Background: Wearable technologies offer potential telestroke applications that are more mobile and potentially less expensive than traditional telemedicine carts. In an earlier, pilot phase of this research program the best performing software and hardware combination for transmission of encrypted video and audio streaming was selected for further testing. Method: We tested Vuzix M100 smart glasses device and Pristine EyeSight HIPAA-compliant video streaming services. The device wearers, emergency physicians, performed the NIHSS, and a remote vascular neurologist or neurology resident viewed the exam. Providers recorded their score and evaluated the functionality of the device with a standardized list of questions. Results: The device was assessed in 52 subjects. The providers wearing the device reported the device useful (Agree or Strongly Agree) in making an assessment in 79% of cases and that they could assess the patient well 90% of the time. However, the wearers also reported both distraction from and interference with patient interaction due to the device in 98% of cases evaluated. The viewers also reported finding the device useful in making an assessment of stroke symptoms in 79% of cases (a different set of 79% than the wearers), but in only 65% of cases did they Agree or Strongly Agree that they could assess the patient well. Viewers reported an inadequate field of view for visual field testing in 63% of cases. The inter-rater agreement between the wearer and viewer on the total NIHSS showed moderate agreement (κ = 0.45). Although the technology was easy to use in 92% of the assessments, technical problems (mainly connectivity lags) were reported by the wearer 46% of the time and by the viewer 31% of the time. The technology was rated inadequate for assessing patients in 1 case by the wearers and 3 cases by the viewers. Conclusion: Wearable smart glass technology is feasible in assessing stroke patients and shows promise as a telestroke solution, however interference with physician-patient interaction, limited field of view for visual field testing and connectivity glitches are perceived limitations.


The publication of Reading Capital —by Louis Althusser, Etienne Balibar, Roger Establet, Pierre Macherey, and Jacques Ranciere—in 1965 marked a key intervention in Marxist philosophy and critical theory, bringing forth a stunning array of concepts that continue to inspire philosophical reflection of the highest magnitude. The Concept in Crisis reconsiders the volume's reading of Marx and renews its call for a critique of capitalism and culture for the twenty-first century. The contributors—who include Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar, and Fernanda Navarro—interrogate Althusser's contributions in particular within the context of what is surely the most famous collective reading of Marx ever undertaken. Among other topics, they offer a symptomatic critique of Althusser; consider his writing as a materialist production of knowledge; analyze the volume's conceptualization of value and crisis; examine how leftist Latin American leaders like Che Guevara and Subcomandante Marcos engaged with Althusser and Reading Capital ; and draw out the volume's implications and use for feminist theory and praxis. Retrieving the inspiration that drove Althusser's reinterpretation of Marx, The Concept in Crisis explains why Reading Capital 's revolutionary inflection retains its critical appeal, prompting readers to reconsider Marx's relevance in an era of neoliberal capitalism.

Contributors. Emily Apter, Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar, Bruno Bosteels, Adrian Johnston, Warren Montag, Fernanda Navarro, Nick Nesbitt, Knox Peden, Nina Power, Robert J. C. Young


Is there in truth no beauty? George Herbert, "Jordan"(1) John Keats often used the rhetorical device of quotation in his poetry. He did so in a variety of ways and sometimes with unclear directions to his reader. His aberrant use of quotation marks has, in particular, created editorial problems. In this exploratory essay, I review the several mechanisms of quotation used by Keats and then discuss two particularly well known examples--"pure serene" in the Chapman sonnet and the Beauty-Truth conclusion to "Ode on a Grecian Urn," suggesting sources and appropriate punctuation for both. If I am right about the latter, especially, then a long-standing textual crux may at last be resolved.(1) Quotations in poetry can be original utterances created by the poet and then assigned to his personae in a poem having dramatic characteristics approximating conversation. Alternatively, or additionally, quotations in poetry can also be utterances previously formulated by another author (the "source") and then appropriated by the poet either verbatim or in paraphrase for any of several reasons. In some cases, the borrowings are probably unconscious; coincidence of expression is also a possibility. If the borrowing is conscious, it may be an intended theft (as in Coleridge, at times) and therefore unacknowledged. Alternatively, the poet may utilize the device of quotation, and selected examples of his choice, precisely because the reader is expected to recognize (possibly with help from the poet) words originating elsewhere that have, through the poet's craft, become a legitimate part of later work (as with "Sir Patrick Spens" and Coleridge's "Dejection: An Ode"). Quotations of this kind, particularly if unmarked, grade into allusions, with which Keats's poems and letters are well supplied.(2) Among several devices of conscious quotation in Keats are these: (1.) Like Coleridge in "Dejection," Keats sometimes preceded his own verses with mottoes from the works of others, the device of epigraph. Thus, his early poem "Fill for me a brimming bowl" begins with an identified quotation from Eunuchus (or Eunuch, as Keats has it), a lively if somewhat gross comedy by the Roman playwright Terence. Keats's "Sleep and Poetry" has an epigraph from "The Flower and the Leaf," a medieval allegory then but not now attributed to Chaucer. "I stood tip-toe" begins with a line from Leigh Hunt's "Story of Rimini"; and Endymion, less obviously, with one from Shakespeare's seventeenth sonnet. Epigraphs can relate to the poems they precede in any of several ways, but their general purpose is to establish a kind of dialogue in which the lines of an older speaker have already been written. Even after November 1817, when the Shakespearian motto preceding Endymion is mentioned in one of his quotation-filled letters (22 November, to Reynolds), Keats continued to favor the device of epigraph. He derived from Milton some quoted lines at the beginning of "Welcome joy, and welcome sorrow" and accepted mottoes from both Wordsworth and Shakespeare in "On Some Skulls in Beauley Abbey, near Inverness." Epigraphs are thereafter less common in Keats, but other mature poems provided with them are "On Fame," which quotes a proverb; and "Ode on Indolence," quoting the gospel of Matthew. Though most of Keats's epigraphs derived from honored poetic predecessors, his last two examples favored wisdom literature instead. (2.) Keats also quoted the writings of others within his own poems. Examples include "Fill for me a brimming bowl" (Campbell), "To Hope" (Hamlet), "To George Felton Mathew" (Milton and Spenser), "Addressed to Haydon" (Wordsworth), "Unfelt, unheard, unseen" (proverbial), "Before he went to live with owls and bats" (Romeo and Juliet; Daniel [Bible]), "Robin Hood" (Chaucer), "Dear Reynolds, as last night I lay in bed" (Twelfth Night), "On Some Skulls in Beauley Abbey" (Lear), "Castle-builder" (Daniel), "`Tis the `Witching Time of Night'" (Hamlet), "The Eve of St. …


We present a new method to optically represent and implement binary logic, and we implement some unforced logic gates. The binary logic zero and one are taken to be an optical beam, or any electromagnetic wave, that is polarized at a selected state and its negation, orthogonal counterpart, or otherwise. In one implementation, a thin-film system is then designed and used so as it can move between 2 positions producing the net desired polarization change of the output. The output consists of a wave that is polarized either in the direction of the original logic 1 or 0 or any other chosen state and its negation, orthogonal counterpart. The system can be cascaded infinitely due to the fact that the output and input are both of the same format and that the logic zero and one are not dependant on the intensity of the input or the output light beam. The unforced gates exclusive OR and exclusive NOR along with a simple inverter are demonstrated in this communication. We present three design architectures, where each has two types of gates. In one type of gates the polarization state magnitude can carry information that can be employed for testability or reverse logic. XOR, XNOR, and inverter gate designs and operation are discussed in detail, and an easy-to-follow step-by-step algorithm is presented. The introduced architectures are easily adapted for simultaneous cascading, multiple input designs, and integrated optical architecture. * Patent Pending.


Normal operation conditions of cognitive radio applications require signal processing techniques that can be executed in real time. One of the first steps is to sense the occupied or free frequency channels. Two major drawbacks in the current techniques are that they assume (i) the noise as white and (ii) the measured spectrum as time-invariant. In real world, the noise is (i) colored so it disturbs the signal unevenly and (ii) its spectrum changes over time. Hence, tracking the time-varying noise spectrum can become crucial to remove the noise contributions and enhance the estimate of the received signal. In this paper, we study an auto-regressive model to develop an adaptive noise tracking technique using a Kalman filter such that an extension of Boll's noise subtraction technique, designed for audio noise cancellation, becomes feasible when adjusted to cognitive radio scenarios. Simulation results show the performance of this technique.


-Code-Division Multiple Access, a digital Cellular technology that uses spread-spectrum techniques. such as GSM, that use TDMA, but CDMA does not assign a specific frequency to each user. Wideband Code-Division Multiple Access (WCDMA), for the implementation of the third-generation (3G) cellular system. WCDMA efficiently utilizes the radio spectrum to provide a maximum data rate of 2 Mbit/s. As power is defined as the rate of energy transfer. Energy to dissipate away from the conductor into the surrounding, through the process of heat transfer. This review paper based on Low power multimode switched capacitor sigma delta-modulator, A low power multi-rate 2-2 cascade sigma-delta modulator for Bluetooth, GSM, GPS, WCDMA, WLAN and WiMAX modes is proposed . In this paper, another reference papers will be shown how to dissipate the power in WCDMA with terminologies.


