Abstract An inherently safe thorium-breeder pebble bed reactor has great potential to improve the safety and sustainability of nuclear energy. The aim of this work is to determine the conditions under which breeding is possible in a thorium-breeder pebble bed reactor (PBR) and to present possible core designs for such a reactor. A method is developed to calculate the equilibrium core configuration of a thorium-breeder PBR, consisting of a driver channel and a breed channel. The SCALE system is used for cross-section generation and fuel depletion, and a two-dimensional (r,z)-flux profile is obtained using the DALTON neutron diffusion code. With the code scheme, the influence of several geometrical, operational, and fuel management parameters on breeding capability can be studied. Four fuel reprocessing schemes are investigated. The first scheme recycles breeder pebbles into the driver channel after some delay for additional 233Pa decay. The second scheme reprocesses the discharged breeder pebbles to make driver pebbles with higher 233U content. The third scheme also reprocesses the uranium isotopes from the discharged driver pebbles. Criticality, and thus breeding, can only be achieved in practice for this case. The fourth scheme, which adjusts the driver pebble residence time to find a critical core, is used to design a thorium-breeder PBR under practical operating conditions. A breeder reactor can even be achieved for a 150-cm core diameter, the same as for the uranium-fueled HTR-PM, but the design presented operates at a significantly lower reactor power, 71 MW(thermal) compared with 250 MW(thermal).


Whether the danger invoked is nuclear war or genetically modified foods, far more people in some countries than in others say they are afraid. Using data from six surveys, I show that the levels of reported fear of different dangers correlate strongly across both individuals and countries. I construct indexes of fearfulness for 15-25 countries and map the prevalence of fear in Western Europe. About two thirds of the crossnational variation within Europe can be explained by differences in pessimism--the degree to which respondents exaggerate the likelihood of disasters. Among the countries for which I have data, the most robust correlates of fearfulness relate to countries' religious traditions. Fear tends to be higher in countries where more people believe in Hell and where fewer believe in Heaven.


This thesis is composed of two parts: gravity in the spacetime with a negative/positive cosmological constant. The first part, which is the negative case, devotes to constructing the IIB supergravity dual solution in AdS/CFT correspondence for N = (1, 0) and N = (1/2, 0) non-anticommutative deformed super Yang-Mills theory. The non-anticommutativity is realised on N D3-branes in certain constant self-dual RR 5-form background fields. These background fields can be sourced by a set of additional D3-branes intersecting the N D3's. By taking the near horizon limit to the brane configurations, the supergravity solutions are obtained. The mapping between the bulk scalar fields and the boundary operators for N = (1, 0) case is investigated, and it is found that the spectrum of a particular class of the BPS operators is not deformed by the non-anticommutativity. The second part is for the positive cosmological constant case. In this part, a black fusiform solution with appositive cosmological const in d =5, N = 4 de Sitter supergravity is constructed. The solution is obtained via the braneworld Kaluza-Klein reduction ansatz, and preserves half of the de Sitter supersymmetry. It is static, with the gravitational contraction being balanced by the cosmological repulsion. The black fusiform has an event horizon and a cosmological horizon, and is asymptotically non-de Sitter. The horizons are of an in x S(^2) topology, and contain singularities at the opposite ends due to the nature of the reduction ansatz. Despite the singularities, the solution exhibits some physically properties compatible with that of the regular asymptotically de Sitter spacetimes. The entropy and mass observe the N-bound proposal and the maximal mass conjecture respectively. It also carries a charge which contributes to the 1st law of black hole mechanics.


The incubation of murine leukaemic L1210 cells in vitro for 4 hours (hr) with 10uM nitrogen mustard (HN2), a bifunctional alkylating agent, inhibited the influx of the potassium congener, 88rubidium+ ( 86Rb+) by the selective inhibition of the Na+-K+-CI- cotransporter. The aim of this project was to investigate the importance of this lesion in HN2-induced cytotoxicity. 86Rb+ uptake in human erythrocytes was inhibited by high concentrations of HN2 (2mM) and occurred in two phases.In the first hour both the Na+/K+ ATPase pump and the Na+-K+-CI- cotransporter were equally inhibited but after 2 hrs exposure to 2mM HN2, the Na+ -K+ -CI- cotransporter was significantly more inhibited than the Na+/K+ ATPase pump. In contrast, both potassium transport systems were equally inhibited in L1210 cells incubated for 10 minutes with 1mM HN2. The selective inhibition of the Na+-K+-CI- cotransporter, after a 3 hrs exposure to 10uM HN2, was not absolved by coincubation with 5ug/ml cycloheximide (CHX), an inhibitor of protein synthesis. Incubation of L1210 cells with concentrations of diuretics which completely inhibited Na+-K+-CI- cotransport did not enhance the cytotoxicity of either HN2 or its monofunctional analogue 2-chloroethyldimethylamine (Me-HN1). The incubation of L1210 cells with a twice strength Rosewell Park Memorial Institute 1640 media did not enhance the toxicity of HN2. An L1210 cell line (L1210FR) was prepared which was able to grow in toxic concentrations of furosemide and exhibited a similiar sensitivity to HN2 as parental L1210 cells. Treatment of L1210 cells with 10uM HN2 resulted in a decrease in cell volume which was concurrent with the inhibition of the Na+-K+-CI- cotransporter. This was not observed in L1210 cells treated with either 1 or O.SuM HN2. Thus, possible differences in the cell death, in terms of necrosis and apoptosis, induced by the different concentrations of HN2 was investigated. The cell cycle of L1210 cells appeared to be blocked non-specifically by 10uM HN2 and in S and G2/M by either 1 or 0.5uM HN2. There were no significant changes in the cytosolic calcium concentrations of L1210 cells for up to 48 hrs after exposure to the three concentrations of HN2. No protection against th_ toxic effects of HN2 was observed in L1210 cells incubated with 5ug/ml CHX for up to 6 hrs. Incubation for 12 or 18 hrs with a non-toxic concentration (5mM) of L-Azetidine-2- carboxylic acid (ACA) enhanced the toxicity of low concentrations (<0.5uM) of HN2.


Background: Ankle injuries are a common presentation to the orthopedic clinic and can be just isolated sprains or associated with ankle fractures; most of these involve distal tibiofibular syndesmotic disruptions. Bony or deltoid ligament injuries can critically destabilize the ankle and affect its function. Suspensory repair is a relatively new and accepted surgical treatment for acute ankle syndesmotic injuries. Objective: This study was conducted to evaluate the results of the use of suspensory fixation by modified TightRope (hand-made suture-button system) after acute ankle syndesmotic injury in adults. The American Orthopedic Foot and Ankle Society (AOFAS) score was used as a functional result in this study. Patients and Methods: This prospective study included 20 patients (mean age, 29.5 ± 9.7 years) with acute syndesmotic injuries treated with a suspensory fixation system between the period of January 2017 and December 2017, with a mean follow-up (FU) of 2 years. Variables recorded and analyzed were the age, sex, fracture type, mechanism of injury, associated injuries, FU, complications, and final outcomes. Results: As regarded twenty patients in this study, the median AOFAS score was 97 (range, 90–100). One patient needed implant removal as a result of persistent skin irritation. Conclusion: A modified technique of suture-button fixation is an alternative optimal treatment for acute syndesmotic injuries, resulting in stable functional ankles with less costs. Level IV: Level II.


The emerging organizational, structural, institutional as well as regulatory and policy developments relating to economic, finance and economic growth in an era of globalization for Pakistan is seen as important to an understanding of the transition from national financial markets to well integrated parts of the global market and of the implication of this process for the national economy. Shakil Faruqi's book – financial System and Economic Development – Pakistan (hereafter referred as FSED) is thus, a welcome addition to the field. This book seeks to examine the growing volume of integration between financial system and economic growth within globalization in developing countries, in general, and for Pakistan, in particular. Since no such book is available in the Pakistan's context, therefore the FSED offers, perhaps the most comprehensive descriptive statistics on recent trends in Pakistan's financial sectors available in one book. For anyone who would like to understand developments in financial sector of the country, this is indispensable reading. Indeed, it may be informative for all types of readers. The book's discussion is set against the issue of financial markets and makes it more than useful as a basic text book, for the general readers, research scholars, and students of business and finance The introductory chapter provides an overview about the role of financial system, its structure and importance for economic development of an economy. In Chapter II the author discusses the thematics, which takes care of some basic concepts, definition approaches of Macro-financial Analysis. The remaining chapters of the book look into the money and banking rationales including the relationship between interest rate and the economy, mobilization of savings, and deposits, and credit system of banking sector. The author actually try to bring all the concepts, even the micro ones at one place and also touches the Islamic banking realizing importance as the SBP has made it mandatory to have a branch of the Islamic banking for all banks.


Abstract : This research responses to 875 of the 2016 National Defense Authorization Act, directing the Department of Defense (DOD) to conduct a review of (1)regulations and practices relating to access to intellectual property (IP) data and rights in acquiring weapon systems; and (2) IP-related practices to facilitate competition in sustainment of weapon systems. IDA reviewed regulations and guidance documents to identify provisions regarding IP data and rights to enable sustainment. IDA sent questionnaires to major DOD depots requesting them to identify impacts of failure to acquire IP data. To evaluate practices regarding IP in sustainment, IDA visited several DOD acquisition and logistics offices. The research identified the difficulties DOD faces in acquiring IP data and rights and the implications of failure to obtain IP data. IDA identified the major cause of the inability to acquire IP data and rights to be the sole source relationships that DOD enters into for the acquisition and sustainment of most major systems. The research suggests the need for better oversight of processes for acquiring IP data and rights; increased use of commercial approaches to maintenance of DOD aircraft; and increasing the availability of legal and technical experts in IP to acquisition management organizations.


