for host protection against systemic infection and lung challenge by GBS. We found that acute sera from humans diagnosed with invasive GBS disease contain increased levels of sPLA2-IIA compared with normal sera from healthy individuals, indicating that GBS induces an sPLA2-IIA response in blood during human infection. We demonstrate that clinically relevant GBS strains are rapidly killed in these acute sera. We also demonstrate that the bactericidal effect is entirely due to sPLA2-IIA, showing that sPLA2-IIA might represent an important component of humoral innate immunity against GBS. Our data provide experimental and clinical evidence that sPLA2-IIA protects humans against GBS infections.


During the 1900s, the path to a PhD degree has seen many changes for both postgraduate students as well as their supervisors. The supervisor's duties have increased in scope and the demands made on PhD candidates have augmented. This paper deals with supervision as pedagogic method. Departing from a project aimed at studying 'supervision on supervision' through a programme including a special pedagogic model for learning, process‐oriented group supervision as a method of improving doctoral supervision is discussed. In the model used, the supervisors' relationships and the experiences form the basis for reflection process connected to, among others, communication theory and social‐psychological explanatory models. Pointing out the five requirements of trust, theories, tools, training and time, it is concluded that 'supervision on supervision' well may serve as a way of improving doctoral supervision.


Objective: Excessive mitochondrial fission has been associated with several neurodegenerative diseases, including Huntington's disease (HD). Consequently, mitochondrial dynamics has been suggested to be a promising therapeutic target for Huntington's disease. Mitochondrial fission depends on recruitment of Drp1 to mitochondria, and Mff (mitochondrial fission factor) is one of the key adaptor proteins for this process. Removal of Mff therefore greatly reduces mitochondrial fission. Here we investigate whether removal of Mff can mitigate HD-associated pathologies in HD transgenic mice (R6/2) expressing mutant Htt. Method: We compared the phenotype of HD mice with and without Mff. The mice were monitored for lifespan, neurological phenotypes, Htt aggregate formation, and brain histology. Results: We found that HD mice lacking Mff display more severe neurological phenotypes and have shortened lifespans. Loss of Mff does not affect mutant Htt aggregation, but it accelerates HD pathology, including neuronal loss and neuroinflammation. Conclusions: Our data indicate a protective role for mitochondrial fission in HD and suggest that more studies are needed before manipulation of mitochondrial dynamics can be applied to HD therapy.


Summary 1. Conservation issues and a potential role in disease transmission generate the continued need to census Eurasian badgers Meles meles , but direct counts and sett counts present difficulties. The feasibility of estimating social group size and population density of badgers by quantifying their use of latrines was evaluated. 2. The number of latrines, or preferably the number of separate dung pits, which were known from bait-marking to be used by members of a social group, was positively correlated with adult group size estimated from mark‐recapture studies at Woodchester Park and North Nibley (south-west England). In the latter study area both latrine-use measures were also significantly associated with total group size (i.e. including cubs and adults). 3. In spring 1997 and 1998, we quantified latrine use along strip transects, following linear features across four and five areas, respectively, in England, where badger density in summer was known from mark‐recapture/resight studies. 4. Seven latrine-use measures were evaluated with regard to their potential to predict badger density. Each measure separately explained between 62% and 91% of the variation in population density in a given year. The simplest measures (latrines km ‐1 and pits km ‐1 ) were most stable between years. 5. For these two simple latrine-use measures, a linear model without an intercept term explained the highest proportion of variation in population density. A stepwise procedure to produce the best model selected only one (latrines km ‐1 ) of the two measures as an explanatory variable, indicating that pits km ‐1 is colinear with the former variable. 6. A badger census technique based on simple measurements of latrine use has great promise but needs to be validated across a wider range of badger populations, habitats, years, seasons and weather conditions.


The paper examines the participation characteristics within internet-based collective action by analysing the case of digital rights campaigning. Drawing upon empirical findings from a case study (the "Telecoms Package" campaign, 2007-2009), we discuss how digital rights activists organise, collaborate and mobilise using websites, mailing lists, wikis and instant messaging channels. Participation is individualised and malleable. However, successful digital rights' campaigning requires political, technical and social skills. To intervene in EU policy-making, activists need technical and political expertise and technological skills. As a result and contrary to claims of inclusiveness and openness, digital rights campaigning is in fact dominated by a small group of highly specialised movement entrepreneurs who mobilise occasionally to demonstrate broader support to policy-makers. The emergence of internet-based campaigning does not necessarily equal to more inclusive forms of participation. However, it allows for the engagement of resource-poor actors in traditional policy settings such as the EU.


Purpose: With the necessity of comprehensive care for the breast cancer patients, Breast Care Center of our hospital started to work in March 2004. This study examined the 3-year execution of Breast Care Center. The role of Breast Care Center was evaluated in aspect of clinical activities in quality and quantity. Methods: A retrospective review was carried out from 2001 to 2007 with breast cancer patients. The number and type of breast cancer surgery and breast reconstruction procedure were compared before and after Breast Care Center's foundation. Time required for the diagnosis and treatment was also compared. Regression analysis and T-test were used to identify the statistical significance. Results: The number of breast cancer surgery did not statistically increase compared with progressive increase of breast cancer. QUART(quadrantectomy, axillary dissection, radiotherapy) procedure statistically significantly increased and MRM(Modified Radical Mastectomy) procedure decreased for breast cancer surgery after foundation of Breast Care Center. The number of breast reconstruction procedures statistically significantly increased. The number of immediate TRAM free flap (Transverse Rectus Abdominal muscle free flap) procedures has grown 3.8 times after foundation of Breast Care Center. The time required for diagnosis and treatment was also shortened. Conclusion: After foundation of Breast Care Center, the number of breast reconstruction surgery increased, while the counselling time in breast reconstruction was reduced. Breast Care Center provided a prompt and comprehensive care to the breast cancer patients through the multidisciplinary therapeutic approaches.


