From the Book:
C and C++ are the world's most important programming language: Indeed, to be a professional programmer today implies proficiency in these two languages. They are the foundation upon which modern programming is built.
C was invented by Dennis Ritchie in the 1970s. C is a middle-level language. It combines the control structures of a high-level language with the ability to manipulate bits, bytes, and pointers (addresses). Thus, C gives the programmer nearly complete contra over the machine. C was first standardized late in 1989 when the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) standard for C was adopted. This version of C is commonly referred to as C89. This standard was also adopted by ISO (International Standards Organization). C89 was amended slightly in 1995.
C++ was created by Bjarne Stroustrup, beginning in 1979. The development and refinement of C++ was a major effort, spanning the 1980s and most of the 1990s. Finally, in 1998 an ANSI/ISO standard for C++ was adopted. In general terms, C++ is the object-oriented version of C. C++ is built upon the foundation of C89, including its 1995 amendments. In fact, the version of C defined by C89 is commonly referred to as the "C subset of C++," Although C++ began as a set of object-oriented extensions to C, it soon expanded into being a programming language in its own right. Today, C++ is nearly twice the size of the C language. Needless to say, C++ is one of the most powerful computer languages ever devised.
In 1999, a new ANSI/ISO standard for C was adopted. This version is called C99. It includes a number of refinements and several new features. Some of these "new" features were borrowed from C++, but some are entirely new innovations. Thus, several of the elements added by C99 are incompatible with C++. This means that with the advent of C99, Standard C is no longer a pure subset of C++, Fortunately, many of the incompatibilities relate to special-use features that are readily avoided. Thus, it is still easy to write code that is compatible with both C and C++. At the time of this writing, no major compiler currently accepts all of the C99 additions, but this is sure to change.
The following table synopsizes the relationships between C89, C99, and C++.
C89      The original ANSI/ISO standard for C. C89 is what most programmers today think of as C.
C++      The object-oriented version of C. The current ANSI/ISO standard for C++ is built upon C89. Thus, C89 forms a subset of C++.
C99      The latest standard for C. Includes all of C89, but adds several new features. Some of the new features are not supported by the current standard for C++.
The material in this book describes C89, C99, and C++, When a feature is unique to one of these, it will be so flagged. Otherwise, you can assume that the feature applies to all three.
As you are undoubtedly aware, C and C++ are large topics. It is, of course, not possible to cover every aspect of these important languages here. Instead, this quick reference distills their most salient features into a convenient and easy to use form.


Access and equity have long been fundamental concepts underpinning transformation in higher education. Increased student enrolments necessitated the implementation of support structures to bolster student success. However, support provision for academic staff is often overlooked when prioritising student success. In this article, we examine the need for academic support structures in relation to student success from the perspective of Bronfenbrenner's ecological theory. We argue the merits of a Teaching Assistant (TA) programme to address issues related to equity of access and success by highlighting the experiences of TAs and academic staff in what can be considered constraining university structures. Based on qualitative participatory principles we collected data by means of a World Cafe. The paper concludes with the significant contribution made by TAs to academic staff support in addressing the challenge of equity of access and success when working collaboratively. Universities are encouraged to strengthen academic staff development through initiatives that support lecturers in creating spaces for closer student staff engagement, enhancing teaching and learning in the process.


The baking potential of South African bred triticale (x Triticosecale spp. Wittmack ex A. Camus 1927) cultivars, and the effect of cultivar and environment on baking potential parameters had not previously been studied. At present South African triticale cultivars are used for animal feed as grazing, hay or silage. Seven cultivars harvested over two years from eight localities in the Western Cape region of South Africa were used to examine the baking potential parameters falling number, SDS sedimentation, ash content, particle size index, total protein content and 1000-kernel mass. The quality of the South African bred cultivars compared well with data from cultivars grown in other countries. The triticale cultivars studied here generally had higher ash contents, lower falling numbers and SDS sedimentation values than the bread wheat standard. Significant differences ( P<0.05) were observed between cultivars and between localities in each year's harvests, illustrating the effect of genetic as well as environmental factors on the quality of the grain produced. Interactions between cultivars and localities were found to be significant ( P<0.05) in all cases.


The Data Web refers to the vast and rapidly increasing quantity of scientific, corporate, government and crowd‐sourced data published in the form of Linked Open Data, which encourages the uniform representation of heterogeneous data items on the web and the creation of links between them. The growing availability of open linked datasets has brought forth significant new challenges regarding their proper preservation and the management of evolving information within them. In this paper, we focus on the evolution and preservation challenges related to publishing and preserving evolving linked data across time. We discuss the main problems regarding their proper modelling and querying and provide a conceptual model and a query language for modelling and retrieving evolving data along with changes affecting them. We present in details the syntax of the query language and demonstrate its functionality over a real‐world use case of evolving linked dataset from the biological domain.


Wetlands are highly threatened by human impact. About half of the world's wetlands were lost in the past century, resulting in larger distances between separate wetland areas. As a consequence, there is an increased isolation of these areas and a reduction in dispersal between them. In order to gain knowledge about the effects of wetland loss on the biodiversity of these areas, more information is needed about vectors regulating dispersal of organisms between wetlands. Because of their long-distance movements, diet composition, high abundance and widespread distribution in wetlands, dabbling ducks are considered important dispersal-vectors in these areas. During this study, the effects of inter-specific differences in morphology and behaviour between dabbling duck species on the endozoochorous dispersal of aquatic organisms was analyzed by means of a literature research. It was shown that different species of dabbling ducks are highly different in the resources they consume when there is a high amount of competition, or when the primary resource is scarce. Whether these inter-specific differences in diets result in differences in dispersal of aquatic organisms needs to be investigated. Furthermore it became clear that inter-specific differences between seeds are more important determinants of GRT than morphological differences between duck species. However, differences in movement patterns between dabbling duck species probably do influence different dispersal patterns of aquatic organisms. Different duck species exhibit a great variety of long-distance movements. Besides long-distance movements, short distance movements are also important for the dispersal of aquatic organisms. The global population size of a duck species determines the impact that varying duck species have on the dispersal of aquatic organisms. Even though species containing extremely large populations are probably more important for dispersal of aquatic organisms on a global scale, highly endangered duck species might be important for the dispersal of aquatic organisms on a local scale. Despite the fact that quite a lot is known about the dispersal of aquatic organisms by dabbling ducks, there are still many factors that need to be elucidated. More knowledge about differences in dispersal between varying dabbling duck species could not only lead to better measures to conserve wetlands, but also to stricter conservation measures to protect endangered dabbling duck species.


Abstract. Fully 3-D numerical simulations of thermal convection in a spherical shell have become a standard for studying the dynamics of pattern formation and its stability under perturbations to various parameter values. The question arises as to how the discretization of the governing equations affects the outcome and thus any physical interpretation. This work demonstrates the impact of numerical discretization on the observed patterns, the value at which symmetry is broken, and how stability and stationary behavior is dependent upon it. Motivated by numerical simulations of convection in the Earth's mantle, we consider isoviscous Rayleigh–Benard convection at infinite Prandtl number, where the aspect ratio between the inner and outer shell is 0.55. We show that the subtleties involved in developing mantle convection models are considerably more delicate than has been previously appreciated, due to the rich dynamical behavior of the system. Two codes with different numerical discretization schemes – an established, community-developed, and benchmarked finite-element code (CitcomS) and a novel spectral method that combines Chebyshev polynomials with radial basis functions (RBFs) – are compared. A full numerical study is investigated for the following three cases. The first case is based on the cubic (or octahedral) initial condition (spherical harmonics of degree e = 4). How this pattern varies to perturbations in the initial condition and Rayleigh number is studied. The second case investigates the stability of the dodecahedral (or icosahedral) initial condition (spherical harmonics of degree e = 6). Although both methods first converge to the same pattern, this structure is ultimately unstable and systematically degenerates to cubic or tetrahedral symmetries, depending on the code used. Lastly, a new steady-state pattern is presented as a combination of third- and fourth-order spherical harmonics leading to a five-cell or hexahedral pattern and stable up to 70 times the critical Rayleigh number. This pattern can provide the basis for a new accuracy benchmark for 3-D spherical mantle convection codes.


Foamed adhesives are used to join roofing assembly components to the roof substrate and to each other. A variety of performance problems with foamed adhesives as installed in roofing assemblies have led to assembly failures. We previously reported, in detail, four specific failure mechanisms caused by poor adhesive installation that we have observed, and we briefly note these failure mechanisms in order to maintain continuity as we expand on our earlier work. The focus of this paper is to report on other factors that also lead to adhesive and rigid insulation board performance problems, specifically, moisture contained within the roofing assembly and substrate, which can result in the failure of the roofing assembly. Similar substrate moisture issues occur in flooring assemblies; however, whereas the flooring industry continues to address moisture-related issues that lead to adhesive performance problems, the roofing and roofing adhesive industries have been less proactive regarding use, installation, and testing for assemblies with potential moisture-related issues. We present several case studies that illustrate excessive moisture in roofing assemblies or substrates as an issue that contributed to the adhesive failure of the roofing assembly. We also discuss the lessons to be learned from not addressing these issues at the onset of a project.


