Since the establishment of the Permanent Court of International Justice in 1922, governments have consented to, and actively used, an ever larger number of international and transnational courts, quasi-judicial dispute settlement bodies and ad hoc arbitral tribunals for the settlement of disputes over the interpretation and application of rules of international law. Such judicial clarification of disputed interpretations of incomplete, intergovernmental agreements reduces not only the negotiation costs of governments by delegating the clarification of contested facts and legal claims to independent third-party adjudication. Judicial decision-making at intergovernmental, transnational, national and private levels also supplements rule-making and offers citizens judicial remedies for defending their rights and interests. Modern international economic law increasingly complements intergovernmental, legislative, and administrative governance by multilevel 'judicial governance' so as to protect rule of law more effectively for the benefit of citizens ( Section I ). This contribution criticizes the one-sidedly power-oriented perceptions of WTO law as 'international law among states' ( Section II ) and the related perceptions of international judges as dependent agents of states ( Section III ). Civil society, parliaments and democratic governments should encourage national and international judges to cooperate in their legal task of interpreting citizen-oriented international economic law 'in conformity with principles of justice and international law', as explicitly prescribed in the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties (VCLT). The legal coherence of multilevel judicial governance depends on protecting principles of procedural as well as substantive justice and a common conception of 'rule of law' not only in intergovernmental relations among states, but also vis-a-vis their citizens engaged in, and benefiting from, international trade ( Sections IV-VIII ). , Oxford University Press.


Curve extraction is an important and basic technique in image processing and computer vision. Due to the complexity of the images and the limitation of segmentation algorithms, there are always a large number of noisy pixels in the segmented binary images. In this paper, we present an approach based on ant colony system (ACS) to detect nonparametric curves from a binary image containing discontinuous curves and noisy points. Compared with the well-known Hough transform (HT) method, the ACS-based curve extraction approach can deal with both regular and irregular curves without knowing their shapes in advance. The proposed approach has many characteristics such as faster convergence, implicit parallelism and strong ability to deal with highly-noised images. Moreover, our approach can extract multiple curves from an image, which is impossible for the previous genetic algorithm based approach. Experimental results show that the proposed ACS-based approach is effective and efficient.


When the Fifteenth Amendment of 1870 granted African Americans the right to vote, it seemed as if a new era of political equality was at hand. Before long, however, white segregationists across the South counterattacked, driving their black countrymen from the polls through a combination of sheer terror and insidious devices such as complex literacy tests and expensive poll taxes. Most African Americans would remain voiceless for nearly a century more, citizens in name only until the passage of the 1965 Voting Rights Act secured their access to the ballot. In Bending Toward Justice, celebrated historian Gary May describes how black voters overcame centuries of bigotry to secure and preserve one of their most important rights as American citizens. The struggle that culminated in the passage of the Voting Rights Act was long and torturous, and only succeeded because of the courageous work of local freedom fighters and national civil rights leaders--as well as, ironically, the opposition of Southern segregationists and law enforcement officials, who won public sympathy for the voting rights movement by brutally attacking peaceful demonstrators. But while the Voting Rights Act represented an unqualified victory over such forces of hate, May explains that its achievements remain in jeopardy. Many argue that the 2008 election of President Barack Obama rendered the act obsolete, yet recent years have seen renewed efforts to curb voting rights and deny minorities the act's hard-won protections. Legal challenges to key sections of the act may soon lead the Supreme Court to declare those protections unconstitutional. A vivid, fast-paced history of this landmark piece of civil rights legislation, Bending Toward Justice offers a dramatic, timely account of the struggle that finally won African Americans the ballot--although, as May shows, the fight for voting rights is by no means over.


This literature review synthesizes empirical data of 18 articles published between 2000 and 2015 about teaching and learning science outdoors from kindergarten to secondary levels (K–12). We asked four questions: (1) What are the general characteristics of the corpus of studies on teaching and learning science outdoors in schools' immediate surroundings at K–12 levels? (2) What are the authors' aims for conducting studies about teaching and learning science outdoors? (3) What are the main outcomes related to teaching and learning science outdoors in schools' immediate surroundings? (4) What further studies should, according to the selected articles, be conducted in the future? We identified three categories of authors' aims: environmental education, science education, and outdoor education. The main outcomes are classified into four categories: 1) learning, 2) student attitude or interest, 3) other students' perceptions, and 4) challenges to outdoor science teaching. Finally, in light of the review, we discuss how further studies should consider learning outcomes, students' attitudes, challenges, and methodological guidelines.


There is no doubt that, chitosan is considered as one of the most important biopolymers that can easily extracted from nature resources or synthesized in the chemical laboratories. Chitosan also display a suitable number of important properties in different fields of applications. Recently, chitosan has been reported as a perfect candidate as a trestle macromolecule for variable biological fields of study. This include, tissue engineering. cell culture and gene delivery, etc. Furthermore, chitosan has widely used in different types of industries which include: food, agriculture, fragrance, and even cosmetic industries. Besides that, chitosan derivatives is treated as excellent tool in waste water treatment. Therefore, the present work gives a simple selective overview for different modifications of Chitosan macromolecule with a special attention to its biological interest. Prior that, a closer look to its resources, chemical structure as well as general properties has been also determined which include its solubility character and its molecular weight. Furthermore, the chemistry of chitosan has been also mentioned with selected examples of each type of interaction. Finally a brief for sulfone based modified chitosan has been reported including classical methods of synthesis and its experimental variants.


We present a drive-based agent capable of playing the real-time strategy computer game Starcraft. Success at this task requires the ability to engage in autonomous, goal-directed behaviour, as well as techniques to manage the problem of potential goal conflicts. To address this, we show how a case-injected genetic algorithm can be used to learn goal priority profiles for use in goal management. This is achieved by learning how goals might be re-prioritised under certain operating conditions, and how priority profiles can be used to dynamically guide high-level strategies. Our dynamic system shows greatly improved results over a version equipped with static knowledge, and a version that only partially exploits the space of learned strategies. However, our work raises questions about how a system must know about its own design in order to best exploit its own competences.


This paper seeks to analyse the law in respect of bail and pre-trial detention in India, testing judicial precedent on the anvil of the presumption of innocence with specific reference to two contrasting decisions of the Supreme Court, earlier in Pappu Yadav v. Central Bureau of Investigation and more recently in the 2G case in Sanjay Chandra v. Central Bureau of Investigation. It focuses only on conditions of bail set forth in the Code of Criminal Procedure and does not look at special legislation. The paper concludes by suggesting measures for legislative and judicial reform to harmonise law relating to bail across India.


Background Traditional sample size calculations for randomized clinical trials depend on somewhat arbitrarily chosen factors, such as type I and II errors. As an alternative, taking a societal perspective, and using the expected value of information based on Bayesian decision theory, a number of authors have recently shown how to determine the sample size that maximizes the expected net gain, i.e., the difference between the cost of the trial and the value of the information gained from the results. Other authors have proposed Bayesian methods to determine sample sizes from an industry perspective. Purpose The purpose of this article is to propose a Bayesian approach to sample size calculations from an industry perspective that attempts to determine the sample size that maximizes expected profit. Methods A model is proposed for expected total profit that includes consideration of per-patient profit, disease incidence, time horizon, trial duration, market share, discount rate, and the relationship between the results and the probability of regulatory approval. The expected value of information provided by trial data is related to the increase in expected profit from increasing the probability of regulatory approval. The methods are applied to an example, including an examination of robustness. The model is extended to consider market share as a function of observed treatment effect. Results The use of methods based on the expected value of information can provide, from an industry perspective, robust sample size solutions that maximize the difference between the expected cost of the trial and the expected value of information gained from the results. Limitations The method is only as good as the model for expected total profit. Although the model probably has all the right elements, it assumes that market share, per-patient profit, and incidence are insensitive to trial results. The method relies on the central limit theorem which assumes that the sample sizes involved ensure that the relevant test statistics are normally distributed. Conclusions Industry officials should consider the use of expected value of information methods for determining sample sizes for proposed trials. The method also can be used to select, from a number of proposed trials, those which maximize return from a fixed research budget.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are non-coding small RNA molecules that regulate the differential expression of genes. The expression of miRNAs is dysregulated in various types of cancers, including Gastric Cancer (GC), and has both prognostic and diagnostic potential. To interpret the role of miRNA expression in GC, we evaluated the expression profile using high-throughput miRNA array followed by in-depth systems biological analyses. Total RNA was isolated from 34 GC patients and 15 normal controls and hybridised and differentially expressed miRNAs in GC compared to normal controls were analysed. A total of 250 miRNAs were found to be differentially expressed in GC with a fold change ranging from + 2.5984 to – 3.5271 compared to normal gastric tissues. The differentially expressed miRNAs were further subjected to Ingenuity Pathway Analysis to understand the modulation of cellular and molecular functions and associated physiological system development and functions in GC. The Oncomirs such as miR-155-5p, miR-17-5p, miR-21-5p, miR-23a-3p, miR-24-3p, and miR-320b were significantly (P<0.05) upregulated and all the other miRNAs, mostly tumor suppressors, were significantly downregulated (P<0.05) leading to the reduction in cell death and the induction of gastric cancer, cellular growth and proliferation, cellular movement, cellular assembly and organization, DNA replication, recombination and repair, organismal injury and abnormalities and metastasis of tumor in GC compared to normal tissues. The high-throughput miRNA microarray coupled with systems biological analyses showed that miRNAs are dysregulated in GC, causing the initiation, progression, and metastasis of GC. In conclusion, the novel GC-inducing miRNA signatures decrypted in our study can further be exploited for precision medicine in clinics.


