Donor shortage has led to the use of hepatitis B core antibody (anti‐HBc)‐positive (anti‐HBc+) liver allografts for patients in need of relatively urgent orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT). Because anti‐HBc+ allografts transmit hepatitis B virus (HBV) infection at a high rate, effective prophylaxis is required. We assessed the effectiveness of lamivudine in preventing HBV transmission by anti‐HBc+ allografts. Between March 1996 and March 2000 at Cedars‐Sinai Medical Center (Los Angeles, CA), 15 of 169 patients (8.9%) received liver allografts from anti‐HBc+ donors. Six patients were hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg)+ (group 1), and 9 patients were HBsAg negative (HBsAg−; group 2) before OLT. All patients were administered lamivudine, 100 or 150 mg/d, orally after OLT. Patients who were HBsAg+ before OLT also were administered hepatitis B immunoglobulin (HBIG) prophylaxis. Hepatitis B serological tests were performed on all patients, and HBV DNA was determined in liver tissues in 10 patients. All 15 patients remained HBsAg− at their last follow‐up 2 to 40 months (mean, 17 months) post‐OLT. All patients in group 1 had antibody to HBsAg (anti‐HBs) titers greater than 250 mIU/mL post‐OLT (mean follow‐up, 20 months; range, 7 to 40 months). Of the 2 patients in group 1 who underwent liver biopsy after OLT, 1 patient had detectable hepatic HBV DNA despite being anti‐HBs+ and HBsAg−. Among the patients in group 2, none acquired anti‐HBc or HBsAg. Hepatic HBV DNA was undetectable in the 7 patients in group 2 who underwent liver biopsy after OLT. Anti‐HBc+ allografts can be safely used in patients who undergo OLT for chronic hepatitis B and susceptible transplant recipients if prophylaxis with combination HBIG and lamivudine or lamividine alone is administered after OLT, respectively. However, more data are needed to determine the efficacy of lamivudine monotherapy in preventing transmission of HBV infection from anti‐HBc+ liver allografts to susceptible recipients.


Morse code has been used as a communications system at a distance to transmit text through tone or light pulses. This comparative study aims to test and evaluate the vibrotactile identification of Morse coded signals communicating instructions for movement. The pulses were presented on abdomen and wrist among 14 males (40-85 yr) experienced in acoustic Morse code and the rate of pulses was 12 words per minute using a Vibration Motor mounted in a plastic holder. There identification results were statistically significantly better on wrist compared to abdomen. Words were identified significantly better on the wrist as compared to abdomen but the identification results of the letters were equally good in both placements. There was a negative correlation between age and the pooled identification results tested on wrist PCC r=-0.45 (p<0.02). The participants rank ordered the wrist, over the abdomen, as the best place for positioning the vibrator. The results support haptic/tactile interaction research in positioning and communication system. Our future plans are to apply the results to the project "Ready Ride" for instructions for horseback riding for people with deafblindness as well as activity and movement for elderly people with impaired vision and hearing.


Underwater vocalizations of pack-ice crabeater seals (Lobodon carcinophagus) were recorded by J. A. Thomas off the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula during the austral breeding season in November 1978. Data were collected by dropping an ANS 57 sonobuoy from the side of a ship to a depth of 15.3 m and recorded on a Nagra III reelto-reel recorder (system frequency response linear from 20 Hz to 20 kHz ± 2 dB). The acoustic properties of 315 underwater vocalizations were analyzed using Spectrogram real time software. As previous investigators documented, all crabeater seal sounds during the breeding season were of one type, a long groan. D. Cothran recorded a solitary crabeater seal of unknown age and sex foraging during the nonbreeding season in February 2007 in the same general area of the Antarctic Peninsula using a Sony TRV-900 digital underwater video camcorder. Twenty seconds of underwater acoustic data were spectrographically analyzed, and 18 vocalizations were identified and classified into four previously unreported sound types: (1) short groan, (2) whistle, (3) screech, and (4) grunt. For the first time, the acoustic characteristics of the common long groan and four previously undescribed underwater vocalizations by crabeater seals were examined spectrographically with parameters of frequency and time reported herein. The long groan showed little frequency or temporal variation and was repeated by other distant crabeater seals at about 20.0-s intervals. No long groans were recorded during the short February videotape. The four previously undocumented vocalizations were produced while a single crabeater seal foraged in shallow water. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed that the long groan was acoustically dissimilar to the four new vocalizations; however, only 18 sounds were available for analysis. Still, this videotape documents that this species does produce more than one sound type. Further research should be conducted to adequately document the underwater acoustic repertoire of the crabeater seal, especially outside the breeding season.


BACKGROUND
More than 30 exposures in the workplace are proven carcinogens. In the present study, we aimed to estimate the burden of occupational cancer in Quebec so as to increase awareness among stakeholders and to prioritize research activities.

METHODS
Work-attributable fractions-that is, the proportions of cancers attributable to work-as published in Finland and the United Kingdom were applied to Quebec 2002-2006 cancer incidence and mortality data to estimate the number of work-related cases for 28 cancer sites.

RESULTS
Overall, 6.0% of incident cancers (men: 9.1%; women: 2.7%) and 7.6% of cancer deaths (men: 11.8%; women: 2.8%) could be attributable to work, resulting annually in an average of 2160 new cancer diagnoses and 1190 cancer deaths in Quebec. Incident cancers of the lung, prostate, skin, bladder, and (female) breast were the most numerous; cancer sites resulting in more deaths were lung, (female) breast, and pleura. During the same period, compensation statistics reported annual averages of 94.3 incident cancers and 61.9 cancer deaths, mostly involving mesothelioma (64% of compensated incident cancers) and lung cancer (30% of compensated incident cancers).

CONCLUSIONS
Increased recognition of workplace cancers by all stakeholders, from workers and employers to treating physicians, will foster appropriate preventive measures for safer workplaces.


Background/Context Community colleges are central to the United States' college completion goals. A popular strategy pushed by a number of influential policy organizations and foundations is a policy of tying state funding to community college completions, otherwise known simply as performance funding. This is happening despite little to no evidence that such a strategy actually increases institutional performance. Purpose This study asks: To what extent does the introduction of performance funding programs impact two-year degree completion among participating states? Population/Participants We created a unique panel data set for the period 1990 through 2010, using states as our primary unit of analysis. The data set contains 1,050 total observations, drawing from a range of postsecondary data sources. Research Design We used a quasi-experimental regression technique called difference-indifferences regression technique. We also included in our model multiple control variables and year and state fixed effects. Findings/Results We find that the program had no effect on average and mixed results for the individual states where performance funding was associated with lower completions in six states, greater completions in four states, and inconclusive patterns in nine states. Conclusions We conclude that performance funding is no "silver bullet" for improving community college completions; rather, in some cases, it may interfere with national completion goals. We recommend that state policy makers seek out evidence-based alternatives for improving community college completions.


The success of the IP protocol stack and also the success of the Internet as a technology lies in
its simplicity. Based on the classical hourglass visualization, a wide variety of first and second layer
technologies are all related to the IP and the intelligence is provided by the higher layers in most
cases on the edge of the network. In theory, the details of the infrastructure are hidden from the
applications and the application programmers. The developer of a given application should focus on
the implementation of their own business logic without being concerned about the lower layers. The
network devices in the core of the network are simple and stateless, their main task being fast packet
forwarding, while logically near the customers the active devices may provide some basic services for
the network operator. This paradigm is about 30 years old and since its introduction many things have
changed. Almost all the services related to information exchange are now based or will be based on
the services provided by the IP network. The widespread use of overlay technologies and virtualization
is also an important trend. This heterogeneous demand together with the wide variety of access layer
technologies are the main facilitators of the paradigm shift we are now witnessing. The network
is becoming evermore intelligent and providing context-based services, while the applications or the
underlying layers are becoming increasingly infrastructure aware. The main active device vendors
are now opening the black boxes and they starting to provide environments for running third party
applications on the active devices [14]. This step will make the intelligent or active network described
in [128] possible. Here the goal of the thesis is twofold. First, we would like to show that even
the known intelligent services have serious scalability issues. We will show that a new aspect of the
number of unicast or multicast flows going through an active device should be considered by network
engineers or application developers. Second, we will present four approaches where the application
itself takes into the account the capabilities of the underlying network.
The novel features presented by this work are:
- The scalability issues of the intelligent services
- The ability to observe the hiding botnets on the Internet
- A small degree, robust DHT
- Signaling compression for the adaptation of the SIP protocol
- Distributed storage


The purpose of this thesis was to study how the heating-, cooling- and ventilation systems affected the temperature distribution between the different zones in a building. Powerhouse Kjorbo is equipped with central radiator heating without radiators in the office cells. Temperature distribution in the office cells is therefore dependent on air flows through open doors and supply air from the ventilation. Evaluations of temperatures and thermal indoor climate for the office cells would have to be conducted, in order to examine if the temperature distribution was sufficient. A simulation model was therefore created. A Simulation model in IDA ICE was built as similar as possible compared to the actual building. Evaluations of the thermal indoor climate were done by analyzing the simulation results from IDA ICE. The simulations were performed with the aim of examining how different actions affect the temperature and thermal indoor climate in the office cells. The winter simulations showed that the office cells achieved low temperatures and a bad thermal indoor climate by only keeping the doors open outside the residence time. This meant that the temperature distribution through the doors was insufficient. By performing actions like increasing the set point for heating and supplying hot ventilation air, good indoor temperatures and a good thermal indoor climate were achieved. The summer simulations showed that the operative temperature exceeded 26 °C, when no actions to prevent high indoor temperatures were performed. Further, the simulation results showed that external window shading and increased supply of ventilation air was effective for preventing high indoor temperatures. Good results for temperatures and thermal indoor climate were achieved, when these actions were included in the simulation model. The results from the simulations showed that a good thermal indoor climate can be achieved in the office cells, both summer and winter, if the correct actions are implemented.


