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Wireless Sensor Networks (WSN) are comprised of densely deployed sensor nodes collaboratively observing and communicating extracted information about a physical phenomenon. Dense deployment of sensor nodes makes the sensor observations highly correlated in the space domain. In addition, consecutive samples obtained by a sensor node are also temporally correlated for the applications involving the observation of the variation of a physical phenomenon. Based on the physical characteristics and dispersion pattern over the area, the phenomenon to be observed can be modeled as point source or field source. Clearly, understanding the spatio-temporal correlation characteristics of the point and field sources brings potential advantages to be exploited in the design of efficient communication protocols. In this paper, a theoretical analysis of spatio-temporal correlation in WSN is carried out. The objective of this analysis is to capture the spatio-temporal characteristics of point and field sources in WSN. First, the model for point and field sources are developed and their spatio-temporal characteristics are analytically derived along with the distortion functions. Based on the theoretical analysis, numerical simulations are performed. This analytical work provides tools for finding the feasible operating region in terms of spatial and temporal resolution for a specific distortion constraint considering spatio-temporal correlation, signal properties, and network variables in WSN.


This article explores relationships between procedural justice (PJ) in the negotiation process, distributive justice (DJ) in the terms of negotiated agreements, and their durability in cases of civil war. Adherence to PJ principles was found to correlate strongly with agreements based specifically on the DJ principle of equality. Agreements were also found to be more durable when based on equality, but not when based on other DJ principles. The equality principle accounted for the relationship between PJ and durability irrespective of differences between the parties in power. Further examination suggested that two types of equality in particular—equal treatment and equal shares—were associated with forward-looking agreements and high durability. The findings suggest that durability is served by including equality in the terms of agreements, and that PJ helps (but does not guarantee) achieving such agreements.


The need for earthquake-resistant construction in areas of low-to-moderate seismicity has been recognized through the adoption of code requirements in the United States and other countries only in the past quarter century. This is largely a result of improved assessment of seismic hazard and examples of recent moderate earthquakes in regions of both moderate and high seismicity, including the San Fernando (1971), Mexico City (1985), Loma Prieta (1989), and Northridge (1994) earthquakes. In addition, improved understanding and estimates of older earthquakes in the eastern United States such as Cape Ann (1755), La Malbaie, Quebec (1925), and Ossippe, New Hampshire (1940), as well as monitoring of micro-activity in source areas such as La Malbaie, have increased awareness of the earthquake potential in areas of low-to-moderate seismicity. Both the hazard and the risk in moderate seismic zones (MSZs) differ in scale and kind from those of the zones of high seismicity. Earthquake hazards mitigation measures for new and existing construction need to be adapted from those prevailing in regions of high seismicity in recognition of these differences. Site effects are likely to dominate the damage patterns from earthquakes, with some sites suffering no damage not far from others, on soft soil, suffering near collapse. A number of new seismic codes have been developed in the past quarter century in response to these differences, including the New York City (1995) and the Massachusetts State (1975) seismic codes. Over the same period, the national model building codes that apply to most areas of low-to-moderate seismicity in the United States, the Building Officials and Code Administrators (BOCA) Code and the Southern Standard Building Code (SSBC), have incorporated up-to-date seismic provisions. The seismic provisions of these codes have been largely inspired by the National Earthquake Hazard Reduction Program (NEHRP) recommendations. Through adoption of these national codes, many state and local authorities in areas of low-to-moderate seismicity now have reasonably comprehensive seismic design provisions. This paper will review the background and history leading up to the MSZ codes, discuss their content, and propose directions for future development.


To conserve the earth's environment from degradation and also the public health from Air pollution it is very imperative than serious steps are to be taken for conserving them and Aqua silencer is an attempt to do so. Aqua silencer is mainly used for dealing with the emission and noise. An aqua silencer is generally attached to the exhaust of 2-strokeengine. In this Aqua silencer both the Lime water wash method and Absorption method are used. The gases like HC, CO from the engine exhaust are absorbed. The final emission is analyzed using an automobile gas analyzer and the reduction of gases HC, CO is measured.


