Flat-rate electricity tariffs in Great Britain, which have no price variation throughout a day or a year, have been ongoing for decades to recover the cost of energy production and delivery. However, this type of electricity tariff has little incentives to encourage customers to modify their demands to suit the condition of the power supply system. Hence, it is challenged in the new smart grid environment, where demand side responses have important roles to play to encourage conventional energy efficiency and support the integration of renewable generation. In order to accommodate this new environment, the investigations of smart tariff designs and their applications in demand side response are therefore carried out from three main aspects. In a high carbon system dominated by controllable fossil generation where energy peaks typically coincide with those of networks, smart tariffs are developed by statistically tracking dynamic energy price variation tendencies and categorising real-time prices to form time-of-use patterns that capture the most significant price variations without compromising too much accuracy in total energy revenue from customers. In a low carbon system where energy peaks and network peaks may not be in synchronism at all times, additional complications will be raised when developing smart tariffs and optimal demand side response strategies. A new concept is developed in this thesis to allow shared utilization of energy storage between customers and distributed network operators to respond to conflicting energy price and network conditions. In this work, two operation models of storage share are implemented. One is fixed share between customers and network operators regardless of network conditions, and the other is dynamic share that storage capacity utilized by network operator changes with network condition. The consequential system benefit in terms of energy cost reduction and network cost saving is evaluated and converted into per unit cost reduction in the energy bill. Addition to technical solution in the form of storage, the benefit from household demand shifting, such as shifting wet appliances, in the presence of smart tariffs is evaluated. The value of household demand shifting is quantified as an equivalent storage capacity for the investigation of complementarity between technical and social interventions.


In November 2008, millions of Kenyan citizens expressed their happiness about the election of Barack Obama as President of the United States. Four years later, people still cheered upon receiving the news of his reelection, but their enthusiasm was nowhere near the euphoria of those earlier days. This article focuses on the consequences of Obama's presidency over four years in western Kenya—where Obama's father was raised—and argues that the appropriation of Obama serves multiple purposes, including the negotiation of identity, enabling social and political change, facilitating processes of healing and harmony, and creating conditions for peace after the 2007 postelection violence. Looking at the appropriation of Obama in Kenya enables us to study the processes of change, the localization of global flows, and the ongoing dialogical process of identity negotiation within a sociopolitical context.


This chapter examines the nature of verbless utterances, namely utterances requiring a copula or a lexical verb in the target language, in longitudinal production data of two English-speaking children learning French (aged 5;4 and 5;8 at the onset of acquisition). It is suggested that such utterances are projections of lexical categories, much like root infinitives. This is argued to support the Truncation Hypothesis in child L2 acquisition, according to which root declaratives may be underlied by either functional or lexical projections in the early stages (Prevost & White 2000a). This contrasts with proposals by Ionin and Wexler (2002) that verbless utterances stem from access problems to the relevant lexical forms.


In Africa, a seemingly growing number of attempts by presidents to overcome or abrogate term limits, or make them otherwise ineffective, has ignited a debate about the significance of constitutional engineering, and its implications for the rule of law, democracy, and the nature of politics in general. In light of recent instances of "third-term bids," we revisit the hypothesis about the institutionalisation of power in Africa and challenge the assumption that, over the past two decades, African politics have experienced a fundamental change away from "big man" rule towards the rule of law. Based on a comprehensive stocktaking of the state of play of term limits and third-term bids, we analyse broader trends and outcomes of legal and constitutional engineering. We argue that an analysis focusing exclusively on formal institutions and procedures misrepresents the extent of political change by ignoring power and authority in many African countries. While the growing salience of formal institutions is undeniable, we suggest that they matter more as a legitimisation of the power of political leaders than as a constraint to it.


Since the 9/11 attacks in 2001, the United States and many European states have sought ways to disrupt the radicalization process that leads individuals to join the call to Islamic jihad. This strategy has included attempts to prosecute individuals who post or help to circulate calls to jihad that appear on the internet. While this speech is unpopular, it is an open question whether the speech, standing alone, incites violence. More importantly, these prosecutions may both chill speech and open the door to wider governmental efforts to regulate unpopular speech. To explore the tension between security and civil liberties triggered by such strategies, I analyze three recent criminal cases in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States. I examine the prosecution strategies and the legal hurdles that prosecutors faced in securing convictions. I show that, in an effort to surmount the legal problems inherent in prosecuting these cases, prosecutors have broadly branded the defendants as terrorists and evil-doers. The broader impact of these strategies, risks shaking a core element of democratic governance.


Background: It is well known that age-related hearing loss (ARHL) is strongly associated with dementia. Different hypotheses have been considered to explain this link, including sensorial deprivation, the reduction in cognitive reserve, and the presence of shared pathological pathways (microvascular damage of the brain). Aims: We carried out a study of the audiological and neuropsychological characteristics of a sample of hearing impaired but cognitively healthy individuals (HIH). The aim of our study was to carefully outline the neuropsychological profile of the patients in order to verify whether hearing loss correlated with deficits in specific cognitive domains. Results: Episodic memory is affected by the presence of hearing loss, while semantic competences, syntactic, and grammar skills seem not to be affected. Furthermore, some audiological features linked to the intelligibility of spoken words can predict the presence of executive dysfunction; the same does not apply to memory impairment. Conclusion: In HIH, executive functions are widely employed in maintaining an acceptable level of comprehension of spoken language; consequently, other cognitive domains and instrumental abilities in HIH are not properly supported. Thus, it is arguable that programs of hearing rehabilitation for HIH could restore the allocation of attentional resources to the functioning of other cognitive domains.


Despite 30 years of epidemiologic research on HIV transmission, no published investigations in sub-Saharan Africa or Asia have involved study designs that allow HIV transmission modes to be determined with confidence. Consequently, there is much uncertainty about what is driving HIV transmission in these regions, which hampers prevention. There are four design elements in a rigorous investigation: inclusion of persons with incident HIV infection (cases) and uninfected controls, comprehensive assessment of blood and sexual exposures, tracing of contacts to such exposures for both cases and controls, and sequencing of infected persons' HIV DNA to identify persons with genetically related infections. Although all four elements are necessary to determine transmission modes with greatest confidence, investigations with the first two or three elements provide stronger evidence than exists currently and offer useful guidance on prevention strategies until more definitive investigations can be conducted. Investigations with these design elements can piggyback on existing clinical and other health services, and thus require little or no funding to implement. Scientific help is available for conducting these investigations. The most important requirement for starting this kind of project is the desire to know what is driving HIV transmission in one's community.


Abstract. We present satellite based ozone profile estimates derived by combining radiances measured at thermal infrared (TIR) wavelengths from the Aura Tropospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) and ultraviolet (UV) wavelengths measured by the Aura Ozone Monitoring Instrument (OMI). The advantage of using these combined wavelengths and instruments for sounding ozone over either instrument alone is improved sensitivity near the surface as well as the capability to consistently resolve the lower troposphere, upper troposphere, and lower stratosphere for scenes with varying geophysical states. For example, the vertical resolution of ozone estimates from either TES or OMI varies strongly by surface albedo and temperature. Typically, TES provides 1.6 degrees of freedom for signal (DOFS) and OMI provides less than 1 DOFS in the troposphere. The combination provides 2 DOFS in the troposphere with approximately 0.4 DOFS for near surface ozone (surface to 700 hPa). We evaluated these new ozone profile estimates with ozonesonde measurements and found that calculated errors for the joint TES and OMI ozone profile estimates are in reasonable agreement with actual errors as derived by the root-mean-square (RMS) difference between the ozonesondes and the joint TES/OMI ozone estimates. We also used a common a priori profile in the retrievals in order to evaluate the capability of different retrieval approaches on capturing near-surface ozone variability. We found that the vertical resolution of the joint TES/OMI ozone profile estimates shows significant improvements on quantifying variations in near-surface ozone with RMS differences of 49.9% and correlation coefficient of R = 0.58 for the TES/OMI near-surface estimates as compared to 67.2% RMS difference and R = 0.33 for TES and 115.8% RMS difference and R = 0.09 for OMI. This comparison removes the impacts of using the climatological a priori in the retrievals. However, it results in artificially large sonde/retrieval differences. The TES/OMI ozone profiles from the production code of joint retrievals will use climatological a priori and therefore will have more realistic ozone estimates than those from using a common a priori volume mixing ratio profile.


While the impact of backfill bias, survivor bias, and other database construction issues (e.g., onshore versus offshore) on hedge fund performance have received considerable research attention, the impact on hedge fund performance of differences in the underlying quality or number of reporting managers in various hedge fund databases has often been underreported. Most major hedge fund databases rely on manager-based reporting. As a result, database quality is dependent on managers' updating requested data. In addition, hedge fund databases were created and grew at different times. Thus, large differences in the number of managers reporting as well as differences in other fund platform characteristics may exist between various databases. If these databases contained enough manager breadth and depth, results at the portfolio level could be similar across various databases; however, differences may still exist at the average manager level, especially for small subsets of analyses (e.g., strategy, fee level, etc.). In this analysis, the authors compare performance characteristics of two major databases often used in hedge fund analysis (CSFB/Tremont and CISDM). More specifically, they compare performance results at the strategy level for 1) all reporting funds, 2) funds denominated only in U.S. dollars, and 3) a cleaned set of funds with duplicates removed (e.g., multiple share classes or currencies). Results show some return and risk differences between the two databases at the portfolio and average manager levels. These differences, however, are often relatively small. In the end, the impact of database usage and the necessity of "deconstructing" one's database depends, in part, on whether one views the glass as half full or half empty.


