Many construction injuries are musculoskeletal related in the form of sprains and strains arising from the handling of materials, which are specified by designers, which in turn constitutes the direct influence of designers on construction ergonomics. The paper presents the results of a study conducted among delegates attending two 'designing for HS designers generally do not consider the mass and density of materials when designing structures and elements and specifying materials; to a degree designers do appreciate that the mass and density of materials impacts on construction ergonomics; designers rate their knowledge of the mass and density of materials as limited as opposed to extensive, and designers appreciate the potential of the consideration of the mass and density of materials to contribute to an improvement in construction ergonomics. Conclusions include: designers lack the requisite knowledge relative to the mass and density of materials; designers are thus precluded from conducting optimum design hazard identification and risk assessments, and tertiary built environment designer education does not enlighten designers relative to construction ergonomics. Recommendations include: tertiary built environment designer education should construction ergonomics; professional associations should raise the level of awareness relative to construction ergonomics, and design practices should include a category 'mass and density of materials' in their practice libraries. Keywords: construction ergonomics, designers, materials


Economic growth around the world has not been equal for a long time. Some economics grow faster while others grow slower. But economists have predicted that the slower growing economics will eventually converge with the faster growing economy as some point in the future. This is known as the convergence hypothesis. In this study, we test this hypothesis for Ghana and the Western Europeans countries with UK been a proxy for these countries, using time series data to determine whether or not it holds. We determine how fast or slow this convergence process is by using the returns to scale concept on Ghana's economy and latter account for factor that determines economic growth in sectors. The study supported the null hypothesis of convergence i.e. Ghana is catching up with the Western European countries. The study also shown that Ghana growth accounting exhibit decreasing returns meaning convergence is relatively slow and also signifies that Ghana is not on a balanced growth path (this refers to the simultaneous, coordinated expansion of several sectors of the economy). The study showed a negative relationship between GDP and labour both in the long run and short run relationship. Again the study showed a positive relationship between GDP and capital, Agric and Industrial sector. Lastly, the study showed a negative relationship between GDP and AID and Service in the long run and positive relationship in the short run.


Introduction: Chronic joint pain is the primary reason for individuals electing to undergo TKR and therefore pain relief is an extremely important outcome after surgery. Although the literature suggests that TKR produces excellent pain relief, the prevalence of chronic pain after TKR is often masked in the reporting of mean pain scores. The aim of this study was to explore the prevalence, impact and onset of pain at 1-year after TKR. Methods: 243 patients (251 knees) were recruited into a multi-centre randomised controlled trial comparing the outcomes of the Kinemax Plus fixed-bearing and mobile-bearing implant. Patients were assessed pre-operatively and then 3 months, 1-year and 2-years post-operatively. At each assessment time patients completed the WOMAC, KOOS quality of life scale, SF-12, American Knee Society Score, Satisfaction Scale for Joint Replacement Arthroplasty and a clinical examination. As part of the clinical assessment patients were asked to rate the pain in their knee as none, mild, occasionally moderate, continually moderate or severe. Results: To date, 240 knees have reached their 1-year follow-up. Complete data regarding pain ratings was available for 198 patients. The mean age of patients was 68 years (range 40–81) and 52% were male. At 1-year after TKR, 13% of patients had occasionally moderate pain, 6% had continually moderate pain and 6% of patients had severe pain. In total, 25% patients reported moderate-severe pain at 1-year after TKR. 60% patients with pain at 1-year post-operative also experienced moderate-severe pain at 3 months post-operative. Using a Mann-Whitney U test, patients with moderate-severe pain at 1-year after TKR had significantly worse physical function (p Conclusion: This study suggests the prevalence of pain after TKR is high, with 25% of patients reporting moderate-severe pain at 1-year after TKR. Pain experienced at 1-year post-operative was most frequently preceded by pain at 3-months post-operative, suggesting that for many patients a pain-free period after surgery is not experienced. The pain present at 1-year after TKR affected several domains of life, including functional ability, quality of life and mental health. Future research will focus on developing a pre-operative screening protocol to identify patients at risk of chronic pain after TKR. This research was supported by funding from Stryker UK.


It has been widely accepted that parental language beliefs play a crucial role in language maintenance. Studies show that Chinese immigrants are not exempted from language shift although they are frequently reported cherishing their language as an important part of their culture. This paper attempts to find out how parental language beliefs reflect their daily language behaviour. Eight recent Chinese migrant families had 60 minutes of conversation recorded each month for one calendar year. Their language use has been analyzed and compared with the information gathered from a home language use questionnaire. Results show that there is a substantial gap between parental language beliefs and their actual language behaviour. Although the parents state they strongly support mother tongue maintenance, within 28 months, the use of mother tongue had dropped significantly and there is very little evidence showing much effort from the parents to prevent this from happening. This could be either because they want their children to keep their first language but do not know how to do this, or, their language beliefs are different from their behaviour. This should raise methodological issues regarding how to interpret parental language beliefs properly in the research area.


Most ad hoc network routing algorithms are designed primarily for networks that are always connected. While it is certainly desirable to maintain a connected network, various conditions may cause a mobile ad hoc network to become partitioned. If the partitions last for a long duration of time, then it is not possible to deliver a packet from source to destination. To deliver messages in a partitioned network, new routing approaches were proposed for delivering data using message ferries and/or gateways. This paper analyzes various parameters of the routing scheme called Routing with Multiple Message Ferries and Gateways (MMFGW) which eliminates online collaboration between all the communication entities in the network. This paper also investigates the results of simulations, by comparing the performance of our protocols which uses message ferries proposed previously with epidemic routing protocol. The simulation analysis shows that, delivery ratio of MMFGW improves from 35% to 50% with optimal latency and overhead ratio.


This book breaks with the conventional model of perception that views vision as a mere inference to an objective reality on the basis of "inverse optics." The authors offer the alternative view that perception is an expressive and awareness-generating process. Perception creates semantic information in such a way as to enable the observer to deal efficaciously with the chaotic and meaningless structure present at the physical boundary between the body and its surroundings. Vision is intentional by its very nature; visual qualities are essential and real, providing an aesthetic and meaningful interface to the structures of physics and the state of the brain. This view brings perception firmly in line with ethology and modern evolutionary biology and suggests new approaches in all disciplines that study, or require an understanding of, the ontology of mind. The book is the joint effort of a multidisciplinary group of authors. Topics covered include the relationships among stimuli, neuronal processes, and visual awareness. After considering the mind-dependent growing of information, the book treats time and dynamics; color, shape, and space; language and perception; perception, art, and design.


Purpose: The purpose of this project is to validate a survey instrument designed to evaluate medical and dental students' experience of learning and attainment of graduate learning outcomes related to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander health. Methods: A test-retest methodology was used with year 4 dental students asked to complete coded test and retest questionnaires 2 weeks apart. Results: Results indicate that the survey is likely to be sensitive enough to pick up a range of student responses and offer valuable insight into the impact of curricula change. The survey appears to have high content and construct validity, as determined through pilot examination of each survey item. The scale is internally consistent with a Cronbach's alpha of 0.75. Results indicate the instrument has mixed test-retest reliability with subsets of items being consistent over time and others not consistent over time. Discussion: The revised validated tool will be utilized to evaluate dental student perceptions of their knowledge, attitudes and skills in the area of Aboriginal health; as a result of this study the tool will be one of the methods applied to evaluate the effectiveness of the Aboriginal health curricula in not only the Bachelor of Dental Science course but all undergraduate health profession courses offered in the Faculty. It may also have broadened applicability for other faculties of health sciences.


BACKGROUND
Uterine fibroids, smooth muscle tumours of the uterus, are found in at least 25 to 35% of women over the age of 35 years. Although some of these tumours are asymptomatic, up to 50% cause symptoms severe enough to warrant therapy and surgery is the standard treatment. Fibroid growth is stimulated by oestrogen and gonadotropin releasing hormone agonists (GnRHa) which induce a state of hypoestrogenism have been investigated as a potential treatment. GnRHa treatment causes fibroids to shrink but cannot be used long term because of unacceptable symptoms and bone loss. Therefore, GnRHa may be useful pre-operatively both to reduce fibroid and uterine volume and control bleeding.

OBJECTIVES
The objective of this review is to evaluate the role of pre-treatment with gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) analogues prior to a major surgical procedure, either hysterectomy or myomectomy, for uterine fibroids.

SEARCH STRATEGY
Electronic searches for relevant randomised controlled trials of the Cochrane Menstrual Disorders and Subfertility Group Register of Trials, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PsychLIT, Current Contents, Biological Abstracts, Social Sciences Index and CINAHL were performed. Attempts were also made to identify trials from citation lists of review articles. In most cases, the first author of each included trial was contacted for additional information.

SELECTION CRITERIA
The inclusion criteria were randomised comparisons of GnRH analogue treatment versus placebo, no treatment, or other medical therapy prior to surgery, either myomectomy or hysterectomy, for uterine fibroids.

DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS
Nineteen RCTs were identified that fulfilled the inclusion criteria for this review. The reviewers extracted the data independently and odds ratios for dichotomous outcomes and weighted mean differences for continuous outcomes were estimated from the data of twelve trials where GnRH analogue treatment was compared with no pre-treatment and five trials where GnRH analogue treatment was compared with placebo (two trials are awaiting assessment). No RCTs of GnRH analogue treatment versus other medical therapy were identified. Results from pre-operative outcomes were combined for both types of surgery but results from intra- and post-operative outcomes were reported separately for myomectomy and hysterectomy. Subgroup analysis was performed according to type of control group, no pre-treatment or placebo, and for some outcomes there were additional subgroup analyses according to size of the uterus in gestational weeks.