A great deal of international attention and funding was given to reform and training of the Palestinian Authority Security Forces (PASF), starting with the Oslo Accords process in 1993 and accelerating with the advent of Fayyadism and the expulsion of the Palestinian Authority government from Gaza in 2007. Many donors and other supporters in the US, the EU, and Israel claimed this process as a success story, and indeed from 2008–2010 local conditions looked hopeful in the fragile, post-conflict West Bank proto-state. But soon unresolved political conflicts inside the West Bank encouraged patronage-based violence to reemerge within the security forces, and the fractured approach of the international community aggravated the situation. By 2013 reform had stalled. This article explores the history of patronage politics in the PASF and uses the Palestinian example to highlight the tensions inherent in contested visions of security, when international donors define success in terms of anti-terrorism rather than genuine domestic security governance.


In computational social choice, one important problem is to take the votes of a subelectorate (subset of the voters), and summarize them using a small number of bits. This needs to be done in such a way that, if all that we know is the summary, as well as the votes of voters outside the subelectorate, we can conclude which of the m alternatives wins. This corresponds to the notion of compilation complexity, the minimum number of bits required to summarize the votes for a particular rule, which was introduced by Chevaleyre et al. [IJCAI-09]. We study three different types of compilation complexity. The first, studied by Chevaleyre et al., depends on the size of the subelectorate but not on the size of the complement (the voters outside the subelectorate). The second depends on the size of the complement but not on the size of the subelectorate. The third depends on both. We first investigate the relations among the three types of compilation complexity. Then, we give upper and lower bounds on all three types of compilation complexity for the most prominent voting rules. We show that for l-approval (when l ≤ m/2), Borda, and Bucklin, the bounds for all three types are asymptotically tight, up to a multiplicative constant; for l-approval (when l > m/2), plurality with runoff, all Condorcet consistent rules that are based on unweighted majority graphs (including Copeland and voting trees), and all Condorcet consistent rules that are based on the order of pairwise elections (including ranked pairs and maximin), the bounds for all three types are asymptotically tight up to a multiplicative constant when the sizes of the subelectorate and its complement are both larger than m1+ε for some ε > 0.


Pairing-based cryptography has been employed to obtain several advantageous cryptographic protocols. In particular, there exist several identity-based variants of common cryptographic schemes. The computation of a single pairing is a comparatively expensive operation, since it often requires many operations in the underlying elliptic curve. In this thesis, we explore the efficient computation of pairings. Computation of the Tate pairing is done in two steps. First, a Miller function is computed, followed by the final exponentiation. We discuss the state-of-the-art optimizations for Miller function computation under various conditions. We are able to shave off a fixed number of operations in the final exponentiation. We consider methods to effectively parallelize the computation of pairings in a multi-core setting and discover that the Weil pairing may provide some advantage under certain conditions. This work is extended to the 192-bit security level and some unlikely candidate curves for such a setting are discovered. Electronic Toll Pricing (ETP) aims to improve road tolling by collecting toll fares electronically and without the need to slow down vehicles. In most ETP schemes, drivers are charged periodically based on the locations, times, distances or durations travelled. Many ETP schemes are currently deployed and although these systems are efficient, they require a great deal of knowledge regarding driving habits in order to operate correctly. We present an ETP scheme where pairing-based BLS signatures play an important role. Finally, we discuss the security of pairings in the presence of an efficient algorithm to invert the pairing. We generalize previous results to the setting of asymmetric pairings as well as give a simplified proof in the symmetric setting.


To date, research on the accessibility of MOOCs has been limited. However, the need to incorporate greater access for those who declare disabilities is now being highlighted. There is a growing proportion of disabled learners who choose distance education institutions for their studies. Further, the evolution of enrollment of these learners in higher educational institutions show increasing rates that demonstrates that these students look for the so-called lifelong learning paradigm, which integrates education, work and personal life in a continuous process and allows them to be able to access the knowledge and develop it both personally and through work. Providing accessible MOOCs can be an appropriate educational resource for learners with disabilities, but there is a lack of research about what educators and disabled learners expect from MOOCs.
In our research project, we are employing a mixed methods-research programme to understand the complexity of the issues related to disability and MOOCs. The qualitative studies through interviews are informing us about the user expectations and the educators' viewpoints on how MOOCs can be helpful to disabled learners; quantitative studies through analysing MOOC survey data are proving to be useful to understand the demographics of learners and how the educational resources could be improved and adapted to their needs. We are designing a MOOC accessibility audit to evaluate MOOCs for accessibility and to arrive at solutions and adaptations that can meet user needs. This accessibility audit includes expert-based heuristic evaluation and user-based testing of the MOOC platforms and individual courses.
We have so far conducted twenty-two interviews with accessibility content managers of MOOC platform providers, platform software developers/designers, educators and those with a range of expertise in the MOOC community. An inductive approach for coding the interviews using thematic analysis has been followed. The next steps of our research programme are to analyse online surveys and online learning activity from courses in the MOOC platform, FutureLearn, interviews with MOOC learners, and conducting the first iteration of the accessibility audit. This research will benefit the MOOC providers who would be able to use the project's outputs and disabled learners to improve their lifelong learning and re-skilling.


This study sought to investigate stakeholders' perceptions of the challenges encountered in the implementation of the Schools Positive Behaviour Management Programme (SPBMP) in Barbados, and the factors influencing its sustainability. A total of 137 teachers, 14 principals and 13 School Focal Points (SFPs) drawn from a sample of 16 primary and secondary schools were interviewed. A lack of resources, teacher/school buy-in and time were identified by all stakeholders as the main challenges faced in implementing SPBMP. In addition, the leaders (principals and SFPs) viewed themselves as contributing to sustainability of the programme by motivating their staff but failed to acknowledge their more important leadership roles as creators of the shared vision and conducive environments needed to support the sustainability of the SPBMP initiative.


Best-selling author, designer, and web standards evangelist Jeffrey Zeldman has updated his classic, industry-shaking guidebook. This new edition--now in full color--covers improvements in best practices and advances in the world of browsers since the first edition introduced the world to standards-based design. Written in the same engaging and witty style, making even the most complex information easy to digest, it remains an essential guide to creating sites that load faster, reach more users, and cost less to design and maintain. Readers will learn from Jeffrey's insights as he demonstrates how web standards are driving search engine friendliness ("findability") and the Web 2.0 applications that have reinvigorated the medium and the online marketplace. Readers will discover new techniques to make CSS layouts work better across multiple browsers and ways to make web content more accessible.


We report the role that the ambiguity function (AF) plays on the determination of signal to noise ratio (SNR) collected from meteor head echoes. Theoretical analysis shows that any measured meteor SNR exhibits temporal ripples whose shape is related to both the transmitted pulse envelope and the filter impulse response of the receiver. These theoretical findings are corroborated with (1) experimental meteor data recorded with Jicamarca 50 MHz radar (11.95° S, 76.87° W) and (2) simulated meteor data obtained by replicating the acquisition system of Jicamarca. A statistical analysis of the experimental meteor data reveals that at least 14% of the population collected each day at Jicamarca exhibits these ripples. On the remaining 86% of meteor events, the ripples cannot be distinguished due to noise, contamination from other sources of scattering (i.e., nonspecular echoes), and ensemble average applied to the data. In general, these ripples demonstrate the importance of obtaining an accurate model of a radar system to avoid misinterpretation of SNR.


OBJECT
After conventional doses of 55 to 65 Gy of fractionated irradiation, glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) usually recurs at its original location. This institutional phase II study was designed to assess whether dose escalation to 90 cobalt gray equivalent (CGE) with conformal protons and photons in accelerated fractionation would improve local tumor control and patient survival.

METHODS
Twenty-three patients were enrolled in this study. Eligibility criteria included age between 18 and 70 years, Karnofsky Performance Scale score of greater than or equal to 70, residual tumor volume of less than 60 ml, and a supratentorial, unilateral tumor. Actuarial survival rates at 2 and 3 years were 34% and 18%, respectively. The median survival time was 20 months, with four patients alive 22 to 60 months postdiagnosis. Analysis by Radiation Therapy Oncology Group prognostic criteria or Medical Research Council indices showed a 5- to 11-month increase in median survival time over those of comparable conventionally treated patients. All patients developed new areas of gadolinium enhancement during the follow-up period. Histological examination of tissues obtained at biopsy, resection, or autopsy was conducted in 15 of 23 patients. Radiation necrosis only was demonstrated in seven patients, and their survival was significantly longer than that of patients with recurrent tumor (p = 0.01). Tumor regrowth occurred most commonly in areas that received doses of 60 to 70 CGE or less; recurrent tumor was found in only one case in the 90-CGE volume.

CONCLUSIONS
A dose of 90 CGE in accelerated fractionation prevented central recurrence in almost all cases. The median survival time was extended to 20 months, likely as a result of central control. Tumors will usually recur in areas immediately peripheral to this 90-CGE volume, but attempts to extend local control by enlarging the central volume are likely to be limited by difficulties with radiation necrosis.


