Object detection and tracking are two fundamental tasks in multi - camera surveillance. This paper proposes a framework for achieving these tasks in a no overlapping multiple camera network. A new object detection algorithm using mean shift (MS) segmentation is introduced, and occluded objects are further separated with the help of depth information derived from stereo vision. The detected objects are then tracked by a new object tracking algorithm using a novel Bayesian Kalman filter with simplified Gaussian mixture (BKF-SGM). It employs a Gaussian mixture (GM) representation of the state and noise densities and a novel direct density simplifying algorithm for avoiding the exponential complexity growth of conventional Kalman filters (KFs) using GM. When coupled with an improved MS tracker, a new BKF-SGM with improved MS algorithm with more robust tracking performance is obtained. Furthermore, a monitoring-based object recognition algorithm is employed to support object tracking over non overlapping network. Experimental results show that: 1) the proposed object detection algorithm yields improved segmentation results over conventional object detection methods and 2) the proposed tracking algorithm can successfully handle complex scenarios with good performance and low arithmetic complexity. Moreover, the performance of both monitoring and training-based object recognition algorithms can be improved using our detection and tracking results as input.


We study the robust recovery of a low-rank matrix from sparsely and grossly corrupted Gaussian measurements, with no prior knowledge on the intrinsic rank. We consider the robust matrix factorization approach. We employ a robust `1 loss function and deal with the challenge of the unknown rank by using an overspecified factored representation of the matrix variable. We then solve the associated nonconvex nonsmooth problem using a subgradient method with diminishing stepsizes. We show that under a regularity condition on the sensing matrices and corruption, which we call restricted direction preserving property (RDPP), even with rank overspecified, the subgradient method converges to the exact low-rank solution at a sublinear rate. Moreover, our result is more general in the sense that it automatically speeds up to a linear rate once the factor rank matches the unknown rank. On the other hand, we show that the RDPP condition holds under generic settings, such as Gaussian measurements under independent or adversarial sparse corruptions, where the result could be of independent interest. Both the exact recovery and the convergence rate of the proposed subgradient method are numerically verified in the overspecified regime. Moreover, our experiment further shows that our particular design of diminishing stepsize effectively prevents overfitting for robust recovery under overparameterized models, such as robust matrix sensing and learning robust deep image prior. This regularization effect is worth further investigation.


A theoretical model for quantifying the pulse distortion introduced by the stimulated-Brillouin-scattering (SBS)-induced (equivalent) dispersion in a linear Brillouin slow-light system is presented. Based on this model, a linear Brillouin slow-light system employing fast-light propagation for dispersion compensation is analyzed. The results show that the elimination of gain-nonuniformity-induced equivalent group-velocity dispersion can be achieved with the sacrifice of introducing much larger high-order (equivalent) dispersion effects. It is also shown that the simultaneous cancellation of gain-nonuniformity-induced equivalent group-velocity dispersion and third-order dispersion as presented in a recent article is impossible.


The interview was recorded at the Bronxville, New York, on September 22, 1990. The Interviewer was Sutterlin.
Before joining the United Nations in 1949 and working with Dr. Ralph Bunche in the Trusteeship Division, F. T. Liu worked for two years with the Chinese Embassy in Paris. In 1960, he moved with Dr. Bunche to the Office of Special Political Affairs, where he planned and organized peacekeeping operations. From 1963 to 1964, he served as senior political adviser to the United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC). After that mission, he worked with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP) and the United Nations Truce Supervision Organization (UNTSO). He became secretary to the United Nations Good Offices Mission to Bahrain in 1970.

Conducted after his retirement from the United Nations, these interviews focus Mr. Liu's experiences serving on Peacekeeping Missions and the integral roles he played. In the first interview, conducted on 23 March 1990, he recalls when he became involved with ONUC. Mr. Liu reviews the entire mission, going into detail about its history, the difficulties that arose in the Congo's transition to independence, the main personalities involved and the relationships therein, and how the deaths of Patrice Lumumba and Secretary‑General Dag Hammarskjold affected the dynamic. The second interview, conducted a few months later on 22 September 1990, centres around UNTSO and the Middle East Wars. In the same fashion, Mr. Liu discusses the history behind UNTSO and the two United Nations Emergency Forces (UNEF I and UNEF II) and the negotiations that helped to end the 1967 and 1973 Middle East Wars.


The popular, easily accessible guide to the design of reinforced concrete structures—now updated and revised

 Structural Concrete, Fifth Edition provides complete guidance to the analysis and design of reinforced and prestressed concrete structures. This new edition brings all material up to date while maintaining the book's practical, logical, easy-to-follow approach. Coverage includes the latest ACI 318 - 11 code rules, emphasizing the code's strength approach and strain limits. Additional codes, standards, and specifications, as well as material properties and specific loads and safety provisions are also examined in detail.

 Drawing on decades of experience in industry and academia, the authors include numerous SI unit examples and design tables along with step-by-step instructions on how to analyze and design for each type of structural member. They clearly explain all key concepts one should know before tackling design formulas, and supplement the discussion with helpful end-of-chapter summaries, references, and problems. New and updated material in this edition includes:

 The application of shear design to beams with variable length in actual structure

 The design of deep beams employing ACI and AASHTO strut-and-tie approach

 The design of stepped-type reinforced concrete stairs, not covered anywhere else

 Seismic design and analysis utilizing the IBC 2012 and ASCE 7-10 code

 The design of curved beams subject to flexure, shear, and torsion

 Prestressed concrete bridge design according to AASHTO specifications

 Examples for predicting shrinkage and creep of concrete in both U.S. and SI units

 Structural Concrete, Fifth Edition arms civil and structural engineers with a complete set of tools for designing concrete structures with confidence. It is also an excellent resource for students of civil engineering.


Configuring services in an ad-hoc way is less than optimal as human error can result in services that fail. Even though scripting offers a solution it does not allow for a uniform deployment of configurations. A possible solution to this problem is the use of software configuration management systems (SCMS) that allow administrators to specify what should be done, and not necessarily how. An implementation is conducted that focuses on the first part of implementing an SCMS to see if a transition to a SCMS governed environment can be worthwhile. Three SCMS will be investigated; Chef, CFEngine and Puppet. The results show that administrators can receive good support from the documentation as documentation of the three SCMS are mostly accurate. The support from the community is affected by region and activity is declining in some cases. Overall it is easy to install an SCMS and special purpose languages are effective for specifying functionality of services.


The basic objective of this paper is to design an appropriate structural model based on economic behavioral foundations and test it on data representing the determining factors of Czech trade specialization and growth. Policy recommendations based on the functioning of some policy instruments relevant to monetary policy decisions are also a part of the study.

In the empirical part of the analysis, we use alternative specifications of export and import functions estimated as panels for the EU and non-EU countries, disaggregated into 29 industries for 1993-2001. It is evident from our tests that the future of the Czech trade balance and GDP growth will hinge on ow the Czech economy substitutes its present comparative advantage in labor by building up its capital endowments, most notably its human capital endowments.

Although our tests confirm that the balance of trade was fundamentally influenced by the exchange rate, aggregate demand and tariff changes, the underlying fundamental factors relevant for a sustainable trade balance and an equilibrium exchange rate rest on supply-side capacities (such as changes in factor endowments, inflows of foreign direct investment (FDI), developments in productivity and wage rates, pricing policy of enterprises and the nature of competitiveness of domestic production), which are extremely closely related to export and import performance.

It seems evident that industrial policies (such as support for FDI, capital availability, the building-up of human capital or labor mobility and the promotion of domestic import substitution) can lead to significant changes in the nature of Czech exports and international competitiveness.

We can induce from our analysis that the fundamental restructuring of Czech enterprises in the period 1993 -2001 was driven by openness to trade, especially with the EU. While exports offered growth and employment, accelerating import penetration required the downsizing of many industries, which burdened the whole Czech economy with high adjustment costs. Now, in a period of economic structural stabilization and EU accession, the prospects for accelerated economic growth are much higher.

The seemingly low or even reversed response of trade intensities to real exchange rate appreciation can be explained by supply-side gains in the quality of products, productivity improvements, the buildup of human capital associated with FDI and the fast dynamics of intra-industrial trade, which had a low sensitivity to exchange rate fluctuations. Relative to the unwieldy performance of the state sector or the domestic production of the non-traded commodities, Czech export sector made a tremendous progress in competitiveness during 1993- 2001, showing high dynamics of growth, intensive level of structural adjustments and an accelerated seed of integration with the EU.