MAIN RESULTS
Pre- and post-operative haemoglobin (Hb) and haematocrit (HCT) were significantly improved by GnRH analogue therapy prior to surgery, and uterine volume, uterine gestational size and fibroid volume were all reduced. Pelvic symptoms were also reduced but some adverse events were more likely during GnRH analogue therapy. Hysterectomy appeared to be easier after pre-treatment with GnRH analogue therapy; there was reduced operating time and a greater proportion of hysterectomy patients were able to have a vaginal rather than an abdominal procedure. Duration of hospital stay was also reduced. Blood loss and rate of vertical incisions were reduced for both myomectomy and hysterectomy. Evidence of increased risk of fibroid recurrence after GnRH analogue pre-treatment in myomectomy patients was equivocal and no data were available to assess change in post-operative fertility. The increased costs associated with GnRH analogue therapy were not assessed.

REVIEWER'S CONCLUSIONS
The use of GnRH analogues for 3 to 4 months prior to fibroid surgery reduce both uterine volume and fibroid size. They are beneficial in the correction of pre-operative iron deficiency anaemia, if present, and reduce intra-operative blood loss. If uterine size is such that a mid-line incision is planned, this can be avoided in many women with the use of GnRH analogues. For patients undergoing hysterectomy, a vaginal procedure is more like


This paper assesses the impacts of climate change on water resources in the Western Macedonia water district, located in northern Greece. Some critical water management issues, such as reservoir storage and water supply for agriculture and domestic use, are investigated. A conceptual water balance model was calibrated using monthly historical hydrometeorological data. The proposed model was applied in the entrance of the Polyfyto reservoir in order to estimate runoff values under a transient scenario (UKTR) referring to years 2032 and 2080. The results show that the mean annual runoff, mean winter runoff and summer runoff values, annual maximum and minimum values, as well as monthly maximum and minimum, would be reduced. By using this transient scenario, the risk associated with the water supply for power production, agriculture and domestic use has been evaluated under conditions of altered runoff. Increases of the risks associated with the annual quantities of water supply have been observed.


THE EVIDENTIAL WEIGHT OF CONSIDERED MORAL JUDGMENTS by Christopher Michael Cloos The input objection to reflective equilibrium (RE) claims that the method fails as a method of moral justification. According to the objection, considered moral judgments (CMJs) are not truth-conducive. Because the method uses inputs that are not credible, the method does not generate justified moral beliefs. The objection is solved by reinterpreting RE using contemporary developments in ethical intuitionism. The first half of the thesis sets up the input objection, explores potential responses to the objection, and uncovers the best way to solve the objection. The second half of the thesis solves the input objection by defining key terms, detailing the revised RE procedure, reinserting the notion of a competent moral judge into the method, using intuitionist criteria for identifying genuine moral intuitions, creating three filters capable of sorting good from bad CMJs, and showing how it is possible to assign evidential weight to CMJs so that they can be used as standards against which moral principles can be measured and a justified moral theory realized.


Abstract Due to its formality and highly analytic thinking, economics is often attributed a leading role among the social sciences and a prominent position as contributor to economic or social issues in the real world. Fact is, however, that the empirical proof for such a claim is either missing or anecdotal. This paper aims to outline the `economics of economics'. It surveys and compares approaches of impact measurement such as a production function of economics or the demand and supply of trained economists. It furthermore discriminates between the impact of economic ideas versus that of economists as scientists or politicians.


Recent writing in English shows a range of new approaches to and interpretations of Japanese colonialism between 1931 and 1945. Earlier bodies of work tended to focus on the aims, strategies and structures of Japanese rule throughout the empire, especially the formal empire. Newer studies have not abandoned these concerns, especially in relation to geographical areas, notably Manchuria, that have only just begun to emerge or re-emerge in English-language writing on Japanese colonial practice. At the same time, however, there is now much greater recognition among historians of Japan that the colonial relationship is shaped by the colonised as well as the colonisers; that life in the metropolis itself is affected deeply by its colonies; and that mainstream studies of modern Japanese history should include Japan's formal and informal colonies as a matter of course. In this essay I identify three major trends in works that have appeared in the last five years or so: a spurt of interest in Manchuria and other areas of northern China, a reconsideration of the major stages of empire, and an expanded understanding of what constituted colonialism and who participated in it.


The Paris Agreement has set stringent temperature targets to limit global warming to 2°C above preindustrial level, with efforts to stay well below 2°C. At the same time, its bottom-up approach with voluntary national contributions makes the implementation of these ambitious targets particularly challenging. Climate engineering – both through carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and solar radiation management (SRM) – is currently discussed to potentially complement mitigation and adaptation. Results from integrated assessment models already suggest a significant role for some forms of climate engineering in achieving stringent climate objectives1. However, these estimates and their underlying assumptions are uncertain and currently heavily debated2–4. By reviewing the existing literature and reporting the views of experts, we identify research gaps and priorities for improving the integrated assessment of climate engineering. Results point to differentiated roles of CDR and SRM as complementary strategies to the traditional ones, as well as diverse challenges for an adequate representation in integrated assessment models. We identify potential synergies for model development which can help better represent mitigation and adaptation challenges, as well as climate engineering.


Sedimentation of local waters is a problem for all reservoirs in the Black Hills of South Dakota. As a precursor to working on sediment removal, a survey on the extent of the sediment needs to be taken. Four sample lakes were used to determine which of three interpolation methods gave the most accurate results. Inverse Distance Weighted was the most accurate interpolation method followed by spline and kriging. This study also attempted to determine if fewer samples could be taken while still providing similar results. The smaller samples would mean less field time and thus lower costs. Subsamples of 50%, 33% and 25% were taken from the total samples and evaluated for the lowest Root Mean Squared Error and Relative Root Mean Squared Error values. These results were inconclusive as some lakes were more accurate with the 33% or 25% subsamples while others were more accurate with the greater subsamples. However, when these volume estimates were expressed with a dollar value for removal other results became more obvious. In most cases, the dollar amount for removal was underestimated when using the lower sample sizes. Values of this underestimation ranged from $7,525 to $132,425 for total sediment removal compared to what the total samples produced. It is suggested that future sediment surveys gather as much data as is reasonably possible in order to have the most accurate results. Inverse Distance Weighted is the preferred interpolation method for these studies, but in some cases spline proved nearly as accurate. Results from these surveys are used in prioritization of available funds for reclamation activities. iv Table of


This study aims to examine the factors that determine interest rate spread (IRS) of commercial banks listed on Muscat security market over the period 2008 – 2014. They are classified into four groups of financial, economic, market and legal indicators. The Spearman correlation matrix results show that all economic indicator variables have significant relationship with interest rate spread except GDP variable. No significant relationship exists between financial indicator variables and interest rate spread, but in legal indicator variables there is significant relationship with interest rate spread only in two variables the size of government and regulation. Finally, there is a significant relationship between market indicator based on market concentration measured by Herfindahl-Hirschman Index and interest rate spread. OLS regression analysis indicates a statistically significant impact on IRS by factors like return to asset ratio, liquidity risk and risk aversion within the financial group and unemployment rate, debt services ratio and principal repayment from the economic group and Herfindahl-Hirschman Index based on market concentration group. Finally, there is a significant impact of sound money and regulation within the legal group on IRS. The researchers recommend an adaptation in the monetary policy to exploit the high level of liquidity in the banking sector by facilitating easy access to debt to individuals as well as firms thus providing the margin competitive interest rate.


In this article, Charles Bean, Bank of England Chief Economist and member of the Monetary Policy Committee, reviews and assesses the three types of uncertainty which affect monetary policymakers: uncertainty about the data; uncertainty about the nature and persistence of shocks; and uncertainty about the structure of the economy. Focusing on uncertainty about the structure of the economy, he notes the unusual stability of inflation and output growth in the past decade or so. There are a number of possible explanations, including plain good luck, structural changes in the economy and improved policymaking. The author goes on to note that the short-run trade-off between inflation and activity seems to have flattened as inflation has stabilised at low levels and he attributes this in part to improved monetary policymaking. He goes on to consider some of the policy implications of this change.


The aim of this study was to prepare and characterize chitosan sponges using epidermal growth factor (EGF) for wound healing. Chitosan sponges were prepared by solvent evaporation (or precipitation) combined with chemical cross-linking techniques. The chitosan polymer was weighed and dissolved in aqueous acetic acid solution (5% v/v) and injected into absolute ethanol containing a cross-linker (ethylene glycol diglycydyl ether). The growth factor (EGF) was loaded into sponges by adding it into the chitosan solution. The EGF loaded chitosan sponges were used in fibroblast cell culture studies to investigate the effects of EGF released on cell proliferation and to determine the effects of the different variables on EGF release; such as, chitosan Mw, cross-linker, the needle injecting the chitosan solution into the precipitation medium, chitosan/EGF ratio and pH of the medium. The swelling of the sponges was higher in the lower molecular weight chitosan, with less cross-linker and using a small diameter injection needle. The swelling increased with decreasing chitosan/EGF ratio and the EGF release rate was increased by increasing the sponge swelling. The cell proliferation (cell growth) increased with increasing swelling ratio.