— The conventional PID (proportional-integral- derivative) controller is widely applied to industrial automation and process control field because its structure is sample and its robust is well, but it do not work well for nonlinear system, time-delayed linear system and time varying system. This paper provides a new style of PID controller that is based on artificial neural network and evolutionary algorithm according to the conventional one's mathematical formula. Artificial Neural Network is an effective tool for highly nonlinear system. With the advent of high-speed computer system, there is more increased interest in the study of nonlinear system. Neuro control algorithm is mostly implemented for the application to robotic systems and also some development has occurred in process control systems. Process Control systems are often nonlinear and difficult to control accurately. Their dynamic models are more difficult to derive than those used in aerospace or robotic control, and they tend to change in an unpredictable way. This paper gives an example where a multilayered feed forward back propagation neural network is trained offline to perform as a controller for a temperature control system with no a priori knowledge regarding its dynamics. The inverse dynamics model is developed by applying a variety of input vectors to the neural network. The performance of neural network based on these input vectors is observed by configuring it directly to control the process. This paper compared the performance of PID controller with ANN based upon Set point change, Effect of load disturbances and Processes with variable dead time. The result shows that ANN outperforms the PID controller.


Abstract Until the 1990s, venous thromboembolism (VTE) was viewed primarily as a complication of hospitalization for major surgery (or associated with the late stage of terminal illness). However, recent trials in patients hospitalized with a wide variety of acute medical illnesses have demonstrated a risk of VTE in medical patients comparable with that seen after major general surgery. In addition, epidemiologic studies have shown that between one quarter and one half of all clinically recognized symptomatic VTEs occur in individuals who are neither hospitalized nor recovering from a major illness. This expanding understanding of the population at risk challenges physicians to carefully examine risk factors for VTE to identify high‐risk patients who could benefit from prophylaxis. Factors sufficient by themselves to prompt physicians to consider VTE prophylaxis include major surgery, multiple trauma, hip fracture, or lower extremity paralysis because of spinal cord injury. Additional risk factors, such as previous VTE, increasing age, cardiac or respiratory failure, prolonged immobility, presence of central venous lines, estrogens, and a wide variety of inherited and acquired hematological conditions contribute to an increased risk for VTE. These predisposing factors are seldom sufficient by themselves to justify the use of prophylaxis. Nevertheless, individual risk factors, or combinations thereof, can have important implications for the type and duration of appropriate prophylaxis and should be carefully reviewed to assess the overall risk of VTE in each patient. (Circulation. 2003;107:I‐9 ‐I‐16.)


With the ever-increasing burden of obesity and Type 2 diabetes, it is generally acknowledged that there remains a need for developing new therapeutics. One potential mechanism to combat obesity is to raise energy expenditure via increasing the amount of uncoupled respiration from the mitochondria-rich brown and beige adipocytes. With the recent appreciation of thermogenic adipocytes in humans, much effort is being made to elucidate the signaling pathways that regulate the browning of adipose tissue. In this review, we focus on the ligand-receptor signaling pathways that influence the cyclic nucleotides, cAMP and cGMP, in adipocytes. We chose to focus on G-protein-coupled receptor (GPCR), guanylyl cyclase and phosphodiesterase regulation of adipocytes because they are the targets of a large proportion of all currently available therapeutics. Furthermore, there is a large overlap in their signaling pathways, as signaling events that raise cAMP or cGMP generally increase adipocyte lipolysis and cause changes that are commonly referred to as browning: increasing mitochondrial biogenesis, uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1) expression and respiration.


Pragmatics – the way we interact using more than just language – is particularly problematic for people with communication disorders. Through an extensive analysis of how pragmatics can go wrong, this book not only provides a novel and clinically useful account of pragmatic impairment, but it also throws new light on how pragmatics functions in healthy individuals. The aim of this book is to bring mainstream and clinical pragmatics together by showing that, not only can our understanding of pragmatics be aided by the study of pragmatic impairment, but that clinical and theoretical pragmatics are better served by treating pragmatic ability and disability within a single framework. It is the first book on this topic to be aimed primarily at linguists and psycholinguists rather than clinicians, and includes illustrative material on conditions such as autism and aphasia and a wide range of other communication disorders in both children and adults.


Rodent losses are a perennial problem worldwide. In Asia, for instance, rodents devour an estimated 6% of the annual rice harvest—roughly enough to feed Indonesia9s 240 million people for a year. And they do damage in nearly every phase of farming, from munching on seedlings to eating stored grain. Agriculture agencies across Asia are now spreading the word about some relatively simple rat countermeasures.


Aim: To investigate the extent to which trainees utilised log entries in an E-portfolio (particularly those involving reflection) to engage with the portfolio.

Summary of work: Each of seven possible categories of log entry (four of which required reflection) were anonymously analysed by retrieving these from the trainees' shared area on the E-portfolio web site.

Summary of results: Of 82 ST1 trainees, 16 had logged no shared entries at all. Recording organised teaching was the commonest event logged (n=308: median 4.5 per trainee), followed by reflections on a clinical event (295: median 4), reflection on a learning event (211: median 3), reflections on the trainees own teaching (108: median 2), audit activity (99: median 1.5), learning during an attachment (70: median 1) and writing a research paper (31: median 0). The most common time of year for log entries to occur was in November to January, the least common being May to July at the end of the trainees posting.

Conclusion: Some trainees make frequent use of the opportunity to record and share reflective log entries whilst others appear not to engage with this aspect of the portfolio at all. The quality of reflective log entries and reasons for non-engagement should be investigated further.


The operations of the mobile resources of Durham County Constabulary have been studied with particular reference to their function of responding to calls for service, both emergency and otherwise. Data collected during two three-month survey periods a year apart has been analysed to determine the main quantitative aspects of mobile police performance and to evaluate the demand for and the service provided by these resources. The effects of organisational changes made between the two survey periods have been assessed in terms of these measures of performance. Significant changes in some aspects of the service provided were recorded. Mathematical models of these measures of police performance have been tested and found to be generally applicable to the Durham Constabulary situation. They have been used to explain some of the observed changes and to form a basis for the evaluation of various policies for allocating mobile resources to optimise performance. Various possible objectives for mobile police resource allocation have been considered and their consequences on allocation and on patrol car organisation evaluated. A conflict between certain allocation objectives under Durham Constabulary conditions has been indicated. An allocation of mobile resources to satisfy specified service capabilities in areas of mixed urban/rural characteristics has been recommended and its implications considered.


over the past century, an art form has emerged between the realms of visual art and music. created by composers and sculptors, 'sound art' challenges fundamental divisions between these two sister arts and may be found in museums, festivals or public sites. works of sound art play on the fringes of our often-unconscious aural experience of a world dominated by the visual. this work addresses our ears in surprising ways: it is not strictly music, or noise, or speech, or any sound found in nature, but often includes, combines and transforms elements of all of these. sound art sculpts sound in space and time, reacts to environments and reshapes them, and frames ambient 'found sound', altering our concepts of space, time, music and noise.


The phosphatase of regenerating liver (PRL) family, a unique class of oncogenic phosphatases, consists of three members: PRL-1, PRL-2, and PRL-3. Aberrant overexpression of PRL-3 has been found in multiple solid tumor types. Ectopic expression of PRLs in cells induces transformation, increases mobility and invasiveness, and forms experimental metastases in mice. We have now shown that small interfering RNA-mediated depletion of PRL expression in cancer cells results in the down-regulation of p130Cas phosphorylation and expression and prevents tumor cell anchorage-independent growth in soft agar. We have also identified a small molecule, 7-amino-2-phenyl-5H-thieno[3,2-c]pyridin-4-one (thienopyridone), which potently and selectively inhibits all three PRLs but not other phosphatases in vitro. The thienopyridone showed significant inhibition of tumor cell anchorage-independent growth in soft agar, induction of the p130Cas cleavage, and anoikis, a type of apoptosis that can be induced by anticancer agents via disruption of cell-matrix interaction. Unlike etoposide, thienopyridone-induced p130Cas cleavage and apoptosis were not associated with increased levels of p53 and phospho-p53 (Ser(15)), a hallmark of genotoxic drug-induced p53 pathway activation. This is the first report of a potent selective PRL inhibitor that suppresses tumor cell three-dimensional growth by a novel mechanism involving p130Cas cleavage. This study reveals a new insight into the role of PRL-3 in priming tumor progression and shows that PRL may represent an attractive target for therapeutic intervention in cancer.


The cephalopod fauna collected in five MEDITS-ES trawl surveys carried out on the Iberian Mediterranean coast was analysed. Hauls, which were carried out in spring between 1994 and 1998, numbered 480. A total of 34 cephalopod species, grouped in 11 families, was found at depths of between 25 and 786 m. Species and samples assemblages were analysed with the Bray-Curtis similarity index. From the physical parameters studied (depth, temperature and bottom type) only depth showed a positive correlation with cephalopod distribution. Three main cephalopod communities were defined: the shelf community ( 480 m) and a group of cephalopods which were widely distributed more abundantly on the lower continental shelf-upper slope (150-480 m). SIMPER analysis revealed that Loligo (Alloteuthis) media was the main indicator species of the shelf group, Eledone cirrhosa was the indicator species of the lower shelf upper slope group and Todarodes sagittatus of the middle slope community. The 150-480 m stratum was considered a transitional zone, representing an overlapping region for shelf and slope faunas.


