This paper presents a questionnaire that is a work in progress. The questionnaire is designed primarily to assess lawyers' perceptions of the procedural justice offered by judicial settlement sessions in individual civil, non-family cases. The questionnaire may be used by: judges seeking confidential feedback on their management of settlement sessions; individual courts or court systems seeking systematic information regarding their judges' settlement efforts; and larger empirical research projects. To explain the need for the questionnaire, the paper provides a brief contextual history of judicial settlement in the U.S., including the evolution of relevant rules of civil procedure and judicial ethics provisions and the current state of judicial performance evaluation. Because the logic of the questionnaire is grounded in procedural justice, the paper also examines the procedural elements that most reliably lead to perceptions of procedural fairness: the opportunity for voice; respectful treatment from the decision-maker; even-handed treatment by the decision-maker and neutrality of the forum; and trustworthy consideration from the decision-maker. The questionnaire is designed to expand upon the current state of knowledge regarding the procedural justice provided by judicial settlement by asking questions designed to identify: 1) the concrete judicial actions that occur during settlement sessions; 2) the relationship between these concrete actions and lawyers' (and clients') perceptions of procedural and substantive justice; and 3) the influence of certain contextual factors upon such perceptions (e.g., whether the settlement judge is the presiding judge, whether the judicial action occurred in joint session or caucus, and whether the parties suggested or requested the settlement session). The lawyer questionnaire is the first of a planned set of questionnaires on judicial settlement that will also include questionnaires for clients and judges.


Traditionally, security decisions have been made without explicitly accounting for adaptive, intelligent attackers. Recent game theoretic security models have explicitly included attacker response in computing randomized security policies. Techniques to date, however, generally fail to explicitly account for interdependence between the targets to be secured, which is of vital importance in a variety of domains, including cyber, supply chain, and critical infrastructure security. We introduce a novel framework for computing optimal randomized security policies in networked domains which extends previous approaches in two ways. First, we extend previous linear programming techniques for Stackelberg security games to incorporate benefits and costs of arbitrary security configurations on individual assets. Second, we offer a principled model of failure cascades that allows us to capture both the direct and indirect value of assets. Finally, we use our framework to analyze four models, two based on random graph generation models, a simple model of interdependence between critical infrastructure and key resource sectors, and a model of the Fedwire interbank payment network.


Sub-ice shelf circulation and freezing/melting rates depend critically on an accurate and consistent representation of cavity geometry (i.e. ice-shelf draft and ocean bathymetry). Existing global or pan-Antarctic data sets have turned out to contain various inconsistencies and inaccuracies. The goal of this work is to compile independent regional fields into a global data set. We use the S-2004 global 1-minute bathymetry as the backbone and add an improved version of the BEDMAP topography for an area that roughly coincides with the Antarctic continental shelf. Locations of the merging line have been carefully adjusted in order to get the best out of each data set. High resolution gridded data for the Amery, Fimbul, Filchner-Ronne, Larsen C and George VI Ice Shelves and for Pine Island Glacier have been carefully merged into the ambient ice and ocean topographies. Multibeam ship survey data for bathymetry in the former Larsen B cavity and the southeastern Bellingshausen Sea have been obtained from the data centers of Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI), British Antarctic Survey (BAS) and Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory (LDEO), gridded, and again carefully merged into the existing bathymetry map. The resulting global 1-minute data set contains consistent masks for open ocean, grounded ice, floating ice, and bare land surface.


The decision tree is one of the most widely used and practical methods in data mining. However, many discretization algorithms developed in this field focus on the univariate only, which discretize continuous-valued attributes independently, without considering the interdependent relationship between other attributes, at most taking the class attribute into account. Such univariate discretization is inadequate to handle the critical problems especially owned in the medical domain. In this paper, we propose a new multivariate discretization method called Multivariate Interdependent Discretization for Continuous Attributes – MIDCA. This method incorporates the normalized relief and information measures to look for the best correlated attribute with respect to each continuous-valued attribute being discretized, and using the discovered best correlated attribute as the interdependent attribute to carry out the multivariate discretization. We believe that a good multivariate discretization scheme for continuous-valued attributes should rely highly on their perfect correlated attributes respectively. Among an attribute space, each attribute should have at least one most relevant attribute that may be different from others. Our novel multivariate discretization algorithm can minimize the uncertainty between the interdependent attribute and the continuous-valued attribute being discretized and at the same time maximize their correlation. Such a method can be used as a pre-processing step for the learning algorithms. The empirical results demonstrate a comparison of performance between MIDCA and various discretization methods for two decision tree algorithms ID3 and C4.5 on twelve real-life datasets from UCI repository.


Constant power loads (CPLs), interfaced through active rectifiers can be used for improving the stability of induction generator (IG)-based wind turbines under balanced grid voltage dips by providing the reactive power. Under asymmetrical grid faults, the negative sequence voltage produces additional generator torque oscillations and reduces the lifetime of the installed equipment. This article explores the possibility of using a CPL for mitigation of unbalanced voltage dips in an AC distribution system in addition to consuming a constant active power. Unbalanced fault mitigation as an ancillary service by the load itself could greatly increase the stability and performance of the overall power system. A CPL control structure, capable of controlling the positive and negative sequence of the grid voltage is suggested. The simulation results clearly indicate the effects of compensating the positive and negative sequence of the grid voltage on the performance of IG based wind turbines. The maximum Fault Ride Through (FRT) enhancement has been given priority and is done by the compensation of positive sequence voltage. The remaining CPL current capacity is used to compensate the negative sequence voltage in order to reduce the additional torque ripples in the IG.


Considerable research effort has been put into discussing the topic of measuring sustainable development. Ethical considerations of sustainability have to be considered before selecting sustainability indicators or indices. The aim of this paper is to examine whether Estonia can become a pilot for a sustainable society. The main objectives are to inquire: (1) What are the ethical preconditions of Estonia to implement sustainability? (2) What is the position of Estonia among the selected countries measured by genuine saving and ecological footprint simultaneously? (3) What is the key factor causing unsustainability in Estonia and what would be the key-solution? The results indicate that good preconditions for ethical considerations for sustainability exist in Estonia. Nevertheless, the current ecological and economic situation is unsustainable. While considering genuine saving, Estonia is behind the most sustainable country - Botswana almost five times. The ecological footprint of Estonia exceeds the world average more than three times. Additionally, Estonia has a negative ecological deficit. The key factor in Estonian economic-ecological unsustainability is the extremely high CO2 emission per capita. Estonia has good natural preconditions for implementation of an energy supply reform and to start applying renewable resources (biomass). The best solution would be using waste water treatment areas for biomass production. 300,000 ha of energyltreatment wetlands could supply 61 percent of Estonia's annual heat consumption and 55 percent of electricity production. This could change Estonia's present negative CO2 balance to an equal positive one. As a result, genuine saving in Estonia would rise, the ecological footprint would decrease and the ecological deficit would be positive. This is Estonia's opportunity to become a pilot for a sustainable society.


In the Netherlands, the archiving and publication of archaeological research data has led to the establishment of EDNA, the e-Depot for Dutch Archaeology http://www.edna.nl/, accommodated at DANS (Data Archiving and Networked Services) http://dans.knaw.nl/en. EDNA is a collaboration between DANS and the Cultural Heritage Agency (RCE). EDNA was set up as a project within the broader organisation of DANS. DANS is an institute of the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO). DANS serves as the archive for scientific data. Among other services, DANS maintains its on-line archiving system EASY (Electronic Archiving System, https://easy.dans.knaw.nl) which allows researchers to deposit and describe their own datasets. The mission of DANS is to enhance permanent access to digital research data. DANS stimulates cooperation between data producers and users and does research into long- term accessibility. By participating in international projects such as CARARE and ARIADNE, DANS is continuously improving on the options for finding, accessing and re-using (archaeological) data. The existing infrastructure of the e-depot for Dutch Archaeology allows for sharing of good practices such as long-term preservation, data organisation and data dissemination for accessibility. Agreements in order to fulfil this mission have been laid down in the KNA: the quality standard for Dutch archaeology. This is not the only standard which servers to structure and strengthen the Dutch data flow. Datasets are described in EASY using the Qualified Dublin Core metadata standard. The archiving process involves file format migration to preferred formats according to DANS policy with attention to file format aspects for long-term preservation and long-term accessibility. DANS continuously strives for international certification, by means of applying the (self-)audit and assessment of the TRAC (Trusted Repositories Audit & Certification) and by following the guidelines of the DSA (Data Seal of Approval). Additionally, DANS participates in the implementation of a Dutch national protocol of exchanging excavation data. These standards and practices make for the foundations of a successful running service in which durable archiving and unlocking of all digital documentation of the archaeological research is ensured. By 2013, EASY provides online access to more than 20,000 datasets: 17,000 archaeological reports and 3,000 large datasets consisting of data of excavations and explorations (photos, GIS, data-tables, drawings). Both the research descriptions and all data can be downloaded via the online archiving system EASY.


PURPOSE
Placement of intraluminal stents in the common iliac artery (CIA) and external iliac artery (EIA) has become an accepted therapy for treating localized arterial stenoses. The purpose of this study was to compare anatomic patency rates of stents placed in the EIA and CIA for occlusive disease.