This article assesses the dynamic political and military relationships among Tibet, China, and India in the late 1950s and early 1960s. By examining the three governments' calculations and security interests, the article shows that the relationships among the three are best understood from a realist perspective. The focus in the article is on the Sino-Indian dispute over the territory known as Assam Himalaya, located on the far eastern end of the Sino-Indian border, between southeastern Tibet and northeast India. The article covers a relatively lengthy period, from 1913 to 1962, but in doing so it shows that territorial claims and the desire for secure borders were the key concern of all the countries involvedTibet, China, India under British imperial rule, post-1947 India, and the United States.


Mediterranean coastal area. At the same time, little data are available for heavy metal pollution in this region. Studies on the environmental state of the Egyptian Mediterranean Coast have concentrated in the past mostly on simple environmental effects. Therefore, there is a demand for a current description of the heavy metal pollution likely caused through the regional development. The study area is at New Damietta Harbor (DH) that is considered as a semi-closed water body influenced by loading/unloading activities, municipal and agricultural waters resulting from Damietta Governorate. The study is mainly concerned with the contamination of surface waters, soil, and sediments by hazardous heavy metals, which are a widespread environmental problem in the marine and coastal environment at the Egyptian Mediterranean Coast. The purpose of this study was set to: 1. Evaluate the levels and the spatial distribution of heavy metals from water, soil, and sediments of the New Damietta harbor and offshore harbor water, which affect the Egyptian Mediterranean Coast, and 2. Compare the heavy metals in the harbor sediment and at the Egyptian Mediterranean Coast with international standards in order to determine the best available methodology for assessing the sediment toxicity. The analytical data revealed a marked increase in the levels of Cd , Hg, Pb, Ni, Cr, and Zn. On the other hand, the EF of Cu showed low value; less than unity indicate that the metal is incorporated in the sediment dominantly as lithogenous material. The high values of EFs showed the accumulation of trace metals in the sediments of study area. The magnitude of pollution by the metals can be arranged in the following sequence: Cd > Hg > Pb > Cr > Ni > Zn > Cu . The study concluded that the concentrations of heavy metals (Cd, Cr, Cu, Hg, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in water at all locations inside the harbor were within the limits (with few exceptions due to dredging activities). Heavy metals in the points recorded offshore for water and sediment were within the limits as well in all locations to the benefit of the Mediterranean Coastal environment. Finally, it is recommended to add a chapter, contains the limits for water quality criteria in harbors water in Egyptian Environmental Law of 1994.


extract] This article examines the potential for interrelationship and interaction between the remedy in cases of oppression or injustice commonly referred to as the oppression remedy and the proposed statutory derivative action. The oppression remedy has been a part of Australian statutes since the 1958 Companies Act, having been imported from the UK. The statutory derivative action has not yet found its way into Australian statutes. At the time of writing, the draft of the proposed provisions is a matter for public comment.