We present an analytical, computational, and experimental study of frequency mixing and propagation that takes place in the guided-wave nonlinear frequency conversion of ultrashort pulses from the near infrared to the far and the vacuum ultraviolet. In addition to the standard phase-matching conditions for frequency mixing, we observe that cascaded frequency conversion, in which one of the input frequency components is generated simultaneously, is subject to two additional phase-matching conditions. In cascaded quasi-phase matching, one of the input fields oscillates in strength with a period that matches the phase mismatch. In gain-assisted phase matching, the growth of one of the input fields results in growth of the signal, in spite of a phase mismatch for the final mixing process.


Whereas a large and growing scholarly literature is dedicated to studying human populations in the city, not much has been written about nonhuman animals in this space. This essay explores the presence of nonhuman animals in the American city through a legal lens. I begin with a few general contemplations about the legal classification of animals in American cities, and then move to explore specific legal classifications of animals in cities: domestic and companion animals, agriculture or livestock animals, wild animals, and pests. I argue that such animal classifications are not as fixed and static as they present themselves to be. For example, a pig or a horse may be a companion animal under anti-cruelty provisions or livestock under provisions regulating agribusiness. Studying various examples of animal reclassification, this essay demonstrates the inherent messiness of the legal ordering of animals and reveals the legal struggles to redefine such ordering. The honeybee in particular demonstrates the fluidity between various animal classifications and the ways in which animals are subject to, and themselves affect, legal and administrative practices. Alongside the attempt to classify animals, a considerable effort also goes into keeping animals confined within their particular classifications. The prohibitions from keeping wild and farm animals as pets, and those that prohibit treating pets as pests or pests as pets — all point to the desire of lawmakers to place and keep animals within their classifications so as to ensure that cities are safe, sanitized, and free of animal nuisances. At the same time, human and nonhuman animals also express their own, sometimes conflicting, trajectories that transgress and challenge their black-boxing within legal classifications, forcing lawmakers and enforcers to adapt or develop new legal ways to organize disorderly nature so as to redefine, reestablish, and reinforce order. My reading of animal laws thus illuminates the dynamic and often conflicted human-animal existence in the city and its translation and reiteration by legal texts and practices.


The absence of self-control is often viewed as an important correlate of persistent poverty. Using a standard intertemporal allocation problem with credit constraints faced by an individual with quasi- hyperbolic preferences, we argue that poverty damages the ability to exercise self-control. Our theory invokes George Ainslie's notion of "personal rules," interpreted as subgame-perfect equilibria of an intrapersonal game played by a time-inconsistent decision maker. Our main result pertains to situations in which the individual is neither so patient that accumulation is possible from every asset level, nor so impatient that decumulation is unavoidable from every asset level. Such cases always possess a threshold level of assets above which personal rules support unbounded accumulation, and a second threshold below which there is a "poverty trap": no personal rule permits the individual to avoid depleting all liquid wealth. In short, poverty perpetuates itself by undermining the ability to exercise self-control. Thus even temporary policies designed to help the poor accumulate assets may be highly effective. We also explore the implications for saving with easier access to credit, the demand for commitment devices, the design of accounts to promote saving, and the variation of the marginal propensity to consume across classes of resource claims.


Both of these papers highlight the role of local institutions and knowledge in the development process. The first paper examines the many on-going debates in Nepal between GOs, NGOs, donors and other stakeholders over how to achieve more efficient, productive and equitable use of water resources. Attempts to coordinate stakeholder solutions at the macro-level have made little progress. This has led to an increased emphasis on finding locally relevant solutions to these issues, initiated at the micro-level. People have their own mechanisms and procedures to deal with decision-making as well as to manage conflict. However, these initiatives have hitherto received little attention. This paper presents an analysis of the strategies and mechanisms that local people use to manage conflicts over water resources. It begins by introducing some theoretical concepts, which are useful in understanding the nature of conflict and the negotiation process. A case study describing how individuals and institutions tackled problems relating to access to spring water in Dolakha district in central Nepal is then presented. It concludes that with appropriate facilitation, local people are able to create a common forum to resolve their own conflicts and establish win-win solutions to internal disputes over resource use.Both of these papes highlight the role of local institutions and knowledge in the development process. The second paper looks at Kumpulan Informasi Teknis (KIT – compilation of technical information) an extension tool and process that uses local knowledge to facilitate agricultural technology development in Indonesia. Local extension and research institutions assemble local-specific technological information KITs for the predominant farming systems in an agro-ecological region. KITs are based on research information and farmers' local knowledge. Each KIT consists of single-page sub-topics that are printed on heavy-stock, coloured paper and kept in a loose-leaf folder for easy updating. Field extension workers (FEWs) use KITs to support their own training sessions and in their meetings with farmer groups. KITs contain a selection of alternative technical recommendations and decisionmaking criteria to support sustainable farming. While sharing this information with farmers, FEWs will inevitably uncover more details regarding farmer's knowledge that can be used to improve the KIT. This local knowledge is then disseminated to other FEWs and farmers and is used to update the KIT. A key positive observation of the project has been the acknowledgement of and openness to the value of farmers knowledge on the part of extension institutions, and a willingness of extension agents to use local knowledge when developing recommendations. Nevertheless, various challenges still lie ahead if the potential of the KIT process is to be fully exploited.


The research described in this thesis has produced a prototype system based on fire field modelling techniques for use by members of the Fire Safety Engineering community who are not expert in modelling techniques. The system captures the qualitative reasoning of an experienced modeller in the assessment of room geometries in order to setup important initial parameters of the problem.

The prototype system is based on artificial intelligence techniques, specifically expert system technology. It is implemented as a case based reasoning (CBR) system, primarily because it was discovered that the expert uses case based reasoning when manually dealing with such problems.

The thesis answers three basic research questions. These are organised into a primary question and two subsidiary questions. The primary question is: how can CFD setup for fire modelling problems be automated? From this, the two subsidiary questions are concerned with how to represent the qualitative and quantitative knowledge associated with fire modelling; and selection of the most appropriate method of knowledge storage and retrieval.

The thesis describes how knowledge has been acquired and represented for the system, pattern recognition issues, the methods of knowledge storage and retrieval chosen, the implementation of the prototype system and validation. Validation has shown that the system models the expert's knowledge in a satisfactory way and that the system performs competently when faced with new problems. The thesis concludes with a section regarding new research questions arising from the research, and the further work these questions entail.


As part of our work on the NSF funded Integrated Digital Event Archiving and Library (IDEAL) project and the Global Event and Trend Archive Research (GETAR) project, we collected over 1.4 billion tweets using over 1,000 keywords, key phrases, mentions, or hashtags, starting from 2009. Since many tweets talk about events (with useful location information), such as natural disasters, emergencies, and accidents, it is important to geolocate those tweets whenever possible. Due to possible location ambiguity, finding a tweet's location often is challenging. Many distinct places have the same geoname, e.g., "Greenville" matches 50 different locations in the U.S.A. Frequently, in tweets, explicit location information, like geonames mentioned, is insufficient, because tweets are often brief and incomplete. They have a small fraction of the full location information of an event due to the 140 character limitation. Location indicative words (LIWs) may include latent location information, for example, "Water main break near White House" does not have any geonames but it is related to a location "1600 Pennsylvania Ave NW, Washington, DC 20500 USA" indicated by the key phrase 'White House'. To disambiguate tweet locations, we first extracted geospatial named entities (geonames) and predicted implicit state (e.g., Virginia or California) information from entities using machine learning algorithms including Support Vector Machine (SVM), Naïve Bayes (NB), and Random Forest (RF). Implicit state information helps reduce ambiguity. We also studied how location information of events is expressed in tweets and how latent location indicative information can help to geo-locate tweets. We then used a machine learning (ML) approach to predict the implicit state using geonames and LIWs. We conducted experiments with tweets (e.g., about potholes), and found significant improvement in disambiguating tweet locations using a ML algorithm along with the Stanford NER. Adding state information predicted by our classifiers increased the possibility to find the state-level geo-location unambiguously by up to 80%. We also studied over 6 million tweets (3 mid-size and 2 big-size collections about water main breaks, sinkholes, potholes, car crashes, and car accidents), covering 17 months. We found that up to 91.1% of tweets have at least one type of location information (geo-coordinates or geonames), or LIWs. We also demonstrated that in most cases adding LIWs helps geolocate tweets with less ambiguity using a geo-coding API. Finally, we conducted additional experiments with the five different tweet collections, and found significant improvement in disambiguating tweet locations using a ML approach with geonames and all LIWs that are present in tweet texts as features. Geo-Locating Tweets with Latent Location Information


Based on the author's own conversations with President Karzai and other Afghan politicians, as well as prominent international representatives, "Power Struggle Over Afghanistan" is a Norwegian diplomat's account of his two years at the United Nations. Eide was President Karzai's closest international interlocutor from March 2008-2010 and he interacted with him regularly during the most hectic periods. It was a time marred by widespread fraud, including the controversial presidential elections, and gross international interference, much of which is still unknown to the general public. Working closely with Karzai, Eide was inevitably caught up in the rivalries between the Afghani authorities and the international community, as well as in the tensions generated by the security situation. Eide speaks freely and honestly about the political gambles, the military reality, and the people he met. His story is a unique account of contemporary Afghanistan, and its critique of military and civilian operations in Afghanistan will without doubt prove controversial. This title features 24 full-color photographs.