Superior sagittal sinus (SSS) thrombosis has high morbidity and mortality, and urgent recanalization is critical for severe cases. Standard endovascular techniques for thrombolysis and thrombectomy use retrograde venous access, an approach that may be unsuccessful in cases with extensive firm clot burden involving the dural sinuses distal to the SSS. An anterior open transcranial approach to the SSS for catheter sheath placement to facilitate antegrade mechanical thrombectomy and thrombolysis of the SSS and more distal sinuses has not been previously described. Here we describe a case in which multiple unsuccessful attempts at retrograde endovascular access were attempted. Thus, a burr hole over the anterior SSS was performed for daily endovascular antegrade procedures using the Angiojet rheolytic catheter device and chemical thrombolysis. Near-complete recanalization of the SSS was achieved with venous outflow via dilated left transverse and left sigmoid sinuses, along with significant collateral flow in multiple cerebral veins.


Background Knowledge is lacking about the associations between sport injuries and components of the female athlete triad. Objective To assess the prevalence of amenorrhea in elite female athletics athletes and if athletes with history of amenorrhea are at higher injury risk than athletes with regular menstrual cycles or on combined oral contraceptives. Design Cohort study during a period of 52 weeks. Setting Swedish female youth and adult elite athletics athletes. Participants Athletes ranked in the national top-10 in each event were invited to take part in a 52-week surveillance study. Among the female athletes that consented to participate (n=161), 149 (92%) completed a baseline gynecological survey. Risk factor assessment Amenorrhea, event group, previous injury, training volume and intensity (measured by the TLRI), and interactions with age. Main outcome measurements Time to first injury causing full or partial time loss from athletics. Results 37 (25%) athletes reported having history of amenorrhea. More runners reported amenorrhea (P=.017; Cramer's V=0.19) than athletes in the throwing and jumping event groups; this difference in amenorrhea prevalence was distributed to adult runners only (P=.016; Cramer's V=0.26). Additionally, there was a tendency for that runners with a lower BMI had a prevalence of amenorrhea (P=.062). Sixty-six percent of the athletes sustained an injury during the study period. Cox proportional hazards regression analyses did not show statistical associations between amenorrhea and athletics injury. Conclusions Swedish female athletics athletes reported a high prevalence of amenorrhea compared to the normal population. Athletes with extended exposure to participation in running events with high demands on aerobic performance sufferred more extensively from amenorrhea. No associations with injury incidence could be established, but this finding needs to be confirmed in studies with larger sample size. Further studies of amenorrhea and its health implications among female athletes are warranted.


In this pioneering work, Ernst Breisach presents an effective, well-organized, and concise account of the development of historiography in Western culture. Neither a handbook nor an encyclopedia, this up-to-date third edition narrates and interprets the development of historiography from its origins in Greek poetry to the present, with compelling sections on postmodernism, deconstructionism, African-American history, women s history, microhistory, the "Historikerstreit," cultural history, and more. The definitive look at the writing of history by a historian, "Historiography "provides key insights into some of the most important issues, debates and innovations in modern historiography. Praise for the first edition: Breisach s comprehensive coverage of the subject and his clear presentation of the issues and the complexity of an evolving discipline easily make his work the best of its kind. Lester D. Stephens, "American Historical Review ""


The grand goal of Computer Vision is to generate an automatic description of an image based on its visual content. Such a description would lead to many exciting capabilities, for example, searching through the images based on their visual content rather than the textual tags attached to the images. Images and videos take an ever increasing share of the total information content in archives and on the internet. Hence, such automatic descriptions would provide powerful tools for organizing and indexing by means of the visual content. Category level object detection is an important step in generating such automatic image descriptions.

The major part of this thesis addresses the problems encountered in popular lines of approaches which utilize shape in various ways for object detection namely, i) Hough Voting, ii) Contour based Object Detection and iii) Chamfer Matching. The problems are tackled using the principles of emergence which states that the whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Hough Voting methods are popular because they efficiently handle the high complexity of multi-scale, category-level object detection in cluttered scenes. However, the primary weakness of this approach is that mutually dependent local observations independently vote for intrinsically global object properties such as object scale. All the votes are added up to obtain object hypotheses. The assumption is thus that object hypotheses are a sum of independent part votes. Popular representation schemes are, however, based on an overlapping sampling of semi-local image features with large spatial support (e.g. SIFT or geometric blur). Features are thus mutually dependent. The question arises as to how to incorporate the feature dependences into Hough Voting framework. In this thesis, the feature dependencies are modelled by an objective function that combines three intimately related problems: i) grouping of mutually dependent parts, ii) solving the correspondence problem conjointly for dependent parts, and iii) finding concerted object hypotheses using extended groups rather than based on local observations alone.

While Voting with dependent groups brings a significant improvement over standard Hough Voting, the interest points are still grouped in a query image during the detection stage. The grouping process can be made robust by grouping densely sampled interest points in training images yielding contours and evaluating the utility of contours over the full ensemble of training images. However, contour based object detection poses significant challenges for category-level object detection in cluttered scenes: Object form is an emergent property that cannot be perceived locally but becomes only available once the whole object has been detected and segregated from the background. To tackle this challenge, this thesis addresses the detection of objects and the assembling of their shape simultaneously, while avoiding fragile bottom-up grouping in query images altogether. Rather, the challenging problems of finding meaningful contours and discovering their spatially consistent placement are both shifted into the training stage. These challenges can be better handled using an ensemble of training samples rather than just a single query image. A dictionary of meaningful contours is then discovered using grouping based on co-activation patterns in all training images. Spatially consistent compositions of all contours are learned using maximum margin multiple instance learning. During recognition, objects are detected and their shape is explained simultaneously by optimizing a single cost function.

For finding the placement of an object template or its part in an edge map, Chamfer matching is a widely used technique because of its simplicity and speed. However, it treats objects as being a mere sum of the distance transformation of all their contour pixels, thus leading to spurious matches. This thesis takes account of the fact that boundary pixels are not all equally important by applying a discriminative approach to chamfer distance computation, thereby increasing its robustness. While this improves the behaviour in the foreground, chamfer matching is still prone to accidental responses in spurious background clutter. To estimate the accidentalness of a match, a small dictionary of simple background contours is utilized. These background elements are trained to focus at locations where, relative to the foreground, typically accidental matches occur. Finally, a max-margin classifier is employed to learn the co-placement of all background contours and the foreground template. Both the contributions bring significant improvements over state-of-the-art chamfer matching on standard benchmark datasets.

The final part of the thesis presents a case study where shape-based object representations provided semantic understanding of medieval manuscripts to art historians. To carry out the case study, a novel image dataset has been assembled from illuminations of 15th century manuscripts with ground-truth information about various objects of artistic interest such as crowns, swords. An approach has been developed for automatically extracting potential objects (for e.g. crowns) from the large image collection, then analysing the intra-class variability of objects by means of a low dimensional embedding. With the help of the resultant plot, the art historians were able to confirm different artistic workshops within the manuscript and could verify the variations of art within a particular school. Obtaining such insights manually is a tedious task and one has to go through and analyse all the object types from all the pages of the manuscript. In addition, a semi-supervised approach has been developed for analysing the variations within an artistic workshop, and extended further to understand the transitions across artistic styles by means of 1-d ordering of objects.


"The Philokalia" is an important collection of writings by Fathers of the Eastern Church dating from the fourth to the fourteenth century. It exists in three versions: the Greek, complied in the eighteenth century; the Slavonic; and the Russian. The Russian text, translated by Bishop Theophan the Recluse in the nineteenth century, and consisting of five volumes (with which a sixth is sometimes associated), is the most complete of all three versions. It is the Russian text that has been used in translating into English this selection, which presents a range of "Philokalia" writings concerning the Jesus Prayer.


The novel coronavirus pandemic has set in high relief the entrenched health, social, racial, political, and economic inequities within American society as the incidence of severe morbidity and mortality from the disease caused by the virus appears to be much greater in Black and other racial/ethnic minority populations, within homeless and incarcerated populations, and in lower-income communities in general. The reality is that the U.S. is ill equipped to realize health equity in prevention and control efforts for any type of health outcome, including an infectious disease pandemic. In this article, we address an important question: When new waves of the current pandemic emerge or another novel pandemic emerges, how can the U.S. be better prepared and also ensure a rapid response that reduces rather than exacerbates social and health inequities? We argue for a health equity framework to pandemic preparedness, grounded in meaningful community engagement that, while recognizing the fundamental causes of social and health inequity, has a clear focus on upstream and midstream preparedness and downstream rapid response efforts that put social and health equity at the forefront.


Caching multimedia files at the network edge has been identified as a key technology for enhancing users' quality-of-service (QoS), while reducing redundant transmissions over capacity-constrained backhauls. Nevertheless, in small cell networks, the efficiency of a caching policy depends on the ability of small base stations (SBSs) to anticipate the requests from the user equipments (UEs). In this paper, we propose a collaborative filtering (CF) scheme for estimating the required backhaul usage at each SBS, by mining the cacheability of UEs' file requests. In the proposed approach, each SBS has a two-fold objective: update the bandwidth allocation based on the estimated backhaul utilization, and, given the current bandwidth availability, identify which UEs to service. We formulate the problem as a one-to many matching game between SBSs and UEs, and we propose a novel cache-aware user association algorithm that minimizes the backhaul usage at each SBS, subject to individual QoS requirements. Simulation results, based on real-world service request logs, have shown that the proposed CF-based solution can yield significant gains in terms of backhaul efficiency and cache hit-ratio, reaching up to 25%, with a maximum gap of 9% to an optimal cache-aware association technique.


On 22 January 2014, the European Commission is expected to publish the proposals for the 2030 Framework for Climate and Energy Policies, which will be discussed and possibly – or maybe, partly – agreed during the 20-21 March 2014 European Council. This is the first comprehensive review of the 2007-09 Climate and Energy Package, which resulted in the so-called '20-20-20' targets by 2020. The principal intention is to define the EU's climate change and energy policy framework for the next decade and beyond to give investors an adequate amount of predictability if not certainty.

