Rapidly growing numbers of Australian tourists visiting overseas battle sites associated with Australian military history have been met with enthusiastic academic interest by historians, yet the vast majority of studies focus on Gallipoli, rather than the Kokoda Track. Prior to 2001, few tourists had undertaken a journey along the narrow jungle pathway, which winds 96km through the Owen Stanley Ranges in Papua New Guinea. Just over a decade later, the track supports a competitive tourism industry, dominated by Australian companies, and attracts thousands of trekkers each year. This paper applies an interdisciplinary methodology to better understand the duality of locations of battlefield tourism as sites of commemoration and, unavoidably, sites of commerce. A survey of 107 trekkers suggests that, in addition to an expression of national identity, the mythology associated with the Kokoda Track has been appropriated by Australian tourists to represent individualistic goals of personal development and transformation: meanings that originate from the site's history but extend beyond it.


A new form of philosophizing known as ordinary language philosophy took root in England after the Second World War, promising a fresh start and a way out of long-standing dead-end philosophical debates. Pioneered by Wittgenstein, Austin, and others, OLP is now widely rumored, within mainstream analytic philosophy, to have been seriously discredited, and consequently its perspective is ignored. Avner Baz begs to differ. In "When Words Are Called For", he shows how the prevailing arguments against OLP collapse under close scrutiny. All of them, he claims, presuppose one version or another of the very conception of word-meaning that OLP calls into question and takes to be responsible for many traditional philosophical difficulties. Worse, analytic philosophy itself has suffered as a result of its failure to take OLP's perspective seriously. Baz blames a neglect of OLP's insights for seemingly irresolvable disputes over the methodological relevance of "intuitions" in philosophy and for misunderstandings between contextualists and anti-contextualists (or "invariantists") in epistemology. Baz goes on to explore the deep affinities between Kant's work and OLP and suggests ways that OLP could be applied to other philosophically troublesome concepts. "When Words Are Called For" defends OLP not as a doctrine but as a form of practice that might provide a viable alternative to work currently carried out within mainstream analytic philosophy. Accordingly, Baz does not merely argue for OLP but, all the more convincingly, practices it in this eye-opening book.


The chapter explores the distribution and content of frequent frames – recurring multiword sequences – appearing at the start of utterances in speech directed to young Hebrew-speaking children. Previous work has documented the existence and prevalence of such frames in several languages (English, German, and Russian). Here, analysis of a dense corpus of Hebrew child-directed speech was undertaken with two goals in mind. The first aims at examining the distribution of multiword elements in Hebrew child-directed speech, to ascertain whether frequent frames are found in a morphologically rich language like Hebrew and, if so, to see how pervasive they are compared to other languages, and how consistent across different caretakers. The second goal is to explore the content of frequent frames in Hebrew to address such questions as: Do they provide children with relevant morphological and syntactic information? Are they frequent enough to be employed in learning? Results show that frequent frames do occur in Hebrew, that they are relatively consistent across caretakers, and that they illustrate a range of grammatical relations. These findings expand our understanding of frequent frames in general, while also adding to the relatively sparse information on the nature of child-directed speech in Hebrew.


The zone plate is an optical device that depends on interference, not reflection or refraction, for its image-forming properties. Although the irradiance at the focus is only 110 that of a lens with the same aperture, a zone plate with 100 or more zones is capable of resolution equal to that of the lens. Zone plates can be used in spectral regions where conventional optics are unavailable and for special applications in the visible spectrum. This paper derives the third-order and chromatic aberrations of the zone plate. The image may be diffraction limited only if the illumination is relatively monochromatic. Like the pinhole camera, the zone plate turns out not to suffer from linear distortion, even at very wide fields.


George Jean Nathan (1882-1958) was formative influence on American letters in the first half of this century, and is generally considered the leading drama critic of his era. With H. L. Mencken, Nathan edited The Smart Set and founded and edited The American Mercury, journals that shaped opinion in the 1920s and 1930s. This series of reprints, individually introduced by the distinguished critic and novelist Charles Angoff, collects Nathan's penetrating, witty, and sometimes cynical drama criticism.


A 'hot moment' is an emotion-laden moment of conflict or tension that threatens to derail teaching and learning. In this study, an educational development workshop used interactive theater depicting a hot moment to prepare university instructors for diverse classrooms. Participants in three workshops wrote short reflections, both before and after the theater-based experience, about whether instructors should consider differences among students. After the workshop, many participants took new dimensions of difference into consideration. Surprisingly, after the interactive theater experience, almost all participants reflected exclusively on instrumental issues in teaching (e.g. classroom management strategies), but not structural issues of difference, power, and privilege that underlie hot moments. The empirical findings and the author's reflections on a personal hot moment are theorized in terms of concepts from and critiques of critical and feminist pedagogy.


Sue Beckingham is an Educational Developer, taking a Faculty lead role for technology enhanced learning (TEL) at Sheffield Hallam University. She is a Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and also a Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Association (where she is a member of the Executive Board). Her teaching portfolio includes Professionalism and Communication; Digital Marketing; Web 2.0 in Business; Social Media Use in Organisations; and Information Design. She is also a course designer and facilitator of the cross institution open online course 'Bring Your Own Devices for Learning' and co-lead of the weekly Learning and Teaching in Higher Education online chat #LTHEchat. Sue's research interests alongside TEL include digital identity and connectedness, and the use of social media in higher education and business. As a lifelong learner she has recently completed a second Master's degree, an MSc in Technology Enhanced Learning, Innovation and Change.


The Hairsine-Rose (HR) model considers rainfall- and shear-driven erosion of the soil bed, overland transport and sediment deposition. Here, we consider the model for rainfall-driven erosion. The model takes account of the different erodabilities of the original soil and deposited material, as well as onsidering the spatial and temporal behaviour of the different sediment sizes in the eroded bed. This latter feature is crucial, as different grain sizes are transported differently due to the wide range of possible settling velocities. Nevertheless, many experiments, both in the laboratory and the field, measure only total sediment concentrations of eroded material (e.g., at the outlet of a laboratory erosion flume). The HR model equations were summed to obtain a model for total sediment concentration (HRTS model). It was found that the HRTS model includes as a parameter an integral term that gives rise to a closure problem. Consequently, in general solutions must be found by (numerical) iteration in which, essentially, discretization leads to calculation of the sediment size classes in the standard HR model. Nevertheless, we show that accurate approximations can be produced by exploiting the behaviour of the model's predictions of the deposition of previously eroded material, also known as the shield layer. That is, for circumstances where the spatial dependence of this layer can be neglected (e.g., erosion of a uniform bed by constant rainfall), the shielding of the original soil by the deposited layer can be estimated a priori. Based on this estimate, closed-form solutions for the total sediment eroded can be deduced, from which the transport of any given sediment size class can be calculated. We present closed-form approximations, which compare very well with numerical solutions of the HR model, and which are directly applicable to experiments in which the total sediment concentrations in runoff are measured.


This paper examines the organisational hierarchies and decision making processes of two Chinese multinational enterprises operating in Vietnam—China Luoyang Floating Glass Corp. (CLFG) and China TCL Holdings Co. Ltd. (TCL). For this study, research data were obtained from in-depth interviews of more than 20 government officials in P. R. China and Vietnam, and managers and staff of those two enterprises. Results indicate that the organisational structures of the two enterprises are still vertical but complex, although moderate changes made to them post the nationwide economic reform of China. Consequently, decision making process follows a "top-down" model, sometimes, with insufficient grassroots information. Findings are discussed in the light of political, social and cultural milieu, and implications are drawn for the management of Chinese multinational enterprises operating in overseas markets. Both CLFG and China TCL are structured on task specialisations. However, departmentalisation in TCL′s overseas division in head office is not only based on products, but also on geographical regions of markets. The organisational structure of TCL in Vietnam is less complex than the international division, but it is more centralised. Decision making at TCL combines more traditional Chinese business philosophy with modern western organisational characteristics. TCL has a strong western influence in its management style. However, some traditional characteristics such as "hero" leadership influence and political influence are involved with decision making at TCL. Amongst others, the transitional economy, social culture, poor management system and political sensitivity have been major elements influencing decision making. In the case of CLFG, some decisions have been made before proper information has been gathered and analysed.


The canonical description of the role of the medial temporal lobes (MTLs) in memory is that short-term forms of memory (e.g., working memory [WM]) are spared when the MTL is damaged, but longer term forms of memory are impaired. Tests used to assess this have typically had a heavy verbal component, potentially allowing explicit rehearsal strategies to maintain the WM trace over the memory delay period. Here we test the hypothesis that the MTL is necessary for visual WM when verbal rehearsal strategies are difficult to implement. In three patients with MTL damage we found impairments in spatial, face, and color WM, at delays as short as 4 sec. Impaired memory could not be attributed to memory load or perceptual problems. These findings suggest that the MTLs are critical for accurate visual WM.