Aim
Evaluating the relative roles of biological traits and environmental factors that predispose species to an elevated risk of extinction is of fundamental importance to macroecology. Identifying species that possess extinction-promoting traits allows targeted conservation action before precipitous declines occur. Such analyses have been carried out for several vertebrate groups, with the notable exception of reptiles. We identify traits correlating with high extinction risk in squamate reptiles, assess whether these differ with geography, taxonomy and threats, and make recommendations for future Red List assessments.

Location
Global.

Methods
We collected data on biological traits and environmental factors for a representative sample of 1139 species of squamate reptiles. We used phylogenetically controlled regression models to identify general correlates of extinction risk, threat-specific correlates of risk and realm-specific correlates of risk. We also assessed the relative importance of range size versus other factors through multiplicative bivariate models, partial regressions and variance partitioning.

Results
Range size was the most important predictor of extinction risk, reflecting the high frequency of reptiles assessed under range-based IUCN criteria. Habitat specialists occupying accessible ranges were at a greater risk of extinction: although these factors never contributed more than 10% to the variance in extinction risk, they showed significant interactions with range size. The predictive power of our global models ranged from 23% to 29%. The general overall pattern remained the same among geographical, taxonomic and threat-specific data subsets.

Main conclusions
Proactive conservation requires shortcuts to identify species at high risk of extinction. Regardless of location, squamate reptiles that are range-restricted habitat specialists living in areas highly accessible to humans are likely to become extinct first. Prioritizing species that exhibit such traits could forestall extinction. Integration of data sources on human pressures, such as accessibility of species ranges, may aid robust and time-efficient assessments of species extinction risk.


Abstract. This study used MODIS observed phytoplankton absorption coefficient at 443 nm (Aph) as a preferable index to characterize phytoplankton variability in optically complex waters. Aph derived from remote sensing reflectance (Rrs, both in situ and MODIS measured) with the Quasi-Analytical Algorithm (QAA) were evaluated by comparing them with match-up in situ measurements, collected in both oceanic and nearshore waters in the Taiwan Strait (TWS). For the data with matching spatial and temporal window, it was found that the average percentage error (e) between MODIS derived Aph and field measured Aph was 33.8% (N=30, Aph ranges from 0.012 to 0.537 m−1), with a root mean square error in log space (RMSE_log) of 0.226. By comparison, e was 28.0% (N=88, RMSE_log = 0.150) between Aph derived from ship-borne Rrs and Aph measured from water samples. However, values of e as large as 135.6% (N=30, RMSE_log = 0.383) were found between MODIS derived chlorophyll-a (Chl, OC3M algorithm) and field measured Chl. Based on these evaluation results, we applied QAA to MODIS Rrs data in the period of 2003–2009 to derive climatological monthly mean Aph for the TWS. Three distinct features of phytoplankton dynamics were identified. First, Aph is low and the least variable in the Penghu Channel, where the South China Sea water enters the TWS. This region maintains slightly higher values in winter (~17% higher than that in the other seasons) due to surface nutrient entrainment under winter wind-driven vertical mixing. Second, Aph is high and varies the most in the mainland nearshore water, with values peaking in summer (June–August) when river plumes and coastal upwelling enhance surface nutrient loads. Interannual variation of bloom intensity in Hanjiang River estuary in June is highly correlated with alongshore wind stress anomalies, as observed by QuikSCAT. The year of minimum and maximum bloom intensity is in the midst of an El Nino and a La Nina event, respectively. Third, a high Aph patch appears between April and September in the middle of the southern TWS, corresponding to high thermal frontal probabilities, as observed by MODIS. Our results support the use of satellite derived Aph for time series analyses of phytoplankton dynamics in coastal ocean regions, whereas satellite Chl products derived empirically using spectral ratio of Rrs suffer from artifacts associated with non-biotic optically active materials.


The disciplining of judges is a sensitive and complex challenge. In Nigeria, the complexity is heightened because the process is complicated by socio-political factors and public views about the motivations for disciplining some judges, including claims of political interference by the ruling government. This Chapter argues that both judicial discipline and the work of the National Judicial Council (NJC) – the body responsible for judicial regulation in Nigeria – are caught up within Nigeria's peculiar socio-politics, a reality that a strictly legal analysis will miss. The Chapter analyzes contemporary challenges and controversies associated with the complaints and discipline procedure in Nigeria. In particular, it asks whether the NJC is undergoing a legitimacy crisis. The Chapter also analyzes the controversial removal of the Chief Justice of Nigeria and the others arrested and situates this within the socio-political and other factors specific to the discipline of judges in Nigeria. In conclusion, the Chapter highlights four specific insights that emerge from the analysis.


Background The islet size distribution in a preparation may contribute to islet transplant outcomes. At the same islet equivalent (IE) dose, larger islets may exhibit poorer therapeutic value and this may be because of oxygen diffusion limitations that worsen in proportion to islet size. Methods To test this hypothesis, we studied the impact of islet size index (ISI) and other islet product characteristics on outcomes after islet autotransplant (IAT) in recipients receiving a marginal islet dose (2000–4999 IEs per kg body weight) from January 1, 2009 to June 11, 2012, at the University of Minnesota (n=58). ISI was defined as the number of IE divided by the number of islet particles (IPs) in a preparation; an ISI less than 1 indicates a mean islet diameter that is less than 150 &mgr;m. The primary post-IAT outcome was 6-month insulin use status. Results Logistic regression analysis indicate that IPs/kg (P=0.001), IEs/kg (P=0.019), total IPs transplanted (P=0.040), and ISI (P=0.074) were most strongly correlated with the primary outcome. The ISI (mean±standard error) was lower for recipients achieving insulin independence at 6 months (0.71±0.05) versus those partially (0.83±0.05) or completely (1.00±0.07) insulin dependent. The combination of islet dose (expressed as units IPs/kg) and ISI exhibited a sensitivity of 75% and specificity of 74% in predicting insulin independence in this population of patients. Conclusion Islet autotransplant recipients of a marginal islet doses were more likely to achieve insulin independence when transplanted with a greater number of smaller islets.


This thesis contains four essays that examine the relationships among risk disclosures, multi-level governance, credit ratings, and bank value in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) banks. These essays concentrate on four closely linked risk disclosures, and governance topics that quantitatively investigate the antecedents and informativeness of risk disclosures by banks from 14 countries in MENA region over the 2006–2013 inclusive period.

The first essay aims at investigating the impact of multi-layer governance mechanisms on the level of risk disclosures by banks. The essay result suggests a variation between MENA banks in the level of risk disclosures with a significant improvement from 2006 to 2013. Specifically, the findings are three-fold. First, the results suggest that Sharia Supervisory Board (SSB) is positively associated with the level of risk disclosures by banks. Second and at the bank-level, the essay finds that ownership (governmental ownership and family ownership) and board (board size and non-executive directors) structures have a positive effect on the level of risk disclosures by banks, whilst CEO duality is negative, but insignificantly related to bank risk disclosures. At the country-level, the evidence suggests that control of corruption has a positive effect on the level of bank risk disclosures, whilst political stability and absence of violence have a negative, but insignificant association with the level of bank risk disclosures.

In the second essay, the thesis investigates the relationships among national governance quality (NGQM), Islamic governance quality (ISGQ), including other bank-level governance mechanisms, and risk management and disclosure practices (RMDPs); and consequently ascertains whether NGQM has a moderating influence on the ISGQ -RMDPs nexus. The findings are four-fold. Firstly, this study finds that RMDPs are higher in banks from countries with higher NGQM. Secondly, this essay shows that RMDPs are higher in banks with better Islamic governance. Thirdly, the study finds that board size and non-executive directors have a positive effect on the level of RMDPs. Finally, this study finds evidence that suggests that NGQM has a moderating effect on the Islamic governance quality-RMDPs nexus.

The third essay explores whether RMDPs have a predictive effect (informativeness) on banks' credit ratings (BCRs); and consequently ascertains whether governance structures can moderate such an association. The findings suggest that RMDPs have a predictive effect on BCRs. The study finds that the quality of the BCR is higher in banks that have higher risk disclosures, board size, government ownership, board independence, women directors and established SSB. On the other hand, the results indicate that the BCR quality is lower in banks that have higher foreign ownership, and CEO role duality. Furthermore, the findings suggest that governance structures moderate the relation between RMDPs and BCRs.

The final essay examines the extent to which RMDPs and multi-level governance can explain observable changes in bank value in a number of ways. First, this essay seeks to examine whether RMDPs can influence the value of banks. The second objective is to examine how NGQM may affect the bank value. Finally, this essay explores the relationship between operating in better- or poorly-governed countries and the market value of banks. The results confirm the substantial role of risk disclosures and multi-level governance in improving bank valuation in MENA. More specifically, the results indicate that market valuation is higher in banks with bigger foreign ownership, board size, board independence, Islamic governance, and NGQM. The results also show a significant negative relationship between CEO power and bank value.

The research's empirical findings are largely in line with the predictions of the multi-theoretical framework that incorporates insights from agency, signalling, legitimacy, institutional, and resource dependence theories. The study findings are robust to alternative firm- and country-level controls, alternative multi-level governance mechanisms, risk disclosure proxies, alternative estimation techniques, and endogeneity problems.