Hearing Past the Pain: Why White Catholic Theologians Need Black Theology. By Jon Nilson. New York and Mahwah, N.J.: Paulist Press, 2007. 120 pp. $16.95 (paper). Black theology emerged as a major voice in constructive theology with the publication of James Cone's Black Theology and Black Power in 1969. Had they been looking, white theologians would have seen indications of the development of an African-American theology drawn from the life and practice of the black community and the black church in the work of culture critics such as W. E. B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, and James Baldwin, as well as in the sermons, prayers, spirituals, and practices of African-American churches. But white theologians weren't looking. And, according to Jon Nilson, largely we're still not. Forty years later, black theology is still an add-on for most theologians (as are Latino/a, feminist, Asian, womanist, liberation, and other theologies): something to be attended to once one has mastered the "basics" of a theology that has purported to be universally applicable, or at least to speak to "common human experience." It has been widely, frequently, and persuasively noted that this theology is deeply influenced and inflected by the socio-historic locations and contexts of those who have developed and teach it. Still, in divinity schools and seminaries, college classrooms and ordination exams, the largely tacit notion of "real" and "special" theologies remains. Hearing Past the Pain focuses primarily not on the contributions of black theology-though this is a theme throughout the book-but on the unexamined racism, or assumption of white superiority, that runs through Roman Catholic theology in the United States. (While Nilson focuses on Roman Catholic theology, his work should give notice that a largely similar book could be written about any mainline denomination in the United States and its theologians.) In other words, Nikon's assumption is not that black theology must demonstrate its value and interest to white theologians. Nor does he assume that white theologians are unaware of black theology. Rather, Nilson assumes that white theologians know that black theology is "out there," and they may even recognize its value, at least to some extent. The issue, Nilson says, is that "the ways in which we white Catholic theologians define and do theology express our clear though implicit conviction that black theology has nothing substantial to contribute to the work of Roman Catholic theology" (p. 12). The place to begin is white racism and superiority-and to approach it as a social, systemic, and ideological phenomenon rather than an instance of individual moral wrongdoing or failing. In a brief first chapter, Nilson documents the racism of white Roman Catholic theology-again, something that can readily be done of Anglican, or Lutheran, or Presbyterian dieology as well-before turning to a lengthy analysis of the roots of enduring racism in the individualist cultural orientation of the United States, the realities of continuing segregation, and the reluctance of ethnic white Roman Catholics to cross cultural and religious lines. This approach is common in discussions of racism, and will be needed as long as white superiority continues to predominate. But Nilson also makes another claim here, one that is well worth pondering. That is, CathoUc theologies-Roman, Eastern, Anglican, and others-have a characteristic preference for a sacramental view of the world in which epiphanies, events of grace, and the Incarnation are central emphases. At the same time, there are two other major orientations favored by other traditions: theologies of proclamation (rather than manifestation) and theologies of historical activity. …


To investigate the effect of dietary supplementation of Ground Flaxseed (GF) on performance and carcass characteristics of Karadi male lambs. Flaxseed was used in feeding period that lasted for 90 days using twelve ram Karadi lambs, at 6 months old, which divided into 3 equal groups (4 rams/group). The lambs were randomly allocated into three treatments to receive either control ration (no Ground flaxseed), or ration containing 4% Ground Flaxseed (T1), or diet containing 8% Ground Flaxseed (T2). All the lambs were received an equal daily allowance of concentrate ration (3% of the body weight). At the end of feeding trial (8 weeks), all the lambs were slaughtered. They were weighed immediately before slaughter to provide slaughter body weight (SBW). Immediately after skinning, evisceration was carried out and the carcass components were weighted. Then several quantity characteristics for carcasses were studied, which include: hot carcass weight (HCW), dressing percentage, thickness of subcutaneous fat, rib eye area, partition and cutting of Carcass. Data were analyzed using XL Stat. The results showed that GF has no significant effect on live body weight, hot carcass weight, and dressing percentage %, it also has no significant differences on some carcass cuts for example: leg, shoulder, loin, rack, fore shank and neck. On the other hand, GF supplementation caused a significant (P<0.01) decrease in Sub-fat thickness which was 3.695 ± 0.629 and 2.375 ± 0.191 in T1 and T2 respectively in comparison to control group 5.015 ± 0.049 mm. Rib eye area increased significantly (P<0.05) in T1 and T2 treatments (12.035±0.205 and 14.145 ± 0.955 respectively) compared to control (10.005 ±1.039 cm). Some of the carcass cuts, Breast and Flank, decreased significantly (P<0.05) in T2 compared to T1 and Control. In conclusion, GF supplementation significantly decrease breast and flank cuts, while rib eye area significantly increased. However, the decrease in fat thickness may be reflecting the decrease in fat percentages in the carcass that indicates the effect of GF in improvement of carcass traits.


∗∗ Abstract Without the advantages of low wages or high skills, East Asian economies are following a new path of regional integration, led by China. Along this path, policy-makers must manage a migration of 2m people a month to East Asia's cities, a sharp and unprecedented increase in income inequality, and a growing discontent with corruption as governance structures have been decentralized. Having successfully integrated globally before the financial meltdown of the 1990s, and integrating regionally at an even faster pace since then, East Asia's middle-income countries must now accelerate a third integration, this time at home. Growth based on scale economies and specialization requires managing both gravity and friction. This article outlines what East Asian nations must do to manage these forces even as another financial meltdown is taking place. How well they can do this will determine whether they will grow through middle income to join the ranks of