Having witnessed the consequences of the financial crisis for the real economy, we find it desirable to look back and analyze the Czech economy ex post. We work with a Swedish New Keynesian model of a small open economy which embeds financial frictions in light of the financial accelerator literature. Without explicitly modeling the banking sector, this model serves as a tool for understanding how a negative financial shock may spread to the real economy and how monetary policy may react. We use Bayesian techniques to estimate the model parameters to adjust the model structure closer to the evidence stemming from Czech data. Our attention focuses on a set of experiments in which we generate ex post forecasts of the economy prior to the 2009 crisis and illustrate that the monetary policy response to an upcoming crisis implied by the model with financial frictions is stronger on account of an increasing interest rate spread.


Animal assisted interventions (AAI) have been shown to improve patient outcomes in some healthcare settings. Flexible cystoscopy, while minimally invasive, is associated with patient-reported pain, fear, and anxiety. Few techniques have been found to improve these adverse effects associated with cystoscopy. The purpose of this study was to extend existing research on AAI in outpatient settings to investigate the effectiveness of AAI in reducing patient distress associated with outpatient cystoscopy. Ninety-five patients (average age 55.5 years) were prospectively enrolled and randomized to receive one 15-minute AAI prior to cystoscopy (n=46), or cystoscopy performed per standard protocol (n=49). Distress was measured by Visual Analogue Scales (VAS) for fear, anxiety, and stress, systolic blood pressure, and heart rate at 3 time points: prior to intervention/prior to cystoscopy, following intervention/prior to cystoscopy, and following intervention/following cystoscopy. Pain was assessed by VAS post-cystoscopy. There were no significant differences between the AAI and control groups in changes in systolic blood pressure, heart rate, fear, and pain between any time points. There were significant between-group differences in changes in anxiety and stress prior to cystoscopy with greater reductions found in anxiety and stress following AAI. The greater reductions in stress associated with AAI were maintained after cystoscopy. This is the first study to investigate the effectiveness of AAI in reducing distress associated with cystoscopy. More research is needed to determine if AAI is a viable method for improving patient outcomes associated with this and other outpatient procedures.


This book provides an overview of the World Bank's Eco2 Cities Initiative. The objective of the program is to help cities in developing countries achieve a greater degree of ecological and economic sustainability. The book is divided into three parts. Part one describes the Eco2 Cities Initiative framework. It describes the approach, beginning with the background and rationale. Key challenges are described, and lessons are drawn from cities that have managed to turn these challenges into opportunities. A set of four key principles is introduced. These principles are the foundation upon which the initiative is built. They are: (1) a city-based approach enabling local governments to lead a development process that takes into account their specific circumstances, including their local ecology; (2) an expanded platform for collaborative design and decision making that accomplishes sustained synergy by coordinating and aligning the actions of key stakeholders; (3) a one-system approach that enables cities to realize the benefits of integration by planning, designing, and managing the whole urban system; and (4) an investment framework that values sustainability and resiliency by incorporating and accounting for life-cycle analysis, the value of all capital assets, and a broader scope for risk assessment in decision making. Part two presents a city-based decision support system that introduces core methods and tools to help cities as they work toward applying some of the core elements and stepping stones. Part two looks into methods for collaborative design and decision making and methods to create an effective long-term framework able to help align policies and the actions of stakeholders. Part three consists of the field reference guide. The guide contains background literature designed to support cities in developing more in-depth insight and fluency with the issues at two levels. It provides a city-by-city and sector-by-sector lens on urban infrastructure. The next section comprises a series of sector notes, each of which explores sector-specific issues in urban development.


A considerable part of software design is dedicated for the composition of two or more modules. The implication is that changes made later in the implementation often require some reasoning about module composition properties. However, these properties are often not explicitly specified in design artefacts. Moreover, they cannot be easily inferred from the source code either. As a result, implicit composition properties may represent a major source of software maintenance complexity. This fact is particularly true with the advent of post object-oriented techniques, which are increasingly providing advanced mechanisms to enable flexible module composition. However, there is little empirical knowledge on how design models with explicitly-specified composition properties can improve software maintenance tasks. This paper reports an experiment that analyses the impact of design models enriched with composition properties on system maintenance. Explicit composition modelling was achieved in the experiment through a conservative approach, i.e., a specific set of additional UML stereotypes dedicated to model composition properties. The experiment involved 28 participants, who were asked to realize four maintenance tasks using UML design models with different levels of module composition details. Our findings suggested that explicit composition modelling contributed to better results in the realization of program change tasks, regardless of the developers' expertise. Users of composition-enhanced models consistently yielded better results when compared to users of plain UML models. The use of explicit composition specification also led to an average increase of 44.7% in the quality of changes produced by the participants


Vaccines protect millions of human lives per year from otherwise fatal illnesses. Vaccination promotes immunity by simulating infection with a non-pathogenic representative of the disease, an antigen, to prepare and train an immune response. Vaccine-safe antigens are often too small to elicit an immune response. These nonimmunogenic molecules are referred to as haptens and are introduced to the immune system by hapten-carriers, large immune-stimulating proteins. Keyhole Limpet Hemocyanin (KLH), a respiratory protein of the giant keyhole limpet (Megathura crenulata), is the industry standard hapten-carrier. KLH is a potent yet safe immunestimulant relied upon in research, available human medications, and emerging vaccines. KLH is currently valued at approximately $10,000 per gram, and economic analysis predicts the KLH market to exceed $35 million once new vaccines are approved. KLH production, however, is neither ecologically sustainable nor economically sensible. KLH is produced from live M. crenulata and cannot be synthesized. Over-fishing endangers wild M. crenulata populations, and only one company is authorized to aquaculture this species. A potential alternative hapten-carrier is the hemocyanin from the red abalone (Haliotis rufescenes). Aquaculture for this species is well established and globally profitable; their meat is considered a delicacy, and their shell is the source of the gem 'Mother of Pearl'. Red abalone hemocyanin (RAH) is biochemically similar to KLH. This study adapts KLH purification techniques to RAH for comparison. KLH and RAH were determined to be approximately the same molecular weight, a critical characteristic for an alternative haptencarrier. RAH isolation was optimized to rival commercial KLH purity. RAH, like KLH, consists of two subunits between 350 kDa and 400 kDa. RAH elicits an antibody production response to conjugated haptens in mice. RAH is therefore a viable alternative to KLH as a hapten-carrier in vaccine production. There is precedent for abalone aquaculture in Maine.


While the tunneling conductance between two spherical-like conducting particles depends on the relative interparticle distance, the wave function overlap between states of two rodlike particles, and so the tunneling conductance, depends also on the relative orientation of the rod axes. Modeling slender rodlike particles as cylindrical quantum wells of diameter D and length L >> D, we calculate the matrix element of the tunneling between two rods for arbitrary relative orientations of the rod axes. We show that tunneling between two parallel rods is about L/root D xi times larger than the tunneling matrix element for perpendicular rods, where xi is the tunneling decay length. By considering the full dependence of the tunneling conductance on the angle between rod axes, we calculate within an effective medium theory the conductivity of dispersions of rods with different degrees of alignment. We find that for isotropically oriented rods, the effect of orientation in the tunneling processes is marginal for all rod concentrations. On the contrary, for systems of strongly aligned rods, the enhanced tunneling between nearly parallel rods increases significantly the system conductivity in a relatively large concentration range. Next, we consider systems in which short-range attraction between rods is added, as in dispersions of rods with depletion interaction. We find that the strongly anisotropic attraction promotes enhanced tunneling between neighboring parallel rods, increasing the effective medium conductivity by several orders of magnitude compared to the case in which the angular dependence of tunneling is ignored, even for relatively weak attractions.


This study examines the implication of optimizing earning management from tax
incentives granted by the government to the hotel sector in Malaysia. Visit
Malaysia Year, 1990 saw Pioneer Status and Investment Tax Allowance being
introduced to the Hotel Sector, which qualifies as a promoted product or
promoted activity in promoting tourism in the country.
These changes in earnings are investigated by decomposing earnings and by
isolating the tax change component resulting from the actual and expected tax
expenses. Earnings and the tax component are regressed with security returns. In
line with this, using event methodology, the immediate effect of the
announcement is observed for any abnormal gains.Results show that there is significant correlation between the effective tax change
and the security returns. In addition there is a short term monetary effect due to
the announcement. However the market anticipates the information well before
the official announcement with positive abnormal returns prior and on the
announcement day.


Democratization in Indonesia has new consequences one of it is an information blast especially in law and legal document in government agency and change the service of law and legal libraries. Since the development of information technology the law and legal libraries in government agencies has developing e-government services in law and legal documents. Most of the e-government service is using repository institutions their main service. This paper was meant to evaluate e-government service in law and regulation document in Indonesian government agencies, is it efficient enough to serve users?. Methodology on this paper was using survey in 34 government agencies with good ranks from ministry of information and communication assessment as a sample. Questionnaire was use to evaluate e-government service in law and legal and repository components. Those components are human computer interface component, interoperability component, repositories management component. The paper shown, there are some aspect of the human computer interface component has not applied international standard such as only 4% of the sample provide controlled vocabulary on law and legal subject, on human computer interface, same as in the interoperability component most of the metadata is not applied standard metadata, only 10% using metadata standards and there are also inefficiency due to unorganized repository management. In the end of the paper, the e-government service on law and legal documents in Indonesia is not efficient and effective enough to serve people due to some institutional repositories component that has not standardized and in the future Indonesian government need to redesign the e-government on Law and legal document services.