In doing so, this study extends, as well as contributes to the banking and governance literature in a number of ways. First, to the best of the researcher's knowledge, this thesis provides a first-time cross-country evidence on the level of risk disclosures in MENA countries, especially following the 2007/08 financial crisis in the banking industry. Second, this thesis offers first-time evidence on the informativeness of Islamic governance quality and risk disclosures from equity and debt markets. Third, this thesis offers evidence and extends prior research on the influence of multi-level governance on bank value, and credit ratings, using a multi-theoretical framework. Fourth, the study offers first-time evidence on the effect of national governance quality on banks' risk disclosures, credit ratings, and bank value.


Welcome! There are a wide variety of career paths open to PhDs in the life sciences, population sciences and social sciences. Whether you're here to explore career options in academia or beyond, prepare application materials, or develop professional skills to communicate your work through posters, presentations or grants, the OCPD can help! We have online resources, programs and 1:1 counseling appointments for students and postdocs. So where do you begin? Start here!


Background Human C1q deficiency is associated with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and increased susceptibility to severe bacterial infections. These patients require extensive medical therapy and some develop treatment-resistant disease. Because C1q is produced by monocytes, it has been speculated that allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) may cure this disorder. Methods We have so far treated 5 patients with C1q deficiency. In 3 cases, SLE symptoms remained relatively mild after the start of medical therapy, but 2 patients developed treatment-resistant SLE, and we decided to pursue treatment with allo-HSCT. For this purpose, we chose a conditioning regimen composed of treosulfan (14 g/m2) and fludarabine (30 mg/m2) started on day −6 and given for 3 and 5 consecutive days, respectively. Thymoglobulin was given at a cumulative dose of 8 mg/kg, and graft-versus-host disease prophylaxis was composed of cyclosporine and methotrexate. Results A 9-year-old boy and a 12-year-old girl with refractory SLE restored C1q production after allo-HSCT. This resulted in normal functional properties of the classical complement pathway followed by reduced severity of SLE symptoms. The boy developed posttransplant lymphoproliferative disease, which resolved after treatment with rituximab and donor lymphocyte infusion. Unfortunately, donor lymphocyte infusion induced severe cortisone-resistant gastrointestinal graft-versus-host disease, and the patient died from multiple organ failure 4 months after transplantation. The girl is doing well 33 months after transplantation, and clinically, all signs of SLE have resolved. Conclusions Allo-HSCT can cure SLE in human C1q deficiency and should be considered early in subjects resistant to medical therapy.


The purpose of this report is to present a general context for the Young Lives qualitative research being undertaken in Andhra Pradesh on the key themes of child well-being, childhood transitions and children's experiences of services and programmes. Children's well-being is understood in multi-dimensional terms and includes aspects relating to health, economic conditions, educational opportunities, and relationships with family members, peers and others. Other definitions of well-being have highlighted children's freedom from risks such as trafficking, addiction and discrimination, and access to the basic things that one needs to live healthily, safely and happily (UNICEF 2007). The concept of 'transitions' points to critical life-course changes. In childhood, these may include changes related to schooling, work, residence and relationships, among many others. Managing transitions in contexts of poverty and inequality may be a challenge for children and their families. The report provides an overview of existing literature on a selection of topics relating to services for the welfare of children in India and in Andhra Pradesh in particular. It also explores some of the issues affecting children, including access to and quality of education; transitions, such as beginning school and the onset of puberty; the factors driving child labour as well as the impact it has and attempts to regulate it; nutrition; discrimination and social exclusion, especially in relation to gender and scheduled caste or tribe membership; and migration. Policies implemented to address these issues are also examined. Rather than a detailed policy analysis, this report provides a broad overview of some of the issues which are key to improving our understanding of child poverty in this context and for guiding possible research questions.


16. Abstract Last year, I issued a report comparing energy intensities of flying and driving from 1970 through 2010. The main finding of that study was that, while flying domestically in the U.S. used to be much more energy intensive than driving, that is no longer the case. Indeed, in 2010—the last year examined in that study—the energy intensity of driving was 57% greater than the energy intensity of flying. The present study extends the analysis through 2012. Furthermore, this study corrects the publically available flying data for two inconsistencies: (1) the estimates of the energy intensity of flying are based on different carrier groups for fuel consumed and passenger miles flown, and (2) the estimates of the energy intensity of flying include cargo operations (paid freight and mail). The results indicate that, even before the corrections are made to the flying data, the energyintensity advantage of flying over driving has increased from 2010 to 2012. Furthermore, the net effect of the corrections to the flying data is that the advantage of flying has increased even further.


This paper explores the empirical relevance of banking market structure on growth. There is substantial evidence of a positive relationship between the level of development of the banking sector of an economy and its long-run output growth. Little is known, however, about the role played by the market structure of the banking sector on the dynamics of capital accumulation. This paper provides evidence that bank concentration promotes the growth of those industrial sectors that are more in need of external finance by facilitating credit access to younger firms. However, we also find evidence of a general depressing effect on growth associated with a concentrated banking industry, which impacts all sectors and all firms indiscriminately.


PURPOSE/OBJECTIVES
To study the relationship between parental verbal and nonverbal caring behaviors and child distress during cancer-related port access placement using correlational and time-window sequential analyses.
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DESIGN
Longitudinal, observational design.
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SETTING
Children's Hospital of Michigan and St. Jude Children's Research Hospital.
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SAMPLE
43 child-parent dyads, each with two or three video recordings of the child undergoing cancer-related port placement.
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METHODS
Two trained raters coded parent interaction behaviors and child distress using the Parent Caring Response Scoring System and Karmanos Child Coping and Distress Scale, respectively. Mixed modeling with generalized estimating equations examined the associations between parent interaction behaviors and parent distress, child distress, and child cooperation reported by multiple raters. Time-window sequential analyses were performed to investigate the temporal relationships in parent-child interactions within a five-second window.
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MAIN RESEARCH VARIABLES
Parent caring behaviors, child distress, and child cooperation.
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FINDINGS
Parent caring interaction behaviors were significantly correlated with parent distress, child distress, and child cooperation during repeated cancer port accessing. Sequential analyses showed that children were significantly less likely to display behavioral and verbal distress following parent caring behaviors than at any other time. If a child is already distressed, parent verbal and nonverbal caring behaviors can significantly reduce child behavioral and verbal distress.
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CONCLUSIONS
Parent caring behaviors, particularly the rarely studied nonverbal behaviors (e.g., eye contact, distance close to touch, supporting/allowing), can reduce the child's distress during cancer port accessing procedures.
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IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING
Studying parent-child interactions during painful cancer-related procedures can provide evidence to develop nursing interventions to support parents in caring for their child during painful procedures.


Communication interventions are commonly proposed as a way to address people's fear and negative attitudes to build tolerance in shared landscapes between humans and large carnivores. Therefore, managing authorities sometimes respond to people's fear of brown bears (Ursus arctos) by organizing an information meeting. This study increases the understanding of the information meeting to address fear of encountering brown bears. Using a mixed-method approach the study analyzes the explicit meta-communication, i.e., verbal interactions to coordinate communication between presenter and participants, the effects of the meeting on fear and fear-related variables over time, and how these effects compare with the effects of a visit to a permanent brown bear exhibition, and the effects of a guided walk with exposure to brown bears and their habitat as two alternative communication interventions. Participation in information meetings contributed to reduce self-reported fear and the effect lasted over at least 6 months. The information meetings were, as assessed immediately after participation, less efficient than participation in a guided walk, but more efficient than a visit to a permanent brown bear exhibition in reducing fear. The content and format of the meeting was in line with the expectations of an information meeting, e.g., the presenter dominated the initiative in the explicit meta-communication, but still allowing for misconceptions and misunderstandings to be addressed and solved. In the development of communication strategies to address fear of large carnivores, managing authorities should pay attention to details in information content and format as well as to trade-offs between the number of people reached by the intervention and the strength of the effects on fear and fear-related variables among participants. (Less)


Designing mobile devices for the analysis of complex sample mixtures containing a variety of analytes at different concentrations across a large dynamic range remains a challenging task in many analytical scenarios. To meet this challenge, a compact hybrid analytical platform has been developed combining Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy based on substrate-integrated hollow waveguides (iHWG-FTIR) with gas chromatography coupled differential mobility spectrometry (GC-DMS). Due to the complementarity of these techniques regarding analyte type and concentration, their combination provides a promising tool for the detection of complex samples containing a broad range of molecules at different concentrations. To date, the combination of infrared spectroscopy and ion mobility techniques remains expensive and bound to a laboratory utilizing e.g. IMS as prefilter or IR as ionization source. In the present study, a cost-efficient and portable solution has been developed and characterized representing the first truly hyphenated IR-DMS system. As a model analyte mixture, 5 ppm isopropylmercaptan (IPM) in methane (CH4) were diluted, and the concentration-dependent DMS signal of IPM along with the concentration-dependent IR signal of CH4 were recorded for all three hybrid IR-DMS systems. While guiding the sample through the iHWG-FTIR or the GC-DMS first did not affect the obtained signals, optimizing the IR data acquisition parameters did benefit the analytical results.