In a 2004 study, Harvey, Lin and Roper argue that debt makers with a commitment to monitoring can create value for outside shareholders whenever information asymmetry and agency costs are pronounced. I investigate Harvey, Lin and Roper's claim for bank loans by empirically testing the effect of information asymmetry and direct agency costs on the abnormal returns of the borrowers' stock around the announcement of bank loans. I divide my study into two main sections. The first section tests whether three proxies of the direct agency costs of equity are equally significant in measuring the direct costs associated with outside equity agency problems. I find that the asset utilization ratio proxy is the most statistically significant proxy of the direct agency costs of equity using a Chow F-test statistic. The second main section of my dissertation includes and event study and a cross-sectional analysis. The event study results document significant and positive average abnormal returns of 1.01% for the borrowers' stock on the announcement day of bank loans. In the cross sectional analysis of the borrowers' average abnormal stock returns, I find that higher quality and more reputable banks/lenders provide a reliable certification to the capital market about the low level of the borrowers' direct agency costs of equity and information asymmetry. This certification hypothesis holds only for renewed bank loans. In other words, in renewing the borrowers' line of credit, the bank/lender is actually confirming that the borrower has a low level of information asymmetry and direct costs of equity. Given such a certificate from the banks/lenders, shareholders reward the company/borrower by bidding the share price up in the capital market.


Climate change may compel millions of people, largely in Africa and Asia, to leave their homes to seek refuge in other places over the course of the century. Yet the current institutions, organizations and funding mechanisms, including new soft law initiatives, are not sufficiently equipped to deal with this. The situation calls for new governance. Following a review of academic and popular debates focussed on defining this issue as climate 'refugees' or 'migrants', we advance in this chapter a blueprint for a global governance architecture on the protection and voluntary resettlement of climate migrants. We argue against the extension of the definition of refugees under the 1951 Geneva Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees, and discuss the limited use of soft law mechanisms as these are largely focussed on state responsibility. Key elements of our proposal are, instead, a new legal instrument that builds on the responsibility of the international community and is specifically tailored for the needs of climate migrants—a Protocol on Recognition, Protection and Resettlement of Climate Migrants to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change—as well as a separate funding mechanism, a Climate Migrant Protection and Resettlement Fund.


The presence of radioactive impurities in radionuclides that are used for medical
applications may adversely affect the quality of diagnostic images and increase
radiation dose to the patient. The aim of this project was to identify and quantify such
impurities in the following solutions: 99mTc generator eluates, commercial 123I and 131I
sodium iodide and cyclotron-produced 68Ga and 89Zr. The work was done with a
calibrated high-purity germanium (HPGe) detector and gamma spectroscopy system
with the activity of the main radionuclides being measured with a radionuclide
calibrator. Impurity activity was expressed as a percentage of the main radionuclide
activity.
The parent 99Mo was found in all the 99mTc generator eluates but with low relative
activity (<3x10-3%). There was no significant difference between the corresponding
eluates of two generators having different reference activity. Overall, the relative
activity decreased logarithmically with eluate number and this has not been reported
previously. This suggests that as regards 99Mo content, the later eluates are safer for
patients than the earlier ones because they deliver lower additional radiation dose. The
radionuclide 103Ru was also identified as an impurity in some 99mTc generator eluates,
but at a much lower relative activity (<2x10-5%). This decreased rapidly after the first
elution suggesting that, in effect, its presence may be eliminated by pre-elution of the
generator.
For the Na123I solution, the main contaminants were 125I (<2x10-2%) and 121Te (<7x10-
3%). However, also observed were trace activities (<8x10-4%) of 124I, 126I, 95mTc and
96Tc, which have not been reported in the literature. As these impurities were found only
in some samples with very low relative activity and as their half-lives are similar to or
shorter than the half-life of the longer-lived main impurity (125I), they do not present a
significant hazard to patients. No impurities were identified in the Na131I solution.
The radionuclides 68Ga and 89Zr were produced by a cyclotron at the Cardiff University
Positron Emission Tomography Imaging Centre (PETIC), the former for the first time
in the UK using a liquid target. For 68Ga, the identified impurities were 67Ga (<9x10-
1%), 66Ga (<7x10-3%) and 56Co (<5x10-4%), while for 89Zr, the contaminants were 88Zr
IV
(<2x10-3%), 88Y (4x10-4%) and 56Co (<3x10-3%). In both cases, the relative activities of
the impurities were well within the goal of <2%. The results of this study may be used
to optimise the irradiation conditions for the production of the two main radionuclides.
This work has confirmed the usefulness of a HPGe detector and high-resolution gamma
spectroscopy for the analysis of the radionuclidic purity of medical radionuclides, and
suggested several avenues for future research.


The objective of this study has been to enable a greater understanding of the biomass gasification process through the development and use of process and economic models. A new theoretical equilibrium model of gasification is described using the operating condition called the adiabatic carbon boundary. This represents an ideal gasifier working at the point where the carbon in the feedstock is completely gasified. The model can be used as a `target' against which the results of real gasifiers can be compared, but it does not simulate the results of real gasifiers. A second model has been developed which uses a stagewise approach in order to model fluid bed gasification, and its results have indicated that pyrolysis and the reactions of pyrolysis products play an important part in fluid bed gasifiers. Both models have been used in sensitivity analyses: the biomass moisture content and gasifying agent composition were found to have the largest effects on performance, whilst pressure and heat loss had lesser effects. Correlations have been produced to estimate the total installed capital cost of gasification systems and have been used in an economic model of gasification. This has been used in a sensitivity analysis to determine the factors which most affect the profitability of gasification. The most important influences on gasifier profitability have been found to be feedstock cost, product selling price and throughput. Given the economic conditions of late 1985, refuse gasification for the production of producer gas was found to be viable at throughputs of about 2.5 tonnes/h dry basis and above, in the metropolitan counties of the United Kingdom. At this throughput and above, the largest element of product gas cost is the feedstock cost, the cost element which is most variable.


The early requirements of an IT system should be aligned with the organization's business imperatives. To understand these imperatives it is necessary to understand the organization's position within its environment. SEAM for Business is a method designed for analyzing the competitive environment of an organization, including its relationships with its customers, partners, and market regulators. From this analysis, the main requirements of the IT systems can be inferred. We illustrate the use of SEAM for Business with a real project aimed at redesigning the website of a consulting company.


Hence hydraulic fluid is the medium of power transfer in hydraulic equipment, it is important to know the properties of hydraulic fluids and its influence on system performance. There are different types of fluids based on their availability, working purpose etc. So selection of fluid depends on the working conditions of the hydraulic equipment. So to select a fluid one has to be clear about the operating conditions of hydraulic equipment and this can be achieved by testing the equipment with different fluids and select the fluid that gives the best performance. To know about the properties (like Viscosity, operating temperature range) of fluids available there should be some standardisation of hydraulic fluids and one such type is ISO (International organization for standardization). Though there are many this is followed by most. By this standardization the fluid manufacturer can categorize the fluids and the user can easily select the fluid according to their requirement.The thesis work mainly deals with two parts. First part is giving a brief description of fluids based on ISO standards and standard test methods for hydraulic systems. The major or second part deals with finding the performance of six different types of fluids from four different manufacturers. Among them five fluids are environmentally acceptable hydraulic fluids and one is mineral oil based hydraulic fluid. The main task is to find the performance of this five environmentally acceptable hydraulic fluids comparing with standard mineral oil so that it will be useful for the equipment manufacturers to select a fluid for the system. The other main task of the thesis is to measure the pressure losses in long hoses which are used in forest machines. So a test plan was made to cover both the tasks, where the test method to find the losses in hose is one of the test method in finding the performances of the six fluids. The procedure about the tests are clearly explained in section 5.1. Among the five environmentally acceptable hydraulic fluids one is synthetic bio diesel and remaining four are synthetic ester based fluids and standard mineral oil is paraffin based. Because of the confidentiality the fluid names has been changed based on their viscosity as diesel oil (synthetic bio diesel), synth 32, synth e 32, synth es 32, synth 12 and mineral oil 46 (standard mineral oil). Synth e 32 and synth es 32 are the upgraded fluids of synth 32 fluid from same manufacturer.


Young people living with disadvantage are at elevated risk of a range of negative life outcomes, including social exclusion, impaired health and well-being, and low educational or vocational participation. In this context, the Resilient Futures program was conceptualized and developed as a strength-focused and positive psychology intervention whose design was underpinned by a broad interdisciplinary range of scientific evidence. The program utilizes an ecological framework that sought to target key proximal and distal factors associated with youth social exclusion, disengagement, and disadvantage. The target participant group was 850 disadvantaged young South Australians (aged 16 to 21) drawn from a number of educational, mental health, and youth justice agencies who were project partners in codesigning and supporting the implementation. The intervention was designed to build well-being and resilience skills through explicit (direct teaching) and implicit (mentoring, case management) teaching methods, supported by system-focused methods that build the capacity of service providers. This article describes the iterative development of the Resilient Futures program, including a significant early program reorientation toward the use of a nonprescriptive and flexible delivery method. This pivot was guided by the implementation science literature, and underpinned by an intentional practice model and approach that was operationalized at both the program design and service delivery layers of the program. We summarize key challenges in delivering a well-being and resilience program across multiple sites for a disadvantaged cohort, and the methods the project team developed to bring focus to implementation quality and rigor. Preliminary qualitative evidence supporting the effectiveness of the program is also provided.


While a certain amount of legal process and even jargon is necessary to protect the rights of the parties (including the marketer!), there are areas where this criticism is arguably valid. One of these areas is perhaps the decisions of the Final Appeal Committee (FAC). It was and is desirable that the decisions of this committee be respected and be of a quality comparable with other decision-making bodies. For this reason, a retired judge is the preferred chair for the FAC, and the current incumbent, Mervyn King, fulfils this requirement. Of course, with a retired judge, one has to up the level of argument, and it is seldom that a matter is argued by anything less than senior counsel. The result, while very interesting and meaningful to the lawyers, is sometimes confusing to marketers. Which presents a problem as it is these decisions that are binding on the ASA's other committees.