Fashion is a three-dimensional design practice: clothes need to work with bodies that bend and stretch and move. A flat drawing on paper can replicate a body in two dimensions, but it doesn't take into account the way the fabric will behave on the body. In the fashion industry it is often the fabrics that come first and the design is determined by how the fabrics work, move, feel and look. The most successful fashion designers are those who understand their materials, who match design skill with technical knowledge. This book aims to bridge that gap.

Providing a mix of practical information and the industry vocabulary, this easily navigable reference book will help students gain a clear understanding of how to work with fabrics as an integral component of the fashion design process. The book will visually examine generic fabric types, discuss their characteristics and show how to exploit materials to push the boundaries of design. With stunning colour photographs that show how fashion designers, both past and present, have worked with fabrics, the book's prime objective is to stimulate creative exploration of the relationship of fabrics to fashion.


The interest of gaining on-line information related to non-metallic inclusions during the steelmaking process has recently increased due to the development as well as the promising results of the Pulse Distribution Analysis with Optical Emission Spectroscopy method (PDA/OES). Even though, the time from sampling to presented results on inclusions is only about 5-10 minutes, the method has also shown limitations with respect to the determination of some inclusion characteristics.Therefore, a first step was to perform a study on other methods such as the cross-section method (CS) on a polished sample surface, the cross-section after etching method (CSE), the bromine-methanol extraction method (BME), and the electrolytic extraction method (EE). This study focused on the evaluation of these methods with respect to the time consumption for preparation and analysis of a sample, the analyzed volume and the determination of inclusion and cluster characteristics such as size, number, particle size distribution (PSD) and composition. The CS and CSE methods were found to be suitable in the determination of the largest cluster in a sample which can be recommended in order to select proper extraction parameters for further studies. The BME method was considered to be fast with the possibility of analyzing a large volume. However, the used solution is chemically stronger compared to electrolytic extraction solutions, which can affect the results. In most aspects, the EE method was found to be the most stable, reliable and accurate method with some limitations regarding the time aspect.Based on this conclusion, the EE method was selected for a comparative study with the PDA/OES method. Reliably detected size ranges by using the PDA/OES method were defined for two low-alloyed steel grades. These are 2.0-5.7 μm and 1.4-5.7 μm for steel samples taken before and after a Ca-addition during the secondary steelmaking, respectively. Moreover, agreements between the EE and PDA/OES methods were observed in the average size and number of detected inclusions when only inclusions with the size > 2 μm were considered. Also, a theoretical minimum size and a maximum number ofinclusions present in the steel sample, which can be detected by using the PDA/OES method, were estimated.The work continued by successfully applying the EE method to study correlations between inclusions observed in the liquid steel samples and in a clogged nozzle (clogging material). It was found that the average sizes of spherical and non-spherical inclusions observed in the steel corresponded well with those observed in the clogging material. However, there were some differences in the frequencies of these inclusions. This was explained by a possible transformation of the present inclusions due to a reoxidation and a reaction with the nozzle refractory of the steel melt. The results of this study may contribute in the selection of proper process parameters or inclusion characteristics for future studies on the improvement and application of on-line methods.Finally, suggestions on how to present and interpret data obtained by the PDA/OES method during production of stainless steels were given in the present thesis. More specifically, the possibilities of defining operating windows with respect to inclusion composition and the use of a B-factor for Al (the total content of Al in inclusions detected by using the PDA/OES method) during the secondary steelmaking were discussed. In addition, a correlation study between B-factors for Al and numbers of inclusions (dV > 4 μm) obtained by using the PDA/OES method on process samples, and corresponding slivers indices from plate products was performed. The results showed a moderate correlation between these parameters as well as an increase of the slivers index with increased values of the chosen PDA/OES data. This indicates that it could be possible to predict when there is an increased risk of having slivers on the final rolled product at an early stage of the steelmaking process.


: GST is one of the most crucial tax reforms in India which has been long pending. It was supposed to be implemented from April 2010, but due to political issues and conflicting interests of various stakeholders it is still pending. It is a comprehensive tax system that will subsume all indirect taxes of states and central governments and unified economy into a seamless national market. It is expected to iron out wrinkles of existing indirect tax system and play a vital role in growth of India. This paper presents an overview of GST concept, explains its features along with its timeline of implementation in India. The paper is more focused on advantages of GST and challenges faced by India in execution.


The emergence of tablet devices, cloud computing, and abundant online multimedia content presents new opportunities to transform traditional paper-based textbooks into tablet-based electronic textbooks, and to further augment the educational experience by enriching them with relevant supplementary materials. Given a candidate set of relevant educational videos for augmenting an electronic textbook, how do we assign the videos at the appropriate granularity (a collection of logical units in the book)? We propose a rigorous formulation of the video assignment problem and present an algorithm for assigning each video to the optimum subset of logical units. Our experimental evaluation using a diverse collection of educational videos relevant to multiple chapters in a textbook demonstrates the efficacy of the proposed techniques for inferring the granularity at which a relevant video should be assigned.


Wireless mesh network (WMN) has recently emerged as a promising technology for next-generation wireless network. In WMNs, many important applications, such as audio/video conferencing, require the support of multicast communication with quality-of-service (QoS) guarantee. In this paper, we investigate the issues of QoS multicast routing in wireless mesh networks. The paper studies TDMA-based timeslot allocation, and presents an effective heuristic algorithm for calculating bandwidth of a multicast tree. We also propose a novel DSR-based multicasting routing algorithm. Simulation results show that compared with MAODV, the proposed QoS routing algorithm can significantly improve the performance of QoS multicast routing in terms of success ratio and network cost.


