Bis (methylphenylmethanamine) dichloroplatinum (MMCP), a new Pt (II) complex, has been synthesized and characterized with different spectroscopic means. Thermal analysis expressed its heat absorption capacity and weight loss with respect to temperature. UV/Vis study performed in DMF and DMSO/phosphate buffer with 10, 30, 50, 70 and 90 μM that inveterate stability of the complex. The DNA binding activity studied with absorption spectroscopy, viscosity, surface tension, sound velocity, refractive index, conductivity and zeta potential which has confirmed its strong DNA interaction. The DFI study with comparison of viscosity and surface tension has been analyzed which explored its anticancer nature. The DPPH* scavenging effect was carried out with 50, 100, 150, 200, 250, 300, 350 and 400 μM which showed its antioxidant activity due to its terminating action against reactive species. In vitro anticancer results on MCF-7 cell line showed its anticancer activity.


Simple examples that illustrate the principles of one-way quantum computation using Gaussian continuous-variable cluster states are given. In these examples, only single-mode evolutions, realizable via linear clusters, are considered. In particular, one can focus on Gaussian single-mode transformations performed through the cluster state. These examples highlight the differences between cluster-based schemes and protocols in which special quantum states are prepared off-line and then used as a resource for the on-line computation.


The theory of representative bureaucracy suggests that a demographically diverse public sector workforce (passive representation) will lead to policy outcomes that reflect the interests of all groups represented, including historically disadvantaged communities (active representation). Implicit in the passive-active link is the expectation that minority public administrators, in particular, will have similar attitudes to minority citizens on issues of critical import and relevance to those citizens, and those attitudes, in turn, will influence policy decisions. This research examines the attitudes of citizens and administrators on a series of survey items focused on the responsibilities of local government administrators to advocate for the interests of the African-American community. The survey results confirm the hypothesis that African-American citizens and administrators are more likely than white citizens and administrators to support governmental behaviors that specifically target the interests of the African-American community and that African-American citizens and administrators hold markedly different attitudes from white administrators. Most significantly, attitude congruence with the views of African-American citizens by administrators is shown to be a significant predictor of the adoption of an African-American representative administrative role, overwhelming the influence of other variables including race.


The potential of Analytics and Data mining methodologies, that extract useful and actionable information from
large data-sets, has transformed one field of scientific inquiry after another. Analytics has been widely applied
in Business Organizations as Business Analytics and when applied to education, these methodologies are referred
to as Learning Analytics and Educational Data mining. Learning Analytics proposes to collect, measure and
analyze data in learning environments to improve teaching and learning process. Educational Data mining (EDM)
thrives on existing data collected by learning management systems. The applicability of Learning Analytics and
Educational Data mining can be extended to traditional learning processes by suitably combining data collected
from technology enabled processes such as Admission and Assessment with data generated from analysis of learning
interactions. The intellectual performance of the students can be analyzed using some well known Learning
Frameworks. This paper demonstrates the Complete Analytics process from data collection, measurement to
Analysis using Guilford's structure of intellect model. An analytic dashboard provides the necessary information
in concise and visual form and in an interactive mode. The analytic process presented on talent examination data
can be generalized to similar examinations in traditional educational setup.


This paper describes a robust linear classification system for Named Entity Recognition. A similar system has been applied to the CoNLL text chunking shared task with state of the art performance. By using different linguistic features, we can easily adapt this system to other token-based linguistic tagging problems. The main focus of the current paper is to investigate the impact of various local linguistic features for named entity recognition on the CoNLL-2003 (Tjong Kim Sang and De Meulder, 2003) shared task data. We show that the system performance can be enhanced significantly with some relative simple token-based features that are available for many languages. Although more sophisticated linguistic features will also be helpful, they provide much less improvement than might be expected.


Urinary 1-hydroxypyrene has been shown to be a reliable biomarker for polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbon exposure. In urine samples 1-hydroxypyrene is found both as free and as bound with glucuronide to yield a 1- hydroxypyrene-glucuronide adduct. In this study the extent of exposure to polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons in occupationally exposed subjects was studied by measuring free urinary 1-hydroxypyrene levels. This was done using reversed phase HPLC with a UV detector at wavelength of 242nm. The urine samples were collected from subjects who work as Petrol StationAttendants andAuto Mechanics in Lagos area of Nigeria. These subjects are exposed to vast amount of polynuclear aromatic hydrocarbons as a result of their occupation. This pilot study was carried out on 13 adultmale subjects who are made up of smokers and non smokers. The level of 1-hydroxypyrene in the urine samples of these subjects ranged from 0.1 to 1.3 ug/ml. There seem to be no correlation with years of exposure to the level of 1-hydroxypyrene found in the urine samples.


This thesis is aimed at extending the spherical barotropic contour-advective semiLagrangian (CASL) Algorithm, written in 1996 by David Dritschel and Maarten Ambaum, to more complex test cases within the shallow-water context. This is an integral part for development of any numerical model and the accuracy obtained depends on many factors, including knowledge of the initial state of the atmosphere or ocean, the numerical methods applied, and the resolutions used. The work undertaken throughout this thesis is highly varied andy produces important steps towards creating a versatile suite of programs to model all types of flow, quickly and accurately. This, as will be explained in later chapters, impacts both public safety and the world economy, since much depends on accurate medium range forecasting. There shall be an investigation of a series of tests which demonstrate certain aspects of a dynamical system and its progression into more unstable situations — including the generation and feedback of freely propagating inertia-gravity waves (hereafter "gravity waves"), which transmit throughout the system. The implications for increasing forecast accuracy will be discussed. Within this thesis two main CASL algorithms are outlined and tested, with the accuracy of the results compared with previous results. In addition, other dynamical fields (besides geopotential height and potential vorticity) are analysed in order to assess how well the models deal with gravity waves. We shall see that such waves are sensitive to the presence, or not, of sharp potential vorticity gradients, as well as to numerical parameter settings. In particular, large time-steps (convenient for semi-Lagrangian schemes) may not only seriously affect gravity waves, but may also have an adverse impact on the primary fields of height and velocity. These problems are exacerbated by a poor resolution of potential vorticity gradients, which we shall attempt to improve.


We report on a pump–probe mode-mismatched thermal-lens Z-scan method for the measurement of small absorption coefficients. In this method the pump light beam is focused into the sample to induce a thermal lens, which is tested by a collimated probe-light beam. Comparison between mode-matched and mode-mismatched Z-scan schemes is performed by use of a Fresnel-diffraction approximation model. This method is used to measure the absorption of distilled water and optical glass in the near-infrared and visible regions of the spectrum.


Veneer cracking or chipping is the major complication of the zirconia based restorations. Monolithic zirconia has been introduced to overcome this problem, as well as to use in patients with limited interocclusal space. Many research articles on monolithic zirconia crowns have been published in the last years. The aim of this review article was to present data about the wear, surface roughness, fracture strength, optical properties, and marginal fit of monolithic zirconia. A PubMed search was conducted with the terms of "zirconia" with "monolithic", "full-contour", "solid", "translucent", "anatomiccontoured", "un-veneered", "non-veneered", "full-coverage". Based on the results of these studies, monolithic zirconia crowns with polished surfaces have been shown to cause the lowest wear on the antagonists compared to glazed zirconia. The fracture strength of monolithic zirconia has been found higher than veneered zirconia. Monolithic zirconia may be a promising future and long-term follow-up studies are needed to determine whether it may be an alternative to conventional veneered zirconia.


Adaptive tracking-by-detection methods are widely used in computer vision for tracking arbitrary objects. Current approaches treat the tracking problem as a classification task and use online learning techniques to update the object model. However, for these updates to happen one needs to convert the estimated object position into a set of labelled training examples, and it is not clear how best to perform this intermediate step. Furthermore, the objective for the classifier (label prediction) is not explicitly coupled to the objective for the tracker (accurate estimation of object position). In this paper, we present a framework for adaptive visual object tracking based on structured output prediction. By explicitly allowing the output space to express the needs of the tracker, we are able to avoid the need for an intermediate classification step. Our method uses a kernelized structured output support vector machine (SVM), which is learned online to provide adaptive tracking. To allow for real-time application, we introduce a budgeting mechanism which prevents the unbounded growth in the number of support vectors which would otherwise occur during tracking. Experimentally, we show that our algorithm is able to outperform state-of-the-art trackers on various benchmark videos. Additionally, we show that we can easily incorporate additional features and kernels into our framework, which results in increased performance.


Geomorphologic evidence provided by late Holocene glacial advances demonstrates the sensitivity of central Brooks Range to changes in temperature and moisture balance over decadal to centennial timescales. High-resolution climate proxy records covering the middle to late Holocene are sparse from this region. One exception is Blue Lake, a small (<0.5 km2), shallow (4.7 m), glacier-fed lake set on the crest of the Brooks Range (68o05.3' N, 150o27.8' W) in north-central Alaska at an altitude of 1265 m. The 4 km2 watershed contains a small cirque glacier located on the north face of the 1890 m high headwall, on the north side of the continental divide. Field observations and air photos indicate that melt-water from the glacier contributes a substantial quantity of fine-grained sediment to the lake. Sediment cores recovered in August of 1999 contain millimeter-scale laminations comprised of lamina couplets, which exhibit the classic mode of varve formation in a glacial basin consisting of a succession of fine sands to silts deposited during the summer months, followed by a well-defined winter clay cap. In addition to annual variability in varve thickness, long-term trends in thickness were identified and compared with the historical climate record. Blue Lake records the glacial response to late Holocene climate phenomena, such as the Little Ice Age (cooling), Medieval Climatic Anomaly (warming), and the 20th century warming trend.Varve measurements from Blue Lake correlate well with regional cooling and warming trends described for the late Holocene from other proxy records across the Arctic.