METHODS
A radiologic computer database was used to identify 69 consecutive male patients at the Minneapolis Veterans Affairs Medical Center from February 1, 1993, through January 31, 1999, who underwent placement of 98 stents (82 Wallstents and 16 Palmaz stents) for physiologically significant iliac artery occlusive disease and varying degrees of chronic limb ischemia. Patients were followed up with surveillance duplex ultrasound scanning examinations 1 day after procedure, 3 months after procedure, and then at 6-month intervals after stent placement. Follow-up angiograms were performed for patients with duplex ultrasound scans that revealed velocities greater than 300 cm/s. Patient risk factors, iliac artery runoff, concomitant outflow procedures, and anatomic patency rates were compared between patients receiving EIA stents and those receiving CIA stents.

RESULTS
The mean age for the EIA stent group was 69 +/- 1 years versus 66 +/- 1 years (P =.03) for the CIA stent group. Mean follow-up was 21.4 +/- 2.1 months (+/- SE) for all patients. Patients with EIA stents had more ischemic lower limbs when compared with patients who had CIA stents (P =.05). No differences were found between groups in risk factor analysis (P = not significant). Lesion lengths were similar between groups: EIA, 4.6 +/- 0.6 cm, and CIA, 5. 3 +/- 0.8 cm (P = not significant). The following differences were noted on primary patency rates (EIA group vs CIA group): 1 year (93% vs 88%), 2 years (91% vs 85%), and 3 years (90% vs 78%) (Cox proportional hazards; P =.13).

CONCLUSIONS
Anatomic patency rates for EIA and CIA stents appear to be similar despite the fact that patients with EIA stents were older and had more ischemic limbs compared with the patients who had CIA stents.


Tuberculosis (TB) of the bones and joints is rampant in India with the dorsolumbar spine as the most common site of osseous involvement. For diagnosis, clinical suspicion needs to be confirmed through appropriate laboratory and imaging investigations, and increasingly nowadays, nucleic acid amplification techniques. Chemotherapy remains the cornerstone of management complemented by rest, nutritional support and splinting, as necessary. Operative intervention is required if response to chemotherapy is unsatisfactory and for spinal stabilization. The drugs and regimens are fundamentally similar to those for pulmonary TB. However, there is lack of consensus on the appropriate duration of treatment. The prevailing practice of extending treatment till radiological evidence of healing is complete, may be unnecessary in view of recent reports that 6-9 months of therapy is sufficient for the majority of cases. Relapse rates are not drastically improved by extending treatment to 12 months or even longer, except perhaps in pediatric cases. However, prolonged treatment may be required if surgical debridement is indicated but cannot be done. Multidrug-resistant TB should be suspected if disease activity shows no signs of abating after 4-6 months of uninterrupted therapy. These cases are therapeutically challenging and will require second line or experimental antiTB drugs, supported by resistance testing where feasible. Coexistent HIV/AIDS may also necessitate prolonged treatment. Interactions between first line antiTB drugs and antiretroviral medication can complicate matters. Close monitoring is essential in all cases, with dechallenge and cautious reinstitution of drugs in the event of toxicity. While awaiting the arrival of long overdue new antiTB medication, existing drugs and regimens must be used in an informed manner with emphasis on patient compliance.


This paper examines the claim that dynamic considerations play a particularly important role in certain industries (in particular, those characterized by high rates of product innovation) and, consequently, render antitrust analysis based on static concepts inappropriate or misleading. By expositing and applying the fully dynamic model of Segal and Whinston, I argue that, in many cases, static analyses are not misleading and that dynamic considerations (such as competition for the market) are not decisive in these analyses. I argue, however, that dynamic considerations can be important when the predominant mode of commercialization by innovative entrants is via cooperation rather than competition with incumbent firms; examples of cooperation include acquisition and licensing. Therefore, this means that static measures of competition are likely to be reinforced in certain circumstances by related dynamic considerations.


Embryonic cell cycles of amphibians are rapid and lack zygotic transcription and checkpoint control. At the mid-blastula transition, zygotic transcription is initiated and cell divisions become asynchronous. Several cell cycle-related amphibian genes retain 2 distinct forms, maternal and zygotic, but little is known about the functional differences between these 2 forms of proteins. The minichromosome maintenance (MCM) 2–7 complex, consisting of 6 MCM proteins, plays a central role in the regulation of eukaryotic DNA replication. Almost all eukaryotes retain just a single MCM gene for each subunit. Here we report that Xenopus and zebrafish have 2 copies of MCM3 genes, one of which shows a maternal and the other a zygotic expression pattern. Phylogenetic analysis shows that the Xenopus and zebrafish zygotic MCM3 genes are more similar to their mammalian MCM3 ortholog, suggesting that maternal MCM3 was lost during evolution in most vertebrate lineages. Maternal MCM3 proteins in these 2 species are functionally different from zygotic MCM3 proteins because zygotic, but not maternal, MCM3 possesses an active nuclear localization signal in its C-terminal region, such as mammalian MCM3 orthologs do. mRNA injection experiments in zebrafish embryos show that overexpression of maternal MCM3 impairs proliferation and causes developmental defects, whereas zygotic MCM3 has a much weaker effect. This difference is brought about by the difference in their C-terminal regions, which contain putative nuclear localization signals; swapping the C-terminal region between maternal and zygotic genes diminishes the developmental defects. This study suggests that evolutionary diversification has occurred in MCM3 genes, leading to distinct functions, possibly as an adaption to the rapid DNA replication required for early development of Xenopus and zebrafish.


Made in Germany Streamline your bacterial growth assays Introduction Streptococcus agalactiae (also known as group B streptococcus [GBS]) is associated with various diseases such as neonatal disease, sepsis, arthritis, pneumonia, meningitis, skin and soft tissue infections. Host colonization and virulence are mainly studied using microscopy and fluorescent biomarkers. Strategies for labelling GBS with fluorescent biomarkers have so far been limited to antibody-based immunostaining methods and nonspecific protein/DNA stains. Green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression is a common labelling method for bacteria, enabling their identification in complex samples or monitoring of their subcellular locations in eukaryotic host cells. It was recently reported1 stable expression of a green fluorescent protein mutant (GFPmut3) with enhanced fluorescence intensity in GBS. Validation and stability of GFPmut3 expression in GBS cultures was measured by the CLARIOstar multi-mode plate reader and its fluorescence intensity, fluorescence polarization and absorbance measurement capabilities.


Due to its renewable and nonpolluting nature, solar energy is often used in applications such as electricity generation, thermal heating, and chemical processing. The most cost-effective solar heaters are of the "flat-plate" type, but these suffer from relatively low efficiency and outlet temperatures. The present study theoretically investigates the feasibility of using a nonconcentrating direct absorption solar collector (DAC) and compares its performance with that of a typical flat-plate collector. Here a nanofluid-a mixture of water and aluminum nanoparticles—is used as the absorbing medium. A two-dimensional heat transfer analysis was developed in which direct sunlight was incident on a thin flowing film of nanofluid. The effects of absorption and scattering within the nanofluid were accounted for. In order to evaluate the temperature profile and intensity distribution within the nanofluid, the energy balance equation and heat transport equation were solved numerically. It was observed that the presence of nanoparticles increases the absorption of incident radiation by more than nine times over that of pure water. According to the results obtained from this study, under similar operating conditions, the efficiency of a DA C using nanofluid as the working fluid is found to be up to 10% higher (on an absolute basis) than that of a flat-plate collector. Generally a DAC using nanofluids as the working fluid performs better than a flat-plate collector, however, much better designed flat-plate collectors might be able to match or outperform a nanofluids based DAC under certain conditions.


In this study, we use simulations from the Social Policy and Development Centre's large-scale empirical model of Pakistan's economy to quantify the economic losses resulting from the devastating earthquake that hit the country on October 8, 2005. We then use the model to trace the path that the economy can be expected to follow under the relief and reconstruction assumptions that seem most plausible at present. The main results are as follows: First, the earthquake could initially shave off 1½ percentage points from economic growth. In the absence of reconstruction, this initial hit would lead to permanent losses of levels of the capital stock, consumption, and income that are substantial. Second, the assumed rebuilding effort of $5.8 billion over a five-year period will bring the economy back only half-way to the path that would have prevailed in the absence of the earthquake. Third, this rebuilding effort will be inflationary in the short run, and could add 2 percentage points to the rate of increase of consumer prices in 2005-06 and 1 percentage point the following year.


Abstract A series of novel biomedical TPCUs with different percentages of hard segment and a silicone component in the soft segment were synthesized in a multi-stage one-pot method. The kinetic profiles of the urethane formation in TPCU-based copolymer systems were monitored by rheological, in line FTIR spectroscopic (React IR) and real-time calorimetric (RC1) methods. This process-analytically monitored multi step synthesis was successfully used to optimize the production of medical-grade TPCU elastomers on preparative scale (in lots of several kg) with controlled molecular structure and mechanical properties. Various surface and bulk analytical methods as well as systematic studies of the mechanic response of the elastomer end-products towards compression and tensile loading were used to estimate the bio-stability of the prepared TPCUs in vitro after 3 months. The tests suggested that high bio-stability of all polyurethane formulations using accelerating in vitro test can be attributed to the synthetic design as well as to the specific techniques used for specimen preparation, namely: (i) the annealing for reducing residual polymer surface stress and preventing IES, (ii) stabilization of the morphology by long-time storage of the specimens after processing bevor being immersed in the test liquids, (iii) purification by extraction to remove the shot chain oligomers which are the most susceptible to degradation. All mechanical tests were performed on cylindrical and circular disc specimens for modelling the thickness of the meniscus implants under application-relevant stress conditions.