A spate of news articles involving online agreements has made headlines recently. They provide cautionary tales of the brave new world of wrap contracts where unwitting users can be exploited simply by clicking "agree." Wrap contracts — particularly digital ones such as clickwraps and browsewraps — govern most online activity, setting rules and giving companies broad enforcement discretion. Despite their ubiquity on the Internet and their increasing importance in online interactions, consumers discount or ignore how wrap contracts affect their rights and leave them vulnerable. This essay explains why these recent examples mark a turning point in the role of wrap contracts in Internet governance — and why consumers should be very wary of clicking "agree."


A basic tenet of economic science is that productivity growth is the source of growth in real income per capita. But our results raise doubts by creating a direct link between macro productivity growth and the micro evolution of the income distribution. We show that over the entire period 1966-2001, as well as over 1997-2001, only the top 10 percent of the income distribution enjoyed a growth rate of real wage and salary income equal to or above the average rate of economy-wide productivity growth. Growth in median real wage and salary income barely grew at all while average wage and salary income kept pace with productivity growth, because half of the income gains went to the top 10% of the income distribution, leaving little left over for the bottom 90%. Half of this inequality effect is attributable to gains of the 90th percentile over the 10th percentile; the other half is due to increased skewness within the top 10%. In addition to its micro analysis, this paper also asks whether faster productivity growth reduces inflation, raises nominal wage growth, or raises profits. We find that an acceleration or deceleration of the productivity growth trend alters the inflation rate by at least one-for-one in the opposite direction. This paper revives research on wage adjustment and produces a dynamic interactive model of price and wage adjustment that explains movements of labour's share of income. What caused rising income inequality? Economists have placed too much emphasis on 'skill-biased technical change' and too little attention to the sources of increased skewness at the very top, within the top 1% of the income distribution. We distinguish two complementary explanations, the 'economics of superstars,' i.e., the pure rents earned by sports and entertainment stars, and the escalating compensation premia of CEOs and other top corporate officers. These sources of divergence at the top, combined with the role of deunionization, immigration, and free trade in pushing down incomes at the bottom, have led to the wide divergence between the growth rates of productivity, average compensation, and median compensation.


Most of the process models so far have been introduced in the domain of software engineering are meant for proprietary software. Though, in the case of open source software development, the popular Bazaar model can be mentioned, it has some limitations too. The present research has attempted to formulate a process model for developing a software project exclusively for the open source paradigm. We have named it "Unified Software Development Model for Free/Open Source (USDM)". Not only we have introduced USDM, we have also validated this new model by initiating a project on Bangla pre-processor in the domain of open source development.


There is a growing interest in applying carrierless amplitude-phase (CAP) modulation in intensity modulated optical links. CAP as a multilevel modulation scheme can reach high spectral efficiency and be generated at low cost. An interesting feature of CAP is that its signal basis can be extended to three or more dimensions (D). This paper aims to complete the knowledge on 3-D CAP. Discussed are design of transceiver filters, spectral efficiency, and digital equalization in 3-D. Several problems accompanying 3-D CAP transmission are identified. The most significant are the peak to average power ratio, which is higher than in one or two dimensions and noise correlation at the output of a 3-D equalizer. It is found that the latter problem severely degrades bit error rates achieved but can be efficiently mitigated using noise whitening equalization. Finally, 1-D, 2-D, and 3-D CAP are compared experimentally in a step-index polymer optical fiber link.


WE DETERMINED THE ABUNDANCE AND TAXONOMIC COMPOSITION OF LAND-BIRDS IN SALIACA ISLAND, SINALOA, MEXICO, BY MEANS OF POINT COUNTS DURING 3 SAMPLING PERIODS (SUMMER, AUTUMN AND WINTER) AND 3 TYPES OF HABITAT (THORN FOREST, MANGROVE AND DUNE). WE OBSERVED 82 SPECIES, WHICH IS GREATER THAN THE NUMBER REPORTED FOR ANY OTHER ISLAND OF THE GULF OF CALIFORNIA. THE SPECIES RICHNESS AND ABUNDANCE WERE GREATER IN AUTUMN (59 SPECIES AND 9.2 ± 1.2 BIRDS PER POINT COUNT) AND WINTER (48 AND 7.5 ± 0.9) THAN IN SUMMER (33 AND 5.2 ± 0.3), A PATTERN RESULTING FROM THE ARRIVAL OF NEOTROPICAL MIGRANTS. WITH REGARD TO DIFFERENCES BY HABITAT, THE GREATEST RICHNESS AND ABUNDANCE OCCURRED IN THE THORN FOREST (60 SPECIES AND 9.3 ± 0.9 BIRDS PER POINT), FOLLOWED BY MANGROVE (16 AND 3.3 ± 0.8) AND DUNE (3 AND 1.0 ± 0.2), WHICH IS AGREEMENT WITH THE HIGHER COMPLEXITY OF VEGETATION STRUCTURE AND THE GREATER AREA OF THORN FOREST. SALIACA ISLAND COULD REPRESENT A RELICT OF THE COASTAL REGIONAL HABITAT, WHICH ENHANCES ITS CONSERVATION AND PROTECTION VALUE.


Research that clarifies individual level factors associated with sexual risk behavior among African American adolescents remains an important public health priority. The current study examined the longitudinal association of depressive symptoms to sexual risk behaviors, and determined whether the association of depressive symptoms to risky sex varies as a function of gender in a sample of African American adolescents. A secondary aim was to examine whether self-efficacy for sex refusal and condom use mediate the depression-sexual risk relationship. Data analyses focused on baseline and three-month assessments of depressive symptoms and sexual behaviors assessed for the previous three-months, including: (a) engagement in vaginal sex; (b) having two or more sexual partners; (c) relative frequency of condom use; and (d) condom use at last sex. Analyses confirmed that depressive symptoms predict sex with two or more partners and both indices of inconsistent condom use. Further, gender moderates the association of depression and sex with two or more partners, such that depressive symptoms are a more powerful risk factor for females relative to males. Lastly, mediation analyses revealed that condom use self-efficacy significantly mediates the effects of depressive symptoms on inconsistent condom use. Depression is not a significant predictor of sexual activity status, nor did sex refusal self-efficacy mediate the association of depressive symptoms to engagement in vaginal sex or having two or more sexual partners. Nonetheless, current study findings have important implications for HIV/STI prevention, where behavioral interventions may benefit from modules that include a focus on the influence of mood on sexual behaviors and self-efficacy for safer sex practices.


Normalizing flows model probability distributions by learning invertible transformations that transfer a simple distribution into complex distributions. Since the architecture of ResNet-based normalizing flows is more flexible than that of coupling-based models, ResNet-based normalizing flows have been widely studied in recent years. Despite their architectural flexibility, it is well-known that the current ResNet-based models suffer from constrained Lipschitz constants. In this paper, we propose the monotone formulation to overcome the issue of the Lipschitz constants using monotone operators and provide an in-depth theoretical analysis. Furthermore, we construct an activation function called Concatenated Pila (CPila) to improve gradient flow. The resulting model, Monotone Flows, exhibits an excellent performance on multiple density estimation benchmarks (MNIST, CIFAR-10, ImageNet32, ImageNet64). Code is available at https://github.com/mlvlab/MonotoneFlows.


A wide variety of animal models in cardiomyopathy have been established for the discovery of pathophysiological mechanisms, diagnosis, and treatment of human myocardial disease. Experimentally, several species including rodents, rabbit, canine, pig, and sheep have been involved in the fundamental research in medical field. However, knowledge about naturally occurring myocardial disease in animals is limited in the veterinary medicine. Among small and large animals that develop myocardial disease, to the best of authors' knowledge, naturally occurring cardiomyopathy in canine and feline is commonly encountered in veterinary clinical setting. Their pathophysiology is not fully described; specific pathophysiology is documented in both species, which resembles those of humans. These conditions are hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) in feline and dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) in canine. Each has distinct etiology and pathophysiology. In order to translate new findings from naturally occurring cardiomyopathies in small and large animals into medical applications, knowledge gained through animals with cardiomyopathies becomes a necessary approach. The purpose of this chapter is to introduce the overview of findings on small and large animals with naturally occurring cardiomyopathies already investigated.


The study focuses on the issue of empowerment among Malaysian bloggers. In Malaysia, there are issues considered as taboo and are not discussed openly in the mainstream media. The rise of blogs in the earlier part of the 21st century has led to the discovery of a new platform of interaction. Malaysia is unique in the sense that it has its own interpretation of press freedom, a multicultural society and Islam as the official religion. Though there is a general awareness on 'what is illegal offline, should be illegal online', there are those who found new freedom in this new realm. The new world of blogosphere is considered as a haven for self-experimentation, discourses and sharing of opinions where it allows individuals to express themselves openly with or without considering the legal, religious or even cultural restrictions. Some people have used the new avenue positively and found empowerment which they would never have found if the blog had never existed while others may take advantage of this new platform for malicious activities. Forty Malaysian bloggers were interviewed during the course of this study where they share their personal blogging experiences and how blogging has brought about changes to their lives.


Acute pulmonary embolism (PE) is of interest to physicians of almost all disciplines, as it is encountered across the entire spectrum of clinical medicine. It is estimated that as many as 200 000 patients die annually from PE in the European Union, with similar numbers reported in the USA. In the past, management of acute PE has been characterised by a high degree of complexity and a disappointing lack of efficacy and efficiency. Complex multistep diagnostic algorithms were successfully tested in management studies, but proved extremely difficult to implement correctly in clinical practice. As a result, the diagnosis of PE was frequently missed in patients who subsequently died of the disease without receiving appropriate treatment, while others unnecessarily underwent hazardous, time consuming and costly procedures because of a vague, poorly documented clinical suspicion. With regard to PE treatment, a more than 30-year-old debate and the lack of adequate data on the appropriate indications for thrombolysis have deprived some patients of potentially life saving treatment, while exposing others to the high bleeding risk of thrombolytic drugs.