Laws that regulate the financing of campaigns are one attempt to attenuate the role of money in politics and promote more egalitarian policy outcomes. Do states with stricter campaign finance regulations represent citizens' interests more equally? Using data on state spending priorities from 1977 to 2008, this article finds that states with stricter campaign finance laws devote a larger proportion of their annual budget to public welfare spending in general and to cash assistance programs in particular. In contrast, there is no relationship between the strictness of campaign finance laws and spending decisions for non-redistributive policy areas. I also investigate possible causal mechanisms and uncover evidence that stricter campaign finance laws alter incentives for candidates to respond to wealthy constituents by lessening the proportion of contributions that originate from business interests. These results suggest that laws that regulate the financing of political campaigns can play an important role in promoting the interests of disadvantaged citizens and enhancing political equality.


Rethinking God as Gift is situated at the intersection of philosophy, critical theory and theology. The first sustained study of the work of Jean-Luc Marion in English, it offers a unique perspective on contemporary questions and their theological relevance. Taking its point of departure from the problem of the gift as articulated by Jacques Derrida, who argues that the conditions of possibility of the gift are also its conditions of impossibility, Horner pursues a series of questions concerning the nature of thought, the viability of phenomenology, and, most urgently, the possibility of grace. For Marion, phenomenology, as the thought of the given, offers a path for philosophy to proceed without being implicated in metaphysics. His retrieval of several important insights of Edmund Husserl, along with his reading of Martin Heidegger and Emmanuel Lvinas, enables him to work out a phenomenology where even impossiblephenomena such as revelation and the gift might be examined. In this important confrontation between Marion and Derrida issues vital to the negotiation of postmodern concerns in philosophy and theology emerge with vigour. The careful elucidation of those issues in an interdisciplinary context, and the snapshot it provides of the state of contemporary debate, make Rethinking God as Gift an important contribution to theological and philosophical discussion.


Amid growing concern about the use and abuse of personal data over the last decade, there is an emerging suggestion that regulators may need to turn their attention towards the concentrations of power deriving from large-scale data accumulation. No longer the preserve of data protection or privacy law, personal data is receiving attention within competition and antitrust law.Recent mergers and acquisitions between large digital technology platforms have raised important questions about how these different areas intersect and how they can complement one another in order to protect consumer welfare while ensuring competitive markets. This paper draws attention to one particularly complicated kind of digital data-intensive industry: that of third party tracking, in which a firm does not (only or primarily) collect and process personal data of its own customers or users, but rather collects and processes data from the users of other 'first party' services.Mergers and acquisitions between firms active in the third party tracking industry raise unique challenges for privacy and fundamental rights which are often missed in regulatory decisions and academic discussions of data and market concentration. In this paper, we combine empirical and normative insights to shed light on the role of competition regulators in addressing the specific challenges of mergers and acquisitions in the third party tracking industry. After critically assessing some of the US and EU case law in this area, we argue that a bolder approach is needed; one that engages in a pluralist analysis of economic and noneconomic concerns about concentrations of power and control over data.


The prominent versatility of today's mobile broadband services and the rapid advancements in the cellular phones industry have led to a tremendous expansion in the wireless market volume. Despite the continuous progress in the radio-access technologies to cope with that expansion, many challenges still remain that need to be addressed by both the research and industrial sectors. One of the many remaining challenges is the efficient allocation and management of wireless network resources when using the latest cellular radio technologies (e.g., 4G). The importance of the problem stems from the scarcity of the wireless spectral resources, the large number of users sharing these resources, the dynamic behavior of generated traffic, and the stochastic nature of wireless channels. These limitations are further tightened as the provider's commitment to high quality-of-service (QoS) levels especially data rate, delay and delay jitter besides the system's spectral and energy efficiencies. In this dissertation, we strive to solve this problem by presenting novel cross-layer resource allocation schemes to address the efficient utilization of available resources versus QoS challenges using various optimization techniques. The main objective of this dissertation is to propose a new predictive resource allocation methodology using an agile ray tracing (RT) channel prediction approach. It is divided into two parts. The first part deals with the theoretical and implementational aspects of the ray tracing prediction model, and its validation. In the second part, a novel RT-based scheduling system within the evolving cloud radio access network (C-RAN) architecture is proposed. The impact of the proposed model on addressing the long term evolution (LTE) network limitations is then rigorously investigated in the form of optimization problems. The main contributions of this dissertation encompass the design of several heuristic solutions based on our novel RT-based scheduling model, developed to meet the aforementioned objectives while considering the co-existing limitations in the context of LTE networks. Both analytical and numerical methods are used within this thesis framework. Theoretical results are validated with numerical simulations. The obtained results demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed solutions to meet the objectives subject to limitations and constraints compared to other published works.


In reinforcement learning, continuous time is often discretized by a time scale $\delta$, to which the resulting performance is known to be highly sensitive. In this work, we seek to find a $\delta$-invariant algorithm for policy gradient (PG) methods, which performs well regardless of the value of $\delta$. We first identify the underlying reasons that cause PG methods to fail as $\delta \to 0$, proving that the variance of the PG estimator can diverge to infinity in stochastic environments under a certain assumption of stochasticity. While durative actions or action repetition can be employed to have $\delta$-invariance, previous action repetition methods cannot immediately react to unexpected situations in stochastic environments. We thus propose a novel $\delta$-invariant method named Safe Action Repetition (SAR) applicable to any existing PG algorithm. SAR can handle the stochasticity of environments by adaptively reacting to changes in states during action repetition. We empirically show that our method is not only $\delta$-invariant but also robust to stochasticity, outperforming previous $\delta$-invariant approaches on eight MuJoCo environments with both deterministic and stochastic settings. Our code is available at https://vision.snu.ac.kr/projects/sar.


To explain energy dissipation via turbulence in collisionless, magnetized plasmas, the existence of a dual real- and velocity-space cascade of ion-entropy fluctuations below the ion gyroradius has been proposed. Such a dual cascade, predicted by the gyrokinetic theory, has previously been observed in gyrokinetic simulations of two-dimensional, electrostatic turbulence. For the first time, we show evidence for a dual phase-space cascade of ion-entropy fluctuations in a three-dimensional simulation of hybrid-kinetic, electromagnetic turbulence. Some of the scalings observed in the energy spectra are consistent with a generalized theory for the cascade that accounts for the spectral anisotropy of critically balanced, intermittent, sub-ion-Larmor-scale fluctuations. The observed velocity-space cascade is also anisotropic with respect to the magnetic-field direction, with linear phase mixing along magnetic-field lines proceeding mainly at spatial scales above the ion gyroradius and nonlinear phase mixing across magnetic-field lines proceeding at perpendicular scales below the ion gyroradius. Such phase-space anisotropy could be sought in heliospheric and magnetospheric data of solar-wind turbulence and has far-reaching implications for the dissipation of turbulence in weakly collisional astrophysical plasmas.


The present dissertation develops some theoretical models which analyze the impact on wages of the financial and technological choices operated by firms. Chapter I considers the effects of technological change on efficiency-wages. We adopt Kremer's (1993) "O-Ring" production function, where technical progress can be represented through a change in the number of tasks to be performed in production. More complex production processes imply higher wage levels and higher general equilibrium unemployment. The model is extended to analyze within-group wage dispersion. In Chapter II, we adopt an alternating-calls strategic bargaining model where the incentive to reach an early agreement does not rely on time-preferences, but on intrinsic decay in the cake's size. When outside options remain positive and constant over time and the interval between calls shrinks to zero, the solution to this game converges to the Nash-solution, where the outside options take the status quo positions. This result contrasts with Rubinstein (1982), where outside options can matter only as corner- solutions. The model is extended to consider the role of market factors on wage determination. Chapter III considers the strategic role of debt in wage negotiations. Since debt provides a "credible threat" in bargaining, the entrepreneur can increase her profits by borrowing. Debt, thus, constitutes a (partial) remedy to Grout's (1984) under-investment problem. Chapter IV extends the model developed in Chapter III to analyze the implications that strategic borrowing can have on technological sophistication. We show that debt may have positive effects not only on the quantity of investment, but also on the degree of sophistication of the chosen projects. Chapter V (with G. Marini) analyses the role of foreign debt in promoting investment in Less Developed Countries that are subject to political risks. We show that, when default can trigger trade sanctions, foreign debt reduces the negative effects of political uncertainty on capital accumulation. Chapter VI (with F.Bagliano) contrasts the explanation for mark-up countercyclicality offered by the "price-war" model of Rotemberg and Saloner (1986) with the alternative explanation, based on "liquidity constraints", proposed by Chevalier and Scharfstein (1996).


This work presents an approach for both distributed synthesis and control for a network of discrete-time constrained linear systems without central coordinator. Every system in the network is dynamically coupled to a number of neighboring systems and it is assumed that communication among neighbors is possible. A model predictive controller based on distributed optimization is introduced, by which every system in the network can compute feasible and stabilizing control inputs online. Stability of the closed-loop network of systems is guaranteed by introducing local terminal cost functions and sets, which together satisfy invariance conditions in a distributed way. This includes in particular that the local terminal sets are not static but evolve over time. It is shown that synthesis of both quadratic terminal cost functions and corresponding terminal sets can be done by distributed optimization. Finally, closed-loop performance of the proposed controller is demonstrated on a coupled array of inverted pendulums.