A control algorithm is presented that addresses the stability issues inherent to the operation of monolithic mode-locked laser diodes. It enables a continuous pulse duration tuning without any onset of Q-switching instabilities. A demonstration of the algorithm performance is presented for two radically different laser diode geometries and continuous pulse duration tuning between 0.5 ps to 2.2 ps and 1.2 ps to 10.2 ps is achieved. With practical applications in mind, this algorithm also facilitates control over performance parameters such as output power and wavelength during pulse duration tuning. The developed algorithm enables the user to harness the operational flexibility from such a laser with 'push-button' simplicity.


the vast amount of information on the World Wide Web is created and published by many different types of providers. Unlike books and journals, most of this information is not subject to editing or peer review by experts. This lack of quality control and the explosion of web sites make the task of finding quality information on the web especially critical. Meanwhile new facilities for producing web pages such as Blogs make this issue more significant because Blogs have simple content management tools enabling non-experts to build easily updatable web diaries or online journals. On the other hand despite a decade of active research in information quality (IQ) there is no a content management system (CMS) to facilitate measuring information quality on the Blogs yet. This paper presents a novel CMS for ranking quality of information on the Blog. The CMS includes appropriate criteria for ranking Blogs according to IQ parameters. The developed CMS collect and calculate IQ scores of Blogs automatically. Keywords—Information Quality, Blog, Content Management System


Portfolio credit risk models estimate the range of potential losses due to defaults or deteriorations in credit quality. Most of these models perceive default correlation as fully captured by the dependence on a set of common underlying risk factors. In light of empirical evidence, the ability of such a conditional independence framework to accommodate for the occasional default clustering has been questioned repeatedly. Thus, financial institutions have relied on stressed correlations or alternative copulas with more extreme tail dependence. In this paper, we propose a different remedy—augmenting systematic risk factors with a contagious default mechanism which affects the entire universe of credits. We construct credit stress propagation networks and calibrate contagion parameters for infectious defaults. The resulting framework is implemented on synthetic test portfolios wherein the contagion effect is shown to have a significant impact on the tails of the loss distributions.


ATM technology is facing challenges from integrated service IP, IP switching, gigabit IP router and gigabit Ethernet. Although ATM is approved by ITU-T as the standard technology in B-ISDN, its survivability is still in question. Since ATM-UBR (unspecified bit rate) provides no service guarantee and ATM-ABR (available bit rate) is still unattainable for most users, many existing users have little or no incentives to migrate to ATM technology. The guaranteed frame rate (GFR) service is introduced to deal with this dilemma. The GFR can guarantee the minimum cell rate (MCR) with fair access to excess bandwidth. This paper studies various schemes to support the GFR. We have studied different discarding and scheduling schemes, and compared their throughput and fairness when TCP/IP traffic is carried. Through simulations, it is shown that only per-VC queueing with weighted round robin (WRR) can guarantee minimum cell rate. Among all the schemes that have been explored, we recommend DTEPD (dynamic threshold-early packet discard) integrated with MCR+ (a WRR variant) to support the GFR service.


In this case study, we investigate how the development and impact of teacher leadership through a Master's programme can be supported by a design that encourages boundary crossing activities between schools and universities. The case study focuses on 42 experienced teachers from three vocational colleges who were promoted to senior teacher positions and participated in a Master's programme. Through individual and focus group interviews, data were collected on how boundary crossing activities can connect professional development and school development, and on favourable conditions for effective boundary crossing. The study shows that strategic alignment and shared ownership between university and school, a collective approach with multiple participants from one school, and the use of boundary objects, created the conditions through which the Master's programme could serve as a catalyst, stimulating innovation of work practices and development of new leadership practices. The leadership of the senior teachers initiated a development process that shifted from formally mandated forms of leadership to more culturally embedded forms of leadership. This case study leads to a new understanding of design criteria for Master's programmes and boundary objects that can support the process of developing teacher leadership within schools by facilitating boundary crossing between university and school.


The globalisation of trade has resulted in the enhancement of free and freer trade worldwide. In this context, the free trade movement has always been part of the effort to facilitate competitive and free trade which is one of the principles of the World Trade Organisation. Free trade zones and especially export processing zones can be an appropriate way to attract foreign and domestic investment to export-oriented manufacturing in a geographically limited area and they do so by usually offering a wide range of investment tax incentives. However, many of these incentives fall foul of the provisions of the Agreement on Subsidies and Countervailing Measures. This article analyses to what extent the investment incentives offered in free trade zone programmes are still permissible in terms of these provisions. It also looks at the new trends that are emerging in the free trade zone industry.


Abstract : Warm Compress,Disminorhea. Puberty is a stage of development characterized by the maturity of the sexual organs and achieving the capability to reproduce, in which one of the characteristics of the signs of puberty a woman is the first occurrence of menstruation (menarche). When it happened the first menstruation (menarche) and the next menstruation, a woman will experience abdominal pain (disminorea), when the abdominal pain disorder (disminorea) are not adequately addressed; it can be debilitating to the decrease in performance. Disminorea that occurs continuously in each period, can be one of the symptoms of endometriosis on the reproductive system. One way that can be done to overcome disminorea by performing a warm compress, which is done to meet the needs of a sense of comfort, reduce or relieve pain, reduce or prevent muscle spasms and provide a sense of warmth in the abdomen (stomach). Warm compresses can be done by attaching a rubber bag filled with warm water or a towel that has been soaked in warm water, to the painful body part. The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of a warm compress against dysmenorrhea pain reduction in eleventh student at SMK Muhammadiyah Watukelir Sukoharjo. This type of research is quasi experiment with one group pretest-posttest design with purposive sampling technique sampling number of 30 respondents. Analysis of the data using the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The results of this study indicated the presence of a warm compress against dysmenorrhea pain reduction in eleventh student at SMK Muhammadiyah Watukelir, with a p-value of 0.000 (p <0.05). Keywords : Warm Compress,Disminorhea Link OJS 3 artikel PENGARUH PEMBERIAN KOMPRES HANGAT TERHADAP PENURUNAN NYERI DISMENORE PADA SISWI KELAS XI SMK MUHAMMADIYAH WATUKELIR SUKOHARJO (THE INFLUENCE OF WARM COMPRESS DECREASE IN DISMENORHEA ELEVENTH GRADE STUDENTS OF SMK MUHAMMADIYAH WATUKELIR SUKOHARJO)


A long standing question in geomagnetism is whether the time variation of the induced crustal field is a detectable quantity and, if so, at which spatial wavelengths. We tackle this problem with the help of a forward modeling approach using a vertically integrated susceptibility (VIS) grid of the Earth's crust. For spherical harmonic degrees 15–90, we estimate the root mean square of the crustal magnetic field secular variation to amount 0.06–0.12 nT/yr at the terrestrial surface between epochs 1960–2002.5. The geographical distribution of the signal shows absolute values reaching 0.65–1.30 nT/yr over South America. Unfortunately, most of the world magnetic observatories currently lie on quasi‐stationary features where the crustal field signal variations are expected to be very low. However, this long sought signal could be detected over well chosen regions, provided that satellite, observatory, and repeat station measurements are available over several decades.