Thanks to the technical advances in diagnostic modalities and the findings of recent well designed outcome studies, things are now beginning to look better for patients with PE and for the physicians caring for them. While the revised and updated guidelines of the European Society of Cardiology on the diagnosis and treatment of PE are expected to appear later this year, this review will summarise the relevant current and evolving concepts which already have begun to simplify the management of acute PE while, at the same time, increasing its efficacy and safety.

At present, there is only one clinical factor which unequivocally determines the diagnostic and therapeutic approach to a patient with suspected acute PE: the presence or absence of haemodynamic instability at presentation. Acute right …


In this study the laminates composite material is developed from
ramie-aramid-polyester resin. The aim of this study is to developed solid
body armor by using ramie-aramid reinforced polyester composite structure
design. The design of body armor meet the specific requirements of ballistic
resistance. The matrix of the developed composite is unsaturated Polyester
resin reinforced with aramid-natural ramie fiber. This ramie-aramid composite
is subjected to high impact loading. The target is shot by using gas gun
machine supported by camera hardware to capture the projectile speed. To
achieve the goal of the research, experiments were conducted with a focus
on estimation the ballistic limit, maximum energy absorption, composite
failure mode, life time rupture, target geometry and environmental effect. The
results of these experiments indicated that the maximum ballistic limit
validated at impact speed is in the range of 250 m/s to 656.8 m/s for the
second protection level. The targets are improved in the area of impact
respond with increase in the relative humidity in the range of 50% ± 20%.Whereby, reduction of resistance results in the increase of temperature. The
range of temperatures was between 20 OC to 70 OC. A limited delamination
was generated under multiple shots. Targets geometry plays a main role in
increasing impact response. Hence, the results were presented high resistant
impact for pairs from panels with total thickness of 15 mm ± 3mm. This body
armor is one of most economical armor products in that; common materials
were used in its production especially to the reduction of the using Kevlar
amount that led to decrease in its cost. On the other hand this armor met the
ballistic threats under 623 m/s of 15 mm ± 3 mm target thickness and 837.5
m/s of 25 mm ± 2.mm. Thus, the armor is equivalent to third level of
protective ballistic limits in National Institute of Justice (NIJ) standards


Purpose: Looks essentially at the mismatch between the theory and practice of graduate entrepreneurship in Nigeria against the backdrop of lingering unemployment. Specifically x-rays the entrepreneurship education policy introduced in 2006 in search of a framework for evaluating its implementation across Universities in Nigeria. design/Methodology/Approach: Reviews the performance of the policy in the context of the Global Entrepreneurship & Development Index (GEDI) model for evaluating entrepreneurship performance across countries which relies on a number of international benchmarks. Findings: Identifies the lack of supportive entrepreneurship environment as a major factor responsible for the absence of correlation between enterprise education, high motivations and aspirations gathered at the University towards self-employment by graduates and actual career decisions in a business establishment. originality/Value: The effort through this study to promote graduate entrepreneurship as part of strategies to combat unemployment and its attendant socio-economic problems in Nigeria contributes to global poverty eradication initiatives.


In this study, measurements were carried out to identify the generation characteristics of wear particles emitted under a subway cabin during operation. Along with a fast mobility particle sizer, probes were installed under a subway cabin and in a subway tunnel to measure the size distributions of nanoparticles at 1-s intervals. Based on the particle density measured under the cabin minus that measured in the tunnel, the size distribution of wear particles generated under the cabin during deceleration was estimated to be bimodal at 165.5 nm and 6.98 nm. These particles were most likely generated from wheel-rail contact, as the train utilized electric braking (no mechanical force applied). In addition, a change in the wear mechanism appears to have arisen due to the increased temperature of the wheel-rail contact while nanoparticles were being emitted, leading to an initial generation of 165.5-nm particles followed by 6.98-nm particles 1 s later.


Introduction: When investigating the relationship between task expertise and movement variability, contrasting findings have been reported in scientific literature (e.g. Darling and Cooke, 1987; Wilson, et al., 2008; Robins, et al., 2008). These equivocal reports could be due, to task constraints influencing variability magnitudes. Whilst some research has used static accuracy-based tasks (Darling and Cooke, 1987), more complex, dynamic multi-articular movements tasks have also been used (Wilson, et al ., 2008; Robins, et al., 2008). Currently there is a lack of research examining task expertise-movement variability during such dynamic movement tasks, and ultimately how movement variability can be used functionally to satisfy the specific constraints on action. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the interaction of expertise and coordination variability during a dynamic basketball shooting task. Methods: Male university basketball players (n=8) with varying basketball experience (scoring between 35-80% of pre-test shots) performed 20 shots from a distance of 4.25 metres after a dribbling movement of 6.5 metres. Kinematic data was collected from a seven-camera motion capture system sampling at 200Hz. 14mm reflective markers attached to upper limb anatomical landmarks allowed calculation of shoulder, elbow and wrist angular displacements. Coordination variability for the wrist-elbow, elbow-shoulder, and wrist-shoulder joint couplings were produced using the normalised root mean squared difference (NoRMS) approach. Providing a metric by which the degree of consistency may be assessed, as such, one measure of stability of the underlying coordination. Quadratic regression analysis was used to identify the potential relationship between joint coupling coordination variability and shooting score. Results: The quadratic regression values for the wrist-elbow joint coupling was 0.1609 (p=0.48), elbow-shoulder, 0.1109 (p=0.66), and wrist-shoulder, 0.6467 (p=0.02) with respect to shooting performance score. Discussion: Similar to previous research, task performance and coordination variability demonstrated an U-shaped relationship (Wilson, et al ., 2008). Intermediate skilled participants displayed the lowest coordination variability; whilst higher skilled participants demonstrated higher functional variability owing to adapting to perturbations (Hamill, 1999). Least skilled participants revealed variability that is less functional and evident of less stable movement patterns. Additional research is needed, to further understand the task expertise-movement variability relationship for different task constraints.


The opening of equity markets to foreign investment appears to generate an enormously large positive growth effect (see Bekaert, Harvey, and Lundblad, 2005) in spite of a relatively small role of such markets for financing investment in most economies. We propose a possible spillover channel from equity market opening to lower costs of bank loans, which helps to explain this puzzle. From analyzing loan- and firm-level data associated with China's introduction of the Qualified Foreign Institutional Investors (QFII) program, we find significant support for this channel. Furthermore, we show that a reduction in the risk premium is an important mechanism.


In this introductory volume to Brill's series on Quaker Studies, Quaker Studies, An Overview: The Current State of the Field , C. Wess Daniels, Robynne Rogers Healey, and Jon Kershner investigate Quaker Studies, divided into the three fields of history, theology and philosophy, and sociology.With a focus on schisms, transatlantic networks, colonialism, abolition, gender and equality, and pacifism from Quaker origins onward, Healey explores the rich diversity and complexity of research and interpretation that has emerged in Quaker history.In his chapter, Kershner explores comparisons and divergences in contemporary Quaker theology and philosophy. Special attention is paid to Quaker biblical hermeneutics, mysticism, ethics, epistemology and Global Quakerism.Daniels looks at the sociology of Quakerism as a new field of study that has only recently begun to be explored and developed. This chapter surveys the field of sociological work done within Quakerism from the 1960s to the present day.


Abstract The aim of this study was to explore the experiences of family carers supporting a relative living with dementia during and after the move to technology-enriched supported accommodation (TESA). The paper explores the informal carers (ICs) roles, the factors prompting the move to TESA, alongside their perceptions of their relatives' experience of the move and of life in a technology-enriched environment. Within a qualitative study 25 semi-structured interviews were conducted with ICs and data were analysed following a thematic approach. Four themes were identified, reflecting the shift in roles and identity of both ICs and persons living with dementia. The move to TESA was linked to a perceived reduction in care-giving pressures, with positive outcomes reported for both the ICs and the people living with dementia. Smart home technologies in the facilities did not appear to impact on the decision-making during transition, however, they were valued as part of the lived experience for the people living with dementia within the TESA facilities. These findings are relevant to policy makers, commissioners and providers of services to highlight the engagement of all stakeholders in the provision of care for people living with dementia and their families early from diagnosis in order to facilitate person-centred practices in community settings.


The actin binding and ATPase kinetics of cardiac myosin subfragment-1 were compared with prior studies on skeletal myosin subfragments. Previous kinetic studies on rabbit skeletal subfragment-1 (S-1) have revealed two important features of the actomyosin ATPase activity. First, hydrolysis of ATP by myosin subfragment-1 proceeds both when S-1 is bound to actin and when it is dissociated from actin. Second, the actin concentration required to reach half the maximum ATPase activity, Ka(ATPase), is considerably lower than the actin concentration required to bind half the subfragment-1 during steady state hydrolysis of ATP, Ka(binding). These kinetic facts require that skeletal myosin hydrolyze ATP without dissociating from actin; therefore, a "nondissociating" pathway for ATP hydrolysis exists. The studies reported here show that porcine cardiac S-1 is very similar to rabbit skeletal S-1. Under identical conditions to prior work on skeletal S-1, the Ka(ATPase) of porcine cardiac S-1 is approximately equal to that reported for skeletal S-1. This is also true for Ka(binding). Comparison of Ka(ATPase) and Ka(binding) shows that for cardiac proteins Ka(ATPase) is fourfold to sixfold stronger than Ka(binding), i.e., half maximal ATPase activity is achieved at about one fifth the actin necessary to reach 50% binding. The extrapolated maximum ATPase activity at saturating actin concentration for cardiac S-1 is consistently slower than skeletal S-1 by about a factor of 2.5. Furthermore, studies of the actoS-1 ATPase activity at high actin concentrations as well as with crosslinked actoS-1 show no significant inhibition, implying the requirement of a "nondissociating" pathway for ATP hydrolysis by cardiac myosin subfragment-1.