To inform the Passages Project's overall vision and strategy the Institute for Reproductive Health at Georgetown University conducted a stakeholder analysis "Collaborating to Advance Normative Change for Adolescent Sexual & Reproductive Health: A Global Stakeholder Analysis to Survey the Landscape and Guide Collaboration and Action" consisting of 147 online surveys and 21 in-depth interviews with stakeholders in the sexual and reproductive health and adolescent health fields. The stakeholder analysis sought to identify the existing knowledge level and attitudes among stakeholders towards normative interventions and their replication and scale-up and where information is accessed to inform their work in these areas. The analysis also explored how social norms and scale-up evidence is disseminated and applied by practitioners and related information needs including theoretical models measurement and evaluation approaches and implementation tools. The findings contribute to the Passages Project's global leadership vision and strategy and will assist Passages to effectively address knowledge and evidence needs in the field.


This paper aims at a literature review of all scientific articles published in the International Journal of Community Currencies since 2009 in order to identify research patterns and research gaps in the literature. It complements the work done by Schroeder (2011) and Seyfang (2013), among many others, who have focused on characterizing the literature and practice in this field of research. A universe of 78 articles retrieved from IJCCR website in November 2016 are statistically analysed, taking into consideration their structure, methodology and key conclusions as well as research gaps and future research needed in the field of complementary currencies. Although a strong heterogeneity can be found in the number of publications per year as well in the sample characterization, both in format and content, our analysis enables clear patterns of the IJCCR in the past eight years to emerge and research gaps to be identified, specifically the need for longer, more in-depth, comparable and methodologically coherent socio-economic impact assessment of CC experiments; more and better knowledge regarding optimal scale and design optimization; deeper recognition and understanding of socio-psychological factors influencing CC implementation and success; sustainable governance options and impacts; and finally, more research done into multiple currency interfaces and exchange mechanisms between complementary currencies. These gaps and research needs are presented and may serve as potential guidelines for future publications within the Journal as well as the establishment of more refined research agenda for IJCCR that serve the evolution of scientific knowledge in this growing field.


Software architectural design is a key activity in the software development process. It is especially critical for embedded systems subject to specific non-functional requirements such as performance or reliability. However, the activity of designing an architecture fulfilling a set of requirements still remains largely informal, based onexperience with the support of some informal patterns and styles.The purpose of this paper is to explore how to build more systematically architectures for embedded systems using precise models both for the requirements and the architecture. A mapping is proposed between those models together with guidelines on how to inject functional and non-functional requirements at various stages. The process is illustrated and discussed using a cruise control system.


An unusually detailed portrait of an ocean front off Japan could help improve climate predictions. The ocean surface is filled with a convoluted web of "fronts" that separate waters of different temperatures and salinities (see the figure). Just as thin ducts in the lung called alveoli facilitate the rapid exchange of gases when breathing, fronts are the ducts through which heat, carbon, oxygen, and other climatically important gases enter into the deep ocean. A lack of observations, however, has hampered progress in understanding the dynamics of fronts, which can be as narrow as hundreds of meters and as wide as tens of kilometers. Global satellite measurements of ocean-surface velocities and air-sea fluxes, for instance, are only available at resolutions of a few hundred kilometers. Although shipboard researchers can sample vertical ocean profiles down to centimeter scales, only rarely do they collect profiles that are less than 100 km apart. On page 318 of this issue, D'Asaro et al. (1) present a breakthrough in observing ocean fronts, providing direct observations of the workings of the Kuroshio front off Japan on scales from kilometers to millimeters. This detailed and wide-ranging portrait was made possible by the development of towed instruments that continuously sample the waters behind a steaming ship, the deployment of freely drifting instruments that follow ocean currents, and the exercising of a great deal of ingenuity in keeping all these tools along the front for a few weeks in 2007.


The digitization of economy, and particularly the e-commerce can encourage innovation and contribute to the process of digital transformation of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSME) through the implementation of digital technologies and new business models, which can improve the efficiency and productivity of companies beyond its effects on access to new markets. Despite potential gains, activity of online platforms implies risks and challenges in terms of antitrust regulation, data protection, cybersecurity, and market dynamic. Better quality of institutions and an effective judiciary system and a competitive business environment are associated with higher efficient of platforms. Data and evidence for the Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region remain scarce still. This paper analyzes data set of online marketplace activity in the region between 2019 and 2021. Besides, it describes the main characteristics of online platforms in the region, as well as their distribution across countries and the evolution of traffic during such period. These data also were combined with country-level indicators to study structural determinants of those marketplace activities.


This paper concludes a ten-country collaborative study of metropolitan regions and their consequences for political behavior. The analysis summarizes results from multilevel or ordinary least squares regression models of partisanship, national election turnout and local election turnout over the 1990s and early 2000s. Across most advanced industrial countries and beyond, the findings reveal an emerging new political geography that is rooted in metropolitan places. Divisions within and between metropolitan regions have increasingly replaced both urban-rural cleavages and national class interests as the determinants of electoral participation and partisanship. These new patterns help to account for the expanding bases of support for neoliberalism in most advanced industrial societies, and for emerging political cleavages linked to cultural divergences and globalization. In ways that vary with national systems of institutions, disparities in local and national voter turnout are also rooted not just in the socioeconomic composition of communities, but in the contextual conditions of metropolitan places.


Summary Field studies were conducted in 1995 and 1996 in the northern Guinea savanna of Nigeria to determine the response of 22 soybean genotypes to Alectra infestation. Significant differences were observed amongst soybean genotypes in number of Alectra shoots that emerged at 9 and 10 weeks after sowing and days to first Alectra emergence. Alectra emergence occurred later in early maturing soybean genotypes [54 days after sowing (DAS)] while with most late maturing genotypes, Alectra emergence started at 50 DAS. Result revealed that sixteen genotypes supported few or no Alectra shoots while six were susceptible. Soybean genotypes that supported high numbers of Alectra shoots recorded lower grain yields than those with fewer Alectra shoots. However, soybean genotypes, SAMSOY2 and TGX1485-1D that significantly supported high numbers of Alectra recorded grain yields similar to those of genotypes that supported few or no Alectra. These findings may be due to three possible mechanisms of resistance of soybean genotypes to Alectra parasitism. The sixteen genotypes, which supported few or no Alectra shoots, may have produced lower amounts of root exudates required for stimulation of germination of Alectra. They may also have prevented the initiation, attachment, and penetration of haustorium from Alectra plants to the roots of the hosts. These mechanism were however, not investigated in this study. Further studies may therefore be necessary to confirm our speculations. Soybean genotypes, SAMSOY2 and TGX1485-1D, which recorded high yield irrespective of high infestation with Alectra may exhibit tolerance to the parasite.


In this study, MQL turning performance was compared to dry conditions. The magnesium based material will be formed by applying the orthogonal cutting. The CNC Lathe shall be used for both cutting processes. The experiment used MINITAB 16 software to establish the experiment plan. In this study, workpiece was turned at cutting speeds of 230, 330 and 430 m/min, feed rates of 0.20, 0.35 and 0.50 mm/rev and cutting depth of 1, 2 and 3 mm. Taguchi experimental design method was used for determining the settings of turning parameters. Orthogonal arrays of Taguchi, the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio, the anal-ysis of variance (ANOVA) were carried out to determine the optimum levels and to analyze the influence of cutting speed, feed rate, cutting depth on surface roughness, tem-perature and cutting forces during dry and MQL turning. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.mech.20.3.4702


Bound Lives chronicles the lived experience of race relations in northern coastal Peru during the colonial era. Rachel Sarah O Toole examines the construction of a casta (caste) system under the Spanish government, and how this system was negotiated and employed by Andeans and Africans. Royal and viceregal authorities defined legal identities of Indian and Black to separate the two groups and commit each to specific trades and labor. Although they were legally divided, Andeans and Africans freely interacted and depended on each other in their daily lives. Thus, the caste system was defined at both the top and bottom of society. Within each caste, there were myriad subcategories that also determined one s standing. The imperial legal system also strictly delineated civil rights. Andeans were afforded greater protections as a threatened native population. Despite this, with the crown s approval during the rise of the sugar trade, Andeans were driven from their communal property and conscripted into a forced labor program. They soon rebelled, migrating away from the plantations to the highlands. Andeans worked as artisans, muleteers, and laborers for hire, and used their legal status as Indians to gain political representation. As slaves, Africans were subject to the judgments of local authorities, which nearly always sided with the slaveholder. Africans soon articulated a rhetoric of valuation, to protect themselves in disputes with their captors and in slave trading negotiations. To combat the ongoing diaspora from Africa, slaves developed strong kinship ties and offered communal support to the newly arrived. Bound Lives offers an entirely new perspective on racial identities in colonial Peru. It highlights the tenuous interactions of an imperial power, indigenous group, and enslaved population, and shows how each moved to establish its own power base and modify the existing system to its advantage, while also shaping the nature of colonialism itself."


Recent experimental measurements of nonlinear, multiple-pulse propagation are presented. Long atmospheric paths were simulated by laboratory scale instrumentation. Blooming was examined as a function of pulse overlap. Observed peak target intensities decreased as the pulse repetition frequency increased and as the effective transverse wind decreased. Theoretical predictions from two computer codes are shown to be consistent with the measurements. A significant fraction of the induced beam distortions were corrected by phase compensation with a deformable mirror.