Library information resource sharing has traditionally been organized around the physical transfer of loans and copies from one location to another. Such interlibrary loan activities have become successively easier and more efficient because of the use of various technologies. Some of the latest and most successful of these include various web-based information services, such as Google, which help to facilitate both physical delivery and online access to information resources. The challenge now facing ILL librarians is to evaluate how to best incorporate these services into their existing operations and to determine whether these constitute additional ways to help patrons access information or whether they represent a paradigmatic alternative to traditional library-based information resource sharing.


Abstract As trade integration deepens in East Asia, closer links among the business cycles of East Asian countries can be expected. Theoretically, however, increased trade could lead to either closer or looser business cycles across trading partners. This paper seeks to understand how the business cycles of 12 Asian economies have been influenced by increased trade among them. It finds that the increasing trade itself is not necessarily associated with an increased synchronization of their business cycles. Intra-industry trade, rather than inter-industry trade or the volume of trade itself, is the major channel through which their business cycles become synchronized. This result has important implications for the prospects for a unified currency in the region.


The existence of massive cryptic diversity in algae makes linking DNA-based lineages to existing taxa exceedingly difficult. A better integration of historical collections into modern taxonomic research is therefore highly desirable. Using the brown, algal genus Lobophora as a test case, we explore the feasibility of linking taxonomic names to clades in modern phylogenies. Despite Lobophora being a pantropical genus with probably more than 100 species, traditionally only a handful of species have been recognized. In this study we reevaluated the identity of 17 historical taxa thought to belong to Lobophora by attempting DNA amplification of herbarium material as well as specimens recently collected from the type localities (epitypes). In an attempt to assign them to Molecular Operational Taxonomic Units, the obtained sequences were integrated in a global Lobophora phylogeny based upon data derived from more than 650 specimens. Our results indicate that although five sequences were obtained from type specimens, exclusive reliance on information preserved in type specimens is problematic. Epitype material proved a more successful way forward, but this route often comes with a considerable degree of uncertainty, especially in tropical regions where the extent of sympatry among Lobophora lineages is often considerable. More problematic from a broader perspective is the fact that for 35% of historical taxa, either the type could not be traced or permission was not granted to extract DNA from the types. Such a low accessibility rate may reduce our reliance on type material and jeopardize future efforts to integrate historical taxa into a framework of a modern DNA-based taxonomy.


Gait analysis gets more accessible, accurate, and simple to use as technology advances. The goal of this paper is to explore the accuracy of an advanced optical motion analysis system, where marker clusters mounted on rigid shapes are used to track the movement of body segments. It aims to examine the magnitude and nature of variation of the angular gait parameters of the lower extremities, caused by inaccuracy of the anatomical landmark placement. These landmarks are defined in the local coordinate systems of the rigid clusters through a calibration procedure, eliminating the need for skin-mounted markers. The used protocol makes it possible to evaluate the exact same motion using different calibrations, eliminating any other possible source for the variation of results. As a conclusion, a good estimation for the accuracy of the usual angular parameters in gait analysis is given. Mean anatomical landmark placement variation was found to be around 8.5 mm. The biggest standard deviations were found in the left hip flexion angle, with an average of 4.38°.


Abstract Recent upgrade of the neutral beam system has resulted in considerable improvement of the plasma parameters in the gas dynamic trap experiment. With injection of 5 ms, 20 keV, 4.5 MW neutral beams the electron temperature approaching 250 eV was obtained. At the same time maximal plasma beta attained about 60%. Further progress in plasma temperature and pressure could only be possible with considerable increase of the magnetic field in the central solenoid and re-optimization of its profile to improve stability of high-beta plasma, as well as with extension of the neutral beam pulse. Possible steps in this direction are considered in this paper.


PurposeTaking ownership is considered vital for sustaining change in organizations, particularly when second-order changes are the goal. Yet, few studies explored psychological ownership of change agents in educational organizations. Moreover, no knowledge exists on how agents' individual psychological ownership augments psychological ownership in schools and on how collective psychological ownership of change relates to school culture. The present study aims to address these two lacunae.Design/methodology/approachA case study method was adopted to investigate the psychological ownership of teams of change agents in schools. Six Israeli secondary state religious schools adopting a new liberal curricular program were studied. Thirty one interviews were conducted with principals, program coordinators, mid-level teacher leaders and teachers who were active change agents in the promotion of the program. The interviews were complemented by quantitative data on students' perceptions of school discipline and tolerance of diversity based on the national school culture survey.FindingsThe analyses revealed the prevalence of three types of psychological ownership in the sample of schools. The analyses also showed how key components of psychological ownership, i.e. responsibility and territoriality in relation to change manifest in the schools that were explored. Institution-level analysis shed light on the different effects psychological ownership of the change team had on sharing within the faculty. In addition, analyses showed how the scope of agreement between two key change agents, the program initiator and the principal, on psychological ownership affected various psychological ownership aspects of the team. Last, the analysis shows that two types of collective psychological ownership emerged in the course of a liberal school change, and that types were differently related to school outcomes.Originality/valueThe study offers an innovative typology of collective psychological ownership during second-order change in schools, mapping two ideal types: cooperative and fragmented collective psychological ownership. The new types provide a better understanding of the dynamic of collective psychological ownership and its outcomes in organizations in general and schools in particular.


This article discusses the position of older women in gender theory and in social gerontology. It shows how older women are made invisible in gender theory through the selection of arenas and themes, by model monopoly and by a lack of problematization of age. In the social gerontological field, older women have frequently been objects of research. However, double jeopardy assumptions have resulted in a perspective that foregrounds misery. Results from focus group interviews with women aged 75 and over, shed light on ageing as a process of development and on twofold bodily meanings, such as on-stage-body and off-stage-body. Thus, based on an approach of age and gender as intertwining systems, the article argues for a more complex understanding of the intersection of age and gender.


In biological systems higher order hyperstructures seem to occur both in an intuitive and a formal sense. Starting at a molecular level of description we have: molecules, polymers, supramolecular structures, organelles, cells, tissues, organs, etc. but in models and simulations of these systems it has turned out to be difficult to produce higher order emergent structures from first principles. We demonstrate how monomers (first order structures) compose polymers (second order structures) which in turn can assemble into ordered, micellar (third order) structures, which in turn can self-reproduce as they catalyse the formation of additionaly amphiphilic molecules. Processes of this particular kind have probably been important for the origins of life. Our molecular system is defined on a 2-D lattice and the dynamics is modeled as a discrete automaton. In this system all interactions (electromagnetic forces) are decomposed and communicated via propagating information particles. Each lattice site has an associated data structure where molecules are represented by inforamtion particles and their associated force fields (excluded volumes, kinetic energies, bond forces, attractive and repulsive forces) are decomposed and propagated as information particles as well. The propagation and interaction rules are derived from Newton's Laws. Based on this self-assembly and self-reproduction example it is possible to extract some of the principles involved in the generation of higher order (hyper-) structures and relate them to dynamical systems. An Ansatz for generating higher order structures in formal dynamical systems is given.


In regional planning literature it is often argued that regional deconcentration process and urban sprawl tend to increase the amount and distance of commuting (Vandersmissen et al. 2003). Supported by improved traffic infrastructure and falling transport costs the spatial division of labour and housing location extends the travel-to-work areas and allows to compensate for locational disadvantages of local labour markets (Moss et al. 2004). On the other hand, the contrary hypothesis is postulated, too. Since both working and living places are deconcentrating shorter commuting distances may happen because centre-orientated connections are substituted by intra-peripheral commuting patterns (Gordon; Richardson 1991: 419). The intention of the paper is to analyse the influence of spatial structure on commuting behaviour of employees: e.g. does commuting behaviour differ between type of regions and what are the reasons for these differences? There are several ways how the locational conditions of the living area may influence the commuting behaviour. Firstly, the more jobs are available, the less is c.p. the necessity for long-distance commuting. Thus, the lower the regional density of jobs the more frequent and longer commuting should be expected. In addition, the variety of local jobs should have an influence on the commuting behaviour. As in rural regions less varied jobs are available, there should be a pressure on the local residents to increase their job opportunities by extending their commuting distance. However, apart from regional influences, individual characteristics may effect commuting behaviour, too. For example, highly qualified employees are expected to commute to longer distances since they could be more interested in realizing their investment in human capital. Conversely, long-distance commuting should be c.p. less attractive for part-time employees because of the less favourable relation between work and commuting time. The empirical analysis consists of two parts: Firstly, regional differences in commuting behaviour are analyzed. The focus of investigation lies on regions and the relationship between the regional characteristics of living places and the regional amount of commuting. The second part includes individual influences. As they can only observed at the level of individuals, the focus of investigation changes from regions to individuals: In addition to regional effects the commuting behaviour of individuals is explained by individual characteristics such as education or occupation. The data base is given by the social security statistics. It covers all employees in the social security system and contains information about each individual. As data on both the living and the working places are available, the statistics allows a much greater regional differentiation than the frequently used surveys. The other information relate to some personal characteristics (like sex or education) as well as to the occupation such as full-/part-time or the sector of employment.