This paper discusses the concept of luxury brands and the possible drivers for the increasing level of high consumption of such goods. Factors such as availability of counterfeits, psychological need and emergence of new media are closely scrutinised.  A critical analysis of the concept particularly regarding how it has evolved over the years help branding strategists and marketers understand how the perceptions of luxury brand has been shaped in the mind of consumers. Finally, this paper analyses future implications that this change may have on marketing and branding strategies. Key words: Luxury, Luxury branding, Affordable Luxury, Country of Origin, Conspicuous Consumption


. The Galactic bar causes a characteristic splitting of the disc phase space into regular and chaotic orbit regions which is shown to play an important role in shaping the stellar velocity distribution in the Solar neighbourhood. A detailed orbital analysis within an analytical 2D rotating barred potential reveals that this splitting is mainly dictated by the value of the Hamiltonian H and the bar induced resonances. In the u − v velocity plane at (cid:12)xed space position, the contours of constant H are circles centred on the local solid rotation velocity of the bar frame and of radius increasing with H . For reasonable bar strengths, the contour H = H 12 corresponding to the e(cid:11)ective potential at the Lagrangian points L 1 = 2 marks the average transition from regular to chaotic motion, with the majority of orbits being chaotic at H > H 12 . On top of this, the resonances generate an alternation of regular and chaotic orbit arcs opened towards lower angular momentum and asymmetric in u for space positions away from the principal axes of the bar. Test particle simulations of exponential discs in the same potential and a more realistic high-resolution 3D N -body simulation reveal how the decoupled evolution of the distribution function in the two kind of regions and the process of chaotic mixing lead to overdensities in the H > (cid:24) H 12 chaotic part of the disc velocity distributions outside corotation. In particular, for realistic space positions of the Sun near or slightly beyond the outer Lindblad resonance and if u is de(cid:12)ned positive towards the anti-centre, the eccentric quasi-periodic orbits trapped around the stable x 1 (1) orbits { i.e. the bar-aligned closed orbits which asymptotically become circular at larger distances { produce a broad u < (cid:24) 0 regular arc in velocity space extending within the H > H 12 zone, whereas the corresponding u > (cid:24) 0 region appears as an overdensity of chaotic orbits forced to avoid that arc. This chaotic overdensity provides an original interpretation, distinct from the anti-bar elongated quasi-periodic orbit interpretation proposed by Dehnen (2000), for the prominent stream of high asymmetric drift and predominantly outward moving stars clearly emerging from the Hipparcos data. However, the most appropriate interpretation for this stream remains uncertain. The e(cid:11)ects of spiral arms and of molecular clouds are also briefly discussed within this context.


Introduction. The fact that thrombophilia is a factor involved in the pathogenesis of preeclampsia is a hypothesis supported bidirectionally by numerous contradictory results; however, it is estimated that approximately 40% of patients with preeclampsia have a thrombophilic substrate. Most valid studies do not support an association between inherited thrombophilia and preeclampsia, intrauterine growth restriction or spontaneous abortion, thus implicitly not supporting the prophylactic anticoagulant treatment with low-molecular-weight heparin (LMWH) for the prevention of the aforementioned conditions. Materials and method. We selected pregnant women with developing or spontaneous discontinued pregnancy undergoing anticoagulant or antiplatelet treatment. In the context where clear protocols for the administration of anticoagulants in pregnancy have not yet been established, we aimed to perform a comparative analysis of the clinical and anamnestic aspects on which the indication of treatment with antiplatelet, anticoagulant or the two combined in pregnancy were based and the impact on placental function by comparative analysis of the values of the Doppler measurements for the uterine, umbilical and average cerebral arteries of the patients included in the three study groups. Results. Spontaneous abortions or intrauterine fetal death in the antecedents was the main criterion for recommending antiplatelet, anticoagulant or combined treatment. In the presence of a personal history of thrombotic events, the combined treatment of LMWH and low-dose aspirin was chosen. We did not obtain a significant difference in the frequency of spontaneous pregnancy loss between the three study groups, the proportion of this condition being similar. Conclusions. The combined treatment of LMWH and low-dose aspirin in pregnancy was significantly correlated with the values of the resistance and pulsatility index of the uterine arteries closest to the normal values, with an average pulsatility index lower than 1, in particular for the left uterine artery, compared to the results obtained for the single treatment with low-dose aspirin or LMWH.


"Little free libraries" are popping up in front of houses, apartments, parks and other public spaces across the country. Since 2009, these handcrafted book boxes, which hold between 20 and 100 books, have multiplied, amounting to as many as 4,000 libraries across the world. And they're helping neighborhoods bolster community spirit and cohesion. In his 2013 book, Small-Town America: Finding Community, Shaping the Future, sociologist Robert Wuthnow fi nds that social spaces such as football games, festivals, and public events cultivate "community spirit" and help bring small-town residents together. Exchanging and discussing literature can be a particularly helpful element of building community identity, according to Wendy Griswold and Nathan Wright in a 2004 American Journal of Sociology article, "Cowbirds, Locals, and Dynamic Endurance of Regionalism." Little free libraries also offer an interesting snapshot of local interests, permitting visitors a glimpse into their neighbors' worlds. This is because the meanings of cultural artifacts, such as books, are infl uenced by the social spaces where they reside, according to sociologists Clayton Childress and Noah Friedkin, writing in 2012 in the American Sociological Review. So, before you get rid of your unused books, think about donating them to the little free library near you. You may receive new treasures—and new friends—in return. mark caldwell RJ L2 0


A textural and mineralogical study has been made of Kalahari cover sand, collected on a regular (approximately 13 kmX13 km) grid, over an area of approximately 78 500 km 2 , covering much of the central Kalahari region of Botswana. Sand textural characteristics vary systematically over the area sampled, but are not readily explained in terms of the wind patterns which have prevailed from at least the Quaternary to the present day. Rather, they indicate that deposition was dominated by fluvial processes. Zones of coarse sand associated with relatively high concentrations of heavy minerals are interpreted as lags associated with the basin margins, Ephemeral streams and sheetwash transported finer material into the distal portions of the basin, which is characterized by relatively low numbers of heavy minerals. The variation in sand texture and the distribution of heavy minerals indicate that the ground sampled covers the major portion of a subsidiary central Kalahari Basin. This is bounded by the Bakalahari Schwelle in the south, and the Ghanzi ridge in the northwest. The divide between the Limpopo and endoreic fossil drainage lines, which formerly emptied into the Makgadigadi, is inferred to form the eastern margin of this central Kalahari Basin. The mineralogical and textural data presented here have important implications for kimberlite prospecting in the sandveld of the western two thirds of Botswana.


Gendered Enterprise and Markets (GEM) is Oxfam GB's approach to market systems development. The GEM approach facilitates change in market systems and social norms, with the aim of ensuring more sustainable livelihood opportunities for marginalized women and men. The GEM DFID AidMatch Programme (June 2014–February 2018) worked within the soya, milk and vegetable value chains targeting women smallholder farmers in areas of poverty. The programme aimed to benefit 63,600 people (10,600 smallholder households) living in Zambia, Tajikistan and Bangladesh through increases in household income, women having greater influence over key livelihood decisions within their households and communities, and engaging in livelihoods more resilient to shocks, such as natural disasters and market volatility. In Tajikistan, the Gendered Enterprise and Markets (GEM) programme has been implemented in five districts of Khatlon Province by Oxfam in partnership with local public organizations, League of Women Lawyers of Tajikistan (LWL) and Neksigol Mushovir. The GEM programme in Tajikistan sought to directly improve the livelihoods of an estimated 3,000 smallholder farmers (60 percent women) in fruit and vegetable value chains through improved production skills, resilience to climate risks, access to market opportunities and greater engagement with market players, and strengthened ability to influence private sector and government actors. The evaluation was designed to investigate if and how the GEM programme might have contributed to its intended outcomes – not only in the lives of individual women smallholder farmers targeted by the programme but also to changes in their communities and the larger market system. It also sought to capture any potential unintended outcomes of the programme.


"The Australian government is supporting the development of renewable energy technology, such as wind power, in its efforts to reduce greenhouse gases in line with the Kyoto agreement. While wind technology offer many advantages property owners have voiced opposition to the siting of wind farms due to concerns over changes in neighborhood aesthetics, noise, loss of bird life, and loss in property values. Such opposition can result in planning permission being declined and a restriction in the ability to meet Kyoto targets. This paper outlines the results of research carried out in Western Australia (WA) 2008 to investigate the attitudes of communities towards the development of wind farms and to seek ways to mitigate the magnitude of opposition and increase the success rate of planning applications. The cities investigated include Albany, Esperance and Denmark on the south coast of WA. The results of this research will be of interest to power companies in helping plan the siting of these. Similarly, property valuers need to understand the valuation implications of wind farms when valuing property in close proximity to these.""