One of the most prevalent online advertising methods is textual advertising. To produce a textual ad, an advertiser must craft a short creative (the text of the ad) linking to a landing page, which describes the product or service being promoted. Furthermore, the advertiser must associate the creative to a set of manually chosen bid phrases representing those Web search queries that should trigger the ad. For efficiency, given a landing page, the bid phrases are often chosen first, and then for each bid phrase the creative is produced using a template. Nevertheless, an ad campaign (e.g., for a large retailer) might involve thousands of landing pages and tens or hundreds of thousands of bid phrases, hence the entire process is very laborious.
 Our study aims towards the automatic construction of online ad campaigns: given a landing page, we propose several algorithmic methods to generate bid phrases suitable for the given input. Such phrases must be both relevant (that is, reflect the content of the page) and well-formed (that is, likely to be used as queries to a Web search engine). To this end, we use a two phase approach. First, candidate bid phrases are generated by a number of methods, including a (mono-lingual) translation model capable of generating phrases contained within the text of the input as well as previously "unseen" phrases. Second, the candidates are ranked in a probabilistic framework using both the translation model, which favors relevant phrases, as well as a bid phrase language model, which favors well-formed phrases.
 Empirical evaluation based on a real-life corpus of advertiser-created landing pages and associated bid phrases confirms the value of our approach, which successfully re-generates many of the human-crafted bid phrases and performs significantly better than a pure text extraction method.


Prototype single layer armour units on a breakwater slope are observed to break. To predict when breakage occurs, the objective of this research project is to obtain knowledge on, and measurements of the rocking behaviour and failure mode of single layer armour units. A single cube on a breakwater slope is subjected to investigations. An analysis of previously conducted research by CUR C70 reveals a number of important weak points. The first point is the assumption for the fixed number of 3 collisions per moving unit. The second point is the deployment of a one-directional accelerometer. Consequently, the impacts, which occurred in different directions relative to the orientation of the accelerometer, were not captured accurately. The third point is the exclusion of the wave steepness during tests for impact velocities. The outcome of the calculation by CUR C70 is largely dependent on the mentioned points. Therefore, it is chosen to take those points into account in the current research. Wave flume tests are conducted, in which a similar set-up as in the theoretical analysis is applied. This is chosen to have a better insight in the physical processes. The tested parameters is: degree of exposure of cube, wave height, wave steepness and position on slope in relation to the water level. It is chosen to measure the accelerations due to movement. A three-axis accelerometer, which is placed in the cube's centre, is applied during this Master's Thesis. Data processing shows that crosstalk occurs in two accelerometer axes. Therefore, only the accelerometer z-axis is processed. To come to the desired impact velocities, a synthetic model is used, which takes the time period of movement and the angle of the cube before and after movement as input values. Subsequently, the output is the angle of the cube in time. Differentiation of the angle in time results in the angular velocities, in which the impact velocity is taken to be equal to the occurring velocity before collision. Analysing the data shows that the number of collisions is dependent on the wave height, wave steepness, position on the slope and degree of exposure of the cube. Hence, an assumption for a fixed number of 3 collisions by CUR C70 is proven to be inaccurate. Therefore, it is recommended that the amount of collisions of a moving unit is regarded as a function that has dependencies on hydraulic and geometric conditions. For multiple conditions the number of collisions is observed to become very large and hence, concrete fatigue becomes important. Consequently, it is recommended to incorporate fatigue in the calculation procedure by CUR C70. Furthermore, it is concluded that the wave steepness is of influence for the probability distribution functions and hence, the exclusion of the wave steepness by CUR C70 is proven to be incorrect. The wave steepness should be included as a variable parameter in the probability distribution function for impact velocities. In addition, it is observed that the data is described best with a Weibull distribution, which is different from the exponential distribution obtained by CUR C70. However, the two distribution types are from the same family of distributions and hence, the differences between the distribution functions remain small. Next, it is clearly observed that the probability distribution is dependent on the type of movement and therefore, it is advised to consider multiple types of movement to find the governing impacts. Lastly, analysis shows that the analytical model overestimates the impact velocities and therefore, is too conservative. The assumptions made for the analytical model should be further investigated to derive a more accurate calculation method.


This study was carried out to investigate the effect of pistachio green hull extract (PGHE) on growth, survival rates, body composition and oxidative spoilage of common carp fillet. Three hundred fish (11.65 ± 1.65 g) were divided into five dietary treatments with three replications, including 0, 0.5, 1.5, 4.5 and 9 g PGHE kg−1 of diet. No significant difference were observed in specific growth rate, food conversion rate, weight gain percentage, survival rate and body composition (i.e. moisture, protein, lipid and ash) between different treatments. By increasing the level of PGHE, amount of phenolic compounds in fish meat was elevated whilst peroxide value was reduced. The amount of phenolic compounds in fish fillet was significantly lower (P < 0.05) in control treatment in comparison with other treatments. Peroxide content for 9 g PGHE kg−1 diet treatment (6.15 ± 0.79 meq peroxide kg−1 oil) was significantly (P < 0.05) lower than control group (18.82 ± 1.93 meq peroxide kg−1 oil). Regression analysis of peroxide value indicated that minimum peroxide value obtains in 1187 mg gallic acid kg−1 diet. This study indicated that ethanolic extract of Pistachia vera hull can be considered as a supplement in fish diet to delay oxidative spoilage of common carp fillet.


This chapter is concerned with estimation method for multidimensional and nonlinear dynamical models including stochastic differential equations containing random effects (random parameters). This type of model has proved useful for describing continuous random processes, for distinguishing intra- and interindividual variability as well as for accounting for uncertainty in the dynamic model itself. Pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic modeling often involves repeated measurements on a series of experimental units, and random effects are incorpo-rated into the model to simulate the individual behavior in the entire population. Unfortunately, the estimation of this kind of models could involve some difficulties, because in most cases, the transition density of the diffusion process given the random effects is not available. In this work, we focus on the approximation of the transition density of a such process in a closed form in order to obtain parameter estimates in this kind of model, using the Fokker-Planck equation and the Risken approximation. In addition, the chapter discusses a simulation study using Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation, to provide results of the proposed methodology and to illustrate an application of mixed effects models with SDEs in the epidemiology using the minimal model describing glucose-insulin kinetics.


This paper presents a new method for accurately determining all possible steady-state operating points of a switch-mode contactless power transfer (CPT) system. The method is based on a stroboscopic mapping model and accurate calculation of its fixed points corresponding to circuit zero current switching (ZCS) conditions. Four steady-state operating points are identified for, e.g., inductor-capacitor-inductor ( LCL)-type CPT system. Voltage and current waveforms and switching periods are determined. Parameter influences on ZCS periods are studied by bifurcation diagrams. Both PSpice simulation and experimental results have verified the proposed method. The results provide new opportunities for a practical CPT system to operate at different soft switching frequencies. The method is very useful for analyzing switch-mode resonant circuits and designing new power flow controllers.


This radical reevaluation of one of the foundational figures of semiotics presents Peirce as the theorist of the "machinery of talk" rather than of the mind and its contents. The book is a genealogy of Peirce's writings on signs that seeks to account for the changes displayed across forty years of his work. The author's comprehensive knowledge of Peirce's work brings an incisive understanding to his notoriously elaborate and complex theory of signs, at the same time challenging some standard readings in Peirce scholarship. Freadman introduces the postulate of "genre" in order to argue that the transformation of materials from one genre in and by the objectives of another can account for the modifications in sign theory observable through the course of Peirce's career. The Machinery of Talk engages on a theoretical level with general issues in semiotics, taking Peirce's writings as a case study through which to investigate the adequacy of a theory of signs to account for the way "talk" works. It finds that "the sign" is inadequate without the accompanying postulate of "genre."


We study the complexity of a set of design problems for optical networks. Under wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) technology, demands sharing a common fiber are transported on distinct wavelengths. Multiple fibers may be deployed on a physical link. Our basic goal is to design networks of minimum cost, minimum congestion and maximum throughput. This translates to three variants in the design objectives: 1) MlN-SUMFlBER: minimizing the total cost of fibers deployed to carry all demands; 2) MlN-MAXFlBER: minimizing the maximum number of fibers per link to carry all demands; and 3) MAX-THROUGHPUT: maximizing the carried demands using a given set of fibers. We also have two variants in the design constraints: 1) CHOOSEROUTE: Here we need to specify both a routing path and a wavelength for each demand; 2) FIXEDROUTE: Here we are given demand routes and we need to specify wavelengths only. The FIXEDROUTE variant allows us to study wavelength assignment in isolation. Combining these variants, we have six design problems. Previously we have shown that general instances of the problems MIN-SUMFIBER-CHOOSEROUTE and MIN-MAXFIBER-FIXEDROUTE have no constant-approximation algorithms. In this paper, we prove that a similar statement holds for all four other problems. Our main result shows that MIN-SUMFIBER-FIXEDROUTE cannot be approximated within any constant factor unless NP-hard problems have efficient algorithms. This, together with the previous hardness result of MIN-MAXFIBER-FIXEDROUTE, shows that the problem of wavelength assignment is inherently hard by itself. We also study the complexity of problems that arise when multiple demands can be time-multiplexed onto a single wavelength (as in time-domain wavelength interleaved networking (TWIN) networks) and when wavelength converters can be placed along the path of a demand.