In this paper we examine the role of disruptive or upsetting events in people's professional lives and explore how they influence individuals' investments in their careers. Based on previous research we have assumed that due to considerable societal and economic changes in Russia and the reported negative consequences felt by many individuals, the context of that country is a fruitful arena for an investigation of the role of upsetting events on individuals' careers. At the same time, despite the negative events and a disruption of many traditional career-supporting structures, a significant number of Russians managed to reinvent their careers and achieve tremendous objective and subjective success in their careers in a relatively short time period. This paper examines stories about career investments of 140 successful entrepreneurs from Russia. A significant portion of these people explicitly reported influence of upsetting events on their own career investments. Based on the exploration of career stories, the paper introduced a typology of the upsetting events in the Russian context. The events were generally classified into those that represented "macro" and "micro" upsetting events. Macro events refer to changes in socio-economic, and political systems. Micro events refer to the events that only concern the individual him- or herself, or may include events at work or at home. Our analysis of the career investments of the Russian entrepreneurs using the intelligent career concept shows that when faced with the upsetting events individuals tend to (a) reconsider their existing events, (b) divest from their old ways of knowing, and (c) invest in relatively new ways of knowing. Our study calls a particular attention to the role of career divestments, or discontinuing certain ways of investing in order free resources for a different investment expected to be more fruitful in terms or returns. Attention to divestment may be warranted due to the increased unpredictability of working lives of today's career actors. This study contributes to responding to a call for a better understanding of the role of upsetting events on people's careers and the society at large. We also bring further our understanding of human adjustment to the sometimes upsetting changes in their surroundings through working life, thus enhancing our understanding of the role of careers in socio-economic systems. Last but not least, the study also contributes to a better understanding of careers in modern Russia. With the increasing role of Russia on the international political and economic arena, understanding people through looking at their working lives is a good start for multiple potential research endeavors in the fields of career research and beyond.


The Article proposes new interpretations of GATT Article XX to minimize the harmful effects of recent WTO jurisprudence that threaten to undermine the goals of the trading system and diminish the role of states in policymaking. In the Shrimp/Turtle cases the WTO's Appellate Body (AB) utilized an evolutionary methodology to interpret the conservation of exhaustible natural resources exception in Article XX(g) to permit the unilateral regulation by one country of how goods are produced (PPMs) in other countries. Such an expansive approach to interpretation permits wealthy nations with large markets to unilaterally impose their preferred environmental policies, and presumably other PPM social policies, on nations at a different level of economic development. Developing nations dependent on export markets for economic development would be forced to choose between unwanted costs that reduce their comparative advantage or the loss of market access. The Article criticizes the AB's evolutionary methodology as a form of Naturalism inconsistent with the AB's delegated authority, contrary to the consent-based structure of governance at the WTO and the clearly articulated views of the majority of Member nations, and incompatible with the original understanding of the Article XX(g) exception. The Article then suggests several interpretive strategies to minimize the harmful potential of unilateralism and to restore balance to global policy negotiations.


This article sets out a framework for understanding two key issues in the history of early modern and modern South Asia. First, it addresses the vexed question of the generalizability of the "Western" concept of property to Indo-Islamicate land systems. Rather than beginning from the idea of 'Islamic property law/relations' it proposes that we reconstruct concepts relating to the control of the earth's material substrate in terms of four modes of idiomizing land in the Islamicate tradition. In light of how the latter reconstruction suggests that (Indo-)Islamicate modes of idiomization focused on the produce of land more than land itself, the article then turns to a second issue. This concerns the similarities and differences between the deontic cultures of rights and responsibilities that characterized early modern polities (both in Mughal India and England) and nineteenth-century ones (like metropolitan Britain's and that emerging from the East India Company's so-called rule of property in the subcontinent).


Water-soluble organic nitrogen (ON) is an important component of fixed nitrogen in clean marine aerosol and rainwater collected at a site on the windward coast of Oahu, Hawaii. Aerosol material associated with the predominant trade winds carries 3.3 ± 2.0 nmol ON m-3, which makes up roughly one third of the total nitrogen in aerosol (11 ± 4 nmol N m-3). The inorganic nitrogen (65% as nitrate) is predominantly found in coarse-mode aerosol, consistent with displacement reactions of sea-salt chloride. In contrast, most of the ON is found in fine particle (submicrometer) aerosol, and may be associated with gas-to-particle conversions and with long-range transport in the atmosphere. At times, aerosol ON also appears to have a local, anthropogenic source, and when meteorological conditions are favorable, large pulses of ON from these local sources can dominate the total fixed nitrogen in the sampled aerosol (30-50 nmol ON m-3, contributing about 80% of the total aerosol nitrogen). About one fifth of rainwater dissolved nitrogen at this site is organic nitrogen. The average rainwater concentration of dissolved ON was 2.8 µmol N L-1, and of inorganic nitrogen (nitrate plus ammonium) was 15 µmol N L-1. In both rainwater and aerosol, urea was a major component of the ON, contributing about half of the ON and about 15% of total nitrogen. This quantitative importance of urea as a component of ON has not previously been seen in continental locations.