The paper shows that the current view of globalization as an automatic and benign force is seriously flawed. It is mistaken because it focuses on only one, positive, face of globalization while entirely neglecting a malignant one. The two key historical episodes that are adduced by the supporters of the "globalization as it is" (the Halcyon days of the 1870-1913, and the record of the last two decades of development) are shown to be misinterpreted. The "Halcyon days" were never Halcyon for those who were "globalized" through colonization since colonial constraints prevented them from industrializing. And they were even less "Halcyon" for those who were taken into slavery. Even among the Western economies, the 19th century globalization, contrary to some views, failed to bring income convergence. The record of the last two decades (1978-1998) is shown to be uniformly worse than that of the previous two (1960-78). It is thus only by a serious misreading of the recent evidence that the partisans of globalization are able to argue for its unmitigated beneficence. Should globalization be abandoned and everyone retire behind protective national walls? Absolutely not. But globalization led by capitalist interests alone is likely, akin to what it accomplished a century ago, to produce a wild global capitalism with social exclusion, unbridled competition and exploitation. Global capitalism needs to be "civilized" in the same way that national capitalisms of the 19th century were "civilized" after World War II-period which then witnessed the fastest growth in history. Yet the civilizing role cannot be done by individual states, but, because of the global nature of capitalism, by global institutions.


The election for Israel's fifteenth Knesset in May 1999 was one of the most tumultuous ever, resulting in a major defeat for the incumbent Prime Minister, Likud's Binyamin Netanyahu and a sweeping victory for Labor/One Israel's Ehud Barak. Balloting for the Knesset resulted in fragmentation of the party system with 15 lists elected. Despite Barak's personal victory, his Labor/One Israel party lost seats, as did Likud, the second largest party. Most surprising was the increase of seats for the ultra-Orthodox, Sephardi Shas. Its victory underscored the domination of sectarian politics in the election. With the collapse of Israel's government in December 1998, the Knesset (Parliament) called for national elections in 1999, more than a year ahead of schedule. According to the electoral law introduced in 1992, voters would, for the second time, be permitted two choices, one for prime minister and a second for a political party or Knesset list as had been done in the 1996 elections.1 Between December 1998 and the election on 17 May 1999, the party system was transformed: 29 of the Knesset's 120 members switched to rival parties or formed new factions of their own. Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's Likud split as half a dozen of its leading members left to join new parties including the middle of the road Center and the militantly anti-Oslo, National Union. Labor's leader, Ehud Barak, not only changed the name of his party list to One Israel, but absorbed two additional factions: Gesher, led by former Likud leader David Levy and the small, liberal, Orthodox party Meimad, led by the ex-Chief Rabbi of Norway, Yehuda Amital. More than 50 parties initially registered but by May 17 only 33 remained on the ballot. Only five of these parties represented broad national, rather than narrow, sectarian interests. THE RACE FOR PRIME MINISTER Despite the proliferation of new party lists, attention during the campaign focused on the election for Prime Minister. In effect, it was a contest between candidates for Prime Minister rather than between parties. At one point there were five candidates, although by election eve the race had narrowed to the incumbent Netanyahu versus Barak. According to the new electoral law, a run-off election would occur if no candidate won a majority during the first round. When, on 23 January, Netanyahu peremptorily fired his Defense Minister, former Chief of Staff Yitzhak Mordechai, the ex-general left Likud to lead the new Center party, inaugurated in March, and declared his candidacy for Prime Minister. Until he withdrew two days before the election, speculation centered on whether or not there would be a second round between two of the three: Netanyahu, Barak or Mordechai. The two other remaining candidates, Benny Begin of the National Union and `Azmi Bishara, leader of the largely Arab Balad party, also withdrew shortly before the election, however they were not considered threats to either Netanyahu or Barak. The departure from the race of Mordechai and Begin guaranteed Barak's election and underscored the extent to which Netanyahu had alienated even his own constituency. During his three years as Prime Minister, Netanyahu lost his Foreign Minister, David Levy of Gesher, Finance Minister Dan Meridor, Science Minister Benny Begin, and Defense Minister Mordechai. Mordechai, Meridor and the Likud Mayor of Tel-Aviv, Ronni Milo, formed the core group that established the new Center party; they were joined by several prominent former Labor party members. The rancor between Netanyahu and his colleagues resulted not only from disagreements over substantive issues such as implementing the Wye River Accord with the Palestinian Authority (October 1998), but also from personality clashes. The Prime Minister's arbitrary and rude manner caused deep mistrust among those closest to him, who not only left but decided to rally against him. The Jerusalem Post observed that "Netanyahu has a talent rare in a politician: an ability to alienate almost anyone with whom he has come into contact. …


Background: The aim of this study is to evaluate the effects of fibrin sealant spraying on postoperative air leak in patients undergoing pulmonary resection for non-small cell lung cancer Materials and Methods: Data of twenty-two patients who had undergone pulmonary resection (fibrin sealant group) were compared with a matched control cohort of nineteen patients (control group) retrospectively. Results: Prolonged air leak was seen in fewer patients (n = 2; 10.5%) in fibrin sealant group compared to the control group (n = 4; 18.2%; p = 0.668). Apical chest tube removal time was also lower in fibrin sealant group (3 vs. 4 days; p= 0.01). Postoperative basal drain removal time, total chest tube drainage amount and intensive care unit stay time were similar between the groups (p = 0.945, p = 0.895 and p = 0.452, respectively). Conclusions: Fibrin sealant application cannot replace an exact and precise surgical technique. However, they may be helpful particularly in small air leakages when the air leakage cannot be assured by routine surgical methods.


Abundances of 12 laboratory populations of the greenbottle blowfly (Lucilia sericata) were recorded every two days for 776 d, with separate counts for larvae, pupae, and adults. Half of the populations were exposed to sublethal dosages of the toxic compound cadmium acetate; the remaining populations were considered controls. Initial density was low for half of the populations in each group, and high for the other half. In all populations, the adult abundance underwent sustained fluctuations. However, cadmium-exposed populations had smaller mean larval and adult densities, and fluctuations in adult abundance were less regular than for controls. Data from the first and the second half of the experimental period were analyzed separately in order to assess the effects of possible long-term changes in the dynamics on the estimates. Nonparametric (generalized) additive modeling (GAM) was used to investigate time series dynamics and, in particular, to explore the density-independent components and the structure of the density-dependent components of the system. Overall, cadmium populations had larger larva-to-adult survival rate and smaller adult survival rate than control populations, and for the second half of the experimental period the reproductive rate was smaller for cadmium populations than for control populations. Estimation of the density-dependent components suggested that survival from larva to adult depended nonlinearly on larval density and that increased larval density had a positive effect on larval survival at low densities. Furthermore, cadmium generally decreased vital rates. However, the analysis suggested that most of the observed differences in dynamical behavior between control and cadmium populations are related to differences in the density-independent components of the demographic rates, rather than differences in the density-dependent structure.


In this paper, simulation-based design-technology co-optimization (DTCO) is carried out using the Coventor SEMulator3D® virtual fabrication platform with its integrated electrical analysis capabilities [1]. In our study, process modeling is used to predict the sensitivity of FinFET device performance to changes in a silicon germanium epitaxial process. The simulated process is a gate-last flow process applied to a 14nm FinFET. The source drain contact resistance and fringing capacitance are extracted to examine the effect of process changes on device performance. Finally, TCAD simulation is adopted to complete the transistor level simulation


This article begins by reviewing the axiomatic principles that govern courts when dealing with cases in which two legal norms are interpreted as standing in conflict. The article then makes three distinct contributions. First, the article explicates the central justification behind the use and perpetuation of the extant principles. In briefest terms, the extant principles are best justified as an attempt to resolve cases in which legal rules stand in conflict in a way that enhances or preserves the democratic legitimacy of law. They do this by favoring norms created by entities of relatively strong democratic legitimacy over norms created by entities of relatively weak democratic legitimacy. For example, under the extant principles, a statute will trump a conflicting regulation. Statutes are the product of legislatures, while regulations are promulgated by administrative agencies; the former boasts stronger democratic legitimacy than the latter. In this way, the extant principles work to enhance the democratic legitimacy of law. Second, the article explains the central problems that the extant principles engender. Despite the fact that the extant principles are justified by their tendency to enhance the democratic legitimacy of law, in many instances their rigid formalism will produce the opposite effect. For example, where a special interest statute of low democratic legitimacy stands in conflict with a popular regulation of strong democratic legitimacy, under the extant principles the former will trump the latter. This sort of anti-democratic outcome produces another problem an incentive for courts to manipulate their interpretive discretion in order to avoid anti-democratic outcomes. For example, rather than allow a special interest statute to trump a popular regulation, courts will use their interpretive discretion to adopt strained norm interpretations that avoid any conflict. One problem with this practice is that judicial opinions rationalize outcomes as following from neutral rules of legal interpretation, when in fact outcomes are driven by factors not addressed or mentioned in opinions. Third, and most importantly, the article compares the extant principles with several suggested alternative sets of principles and explains the advantages that these alternatives offer over the extant principles. The article offers numerous alternative sets of principles that could minimize both the anti-democratic outcomes, and the incentive to manipulate the meaning of legal norms, produced by the extant principles. In short, the article explains the problems engendered by the understudied principles governing conflicts between legal norms, and then offers numerous alternative sets of principles aimed at alleviating these problems. The ultimate conclusion of the article is that no set of principles for dealing with cases of conflicting norms is ideal. All systems imply particular mixes of good and bad features. The bad features of the extant set of principles, however, do not seem to outweigh whatever good features they exhibit.