"Thus all art is propaganda and ever must be, despite the wailing of the purists ... I do not care a damn for any art that is not used for propaganda"--Du Bois' Criteria of Negro Art. (1) "What was about to break was not the dam of segregation but the long suffering patience of those Harlemites who never read Opportunity and no longer derived vicarious pride from Walter White's presence at the Saint Mortiz"--Lewis' When Harlem was in Vogue. (2) W.E. Burghardt Du Bois' essay "Criteria of Negro Art" (1926) is remarkable because in it Du Bois voices what seems to be one of his strongest ideological beliefs, that art should be used for propaganda, and that this apparently ideological use of art can uplift and improve African Americans' social and racial conditions in the American society. However, what is also more interesting is the context or forum through which Du Bois voiced his famous speech. Indeed "Criteria of Negro Art" was originally delivered as a speech or an "address" by Dr. Du Bois at the Chicago Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in 1926. (3) According to the editor of The Crisis, Du Bois' address was so popular to the extent that "so many people have asked" The Crisis' editor "for the complete text." (4) However, before I discuss the conference's context through which Du Bois delivered what became a landmark speech, I need to elaborate further on why art as propaganda was to become a controversial issue in the Harlem Renaissance. What is significant here is that this kind of propagandist vision of art created a tension between Du Bois, the "talented tenth" and other African American artists who wished to reflect the social, political, and historical realities that many African American citizens experienced. Indeed, many contemporary African American artists' reacted to Du Bois' call, and produced literary works that reveal a deeper ideological rift between the "talented tenth" and many African American artists, play wrights, poets, and novelists. It is also important to point out here that Du Bois' call for production of art for propaganda reflects his position about such an issue during that particular historical moment, 1926. In other words, I find it necessary when one discusses Du Bois' vision about art to recognize that Du Bois' theoretical positions about art and racial struggle changed dramatically through the years. Indeed, his call for art as propaganda for social uplift in 1926 does not represent a complete picture of his later views. Du Bois developed and took more radical positions about the racial struggle of African Americans. This radicalism eventually culminated in his self-exile to Ghana later on in his life. For example, one can notice this rift between the two different intellectual and aesthetic paradigms of thoughts in the way these two groups perceived art. The "talented tenth's" position about art seemed to have reflected a bourgeois perspective in which art is deployed for racial uplift, but in reality this position reflected black middle-class biases. In other words, art for propaganda seemed to have included specific assumptions about the outcome of racial struggle. Instead of using art to uplift black Americans and empower them to get their social and political rights, Du Bois seemed to have associated the idea of social/racial uplift with economic prosperity. Du Bois' was a highly educated individual, and as such it is legitimate to argue that he understood the implication of the words, terms or rhetorical strategies he used in his writings or speeches. Therefore, when he used "propaganda" he already knew the connotations, implications, and meaning associations of this word. Ironically, as an intellectual who represented the educated blacks in Harlem, who were already living in economically prosperous conditions, Du Bois deploys a communist vision of art as propaganda. …


Neurotechnologies that are currently applied to treat a range of neurological and psychiatric diseases were found to have a number of positive side effects on cognitive functioning in healthy individuals. Consequently, these neurotechnologies could in theory be used for cognitive enhancement purposes, for instance the improvement of eyewitness memory. Improving the process of collecting eyewitness testimony would be of great value and is an example of cognitive enhancement for the common good. In the present paper, we discuss the epistemological and ethical issues such use raises. These issues are not only critical to using neurotechnologies to improve eyewitness memory, but have a wider scope. By discussing enhancement for a purpose that is not primarily self-regarding or self-serving but potentially benefits the society as a whole, we reflect on the consequences of accepting


Nonlinear photonic devices utilize phase-matched parametric wavelength conversion in a nonlinear medium to create a widely tunable pulsed laser source. Currently most of nonlinear lasers are based on bulk optics or photonic fibres. Lasers based on bulk optics utilizing nonlinear crystals in conjunction with high intensity pulsed laser pumps, which are very powerful and often used as pump lasers for nonlinear experiments, but they are very large in size, and expensive to purchase. Although marketed as 'turn key' solutions, they require expert alignment, are difficult to use and are not suitable for deployment to environments other than environmentally stable optics labs. The photonic crystal fibres based lasers are very useful for optical communication purposes, but they are not as powerful as the bulk optics lasers and hard to be integrated with semiconductor devices due to their cylindrical structures. This thesis investigates the viability of creating an alternative widely tunable laser in a planar lightwave circuit (PLC) format. The overall aim of this project was to investigate the viability of creating a functional on-chip tunable laser, develop some of the key components, the base technologies required to do this job. Required sub-components include efficient: supercontinuum generation, harmonic generation, and parametric wavelength conversion devices, all of which should ideally be powered by a compact, low cost, solid state pump source. To complicate matters further, requirements for parametric conversion include precise phase-matching of up to four participating beams, each of which may have a different wavelength. Furthermore, to provide broadband tunability, phase-matching condition must be maintained as the wavelengths of all participating beams are tuned. Hence the parametric conversion must take place in a device supporting 'variable phasematching'. One of the key sub-components of a broadband tunable laser is a supercontinuum (SC) source. Supercontinuum (SC) generation is a nonlinear optical phenomenon that generates a spectrum across a wide range of frequencies. The SC component is itself very useful for many optical applications including: optical coherence tomography (OCT), frequency metrology, pulse compression, wavelength division multiplexing (WDM) and hence, attracts great research interests. Up to now, about 99% of the SC devices are based on optical fibres or nonlinear crystals. This thesis starts an in depth investigation of the generation of SC in planar waveguides reviewing the key linear and nonlinear optical effects associated with SC generation, making comparisons to prior literature. All devices studied in this thesis were based on rib and ridge waveguides consisting of a tantalum pentoxide ( 2 5 Ta O ) core and silicon dioxide ( 2 SiO ) cladding materials. The simulated dispersion properties of such planar waveguides are presented. The experimental results on frequency tripling, SC generation and parametric effects along the waveguides are demonstrated. Further optimization procedures and potential applications are suggested subject to the current results and the nonlinear properties obtained from the 2 5 Ta O waveguide samples.


The construction of Pongolapoort Dam in 1973 on the Phongolo River in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, has considerably altered the hydrological behaviour and ecological response of the downstream floodplain. Changes in the flooding regime have had implications for the socio-economic importance of the floodplain and for the structure and functioning of its associated wetlands. Previous studies have recommended annual releases of water from the dam to sustain floodplain ecosystem goods and services. The current artificial water releases are limited by the size of the dam's sluices and by the demand for water from the local community. Therefore, water releases do not always follow the original natural flooding regime. To date, the influence of the changed hydrology on the ecology of the Phongolo floodplain system remains poorly known. As a basis for future integrated interdisciplinary research we synthesised the ecological and hydrological work conducted to date on the Phongolo floodplain. We suggest hydro-ecology as an important research direction needed to set environmental flows for the sustainable utilisation and management of the floodplain. Understanding the hydrological behaviour and ecological response of the Phongolo floodplain could help in the implementation of environmental flows by managers at the Department of Water and Sanitation and other stakeholders such as Ezemvelo KZN Wildlife.


James Levine has recently argued (1998, 2009, 2016) that there is a tension between Russell's Moorean semantical framework and Russell's Peano-inspired analytical practice. According to Levine, this discrepancy runs deep in Russell's thought from 1900 to 1918, and underlies many of the doctrinal changes occurring during this period. In this paper, I suggest that, contrary to what Levine claims, there is no incompatibility between Moore's theory of meaning and the idea of informative conceptual analysis. I show this by relating Moore's view of meaning to his Sidgwick-inspired criticism of the so-called naturalistic fallacy. I maintain that Moore's semantical framework has a methodological intent: following Sidgwick, Moore wants to block any attempt to justify ethical principles through setting ad hoc conditions on the meaning of the terms involved. Thus, far from grounding philosophical knowledge on subjective intuitions, as Levine suggests, Moore's framework would provide us with the means to make room for a discursive and dialectic conception of philosophical inquiry.


Lactobacilli colonise most adult individuals and are also frequently used as probiotics, i.e. bacteria which possibly have health promoting effects when ingested. In this thesis, the intestinal Lactobacillus microbiota was studied in longitudinally followed infants. The oral and intestinal Lactobacillus microbiota of adults with and without IgA deficiency was examined to investigate the influence of secretory-IgA (S-IgA) on mucosal lactobacilli. Probiotic effects of the strain L. plantarum 299v were studied in antibiotic-treated patients and in patients with salmonellosis. In infants, colonisation by lactobacilli increased until six months of age, when 45 % were colonised, most often by L. rhamnosus or L. gasseri. Colonisation dropped and reached its lowest point by one year, to increase again by 18 months. By that time, L. paracasei and other foodrelated Lactobacillus species were most common. Only 30% of the infants harboured the same strain on at least two sampling occasions, indicating that stable colonisation by lactobacilli is quite uncommon in infants. Colonisation by L. rhamnosus was more common in breastfed than in weaned infants at six months, suggesting that breastfeeding favours this species. Lactobacillus colonisation was not significantly related to delivery mode, or to contact with siblings or pets. The influence of S-IgA on the oral and faecal Lactobacillus microbiota was studied by comparing IgA-deficient and healthy adult individuals. Expression of mannose-specific (MS) adhesins by lactobacilli was studied since such adhesins could possibly interact with mannosecontaining polysaccharide chains of S-IgA. Lactobacilli were isolated from the oral cavity and faeces of the majority of both IgA-deficient and healthy individuals. L. paracasei and L. gasseri dominated in oral samples, and L. paracasei was the most common species in faecal samples from both groups. The only significant difference in species distribution was a lower colonisation by L. fermentum in the oral cavity of IgA-deficient individuals. Thus, the presence of S-IgA seems to have little influence on the Lactobacillus species distribution. The expression of MS adhesins was more common in oral than in faecal lactobacilli, indicating that these adhesins may be of advantage for oral colonisation. Faecal isolates from IgA-deficient individuals more often expressed MS adhesins than faecal isolates from controls. Possibly, expression of MS adhesins is less advantageous for lactobacilli in the presence of S-IgA in the gut. In two double-blind placebo-controlled studies we explored if intake of L. plantarum 299v could counteract gastrointestinal side-effects during treatment with antibiotics, and reduce time to clearance and symptoms of Salmonella in patients with non-typhoid salmonellosis, respectively. Intake of L. plantarum reduced the risk of experiencing loose stools or nausea in antibiotic-treated patients. The risk of diarrhoea, i.e. at least three loose stools a day for at least two days, was not reduced, and there was no effect on colonisation by toxin-producing C. difficile. In patients with salmonellosis, intake of L. plantarum 299v did not reduce time to clearance of Salmonella, or time to resolution of diarrhoea and other symptoms. After clearance of Salmonella, patients receiving L. plantarum less frequently had hard stools, but tended to have more loose stools than patients on placebo. The differences regarding effects of L. plantarum 299v in the two studies could relate to e.g. differences between the studies regarding doses and formulas of the probiotic strain. Gender seemed to influence the course of salmonellosis. Women tended to clear Salmonella more quickly than men, but had diarrhoea for a longer period. After Salmonella clearance, women had more loose stools, nausea and flatulence than men. Also, effects of L. plantarum after clearance of Salmonella were influenced by gender. Women receiving L. plantarum had more abdominal pain than those on placebo, whereas men in the L. plantarum group had less hard stools, but more diarrhoea than men on placebo. The gender-related differences regarding salmonellosis and probiotic effects need to be further explored.