We present the design of a wide dynamic-range CMOS A/D interface circuit for ionization chambers, able to digitize input charge of both polarities over six decades, to operate in a radioactive environment, and foreseen working without calibration. The circuit is based on a current-to-frequency conversion, where the converting circuit reconfigures itself depending on the input level to provide an output code every 40 µs. Simulation results of its implementation in a 0.25 µm CMOS are presented, showing its operation over a 120dB dynamic range. The simulated circuit consumes less than 33 mW from a 2.5-V supply.


Elderly prisoners are twice as expensive to incarcerate as the average prisoner and pose little danger to society, yet the population of elderly prisoners in the United States is exploding. Our extreme sentencing policies and a growing number of life sentences have effectively turned many of our correctional facilities into veritable nursing homes — and taxpayers are paying for it.This increasing warehousing of aging prisoners for low-level crimes and longer sentences is a nefarious outgrowth of the "tough on crime" and "war on drugs" policies of the 1980s and 1990s. Given the nation's current overincarceration epidemic and persistent economic crisis, lawmakers should consider implementing parole reforms to release those elderly prisoners who no longer pose sufficient safety threats to justify their continued incarceration.A new ACLU report, "At America's Expense: The Mass Incarceration of the Elderly," makes a number of data-driven findings and issues recommendations for reform.


Objective. To determine the correlation between sperm morphology groups (strict criteria) and testicular spermatozoa, and day 2 and 3 embryo quality in intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) and in vitro fertilisation (IVF) cases. Methods. A retrospective study was done of 2 402 IVF and ICSI-fertilised embryos classified as goodquality embryos (GQEs) or poor-quality embryos (PQEs). Sperm morphology (strict criteria) was classified as teratozoospermia (P-pattern ( 14% normal)), and testicular spermatozoa (immature, only ICSI group). Results. Sperm morphology (P, G, and N-patterns) and immature testicular sperm had no effect on day 2 or 3 embryo quality for ICSI (p = 0.82) and IVF-fertilised (p = 0.64) embryos. A significant increase in GQEs from day 2 to 3 in the P-pattern group (33 - 39%, p = 0.002) and testicular spermatozoa group (30 - 35%, p = 0.014) was found in ICSI cases. Conclusion. Morphology of human spermatozoa according to Tygerberg's strict criteria and testicular spermatozoa had no predictive value for the outcome of day 2 and 3 embryo quality.


A one-pass parallel thinning algorithm based on a number of criteria, including connectivity, unit-width convergence, medial axis approximation, noise immunity, and efficiency, is proposed. A pipeline processing model is assumed for the development. Precise analysis of the thinning process is presented to show its properties, and proofs of skeletal connectivity and convergence are provided. The proposed algorithm is further extended to the derived-grid to attain an isotropic medial axis representation. A set of measures based on the desired properties of thinning is used for quantitative evaluation of various algorithms. Image reconstruction from connected skeletons is also discussed. Evaluation shows that the procedures compare favorably to others. >


Like other tissues and organs in vertebrates, multipotential stem cells serve as the origin of diverse cell types during genesis of the mammalian central nervous system (CNS). During early development, stem cells self-renew and increase their total cell numbers without overt differentiation. At later stages, the cells withdraw from this self-renewal mode, and are fated to differentiate into neurons and glia in a spatially and temporally regulated manner. However, the molecular mechanisms underlying this important step in cell differentiation remain poorly understood. In this study, we present evidence that the expression and function of the neural-specific transcription factors Mash-1 and Prox-1 are involved in this process. In vivo, Mash-1- and Prox-1-expressing cells were defined as a transient proliferating population that was molecularly distinct from self-renewing stem cells. By taking advantage of in vitro culture systems, we showed that induction of Mash-1 and Prox-1 coincided with an initial step of differentiation of stem cells. Furthermore, forced expression of Mash-1 led to the down-regulation of nestin, a marker for undifferentiated neuroepithelial cells, and up-regulation of Prox-1, suggesting that Mash-1 positively regulates cell differentiation. In support of these observations in vitro, we found specific defects in cellular differentiation and loss of expression of Prox-1 in the developing brain of Mash-1 mutant mice in vivo. Thus, we propose that induction of Mash-1 and Prox-1 is one of the critical molecular events that control early development of the CNS.


We have extended a recently published toxicokinetic model for fish (TK-fish) towards the oral up-take of contaminants. Validation with hydrophobic chemicals revealed that diffusive transport through aqueous boundary layers in the gastro-intestinal tract and in the blood is the limiting process. This process can only be modelled correctly if facilitated transport by albumin or bile micelles through these boundary layers is accounted for. In a case study we have investigated the up-take of a super hydrophobic chemical, Dechlorane Plus. Our results suggest that there is no indication of a hydrophobicity or size cut-off in the bioconcentration of this chemical. Based on an extremely high, but mechanistically sound facilitation factor we received model results in good agreement with experimental values from the literature. The results also indicate that established experimental procedures for BCF determination cannot cover the very slow up-take and clearance kinetics that are to be expected for such a chemical.

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Tyrannochromis macrostoma (Regan), a haplochromine cichlid fish endemic to Lake Malawi, Africa, exhibits reverse countershading. It attacks potential prey fishes from an upright, sideways (90* rotation from an upright position), or upside-down (180* rotation from an upright position) positions. Seventy percent of its attacks are from a sideways position. Whenever it was observed attacking from an upside-down position, its prey was stationed below the attacker. When attacking from a sideways position, its prey was below the attacker 25% of the time and on the same plane 75% of the time. When attacking from a normal position, its prey was below the T. macrostoma 82% of the time and on the same plane 18% of the time. Data presented herein lend credence to the self-shadow concealment explanation for the selection of countershading. Tyrannochromis nigriventer Eccles, a closely related species, does not display reverse countershading but occasionally attacks from an upside-down position.