One of the aims of EFMC 2009 is to develop a research agenda and action plan for Facility Management (FM) with a time horizon of at least five to seven years. In order to collect input for this agenda, the Delft Center for People and Buildings organised a number of round-table discussions with representatives of professional FM journals, FM professionals and academics. A wide variety of subjects were covered. Some of these subjects came up in almost all sessions, such as sustainability, the changing role of facility managers and facility management (from operational to strategic, from cost efficiency to added value), corporate social responsibility and FM education. Furthermore all papers that have been submitted to the EFMC 2009 research symposium have been analysed with regard to the research questions and proposed next steps. The papers show that we share one world with different problems that need joint efforts to deliver sustainable (durable) solutions. The present paper discusses a number of shared problems and challenges against the background of the key themes of EFFM 2008 - 2009. The findings from the round table discussions and the cross paper analysis have been translated in building blocks for the 2015 FM Research and Action Agenda. This agenda challenges the FM community to integrate knowledge from different research programs and projects and to get more synergy out of it, with as a final aim to contribute to sustainable solutions of societal problems, to build up a sound "evidence based" FM body of knowledge and to work on new research methods.


The polyethylene glycol (PEG) modified gold nanoparticle complex was synthesized by a one-solution synchrotron x-ray irradiation method. The impact on the structure and morphology of the gold nanoparticles of process parameters such as the PEG molecular weight, the PEG/gold molar ratio and the x-ray dosage were investigated. The size of PEG modified gold particles was found to decrease with increasing PEG addition and x-ray dosage. With the capability to monitor the absorption spectra in situ during the fast synthesis process, this opens the way to accurate control of the size and distribution. PEG chains with an intermediate length (MW6000) were found optimal for size control and colloidal stability in biologically relevant media. Our x-ray synthesized PEG–gold nanoparticles could find interesting applications in nanoparticle-enhanced x-ray tumour imaging and therapy.


Engineering educators must consider how the cultural backgrounds of students coincide (or diverge) with the epistemological and ontological formation of an engineer. Hence, this work is presented as an exhortation to engineering educators, particularly in a pre-college context, to critically evaluate how raceconscious pedagogies can be exerted in this field. In this autoethnographic study, I convey my attempt to teach engineering with explicit consideration of the sociopolitical context of the Black male youth I taught. As a Black male, I have an insider perspective into the realities that must be navigated to succeed in a racialized society, where Black males are a demographic that has been mercilessly underserved and over-criminalized in the educational system. I discovered three themes that describe my approach to actualizing culturally relevant pedagogy in pre-college engineering education, which are (i) exhibiting political clarity in curriculum design and implementation, (ii) using students' lived experiences as authentic contexts for teaching engineering, and (iii) building relationships with students, their families, and community so that we know the students we are teaching.


Introduction: Frequency of breakfast consumption has declined in the last half century. This meal is ignored by children and adolescents. This study was aimed at determining the effect of a training program based on theory of planned behavior on promotion of breakfast consumption in students. Methods: This interventional quasi-experimental study was carried out in Bandar Abbas in 2011 on 88 middle-school students who were selected through the multistage cluster-sampling method. The data collection instrument was a questionnaire, designed based on the structured theory of planned behavior, whose validity and reliability were determined in the pilot study. The collected data were analyzed with SPSS 18 through linear regression, t-test, paired t-test, Wilcoxon, and Mann-Whitney tests. Results: After the completion of the training program, perceived behavioral control and intention of having breakfast were increased in the intervention group, and the change was significant based on Wilcoxon test (P=0.000). Conclusion: According to the results, instructional strategies based on theory of planned behavior should be taken into account in order to increase intention toward and consumption of breakfast by students. Considering the subjective norms encouraging students to have breakfast especially in peer groups and parents can be helpful in designing educational programs


A fairly detailed outline of Bacillus subtilis physiology and the identification of genes for metabolic and developmental pathways were available by the late 1970s. The invention of recombinant DNA technology set the stage for the second great leap forward in our understanding of B. subtilis organism. With the whole B. subtilis genome sequence in hand, one can design microarray assays of gene transcription in which all genes can be analyzed simultaneously. Comparisons of gene function, organization, and regulation in diverse bacteria have revealed that the proteins of macromolecular synthesis and the enzymes of biosynthesis and degradation are remarkably well conserved throughout the prokaryotic world. It is equally striking, however, how differently gram-positive and gram-negative bacteria regulate gene expression and the activities of their gene products. The study of B. subtilis, in both the pregenomic and the postgenomic eras, has reinforced our sense that this multitalented organism has evolved mechanisms of synthesis and regulation that are novel, subtle, and interesting. The integrated (and presumably defective) phages have added their genes to the genome, increasing the cell's genetic capability by horizontal gene transmission. Great leaps forward in our understanding of the natural world are obviously dependent on major advances in technology. But the value of a technical advance resides in its ability to facilitate and stimulate intellectual leaps. The future of the field will depend on our ability to sift through the abundance of new data generated by genome sequencing and its dependent technologies, and extract patterns and rules.


Abstract. The present study deals with the implementation of an eddy resolving model of the Levantine and Aegean basins and its one-way nesting with a coarse resolution (1/8° × 1/8°) global Mediterranean general circulation model. The modelling effort is done within the framework of the Mediterranean Forecasting System Pilot Project as an initiative towards real-time forecasting within the eastern Mediterranean region. The performed climatological runs of the nested model have shown very promising results on the ability of the model to capture correctly the complex dynamics of the area and at the same time to demonstrate the skill and robustness of the nesting technique applied. A second aim of this study is to prepare a comprehensive climatological surface boundary conditions data set for the Mediterranean Sea. This data set has been developed within the framework of the same research project and is suitable for use in ocean circulation models of the Mediterranean Sea or parts of it. The computation is based on the ECMWF 6-h atmospheric parameters for the period 1979–1993 and a calibrated set of momentum and heat flux bulk formulae resulted from previous studies for the Mediterranean region. Key words. Oceanography: general (numerical modelling); physical (general circulation; air-sea interactions)


In this thesis the poor performance of learners in the vast majority of public schools in South Africa provided the impetus to study leadership practices in previously disadvantaged, highly successful schools. This research was to find out what these schools were doing in terms of how they led that contributed to them becoming highly successful. Three previously disadvantaged, highly successful schools were purposively selected with the aim of understanding their leadership practices in greater depth. While data was collected, analysed and interpreted for all three schools, due to the limitations of space, only two of the cases are presented in this thesis. A critical realist ontology, coupled with a qualitative approach and a multiple-case study research design with a variety of data generation methods were utilised as a means to examine questions regarding leadership practices. The data generation methods comprised journal writing by the principals, individual open-ended interviews, focus group interviews, observations (both formal and informal), transect walks around the schools, document analysis as well as a self-reflective journaling process. Four teacher leaders at each school from across the post levels were purposively chosen as participants at each of the schools. This was to provide a clearer understanding of how leadership was practised. To rise above the adversities experienced at their schools it was found that participants from across the post levels were resilient and collectively contributed to the leadership practice and this impacted on the overall success of their schools becoming highly functional. They made every endeavour to adopt and adapt legislated mandates and all aspects of leadership and management to engage in what best suited the contexts of their individual schools. Structural boundaries were broken to accommodate and engage with the expertise of all teachers. They therefore shattered the myth of the traditional 'heroic leader' paradigm and consequently achieved school-wide success. Once the structural boundaries were broken there emerged a more collaborative culture and the agents arose from being primary agents to that of being corporate agents. The principals from each of the schools emerged as powerful Social Actors who were instrumental in ensuring active participation in the leadership practice by all teachers. At the heart of all decisions that participants took were the learners. In this regard they were found to be embodied beings and every opportunity was grasped at to enhance the quality of teaching and learning. Their roles as educators extended far beyond that of teaching and learning. They also forged various networks in order to improve their schools infrastructure and to meet the needs of their impoverished learners. What is recommended therefore, for previously disadvantaged schools to become highly functional is an engagement with the collective expertise of all teachers so as to achieve school wide success. At a theoretical level the study contributes by extending Grants Model of Teacher Leadership (2008a) which indicates that one of the prerequisites for teacher leadership is that of a collaborative culture. This study adds collaborative structures and agency to the notion of collaborative culture and has demonstrated that for leadership to be distributed the structural, cultural and agential emergent properties play a crucial role. From a critical and social realist perspective a Three Tier Model is offered to make meaning of leadership practices in previously disadvantaged, highly functional schools.


subject of debate, however, in general repair before 3 years of age has resulted in good myocardial performance. Late repair has led to prolonged QRS duration, ventricular dysfunction in terms of myocardial performance index (MPI) and tricuspid annular plane systolic excursion (TAPSE), as well as longer intensive care unit (ICU) stays. Objective To evaluate QRS duration, right ventricular function as measured by TAPSE, and ICU length of stay (LoS) after repair of TOF performed after three years of age. Methods This retrospective cohort study was performed in children and adults who underwent ToF repair, with a minimum follow-up of 6 months. The TAPSE and QRS duration were evaluated during follow-up and compared between children who had the operation before vs. 3 years of age or older using Mann Whitney U and Chi-square tests. Results We enrolled 52 subjects who underwent ToF repair from January 2007 to June 2013 (18 in the ≤3 years-old group and 34 in the >3 years-old group). Subjects' age at the time of repair ranged from 7 months to 25 years, with follow-up data at 24-30 months after discharge. Abnormalities of the right ventricle and left ventricle MPI were not significantly different between the two groups. However, we observed significant differences between the ≤3 years and >3 years groups in median ICU LoS [2 (range 1-9) days vs. 1.5 (range 1-46) days, respectively; (P=0.016)] and median QRS durations [118 (range 78-140) ms vs. 136 (range 80-190) ms, respectively; (P=0.039)]. The age at the time of repair did not increase the risk of having abnormal TAPSE (RR 0.85; 95%CI 0.26 to 2.79; P=0.798). Conclusion Tetralogy of Fallot repair after 3 years of age appears to not increase ICU LoS or is associated with lower TAPSE, but it is associated with longer QRS duration. [Paediatr Indones. 2016;56:176-83.].