In this thesis a study of faint X-ray sources is undertaken to understand the nature and origin of the Cosmic X-ray Background (XRB). A study of the X-ray variability characteristics of the QSO population is also presented. The optical identification of faint ROSAT sources is described. A large fraction of these sources are identified as QSOs. A number of the remaining sources appear to be associated with faint galaxies with a range of morphological types. The discovery of a rare, high redshift obscured QSO is also described and discussed. A method is developed to study the X-ray variability of faint QSOs. Low amplitude variability (~ 25% rms) on timescales of hours to days appears to be characteristic. Contrary to the trends apparent in local AGN, the QSO population show no evidence for a decrease in variability amplitude with luminosity. There is also no trend in variability with redshift, which may favour a short lived model for QSO evolution. A bright, highly variable Seyfert galaxy is analysed in detail. To constrain the galaxy contribution to the XRB a cross-correlation analysis is presented. Cross-correlating faint galaxy catalogues with unidentified X-ray sources suggests that faint b(_i) < 23 galaxies account for ~ 21 ± 6% of all X-ray sources to a flux limit S(0.5 - 2.0 keV) ~ 4 x l0(^-15)ergs(^-1)cm(^-2). Galaxies are then cross-correlated with the remaining unresolved XRB. A highly significant signal is obtained on 3 deep ROSAT fields. Using a formalism to model the galaxy population and its clustering, an estimate of the local X-ray volume emissivity is obtained. The results suggest that b(_j) < 23 galaxies contribute ~ 20% of the unresolved XRB. Comparing the cross-correlation of faint and bright galaxies with theoretical models reveals strong evolution in the X-ray luminosity of galaxies with the form L(_x) oc (1 + z)(^3±1). Extrapolation to high redshift suggests that faint galaxies contribute 50 - 100% of the unresolved XRB. Finally, a study of the X-ray spectra of faint ROSAT sources is presented. The mean source spectra harden significantly at lower flux. Separating the QSOs from the unidentified sources and galaxies, we find no trend in the 0.5 - 2 keV spectra of QSOs. The remaining population produces the spectral hardening. Taking a subset of the most probable X-ray luminous galaxies, these show significantly harder spectra than QSOs with a mean photon index of Γ ~ 1.5 ± 0.1. X-ray luminous galaxies could therefore account for the missing component of the XRB.


Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to determine the scale of mobbing in banks, in particular we seek to investigate who is the most frequently a mobber and who is most often affected by mobbing. Approach/Methodology/Design: English and Polish literature from EBSCO, ProQuest, and Emerald databases were used to write the article. The methods that were used for the study were classification trees, the Mann-Whitney test, and descriptive statistics. Findings: This paper presents the results of an empirical study of bank employees in Poland and Russia. The following hypotheses were adopted: 1. Superiors are more likely to be perpetrators of mobbing than employees at the same organizational structure level. 2. Women more often than men report that they are victims of mobbing. Both hypotheses were disconfirmed in the research. Indeed, it turned out that employees at a similar level were more likely to be guilty of mobbing and that men were more often victims of mobbing. Practical Implications: The phenomenon of mobbing is poorly understood, especially in banks. We managed to identify the groups most exposed to mobbing. In these groups, anti-mobbing prevention should be implemented first. Originality/Value: Banks are very reluctant to undertake any research cooperation. The obtained results shed new light on who is being mobbed in general and who is being mobbed in financial institutions. The contribution of this paper is also to propose a mobbing index, which takes into account not only the frequency of mobbing but also its quality aspects, i.e., the various types of mobbing.