Hydroecological classification systems are typically based on an assemblage of streamflow metrics and seek to divide streams into ecologically relevant classes. Assignment of streams to classes is suggested as an initial step in the process of establishing ecological flow standards. We used two distinct hydroecological river classification systems available within North Carolina to evaluate the ability of a hydrologic model to assign the same classes as those determined by observed streamflows and to assess the transferability of such systems to ungaged streams. Class assignments were examined by rate of overall matches, rate of class matches, spatial variability in matches, and time period used in class assignment. The findings of this study indicate assignments of stream class: (1) are inconsistent among different classification systems; (2) differ between observed and modeled data; and (3) are sensitive to the period of record within observed data. One clear source of inconsistency/sensitivity in class assignments lies with the use of threshold values for metrics that distinguish stream classes, such that even small changes in metric values can result in different class assignments. Because these two hydroecological classification systems are representative of other classification systems that rely on quantitative decision thresholds, it can be surmised that the use of such systems based on stream flow metrics is not a reliable approach for guiding ecological flow determinations.


Silicon nanowire transistors are thought to be ideal transistor devices due to electrostatic control of the gate and the International Roadmap for Devices and Systems has indicated that arrays of these devices are possible for future transistor devices. Non-equilibrium phonon transport due to self-heating in silicon nanowire transistors effects performance in the areas of carrier mobility, speed, aging, and thermal failure. Existing methods for phonon transport modeling range in fidelity and flexibility. Direct quantum or atomic simulations offer high fidelity with reduced flexibility while Monte Carlo methods offer enhanced flexibility for reduced fidelity. An enhanced Statistical Phonon Transport Model (enhanced SPTM) is presented to fill the gap between Monte Carlo and direct atomic methods. Application of the enhanced SPTM to 1-d simulations of silicon nanowire devices illustrate production of design relative information. Simulation results indicated an excess build-up of up to 14% optical phonons beyond equilibrium values giving rise to transient local temperature hot spots of 60 Kelvin in the drain region. The local build-up of excess optical phonons in the drain region has implications on performance and reliability. The enhanced SPTM is a valid engineering design tool for evaluating the thermal performance of silicon nanowire transistor designs. The phonon fidelity of the enhanced SPTM is greater than Monte Carlo and the Boltzmann Transport Equation and the length scale and time scale fidelity of the enhanced SPTM is better than direct atomic simulation.


Purpose

Situated within the conversation of the global push for teacher quality and for professional learning that positively shapes teaching practice in order to improve student learning, the purpose of this paper is concerned with transformational learning that actively shifts cognition, emotion, and capacity (Drago-Severson, 2009).

Design/methodology/approach

This paper is set against the backdrop of one independent, well-resourced Australian school during its professional learning intervention. It draws together findings from a narrative study that examined the lived experiences of 14 educators. The educators interviewed for this study included the researcher (also an educator at the school), two teachers, and 11 school leaders at middle and executive levels.

Findings

While the study set out to explore how educators' experiences of professional learning (trans)form their senses of professional identity, it found that it is not just professional learning, but epiphanic life experiences that shape professional selves and practices. Learning is highly individualized, not one-size-fits-all. It is that which taps into who educators see and feel they are that has the most impact on beliefs, thoughts, behaviors, and practices.

Originality/value

This study suggests that transformational professional learning can occur in a wide range of life arenas. It recommends that the definition of professional learning be broadened, that teachers and schools think more expansively and flexibly about what it is that transforms educators, and about who drives and chooses this learning. Schools and systems can work from their own contexts to design and slowly iterate models of professional learning, from the bottom up and the middle out.


Abstract. In this study, the Weather Research and Forecasting model with online coupled chemistry (WRF-Chem) is applied to simulate an intense Saharan dust outbreak event that took place over the Mediterranean in May 2014. Comparison of a simulation using a physics-based desert dust emission scheme with a numerical experiment using a simplified (minimal) emission scheme is included to highlight the advantages of the former. The model was found to reproduce well the synoptic meteorological conditions driving the dust outbreak: an omega-like pressure configuration associated with a cyclogenesis in the Atlantic coasts of Spain. The model performances in reproducing the atmospheric desert dust load were evaluated using a multi-platform observational dataset of aerosol and desert dust properties, including optical properties from satellite and ground-based sun photometers and lidars, plus in situ particulate matter mass concentration (PM) data. This comparison allowed us to investigate the model ability in reproducing both the horizontal and the vertical displacement of the dust plume, as well as its evolution in time. The comparison with satellite (MODIS-Terra) and sun photometers (AERONET) showed that the model is able to reproduce well the horizontal field of the aerosol optical depth (AOD) and its evolution in time (temporal correlation coefficient with AERONET of 0.85). On the vertical scale, the comparison with lidar data at a single site (Rome, Italy) confirms that the desert dust advection occurs in several, superimposed "pulses" as simulated by the model. Cross-analysis of the modeled AOD and desert dust emission fluxes further allowed for the source regions of the observed plumes to be inferred. The vertical displacement of the modeled dust plume was in rather good agreement with the lidar soundings, with correlation coefficients among aerosol extinction profiles up to 1 and mean discrepancy of about 50 %. The model–measurement comparison for PM10 and PM2.5 showed a good temporal matching, although it revealed a marked overestimation of PM10 and PM2.5 (of the order of 70 % during the dust peak). For PM10, it was also possible to investigate the accordance between the model- and the measurement-based dust PM10, this confirming the model PM10 overestimation to be related to over-predicted dust mass up to a factor of 140 %. In all the model–measurement comparisons performed, the enhanced capabilities of the physics-based emission scheme with respect to its simplified, minimal version were evident and are documented.


A statistically significant experimental model has been developed for reproducing head injury by impact in the monkey. Results with 80 monkeys subjected to occipital impact under specified conditions ( duration of phenomena, 1 to 10 milliseconds) enable the construction of curves relating the production of experimental cerebral concussion in 10, 50, and 90 percent of the monkeys to the average impulse of the blow in pounds-seconds, as well as to the average linear acceleration of the head. These curves are proposed as a baseline from which blows to various parts of the head, as well as nonimpacting impulsive loads, can be studied under various conditions of protection and according to varioucs time regimes.


Wnt signaling is essential for osteogenesis and also functions as an adipogenic switch, but it is not known if interrupting wnt signaling via knockout of β‐catenin from osteoblasts would cause bone marrow adiposity. Here, we determined whether postnatal deletion of β‐catenin in preosteoblasts, through conditional cre expression driven by the osterix promoter, causes bone marrow adiposity. Postnatal disruption of β‐catenin in the preosteoblasts led to extensive bone marrow adiposity and low bone mass in adult mice. In cultured bone marrow–derived cells isolated from the knockout mice, adipogenic differentiation was dramatically increased, whereas osteogenic differentiation was significantly decreased. As myoblasts, in the absence of wnt/β‐catenin signaling, can be reprogrammed into the adipocyte lineage, we sought to determine whether the increased adipogenesis we observed partly resulted from a cell‐fate shift of preosteoblasts that had to express osterix (lineage‐committed early osteoblasts), from the osteoblastic to the adipocyte lineage. Using lineage tracing both in vivo and in vitro we showed that the loss of β‐catenin from preosteoblasts caused a cell‐fate shift of these cells from osteoblasts to adipocytes, a shift that may at least partly contribute to the bone marrow adiposity and low bone mass in the knockout mice. These novel findings indicate that wnt/β‐catenin signaling exerts control over the fate of lineage‐committed early osteoblasts, with respect to their differentiation into osteoblastic versus adipocytic populations in bone, and thus offers potential insight into the origin of bone marrow adiposity. © 2012 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.


Tim Miller has worked as a performer and writer for over twenty years. In the early 1990s, he received international recognition as one of "the NEA Four," four performance artists whose controversial work led the leadership of the NEA to deny grant funds after approval by a peer review panel. Since that time, Miller has created an impressive body of work as a performer of autobiographical narratives speaking directly about gay issues. He has become one of the most in.uential and signi.cant voices in queer performance today. During the premier of his latest work, Us, Miller agreed to an interview with TPQ. In the interview, Miller discusses both his latest work and his general process of working as a solo performing artist.


To address the reliability challenges due to failures and planned outages, Internet Service Providers (ISPs) typically use two backbone routers at each central office to which access routers connected in a dual-homed configuration. At the IP layer, redundant backbone routers and redundant transport equipment to interconnect them are deployed, providing reliability through node and path diversity. However, adding such redundant resources increases the overall cost of the network. Hence, a fundamental redesign of the backbone network avoiding such redundant resources, by leveraging the capabilities of an agile optical transport network, is highly desired. In this paper, we propose such a fundamental redesign of IP backbones. Our alternative design uses only a single router at each office but uses the agile optical transport layer to carry traffic to remote Backbone Routers (BRs) in order to survive failures or outages of the single local BR. Optimal mapping of local Access Routers (ARs) to remote BRs is determined by solving an Integer Linear Program (ILP). We describe how our proposed design can be realized using current optical transport technology. We evaluate network designs for cost and performability, the latter being a metric combining performance and availability. We show significant reduction in cost for approximately the same level of reliability as current designs.