Present discourse on ethnic conflict is grounded in common sense and advocacy that together form a received wisdom with which everybody is familiar. The task of analytic and quantitative research is to bring us beyond this received wisdom: to discover whether there are counterintuitive behavioral relationships that might be helpful for developing policy. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] The phrase "ethnic conflict" hovers between description and explanation. As a description of the large scale organized violence that besets many low-income countries, it is unexceptional. As an explanation, it is radically inadequate. Most societies are ethnically diverse. Where conditions are ripe for internal violence, conflicts are indeed likely to be organized along ethnic lines. During a conflict, ethnicity is often used as a propaganda tool. Indeed, whether or not ethnic divisions are a cause of conflict, they are quite likely to be a consequence of it. After such disputes, societies are often trapped in the ethnic organizations and categories that the conflict determined. As a literal objective, "ending ethnic conflict" cannot be taken seriously. Political conflict is endemic, and intra-ethnic affinity may form a cost-effective basis for political organization. Political contests between ethnic groups are therefore common in ethnically diverse democracies. What can, and indeed should, be ended is large scale, organized violence. This kind of violence generally takes three variants: communal violence, pogroms, and rebellion. Of these three, rebellion is by far the most deadly, since it results in full-scale civil war. Communal violence, in contrast, is generally the least deadly because it lacks large scale organization. The prevention of pogroms, in which a government systematically kills the members of some ethnic group, is straightforward in one sense: pogroms can be prevented by enforcing international norms. The difficulty in preventing pogroms thus comes down to a dispute over the limits on state sovereignty. The prevention of civil war, by contrast, requires a substantially different agenda. Civil war is, by definition, a conflict that involves at least one private, non-governmental actor. This is not, of course, to lay the blame for civil wars at the door of the rebels. Rather, every government attempts to maintain a monopoly over the organized violence within its borders. Where it loses this monopoly due to the emergence of a rebel group, a civil war is virtually inevitable. Reducing the global incidence of civil wars is indeed feasible. Pogroms and communal violence are different and equally important variants of ethnic conflict; however, my discussion here will not apply to them. To "end" ethnic civil war, there are three possible points of intervention. We can attempt to prevent such conflicts from starting, we can attempt to stop ongoing conflicts, and we can attempt to strengthen peace in situations where conflict has recently ended. Herein I discuss each scenario. I contend that the greatest payoffs would come from improving the record of maintaining post-conflict peace, due to the high level of post-conflict relapses into civil war. The Deep Prevention of Civil War Deep prevention is obviously the most desirable form of prevention. The normal, somewhat pious, discourse on the deep prevention of ethnic conflict invariably invokes the need to address its root causes. Obviously, when grievances are genuine they should be addressed, regardless of whether or not they are the root causes of violence. However, the argument that violence will inevitably occur unless such grievances are addressed seems both unnecessary as a basis for remedial action and potentially counterproductive, as it becomes subject to hijacking by advocacy groups with their own pet agendas. The root cause method of explanation is inextricably linked to the notion that the motivation behind rebellion is some objective grievance. …


Serpentinization of the Earth's impermeable upper mantle is one of the most fundamental metamorphic hydration reactions. It governs lithospheric weakening, geochemical subduction zone input and possibly even the formation of life-essential building blocks. Serpentinization relies on fluid pathway generation due to low initial permeability and the large positive solid volume change associated with hydration. Although these pathways can be produced as a tectonic stress response, there is substantial evidence that the volume increase during olivine serpentinization itself generates stresses sufficient to fracture the rock. Nonetheless, the actual fracturing mechanism during olivine serpentinization is largely unexplored. Unconstrained batch experiments (Okamoto et al. 2011, this study) produce comparable hierachial fracture patterns to those found in natural samples demonstrating that no external forces (e.g., tensile stress) are required for fracturing to take place. Combining this with the observation that fluid-mediated mineral replacement advances via an interface-coupled dissolution-reprecipitation mechanism (e.g., Putnis 2009) without solid-state diffusion into the dissolving mineral indicates that classical (stress) corrosion cracking mechanisms cannot describe fracturing during olivine serpentinization. By uniting micro- and nanostructural characteristics ubiquitous to serpentinized olivine grains with a coupled diffusion-reaction-deformation model and crack growth theory this study explores the sub-critical fracturing mechanism at the interfacial scale. We present a new multistep reaction process and test the feasibility of a molecular wedge-assisted fracturing mechanism based on the following ubiquitously identified features: (1) no rotation of grain domains during fragmentation, (2) isotropic fracture orientation distribution with a uniform average width of individual finite length serpentine veins, (3) cumulative fragment area distribution with a log-normal scaling behavior following a hierachical fracturing model, (4) etch pit development at olivine-lizardite reaction interfaces, (5) crack initiation at these surface perturbations and (6) amorphous layer formation during olivine dissolution prior to serpentine nucleation (e.g., Rumori et al. 2004). Based on these observations we propose an entirely self-propagating reaction-driven fracturing process, where fractures nucleate at dissolution-induced surface perturbations assisted by a molecular wedge of amorphous 'gel', followed by further olivine dissolution and serpentine (±brucite) reprecipitation coupled with the force of crystallization. This process results in the observed hierarchical fracture network. Our results suggest that the mechanical force needed to advance serpentinization at the grain-scale does not rely on external forces but is due to interface-coupled, chemomechanical feedback during olivine re-equilibration in the presence of a fluid phase. Nevertheless, the influence of tectonic forces will need to be accounted for at larger scales.


Cellular wireless networks have to be accurately planned to provide Quality of Service (QoS) to the user and to achieve revenue for the operator. Therefore, estimates of key performance indicators (KPIs) depending on parameters like the user scheduling, the data traffic and the data traffic load are necessary for planning of cellular wireless networks. Today's cellular wireless networks are based on orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and a packet-switched network architecture like in, e.g., Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMAX) or Long Term Evolution (LTE) of Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). OFDMA and a packet-switched network architecture are suitable for many challenges that today's cellular wireless networks have to cope with, e.g., a large system bandwidth to provide high data rates or different traffic services. Resources in terms of bandwidth and time can be allocated for transmission of data in a very flexible manner and users are scheduled for transmission, e.g., depending on channel state information or QoS requirements. The consideration of all these parameters for evaluation of KPIs leads to a high computational complexity. Usually, system level simulations are required with simulation durations of days to obtain accurate results for KPIs. In this work, a framework is derived for evaluation of KPIs in OFDMA based packet-switched wireless networks. Based on this framework, this thesis gives two novel evaluation methodologies. At first, a snapshot based simulative system level analysis methodology is proposed. Short and independent snapshots are considered for the evaluation of KPIs. During each snapshot, it is assumed that the location of a user does not change significantly so that large-scale propagation loss only has to be calculated once per snapshot. To get independent snapshots that are randomly selected from the busy hour, constraints are derived in this thesis, e.g., for the number of active users and the buffer occupancy at snapshot start. Probability density functions (pdfs) are given in this thesis for the constraints considering different data traffic models. During each snapshot, the arrival of data packets in the transmitter, user scheduling and the frequency selective and time variant small scale fading channel are modeled in detail. The simulative system level analysis methodology is evaluated assuming a cellular wireless network, different channel models for the transmission of data and users that utilise different data traffic services. It only takes several hours to achieve KPI results with the simulative system level analysis methodology using a standard personal computer instead of more than a day with state-of-the-art dynamic system level simulations. The accuracy of the KPI results using the simulative system level analysis methodology is comparable to the accuracy achieved with state-of-the-art dynamic system level simulations. The simulative system level analysis methodology is suitable for accurate performance evaluation of a specific network configuration. Secondly, an analytical system level evaluation methodology is defined in this thesis that contains an analytical calculation of KPIs for packet-switched wireless networks so that results for KPIs are achieved even faster than with the proposed simulative system level analysis methodology. Based on the developed framework for evaluation of KPIs in packet-switched wireless networks, properties in OFDMA based packet-switched wireless networks are described analytically. Derivations for pdfs of, e.g., the number of active users, the change in signal to interference ratio (SIR) and the number of allocated resources due to user scheduling are derived in this thesis so that KPIs are calculated analytically. Evaluations of the analytical system level evaluation methodology assuming a cellular wireless network indicate that KPI results are obtained within seconds at the expense of an error in KPI results below 15 % compared to system level simulations. Therefore, the analytical system level evaluation methodology is able to enhance planning tools for OFDMA based packet-switched wireless networks by providing fast estimates for KPIs. Nevertheless, system level simulations shall be used to obtain precise KPIs for the final network layout. The impact of data traffic and user scheduling on KPIs is evaluated using the developed methodologies. Among others, it is shown that the average user throughput is almost proportional to the inverse of the average number of active users or that for a constant ratio between the average number of active users and the server data rate similar average cell throughput results are achieved. Furthermore, thresholds are derived indicating the performance that can be achieved for three different user scheduling strategies. Finally, KPI results are presented for a public reference scenario representing real world scenarios for European cities indicating that the developed simulative system level analysis methodology and the developed analytical system level evaluation methodology are both able to give KPIs for real world scenarios and can be applied in the planning process of OFDMA based packet-switched wireless networks.


The highly advanced polymerization techniques developed in the natural and synthetic resin industries have created a strong demand, not only for general identification of polymeric substances, but for the characterization of the newer stereoregular polymers. Although the gross ir spectral features of a particular polymer are mostly attributable to its functional groups, there are often many small but significant spectral differences which are associated with different structural arrangements that can exist within the polymer. Thus, in a number of cases the subtle spectral differences can be correlated with molecular configurations and used as evidence for various structures.


Flax fibre reinforced polypropylene composites were fabricated using a high speed mixer followed by injection moulding. Prior to composite production, the fibre was modified by acetylation in the presence of perchloric acid. The effect of acetylation of the fibre was assessed on the basis of moisture resistance and dielectric properties of the resulting composites. It was found that the moisture absorption and swelling properties of the composites were reduced respectively by 60% and 30% due to acetylation. Two different types of biocide were mixed with untreated flax fibre, and the samples were exposed to decay fungi for up to 3 months along with control polypropylene. The composites with acetylated fibres showed good protection against fungi, and biocide had less effect on biological resistance. The dielectric properties of the flax-polypropylene composites were also estimated as a function of aging period. The composites with modified fibre showed more improvement in dielectric properties compared to the composites with untreated fibres. The mechanical properties were investigated for those composites. Tensile and flexural strengths of composites were found to be increased following acetylation due to modification, and strength properties of both untreated and acetylated flax fibre reinforced polypropylene composites decreased with respect to aging period. The Charpy impact strengths of composites were found to increase with increasing aging periods.


Bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs) are members of the transforming growth
factor beta (TGFβ) super-family of signalling molecules. BMPs play crucial roles in
developing and adult tissues during processes including proliferation, differentiation,
apoptosis and epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT). However, little is known
regarding the role of BMPs in adult lungs during health and disease. In the present study,
the role of BMP signalling in lung cancer and lung regeneration processes was examined.
Early lung cancer tumours were isolated by laser capture microdissection from Kras
G12D mouse lungs and microarray analysis was carried out on RNA from the purified
populations of cells. Microarray and qPCR analyses revealed differential BMP pathway
expression during early tumour formation. BMPR expression was decreased compared to
normal lung epithelial cells while BMP4, BMP5, Smad4 and Id-1 expression were
increased.
We hypothesized BMPR-IB plays an anti-proliferative role during early tumour
progression. To characterise the function of BMPR-IB in lung cells, the gene was cloned
from mouse lung cDNA and an over-expression vector was generated. Viral and nonviral
delivery methods were assessed for their ability to efficiently transfect normal and
tumour-derived lung cells. Lipofectamine-2000 was the most efficient non-viral method
of gene delivery. This mode of transfection was utilised to transfect BMPR-IB gene into
the human BEAS-2B cell line, which is devoid of endogenous BMPR-IB expression. The
effects of BMPR-IB expression on proliferation, BMP signalling, and differentiation
were assessed. BMPR-IB expression caused a reduction in viable cell number, an
increase in non-viable cell number and an increase in cell death by apoptosis. Given the
loss of expression of BMPR-IB at the early stages of cancer, these data suggest that
BMPR-IB may have anti-proliferative properties during this stage in cancer.
The role of BMP signalling in lung regeneration processes was also examined in
the 1-NN acute lung damage. BMP signalling was up-regulated during the inflammatory
stage of lung damage. These data suggest that the BMP pathway plays an integral role
during regeneration and disease processes in the adult lung.


Abstract Objective. This study aimed to develop a probabilistic decision support model to calculate the lifetime incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) between radical prostatectomy and watchful waiting for different patient groups. Material and methods. A randomized trial (SPCG-4) provided most data for this study. Data on survival, costs and quality of life were inputs in a decision analysis, and a decision support model was developed. The model can generate cost-effectiveness information on subgroups of patients with different characteristics. Results. Age was the most important independent factor explaining cost-effectiveness. The cost-effectiveness value varied from 21 026 Swedish kronor (SEK) to 858 703 SEK for those aged 65 to 75 years, depending on Gleason scores and prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values. Information from the decision support model can support decision makers in judging whether or not radical prostatectomy (RP) should be used to treat a specific patient group. Conclusions. The cost-effectiveness ratio for RP varies with age, Gleason scores, and PSA values. Assuming a threshold value of 200 000 SEK per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained, for patients aged ≤70 years the treatment was always cost-effective, except at age 70, Gleason 0–4 and PSA ≤10. Using the same threshold value at age 75, Gleason 7–9 (regardless of PSA) and Gleason 5–6 (with PSA >20) were cost-effective. Hence, RP was not perceived to be cost-effective in men aged 75 years with low Gleason and low PSA. Higher threshold values for patients with clinically localized prostate cancer could be discussed.


Preference tests in a novel environment (Experiment 1) and unobtrusive observations in a specialized living environment (Experiment 2) examined the attractiveness of various classes of conspecifics for maturing guinea pigs (Cavia porcellus). It was found that (a). the young continued to remain near the mother well beyond weaning; (b). there was increased time spent with unrelated adult females, but not males, after weaning; (c). male and female offspring behaved similarly; and (d). littermates spent considerable time with each other. These results provide no evidence that guinea pigs approaching sexual maturity begin to associate preferentially with novel animals or potential breeding partners. Choices were largely predictable from earlier findings of the ability of various classes of conspecifics to reduce hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal activity of the young.


There is growing concern that the adoption of intensive agricultural land management practices in upland areas of the UK over the past 50-60 years may have affected hydrological responses and sediment transfer regimes in river catchments and could, therefore, be contributing to increased levels of flood risk and ecological disturbance. However, recent evidence from a research catchment at Pontbren in mid-Wales indicates that the implementation of a more sustainable livestock farming strategy could help to mitigate some of these impacts, raising the possibility that strategic land use planning could be used as a cost-effective, multi-functional river management option. The impacts of historical land use changes and land management practices on contemporary sediment dynamics in the study area are explored in this thesis through a system approach which acknowledges the importance of interrelationships between hydrological and geomorphological processes. Results from hydrological experiments and modelling exercises are used to inform analyses of spatial and temporal variation in sediment production and transfer from a variety of potential sources. Grazed, agriculturally-improved pastures were found to supply fine material to stream channels via both surface runoff and field drains. In particular, drain-derived sediment is likely to represent an important component of the total fine sediment yield in subcatchments where agricultural intensification has been widespread. Agricultural drainage ditches were also found to act as sources of sediment in such areas, along with eroding channel banks. Sediment production from bank sources may relate to historical changes in peak flows caused by agricultural intensification. Stream sediment yields are strongly related to differences in sediment supply from the aforementioned sources and could therefore be reduced by limiting mobilisation at the point of origin within the landscape. In terms of channel-derived material, this could be achieved through peak flow reductions associated with woodland and hedgerow restoration.


Abstract. Makore F, Gasura E, Souta C, Mazamura U, Derera J, Zikhali M, Kamutando CN, Magorokosho C, Dari S. 2021. Molecular characterization of a farmer-preferred maize landrace population from a multiple-stress-prone subtropical lowland environment. Biodiversitas 22: 769-777.  The study was conducted to assess genetic diversity of 372 maize lines using 116 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) markers. Three hundred and forty-seven lines were S1 lines (coded J lines) from a local maize landrace population and twenty-five were the widely used standard lines. The number of alleles per marker ranged from two to four and the average was three alleles.  The average polymorphic information content (PIC) value of 0.405 indicates high genetic diversity for maize lines evaluated in this study. Population structure revealed three distinct sub-populations. Sub-population 1 contained two J lines; sub-population 2 contained five J lines and sub-population 3 contained the rest of the J lines and all the standard lines. Analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA) identified 22% variance among and 78% variance within the three subpopulations, indicating high gene exchange and low genetic differentiation. Hierarchical cluster analysis further divided the lines into nine subgroups placing some of the J lines into known heterotic groups', i.e.,  J30_3, J393_4, J393_3, and J393_1 in CIMMYT heterotic group B. Allelic variation observed can be a source of allele combination for breeding programs interested in widening their genetic base. The private alleles that were present in the J lines suggest availability of stress-tolerant genes that breeders can incorporate in new hybrids.


Reconstruction from conflict is a complex and demanding task, and a major challenge for post-conflict countries as well as the international community. Countries and their donor partners face multiple priorities – rebuilding infrastructure, assisting war-damaged communities, and re-creating weakened institutions – with too few resources to meet these needs. Moreover, if the poor are not prioritized then the end of war may have saved lives, but will have done little for livelihoods. And women are often left behind. Without reconstruction, countries may easily regress back to war. This book provides an insight into some of the principal issues that arise in post-conflict economic and social reconstruction, and offers examples of what works, and what does not. Each chapter tackles a key theme, and illustrates the with illustrations from a wide selection of countries. This book will be of great interest to all working on economic and social reconstruction in post-conflict countries, as well as those working on peace and development more generally.


In this work we show that adapting Deep Convolutional Neural Network training to the task of boundary detection can result in substantial improvements over the current state-of-the-art in boundary detection.
Our contributions consist firstly in combining a careful design of the loss for boundary detection training, a multi-resolution architecture and training with external data to improve the detection accuracy of the current state of the art. When measured on the standard Berkeley Segmentation Dataset, we improve theoptimal dataset scale F-measure from 0.780 to 0.808 - while human performance is at 0.803. We further improve performance to 0.813 by combining deep learning with grouping, integrating the Normalized Cuts technique within a deep network.
We also examine the potential of our boundary detector in conjunction with the task of semantic segmentation and demonstrate clear improvements over state-of-the-art systems. Our detector is fully integrated in the popular Caffe framework and processes a 320x420 image in less than a second.


Digitalization has become a significant trend in the development of modern humanity. The pandemic has accelerated the digitalization of most countries. They contribute to the development of new practices, open up new opportunities for communication. They also require certain skills and competencies, education. But digital environment affects people in different ways. It creates new problems and restrictions, increases risks, including increasing social inequalities. It can expand access to information, include a person in the global space, but it can also limit the world to the diagonal of a digital device. It is important to understand how the population is ready for these changes, what real opportunities it has. The digital environment is emerging in modern cities, where inclusion in it is faster. Ahead are megacities, industrial and administrative centers. But almost two thirds of the cities are small towns, where one fourth of the population of Russia lives. What are the opportunities for digitalization for the population of small towns, what are the restrictions for residents to be included in the digital space. The purpose of our study is to assess the state of digital competence of the population of small towns in the Russian Federation on the basis of their self-assessment of their readiness to function in a digital environment. The empirical basis of the study was the results of a survey conducted among the urban population of the Vologda region on a representative sample with quotas by gender and age. The study showed that there are problems in the development of the necessary competencies by residents of small towns to use the digital space.