In this paper we investigate how the expulsion of a player influences the outcome of a football match. Common sense implies a negative impact for the affected team. However, an old football myth suggests that such an expulsion might also be beneficial since it increases the team spirit as well as the efforts of the affected team. We make use of a unique dataset containing all games played in a World Cup Championship between 1930 and 2002 and follow a twofold econometric strategy: We start with a conditional maximum likelihood estimator which is independent of the relative strength of the teams before we extend this estimator to take the relative strength of the teams and the minute of the expulsion into account. Our results indicate that the scoring intensities of both teams do not differ after the expulsion. Conducting scenario analysis reveals that the impact of a red card depends on the minute of the expulsion and does not have an impact at all if given at the end of the first half or later.


There is a growing requirement worldwide for low-cost, reliable, and green electricity. From 2000 to 2015, the total installed capacity worldwide of solar photovoltaics (PV) increased from 4 GW to 227 GW, and is worth more than £75 billion annually. Solar photovoltaics are available in a multitude of technologies such as various morphologies of silicon, perovskite, organics, and other semiconducting technologies. However, a common issue regardless of technology is a spectral mismatch, where the incident solar irradiance does not equally match the range in which the semiconductor efficiently absorbs photons, and a second issue is degradation of polymeric components from UV photons. Ultimately critical failure of a solar module can occur due to the degradation of polymeric glues in the module, which allows for the ingress of water which rapidly leads to failure. Even before the critical failure, transmission of light is reduced due to the polymeric components becoming discoloured under UV irradiation to a yellow and brown colour due to the formation of organic radicals and short chain alkenes.
Glass front sheets are used for the transmission of light to the active semiconducting material in a PV module whilst providing environmental, chemical and physical protection. Spectral mismatch and polymeric damage can be ameliorated through absorption of ultraviolet (UV) photons in the glass layer of the PV module. Incorporation of particular cations, in specific oxidation states into a glass matrix can afford strong UV absorption, and no visible or infrared (IR) absorption allowing for the protection of the polymeric species within the module with no reduction in transmission of lower-energy photons required by the PV cell for conversion to electric current. Furthermore, broadband visible emission can be induced from the absorption of UV photons with careful selection and preparation of the cations in the glass matrix, which allows a better spectral matching
8
from the incident (and re-emitted) radiation and the absorption profile of the semiconductor.
This thesis describes the effects of certain cations with d0, d10 and s2 electron configurations in silicate glasses. Investigations into the optical, structural and chemical properties of doping silicate (soda lime silica and borosilicate) glasses with cations of titanium, zirconium, hafnium, niobium, tantalum, molybdenum, and tungsten (d0), zinc (d10), bismuth, lead and tin (s2) ions. Shifts in the absorbance profiles of doped and base glasses were measured by UV Visible IR absorption spectroscopy. These measurements were conducted in conjunction with UV Visible IR fluorescence emission and excitation spectroscopy measurements, by which the oxidation state(s) and fluorescence profiles of the dopants can be elucidated. X-Ray diffraction (XRD) was undertaken to confirm the amorphous nature of the materials prepared. Raman spectroscopy was used to investigate the structure of the glasses and to determine whether changes occurred upon addition of the dopants studied. Electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy (EPR) and X-Ray Absorption Near Edge Structure (XANES) measurements were performed to elucidate the oxidation state/s of the dopants within the glasses. X-Ray fluorescence (XRF) spectroscopy was carried out to measure the proportions of oxides within the glasses and confirm that the melt-quench regime did not result in excessive volatilisation of materials or other contamination. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) was used to determine the glass transition temperature (Tg) of the prepared glasses.


Convex relaxations have emerged as a promising approach for verifying desirable properties of neural networks like robustness to adversarial perturbations. Widely used Linear Programming (LP) relaxations only work well when networks are trained to facilitate verification. This precludes applications that involve verification-agnostic networks, i.e., networks not specially trained for verification. On the other hand, semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxations have successfully be applied to verification-agnostic networks, but do not currently scale beyond small networks due to poor time and space asymptotics. In this work, we propose a first-order dual SDP algorithm that (1) requires memory only linear in the total number of network activations, (2) only requires a fixed number of forward/backward passes through the network per iteration. By exploiting iterative eigenvector methods, we express all solver operations in terms of forward and backward passes through the network, enabling efficient use of hardware like GPUs/TPUs. For two verification-agnostic networks on MNIST and CIFAR-10, we significantly improve L-inf verified robust accuracy from 1% to 88% and 6% to 40% respectively. We also demonstrate tight verification of a quadratic stability specification for the decoder of a variational autoencoder.


The growing usage of the current mobile communication networks is leading to the definition of new and more powerful systems which will have a larger number of user services. The addition of new services will impose different requirements making the overall QoS management a complex task. Modeling techniques can be valuable to assess the technological choices that have to be made and to help in the design, planning and overall management of the network. Unfortunately, current modeling techniques do not take into consideration the richness of the new requirements and new models have to be applied. This paper makes a survey on the limitations of some of the most relevant existing modeling techniques in face of the new requirements. The paper identifies the main characteristics that the new models must have to better describe the next generation wireless networks. Some possible approaches are outlined.


Cells receive mechanical cues from the surrounding extracellular matrix (ECM). This has a strong impact on physiology and pathology in a wide range of biological settings. Integrin receptors couple the ECM to the intracellular cytoskeleton across the cell membrane through a dynamic multiprotein adhesion complex and mediate bidirectional force transmission. In this research the mechanism of cellular mechanotransduction and its role in aspects of cancer progression are studied, focusing on integrins and other integrin associated proteins. We find that the integrin expression profile of cells regulates the orientation and dynamics of force transmission at cell-matrix adhesions. Additionally, using a novel method to quantify the abundance of a molecule in a cellular complex, we show that substrate rigidity modulates the association between traction forces and molecular composition of cell-matrix adhesions. Using cell microprinting in 3D ECM scaffolds, we determine the relation between tumor-induced remote ECM network orientation and angiogenesis. Lastly, genes that regulate cancer cell migration, force application, and adhesion dynamics are identified. Overall, the work described in this thesis unravels the role of cellular mechanotransduction in different aspects of cancer progression and reveals how the molecular composition of cell-matrix adhesions relates to traction force generation.


Community-based forest monitoring is seen as a way both to improve community engagement and participation in national environmental payment schemes and climate mitigation priorities and to implement reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation and foster conservation, sustainable management of forests and enhancement of forest carbon stocks in developing countries (REDD+). There is a strong assumption among community-based monitoring advocates that community monitoring is a desirable approach. However, it is unclear why community members would want to participate in their own surveillance or be involved in a program likely to limit livelihood uses of forest areas and possibly even sanction them based on the data provided. This paper explores these issues by examining three communities involved in Peru's Conditional Direct Transfer Program, in which indigenous communities are compensated for protecting communal forests through various mechanisms, including forest monitoring. The case studies focus specifically on communities that received smartphones and were trained in their use for monitoring. The results affirm the importance that benefits outweigh the costs of local participation to sustain motivation. They also point to key factors supporting the legitimacy of the program, specifically to overcome historical tensions between the state and indigenous communities. These include the nature of engagement by program implementers and the importance of building trust over time.


We report on a recent calculation of the electroweak O(\alpha^3\alpha_s) corrections to 3-jet production and related event-shape observables at e+e- colliders. The calculation properly accounts for the experimental photon isolation criteria and for the corrections to the total hadronic cross section. Corrections to the normalised event-shape distributions, which are exemplarily discussed here for the thrust distribution at LEP and linear-collider energies, turn out to be at the few-per-cent level and show remnants of the radiative return to the Z pole even after inclusion of appropriate cuts.