When isolated livers from starved rats are perfused with lactate at constant perfusate pH and P(co(2)), there is a marked gradient of cell pH (pH(i)) along the length of the lobular radius, with periportal cells being substantially more alkaline than perivenous cells. In the present studies, the perivenous 21% of the lobular volume was destroyed by retrograde digitonin perfusion, and antegrade perfusion restored. pH(i) was determined by (31)P-NMR. The remaining periportal cells, the site of gluconeogenesis from lactate, had a substantially higher mean pH(i) (7.42) than did the intact liver (7.23). When lactate was removed from the perfusate, mean pH(i) decreased to 7.25. The corresponding concentration of cell bicarbonate fell with a half-time of approximately 5 min. When lactate was re-introduced mean pH(i) rose to 7.34. We conclude that a major contributor to periportal alkalinity under these conditions is proton consumption during gluconeogenesis from lactate ions.


The National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality (NARTH) is greatly dismayed by the recent statement from the World Medical Association (WMA 2013), which is not so much a reflection on human sexuality as it is a clear attempt to discredit any and all professional attempts to assist clients who wish to modify same-sex attractions and behaviors. NARTH observes that the WMA's statement in many places lacks scientific integrity, sometimes providing conclusions that are no more supportable than speculation and at other times failing to provide adequate scholarly context. Given these serious shortcomings, NARTH believes that it is necessary to provide the public with information WMA irresponsibly neglected in their statement.


Grey seals Halichoerus grypus were sampled in the Faroe Islands archipelago during the summers of 1993 to 1995. Concentrations of Cd, Cu, Hg, Se and Zn were measured in the liver, kidney and muscle of 68 seals. All elements except Zn exhibited lowest concentrations in the muscle. The liver contained the highest concentrations of Cu, Hg, Se and Zn, while the kidney contained the highest Cd concentrations. However, trace element concentrations within the tissues were influenced by sex and age. Thus, females had clearly higher Cd concentrations than males. Age was the most important factor influencing the concentration of Cd, Hg and Se in the liver, and of Cd and Hg in the kidney. A strong positive correlation between Cd, Hg and Zn in the kidney suggests the presence of a detoxification process involving metallothionein proteins. Similarly, a strong positive correlation between Hg and Se and a molecular Hg:Se ratio close to 1 in the liver suggests a demethylation pro- cess leading to the formation of mercuric selenide granules. High Hg concentrations could be related to fish consumption by the grey seal, but a piscivorous diet could not be responsible for the very high Cd concentrations. This suggests that the seals' diet changes during the year, and may include a sig- nificant proportion of cephalopods in seasons other than summer. Finally very high Cd concentra- tions in grey seal tissues compared to other grey seal populations also suggest that the Faroe Islands are subject to sub-arctic influences.


Medicinal plants, especially those that are grown and cultivated in heavily polluted soils, are one source of lead toxicity in humans. This study assessed the Pb accumulation capacity of two commonly used medicinal plants, Artemisia vulgaris and Plectranthus amboinicus. Bioaccumulation factor, translocation factor and metal extraction ratio of each plant species were also determined. The plants were planted in pots in a controlled experiment and subjected to different concentrations of Pb (0–600ppm) for 4 weeks. Both plants showed no visual signs of Pb toxicity at the end of the study. The growth of A. vulgaris was not significantly affected by the different levels of Pb added to the soil. The increase in height of P. amboinicus was significantly affected by the Pb in the soil. The roots accumulated more Pb, followed by the leaves and the stems. Pb level in plant tissues increased with increased addition of Pb to the soil. Bioaccumulation factor (BAF) of A. vulgaris and P. amboinicus was above 1 which means these plants are accumulators of Pb. With a translocation factor (TF) > 1, A. vulgaris can effectively transfer Pb from the stems to the shoots while P. amboinicus cannot. Of the two plants, P. amboinicus was most effective in removing lead from the soil even at high concentrations (600ppm).


We develop a model of remedy offers made to an expert agency which has powers to act before any harm is experienced and is required to decide on the basis of tangible evidence. The model provides a relationship between the factors determining the probability of delay and the type of error in early settlements (i.e. insufficient versus excessive remedy). We apply the model using data from European Commission merger settlements. Our econometric analysis confirms the importance of delay costs and the uncertainty associated with the agency's findings. Our results are also consistent with the prediction that delay is not systematically related to the inherent competitive harm of the merger proposal. We use our results to identify specific cases of insufficient remedy in early settlements.


Linearized general relativity admits a formulation in terms of gravitoelectric and gravitomagnetic fields that closely parallels the description of the electromagnetic field by Maxwell's equations. For steady mass currents, this formalism has been used to understand gravitomagnetic effects like the Lense-Thirring dragging of inertial frames. For time-varying mass-energy currents, the analog of Faraday's law suggests new effects based on the gravitational equivalent of a transformer where such currents take the place of electrical currents. New experimental possibilities are suggested including a novel coupling mechanism of electromagnetism to gravity, new tests of general relativity in the ultrarelativistic limit using particle beams in the LHC, and searches for a materials exhibiting the gravitational analog of ferromagnetism.


A poling method using multiple negative voltage was introduced to fabricate periodically poled lithium
 niobate (PPLN) devices with quasi-phase matching (QPM) period of 12.9 μm by utilizing an real-time
 visualization system. We also performed variation of the electric field during the poling. Two different
 conventionally used poling method, negative and positive single pulses, were used and the poling quality
 compared through microscopic images and far-field diffraction pattern analysis. Etched images on the +z
 and –z surfaces of PPLN showed that negative multiple pulse poling presented the highest periodicity in
 domain structures among the three methods. Duty ratio and its standard deviation were measured by
 analyzing far-field diffraction patterns. The newly introduced method of negative multiple pulse poling
 had duty ratio of 0.42 which was close to the ideal value of 0.50 and standard deviation of 0.020 that
 was about 3 times smaller than that of the other conventional methods.


The present policy of the Government asking regional electricity grids to absorb all the power generated by
renewable power installations, and the thermal power stations to run at lower capacities than their installed
values would not only force many thermal power plants to run at power levels much lower than their design
values, but also constantly ramp up and down their outputs every day causing more wear and tear of the
system. We suggest that the problem can be avoided by running the thermal power plants at their installed
capacities, and use the surplus electricity to produce and store onsite hydrogen and oxygen. The stored
hydrogen can be subsequently used not only to supplement coal in their own furnaces, but also for a variety
of applications such as production of ammonia for fertilizers, as automobile fuel or for any other industrial
applications. The ultrapure oxygen may be marketed for medical and other industrial applications.


Because turbulent fluctuations in the atmospheric refractive index (n) at a wavelength λ are related to fluctuations in the temperature (t) and the humidity (q) by n = A(λ, P, T, Q)t + B(λ, P, T, Q)q it is possible to estimate the refractive-index structure parameter Cn2 from meteorological quantities. I describe and evaluate two such estimation procedures,one based on the velocity, temperature and humidity scales u*, t*, and q*and a second based on the routine meteorological quantities Uh, Ts − Th and Qs − Qh. The subscript h here denotes the wind speed (Uh), temperature (Th), or humidity (Qh) at a reference height h; the subscript s indicates the surface value. I also develop analytical expressions for the coefficients A and B as functions of λ, the atmospheric pressure (P), and the temperature and the humidity in four wavelength regions: visible (including near infrared), an infrared window, near millimeter, and radio. In a sensitivity analysis of the two estimation procedures, the core of the paper, I demonstrate that the accuracy of the Cn2 estimate is a strong function of the Bowen ratio (Bo). At two Bo values within the interval [−10, 10], one dependent on λ and the other dependent on meteorological conditions, the uncertainty in the Cn2 estimate becomes infinite.


Single crystal films of Gd and Nd were grown by MBE techniques using the LaMBE facility in Oxford. The thickness of the layers was 5000 Angstrom and the mosaic spread about 0.2-0.3 degrees. Some of the layers were hydrogenated by KTH in Stockholm to obtain the dihydride. The magnetic structures were determined using the TAS1 triple axis spectrometer at the Rise National Laboratory in Denmark. The magnetic structure of the Gd film was a ferromagnet, similar to that of bulk Gd. In detail, however, there were differences and the spin direction differed from that of the bulk material while the phase with the moments aligned along the c-axis was absent in the him. The magnetic structure of GdH2 was antiferromagnetic with a wavevector of (1/2 1/2 1/2) and a transition temperature of 22 +/- 0.5 K, much lower than that of bulk Gd, 290 K. In contrast, the magnetic structure of NdH2 is incommensurate with a wavevector of (0.532 0.532 1.532) and a magnetic ordering temperature of 34 +/- 1 K.


Parametric design has been perceived as a highly sophisticated set of procedures requiring complex specialized softwares, making its introduction as part of undergraduate architectural education difficult. The aim of this study is to explore the possibility of introducing parametric thinking to novice architectural design students, using a purpose-designed non-CAD method. After a detailed lecture, students were asked to use the method to perform a design task based on parametric design principles and inspired by elements from vernacular architecture. Students' feedback was obtained in regard to three learning domains: Intellectual Skills, Cognitive Strategies, and Affective; and the effects of previous knowledge of CAD and gender were explored. The data was analysed statistically. Results showed that the method has managed to successfully address the three learning domains, with most of the students expressing a strong intention to learn more about Parametricism. Both genders were found to be equally prepared to receive and accept information about parametric design through our method. Students with previous CAD training showed better control over the method, whereas the other group showed better appreciation of the concept. It is concluded that when parametric thinking is seen as a pedagogic intention and not as a design tool, it can be effectively introduced to novice design students, in order to prepare them to meet the demand in practice for graduates who are aware of the recent trends in architectural design and form generation processes, and who are prepared to use the latest digital tools efficiently.