National labour markets are becoming increasingly diverse in cultural terms. As such, the employment of foreigners is a current and interesting topic. However, this increasing diversity has received limited interest within certain areas of research. For instance, in the field of International Human Resource Management, the fact that recruiting employees even within the home country labour markets includes an international aspect has remained relatively unrecognised. Similarly, in the literature covering employability the way in which employment has been examined has largely been general in nature, reflecting a traditional domestic setting. In relation to the Finnish context, there has been research concerning the employment of immigrants. However, the focus in these studies has been on the largest immigrant groups, and there have been few studies concerning the employment of foreigners with higher education. As a result it has remained unclear whether the situation of highly educated foreigners concerning job search in Finland resembles that of immigrants in general. This study aims to fill the gaps found in the literature by shedding light on the experiences of highly educated foreigners regarding finding initial employment in Finland. The study was conducted by using a mixed-methods approach, utilising both quantitative and qualitative research methods. First, a web-based survey was conducted by targeting the 190 foreign Master's Degree students of the Aalto University School of Business. A total of 67 responses were obtained. The survey was followed by conducting six semi-structured interviews with six respondents of the survey. The quantitative data of the study was analysed mainly through descriptive statistics and the comparison of the obtained results to the findings of previous studies. The qualitative data was analysed by classifying the transcribed interview data, investigating the connections between different classes, and comparing the findings with existing literature. The results of this study indicate that highly educated foreigners have different experiences in finding initial employment in Finland, but there are certain common factors that influence whether or not job search is participated in, how this is done, and what the outcomes of the search are. This study actually provides a framework of the process of employment acquisition in this specific context and indentifies the factors influencing the process. The results also indicate at least in terms of the highly educated foreigners studying in the Aalto University School of Business that they participate to a large extent in job search and the shares of those who have been successful and those who have not yet been successful seem to be quite even. In addition, they largely seem to consider being in a disadvantageous position in job search, in comparison to Finns. Overall, the findings do suggest that highly educated foreigners face challenges in the Finnish labour markets and their employability is not necessarily that high, at least in relation to the natives.


Thyroid hormones--particularly triiodothyronine, T3--play a critical role in the morphological transformations comprising metamorphosis in larval bullfrogs (Rana catesbeiana). Traditional staging criteria for anuran larvae incompletely distinguish physiological and behavioral changes during growth. We therefore first developed a new parameter to describe larval growth, the developmental index (DI), which is simply the ratio between the tail length of the larva and its head diameter. Using the DI we were able to identify two distinct populations classifying the larvae during growth along a continuous linear scale with a cutoff value of DI at 2.8. Classification based on the DI, used in this study, proved an effective complement to existing classifications based on developmental staging into pre- or pro-metamorphic stages. Exposure to T3 in the water induced a rapid (beginning within 5 min) and significant decrease (approximately 20-40%) in locomotor activity, measured as total distance traversed and velocity. The largest decrease occurred in more developed larvae (DI<2.8). To determine correlated changes in the neuromuscular junctions during metamorphosis and apoptotic tail loss, miniature endplate currents from tail muscle were recorded during acute exposure to a hypertonic solution, which simulates an apoptotic volume decrease. Our results support a role for T3 in regulating larval locomotor activity during development, and suggest an enhanced response to volume depletion at the neuromuscular junction of older larvae (DI<2.8) compared to younger animals (DI> or =2.8). We discuss the significance of the possible role of an apoptotic volume decrease at the level of the neuromuscular junction.


Recent works show that the plants can exhibit nonlinear memristive behavior when excited with low-frequency signals. However, in the literature, only linear bio-impedance models are extensively considered to model the electrical properties of biological tissues without acknowledging the nonlinear behavior. In this paper, we show with experiments, for the first time, the pinched hysteresis behavior in seven fruits and vegetables including tomato, orange, lemon, aubergine, and kiwi which exhibit single pinch-off point, and others such as carrot and cucumber exhibit double pinch-off points (i.e., three lobes). We also proposed a memristive fractional-order bio-impedance model by extending the Hayden bio-impedance model. The proposed model is used to fit the measurements of the seven fruits and vegetables showing very good matching.


This paper examines the effects of competition between insurers for the patronage of a firm's employees. Since for employment-based health insurance the employee choice of health insurance plans is often limited, the availability of competing plans in the market does not necessarily reflect competition within the firm. We utilize data from the 1987 National Medical Expenditures Survey (NMES) to examine the effect of intrafirm competition in the employment-based health insurance market. Using switching regression models, we explore the process that sets premiums and the process that sets the net premium/medical cost margins. We find that greater choice results in higher margins and lower premiums. We also find significantly negative health maintenance organization choice effects on both premiums and margins.


PURPOSE Electronic health records (EHRs) with clinical decision support hold promise for improving quality of care, but their impact on management of chronic conditions has been mixed. This study examined the impact of EHR-based clinical decision support on adherence to guidelines for reducing gastrointestinal complications in primary care patients on nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). METHODS This randomized controlled trial was conducted in a national network of primary care offices using an EHR and focused on patients taking traditional NSAIDs who had factors associated with a high risk for gastrointestinal complications (a history of peptic ulcer disease; concomitant use of anticoagulants, anti-platelet medications [including aspirin], or corticosteroids; or an age of 75 years or older). The offices were randomized to receive EHR-based guidelines and alerts for high-risk patients on NSAIDs, or usual care. The primary outcome was the proportion of patients who received guideline-concordant care during the 1-year study period (June 2007–June 2008), defined as having their traditional NSAID discontinued (including a switch to a lower-risk medication), having a gas-troprotective medication coprescribed, or both. RESULTS Participants included 27 offices with 119 clinicians and 5,234 high-risk patients. Intervention patients were more likely than usual care patients to receive guideline-concordant care (25.4% vs 22.4%, adjusted odds ratio = 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 1.01–1.42). For individual high-risk groups, patients on low-dose aspirin were more likely to receive guideline-concordant care with the intervention vs usual care (25.0% vs 20.8%, adjusted odds ratio = 1.30; 95% confidence interval, 1.04–1.62), but there was no significant difference for patients in other high-risk groups. CONCLUSIONS This study showed only a small impact of EHR-based clinical decision support for high-risk patients on NSAIDs in primary care offices. These results add to the growing literature about the complexity of EHR-based clinical decision support for improving quality of care.


SUMMARY In formicine ants, the hair fields associated with the neck and the petiole (alitrunk–petiole and petiole–gaster joints) have long been established to function in graviception. Here, we examine a possible role of these hair receptors in three-dimensional (3-D) path integration of the (formicine) desert ant, Cataglyphis fortis. Cataglyphis judge the ground distance when travelling over hills, allowing correct homing even in (unpredictably) uneven terrain. We eliminated the function of these hair sensors in graviception either by shaving the hairs or by immobilising the joints monitored by the hair plates. With that major component of their sense of graviception eliminated, one would expect the ants to disregard, or at least misgauge, the ascents and descents performed across hills during outbound journey. The ants should thus consider the (much longer) actual walking trajectory, instead of the base distance, when calculating their homing distance. Surprisingly, neither shaving nor immobilisation of the hair sensillae affected correct path integration, across both uneven terrain (3-D) and level surface. If anything, the ants underestimated homing distance, which may reflect a general, safety-oriented navigation strategy. Animals that had performed the outbound journey with their gaster fixed in a horizontal position underestimated their homing so dramatically that this latter explanation cannot hold.


We consider a model of diffusion in random media with a two-way coupling (i.e., a model in which the randomness of the medium influences the diffusing particles and where the diffusing particles change the medium). In this particular model, particles are injected at the origin with a time-dependent rate and diffuse among random traps. Each trap has a finite (random) depth, so that when it has absorbed a finite (random) number of particles it is "saturated," and it no longer acts as a trap. This model comes from a problem of nuclear waste management. However, a very similar model has been studied recently by Gravner and Quastel with different tools (hydrodynamic limits). We compute the asymptotic behavior of the probability of survival of a particle born at some given time, both in the annealed and quenched cases, and show that three different situations occur depending on the injection rate. For weak injection, the typical survival strategy of the particle is as in Sznitman and the asymptotic behavior of this survival probability behaves as if there was no saturation effect. For medium injection rate, the picture is closer to that of internal DLA, as given by Lawler, Bramson and Griffeath. For large injection rates, the picture is less understood except in dimension one.


The development of child care policy has been characterized by debates organized along various intersecting constructs such as universal vs. selective services and prevention vs. treatment. Family centres, as a site of service delivery, represent a point of intersection of many of these arguments. Their role is contested between protagonists of all positions within the child care policy debates: whether they should be professionally managed, led by service users, provide a service to referred families, or offer a universal resource for local communities. This paper argues that a needs-led approach to family centre development may supersede the sterile dichotomies of many of these debates. A case study is presented of an evaluation research project, designed to inform a needs-led family centre policy for an urban unitary social services department. The methodology utilizes an approach combining quantitative analyses of geographical distributions of family need with qualitative presentation of the perspectives of actual and potential centre users, and agency stakeholders. The outcome is a family centre model which, by focusing on need, seeks to transcend the limited oppositions of the child care debates.