Despite the extensive study of the Wingless (Wg) or Wnt signaling pathway in regulating development and cancer, a previously unrecognized mechanism has been uncovered for Wg signaling at developing synapses in the Drosophila nervous system. Mathew et al. (see the Perspective by Arias) found that the Wg receptor DFrizzled2 can be cleaved and translocated from the plasma membrane to the area of the cell just outside the nucleus. In response to Wg signals, the C-terminal portion of the receptor then enters the nucleus, where it might act to regulate gene expression. Expression of an Fz2 mutant that could not be cleaved failed to rescue synapse formation in flies that expressed a mutant of Fz2 with defective signaling. D. Mathew, B. Ataman, J. Chen, Y. Zhang, S. Cumberledge, V. Budnik, Wingless signaling at synapses is through cleavage and nuclear import of receptor DFrizzled2. Science 310, 1344-1347 (2005). [Abstract] [Full Text] A. M. Arias, Frizzled at the cutting edge of the synapse. Science 310, 1284-1285 (2005). [Summary] [Full Text]


Today, when one thinks of the border separating the United States from Mexico, what typically comes to mind is a mutually unwelcoming zone, with violent, poverty-ridden towns on one side and an increasingly militarized network of barriers and surveillance systems on the other. In Why Walls Won't Work, Michael Dear explains why this view is problematic and false. Those interested in one way that the discipline of border studies has developed to account for the post 9/11 context will find this book interesting and instructive; Dear's focus on the physicality of the border Wall itself is most convincing, writes Zalfa Feghali.


A provocative paper by Shimer (2001) finds that state-level youth shares and unemployment rates are negatively correlated, in contrast to conventional assumptions about demographic effects on labor markets. This paper updates Shimer's regressions and shows that this surprising correlation essentially disappears when the end of the sample period is extended from 1996 to 2005. This shift does not occur because of a change in the underlying economy during the past decade. Rather, the presence of a cross-sectional (that is, spatial) correlation in the state-level data sharply reduces the precision of the earlier estimates, so that the true standard errors are several times larger than those originally reported. Using a longer sample period and some controls for spatial correlation in the regression, point estimates for the youth-share effect on unemployment are positive and close to what a conventional model would imply. Unfortunately, the standard errors remain very large. The difficulty of obtaining precise estimates with these data illustrates a potential pitfall in the use of regional panel data for macroeconomic analysis.


Social interactions are common for all living organisms. In animal breeding, these interactions are of interest as they are often a source of indirect genetic effects (IGEs). An IGE is a heritable effect of an individual on the trait value of another individual. In aquaculture populations and some plants, social interactions have an additional consequence – interactions in the form of competition inflate variability of trait values among individuals. The phenotypic variability of a genotype has been studied as a quantitative trait in itself, and is often referred to as inherited variability. The main objective of this thesis was to study the genetics of inherited variability, with a focus on the relationship between competition (i.e., IGEs) and variability. In the thesis, we used Nile tilapia as a model species. We found that variability of body weight and body size traits in Nile tilapia is heritable, and shows a large genetic coefficient of variation, which offers good opportunities for improvement of uniformity by means of genetic selection. To study the genetic relationship between social interactions and variability, we developed a quantitative genetic model that integrates both phenomena. In this model, interactions between social partners lead to divergence (competition) or convergence (cooperation) of their phenotypes (e.g., body weight) over their life time. The effects of social interaction in the model are heritable and can evolve. These effects comprise direct genetic effect of the focal individual and IGE of its social partner. With a simulation study we showed that the model yields increased variability of body weight with increase of competition, similar to what is observed in real aquaculture populations. Selection for cooperation will therefore lead to decreased variability. These findings suggest that IGEs may be creating an entire level of genetic variation in variability, that has so far been overlooked. Using existing statistical models, we show that direct genetic effects of competition on variability could be captured with a direct model of inherited variability, and similarly, IGEs of competition could be captured with an indirect model of inherited variability. According to kin selection theory individuals should show better social behavior, i.e., less competition, towards relatives, which should be reflected in their body weight and the variability thereof. We tested this hypothesis by comparing two treatments in an experiment, in which tilapia were reared in either kin or in non-kin groups. Individuals had significantly higher body weight in kin groups, however, there was no difference in variability of body weight between the two treatments. Findings of this thesis demonstrate that variability of body weight in tilapia is heritable and that genetic variation in variability may comprise not only direct genetic effects but also IGEs. Studies focusing on evolution of variability/uniformity, therefore, should consider IGEs.


For decades, scholars have studied the relative power of parties and committees in the U.S. Congress. An influential theory, Conditional Party Government (CPG), hypothesizes that as intra-party preferences converge and inter-party preferences diverge, rank-and-file members and committees transfer power to party leaders. Most previous tests of CPG and other theories of party power rely on roll call votes to measure both the distribution of preferences within the chamber and the relative power of party leaders. We propose an alternative that assesses shifts of power within Congress by using PAC contributions and newspaper coverage. Since PACs are sophisticated donors who target their contributions to gain access and influence in Congress, following the money allows us to construct a measure of relative power. During the period 1978-2014, we find that party leaders receive an increasing share of the donations over time at the expense of committee leaders and rank-and-file. The share of PAC donations to party leaders closely tracks standard measures of CPG. Another measure of power, based on newspaper coverage, produces similar patterns for an even longer period, from 1890-2014. Overall, our results provide strong support for the CPG theory.


In Cosmic Numbers, mathematics professor James Stein traces the discovery, evolution, and interrelationships of the great numbers that define our world. Some numbers, like the speed of light and absolute zero, are well known to the general public. Others, such as Boltzmann's constant and the Chandrasekhar limit, are known only to those with a deep knowledge of science. But these numbers do far more than the average person might dare to imagine: they tell us how this world began, the way we were and the way we are, and what the future holds. Stein reveals the manner in which certain cosmic numbers came to light, the dramatis personae involved, and cutting-edge developments associated with these numbers. Many are the cornerstones of grand discoveries and theories. They represent landmarks in the history of intellectual achievement. And the stories of these numbers offer a novel understanding of physics, chemistry, and astronomy. Much more than a gee-whiz collection, Cosmic Numbers illuminates why particular numbers are so important--both to scientists and to the rest of us.


A great diversity of points of view on international security, one of the most current subjects in the area of international relations, coexist in Latin America and the Caribbean. This region is immersed in an interesting debate in which reticence and enthusiasm coexist and confront themselves in order to enlarge the functions of regional mechanisms of security, or to evaluate experiences acquired either through UN action or recent tendencies of the Security Council. The center of debate is also found in the impossible to ignore role of the United States. Does the end of the Cold War modify the U.S. interests in Latin America in the field of security? Should existing mechanisms of collective security in the region be strengthened? Or should new alternatives be found? How far is a shared agenda for security, not only with the United States but also between the countries in Latin America itself, and among them and the Caribbean, possible or desirable? How acceptable are the new tendencies of the multilateral organizations in the field of security of the countries in the region? These are some of the questions that this book deals with from different points of view. It presents a new perspective on the contemporary debate over international security in Latin America and the Caribbean.


Direct electron uptake by prokaryotes is a recently described mechanism with a potential application for energy and CO2 storage into value added chemicals. Members of Methanosarcinales, an environmentally and biotechnologically relevant group of methanogens, were previously shown to retrieve electrons from an extracellular electrogenic partner performing Direct Interspecies Electron Transfer (DIET) and were therefore proposed to be electroactive. However, their intrinsic electroactivity has never been examined. In this study, we tested two methanogens belonging to Methanosarcina, M. barkeri and M. horonobensis, regarding their ability to accept electrons directly from insoluble electron donors like other cells, conductive particles and electrodes. Both methanogens were able to retrieve electrons from Geobacter metallireducens via DIET. Furthermore, DIET was also stimulated upon addition of electrically conductive granular activated carbon (GAC) when each was co-cultured with G. metallireducens. However, when provided with a cathode poised at – 400 mV (vs SHE), only M. barkeri could perform electromethanogenesis. In contrast, the strict hydrogenotrophic methanogen, Methanobacterium formicicum, did not produce methane regardless of the type of insoluble electron donor provided (Geobacter cells, GAC or electrodes). A comparison of functional gene categories between Methanobacterium and the two Methanosarcinas revealed a higher abundance of genes associated with extracellular electron transfer in Methanosarcina species. Between the two Methanosarcina we observed differences regarding energy metabolism, which could explain dissimilarities concerning electromethanogenesis at fixed potentials. We suggest that these dissimilarities are minimized in the presence of an electrogenic DIET partner (i.e. Geobacter), which can modulate its surface redox potentials by adjusting the expression of electroactive surface proteins.


Aim of the study: To find the incidence of radial artery occlusion (RAO) at one year in patients who have radial interventions by using the Barbeau test. Materials and methods: Totally 105 patients are selected. Prior to the radial procedure oximetric Barbeau test was done in the patient's right index finger to see the type of response. Using oximetric probe the pulse waveform is displayed with both arteries open. The radial artery is compressed and the pulse wave of the ulnar flow is observed, similarly reverse Barbeau test is performed by occluding the ulnar artery and the radial artery waveform is observed. Oximetric Barbeau test is of four grades: Type A response is no damping of pulse waveform after 2 min of artery compression with positive oximetry, type B is damping of pulse waveform with positive oximetry, followed by complete recovery within two minutes, type C response is loss of pulse waveform and negative oximetry with partial recovery of pulse waveform and oximetry within two minutes, type D response is loss of pulse waveform and negative oximetry without recovery of either pulse waveform or oximetry after two minutes of compression. Radial artery cannulation is done in type A, B and C response and not recommended in type D. Oximetric Barbeau and reverse Barbeau test was performed on the next day, on the day of discharge and every 3 months for about one year. The Barbeau test assesses the radial artery, ulnar and deep palmer arch flow patency. Other parameters affecting the radial artery patency like the number of punctures involved in radial artery cannulation, hematoma after sheath removal, size of sheath used for radial artery cannulation and the fluoro time of the procedure also had been assessed. Results: Out of 105 patients, 50 patients had type B response,14 patients had type A response, 10 patients had type C response and 31 patients developed type D (29%) response in the reverse Barbeau test. Patients who had type D response were subjected for Doppler vascular probe examination to see the patency of right radial artery, in that 19 patients (18%) had occlusion, 7 had diminished flow and another 5 had normal triphasic flow. Conclusion: The incidence of radial artery occlusion after the radial procedures in our study showed 18%, which is similar to the previous study data of 5% to 30%. Radial artery occlusion is common in patients who had hematoma, increased fluoro time and use of increased sheath size. Barbeau test alone overestimates the radial artery occlusion (RAO). So, Doppler examination is necessary and confirmatory for assessing radial artery patency.