During the last couple of decades researchers have made progress in understanding what motivates knowledge workers and how they differ from traditional, manual workers. The purpose of this thesis is to further explore what motivates the different types of workers, with a special focus on knowledge workers and the intrinsic or extrinsic nature of their motivation. The paper brings knowledge worker theory into the oil and gas industry for the first time; collecting primary data at Odfjell Drilling through an in depth interview and a survey distributed to workers in Norway. We show that there is a relationship between intrinsic motivation and knowledge workers and that these workers are more intrinsically motivated than manual workers. Based on the findings, specific HR policies are suggested for knowledge workers in order to improve their motivation, job satisfaction and labor turnover. Are knowledge workers more intrinsically motivated than manual workers? | 3


Press Start (http://press-start.gla.ac.uk) is a student-run, peer-reviewed journal that publishes student work relating to the study of video games. The journal was founded with the aim of providing students with opportunities to develop their writing skills by submitting or peer reviewing work, and to gain experience of working together to deliver a project with an international profile. The intention was also to provide students studying games with a venue for publishing high-quality work that might otherwise have gone unnoticed.

Many of the challenges involved in running an international student journal relate to the sheer diversity of the students involved. The journal accepts work from undergraduates through to PhD students, and the reviewers and editorial board members are drawn from the same broad pool. Some students have experience of peer review and academic publishing, while others come to the journal completely unacquainted with the peer review process. Game Studies is also a uniquely multidisciplinary area of study, with students working in fields as diverse as Computing Science, English Literature, Psychology, Film, and beyond. This diversity creates challenges in terms of finding appropriate reviewer expertise within the student body, and these issues are compounded by international variations in disciplinary practices and expectations. Other challenges relate to, for example, ensuring Press Start is suitably visible and discoverable, and finding ways to support the community that has developed around the journal.

This paper demonstrates how the students involved in Press Start have risen to the challenge of delivering such an ambitious project.


A backlash against Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS), in which multinational corporations can sue governments, has led some states to unilaterally withdraw from some of the thousands of investment treaties that facilitate ISDS. But thanks to redundancies in the dense, decentralized network of investment treaties, states can reject some treaty commitments to ISDS and maintain most (if not all) international legal protections for foreign investors. In this article, we explain the source of redundancies, document the group of states that have taken advantage of unilateral withdrawal, and demonstrate that states can recalibrate their international legal commitments without eschewing contemporary international investment law.


Supreme Court decisions regarding the doctrine of patent exhaustion have drawn a bright line for determining when patent exhaustion occurs. If a sale of a patented product is authorized, exhaustion occurs. If a sale is not authorized, there is no exhaustion and patent remedies remain available to the patent holder to enforce a breach of a contractual restriction placed by the patent holder on the buyer of its patented product. But a lack of precision in the Supreme Court's patent exhaustion jurisprudence has resulted in uncertainty regarding the scope and impact of patent exhaustion. Specifically, questions persist as to whether a patent holder can preserve its patent infringement remedies by placing a contract-based restriction on a buyer's use or disposition of its patented product as a condition of the sale of the product and whether breach of contract remedies remain available to a patent holder if an authorized first sale is made and exhaustion occurs. The Supreme Court's failure to answer these questions in its latest decision regarding patent exhaustion has prompted the Authors of this Article to seek these answers through a review of the relevant case law, in order to provide guidance to the patent holder who intends to control the use or distribution of its patented product following a sale. On the basis of their review, which involves an analysis of the conflict between federal patent law and state contract law that occurs in the context of an authorized first sale of a patented product, the Authors contend that a patent holder is unable to preserve patent infringement remedies by conditioning the sale of its patented product, and that contractual remedies remain available in many cases even when patent exhaustion occurs. Further, the Authors propose a case-by-case approach to assessing whether a contract-based post-sale restriction on a patented product is enforceable under state contract law. This approach involves determining whether (i) an objective of federal patent law preempts enforcement of the contractual provision; (ii) the inclusion of the provision in a contract constitutes patent misuse; (iii) the provision violates federal antitrust law; and (iv) public policy considerations (that is, regarding public health and safety) militate in favor of enforcing the restriction. The Authors conclude by noting that the distinction between patent remedies and contract remedies has diminished in the wake of the Supreme Court's recent ruling that the proper test for the granting of an injunction upon a finding of patent infringement is the traditional four-factor test used for non-patent causes of action.


Although research has been conducted to address specific medical and psychosocial needs of breast cancer survivors, little has been done to address needs along the entire trajectory of care. One such need is chemobrain, a phenomenon recognized as an identifiable psychosocial cognitive change in breast cancer survivors. The purpose of this article is to present the findings of a qualitative study conducted with two focus groups of underserved African American breast cancer survivors. Four themes emerged from the transcribed interviews: the concept of chemobrain, variability among individuals, the stigma of chemobrain, and methods of coping. In addition, findings revealed that health professionals were not used by the participants as a resource to address the issues of chemobrain, which holds significant implications for practice. That fact highlights the implications for oncology nursing with respect to providing education and support for patients experiencing chemobrain. Nursing professionals are in a position to be a frontline resource for breast cancer survivors, providing information, education, and coping methods to help improve their quality of life.


The evolution and maintenance of cooperation in human and animal societies challenge various disciplines ranging from evolutionary biology to anthropology, social sciences, and economics. In social interactions, cooperators increase the welfare of the group at some cost to themselves whereas defectors attempt to free ride and neither provide benefits nor incur costs. The problem of cooperation becomes even more pronounced when increasing the number of interacting individuals. Punishment and voluntary participation have been identified as possible factors to support cooperation and prevent cheating. Typically, punishment behavior is unable to gain a foothold in a population, while volunteering alone can efficiently prevent deadlocks in states of mutual defection but is unable to stabilize cooperation. The combined effects of the two mechanisms have surprisingly different consequences in finite and infinite populations. Here we provide a detailed comparison of the two scenarios and demonstrate that driven by the inherent stochasticity of finite populations, the possibility to abstain from social interactions plays a pivotal role, which paves the way for the establishment of cooperation and punishment.


The article depicts the current position of the people of Kashmir. It is the study of Basharat Peer's Curfewed Night and Shahnaz Bashir's The Half Mother. Both the novels satirize the political and bureaucratic system, India's tyrannical role and the Military oppression in Kashmir. The title of the paper is the expedition from utopia; means paradise to Pandemonium; means hell. Kashmir is a very beautiful place and was a princely state up to 1953 with its own prime minister. It is why Kashmir is generally known as paradise on earth and this paradise has become not hell but the 'capital of hell' due to mass killing, murder mystery, displacement, disappearance and sexual harassment, by military and paramilitary forces. The paper deals with the struggle of Kashmiri people's birth right of self determination and the oppressive nature of Indian government, bureaucrats and army. The purpose of this paper is to provide a new lens to the reader to view the tyrannical history of Kashmir with the portrayal of some real and true incidents which are highlighted by both the writers. Both the books are based on reality which is a good hard work done by the duet on their turns.


This thesis offers a fresh interpretation of industrial activity in Lancashire some two to three generations before the arrival of the factory system of textile production. It is based on a county-wide study of occupations recorded in Church of England
parish registers for the I 720s, a source which has, with the exception of a few localised case studies, hitherto been ignored by historians. Whilst this period is crucial to the subsequent development of the textile industry, much work to date has
focused on a theoretical approach from which empirical data is all too often missing. Aspects relating to the emergence of a supply of labour for the industry are explored following analysis of the location of Lancashire's textile workforce as revealed by parish registers. Reasons for differences in high textile productivity in certain parts of the county rather than others are proffered by contrasting theoretical stances with empirical data. It debates whether inheritance practices in the east of the
county led to subdivision of landholdings into unviable plots, forcing many to take up weaving to supplement their income. This is contrasted with the ability of fertile land in west Lancashire to sustain agricultural activity on a full year-round basis.
The organisation of the textile trade is evaluated using will and inventory data left by hitherto unresearched entrepreneurs. Opportunities for upward social mobility provided by the prosperity generated from textile activity are analysed in the context
of the respective layers of the industry. Investment in weavers' cottages by provision of loomshops and storage facilities is discussed, together with the impact of weavers' housing on later settlement growth.


Decentralisation and Reform in Latin America analyses the process of intergovernmental reform in Latin America in the last two decades and presents a number of emerging issues. These include the impacts of decentralization and the response of countries in the region to challenge such as social cohesion, interregional and interpersonal disparities, the assignment of social and infrastructure expenditure, macrofinancial shocks, fiscal rules and the sharing of natural resources revenue. The main aim of the book is to assess the effective working of decentralized arrangements and institutions, with a view of suggesting corrections and reforms where the system is not working according to expectations.