In both individual and collective decision making, the space of alternatives from which the agent (or the group of agents) has to choose often has a combinatorial (or multi-attribute ) structure. We give an introduction to preference handling in combinatorial domains in the context of collective decision making, and show that the considerable body of work on preference representation and elicitation that AI researc hers have been working on for several years is particularly relevant. After giving an overview of languages for compact representation of preferences, we discuss problems in voting in combinatorial domains, and then focus on multiagent resource allocation and fair division. These issues belong to a larger field, known as computational social choice, that bri ngs together ideas from AI and social choice theory, to investigate mechanisms for collective decision making from a computational point of view. We conclude by briefly describing some of the other research topics studied in computational social choice.


The Wave-Particle Duality is a basic property of microscopic particles. As a basic concept of quantum mechanics, the wave-particle duality theory from elementary particles to big molecules had been verified by lots of experiments. Different from electromagnetic wave, the matter wave's propagation is not only fast but also adjustable. The group velocity with which the overall envelope shape of the wave , namely the related particle's propagation and information convey speed is changeable with its wavelength. When the particle's energy and wavelength, in its non-dispersive propagation, reach to definite values, the group velocity can turn to very high and perhaps is possible to exceed over the light speed in vacuum. Take electron as an example, if the free electron beam gains energy higher than around 4.094×10ˉᴵ⁴J and wavelength shorter than around 2.426×10ˉᴲnm, the group velocity could surpass the light speed in vacuum. According to the special relativity theory, the light speed in vacuum is the upper limit in the Universe and no matter can exceed over that. As the de Broglie hypothesis and the deduction in this paper do not take relativity theory as premise, the conclusion in this paper should be universality. Wish this paper could provide a different viewpoint for exploration of some scientific problems, such as Faster-Than-Light movement, quantum entanglement mechanism and so on


Voltage-gated calcium channels are ubiquitously expressed in neurons and are of vital importance to proper cellular functioning. Calcium entry into cells via activation of voltage-gated calcium channels controls a wide variety of cellular functions including neurotransmitter release, muscle excitation-contraction coupling, gene regulation and activation of signaling cascades. Regulation of calcium channels via activation of G protein-coupled receptors is a prominent mechanism of calcium current inhibition and neurotransmitter release. An intriguing characteristic of this modulatory pathway is its voltage dependence whereby the degree of calcium current inhibition varies depending on the membrane voltage of the cell, and is susceptible to activity-dependent relief by trains of action potentials. Previously, it has been suggested that in chick ciliary ganglion neurons, somatostatin inhibits calcium current in a voltage dependent manner. Interestingly, the specific characteristics of the inhibition varied depending on the recording configuration used to collect data. Thus, I measured the voltage-dependence of somatostatin-mediated calcium current inhibition in individual ciliary ganglion neurons using the whole-cell and perforated patch configuration of voltage clamp recordings. The results indicate that the cytoplasmic dialysis that occurs during whole-cell recordings enhances the voltage dependence of calcium current inhibition and suggests that there is a greater concentration of activated G protein subunits in this configuration. While much is known about step depolarization-evoked calcium current and the kinetic changes that accompany G protein-mediated inhibition, relatively little is known about the effects of kinetic slowing on AP-evoked calcium current. Therefore, I used a modification of action potential waveforms was used to determine the effect of G protein activation on the kinetics of single action potential-evoked calcium current. The results demonstrate that kinetic slowing does not alter the time course of action potential-evoked calcium current and suggests that modulated channels may not contribute to AP-evoked calcium current.


The production of hard white winter (HWW) wheats (Triticum aestivum L.) with acceptable protein content and quality over different environments requires the correct combination of genotypes and management practices. The objectives of this study were to evaluate moisture deficit and N management on grain protein and quality of seven HWW and two soft white winter (SWW) genotypes, and to identify genotypes and traits that minimize grain quality variability. Plots were irrigated during grain fill to replace from 100 to <30% of estimated evapotranspiration (ET). Biomass of three genotypes across the irrigation levels was used as an integrated estimation of plant water stress at late grain fill. Biomass reductions under water stress tended to be higher if plots received high N fertilization. Water stress reduced grain yield, test weight, and kernel weight and diameter. Reducing irrigation increased average grain protein content from 116.4 to 128.3 g kg -1 . Nitrogen treatment did not affect grain yield. Additional N increased grain protein content and hardness for all genotypes. Reductions in test weight, and grain weight and diameter were observed under high N fertilization. High N fertilization would increase the numbers of kernels and extend the grain-fill period, which result in greater water and heat stress. The SWW genotypes had greater reductions in test weight than HWW genotypes with increasing water stress. Among HWW genotypes, late maturing genotypes had larger reductions in test weight than early genotypes. In regions where late season water stress is common, early maturing genotypes are more likely to produce consistent grain quality.


The increasingly large scale of deployed biometric systems necessitates approaches for computational workload reduction in order to perform identification queries efficiently. Simple database binning based on classification of features in biometric samples is amongst the most frequently used and researched methods for achieving said goal. However, multi-instance database binning appears to be a neglected topic in the scientific literature: best to the authors' knowledge, for fingerprints there exists only one, entirely theoretical, study on this subject. In this paper, we propose a retrieval algorithm based on multi-instance binning of fingerprint databases, along with usage of statistical information on fingerprint classes and their correlations. The aforementioned statistics are obtained from NIST SD9 database and data obtained from the German Federal Criminal Police Office. Subsequently, the experimental evaluation of the proposed algorithm is performed on the NIST SD9 database. The proposed system is evaluated using a classifier based on the PCASYS tool and neuronal networks. The results show a significant workload reduction from a baseline exhaustive search scenario – down to 12.7% for this particular classifier and 5.8% for a theoretical perfect (completely accurate) classifier. The proposed method could be seamlessly integrated into operational systems, as it relies on well-established features and compatibility with the current acquisition methods.


Of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emission in Denmark animal manure contributes an estimated 40% of methane (CH4) and 20% of nitrous oxide (N2O). Livestock production systems undergo changes for the purpose of increasing animal welfare, and such changes often include increasing the amounts of bedding manure. Emission of greenhouse gases from composting pig deep litter was studied during a 4-month period. Effects of increasing the amount of straw used in deep litter (reducing litter density) were included in the study. Methane was produced at a high rate in the centre of the heap at high density during the thermophilic phase of composting, and CH4 emission was only measured during this phase. In this treatment N2O was also produced in the centre both initially and after the temperature of the compost had dropped to below 45 °C. Emissions of N2O were only significant in the low temperature phases. Production of N2O was probably restricted to the surface layers during the thermophilic phase of composting. Total carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions were 7·37 and 0·09 kg C/t fresh weight from the heaps with bulk densities of 0·44 and 0·23 kg/l, respectively. Methane emission from the high density compost heap was 191 g C/t and N2O emission was 58 g N/t. Emissions of CH4 and N2O from the low density heap were not detected. The greenhouse effect of gas emission from the high density compost heap was calculated by multiplying the climate force efficiencies and the cumulated gas emission. This calculation showed that CH4 contributes almost as much to the global warming potential as CO2, and N2O contributed twice as much as CO2.


Background Cervical disc arthroplasty is being used as an alternative degenerative disc disease treatment with fusion of the cervical spine in order to preserve motion. However, whether replacement arthoplasty in the spine achieves its primary patient centered objective of lowering the frequency of adjacent segment degeneration is not verified yet. Methodology We conducted a meta-analysis according to the guidelines of the Cochrane Collaboration using databases including PubMed, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and Embase. The inclusion criteria were: 1) Randomized, controlled study of degenerative disc disease of the cervical spine involving single segment or double segments using Cervical disc arthroplasty (CDA) with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF) as controls; 2) A minimum of two-year follow-up using imaging and clinical analyses; 3) Definite diagnostic evidences for "adjacent segment degeneration" and "adjacent segment disease"; 4) At least a minimum of 30 patients per population. Two authors independently selected trials; assessed methodological quality, extracted data and the results were pooled. Results No study has specifically compared the results of adjacent segment degenerative; Two papers describing 140 patients with 162 symptomatic cervical segment disorders and compared the rate of postoperative adjacent segment disease development between CDA and ACDF treatments, three publications describing the rate of adjacent-segment surgery including 1273 patients with symptomatic cervical segments. The result of the meta-analysis indicates that there were fewer the rate of adjacent segment disease and the rate for adjacent-segment surgery comparing CDA with ACDF, but the difference was not statistically significant. Conclusions Based on available evidence, it cannot be concluded, that CDA can significantly reduce the postoperative rate of the adjacent segment degenerative and adjacent segment disease. However, due to some limitations, the results of this meta-analysis should be cautiously accepted, and further studies are needed.