This Commentary argues, however, that the '2030 Framework' is not just about predictability; it is also about making the proper adjustments based on the lessons learned and also in response to new issues that have emerged in the interim. The authors ask what the main lessons are and how they should influence the 2030 Framework. Or put differently, what are the conditions that the "2030 Framework" will need to meet in order to offer a viable package for discussion?


This thesis explores the relatively unknown area of female stalkers. Throughout the thesis the newly defined term 'Socially Intrusive Behaviours' (SIBs) is used to unify previous stalking definitions. Chapter One provides an introduction to the topic of females who display SIBs. Chapter Two includes a Thematic Analysis and explores the motives and justifications for SIBs and examines the personality traits, attachment styles and experiences of anger with female patients. Results indicate that SIBs are a maladaptive coping strategy that benefit the perpetrator, provide feelings of safety, are a response to perceived threats of abandonment and require over-control of emotional arousal. Assessment of personality, anger and attachment are also examined and treatment recommendations are discussed. An interesting finding was that SIBs are a maladaptive coping strategy to manipulate the perpetrators' feelings rather than the feelings or actions of others. Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT) is a recognised treatment which targets a range of maladaptive coping strategies. Chapter Three provides a systematic review of the effectiveness of DBT with female-only populations in Randomised Control Trials. Results found DBT was superior at reducing a range of maladaptive coping behaviours including self-harm, substance misuse and binge/purge eating. It was therefore considered a potentially useful intervention for females whose maladaptive coping strategies are SIBs. Whether DBT could effectively target an adult female patient's SIBs was tested by a single case study in Chapter Four. The results indicated that DBT reduced her SIBs and improved her anger management skills. Chapter Five is a critique of the State Trait Anger Expression Inventory (Spielberger, 1999) as used in Chapter Two and Four. Chapter Six discusses the clinical and theoretical implications of this thesis, explores its limitations, and provides recommendations for future research.

KEYWORDS: Stalking, females, Socially Intrusive Behaviours (SIBs), Dialectical Behavioural Therapy (DBT), anger, STAXI-2


Consumers may prefer local food but do not always purchase it. A mixed methods research design was used to determine if there were differences between consumers' preferences for Florida strawberries and their awareness of the state's strawberry season. Using focus groups, researchers found that consumers preferred to purchase Florida strawberries but did not seek them out. In addition, consumers had limited knowledge of Florida's strawberry season. Five hundred Floridians were surveyed to understand their knowledge of and preferences for Florida berries. Findings indicate that food distributors should use advertisements that reinforce the positive attributes of Florida produce, along with information on the growing season, in order to increase awareness and promote sales of Florida strawberries.


Abstract This study investigated the effects of iron ore roasting on iron ore beneficiation. Hematite-magnetite conversion was comprehensively investigated and characterized by XRD, SEM, and M–H analyses. The magnetic susceptibilities of the materials were shown by Honda–Owen plots. The optimum magnetite transformation conditions were found as 800°C temperature, 10 wt.% coal and 10 min reaction time. Preliminary tests with the unroasted ores were conducted before the optimization and comparison tests. The Box Behnken test design was used for modeling the falcon concentrator separation tests. High-intensity wet magnetic, low-intensity dry magnetic and falcon gravity separators were applied to the roasted and unroasted ores at the optimum test conditions. After conversion, the iron concentrations in the grade that could be sold (>56% Fe) were obtained by the wet magnetic separator and the falcon gravity separator with the recovery yields of 90.87 and 81.72%, respectively. The positive effects of roasting were observed in terms of concentrate yields for the wet magnetic separation and gravity separation methods. However, desired saleable iron concentrates were not achieved by dry magnetic separation experiments, although the recovery yields were raised above 80% after the conversion process.


The aim of this research was to explore the structure-activity relationship (SAR) of ferrocenyl-bioconjugates. A series of N-(ferrocenylmethylamino acid)-fluorinated-benzene carboxamide derivatives and a series of N-(ferrocenyl)-benzoyl-aminoalkane derivatives have been synthesised, structurally characterised and biologically evaluated for their anti-proliferative activity on various cancer cell lines, principally, the (estrogen receptor positive) MCF-7 breast cancer cell line.
The anti-cancer effect of ferrocene is due to the generation of a reactive oxygenated species. As part of the primary SAR study, a series of N-(ferrocenylmethylamino acid)-fluorinated-benzene carboxamide derivatives have been synthesised, structurally characterised and biologically evaluated. This series involved the attachment of amino acids, such as glycine, L-alanine and β-alanine and also a fluorobenzoyl unit to a ferrocenylmethylamine moiety in order to enhance the bioavailability of the compounds thus increasing their anti-cancer effect. The synthesis of N-(ferrocenylmethylamino acid) fluorinated benzene carboxamide derivatives was achieved by coupling the free N-terminus of the ferrocenylmethylamine with the carboxylic acid group of the N-(fluorobenzoyl)-amino acid using N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N'-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and 1-hydroxybenzotriazole (HOBt) coupling protocol. All compounds were characterised by a range of spectroscopic techniques including: 1H, 13C, 19F, DEPT-135, and HMQC NMR in addition to IR, UV, and MS
The attachment of a benzoyl spacer lowers the redox potential of the ferrocene moiety thus making the iron atom between the cyclopentadienyl rings, easier and more accessible to oxidation. A series of N-{(ferrocenyl)-benzoyl}-aminoalkanes have also been synthesised and characterised and biologically evaluated on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. The main aim was to conduct a structure activity relationship on two key moieties of the molecules, the difference of the substitution pattern around the aromatic benzoyl moiety and also the attachment of the various aminoalkanes, in hope that the biological activity will show a greater anti-proliferative effect against cancer cell lines. The synthesis of the N-{(ferrocenyl)-benzoyl}-aminoalkanes derivatives involved the coupling of the free N-terminus of the amine group of the aminoalkanes to the carboxylic acid group of the ferrocenyl-benzoic acid (ortho-, meta- and para-) using N-(3-dimethylaminopropyl)-N'-ethylcarbodiimide hydrochloride (EDC) and N-hydroxysuccinimide (NHS) coupling protocol. All compounds were also characterised by the spectroscopic methods as mentioned above.
For the biological evaluation of the N-(ferrocenylmethylamino acid) fluorinated benzene carboxamide series of compounds, were tested on the estrogen positive (ER+) breast cancer cell line, MCF-7. Three libraries of novel ferrocene compounds were prepared by incorporating the glycine, L-alanine and β-alanine amino acids and the fluorobenzoyl moiety with the fluorine at the positions 2, 3, 4, (2,6), (2,4), (3,5), (3,4,5) and (2,3,4,5,6). All three libraries were tested in vitro. For comparative reasons, N-(ferrocenylmethyl)-4-fluorobenzene carboxamide, the most active compound from a previous SAR study on the MBA-MD-435-SF, ER(+) breast cancer cell line was also tested to observe the effect from the addition of the amino acid into the model structure. In total of the three libraries tested, there were four active compounds, with N-(ferrocenylmethylalanine)-3,4,5-trifluorobenzene carboxamide being the most active giving an IC50 value of 2.4 µM. This derivative also induced a block in the G2/M phase of the cell cycle. This series of compounds were also screened in vitro for their anti-proliferative effect against the non-small cell lung cancer cell line, H1299 at two concentrations, 10 µM and 1 µM. There was no activity below either of the concentrations and the study was stopped. The biological evaluation of N-{(ferrocenyl)-benzoyl}-aminoalkanes were screened in vitro on the MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. Preliminary screens showed that this type of compound had an anti-proliferative effect on MCF-7 breast cancer cell line. From 27 derivatives synthesised, IC50 data values were achieved. The ortho- series produced eight derivatives having an anti-proliferative effect, six of which were in the range of 2 µM to 6 µM. The meta- series produced two derivatives, with IC50 values of 51.5 µM and 51.2 µM. The para- derivatives also produced eight derivatives having an anti-proliferative effect, three of which were in the range of 2 µM to 6 µM. The most active derivative synthesised was N-{para-(ferrocenyl)-benzoyl}-aminooctane, with an IC50 of 1.10 µM.


Robot localization has been recognized as one of the most fundamental problems in mobile robotics. Localization can be defined as the problem of determining the position of a robot. More precisely, the aim of localization is to estimate the position of a robot in its environment, given local sensorial data. This information is essential for a broad range of mobile robots tasks; in particular, the robot behavior may depend on its position. This article presents a novel and efficient metric for appearance based robot localization. This metric is integrated in a framework that uses a partially observable Markov decision process as position evaluator, thus allowing good results even in partially explored environments and in highly perceptually aliased indoor scenarios.