This article moves beyond the boundaries that limit counterterrorism discourse and practice to present a more comprehensive approach. In a world where distinctions are blurring between internal and external security, international and domestic jurisdictions, and state and non-state actors, it is important to cast our eyes wide in developing an effective approach to counterterrorism that can apply across a broad variety of policy domains and can outlive the electoral horizon of individual governments. A discussion of five approaches to counterterrorism leads to the identification of thirteen different models which, taken together, can point the way towards a comprehensive approach.


BACKGROUND
Given the limited state of health care resources, increased demand for colorectal cancer (CRC) screening raises concerns about the quality of endoscopy services. Little is known about quality in colonoscopy and endoscopy from the patient perspective.

OBJECTIVE
To systematically review the literature on quality that is relevant to patients who require colonoscopy or endoscopy services.

METHODS
A systematic PubMed search was performed on articles that were published between January 2000 and February 2011. Keywords included "colonoscopy" or "sigmoidoscopy" or "endoscopy" AND "quality"; "colonoscopy" or "sigmoidoscopy" or "endoscopy" AND "patient satisfaction" or "willingness to return". The included articles were qualitative and quantitative English language studies regarding aspects of colonoscopy and⁄or endoscopy services that were evaluated by patients in which data were collected within one year of the colonoscopy⁄endoscopy procedure.

RESULTS
In total, 28 quantitative studies were identified, of which eight (28.6%) met the inclusion criteria (four cross-sectional, three prospective cohort and one single-blinded controlled study). Aspects of quality included comfort, management of pain and anxiety, endoscopy unit staff manner, skills and specialty, procedure and results discussion with the doctor, physical environment, wait times for the appointment and procedure, and discharge. Qualitative studies eliciting the patient perspective on what constituted quality in colonoscopy⁄endoscopy were not found.

CONCLUSIONS
Factors related to comfort, staff, communication and the service environment were evaluated from the patient perspective using closed-ended questions that were designed by clinicians and researchers. Future research using qualitative methodology to elicit the patient perspective on quality in colonoscopy and⁄or endoscopy services is needed.


Pedestrian facilities are more and more congested. It is important to understand the modeling of pedestrian flows to assure safety and comfort. Many models have already been developed such as the social force modle and PedCTM. The problem is that either they allow for population heterogeneity or they are fast. The goal of this project is to implement a new model that has both of these characteristics. The new model presented here is fast due to the use of a fundamental diagram. The anisotropy of this model comes from a new formulation of a fundamental diagram based on the literature, SbFD. This project gives a summary of the model and presents the new fundamental diagram. It also compares this fundamental diagram to the state-of-the-practice, Weidmann (1992). The different parameters of the model and the fundamental diagrams are calibrated using the simu- lated annealing algorithm. Finally, a case study analysis on two set of experimental data is done to compare the performance of the fundamental diagrams.


We investigate methods to adapt translation models in SMT to a specific target domain. We discuss two major problems, unknown words because of data sparseness in the (in-domain) training data, and ambiguities arising from out-of-domain parallel texts with different domain-specific translations. We propose novel solutions to both problems.
The main contributions of this thesis are as follows:
* We present a novel translation model architecture that supports domain adaptation at decoding time from a vector of component models. The combination is implemented through instance weighting, and all statistics necessary for the computation of translation probabilities are stored in the models.
* We present an architecture to combine multiple MT systems, using techniques and ideas from domain adaptation. The hypotheses by external MT systems are treated as out-of-domain knowledge, and combined with in-domain data through instance weighting.
* We introduce a sentence alignment algorithm that is able to robustly align even noisy parallel texts. We found that higher-quality sentence alignment of the in-domain parallel text has a significant effect on translation quality in our target domain.
* We propose new translation model features that express how flexible, or general, translation units are, in order to prevent translations that only occur in the context of multiword expressions from being overgeneralised.


Bioweapons deliberately spread to humans and animals is one of the most complex and intersectoral CBRNE threats. It requires multi-sectoral collaboration between law enforcement, public and animal health and in severe cases civil-military collaboration. By building a collaborative management culture between these sectors, through joint education, training and exercise activities, better methods and tools will be obtained in order to reach interoperability and an integrated preparedness approach. Lessons learned and experiences from previous projects, courses, workshops, and simulation exercises require a rationale knowledge transfer. Horison scanning is one example of a method that can be recommended to educate strategic analysts jointly from various sectors and the "Decision Theater" is a dynamic and flexible tool that is useful to train decision makers to examine complex bio-agro defense and biosecurity problems.


ABSTRACT Commercially available adsorption cooling systems use water/silica gel, water/zeolite and ammonia/ chloride salts working pairs. The water-based pairs are limited to work above 0°C due to the water high freezing temperature, while ammonia has the disadvantage of being toxic. Ethanol is a promising refrigerant due to its low freezing point (161 K), nontoxicity, zero ozone depletion, and low global warming potential. Activated carbon (AC) is a porous material with high degree of porosity (500–3000 m2/g) that has been used in wide range of applications. Using Dynamic Vapour Sorption (DVS) test facility, this work characterizes the ethanol adsorption of eleven commercially available activated carbon materials for cooling at low temperature of −15°C. DVS adsorption results show that Maxsorb has the best performance in terms of ethanol uptake and adsorption kinetics compared to the other tested materials. The Maxsorb/ethanol adsorption process has been numerically modeled using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and simulation results are validated using the DVS experimental measurements. The validated CFD simulation of the adsorption process is used to predict the effects of adsorbent layer thickness and packing density on cycle uptake for evaporating temperature of −15°C. Simulation results show that as the thickness of the Maxsorb adsorbent layer increases, its uptake decreases. As for the packing density, the amount of ethanol adsorbed per plate increases with the packing density reaching maximum at 750 kg/m3. This work shows the potential of using Maxsorb/ethanol in producing low temperature cooling down to −15°C with specific cooling energy reaching 400 kJ/kg.


In this paper, a method is presented which allows abnormal or unexpected operating conditions to be identified from measured response data. Potential applications of such a technique cover a wide range of engineering situations where a definite, early warning of an abnormal state is essential, but where classification of the particular abnormality is of lesser importance. In the technique described, unexpected operating conditions are identified by the presence of measured data which are significantly different from those known to correspond to normal operating conditions or responses. The proposed approach to the detection of such novel data is based upon probability density function (PDF) estimation using a kernel method. The theory behind this approach is presented for the multivariate case, and the need for data pre-processing in practical applications of PDF estimation is highlighted. The kernel method is demonstrated on simulated data sets. Finally, vibration response data from an electric motor with three levels of phase imbalance are used to illustrate the application of the PDF estimation method to the detection of abnormal conditions. The proposed method yields a clear indication of the existence of a fault in the AC motor, with no prior knowledge of the particular fault state.


ABSTRACT Child sexual abuse (CSA) is a general term describing a wide range of events that vary in characteristics such as the victim's age of onset, relationship to the perpetrator, abuse quantity, degree of contact, and use of force. To investigate correlations and provide information on the clustering of these characteristics, the present meta-analysis included data from 14,494 sexually abused individuals from 62 empirical peer-reviewed studies and doctoral theses. The results showed that victims of intrafamilial abuse were younger than victims of extrafamilial abuse. More force was used in abuse including higher degrees of physical contact. Intrafamilial abuse and early onset of abuse showed no statistically significant associations with either use of force or closer physical contact. Abuse was more frequent and/or committed over a longer time period when it (a) featured more contact or force, (b) involved a relative as a perpetrator, or (c) commenced when the child was younger. The associations were weak to moderate in strength.


Background: Asian/Paci�c Islander (API) communities in the United States often reside in metropolitan areas with distinct social and environmental attributes. Residence in an ethnic enclave, a socially distinct area, is associated with lower gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) risk, yet exposure to high levels of air pollution, including volatile organic compounds (VOCS), is associated with increased GDM risk. We examined the joint effects of ethnic enclaves and VOCs to better understand GDM risk among API women, the group with the highest prevalence of GDM. Methods: We examined 9,069 API births in the Consortium on Safe Labor (19 hospitals, 2002-2008). API ethnic enclaves were de�ned as areas ≥ 66 th percentile for percent API residents, dissimilarity (geographic dispersal of API and White residents), and isolation (degree that API individuals interact with another API individual). High levels of 14 volatile organic compounds (VOC) were de�ned as ≥ 75 th percentile. Four joint categories were created for each VOC: Low VOC/Enclave (reference group), Low VOC/No Enclave, High VOC/Enclave, High VOC/No Enclave. GDM was reported in medical records. Hierarchical logistic regression estimated odds ratios (OR) and 95% con�dence intervals (95%CI) between joint exposures and GDM, adjusted for maternal factors and area-level poverty. Risk was estimated for 3-months preconception and �rst trimester exposures. Results: Enclave residence was associated with lower GDM risk regardless of VOC exposure. Preconception benzene exposure was associated with increased risk when women resided outside enclaves [High VOC/No Enclave (OR:3.45, 95%CI:1.77,6.72)], and the effect was somewhat mitigated within enclaves, [High VOC/Enclave (OR:2.07, 95%:1.09,3.94)]. Risks were similar for 12 of 14 VOCs during preconception and 10 of 14 during the �rst trimester. Conclusions: API residence in non-enclave areas is associated with higher GDM risk, regardless of VOC level. Ethnic enclave residence may mitigate effects of VOC exposure, perhaps due to lower stress levels. The potential bene�t


To meet the explosive demand on delivering high-definition video steams over cellular networks, we design a Social-aware video multiCast (SoCast) system leveraging device-to-device (D2D) communications. One salient feature of SoCast is to stimulate effective cooperation among mobile users (clients), by making use of two types of important social ties, i.e., social trust and social reciprocity. By using SoCast, clients form groups to obtain missing packets from other clients and restore incomplete video frames, according to the unique video encoding structure. In return, the user perception of the mobile video quality can be substantially improved. Specifically, we first cast the problem of social ties based group formation among clients for cooperative video multicast as a coalitional game, and then devise a distributed algorithm to obtain the core solution (group formation) for the formulated coalitional game. Further, a resource allocation scheme is proposed for the base station to handle D2D radio resource requests from client groups. Extensive numerical studies using real video traces corroborate the significant gain using SoCast.