Richard Saul Wurman most recently attracted attention as the creator of Information Architects, a showcase book wherein twenty accomplished information architects present and discuss their graphic representations of information. Mr. Wurman is also the creator/host of the TED Conferences, which gather luminaries to ignite in the convergence of Technology, Entertainment and Design; in February 2000, TED x will be held in Monterey, California.Mr. Wurman also is or has been an architect of buildings, a mapmaker, and a redesigner of many things. For a 13-year period spanning the 60s, he published a series of architecturally oriented books on building comparisons, city analyses and Louis Kahn. In the early 80s Mr. Wurman began producing his highly successful ACCESS Guides to major cities; since then he has published dozens of guides to cities and a variety of topics including medical procedures. In 1987 he founded a company called the Understanding Business which created new formats for a variety of common documents, most notably road atlases and telephone books. In 1990, Mr. Wurman wrote Information Anxiety, an exploration of the problems we experience as a result of the information explosion; the enduring value of that work testifies to its perspicacity.


Calibration and evaluation of the Root Zone Water Quality Model (RZWQM98), using measured data
from different geographical locations, is an important component of model improvement strategy. This study was
designed to evaluate the latest version of RZWQM98 using 6 yr (1992-97) of field-measured data from a field at
Walnut Creek Watershed located in central Iowa. Measured data included subsurface drainage or 'tile' flows,
nitrate-nitrogen (NO3 -N) concentrations and loads with subsurface drainage water, and corn (Zea mays L.) and
soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) yields. The dominant soil within this field was Webster Soil (fine-loamy) in the
Clarion-Nicollet-Webster Soil Association. The cropping system was a corn-soybean rotation with chisel plowing
after corn harvest. Simulations of subsurface drainage flow (mm) closely matched observed data showing model
efficiency of 99% (EF = 0.99), and difference of 0.6% (D = 0.6), between measured and predicted values. The
model simulated NO3 -N losses (kg ha -1 ) with subsurface drainage water reasonably well with EF = 0.77 and D =
11. The simulated corn and soybean yields (kg ha -1 ) were in close agreement with measured data with D = 5.
Nitrogen-scenario simulations demonstrated that corn yield response function reached a plateau when N-application
rate exceeded 90 kg ha -1 . Fraction of applied nitrogen lost with subsurface drainage water varied from
7 to 16% when N-application rate varied from 0 to 180 kg ha -1 after accounting for the nitrate loss with no-fertilizer
application. The RZWQM98 has the potential to simulate the impact of nitrogen application rates on corn
yields and NO3 -N losses with subsurface drainage flows for different agricultural fields.


Public education continues to be a cornerstone of society in the United States. The process of public education has been touted as the way great equalizer in that it provides all with an equal opportunity to gain skills and knowledge to live out the American Dream. Rhetoric such as this strongly supports the notion meritocracy and marginalizes the most fragile in society. In reality public education has, and continues to be utilized as systemic structure that perpetuates the grave social, political, and economic inequalities in society. Numerous factors such as accountability measures, attendance lines, school choice, vouchers, and the influence of capitalistic ideals in education impact the overall structure of education. To better understand the awareness of these factors, I studied current classroom teachers in the specific areas of their extent of critical consciousness. This purpose of this study was to explore the degree in which classroom teachers are aware of systems the social, political, and economic systems of power. Additionally, I studied the level of awareness teachers have regarding the impact these structures have on the structure of school, including how these factors impact students. I approached this study through the lens of critical theory in order to gain an understanding of how the social construction of education has evolved to the current status. I utilized a compilation of published school data, a staff survey and individual teacher interviews to address the three posed research questions in this study. Results indicate current classroom teachers are in need of gaining awareness of systems of power and how these structures impact not only students, but also larger social outcomes in society. Results of this study also indicate a need to address the content of pre-service experiences to prepare teachers to navigate a global classroom space.


The mismatch between solar cell response and solar spectrum is one of the biggest challenges to achieve high efficiency in photovoltaic cells. There are a few different approaches to minimise this concern. One of them is the radiation conversion which may be due to three different processes, namely up-conversion, down- conversion and down-shifting. In this paper the down-conversion process of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and layers with ZnO NPs in polymer (poly (methyl methacrylate)) (PMMA) matrix will be analysed. ZnO NPs are prone to act as down-converting or down-shifting agents, which absorb the UV radiation, which is not absorbed by the solar cell, and then re-emit light in the visible range, which is suited to the photovoltaic cell sensitivity.
Herein, the photoluminescence and optical transmittance of ZnO NPs and layers based on ZnO NPs will be presented. These parameters have a large influence on the potential application of these layers in photovoltaic structures for increased efficiency. The conversion layers have to fulfil the following conditions: have good optical transmittance in the visible range and high luminescence efficiency in converting UV radiation into visible. The paper focuses on finding the balance between these parameters.


Differences in anthropometry and body composition in populates arising from ecological habitat has been documented in several studies. The study attempted to evaluate the differences between the anthropometric and body composition parameters in young women of Kaduna and Rivers State, Nigeria. The study involved young women, without physical deformities within the age range of 18–30 years (mean age 22.10 ± 2.62 and 22.55 ± 3.78 for Kaduna and Rivers women respectively) that are indigenes of Kaduna and Rivers State. The study was based on a cross-sectional sampling of 788 tertiary institution students (401women from Rivers State females and 387 Kaduna females). The following anthropometric variables were measured: weight to the nearest 0.1 kg and height to the nearest 0.5 cm using a stadiometer, limb circumferences, and body circumferences using a nonstretchable tape. Body composition parameters were measured using bioimpedance analyzer. Data obtained showed that limb circumferences of Kaduna women are signifi cantly higher than Rivers women (P < 0.000 for arm circumference, P < 0.01 for calf circumference, and P < 0.000 for forearm circumference) except for the thigh circumference. However, weight, height, iliac and tricep skinfold of women from Rivers State was signifi cantly higher than Kaduna women (P < 0.01, P < 0.01, P < 0.05, and P < 0.05). Muscle mass, percentage body fat, basal metabolic rate, and metabolic age of Rivers women were signifi cantly higher than that of their Kaduna counterparts at a signifi cant level of P < 0.001, P < 0.05, P < 0.01, and P < 0.01, respectively. Rivers state women presented higher anthropometric variables and body composition parameters, but a lower limb circumference than their counterparts from Kaduna State. The difference in body composition could be tied to genetics and physiological variation that exists between individuals of a different population.


"The Mobilization Of History And The Quest For The Tembe Chieftaincy in Maputaland: 1896-1997," is a study of conflicts emerging in post-apartheid rural KwaZulu Natal, South Africa. Under the white rule that extended from 19th century to the apartheid era, the African pre-colonial "identities" were contained but not diminished. During this period, some ruling families were supported by the colonial powers while others suffered as their positions were undermined. This resulted in numerous conflicts among Africans over ethnic identity; yet the white governments suppressed these conflicts. As the power ofwhite rule declined, some African pre-colonial "identities" have begun to show up and reclaim their positions within their communities. However, times have changed, the forces of the new political and economic order provides a different platfonn to which these conflicts over land and chieftainship are taking place. Motives behind these tensions have been shaped by the present rather than historical demands. The struggles over land and chieftainship in Maputaland are but one example of these controversial post-apartheid debates. For more than hundred years, starting from 1896 to the present, the Tembe Royal family has ruled Maputaland as the legitimate family. After 1994 with the end of white rule in South Africa, some followers of the Tembe Dynasty begun to question the Royal family's legitimacy. The history of the leadership of the Maputaland is re-debated. This dissertation is a historical examination ofthe genesis and development of the challenges to the Tembe Royal family's control ofpresent-day Maputaland. This dissertation maintains that the local leadership's mobilization ofhistory in Maputaland, that is reshaping old ethnic identities, is inspired by the envisaged economic benefits to be derived from the advent ofeco-tourism.


This paper explores how Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (CSCL) can globalize a criminal justice curriculum. It draws on a project where criminology students in Sweden and the United States collaborated in an online environment. We describe the design of the project and use student reflections to identify successes and challenges. The results show that for a CSCL to be successful, instructors need to be intentional about academic, psychological, and interpersonal aspects of the collaboration, as they are all interrelated. The students experienced challenges, for example, related to the workload. However, in most cases, the perceived benefits outweighed the challenges. The students reported an improved understanding of criminology theory and enhanced critical thinking skills. We argue that CSCL can improve the affordability and accessibility of global learning. Without having to travel, the students entered a virtual space where they could learn together with students and faculty from another country.


The karyotypes of four South American Xenodontini snake species, Lygophis dilepis, L. meridionalis, L. flavifrenatus and L. anomalus, are here described for the first time. We studied specimens from northeastern Argentina using conventional and silver (Ag-NOR) staining. While the typical ophidian karyotype is 2n = 36, we found that the karyotype of the studied species is 2n = 34, with metacentric and submetacentric chromosome pairs. The Ag-NOR staining revealed that nucleolar organizer regions (NORs) are located on one pair of microchromosomes. In L. dilepis and L. anomalus the 4th chromosome pair is heteromorphic, and we suggest that it might be considered as the ZW sex chromosome pair. The optimization of available karyological data on a molecular phylogenetic tree of the tribe Xenodontini shows that the diploid numbers 2n = 28, 30 and 34 represent putative synapomorphy for Erythrolamprus, Xenodon and Lygophis, respectively. Our results provide new insights which fill gaps in our knowledge on the cytology in the genus Lygophis and identified a possible diagnostic character for the genus.