Controversies surrounding the European sovereign debt crisis loom prominent in the public debate. From a legal perspective, the no-bailout rule and the ban on monetary financing constitute the main principles governing the legality review of financial assistance and liquidity measures. Interpretation of these rules are full of empirical claims. According to conventional legal doctrine, bond spreads only depend on the country's debt position, largely ignoring other causal factors including liquidity. We test the hypotheses implicit in conventional legal reasoning. We find evidence that a significant part of the surge in the spreads of the peripheral Eurozone countries was disconnected from underlying fundamentals and particularly from a country's debt position, and was associated rather strongly with market sentiments and liquidity concerns. We apply our empirical findings to the legal principles as interpreted by recent jurisprudence arguing that application of the no-bailout principle and the ban on monetary financing should be extended to capture non-debt related factors. Also, the empirical results suggest taking recourse to alternative legal grounds for reviewing the legality of anti-crisis instruments and allowing for a lender of last resort in the euro zone.


The main purpose of this paper is to design, implement and measure a new sample of mantle cloak. A new method called mantle cloak is introduced by cloaking an object by a single, conformal meta-surface which can drastically suppress the scattering of the desired object. In this paper, a grid lattice is placed around a dielectric object as the cloaking structure. Previously, this FSS has been utilized for the cloaking of PEC object; but, when patch structure is placed around the dielectric it has inductive equivalent circuit with appropriate designing, it can be used for cloaking of dielectric cylinder. Numerical simulations of near field and far field of the designed structure are derived to prove the effectiveness of our meta-surface cloak. Also, measurement results of S11 and S21 related to cloaked structure and their comparison with single dielectric proves suitable performance of the designed cloak. The results show more than 20% bandwidth for this structure. This means that this structure is suitable for broadband operations.


Contextual predictability variation affects phonological and phonetic structure. Reduction and expansion of acoustic-phonetic features is also characteristic of prosodic variability. In this study, we assess the impact of surprisal and prosodic structure on phonetic encoding, both independently of each other and in interaction. We model segmental duration, vowel space size and spectral characteristics of vowels and consonants as a function of surprisal as well as of syllable prominence, phrase boundary, and speech rate. Correlates of phonetic encoding density are extracted from a subset of the BonnTempo corpus for six languages: American English, Czech, Finnish, French, German, and Polish. Surprisal is estimated from segmental n-gram language models trained on large text corpora. Our findings are generally compatible with a weak version of Aylett and Turk's Smooth Signal Redundancy hypothesis, suggesting that prosodic structure mediates between the requirements of efficient communication and the speech signal. However, this mediation is not perfect, as we found evidence for additional, direct effects of changes in surprisal on the phonetic structure of utterances. These effects appear to be stable across different speech rates.


A method to uniquely identify signals originating from probes with different emission decay times in luminescence imaging has been developed. By using scanning confocal microscopy in combination with time-correlated single photon counting (TCSPC), Photon Arrival Time Imaging (PArTI) has been realised through off-line plotting of images using the photon arrival times. PArTI is the time-equivalent to spectrally resolved imaging, replacing the energy axis with a photon arrival time axis. Here, lanthanide probes were used to demonstrate the key advantages of the method. PArTI uses TCSPC data, involves no fitting, uses a single pulsed laser line for multicolour imaging, and can be used with a 100 millisecond dwell time per pixel.


Global dust events have been part of much of Earth's history. As in the geological past, mineral dust deflated off weathered crustal material in arid regions is continually being lofted kilometres into the atmosphere, where it circles the globe until physical and chemical processes favour precipitation in the ocean or on land. Mineral dust aerosols affect the environment both directly and indirectly by impacting the chemical and physical properties of the atmosphere and by interfering with biogeochemical cycles, all on a global scale. The most important source regions of dust are all in the Northern Hemisphere and include North Africa, the Middle East, the northwestern Indian subcontinent, central Asia, and northwestern China.


Much systematic research and attention is being directed towards sustainability indicators, but comparatively little towards analytical tools for comprehensive sustainability impact assessments that can guide economic activities, programmes and specific projects towards decisions and sustainable actions, which will ultimately be reflected in the indicators. Existing tools of analysis, such as environmental impact assessment, ISO 14001 and life-cycle assessment, are limited in scope towards certain environmental elements of sustainable development and are limited in geographic scale of application. However, sustainability covers a comprehensive set of social, economic, and environmental issues, and with increased economic globalisation must include impacts upon multiple geographic scales. This paper discusses a new comprehensive analytical framework for asking the right questions to guide sustainability impact assessments for economic activities, programmes and specific projects. Some distinguishing features are the inclusion of indirect and support activities, social and economic issues, comprehensive environmental issues and multiple geographic scales. A case example is presented to demonstrate the framework. The existing tools noted above are analysed for their strengths and weaknesses for sustainability impact assessments and compared to the new framework. Finally, potential policy applications are discussed for government, private sector, institutions and NGOs. It is concluded that the sustainability impact assessment framework presented can significantly "raise the bar" for promoting sustainability, but that to answer the sustainability questions raised there must be operational simplifications in using sustainability proxies and criteria during future research and applications.


IMPORTANCE
Self-monitoring of blood pressure with self-titration of antihypertensives (self-management) results in lower blood pressure in patients with hypertension, but there are no data about patients in high-risk groups.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of self-monitoring with self-titration of antihypertensive medication compared with usual care on systolic blood pressure among patients with cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS
A primary care, unblinded, randomized clinical trial involving 552 patients who were aged at least 35 years with a history of stroke, coronary heart disease, diabetes, or chronic kidney disease and with baseline blood pressure of at least 130/80 mm Hg being treated at 59 UK primary care practices was conducted between March 2011 and January 2013.

INTERVENTIONS
Self-monitoring of blood pressure combined with an individualized self-titration algorithm. During the study period, the office visit blood pressure measurement target was 130/80 mm Hg and the home measurement target was 120/75 mm Hg. Control patients received usual care consisting of seeing their health care clinician for routine blood pressure measurement and adjustment of medication if necessary.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
The primary outcome was the difference in systolic blood pressure between intervention and control groups at the 12-month office visit.

RESULTS
Primary outcome data were available from 450 patients (81%). The mean baseline blood pressure was 143.1/80.5 mm Hg in the intervention group and 143.6/79.5 mm Hg in the control group. After 12 months, the mean blood pressure had decreased to 128.2/73.8 mm Hg in the intervention group and to 137.8/76.3 mm Hg in the control group, a difference of 9.2 mm Hg (95% CI, 5.7-12.7) in systolic and 3.4 mm Hg (95% CI, 1.8-5.0) in diastolic blood pressure following correction for baseline blood pressure. Multiple imputation for missing values gave similar results: the mean baseline was 143.5/80.2 mm Hg in the intervention group vs 144.2/79.9 mm Hg in the control group, and at 12 months, the mean was 128.6/73.6 mm Hg in the intervention group vs 138.2/76.4 mm Hg in the control group, with a difference of 8.8 mm Hg (95% CI, 4.9-12.7) for systolic and 3.1 mm Hg (95% CI, 0.7-5.5) for diastolic blood pressure between groups. These results were comparable in all subgroups, without excessive adverse events.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Among patients with hypertension at high risk of cardiovascular disease, self-monitoring with self-titration of antihypertensive medication compared with usual care resulted in lower systolic blood pressure at 12 months.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
isrctn.org Identifier: ISRCTN87171227.


This paper assesses some of the explanations that have been put forward for the global pattern of current account imbalances that has emerged in recent years: in particular, the large U.S. current account deficit and the large surpluses of the Asian developing economies. Based on the approach developed by Chinn and Prasad (2003), we use data for 61 countries during 1982-2003 to estimate panel regression models for the ratio of the current account balance to GDP. We find that a model that includes as its explanatory variables the standard determinants of current accounts proposed in the literature-?per capita income, relative growth rates, the fiscal balance, demographic variables, and economic openness-?can account for neither the large U.S. deficit nor large Asian surpluses of the 1997-2003 period. However, when we include a variable representing financial crises, which might be expected to restrain domestic demand and boost the current account balance, the model explains much of developing Asia?s swing into surplus since 1997. Even so, the model cannot explain why the capital outflows associated with Asia?s current account surpluses were channeled primarily into the U.S. economy. Observers have pointed to strong growth performance and a favorable institutional environment as elements attracting foreign investment into the United States, and we found strong evidence that good performance in these areas significantly reduces the current account balance. While a model incorporating these factors still fails to predict the large U.S. current account deficit (and, in fact, predicts a slight surplus), it does predict a U.S. current account balance that is relatively weaker than the aggregate balance of developing Asia.


In this paper, a novel network protocol (MOIN - Mobile Open Infrastructure Network Protocol) for non synchronized UWB based wireless sensor networks is presented. Applications of classical protocols for such non synchronized networks, where anchor nodes are not synchronized for ranging and communication purposes, typically are not effective for simultaneous ranging and communication tasks. The proposed MOIN protocol overcomes these shortcomings by using an optimized scheduling scheme for rangings. The channel access is realized by a centralized hybrid MAC layer which uses TDMA and CDMA. In addition, the MOIN protocol supports multiple sensor domains to achieve a higher network range. Dynamic domain selection and adaptive slot assignment depending on the number of network participants at runtime are key features to reduce the delay between each ranging procedure which minimizes motion artefacts. A sequential pre-defined ranging order can be ensured to minimize the position error. Another advantage of the adaptive slot assignment is the minimization of time slots in each superframe. This leads to a shorter superframe duration and significantly increases network throughput and update frequency rates.