After reviewing the central strategies of psychoanalytic literary criticism, this paper engages in a detailed textual analysis of the German language of Kafka's "Metamorphosis," showing how the language of the story reveals unconscious fantasies about the body and about family relationships based on identifications. The true depth of Kafka's vision emerges from the analysis. keywords: Kafka, psychoanalysis, "Metamorphosis," literary criticism, Freud, identification url: http://www.clas.ufl.edu/ipsa/journal/2008_silhol01.shtml One cannot say, at least at first, why one does what one does, but it seems to me that what attracted me at the beginning in Kafka's story « The Metamorphosis » was its title, the idea of a transformation. Originally, then, my intention was to show how the structure of the metaphor which, as we know, is the structure of discourse, also corresponded to what happens when we imagine a story, exactly, by the way, as when we dream. Such was one aspect of my « response » and it is not at all impossible that what I called my original intention to deal with structure was only an excuse, a defence, in front of this tale of horror, something like a screen which would provide me with a reason to remain at a safe distance from what I was reading. That there were other, more secret, reasons for my choice is possible, but this can only come to light as I proceed with my analysis-pun intended-of Kafka's tale of imagination. This is how psychoanalytical research into discourse always proceeds : from the desire of the analyst to a possible corroboration of his or her insights. Hypothesis and verification in fact, and this story of the transformation of a man into an insect (1) turned out to be so rich in symbolism-and even in what we can call « elementary symbolism » -that hypotheses were not too difficult to make. Thus did I feel I must delay my demonstration about structure and concentrate on contents instead. That this may have been a second line of defence is possible-the « clinical » study of signs being another way of detaching oneself from the original impression the text had had on me when first read-but it also constituted the necessary condition of a psychoanalytical study of the story. At this point, clearly, a debate on what differentiates analysis from reading is in order. One of the tasks of the analyst-who knows, naturally, that reading, his first encounter with the text, precedes analysis-is to insist on this distinction, and this quite simply because the very function of discourse is to make us forget its hallucinatory nature. It follows that it cannot be said that the analytic enterprise is oblivious of the literary dimension of Kafka's writing precisely because reading and analysis do not have the same object ; whereas literature cannot « function » without a « suspension of disbelief,» the aim of psychoanalysis is to look into, or even beyond, the hallucinatory nature of discourse. The enterprise may seem to disregard the literary dimension of Kakfa's writing and appear to amount to a reduction of its status to that of a clinical case but, again, psychoanalytic criticism does not deprive the reader of the emotions that go with reading and in no way ignores the emotional potential of the text (which by the way depends on the reader's ability to be moved), because an emotion can only take place if, as a reader, I remain unaware of what precisely constitutes it. Whatever the complexity of the object considered and my involvement in it, I should be careful to distinguish, at least theoretically, what happens when I read, or dream, and what takes place, afterwards, when I analyse my response or my dream. Only at the price of such a distinction shall Freud's teachings make sense at all. The « objectivity » of psychoanalytic discourse is never more than relative, we know this, but it does nevertheless represent a progress in knowledge if always asymptotic. Keeping in mind Freud's initial invention of the concept of « unconscious, » therefore, his discovery of the simple Cs/Ucs structure (which leads to the structure of the metaphor), I shall however begin by looking at the symbolical dimension-dimensions-of Kafka's tale. …


This paper presents updated information about crime and violence in Belize, and about current and recent initiatives that address these issues, with an emphasis on youth and on Southside Belize City. The findings complement the 2013 IDB
Technical Note on citizen security in Belize and the analysis of the completed Community Action for Public Safety Program (CAPS). The report reviews factors contributing to crime and violence in Belize, and then identifies opportunities to consolidate progress and gaps in services. It makes recommendations for future programs, including a potential second phase of CAPS. The first key area is in juvenile justice: diverting more youth away from the criminal justice system and expanding mental health and foster care resources. The second key area is at the community level: further integrating social services and violence prevention efforts for families in Southside. The hardest-to-reach youth groups who are gang-involved are a priority, and strengthening targeted interventions for them, including conflict mediation, could make a difference. Third, it is important to apply a gender lens to this sector, notably by building gender-disaggregated data and addressing masculinity issues. For monitoring and evaluating interventions, new indicators -in addition to crime and recidivism rates-will help to create a more comprehensive picture of change.


High quality is considered to be important for children's development and learning in early childhood education. Swedish preschool teachers are required to systematically develop their practice and support children's learning, using documentation and taking children's interests into account. From a posthumanist perspective, preschool documentation, models and templates could be seen as actively producing certain elements of quality. Reading documentation from eight Swedish preschool groups diffractively through different texts, such as the national curriculum, supportive texts and research, this article discusses how teachers' actions and children's interests are produced as important quality aspects in one of these groups.


This article ties the expansion of the Mediterranean and Catalan prosperity to the growth, the changes and the maturing of the society in all aspects (politically, socially, culturally...) Two of the groups that illustrate the growth well and the changes that were taking place in Barcelona society are the craftsmen and craftswomen, liberal professionals and the merchants. The article relates the changes of the XIVth Century to the increase of the capacity to read and write of the men and women of these social groups. The books of accounts of two members of a Barcelona family of merchants and ships's copyist of the XIVth Century, the Tarasco, are the testimony of the extension of "a functional" literacy, limited and closely together with the profession, work and religious practice. These and other private sources allow for the appreciation of the diffusion of writing. The people of the world of commerce and the sea are very conscious of the decisive value of writing not only for their professional activity, but also because it allows them to make note of, in order to be able, later on, to remember: desires, interests and preoccupations. The article, finally, offers a hypothesis of documentary genesis of books of mercantile accounts.


Abravmovi's remarkable career as one of her generation's most challenging performance artists, has paved the way for younger artists who are interested in this complex and often radical art form. Lately Abramovi has turned her attention to exploring ways to encapsulate the art form after the performance is physically completed. This project explores the diversity of contemporary performance art through the works of exciting new artists from around the world. Their use of storytelling, virtual worlds, audience participation, sound, and the body are documented in this illustrated volume. An interview by Hans Ulrich Obrist with Abramovi outlines the challenges and goals of her new project while essays by leading curators in the field of performance art explore methods for preserving this unique art form, and brief profiles of each of the artists introduce readers to a new generation of challenging and innovative performance artists.


This paper presents a framework for real-time concealed weapon detection (CWD) on 3D radar images for walk-through screening systems. The walk-through screening system aims to ensure security in crowded areas by performing CWD on walking persons, hence it requires an accurate and real-time detection approach. To ensure accuracy, a weapon needs to be detected irrespective of its 3D orientation, thus we use the 3D radar images as detection input. For achieving real-time, we reformulate classic U-Net based segmentation networks to perform 3D detection tasks. Our 3D segmentation network predicts peak-shaped probability map, instead of voxel-wise masks, to enable position inference by elementary peak detection operation on the predicted map. In the peak-shaped probability map, the peak marks the weapon's position. So, weapon detection task translates to peak detection on the probability map. A Gaussian function is used to model weapons in the probability map. We experimentally validate our approach on realistic 3D radar images obtained from a walk-through weapon screening system prototype. Extensive ablation studies verify the effectiveness of our proposed approach over existing conventional approaches. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed approach can perform accurate and real-time CWD, thus making it suitable for practical applications of walk-through screening.


A PV tracker system is a solution one of those methods able to increase the PV power generation. Theoretical, a PV tracker system with two-axis, can increase the overall solar energy capture about 45%, compared to a fixed PV module tilted at an angle equal to the local latitude. An one-axis tracking system, the increase is aproximately 32%. In this paper, we design and implement a two-axis tracking system of photovoltaic (PV) systems, who follows the maximum power point (MPP) using a programmable circuit XILINX type Complex Programmable Logic Device- CPLD and Xilinx ISE software. Thus, PV module will reach its MPP in relation date and time of the day. The test bed relies on an algorithm integrated in the XILINX who has as inputs: date, location s latitude and longitude, the standard longitude (related to the location s position in relation with Greenwich), and the number the positions of the Sun s path. To establish the position of the panel in a time of day value is determined by the following calculations: the angle of the day, correction factor of Earth s orbit, the solar declination angle, the equation of time in minutes, eastern time using latitude angle, the number of hours the Sun shines using angle eastern time, time the Sun sets, vectors containing the coordinates of the positions of the Sun (in this case 10 positions) during the day and azimuth angle.