Massively multiplayer online role‐playing game (MMORPG) addiction presents a serious issue worldwide and has attracted increasing attention from academic and other public communities. This article addresses this critical issue and fills research gaps by proposing and testing a research model of MMORPG addiction. Building on the conceptual foundation of the hedonic management model of addiction and the technology affordance perspective, we develop a research model explaining how MMORPG affordances (ie, achievement, social and immersion affordances) are associated with the duality of hedonic effects (ie, perceived positive mood enhancement and perceived negative mood reduction) and the extent of MMORPG addiction. Using structural equation modelling, we empirically test our research model with 406 MMORPG players. The results show that both perceived positive mood enhancement and perceived negative mood reduction positively correlate with the extent of MMORPG addiction. Furthermore, achievement and immersion affordances are positively associated with the duality of hedonic effects, whereas social affordance is not. Our study contributes to the growing body of technology addiction literature by revealing the relationships between the two hedonic effects and the extent of MMORPG addiction, and by offering a contextualised explanation of the role of MMORPG affordances in these relationships. We offer an alternative perspective on the far‐reaching, unintended relationships between technological affordances and addictive technology use. Our study provides game developers and policymakers with insights into preventing MMORPG addiction to create an entertaining, healthy virtual playground.


This paper focuses on combining front and back device interaction on grasped devices, using touch-based gestures. We designed generic interactions for discrete, continuous, and combined gesture commands that are executed without hand-eye control because the performing fingers are hidden behind a grasped device. We designed the interactions in such a way that the thumb can always be used as a proprioceptive reference for guiding finger movements, applying embodied knowledge about body structure. In a user study, we tested these touch-based interactions for their performance and users' task-load perception. We combined two iPads together back-to-back to form a double-sided touch screen device: the PinchPad. We discuss the main errors that led to a decrease in accuracy, identify stable features that reduce the error rate, and discuss the role of 'body schema' in designing gesture-based interactions where the user cannot see their hands properly.


This paper aims to study the effect of a Turkish policy reform enacted in 2008 that requires firms to hire disabled applicants. Our attention is only on males to avoid complications arising from gender differences in disability and labor force participation. The data is from the Turkey Health Survey (THS) of the Turkish Statistical Institute (TurkStat) for the years 2008 and 2012. We define "disability" as an impairment of long-term health conditions that lasts more than six months and that restricts the individual in daily activities. We use difference-in-difference (DD) estimation, in which the DD estimator is the difference between disabled and non-disabled individuals in the difference in labor force participation before and after the new policy. The results suggest an insignificant effect of the treatment on the treated, implying that the policy reform does not create any incentive for disabled males to participate in the labor force.
Keywords: Disability, Labor force participation, Difference-in-difference.
JEL: I12, J21, J24, C31, C34


Social networks facilitate a variety of social, economic, and political interactions. Homophily---the tendency for people to associate or interact with similar peers---and social influence---the tendency to adopt certain characteristics of those with whom one interacts---suggest that preferences (e.g., over products, services, political parties) are likely to be correlated among people whom directly interact in a social network. We develop a model, preference-oriented social networks, that captures such correlations of individual preferences, where preferences take the form of rankings over a set of options. We develop probabilistic inference methods for predicting individual preferences given observed social connections and partial observations of the preferences of others in the network. We exploit these predictions in a social choice context to make group decisions or recommendations even when the preferences of some group members are unobserved. Experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithms and the improvements made possible by accounting for social ties.


This article assesses the communication of the European Central Bank (ECB) using Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. We show the evolution of discourse over time and capture the main themes of interest for the central bank that go beyond its traditional mandate of maintaining price stability, enlightening main concerns and themes of discussion among board members. We also built sentiment signals compatible with any form of language, both formal and informal, an important step as the ECB aims to enhance communication with non-expert audiences. In a second step, we measure the impact of the ECB's communication on the EUR/USD exchange rate. We found that our quantitative series, both topics and sentiment, improve financial-linked models consistently in all periods analyzed (2.5% on average). Meaningful signals comprise a broad range of subjects and vary in time. This suggests that overall ECB's talk matters for asset prices, including themes not directly related to monetary policy. This result is particularly important in a context in which the ECB, as well as other major central banks, are moving towards integrating issues closer to the society into their scope of action, implying that subjects, which were considered peripheral, may become central. This emphasizes the importance for markets to effectively track central banks' communication to improve investment processes.


Background: Aesthetics plays a large role in determining a successful outcome in plastic and reconstructive surgery. As such, understanding perceptions of favorable aesthetics is crucial for optimizing patient satisfaction. Eye-tracking technology offers an unbiased way of measuring how viewers evaluate breast reconstructions. Methods: Twenty-nine raters with varied plastic surgery experience were shown 20 images of breast reconstruction at various stages. Breasts were divided into those with nipples and no reconstruction scars, those with nipples and reconstruction scars, and those with reconstruction scars and no nipples. Raters viewed each image for 8 seconds to evaluate aesthetic outcomes. Eye-tracking equipment and software were used to track raters' gaze and analyze the distribution of attention. Results: In breasts with reconstruction scars and no nipples, viewers spent 53.9 percent of the view time examining scars, whereas viewers' attention was divided evenly in breasts with both reconstruction scars and nipples, spending 27.5 percent and 27.7 percent of view time examining the nipples and reconstruction scars, respectively. When examining complete reconstructions, viewers spent more time scanning the entire image before fixating on scars and spent less time on single-site fixation. Conclusions: Complete reconstructions, which notably include the final nipple-areola complex, appear to play an important role in restoring normal viewing parameters. In essence, completed breast reconstructions with nipple-areola complexes divert attention from extraneous surgical scars and lead viewers to assess the breasts more holistically. Eye-tracking technology provides a powerful link between objective gaze and viewer attention that may potentially be used to predict subjective aesthetic preferences.


Incorporating river basin simulation models in heuristic optimization algorithms can help modelers address complex, basin-scale water resource problems. We have developed a hybrid optimization-simulation model by linking a stretching particle swarm optimization (SPSO) algorithm and the MODSIM river basin decision support system (DSS), and have used the SPSO-MODSIM model to optimize water allocation at basin scale. Due to high computational cost of the SPSO-MODSIM model, we have, subsequently, used four meta-model types of artificial neural networks (ANN), support vector machines (SVM), kriging and polynomial response functions, replacing the MODSIM DSS, in an adaptively learning meta-modeling approach. The performances of the meta-models are first compared in two Ackley and Dejong benchmark functions optimization problems, and the meta-models are then evaluated by solving the Atrak river basin water allocation optimization problem in Iran. The results demonstrate that independent of the meta-model type, the sequentially space-filling meta-modeling approach can improve the performance of meta-models in the course of optimization by adaptively locating the promising regions of the search space where more samples need to be generated. However, the ANN and SVM meta-models perform better than others in saving the number of costly, original objective function evaluations.


Abstract The article inquires into the conditions of effective leadership of states in international politics, and develops a framework for the study of so-called (new) regional powers such as Brazil, China, India, and South Africa in processes of regional institution-building. Various theoretical strands will be discussed as to the requirements of effective leadership in international affairs. Most importantly, the relationship between power, leadership and hegemony will be outlined. It is argued that the connection between leadership and hegemony is one of co-constitution. Leadership is necessarily based on hegemony, while hegemony can only be sustained through leadership. Furthermore, it will be shown that both leadership and hegemony are essentially political in character, whereas power has no such insinuation but has to be translated into leadership and hegemony through discursive means. Finally, the analysis asks for the preconditions of leadership in East Asia, using China's and Japan's roles in East Asian regionalism as an illustration.


Responsible AI is becoming critical as AI is widely used in our everyday lives. Many companies that deploy AI publicly state that when training a model, we not only need to improve its accuracy, but also need to guarantee that the model does not discriminate against users (fairness), is resilient to noisy or poisoned data (robustness), is explainable, and more. In addition, these objectives are not only relevant to model training, but to all steps of end-to-end machine learning, which include data collection, data cleaning and validation, model training, model evaluation, and model management and serving. Finally, responsible AI is conceptually challenging, and supporting all the objectives must be as easy as possible. We thus propose three key research directions towards this vision - depth, breadth, and usability - to measure progress and introduce our ongoing research. First, responsible AI must be deeply supported where multiple objectives like fairness and robust must be handled together. To this end, we propose FR-Train, a holistic framework for fair and robust model training in the presence of data bias and poisoning. Second, responsible AI must be broadly supported, preferably in all steps of machine learning. Currently we focus on the data pre-processing steps and propose Slice Tuner, a selective data acquisition framework for training fair and accurate models, and MLClean, a data cleaning framework that also improves fairness and robustness. Finally, responsible AI must be usable where the techniques must be easy to deploy and actionable. We propose FairBatch, a batch selection approach for fairness that is effective and simple to use, and Slice Finder, a model evaluation tool that automatically finds problematic slices. We believe we scratched the surface of responsible AI for end-to-end machine learning and suggest research challenges moving forward.


Tumor growth promotes the expansion of CD4+CD25+ regulatory T (T reg) cells that counteract T cell–mediated immune responses. An inverse correlation between natural killer (NK) cell activation and T reg cell expansion in tumor-bearing patients, shown here, prompted us to address the role of T reg cells in controlling innate antitumor immunity. Our experiments indicate that human T reg cells expressed membrane-bound transforming growth factor (TGF)–β, which directly inhibited NK cell effector functions and down-regulated NKG2D receptors on the NK cell surface. Adoptive transfer of wild-type T reg cells but not TGF-β −/− T reg cells into nude mice suppressed NK cell–mediated cytotoxicity, reduced NKG2D receptor expression, and accelerated the growth of tumors that are normally controlled by NK cells. Conversely, the depletion of mouse T reg cells exacerbated NK cell proliferation and cytotoxicity in vivo. Human NK cell–mediated tumor recognition could also be restored by depletion of T reg cells from tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes. These findings support a role for T reg cells in blunting the NK cell arm of the innate immune system.