As one of today's most influential business thinkers, Seth Godin has now collected the most provocative short pieces from his pioneering blog. This book also includes his most popular columns from "Fast Company" magazine and several of the short e-books he has written in the last few years. It includes: "Clinging to Your Job Title?"; "The Persistence of Really Bad Ideas"; "The Seduction of 'Good Enough'"; and, "Judging a Book by its Cover Do Less". "Small is the New Big" is packed with inspiring ideas: as Godin says in his introduction, 'I'm certain that you're smart enough to see the stuff you've always wanted to do buried deep inside one of these riffs. And I'm betting that once inspired, you'll actually make something happen'.


Images of workers were ubiquitous in Soviet visual culture. Other than in capitalist countries, the Soviet visual regime was inextricably linked to the faces of working people; workers were elevated to the 'status of icons' in newspapers, journals and movies alike. According to Soviet ideology, every worker contributed to socialism, which is why everyone was worthy of portrayal. The article traces the discussion among professionals and readers in Soviet journals about how to portray working people both in their professions and their everyday lives. In the 1960s, Soviet photographers actively propagated a shift from portraying the profession to portraying the individual. A close reading of photographs published mostly in Sovetskoe foto details how Soviet photo-graphers aimed at capturing individuality in the first place, how photography helped establish typical and un-typical notions of individuality and work, and to which extent the a-typical became the new typical.


A previously healthy 2-year-old boy was hospitalized after 2 weeks of persistent fever (temperature to a maximum of 38.9C [102F]) and a 2-day history of neck stiffness. There was no history of cough, rhinorrhea, or dysphagia. The oropharynx could not be examined because of neck stiffness. The patient had bilateral anterior cervical lymphadenopathy.


In 21st century, we led the Reimei mission realizing the fine-scale auroral emission and particle observations by the high-time/spatial resolutions and also initiated the ERG mission based on the trinity research system consisting of in-situ observation using spacecraft, ground-based network observation, and data analysis/modeling approach. The main scientific targets of these missions are the space plasma dynamics occurring universally in the regional and energy couplings in the terrestrial ionosphere and magnetosphere. Through these space exploration missions, we have actually noticed and been proposing the importance of coherent cooperation in the different methodologies (in-situ/ground-based observations, data analyses, modeling/simulation) as well as the significance of appropriate international collaborations, especially in the instrumental developments. It should also be noted that some novel ideas and the cutting-edge technologies matching them have been stimulating new exploration missions. For example, the high-resolving simultaneous measurements of auroral emissions and particles were carried out in the Reimei mission by using both our original auroral camera and plasma instrument. Recently, we are also developing so-called software-type wave-particle interaction analyzer (S-WPIA) in ERG in order to elucidate the energy transport between the plasma waves and particles in the collisionless plasma regime. These research experiences and expertise in our community are now leading new research activities to propose a new exploration mission using polar formation-flight configuration of compact satellites for the space-terrestrial coupling mechanisms. In this future mission, we will directly investigate the interactions and couplings in the plasma and neutral particles and the electromagnetic fields and waves in addition to the plasma wave-particle interaction analyses for the ionospheric transverse ion acceleration (TIA) and the simultaneous auroral emission-particle observations for the magnetosphere-ionosphere coupling processes like Alfvenic electron acceleration and their related auroras, and the field-aligned current distribution and variation. In this presentation, We introduce the formation-flight exploration mission using compact satellites and also discuss the instrumental development plans for their realization.


Smoking is a process in which a drug is ingested and smoke is absorbed into the blood stream. Tobacco smoking is mostly used as a prescribing pathway for illicit drug consumption because burning of the dried plant leaves vaporizes and absorbs illegal drugs with accelerated ingestion through the bloodstream through the lungs and enters the body's tissue. The dried leaves of the tobacco plant, which are rolled onto a tiny square of rice paper, are one of the most widely used in smoking and make a thin, circular ring which are traditionally called "cigarettes." Cigarettes are mostly developed by manufacturers, but may also be laminated by the hand using loose tobacco & rolling paper. Other tools include cigars, pipes, bidis, hookahs, bongs & smoking vaporizers. The paper explains the impacts of smoking on the health of the human race and seeks to identify obstacles and drivers for cessation of smoking.


Precision oncology relies on the accurate discovery and interpretation of genomic variants to enable individualized diagnosis, prognosis, and therapy selection. We found that knowledgebases containing clinical interpretations of somatic cancer variants are highly disparate in interpretation content, structure, and supporting primary literature, impeding consensus when evaluating variants and their relevance in a clinical setting. With the cooperation of experts of the Global Alliance for Genomics and Health (GA4GH) and six prominent cancer variant knowledgebases, we developed a framework for aggregating and harmonizing variant interpretations to produce a meta-knowledgebase of 12,856 aggregate interpretations covering 3,437 unique variants in 415 genes, 357 diseases, and 791 drugs. We demonstrated large gains in overlap between resources across variants, diseases, and drugs as a result of this harmonization. We subsequently demonstrated improved matching between a patient cohort and harmonized interpretations of potential clinical significance, observing an increase from an average of 33% per individual knowledgebase to 56% in aggregate. Our analyses illuminate the need for open, interoperable sharing of variant interpretation data. We also provide an open and freely available web interface (search.cancervariants.org) for exploring the harmonized interpretations from these six knowledgebases.


In August 2016, the D.C. Circuit held that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) met its obligations under the Endangered Species Act (ESA) but failed to comply with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) when it issued an Incidental Take Permit (ITP) for the endangered Indiana bat.1 On the one hand, the D.C. Circuit concluded that FWS did not need to ensure that the proposed project's minimization and mitigation efforts were "the maximum that can be practically implemented" in order to satisfy the ESA.2 On the other hand, the D.C. Circuit held that FWS violated NEPA by failing to consider a reasonable range of alternatives.3 This ruling breathes "new life"4 into the procedural force and requirements of NEPA, suggesting that courts may insist on greater consistency between an agency's stated goals for a project and the process by which the agency analyzes alternatives. At the same time, because this particular project posed a threat to an endangered species, the decision's influence on future cases involving impacts of lesser significance is unclear. At the very least, however, Union Neighbors should spur agencies to take greater care in selecting an appropriate range of alternatives for future NEPA analyses when there are important statutory values implicated by the project's impacts.


The evolution of telecommunications has allowed the coupling of networking features to an ever-increasing plethora of devices, enabling their connectivity and berthing of an Internet of Things (IoT). However, the assorted nature of such "things" implies disparate specifications, requirements and interfacing, for interaction with high-level decision modules, services and agents involved in the most distinct kind of scenarios. The joint operation of all networkable things in a truly integrated IoT vision requires a flexible framework able to facilitate interfacing with different elements and concepts. In this paper we present a framework that builds over the concept of Media Independence, further enhancing it to encompass the abstraction of different "things", by providing the means for accessing their different interfacing procedures. We highlight the feasibility and flexibility of this framework by introducing it into an IoT scenario, enabling a flexible way for interface retrieval and control of different entities, paving the way for a truly universal and dynamic connectivity vision.


This manuscript reports on the development an expert system (DairyPert™) for application to production dairy operations in the United States. The approach combines rule and model based components in a system that permits diagnostic evaluation of a dairy's current operations. Neuron Data's NEXPERT shell is used for implementation. The shell is integrated with FoxPro database programs for data entry and delivery of system findings and results, and with an Excel spreadsheet containing the Cornell Net Carbohydrate and Protein nutrition model. Both IBM and Apple Macintosh personal computers are used as platforms for the effort. The knowledge base is structured modularly to determine constraints to greater profitability and/or production in eight key management areas. The eight key areas are nutrition (including feed ration evaluations), physical facilities, herd health, reproduction, replacement, milking practices, herd management ability, and economic constraints (including risk factors). Heuristics or "rules of thumb" used by experts in these fields are used in conjunction with the nutrition model for diagnostic purposes. For a number of the areas, input data, rules and system solution values are tracked separately for each of three facility types (freestall, corral or stanchion), for each physical enclosure or pen comprising the dairy operation, and for up to fourteen physiological animal classes within each enclosure. Thus, solution results are specified to a level of detail that permits the tendering of focused advice or management suggestions. Other key areas are concerned with problems of management and economics that relate to the overall herd situation. During system operation, results are stored at the level of detail discussed above. However, recognizing that merely listing the findings could lead to information overkill, a second set of "rules" are used by the system to prioritize and tailor the advice provided. The principle objective is to match the type of advice given to the management ability and economic capacity of the farm operator, as well as to the expected economic payoff and payback period. The resulting software package, using data for any dairy farm currently under an appropriate record keeping system, is capable of diagnosing dairy herd management problems and providing advice to the herd operator on how to correct such problems in a manner that will improve efficiency and production. The overall goal is to improve the short-and long-run management of and profitability from the dairy farm business and to prepare individual dairy operations for the adoption of new technology.