"Hyphy," a genre of rap and lifestyle associated with Bay Area hip hop evolved into a counter-cultural social movement for marginalized youth in early 2000. Hyphy originated from Black youth as a musical protest in response to their historical lack of social power, economic resources and systematic institutional oppression. Hyphy provided a space to release tension, celebrate life and freedom of expression, primarily as a means of resisting hegemonic perceptions of Black youth and their cultural productions. Applying a cultural studies theoretical approach, this ethnographic research examines literature and media coverage pre and post Hyphy highlighting the ways in which it fostered a personal and political agenda, attracting organizations that employed hip hop to provide direct services to youth as a means of advocating for social justice. This article argues that the Hyphy Movement although dated, supported the foundation of the Black Lives Matter movement in the Bay Area by playing a pivotal role in shifting the revolutionary consciousness of young people when addressing police violence during a pivotal social upheaval in 2009, the unjust murder of Oscar Grant III.


In image processing, segmentation algorithms constitute one of the main focuses of research. In this paper, new image segmentation algorithms based on a hard version of the information bottleneck method are presented. The objective of this method is to extract a compact representation of a variable, considered the input, with minimal loss of mutual information with respect to another variable, considered the output. First, we introduce a split-and-merge algorithm based on the definition of an information channel between a set of regions (input) of the image and the intensity histogram bins (output). From this channel, the maximization of the mutual information gain is used to optimize the image partitioning. Then, the merging process of the regions obtained in the previous phase is carried out by minimizing the loss of mutual information. From the inversion of the above channel, we also present a new histogram clustering algorithm based on the minimization of the mutual information loss, where now the input variable represents the histogram bins and the output is given by the set of regions obtained from the above split-and-merge algorithm. Finally, we introduce two new clustering algorithms which show how the information bottleneck method can be applied to the registration channel obtained when two multimodal images are correctly aligned. Different experiments on 2-D and 3-D images show the behavior of the proposed algorithms.


The multilateral trading system stands at a crossroads. Despite its widely acknowledged contribution to global prosperity over the past half century, the movement toward further liberalization has increasingly been challenged. These essays by leading scholars and trade officials honor Raymond Vernon, one of the architects of the international economic institutions established following the Second World War. The book examines several key issues at the heart of the debate over the multilateral trading system. What are the global efficiency gains from further liberalization? How can efficiency gains be maximized while respecting legitimate claims to sovereignty? Is the trading system affording an equitable distribution of benefits between countries and among various groups within societies? Does civil society have a role in the trading system? What role should the World Trade Organization and its dispute settlement procedures play in resolving disputes and enhancing legitimacy?


Monitoring Ireland's Skills Supply 2016 is the eleventh in a series of annual publications produced by the Skills and Labour Market Research Unit in SOLAS on behalf of the Expert Group on Future Skills Needs. The Report aims to monitor the potential supply of skills emerging from the education and training system; it also aims to provide a profile of the current skills of the population by education level.


Rebecca Prime documents the untold story of the American directors, screenwriters, and actors who exiled themselves to Europe as a result of the Hollywood blacklist. During the 1950s and 1960s, these Hollywood emigres directed, wrote, or starred in almost one hundred European productions, their contributions ranging from crime film masterpieces like Du rififi chez les hommes (1955, Jules Dassin, director) to international blockbusters like The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957, Carl Foreman and Michael Wilson, screenwriters) and acclaimed art films like The Servant (1963, Joseph Losey, director). At once a lively portrait of a lesser-known American "lost generation" and an examination of an important transitional moment in European cinema, the book offers a compelling argument for the significance of the blacklisted emigres to our understanding of postwar American and European cinema and Cold War relations. Prime provides detailed accounts of the production and reception of their European films that clarify the ambivalence with which Hollywood was regarded within postwar European culture. Drawing upon extensive archival research, including previously classified material, Hollywood Exiles in Europe suggests the need to rethink our understanding of the Hollywood blacklist as a purely domestic phenomenon. By shedding new light on European cinema's changing relationship with Hollywood, the book illuminates the postwar shift from national to transnational cinema.


Pulsed non-thermal quiescent emission between 10 keV and around 150 keV has been observed in $\sim10$ magnetars. For inner magnetospheric models of such hard X-ray signals, resonant Compton upscattering of soft thermal photons from the neutron star surface is the most efficient radiative process. We present angle-dependent hard X-ray upscattering model spectra for uncooled monoenergetic relativistic electrons. The spectral cut-off energies are critically dependent on the observer viewing angles and electron Lorentz factor. We find that electrons with energies less than around 15 MeV will emit most of their radiation below 250 keV, consistent with the observed turnovers in magnetar hard X-ray tails. Moreover, electrons of higher energy still emit most of the radiation below around 1 MeV, except for quasi-equatorial emission locales for select pulses phases. Our spectral computations use new state-of-the-art, spin-dependent formalism for the QED Compton scattering cross section in strong magnetic fields.


This paper focuses on problems which arise when both a power-harvesting system based on a capacitive principle and a capacitive measurement device [i.e., a capacitance-to-digital converter (CDC)] are used in one electronic system to build up an autonomous measurement device for icing detection on a high-voltage overhead power line. The overall capacitance of the measurement circuitry between the conductor and the energy harvester shell must remain within a well-defined range to keep the energy-harvesting circuitry operational and to operate the CDC within its specifications. A decoupling solution for both the data path and the power supply unit has been implemented and verified experimentally in a high-voltage laboratory and a field test.


The present work focuses on the synthesis and application of nanocomposites Montmorillonite-Poly-vinyl Acetate Acrylate (MMT-PVA) in CO2 adsorption field. Firstly the montmorillonite was modified by simple cation exchange with Na+, the obtained material was used as charge for polyvinyl alcohol and were characterized using various techniques such as X-ray Diffraction (XRD), Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy, Thermogravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC). The results show that the nanocomposites is obtained by the intercalation of the MMT, increasing the content of MMT leads to the increase of the interlayer distance, CO2 adsorption at 0°C was carried using a volumetric method, and the recorded isotherm indicated that the CO2 adsorption capacity of MMT-PVA can be enhanced through modification by PVA. The Na-MMT has low CO2 adsorption capacity compared to that Nanocomposite.