Abstract This essay discusses the different approaches to modernism and postmodernism together with the development of the modern short story in English and its theorisations. Drawing on Dominic Head's The Modernist Short Story (1992), the essay highlights the genre's importance in the genesis of modernism as a significant instance of artistic and personal autonomy, a key modernist issue which is linked to a mode of subjectivity in conflict with social totality to which the literary text gives formal expression. The abandonment of previous realist models meant the problematisation of representation and interpretation in modernism and their abrogation in postmodernism along with the evanescence of modernist autonomy and subjectivity. These issues re-emerge at later stages in answer to the need of accounting for the experience of the Other, a re-politisation of postmodernism that links it in some way to the historical avant-garde (Huyssen). The essay tackles in passing the controversial distinction between the avant-garde, modernism and postmodernism, sees in recent approaches to the postmodern short story a reformulation of a previously theorised association between the short story and the marginal, and closes by stating that postmodernism continues nowadays in the works of some talented innovators of the genre.Keywords: short story, modernism, postmodernism, (anti-) representation, subjectivity, autonomy.The Modern Short Story: BeginningsAs is commonly acknowledged, the modern short story in English is American in origin and is linked to Edgar Allan Poe more than anyone else. Poe had a great influence on writers such as Charles Baudelaire, the French symboliste poet to whom we owe the stock definition of "modernity" as "the transient, the fleeting, the contingent" (qtd. in Nicholls 5). Poe's dictum (published in 1842) that the structuring principle and aim of "the tale proper" was "the unity of effect or impression" (46) was echoed by later critics and practitioners such as Brander Matthews, in whose 1901 book-length study "the tale proper" became the "true Short-story" (52). Central to all these writers' arguments was the definition of the modern short story as a genre distinguished from other pre-existing shorter forms and from the novel in particular. Poe began his review of Hawthorne's Twice-Told Tales by making clear that not all of the pieces collected there were "tales"; some were "pure essays" that lacked the remarkable "precision and finish" of the others which, unlike "the ordinary novel", were endowed with "true unity" and organic "totality" (45, 47). In Poe' s wake, Mathews affirmed that a "true Short-story is something other and something more that a mere story which is short" (57). Thus, he "perceive [d] that the Novel and the Short-story are essentially different - that the difference between them is not one of mere length only, but fundamental" (57). If, for Matthews, characteristics such as "symmetry of design", "compression" and "ingenuity" (57) were essential to the genre, for Elizabeth Bowen "the short story proper" exhibited features like "oblique narration, cutting (as in the cinema), the unlikely placing of emphasis, or symbolism [... which] were unknown" to those nineteenth-century English authors for whom the short story was just "the condensed novel" (153). Among the latter, Bowen counted James and Hardy, authors in whose stories "shortness is not positive; it is nonextension" (153). She echoed Poe' s insistence on the genre's organic unity ("spherical perfection", she called it), while at once declaring the short story "exempt from the novel's conclusiveness", "the crux of the plot" (156-57). By forsaking the novel's "too often forced and false" closure, the short story comes nearer "aesthetic and moral truth", and renders and perpetuates the subjective experience of "amazement" which "was in life a half-second of apprehension" (155).Writing in 1939, Bowen affirmed that the short story - meaning the English short story - was "the child of this century" (152). …


The use of substrates in the vegetable production has benefits because they are involved in the availability of moisture and nutrient and they have a better handling. By this in the present study has been evaluated the production of Anaheim pepper variety Azteca F1, farmed in regional substrates like sand (Substrate A), sandy clay soil (Substrate B), and a composite substrate (Substrate C: 40% sand, 40% sandy clay, 20% compost). The experimental design was randomized blocks with 10 repetitions. The variables were submitted to analysis of variance, Tukey test and correlations with statistical package SAS version 9.0. In general, the plants farmed in the substrate C are those with the highest values in plant height, number of flowers, fruits, length of fruits and yield. Therefore, the use of substrates particularly the substrate C helps the growth and development of Anaheim pepper plants, it even increases the yield because it has a better control over the unlike soil.


RFID applications for taking inventory and processing transactions in point-of-sale (POS) systems improve operational efficiency but are not designed to provide insights about customers' interactions with products. We bridge this gap by solving the proximity grouping problem to identify groups of RFID tags that stay in close proximity to each other over time. We design DeepTrack, a framework that uses deep learning to automatically track the group of items carried by a customer during her shopping journey. This unearths hidden purchase behaviors helping retailers make better business decisions and paves the way for innovative shopping experiences such as seamless checkout ('a la Amazon Go). DeepTrack employs a recurrent neural network (RNN) with the attention mechanism, to solve the proximity grouping problem in noisy settings without explicitly localizing tags. We tailor DeepTrack's design to track not only mobile groups (products carried by customers) but also flexibly identify stationary tag groups (products on shelves). The key attribute of DeepTrack is that it only uses readily available tag data from commercial off-the-shelf RFID equipment. Our experiments demonstrate that, with only two hours training data, DeepTrack achieves a grouping accuracy of 98.18% (99.79%) when tracking eight mobile (stationary) groups.