This paper studies the performance of self-financing constant proportions trading strategies, i.e. dynamic asset allocation strategies that keep a fixed constant proportion of wealth invested in each asset in all periods in time. We prove that any self-financing constant proportions strategy yields a strictly positive exponential rate of growth of investor's wealth in a financial market in which prices are described by stationary stochastic processes and the price ratios are non-degenerate. This result might be regarded as being counterintuitive because any such strategy yields no increase of wealth under constant prices. We further show that the result also holds under small transaction costs, which is important for the viability of this approach, since constant proportions strategies require frequent rebalancing of the portfolio.


We present a fast hardware-accelerated stippling method which does not require any preprocessing for placing points on surfaces. The surfaces are automatically parameterized in order to apply stippling textures without major distortions. The mapping process is guided by a decomposition of the space in cubes. Seamless scaling with a constant density of points is realized by subdividing and summarizing cubes. Our mip-map technique enables arbitrarily scaling with one texture. Different shading tones and scales are facilitated by adhering to the constraints of tonal art maps. With our stippling technique, it is feasible to encode all scaling and brightness levels within one self-similar texture. Our method is applied to surfaces extracted from (segmented) medical volume data. The speed of the stippling process enables stippling for several complex objects simultaneously. We consider application scenarios in intervention planning (neck and liver surgery planning). In these scenarios, object recognition (shape perception) is supported by adding stippling to semi-transparently shaded objects which are displayed as context information.


Since 2015, the Digital Cultural Heritage, Arts & Humanities School (DiCultHer) – an interdisciplinary network of over 70 Italian organizations including universities, research entities, cultural institutions and associations – has tested models to build soft skills required to co-create, manage, preserve and safeguard digital cultural heritage. This paper outlines the current state of advancement in the development of an innovative living lab methodology named The Art of Crowddreaming. Such methodology has been implemented within the network activities, and it has been proven to be able to engage innovators, researchers, schools of any grade and other societal actors as a community in the challenge to invent, co-design and build prototypes of cross-generational digital monuments. The methodology is illustrated by means of two case studies. Quintana 4D engaged schools of any grade in the City of Foligno in an trans-disciplinary effort to design, expand and manage the Museater of the Joust of Quintana. Heritellers engaged students of "F. De Sanctis" high school for classical studies in the City of Trani in the making of "CastleTrApp", a digital storytelling app and a Museater performance about the famous Swabian Castle of their City.


Given the important challenge of researching and debating effective policies to respond to issues of citizen safety in our society, it needs to be emphasised that researching crime, criminal justice, victims and perpetrators, as well as institutional responses, remains an important area of criminological and criminal justice study. Our overall objective, as a community of researchers and academics in South Africa, must be to produce a set of graduates willing and able to engage with the complex challenges that they will face in government, business or indeed working in academia or as researchers themselves. We need analysis, publications and debate therefore that focus, not only on policy but also on understanding and explaining the nature of our society. Too often we look elsewhere for quick fixes (often to the so-called 'North'), without engaging effectively with understanding the complex historical drivers of crime in South Africa. Given this, it was thought it might be appropriate in this article, stemming partly from an absence from South Africa for many years, to look at the country from the outside in. To try to assess what bigger changes in the global criminal economy and associated politics may mean for us in South Africa. That is partly in response to having worked for many years on United Nations (UN) and other bilateral programmes targeting a variety of illicit flows and the development of criminal networks in different countries. Perhaps one of the starkest conclusions to be drawn from that experience is that there has in fact been very little success in these endeavours. It is this question and its implications that will be explored, with reference to South Africa, in this article and, hopefully, will point to new approaches to research and widening the scope of what we might consider from a policy perspective.


Background and objectives Although the deleterious effects of air pollution from fossil fuel combustion have been demonstrated in many Western nations, fewer studies have been conducted in Asia. The Public Health and Air Pollution in Asia (PAPA) project assessed the effects of short-term exposure to air pollution on daily mortality in Bangkok, Thailand, and in three cities in China: Hong Kong, Shanghai, and Wuhan. Methods Poisson regression models incorporating natural spline smoothing functions were used to adjust for seasonality and other time-varying covariates that might confound the association between air pollution and mortality. Effect estimates were determined for each city and then for the cities combined using a random effects method. Results In individual cities, associations were detected between most of the pollutants [nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide, particulate matter ≤ 10 μm in aerodynamic diameter (PM10), and ozone] and most health outcomes under study (i.e., all natural-cause, cardiovascular, and respiratory mortality). The city-combined effects of the four pollutants tended to be equal or greater than those identified in studies conducted in Western industrial nations. In addition, residents of Asian cities are likely to have higher exposures to air pollution than those in Western industrial nations because they spend more time outdoors and less time in air conditioning. Conclusions Although the social and environmental conditions may be quite different, it is reasonable to apply estimates derived from previous health effect of air pollution studies in the West to Asia.


Background: Heart Team (HT) and the SYNTAX Score II (SSII) have been integrated to the contemporary guidelines with the aim to provide a multidisciplinary decisionmaking process between coronary artery bypass surgery (CABG) and percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Aims: To prospectively assess the agreement between the HT decision and the SSII recommendation regarding the revascularization strategy in patients with 3-vessel coronary artery disease (CAD) of the SYNTAX II trial. Methods: The SSII predicts the 4-year mortality of an individual patient both after PCI and after CABG. Patients were treated by PCI when the SSII predicted a mortality risk favoring PCI or when risk predictions were equipoise between PCI and CABG. However, the HT could overrule the SSII and recommend either CABG or PCI. Results: A total of 202 patients have been screened and 24 did not fulfill inclusion criteria. The median age was 67.0 (IQR 59.0–73.3), and 167 (82.7%) were male. The HT endorsed SSII treatment recommendation, for CABG or PCI, in 152 patients (85.4%). Three patients had preference for PCI, irrespective of the HT decision. The main reason for the HT to overrule the SSII and recommend CABG was the prospect of a more complete revascularization (21 of 25 patients). Patients recommended for CABG by the HT had significantly higher anatomical SYNTAX score (P 5 0.03) and higher predicted mortality risk for PCI (P 5 0.04) when compared with patients that were enrolled in the trial. Conclusion: The SYNTAX score II showed to be a suitable tool for guiding treatment decisions of patients with 3-vessel coronary artery disease being endorsed by the HT in the vast


A simple formula for computing fadings or other color differences from Munsell notations has been derived from one simple assumption. Experimental data for the relative visual magnitudes of the Munsell "value" and chroma steps have been incorporated into the formula. It has been tested with several sets of experimental data and found valid even for some large differences. A table of constants facilitates quick application. The formula has been applied to the computation of the color differences of a great many dyes changing in concentration only, for example, from 2 percent to 0.5 percent. This change is known in the textile industry as "on-tone" fading. The user of dyed fabrics dislikes changes of hue more than equally perceptible changes in saturation or lightness, so that acceptability and perceptibility are not identical; hence, the importance of on-tone fading. For the 2–0.5 percent case, hue change as a function of hue of the stronger dyeing gave a well-defined curve. Maximum hue changes occur at 2R and 8YR, with zero change between. The total change is lowest for yellows (explaining why dyers find it most difficult to judge their fastnesses) and highest in the blues. Other published formulas yield the reverse of this fact. The question whether fastness is in large part a matter of perceptibility of changes was examined. The graphs of perceptibility and of average light-fastness ratings, both as a function of hue, show little resemblance, indicating that the fastness ratings are not primarily due to mere concentration change.


Light propagation along the helical axis of cholesteric liquid crystals, whose structure has been distorted by a magnetic or electric field perpendicular to the helix axis, is theoretically investigated. The solutions show several reflection bands whose centers are given by the Bragg condition mλm = 2S n (m is an integer, S is the period of the distorted structure, and n is the average refractive index of the material). The bands with m ≥ 2 consist of three subbands, each characterized by the dependence of the reflection on the polarization of the incident beam. Thus, for example, an incident beam linearly polarized in the direction of the distorting field will be reflected at only two of these subbands. Except for very strong applied fields, the band m = 1 is composed of two subbands only. Outside the reflection bands, the modes of propagation are orthogonal linear polarizations.