This paper proposes two reference frame architectures for H.264/AVC based multi-view video codecs. To achieve this, the block matching amongst reference frames of the codec are statistically analyzed. Based on the resulting statistics, two sets of reference frame architectures for best coding performance of the codec are proposed. The coding performance of the codec using the proposed reference frame architectures are assessed against the same codec which uses three different reference frame architectures. The measurements were carried out on four standard multi-view datasets. Results show that the application of the proposed reference frame architectures significantly (up to 2.3 dBs) improves the coding performance of the codec.


Natural images often exhibit symmetries that should be taken into account when editing them. In this paper we present Nautilus --- a method for automatically identifying symmetric regions in an image along with their corresponding symmetry transformations. We compute dense local similarity symmetry transformations using a novel variant of the Generalised PatchMatch algorithm that uses Metropolis-Hastings sampling. We combine and refine these local symmetries using an extended Lucas-Kanade algorithm to compute regional transformations and their spatial extents. Our approach produces dense estimates of complex symmetries that are combinations of translation, rotation, scale, and reflection under perspective distortion. This enables a number of automatic symmetry-aware image editing applications including inpainting, rectification, beautification, and segmentation, and we demonstrate state-of-the-art applications for each of them.


BACKGROUND
This study was proposed to investigate the changes in the utilization of knee arthroscopy in an ambulatory setting over the past decade in the United States as well as its implications.

METHODS
The National Survey of Ambulatory Surgery, last carried out in 1996, was conducted again in 2006 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. We analyzed the cases with procedure coding indicative of knee arthroscopy or anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. To produce estimates for all arthroscopic procedures on the knee in an ambulatory setting in the United States for each year, we performed a design-based statistical analysis.

RESULTS
The number of arthroscopic procedures on the knee increased 49% between 1996 and 2006. While the number of arthroscopic procedures for knee injury had dramatically increased, arthroscopic procedures for knee osteoarthritis had decreased. In 1996, knee arthroscopies performed in freestanding ambulatory surgery centers comprised only 15% of all orthopaedic procedures, but the proportion increased to 51% in 2006. There was a large increase in knee arthroscopy among middle-aged patients regardless of sex. In 2006, >99% of arthroscopic procedures on the knee were in an outpatient setting. Approximately 984,607 arthroscopic procedures on the knee (95% confidence interval, 895,999 to 1,073,215) were performed in an outpatient setting in 2006. Among those, 127,446 procedures (95% confidence interval, 95,124 to 159,768) were for anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction. Nearly 500,000 arthroscopic procedures were performed for medial or lateral meniscal tears.

CONCLUSIONS
This study revealed that the knee arthroscopy rate in the United States was more than twofold higher than in England or Ontario, Canada, in 2006. Our study found that nearly half of the knee arthroscopic procedures were performed for meniscal tears. Meniscal damage, detected by magnetic resonance imaging, is commonly assumed to be the source of pain and symptoms. Further study is imperative to better define the symptoms, physical findings, and radiographic findings that are predictive of successful arthroscopic treatment.


An Unusual Ingredient – Manna Manna, a gift from nature, comes from a kind of ash called "Fraxinus angustifolia" or "Fraxinus ornus" found in the surrounding areas of the towns of Castelbuono, Pollina and Cefalu (Italy). In the past, it was grown extensively in the Mediterranean basin though all traces of it seem to be lost. The history is pieced together with historical references from the Bible, health manuals from ancient civilizations, and references to the implements used to harvest it. Its mysterious or miraculous properties are presented; two kinds of manna were thought to exist, one from Heaven, and the other from a tree. The ideal conditions for growing the trees and harvest are described with plentiful folklore, local customs, special vocabulary and tools mentioned. Manna is harvested in summertime when the plant is "in love", from June to September or until the first rains, which would dissolve it, start to fall. The people of Pollina romantically call manna, "a sweet gift of nature". It tastes like honey mixed with carob. The sap flows through a gash made with a special technique, using a curved cutter called a "mannarolo," on the vein of the trunk of the tree, and it is left to drip for several days. The sap crystallizes and forms long clumps similar to stalactites, which are called "cannolo" in the manna-world vocabulary. The juice is violet and very bitter when it drips, but the contact with the air and the strong Sicilian sun dries and sweetens it. "Cannoli" are harvested with an "archetto." There is a second and third grade of sap, which doesn't crystallize or form cannoli. Prickly-pear leaves act as a sort of spout to catch the manna. Its medicinal qualities include its mild laxative effect, its natural sweetness for dietary purposes, and its use in digestive alcoholic drinks and cosmetics is noted. It is sold at pharmacies and tobacco stores.


CONTEXT
The Functional Movement Screen (FMS) evaluates performance in 7 fundamental movement patterns using a 4-point scale. Previous studies have reported increased injury risk with a composite score (CS) of 14/21 or less; these studies were limited to specific sports and injury definition.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the association between FMS CS and movement pattern scores and acute noncontact and overuse musculoskeletal injuries in division I college athletes. An exploratory objective was to assess the association between injury and FMS movement pattern asymmetry.

DESIGN
Prospective cohort.

SETTING
College athletic facilities.

PARTICIPANTS
167 injury-free, college basketball, football, volleyball, cross country, track and field, swimming/ diving, soccer, golf, and tennis athletes (males = 89).

INTERVENTION
The FMS was administered during pre-participation examination.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE
Noncontact or overuse injuries that required intervention from the athletic trainer during the sport season.

RESULTS
FMS CS was not different between those injured (n = 74; 14.3 ± 2.5) and those not (14.1 ± 2.4; P = .57). No point on the ROC curve maximized sensitivity and specificity; therefore previously published cut-point was used for analysis with injury (≤ 14 [n = 92]). After adjustment, no statistically significant association between FMS CS and injury (odds ratio [OR] = 1.01, 95% CI 0.53-1.91) existed. Lunge was the only movement pattern that was associated with injury; those scoring 2 were less likely to have an injury vs those who scored 3 (OR = 0.21, 95% CI 0.08-0.59). There was also no association between FMS movement pattern asymmetry and injury.

CONCLUSION
FMS CS, movement patterns, and asymmetry were poor predictors of noncontact and overuse injury in this cohort of division I athletes.


This Policy Spotlight examines how the pandemic is affecting child care centers and family child care providers, who offer care in their homes. It also documents the financial assistance from the state and federal governments that has been available for providers so far and makes some policy suggestions.

Like many other industries, the child care sector has been hit hard by the pandemic. Providers closed their doors or dramatically reduced capacity under government orders put in place to slow the spread of the virus.

"Child care is a lot like a restaurant or hairdresser in terms of being a personal service, so providers are very subject to social distancing concerns," said Policy Spotlight author Elizabeth T. Powers, an IGPA senior scholar and associate professor in the Department of Economics at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "But child care also holds a unique position in our economy. Access to affordable child care will be necessary to get working parents, who are a big part of the labor force, back on the job."


Mortgage fees that are charged by lenders have caused increasing concerns to borrowers and policymakers, and heighted debate over time with particular scrutiny during the recent global financial crisis. Interestingly however, there is almost no research on mortgage fees in the Australian context. This paper analyzes mortgage fee differentials among banks, mortgage corporations, building societies and credit unions operating in Australia during the research period. Findings suggest that banks charged the highest total, origination and ongoing fees while mortgage corporations have the lowest ongoing fees. The results also suggest that mortgage corporations require the same level of total fees as those of member-based institutions (building societies and credit unions), however banks and building societies have about 7 and 3 basis points of ongoing fees respectively more than mortgage corporations. Ongoing fees are an important mortgage cost because a borrower must pay them for a whole life of a loan, unlike the upfront fees that are paid just once. It also suggests that unlike mortgage corporations (the securitizer), depository lenders that charged higher ongoing fees probably maintain the customer relationship. This provides preliminary evidence in line with the existing US literature that there are statistically significant differences between the fee structures of Australian mortgage products.


Exposure to particulate material (PM) is a major health concern in megacities across the world which use trains as a primary public transport. PM emissions caused by railway traffic have hardly been investigated in the past, due to their obviously minor influence on the atmospheric air quality compared to automotive transport. However, the electrical train releases particles mainly originate from wear of rails track, brakes, wheels and carbon contact stripe which are the main causes of cardio-pulmonary and lung cancer. In previous reports most of the researchers have focused on case studies based PM emission investigation. However, the PM emission measured in this way doesn't show separately the metal PM emission to the environment. In this study a generic PM emission model is developed using rail wheel-track wear model to quantify and characterise the metal emissions. The modelling has based on Archard's wear model. The prediction models estimated the passenger train of one set emits 6.6mg/km-train at 60m/s speed. The effects of train speed on the PM emission has been also investigated and resulted in when the train speed increase the metal PM emission decrease. Using the model the metal PM emission has been studied for the train line between Leeds and Manchester to show potential emissions produced each day. This PM emission characteristics can be used to monitor the brakes, the wheels and the rail tracks conditions in future.