This paper reports two experiments that test WolpertV (1990) claim that musicians and nonmusicians differ in their memory for melodies because nonmusicians9 memory performance reflects a greater use of the timbre dimension to make recognition decisions. In both experiments, listeners were asked to identify which of two test melodies, a target and a distractor, was heard previously. On one half of the trials, the target melody was in the same timbre as the original, and the distractor was in a different timbre. For the other half of the trials, the distractor melody was in the same timbre as the original, and the target melody was in a different timbre. In her earlier study, Wolpert found that nonmusicians9 memory for melodies was affected by timbre changes, whereas musicians9 memory was not. In the present experiments, we controlled for instruction clarity and brought listener performance down from near perfect. As a result, it was found that timbre changes differentially affected neither musicians9 nor nonmusicians9 memory for melodies.


This study determine the prevalence and risk factors associated with Fasciola and Paramphistomum and the co-infection of both parasites in 246 Philippine carabaos slaughtered in Ormoc City abattoir.Upon postmortem examination, adult parasites were collected from the organ of localization and identified based on morphological characteristics. Intrinsic factors [sex, age, weight, Body Condition Score (BCS)] and origin of the carabaos were recorded. The parasites identified were Fasciola gigantica and Paramphistomum cervi. The study showed a prevalence of 50.81% for F. gigantica, 4.31% for P. cervi and 32.11% for coinfection. was more prevalent in female carabaos (57.80%), carabaos more than three years of age (58.41%), >325kg bodyweight (60.36%) and higher than three body condition score (59.09%). Paramphistomum was common in female carabaos (51.37%), carabaos less than or equal to three years of age (46.82%), ≤325kg bodyweight (52.59%) and less than or equal to three (≤3) body condition score (49.64%). Carabaos originating from Leyte have a higher infection rate to Fasciola (53.30%) and Paramphistomum (46.70%) compared to carabaos , supplied by other provinces. Logistic regression modeling indicates that male carabaos are a protective factor (OR 0.59) against Paramphistomum infection while carabaos within Leyte have a greater likelihood of being infected with both parasites (OR 4.27 to 4.57). Pearson's Correlation Coefficient (r-value) showed a strong and positive result (r=0.997**) that the likelihood of Fasciola and Paramphistomum co-exist (co-infection) together is high. A high prevalence rate of fluke infection has been recorded in carabaos admitted for slaughter implying, that most of the backyard carabao raisers are not practicing sound deworming, pasture and grazing management and proper deworming protocol. To prevent and control flukes and improve production and health of carabaos, the above-mentioned factors must first be considered.


Drawing on the social psychology literature, two studies are presented that examine the role of self-esteem and body-esteem in driving the effect of using highly attractive female imagery in ads targeting women. In two 2 × 2 experiments, model physical attractiveness and product category are manipulated. The results indicate that (1) while highly attractive female models perform better in the ads of attractiveness-related products, moderately attractive female models work better in the ads of non-attractiveness-related products and (2) self-esteem and body esteem play a significant role on how female imagery in ads relate to advertising effectiveness. We found rather consistent yet statistically insignificant evidence for the proposition that low self- and body esteem amplifies the reversal effect predicted by the "match-up hypothesis."


To overcome the challenge of upcycling plastic waste into 3-D printing filament in the distributed recycling and additive manufacturing systems, this study designs, builds, tests and validates an open source 3-D filament diameter sensor for recycling and winding machines. The modular system for multi-axis optical control of the diameter of the recycled 3-D-printer filament makes it possible to analyze the surface structure of the processed filament, save the history of measurements along the entire length of the spool, as well as mark defective areas. The sensor is developed as an independent module and integrated into a recyclebot. The diameter sensor was tested on different kinds of polymers (ABS, PLA) different sources of plastic (recycled 3-D prints and virgin plastic waste) and different colors including clear plastic. The results of the diameter measurements using the camera were compared with the manual measurements, and the measurements obtained with a one-dimensional digital light caliper. The results found that the developed open source filament sensing method allows users to obtain significantly more information in comparison with basic one-dimensional light sensors and using the received data not only for more accurate diameter measurements, but also for a detailed analysis of the recycled filament surface. The developed method ensures greater availability of plastics recycling technologies for the manufacturing community and stimulates the growth of composite materials creation. The presented system can greatly enhance the user possibilities and serve as a starting point for a complete recycling control system that will regulate motor parameters to achieve the desired filament diameter with acceptable deviations and even control the extrusion rate on a printer to recover from filament irregularities.


The hydrolytic degradation of technical poly(ethylene terephthalate) (PET) was investigated by means of different methods such as size-exclusion chromatography (SEC), viscometry, light-scattering, thin-layer chromatography, end-group titration, and matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry (MALDI-MS). The long-term degradation was simulated by exposing PET filament yarns to aqueous neutral conditions at 90°C for up to 18 weeks. By means of MALDI-MS and thin-layer chromatography, the formation of different oligomers was obtained during polymer degradation. As expected, an ester scission process was found generating acid terminated oligomers (H-[GT]m-OH) and T-[GT]m-OH and ethylene glycol terminated oligomers (H-[GT]m-G), where G is an ethylene glycol unit and T is a terephthalic acid unit. Additionally, the scission of the ester bonds during the chemical treatment led to a strong decrease in the number of cyclic oligomers ([GT]m). The occurrence of di-acid terminated species demonstrated a high degree of degradation. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. J Polym Sci A: Polym Chem 35: 2183–2192, 1997


In the last years the interest for patient experience with health care services largely increased. Several surveys have been conducted in order to observe if health care systems answer to the overall patient needs. In 2000 World Health Organization challenged modern health care providers to ensure responsiveness to patients, i.e. to deliver also non-health assistance (respect for dignity, confidentiality, prompt attention, quality of amenities, access to social support networks, choice of provider, etc.). Poor evidence is available in Italy about connections between perceived quality and the capability of the healthcare system to respond to patients' needs. This work aims at investigating patient experience with General Practitioner (GP) assistance and at measuring the impact of personal and organizational characteristics on overall satisfaction and on willingness to recommend. In 2009 a sample survey was conducted in four regions of Italy (Tuscany, Piedmont, Umbria, and Liguria). About 15.000 citizens answered to a large questionnaire related to Primary Care services, including a section dedicated to General Practitioner (GP) assistance. A logistic regression analysis was applied to analyze which are the predictors of overall satisfaction with GP, focusing mainly on variables related to patient's expectations, continuity of care and organizational aspects (e.g. scheduled access, waiting time, health case history, etc.) and if there are differences across the four Italian Regions. Econometric analysis has been carried out through both ordered logistic regression and generalised ordered logit models. The inhabitants of the four Italian Regions refer a nice experience with GP assistance: more than 85% of them judged excellent or good the overall service. Generally, in some regions patient expectations affect more the willingness to recommend GP to friends or family members than the overall judgement on service. Besides, the findings provide convincing evidence that GP is a nodal point in the continuity of care process .


Together for the first time in one paperback volume are two of Jung's major late works, in the version published in The Collected Works of C. G. Jung, as rendered by Jung's official translator. "The Undiscovered Self" (1957) integrates many of Jung's lifelong social and psychological concerns and addresses the uneasy relation between the individual and mass society. The survival of civilization, he maintains, depends on individual awareness of both the conscious and unconscious aspects of the human psyche. The exploration of the unconscious, in particular, leads to self-knowledge and with it recognition of the duality of human natureits potential for evil as well as for good. Jung believes that it is this self-knowledge that enables the individual to resist the collective power of mass society and the state and to cope with their possible threats. Jung's reflections on self-knowledge and the exploration of the unconscious carry over into his essay "Symbols and the Interpretation of Dreams, " completed shortly before his death in 1961. (It is the original version of his introduction to the symposium Man and His Symbols, conceived as a popular presentation of Jungian ideas.) Describing dreams as communications from the unconscious--as expressions of aspects of the individual that have been neglected or unrealized--Jung explains how the symbols that occur in dreams compensate for repressed emotions and intuitions. In a world dehumanized, in Jung's view, by scientific "progress" and the loss of emotional participation in natural events, symbols recall our original nature, its instincts and peculiar way of thinking. This essay brings together Jung's fully evolved thoughts on the analysis ofdreams and the healing of the rift between consciousness and the unconscious, in the context of his system of psychology.


The effects of glucose, crystalline cellulose and sawdust of Mitragyna cilata on the growth and cellulase production, inferred from cellulase (EC 3. 2. 1. 4) activity, of Penicillium chrysogenum PCL501 was determined. Glucose-containing media gave the highest mycelia weight of 1.78 mg mL -1 in 120 h of incubation. This is about 3.5 – 4.5 times the maximum weights of 0.51 and 0.40 mg mL -1 respectively obtained from the cultures containing cellulose and sawdust. The cultures containing crystalline cellulose and sawdust produced extracellular protein with cellulase (EC 3. 2. 1. 4) activity whereas glucose-containing cultures yielded very low protein and no significant cellulase activity. Maximum protein content of 0.02, 0.13 and 0.46 mg mL -1 respectively were obtained from the cultures containing glucose, cellulose and sawdust. Peak cellulase activity values of 100.0 and 92.2 Units L -1 respectively were obtained for the cultures containing cellulose and sawdust. There is a correlation between the protein released and cellulase activity of the culture filtrates. P. chrysogenum PCL501 produces extracellular proteins with significant cellulase activity in media containing cellulose and sawdust but not in glucose- containing medium. Sawdust is indicated as a good inducer of cellulase activity in the organism. The waste cellulosic material can be used as low-cost carbon source for commercial cellulase production.