The number of malware attacks is increasing, Companies have invested millions of dollars in intrusion detection and intrusion prevention (ID/IP) technologies and products, yet many web servers are hacked every year. The current reactive methods of security have proven to be inadequate because the "bad guys" are always one step ahead of the Intrusion Detection/Intrusion Prevention community. Our research seeks to prove the feasibility of a completely new and innovative theory of server security called "Self-Cleansing Intrusion Tolerance" (SCIT). SCIT shifts the focus from detection and prevention to containing losses. SCIT uses virtualization technology in a new and unique way to make it more difficult for attackers to do damage/acquire data by reducing a server's exposure time from several months to less than a minute. In this way we increase the dependability of the server and provide a new way to balance the trade-off between security and availability. We have applied SCIT to multiple types of servers (DNS, SSO and Web), in this paper we will focus on securing web servers using SCIT. Based on the results of load testing of a web application for various load scenarios under both scit and non-scit environments, we will clearly show that SCIT provides a high degree of security with little degradation in overall response time of the application.


In this paper we will review some facts, both classical and recent, concerning the geometry and analysis of the Kerr and related black hole spacetimes. This includes the analysis of test fields on these spacetimes. Central to our analysis is the existence of a valence $(2,0)$ Killing spinor, which we use to construct symmetry operators and conserved currents as well as a new energy momentum tensor for the Maxwell test fields on a class of spacetimes containing the Kerr spacetime. We then outline how this new energy momentum tensor can be used to obtain decay estimated for Maxwell test fields. An important motivation for this work is the black hole stability problem, where fields with non-zero spin present interesting new challenges. The main tool in the analysis is the 2-spinor calculus, and for completeness we introduce its main features.


Objective Since the outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan City, China, coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has become a global pandemic. However, no special therapeutic drugs have been identified for COVID-19. The aim of this study was to search for drugs to effectively treat COVID-19. Materials and Methods We conducted a retrospective cohort study with a total of 162 adult inpatients (≥18 years old) from Ruijin Hospital (Shanghai, China) and Tongji Hospital (Wuhan, China) between January 27, 2020, and March 10, 2020. The enrolled COVID-19 patients were first divided into the Lianhuaqingwen (LHQW) monotherapy group and the LHQW + Arbidol combination therapy group. Then, these two groups were further classified into moderate and severe groups according to the clinical classification of COVID-19. Results The early combined usage of LHQW and Arbidol can significantly accelerate the recovery of patients with moderate COVID-19 by reducing the time to conversion to nucleic acid negativity, the time to chest CT improvement, and the length of hospital stay. However, no benefit was observed in severe COVID-19 patients treated with the combination of LHQW + Arbidol. In this study, both Arbidol and LHQW were well tolerated without serious drug-associated adverse events. Conclusion The early combined usage of LHQW and Arbidol may accelerate recovery and improve the prognosis of patients with moderate COVID-19.


Abstract The Velasco orbicular granitoid is a small (65 × 15 m), irregularly-shaped body that crops out within the Huaco granite, central Sierra de Velasco, NW Argentina. It consists of ellipsoid-shaped orbicules of 3 to 15 cm length immersed in an aplitic to pegmatitic matrix. The orbicules are formed by a core made up of a K-feldspar megacryst, partially to totally replaced by plagioclase, an inner shell of radial and equant plagioclase crystals, a layer of tangentially oriented biotite laths, and an outer shell of plumose plagioclase crystals, containing diffuse rings of tangentially oriented biotite. The orbicular granitoid formed in situ in a pocket of evolved and volatile-rich melt segregated from the surrounding partially crystallized Huaco granite, possibly via a filter pressing mechanism. The segregated melt entrained relatively few K-feldspar megacrysts into the pocket, leaving behind a concentration of megacrysts around the pocket. High water concentration caused effective superheating of the melt and destruction of nuclei, with only the large megacrysts surviving as solids. Sudden water-pressure loss and exsolution of the volatile phase, perhaps related to a volcanic eruption or fracturing of the surrounding granite, caused rapid undercooling of the melt. The orbicules grew in the undercooled melt by heterogeneous nucleation on the megacrysts, which acted as nucleation seeds, and crystallization of reversely zoned radial plagioclase and sporadic crystallization of tangential biotite rings according to fluctuations in its saturation. Orbicular growth gave way to crystallization of the equiaxial inter-orbicular matrix in two stages, when sufficient polymerization of the melt was attained. The time scale of formation of the orbicular granitoid was fast, possibly a matter of a few weeks or months.


Abstract. The sum of peroxy radicals (HO2+ΣiRiO2) and supporting trace gases were measured on the Jungfraujoch (3580 m a.s.l.) during the late summer of 2005. The period was marked by extended times of heavy snow which led to reduction in the observed peroxy radicals during the snowy periods that was greater than the concomitant reduction in j(O1D). In the limit a first order loss rate of 0.0063 s−1 can be derived for the peroxy radical loss in the snowy conditions that could be potentially ascribed to a heterogenous loss process. On snow free days photolysis of HCHO is shown to be a significant peroxy radical source. The seasonal trends of the peroxy radical concentrations have been mapped from the winter to summer transition in line with previous experiments. Net ozone production in late summer at the Jungfraujoch was net neutral to marginally ozone destructive. A value of 28±4 pptv is calculated for the ozone compensation point for the snow free days.


LSP-Ping is a widely deployed Operation, Administration, and
Maintenance (OAM) mechanism in MPLS networks. However, in the present
form, this mechanism is inadequate to verify connectivity of a segment
of a Multi-Segment Pseudowire (MS-PW) and/or bidirectional co-routed
Label Switched Path (LSP) from any node on the path of the MS-PW
and/or bidirectional co-routed LSP. This document defines a TLV to
address this shortcoming.


Was the sexual act consensual? Did the defendant have a reasonable belief that he was in imminent danger of death by an attacker? Did the police use excessive force? Did the defendant act in a heinous or cruel manner? Did the defendant act with depraved indifference to human life? The- se are some of the questions that criminal juries encounter. Determinations of such questions involve a combination of factual and moral questions, both questions about what happened and questions about the evaluative significance of what happened. This feature of the criminal jury — that the jury routinely decides normative questions — is frequently noted but is rarely examined. What does it exactly mean when we say that juries make normative determinations, and what is the nature of the inquiry that the jurors are engaging in when they consider moral questions in this particular setting? More specifically, this Article asks whether a juror, when making moral judgments, should follow his or her individual moral beliefs or identify and implement the community's perspective. Many things said about the criminal jury appear to support the view that the jurors should attempt to replicate the community's perspective. It is often said, for instance, the criminal jury serves as the community's conscience, representative, or fiduciary, and such formulations suggest an obligation on the part of the jurors to reproduce the community's perspective. This Article argues that despite the popularity of such accounts, they are either too indeterminate to imply an obligation on the part of the jurors to reproduce the community's perspective, or in conflict with the fundamental obligation of jurors to adjudicate fairly and accurately. This Article, therefore, concludes that we are better off jettisoning the talk of the criminal jury as the community's conscience, representative, or fiduciary, at least in this context, and should instead embrace the notion that jurors fulfill their roles in the criminal justice system most effectively when they vote as individuals, not as representatives, by applying legal standards to particular situations and bringing a diversity of viewpoints to the task.


We present a review of Microsystems-based technologies for the miniaturization of gas detection systems with a focus on air quality monitoring. On one hand, compared to sensors technologies, an approach based on microanalytical instruments can fulfill some of the requirements linked to the detection at the trace level of some pollutants with improved selectivity. On the other hand, the detection system becomes more complex at a higher cost which can result in a limited deployment. Some of the Microsystems components to be highlighted in this communication include micromachined gas preconcentrators, gas chromatographs, and infrared spectrometers. Several performing individual components have been reported in the last decade but several issues still remain at the system integration level to get commercially viable and robust products on the market.


I perform an event study on 600+ patents awarded primarily to 20 leading biotechnology firms and find significant changes in market values at the time of the awards. Adjusting for partial anticipation of events, I estimate that core technology patents in highly contested research areas are expected to generate between $13 and $21 million of economic value. They also generate spillover benefits for the patentee's rivals—presumably including knowledge transfers—valued at $3 to $6 million per firm. Awardees may appropriate only half of private benefits, although I observe negative spillovers for some high-profile awards. Most patents have no significant market impact.


Symbolic execution is being successfully used to automatically test statically compiled code. However, increasingly more systems and applications are written in dynamic interpreted languages like Python. Building a new symbolic execution engine is a monumental effort, and so is keeping it up-to-date as the target language evolves. Furthermore, ambiguous language specifications lead to their implementation in a symbolic execution engine potentially differing from the production interpreter in subtle ways. We address these challenges by flipping the problem and using the interpreter itself as a specification of the language semantics. We present a recipe and tool (called Chef) for turning a vanilla interpreter into a sound and complete symbolic execution engine. Chef symbolically executes the target program by symbolically executing the interpreter's binary while exploiting inferred knowledge about the program's high-level structure. Using Chef, we developed a symbolic execution engine for Python in 5 person-days and one for Lua in 3 person-days. They offer complete and faithful coverage of language features in a way that keeps up with future language versions at near-zero cost. Chef-produced engines are up to 1000 times more performant than if directly executing the interpreter symbolically without Chef.