: The objects of this study are galvanically deposited Zn and Zn-Ni-P coatings additionally treated (passivated) in environmentally friendly Cr(III)-based composition for obtaining of conversion films (CF). The aim of this treatment is to improve the corrosion-resistant properties of the coatings. The elemental composition and surface morphology of the newly obtained systems "galvanic coating/conversion film" are investigated with EDS and SEM analyses. Protective properties of the conversion films are defined with potentiodynamic polarization curves and polarization resistance measurements in a model medium containing chloride ions (5% NaCl) which leads to appearance of local corrosion.


Consultations with stakeholders are a policy instrument widely used by policy makers to design policies and prepare legislative proposals across national and supranational systems of government. The European Union has recently reviewed its stakeholder consultation regime and asked for stakeholders' policy input. This offers an opportunity to examine empirically stakeholders' own evaluation of the regime and to ask a fundamental question about its democratic credentials: Do stakeholders recognise the EU consultation regime as reinforcing bias in interest representation by benefiting policy insiders, or conversely as an instrument that alleviates bias in supranational policy making? Building on rational choice institutionalism, this article outlines the potential distributional outcomes of the regime and argues that they are likely to vary along the lines of a classic divide in policy making that opposes policy insiders to outsiders. Two competing narratives are discussed in relation to the expected direction of this variation by focusing on insiders' incentives to support or oppose the regime. The observable implications are tested empirically on an original dataset containing information about stakeholders' positions on the evaluation of the regime status quo, its proposed further institutionalisation and their recommendations for change. The findings describe a consultation regime that seems to have created conditions alleviating bias in stakeholders' participation in supranational policy making. This is evident in the lack of systematic, significant differences between insiders and outsiders in the evaluation of the consultation regime. Where differences do occur, they are consistent with the image of a consultation regime that has not reinforced bias in favour of policy insiders. These actors are found to be more critical of the regime status quo, its institutionalisation and more inclined to recommend policy improvements. This supports an optimistic view over the democratic credentials and legitimacy of the EU consultation regime and outlines an additional scenario under which policy actors that are traditionally associated with exerting more power and influence find themselves stripped of their privileged position in the context of European supranational governance.


By providing especially tailored instances of a virtual network,network slicing allows for a strong specialization of the offered services on the same shared infrastructure. Network slicing has profound implications on resource management, as it entails an inherent trade-off between: (i) the need for fully dedicated resources to support service customization, and (ii) the dynamic resource sharing among services to increase resource efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the system. In this paper, we provide a first investigation of this trade-off via an empirical study of resource management efficiency in network slicing. Building on substantial measurement data collected in an operational mobile network (i) we quantify the efficiency gap introduced by non-reconfigurable allocation strategies of different kinds of resources, from radio access to the core of the network, and (ii) we quantify the advantages of their dynamic orchestration at different timescales. Our results provide insights on the achievable efficiency of network slicing architectures, their dimensioning, and their interplay with resource management algorithms.


In a world where the opportunity to advance scholarly and scientific knowledge is dependent on the ability to secure sufficient funding, researchers and scholars must write funding proposals that stand out from the competition. The practical advice in this guidebook is designed to aid academics in writing successful applications at all stages of their careers. This book will help grant applicants plan and craft funding proposals that are concise, complete, and impressive-and that satisfy the mandates of the agencies to which they are applying. Applicants will learn how to * Avoid common writing blunders* Understand the central importance of the research budget* Overcome procrastination* Choose and secure professional references* Develop a career path with a view toward funding opportunities* Maintain a winning attitude that will improve the chances of success Write an Effective Funding Application details the all-important preparation stage in drafting a grant application, from identifying sources of funding and securing registration numbers to creating a schedule for meeting the application deadline. It reviews the nuts and bolts of writing and polishing a winning application, stressing the importance of logical thinking and thoughtful presentation. The book includes detailed information on developing budgets, "before" and "after" versions of proposals, and descriptions of common pitfalls that everyone can avoid.


A Descriptive Study of the Impact of Planning Time on the Utilization of the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics Process Standards within the Algebra 1 and Applied Mathematics Subject Fields Planning practices are necessary requirements for effective instruction. Their importance is illustrated in the guidelines produced by several national organizations such as The Interstate New Teacher Assessment and Support Consortium (INTASC), The National Board for Professional Teaching Standards (NBPTS), and The National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM). Planning time is considered important by teachers at the grassroots level in order for them to develop thought-provoking lessons that allow students to make connections and form meaning as well as to reflect on previous lessons in order to make improvements for subsequent lessons. Collaborative planning is also considered important; however, it usually occurs with respect to block schedules, inclusion of special education students in the regular classroom, and the middle school model of education. The question exists as to what impact planning practices may have on high school regular education Algebra 1 and Applied Math classrooms. The purpose of this study is to investigate whether the amount of time a high school Applied Math or Algebra 1 teacher spends planning, individually or collaboratively, affects the frequency of utilization of practices recommended by the NCTM. The population was described as secondary (grades 9-12) Algebra 1, Applied Math 1, and Applied Math 2 teachers in the public schools in West Virginia. Data was collected using an instructional practices survey constructed by the researcher. This study utilized ANOVA tests and t-tests for independent samples to determine if differences existed in the mean frequency of use of NCTM recommended instructional practices based on length of planning time. Findings indicated that teachers who planned longer, both individually and collaboratively, had significantly higher mean frequency scores. Length of planning time also resulted in differences when the NCTM recommended practices were divided into five process standards. It can be concluded that longer planning times not only contribute to a higher mean frequency of NCTM recommended strategies but also to a larger variety of strategies as indicated by significant differences in the five NCTM process standards. It was also determined that statistically significant differences occurred in planning times and NCTM scores based on demographic variables.


'The bride wore a long white dress, with flowers in her hair. After the wedding, there was a party, and people gave presents to the bride and groom.' This wedding was nearly two thousand years ago, in Rome. Some things don't change.
But some thing do. Today you can have a wedding on a mountain, or under the sea, or 'Elvis' can sing for you. And different things happens in different places. Little birds made of paper, small trees, money in the bride's shoes, and lots of noise - they are all important for weddings somewhere. Welcome to the world of weddings!


This publication describes in detail the standard methods of the Indonesian National Carbon Accounting System (INCAS) to quantify net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the forestry sector in Indonesia in a transparent, accurate, complete, consistent and comparable (TACCC) manner. The standard methods describe the approach and methods used for data collation, data analysis, quality control, quality assurance, modelling and reporting. These include: (i) Initial Conditions, (ii) Forest Growth and Turnover, (iii) Forest Management Events and Regimes, (iv) Spatial Allocation of Regimes, (v) Peatland GHG Emissions, and (vi) Modelling and Reporting. This first version of the standard methods were tested and refined to estimate emissions and removals from forest and peat lands in Central Kalimantan as the REDD+ pilot province, the results of which are reported in 'Estimation of Annual Greenhouse Gas Emissions from Forest and Peat Lands in Central Kalimantan'. The standard methods are designed to be used at the national level; this first version can be used as the basis for developing a national GHG inventory for REDD+ activities in Indonesia.


This paper primarily examines the Easter Sunday bombing plotted and executed by a group of Sri Lankan Muslims and post-war Sri Lankan conditions among Sri Lankan Muslims, also known as Moors. The article will attempt to argue that (a) the post-war violence and organized Islamophobia among non-Muslim communities in general and the Sinhalese in particular increased fears and distrust among Sri Lankan Muslims in general; and (b) state concessions to Muslim political leaders, who supported successive Sri Lankan ruling classes from independence through the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009, have meant an isolation of the community from the other two main ethnic communities. The concessions that the Muslim community has won actively helped the Muslim community to be proactive in its religious practices and thus paved the way for exclusive social and political choices. The rise of Islamic movements and mosques in the post-1977 period galvanized Muslims. In time this isolation has been reinforced by socio-religious revival among Muslims whose ethnic identity has been constructed along the lines of the Islamic faith by Muslim elites. Despite this revival it has been clear that the Muslim community has been reluctant to use Islamic traditions and principles for peace building, which could have helped to ease tensions, brought about by the 30-year-old ethnic conflict. Finally, some pragmatic ways to ease tensions between Muslims and non-Muslims in the greater discipline of conflict resolution are explored using traditions within Islam.