Biological systems are particularly prone to variation, and the authors argue that such variation must be regarded as important data in its own right. The authors describe a method in which individual differences are studied within the framework of a general theory of the population as a whole and illustrate how this method can be used to address three types of issues: the nature of the mechanisms that give rise to a specific ability, such as mental imagery; the role of psychological or biological mediators of environmental challenges, such as the biological bases for differences in dispositional mood; and the existence of processes that have nonadditive effects with behavioral and physiological variables, such as factors that modulate the response to stress and its effects on the immune response.


Being able to deal with the unexpected is a key part of performing well as an expert witness and a challenge that some CPAs find exhilarating. Increasingly, forensic accountants are being called as expert witnesses to help sort out the labyrinthine financial aspects of litigation involving complex issues and large sums of money. In open court these advisers submit to scrutiny from a judge, the jury, attorneys, court personnel and trial spectators. CPAs who keep their cool and convey concise, cogent information--whether in depositions or under an opposing attorney's attempts to discredit their testimonies--can have a pivotal impact on a conflict's resolution as well as the satisfaction of helping a client win (see "Basic Legal Concepts," page 33). Here are some suggestions on how to increase your positive impact on behalf of your client. PREPAREDNESS IS THE KEY Juries, judges and arbitration panels charged with resolving disputes with financial aspects often know little about financial statement analyses, audits, tax, budgeting or malpractice calculation of lost profits and damages. To help triers of fact understand the impact of different types of financial transactions or attach a measurable value to a plaintiff's injury CPAs often are called on to serve as expert witnesses. If you want to develop a niche in such litigation services or just learn to feel more comfortable on the stand, here are some tips to get you started. Review your qualifications. Do you have the academic training, career prominence (published articles), professional certifications, requisite knowledge and experience in a specific area to be a successful expert witness? Enumerate your competencies (see "Give Your Skills a CAT Scan," JofA, Jul. 04, page 34). People skills are particularly important in interactions with all parties to a trial. Get your credentials in order. Federal rule of civil procedure 26(a)(2) mandates experts disclose their identity, the issues their opinions will address, their professional qualifications (including what they've published in the past 10 years and all cases in which they provided expert testimony in the previous four years) and who is paying them. There are many resources for expert witness training (see Resources box, page 30). Be realistic about whether you're the right expert for the job. A self-serving view of your abilities won't help you deal with the opposing attorney if you are not truly well-versed in the area in which you give testimony (see "Daubert Challenges," page 25). If you're offered an engagement in an area that's not your strong suit, recommend an expert whose qualifications are a better match (see exhibit, page 28). Prepare in depth. Once you've been retained, do your homework. Be professional, complete and creative. Learn all pertinent aspects of the dispute as well as protocol and procedures for the witness stand. Analyze the background of the issues and review related depositions, materials attorneys furnish and any additional materials they deem relevant. Work closely with counsel to review the rules of the particular jurisdiction in which the case is pending. Both statute law and case law may be relevant. Certain states may require a CPA who isn't licensed with that state to register prior to giving testimony. Note: Based upon the successful deposition of an expert, cases often settle without going to court. Don't let your attorney mold your conclusions. If you reach a point where you are uncomfortable or cannot testify to something the attorney wishes you to, say so--vigorously if necessary. Suggest another approach that can be independently supported. Talk to yourself. Because the judge and jury likely do not have working knowledge of accounting technicalities, practice how you will express information in a clear and simple way. Tape record your explanation of important points, then play it back. If you were a layman, would you understand what you just heard? …


FPGAs have been demonstrated to be capable of very high performance, especially power-performance, but generally at the cost of hand-tuned HDL code by FPGA experts. OpenCL is the leading industry effort in improving performance-programmability. But while it is recognized that optimizing OpenCL code using published best practices is critical to achieving good performance, even optimized code has so far rarely matched that of HDL code, or that available with competing technologies such as GPUs. In this paper we propose a series of systematic and empirically guided code optimizations that augment current best practices and substantially improve achieved performance. Our work characterizes and measures the impact of all of these optimizations. This enables programmers to not only follow a script when optimizing their own kernels, but also opens the way for the development of autotuners to perform optimizations automatically. We also demonstrate that, by applying these proposed code design practices to a number of parallel computing dwarfs, our optimized kernels outperform CPU and previous FPGA OpenCL implementations by 1.2× and 5× respectively. Moreover, our optimizations enable OpenCL FPGA codes to consistently achieve performance within striking distance of (≈ 2×) best current equivalent code for GPUs and HDL. To the best of our knowledge, this is at least 2× better than previous characterizations of OpenCL FPGA optimizations.


If during the 1980s and the 1990s North-Eastern Italy represented a peculiar path to the competitiveness on international markets, in more recent times the ability of this model to face suitably the challenges posed by globalization and the recession has been questioned. In this article, we argue that this crisis entailed a deep transformation in the socio-economic structure of Nort-Eastern Italy, which we read along five dimensions that characterized also the previous model: the main specialization, the characteristics of the proprietorship, the new firm formation, the character of innovation capabilities and the organization in industrial districts. In particular, our analysis suggests a shift from manufacturing to service specializations, the weakening of the importance of familiar resources to the advantage of more complex organizational structures, the move from a model characterized by the formation of diffused yet replicative new ventures to one with less yet innovative ones, the shift from incremental innovations developed through learning-by-doing processes to more radical ones based on an intense R&D effort, and, finally, the transition from the industrial districts paradigm to the global value chains one.


Since Indonesia's transition to democracy in 1998, wealth inequality has increased significantly with a dramatic rise in the wealth of the rich and stagnating income growth among poorer citizens. Similar to many developing countries, the issue of child workers in Indonesia is a critical problem. The 2015 National Labour Force Survey recorded 1.65 million children aged 15–17 involved in child work in Indonesia. Efforts to encourage the participation of child workers in schooling has been greatly promoted but few studies have investigated the issue of the impact of child work on student learning outcomes. Children involved in work are likely to be left behind in educational achievement. Their disadvantaged social, cultural, and economic backgrounds lead to physical and psychosocial vulnerabilities, which requires democratic-classroom approaches, characterized by child-centred settings and teachers familiar with students' diverse learning abilities. This paper presents findings from a study investigating Indonesian teachers' perspectives on the impacts of work on student learning outcomes and how they implement diverse teaching and learning styles when educating child workers. This study highlighted the lack of school and teacher readiness in managing child workers' diverse needs and the absence of teachers' involvement in developing policies for child worker education that may all lead to child workers not achieving learning outcomes. This study outcomes also support democratic-style classroom approaches in making education a reliable investment for child workers. This study provides recommendations for improved policies and practices for the local government and schools in the East Nusa Tenggara province.


BACKGROUND
In pediatric critical care, family-centered care is a central theme that ensures holistic care of the patient and the patient's family. Parents expect and are encouraged to be involved in the care of their child throughout all phases of the child's illness. Family presence is generally accepted when the child's condition is stable; however, there is less consensus about family presence when the child becomes critically ill and requires resuscitation and/or invasive procedures.

METHODS
The PRISMA model guided this systematic literature search of CINAHL, MEDLINE, Ovid, and PubMed for articles published between 1995 and 2012. Specific search terms used included pediatric intensive care, parent presence, family presence, pediatrics, invasive procedures, and resuscitation.

RESULTS
This literature search yielded 117 articles. Ninety-five abstracts were evaluated for relevance. Six articles met criteria and were included in this review. The findings indicate that parents want to be present during invasive procedures and resuscitation, would choose to be present again, recommend being present to others, and would not have changed anything about the presence experience. Parents who were present had better coping and better adjustment to the child's death. Parents who were not present reported more distress.

CONCLUSIONS
These studies support the suggestion that family presence during resuscitation and invasive procedures increases parents' satisfaction and coping. However, the generalizability of these findings is limited by small sample sizes and inconsistent evaluation of confounding variables. Further research is needed to determine the benefits of family presence and prevent barriers to true implementation.


SUMMARY Forested landscapes provide a source of micronutrient rich food for millions of people around the world. A growing evidence base suggests these foods may be of great importance to the dietary quality of people living in close proximity to forests – especially in communities with poor access to markets. Despite widespread evidence of the consumption of forest foods around the world, to date, few studies have attempted to quantify the nutritional contributions these foods make. In this study we tested the hypothesis that the consumption of forest foods can make important contributions to dietary quality. We investigated the dietary contributions of wild forest foods in smallholder dominated forested landscapes from 37 sites in 24 tropical countries, using data from the Poverty and Environment Network (PEN). We compared quantities of forest foods consumed by households with dietary recommendations and national average consumption patterns. In addition, we compared the relative importance of forests and smallholder agriculture in supplying fruits, vegetables, meat and fish for household consumption. More than half of the households in our sample collected forest foods for their own consumption, though consumption patterns were skewed towards low-quantity users. For high-quantity consuming households, however, forest foods made a substantial contributions to their diets. The top quartile of forest food users in each site obtained 14.8% of the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables, and 106% of the reference quantity of meat and fish from forests. In 13 sites, the proportion of meat and fish coming from forests was greater than from domestic livestock and aquaculture, while in 11 sites, households procured a greater proportion of fruits and vegetables from forests than from agriculture. Given high levels of heterogeneity in forest food consumption, we identify four forest food use site typologies to characterize the different use patterns: 'forest food dependent', 'limited forest food use', 'forest food supplementation' and 'specialist forest food consumer' sites. Our results suggest that while forest foods do not universally contribute significantly to diets, in some sites where large quantities of forest foods are consumed, their contribution towards dietary adequacy is substantial.