Analyses of small-angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and X-ray absorption fine structure (XAFS) were performed for characterizing precipitates formed in a Cu-3.1 at %Ni-1.4 at%Si alloy, the strength and electrical conductivity of which were improved by aging. SAXS profiles and XAFS spectra of samples aged at 720 K for different periods of time after a solution treatment were measured. SAXS profiles of samples, which were aged after the solution treatment and subsequently cold rolled, were also measured to investigate the effect of dislocations on precipitation. The results of SAXS measurements showed that nanometer-size precipitates formed in the alloy samples during isothermal aging at 720 K. The precipitates in the samples without cold rolling were coarsened in a single modal size distribution with increasing aging time. In contrast, the precipitates formed in the cold-rolled samples appeared to be coarsened in a multi-modal size distribution with increasing aging time. This aging characteristic of the cold-rolled samples is presumably attributable to their good electrical conductivity. The results of XAFS measurements at the Ni K-edge showed that nickel was substituted for copper in the face-centered cubic (fcc) copper matrix and that the local structure around nickel was changed by isothermal aging. With increasing aging time, extended X-ray absorption fine structure (EXAFS) functions at the Ni K-edge of the samples were found to be changed, which implies that nickel atoms were precipitated as nickel-silicon clusters or intermediate compounds in the fcc copper matrix. In addition, X-ray absorption near edge structure (XANES) spectra at the Ni K-edge indicated that the electronic structure of nickel in the samples was influenced by silicon during aging. [doi:10.2320/matertrans.48.101]


Users' move from single to multiple monitors so that they can use more screen real estate. This increase enables them to keep a greater number of windows open and visible at the same time. But there is a cost: arranging a window takes far longer since there is more screen space to traverse and more relationships between windows to take into account. To address this we added 'bumping' to an application and tested it in a user study. Bumping allowed users to automatically move a window across multiple monitors. In this paper, we present our experiment contrasting three styles of bumping. We found less window repositioning required when users were given bumping in contrast to their existing practices. However we also found that simple implementations of intelligent bumping are not predictable, causing problems for our participants.


Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) elaborated a set of rules to limit and secure the contact with patients colonized/infected with multiple drug resistant microorganisms in order to prevent their spreading. This kind of infection/colonization has an incidence on the rise, having a high rate of mortality and being expensive to treat. SHEA (Society of Healthcare Epidemiology of America) released, in February 2018, a guideline for healthcare providers regarding the duration these contact precautions need to be maintained for patients in intensive care units, colonized/infected with MRSA (methicilin‑resistant Staphylococcus aureus), VRE (vancomycin-resistant enterococci), Clostridium difficile and multiple drug resistant enterobacteriaceae (MDR-E), among which there are carbapenem‑resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE) and extended spectrum β-lactamase producing enterobacteriaceae (ESBL-E).


Intra-urban residential mobility has evoked great interest in the Western World. The same cannot be said about the non-Western cities in Pakistan intra-urban movement of population of not a single city has been attempted. The present study of Bahawalpur city is the first study of its kind.

No published data on intra-urban mobility of population is available in Pakistan Population Census of Pakistan has not touched this subject. Estate agencies and telephone directories could have been helpful but no many persons take help of estate agencies for purchase or taking of houses on rent. The facilities of telephone are also enjoyed by a small fraction of population. Therefore the entire data for this study were collected by field survey by questionnaire method.

Attempt has been made in this study to make a distinction between voluntary any involuntary moves. The affects of age (life cycle), sex, family size, occupation, education level and increase on residential mobility have been investigated. The role of government and private agencies in generating intra-urban residential mobility by undertaking new housing projects has been probed. Frequency, distance and direction of movements have also been studied. The role of urban structure on guiding residential mobility and the effects of residential mobility on urban structure have also been looked into.


A Titanium-sapphire laser emitting 100fs short laser pulses at 800nm wavelength is employed to inject an impermeable dye (Lucifer Yellow) into single Bovine Aortic Endothelial cells. The cell morphology remains intact after this process. A new method to analyze dye uptake and evaluate membrane integrity is suggested.


High-throughput sequencing of reduced representation libraries obtained through digestion with restriction enzymes—generically known as restriction site associated DNA sequencing (RAD-seq)—is a common strategy to generate genome-wide genotypic and sequence data from eukaryotes. A critical design element of any RAD-seq study is knowledge of the approximate number of genetic markers that can be obtained for a taxon using different restriction enzymes, as this number determines the scope of a project, and ultimately defines its success. This number can only be directly determined if a reference genome sequence is available, or it can be estimated if the genome size and restriction recognition sequence probabilities are known. However, both scenarios are uncommon for nonmodel species. Here, we performed systematic in silico surveys of recognition sequences, for diverse and commonly used type II restriction enzymes across the eukaryotic tree of life. Our observations reveal that recognition sequence frequencies for a given restriction enzyme are strikingly variable among broad eukaryotic taxonomic groups, being largely determined by phylogenetic relatedness. We demonstrate that genome sizes can be predicted from cleavage frequency data obtained with restriction enzymes targeting "neutral" elements. Models based on genomic compositions are also effective tools to accurately calculate probabilities of recognition sequences across taxa, and can be applied to species for which reduced representation data are available (including transcriptomes and neutral RAD-seq data sets). The analytical pipeline developed in this study, PredRAD (https://github.com/phrh/PredRAD), and the resulting databases constitute valuable resources that will help guide the design of any study using RAD-seq or related methods.


Galactic archaeology based on star counts is instrumental to reconstruct the past mass assembly of Local Group galaxies. The development of new observing techniques and data reduction, coupled with the use of sensitive large field of view cameras, now allows us to pursue this technique in more distant galaxies exploiting their diffuse low surface brightness (LSB) light. As part of the ATLAS^(3D) project, we have obtained with the MegaCam camera at the Canada–France–Hawaii Telescope extremely deep, multiband images of nearby early-type galaxies (ETGs). We present here a catalogue of 92 galaxies from the ATLAS^(3D) sample, which are located in low- to medium-density environments. The observing strategy and data reduction pipeline, which achieve a gain of several magnitudes in the limiting surface brightness with respect to classical imaging surveys, are presented. The size and depth of the survey are compared to other recent deep imaging projects. The paper highlights the capability of LSB-optimized surveys at detecting new prominent structures that change the apparent morphology of galaxies. The intrinsic limitations of deep imaging observations are also discussed, among those, the contamination of the stellar haloes of galaxies by extended ghost reflections, and the cirrus emission from Galactic dust. The detection and systematic census of fine structures that trace the present and past mass assembly of ETGs are one of the prime goals of the project. We provide specific examples of each type of observed structures – tidal tails, stellar streams and shells – and explain how they were identified and classified. We give an overview of the initial results. The detailed statistical analysis will be presented in future papers.


For the design of a geotextile as a filter, reliable information about the pore-size distribution of the geotextile is needed. The bubble point method is one technique that is able to provide this information for a geotextile. The bubble point method is a simple and rapid technique for evaluating pore-size distributions of virgin, clogged, and stretched geotextiles. In addition, the bubble point equipment is also capable of providing information as to the degree of clogging within a geotextile and the permeability of a geotextile. The geotextile pore-size distribution results obtained by the bubble point method showed good repeatability. However, the bubble point method was only able to distinguish between geotextiles that had significantly different cross sections. Pore-size distribution results for geotextiles with similar cross sections, but of increasing thickness, were very similar. The dry sieving (ASTM D 4751), hydrodynamic sieving (CAN/CGSB-148.1-10), AND WET SIEVING (sw-640550-83) METHODS ARE GENERALLY only useful for evaluating the larger pore openings (O95, O90) of the geotextiles. In addition, the methods are time consuming. The mercury intrusion porosimetry method (ASTM D 4404) was also performed; however, there was little difference in pore-size distribution results for any of the 28 different geotextiles tested (Smith 1993). There are also environmental concerns with using mercury. The bubble point method showed potential for characterizing the pore-size distribution of geotextiles.


Feedback to learners about their work is an important part of the teaching and
learning process for any subject. Feedback should ensure students are clear on
where they went wrong and what they can improve in the future. Without useful
feedback students continue to make similar mistakes. However mathematical
subjects such as Statistics appear to place less emphasis on feedback compared
to other subjects. Statistics has made steady pedagogic progress and now uses
a variety of assessment methods, but producing effective feedback for these
methods has not made the same progress. This thesis investigates the feedback
currently given to some Statistics classes for students who are studying Statistics
as part of a degree in another subject, proposes a set of useable guidelines for
producing effective feedback and reports on the creation and piloting of a
multiple choice, computer-aided assessment system that provides immediate
feedback to learners in Statistics courses.
The first chapter of the thesis discusses the background of the subject. Key
features include the Quality Assurance Agency's code of practice, which
institutions should be following with regards to assessment, the National Student
Survey, in which results for assessment and feedback are generally not
favourable, and the various models for Statistics assessment suggested by Gal
and Garfield in their book The Assessment Challenge in Statistics Education. An
interesting thing about this book is that, though the whole book focuses on
assessment, there is little mention of how to give feedback for any of the models.
Chapter two reviews the literature on feedback. This reveals that feedback can
improve or impair performance depending on various factors. A summary is
given of the most repeated guiding principles for constructing feedback. How
students use feedback, including guidelines for receiving feedback, is also
discussed. The final part of the chapter looks at the advice given for constructing
8
multiple choice tests and the lack of guidance for feedback relating to multiple
choice questions.
Chapter three describes student questionnaires that were implemented in
Statistics courses at the University of Glasgow to survey student attitudes to the
feedback they received. A questionnaire and follow up questionnaire based on
the guiding principles was piloted with a small group of second year Statistics
students. Before issuing the follow up questionnaire, the way feedback was
produced was changed in line with the guiding principles. When the
questionnaires were compared, students were more satisfied with how quickly
feedback was returned, the amount of feedback, the detail and the overall
usefulness of the feedback after the intervention. The questionnaire was then
adjusted to fit with a larger first year class. This included adding the Rosenberg
self esteem scale to measure students self esteem. These results showed that
the detail of the feedback given needs to be improved more than the amount.
The most common reasons given for why the feedback was not detailed enough
were that there was no suggestion for improvement, it was unclear where the
mark was lost and the feedback was too vague. There may also be a relationship
between students self esteem and the attention they pay to feedback. It appears
those with a lower self esteem pay less attention to feedback. At the end of
chapter three a briefing document is presented that can be used to help train
markers. This is a summary of the guiding principles and includes good and bad
examples of feedback.
Chapter four discusses the construction of a multiple choice testing system and
the creation of specific tests for use in a level one Statistics course. First the
chapter describes the piloting of another computer-aided assessment system
called Model Choice. The results of this were very positive, with all students
agreeing the system was easy to use and appreciating the immediate feedback.
Next a similar system was created for use with the Statistics class for
Psychologists and Social Scientists. Multiple choice questions were constructed
9
for four of this course's labs, on sampling and interval estimation, multiple
regression, experimental design and categorical data. For each question, three
incorrect options and a correct option were produced. Feedback was also written
for each option explaining why the chosen answer was either correct or incorrect.
Students getting the answer wrong first time were then given a second attempt.
The literature on constructing multiple choice assessments was consulted during
this process.
Chapter five focuses on piloting the computer-aided assessment system. The
system was initially trialled with postgraduates and staff. The program received
an excellent response and a group discussion revealed plenty of constructive
ideas to improve the system. The program was then trialled with new third year
Statistics students.
The final chapter summarises and discusses the results obtained to date and
makes suggestions for further work.