Dropout training, originally designed for deep neural networks, has been successful on high-dimensional single-layer natural language tasks. This paper proposes a theoretical explanation for this phenomenon: we show that, under a generative Poisson topic model with long documents, dropout training improves the exponent in the generalization bound for empirical risk minimization. Dropout achieves this gain much like a marathon runner who practices at altitude: once a classifier learns to perform reasonably well on training examples that have been artificially corrupted by dropout, it will do very well on the uncorrupted test set. We also show that, under similar conditions, dropout preserves the Bayes decision boundary and should therefore induce minimal bias in high dimensions.


Abstract Suicidality, a significant problem in New Zealand for the past decade or so, has invited a substantial body of research into causes and prevention. However, given the effort, the prevention results do not appear to be sufficiently convincing when coroners' views are considered. This paper focuses on two mainstream therapeutic approaches towards persons with borderline personality disorder, in which suicidal behaviour is a prominent feature demanding understanding and active attention. It is argued that dialectical behaviour therapy and psychoanalytically informed therapies are lacking on two accounts. Firstly, the philosophical and methodological underpinnings of both approaches perpetuate what Heidegger refers to as the compound misunderstanding of ourselves as human beings. Secondly, what this translates into is a practice which forgets the human order and misunderstands the experience of the singular human present in despair. As an alternative approach towards dealing with suicide in practice, the author presents concepts central to Heidegger's phenomenology of human existence and discusses how these may inform and enhance the treatment of suicidal patients.


In this thesis the design, construction process and the performance of two femtosecond optical parametric oscillators and one second–harmonic generation femtosecond pulse shaper is described. One oscillator was applied to gas sensing while potential applications of other devices are outlined. A Ti:sapphire oscillator was used to pump a periodically–poled lithiumniobate– based optical parametric oscillator. This signal–resonant device was configured to produce broadband idler pulses tunable in the range of 2.7–3.4 μm. This wavelength coverage was matched to the ν3 optical absorption band of methane, and Fourier–transform spectroscopy of a CH4:N2 mixture was implemented by employing a mid–IR silica photonic bandgap fibre simultaneously as a gas cell and an optical waveguide. Methane sensing below a 1% concentration was demonstrated and the main limiting factors were identified and improvements suggested. Another optical parametric oscillator was demonstrated which was pumped by a commercial Yb:fibremaster oscillator/power amplifier system andwas based on a periodically–poled lithium niobate crystal. The signal was tunable between 1.42–1.57 μm and was intended as a source for a subsequent project for waveguide writing in silicon. The oscillator was a novel long–cavity device operating at 15 MHz. The 130 nJ pump pulse energies allowed for 21 nJ signal pulses at a pump power of 2 W. The performance of the oscillator was characterised via temporal and spectral measurements and the next steps of its development are outlined. Finally a pulse shaper based on second harmonic generation in a grating– engineered periodically–poled lithium niobate crystal was demonstrated. Pulses from a 1.53 μm femtosecond Er:fibre laser were compressed and then used as the input to the shaper. The performance of the shaper was tested by performing cross–correlation frequency–resolved optical gating measurements on the output second harmonic pulses and this confirmed the successful creation of multiple pulses and other tailored shapes including square and chirped pulses, agreeing well with theoretical calculations.


Recent events have revived questions about the circumstances that ought to trigger therapists' duty to warn or protect. There is extensive interstate variation in duty to warn or protect statutes enacted and rulings made in the wake of the California Tarasoff ruling. These duties may be codified in legislative statutes, established in common law through court rulings, or remain unspecified. Furthermore, the duty to warn or protect is not only variable between states but also has been dynamic across time. In this article, we review the implications of this variability and dynamism, focusing on three sets of questions: first, what legal and ethics-related challenges do therapists in each of the three broad categories of states (states that mandate therapists to warn or protect, states that permit therapists to breach confidentiality for warnings but have no mandate, and states that give no guidance) face in handling threats of violence? Second, what training do therapists and other professionals involved in handling violent threats receive, and is this training adequate for the task that these professionals are charged with? Third, how have recent court cases changed the scope of the duty? We conclude by pointing to gaps in the empirical and conceptual scholarship surrounding the duty to warn or protect.


We study theoretically and experimentally the increase of normal incidence reflectivity generated by addition of a third material in the period of a standard periodic multilayer, for wavelengths in the range 20 to 40 nm. The nature and thickness of the three materials has been optimized to provide the best enhancement of reflectivity. Theoretical reflectivity of an optimized B4C/Mo/Si multilayer reaches 42% at 32 nm. B4C/Mo/Si multilayers have been deposited with a magnetron sputtering system and a reflectivity of 34% at 32 nm has been measured on a synchrotron radiation source.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate effects of 1% hyaluronic acid-chondroitin sulfate-N-acetyl glucosamine (HCNAG) on the damage repair response in equine articular cartilage.

SAMPLE
Articular cartilage from 9 clinically normal adult horses.

PROCEDURES
Full-thickness cartilage disks were harvested from the third metacarpal bone. Cartilage was single-impact loaded (SIL) with 0.175 J at 0.7 m/s and cultured in DMEM plus 1 % (vol/vol) HCNAG or fibroblastic growth factor (FGF)-2 (50 ng/mL). Histologic and immunohistochemical techniques were used to identify tissue architecture and apoptotic cells and to immunolocalize type I and II collagen and proliferating nuclear cell antigen (PCNA).

RESULTS
Type II collagen immunoreactivity increased in SIL cartilage, compared with control samples. At days 14 and 28 (day 0 = initiation of culture), control samples had significantly fewer repair cells than did other treatment groups. In control samples and SIL + HCNAG, there was a significant decrease in apoptotic cell number, compared with results for SIL and SIL + FGF-2 samples. At days 14 and 28, there was a significant increase in chondrocytes stained positive for PCNA in the control samples.

CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
1% HCNAG significantly affected apoptotic and repair cell numbers in an SIL damage-repair technique in adult equine articular cartilage. However, HCNAG had no effect on the number of PCNA-positive chondrocytes or on type II collagen immunohistochemical results. The inclusion of 1% HCNAG in lavage solutions administered after arthroscopy may be beneficial to cartilage health by increasing the number of repair cells and decreasing the number of apoptotic cells.


This research is to provide a methodology for making policy scenarios based on the system dynamics. The authors deem this new methodology would be a useful tool for policymakers to make policy scenarios. As for the case study, this research deals with the policy scenarios for managing polioviruses in Japan as an example. This methodology includes both the simulation part of using System Dynamics and the conversation part related to Scenario Planning. Through using this methodology, we had structural understanding of the problem with the visible simulation results and conversation with member which was focusing on the parameters that would be a part of suggested scenarios. This methodology is expected to improve the public deliberations for making policy scenario based on data.


Sperm whales weigh up to 50 tons, and the smallest bat barely reaches a gram. Nevertheless, the two species share the same success story: They both have developed the ability to use echolocation a biological sonar for hunting. Now Danish researchers show that the biosonar of toothed whales and bats share surprisingly many similarities even though they live in very different environments and vary extremely in size.


Ajuga bracteosa L., and Otostegia limbata L., are two plant species of family Lamiaceae. The crude methanol leaves extracts of these two medicinal plants were examined for their antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant (radical scavenging) activity using 1,1-diphenyl-2- picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical against clinically important species of bacteria and fungi were examined. Leaves extracts of these two plants were screened against six strains of bacteria (two were gram positive i.e. Bacillus subtilis and Staphylococcus aureus and four were gram negative i.e. Vibrio cholerae, Enterobacter aerogenes, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonia) and two strains of fungi (Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus fumigatus). Eight concentrations (15 mg/ml, 12.5 mg/ml, 10 mg/ml, 7.5 mg/ml, 5 mg/ml, 3 mg/ml, 2 mg/ml and 1 mg/ml) were used to check the antimicrobial activity of plant extracts. Maximum inhibitory zone 30 mm was observed in Otostegia limbata and 25 mm in Ajuga bracteosa at 15 mg/ml mm for antibacterial activity. Ajuga bracteosa and Otostegia limbata gave response against both Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus fumigatus. This study establishes the effective ethnomedicinal use of these plants in the treatment of various infectious diseases. There is high potential for the exploitation of the plants for development of novel


Biodiversity represents the variety of life on Earth, including the full range of ecosystems, species, and genes. Biodiversity conservation efforts to date have achieved a great deal to help secure the continued functioning of many threatened ecosystems and the survival of numerous species. Biodiversity offsets can: (i) improve the conservation outcomes from large-scale development projects, and (ii) provide much-needed funding for protected areas and similar conservation efforts. This user guide provides introductory guidance on whether, when, and how to prepare and implement biodiversity offsets for large-scale, private, and public sector development projects. It also explores some of the opportunities that may exist for developing national biodiversity offset systems.


The Royal Australian Air Force operates an Over The Horizon Radar (OTHR) from Alice Springs in Central Australia. This OTHR is called Jindalee. Since the active medium for this form of radar is the ionosphere, Australia has a continuing interest in the physics of this region of the up per atmosphere. One of the support instruments for Jindalee is a very much scaled down version of the radar, called the Mini-Radar. It forms part of the Frequency Management System (FMS), and it is used to provide operators of the main radar with advice on ionospheric conditions, and it operates in an identical fashion to the main radar, recording the signal strength of surf ace backscattered HF radio echoes as a function of range, Doppler and azi muth. October 1995 marked the occurrence a total solar eclipse, in which the path of totality travelled eastward from near the Caspian Sea, past the Phil ippines and out into the Pacific Ocean. Since this region falls within the area "covered" by the Mini-Radar, it was decided to use this instrument to monitor ionospheric behaviour during the period of the eclipse. Early results are presented.