On a global level, the EU emerges as the most important foreign direct investor, also if considering extra-EU investments only. This reflects the capability and propensity of EU firms to internationalize their business activities. A joint analysis of two methodologically very distinct databases - Eurostat FDI data for FDI flows and stocks, and the FDI Intelligence from Financial Times Ltd. for the number of investment projects - made it possible, for the period 2001-2007 and 2003-2008 respectively, to reveal several facts and trends concerning the competitive position of EU firms in the BRICs and vice versa. The EU is among the main investors in each of the BRICs and the dominant investor in Brazil and Russia. In China and India, the EU has less weight. But after correcting for particularities in FDI data, such as the prominent role of Hong Kong and off-shore centres in Chinese FDI and of Mauritius in Indian FDI, the EU ranks higher also in these countries. In a direct comparison with the US and Japan, the EU emerges as the leading investor among the Triad countries in each of the BRICs. This suggests that EU firms are well positioned to compete with other multinational corporations in the BRICs. The analysis of the number of projects confirms this finding, the role of the EU in China is much greater than suggested by FDI data. China emerges as the main BRICs target for EU projects, but in terms of FDI inflows China occupies rank three after Russia and Brazil. The divergent results can be explained by the small number of very large projects in the natural resource sector of Russia and the great number of finance- and trade-related small investments in China. In some cases, FDI has become the major entry strategy of EU firms into the BRICs markets. Global and EU-15 investments in the BRICs, as measured by the number of investment projects, were resilient to the global crisis until 2008. With regards to the current economic downturn and the expected drop in global FDI, the BRICs may find themselves in a privileged position in several respects. First of all they are large economies where FDI is mainly attracted by the local markets with growth expectations above world average, although not in Russia. Local economic growth especially in China and India will allow for FDI to grow if companies from crisis-hit countries are in the position to invest. Larger multinationals may increasingly concentrate on the very few countries in the world where they can expand sales, such as China, India and Brazil, and shift investments there. Also for European companies the expansion to the BRICs remains a major attraction. Due to the size of the BRICs and their distance to Europe, only larger or more specialized investors may benefit from this opportunity. The main conclusion based on the statistical analysis is that the EU is well positioned as a direct investor both on the global level and in the BRICs. In the fast growing markets of China and India, however, the share of EU firms in total FDI is rather low and not particularly dynamic. As investments in such geographically more distant places are mainly realized by large corporations while SMEs typically limit their foreign operations to nearby countries, policy levers may be necessary to expand EU presence there. This is all the more desirable as China and India have a high market potential and EU firms can expect high returns on FDI.


This study was designed to explore primary teachers' perceptions of group work as a way of teaching English in public sector primary schools of Punjab. In particular, the study attempted to ascertain how primary teachers view group work, whether they think it may have benefits and/or drawbacks if implemented as a way of teaching English in the primary classroom and what are their perceived impediments to implementing it in public sector primary schools of Punjab To explore the aspects stated above, I adopted a mixed methods qualitative approach for the research. Twenty participants from eight primary schools of District Jhang were selected for data collection. The participants were given questionnaires and data collected from questionnaires provided a baseline to decide what to further investigate in the interviews. The questionnaire responses guided me to further investigate participants' understanding of group work in terms of it as (1) a way of teaching English (2) the perceived benefits and/or drawbacks of implementing group work in primary English classroom, and (3) factors that may impede the implementation of group work as a way of teaching English.
To analyse the data obtained by questionnaires and interviews, I adopted a hybrid deductive/inductive thematic analysis. The initial analysis of participants' responses suggested that participants had a flawed understanding of group work. Participants' responses further suggested that physical layout and teaching practices as perceived by the participants were traditional or teacher-centred and that current settings in primary schools were unlikely to support group work as a teaching methodology. The analysis also informed that participants perceived a number of factors in the current primary school settings which may not support group work as a way of teaching English in public sector primary schools of Punjab. These factors included conditions in primary school, poor supply of teaching resources, flawed teacher training, lack of teacher autonomy among others. Moreover, the analysis of participants' responses suggested that primary teachers work in difficult conditions which do not encourage them to reflect on their teaching and adopt different ways of activity-based learning. During the later stages of thematic analysis, an underlying theme of professional identity began to unfold, which was found compelling due to its relationship with teachers' apparent lack of interest in initiatives to try to change the current status of classroom layout and use various methodologies of teaching English in primary classroom. The emergence of this theme changed the focus of the thesis, as it was clear that lack of agency, confidence and autonomy were the key to the teachers' reluctance to engage with new pedagogical practices.
It is clear from the findings that for participants to feel enabled to adopt more activity-based methodologies such as group work, changes to their working conditions, better training opportunities and greater teacher autonomy in decision making, both collegiately and regarding pedagogy, are necessary. In addition, teachers' poor perception of their professional roles and responsibilities needs to be enhanced through purposeful teacher training. If these changes are put in place, teachers may become more motivated and willing to try new approaches in their classrooms. However, after conducting this research, I consider that introducing such changes in the primary school settings in Pakistan would be a laborious, time-consuming and expensive process. In the present scenario, it would be necessary for the head teachers to provide teachers greater opportunities to reflect on their classroom practices and discuss issues with colleagues. In addition, primary schools could engage researchers and student-teachers from local universities and training colleges to work together with primary teachers to ensure that teachers have the chance to have a a broader sense of a variety of teaching approaches and how they may be implemented with support.


Since global warming potentially affects everyone in the world, does any individual have standing to sue the U.S. EPA or other federal agencies to force them to address climate change issues? Suits addressing global warming raise difficult standing questions because some Supreme Court decisions have stated or implied that courts should not allow standing for plaintiffs who file suits alleging general injuries to the public at large because the political branches of government - Congress and the executive branch - are better equipped to resolve such issues. There is a better argument, however, for courts to recognize standing for plaintiffs who suffer "concrete" mass injuries, including any physical harms that are more likely than not caused by global warming. Under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA), courts should use a "reasonable possibility" standard to determine whether a federal agency must discuss the possible impact of its actions on global warming. In 2003, the EPA concluded that the Clean Air Act does not give the Agency authority to regulate carbon dioxide, although several states are challenging that conclusion. Even if the EPA cannot regulate carbon dioxide directly, there is a strong argument that the Agency must consider carbon dioxide emissions when new power plants apply for a permit under the new source review process. Under the Administrative Procedure Act and general standing principles, a plaintiff who suffers small, but tangible injuries should have standing under the Clean Air Act. A concurring opinion in a recent decision involving chemicals that cause global destruction of stratospheric ozone addressed the difficult issue of whether a plaintiff may have standing to sue those who contribute in a small ways to global pollution problems. In Covington v. Jefferson County, the Ninth Circuit held that the plaintiffs had standing to bring citizen suits under the Clean Air Act (CAA) for the local injuries caused by the defendants from improper disposal of ozone destroying chemicals at a landfill. In a concurring opinion, Judge Gould concluded the plaintiffs had standing to sue based on the global impacts on stratospheric ozone resulting from the defendants' mishandling of CFCs. Some courts, especially in taxpayer suits, had suggested that a plaintiff may not assert standing if an alleged injury harms all persons equally, or in other words, "that injury to all is injury to none." On the whole, Judge Gould determined that the Supreme Court's most recent standing cases have allowed a plaintiff to achieve standing resulting from general injury if the injury to the plaintiff is sufficiently concrete. Judge Gould concluded that the risk of skin cancer, cataracts and suppressed immune systems to the plaintiffs was sufficiently concrete to justify Article III standing even though the defendants' only contributed a small amount of harm to a global problem. But global warming suits present more complex issues. This Article concludes that at least some plaintiffs with concrete injuries, i.e., Alaskan natives, have standing to file global warming suits under either the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (NEPA) or the CAA. Today, the strongest case for standing by climate change plaintiffs is under NEPA. There is currently a split in the circuits regarding the test for standing under NEPA. Building upon precedent in the Ninth and Tenth Circuits, this Article proposes a liberal approach to standing in NEPA cases that could allow at least some plaintiffs to raise global warming issues under the statute. Under the CAA, no decision has yet directly addressed whether plaintiffs have standing to raise climate change issues. In deciding whether a plaintiff has standing under the CAA to sue concerning global warming, a crucial issue is whether the EPA has the authority to regulate GHGs under the CAA. During the Clinton Administration, two different EPA general counsels concluded EPA had some authority to regulate Carbon dioxide under the CAA even if the United States did not ratify the Kyoto Protocol. In 2003, however, the Bush Administration EPA concluded that the Agency has no authority to regulate carbon dioxide or other GHGs. Several states are challenging the EPA's refusal to regulate GHGs. If this suit is successful, there would be a stronger basis for concluding that there is standing in climate change cases. Even if it does not have direct authority to regulate carbon dioxide, the EPA may have indirect authority under CAA's "new source review" (NSR) process for approving permits for new power plants to consider unregulated pollutants, i.e., carbon dioxide, in determining what is the best available control technology. This article will argue that at least some plaintiffs would have standing to argue that the EPA must consider technology that would reduce unregulated pollutants such as CO2.