Abstract Beginning with the earliest organized habitation sites the options provided by the regional environment have largely or partially governed the location and relocation of human settlements. The settlement system in second millennium BCE Henan Province, China, evolved during a period of significant climatic change and shifting river courses but relative soil stability. Human–environment interactions across the landscape have left ample remains for investigation by scholars of social and cultural change and by natural scientists. The social effects of climate and geomorphological change during this period are complex and only partially understood. It is well documented that long-term soil stability before and during the second millennium BCE gave rise to the development of good agricultural soils, without which population expansion probably could not have taken place. This paper summarizes some of the recent research in climate change and, from two of our own projects, in geomorphology and ecology that underlie environmental impacts on the evolving state-level societies, especially related to settlement location and relocation. For example, the Shang possibly relocated one or more capital sites in response to disastrous floods.


The edge computing paradigm has recently attracted research efforts coming from different application domains. However, evaluating an edge platform or algorithm is impeded by the lack of suitable benchmarks. We propose a methodology for characterizing edge workloads from different application domains. It is a first step towards defining workloads to be included in a future edge benchmarking suite. We evaluate the methodology on three use cases and find that defining a common and standard set of workloads is plausible.


Regulating Opioid Responses Different drugs of abuse are thought to highjack similar reward systems in the brain using common mechanisms. However, Koo et al. (p. 124) now observe that some of the neural mechanisms that regulate opiate reward can be both different and even opposite to those that regulate reward by stimulant drugs. While knockdown of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in the ventral tegmental area in mice antagonized the response to cocaine, the same manipulation strengthened the potential of opiates to increase dopamine neuron excitability. Optogenetic stimulation of dopaminergic terminals in the nucleus accumbens could counteract the effects of BDNF on morphine reward blockade. Morphine reward is modulated by ventral tegmental area brain-derived neurotrophic factor in a way that is opposite to its modulation of cocaine reward. Brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) is a key positive regulator of neural plasticity, promoting, for example, the actions of stimulant drugs of abuse such as cocaine. We discovered a surprising opposite role for BDNF in countering responses to chronic morphine exposure. The suppression of BDNF in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) enhanced the ability of morphine to increase dopamine (DA) neuron excitability and promote reward. In contrast, optical stimulation of VTA DA terminals in nucleus accumbens (NAc) completely reversed the suppressive effect of BDNF on morphine reward. Furthermore, we identified numerous genes in the NAc, a major target region of VTA DA neurons, whose regulation by BDNF in the context of chronic morphine exposure mediated this counteractive function. These findings provide insight into the molecular basis of morphine-induced neuroadaptations in the brain's reward circuitry.


During the 2007-09 financial crisis, it became apparent that weaknesses existed in the design of the U.S. tri-party repo market that could rapidly elevate and propagate systemic risk. This article describes key mechanics of the market, focusing on two that have contributed to its weaknesses and impacted market reform efforts: the collateral allocation and "unwind" processes. The authors explain that collateral allocation in the tri-party repo market involves considerable dealer intervention, which can slow settlement processing. The length of time required to allocate collateral has in fact been a significant obstacle to market reform. Another impediment to reform is the unwind process, or the settlement of expiring and continuing repos that occurs before new ones can be settled and continuing ones can be "rewound." The intraday funding required as a result of the unwind process creates potentially perverse dynamics that increase market fragility and financial system risk. Indeed, a reengineering of the tri-party repo settlement process to be much less reliant on intraday credit is a main goal of current market reform. The authors argue that streamlining the collateral allocation process and eliminating the time gap associated with the unwind could minimize market risk and assist in the reform efforts.


Sir We read with interest this report of a large experience with portal vein embolization (PVE) before liver resection for colorectal hepatic metastases. The key to extrapolation of the message of these data lies in the authors' definition of the term 'initially unresectable' liver metastases. In their study, with an inclusion period spanning 16 years, there is likely to have been some variation in interpretation of this term, based not least on the increasing choice and sophistication of imaging modalities with time. Given that 100 per cent of patients who underwent PVE had initially unresectable disease (78 per cent bilobar), it would be useful to know whether adjunctive staging modalities such as [18F]fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography (PET) were used in the later patients in this series1. If so, does the use of PET reduce the number of patients coming to PVE by demonstrating extrahepatic disease in individuals with bilobar disease? The demonstration of equivalent survival curves in patients coming to resection after PVE is encouraging but the number of patients at risk 2 years after PVE is small at 14. Although these findings support the current concept of modification of the future remnant liver before hepatic resection for extensive colorectal hepatic metastases2, more tightly defined prospective comparative data are required to precisely assess the benefit and role of PVE. S. Jamdar, S. Jegatheeswaran, A. Bandara, A. J. Sheen and A. K. Siriwardena Regional Hepatobiliary Unit, Manchester Royal Infirmary, Manchester M13 9WL, UK (e-mail: firstname.lastname@example.com) DOI: 10.1002/bjs.7138


The article reviews the role of capability innovations, defined as the carrying out of new combinations of capabilities, in human development. Drawing on a recognized social innovation in sanitation—the ikotoilets of Kenya's Ecotact—the article makes a threefold argument. Firstly, indirect conversion factors are an important element in the success or failure of an innovation. In our sanitation case study, these factors help to explain why the public toilets in urban centres are a success story and those in the slums a story of difficulty. Secondly, not to take into account direct and indirect conversion factors is to commit explanatory commodity fetishism. Goods are taken as given. However, they are the product of human design, including options for capability impact, and this accordingly needs to be taken into account. Thirdly, applying the capabilities approach to innovation suggests that it is fruitful to distinguish analytically two different scaling strategies regarding the replication of capability innovations, which the article calls 'the lab' and 'the family' strategies.


This paper provides an overview of a research area which has generated limited research or impact on public policy: men and their educational, labour market and well-being issues and trends in New Zealand. Males have had lower levels of educational achievements than women across primary, intermediate and secondary schools and this has become a long-term embedded pattern. This has subsequently influenced tertiary education where the current dearth of domestic male students has become noticeable in several fields (including some concerning ethnicity patterns). The labour market trends have recorded two rather contradictory patterns: on one hand, some traditional occupational and industry gender patterns have been remarkable slow to change while other gender patterns – particular in service and professional occupations - have recorded a dramatic transformation in recent decades. Finally, male well-being and particular well-being amongst younger males need to become a public policy concern with their high rates of suicide, incarceration and workrelated deaths and sickness.


Background: Meta-analyses of individual-level data from randomised trials are often required to detect clinically worthwhile effects. The Cholesterol Treatment Trialists' Collaboration, which includes data from numerous large long-term statin trials, is conducting a review of the effects of statin therapy on all adverse events collected in those trials. This article describes the approaches used and challenges faced to systematically capture and categorise the data. Methods: Protocols, statistical analysis plans, case report forms, clinical study reports and datasets were obtained, reviewed and checked. Relevant baseline and follow-up data from each trial was then reorganised into standardised formats based upon the Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium Study Data Tabulation Model. Adverse event data were organised and coded (automatically or, where necessary, manually) according to a common medical dictionary based upon the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities. Results: Data from 23 double-blind statin trials and 5 open-label statin trials were provided, either through direct data transfer or through online access platforms. Together, these trials provided 845 datasets containing over 38 million records relating to 30,495 study variables and 181,973 randomised participants. Of the 46 Clinical Data Interchange Standards Consortium Study Data Tabulation Model domains that could potentially have been used to organise the data, the 13 most relevant to the project were identified and utilised, including 6 domains related to post-randomisation adverse events. Nearly 1.2 million adverse events were extracted and mapped to over 45,000 unique adverse event terms. Of these adverse events, 99% were coded to a Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities 'lower level term', with the remainder coded to a 'higher level term' or, very rarely, only a 'higher level group term'. Conclusion: In this meta-analysis of adverse event data from the large randomised trials of statins, approaches based on common standards for data organisation and classification have provided a resource capable of allowing reliable and rapid evaluation of any previously unknown benefits or hazards of statin therapy.


We propose Generative Predecessor Models for Imitation Learning (GPRIL), a novel imitation learning algorithm that matches the state-action distribution to the distribution observed in expert demonstrations, using generative models to reason probabilistically about alternative histories of demonstrated states. We show that this approach allows an agent to learn robust policies using only a small number of expert demonstrations and self-supervised interactions with the environment. We derive this approach from first principles and compare it empirically to a state-of-the-art imitation learning method, showing that it outperforms or matches its performance on two simulated robot manipulation tasks and demonstrate significantly higher sample efficiency by applying the algorithm on a real robot.


How can emergent democracies engage rural and mobile citizens in deliberative democracy? This article analyzes the ways that Mongolia's two national referenda, the 1945 vote for independence and the 2015 referendum on mining contracts, attempted to engage pastoral-nomadic citizens in national deliberations via a public screen. The analysis is prefaced by an examination of public political deliberation and the role of referenda in both settled and emergent democracies. This is followed by an assessment of Mongolia's ICT development, which enabled the 2015 referendum to be held via short message service text messages and deliberated about over Twitter. I conclude that, although the 2015 referendum did not result in a clear policy mandate, the method of using text messaging to distribute a national referendum shows great promise as a way to reach and engage even the most rural and mobile citizens.