H2O was supplied to the Noachian atmosphere by eruptions, or in association with large impacts. Most water outgassed into an extremely cold atmosphere, and condensate deposits were inevitable. High heat flow could lead to subglacial melting only if ice thicknesses were greater than 500-1000m, which is extremely unlikely. Subareal melting and flow is contingent upon temperatures periodically exceeding 273 K, and retarding evaporative loss of the flow. In still air, evaporation into a dry atmosphere is in the free convection regime, and a stream with 2 cu m/s discharge, flowing 1 m/s could persist for hundreds of days and cover distances greater than any valley reach. The zero-wind-shear condition is considered implausible however. We investigate the possibility that evaporation rates were suppressed because the atmosphere was regionally charged with H2O as it moved over snow/ice fields. Our initial concern is precipitation from volcanic plumes. A Kilauea-style eruption on the martian surface would cover a 10km circular deposit with 10cm of H2O, if all H2O could be precipitated near the vent. The characteristics of the eruption at the vent, (vent size, temperature, H2O content, etc.) are independent of the environmental conditions. The subsequent behavior of the plume, including precipitation of ash and H2O condensate depends strongly on the environment. Hence, the proximal fate of volcanic H2O is amenable to treatment in a model. A simple bulk thermodynamic model of the rise of an H2O plume through a stably stratified CO2 atmosphere, with only adiabatic cooling, produces runaway plume rise. A more complex treatment includes the effects of latent heat release, wind shear along the plume, divergence of ash and H2O, and will yield more realistic estimates of H2O transport in eruptive plumes. Results of these simulations will be presented.


The simulation of the incomplete ionization of substitutional dopants in Silicon Carbide (SiC) is often performed using Boltzmann statistics and ionization energy values that do not depend on free carrier concentrations. But in the case of heavy doping Fermi-Dirac statistics is needed, while the case of an inhomogeneous dopants distribution or that of an excess carrier injection requires local free carrier concentration-dependent impurity ionization energies. Here a model for describing partial ionization from diluted to high homogeneous doping densities in SiC and in thermal equilibrium is presented and compared with results on Phosphorus doped 4H-SiC.


Title of Dissertation: INVESTIGATION OF INTERCELLULAR ADHESION MOLECULE-1 TARGETED DRUG TRANSPORT ACROSS THE GASTROINTESTINAL EPITHELIUM Rasa Ghaffarian, Doctor of Philosophy, 2015 Dissertation directed by: Associate Professor, Silvia Muro Fischell Department of Bioengineering & Institute for Bioscience and Biotechnology Research Contrary to systemic injection of therapeutics, oral formulations represent clear advantages to patients, healthcare systems, and pharmaceutical companies including safety, low cost and patient compliance. However, oral delivery remains a major obstacle due to (1) drug instability in the harsh environment of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract owing to low gastric pH and enzymatic hydrolysis; (2) low permeability through the mucus layer and subsequent adhesion to the GI epithelium; and (3) suboptimal transport into or across the GI epitheliumthe cell barrier responsible for selective absorption of substances into the circulation, for local or systemic delivery. While encapsulation methods have been developed to overcome barriers to stability and adhesion to the GI epithelium, safe and effective transport into and across this lining has not yet been achieved for several drugs, especially biotherapeutics. Hence, our goal is to overcome these challenges for delivery of therapeutics (including biotherapeutics) via the oral route. For this purpose, we targeted drugs to intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), a protein expressed on the GI epithelium and other cell types. We previously demonstrated, that polymer nanocarriers (NCs) coated with antibodies to bind multiple copies of ICAM-1 (multimeric targeting) triggered uptake and transport across cultured GI epithelial cells, enabling intracellular and transcellular drug delivery. To implement this strategy in vivo, we successfully encapsulated antibody-coated NCs in chitosan-alginate microspheres for gastric protection of labile targeting antibodies, site-specific release in the intestinal environment (the site of drug absorption) and retention of targeting ability following release in vitro, in cell culture, and in vivo. Furthermore, to expand the utility of the ICAM-1 targeting approach, we explored a novel drug delivery system that binds only one to two molecules of ICAM-1 (monomeric targeting), which provides distinct advantages for oral drug delivery compared with multimeric strategies. In order to elucidate the advantages offered by this monomeric targeting approach, we compared the uptake and intracellular trafficking of ICAM-1 targeted monomeric antibodies vs. multimeric antibody-coated NCs in cultured endothelial cells, a commonly used cellular model to study ICAM-1 transport. We then revealed that the distinct itinerary of transport offered by monomeric ICAM-1 targeted antibodies led to enhanced uptake and transport across cultured GI epithelial cells, showing promise for oral delivery. Finally, in order to exploit this transport pathway for oral drug delivery, we conjugated a model drug cargo to monomeric ICAM-1 targeted antibodies, which was shown to endow drug targeting and delivery into and across cultured GI epithelial cells, while preserving the functional activity of the drug cargo. These findings demonstrate that monomeric vehicles serve as a viable alternative to multimeric strategies, expanding the range of oral delivery applications afforded by ICAM-1 targeting. Taken together, the work performed in this dissertation advocates the potential of ICAM1 targeting strategies for improving oral absorption of therapeutics, and provides a foundation for studying these strategies in vivo. INVESTIGATION OF INTERCELLULAR ADHESION MOLECULE-1 TARGETED DRUG TRANSPORT ACROSS THE GASTROINTESTINAL EPITHELIUM


Longitudinal studies have the potential to enhance our understanding of stability and change in religious identity, practice and belief.  Good individual-level data would help in developing and testing theories concerning the causes and consequences of religious involvement.  Past research has shown, however, that even subtle differences in wording or context can substantially affect responses to questions on religion. The 1970 British Cohort Study offers an important opportunity to test the consistency of self-reported religion and religiosity.  In addition, the 2012 sweep asked questions on belief in God and life after death as well as religious affiliation and practice, allowing us to explore the complexity of religious adherence. A close examination of the multiple waves of the BCS70 reveals a large amount of uncertainty in measurement, making it hard to detect whatever genuine change might have occurred.  There are indications of considerable unreliability in reported past and present affiliation.  It is also difficult to be confident about changes in religious commitment, though a substantial proportion of teenagers who reported that religion was an important part of their lives became relatively unreligious adults.  The data on religious belief make it apparent that while some people seem wholly non-religious and a smaller number are actively (and consistently) religious, the majority fall into intermediate categories defined by nominal allegiance, unorthodox belief, or belief in the absence of affiliation or practice.  It is clear that multiple survey items covering identity, practice and belief are needed to obtain a reliable picture of religious commitment.


In this paper we examine how personnel flows from incumbents to entrants affect entrant growth after a significant break in the rules governing competition in an industry. We argue that the time-varying network of personnel mobility between incumbents measures how technical knowledge and social resources are distributed among them. Consequently, where the prior employers of personnel are located in the incumbent network should determine the quality of knowledge these hires bring to an entrant and thus their contribution to the entrant's growth. We analyze the time-varying mobility network among incumbents in terms of its global structure and in terms of the local structure surrounding each entering firm. Our analysis shows that the global structure converges over time to a stable core and periphery pattern, which can be considered emergent in Bearman's (1997) definition. Entrant employees with job histories in the core significantly decrease the entrant's growth rate, whereas employees from the periphery increase growth. Also, entrants that occupy structural holes in the local network grow faster. The industry studied is foreign exchange trading among commercial banks from 1973 to 1993.


Two proteins that regulate cell division also regulate sleep in Drosophila. Fruit flies do not sleep all night like humans, but they do manage to spend about half of their day in bouts of inactivity that have similarity to sleep in other species. Rogulja and Young searched for genes in neurons whose products regulated sleep. Depletion of the protein regulator of cyclin A1 (Rca1) caused the flies to be slow to go to sleep and to get less total sleep in a day because their sleep episodes were shorter. The mechanism by which Rca1 influences sleep is not yet clear. It appears not to disrupt circadian rhythms. However, the neurons that express Rca1 in the fly brain are located near the neurons that make up the circadian clock, potentially allowing for coordination of circadian behavior with sleep regulation. D. Rogulja, M. W. Young, Control of sleep by cyclin A and its regulator. Science 335, 1617–1621 (2012). [Abstract] [Full Text]


PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to investigate kinematic and kinetic changes occurred in stance phase during running to exhaustion. METHOD: 8 male recreational runners (age 22.5±1.6 years old, height 177.60±0.02cm and mass 80.6±8.63kg) from local community were participants in this study. They had no lower extremity injury history within-six months, and in apparent good health. AMTI three dimensional force treadmill was used to measure the ground reaction force, and the speed were set at 7.5 mile/hour with sample frequency of 1000Hz. Vicon Motion system with 8 cameras was used for capturing 3D kinematic movements of lower extremities with 40 14mm reflective markers. The sampling frequency was set at 200Hz. The participants were instructed to run on the treadmill until they cannot run, due to exhaustion, anymore. Ten seconds he data of from the start, middle and end of the run were calculated and processed by using C-Motion visual 3D software for both kinetics and kinematics parameters. RESULTS: Stride duration decreased (0.72±0.03 vs. 0.71±0.04s, at the start and end of the run, respectively), and stance phase duration increased (0.23±0.01 vs and 0.23±0.01s) as observed in this study. More ankle plantarflexion (-44.9±5.4 vs -46.4±5.5°) was noted at foot contact during run to exhaustion. No prominent adjustment of knee flexion (46.2±4.3 vs. 45.2±7.0°) was observed during foot initial contact, but an increase (12.2±4.2 vs. 10.2±3.8°) observed during toe-off. There was a decline of ankle plantarflexion moment (3.2±0.3 vs. 3.1±0.3 N-m/kg) and an increase of knee extension moment (2.8±0.4 vs. 3.0±0.7 N-m/kg) observed. CONCLUSION: There was a trend of adjustment of sagittal plane kinematics and kinetics variables observed., regarded as runners were seeking to modulate movements for protecting themselves from injury potential.