For several decades, shortages of minority teachers have been a big issue for the nation's schools. Policy makers and recent presidents have agreed that our elementary and secondary teaching force "should look like America." But the conventional wisdom is that as the nation's population and students have grown more diverse, the teaching force has done the opposite--grown more white and less diverse. The result, we are told, is that minority students in the nation's schools increasingly lack minority adult role models, contact with teachers who understand their racial and cultural background, and often qualified teachers of any background, because white teachers eschew schools with large percentages of minorities. The minority teacher shortage in turn, we are told, is a major reason for the minority achievement gap and, ultimately, unequal occupational and life outcomes for disadvantaged students. In short, the minority teacher shortage is a civil rights issue. The main source of this shortage, conventional wisdom holds, is a problem with the teacher supply pipeline. Too few minority students enter and complete college, and those who do have an increasing number of career and employment options aside from teaching. Moreover, when minority candidates do seek to enter teaching, this view holds, they encounter barriers--in particular, teaching entry tests, on which minority candidates have lower pass rates. The result is the minority teacher shortage. The prescription, understandably enough, has been to try to recruit more minority candidates into teaching. In recent decades, numerous government and nongovernment organizations have tried a variety of minority teacher recruitment programs and initiatives, including future educator programs in high schools, partnerships between community colleges and four-year teacher education programs, career ladders for paraprofessionals in schools, and alternative teacher certification programs. Support for these efforts has been substantial. For instance, beginning in the late 1980s, the Ford Foundation, along with the DeWitt Wallace Readers' Digest Fund, committed over $60 million to minority teacher recruitment and preparation programs. Many of these initiatives have been designed to bring minority teachers into schools serving predominantly minority student populations, often in low-income, urban school districts. Some of these initiatives have been designed specifically to recruit male minority teachers, who are often considered to be in the shortest supply. Today, over half the states have some sort of minority teacher recruitment policies or programs in place. Have these efforts been successful? Has the teaching force grown more diverse? And, if not, why not? A couple of years ago, with support from the Flora Family Foundation, we set out to answer these questions. We analyzed two decades worth of data from the late 1980s to 2009 from a large U.S. Department of Education national survey of teachers and administrators. We didn't focus on the contentious question of whether minority teachers are better at teaching minority students. Rather, our objective was to use the best national data available to ground the debate over the extent of shortages. We asked: * Have the numbers of minority teachers been going up or down? What changes have there been, if any, in the numbers of minority students and numbers of minority teachers in the school system, and how does this compare with white students and teachers? * Where are minority teachers employed? Are minority teachers more likely than white teachers to be employed in schools serving high-poverty, urban, and high-minority student populations? * How does minority teacher retention compare to that of white teachers, and has it been going up or down? We were surprised by what we found. From the viewpoint of the minority teacher shortage and of the efforts to address it, there is both good news and bad news. …


The People's Journal, 'A Penny Saturday paper devoted to the interests of the Working Classes', was one of the most successful and culturally influential publications in Victorian Scotland. From the beginning, the Journal set out to represent ordinary men and women, providing a platform for their opinions and experiences, publishing readers' letters, stories, and especially their poetry. Collected here are more than one hundred examples of these poems - comical, sentimental, political and polemical - on a dizzy variety of subjects, from domestic pleasures and local events to national questions and foreign affairs. These works, written by tradesmen and women, factory workers, servants, and others, are both deeply fascinating and highly entertaining. Their voices are part of a literary heritage that deserves recovery, and their concerns and interests often chime, more than we might expect, with issues still very much current in the modern day.


In this paper we show that the optimization of several ranking-based performance measures, such as precision-at-k and average-precision, is intimately related to the solution of quadratic assignment problems. Both the task of test-time prediction of the best ranking and the task of constraint generation in estimators based on structured support vector machines can all be seen as special cases of quadratic assignment problems. Although such problems are in general NP-hard, we identify a polynomially-solvable subclass (for both inference and learning) that still enables the modeling of a substantial number of pairwise rank interactions. We show preliminary results on a public benchmark image annotation data set, which indicates that this model can deliver higher performance over ranking models without pairwise rank dependencies.


Biomolecules do not fold into a single 3D structure but rather form dynamic ensembles of many inter-converting conformations1. Knowledge of dynamic ensembles is key for understanding how biomolecules fold and function, and for rationally manipulating their activities in drug discovery and synthetic biology2–4. However, solving dynamic ensembles of biomolecules at atomic resolution is a major challenge in structural biology because the information required to specify the position of all atoms in thousands of conformations in an ensemble far exceeds the information content of experimental measurements. Here we addressed the data gap and dramatically simplified and accelerated RNA ensemble determination by using structure prediction tools that leverage the growing database of RNA structures to generate a conformational library. Library refinement with NMR residual dipolar couplings enabled determination of an atomic-resolution ensemble for HIV-1 TAR as confirmed by quantum-mechanical calculations of NMR chemical shifts, comparison to a crystal structure of a substate, and through the successful redistribution of the ensemble by design using atomic mutagenesis. The ensemble provides an unprecedented view of how bulge residues cooperatively flip out and undergo sugar repuckering to allow the adjoining helices to stack. The generality of this approach will make determination of atomic-resolution RNA ensembles routine.


The use of technologies within educational settings has become a priority for governments of developing countries. Investment in Technologies for Education (TEd), which has the goal of improving the quality of education and making it relevant to 21st century realities, has grown steadily during the past decade. However, efforts involving the evaluation of such projects have been inadequate thus far. The evaluation of educational technology projects is critically important, since it allows us to learn from the experience of carrying out such programs while providing vital information on expected results. The present document is intended for those who design, implement, and make decisions with respect to TEd. Its purpose is to foster the development of increasingly rigorous monitoring and evaluation processes that in turn lead to richer experiences that are more focused, effective, and sustainable.


Survival analysis is a challenging variation of regression modeling because of the presence of censoring, where the outcome measurement is only partially known, due to, for example, loss to follow up. Such problems come up frequently in medical applications, making survival analysis a key endeavor in biostatistics and machine learning for healthcare, with Cox regression models being amongst the most commonly employed models. We describe a new approach for survival analysis regression models, based on learning mixtures of Cox regressions to model individual survival distributions. We propose an approximation to the Expectation Maximization algorithm for this model that does hard assignments to mixture groups to make optimization efficient. In each group assignment, we fit the hazard ratios within each group using deep neural networks, and the baseline hazard for each mixture component non-parametrically. We perform experiments on multiple real world datasets, and look at the mortality rates of patients across ethnicity and gender. We emphasize the importance of calibration in healthcare settings and demonstrate that our approach outperforms classical and modern survival analysis baselines, both in terms of discriminative performance and calibration, with large gains in performance on the minority demographics.


This paper is aimed to explore theoretically the complexities and the reality in the policy making process from the point of view causality relationships among the components or actors within the system.The complexities' exploration in the paper is based on the model of the policy cycle that is widely discussed in the public policy and public administration literatures. The sense of reality surroundings the policy-making process is perceived from some study cases that have been observed from Australia and Indonesia literatures. Such complexities will be described with system mapping through stocks and flows diagram and expectation on some variables behavior will be tested by system simulation.Simulation throughout the paper revealed different complexities and some pitfalls in each stage of the policy cycle model on which should be given a proper attention from the policy stakeholder.The paper tried to construct a different approach to understand the reality and embrace the complexities of the policy-making process in order to present a starting point for an open discussion in public policy field. The effort could be a learning tool for the public policy maker to build good awareness and understanding on their roles in the complex relationship and inter-dependent environment. Eventually, the paper can fill the gap between policy cycle model theory and the complexity in the real situation of the policy-making process.


People often act together with a shared purpose; they collaborate. Collaboration enables them to work more efficiently and to complete activities they could not accomplish individually. An increasing number of computer applications also require collaboration among various systems and people. Thus, a major challenge for AI researchers is to determine how to construct computer systems that are able to act effectively as partners in collaborative activity. Collaborative activity entails participants forming commitments to achieve the goals of the group activity and requires group decision making and group planning procedures. In addition, agents must be committed to supporting the activities of their fellow participants in support of the group activity. Furthermore, when conflicts arise (for example, from resource bounds), participants must weigh their commitments to various group activities against those for individual activities. This article briefly reviews the major features of one model of collaborative planning called SHARED-PLANS (Grosz and Kraus 1999, 1996). It describes several current efforts to develop collaborative planning agents and systems for human-computer communication based on this model. Finally, it discusses empirical research aimed at determining effective commitment strategies in the SHAREDPLANS context.


In response to U.S. corporate failures involved in the current global financial crisis, traditional corporate finance vehicles and tools were widely used in new ways and for new purposes. Of course, one object of the U.S. government's investment and intervention in, and exercise of influence over, private enterprise during the crisis was to provide for or ensure the provision of adequate capital funding. But its investment, intervention, and influence also represented a new way to oversee and otherwise regulate key business enterprises in the financial services and automotive sectors. This Article reviews certain aspects of the use of preferred stock, bankruptcy-related proceedings, and mergers and acquisitions in connection with the government's recent, crisis-mode interventions in private enterprise. Further, it analyzes corporate finance aspects of these exploits and highlights potential effects of these activities on corporate finance instruments, transactions, and legal practice.