Abstract On 18 October 2019, after weeks of subway fare evasions in a protest for a fare increase, protesters occupied some stations of the Metropolitan Public Transport Network in Santiago, Chile's capital city. An explosive and surprising escalation of violence ensued later that night marking the beginning of an ongoing social crisis that extended to other regions of the country, and reshaped, probably permanently, the political landscape. It is not yet possible to provide a definitive account of events that are still unfolding. We do not aim (nor can) settle the debate, nor give an exhaustive account of all arguments in such a short text. Instead, we describe the main facts of the still ongoing social crisis and the context leading to this crisis, and suggest some explanations based on current body of research and on survey data fielded during the crisis.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of this systematic review and meta-analysis was to provide an estimate of the prevalence of anxiety and depressive disorders in youth with epilepsy (YWE). It also aimed to calculate the overall magnitude of observed differences in anxiety and depressive symptoms reported by YWE compared with healthy controls and investigate whether any factors moderated anxiety and depression outcomes in YWE.

METHODS
Following prospective registration, electronic databases were searched up until October 2018. Studies were included if they reported on the rate of anxiety or depression in samples of YWE, and/or if they used valid measures of anxious or depressive symptomatology in YWE compared with a healthy control sample.

RESULTS
Twenty-three studies met inclusion criteria. The overall pooled prevalence of anxiety disorders in YWE was 18.9% (95% confidence interval [CI] 12.0%-28.5%), and for depression the pooled prevalence was 13.5% (95% CI 8.8%-20.2%). In samples of YWE compared with healthy controls, significantly higher anxiety (d = 0.57, 95% CI 0.32-0.83, p < .000) and depressive (d = 0.42, 95% CI 0.16-0.68, p < .000) symptomatology was reported.

CONCLUSIONS
YWE report anxiety and depressive disorders and symptoms to a significantly higher degree than youth without epilepsy. There is also evidence that certain anxiety disorders (e.g. generalized anxiety disorder, separation anxiety disorder) are particularly elevated, perhaps reflecting the unique impact of epilepsy on youth psychopathology. Research is needed to understand the risk factors associated with anxiety and depressive disorders in epilepsy, and better understand how these symptoms change across development.


Abstract:Yemen is the only country to exit the Arab Spring through a negotiated settlement and a national dialogue to guide the country's transition. Yet, many Yemenis increasingly see this process as reshuffling power among old-regime elites. As yet, there is no durable power-sharing agreement to ensure a more democratic, accountable system. Even if one is reached, implementation will be difficult, especially in the south, where mobilization and demands for separation are high. At best, a long process of negotiation and change has begun. The future will likely see bouts of localized violence, along with growing economic and humanitarian challenges.


This paper is based on a small-scale qualitative study that explored the experiences of nine unaccompanied asylum-seeking children, examining their perspectives on their in-care experiences, preparation for leaving care, and after-care support. The research also enabled seven professionals to share their views on practice and policy affecting unaccompanied asylum-seeking children leaving care. The research showed that unaccompanied young people face considerable challenges in the transition from care towards independence and that practice falls short of the standard envisaged by the leaving care framework. This paper focuses on one aspect of the empirical research, leaving-care preparation, and highlights a range of inadequacies. The paper also highlights broader policy issues that create a challenging environment for service delivery to care-leavers with uncertain immigration status.


Although Duchenne smiles have been shown to have a social signal value, there is limited evidence as to whether this effect generalises to most positive attributes, or whether it is restricted to a particular social domain. As opposed to non-Duchenne smiles, Duchenne smiles involve the activity of facial muscles in the eye region (orbicularis oculi). The hypothesis that Duchenne and non-Duchenne smiles produce different responses in receivers was tested in a face perception experiment. People were asked to rate neutral and smiling faces on ten attributes: attractiveness, generosity, trustworthiness, competitiveness, health, agreeableness, conscien- tiousness, extroversion, neuroticism, and openness to experience. Results showed that the type of smile had a stronger impact on the ratings of generosity and extroversion. The difference between neutral and smiling was larger when faces showed a Duchenne than a non-Duchenne smile, though the effect of smile type on attributions of generosity appeared to be restricted to male faces. Therefore the Duchenne marker shows some specificity to judgements of altruism and sociability.


Objective To define the role and risks associated with white matter hyperintensity (WMH) load in a stroke population with respect to recurrent stroke and mortality after ischemic stroke. Methods A total of 7,101 patients at a network of university hospitals presenting with ischemic strokes were followed up for 1 year. Multivariable Cox proportional hazards model and competing risk analysis were used to examine the independent association between quartiles of WMH load and stroke recurrence and mortality at 1 year. Results Overall recurrent stroke risk at 1 year was 6.7%/y, divided between 5.6%/y for recurrent ischemic and 0.5%/y for recurrent hemorrhagic strokes. There was a stronger association between WMH volume and recurrent hemorrhagic stroke by quartile (hazard ratio [HR] 7.32, 14.12, and 33.52, respectively) than for ischemic recurrence (HR 1.03, 1.37, and 1.61, respectively), but the absolute incidence of ischemic recurrence by quartile was higher (3.8%/y, 4.5%/y, 6.3%/y, and 8.2%/y by quartiles) vs hemorrhagic recurrence (0.1%/y, 0.4%/y, 0.6%/y, and 1.3%/y). All-cause mortality (10.5%) showed a marked association with WMH volume (HR 1.06, 1.46, and 1.60), but this was attributable to nonvascular rather than vascular causes. Conclusions There is an association between WMH volume load and stroke recurrence, and this association is stronger for hemorrhagic than for ischemic stroke, although the absolute risk of ischemic recurrence remains higher. These data should be helpful to practitioners seeking to find the optimal preventive/treatment regimen for poststroke patients and to individualize risk-benefit ratios.


This paper aims to explore the extent of the damage that retainage is capable of inflicting on the financial health of commercial concrete subcontractors and strategies which can be utilized to mitigate or avoid damage to their financial health. The methodology implemented to conduct this exploration is a series of interviews with commercial concrete subcontractors. An analysis of these interviews in conjunction with a thorough literature review demonstrates that retainage does indeed impact financial health of commercial concrete subcontractor though the scale of the operation does make a difference in the severity of this impact. Whether or not the construction industry is ready to eliminate this practice, it is undeniable that there are elements of the retainage practice that are simply unfair. The immediate elimination of retainage from the construction culture is unlikely. Despite this, the perspective on retainage does seem to be shifting in favor of subcontractors as proven through the passing of recent legislation and the increasing negotiations between general contractors and subcontractors.


Previously we have shown that epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulates cardiac adenylyl cyclase and increases cAMP accumulation in the rat heart (Nair et al., Biochem. J. 264, 563-571, 1989). Moreover, we have shown that the stimulation of adenylyl cyclase by EGF in heart is mediated via activation of the stimulatory GTP binding regulatory protein Gs alpha (Nair et al., J. Biol. Chem. 265, 21317-21322, 1990). Since cAMP increases the beating rate of hearts, studies were performed to investigate the effects of EGF on mechanical function of the heart and the role of cAMP in mediating the cardiac effects of EGF. In isolated perfused rat hearts EGF (15 nM) decreased perfusion pressure, increased ventricular contractility and heart rate in a manner similar to that observed with the beta-adrenergic receptor agonist isoproterenol (10 nM). In the presence of the adenosine A1 receptor agonist (-)-N6-(R-phenylisopropyl)-adenosine (PIA, 100 nM) which via activation of the inhibitory GTP binding protein Gi inhibits adenylyl cyclase, the effects of EGF on cAMP accumulation in the heart were markedly attenuated. PIA also decreased the ability of EGF and isoproterenol to alter cardiac contractility and beating rate. However, PIA did not attenuate the increase in heart rate and contractility induced by the alpha-adrenergic agonist phenylephrine which does not stimulate cAMP accumulation in the heart. These data suggest that EGF alters cardiac function by increasing cellular cAMP accumulation.


ABSTRACT The critics have discussed the influence of either Cubism or Surrealism on Stevens' "The Man with the Blue Guitar". The paper examines the impact of both of these movements on the poem. It claims that Stevens referred to Cubist aesthetics to protect himself from Surrealism which he round too radical. The argument is partly based on considering artistic events which were taking place in the United States around the rime Stevens wrote his poem. It also analyses the importance of Picasso with whom Stevens identified himself in the poem, and Cezanne, who enabled Stevens to come to terms with modern developments in art. ********** Both Cubism and Surrealism were essential for Stevens who throughout his poetic career was determined to "establish his relation to contemporary ideas" (Letters, 340). (1) The aim of this paper is to examine the analogy between the Cubist perception of reality and Stevens' "The Man with the Blue Guitar". It also claims that Stevens used Cubist aesthetics as a means of defence against Surrealism. Before a proper analysis of Cubist aesthetics and Stevens' use of it, it is important to point out the essence of ekphrasis in his poetry. Stevens does not imitate the means of painting, but conceptualizes the effects of it by means of an allusion. According to MacLeod (1993), the inspiration for Stevens to write ekphrastic poetry came chiefly from what he referred to as "the literature of painting". By the literature of painting he meant art magazines, periodicals, and museum catalogues which he read eagerly as a great lover of art and frequent gallery visitor (1993: xxiv). Stevens had the chance to live and write during the time when art was in its heyday: movements such as Dada, Cubism and Surrealism were revolutionizing the conventional approach to life and culture, which obviously was hot insignificant with respect to his verse. He did not write his poems in isolation from contemporary life, but always participated enthusiastically in what was taking place in the art world of his day. Around the time when "'The Man with the Blue Guitar" was written (1937), the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford held the first retrospective of Picasso (1934), the New York MOMA displayed works of Hans Arp, Joan Miro, and Alberto Giacometti in an exhibition "Cubism and Abstract Art" in 1935, and in 1936 it exhibited "Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism" with paintings by Picasso and Dali. In the 1930s, Surrealism, a movement that developed from Dadaism, was challenging America. One of the major events that contributed to the Surrealist venture into the unconscious was the expansion of Freudian ideas which spread so rapidly that by 1938 it appeared widely accepted that America had become the centre of psychoanalysis. The art world did not remain indifferent towards these ideas, and artists started to indulge in the processes of the unconscious mind unconstrained by logic and reason. This direction was the basis of Surrealism, which was then one of the most important of all the contemporary movements. Wallace Stevens was as usual determined to establish his "relation to contemporary ideas" ("What is there in life except one's ideas / (...) Is it ideas that I believe?" CP, 175) which is well seen in "Sombre Figuration", a poetic surmise of Freudian psychoanalysis. The poet was well aware of the Surrealist impact on his poetry: "In the camera of the subconscious, things are not (may not be) what they are in the consciousness. The locust may titter. The turtle may sob. Surrealism (...)" (L, 375). Owl's Clover, a series of which "Sombre Figuration" is the last poem, is an important but poetically failed experiment, a judgment Stevens himself confirmed by excluding it from his Collected Poems. Before having finished Owl's Clover, in December of 1936 Stevens started writing his new long poem "The Man with the Blue Guitar". The poem, which soon turned out to be one of his most successful, was completed by the spring of 1936. …