Family support services aim to support parents and carers with the task of bringing up children; these services consistently report problems, however, in attracting helpseekers. Despite recent developments within child-welfare towards the provision of family-friendly services, self-referral rates remain low constituting at best 30% of all referrals. Agencies also report that families are reluctant to take up services following third party (frequently professional) referral. Despite these consistent findings the extant literature on help-seeking offers few insights into how social actors, in the face of family problems, make choices between the available sources of help. Within the extant literature studies consistently report that families prefer `informal' support but few insights are offered about how such decisions are made and how preference is organised in relation to diverse sources of support. In this thesis and focusing on talk about `help-seeking' in focus group and interview settings, analysis centres on exploring the accountable properties of situated decision-making. From analysis of situated talk, the study offers insights and raises questions for further research that may assist family support agencies to more appropriately tailor their services to meet the needs of service users.

The present study is much inspired by the work of Harvey Sacks in particular his development of Membership Categorisation Analysis. In making use of Hester and Eglin's occasioned model of MCA (1997) it has been possible to explore practical reasoning in and through the local, sequential and categorical organisation of talk. Analysis of situated decision-making, in relation to the topic `help-seeking', finds decision-making a highly organised practical activity such that any social actor canmake an `educated' guess about who, another, would suggest as a first category for help. Research participants, in deciding who should hypothetically be approached first for help, constituted a socially sanctioned order to help-seeking characterised by first-position category pairs and last-position category pairs. Use of, or reference to, prior knowledge of help-seeking encounters was also identified as a key decision making resource.

This thesis concludes with a policy discussion and raises a number of speculative comments arising from the study that are relevant for the development of child welfare services. A number of avenues are suggested for further research, in particular questions are asked about the continued practice and emphasis within child-welfare services on professional social diagnosis, with the attendant neglect of help-seeking as a socially organised activity. The study suggests that future research might centre on further analysis of how `family support' is organised within the family and prior to professional intervention. It is also suggested that further research examine the possibilities of response to requests for help as a better starting point for service delivery, rather than professional detection of `problems'.


Fruits and vegetables are important for a healthy diet. However, when eaten raw and contaminated with human pathogens (HPs) they may cause a disease outbreak. Contamination with HPs can occur along the entire farm-to-fork production chain and Salmonella enterica is one of the most common foodborne pathogens. A range of biotic and abiotic environmental factors can influence the complex interactions between Salmonella and plants. Moreover, the outcome of experiments largely depends on the experimental design and parameters or methods employed, and on top, on the accom - panying plant microbiome and the genetic equipment of the plant and the Salmonella strain. Particularly mobile genetic elements contribute to the diversification and adap - tation of Salmonella to the plant environment. So far, little is known about the key pro cesses and factors influencing the attachment and potential internalization of Salmonella in plants and the plant specific responses. It is therefore important to better under stand the ecology of Salmonella in the soil and plant environment, in order to propose practicable recommendations for prevention of foodborne diseases. This also requires improved sensitivity and specificity of detection methods. In this chapter, we present the current knowledge, research needs, and methodology regarding the complex inter actions between Salmonella and plants.


We document that an increase in government purchases generates a rise in consumption, the real and the product wage, and a fall in the markup. This evidence is robust across alternative empirical methodologies used to identify innovations in government spending (structural VAR vs. narrative approach). Simultaneously accounting for these facts is a formidable challenge for a neoclassical model, which relies on the wealth effect on labor supply as the main channel of transmission of unproductive government spending shocks. The goal of this paper is to explore further the role of the wealth effect in the transmission of government spending shocks. To this end, we build an otherwise standard business cycle model with price rigidity, in which preferences can be consistent with an arbitrarily small wealth effect on labor supply, and highlight that such effect is linked to the degree of complementarity between consumption and hours. The model is able to match our empirical evidence on the effects of government spending shocks remarkably well. This happens when the preferences are such that the positive wealth effect on labor supply is small and therefore the negative wealth effect on consumption is, somewhat counterintuitively, large.


An advanced numerical methodology is developed for metal forming simulation based on thermodynamically-consistent nonlocal constitutive equations accounting for various fully coupled mechanical phenomena under finite strain in the framework of micromorphic continua. The numerical implementation into ABAQUS/Explicit is made for 2D quadrangular elements thanks to the VUEL users' subroutine. Simple examples with presence of a damaged area are made in order to show the ability of the proposed methodology to describe the independence of the solution from the space discretization.


In 'Self-organizing' cities, decisions are based on the unhampered, peaceful, and honest choices of individuals, and governance, aside from penalizing coercive harm, is based on voluntary agreements. Self-organization has become an increasingly important topic in planning theory, as such processes enable urban systems to more effectively adapt to various stimuli and contextual needs over time. Self-organization may lead to emergent spatial configurations that are more in tune with individuals' values and preferences than the prevailing top-down approaches. The purpose of this article is to analyse how current tax systems impede emergent spatial configurations and, additionally, to explore what kind of fiscal rules and instruments are more supportive of creative (i.e. dynamically productive) processes of self-organization. The main finding is that the use of behavioural rules (such as contractual covenants and easements) and principles of taxation that do not distort the decentralized creation of value, such as user fees, congestion charges, and repayment of rental value received such as land value taxation, are superior to currently dominant approaches.


The paper presents a modelling of the human machine dialogue in dual language (French and Arabic). According to the principle of our model the production of a speech result from an exchange between the human and the machine, that depends on the interlocutor's mental condition. It presents itself under the set of fundamental units of the memory (FUM). The hierarchical organization of these units permits by the exchange, to satisfy the speaker by allowing him to attain his goal.


Software producing companies want to increase their quality and efficiency. They often look at automated test tools as a part of a solution. Not many company's use test tools, the time it takes to evaluate which test tool that suites the company best costs much in both money and time. The development process within the IT world is so fast, this makes it difficult for any enterprise to put money in a test tool that may be useless within a few years. For a test tool to be valuable for a company it must be used during at least a few years. An automated test takes a lot of time to implement and introduce in the company. To get the whole picture when to automate test we have looked at different test methodologies. Step-by Step Method uses tables and lists to create the test document. Product Life Cycle Method (CPU) describes implementing of software test in the product life cycle. Well-developed test methods can save a lot of time and make it possibly for developers to work effectively. We have also investigated some general information about automated test like cost and when to automate. ATLM (Automated Test Life-Cycle Methodology) is a methodology that is used in order to take the correct decisions such as when to automate or not, (ATLM) is a structured methodology aiming toward ensuring a successful implementation. We have also described some methods of automated tools. The Record/Playback Method is a feature that executes the test manually while the test tool sits in the background and remembers what has happened. It generates a script that can re-execute the test. The Functional Decomposition Method and The Key-Word Driven Method are a data-driven automated testing methodology. That allows developing automated test scripts that are more "generic". It requires only that the input and the expected results have been updated. In this study we have examined automated test tools offered by Rational, Segue Software Inc and Mercury Interactive to survey the tools on the market. Segue Software Inc is aimed for e-business systems. Rational is a big company and has solutions for all parts in a software project. Mercury Interactive has several test solutions for testing and monitoring business- critical Web applications, and the WinRunner is most complex of the offered tools.


Using firm-level data from the German manufacturing sector, we estimate a dynamic, structural model of the firm's decision to invest in R&D and quantify the cost and longrun benefit of this investment. The model incorporates and quantifies linkages between the firm's R&D investment, product and process innovations, and future productivity and profits. The dynamic model provides a natural measure of the long-run payoff to R&D as the difference in expected firm value generated by the R&D investment. For the median productivity firm, investment in R&D raises firm value by 3.0 percent in a group of hightech industries but only 0.2 percent in low-tech industries. Simulations of the model show that cost subsidies for R&D can significantly affect R&D investment rates and productivity changes in the high-tech industries.


Contractual duress, unconstitutional conditions, and blackmail have long been puzzling. The puzzle is why these doctrines sometimes condemn threatening lawful action to induce agreements but sometimes do not. This Article provides a general solution to this puzzle. Such threats are (and should be) deemed unlawfully coercive only when they are contrived, meaning that the threatened action would not have occurred if no threat could have been made. I show that such contrived threats can be credible because making the threat strongly influences whether the threatened action occurs. When such threats are uncontrived warnings, meaning that the threatened action would have occurred even if no threat could have been made, they are not coercive and can only benefit the agreeing parties. However, sometimes (as with blackmail) agreements produced by uncontrived warnings are also unlawful on the ground that they harm third parties. The contrived-threat test explains why the Medicaid-defunding threat in the Affordable Care Act was unconstitutional. It also explains why the recent King v Burwell conclusion—that the Affordable Care Act does not withhold tax credits from states that do not create insurance exchanges—would have been constitutionally required even if it had not been required by the statutory text.