The Turkish economy has a long-run problem of trade deficits. Several efforts and different policies over the last 50 years could not find any permanent remedy to this problem which is an important source of external vulnerability for the Turkish economy. Thus, this study aims to shed light on the trade balance dynamics in Turkey via Johansen cointegration test, vector error correction model, and impulse-response analysis, for the period 1987–2015. Estimation results indicate that in the long-run an increase in real effective exchange rate improves trade balance, while an increase in Turkish (foreign) income improves (deteriorates) trade balance. In the short-run, real effective exchange rate has no impact on trade balance, while an increase in domestic and foreign income negatively affects the Turkish trade balance. The impulse-response analysis also shows that the J-curve hypothesis does not hold for the Turkish case.


Purpose: To
evaluate the development of working memory and reading in proficient students from
1st to 4th year of elementary school. Method: Participants were 19 people of
both genders, with an average age of 8.26 years, enrolled between the 1st and
4th year of elementary school, who met the proposed inclusion criteria and were
proposed and evaluated for working memory and reading level. Results: There're no
significant differences in the level of reading and working memory between
genders male and female. The research points to an improved performance of working
memory with the increasing age and educational level. The students belonging to
the 3rd and 4th year showed better results in the physical assessment of
working memory, as well as in the evaluation of the reading level. Conclusion:
In this study, it was observed that with the increasing age and schooling,
there was an improvement in the performance of working memory, and consequently
a better performance in reading. But it cannot be inferred that only the
working memory and reading complement themselves bidirectionally, because the
literature indicates that other factors also help the development of reading.


In this dissertation, we examine the effect of four sources of circuit imperfections on the performance of analog-to-digital converters (ADCs), including sampling clock jitters, spurious sidebands, timing mismatches, and gain mismatches. These imperfections distort the sampled data and degrade the signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of the ADCs. We develop signal models for the distortions and propose effective adaptive signal processing techniques to filter the sampled data and mitigate the spurious effects. Rather than remove the distortions by perfecting the circuitry, the proposed techniques focus on processing the sampled data by using adaptive DSP algorithms. Analog circuit impairments create many distortions including I/Q imbalances, phase noise, frequency offsets, and sampling clock jitter. Timing jitters generally arise from noise in the clock generating crystal and phase-locked-loop (PLL). The jitters cause the ADCs to sample the input signals at non-uniform sampling times and introduce distortion that limits the signal fidelity and degrades the SNR. While the effects of jitter noise can be neglected at low frequencies, applications requiring enhanced performance at higher frequencies demand higher SNR from the sampling circuit. We first examine the effect of the clock jitter on the SNR of the sampled signal and subsequently propose compensation methods based on a signal injection structure for direct down-conversion architectures. We also address the effect of non-ideal PLL circuitry on the quality of the sampled data. In a non-ideal PLL circuit, leakage of the reference signal into the control line produces spurious tones. When the distorted PLL signal is used to generate the sampling clock, it injects the spurious tones into the sampled data. These distortions are harmful for wideband applications, such as spectrum sensing, since they affect the detection of vacant frequency bands. We again examine the distortion effect in some detail and propose techniques in the digital domain to clean the data and remove the PLL leakage effects. We study the performance of the proposed algorithms and compare it against the corresponding Cramer-Rao bound (CRB). We further propose an adaptive frequency-domain structure to compensate the effect of timing and gain mismatches in time-interleaved ADCs. An M-channel time-interleaved ADC uses M ADCs to sample an input signal to obtain a larger effective sampling rate. However, in practice, combining ADCs introduces mismatches among the various ADC channels. In the proposed solution, the signal is split into multiple frequency bins and adaptation across the frequency channels is combined by means of an adaptive strategy. The construction is able to assign more or less weight to the various frequency channels depending on whether their estimates are more or less reliable in comparison to other channels.