A study was conducted to describe the changes occurring in body composition of ostriches over a 285-day growth period. Fifty two birds were given a choice of four diets with different protein (180 and 120 g/kg feed) and energy (8.5 and 13.5 MJ ME/kg feed) levels, on the assumption that the birds would select from the four feeds according to their protein and energy requirements, and thereby grow close to their potential without being constrained by the quality of feed supplied to them. Birds were weighed at approximately 10-day intervals and randomly selected birds were slaughtered at 1, 54, 120, 162 and 285 days of age respectively. Proximate analyses were done on the complete empty carcasses and the components were expressed as a percentage of live weight at the different slaughter ages. The Gompertz growth curve was fitted to the live weights of the birds and to the weights of the individual chemical components. The change in body weight with age as the only independent variable can be  considered as a good (R2 = 0.93) description of growth in ostriches. The growth parameters a, b and c were estimated as 119.4, 0.009 and 156.3 respectively. Body protein and moisture concentrations decreased as the birds aged, while the body ash concentration remained relatively constant and body fat concentration increased. Fitted Gompertz parameters for the different chemical components were, for fat; a = 33.6, b = 0.013 and c = 143.4 (R2 = 0.914), protein; a = 44.5, b = 0.015 and c = 113.9 (R2 = 0.961), ash; a = 10.3, b = 0.016 and c = 118.2 (R2 = 0.965), and moisture; a = 55.0, b = 0.014 and c = 116.9 (R2 = 0.965). Similar to other animals, fat was a late maturing tissue and protein a relatively early maturing tissue. These results are important in describing the growing ostrich and this information can be used to model the nutrient  requirements of these birds. Keywords : Growth, development, feeding optimization, proportional changes, Gompertz growth curve


In evaluating the effectiveness of R&D subsidies, the literature has focused on potential crowding out effects, while the possibility of misappropriation of public funds that results from moral hazard behavior has been completely neglected. This study develops a theoretical framework with which to identify misappropriation. Using Chinese firm-level data for the period 2001-2011, we show that misappropriation is a major threat. 42% of grantees misused R&D subsidies for non-research purposes, accounting for 53% of the total amount of R&D subsidies. In a second step, we study the loss of effectiveness of R&D subsidies in stimulating R&D expenditures that is due to misappropriation. We measure the loss in effectiveness by estimating the causal effect of R&D subsidies in the presence of misappropriation using an intention-to-treat (ITT) estimator and comparing it to the ideal situation (without misappropriation) using the complier average causal effect (CACE). We find that China's R&D policy could have been more than twice as effective in boosting R&D without misappropriation. R&D expenditures could have been stimulated beyond the subsidy amount (additionality), but noncompliant behavior has resulted in a moderately strong partial crowding out effect. We find significant treatment heterogeneity by period, subsidy size, industry, and ownership. Notably, the loss in effectiveness has diminished following a policy reform in 2006. Nevertheless, the misappropriation of public funds considerably undermines the impact of R&D policies in China.


Wind, water, and molten rock constantly tear apart and resculpt the natural world, and people have always struggled to create structures that will permanently establish their existence on the land. Frank Gohlke has committed his camera lens to documenting that fraught relationship between people and place, and this retrospective collection of his work by John Rohrbach reveals how people carve out their living spaces in the face of constant natural disruption. An acclaimed master of landscape photography, Gohlke explores in "Accommodating Nature" how people configure the places where they live, work, and commune, both on an everyday level and in the aftermath of catastrophic destruction. Whether a ranch house anchored fast on an endless Texas plain, the shattered buildings and whipped trees left by a category 5 tornado, or the jagged cliffs of ash and rock created by the volcanic eruption of Mount St. Helens, the photographs unearth the ways in which new homes and lives emerge from the fragments of the old. Thought-provoking essays by Rebecca Solnit, Frank Gohlke, and John Rohrbach expand upon the issues raised by the images, contemplating the complexities of human and cultural geography and the relationships we have with our respective places. An arresting and vibrant visual essay combining magnificent vistas with intimate emotional detail, "Accommodating Nature" exposes the intricate threads that bind our lives to the land surrounding us.


Cancers can spread to other tissues through a process called metastasis. Ohtaki et al. isolated and characterized a ligand (metastin) from placenta for the orphan G protein (heterotrimeric guanine nucleotide-binding protein)-coupled receptor (GPCR) hOT7T175. Metastin is believed to be the product of the KiSS-1, a known metastasis suppressor. Application of metastin or metastin protein fragments promoted an elevation in intracellular Ca2+ concentration in cells transfected to express the orphan GPCR. Application of metastin to hOT7T175-transfected Chinese hamster ovary or B16-BL6 melanoma cells inhibited their migration and chemotaxis toward fetal calf serum; and in the melanoma cells, metastin induced the formation of stress fibers and phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase and paxillin. Treatment of animals induced to form metastatic tumors through the injection of the transfected B16-BL6 cells showed that metastin decreased the number of metastatic foci. However, metastin did not affect growth of the primary tumor. These results are intriguing and may point to a new direction for inhibiting tumor metastasis, as well as contribute to the identification of a new GPCR and ligand that regulate cell adhesion. T. Ohtaki, Y. Shintani, S. Honda, H. Matsumoto, A. Hori, K. Kanehashi, Y. Terao, S. Kumano, Y. Takatsu, Y. Masuda, Y. Ishibashi, T. Watanabe, M. Asada, T. Yamada, M. Suenaga, C. Kitada, S. Usuki, T. Kurokawa, H. Onda, O. Nishimura, M. Fujino, Metastasis suppressor gene KiSS-1 encodes peptide ligand of a G-protein-coupled receptor. Nature 411, 613-617 (2001). [Online Journal]


Introduction: Vernonia amygdalina belongs to the family Asterecae. Vernonia amygdalina contains active components or phytochemicals that can lead to liver regenerations in hepatotoxicity in hepatoxicity. Aim: The aim of this study is to assess the chemotherapeutic and hepatoprotective effect of leaf extract of Vernonia amygdalina in rats. Method: A total number of 15 albino rats were fed on standard diet and divided into three groups. Rats of the first group were injected intraperitioneally with paraffin oil and tap water (control). Rats of the second and third groups were intraperitioneally injected with CCL4, standard diet and tap water. The third group was treated with the leaf extract of Vernonia amygdalina. Blood and liver samples were collected for biochemical and histopathological analysis. Results: Phytochemicals such as flavonoids, tannins were contained in the leaf extract of the plant. Levels of alanine ALT, GGT and AST were highest in the CCL4 treated group with a mean and standard deviation of AST (88.25±14.22), ALT (89.25±8.99) and GGT (91.75±6.32) respectively as compared to the control and CCL4 treated groups. Histopathologically, a greater amount of mononuclear cell infiltration, necrotic and few fibroblasts were observed in the liver of CCL4 treated groups whiles liver regeneration was observed in the third group. Conclusion: The results showed that the leaves of Vernonia amygdalina possessed hepatoprotective abilities.


In this issue, we publish several papers presented at the international conference "Complaints: Cultures of Grievance in Eastern Europe and Eurasia" that took place on March 8–9, 2013, at Princeton University. Organized by the Program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies in collaboration with the Program in Law and Public Affairs, this conference aimed to examine the concept of the so-called people's law from an interdisciplinary perspective. The idea was to separate grievances from a variety of other letters to the authorities and to consider them as a specific genre.


"'There is never a good sale for Neiman Marcus unless it's a good buy for the customer.' That was one of the first declarations of business philosophy I heard my father, Herbert Marcus, make soon after I came to work at Neiman Marcus in 1926." Thus began the 1974 edition of Minding the Store. Reprinted in hardcover in 1997 to celebrate the 90th anniversary of Neiman Marcus, it is now available for the first time in paperback and ebook. Mr. Marcus has spent most of his life not only in helping to create a retailing enterprise renowned throughout the world as the epitome of quality, but also in setting high standards for the level of taste of all who desire "the better things in life." In doing so he has played a key role in making Dallas itself a success. "Mr. Stanley," as he is affectionately called by all his Neiman Marcus friends and associates, has made The Store a legendary success. Although he retired from active involvement in Neiman Marcus in 1977, the influences of the philosophies of business he developed remain an important part of the training of Neiman Marcus personnel. Those basic principles—best exemplified by his belief in his father's business philosophy—are the reasons Neiman Marcus is today recognized as the taste leader of American retailing. Minding the Store is a warm portrait of a man and an exuberant celebration of the store that has become the best-known landmark in Texas since the Alamo.


This study was carried out to determine understorey bird species composition
before and immediately (less then one year) after logging. The main
objectives were to determine: (i) the trophic structure related to the feeding
guild, (ii) the diversity in terms of species diversity, species richness and
species evenness) and (ii) to generate a species list for understorey bird
population before and immediately after logging. The study was conducted in
compartment 28/29, Ulu Muda Forest Reserve, Kedah, Malaysia. This area is
a hill forest covering an area of 791.2 ha. It was harvested using selective
logging method in 1997 and harvesting was completed at the end of 1999.
Mist-netting method was used to obtain the information on understorey bird
species. A total of 75 species with 175 individuals were recorded before
logging and 61 species with 385 individuals were recorded immediately after
logging. The Babblers group decreased immediately after logging. However,
the bulbuls and spiderhunters increased immediately after logging.
The Insectivore group was found to dominate the forest before logging
followed by insectivore/frugivore and frugivore groups. However, the
insectivore/frugivore group dominated the area immediately after logging,
followed by insectivore and nectarivore/insectivorel frugivore groups. The
analysis of feeding guild also showed that the arboreal foliage gleaning
insectivore guild dominated the primary forest in terms of species
composition and number of individuals, but their numbers decreased
immediately after logging. The arboreal foliage gleaning insectivore/frugivore
was found to be higher in terms of the number of species and individuals
immediately after logging.
The values of species diversity index (H'), species richness index (R) and
species evenness index (E) were also significantly higher before logging
compared with the values immediately after logging.
The changes in forest vegetation and microclimate were the main factors
which affected the composition and diversity of understorey bird species.
Thus, logging has changed the composition, the trophic and feeding guild
structures as well as the diversity of understorey bird species.