Abstract In the Central Anti-Atlas (Morocco), the lower part of the Fezouata Shale has yielded locally abundant remains of soft-bodied to lightly sclerotized taxa, occurring in low diversity assemblages characterized by strong spatial and taxonomic heterogeneities, and frequently, by the occurrence of small-sized individuals. Size frequency analyses of Celdobolus sp., Wosekella sp. (both linguliformean brachiopods) and Babinka prima (babinkid bivalve) collected in deposits of the Fezouata Shale and associated with distinct paleoenvironmental conditions show that short-lived communities of epifaunal and shallow infaunal taxa were regularly smothered and killed by distal storm deposits. Small-sized individuals more likely represent juveniles, rather than 'dwarfed' adults (Lilliput Effect). Consequently, unstable environmental conditions (regular storms, and possibly low oxygenation of the water column) probably explain the unusual community dynamics of late Tremadocian assemblages of the Fezouata Biota (high density of individuals, low α-diversity, and high γ-diversity), interpreted as short-lived, opportunistic populations. This process has wider implications for the understanding of occurrences of small individuals elsewhere in the fossil record.


Bats, Grids, and Oscillations Nearly all animals move around in a three-dimensional (3D) world; however, very little is known about the neural circuitry underlying the representation of 3D space (see the Perspective by Barry and Doeller). Using whole-cell patch recordings in slices of entorhinal cortex, Heys et al. (p. 363) found that bat entorhinal stellate cells must generate grid patterns without theta-frequency oscillatory mechanisms. In another study, Yartsev and Ulanovsky (p. 367) used telemetry to record activity from the hippocampus of bats while they were flying around. They found that active pyramidal cells—or place cells—in hippocampal area CA1 fired in positions, depending on where the animals were in the room. The spatial firing properties of neurons were recorded in bats during flight using a wireless neural-telemetry system. [Also see Perspective by Barry and Doeller] Many animals, on air, water, or land, navigate in three-dimensional (3D) environments, yet it remains unclear how brain circuits encode the animal's 3D position. We recorded single neurons in freely flying bats, using a wireless neural-telemetry system, and studied how hippocampal place cells encode 3D volumetric space during flight. Individual place cells were active in confined 3D volumes, and in >90% of the neurons, all three axes were encoded with similar resolution. The 3D place fields from different neurons spanned different locations and collectively represented uniformly the available space in the room. Theta rhythmicity was absent in the firing patterns of 3D place cells. These results suggest that the bat hippocampus represents 3D volumetric space by a uniform and nearly isotropic rate code.


BACKGROUND
Rheumatic fever (RF) and rheumatic heart disease (RHD) are significant causes of World Health Organization (WHO) and International Society and Federation of Cardiology (ISFC) initiated an International Programme for Prevention of RF/RHD in 16 developing countries, including Jamaica. The Jamaican RF/RHD National Control Programme began in July 1985.

SUBJECTS AND METHOD
The Control Programme promotes the primary prevention of RF/RHD through the appropriate treatment of streptococcal throat infections. Secondary prevention has been the main focus of the Control Programme by administration of benzathine penicillin injections every four weeks to RF/RHD patients. Case finding activities have included two retrospective surveys of case records of RF/RHD patients admitted to the major hospitals in Kingston and St Andrew in the period 1975-1985 (Survey A) and 1989-1995 (Survey B). These surveys provided clinical and laboratory data on RF/RHD in Jamaican patients which were documented and analysed.

RESULTS
Records of 1079 patients were reviewed in Survey A and records of 512 patients were reviewed in Survey B. Seventy-seven per cent of 524 patients were aged 5-15 years in initial attacks of RF in Survey A and in Survey B, 82% of 119 patients were between 5 and 15 years in initial attacks. There was no significant sex difference in RF in Survey A and Survey B. A diagnosis of RF had been made in 54% of records in Survey A and 55% of records in Survey B. Diagnosis conformed to the Modified Jones criteria. Carditis occurred in 41% and 70% of RF patients, respectively in survey A and B. Polyarthritis occurred in 73% in Survey A and 74% in Survey B. Chorea occurred in 3% of RF patients in both surveys. Erythema marginatum and subcutaneous nodules occurred rarely in both surveys. Evidence of recent streptococcal infections in RF was found in 74% and 64% in Survey A and B, respectively. Severe carditis occurred in 7% of initial attacks of RF in A and 26% in B. In RHD, mitral incompetence was the commonest valvular lesion, occurring in 82% and 68% in A and B, respectively Rheumatic fever and rheumatic heart disease have relatively long and expensive hospital stays which are preventable by careful adherence to prevention programmes.

CONCLUSION
The National Control Programme for RF/RHD in Jamaica began in 1985 and deserves careful monitoring and support to reduce the burden of RF/RHD. Analysis of clinical and laboratory data obtained in the retrospective surveys conducted for case finding provides important data on RF/RHD in Jamaica.


Background: The role of oxygen therapy to palliate dyspnoea is controversial. Without clear evidence base oxygen is commonly prescribed, sometimes detrimentally for patients. Contemporary studies and guidelines propose an influencing culture whereby oxygen is given to alleviate breathlessness and confusion regarding its use exists, yet there is no evidence to substantiate these claims. The problem may self-perpetuate as erroneous beliefs influence patients', carers' and the general public's expectations.
Aim: To explore Healthcare Professionals' (HCPs) perceptions of oxygen therapy in palliative care to inform and direct future research, education and practice.
Method: Semi-structured interviews were undertaken with 33 HCPs, including doctors, nurses, pharmacists and paramedics. Self-reported beliefs and behaviours were recorded, transcribed and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA).
Results: Despite most HCPs being well informed about oxygen therapy per se, all recognised the role of oxygen in palliative care setting as important. The overarching theme of compassion identified sub-themes of 'comfort', 'do anything and everything', and 'family benefit'. The use of oxygen in the palliative care setting was not without its dilemmas however, as additional sub-themes of 'controversy', 'doubt' and 'dependency' illustrated.
Conclusion: These findings suggest the use of oxygen therapy in palliative care poses on on-going dilemma for HCPs striving to provide optimum care. It seems patients and families often expect and welcome oxygen but the overwhelming perception of oxygen as a solution to dyspnoea can conflict with HCPs own doubt and experiences.


Abstract. Particles of fast solar wind in the vicinity of the heliospheric current sheet (HCS) or in a front of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) often reveal very peculiar energy or velocity profiles, density distributions with double or triple peaks, and well-defined streams of electrons occurring around or far away from these events. In order to interpret the parameters of energetic particles (both ions and electrons) measured by the WIND spacecraft during the HCS crossings, a comparison of the data was carried out with 3-D particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations for the relevant magnetic topology (Zharkova and Khabarova, 2012). The simulations showed that all the observed particle-energy distributions, densities, ion peak velocities, electron pitch angles and directivities can be fitted with the same model if the heliospheric current sheet is in a status of continuous magnetic reconnection. In this paper we present further observations of the solar-wind particles being accelerated to rather higher energies while passing through the HCS and the evidence that this acceleration happens well before the appearance of the corotating interacting region (CIR), which passes through the spacecraft position hours later. We show that the measured particle characteristics (ion velocity, electron pitch angles and the distance at which electrons are turned from the HCS) are in agreement with the simulations of additional particle acceleration in a reconnecting HCS with a strong guiding field as measured by WIND. A few examples are also presented showing additional acceleration of solar-wind particles during their passage through current sheets formed in a front of ICMEs. This additional acceleration at the ICME current sheets can explain the anticorrelation of ion and electron fluxes frequently observed around the ICME's leading front. Furthermore, it may provide a plausible explanation of the appearance of bidirectional "strahls" (field-aligned most energetic suprathermal electrons) at the leading edge of ICMEs as energetic electrons generated during a magnetic reconnection at the ICME-front current sheet.


17beta-hydroxysteroid dehydrogenases (17beta-HSDs) catalyse the conversion of 17beta-OH (-hydroxy)/17-oxo groups of steroids, and are essential in mammalian hormone physiology. At present, eleven 17beta-HSD isoforms have been defined in mammals, with different tissue-expression and substrate-conversion patterns. We analysed 17beta-HSD type 10 (17beta-HSD10) from humans and Drosophila, the latter known to be essential in development. In addition to the known hydroxyacyl-CoA dehydrogenase, and 3alpha-OH and 17beta-OH activities with sex steroids, we here demonstrate novel activities of 17beta-HSD10. Both species variants oxidize the 20beta-OH and 21-OH groups in C21 steroids, and act as 7beta-OH dehydrogenases of ursodeoxycholic or isoursodeoxycholic acid (also known as 7beta-hydroxylithocholic acid or 7beta-hydroxyisolithocholic acid respectively). Additionally, the human orthologue oxidizes the 7alpha-OH of chenodeoxycholic acid (5beta-cholanic acid, 3alpha,7alpha-diol) and cholic acid (5beta-cholanic acid). These novel substrate specificities are explained by homology models based on the orthologous rat crystal structure, showing a wide hydrophobic cleft, capable of accommodating steroids in different orientations. These properties suggest that the human enzyme is involved in glucocorticoid and gestagen catabolism, and participates in bile acid isomerization. Confocal microscopy and electron microscopy studies reveal that the human form is localized to mitochondria, whereas Drosophila 17beta-HSD10 shows a cytosolic localization pattern, possibly due to an N-terminal sequence difference that in human 17beta-HSD10 constitutes a mitochondrial targeting signal, extending into the Rossmann-fold motif.