This paper introduces a new trade model type. It combines the gravity model, well-known in international economics, with network theory. With this approach, complicated trade networks can be algebraically solved in form of systems of linear (differential) equations. Business cycles and productivity shocks can be represented via complex numbers or the Laplace transformation. With the help of this model, new mechanisms of international trade are identified. Four theoretical examples with numerical applications are presented. First, it is demonstrated how an increase in trade from Asia to North America affects the world economy. Second, an intuitive rule for finding the welfare-optimal tariff is derived. Third, three possibilities for vanishing trade effects (fluctuations) are explained: trade diversion, the "river-island effect", and overlapping business cycles. Fourth, it is shown how adjustment costs delay the propagation of shocks or business cycles.


In solving applied and research problems, there often arise situations where certain parameters are not exactly known, but there is information about their ranges. For such problems, it is necessary to obtain an interval estimate of the solution based on interval values of parameters. In practice, the dynamic systems where bifurcations and chaos occur are of interest. But the existing interval methods are not always able to cope with such problems. The main idea of the adaptive interpolation algorithm is to build an adaptive hierarchical grid based on a kd-tree where each cell of adaptive hierarchical grid contains an interpolation grid. The adaptive grid should be built above the set formed by interval initial conditions and interval parameters. An adaptive rebuilding of the partition is performed for each time instant, depending on the solution. The result of the algorithm at each step is a piecewise polynomial function that interpolates the dependence of the problem solution on the parameter values with a given precision. Constant grid compaction will occur at the corresponding points if there are unstable states or dynamic chaos in the system; therefore, the minimum cell size is set. The appearance of such cells during the operation of the algorithm is a sign of the presence of unstable states or chaos in a dynamic system. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated in representative examples.


The article deals with the problems of personnel management in public sector in Lithuania. In the process of the administrative reform public organizations seek to apply their human potential to rapidly developing marked of social services, to the civil society needs as well as to the global changes in communicating. This is the crucial time for public sector in Lithuania, where the service institutions still are stayng regorous, linked to beurocracy, structured in complicated way. The factors of progress - how public servicing organizations are consolidated, innovative and open to the needs of customers. The most important demensions towards modernising the public organizations are facilitative leadership, team-building, effective procedures of motivating, decision making, sharing responsibilities, the incentives to lifelong learning and innovations. The publication is based on observations and data indicating the changes, which take place nowdays in Lithuania.


I t is only natural to take for granted that with which we are most familiar. Just as a cell downregulates its receptors in response to activating hormones, so humans quickly become habituated to novel experiences. The surgeon who at the beginning of her training found the operating room to be a terrifying and exciting place, years later experiences it as a zone of comfort and security. In relationships, the thrill of reciprocated affection in time gives way to the quieter love of friendship, marriage, and family. But even as we cherish our dependable routines, we sometimes feel nostalgia for a time when the familiar was new. This is why the long-married couple still takes time out for formal dates. It may also explain why many physicians strive to impart their knowledge to younger generations. Through teaching, these seasoned professionals vicariously relearn their craft. Perhaps procreation is the most obvious example of the human desire to make the familiar new. Parents know that a child brings fresh eyes to the world, making the ordinary extraordinary again. A layman's naiveté can likewise bring a unique sense of wonder to a complex subject like blood. This is certainly true with respect to Bill Hayes' new book, Five Quarts: A Personal and Natural History of Blood. Incorporating mythology, history, literature, medical science, and personal experience, the freelance writer Hayes has composed a fascinating exploration of the crucial red liquid that we physicians so matter-of-factly extract and study every day. Hayes' discussion of the mythological figure Medusa near the beginning of Five Quarts serves as a launching point for the rest of the book. Besides having snake-hair and a face that turned all of its beholders to stone, Medusa's blood also possessed special qualities. If drawn from the left of her body, her blood brought instant death. But if extracted from Medusa's right side, it restored life. Hayes remarks that "this duality was an especially prescient invention of the ancient mythmakers, for we now understand in cellular detail how blood can bear both disease with deadly efficiency and save a person's life, as with vaccinations and transfusions." This idea of blood as both a killer and a savior, as a source of both dread and fascination, recurs throughout Five Quarts. Indeed, it flows from the deeper purpose of his book. Hayes' long-time partner is HIV positive, and one senses that the author's exploration of blood is a quest to understand the mysterious substance that has afflicted his beloved. As part of this quest, Hayes recounts the history of humanity's efforts to grasp blood's content and meaning. Particularly interesting in this respect is the story of Paul Ehrlich's life and work. Born in 1854 in a small German village, Ehrlich was the only son of Jewish parents who operated an inn. As a teenager, he was fascinated by his older cousin Carl Weigert's research staining cells with synthetic dyes. Generated by the flourishing German dye industry, these dyes revealed contrast and texture in biological specimens, making them easier to view under the microscope. In his own studies, Ehrlich observed that different dyes responded uniquely to certain cells or parts of cells. To him, this suggested the existence of distinct cellular receptors ("side chains") for the various dyes. The concept of cellular receptors ultimately led Ehrlich to his side-chain theory. It proposed that cells have receptors or side chains that bind invading toxins "like a key in a lock," thereby neutralizing them. The theory further held that a cell under threat grows additional side chains to bind the toxin and that these additional side chains break off to become antibodies that are circulated through the body. As Hayes reports, Ehrlich's revolutionary sidechain theory was just one of his many crucial contributions to the field of hematology. Exploring blood's role in literature, the author considers Bram Stoker's Dracula. It turns out that the historical inspiration for the great novel's vampirism may have been the hematological disorder of congenital erythropoietic porphyria. Inbreeding within the isolated and remote Eastern European communities, such as the valleys of Transylvania, may have resulted in an unusually high prevalence of this rare condition during the Middle Ages. As Hayes writes, "The corpse-like appearance and odd behavior of sufferers may have given rise to whispers of vampirism." Folk knowledge about the disease may have gradually evolved into legend. Certain chemicals in garlic, for example, can exacerbate porphyria symptoms, thus giving rise to the idea that garlic repels vampires. Toward the end of Five Quarts, Hayes writes about Dr. Jay Levy's codiscovery of HIV and his remarkable contributions to understanding and fighting the disease. The medical progress made possible by Levy and other scientists profiled in the book has prolonged the life of Hayes' HIV-positive partner. Much of the book can be read as a grateful tribute to their efforts. For its beautiful writing, captivating stories, and eclectic approach to the subject of blood, I heartily recommend Five Quarts. It just might affect the way you look at your next blood smear. The reviewer, James Marroquin, MD, is a resident in internal medicine at Baylor University Medical Center. James Marroquin, MD


Programming parallel computers is an extremely challenging task for expert computer programmers, let alone for scientists in other disciplines whose computations often drive the acquisition of such machines. This dissertation describes the design and implementation of ZPL, a programming language created to simplify the task of programming parallel computers. ZPL allows programmers to write code using a global view that describes their algorithms at a high level rather than implementing per-processor behavior. However, unlike other global-view languages, ZPL permits users to reason about the parallel implementation of their code at the syntactic level, allowing them to make informed algorithmic decisions based on the program's parallel implementation. The language feature that supports this duality is called the region. A region is simply a language-level index set that programmers can define, name, and manipulate using high-level operators. Regions constitute a unique means of specifying array computation, serving as an alternative to traditional array indexing and slicing. By distributing each region's indices across a processor set, a parallel interpretation of a ZPL program is achieved.
This dissertation studies the impact of the region concept throughout the design and implementation of ZPL. It begins by defining the region concept and its use in the language. It then gives a parallel interpretation of regions, which results in ZPL's syntax-based performance model. ZPL's implementation and runtime libraries are described in detail to show how regions are represented and used at runtime. The design and implementation of a paradigm-neutral interface for efficient portable communication is also described. Finally, two extensions to the basic region concept are given: parameterized regions which can be used to implement hierarchical algorithms such as the multigrid method, and sparse regions which can be used to specify sparse computation over sparse or dense arrays. Throughout the dissertation, regions are evaluated by comparing ZPL programs to other languages in terms of clarity and performance. The conclusion is that regions are a crisp and powerful mechanism for array-based parallel programming.


This study examines the effect of the composition of federal and state government spending on various important air pollutants in the United States using a newly assembled data set of government expenditures. The results indicate that a reallocation of spending from private goods to social and public goods by state and local governments reduces air pollution concentrations while changes in the composition of federal spending have no effect. An increase in the share of social and public goods spending by state and local governments by 1 standard deviation reduces sulfur dioxide concentrations by 2–3%, particular matter 2.5 concentrations by 3–5%, and ozone concentrations by 2–6% of their respective standard deviations. The results are robust to various sensitivity checks.


Using Integrated Household Survey data from Georgia, we measure the observable and discriminatory ethnic wage gap, among male and female workers, and the gender wage gap, among Georgians and non-Georgians. The gender wage discrimination is larger than the ethnic wage discrimination. In the second estimation stage, these wage discrimination estimates are used in a general-to-specific vector autoregression framework to test for the Granger causality between discrimination and growth. A general, negative, bidirectional Granger causality is found between these two variables: in the long-run, discrimination reduces economic growth, and economic growth lowers discrimination. Also, we find that higher unemployment rates are associated with increased ethnic wage discrimination—in line with the predictions of Becker's theory of discrimination.