Using a dynamic model of unionism and wage determination we find that the unobserved factors that influence union membership also affect wages. The estimates suggest that UK trade unions still play a non-negligible, albeit diminishing, role in wage formation. It appears that the greater impact of un observables in determining individual union propensity concerning the second period under analysis, versus past unionisation experience, implies that those remaining in unions during (1997-2002) gain most from their sorting decision. The significant contribution of unobserved heterogeneity renders the total union wage differential highly variable across individuals. The endogeneity correction procedure employed yields a discernible pattern of the estimated union wage effect relative to OLS and Fixed effects. This is in line with Robinson (1989a) and Vella and Verbeek (1998) and refutes the pessimistic conclusions reached by Freeman and Medoff (1982) and Lewis (1986) that endogeneity correction methodologies do not contribute to our understanding of the union wage effect puzzle.


Adaptive optics stimulated emission depletion microscope for thick sample imaging by Piotr ZDANKOWSKI Over the past few decades, fluorescence microscopy has proven to become the most widely used imaging technique in the field of life sciences. Unfortunately, all classical optical microscopy techniques have one thing in common: their resolution is limited by the diffraction. Thankfully, due to the very strong interest, development of fluorescent microscopy techniques is very intense, with novel solutions surfacing repeatedly. The major breakthrough came with the appearance of super-resolution microscopy techniques, enabling imaging well below the diffraction barrier and opening the new era of nanoscopy. Among the fluorescent super-resolution techniques, Stimulated Emission Depletion (STED) microscopy has been particularly interesting, as it is a purely optical technique which does not require post image processing. STED microscopy has proven to resolve structures down to the molecular resolution. However, super-resolution microscopy is not a cure to all the problems and it also has its limits. What has shown to be particularly challenging, was the super-resolution imaging of thick samples. With increased thickness of biological structures, the aberrations increase and signal-to-noise (SNR) decreases. This becomes even more evident in the super-resolution imaging, as the nanoscopic techniques are especially sensitive to aberrations and low SNR. The aim of this work is to propose and develop a 3D STED microscope that can successfully image thick biological samples with nanoscopic resolution. In order to achieve that, adaptive optics (AO) has been employed for correcting the aberrations, using the indirect wavefront sensing approach. This thesis presents a custom built 3D STED microscope with the AO correction and the resulting images of thick samples with resolution beyond diffraction barrier. The developed STED microscope achieved the resolution of 60nm in lateral and 160nm in axial direction. What is more, it enabled super-resolution imaging of thick, aberrating samples. HeLa, RPE-1 cells and dopaminergic neuron differentiated from human IPS cells were imaged using the microscope. The results shown in this thesis present 3D STED imaging of thick biological samples and, what is particularly worth to highlight, 3D STED imaging at the 80μm depth, where the excitation and depletion beams have to propagate through the thick layer of tissue. 3D STED images at such depth has not been reported up to date.


We explore various interactions in D-brane configurations and their implications for the construction of phenomenologically viable string models. Initially, we investigate the scenario of parallel and perpendicular stacks of D-branes located on an orbifold singularity, as in the bottom-up construction. A supersymmetric D-brane model is presented, that has CP spontaneously broken by discrete torsion. The low energy physics is largely independent of the compactification scheme and the kahler metric has 'texture zeros' dictated by the choice of discrete torsion. This motivates a simple ansatz for the kahler metric which results in a CKM matrix given in terms of two free parameters, hence we predict a single mixing angle and the CKM phase. The CKM phase is predicted to be close to /3.We then proceed to a discussion of a different class of models involving D-branes intersecting at arbitrary angles, and wrapping a compact internal space. Here we calculate tree level three and four point scattering amplitudes in type II string models with matter fields localised at D-brane intersections. We treat both the classical and quantum parts in detail, with the latter being computed using conformal field theory techniques developed for closed strings on orbifolds. Contributions from string states wrapping the internal space are also included. These calculations are then generalised to TV-point amplitudes, which are determined completely. Finally, we consider the application of these results to four fermion interactions. In particular, the implications for Higgs exchange in intersecting brane models is discussed.


In February 2018 the fourth volume of Michel Foucault's History of Sexuality was finally published. Les aveux de la chair [Confessions of the Flesh] was edited by Frédéric Gros, and appeared in the same Gallimard series as Volumes 1, 2 and 3. The book deals with the early Christian Church Fathers of the second to fifth centuries. This essay reviews the book in relation to Foucault's other work, showing how it sits in sequence with Volumes 2 and 3, but also partly bridges the chronological and conceptual gap to Volume 1. It discusses the state of the manuscript and whether it should have been published, given Foucault's stipulation of 'no posthumous publications'. It outlines the contents of the book, which is in three parts, on the formation of a new experience, on virginity and on marriage. There are also some important supplementary materials included. The review discusses how it begins to answer previously unanswered questions about Foucault's work, and offers some suggestions about how the book might be received and discussed.


An ongoing project concerned with the development of environments that support the specification and design of concurrent systems is reported. The project has two key aspects: an existing and working system, Clara, that supports Milner's CCS as a specification and design language; and the development of general techniques for computer-aided generation of Clara-like environments for other concurrent languages. The Clara environment is emphasized. It has two main components: support for the usage of formal techniques in the design process, and a rich and highly interactive simulation facility. A further distinguishing feature is the environment's graphical user interface which is based on a pictorial version of CCS. The semantics of CCS is defined nonprocedurally in two phases: an operational semantics given as a set of inference rules, and an algebraic semantics represented by a set of equational rules. >


Purpose. The association between anthropometric and training characteristics on an athlete's performance has been investigated in
swimmers, cyclists and runners, but not in inline skaters. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between anthropometry,
pre race preparation and equipment in the finishers of the longest inline race in Europe, the 'Inline One eleven' over 111 km in Switzerland.
Basic procedures. We investigated the association of anthropometry, training, and equipment variables with race times in 84 male ultraendurance
inline skaters using bi- and multivariate analysis. Main findings. In the multivariate analysis, percent body fat, duration per
training unit, and personal best time in the 'Inline One eleven' was related to the race time for all finishers. Out of the 84 finishers,
58 had already finished an 'Inline One eleven' while 26 participated for the first time. Speed in training and the kind of skates worn were
related to race times of the 26 inexperienced finishers. The inexperienced finishers skating with custom made skates were significantly
faster with 229.1 (12.7) min compared to inexperienced finishers using ordinary skates finishing within 290.8 (35.4) min ( p < 0.001).
For experienced inliners, body mass, the sum of skin-folds and percent body fat correlated to race time. Conclusions. We assume that
inexperienced athletes in ultra-endurance skating need time to gain the experience necessary in choosing the correct equipment and
doing the training in order to successfully finish a long-distance inline race. Experienced inliners can only improve race performance in
an ultra-endurance inline race such as the 'Inline One eleven' through a reduction of their body fat.