Mobile users with single antennas can still take advantage of spatial diversity through cooperative space-time encoded transmission. In this paper, we consider a scheme in which a relay chooses to cooperate only if its source-relay channel is of an acceptable quality and we evaluate the usefulness of relaying when the source acts blindly and ignores the decision of the relays whether they may cooperate or not. In our study, we consider the regenerative relays in which the decisions to cooperate are based on a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) threshold and consider the impact of the possible erroneously detected and transmitted data at the relays. We derive the end-to-end bit-error rate (BER) for binary phase-shift keying modulation and look at two power allocation strategies between the source and the relays in order to minimize the end-to-end BER at the destination for high SNR. Some selected performance results show that computer simulations based results coincide with our analytical results.


Phosphorylation of mitogen-activated protein kinases (MAPKs) on specific tyrosine and threonine sites by MAP kinase kinases (MAPKKs) is thought to be the sole activation mechanism. Here, we report an unexpected activation mechanism for p38α MAPK that does not involve the prototypic kinase cascade. Rather it depends on interaction of p38α with TAB1 [transforming growth factor-β–activated protein kinase 1 (TAK1)–binding protein 1] leading to autophosphorylation and activation of p38α. We detected formation of a TRAF6-TAB1-p38α complex and showed stimulus-specific TAB1-dependent and TAB1-independent p38α activation. These findings suggest that alternative activation pathways contribute to the biological responses of p38α to various stimuli.


ABSTRACT In the era of Big Data, extracting the most important exploratory variables available in ultrahigh-dimensional data plays a key role in scientific researches. Existing researches have been mainly focusing on applying the extracted exploratory variables to describe the central tendency of their related response variables. For a response variable, its variability characteristic is as much important as the central tendency in statistical inference. This paper focuses on the variability and proposes a new model-free feature screening approach: sure explained variability and independence screening (SEVIS). The core of SEVIS is to take the advantage of recently proposed asymmetric and nonlinear generalised measures of correlation in the screening. Under some mild conditions, the paper shows that SEVIS not only possesses desired sure screening property and ranking consistency property, but also is a computational convenient variable selection method to deal with ultrahigh-dimensional data sets with more features than observations. The superior performance of SEVIS, compared with existing model-free methods, is illustrated in extensive simulations. A real example in ultrahigh-dimensional variable selection demonstrates that the variables selected by SEVIS better explain not only the response variables, but also the variables selected by other methods.


In the wake of the 2016 presidential election, opponents of President-elect Donald Trump launched an unprecedented lobbying effort to encourage the presidential electors to vote for an alternative candidate. These efforts were bolstered in part with arguments based on the original meaning and purpose of the Electoral College.
In this Article, I argue that these historical arguments are flawed as an understanding of the meaning and purpose of the presidential selection system embedded in the U.S. Constitution. Electors were not established to exercise a veto on the popular choice for president, but rather were expected to exercise discretion only in a context in which the people were unable to decide who should be president.
In addition to its practical import, the "faithless electors" example shows the theoretical value of the conceptual distinction between constitutional interpretation and constitutional construction. An appreciation of how the office of presidential elector has been constructed over time exposes how radical of a departure the lobbying effort was from American constitutional traditions and democratic commitments and illustrates a better approach to thinking about how a fixed constitutional text should be joined with a living constitutional practice.


Monthly means of sea level air pressure (SLP) and sea surface temperature (SSTJ fields are used as predictors to reconstruct an approximate climatology of wind and cyclonic activity, valid for 10 stations, in winter over the northern North Atlantic region throughout the 20th century. The reconstructed climatology is based on statistical relationships between these predictors and local observations at 10 synoptic stations during the period 1961 to 1987 The statistical relationships are identified by canonical correlation analysis combined with a cross validation technique. We apply double cross validation to independently verify the statistical model. An interpretati.on of the relationship between atmospheric circulation patterns and anomalies in the wind climatology and cyclonic activity is given. The historical climatology (1903 to 1987) for each observing station is obtained from the observed large-scale conditions by using the statistical relationships. It is found that within the present century both the monthly mean windiness and cyclonic activity show variations on the decadal time scale but no significant overall trends. This is confirmed for 2 of the stations for w h ~ c h directly observed pressure data were available since the beginning of the century.


Background: Relational database-driven software applications have gained significant importance in modern software development. Given that software maintainability is an important quality attribute, predicting these applications' maintainability can provide various benefits to software organizations, such as adopting a defensive design and more informed resource management. Aims: The aim of this paper is to present the results from employing two well-known prediction techniques to estimate the maintainability of relational database-driven applications. Method: Case-based reasoning (CBR) and classification and regression trees (CART) were applied to data gathered on 56 software projects from software companies. The projects concerned development and/or maintenance of relational database-driven applications. Unlike previous studies, all variables (28 independent and 1 dependent) were measured on a 5-point bi-polar scale. Results: Results showed that CBR performed slightly better (at 76.8% correct predictions) in terms of prediction accuracy when compared to CART (67.8%). In addition, the two important predictors identified were documentation quality and understandability of the applications. Conclusions: The results show that CBR can be used by software companies to formalize and improve their process of maintainability prediction. Future work involves gathering more data and also employing other prediction techniques.


Preparing complex jobs for crowdsourcing marketplaces requires careful attention to workflow design, the process of decomposing jobs into multiple tasks, which are solved by multiple workers. Can the crowd help design such workflows? This paper presents Turkomatic, a tool that recruits crowd workers to aid requesters in planning and solving complex jobs. While workers decompose and solve tasks, requesters can view the status of worker-designed workflows in real time; intervene to change tasks and solutions; and request new solutions to subtasks from the crowd. These features lower the threshold for crowd employers to request complex work. During two evaluations, we found that allowing the crowd to plan without requester supervision is partially successful, but that requester intervention during workflow planning and execution improves quality substantially. We argue that Turkomatic's collaborative approach can be more successful than the conventional workflow design process and discuss implications for the design of collaborative crowd planning systems.


OBJECTIVEPresurgical evaluation of patients with operculoinsular epilepsy and negative MRI presents major challenges. Here the authors examined the yield of noninvasive modalities such as voxel-based morphometric MRI postprocessing, FDG-PET, subtraction ictal SPECT coregistered to MRI (SISCOM), and magnetoencephalography (MEG) in a cohort of patients with operculoinsular epilepsy and negative MRI.METHODSTwenty-two MRI-negative patients were included who had focal ictal onset from the operculoinsular cortex on intracranial EEG, and underwent focal resection limited to the operculoinsular cortex. MRI postprocessing was applied to presurgical T1-weighted volumetric MRI using a morphometric analysis program (MAP). Individual and combined localization yields of MAP, FDG-PET, MEG, and SISCOM were compared with the ictal onset location on intracranial EEG. Seizure outcomes were reported at 1 year and 2 years (when available) using the Engel classification.RESULTSTen patients (45.5%, 10/22) had operculoinsular abnormalities on MAP; 5 (23.8%, 5/21) had operculoinsular hypometabolism on FDG-PET; 4 (26.7%, 4/15) had operculoinsular hyperperfusion on SISCOM; and 6 (30.0%, 6/20) had an MEG cluster (3 tight, 3 loose) within the operculoinsular cortex. The highest yield of a 2-test combination was 59.1%, seen with MAP and SISCOM, followed by 54.5% with MAP and FDG-PET, and also 54.5% with MAP and MEG. The highest yield of a 3-test combination was 68.2%, seen with MAP, MEG, and SISCOM. The yield of the 4-test combination remained at 68.2%. When all other tests were negative or nonlocalizing, unique information was provided by MAP in 5, MEG in 1, SISCOM in 2, and FDG-PET in none of the patients. One-year follow-up was available in all patients, and showed 11 Engel class IA, 4 class IB, 4 class II, and 3 class III/IV. Two-year follow-up was available in 19 patients, and showed 9 class IA, 3 class IB, 1 class ID, 3 class II, and 3 class III/IV.CONCLUSIONSThis study highlights the individual and combined values of multiple noninvasive modalities for the evaluation of nonlesional operculoinsular epilepsy. The 3-test combination of MAP, MEG, and SISCOM represented structural, interictal, and ictal localization information, and constituted the highest yield. MAP showed the highest yield of unique information when other tests were negative or nonlocalizing.