The present eye-tracking study demonstrates that when animate and inanimate object pictures are presented within a single-study, there are no systematic differences between processing these two categories objects. Although participants were taking less time to initiate their first gaze towards animate than to inanimate objects, a result compatible with findings of Proverbio et al. (2007), it turned out that this quicker initiation of the first look in animates was driven by mammals and reptiles only and did not apply to insects or aquatic animals, most probably due to the structural differences within these subcategories. Fixations in this study do not cluster around certain features or areas of the objects for either animate or inanimate categories. Moreover, detailed analysis of looking behaviour does not reveal a clear animate-inanimate distinction. Thus, given the failure of finding systematic differences between animates and inanimates when assessed using various looking behaviour measurements, the results do not support the prediction from modality specific conceptual account. In fact, these results are more in agreement with an alternative, distributed account of semantic representation that explains processing differences by structural differences between animate and inanimate objects.


Autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are a group of neurodevelopmental disorders primarily characterized by impaired social interaction and communication, and by restricted repetitive behaviors and interests. Ligands of histamine receptor 3 (H3R) are considered potential therapeutic agents for the treatment of different brain disorders and cognitive impairments. Considering this, the aim of the present study is to evaluate the actions of ciproxifan (CPX), an H3R antagonist, on the animal model of autism induced by prenatal exposure to valproic acid (VPA). Swiss mice were prenatally exposed to VPA on embryonic day 11 and assessed for social behavior, nociceptive threshold and repetitive behavior at 50 days of life. The treatment with CPX (3 mg/kg) or saline was administered 30 minutes before each behavioral test. The VPA group presented lower sociability index compared to VPA animals that were treated with CPX. Compared to the Control group, VPA animals presented a significantly higher nociceptive threshold, and treatment with CPX was not able to modify this parameter. In the marble burying test, the number of marbles buried by VPA animals was consistent with markedly repetitive behavior. VPA animals that received CPX buried a reduced amount of marbles. In summary, we report that an acute dose of CPX is able to attenuate sociability deficits and stereotypies present in the VPA model of autism. Our findings have the potential to help the investigations of both the molecular underpinnings of ASD and of possible treatments to ameliorate the ASD symptomatology, although more research is still necessary to corroborate and expand this initial data.


Modern Computer Arithmetic focuses on arbitrary-precision algorithms for efficiently performing arithmetic operations such as addition, multiplication and division, and their connections to topics such as modular arithmetic, greatest common divisors, the Fast Fourier Transform (FFT), and the computation of elementary and special functions. Brent and Zimmermann present algorithms that are ready to implement in your favorite language, while keeping a high-level description and avoiding too low-level or machine-dependent details. The book is intended for anyone interested in the design and implementation of efficient high-precision algorithms for computer arithmetic, and more generally efficient multiple-precision numerical algorithms. It may also be used in a graduate course in mathematics or computer science, for which exercises are included. These vary considerably in difficulty, from easy to small research projects, and expand on topics discussed in the text. Solutions are available from the authors.


In 2006, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was keen on improving the software his firm used to recommend movies to users. Not that his in-house engineers were slouches – far from it – but he wanted fresh ideas. To get them, he created a global contest called the Netflix Prize: Whoever could come up with an algorithm 10 percent better than the existing one would win US$1 million, plus a non-exclusive licensing agreement with Netflix.


Adaptation, a change in response to a sustained stimulus, can be demonstrated in motion perception by velocity aftereffects—changes in the apparent speed of a moving pattern following adaptation. We measured changes in the apparent speed of sinusoidal gratings drifting at 4 or 7.5 deg/s during 30 s of adaptation followed by 30 s of recovery. The apparent speed of the patterns fell to approximately half the unadapted apparent speed, and the time constants of adaptation were much faster (5 s) than for recovery (22 s). Part of the loss of apparent speed (approximately 12%) was related to a loss of apparent contrast with adaptation. Sensitivity to speed increments and speed decrements increased during adaptation and was well described by a Weber fraction based on apparent speed. The results suggest that adaptation to motion, like light adaptation, may serve to improve an observer's sensitivity to the prevailing environment.


For preterm neonates, the quality of the first milk is crucial for intestinal maturation and resistance to necrotizing enterocolitis (NEC). Among other factors, milk quality is determined by the stage of lactation and processing. We hypothesized that unprocessed mature bovine milk (BM; raw bovine milk) would have less bioactivity than corresponding bovine colostrum (BC) in a preterm pig model, but have improved bioactivity relative to its homogenized, pasteurized, spray-dried equivalent, whole milk powder (WMP), or a bovine milk protein-based infant formula (IF). For 5 days, newborn preterm pigs received parenteral and enteral nutrition consisting of IF (n = 13), BM (n = 13), or BC (n = 14). In a second study, WMP (n = 15) was compared with IF (n = 10) and BM (n = 9). Compared with pigs fed IF, pigs that were fed BM had significantly improved intestinal structure (mucosal weight, villus height) and function (increased nutrient absorption and enzyme activities, decreased gut permeability, nutrient fermentation, and NEC severity). BC further improved these effects relative to BM (lactase activity, lactose absorption, plasma citrulline, and tissue interleukin-8). WMP induced similar effects as BM, except for lactase activity and lactose absorption. In conclusion, the maturational and protective effects on the immature intestine decreased in the order BC>BM>WMP, but all three intact bovine milk diets were markedly better than IF. The stage of lactation (colostrum vs. mature milk) and milk processing (e.g., homogenization, fractionation, pasteurization, spray-drying) are important factors in determining milk quality during the early postnatal period of preterm neonates.


As new multimedia technologies emerge, telecommunication service providers have to provide
superior user experience in order to remain competitive. To this end, quality-of-experience (QoE)
perception modelling and measurement has become a key priority. QoE models rely on three influence
factors: technological, contextual and human. Existing solutions have typically relied on the
former two and human influence factors (HIFs) have been mostly neglected due to difficulty in measuring
them. In this thesis, we show that measuring HIFs is important for QoE measurement and
propose the use of hybrid brain-computer interfaces (hBCIs) for objective measurement of perceived
QoE for multimedia technologies, such as affective music videos and text-to-speech systems.
For the development of hBCIs, we explore the use of two neuroimaging techniques, namely electroencephalography
(EEG) and functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to better understand
neuronal and cerebral haemodynamic changes resultant from multimedia signals of varying quality.
Neural correlates of several QoE dimensions were derived and validated on the publicly available
DEAP and PhySyQX databases. In general, the parameters derived from EEG and fNIRS indicated
correlation between neural activation, in various cortical regions, and signal quality. These individual
features derived from EEG and fNIRS were then used to develop classifiers to establish their
usability as QoE monitoring modalities. The parameters derived from EEG and fNIRS showed to
accurately classify different user states and subjective QoE dimensions. Interestingly, features derived
from heart rate, extracted from fNIRS signals, also showed to encode information regarding
HIFs. Next, fusion of EEG, fNIRS, and fNIRS-derived heart rate parameters showed to accurately
represent several QoE dimensions, including those related to listener affective states.
Finally, the subjectively-derived HIFs were incorporated into the QoE model, leading to gains
of up to 26.3% relative to utilizing only technological factors. When utilizing HIFs derived from
individual modalities, on the other hand, gains of up to 14.5%, 10.6% and 4% were observed for EEG,
fNIRS and heart rate, respectively. The hybrid model based on features from all three physiological
modalities resulted in gains of up to 18.4%. These findings show the importance of using BCIs
and hBCIs in QoE measurement and also highlight that further improvement may be warranted
once improved HIFs correlates are found from EEGs and/or other neurophysiological modalities.
It is hoped that these findings will help researchers build better instrumental QoE models that
incorporate technological, contextual, and human influence factors.


This is the new-in-paperback edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms, the much-awaited sixth edition of the acclaimed standard reference work in statistics, published on behalf of the International Statistical Institute. The first edition, known as the Dictionary of Statistical Terms, was edited in 1957 by the late Sir Maurice Kendall and the late Dr W.R. Buckland. As one of the first dictionaries of statistics it set high standards for the subject, and became a well-respected reference. This edition has been carefully updated and extended to include the most recent terminology and techniques in statistics. Significant revision and expansion from an international editorial board of senior statisticians has resulted in a comprehenisive reference text which includes 30% more material than previous editions. Ideal for all who use statistics in the workplace and in research including all scientists and social scientists, especially in law, politics, finance, business, and history, it is an indispensable reference.


This dissertation explored topographic controls on spatial and temporal patterns in water yield and nutrient (carbon, nitrogen and phosphorus) export from forested headwater catchments in the Turkey Lakes Watershed in central Ontario, where other factors contributing to differences in water yield and nutrient export, including climate, geology, forest, and soils, are relatively constant. Topographic characteristics, including (a) hydrological flushing potential (expansion of water table into nitrate-N producing areas); (b) hydrological storage potential (area of wetlands, which can alternatively allow water and nutrients to bypass wetlands when storage capacity is filled with water or to trap them when not filled); and (c) hydrological loading potential (differences in precipitation caused by elevation), were considered in deconstructing nonstationary (linear trends) and stationary (oscillating cycles) patterns in water yield and nutrient export data. Topography explained the majority of differences in water yield and nutrient export. For spatial variation, topographic metrics representing hydrologic flushing potential predicted the majority of the spatial variation in nitrate-N export. In contrast, topographic metrics representing hydrologic storage potential explained the majority of the observed spatial variation in dissolved organic carbon, dissolved organic nitrogen and total dissolved phosphorus export. For temporal variation, catchments with low hydrologic loading potential were generally more sensitive to trends and cycles for water and nutrient export. Among these catchments, hydrological storage potential had no significant effect on water export trends, but had a significant effect on water export cycles; namely, the water export range was larger in the catchments with higher hydrological storage potential, even though the water export average was the same as catchments with lower hydrological storage potential. For nutrient export, the nonstationary signals were not consistent among the nutrients, but the amplitude of stationary signals in nutrient export in catchments with high hydrological storage potential compared to those with low hydrological storage potential was higher for organic nutrients and lower for nitrate-nitrogen. Despite many similarities in these headwater catchments, topography influenced the absolute and relative magnitude of hydrological and biogeochemical export from these catchments, which will have implications on the productivity and biodiversity of downstream aquatic systems.