Chronic subdural hematoma is a very rarely observed complication after endoscopic third ventriculostomy (ETV). A 21-year-old male patient was admitted to our clinic with complaining of headache, weakness and tremor. The fundoscopic examination revealed slightly indistinct border of the papilla and neurological examination findings were normal. The cranial computed tomographic (CT) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) findings demonstrated three-ventricular hydrocephalus due to aqueductal stenosis and ETV was performed. The symptoms got better after the operation. At 11⁄2 month postoperatively the patient reapplied to our clinic with a symptom of severe headache. Cranial BT imaging demonstrated enlargement of subdural hematoma. The hematoma was treated by burr-hole evacuation and drainage and totally disappeared in the postoperative period. The follow-up CT scan was evaluated as normal. Nowadays, ETV is accepted as a safe and an alternative method for the treatment of obstructive hydrocephalus instead of shunt operation. Chronic subdural hematoma is a rarely observed complication after ETV. KeywOrds: Complication, Endoscopic third ventriculostomy, Subdural hematoma


Activated sludge models can be very useful for designing and managing wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs). However, as with every model, they need to be calibrated for correct and reliable application. Activated sludge model calibration is still a crucial point that needs appropriate guidance. Indeed, although calibration protocols have been developed, the model calibration still represents the main bottleneck to modelling. This paper presents a procedure for the calibration of an activated sludge model based on a comprehensive sensitivity analysis and a novel step-wise Monte Carlo-based calibration of the subset of influential parameters. In the proposed procedure the complex calibration issue is tackled both by making a prior screening of the most influential model parameters and by simplifying the problem of finding the optimal parameter set by splitting the estimation task into steps. The key point of the proposed step-wise procedure is that calibration is undertaken for sub-groups of variables instead of solving a complex multi-objective function. Moreover, even with this step-wise approach parameter identifiability issues may occur, but this is dealt with by using the general likelihood uncertainty estimation (GLUE) method, that so far has rarely been used in the field of wastewater modelling. An example from a real case study illustrates the effectiveness of the proposed methodology. Particularly, a model was built for the simulation of the nutrient removal in a Bardenpho scheme plant. The model was successfully and efficiently calibrated to a large WWTP in Sicily.


The present thesis aims to examine how the Russian General Staff observed and assessed the Russian Empire's Asiatic frontier during the period of its greatest extent (between 1860 and 1917). By providing an overview of the entire length of the Asiatic frontier it aims to provide an original addition to the existing historiography. Through analysis of the original records of the Asiatic Department of the Russian General Staff, it furnishes insight into areas of response by the Russian General Staff towards crisis situations where previously little or no scholarly work has been carried out. Thus, to cite just two examples, the thesis contains the first detailed coverage on the posting of the first Russian military agents to China during the so-called 'Ili Crisis' of 1881, and of the response of the General Staff to the revolt of Ishaqu Khan in northern Afghanistan in 1888. These new additions are complemented by detailed analysis of more conventional aspects of the existing historiography. For example, by studying the prelude to the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-05 it provides for the first time in English a detailed analysis of the specific difficulties experienced by Tsarist military intelligence in the Far East in the years immediately preceding that conflict.

The overall form of analysis is in the main geographically determined, but with the sections examining individual sections of the Russian Asiatic frontier preceded and followed by more general chapters surveying the development of doctrinal, organisational and ideological currents within the General Staff as a whole at both the beginning and end of the period under review. Chapter one in its first par surveys the development of the General Staff system itself in the Russian army. It provides in addition an analysis of available sources alongside a basic military history of the expansion of Russia's Asiatic frontiers across this period. The first part of chapter two provides an overview of the instruments and ideas that had evolved and that were available to the Russian General Staff in its study Asia on the eve of the major Central Asian conquests of the 1860s. The second section of chapter two analyses how some of these currents, both cultural and doctrinal, intermingled and responded between approximately 1859 and 1873, with the characters of Prince Bariatinskii, Viceroy of the Caucasus during this period, providing a central focus and case study. Chapters three examines how some of the purely tactical and technical tools employed by the Russian army in its Asiatic conquests evolved over time and again looks at the role of individual thinkers in this evolutionary process. Chapter four, the main body of the work, in three major sub-sections analyses the fully developed use of all these instruments and trends in the Russian General Staff's plans and threat-assessments for the three major areas of their Asiatic frontier - the Far East, the Caucasus, and the region of Central Asia-Afghanistan.

The conclusion seeks to contribute a new perspective to current levels of analysis by setting the Tsarist military's orientalist activities within the context of the current debates regarding European colonialism and the nature of orientalism in general. In doing so it also seeks to draw together the three underlying themes running throughout the work - the development of the General Staff's analysis of Asia by 1917, the still unresolved conflict of centre-periphery relations that afflicted every aspect of Russian Asiatic policy, and the growing consciousness of a 'knowledge crisis' that afflicted the Tsarist General Staff as a whole, a crisis reflected in the press and academic organs of the day. This last phenomenon, along with many of the tools and approaches to tackle it, would form one of Tsarist Russia's largest legacies to the Soviet Union. The thesis will prove useful to students of military history, Russia-Asia diplomatic relations, and those interested by the development and evolution of the 'knowledge-state' between the late eighteenth and early twentieth centuries. Above all it seeks to provide a prism through which the reader can appreciate many of the difficulties attached to the development of military intelligence and the modern 'knowledge economy', difficulties that continue to afflict many states, not least Russia, even today.


Many scholars and policymakers argue that deterrence strategies have no significant role to play in counterterrorism. The case against deterrence rests on three pillars: terrorists are irrational; they value their political ends far above anything deterring states could hold at risk; and they are impossible tofind. Each pillar is either incorrect or its implications for deterrence have been misunderstood. Under certain conditions, deterrence is preferable to the use of force. Analysis of the structure of terrorist networks and the processes that produce attacks, as well as the multiple objectives of terrorist organizations, suggests that some deterrence strategies are more effective than those of the past. In particular, many terrorist groups and elements of terrorist support networks can likely be deterred from cooperating with the most threatening terrorist groups, such as al-Qaida. Although the use of force against multiple groups creates common interests among them, an appropriate deterrence strategy could fracture global terrorist networks. The current policy of the U.S. and Philippine governments toward the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) and the Abu Sayyaf Group illustrates the potential of this approach and the risks of using force. Not only can groups such as the MILF be deterred from cooperating with al-Qaida, they may even be coerced into providing local intelligence on operatives linked to it.


Abstract : Model checking is a proven successful technology for verifying hardware. It works, however, on only fInite state machines, and most software systems have infInitely many states. Our approach to applying model checking to software hinges on identifying appropriate abstractions that exploit the nature of both the system, S, and the property, phi to be verifIed. We check phi on an abstracted, but fInite, model of S. Following this approach we verified three cache coherence protocols used in distributed file systems. These protocols have to satisfy this property: 'If a client believes that a cached file is valid then the authorized server believes that the client's copy is valid.' In our finite model of the system, we need only represent the 'beliefs' that a client and a server have about a cached file; we can abstract from the caches, the files' contents, and even the files themselves. Moreover, by successive application of the generalization rule from predicate logic, we need only consider a model with at most two clients, one server, and one file. We used McMillan's SMV model checker; on our most complicated protocol, SMV took less than 1 second to check over 43,600 reachable states.


Online social network platforms have been, since their rise to prominence, considered as relevant gateways to study individual behaviors. One of those realms is politics, from massive movements and demonstrations to institutionalized events like general elections or referendums in democratic countries. In this paper, we are interested in the behavior of professional politicians in the United Kingdom European Union membership referendum of June 2016, colloquially known as the "Brexit referendum". We ask how, during the final weeks of the campaign, four key political actors (Jeremy Corbyn, David Cameron, Boris Johnson, and Nigel Farage) used Twitter through their official accounts regarding this popular consultation and how that action was received by their followers. To be more precise, we ask if they predominantly appealed to emotions or to rational arguments (Usage Axis), and what was, in each case, the impact of the tweets (Impact Axis). We conclude that, regardless of the way each actor used Twitter during the campaign, the appeal to emotions and the debasement of the opposing views tended to have more relevance, which may be a distressing hypothesis for democracy.