Since the second half of the 1990s, economic restructuring in urban China has led to widespread joblessness and income insecurity. The rapid expansion of the system of social assistance, Di Bao, can be understood from this perspective. Using a survey covering large parts of urban China in 2002, we investigate factors affecting receipt and how receipt affects urban poverty. Results from estimating probability models indicate that social assistance receipt is strongly linked to joblessness among household members, the household's expenditure burden, as well as the lack of financial assets. Furthermore, a long education of the household head and membership in the Communist Party reduces the probability of receiving social assistance while having been sent to rural China during the Cultural Revolution increases it. For some types of households, receipt of Di Bao differs greatly across cities in China. The social assistance payments appear strongly targeted to the poor. However, as the Di Bao payments typically are small and many of the urban poor are not receivers, much urban poverty remains.


MDA-7/IL-24; A PROMISING CANCER THERAPEUTIC AGENT By Hossein A. Hamed, BS A Dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at Virginia Commonwealth University. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2012 Major Director: Paul Dent, Ph.D. Vice Chair, Department of Neurosurgery Glioblastoma multiforme (GBM) is an aggressive cancer that affects millions of patients per year. Conventional therapies combining chemotherapeutic agents with radiation can only extend survival by a few months; therefore, there is a dire need for an effective means of treating this deadly disease. Melanoma differentiation-associated gene7/interleukin-24 (mda-7/IL-24), currently in the early stages of FDA pre-IND drug trials, has proven to be an effective cancer specific cytokine, able to trigger the onset of mitochondrial dysfunction and/or autophagy. GBM's have mutations that often result in the activation of cytoprotective cell signaling pathways, preventing cancer therapeutics and even MDA-7/IL-24 treatments from being effective. Since the discovery of MDA-7/IL-24 a number of groups have shown toxic effects in a variety of tumor cells. However, the lethality of MDA-7/IL-24 is not enough to eradicate the tumor. We hypothesized two xxiii rationales for this minimalistic effect. First, the MDA-7/IL-24 gene delivery mechanisms are not efficient or second, active pro-survival pathways are playing a role in protection. Here we have shown that the inhibition of cytoprotective cell-signaling pathways using small molecule inhibitors of mitogen-activated extracellular regulated kinase (MEK)1/2 and phosphatidyl inositol 3-kinase (PI3K) or AKT; mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) and MEK1/2; HSP90 inhibitor 17AAG; and the autophagy-inducing drug OSU03012 (AR-12), enhances the toxicity of MDA-7/IL-24. In addition, the use of a modified recombinant adenovirus comprised of the tail and shaft domains of a serotype 5 virus and the knob domain of a serotype 3 virus expressing MDA-7/IL-24, Ad.5/3-mda-7, proved to be a more effective, CAR-independent means of infecting and killing GBM cells in vitro and in vivo when compared to Ad.5-mda-7. Collectively, our data demonstrate that the induction of autophagy and mitochondrial dysfunction by a combinatorial treatment approach represents a potentially viable strategy to kill primary human GBM cells.


Two often-divergent U.S. GDP estimates are available, a widely-used expenditure side version, GDPE, and a much less widely-used income-side version, GDPI . We propose and explore a "forecast combination" approach to combining them. We then put the theory to work, producing a superior combined estimate of GDP growth for the U.S., GDPC. We compare GDPC to GDPE and GDPI, with particular attention to behavior over the business cycle. We discuss several variations and extensions.


Within a week, both the Fifth and D.C. Circuits upheld the takings prohibitions of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973, as applied to species found only in single states, against Commerce Clause challenges. Both cases reach the same result, but the legal analysis used to get there could hardly be more different. In GDF Realty, the Fifth Circuit found the requisite "substantial impact" on commerce by treating the species themselves as commodities and aggregating the economic impact of all endangered species "takings". The D.C. Circuit, by contrast, held in Rancho Viejo that the true object of ESA regulation is not endangered species, but the commercial development that threatens them, which plainly falls within Congress's powers to regulate under the Commerce Clause. The two courts saved the threatened arroyo toads and subterranean invertebrates, but they read the Endangered Species Act as if it were two different statutes.This curious divergence can only be understood in light of the unsettled state of Commerce Clause jurisprudence following United States v. Lopez and United States v. Morrison. Those two decisions upended fifty years of conventional wisdom about the limits on Congress's power under the Commerce Clause – namely, that there were effectively none – and left lower courts with an uncertain new framework to apply. Of the two cases considered here, Rancho Viejo represents the abler attempt to square the ESA with the new Commerce Clause doctrine, because its analysis is more objective than GDF Realty's and more clearly satisfies the strictures of Lopez and Morrison. But like GDF Realty, Rancho Viejo must present the ESA's impact on commerce, which is peripheral in the statutory design, as the Act's core object – must turn the ESA "inside out," so to speak – in order to justify it under the Commerce Clause. This cramped conception of the statute does not convincingly justify all of its applications. The shortcomings of Rancho Viejo do not represent sloppiness on the part of the D.C. Circuit, however. Instead, they reflect the failure of the Lopez and Morrison framework to meet the Supreme Court's stated aspiration to distinguish "between what is truly national and what is truly local".


The processing of signals defined on graphs has been of interest for many years, and finds applications in a diverse set of fields such as sensor networks, social and economic networks, and biological networks. In graph signal processing applications, signals are not defined as functions on a uniform time-domain grid but they are defined as vectors indexed by the vertices of a graph, where the underlying graph is assumed to model the irregular signal domain. Although analysis of such networked models is not new (it can be traced back to the consensus problem studied more than four decades ago), such models are studied recently from the view-point of signal processing, in which the analysis is based on the "graph operator" whose eigenvectors serve as a Fourier basis for the graph of interest. With the help of graph Fourier basis, a number of topics from classical signal processing (such as sampling, reconstruction, filtering, etc.) are extended to the case of graphs. The main contribution of this thesis is to provide new directions in the field of graph signal processing and provide further extensions of topics in classical signal processing. The first part of this thesis focuses on a random and asynchronous variant of "graph shift," i.e., localized communication between neighboring nodes. Since the dynamical behavior of randomized asynchronous updates is very different from standard graph shift (i.e., state-space models), this part of the thesis focuses on the convergence and stability behavior of such random asynchronous recursions. Although non-random variants of asynchronous state recursions (possibly with non-linear updates) are well-studied problems with early results dating back to the late 60's, this thesis considers the convergence (and stability) in the statistical mean-squared sense and presents the precise conditions for the stability by drawing parallels with switching systems. It is also shown that systems exhibit unexpected behavior under randomized asynchronicity: an unstable system (in the synchronous world) may be stabilized simply by the use of randomized asynchronicity. Moreover, randomized asynchronicity may result in a lower total computational complexity in certain parameter settings. The thesis presents applications of the random asynchronous model in the context of graph signal processing including an autonomous clustering of network of agents, and a node-asynchronous communication protocol that implements a given rational filter on the graph. The second part of the thesis focuses on extensions of the following topics in classical signal processing to the case of graph: multirate processing and filter banks, discrete uncertainty principles, and energy compaction filters for optimal filter design. The thesis also considers an application to the heat diffusion over networks. Multirate systems and filter banks find many applications in signal processing theory and implementations. Despite the possibility of extending 2-channel filter banks to bipartite graphs, this thesis shows that this relation cannot be generalized to M-channel systems on M-partite graphs. As a result, the extension of classical multirate theory to graphs is nontrivial, and such extensions cannot be obtained without certain mathematical restrictions on the graph. The thesis provides the necessary conditions on the graph such that fundamental building blocks of multirate processing remain valid in the graph domain. In particular, it is shown that when the underlying graph satisfies a condition called M-block cyclic property, classical multirate theory can be extended to the graphs. The uncertainty principle is an essential mathematical concept in science and engineering, and uncertainty principles generally state that a signal cannot have an arbitrarily "short" description in the original basis and in the Fourier basis simultaneously. Based on the fact that graph signal processing proposes two different bases (i.e., vertex and the graph Fourier domains) to represent graph signals, this thesis shows that the total number of nonzero elements of a graph signal and its representation in the graph Fourier domain is lower bounded by a quantity depending on the underlying graph. The thesis also presents the necessary and sufficient condition for the existence of 2-sparse and 3-sparse eigenvectors of a connected graph. When such eigenvectors exist, the uncertainty bound is very low, tight, and independent of the global structure of the graph. The thesis also considers the classical spectral concentration problem. In the context of polynomial graph filters, the problem reduces to the polynomial concentration problem studied more generally by Slepian in the 70's. The thesis studies the asymptotic behavior of the optimal solution in the case of narrow bandwidth. Different examples of graphs are also compared in order to show that the maximum energy compaction and the optimal filter depends heavily on the graph spectrum. In the last part, the thesis considers the estimation of the starting time of a heat diffusion process from its noisy measurements when there is a single point source located on a known vertex of a graph with unknown starting time. In particular, the Cramer-Rao lower bound for the estimation problem is derived, and it is shown that for graphs with higher connectivity the problem has a larger lower bound making the estimation problem more difficult.