Light induced chloroplast movement has been studied as a model system for photoreception and actin microfilament (MF)-based intracellular motilities in plants. Chloroplast photo-accumulation and -avoidance movement is mediated by phytochrome as well as blue light (BL) receptor in the moss Physcomitrella patens. Here we report the discovery of an involvement of a microtubule (MT)-based system in addition to an MF-based system in photorelocation of chloroplasts in this moss. In the dark, MTs provided tracks for rapid movement of chloroplasts in a longitudinal direction and MFs contributed the tracks for slow movement in any direction. We found that phytochrome responses utilized only the MT-based system, while BL responses had an alternative way of moving, either along MTs or MFs. MT-based systems were mediated by both photoreceptors, but chloroplasts showed movements with different velocity and pattern between them. No apparent difference in the behavior of chloroplast movement between the accumulation and avoidance movement was detected in phytochrome responses or BL responses, except for the direction of the movement. The results presented here demonstrate that chloroplasts use both MTs and MFs for motility and that phytochrome and a BL receptor control directional photo-movement of chloroplasts through the differential regulation of these motile systems.


Abstract. In this paper the Secondary Organic Aerosol Processor (SOAP v1.0) model is presented. This model determines the partitioning of organic compounds between the gas and particle phases. It is designed to be modular with different user options depending on the computation time and the complexity required by the user. This model is based on the molecular surrogate approach, in which each surrogate compound is associated with a molecular structure to estimate some properties and parameters (hygroscopicity, absorption into the aqueous phase of particles, activity coefficients and phase separation). Each surrogate can be hydrophilic (condenses only into the aqueous phase of particles), hydrophobic (condenses only into the organic phases of particles) or both (condenses into both the aqueous and the organic phases of particles). Activity coefficients are computed with the UNIFAC (UNIversal Functional group Activity Coefficient; Fredenslund et al., 1975) thermodynamic model for short-range interactions and with the Aerosol Inorganic–Organic Mixtures Functional groups Activity Coefficients (AIOMFAC) parameterization for medium- and long-range interactions between electrolytes and organic compounds. Phase separation is determined by Gibbs energy minimization. The user can choose between an equilibrium representation and a dynamic representation of organic aerosols (OAs). In the equilibrium representation, compounds in the particle phase are assumed to be at equilibrium with the gas phase. However, recent studies show that the organic aerosol is not at equilibrium with the gas phase because the organic phases could be semi-solid (very viscous liquid phase). The condensation–evaporation of organic compounds could then be limited by the diffusion in the organic phases due to the high viscosity. An implicit dynamic representation of secondary organic aerosols (SOAs) is available in SOAP with OAs divided into layers, the first layer being at the center of the particle (slowly reaches equilibrium) and the final layer being near the interface with the gas phase (quickly reaches equilibrium). Although this dynamic implicit representation is a simplified approach to model condensation–evaporation with a low number of layers and short CPU (central processing unit) time, it shows good agreements with an explicit representation of condensation–evaporation (no significant differences after a few hours of condensation).


In this study, comparisons of isotopic variation of rainfall, throughfall, surface water, and groundwater were conducted in the Meilin watershed, which represents two different land uses, chestnut wood and bamboo. Also, isotopic differences between rainfall and throughfall were identified in these sub-watersheds. The results showed that the isotopic value of incremental rainfall, incremental throughfall and surface water exhibited a marked temporal variation in the selected sub-watersheds. The throughfall isotopic variation range was smaller than that of rainfall, which may result from the different production process between rainfall and throughfall. However, the isotopic composition difference between rainfall and throughfall resulting from different land uses was insignificant. The range of isotopic composition variation of surface water was not the same as that of rainfall, indicating that surface water came from a mix of precipitation and water stored before the rainfall event. The temporal variation of the isotopic composition of groundwater was small, implying that the influence of different land uses on groundwater isotopic composition was insignificant. The total variation range of δ 2 H and δ 18 O of groundwater was smaller than that of surface water and sequential incremental rainfall, which means the δ 18 O of groundwater can be replaced by that of base flow before the event in the hydrograph separation.


The pseudorapidity distributions of dijets as functions of their average transverse momentum (p_{T}^{ave}) are measured in proton-lead (pPb) and proton-proton (pp) collisions. The data samples were collected by the CMS experiment at the CERN LHC, at a nucleon-nucleon center-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV. A significant modification of the pPb spectra with respect to the pp spectra is observed in all p_{T}^{ave} intervals investigated. The ratios of the pPb and pp distributions are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative quantum chromodynamics calculations with unbound nucleon and nuclear parton distribution functions (PDFs). These results give the first evidence that the gluon PDF at large Bjorken x in lead ions is strongly suppressed with respect to the PDF in unbound nucleons.


Substantial intra‐specific trait variation exists within plant communities, and in theory this variation could influence community dynamics. Although recent research has focused on intra‐specific variation in traits themselves, it is the influence of this variation on plant performance that makes intra‐specific trait variation relevant to ecological dynamics within or among species. Understanding the links between trait and performance variation, and the role of traits in mediating relationships among multiple components of performance, is critical for assessing the importance of intra‐specific trait variation for community dynamics. Seed size is thought to affect aspects of plant performance including fecundity, seedling growth, dispersal and tolerance of natural enemies. For two tropical tree species, we assessed how seed size was related to performance variation within each species and determined whether intra‐specific trait variation mediates intra‐specific performance tradeoffs. We used field seed rain collection to characterize size‐dependent outcomes of dispersal, sowed seeds of known size in soil collected near or far from conspecifics to characterize susceptibility to soil pathogens, and monitored growth of seedlings from seeds of known size. We found that intra‐specific seed size variation caused intra‐specific performance variation. The degree of trait‐based performance variation was consistently smaller than the degree of trait variation, and seed size influenced different components of performance for each species. One species exhibited a tradeoff in which small seeds had a fecundity advantage (more seedlings per unit reproductive mass) but produced smaller seedlings, whereas the other species exhibited a tradeoff in which small seeds dispersed to areas of low conspecific density but were less tolerant of density‐responsive natural enemies. Our results indicate that a single trait can influence multiple components of performance and can mediate different tradeoffs in co‐occurring species. Complex and heterogeneous effects of a single trait in multidimensional niche space may favour inter‐specific niche differentiation and coexistence.


Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a metabolically versatile bacterium that is found in a wide range of biotic and abiotic habitats. It is a major human opportunistic pathogen causing numerous acute and chronic infections. The critical traits contributing to the pathogenic potential of P. aeruginosa are the production of a myriad of virulence factors, formation of biofilms and antibiotic resistance. Expression of these traits is under stringent regulation, and it responds to largely unidentified environmental signals. This review is focused on providing a global picture of virulence gene regulation in P. aeruginosa. In addition to key regulatory pathways that control the transition from acute to chronic infection phenotypes, some regulators have been identified that modulate multiple virulence mechanisms. Despite of a propensity for chaotic behaviour, no chaotic motifs were readily observed in the P. aeruginosa virulence regulatory network. Having a 'birds-eye' view of the regulatory cascades provides the forum opportunities to pose questions, formulate hypotheses and evaluate theories in elucidating P. aeruginosa pathogenesis. Understanding the mechanisms involved in making P. aeruginosa a successful pathogen is essential in helping devise control strategies.


Meta-learning approaches enable machine learning systems to adapt to new tasks given few examples by leveraging knowledge from related tasks. However, a large number of meta-training tasks are still required for generalization to unseen tasks during meta-testing, which introduces a critical bottleneck for real-world problems that come with only few tasks, due to various reasons including the difficulty and cost of constructing tasks. Recently, several task augmentation methods have been proposed to tackle this issue using domain-specific knowledge to design augmentation techniques to densify the meta-training task distribution. However, such reliance on domain-specific knowledge renders these methods inapplicable to other domains. While Manifold Mixup based task augmentation methods are domain-agnostic, we empirically find them ineffective on non-image domains. To tackle these limitations, we propose a novel domain-agnostic task augmentation method, Meta-Interpolation, which utilizes expressive neural set functions to densify the meta-training task distribution using bilevel optimization. We empirically validate the efficacy of Meta-Interpolation on eight datasets spanning across various domains such as image classification, molecule property prediction, text classification and speech recognition. Experimentally, we show that Meta-Interpolation consistently outperforms all the relevant baselines. Theoretically, we prove that task interpolation with the set function regularizes the meta-learner to improve generalization.


An example of employing the Delphi technique for curriculum improvement at a Canadian university is described. This technique was used to identify essential course components to be included in a revised Office Administration program. In addition to providing the necessary information for updating and improving the curriculum, the Delphi technique allowed the department to receive infor- mation from and educate guidance counsellors and future employers with regard to the proposed changes in the program. The Delphi technique made it possible to obtain opinions from five diverse groups at relatively low cost and effort. The anonymity that the Delphi method provides helped to ensure that responses reflected accurately the opinions of the respondents. A number of areas of study and special competencies and skills were identified as being essential to a program designed to meet the needs of the automated workplace. The study determined that the program should encompass a much larger compo- nent in office technology than existed previously and that the focus of the pro- gram should be on information management rather than office administration. Along with the methodology, the advantages and disadvantages of using the Delphi technique for improving the quality of the curriculum are discussed.