This article addresses the human rights issues in Africa within the context of some general theories of human rights. The article notes that African countries have been unsuccessful in implementing the tenets of the documents they signed including the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and the African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights of 1981 and 1986 in spite of their participation in the United Nations and the Organization of African Unity. It notices that governments in Africa do not often respect their national constitutions on the issue of human rights.


In  this  paper,  we  present  an  exploratory  study  on  how  a  liberal-arts  course  about  the  culture  and  history  of mathematics  influenced the mathematics  beliefs of  medical university students  in  Taiwan.  This  study used  a single-group pretest-posttest design. The research tools of this study included: (1) a liberal-arts mathematics course with an emphasis on history and culture, and (2) a 20-question Likert-scale questionnaire used in the pre-test and the post-test. The questions were separated into two dimensions, aiming to investigate students' beliefs about the nature and values of mathematics. A total of 100 students took the pre-test, participated in the teaching experiment, and finally took the post-test. In the teaching experiment course, titled "Mathematical Thinking in the Multicultural Contexts", students were exposed to mathematical topics presented in their historical contexts. There were also examples of distinct approaches to similar problems by scholars in different civilisations, such as comparing Liu Hui's work and Euclid's Elements. Students were also required to make artistic creations related to mathematics. The results showed that part of the students' beliefs did change. In the dimension of the nature of mathematics, after taking the course, the students were more prone to believe that "generalisation" was a method of thinking in mathematics; however, the results also revealed that the course did not clarify the difference between the "context of justification" and the "context of discovery" for students. As for the values of mathematics, students were more prone to believe that "sensibility to beauty" and "creativity" were important values of mathematics.


A small noncoding RNA promotes nerve-muscle interactions in response to motor neuron injury and slows disease progression. Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a relentless disease characterized by progressive degeneration of motor neurons that control muscle movement, leading to muscle atrophy and paralysis. Williams et al. (see the Perspective by Brown) show that a small noncoding RNA that is selectively expressed in skeletal muscle, miR-206, senses motor neuron injury or loss and helps ameliorate resultant muscle damage by promoting regeneration of neuromuscular synapses. Expression of miR-206 was dramatically induced in a mouse model of ALS, and when this RNA was removed from mice by genetic manipulation, the disease progressed at a faster rate. The salutary effects of miR-206 appear to be mediated through a signaling pathway in muscle cells involving histone deacetylase 4 and a fibroblast growth factor modulator, activation of which leads to release of factors that promote nerve-muscle interactions. A. H. Williams, G. Valdez, V. Moresi, X. Qi, J. McAnally, J. L. Elliott, R. Bassel-Duby, J. R. Sanes, E. N. Olson, MicroRNA-206 delays ALS progression and promotes regeneration of neuromuscular synapses in mice. Science 326, 1549–1554 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text] R. H. Brown, A reinnervating microRNA. Science 326, 1494–1495 (2009). [Summary] [Full Text]


Fashion photographs are generally two-dimensional images showing one side of a threedimensional model. This paper, however, deals with far less well-known stereoscopic fashion photographs. Stereoscopy is a technique that creates the illusion of a 3-D image. Based on the image collection of Swiss textile and clothes company HANRO, the article analyzes the composition of 3-D pictures by putting them in a broader media-historical context. The archived stereoscopic photographs date back to the 1950s and show a series of women's fashion. In the same period, Hollywood experienced a 3-D-boom that may have had a technical and aesthetical impact on these photographs. Although fashion is not mediated in moving images in this case study, codes or formal languages of a film are inscribed in the images, as will be shown in the following text. Building on these findings, this paper further discusses the influence of cinematography and other media practices on the fashion industry's attempt to free its fashion imagery from the confines of a two-dimensional page.


ABSTRACT In marine sediments of late Cenozoic age, Spiniferites is a very common genus of dinoflagellate cysts (dinocysts). Despite some taxonomical ambiguities due to large range of morphological variations within given species and convergent morphologies between different species, the establishment of an operational taxonomy permitted to develop a standardized modern database of dinocysts for the midhigh latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere. In the database that includes 1490 surface sediment samples, Spiniferites mirabilis-hyperacanthus, Spiniferites ramosus and Spiniferites elongatus were counted in addition to Spiniferites belerius, Spiniferites bentorii, Spiniferites bulloideus, Spiniferites delicatus, Spiniferites lazus and Spiniferites membranaceus. Among these taxa, Spiniferites mirabilis-hyperacanthus, Spiniferites ramosus, and Spiniferites elongatus are easy to identify and are particularly common. Spiniferites bentorii and Spiniferites delicatus also are morphologically distinct and occur in relatively high percentages in many samples. Spiniferites lazus and Spiniferites membranaceus also bear distinctive features, but occur only in a few samples. The identification of other taxa (Spiniferites belerius, Spiniferites bulloideus, notably) may be equivocal and their reported distribution has to be used with caution. The spatial distribution of Spiniferites species, with emphasis on the five most common taxa, is documented here with reference to hydrography (salinity and temperature in winter and summer, sea ice cover), primary productivity and geographical setting (bathymetry, distance to the coastline). The results demonstrate distinct ecological affinities for Spiniferites elongatus, which has an Arctic-subarctic distribution and appears abundant in low productivity environments characterized by winter sea ice and large temperature contrast between winter and summer. Spiniferites mirabilis-hyperacanthus, which occurs in warm temperate water sites, is more abundant in high salinity environments. It shares its environmental domain with Spiniferites bentorii, which appears to have a narrower distribution towards the warm and high salinity end of the Spiniferites mirabilis-hyperacanthus distribution. In contrast, Spiniferites delicatus, which occurs in warm-temperate to tropical environments, shows preference for relatively low salinity and low seasonal contrasts of temperature. Spiniferites ramosus exhibits a particularly wide distribution that overlaps both cold and warm Spiniferites taxa. Its cosmopolitan occurrence and its long-ranging biostratigraphical distribution suggest a high plasticity of the species and/or cooccurrence of several cryptic species. Hence, whereas Spiniferites elongatus and Spiniferites mirabilishyperacanthus are useful palaeoecological indicators despite their large morphological variability, Spiniferites ramosus is a taxon with an unconstrained ecological significance.


This thesis aims at analysing the status of women within Nouri Bouzid's four full-length films: Man of Ashes, Golden Horeseshoes, Bezness and Bent Familia. Tunisian cinema was the first North African national cinema to denounce the living conditions of the individual within the community while, in Algeria, for example, directors were still preoccupied with the fight of the community against an oppressive power. In the first part of the thesis, we will see how Bouzid deals with women within the family group. The ensuing debate is that of individual rights and desires within such a community and how women are thus victimised and confined to a precise set of roles: that of a mother and, of a wife. The institution of marriage binds them to their husbands and later to their children. The father becomes the almighty head of the family and either his wife comforts him in this role or quietly suffers hundreds of years of tradition and submission. Bouzid emphasises that such a society leaves no room for personal expectations and desires. Divorce is not an option for Tunisian society and consequently, the status of a divorcee in Tunisia is unenviable.
Needless to say that in this set background, a woman's body is to be protected and hidden from male sight. Because it lacks a penis, a woman's body is considered to be incomplete and inferior to that of men. The only important thing for a girl is to remain a virgin until her wedding night; she needs to wear a veil in order not to arouse men's desire but Bouzid uses it as an object of seduction. Most of the brides fear their wedding night as much as the groom. Indeed, the films show that the fear of being hurt equals the male's fear of publicly proving his lack of virility. This first sexual intercourse is not the best start a couple can get and most of the time, women are confined in their role of wives who cannot express their desires and whose role is to give birth and sexually satisfy their husbands, as Bent Familia demonstrates.
Because women can arouse men's desire and take them away from God, they have to wear the veil when they go outside; but the safest measure is to confine them within their homes. The four films emphasise how the outside world has thus become the male sphere and the inside women's own space. The latter is organised according to their physical moves. The patio is the central room of the house where women perform the housework and any chores involving the use of water. Their whole life is confined within that space but for a few exceptions. Fred and Aida's flats, respectively in Bezness and Bent Familia, the beach or the Marabout allow women to relax and escape from their assigned roles. But to study the status of women implies to study male / female relationships within the couple as well as in society in general.


In this paper, we present a novel energy-aware scheduling (EAS) algorithm which statically schedules both communication transactions and computation tasks onto heterogeneous network-on-chip (NoC) architectures under real-time constraints. Our algorithm automatically assigns tasks onto different processing elements and then schedules their execution. At the same time, the algorithm also takes into consideration the exact communication delay by scheduling communication transactions in parallel. As the main contribution, we first formulate the problem of concurrent communication and task scheduling for heterogeneous NoC architectures and then propose an efficient heuristic to solve it. Experimental results show that significant energy savings can be achieved by using our energy-aware scheduler while meeting the specified performance constraints. For instance, for a complex multimedia application, 44% energy savings have been observed, on average, compared to the schedules generated by a standard earliest-deadline-first scheduler.


Patatin is a family of glycoproteins that accounts for 30-40% of the total soluble protein in potato (Solanum tuberosum) tubers. This protein has been reported not only to serve as a storage protein, but also to exhibit enzymic activity. By using a baculovirus system to express protein from the patatin cDNA clone pGM01, it was unambiguously shown that the patatin coded by this DNA has lipid acyl hydrolase and acyltransferase activities. The enzyme is active with phospholipids, monoacylglycerols and p-nitrophenyl esters, moderately active with galactolipids, but is apparently inactive with di- and tri-acylglycerols.