The automatic speech recognition (ASR) field has become one of the leading speech
technology areas nowadays. The research in ASR has always been emphasizing on
developing man-machine communication and promising in ease of use over the
traditional keyboard and mouse. The speech recognition task is simple to be
identified by human, but a very complex process for the machine to understand.
Various methods have been introduced to develop an efficient ASR system. A
Neural Network (NN) approach is one of the famous methods and widely used in this
field. A Multilayer perceptron (MLP) is a popular NN model used in ASR field. In
this study, a MLP with back propagation learning algorithm is implemented to
perform the isolated digit speech recognition task for Malay language. However, one
of the current problems faced by MLP and most NN models in ASR field is the long
learning time. Besides that, the requirement to produce high recognition rate for
isolated digit speech recognition system performed by MLP is also not trivial
because it has been widely used in many applications. Thus, this study focuses on
improving the learning time and recognition rate of the MLP neural network for Malay isolated digit speech recognition system. This current study proposes three
new methods to fulfill the objective above. The improvement is made in
preprocessing and recognition phase. In preprocessing phase, a new endpoint
detection method is proposed and it is known as variance method. This method is
introduced to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional method. The
obstacles in the conventional method are unstable and difficult to set the threshold
during the silence detection. Hence, poor recognition rate is produced. Another
contribution in the preprocessing phase is in normalization phase. Three
normalization methods are introduced to normalize the speech data before
propagating to NN. The proposed methods consist of exponent, hybrid I and hybrid
II. These methods are compared with 4 widely used conventional normalization
methods. These include range I, range II, simple and variance method. The
conventional methods have two limitations. The first is that some of the methods are
very slow in learning phase but produce good recognition rate such as variance and
range I methods. The second is that few of them are very fast in learning phase but
produce low recognition rate such as simple and range II methods. Therefore, the
new normalization methods are proposed to accelerate learning time and to produce
high recognition rate. In recognition phase, a simple novel approach is introduced to
increase the recognition rate. An adaptive sigmoid function is implemented to
achieve this objective. A typical or fixed sigmoid function method is used in
learning phase. In the recognition phase, an adaptive sigmoid function is employed.
In this sense, the slope of the activation function is adjusted to gain highest
recognition rate. This study emphasizes on 10 Malay words that comprise of "sifar"
to "sembilan" ("0" to "9"). All utterances were recorded through single male speaker
and each utterance was repeated 100 times. Thus the data set consist of 1000 utterances of Malay words. Four hundred data sets were split to utilize in the learning
phase and the remaining 600 data for recognition phase. The TI46 standard data set
was used to evaluate the performance of the all proposed method and 10 English
words, consisting of "zero" to "nine" ("0" to "9") are utilized throughout this study.
Eight male and female speakers uttered each word 8 times. Hence, the total data set
is 1600 for both speakers. The data set based on male and female speaker is trained
separately. In this sense, four hundred male data sets were experimented during
learning phase; meanwhile 400 data sets are kept as test data. The same approach is
utilized in learning and recognition phase for female data sets. The Linear Predictive
Coding (LPC) is implemented as a feature extraction method to represent the speech
data. The experimental results show that the proposed endpoint detection (variance
method) produced promising results in term of learning time and recognition rate.
Meanwhile, the proposed normalization method has shown excellent results over all
experiments. The adaptive sigmoid function also successfully increased the
recognition rate in the most of the experiments. Finally, from the overall
experiments, it can be concluded that the highest recognition rate for Malay data set
is 99.83% with 82s convergence time. Meanwhile, for TI46 data set (female and
male data set), the yielded convergence time is 55s and 111s with the recognition rate
of 96.75% and 94.75% respectively.


In 2004 at the ATLAS (A Toroidal LHC ApparatuS) combined test beam, one slice of the ATLAS barrel detector (including an Inner Detector set-up and the Liquid Argon calorimeter) was exposed to particles from the H8 SPS beam line at CERN. It was the first occasion to test the combined electron performance of ATLAS. This paper presents results obtained for the momentum measurement p with the Inner Detector and for the performance of the electron measurement with the LAr calorimeter (energy E linearity and resolution) in the presence of a magnetic field in the Inner Detector for momenta ranging from 20 GeV/c to 100 GeV/c. Furthermore the particle identification capabilities of the Transition Radiation Tracker, Bremsstrahlungs-recovery algorithms relying on the LAr calorimeter and results obtained for the E/p ratio and a way how to extract scale parameters will be discussed.


Abstract. Multi-frequency acoustic profiling is critically examined to estimate accuracies currently attainable in characterizing frazil suspensions: with primary interests focused on measuring fractional ice volume, a key factor in river ice growth models. The central issue is the adequacy of representations of backscatter cross sections of disk shaped frazil particles in a well-established theory of elastic spherical targets. An initial investigation established criteria for the existence of three-frequency solutions capable of providing lognormal statistical descriptions in terms of effective radii. These criteria restricted analyses of available field data with such models to inputs at two-frequencies limiting outputs to: a common effective radius, particle number density and frazil volume. Additional frazil cross section information is shown to be required to more fully exploit the full capability of multi-frequency profiling. An approximate relationship between cross sections and the product of acoustic wavenumbers and particle effective radii (k1ae) is developed from laboratory polystyrene disk and sphere data and transformed into the natural ice environment. Field data within the transformed range is transposed to higher frequencies in order to allow testing at still larger field values of k1ae. Two-frequency analyses utilizing the resulting "pseudo-frazil" relationship confirmed a close match with the field data and increased compatibility with existence criteria for three-frequency solutions. The results showed that, within transducer calibration limits, the originally tested spherical backscattering extractions consistently under-estimate frazil ice volume concentrations by 25 % confirming its continued use for accurate estimates in conjunction with a constant scaling factor of about 1.25.


There is a general consensus that bad economic policies, among other factors, are to blame for the poor performance of economies in sub Saharan African (SSA). However, there is no similar consensus on the effect of economic reforms on poverty alleviation, a primary goal of any economy in the region. This paper looked into the effect of macro-economic reforms, particularly the removal of subsidized agricultural credit for irrigator farmers in Ghana, a pioneering reform country in SSA. A theoretical model of this scenario is constructed in which it is shown that, under multiple market imperfection, farmers resort to alternative financial sources to finance irrigation. Particularly in the presence of offfarm alternative, farmers divide their labor resource between irrigation farming and offfarm employment. The long term implication of a predominant dependence on off-farm income for financing irrigation farming will be an induced increase in family size. This model is subsequently tested and validated with a household data collected from northern Ghana. Household labor endowment and off-farm participation have a positive and significant effect on household irrigation decisions. This implies that, irrigation and offfarm employment are complimentary activities, which indicates a possible induced family size increase.


Vigna angularis, also called adzuki bean, a member of the family Fabaceae, has long been cultivated in Asian countries. This legume has received considerable attentionowing to the presence ofpolyphenols. The optimal extraction conditions for total polyphenols from V. angularis and their antioxidant activities were investigated in this study. Ultrasound-assisted extraction was used to optimize the extraction of total polyphenols from V. angularis. Factors that influenced the extraction efficiency, such as ethanol concentration, liquid-solid ratio, and ultrasonic time were investigated by Box-Behnken design. Folin-ciocalteu colorimetry was adopted to determine the total polyphenol content by using gallic acid as a reference. Antioxidant activities of the total polyphenols were evaluated by 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl, hydroxyl and superoxide radical-scavenging activity assays. The optimized extraction conditions were as follows: ethanol concentration of 44.3%; liquid-solid ratio of 21.6:1 and ultrasonic extraction time of 30 min. Under these optimal conditions, the model's predicted extraction efficiency was 4.19 mg/g. The mathematical model had a high correlation (P<0.05) and could be employed to extract total polyphenols from V. angularis. In vitro antioxidant activity results showed that total polyphenols had strong antioxidant capacity and could be used as potential antioxidant agents. This study provided a reference for the exploration of new natural antioxidants.


Most modern torts scholars adopt a monistic view of torts, arguing that the tort system can be justified or explained by reference to a single rationale. In contrast, few torts pluralists, scholars believing the tort system is based on multiple rationales, have put forward a general theory or framework for tort law. A pluralistic view of the tort system poses significant questions about the relationship among the rationales. Do the rationales work together as a seamless whole? Do the rationales conflict? If they conflict, how does one choose among them? Does the entire system devolve into adjudicative relativism, whereby a judge has no rational basis for choosing among the rationales in the case of a conflict? In this Article, I argue that the value pluralism of Sir Isaiah Berlin, the late English philosopher, provides the framework in which the torts rationales interact. A Berlinian understanding of tort law consists of four propositions. First, the torts rationales are truly distinct; each of them conveys a different idea about the purpose of tort law. Second, these rationales are objective. Each torts rationale exemplifies a legitimate purpose for human beings to pursue. Third, the torts rationales have the potential to be incompatible. Indeed, the theories often entail opposing conclusions. Finally, the torts rationales are incommensurable - incapable of being ordered in a timeless hierarchy. This leaves torts judges, in any given case, in the position of having to select among rationales, which cannot be arranged in a consistent hierarchy and may be incompatible. Berlin has little advice about the issue of choosing among options as a general matter. However, his comments on choice indicate that context is by far the most significant factor in making the decisions. If the torts rationales are "unrankable in the abstract," context allows judges to rationally choose among them. Thus, the lesson for scholars is to focus on the contexts of torts. Although this contradicts the current monistic trend in torts scholarship, with its concomitant de-emphasization of the particular, the emphasis on context is completely consistent with the common law itself.


This book deals with syntax in three dimensions: in part I with the history of grammatical theory, in part II with synchronic aspects of Present-Day English, and in part III with diachronic aspects of English. The most prominent linguistic terms and phenomena are discussed in their historical context and are taken up again in the synchronic and diachronic parts. In this way they can be viewed from different perspectives. At the end of each chapter a summary and recommendations for further reading is provided as well as exercises in parts II and III. There is also a webpage for this book with more material, a glossary, and model answers of the exercises. The aims of the book are 1) to provide an introduction to the history of grammatical theory in order to show how and why generative grammar evolved (alongside other theories); in this way, generative grammar is presented in its historical context, and the motivation for the ideas and assumptions of this theory becomes clear; 2) to show that the terms and phenomena discussed are still applicable and interesting today; 3) to investigate phenomena of Present-Day English and their development in the history of English by means of authentic data, and to find explanations for the developmental paths they took by applying theory. This book primarily aims at undergraduate students of English or linguistics who have already acquired some knowledge of syntax and generative syntactic theory. It is also well suited for students specialising in syntax, syntactic theory, and language change. It can further be used as a study aid for final exams.