We employed paleolimnological methods to investigate tropical forest recovery and soil stabilization that followed abandonment of agricultural systems associated with disintegration of Classic Maya polities ca. A.D. 800–1000. We used lithological, geochemical, magnetic, and palynological data from sediment cores of Lake Peten Itza in the Maya Lowlands of northern Guatemala. Sediment core chronology was developed using radiocarbon dates on terrestrial wood and charcoal fragments. Our results indicate that in the absence of large human populations and extensive farming activities, Peten forests recovered under humid climate conditions within a span of 80–260 yr. Soil stabilization postdates pollen evidence of forest regrowth stratigraphically, and required between 120 and 280 yr. We conclude that the tropical forest ecosystem in the watershed of Lake Peten Itza had been reestablished by the early Postclassic Period (A.D. 1000–1200).


Everybody wants to win the lottery. A million pounds, perhaps five million, even ten million. How wonderful! Emma Carter buys a ticket for the lottery every week, and puts the ticket carefully in her bag. She is seventy-three years old and does not have much money. She would like to visit her son in Australia, but aeroplane tickets are very expensive. Jason Williams buys lottery tickets every week too. But he is not a very nice young man. He steals things. He hits old ladies in the street, snatches their bags and runs away ...


Heat integration is of significant importance to the process industry in the efforts of reducing energy consumption and total annual costs. The heat integration problem attempts finding the optimal interconnections of processing equipment in order to reduce the energy requirements of the process. A complete model of the heat integration problem involves determining the optimal performance of the heat integrated system and the optimal design of the heat exchanger network. The performance of the system can be identified prior to the network design. This work is concerned with identifying the performance of a system in terms of an energy target for optimal heat integration. Heat integration has long been a central topic in the process industry, however, work integration is a topic of recent interest. Both heat and work are forms of energy that are often available in industrial processes, and utilization of this energy should therefore be attempted instead of resulting in waste. For small problems, optimization of heat and work integration can be modeled with mixed-integer nonlinear programming. Introducing more than one compressing and one expanding stream, no exact solution method has currently been able to identify the energy target for optimal heat and work integration. In order to solve the problem of simultaneous heat and work integration, a two-level optimization model using genetic algorithms has been developed. Results from solving a set of test cases with one compressing and one expanding stream, in which exact methods can prove optimality, show that the two-level optimization model is able to find the optimal or a near-optimal solution. Four new test cases are presented involving multiple compressing and expanding streams, in which the model provides high quality solutions. The model cannot guarantee a global optimal solution. However, in comparison with common practice in the industry, the two-level optimization model generates significantly better solutions. Two genetic algorithms have been implemented and tested in this research; a basic genetic algorithm and a genetic algorithm with crowding. The algorithm with crowding was implemented in an effort to improve the global search, reducing the likelihood of getting stuck in a local optimum. Results from both algorithms are presented in comparison with common practice in the industry.


This output consists of two original plays, Practice as Research (PaR) iterations of an ongoing investigation, informed by WILTSHIRE's doctoral research on masculinity. Developing Connell's (1995) exploration of hegemonic masculinity and Butler's (1990, 2004) foregrounding of performativity and notional choice, gender is explored through character weaknesses and strengths, foregrounding and representing politics of social class, power, and gender.
The monologues, titledThe Loser, were developed with North West Playwrights, and had public readings (Capitol Theatre, Manchester Metropolitan University; Oldham Coliseum, 2009) before production by Scenepool, at People's Theatre, Camden, London. Specific sections were published in the Good Ear Review, an online journal dedicated to monologue form, and on the Moving Manchester website, Lancaster University project exploring identifications with the city of Manchester.
WILTSHIRE was mentored by Charlotte Keatley in writing Joy With Child, which was showcased at Oldham Coliseum (director: Kevin Shaw), at the Re:Play Festival at Manchester Library Theatre (director: Nick Moss) before site specific production by Organised Chaos at a basement venue, Taurus in Manchester (director: Dean Biddell). Joy With Child explores issues of loss, love and reality as well as perceptions of masculinity, and was long-listed (top 20) for the Bruntwood Prize (2008). Characters explore power in relation to gender, withholding information, assumed gender stereotypes and the effects of age. Doyle (1983) argues, 'More and more men are searching for something they have lost. That something is the very foundation on which the traditional male role was built.' (1983: 11) Both male characters in Joy With Child are searching for mothers and fathers, their masculinity undermined by the central character, Corrinna, who subverts gender expectations whilst seemingly embracing them. The evidence portfolio contains DVDs of live performance, and copy from online journals and websites, through which findings were disseminated.


As the world population grows, food vendors need to be increasingly efficient in the distribution of their products. Products with short shelf-lives need to be distributed as quickly as possible in order to maximize potency. Existing technologies allowing the sale of goods from peer to peer lack key features to optimize usage for perishable goods. GreenPlace provides some of the essential features necessary to distributing perishable goods and managing those orders in an effective manner.