This paper sets out a framework for understanding water governance, arguing that a narrow focus on gender-sensitive mechanisms of water delivery (such as committees, tariffs, technologies) is insufficient to ensure gender equitable outcomes. We need to expand our analysis of water governance in two directions. Firstly, to understand the ways in which societal resources are allocated (through economic policies, legislation etc) and so shape mechanisms in particular ways. Secondly, to consider how different people are able to influence the outcomes of particular governance arrangements to produce gendered outcomes (for health and well-being, access and livelihoods, and for political voice).


CITIZEN SPIELBERG Lester D. Friedman. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2006, 345+ pp. DIRECTED BY STEVEN SPIELBERG: POETICS OF THE CONTEMPORARY HOLLYWOOD BLOCKBUSTER Warren Buckland. New York: Continuum, 2006, 246 pp. As in so many areas of life and cinema, there is good news and bad news. The good news is that two scholarly books devoted to Steven Spielberg are out. The bad news is that only one of them-Lester D. Friedman's Citizen Spielberg- lives up to its stated mission: to give Spielberg his rightful place in film history. Friedman claims to have written the first complete analysis of Spielberg's cinema, and he does so from a generally laudatory perspective. Although I have a few respectful quibbles with Friedman's analyses of individual movies, I admire his intellectual courage in bucking the tide of anti-Spielberg invective. In doing so, he takes on almost the entire field of academic film studies, including this reviewer. Friedman strives to "engage in ongoing dialogues . with Spielberg's harshest critics, not ignoring the flaws and failures in his artistic canon but also reclaiming ignored elements of value and significance" (3). In short, he wants to present a balanced portrait of Spielberg as an evolving creative phenomenon. In his introduction, Friedman sets up a series of straw persons to vilify. Notably, there are the envious scholars, for whom "Spielberg is . . . the man they love to hate because he fields the best players, controls the biggest budgets, draws the biggest crowds, reaps the most profits, and wins far too often" (1-2). Furthermore, those in this cohort "position Spielberg as . . . a technically gifted and intellectually shallow showman who substitutes spectacle for substance and emotion for depth" (2). In response to this criticism, Friedman proffers an "irony defense," suggesting that critics too often equate the director's views with the ideology of his protagonists. He suggests that "far from the lock-step fascist aesthetic his detractors attribute to him, Spielberg's cinema is filled with opportunities to contest and even contradict the attitudes of his characters" (5). Maybe, but do ordinary viewers notice these subtle ironies and assume that Spielberg is critiquing his heroes? I don't think so. Nonetheless, Friedman is honest about Spielberg's deficiencies, including that he "seems incapable of creating complex female figures" (8). Those women are often cliched secondary characters or barely present at all. Although generally disposed to praise the films, Friedman is willing to critique the director on other ideological and aesthetic grounds. Indeed, I found myself agreeing with Friedman's summation: "Spielberg has evolved into a director of thought and spirit . . . demonstrating a stunning intellectual growth and emotional maturity that was once impossible to imagine" (10). My caveat is that Spielberg deserves such praise only for his more recent projects. In chapter 1, Friedman deconstructs Hook through the lens of the director's psychobiography: Spielberg had just become a father and "couldn't be Peter Pan anymore" (18). The analysis of A.I. is also based on biographical details, since Kubrick and Spielberg "both were middle-class Jewish boys who loved technology and felt severely alienated from their childhood environments." However, "the austere and coldly intellectual Kubrick . . . would seem to have little in common with the hyperkinetic and viscerally emotional Spielberg" (47-48). Also in chapter 1 are analyses of two Spielberg classics, E.T. and Close Encounters, which Friedman concedes could be considered "fascist." As he puts it, "[Close Encounters] strikes a jingoistic American chord" (56); he then goes on to list half a dozen narrative events that buttress the point. "At its center," the film "reaffirms America's historical sense of Manifest Destiny . . . Close Encounters wraps itself in the flag" (56). That is what leftist critics have been saying since 1977. …


The remarkable political change that Morocco has witnessed after the death of King Hassan II in 1999 and the succession of his son, Mohammed VI, has contributed to the development of Moroccan satire due to the margin of freedom allowed by the new regime. As a result of this political reform, satire becomes visible as a recent phenomenon in the cultural scene of Morocco, moving from the private sphere in which it has been circulating clandestinely, to certain extent, to the open public sphere where satirists tackle issues that were, not long ago, censored or strictly prohibited. Satirical sketches and shows that ridicule senior political figures, jokes about religious authorities and sacred icons, cartoons that expose sexual materials have become public and commonplace, and contributed to bringing about many debates and inquiries about very controversial issues. Satire thus has gained an important position and popularity in contemporary Morocco as a critical and provocative medium that tends to unmask and condemn the flaws of the political and social system, like corruption, injustice and power abuse. This research project raises many questions about the role and the functioning of satire in contemporary Morocco. How does satire function as a critical form and how does it negotiate the power relations that prevail in society and contest the existing boundaries that limit somehow the scope of its attack? What are the political and legal constraints that limit the workings of satire? What are the satirical stratagems used by satirists to challenge protected political, religious and cultural boundaries and evade punitive censorship and oppression? How does the new "liberal" political context stimulate satirists to try to redefine the boundaries of the permissible in contemporary Moroccan satire? To answer these questions, this study brings together a wealth of examples of satiric expressions in the Moroccan context and analyzes these materials in terms of agents, audience, targets and aims. A special emphasis will be given to the study of various types of satire by collecting and interpreting examples from printed media, television and films. It attempts to link these examples to earlier historical forms of expressions in Morocco. The study of these historical modes help to show how contemporary Moroccan satire replicates western models along with remediating traditional forms. That is why it is necessary to dig into history and analyze traditional satirical forms. The thesis consists of seven chapters. The first chapter studies four early forms of Moroccan satire and how these traditional modes functioned in the socio-political context of their time. The second chapter is devoted to the Moroccan satirical press and the legal corpus that regulates it. The third chapter addresses political satire during the reign of Hassan II, while the fourth chapter discusses political satire in the new era of Mohammed VI. The fifth chapter focuses on satire about religion as a taboo subject. The sixth chapter addresses the theme of sexuality in Moroccan satire and the last chapter deals with satire in public media, especially on television and cinema.


native chicken farm suspected to Newcastle disease (ND) virus infection. Specimens were taken andcollected from the lung was further processed. Suspected materials were inoculated into allantoic sacc inspecific pathogenic free of 10 days embryonating egg chicken. The growth of the virus was determined withthe ability to agglutinate the chicken red blood cells or hemaglutination test. Positive hemaglutinationwas performed with hemaglutinatin inhibition test using specific antibody against ND virus. Method forND virus isolation, propagation and identification were based on the standard procedure of serologicalidentification for ND virus serological identification. 13 out of 34 samples were identified as ND viruses.Observation on the course and time of the virus to kill the chicken embryo could be differentiated intomoderate virus patho-type were 10 isolates and a virulent strains were 3 isolates. Further characterizationbased on the elution time observation indicated 11 isolates were not pathogenic strain and 2 isolates werenot virulent strain. Hemagglutinin stability study revealed that 11 isolates were sensitive being heated at560C for 30 minutes while 2 isolates were resistant. Biological characteristic of ND virus to hemagglutinateon various mammalian red blood cells indicating that most isolates were HA negative. Two isolates wereHA positive with cattle, horse and sheep red blood cell, and one isolate indicated positive HA test by usingsheep red blood cell. Control virus was lentogenic patho-type of La Sota strain showed HA and HI testpositive, elution time was 29 minutes, stability on the hemagglutinin after heating was 2 minutes and HApositive with cattle, horse and sheep red blood cell.


The relationship of values to technology is an important topic in the fields of information studies, human–computer interaction, media studies, and science and technology studies, but definitions and attributes of values differ within and among these fields. We suggest that researchers currently conflate multiple categories when they discuss values. Some of these categories are attributes of the source of values (i.e., people, systems, and hybrid assemblages), and others are attributes of the values themselves. This article disambiguates values in sociotechnical systems by providing a framework to describe where and how values are negotiated and enacted by people, institutions, and technology. The framework includes three dimensions that pertain to the source of values (agency, unit, and assemblage) and three dimensions that pertain to attributes of values (salience, intention, and enactment) to enable precision and comparison across this research trajectory. We illustrate each dimension with examples from the values and design literature.


Background: Previously, it was shown that locally applied intraoperative ketorolac and bupivacaine significantly reduced pain in the recovery room. The objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of the same solution over the first 10 days. Methods: This study was a prospective, randomized, double-blind clinical trial with ethical approval. Fifty submuscular breast augmentation patients were enrolled, and informed consent was obtained. Standard anesthetic and surgical protocols were followed. Either normal saline or ketorolac and bupivacaine (30 mg and 150 mg, respectively) were placed into the pocket. The power of this study to detect a 20 percent difference was 0.90, and values of p < 0.05 were considered significant. The primary outcome was pain measured with the visual analogue pain scale recorded in a take-home diary. The secondary outcome was codeine usage. Results: Forty-five patients completed the study. Of the patients who did not, three were in the normal saline group (n = 22) and two were in the ketorolac-bupivacaine group (n = 23). The ketorolac-bupivacaine combination significantly reduced pain over the first 5 days. By the tenth day postoperatively, the effect had dissipated. These patients also used less codeine. There were no significant complications. Conclusion: Locally applied, intraoperative ketorolac and bupivacaine significantly reduced pain for 5 days after surgery in women who had undergone primary breast augmentation.