Network providers are experimenting with a variety of new business arrangements. Some are offering specialized services the guarantee higher levels of quality of service those willing to pay for it. Others are entering into strategic partnerships that allocate more bandwidth to certain sources. Interestingly, a management literature exists suggesting that both developments may simply reflect the ways that the nature of competition and innovation can be expected as markets mature. The real question is not if the nature of competition and innovation will change, but rather when and how. This theory also suggests that policymakers should be careful not to lock the Internet into any particular architecture or to reflexively regard deviations from the status quo as inherently anti-competitive. Instead, they should focus on creating regulatory structures that preserve industry participants' freedom to tussle with new solutions and to adapt to changing market conditions. Any other approach risks precluding the industry from following its natural evolutionary path.


Abstract : The Newtown Connecticut school attack at the Sandy Hook elementary school on December 14, 2012, was another example of the tragedy of mass murder. When a targeted attack occurs, the victims must await the arrival of law enforcement personnel to address the threat and stop the loss; this lost time interval results in extending the duration of a targeted attack until police can resist an attacker. In the absence of onsite personnel trained to resist an attacker, such as a school resource officer, students and staff are at the mercy of an attacker. This thesis asked the question: Can existing resources be leveraged to increase available capacities in actively resisting an active shooter in a targeted school attack to eliminate or reduce the lost time interval of law enforcement during an attack on an American school especially in low resource areas, such as rural and/or isolated communities. Case studies were completed to identify opportunities to reduce the loss incurred in these attacks with an emphasis on reducing the duration of an incident when prevention measures had failed. The value of collaboration and necessity to leverage resources in the public safety sector is well researched and critical resources with the capacity to operate in an offensive posture are available through planning and preparedness. Relationships can be developed between different domains and disciplines within a community to create a multidisciplinary environment of safety with the capacity to prevent or reduce loss through violence. Through these relationships, a culture can be created that combines strategies and tactics for prevention, as well as a response to these tragedies. A culture of security can replace vulnerability and result in a greater level of confidence in the ability to keep this nations schools safer.


We propose a malicious detection algorithm that permits identification of misbehaving wireless stations, and then dispenses punishment by denying an ACK packet which allows transmission by the malicious stations. The proposed algorithm is designed for an IEEE 802.11e network and is based upon detecting a change in quality of service (QoS) where a station is moved up in terms of permission to a level not justified. Non-detection causes honest stations to increase their retransmit attempts, exceeding the specified deadline in order to sustain continuous receipt of their data. Even with the coexistence of such malicious stations, our algorithm guarantees the lower bound of performance degradation to the honest stations. Also, the punished period imposed upon the malicious stations compensates the experienced degradation in QoS for the honest stations in the next transmission period. As a result, we provide fair resource sharing among the stations operating from the same access point. Our simulation within the ns-2 framework of the IEEE 802.11e enhanced distributed channel access network shows how our algorithm actually detects and adjusts the punishment phase for stations that may be misbehaving as well as stations which are misbehaving.


Nowadays, drawing practices seem to operate in a rather uncertain field that is typical of an in-between phase of disciplinary development and that needs to be addressed, if an 'anticipated projection' of the development of drawing is to be attempted. The field of drawing, as practice and discourse, seems to have entered an end-condition, where the celebration of the extensive production of drawings is combined with a certain fatigue in both its understanding and reflection. Even though the role of drawing is nowadays still regarded as the most common act of architecture, this understanding of drawing is hardly subject to critical inquiries, and, unfortunately, mostly limited to its instrumental role within the representation of the project. A common characteristic in all of the papers in this issue of Footprint is that a specific character of the theoretical field generated by drawing is the elaboration of the correlation between two epistemic regions. This singular character probably belongs to drawing's structural duality of being simultaneously a simulacrum of a reality and reality itself, memory and anticipation, subject and object, by being in essence the measure of two different facets inherent to architectural thinking. Drawing not only gives consistency to the poles, rendering them architectural matter, but also literally (re)constructs them. At the same time, drawing formalizes the theoretical distance between the two.


Billions of dollars flow into low-income countries each year to help alleviate poverty. Assessing the effectiveness of these dollars is necessary to measure program success and to allocate such funds among competing projects. This study measures the impact of the first phase of the Cocoa Livelihood Program (CLPI), a current World Cocoa Foundation project sponsored by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. The project seeks to improve the livelihood of over 200,000 small cocoa producers in Sub-Saharan Africa via training, crop diversification and farmer based organizations. Using data collected from 2,048 pre and post CLPI interviews of cocoa producers in Ghana, Cote d'ivoire, Nigeria and Cameroon, the economic impact of the CLPI program can be estimated. The results show that yield enhancements attributable to CLPI are 36%, 38%, 49% and 24% in Ghana, Cote D'Ivoire, Nigeria and Cameroon, respectively. Using a total program cost of $158-$200 per beneficiary and estimated annual benefits of $86-$152 per beneficiary over 25 years, the benefit- cost ratios were estimated to range from $13 to $22 for every dollar spent on human capital development.


This paper presents results, outcomes and conclusions from a series of Human Robot Interaction (HRI) trials which investigated how a robot should approach a human in a fetch and carry task. Two pilot trials were carried out, aiding the development of a main HRI trial with four different approach contexts under controlled experimental conditions. The findings from the pilot trials were confirmed and expanded upon. Most subjects disliked a frontal approach when seated. In general, seated humans do not like to be approached by a robot directly from the front even when seated behind a table. A frontal approach is more acceptable when a human is standing in an open area. Most subjects preferred to be approached from either the left or right side, with a small overall preference for a right approach by the robot. However, this is not a strong preference and it may be disregarded if it is more physically convenient to approach from a left front direction. Handedness and occupation were not related to these preferences. Subjects do not usually like the robot to move or approach from directly behind them, preferring the robot to be in view even if this means the robot taking a physically non-optimum path. The subjects for the main HRI trials had no previous experience of interacting with robots. Future research aims are outlined and include the necessity of carrying out longitudinal trials to see if these findings hold over a longer period of exposure to robots.


In contrast to the mechanical scanning procedure described in the standard ISO/DIS 11146, the use of electronically tunable focal length lenses has proved its capability for the measurement of the laser beam propagation factor (M2) without moving components. Here, we demonstrate a novel experimental implementation where we use a low-cost programmable liquid crystal spatial light modulator (SLM) for sequentially codifying a set of lenses with different focal lengths. The use of this kind of modulators introduces some benefits such as the possibility for high numerical aperture or local beam control of the phase of the lenses which allows for minimizing systematic errors originated by lens aberrations. The beamwidth, according to the second-order moment of the irradiance, is determined for each focal length by using a digital sensor at a fixed position with respect to the spatial light modulator. After fitting the measured data to the theoretical focusing behavior of a real laser beam, the beam propagation factor is obtained. We successfully validated the results in the laboratory where a full digital control of the measurement procedure without mechanical scanning was demonstrated.


Background Childhood growth patterns have been proposed as a key predictor of health during childhood and adult life. In earlier studies, however, the statistical methodologies employed failed to uncover the more subtle patterns in growth trajectories. Methods Study participants were 1364 singleton term children (602 white British and 762 Pakistani origin) drawn from the Born in Bradford (BiB) prospective cohort. Weights were measured at 0, 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, 24 and 36 months. Age-specific and sex-specific standardised weight scores were derived based on the World Health Organisation growth standards. Missing growth data were estimated using Full Information Maximum Likelihood (FIML) method. Growth Mixture Model was used to analyse growth patterns of children from birth until 36 months. Results On average, Pakistani children were 190 g lighter than white British children at birth. Based on our Growth Mixture Model results, the study children had three distinct growth patterns: 'normal growers' (95.9%), 'fast growers' (2.5%) and 'slow growers' (1.6%). The Pakistani children were more likely to be in either the 'fast' (OR=2.90; 95% CI 0.91 to 9.25) or 'slow' (OR=15.63; 95% CI 1.06 to 230) grower class than the white British. Pakistani children showed faster growth than the white British between 3 and 36 months of age. Conclusions In this growth study we have identified that the study children have three distinct growth patterns. These growth patterns may provide greater insight in predicting the risk of childhood or early adulthood diseases in life-course studies.


Abstract Objective: The objective of the study was to explore the views and experiences of adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus on a nutrition education programme. Design: Interpretative phenomenological design. Setting: The setting was two community health centres in Moretele, North West province, South Africa. Subjects and outcome measures: The study subjects were adults with type 2 diabetes mellitus (n = 41, aged 40–70 years) participating in a nutrition education intervention (one-year randomised controlled trial). The intervention was based on the assessed nutrition education needs of the target group, and included the provision of nutrition education materials. Data were collected at the end of the training intervention (eight weeks) and at the end of the study (12 months). A self-administered, open-ended questionnaire was used at eight weeks (n = 31). Five focus group discussions were conducted at 12 months. A framework thematic analysis technique was employed. Results: The majority of participants indicated that they enjoyed the nutrition education programme at the two time periods. They were satisfied with its content and delivery. The education materials (pamphlet and fridge or wall poster) were seen as useful for the whole family, and as constant reminders of positive behaviour. Benefits indicated by the participants included a gain in health knowledge and skills, positive dietary changes, and improved health and family support. Participants also recommended the programme to other people with diabetes mellitus. Positive educator characteristics, such as competence, patience, being respectful and approachable, were cited as desirable. Conclusion: Participant-customised nutrition education can contribute to programme satisfaction, perceived benefits and adherence to the programme. The provision of education materials should form part of such programmes. Facilitators of nutrition education programmes should take responsibility for employing desirable personal attributes as this can enhance client participation.