Understanding the variability of precipitation at small scales is fundamental in urban hydrology. Here we consider the case study of Warsaw, Poland, characterized by a precipitation-monitoring network of 25 gauges and microcanonical cascade models as the instrument of investigation. We address the following issues partially investigated in literature: (1) the calibration of microcanonical cascade model generators in conditions of short time series (i.e., 2.5–5 years), (2) the identification of the probability distribution of breakdown coefficients (BDCs) through ranking criteria and (3) the variability among the gauges of the monitoring network of the empirical distribution of BDCs. In particular, (1) we introduce an overlapping moving window algorithm to determine the histogram of BDCs and compare it with the classic non-overlapping moving window algorithm; (2) we compare the 2N–B distribution, a mixed distribution composed of two normal (N) and one beta (B), with the classic B distribution to represent the BDCs using the Akaike information criterion; and (3) we use the cluster analysis to identify patterns of BDC histograms among gauges and timescales. The scarce representation of the BDCs at large timescales, due to the short period of observation (~ 2.5 years), is solved through the overlapping moving window algorithm. BDC histograms are described by a 2N–B distribution. A clear evolution of this distribution is observed, in all gauges, from 2N–B for small timescales, N–B for intermediate timescales and B distribution for large timescales. The performance of the microcanonical cascades is evaluated for the considered gauges. Synthetic time series are analyzed with respect to the intermittency and the variability of intensity and compared to observed series. BDC histograms for each timescale are compared with the 25 gauges in Warsaw and with other gauges located in Poland and Germany.


The light alkyl branching in isostearic acid (ISAC) imparts it with unique physical properties and functionalities among fatty acids, making it a valuable raw material in the production of lubricants, cosmetics and surface-active agents. Being derived from renewable vegetable oils, ISAC has the potential to become a key oleochemical building block in the growing bio-based industrial sector. However, it can currently be manufactured only as a co-product in the polymerisation of unsaturated acids, utilising swelling clays as catalyst. This leads to product balance issues, and a costly purification process. A more selective route to alkyl isomerisation (branching) of unsaturated fatty acids would lower production costs and open up new markets and applications. The prospect of a direct route has recently moved closer, when ferrierite, a medium-pore zeolite, was found to be an effective catalyst in its acid form (H-FER) for the isomerisation of oleic acid (OA), resulting in a step change in the yield of branched unsaturated fatty acids. The goal of this study is to understand the relationship between ferrierite structure and performance, in order to further improve the selectivity, activity and robustness of the zeolite, and thus enable optimisation of the catalytic process for the industrial production of ISAC. To better understand catalyst deactivation, the formation and nature of "coke" species have been studied during the H-FER-catalysed isomerisation of OA. UV-Vis and FT-IR spectroscopic analyses of the spent catalyst materials, complemented by NMR and mass spectrometry analyses of the carbonaceous deposits extract, provide new insights into the deactivation mechanisms. The initial, high catalyst activity is quickly lost, despite conservation of the framework integrity. Dodecyl benzene is the major "coke" constituent, while polyenylic carbocations poison the active sites. Pore blockage is detected very early in the reaction, and only the pore mouth is actively employed. Large zeolite crystals were studied to get more detailed spatial insight into deactivation of ferrierite in the OA alkyl isomerisation, using a combination of visible micro-spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy. The limited activity observed is in line with the pore mouth catalysis hypothesis; the visible micro-spectroscopy data furthermore shows that the accumulation of aromatic species associated with deactivation (and therefore the reaction) is limited to the crystal edges. Fluorescence microscopy data strongly suggest the presence of polyenylic carbocations, and light polarisation reveals that these carbonaceous species are aligned only in the larger 10-membered ring (10-MR) channels of ferrierite at all crystal edges; the reaction is thus further limited to these specific pore mouths. Finally, a study of the relationship between bulk acidity and performance is reported for five commercial ferrierite catalysts; significant differences were found, independently of their bulk Si/Al ratios. Initial pore conversion correlates with Bronsted acidity in the 10-MR channels, as determined by pyridine adsorption/desorption and FT-IR. A low density of external acid sites reduces OA oligomerisation, while a high ratio of Bronsted to Lewis sites explains the high branching yield. FT-IR combined with CO adsorption and temperature-programmed NH3 desorption, confirm that having a few, strong Bronsted acid sites increases selectivity to mono-branching.


The authors examine the differences between keyword searching and controlled subject headings in conducting research and the relative issues of each. They highlight the habits of students who frequently use Google to search and how this colors the students' ability to search in controlled environments like traditional databases. The benefits of taxonomies (the structure of LCSH) are examined as a means of more effective searching. Folksonomies and social tagging are also discussed. The authors highlight that LCSH is more in line with effective information literacy instruction and conclude that controlled subject heading searching is truly a more effective means of conducting research.


This study aimed to measure the facial morphology and growth of 100 infants in the West of Scotland from the age of 3 months to 2 years using a three dimensional imaging system, C3D. One of the aims of the study was to validate the use of the C3D system to measure facial morphology in infants. Further aims were to establish references values for facial dimensions in infants, to establish the normal growth of facial parameters from 3 months to 2 years, to correlate facial and body growth, to ascertain any sexual dimorphism, to establish the degree of facial asymmetry and to determine any longitudinal changes in facial asymmetry in infant's faces.

Eighty three infants at 3 months, 93 infants at 6 months, 91 infants at 1 year and 92 infants at 2 years were successfully captured with a lips apart pose. Reference values for facial dimensions in infants at these ages were established. Significant gender differences were found for most facial measurements at all ages with the males being larger than the females. These differences were greatest for face height, depths and widths with mean differences ranging from 1.7 to 4.0 mm. No gender differences were found in any of the angles measured. Several dimensions on the right side of the face were found to be significantly larger than the left. This was most marked for face depths with mean differences of 0.8 mm. The range of normal facial asymmetry scores was determined. No significant difference in asymmetry was found between the males and females. The upper face was found to be the most asymmetric region studied and the nostrils were the least asymmetric. Correlation of facial measurements with body dimensions found weak but significant correlations with the highest correlation coefficient of 0.69 between face depth and body weight. Nasal tip protrusion, nostril dimensions and lip heights were not correlated with body dimensions.

Seventy one infants, 37 males and 34 females, were successfully captured at all four ages with the lips apart and were included in the longitudinal analysis. The longitudinal changes in facial parameters were established from 3 months to 2 years and mean growth curves produced. The fastest growth was found from 3 to 6 months and the slowest from 1 to 2 years. There were no correlation between growth of the face and growth in body weight, length and head circumference. Significant reductions in the overall facial asymmetry score were found from 3 months to 2 years. The clinical significance of this reduction is still to be determined.


In the last 30 years since their introduction into aerospace applications, composites have become increasingly used, making up as much as 50% of modern aircraft by weight. Considering this fact, it is surprising that most aircraft today are only scratching the surface of the true potential of composite technology with traditional uniaxial fibers. With the introduction of Automated Fiber Placement machines (AFP), the tow direction in laminae is now allowed to be steered spatially throughout each layer. This process is known as composite tow steering and has been shown to have improved performance over its uniaxial fiber counterpart with no additional weight penalty. With modern aircraft wings moving toward higher aspect ratios, which inevitably leads to larger deflections, it is reasonable to assume that a tow-steered composite structure can be tailored to outperform its unsteered counterpart. However, given the highly coupled nature of the aerodynamics and structural response of the problem it is not obvious nor intuitive to find the composite fiber pattern that would yield an optimum result. To address this issue, we develop a framework for the simultaneous design of aerodynamic shape, structural sizing, and tow steering angles, while considering the wing flexibility. The aerodynamics are modeled using RANS CFD, while the structure is analyzed using a detailed finite-element model. Using this framework we perform two fuel burn optimization problems are performed for a high aspect ratio (AR = 13.5) baseline wing: one using a tow-steered structure and another with no steering, unsteered. The optimization was performed with respect to tow-steering design variables, wing airfoil shapes and twist, as well as structural thicknesses. Along with including design variables which controlled the tow-steering parameterization, geometric shape variables were also included to vary the shape of the wing. The tow-steered wing was able to decrease the wing mass by 13% relative to the baseline unsteered wing.


The influence of the loading orientation with respect to the grain direction of wood and the influence of the lateral dowel displacement boundary condition on the embedment behaviour of steel dowels in laminated veneer lumber (with parallel‐laminated veneers) are investigated in this study. For limit states of the lateral boundary condition, the load‐displacement behaviour was experimentally studied by means of full‐hole embedment tests on screw‐reinforced laminated veneer lumber, for two dowel diameters and up to large dowel displacements. A novel biaxial test set‐up is proposed for embedment tests with constrained lateral dowel displacement boundary condition, in order to quantify laterally evoked reaction forces. Corresponding forces were found to change orientation with increasing dowel displacement and amounted to about 20% and 40% of the vertical reaction force for dowel displacements of 5 mm and twice the dowel diameter, respectively. The influence of the lateral displacement boundary condition was highlighted by comparison of the test data with a previously established data set for unconstrained embedment testing. Constrained loading showed a stiffer response and higher nominal embedment stresses, as well as a more pronounced displacement hardening, compared to unconstrained loading.