BACKGROUND
The Seveso accident (Italy) in 1976 caused the contamination of a large population by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-para-dioxin (2,3, 7,8-TCDD). The contaminated territory was divided into three zones: A (very high contamination), B (high contamination), and R (low contamination). We report here the plasma concentrations of seven polychlorinated dibenzo-para-dioxins (PCDDs), 10 polychlorinated dibenzofurans (PCDFs), four non-ortho-polychlorinated biphenyls PCBs (nPCBs), and Toxic Equivalencies (TEQs) in a sample of residents in the most polluted zones A and B and in a reference non-contaminated zone.

METHODS
From December 1992 to March 1994, 62 individuals were randomly selected from the population living in zone A (No. =7) and B (No. =55). A sample of 59 subjects living in a surrounding non-contaminated area (non-ABR), frequency-matched by gender, age, and smoking history, was used as reference. All subjects were administered a questionnaire surveying demographic, lifestyle, medical history, and accident-related factors. We assayed plasma PCDD, PCDF, and nPCB concentrations by high-resolution gas chromatography/high resolution mass spectrometric (HRGC/HRMS) analysis, with results reported as pg/g of lipid, or parts per trillion (ppt). We calculated TEQs using the WHO 2005 Toxic Equivalency Factors (TEFs).

RESULTS
We found elevated median levels of 2,3, 7,8-TCDD in plasma samples of subjects living in zone A (73.3 ppt) and zone B (12.4 ppt), compared with residents in the reference zone (5.5 ppt). In analyses adjusted for gender, age, smoking, and body mass index (BMI), none of the other congeners showed levels higher than reference in the contaminated zones. Compared with men, women showed higher levels (113%) of 2,3, 7,8-TCDD and a slight elevation (17%) of TEQ for the other congeners. Age was strongly positively associated with most congener levels; TEQs for PCDDs, PCDFs, and nPCBs showed respectively 12%, 24%, and 41% increases for every 10 years of age. Current smokers had lower (from -37% to -67%) TEQ levels than subjects who had never smoked. BMI was negatively associated with levels of a few congeners, but with no impact on TEQ values.

CONCLUSIONS
The Seveso accident caused a severe exposure of the population to 2,3,7,8-TCDD only. None of the other congeners analyzed showed variation across zones. Age showed a strong positive association with TEQs for all classes of compounds (PCDDs, PCDFs, and nPCBs).


BACKGROUND
The importance of tumour angiogenesis in the process of tumour growth and metastasis has recently gained wide acceptance. This has lead to intense investigation into the biology of tumour angiogenesis and its clinical significance. An understanding of angiogenesis may allow therapeutic modulation in order to interrupt the progression from tumourigenesis to metastatic disease and control growth of distant metastases.

DESIGN
A review was undertaken of studies relating clinical outcome to the assessment of tumour angiogenesis in patients with cancer.

RESULTS
Studies have been recently reported in a variety of tumours, particularly early breast cancer and melanoma. Quantitative pathology, using microvessel counting, has been the main method applied. However assessment of angiogenic growth factors may provide an alternative. In early breast cancer many studies have shown a worse prognosis for those patients with highly vascular tumours. The prognostic influence of tumour angiogenesis is independent of conventional prognostic indicators. Similar, although more varied results, have been obtained in studies of melanoma and other tumour types.

CONCLUSION
Tumour angiogenesis, as assessed with quantitative pathology, is an important prognostic indicator in early breast cancer and possibly in other tumour types. Further confirmatory studies are required before this indicator is routinely used to guide treatment selection. Assessment of tumour angiogenesis will be increasingly important in the investigation of new therapies aimed at inhibiting angiogenesis or targeting tumour vasculature.


We extend our recent work on spin-filter materials (Galanakis et al 2013 Appl. Phys. Lett.103 142404) to the case of CrVXAl (X= Ti, Zr, Hf) compounds, for which, using ab initio electronic structure calculations, we show that p–d hybridization leads to the formation of a fully compensated ferrimagnetic semiconducting state with moderate exchange splitting. The magnetism is of covalent-type and the very strong antiferromagnetic Cr–V exchange interactions lead to extremely high Curie temperature, TC, values. Furthermore, all three compounds are thermodynamically and magnetically stable. The combination of very high TC values with a zero total net magnetization makes them promising materials for spintronics applications.


It has recently been demonstrated that object recognition can be formulated as an image-restoration problem. In this approach, which we term impulse restoration, the objective is to restore a delta function that indicates the detected object's location. We develop solutions based on impulse restoration for the Gaussian-noise case. We propose a new iterative approach, based on the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, that simultaneously estimates the background statistics and restores a delta function at the location of the template. We use a Monte Carlo study and localization-receiver-operating-characteristics curves to evaluate the performance of this approach quantitatively and compare it with existing methods. We present experimental results that demonstrate that impulse restoration is a powerful approach for detecting known objects in images severely degraded by noise. Our numerical experiments point out that the proposed EM-based approach is superior to all tested variants of the matched filter. This result demonstrates that accurate modeling and estimation of the background and noise statistics are crucial for realizing the full potential of impulse restoration-based template matching.


In this master thesis, an experimental setup for a stand-alone power system has been installed and tested in the Waterpower Laboratory at NTNU. The experimental test rig consisted of a cross-flow turbine, a synchronous generator and an electronic load controller (ELC) manufactured by Remote HydroLight in Afghanistan. The objective of the experiments was to evaluate the performance of the ELC regarding step response in frequency and generator voltage. The controller used phase angle regulation and triacs to divert excess energy to dump loads. The dump loads were heating elements installed and submerged in the lower reservoir in the laboratory. A similar configuration was installed for varying the user load in the energy system. Several tests were performed to evaluate the performance of the ELC. A weak component in the test rig was the transmission system that started to slip. This resulted in an increase in turbine speed during the experiment and reduced the quality of the results. However, the tests indicated that a rapid single peak appears during abrupt disconnection and connection of loads. This may disturb and damage sensitive electronic equipment. Despite this, the ELC performed well during the diffent tests with stable regulation in voltage and frequency. Introducing pulse width modulation would eliminate the unfavorable influence of the triacs in the generator voltage signal. With this modification it is possible to increase the flexibility in the energy system by introducing inductive or conductive loads like a battery bank. A hybrid stand alone energy system connecting existing test rig with a photovoltaic-module has been developed. For a larger and more complex energy system, a more sophisticated system has been designed. Both systems are based on a common DC-grid and charging of a battery bank. This results in a more flexible, reliable and a more stable energy system.


Field assessments were performed to establish the performance capabilities of a new flotation technology for fine coal upgrading, known as StackCell flotation. Flotation release analysis was performed on all samples to determine the amount of hydrophilic material present in the streams around the flotation cell. Data from this work supported recommendations from the equipment manufacturer that the wash water distribution system should be changed to a drip pan and that the design of the slurry-air distributor from the mixing chamber should be altered. The experimental data showed that as froth depth, rotor speed, and wash water rate changed, the performance of the cell followed expected trends with respect to product quality, but diverged from expected trends with respect to carbon recovery and yield. Other work performed includes the development of a new carbon partitioning test, which uses a blender to provide a high shear environment and uses oil to partition the slurry into a carbon rich oil phase and an ash rich pulp phase. This test is capable of producing results comparable to those of a traditional release analysis. Lastly, a spreadsheet program was developed that can aid users in designing drip pans. This program is capable of producing custom designs or unit cell designs. A study of the effect that plate thickness has on flow rate was performed in order to develop a model for flow through an orifice plate. The results of this work showed that plate thickness has little to no effect on the flow rate.


Cape Town is one of the five "Antarctic gateway" cities from which ships and aircraft travel to and from various parts of Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands. Gateway cities are used by government scientific expeditions, as well as for tourism. While tourism to Antarctica is increasing rapidly, most of it occurs from the South American gateways of Ushuaia and Punta Arenas, and to a lesser extent from Christchurch (New Zealand) and Hobart (Australia). The Cape Town-Antarctica tourism industry is relatively undeveloped in comparison to other gateway cities, mainly because the distance to Antarctica from the South American gateways is considerably less than from Cape Town. In 2009 the City of Cape Town signed the Southern Rim Gateway Cities Agreement, joining the other gateway cities in an agreement to cooperate on issues such as science, education, logistics, business opportunities and tourism. Tourism to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands, and the regulation thereof, is discussed in the light of the fact that South Africa, unlike countries like Australia, does not have any specific policy to develop or regulate tourism to Antarctica, neither to its own bases, nor to other parts of Antarctica accessible from Cape Town by ship or air. This paper considers the development potential of Cape Town as a gateway for tourism to Antarctica and the sub-Antarctic islands, with recommendations for particular types of tourism development, in specific locations, and suggestions for both growing and regulating the industry.


The humanity has always learned from the previous experiences and thus for many reasons. The national heritage proves to be a great way to discover and access a nation's history. As a result, these priceless cultural items have a special attention and requires a special care. However, Since the wide adoption of new digital technologies, documenting, storing, and exhibiting cultural heritage assets became more affordable and reliable. These digital records are then used in several applications. Researchers saw the opportunity to use digital heritage recordings for virtual exhibitions, links discoveries and for long-term preservation. Unfortunately, there are many under looked cultural assets due to missing history or missing information (metadata). As a classic solution for labeling these assets, heritage institutions often refer to cultural heritage specialists. These institutions are often shipping their valuable assets to these specialists, and need to wait few months even years to hopefully get an answer. This can in fact have multiple risks such as the loss or damage of these valuable assets. This in fact is a big concern for heritage institutions all around the world. Recent studies are reporting that only 10 percent of the world heritage is exhibited in museums. The rest (90%) is deposited and stored in museum archives especially because of their damage or the lack of metadata. With a deep analysis of the current situation, our team did a survey of current state-of-the-art technologies that can overcome this problem. As a result, new machine learning and deep learning techniques such as Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) are making a radical change in image and bigdata classification. In fact, all the big technology companies such as Google, Apple and Microsoft are pushing the use of these artificial techniques to explore their astronomic databases and repositories in order to better serve their users. In this contribution, we are presenting a classification approach aiming at playing the role of a digital cultural heritage expert using a machine learning model and deep learning techniques. The system has mainly two stages. The first stage which is the so-called "the learning stage" where the system receives as input a large dataset of labeled data. This data is mainly images of different cultural heritage assets organized in categories. This is a very critical step as the data must be very descriptive and coherent. The next stage is in fact the classification stage where the system receives an image of an unlabeled asset and then tries to extract the relevant visual features of the image such as shapes, edges, colors and fine details such as text. The system then analyses these features and predicts the missing metadata. These data can be the category, the year, the region etc. the first tests are actually giving promising results. Our team is aiming to further improve these results using a multimodal machine learning model. In fact, these models rely on multiple learning sources (text, videos, sound recordings, images) at the same time. The research progress shows that this technique is giving very accurate predictions.