The ideal of clear and simple jurisdictional rules seems like a no-brainer. Clarity in areas of subject-matter jurisdiction generally reduces the cost of litigating those issues and thus preserves litigant and judicial resources for the merits of a dispute. As a result, scholars and justices regularly promote the rhetoric of jurisdictional clarity. Yet no one has probed that rhetoric or reconciled it with the reality of subject-matter jurisdiction doctrine, which is anything but clear and simple. This Article begins to fill that gap, and, in the process, shifts the perspective of existing conversations between rules and standards and between mandates and discretion toward a perspective that focuses on the value and attainability of clarity. It offers a more refined understanding of the surprising uncertainty and complexity of jurisdictional clarity, and it argues that, contrary to the rhetoric, the ideal of jurisdictional clarity is mostly illusory. Difficulties inherent in the design, implementation, and instrumental direction of clear and simple jurisdictional rules largely render them unattainable. Rather than continue to invoke the unexamined ideal of clarity and simplicity, jurisdictional doctrine should strive to confine clarity to what it can reasonably accomplish and to embrace the undervalued virtues of uncertainty and complexity.


Partial MDS (PMDS) codes are erasure codes combining local (row) correction with global additional correction of entries, while Sector-Disk (SD) codes are erasure codes that address the mixed failure mode of current RAID systems. It has been an open problem to construct general codes that have the PMDS and the SD properties, and previous work has relied on Monte-Carlo searches. In this paper, we present a general construction that addresses the case of any number of failed disks and in addition, two erased sectors. The construction requires a modest field size. This result generalizes previous constructions extending RAID~5 and RAID~6.


This basic guide provides insight on the wonderful field of Nursing. You will find all of the available resources needed to learn about and explore this dynamic field.


On occasion, the response to treatment in an AB/BA crossover trial is measured on a binary variable success or failure. It is assumed that response to treatment is measured on an outcome variable with (+) representing a treatment success and a (-) representing a treatment failure. Traditionally, three tests for comparing treatment effect have been used (McNemar's, Mainland-Gart, and Prescott's). An issue arises concerning treatment comparisons when there may be a residual effect (carryover effect) of a previous treatment affecting the current treatment. A general consensus as to which procedure is preferable is debatable. However, if both group and carry-over effects are absent, Prescott's test is the best one to use. Under a model with residual effects, Prescott's test is biased. Therefore, a conservative approach includes testing for residual effects. When there is no period effect, McNemar's test is optimal, while McNemar's test is biased.


The Harbin loess, typical of the loess in NE China, is located in the easternmost margin of the Eurasian loess belt, and was recently investigated from the perspective of an Asian aeolian dust system. Before this study, the geochemical composition and provenance of the Harbin loess remained poorly understood. More importantly, the study of the Harbin loess also provides a unique opportunity to understand the geomorphological evolution process of the large Songliao palaeolake in the Northeast Plain. This study presents the results on the geochemical characteristics (major elements, trace elements, rare earth elements and Sr–Nd isotope) of the Harbin loess. There are markedly consistent geochemical compositions in and between the loess and palaeosol sediments, revealing stable dust sources and identical sources for the loess and palaeosol. Various indicators illustrating weathering and recycling indicate that the Harbin loess–palaeosol sediments were derived from sources with a low degree of weathering and from material with first-cycle alluvial–lacustrine deposits. Combinations of various provenance tracing indicators indicate that the Harbin loess has a strong geochemical affinity with the Songnen Sandy Land and to a certain extent the Horqin Sandy Land but not with the Hulun Buir Sandy Land, which indicates that these loess deposits are derived from a mixed provenance, with the dominant source being the neighbouring Songnen Sandy Land and a second, distal source being the Horqin Sandy Land. Finally, we advocate that the Harbin loess accumulation could serve as the direct record of the Songliao palaeolake disappearance. Supplementary material: Data for the NE Sandy Lands of China, and full provenance discrimination diagrams are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.3835009.


This paper will review work on modulation detection interference (MDI), especially in regard to its relationship to sound source determination. MDI represents the difficulty in processing temporal modulation of a probe stimulus when one or more spectrally remote maskers are similarly modulated. Some authors have argued that MDI is an example of cross‐spectral processing and is a consequence of the auditory system using coherent modulation of spectrally disparate components as an aid in sound source determination. The evidence for and against these two arguments will be provided. Data from experiments involving complex modulation patterns and multiple maskers will be described along with those from previous work involving simple modulation of a single masker. Attempts to demonstrate that MDI is primarily a cross‐spectral phenomenon and that it is related to sound source determination will be made. [Work funded by grants from the NIDCD, NSF, and the AFOSR.]


Cumulus congestus clouds have long been identified as an important part of the spectrum of convective clouds in the tropics. These clouds—which range in size from growing cumulus to slightly smaller than a cumulonimbus—make important contributions to precipitation and latent heat fluxes in the tropics. Past studies have used numerical simulations and satellite observations to examine these clouds globally, although definitions of congestus vary between studies. In this study, congestus in the tropics are identified using contiguous cloud area with cloud tops between 5 and 8 km from 5 years of CloudSat reflectivity data. Alternatively, congestus clouds are defined by contiguous cloud areas with infrared brightness temperature ranging from 273 to 260 K and radar‐detected surface rainfall from 14 years of Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) data. Due to the resolution of CloudSat, the congestus identified using this method represent groups of congestus clouds rather than individual turrets. The regional, seasonal variations of the population of congestus are presented globally. Congestus clouds are found most frequently over the Amazon. There is a strong diurnal variation of congestus clouds over land with a peak in the early afternoon shown by TRMM. General differences are found between the properties of congestus over land and those over ocean, especially the shapes of groups of congestus over land and ocean. Ocean congestus clusters are more bell shaped, while land congestus clusters tend to have flatter sides and larger area above the freezing level. These differences have important implications in the proper representation of congestus in numerical models.


Margaret Schlauch was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on 25th September 1898. She received her B.A. at Barnard College in 1918, her M.A. at Columbia in 1919 and her Ph.D. also at Columbia in 1927 (diss. Chaucer's Constance and Accused Queens). Before receiving her Ph.D. she spent a year at the University of Munich (1923-24). In 1924 she began teaching at the New York University, first as an instructor (until 1927) and later as an assistant professor of English (1927-31), associate professor (1931-40) and full professor (1940-51). In the summer of 1937 she was a visiting associate professor of German at the University of Chicago and in the summer of 1939 a visiting associate professor of English at the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. The academic year 1929-30 Professor Schlauch spent at the University of Berlin studying Celtic languages under Professor J. Pokorny. She was a victim of McCarthyism. Her sister married an eminent Polish physicist, a leftist, Prof. Leopold Infeld who was Einstein's colaborator and had close connections with the Los Alamos people. In 1951 he had to leave Canada on suspicions of espionage. M. Schlauch, an active member of the Communist Party of the United States also decided to leave her native country in order to avoid harrassment and possibly loss of her academic post. She decided to choose Poland for her second homeland where her sister had already arrived from Toronto. She served her new country with utmost devotion to the end of her days, leaving an indelible imprint on the development of English studies in postwar Poland. In 1951 she was appointed professor of English at the University of Warsaw. In 1954 she became head of the department of English and functioned in this capacity until her retirement in 1965. From 1954 to 1956 Professor Schlauch was also head of the Department of General Linguistics. She was a member of a number of professional organizations, including the Medieval Academy of America (member of the Council 1937-40), Modern Language Association of America (member of the Council 1938-42), Linguistic Society of America, Society of Advancement of Scandinavian Studies, American Association of University Women and Polish Linguistics Association. She was honorary member of English Literature Association, Hiroshima University. In 1961 she was elected a corresponding member of the Polish Academy of Sciences. From 1954 to 1986 she was member of the Committee on Modern Languages and Literatures of the Academy. Professor Schlauch was editor or member of the editorial board of Speculum (1933-36), Science and Society (1936), and Kwartalnik Neofilologiczny (1954-75). She has left over 140 works. Some of the monographs and handbooks have been reprinted several times both in Poland and in other countries. Her research interests were broad and covered such areas as linguistic theory, history of English, history, Marxist philosophy, English and American literature (with particular emphasis on stylistics), Icelandic literature and comparative literature. From mid-thirties she consistently applied Marxist methodology both in her linguistic and literary studies. In the area of linguistics Professor Schlauch concentrated on the critique of Bloomfield and his structuralism in "Early behaviorist psychology and contemporary linguistics" (1946) and "Mechanism and historical materialism in semantic studies" (1947). In 1936 she drew the attention of the American audience to the developments in Soviet linguistics. The same year she published a paper on the social basis of linguistics. In 1942 she published a popular introduction to language study (The gift of tongues) which had four editions (4th edition of The gift of languages appeared in 1955) and was favourably reviewed by a number of linguists, including M. …


This timely book, published in the lead up to the 2012-14 decision on Trident renewal, makes available for the first time the late Sir Michael Quinlan's private correspondence on nuclear deterrence. It shows why Sir Michael, as Policy Director and then Permanent Secretary at the Ministry of Defence during the last years of the Cold War, became known as the 'high priest of deterrence': his unparalleled grasp of nuclear strategy, contribution to nuclear doctrine in the UK and NATO, and deep and genuine concern with defence ethics earned him respect and admiration around the world. Even those who challenged him on fundamental questions of strategy and morality (and many of his correspondents fell into this category, as this volume will reveal) recognised his sincere devotion to his cause: the creation of a stable system of east-west nuclear deterrence for the prevention of major war. Before he died in 2009, Sir Michael made it known that he wished for his private correspondence to be published. This book helps fulfil that wish. It presents a selection of the most compelling letters among the many thousands in the Quinlan files. It is intended as a memorial to a brilliant man, an important historical record of British nuclear thinking during the cold war, and a contribution to contemporary debates over the future of nuclear deterrence.