Phakopsora pachyrhizi, the causal organism of soybean rust, was first found on Glycine max in the continental United States in 2004, and subsequently on Pueraria lobata, Desmodium tortuosum, three Phaseolus species, and Erythrina herbacea in the field. The pathogen has been reported to occur on over 150 legume species worldwide, and it is likely to infect native and introduced legume species in the USA. The objective of this study was to determine if USA-native or -naturalized legume species could become infected with P. pachyrhizi in field conditions. A total of 80 accessions representing 52 species in 29 genera were infected in the field trials. Crotalaria retusa, Lathyrus latifolius, Phaseolus angustissimus, P. polystachios, and Robinia hispida are new hosts. This is the first report showing the broad host range of P. pachyrhizi based on field infections in the USA. Some of these hosts grow in the southern USA, and could, like kudzu, overwinter P. pachyrhizi.


The following Breve provides an overview of the main challenges that societies, health care systems, and policy makers are currently facing to confront cancer. This brief analyzes the main characteristics of cancer, and shows how these influence the development of new drugs. At the same time, it looks at some of the implications for patients. It also presents some thoughts on the pharmaceutical industry related to cancer treatments. Finally, it summarizes some policy lessons emerging from the analysis, and explains why basic research, better market regulation and a stronger focus on cancer prevention should be the main priorities to fight cancer in the future.


We examine the allocation of hours of work across industrial sectors in OECD countries. We find large disparities across three sector groups, one that produces goods without home substitutes, and two others that have home substitutes but treated differently by welfare policy. We attribute the disparities to the countries' tax and subsidy policies. High taxation substantially reduces hours in sectors that have close home substitutes but less so in other sectors. Subsidies increase hours in the subsidized sectors that have home substitutes. We compute these policy effects for nineteen OECD countries.


This thesis discusses the significance of, 'style of life' in the informal organisation and perpetuation of two socio-cultural, privileged middle-class groups, one in Sierra Leone and the other in Britain. It focuses on the processes whereby socialisation in this style of life facilitates the recruitment of members of these groups of these professional-class. The study is presented The Introduction poses - the theoretical problem, that is, the why in which informal mechanisms affect the formal recruitment process. The instrumental significance of 'style of life' in articulating privileged status groups is explored within a general comparative context, this is followed by an analytical survey of the methods employed in the two studies and by a discussion of the sociological links between the two situations. 'Style of life' is first analyzed in term of occupation and occupational mobility together with behaviour patterns, attitudes find group ideologies. It also covers marriage, husband-wife roles, kinship and social network generally'. The different criteria of 'style of life' are discussed in Chapter I for the Freetown setting, and in Chapter 2 for the British setting. In both cases, professionals and non-professionals are treated separately: in the Freetown chapter there is further subdivision between Creoles and non-Creoles, The ways in which the attitudes and ideologies are transmitted and perpetuated through the socialisation process, both formal, And Informal, are than discussed. Chapter 3 gives a description of the formal school system in Freetown and examines the informal processes which operate within this formal system. Attention is also paid to the role of other socialisation agencies, such as the family, the peer group and the church. Chapter 4 examines the formal and informal socialisation process in the same why, within-the British setting The Conclusion contains a summary of the finding within both parts of the 'style of life' and place these findings in a winder social context. The mechanisms employed by each of these groups through their 'style of life' is compared with those used by other status groups. In particular, it pays attention to the instrumental role played by women in intuiting the 'style of life' of these two groups.


46, XY gonadal dysgenesis is a heterogeneous disorder of sex development (DSD) that features abnormal gonadal development and varying degrees of undervirilization of the external genitalia, ranging from micropenis to female-like genitalia. Embryonic testicular regression syndrome (ETRS; MIM: 273250) is considered part of the clinical spectrum of 46,XY gonadal dysgenesis. Most ETRS patients present micropenis or atypical genitalia associated with a complete absence of gonadal tissue in one or both sides. In most patients with gonadal dysgenesis, the genetic diagnosis is unclear. We performed whole exome sequencing in ETRS patients and identified a rare variant, the p.Arg308Gln, in DEAH (Asp-Glu-Ala-His) box polypeptide 37 (DHX37) in 5 affected individuals from three unrelated families. We expanded the analysis of DHX37 coding region to additional 71 patients with 46,XY gonadal dysgenesis and identified the p.Arg308Gln and three other DHX37 missense variants (p.Arg151Trp, p.Thr304Met and p.Arg674Trp) in 11 affected members from eight distinct families (8 patients with ETRS, two with partial gonadal dysgenesis and one 46,XY DSD female patient previously gonadectomized). The p.Arg308Gln and p.Arg674Trp recurrent variants were identified in six and three families, respectively. Segregation analysis revealed sex-limited autosomal dominant inheritance in 4 families, autosomal dominant with incomplete penetrance in one family and autosomal recessive in another family. Immunohistochemical analysis of normal testes revealed that DHX37 is expressed in germ cells at different stages of maturation. This study demonstrates an expressive frequency of rare predicted to be deleterious DHX37 variants in 46,XY gonadal dysgenesis group, particularly those individuals exhibiting the ETRS phenotype (25% and 50%, respectively). Our findings indicate that DHX37 is a new player in the complex cascade of male gonadal differentiation and maintenance, thus establishing a novel and frequent molecular etiology for 46,XY gonadal dysgenesis spectrum, mainly for embryonic testicular regression syndrome.


Doppel (Dpl) protein is a paralog of the prion protein (PrP) that shares 25% sequence similarity with the C-terminus of PrP, a common N-glycosylation site and a C-terminal signal peptide for attachment of a glycosylphophatidyl inositol anchor. Whereas PrPC is highly expressed in the central nervous system (CNS), Dpl is detected mostly in testes and its ectopic expression in the CNS leads to ataxia as well as Purkinje and granule cell degeneration in the cerebellum. The mechanism through which Dpl induces neurotoxicity is still debated. In the present work, primary neuronal cultures derived from postnatal cerebellar granule cells of wild-type and PrP-knockout FVB mice were used in order to investigate the molecular events that occur upon exposure to Dpl. Treatment of cultured cerebellar neurons with recombinant Dpl produced apoptosis that could be prevented by PrP co-incubation. When primary neuronal cultures from Bax-deficient mice were incubated with Dpl, no apoptosis was observed, suggesting an important role of Bax in triggering neurodegeneration. Similarly, cell survival increased when recDpl-treated cells were incubated with an inhibitor of caspase-3, which mediates apoptosis in mammalian cells. Together, our findings raise the possibility that Bax and caspase-3 feature in Dpl-mediated apoptosis.


This thesis describes a novel approach to the high speed automatic stitchmarking of shoe upper components by integrating an electrographic printer with a shape recognition system. A critical review of recognition system parameters selects the currently known shape parameters which are most suitable for use in a high speed recognition system with the large number of different shoe components found in a typical shoe factory. These are compared with the parameters actually used in the previously developed recognition system to be used for stitchmarking. A discussion of printing technologies suitable for marking shoe materials with computer generated patterns follows. It is concluded that an electrographic printer has the best combination of characteristics. There follows a description of experiments demonstrating xerography on shoe upper materials, and the design of a system integrating a low-cost laser printer to the recognition system which proved the concept of continuous automatic stitchmarking. With this performing satisfactorily, the system was converted to use a high speed printer requiring the use of an advanced graphics processor for handling the data transformations and interfacing with the printer. Modifications to the printer for operation with shoe materials are described, together with the need for a special toner. A full description of the resulting stitchmarking system is given, followed by details of analyses of its performance. Individual chapters are devoted to the accuracy, recognition efficiency, and the timing of the system. A potential bottleneck in determining the orientation of certain difficult shapes is identified, and faster methods for dealing with these are specially investigated. This concludes that the best approach is to optimise the present method and accelerate the calculations by using a more advanced microprocessor. A discussion of the general running of the machine includes details of problems which occurred with the modified printer mechanism and how these were overcome. Finally, suggestions are made for incorporation in an improved system capable of handling larger shapes with a tenfold speed increase.


The stress-strain behaviour of unsaturated soils containing discrete bubbles of gas has been studied in a programme of experimental and theoretical research.

The research is of particular relevance to the offshore environment, where bubbles of methane, nitrogen and carbon dioxide are formed within the seabed by the decomposition of organic matter. The presence of these gas bubbles can have a major influence on the engineering properties of the soil. As gas bubbles in marine sediments are typically much larger than the normal void spaces, the bubbles cannot be considered as simply changing the compressibility of the pore fluid.

Chapters 2 to 4 describe a series of undrained triaxial tests on reconstituted samples of clayey silt from an estuarine site. Bubbles of methane were formed within the soil by using a chemical technique. The test results provide evidence of the effect of gas bubbles on the undrained shear strength, together with useful information on the stress-strain behaviour prior to failure, the generation of pore pressures during shearing, the elastic moduli and the isotropic consolidation behaviour.

A theoretical model for soils containing large gas bubbles is developed in Chapter 5. The model consists of spherical bubble cavities surrounded by a matrix of saturated soil. In the following three chapters various aspects of the soil behaviour are examined by analysing the theoretical model. Chapter 6 covers the elastic moduli, Chapter 7 the consolidation behaviour and Chapter 8 the undrained shear strength.

In Chapter 9 the predictions of the theoretical model are compared with the experimental results. The agreement between theory and experiment is excellent, suggesting that the theoretical approach developed and analysed in Chapters 5 to 8 is a reasonable model for the behaviour of soils containing large gas bubbles.