Much of the primary production in northern latitudes is associated with the relatively short spring phytoplankton bloom. Quantifying the bloom is essential to understanding export production and energy transfer to higher trophic levels. This study focuses on the physical forcing controlling the spring bloom in the Irminger Basin (IB), situated between Greenland and Iceland. In situ data are available from four cruises to the region carried out under the UK Marine Productivity programme. This data set is extended with six years of SeaWiFS satellite chlorophyll-a concentration (chl-a) data, together with the corresponding model net heat flux (NCEP reanalysis) and satellite measured wind speed (QuikSCAT), sea surface temperature (SST; AVHRR) and photosynthetically available radiation (PAR; SeaWiFS). The remotely sensed data are complemented by a 1-D vertical mixing model and temperature
and salinity profiles from Argo drifting profilers. The seasonality in temperature-nutrient (TN) relationships is investigated and the TN relationships are improved by including chlorophyll in the regressions. Basin-wide, daily estimates of nitrate, phosphate and silicate are made from satellite SST and chl-a. The study focuses on three biogeographical zones determined by cluster and Empirical Orthogonal Function analysis of SeaWiFS chl-a data. The three areas have distinct chl-a
signatures and cover the East Greenland shelf, the Reykjanes Ridge and the Central Basin. An ANOVA analysis reveals that significant interannual variability is occurring in chlorophyll-a. An objective method for determining the start day of the spring bloom is described. Interannual variability in the timing of the initiation of the bloom and its magnitude and duration is discussed. The influence of the prevailing meteorology on chl-a in different seasons are investigated using generalized linear modelling. Whilst net heat flux and PAR are the dominating factors in spring, wind speed and SST become increasingly influential during summer and autumn. A method for estimating time series of Sverdrup's critical depth from remotely sensed PAR
and attenuation coefficient data is outlined. It is found that the spring bloom never begins before the mixed layer depth becomes shallower than the critical depth, and there is a delay of
~10 days. Specific criteria for the start of the bloom in terms of net heat flux and PAR are determined. The effect of nutrient depletion on the decline of the bloom is discussed. The East Greenland coastal zone is used as an example of the lasting impact that anomalous meteorological conditions can have on the following spring's bloom. In 2002 the East
Greenland region experienced anomalously low chl-a concentrations. Strong easterly winds, associated with the tip-jet phenomena, occurred throughout winter and spring and net heat
flux was anomalously low in 2002. The spring bloom in the Irminger Basin can be affected by large scale climatic events, such as shifts in the North Atlantic Oscillation. Finally, the timing of nutrient depletion and its impact on community succession is considered. The possibility of iron limitation in the basin is discussed. A lower bound estimate of export production is made based on the timing of silica availability, and hence diatom dominance, of the spring bloom. The contributions to export production by diatoms and non-diatoms are estimated.


This paper deals with the double integrator consensus problem. The objective is the design of a new consensus algorithm for continuous-time multi-agent systems. The dynamic of agents is assumed to be of double integrator type. The proposed algorithm considers that there are no sensors to measure the velocity of the agents. Thus the classical double integrator consensus algorithm leads to an oscillatory behavior if the communication graph is undirected and to instability if the graph is directed. The novel algorithm proposes to sampled, in an appropriate manner, part of the multi-agent systems state such that the algorithm converges. An expression of the consensus equilibrium is provided. Some examples are provided to show the efficiency of the new algorithm.


This study seeks insight into the use of visual aids in contemporary postcompulsory teaching. The importance of the study is linked to the large number of students who enter Higher Education; many of whom regularly receive lectures supported by visual displays which comprise textual summaries of a lecturer's speech. This thesis comprises a two-part study and employs a mixed methods approach. The first part inquires into teachers' and lecturers' practice with regard to their visual aids, and the second compares the effectiveness of text, images and imagery displayed in support of a lecture. The investigation into lecturers' practice found many post-compulsory teachers and lecturers had received no training in the design and use of visual aids during their initial teacher training. It is suggested this privation may underpin a de facto choice of projected text as a visual aid, the use of which is not clearly supported by contemporary models of memory and mental processing. In a comparison of visual modalities, an increase in learner engagement was recorded for the display of carefully designed images, and also for directed imagery. No positive impact was recorded for text summaries of 50-64 words displayed concurrently with speech, although recall was improved when text was restricted to five words or fewer. The conclusion is drawn that the display of this modality without temporal pauses may offer limited educational advantage to students, and a method of planned apportionment of speech and text is proposed in which contemporary theories of memory and processing are taken into account. These observations have significant implications for a lecture environment in which such text summaries are often relied upon for visual support. The findings of the thesis are combined to propose a principle of Visual Working Memory Utilisation (VWMU), upon which future research into visual aid design and use in post compulsory education might be based. Read more at https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/handle/10871/16561#Jc2TlBtLrjc5j531.9 9


As molecular biology breakthroughs in understanding cancers and other diseases, hundreds of new drugs wait testing. In the last decade, mouse models have been evolved to better mimic human diseases genetically and biologically. These reliable mouse models allow us to determine which genetic elements, pathways and mutations impact on therapy. The co-clinical trial strategy is to conduct a human clinical trial for a therapeutic drug and test it in mouse models at the same time. This strategy has the potential to accelerate the drug testing process and identify the patient population that will respond to the drug. Imaging plays an important role in co-clinical trials. In this symposium, four speakers will discuss advancements and issues in pre-clinical imaging, murine models,
imaging hardware and software, and funding opportunities in co-clinical trials.
Learning Objectives:
1.
Multi-modality pre-clinical imaging hardware and software, and new technologies (e.g., hyperpolarized MRI)
2.
Selection of animal models from physiological and genetic perspectives with examples in colon, pancreatic and lung cancers
3.
NCI funding opportunities


Interest in foreign investment has been high among U.S. investors in recent years. Many investors know that geographic diversification can improve investment returns without increasing risk. However, whether or not to invest abroad and, if so, how much weight to give to foreign investment, are questions often subject to heated debate. Whether or not to invest abroad is part of the larger question of how to assemble a portfolio that is appropriate for the investor's circumstances and degree of risk tolerance. ; This article examines the question of international investing within the broader context of using portfolio optimization by individual investors. The author illustrates the concept by constructing portfolios from index funds based on major asset classes, including two foreign indices, European and Pacific, in addition to domestic stocks, bonds, and Treasury bills. She uses different measures of historical returns on these assets to construct optimal portfolios for various levels of risk; she finds that the results of portfolio optimization are highly sensitive to input parameters and, thus, to the way historical returns are measured.


SYNOPSIS As Kosovo prepared to declare independence in February 2008, it still lacked a court system that was efficient, trusted, and open to public scrutiny. Most judges had trained under the communist government of the former Yugoslavia and were unaccustomed to public observation of their work. Procedural errors were common, and cases often languished in the judicial system for years. In response, the leaders of two Kosovar nongovernmental organizations decided to train and dispatch recent law school graduates to observe court sessions, report on whether proper procedures were followed, and assess the conduct of judges, prosecutors, and lawyers. Gradually, the program overcame initial hostility within the court system and gained the trust of judges and others working in the courts. By 2014, monitors had covered more than 8,000 sessions, and their reports documented improvements in the openness of court proceedings and in adherence to proper judicial procedures.


Significance This study uses data on ∼93 million individual homes to perform the most comprehensive study of greenhouse gases from residential energy use in the United States. We provide nationwide rankings of carbon intensity of homes in states and ZIP codes and offer correlations between affluence, floor space, and emissions. Scenarios demonstrate this sector cannot achieve the Paris Agreement 2050 target by decarbonizing electricity production alone. Meeting this target will also necessitate a broad portfolio of zero emission energy solutions and behavioral change associated with housing preferences. To support policy, we estimate the reductions in floor space and increases in density needed to build low-carbon communities. Residential energy use accounts for roughly 20% of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in the United States. Using data on 93 million individual households, we estimate these GHGs across the contiguous United States and clarify the respective influence of climate, affluence, energy infrastructure, urban form, and building attributes (age, housing type, heating fuel) in driving these emissions. A ranking by state reveals that GHGs (per unit floor space) are lowest in Western US states and highest in Central states. Wealthier Americans have per capita footprints ∼25% higher than those of lower-income residents, primarily due to larger homes. In especially affluent suburbs, these emissions can be 15 times higher than nearby neighborhoods. If the electrical grid is decarbonized, then the residential housing sector can meet the 28% emission reduction target for 2025 under the Paris Agreement. However, grid decarbonization will be insufficient to meet the 80% emissions reduction target for 2050 due to a growing housing stock and continued use of fossil fuels (natural gas, propane, and fuel oil) in homes. Meeting this target will also require deep energy retrofits and transitioning to distributed low-carbon energy sources, as well as reducing per capita floor space and zoning denser settlement patterns.