This project aims to develop efficient and robust tools for optimal design of wind turbine adaptive blades. In general, wind turbine adaptive blade design is an aero-structure coupled design process, in which, the evaluation of aerodynamic performance cannot be carried out precisely without structural deformation analysis of the adaptive blade. However, employing finite element analysis (FEA) based structural analysis commercial packages as part of the aerodynamic objective evaluation process has been proven time consuming and it results in inefficient and redundant design optimisation of adaptive blades caused by elastic-coupled (bend-twist or stretch-twist) iteration. In order to achieve the goal of wind turbine adaptive blade integrated design and analysis, this project is carried out from three aspects. Firstly, a general geometrically linear model for thin-walled composite beams with multi-cell, non-uniform cross-section and arbitrary lay-ups under various types of loadings is developed for implementing structural deformation analysis. After that, this model is validated by a simple box-beam, single- and multi-cell wind turbine blades. Through validation, it denotes that this thin-walled composite beam model is efficient and accurate for predicting the structural deformations compared to FEA based commercial packages (ANSYS). This developed beam model thus provides more probabilities for further investigations of dynamic performance of adaptive blades. Secondly in order to investigate the effects of aero elastic tailoring and implanting elastic coupling on aerodynamic performance of adaptive blades, auxiliary software tools with graphical interfaces are developed via MATLAB codes. Structural/material characteristics and configurations of adaptive blades (i.e. elastic coupling topology, layup configuration and material properties of blade) are defined by these auxiliary software tools. By interfacing these software tools to the structural analysers based on the developed thin-walled composite beam model to an aerodynamic performance evaluator, an integrated design environment is developed. Lastly, by using the developed thin-walled composite beam model as a search platform, the application of the decoupled design method, a method of design of smart aero-structures based on the concept of variable state design parameter, is also extended.


We present the analysis of the thermal conductivity, κ, and heat capacity, Cp, of a wide variety of liquids, covering organic molecular solvents, ionic liquids and water-polymer mixtures. These data were obtained from ≈0.6 μL samples, using an experimental development based on the 3ω method, capable of the simultaneous measurement of κ and Cp. In spite of the different type and strength of interactions, expected in a priori so different systems, the ratio of κ to the sound velocity is approximately constant for all of them. This is the consequence of a similar atomic density for all these liquids, notwithstanding their different molecular structures. This was corroborated experimentally by the observation of a Cp/V ≈ 1.89 × 106 J K-1 m-3 (≈3R/2 per atom), for all liquids studied in this work. Finally, the very small volume of the sample required in this experimental method is an important advantage for the characterization of systems like nanofluids, in which having a large amount of the dispersed phase is sometimes extremely challenging.

publisher-specific, author manuscript: http://rsc.li/journals-terms-of-use


We present a flexible approach to generate arbitrary vector beams with a trapezoid Sagnac interferometer. With the interferometer, the different orders of two orthogonally polarized beams from computer-generated holograms coincide with each other in Fourier spectrum domain, and coaxially combine into the vector beams. This approach provides convenient way to experimentally study the properties of vector beams with complex polarization.


Bots for Real Time Strategy (RTS) games are challenging to implement. A bot controls a number of units that may have to navigate in a partially unknown environment, while at the same time search for enemies and coordinate attacks to fight them down. Potential fields is a technique originating from the area of robotics where it is used in controlling the navigation of robots in dynamic environments. We show that the use of potential fields for implementing a bot for a real time strategy game gives us a very competitive, configurable, and non-conventional solution.


There is increasing evidence that tax credits for college do not affect college enrollment. This may be because prospective students do not know about tax benefits for credits or because the design of tax credits is not conducive to affecting educational outcomes. We focus on changing the salience of tax benefits by providing information about tax benefits for college using a sample of over 1 million students or prospective students in Texas. We sent emails and letters to students that described tax benefits for college and tracked college outcomes. For all three of our samples – rising high school seniors, already enrolled students, and students who had previously applied to college but were not currently enrolled – information about tax benefits for college did not affect enrollment or reenrollment. We test whether effects vary according to information frames and found that no treatment arms changed student outcomes. We conclude that salience is not the primary reason that tax credits for college do not affect enrollment.


Objective:Prediction of clinical outcome after cardiac arrest is clinically important. While the potential of circulating microRNAs as biomarkers of acute coronary syndromes is an active field of investigation, it is unknown whether microRNAs are associated with outcome in cardiac arrest patients. Design:Prospective, single-center proof-of-concept study. Setting:Eighteen-bed adult general intensive care unit of an academic tertiary care hospital in Luxembourg. Patients:Twenty-eight patients with cardiac arrest treated by therapeutic hypothermia after cardiac resuscitation were enrolled. Measurements and Main Results:Blood samples were obtained at 48 hrs after cardiac arrest for the determination of microRNA levels and neuron-specific enolase. Neurological outcome was determined by the cerebral performance category at discharge from the intensive care unit and at 6-month follow-up. Analysis of microRNA arrays and quantitative assessment by polymerase chain reaction identified two microRNAs, miR-122 and miR-21, overexpressed in patients with poor neurological outcome (cerebral performance category 3–5, n = 14) compared to patients with favorable neurological outcome (cerebral performance category 1–2, n = 14) (48-fold and three-fold, respectively). In vitro experiments showed that both miR-122 and miR-21 are produced by neuronal cells, indicating that the elevation of circulating levels of these microRNAs after cardiac arrest may reflect brain damage. miR-122 and miR-21 predicted neurological outcome with areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve of 0.73 and 0.77, respectively. Patients within the highest third of miR-122 or miR-21 values had elevated mortality rate (p = .02). Neuron-specific enolase was an accurate predictor of neurological outcome (areas under the receiver operating characteristic curve = 0.98) and mortality (p < .001). MicroRNA levels were not associated with myocardial damage or activation of inflammation. Conclusions:As compared to neuron-specific enolase, circulating microRNAs are modest but significant predictors of neurological outcome and mortality in this small group of patients with cardiac arrest. This motivates assessing the prognostic value of microRNAs in larger cohorts of cardiac arrest patients.


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between Functional Movement Screentm (FMS) scores, injury rate, and performance in collegiate track and field athletes. Methods: Forty seven male (n=17) and female (n=30) competitive track and field athletes at an NCAA Division I university volunteered for this study. As part of their regular team assessment, the athletes were evaluated on three separate occasions using the FMS tool: in August, one week prior to the start of university organized practice for the fall (T1); in December, one week prior to the end of the fall academic semester (T2); and in March, the week following the conclusion of the indoor competition season (T3). The FMS consists of the performance of seven fundamental movement patterns that are evaluated and scored by a trained professional. For each time point, athletes were divided into two categories based on total FMS score (≤14 and ≥15). Throughout the competitive season, injuries were tracked and categorized as either mild (no loss of practice or competition time) or moderate/severe (loss of practice or competition time). As part of an ongoing injury prevention program, athletes performed generalized corrective exercises for 15 min 2-3 times per week. The performance in the last event of the season (conference meet) was also recorded. Results: Average FMS scores significantly (p<0.05) decreased across the three time points (Mean ± SD, T1: 15.5 ± 2.2, T2: 14.9 ± 1.8, T3: 14.7 ± 1.6) despite that generalized corrective exercises were performed. Analyses of results found no association between FMS scores and likelihood to sustain a moderate/severe injury. Athletes with a score of ≤14 on the FMS at T1 were 3.1 times more likely not to place in the top 8 at the conference meet. 53% of the athletes who had a score of ≥15 at T1 placed in the top 8 at the meet while only 27% of athletes with a score of ≤14 at T1 placed in the top 8 at the meet. Conclusion: FMS scores ≤14 indicate reduced performance ability but not increased likelihood of injury in track and field athletes.


In our previous study, two salt- and drought-tolerant genotypes and two sensitive genotypes were selected according to the growth parameters measured. The aim of present study was to determine the activity of antioxidative stress enzymes in some salt- and drought-sensitive and salt- and drought-tolerant melon cultivars grown in in vitro culture under salt and drought stress conditions. Besides to determine out whether in vitro callus culture can be used as a screening method under salt and drought stresses in a melon screening study. In this study, the magnitude of cell wall damage (lipid peroxidation) was lower in the tolerant genotypes than in the sensitive ones. The amount of lipid peroxidation was higher in the salt-stressed seedlings than in those that were drought-stressed. In this study, antioxidant enzyme (superoxide dismutase, catalase, ascorbate peroxidase, and glutathione reductase) activities were investigated in the callus tissues of four melon genotypes under salt and drought stress. The antioxidant enzyme activities showed differences among melon genotypes.


This article compares and contrasts the growth of Chinese and Korean multinational enterprises (MNEs). The article identifies the similarities and differences between Chinese and Korean MNEs in terms of motivations for internationalization, expansion strategies, and paths. The goal of this article is to contribute to the literature by shifting focus on host-country conditions to home-country conditions in explaining the drivers for firms' internationalization. We conclude that firms are motivated to expand abroad when faced with domestic competitive disadvantages resulting from absence or deficiency of one or more of Porter's Diamond attributes in their domestic market. Implications for further studies are also explored.


Generation of 2 μW continuous-wave (CW)-terahertz (THz) radiation at 1.2 THz using a large-area photomixer with interdigitated electrodes is reported. The structure of the utilized photomixer allows for unidirectional carrier acceleration over the illuminated areas. We determine the characteristics of the generated CW-THz beam and show that the divergence of this beam is dependent on the spot size of the pump beams focused on the large-area photomixer. An illuminated area with dimensions much larger than the THz wavelength helps to eliminate the focusing optics for the THz beam. Additionally, we demonstrate that the THz beam radiated from the large-area photomixer is steerable by changing the incidence angles of the CW laser beams, as a result of which the phase distribution of the photocurrent along the contact stripes varies. In our experimental setup, the generated THz beam is steerable in the range of −30 to +30 degrees.