Background: Binding of the ligand, Granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) to its receptor, the G-CSF receptor (G-CSFR), is instrumental for the action of G-CSF in the different issues. Aim: This study was designed to demonstrate the cellular distribution of G-CSFR in nonhematopoietic tissues of adult rats and the regulation of G-CSFR expression by administration of G-CSF and 90% partial hepatectomy (PH). Methods: Part of the extracellular domain of G-CSFR was sequenced. A G-CSFR specific ssDNA probe was designed. Asymmetric PCR using amino-allyl dUTP and secondary labeling with FITC was established. G-CSFR mRNA expression in bone marrow and nonhematopoietic organs (liver, heart, lung, kidney, intestine, lymph node, spleen and bone marrow) of normal rats was assessed by RT-PCR and Northern hybridization. The cellular distribution of G-CSFR mRNA was detected by fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH). The G-CSFR protein expression was visualized using immunohistochemistry (IHC). Regulation of the receptor expression subsequent to 90% liver resection (6h, 24h, 7d) with and without G-CSF-treatment were investigated by IHC. Results: G-CSFR mRNA was found in all tested organs of normal rats by RT-PCR, and by Northern blot analysis. FISH and IHC on nonhemaopoietic tissue revealed G-CSFR receptor expression in the cytoplasma of hepatocytes, cardiomyocytes, type II pneumocytes, proximal convoluted tubular cells, single enterocytes in the intestine, acinar cells of the pancreas. G-CSFR expression was induced by G-CSF administration. Upregulation of G-CSFR expression was prominent 6 hours after 90%PH and an additive effect of G-CSF administration and 90%PH could be demonstrated. Conclusions: G-CSFR is expressed in parenchymal cells in adult rats. G-CSFR expression can be upregulated by the administration of G-CSF and by a major surgical trauma as shown in the model of 90% liver resection. G-CSFR expression was most prominent 6 hours after PH and an additive effect of combined G-CSF treatment was revealed. This could indicate a possible biologic significance of G-CSFR in the early phase of repair and regeneration processes.


Introduction: The sequelae caused by Fournier's syndrome are extensive, systemic, debilitating, and deforming. They require both general and local treatments with antibiotics and subsequent debridement to delimit non-necrotic margins, which result from extensive bleeding areas. Methods: The area affected and described in this study is the upper third of the right thigh. The goal was to use the dermocutaneous excess, usually removed in abdominoplasties. Abdominoplasty was routinely performed, and the cutaneous excess of the hypogastrium was transferred to cover a bleeding area in the upper third of the thigh throughout its extension. In the bleeding region, adequate occlusion was performed, and a tissue with similar thickness and elasticity was used to minimize the deformities that affected both the donor and receiving areas. Results: The bleeding area was covered in a single surgery. Conclusion: The use of the cutaneous excess of the hypogastrium to cover the bleeding region of the upper third of the thigh is an alternative technique, which can be conducted in a single surgery in patients presenting excess abdominal skin. ■ ABSTRACT


Planning Poker is a collaborative software effort estimation technique widely used in agile software development methodologies such as Scrum and Extreme Programming (XP). Proponents of Planning Poker claim that the method has the benefits of multi-perspective effort forecasting, promoting group interaction and participation, while avoiding the risk of the "anchoring" cognitive bias, leading to accurate effort forecasting without unrealistic precision. While there is body of empirical research about Planning Poker that investigates the estimation accuracy of the technique in practice, there is not any research that looks at the detail of the implementation of the process of Planning Poker estimation in practice and whether these claimed benefits are realized in practice. This thesis focuses on analyzing the practical execution of Planning Poker in a detailed case study, aiming to identify how the practical process of Planning Poker differs from the theory, and whether the expected benefits are seen or not, and why. The aim of this investigation is to provide a comprehensive conceptualization of Planning Poker estimation in practice, as well as understanding of the difference between practice and theory. In addition, this study also expects to deepen an understanding of the activities of the Planning Poker technique that contribute to the observed benefits and challenges. This will be helpful for software estimators to optimize execution of the Planning Poker technique to maximize the claimed and observed benefits it can provide. The approach to this investigation is based on analyzing video and audio recordings of two Planning Poker sessions undertaken by a team in a case organization. This is supplemented by field notes and photographs related to the Planning Poker meetings. The study starts with an indepth literature review to explore the theory related to some special behaviors in practical Planning Poker estimation meetings. Both Planning Poker meetings are held by the same development team for the same software project, and conducted in two different development iterations as part of Sprint planning using Scrum as their software development approach. This thesis explores the differences between the process inferred from analyzing the meetings and theory pf Planning Poker. The differences between both meetings also is explored. This thesis also explores whether those claimed benefits in literatures are achieved in practical Planning Poker estimation meetings, and discusses some of the challenges observed in both meetings. The findings of the research includes identification of several different estimation process patterns, such as a gradual changing of the benefit of promoting group interaction is achieved well in practice, whereas avoidance of the "anchoring" effect and promoting individual participation, are largely not achieved. In addition, this thesis identifies some of the practical challenges in implementing Planning Poker, for example domination of the discussion by a single practitioner.


The establishment of Christianity in the late- and post-Roman world caused an economic as well as a religious revolution, but, while a great deal of attention has been paid to the religious developments of the period, the impact of the establishment of the Church on the economy has attracted remarkably little attention. The Christian Economy of the Early Medieval West: Towards a Temple Society examines the chronology of the Church's acquisition of wealth, and particularly of landed property, as well as the distribution of its income, in the period between the conversion of Constantine and the eighth century. In this book, the society that emerged as a result of the Church's acquisition of land is interpreted in the light of the anthropological model of the "Temple Society," a concept developed from Karl Marx's so-called "Asiatic Mode of Production." The emergence of a socio-economic system dominated by the Church is presented as a crucial development in the history of western Europe.


This report will be concerned with tasks of communities experiencing disasters. The focus is primarily upon natural disasters. Although in many societies responsibility for disaster activity ultimately rests at the national level, in the United States the responsibility is on the local community. While the boundaries delimiting a community seldom approach any degree of neatness, in terms of the traditions which have developed in the United States, local authority is normative in such situations, Every year many communities are called upon to mobilize their resources to cope with the impact of natural disaster. Since 1953
the President of the United States. The types of community tasks which are created by disasters and the ability of the community to complete them are considered in the following chapters.


Recent empirical and theoretical studies have shown that simple parameters characterizing the structure of many constraint satisfaction problems also predict the cost to solve them, on average. We apply these observations to improve the performance of genetic algorithms. In particular, we use a simple cost measure to evaluate the likely solution difficulty of the different unsolved subproblems appearing in the population. This is used to determine which individuals contribute to subsequent generations and improves upon the traditional direct use of the underlying cost function. As a specific test case, we used the GENESIS genetic algorithm to search for the optimum of a class of random Walsh polynomials. We also discuss extensions to other types of machine learning and problem solving systems.