Objective To analyse the incidence, characteristics and circumstances of injuries during a female youth amateur football tournament in Kenya. Design 14 injury recorders prospectively registered and classified all injuries during all matches. Four physiotherapists and two doctors supported the injury recorders. Setting A 2-day Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA) inter-provincial football tournament for female players in Nairobi, Kenya. The tournament is organised by a non-governmental organisation (NGO). Participants 938 females divided into three age groups (under 13 years (U13), under 16 years (U16) and over 16 years (O16)). Main outcome measurements Overall injury incidence. Results 123 injuries occurred in 106 matches. The incidence of all injuries was 93.3 injuries/1000 h. Players in the U13 (relative risk (RR)=2.16, 95% CI 1.3 to 3.5; p=0.002) and U16 (RR=2.17, 95% CI 1.3 to 3.5; p=0.002) age groups had an increased risk of injury compared to the O16 group. Most injuries allowed the players to continue to play (n=98 of 121; 81%). For 15 (12%) of the injuries the player did not continue to play but was expected to fully participate in the following match, and eight of the injuries (6.1 injuries/1000 h) were expected to result in the player's absence from play for 1–7 days. The injuries most commonly affected the lower limb (n=100; 82%); contusions to the ankle (n=15; 12%) and foot/toe (n=15; 12%) were the most common specific injury types. Most acute injuries (89 of 113, 79%) were caused by player contact. Conclusions The incidence of injuries among female youth football players in a national tournament in Kenya was high, but time-loss injuries were rare. Playing football in a tournament organised by an NGO at the inter-provincial level was safe.


The retail banking services sector, a key driver for global economic growth, faces drastic challenges, such as globalised competition and continuously changing customer expectations that call for an in-depth understanding of customer switching, particularly in Asia?s emerging markets. Research shows that minor reductions in switching can notably enhance profitability. Yet only insufficient or fragmented research to explain switching exists. For this study titled ?A Cross-Cultural Study of Consumer Switching in the Retail Banking Services Sector? at The University of Manchester, completed in September 2014, Frank Siegfried identified the theory of planned behaviour as the most suitable framework, while Singapore served as a test bed in view of its diverse population. A qualitative pilot study was conducted (February to April 2010), consisting of 22 semi-structured interviews, in which a suitable definition of switching and a better understanding about the cross-cultural context of this study were developed. These insights were instrumental in the design of a new theoretical model, built on constructs that had not been combined in a single framework before, applying constructs of the theory of planned behaviour as the foundational framework, and subsequently integrating the concept of past behaviour, selected cultural dimensions from the GLOBE model and four distinct predisposing and precipitating factors.Next, a quantitative study was conducted (January to May 2013) and, after data cleaning, a quasi-representative sample of 1,431 cases was subjected to analysis. For comparability with other studies, both regression analysis (RA) and structural equation modelling (SEM) were performed. Notable results that were consistent in RA and SEM include: Attitude towards switching (attitude) successfully explained switching intention. Subjective norms had a positive effect on attitude, which implied a mediated effect of subjective norms on switching intention. Contradicting the initial hypothesis, a significant effect of perceived behavioural control on switching intention was negative. Past behaviour had a significant, but weak positive effect on attitude and switching intention, as well as an indirect positive effect on switching intention, mediated by attitude. Lack of trust positively affected switching intention. Service failure had a strong positive effect on switching intention, with perceived behavioural control moderating this effect. Performance orientation had a moderately strong effect on perceived behavioural control. High in-group collectivism negatively affected service failure. These results constitute the new Comprehensive Banking Service Switching Model (CBSSM). Interestingly, a large number of constructs and construct paths that played an important role in the literature could not be confirmed as significant contributors to the model. Overall, tests of model fit still showed a significant contribution of the proposed extensions to the foundational model.Weighting the importance of various constructs in a single framework enhances the understanding of switching of retail banking services in Singapore and offers new insights for strategic planning, particularly in the areas of branding, marketing, service operations and human capital management. Theoretical, methodological and managerial implications are discussed in detail.


Fusion is a program optimisation technique commonly implemented using special-purpose compiler support. In this paper, we present an alternative approach, implementing fold-based fusion as a standalone library. We use staging to compose operations on folds; the operations are partially evaluated away, yielding code that does not construct unnecessary intermediate data structures. The technique extends to partitioning and grouping of collections.


In city planning managing the third dimension is becoming a necessity. Using 3D GIS modeling within a GIS environment offers a flexible interactive system for providing the best visual interpretation because it aids the planning and decision-process. Previous 3D virtual models did not have to be completely accurate. It did need to be a relatively accurate representation of the true simulation of reality. The main objective of this research and by using ArcGIS Desktop and ArcGIS 3D Analyst is to build a master plan for the University of Khartoum campus to better understand and organize its utilities infrastructure to find a suitable procedure for acquiring geospatial information and makes it, accessible to administration, visitors, and students. Another objective in this study is to explore the capabilities of current technology software such as ArcGIS to link the spatial information about the building features and utilities within the map. In addition, this paper discurses the methodology and implementation steps which build a unified geospatial information system that can be used as an interactive system that supports planning decisions. The results the importance of campus planning as a focus in this work in order to demonstrate the effective use of 3D GIS modeling in the decision making process, a way to very quickly communicate ideas that help to make better decisions. The conclusion showed that the 3DGIS enable users to visualize complicated urban planning information in the 3D way, to evaluate the allowable capacity of the block and to simulate building plans. With visualization and analysis capability, 3D-GIS are considered a powerful tool to solve various issues which modern cities confront.


Dryland (arid and semi-arid) ecosystems occupy more than 41% of global land area and are home to 2.5 billion people. More than 50% of South Asia's dryland ecosystems are located in India. Drylands contribute about 40% of the total food grain production and support two thirds of livestock population. Despite these important roles, agricultural production systems in the drylands are facing numerous challenges that threaten their resilience and future sustainability. This paper demonstrates some of the challenges and draws implications for priorities research and strategies. As an example, we selected districts representing different dryland agricultural production systems in western Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka states of India. First we focus on the present performance of the major agricultural production systems by highlighting their structure (e.g. farm size) and key indicators of their function and state (e.g. production). We discuss major problems in terms of their cause and effect on these systems' structure and function. Finally we synthesize lessons as to where system research should focus and what strategies are needed to produce a more resilient and dryland sustainable agricultural production system in in the future.


This thesis explores how social and economic change within the the distinctive region of Badenoch compares with similar developments in other parts of the Highlands. It demonstrates that the Highlands were not an isolated periphery by placing localised issues not just within the wider dimension of the British state and empire, but also within the ideological framework that shaped and influenced contemporary thought. Society in Badenoch was divided into three clearly demarcated but inter-woven ranks: the aristocratic Dukes of Gordon, the gentry and the peasantry. The peasant economy operated at subsistence level, primarily pastoral and heavily dependent on a complex system of transhumance. But there was also a thriving cattle-based commercial economy driven by the indigenous tacksmen, who further demonstrated their entrepreneurship through diversification into agricultural improvement, sheep, textiles and timber. The conflicting demands for land, particularly the hill grazings, inevitably created tensions between the social ranks. The Badenoch economy suffered badly from climatic problems and fluctuating market prices, with two major famines occurring before the end of the century. These apart, however, the economy, and the lives of the entire community, experienced gradual improvement, not just through increasing commercialism, but also through the government's military requirements for its imperial and European wars – a massive economic boost across the social spectrum. Change inevitably caused friction between the social classes over issues like rising rents, the appropriation of land (particularly for sheep) and clearances, which, along with the pressures of commercialism and government policy, had almost completely destroyed traditional clan society by 1800. The tacksman class, however, remained dominant despite the challenge to their traditional authority from both the Dukes of Gordon and the increasingly assertive commonalty.


There has been increasing awareness and interest in the role of the senses in qualitative research. We build on this work by focusing on the use of material objects in research. Using material objects in qualitative research, particularly those selected by research participants, offers a different kind of engagement that can add richness and complexity to the knowledge generated. Material objects can either be participant-selected or researcher-selected, each having its own benefits and challenges. Using examples, we explore how participants sensorially engage with these objects, using visual, auditory, olfactory, and tactile means. This engagement with material objects, particularly those that are personally meaningful to participants, is useful when examining research topics that may be sensitive or abstract; it offers the potential for participants to identify salient associations and/or express what may be otherwise unsayable. We discuss practical strategies in using material objects as well as the ethical challenges and possible products of such research.


Session 2

In the talk I will discuss work on learning to rank for information retrieval, in which the goal is to automatically construct a model that ranks documents in response to a query. In traditional supervised machine learning approaches for the LTR problem one manually selects a set of manually engineered ranking features and then learns the best way of combining them to obtain the most powerful ranking model that those features are capable of producing. In ongoing work on truly autonomous search engines, we are moving evaluation, learning and feature engineering to a weakly supervised paradigm, learning from the implicit feedback that naturally emerges as part of users' interactions with the search engine. I will discuss recent progress in each of these three dimensions: evaluation, learning and feature engineering.