For an indoor non-directed line of sight optical wireless communication (NLOS-OWC) system we investigate the optimized Lambertian order (OLO) of light-emitting diodes (LEDs). We firstly derive an expression for the OLO from a conventional Lambertian LED model. Then, we analyze the indoor multi-cell NLOS-OWC channel characteristics including the optical power distribution and the multipath time dispersion for two cases of one-cell and four-cell configurations. Furthermore, we estimate the transmission bandwidth by simulating the channel frequency response. Numerical results presented show that, by using OLO a significant improvement of the transmission bandwidth can be achieved for an indoor NLOS-OWC system, in particular, for multi-cell configurations.


The use of classification techniques for machine health monitoring and fault diagnosis has been popular in recent years. System response in form of time series data can be used to identify type of defect, severity of defect etc. However, a central issue with time series classification is that of identifying appropriate features for classification. In this paper, we explore a new feature set based on a delay differential equations (DDEs). DDEs have been used recently for extracting features for classification but have never been used to classify system responses. The Duffing oscillator, Van der Pol–Duffing (VDP-D) oscillator, Lu and Chen oscillators are used as examples dynamic systems, and the responses are classified into self-similar groups. Responses with the same period should belong to the same group. Misclassification rate is used as an indicator of the efficacy of the feature set. The proposed feature set is compared to a statistical feature set, a power spectral coefficient feature set and a wavelet coefficient feature set. In work described in this paper, a density estimation algorithm called DBSCAN is used as the classification algorithm. The proposed DDE-based feature set is found to be significantly better than the other feature sets for the classifying responses generated by the Duffing, Lu and Chen systems. The wavelet and power spectral coefficient data sets are not found to be significantly better than the statistical feature set for these systems. None of the feature sets tested are discerning enough on the VDP-D system.


This paper presents a novel approach to control general nonlinear systems based on Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy dynamic models. It is first shown that a general nonlinear system can be approximated by a generalized T-S fuzzy model to any degree of accuracy on any compact set. It is then shown that the stabilization problem of the general nonlinear system can be solved as a robust stabilization problem of the developed T-S fuzzy system with the approximation errors as the uncertainty term. Based on a piecewise quadratic Lyapunov function, the robust semiglobal stabilization and H∞ control of the general nonlinear system are formulated in the form of linear matrix inequalities. Simulation results are provided to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed approaches.


Earthquake early warning systems (EEWS) are being operated and tested increasingly around the globe in recent years. Following the Israeli government's decision to build an EEWS in Israel, and as the Californian EEWS (ShakeAlert) moves toward its operational phase, we demonstrate implementation of one of its three algorithms, ElarmS, to the Israel region. We provide new tools and approaches for implementing and assessing ElarmS outside of California. The main challenges of this research are to identify, verify, and adjust the embedded location‐dependent parameters in ElarmS to the Israeli region, utilizing an unoptimized seismic network and low seismicity rate. To this end, we run ElarmS in three different modes: (1) historical playbacks, (2) real‐time continuous data processing, and (3) simulated data playbacks. These modes enable us to overcome the limitations of low seismicity rates in the region and evaluate the performance of ElarmS with the network that is currently available. We use historical playbacks to adjust the magnitude estimation equations of ElarmS. We then analyze real‐time processing results and provide detailed analysis of two significant events in the region ( M D 5.5 and 4.4). Finally, we provide the first case of how to use synthetic data to evaluate the performance of ElarmS. We find that alert times are mostly affected by the network geometry and also by data delays. Alerts are typically issued within 80 ms after the arrival of the required four P ‐wave triggers data to the system. Magnitude estimations are reliable for events with M D>3.5 within 100 km of the Israeli network using a locally adjusted magnitude relation equation.


The decolonization strategy is gradually applied in intensive care unit (ICU) through the years. Theoretical basis for supporting the strategy is based upon the notion that decolonization reduces the chance of infection. Therefore, recommendation of taking universal decolonization program was proposed in some countries. Nevertheless, the evidence to support universal decolonization strategy in ICU is still lacking and adverse effects related to universal decolonization need serious concern.


Homemade PowerPoint games are a low-tech alternative for using game design in classrooms. To date, much of the research examining the games has not shown an improvement in performance. This has led some to question whether the games are properly aligned with the instructional strategies researchers have used as justifications to support using them. This study examined how increasing the structure of the game design project affected student performance when compared to control groups, as well as those who created games in previous iterations of the study. In addition, we examined the effects of student performance when two of the instructional strategies (microtheme writing and question writing) were tested in isolation. Most of the comparisons showed no statistical difference in performance; however, results from the final iteration yielded significant gains when compared to the control group.


In Nordic countries, surface water is a common source for potable water production. Such waters are often characterised by high Natural Organic Matter (NOM) content, resulting in high colour, very low turbidity, low alkalinity and low hardness due to natural conditions. Treatment of such waters basically comprises the removal of NOM and colour, corrosion control and disinfection. Although the largest part of NOM is not harmful, some fractions can cause colour, taste and odour problems or can even be toxic. Complexation of heavy metals and organic micro-pollutants, mobilizing them and making them available in the water phase, and increasing the amount of necessary disinfectants as well as being recognized as precursors for disinfection by-product formation which can be carcinogenic, are issues to be considered. In addition, there is a growing concern on the increase of NOM in natural water sources. Recent studies have shown that the concentration of NOM in surface water has increased in the last decades and may increase further during the coming decades, caused by progressing climate change issues and/or changed precipitation patterns. Thus, the removal of NOM is one of the major concerns and makes advanced drinking water treatment necessary. In the past, conventional treatment processes such as coagulation/rapid sand filtration and filtration by nanofiltration (NF) membranes have been used successfully in Norway. However, a number of disadvantages have been identified in these processes. While the quality off effluent from rapid filters is high if coagulation is optimised, it may be severely compromised if coagulation fails, or operation is unstable. NF membranes have been subject to high irreversible fouling. High operating pressures at low fluxes, permeability loss over time and high chemical demands for cleaning have been observed frequently. By contrast, low pressure membrane filtration has emerged as an alternative for direct surface water treatment in recent years, with number of installations increasing rapidly around the world. Disadvantages as described above can be avoided to a large extent with this technology. The usage of low pressure membrane processes leads to high, stable effluent quality compared to conventional technologies, especially with regards to hygienic aspects since water borne parasites and most of bacteria can be retained. By applying ceramic microfiltration (MF) a more energy efficient operation is possible, the higher investment costs for ceramic membranes can be offset by the ability to operate with significantly higher fluxes. However, such membranes demand coagulation pre-treatment in order to achieve sufficient NOM and colour removal, fulfil the requirements as a hygienic barrier as well as for the control fouling by NOM. This study showed that coagulation, combined with subsequent ceramic MF, is a successful concept for the direct treatment of Nordic waters. In spite of high NOM content in the raw water (DOC 6.8 mg C/L, colour 55 mg Pt/L), stable operation was demonstrated at high membrane fluxes of up to 250 L/(m2 h), achieving irreversible membrane fouling below 1 mbar/h, a DOC removal of 70% and colour removal of around 90%, at a coagulant dosage of 0.65 mg Al per mg DOC (using PACL at pH 6, with 60s of inline flocculation). While NOM removal depended only on coagulant dosage and coagulation pH, membrane fouling was also influenced by flocculation type, time and G-value. The study also found that the optimization of coagulation pretreatment is crucial. If, for example, an insufficient amount of coagulant is dosed, membrane fouling increases drastically, residual metal concentration is high and NOM removal is minimal. Inline coagulation with a static mixer, followed by pipe flocculation, showed promising results compared to conventional tank coagulation, where irreversible fouling rates observed were in the same range. However, reversible fouling was significantly lower after tank coagulation and flocculation, in spite of floc breakage in the membrane feed pump. Indications are thus that, either the properties of the broken flocs are significantly different from freshly created ones, or that flocs regrow in the membrane capillaries. Additional findings of this study show that if the coagulation pre-treatment is optimised, MS2 bacteriophages can be efficiently removed from surface water characterized by high NOM content. Removal rates of 6 log units up to complete virus retention were achieved, at pH values ranging from 5.0 to 5.5. However, at such conditions the residual metal concentration exceeded legal limits. In order to avoid this, it is advised that the coagulation pH should be increased to 6 or higher. At these pH-values efficient virus removal can still be achieved, however, higher coagulant dosages are required. By optimizing coagulation/flocculation pre-treatment, an efficient removal of NOM can be achieved while complying with hygienic barrier requirements, resulting in virus removal of 4 log units and higher. Coagulation/flocculation pre-treatment coupled with ceramic MF filtration is thus a viable and flexible treatment scheme for the production of high quality potable water from surface waters having high NOM concentrations.


This text deals mainly with the synthesis and processing of metastable and nanocrystalline materials. The subjects covered include mechanochemistry and the effect of mechanical attrition upon the chemical behaviour of solids, and encompass many classes of material including metals, polymers and ceramics. A significant fraction of the book also deals with with bulk metallic glasses - right from the fundamentals and theory of their mechanical properties, to their transformation kinetics and the development of processing techniques for improved practical applications. Another large part of the book covers the mechanical, electrochemical and magnetic properties of metastable and nanocrystalline materials. Overall, this publication provides a state-of-the-art overview of research results and technological developments in the field, and highlights the most recent achievements.