The study is the first in Sub-Saharan Africa to use the aligned effects of IMO/MO to determine their relationship with employee/customer satisfaction in the financial services industry. The pioneering studies of Lings and Greenley on internal market orientation (IMO) in the 2000s and that of Kohli and Jaworski experience enormous investigation empirically. Although some reasonable amount of studies on the above constructs have been undertaken within the newly developed and developing economies, there have been little attempt at exploring the alignment of the two concepts, in terms of their relationship with organizational performance, particularly in the services sector. To address this research gap, a multidimensional construct describing the five managerial behaviours associated with internal marketing conceptualized as IMO in alignment with market orientation (MO) has been tested to see how their integration relates with employee/customer satisfaction. The first stage involved a qualitative study to gain a deeper and better understanding of the IMO/MO constructs and their implementation in the commercial and universal banking sector in Ghana. The qualitative research findings independently established a strong association between IMO/MO and employee/customer satisfaction. The second stage employed a survey to test a conceptual framework based on the IMO/MO constructs using hypotheses formulated based on reviewed literature. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) and structural equation modeling (SEM) were employed to analyse the survey responses. The model demonstrated a good fit to the data in terms of face and content validity; convergent, discriminant and nomological validity; reliability and stability; and showing improvement to existing scales. A major contribution of this research was the use of a robust model that explained the application of the five dimensions of the IMO construct and their effect on employee in-role behaviour (IRB) to impact employee satisfaction within the Ghanaian banking sector. These findings were not totally consistent with various previous research works in the IMO literature. However, employee in-role behaviour (IRB) has been seen to drive market orientation, and market orientation has been established as a key driver of performance in terms of customer value and satisfaction. These findings are in support of established theoretical positions in the MO literature. Another contribution of the study to knowledge in managerial decision making is that, a better understanding and implementation of the IMO construct in the strategic planning efforts of the banks and subsequent employment in their business processes, and activities will positively affect employee job satisfaction. Effective staff commitment to duty will drive the banks' prospects to exploit the vast opportunities in financial intermediation driven by liberalization and deepening of Ghana's economic development and growth in higher levels of savings, investment, production and poverty alleviation. Again, positive in-role behaviours of the banks' managers will affect their commitment to their subordinates in their work roles, and this will increase the responsiveness of staff to customers' needs and wants. This process will create trust among customers to their banks to accept formal banking as a good, safe, convenient and rewarding experience.


Specialized drug treatment courts have become a popular alternative to more punitive approaches to the "war on drugs," with nearly 2,000 such courts now established across the United States. One source of their appeal is the belief that they will ameliorate the dramatic racial disparities in the nation's prison population - disparities that result in large measure from the long sentences handed out for some drug crimes in conventional criminal courts. However, experience has shown that drug courts are not a "do-no-harm" innovation. Drug courts can produce both winners and losers when compared to conventional court processing, and there are good reasons to suspect that black defendants are considerably less likely to benefit from the implementation of a drug court than white defendants. As a result, drug courts may actually exacerbate, rather than ameliorate, racial disparities in the incarceration rate for drug crimes. Thus, the concerns of inner-city minority communities with the war on drugs may be better addressed through a different sort of innovation: a specialized restorative justice program for drug offenders. Although treatment may be part of such a program, the real centerpiece is the "community conferencing" process, which involves mediated dialogue and collective problem-solving involving drug offenders and community representatives. Where the drug treatment court gives a dominant role to criminal justice and therapeutic professionals, the community conferencing approach empowers lay community representatives, and is thereby capable of addressing some of the social capital deficits in inner-city minority communities that are associated with the war on drugs.


The newly established Swedish Apheresis Registry makes it possible to do national inter-center comparisons. This study was undertaken to describe and analyze the use of therapeutic apheresis and the adverse effects in such therapy. The special case of plasma exchange as rescue therapy in multi-organ failure, including renal failure, was also studied. In Sweden, plasma for transfusion is prepared and stored to ensure rapid availability. Due to new EU legislation, validation of such plasma was performed. The analysis indicated that the use of therapeutic apheresis was in line with recommendations of other international societies. The frequency and types of adverse effects were comparable to those reported in other studies from analogous time periods. Compared with other countries, it appears that more therapeutic resources are available in Sweden and that there is a lower frequency of adverse effects in specific procedures. No fatalities were reported. The unique comparison of differences between centers regarding plasma exchange identified areas for further improvement.The study on plasma exchange as rescue therapy in severe sepsis or septic shock is the second largest reported. The result was promising, with a survival rate of 82%. The rapid availability of plasma for transfusion appears to be of clinical importance in patients with early coagulopathy and severe trauma but the present selection and storage procedures for plasma lead to a time-dependent increase of the number of units with cold-induced activation of the contact system and C1 inhibitor consumption before day 14. Improvements of plasma quality can be attained by using plasma from male donors only and by reducing the storage time from 14 to 7 days. Further studies are needed to define the role of plasma exchange in severe sepsis/septic shock, to evaluate the outcome of each patient's treatment and to establish the indications for the transfusion of plasma.


This study draws on achievement goal theory and self-determination theory to examine the associations among two motivational climates (i.e., mastery and performance) and two indicators of energy at work (i.e., vigor and emotional exhaustion), as well as the mediating role of basic psychological need satisfaction (i.e., autonomy, relatedness, and competence). A two-wave longitudinal study was conducted collecting data from 1,081 engineers and technologists. We applied previously validated instruments to assess the variables of interest. Structural equation modeling analyses were conducted to test the hypotheses. Our findings show that mastery climate is positively and significantly related to each of the three basic needs, whereas a performance climate is negatively and significantly related to each of the three basic needs. Further, the results indicate that the basic needs are significantly associated with both measures of energy, negatively with emotional exhaustion and positively with vigor. This pattern of results suggests that basic psychological need satisfaction mediates the relationship between motivational climates and energy at work.


We describe a novel interface for presenting interactive content on public digital bulletin boards. Inspired by paper fliers on physical bulletin boards, posted content is displayed using 3D virtual fliers attached to a virtual corkboard by virtual pushpins. Fliers appear in different orientations, creating an attractive, informal look, and have autonomous behaviors like fluttering in the wind. Passersby can rotate, move and fold fliers; they can also interact with fliers' live content. Flier content is streamed from a server and represented by the system on large screen displays using a real-time cloth simulation algorithm. We describe our prototype, and offer the results of an initial evaluative user study.


The US balance of payments current account deficit is in excess of 5 per cent of GDP. Is this sustainable? A loss of confidence in the dollar could lead to foreign investors selling dollars and to a sharp dollar devaluation. In principle, there could be a dollar crisis. But how likely is it? This paper investigates the extent to which the situation in the mid 2000s mirrors that at the time of the last dollar crisis in 1971. It also examines the causes of the contemporary US current account deficit and the factors determining its sustainability. It goes on to discuss the need for policy action both within the US and in the rest of the world to minimize the risks of a dollar crisis that could have serious implications for the global economy.


This paper introduces Associative Compression Networks (ACNs), a new framework for variational autoencoding with neural networks. The system differs from existing variational autoencoders (VAEs) in that the prior distribution used to model each code is conditioned on a similar code from the dataset. In compression terms this equates to sequentially transmitting the dataset using an ordering determined by proximity in latent space. Since the prior need only account for local, rather than global variations in the latent space, the coding cost is greatly reduced, leading to rich, informative codes. Crucially, the codes remain informative when powerful, autoregressive decoders are used, which we argue is fundamentally difficult with normal VAEs. Experimental results on MNIST, CIFAR-10, ImageNet and CelebA show that ACNs discover high-level latent features such as object class, writing style, pose and facial expression, which can be used to cluster and classify the data, as well as to generate diverse and convincing samples. We conclude that ACNs are a promising new direction for representation learning: one that steps away from IID modelling, and towards learning a structured description of the dataset as a whole.


Based on an in-depth case study of a rural community, this paper documents the contemporary state of Chinese smallholder agriculture and the changes that it has been experiencing in the context of dramatic socio-economic transition through the lens of three main economic drivers: livelihood diversification, market conditions and government interventions. Results reveal that the change in Chinese smallholder agriculture has been complex and multidimensional. All three factors exert profound influence and shape the current state of Chinese agriculture. Massive rural-urban migration has resulted in labour shortages, which in turn have led to a reduction in agricultural diversity and land use intensity and a shift from traditional labour-intensive technologies to modern capital-intensive technologies. However, because of well-developed agricultural markets, input use levels are similar across farmer categories (such as income diversification), helping to maintain productivity. Furthermore, reduced profits from farming due to increasing input prices and decreasing output prices have exerted pressure on smallholders to increasingly turn to nonfarm activities and have also triggered a thriving informal land transfer market, which was previously non-existent. Policy implications include the need to strengthen local economies, improve market conditions, invest in rural infrastructures and facilitate smallholders' mobility.


Environmental management frameworks (EMFs) were developed in South Africa as strategic environmental management instruments to map environmental sensitivity in order to aid the screening out of undesired developments and to minimise unnecessary project level environmental impact assessment (EIA) in preferred development areas. This article reports on the quality performance of a sample of seven EMFs conducted in South Africa, in terms of document and procedural quality. To this end, 13 measures (sub-criteria) were developed and classified into five thematic areas (review criteria), against which the EMF documents were appraised using a six-level rating. The review criteria were developed around the validity of sensitivity mapping methodology; the extent to which potential developments were identified as either desired or unfavourable; the effectiveness of EMF outcomes in relation to the broader decision making context; integration of stakeholder engagement inputs into EMF outcomes and the sufficiency of provisions spelling out the implementation of EMF outcomes. Public participation emerged as the weakest component of EMF practice, while certain aspects of sensitivity analysis also performed weaker than other review areas. More focus is required on aligning scales and resolutions of map inputs, mapping methods and general integration of spatial data. The practice of conducting EMF is well established, and can make a valuable contribution to inform strategic planning and to improve the effectiveness of EIA screening in South Africa, provided that appropriate improvements in quality are made, along with proper implementation of the instrument by the authorities, including their formal adoption.