Four years of American mishandling of procurement of military support and reconstruction in Iraq insurgency has produced countless examples of waste and abuse. This can be attributed to three factors. First, the United State's diminished use of competitive contracting minimized scrutiny of the contractor's performance. Second, the Government's unilateralist approach to reconstruction overburdened the administration with the political and financial costs of "nation-building." Third, the United States' failure to account for Iraqi funds eliminated checks on misguided procurement and other spending. In this article, the author discusses the intersection of acquisition reform in the context of the United States' unilateral involvement in foreign war. By abandoning formal procurement checks, like full and open competition, the United States abused taxpayer dollars to grant a sole-source award to Halliburton and contract with interrogators at Abu Ghraib. The government's failure to use legal tools to compel contractors into submission contributed to such abuses. These procurement related aspects of unilateralism highlights the United States' need to return to traditional procurement principles.


A fully dynamic model of a microchannel evaporator is presented. The aim of the model is to study the highly dynamic parallel channel instabilities that occur in these evaporators in more detail. The numerical solver for the model is custom-built and the majority of the paper is focused on detailing the various aspects of this solver. The one-dimensional homogeneous two-phase flow conservation equations are solved to simulate the flow. The full three-dimensional (3D) conduction domain of the evaporator is also dynamically resolved. This allows for the correct simulation of the complex hydraulic and thermal interactions between the microchannels that give rise to the parallel channel instabilities. The model uses state-of-the-art correlations to calculate the frictional pressure losses and heat transfer in the microchannels. In addition, a model for inlet restrictions is also included to simulate the stabilizing effect of these components. In the final part of the paper, validation results of the model are presented, in which the stability results of the model are compared with the existing experimental data from the literature. Next, a parametric study is performed focusing on the stabilizing effects of the solid substrate properties. It is found that increasing the thermal conductivity and thickness of the solid substrate has a strong stabilizing effect, while increasing the number of microchannels has a small destabilizing effect. Finally, representative dynamic results are also given to demonstrate some of the unique capabilities of the model.


It is now 20 years since the publication of Engle's (1982) seminal paper, which introduced ARCH to the world. The ARCH paper had an enormous influence on both theoretical and applied econometrics, and was influential in the establishment of the discipline of Financial Econometrics. In this paper we provide an introduction to the special issue on modelling and forecasting financial volatility, which commemorates the Twentieth Anniversary of the publication of ARCH. Financial econometrics has become a mature discipline over the last two decades, and one of its major research objects is the modelling and forecasting of volatility. This special issue presents ten papers, all of which focus on volatility and risk. The papers examine issues such as the new frontiers of volatility, the selection of models for observed and unobserved volatility, the potential long-memory property of volatility, and the measurement of volatility. The commonality of papers is that they do not examine the extant literature, which has been reviewed elsewhere, but rather outline a number of important issues that are not only of current interest, but are likely to remain so for many years to come. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


ABSTRACT Prions cause neurodegenerative diseases for which no cure exists. Despite decades of research activities the function of the prion protein (PrP) in mammalians is not known. Moreover, little is known on the molecular mechanisms of the self-assembly of the PrP from its monomeric state (cellular PrP, PrPC) to the multimeric state. The latter state includes the toxic species (scrapie PrP, PrPSc) knowledge of which would facilitate the development of drugs against prion diseases. Here we analyze the role of a tyrosine residue (Y169) which is strictly conserved in mammalian PrPs. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectroscopy studies of many mammalian PrPC proteins have provided evidence of a conformational equilibrium between a 310-helical turn and a type I β turn conformation in the β2-α2 loop (residues 165–175). In vitro cell-free experiments of the seeded conversion of PrPC indicate that non-aromatic residues at position 169 reduce the formation of proteinase K-resistant PrP. Recent molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of monomeric PrP and several single-point mutants show that Y169 stabilizes the 310-helical turn conformation more than single-point mutants at position 169 or residues in contact with it. In the 310-helical turn conformation the hydrophobic and aggregation-prone segment 169-YSNQNNF-175 is buried and thus not-available for self-assembly. From the combined analysis of simulation and experimental results it emerges that Y169 is an aggregation gatekeeper with a twofold role. Mutations related to 3 human prion diseases are interpreted on the basis of the gatekeeper role in the monomeric state. Another potential role of the Y169 side chain is the stabilization of the ordered aggregates, i.e., reduction of frangibility of filamentous protofibrils and fibrils, which is likely to reduce the generation of toxic species.


"This is the most authoritative and highly literate account of these pernicious people that I have ever read." -- Patrick O'Brian Pirates are so much a part of legend that it is easy to forget they actually existed. UNDER THE BLACK FLAG tells their story in a rollicking account of the golden age of piracy that is packed with history, anecdote, and above all adventure. Here are the true stories of such bloodthirsty legends as Blackbeard and Captain Kidd, Anne Bonny, and the fearsome Mary Read. And here are rousing descriptions of what ships pirates sailed, what punishments they exacted, what they really wore, and how they flourished--or perished. From the smoky havoc of shipboard battle to the loneliness of a fugitive's life at sea, this spellbinding narrative vividly brings the brutal world of pirates to life.


Summary

1
The chemical characteristics of floodwaters in ephemeral rivers are little known, particularly with regard to their organic loads. These rivers typically exhibit a pronounced downstream hydrological decay but few studies have documented its effect on chemical characteristics and material transport. To develop a better understanding of the dynamics of floods and associated material transport in large ephemeral rivers, floods of the ephemeral Kuiseb River in south-western Africa were tracked and repeatedly sampled at multiple points along the river's lower 220 km.

2
We quantified the composition and transport of solute and sediment loads in relation to longitudinal hydrological patterns associated with downstream hydrological decay. Source and sink areas for transported materials were identified, and the composition and transport dynamics of the organic matter load were compared to those described from more mesic systems.

3
Concentrations of sediments and solutes transported by floods in the Kuiseb River tended to increase downstream in association with pronounced hydrological decay. The contribution of particulate organic matter to total organic load is among the highest recorded, despite our observation of unusually high levels of dissolved organic matter. Hydrological decay resulted in deposition of all transported material within the lower Kuiseb River, with no discharge of water or materials to the Atlantic Ocean.

4
Our results suggest that longitudinal variation in surface flow and associated patterns of material transport renders the lower Kuiseb River a sink for materials transported from upstream. The downstream transport and deposition of large amounts of labile organic matter provides an important carbon supplement to heterotrophic communities within the river's lower reaches.


What is the difference between a simulation of X and simply another instance of X? Is there a point at which the "virtual reality" of a model becomes the real thing? This paper examines these questions using cases taken from recent developments in evolutionary engineering and artificial life research. By implementing the Darwinian mechanism and setting it to work on a design problem, scientists and engineers find that evolution not only can improve prior designs, but also produce novel technological solutions. Artificial life systems Tierra and Avida which operate at a higher level of abstraction than evolutionary engineering applications. I analyze simulation as a rational concept "S simulates R" and argue that it always includes some relevant property P, of R, that is captured but that there is always also some other that it omits, and that pragmatic factors fix what counts as relevant. The border between a simulation and an instance or R can change depending upon the context. I show that in one sense, evo-technology and artificial life simulate organic evolution, but in another relevant sense they are instances of evolution itself. Biologists can use such systems to experimentally test evolutionary hypotheses such as those involving the evolution of complex features and altruism. This analysis suggests lines for future research on broader questions about models classification and confirmation.


The Schoenberg Database of Manuscripts can be used not only to track the provenance of individual manuscripts, but also to uncover larger patterns in multiple provenance strings of manuscripts. For example, does an individual auction sale or bookseller's catalogue have any discernable influence on the acquisitions made by a collector or institution? Or is the publication of a collection or exhibition catalogue preceded or followed by any discernable pattern of acquisition activity? This paper explores patterns of acquisition, exhibition and sale associated with the collections of William Bragge (1823-1884) of Sheffield and Dr. T. Shadford Walker (1834-1885) of Liverpool. Bragge was the largest single exhibitor in the Burlington Fine Arts Club exhibition in 1874. The sale of his library less than two years later at Sotheby's in June 1876 was only identified as the property of "a gentleman of consummate taste and judgment," but full reports in The Times revealed his identity to those not already in the know. Not surprisingly the London antiquarian booksellers, Bernard Quaritch, were a major buyer at the sale; its Catalogue 31 published in the fall of 1876 after the sale contains numerous items acquired there. Quaritch was also apparently bidding on behalf of the British Museum and of Dr. Walker of Liverpool. In October of the same year Walker was a major contributor to the Liverpool Fine Arts Club exhibition of illuminated manuscripts and every one of the 18 manuscripts exhibited by Walker had been purchased at the Bragge sale earlier that year.


Of all solid municipal domestic waste produced in Australia approximately 50-55% consists of food and garden waste. Other components are paper (20%), plastics (6%), glass (10%), metal (5-7%) and other inorganics (10-15%).

The organic fraction is by far the most environmentally polluting and can be hazardous. The reasons for this are 1) the enormous volume occupying 75% of landfill space, 2) its putrescible nature, causing it to be a source of pathogenic organisms, 3) the large volume of polluting gases released during the uncontrolled decomposition such as ammonia and methane, and 4) the decomposing organic matter is a major contributor to groundwater pollution through dissolution and its function as a carrier for inorganic pollutants (e.g. heavy metals). Furthermore it creates odour, attracts seagulls and is a breeding ground for rodents and insects.

The major challenge in any integrated waste management strategy is to solve the problem of how to deal with organic waste. The current practice of land filling organic waste whether it includes compaction or other more advanced land filling techniques is becoming an inappropriate waste treatment practice and unsustainable in the long term. Because of the previously mentioned reasons and also the fact that it consumes large amounts of land, it results in low land value and generally strongly objected by residents, land filling is fast disappearing in major cities as a single waste treatment strategy. In low-density cities transport costs become prohibitive as suitable landfill space is only available well away from waste generation centres.