Obesity is caused by the expansion of white adipose tissue (WAT), which stores excess triacylglycerol (TG), this can lead to disorders including type 2 diabetes, atherosclerosis, metabolic diseases. Ishige okamurae extract (IOE) is prepared from a brown alga and has anti-oxidative properties. We investigated the detailed mechanisms of the anti-obesity activity of IOE. Treatment with IOE blocked lipid accumulation by reducing expression of key adipogenic transcription factors, such as CCAAT/enhancer-binding protein alpha (C/EBPα) and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ), in 3T3-L1 cells. Administration of IOE to high fat diet (HFD)-fed mice inhibited body and WAT mass gain, attenuated fasting hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia. The obesity suppression was associated with reductions in expression of adipogenic proteins, such as C/EBPα and PPARγ, increases in expression of lipolytic enzymes, such as adipose triglyceride lipase (ATGL) and hormone-sensitive lipase (HSL), in WAT of HFD-fed mice. In addition, IOE-treated mice had lower hepatic TG content, associated with lower protein expression of lipogenic genes, such as diglyceride acyltransferase 1 (DGAT1), sterol regulatory element-binding protein 1 (SREBP1), fatty acid synthase (FAS). IOE treatment also reduced serum free fatty acid concentration, probably through the upregulation of β-oxidation genes, suggested by increases in AMPKα and CPT1 expression in WAT and liver. In summary, IOE ameliorates HFD-induced obesity and its related metabolic disease, hepatic steatosis, by regulating multiple pathways.


This project aims to evaluate the zoo soundscape from the animals and visitors perspective. A complete acoustic environment study in zoological parks should involve these two different, but equally important, characters. This thesis presents the results of the influence of the sound components of the zoo environment in the welfare and behaviour of mammals and in the visitors' experience.
Firstly, a critical literature review was made concerning the impact of noise on wildlife. Several papers were evaluated regarding some topics such as the target species, the sound source studied, and the methodology applied. The aim was to assess the reliability of the articles and to propose a guideline for future studies in this area. The results of the literature review have shown that only seven per cent of the published papers used suitable equipment and acoustic metrics to investigate the sound effect on wildlife and confirmed the importance of a complete and well-described methodology for studies replicability.
The influence of sound on zoo mammals was explored by direct recordings of animal behaviour and sound measurements, and by the collection of faecal samples for glucocorticoid metabolites analysis in two zoos, Chester Zoo and Twycross Zoo. The results show that animals express some behavioural and hormonal responses to different environmental sound amplitudes. Therefore, zoos could use these findings for a better animal management and enclosures planning.
The zoo soundscape perception by the public was investigated by the application of questionnaires with the soundwalk methodology around Chester Zoo. The objective of this part of the study is to understand how the zoo visitors perceive the environmental sound around the zoo and how different aspects of an area can influence the individual perception of the sound. The results show, among other important variables, that technological sounds can have a negative on the visitors' perception and evaluation of the soundscape. For this reason, zoos should be more careful about the environmental sound of places with predominant technological sounds.
In conclusion, for the animals, sound levels and the visitors can be a source of stress that causes variations in the expression of behaviour and in physiological stress levels. For the visitors, the influence of sound is caused mostly by the noise sources and less by the sound levels.


Despite various government policies promoting energy efficiency in buildings over the last 15 years, Cyprus is still associated with a large untapped energy efficiency potential in this sector. The impact of different policy scenarios on future energy needs of the building sector in Cyprus is explored by first reviewing the current status of the building stock in Cyprus and existing national landscape of energy efficiency policies. Various new policies are then proposed to complement the existing framework and help exploit further the potential. Using the Invert/EE-Lab model, three policy scenarios extending to 2050 are assessed with the aim to estimate the energy efficiency potential of the Cypriot building sector and identify policy solutions to harness this potential. The energy consumed for heating, cooling, hot water, and lighting in the entire Cypriot building stock is expected to drop by up to 16% in 2050 compared to the baseline scenario. Under the most ambitious scenario, nearly 60% of the building stock in 2050 will be energy efficient, consuming less than half of the energy used by the average building stock in 2012. Taking into account the modelling results, recommendations on how to improve the financial landscape in buildings until 2050 are presented.


Today's enterprises are confronted with an ever changing environment demanding continuous adaptation. A commonly accepted instrument to guide such transformations is enterprise architecture (EA) management. Enterprises seeking to introduce and establish such a management function see themselves confronted with a plethora of tools, approaches, and frameworks that claim to provide the definitive design prescriptions' for an EA management function. The applicability of the different prescriptions nevertheless heavily depends on the organizational context in which such a management function has to be embedded and the EA-related goals that the enterprise wants to pursue. This paper presents a design theory nexus (DTN) for situational EA management, that helps enterprises to choose the EA management approach best suited for their specific situation. To build such a DTN, related work from the field of situational method engineering is revisited and prominent approaches to EA management are discussed. Utilizing the DTN an enterprise can specify its organizational context as well as its goals, and is provided with a selection of suitable approaches. The applicability of the approach is exemplified along the EA management pattern catalog of the TU Munich.


The characteristics of fiber laser coherent beam combination are investigated by using a 2×2 fiber laser array with a self-Fourier cavity. The experimental results show that with a certain output width the power ratio of the center spot is increased with the increase of space duty cycle, meanwhile the number of secondary spots is decreased correspondingly. The results are in agreement with theoretic analysis.


Clarin-1, a tetraspan-like membrane protein defective in Usher syndrome type IIIA (USH3A), is essential for hair bundle morphogenesis in auditory hair cells. We report a new synaptic role for clarin-1 in mouse auditory hair cells elucidated by characterization of Clrn1 total (Clrn1ex4–/–) and postnatal hair cell–specific conditional (Clrn1ex4fl/fl Myo15-Cre+/–) knockout mice. Clrn1ex4–/– mice were profoundly deaf, whereas Clrn1ex4fl/fl Myo15-Cre+/– mice displayed progressive increases in hearing thresholds, with, initially, normal otoacoustic emissions and hair bundle morphology. Inner hair cell (IHC) patch-clamp recordings for the 2 mutant mice revealed defective exocytosis and a disorganization of synaptic F-actin and CaV1.3 Ca2+ channels, indicative of a synaptopathy. Postsynaptic defects were also observed, with an abnormally broad distribution of AMPA receptors associated with a loss of afferent dendrites and defective electrically evoked auditory brainstem responses. Protein-protein interaction assays revealed interactions between clarin-1 and the synaptic CaV1.3 Ca2+ channel complex via the Cav&bgr;2 auxiliary subunit and the PDZ domain–containing protein harmonin (defective in Usher syndrome type IC). Cochlear gene therapy in vivo, through adeno-associated virus–mediated Clrn1 transfer into hair cells, prevented the synaptic defects and durably improved hearing in Clrn1ex4fl/fl Myo15-Cre+/– mice. Our results identify clarin-1 as a key organizer of IHC ribbon synapses, and suggest new treatment possibilities for USH3A patients.


This paper proposes an optimal rate-allocation scheme for fine-granular scalability (FGS) coded bitstreams that can achieve constant quality reconstruction of frames under a dynamic rate budget constraint. In doing so, we also aim to minimize the overall distortion at the same time. To achieve this, we propose a novel rate-distortion (R-D) labeling scheme to characterize the R-D relationship of the source coding process. Specifically, sets of R-D points are extracted during the encoding process and linear interpolation is used to estimate the actual R-D curve of the enhancement-layer signal. The extracted R-D information is then used by an enhancement-layer transcoder to determine the bits that should be allocated per frame. A sliding-window-based rate-allocation method is proposed to realize constant quality among frames. This scheme is first considered for a single FGS-coded source, then extended to operate on multiple sources. With the proposed scheme, the rate allocation can be performed in a single pass; hence, the complexity is quite low. Experimental results confirm the effectiveness of the proposed scheme under static and dynamic bandwidth conditions.


The research work "Selection of top speed in the city streets and highways" was made to order of the Road Traffic Safety Fond. There are analysed factors which exert direct and indirect influence upon process which occur in the streets and highways of Lithuania. The criterions of selection of top driving speed and recommendations of determination of top speed are discussed in the work as well. There are summarized accidents and drawn conclusions concerning the top speed which exists on the roads of Lithuania in fact. There are presented suggestions and recommendations concerning determination of differential top speed criterions taking into account different factors and recommendations proposing how to ensure observance of top speed routine on the roads. Conclusions and recommendation of the work illustrate the same methods of top speed determination in the cities and on the roads of Lithuania.


A new technique to control the chromatic dispersion of a uniform fiber Bragg grating based on the symmetrical bending is proposed and experimentally demonstrated. The specially designed two translation stages with gears and a sawtooth wheel can simultaneously induce the tension and compression strain corresponding to the bending direction. The tension and compression strain can effectively control the chirp ratio along the fiber grating attached on a flexible cantilever beam and consequently the dispersion value without the center wavelength shift. We successfully achieve the wide tuning range of chromatic dispersion without the center wavelength shift, which is less than 0.02 nm. We also reduce the group delay ripple as low as ~+/-5 ps. And we also demonstrate the application of the proposed tunable dispersion compensation technique to the tunable pulse repetition-rate multiplication and obtain high-quality pulses at repetition rates of 20 ~ 40 GHz.