AIM: The evolution of viviparity in squamate reptiles has attracted considerable scientific attention since the beginning of last century. The cold‐climate hypothesis posits that cold regions favor viviparity (and therefore the incidence of viviparous squamates is increased in these regions) because viviparous females can use thermoregulatory behavior to shorten embryonic developmental time and to reduce exposure of embryos to stressful temperatures. However, a rigorous global‐scale test of the impact of viviparity on the developmental time and viability of embryos is still absent. Recently developed biophysical models and climate databases enable us to conduct a mechanistic test of this hypothesis. LOCATION: Global. TIME PERIOD: Summer. MAJOR TAXA STUDIED: Squamata. METHODS: We integrated global climate data, a biophysical model, and developmental functions to quantify the effects of temperature on embryo developmental time, developmental viability, and energy consumption of oviparous versus viviparous embryos. To examine the accuracy of our predictions, we calculated the percentage of squamate reptiles that were viviparous in each region and assessed developmental temperature of gravid females, latitude and elevation as predictors for the percentage of squamate reptiles. RESULTS: Compared with oviparous embryos, viviparous embryos develop faster in cold regions, and experience similar embryonic developmental viability. Across most latitudes and elevations, the total energetic cost of development is lower for viviparous embryos than for oviparous embryos. Cold regions contain a higher proportion of viviparous species than do hot regions. By comparing the distribution pattern of viviparity and temperature effects on embryonic development, we found that shortened development time provided the strongest benefit of viviparity. MAIN CONCLUSIONS: Our global and biophysical model based comparison generally supports the cold‐climate hypothesis. Moreover, viviparity in cold climates appears beneficial primarily by shortening developmental time.


This Thesis describes some theoretical studies on ligated and bare clusters. Chapter 1 gives a review of the two theoretical models, Tensor Surface Harmonic Theory (TSH) and Jellium Model , accounting for the electronic structures of ligated and bare clusters. The Polyhedral Skeletal Electron Pair Theory (PSEPT) , which correlates the structures and electron counts (total number of valence electrons) of main group and transition metal ligated clusters, is briefly described. A structural jellium model is developed in Chapter 2 which accounts for the electronic structures of clusters using a crystal-field perturbation. The zero-order potential we derive is of central-field form, depends on the geometry of the cluster, and has a well-defined relationship to the full nuclear-electron potential. Qualitative arguments suggest that this potential produces different energy level orderings for clusters with a nucleus with large positive charge at the centre of the cluster, enabling the spherical jellium model to be applied to alkali metal clusters seeded with magnesium and zinc. Analysis of the effects of the non-spherical perturbation on the spherical jellium shell structures leads to the conclusion that for a cluster with a closed shell electronic structure a high symmetry arrangement which is approximately or precisely close packed will be preferred. It also provides a basis for rationalising those structures, which have been predicted using ab initio calculations, of clusters with incomplete shell electronic configurations In Chapter 3 , the geometric conclusions derived in the structural jellium model are developed in more detail. Alkali metal clusters with closed shell electronic configurations according to the jellium model adopt geometries of high symmetry and based on the T d , O h and I h point groups. For high nuclearity clusters alternative high symmetry structures can occur and those which are either the most close packed or spherical are predicted to be the most stable. When the jellium closed shell "magic numbers" coincides with one of these high symmetry structures then the cluster will be particularly stable. The group theoretical consequences of the Tensor Surface Harmonic Theory are developed in Chapter 4 for[ML 2 ] n , [ML 4 ] n and [ML 5 ] n clusters where either the xz and yz or x 2 -y 2 and xy components to L π d and L δ d do not contribute equally to the bonding. The closed shell requirements for such clusters are defined and the orbital symmetry constraints pertaining to the interconversion of conformers of these clusters are described. In Chapter 5 Stone's Tensor Surface Harmonic methodology is applied to high nuclearity transition metal carbonyl cluster compounds with 13-44 metal atoms. Two limiting bonding situations are identified and represented in terms of general electron counting rules. If the radial bonding effects predominate the clusters are characterised by 12n s +Δ i valence electrons, where Δ i is the characteristic electron count of the interstitial moiety. If radial and tangential bonding effects are important then the total number of valence electrons is 12n s +2(s s +s i -l), where s s and s i are the number of skeletal bonding molecular orbitals associated with surface (s s ) and interstitial (s i ) moieties. Chapter 6 develops a new theoretical framework to account for the bonding in the high nuclearity ligated clusters with columnar topologies. The wave functions of columnar metal clusters can be expressed as an expansion based on the particle on the cylinder problem. This bonding analysis is applied to clusters containing columns of triangles and squares. In Chapter 7 the origin of non-bonding orbitals in molecular compounds is reviewed and analysed using general quantum mechanical considerations. A combination of the pairing theorem and a group theoretical analysis leads to a definition of the number of the non-bonding molecular orbitals in co-ordination, polyene and cluster compounds. The non-bonding molecular orbitals have been generated by defining the nodal characteristics of the relevant orbitals and evaluating the solutions under the appropriate boundary conditions. The stereochemical role of nonbonding molecular orbitals in co-ordination compounds is also discussed.


We work in the reduced SU(N, K) modular category as constructed recently by Blanchet. We define spin type and cohomological refinements of the Turaev-Viro invariants of closed oriented 3-manifolds and give a formula relating them to Blanchet's invariants. Roberts' definition of the Turaev-Viro state sum is exploited. Furthermore, we construct refined Turaev-Viro and Reshetikhin-Turaev TQFTs and study the relationship between them.


The two articles presented in this thesis used both quantitative and qualitative research methods to evaluate competencies among agricultural business students and agricultural sales professionals respectively. In the first study, students enrolled in the Fall 2014 agribusiness sales course at [State] University (n = 97), participated in a pre and post evaluation comprised of leadership assessments to determine the change in introversion and extroversion, task-oriented and relationship-oriented, and finally strength characteristics over the time period of an academic semester. Students presented to be from a variety of leadership backgrounds. Posttest results reported students being both high task (62.89%) and high relationship oriented (48.45%). There was slight shift from introversion to extraversion, r=.390, p=<.05. The Strengths Finder assessment identified, the top five students' strengths as Belief, 47.42% (n = 46), Responsibility, 30.93% (n = 30), Significance, 30.93% (n = 30), Relator, 29.90% (n = 29), and Self-Assurance, 25.77% (n = 25). In the second study, a modified Delphi analysis was conducted to find a consensus of competencies desired by agricultural sales professionals for incoming graduates to be potential sales professionals. Additionally sales professionals were asked what topics should be included in the curriculum of the sales course. This identification should be used to ensure there is not a gap between education and industry. The Delphi study included three questions in an initial round, of the 40 sales professionals, 36 data sets were usable. Those individuals served as the participants for rounds two and three. The generalizations made from the results of round one, brought eight to nine themes for each of the three questions. The second round of the study had the participants rank the themes from round one in order of importance from first to last. Integrity ranked significantly higher than most other traits in all three questions, while other


The aim of this dissertation is to investigate the genesis of Plan Colombia, the aid programme that transferred US$1.3 billion to Colombia during fiscal year 2000/2001 alone. It was found that President Andres Pastrana invited the intervention of the US in many aspects of Colombia's internal affairs, from his peace process with guerrilla insurgents to his project to reassert the authority of the state over Colombia's 'internal periphery'. A complex, three-way negotiation between the two core Executives and the US Congress ensued, which yielded a more limited intervention than the Colombians desired. It was also found that, the vast power asymmetry notwithstanding, it was the small state that took the initiative and managed to
exert influence over the great power. These findings conclusively refute the paradigmatic presumption in the IR literature that Plan Colombia was hegemonically imposed. To the contrary, the protracted (two years long) negotiation of terms showed the 'hegemon' decidedly reluctant to be drawn too far into its internal affairs of its 'victim'.
Plan Colombia follows a characteristic pattern in US foreign relations, which has been noted before; a unique form of 'imperialism' whereby subject states actually invite the intervention of the great power, in some cases even to the point of occupation. Unlike the approach typical of the IR field, which is predominantly a priori in method, the treatment herein is essentially inductive. For my fieldwork I interviewed the gamut of elite participants in the making of the Plan, from ex-President Pastrana himself to Thomas Pickering, the third-ranking officer in the US State Department. Letting the facts from all sources speak for themselves, I have arrived at counterintuitive results of interest to theorists and practitioners of international relations.


Type 1 Patients with Diabetes (Type 1 PwDs) have to frequently adjust their insulin dosage to keep their Blood Glucose concentration (BG) within normal bounds. Meal intakes represent the most important disturbance that has to be accounted for. Its effect differs for every individual as well as for every meal. These specificities are automatically taken into account in the approach proposed in this paper. Model parameters are identified for every couple (Patient, Meal) of interest and optimal control is applied to generate individualized meal specific insulin profiles. The method does not require the use of a continuous BG meter, the profiles being infused in an open-loop manner. Results from a preliminary clinical study are presented. The concept is shown to be effective, despite limitations due to the aggressive execution chosen. Improvements are proposed and a possible practical implementation is described.