The recently introduced High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) standard is currently further investigated for potential use in professional applications. The considered Range Extensions should on the one hand introduce higher bit depths and additional color formats, and on the other hand the coding efficiency of HEVC for high fidelity compression as well as lossless compression is to be improved. In this paper we investigate and improve the recently introduced Sample-based Weighted Prediction (SWP) for HEVC lossless coding. Although being very efficient for natural video content, the SWP algorithm can be further improved for screen content by using a directional template predictor in cases where the SWP algorithm yields worse prediction. The mainly introduced predictor improves the lossless coding results by up to 9.9% compared to the unmodified HEVC reference software for lossless compression.


A Bayesian analysis for the Weibull proportional hazard (PH) model is presented. A comparison between the Weibull PH model and the Weibull cumulative exposure (CE) model is made graphically and mathematically. The PH model is as flexible as the CE model in fitting step-stress data and the mathematical form of the PH model enables researchers to do Bayesian inference much easier than the CE model. In addition, the PH model has the desirable proportional hazard property. A convex tent prior is used for Bayesian analysis. Markov chain Monte Carlo methods are used for posterior inferences. In this study, we adopt two sampling methods. The first way is to draw samples of the unknown parameters individually from each of the conditional posterior density functions. Another way is to perform joint sampling of the unknown parameters from the joint posterior density function. The performance of the two sampling methods is investigated using both simulated and real data sets.


We used national surveys to study how older persons' changing household patterns influence the gender balance of caregiving in two countries with distinct household structures and cultures, Spain and Sweden. In both countries, men and women provide care equally often for their partner in couple-only households. This has become the most common household type among older persons in Spain and prevails altogether in Sweden. This challenges the traditional dominance of young or middle-aged women as primary caregivers in Spain. In Sweden, many caregivers are old themselves. We focus attention to partners as caregivers and the consequences of changing household structures for caregiving, which may be on the way to gender equality in both countries, with implications for families and for the public services.


This essay is the Introduction to the Research Handbook on the Economics of Corporate Law. After briefly surveying the origins of modern economic analysis of corporate law, it analyzes leading developments in recent decades. Major developments in the law and economics of corporate law have in some cases followed from developments in the law, including changes in fiduciary duty standards, the growth of shareholder activism, the increasing role of independent directors, changes in executive compensation, a new emphasis on various gatekeepers, federalization of corporate governance rules, and globalization. Other developments have followed from trends within economics, including some new ideas in the theory of the firm, greater emphasis on empirical research, a focus on market failures due to incomplete information, the growth of behavioral economics, and some increased emphasis on comparative institutional analysis. The essay speculates that future developments may include a new focus on systemic risk in light of the financial crisis and greater use of empirical research methodologies other than regression analysis. The essay concludes with an overview of the contributions to the volume, which is divided into five Parts: corporate constituencies, insider governance, gatekeepers, jurisdiction, and new theory.


Purpose: The current paper assesses the effects of export product structure on the economic growth in transition economies. Design/methodology/approach: The preferred estimation methods are Pedroni/Kao panel cointegration, along with FMOLS and Granger causality tests. The employed dataset corresponds to 11 transition economies over the period of 1997-2017. Findings: The results of empirical estimation showed that manufactured exports are not always the source of high economic growth as suggested by a vast literature. It appeared that the growth in transition economies has a higher response to the changes in exports of primary goods rather than manufactures. Practical Implications: Considering current trade patterns and the high demand elasticity attached to manufactured exports, the study concludes that selected transition economies should incorporate somewhat balanced trade policy fostering both exports of primary commodities and manufactures, where earnings from commodities should be facilitated to support rise of manufactures as it exhibits larger demand and potential to deploy technology/knowledge spillovers, thus, further complement economic growth. Originality/value: The paper represents valuable addition to the empirical literature concerning the exports and economic growth, especially for the selected sample corresponding to the remaining transition economies after massive transformation in 2004/2007 when several European states successfully completed the transition process.


This study investigates the nature and characteristics of
rural indebtedness and poverty in three selected villages in
Thailand.
The study reveals that the commercialization of
agriculture increased farmers' investment costs for farming
which were not necessary during the subsistence period. Their
way of life also changed and tended to rely on the outside
market for most things, even food which they used to produce
themselves.
The deforestation in the study areas had caused severe
environmental degradation. Poor soil condition was the main
factor contributing directly to low incomes, thus affecting the
large number of poor in the villages. The commercialization of agriculture also pushed farmers
to require credit. However, lack of land titles deterred many
farmers from approaching institutional sources of credit, which
provide loans with low interest rates. Many farmers were found
to be indebted as a consequence of either production
investments or consumption costs. The main reasons were high
expenditure for both farm inputs and household consumption, and
low yields caused by drought and pests.
The main solution to poverty and indebtedness of farmers
was to find additional work : non-farm and off-farm earnings.
Factors associated with farmers indebtedness and poverty
were: 1) political factors : government programmes; 2) economic
factors : the lack of land or land title, credit accessibility,
and price fluctuation; 3) physical factors: drought and pests,
ecological degradation, and poor soil conditions; and, 4)
personal attributes, such as gambling, extravagance, laziness,
drinking and drug addiction.
Suggestions to solve the problem of poverty and
indebtedness are to apply the 'safety-first' principle by
sustainable agriculture, such as agro forestry or integrated
farming. To deal with risks of over supply and low prices,
farmers, especially the poor, should be involved in several
sub-enterprises and direct marketing. Finally, credit unions, cooperatives, and savings groups should be strengthened to
ensure sustainable development of farmers in terms of self-reliance instead of having to rely on the capital of outsiders.


In recent years the number and frequency of high-impact floods have increased and climate change effects are expected to increase flood risks even more. The European Union (EU) has recently established the Floods Directive as a framework for the assessment and management of these risks. The aim of this article is to explore factors that have hampered or stimulated the implementation process of the Floods Directive in the Netherlands, from its establishment in 2007 until January 2013. During this period, the first requirements of the Floods Directive had to be implemented, while the second and third obligations were to be in an advanced stage. Following a literature review of policy implementation theories and a content analysis of the Floods Directive, we have studied the implementation processes in the Dutch part of the Meuse and Rhine-West catchments. Perceptions of interviewees and survey respondents were used to identify influential factors. Our research shows that although the implementation process in the Netherlands is on schedule, it is iterative and complex. Various constraining and stimulating factors, affecting the implementation process, are distinguished. The article concludes with some suggestions for improving the further implementation of the Floods Directive.


This paper attempts to discern from financial market data the impact of greater monetary policy transparency over the period since the late 1980s. We examine whether interest rate variability has changed, the degree to which financial markets anticipate policy moves and movements in the yield curve at the time of changes in monetary policy. Where possible, we compare the results for Australia with other countries. We find that interest rate volatility at the short end has fallen dramatically since the late 1980s. The extent to which market participants anticipate changes in the policy rate has gradually risen, as has the speed of reaction to interest rate announcements. Since the late 1990s, bill futures contract prices have responded to the Reserve Bank of Australia's (RBA) commentaries on the economy. These results are consistent with an increase in the efficiency with which the market digests economic news. The results are quite similar across countries, and it is difficult to isolate from cross-country data any specific preferred model of monetary policy transparency.


Context. It has become evident that one-zone synchrotron self-Compton models are not always adequate for very high-energy (VHE) gamma-ray-emitting blazars. While two-component models perform better, they are difficult to constrain due to the large number of free parameters.
Aims. In this work, we make a first attempt at taking into account the observational constraints from very long baseline interferometry (VLBI) data, long-term light curves (radio, optical, and X-rays), and optical polarisation to limit the parameter space for a two-component model and test whether or not it can still reproduce the observed spectral energy distribution (SED) of the blazars.
Methods. We selected five TeV BL Lac objects based on the availability of VHE gamma-ray and optical polarisation data. We collected constraints for the jet parameters from VLBI observations. We evaluated the contributions of the two components to the optical flux by means of decomposition of long-term radio and optical light curves as well as modelling of the optical polarisation variability of the objects. We selected eight epochs for these five objects based on the variability observed at VHE gamma rays, for which we constructed the SEDs that we then modelled with a two-component model.
Results. We found parameter sets which can reproduce the broadband SED of the sources in the framework of two-component models considering all available observational constraints from VLBI observations. Moreover, the constraints obtained from the long-term behaviour of the sources in the lower energy bands could be used to determine the region where the emission in each band originates. Finally, we attempt to use optical polarisation data to shed new light on the behaviour of the two components in the optical band. Our observationally constrained two-component model allows explanation of the entire SED from radio to VHE with two co-located emission regions.


The paper presents a factorization-based approach to make predictions in recommender systems. These systems are widely used in electronic commerce to help customers find products according to their preferences. Taking into account the customer's ratings of some products available in the system, the recommender system tries to predict the ratings the customer would give to other products in the system. The proposed factorization-based approach uses all the information provided to compute the predicted ratings, in the same way as approaches based on Singular Value Decomposition (SVD). The main advantage of this technique versus SVD-based approaches is that it can deal with missing data. It also has a smaller computational cost. Experimental results with public data sets are provided to show that the proposed adapted factorization approach gives better predicted ratings than a widely used SVD-based approach.