Consumers in wealthy countries like the U.S. and Japan usually know what they want, and how to obtain it. In such markets, the sellers who thrive should tend to be those who offer consumers the level of safety they want -- no matter what the law might be. For the most part, U.S. data confirm this essentially Coasian logic: a shift in the product liability rule from negligence to strict liability seems not to raise product safety. Unfortunately for the empiricist, however, the U.S. combines state-based liability standards with a national product market. This necessarily complicates the empirical task. Although Japan presents its own empirical difficulties, it does couple national law with a national market. In 1995, the Diet adopted strict products liability. Before, courts had adjudicated product disputes in negligence or contract; after 1995, they applied strict liability. As in the U.S., the level of product safety did not rise. Curiously, Japan did not experience any of the perverse effects sometimes attributed to strict products liability in the U.S. either. This fact suggests that the perverse results may derive not from the liability rule itself, but from the interaction between the rule and several procedural devices peculiar to the U.S.


The current state of the research in landmark recognition highlights the good accuracy which can be achieved by embedding techniques, such as Fisher vector and VLAD. All these techniques do not exploit spatial information, i.e. consider all the features and the corresponding descriptors without embedding their location in the image. This paper presents a new variant of the well-known VLAD (Vector of Locally Aggregated Descriptors) embedding technique which accounts, at a certain degree, for the location of features. The driving motivation comes from the observation that, usually, the most interesting part of an image (e.g., the landmark to be recognized) is almost at the center of the image, while the features at the borders are irrelevant features which do no depend on the landmark. The proposed variant, called locVLAD (location-aware VLAD), computes the mean of the two global descriptors: the VLAD executed on the entire original image, and the one computed on a cropped image which removes a certain percentage of the image borders. This simple variant shows an accuracy greater than the existing state-of-the-art approach. Experiments are conducted on two public datasets (ZuBuD and Holidays) which are used both for training and testing. Morever a more balanced version of ZuBuD is proposed.


This thesis uses Byzantine coins in south India to re-examine pre-Islamic maritime trade between the Mediterranean and south India. Analysis of historiographical trends, key textual sources (the Periplous of the Erythreian Sea and the Christian Topography, Book Eleven), and archaeological evidence from the Red Sea, Aksum, the Persian Gulf and India, alongside the numismatic evidence yields two main methodological and three historical conclusions. Methodologically, the multi-disciplinary tradition of Indo-Roman studies needs to incorporate greater sensitivity to the complexities of different evidence types and engage with wider scholarship on the economic and state structures of the Mediterranean and India. Furthermore, pre-Islamic Indo-Mediterranean trade offers an ideal locus for experimenting with a practical global history, particularly using new technologies to enhance data sharing and access to scholarship. Historically, this thesis concludes: first, that the significance of pre-Islamic trade between the Mediterranean and India was minimal for any of the participating states; second, that this trade should be understood in the context of wider Indian Ocean networks, connecting India, Sri Lanka and southeast Asia; third, that the Persian Gulf rather than the Red Sea probably formed the major meeting point of trade from east and west, but this is not yet demonstrable archaeologically, numismatically or textually.


This essay examines Tolkien's The Hobbit by looking at the development of the main character Bilbo Baggins to see how he matures and why he turns out to be a true hero. His development is highlighted by examining his journey with the use of Vogler's model, "the Hero's Journey". The findings show that all the stages of the model can be found in Bilbo's journey. He is more close to the Anti-hero at the beginning of his journey, but as the journey proceeds he matures and shows true heroism. In the end he becomes an independent, selfless, brave, self-confident, loyal, merciful, and peacemaking hobbit, and thus is a true hero.


The introduction of Electric Vehicles (EVs) in the existing Energy Grid raises many issues regarding Grid stability and charging behavior. Uncontrolled charging on the customer's side may increase the already high peaks in the energy demand that lead to respective increase in the energy prices.We propose a novel smart charging algorithm that maximizes individual welfare and reduces the individual energy expenses. We use Reinforcement Learning trained on real world data to learn the individual household consumption behavior and propose a charging algorithm with respect to individual welfare maximization objective. Furthermore, we use statistical customer models to simulate the EV customer behavior. We show that the individual customers, represented by intelligent agents, using the proposed charging algorithm reduce their energy expenses. Additionally, we show that the average energy prices, on an aggregated level, are reduced as a result of smarter use of the energy available. Finally we prove that the presented algorithm achieves significant peak reduction and reshaping of the energy demand curve.


Abstract  (Under the direction of Robert C. Hickner, Ph.D.) Department of Exercise and Sport Science, July, 2010.     Over 17% of American children are obese. These are epidemic proportions considering the associated risk of heart disease and Type 2 diabetes. Excess fat is caused from an imbalance in energy stored versus energy expended. Previous studies of the fat cell in vitro have revealed differences in the lipolytic response to aerobic exercise in subcutaneous abdominal adipose tissue (SCAAT) from obese and lean adults. There is also evidence that aerobic exercise training can increase SCAAT lipolysis in obese adults. However, review of the literature revealed no studies examining the training response in SCAAT of obese children. The purpose of this study was to determine whether there is a lower lipolytic response to aerobic exercise in SCAAT of obese children. Also, we wanted to know if 16 weeks of aerobic exercise training would increase the lipolytic rates in SCAAT of obese children. In this study, we recruited children from Greenville, NC and surrounding areas. We used the microdialysis technique to examine the lipolytic rate of SCAAT in response to aerobic exercise in forty sedentary children ages 8 to 11. All children and parents were made aware of the risks and benefits of the procedure and signed both consent and assent forms. The study was approved by the East Carolina University International Review Board. Children were grouped by body mass index percentile into obese (n =28) or lean (n =12). Children exercised for twenty minutes at 70% of their heart rate max. In response to exercise, dialysate glycerol concentrations (index of lipolysis) increased in the obese less than the lean (8.1 ± 2.1 uM vs 17.1 ± 4.2 uM, respectively; p <0.05). Changes in SCAAT blood flow, measured by the ethanol outflow; inflow ratio, was not significantly different between the two groups. We also examined the effects of 16 weeks of aerobic exercise training on SCAAT lipolytic response in the obese children (n =21). Children were trained (machines, free play) at an average heart rate of 140 bpm for an hour three times a week. The children returned for another microdialysis session after training. The treadmill speed during the exercise portion after training was the same as that used before training. The change in dialysate glycerol during exercise was not significantly different before and after training (8.9 ± 2.5 and 6.2 ± 2.8 uM respectively; p =0.37). These results suggest that, like adults, obese children have a lower lipolytic response to an acute bout of aerobic exercise than do lean. In addition, 16 weeks of training does not alter lipolytic response to aerobic exercise in obese children when performed at the same absolute intensity before and after training.


This study was conduc4ed to validate the questionnaire for assessment of type A behaviour and to determine its relation with socioeconomic status and coronary artery disease(CAD) in a randomly selected urban population. We studied 1806 subjects (904 men and 902 women) aged 25-64 years. The survey instruments were questionnaire: modified from existing questionnaires (Likeret scale, Jenkins activity survey and Friedman and Rosenman structured interview questionnaires). The questionnaire for assessment of type A behaviour was administered by a psychologist and subjects were divided into type A behaviour (n=306), possible type A behaviour (n=157) or no such behaviour (n=1343) according to rating of their type A behaviour based on scores of various attributes such as hostility, aggressiveness, ambitiousness, competitiveness and pace or time urgency. The prevalence of type A behaviour was significantly greater among men compared to women (21.9 vs 11.9%, p<0.01). The overall prevalence of type A and possible type A behavior was also significantly higher in men than women (32.4 vs 18.8%, p<0.01) and the overall prevalence of total behaviour abnormality was 25.6% in both sexes. Type A behaviour was highly prevalent among social class 1 and 2 subjects in both sexes and showed significant association with CAD. The findings indicate that type A behaviour assessed by scores constructed based on various attributes of behaviour is accurate and the personality rating scale validated by us may be used successfully in other population groups of India.


We use a first-hand linked employer-employee dataset representing the formal sector of Bangladesh to explain gender wage gaps by the inclusion of measures of cognitive skills and personality traits. Our results show that while cognitive skills are important in determining mean wages, personality traits have little explanatory power. However, quantile regressions indicate that personality traits do matter in certain parts of the conditional wage distribution, especially for wages of females. Cognitive skills as measured by reading and numeracy also confer different benefits across the wage distribution to females and males respectively. Quantile decompositions indicate that these skills and traits reduce the unexplained gender gap, mainly in the upper parts of the wage distribution. Finally, results suggest that employers place greater consideration on observables such as academic background and prior work experience, and may also make assumptions about the existence of sex-specific skills of their workers, which could then widen the within-firm gender wage gap.


Vision-based topological localization and mapping for autonomous robotic systems have received increased research interest in recent years. The need to map larger environments requires models at different levels of abstraction and additional abilities to deal with large amounts of data efficiently. Most successful approaches for appearance-based localization and mapping with large datasets typically represent locations using local image features. We study the feasibility of performing these tasks in urban environments using global descriptors instead and taking advantage of the increasingly common panoramic datasets. This paper describes how to represent a panorama using the global gist descriptor, while maintaining desirable invariance properties for location recognition and loop detection. We propose different gist similarity measures and algorithms for appearance-based localization and an online loop-closure detection method, where the probability of loop closure is determined in a Bayesian filtering framework using the proposed image representation. The extensive experimental validation in this paper shows that their performance in urban environments is comparable with local-feature-based approaches when using wide field-of-view images.


Emblematic Monsters is a social history of monstrous births as seen through popular print, scholarly books and the proceedings of learned societies.