Star fruit (Avarrhoa carambola) is a fruit from oxalidace family. lt is found in many countries of the world including Bangladesh. But its ingestion or drinking star fruit juice may lead to intoxication especially in patients with chronic kidney disease and manifestations might be neurological or nephrological. lt may also cause acute kidney injury in patients with previously normal renal function. Here we are presenting a case who presented with acute kidney injury after star fruit ingestion with previously unknown renal function impairment. The etiology was confirmed by histopathological examination after doing renal biopsy. This renal function impairment is mainly due to oxalate crystal induce nephropathy which is richly abundant in star fruit. His renal function was improved ·with conservative management. Physicians should be alert to consider the ingestion of star fruit as a cause of acute kidney injury in a patient even in the absence of previous renal function impairment.


Governments around the globe are opening up public spending data in order to promote transparency and citizen awareness. However, data openness by itself is not enough to guarantee that the data is consumed efficiently and in meaningful ways. In this work public spending data from seven governments, both local and national, with total value almost 1,5 trillion euro, are processed, cleansed and converted to Linked Open Data, following best practices. Namely, the cases of Greece, the UK, the US federal government, Australia, the city of Chicago and the states of Alaska and Massachusetts are considered. Furthermore, the resulting Linked Data are interlinked with external resources and made accessible on a public SPARQL endpoint. A web portal application with several functionalities is deployed in order to make the data mashups understandable and easily consumable.


6 x Saudek. Aspects of an Artist's Work is about the Czech photographer Jan Saudek (b. 1935) and his pictures. The thesis deals with Saudek's photography from the 1960s up to and including the 1990s and comprises six relatively self-contained chapters. Each chap-ter takes up a specific range of problems: they deal with issues concerning connections between photography and theatre (chapter 1); issues concerning the status of fiction as another world (chapter 2); issues concerning the author's desire and the desire for an au-thor (chapter 3); issues concerning the function of art as an experimental arena where the subject allows herself/himself to be tried and retried (chapter 4); issues concerning the child motif (chapter 5); issues concerning the relation between visual and verbal facets of Saudek's work (chapter 6). The first two chapters characterize Saudek's photography; the next two chapters widen the field of problems by considering the person who creates, those who pose and those who watch; the last two chapters may be seen as in-depth stud-ies of limited aspects – one of the child motif and one of the relation between image and word. The study does not pursue one exclusive thesis, nor is it a traditional art-historical monograph. It brings together a number of selected aspects, giving broad coverage as well as deepened treatment, with the intention of giving a multifaceted and, depending on the aspects, varying picture of Saudek and his photography. This intention is wide open, but it is differentiated through the choice of problems. The aim is also characterized by the ambition to work with a polyphonic, multi-voiced theory. A theory that is based on polyphony at the same time as it provides scope for the author's own voice. In the study Saudek's photography is defined as staged and theatrical, and the fictive world is described as compensatory and carnivalesque. Saudek himself is not presented as one but as many: as an individual man in an isolated room, as a vanishing imitator, as a persevering entertainer, as a phallic collector, as a nostalgic, as a desirable phantom. The photographer, like the model and the observer, are discussed here as physical, dynamic subjects; as bodily situated but also as conditioned by their relation to others. The thesis considers and stresses the scope of Saudek's child representations, it pays regard to what is problematic or potentially problematic in his more controversial pictures of children, and it also brings out an alternative to a worried and distancing criticism. Finally, the study gives an account of the photographer's interest in both pictures and words and points to an interaction as well as a friction in the relation between visual and verbal as-pects. The thesis and the six chapters circumscribe Saudek and his photography, but "the portrait of Saudek" is not, nor does it claim to be, complete. As the title, 6 x Saudek, indi-cates: These aspects are fragments. The author circumscribes without fully enclosing. (Less)


[1] Incorporating stable isotope physics in a general circulation model (GCM) provides a promising means to study isotopic variability in precipitation, including the processes that cause isotopic variability in paleoclimatic archives such as ice cores. This paper describes the implementation and validation of stable isotope tracers in the GENESIS 2.0 GCM. The model reproduces the main features of present-day isotopic fields and the characteristic large-scale isotope-climate relationships. Global δ18O-δD, temperature-δ18O, and precipitation-δ18O relationships are well simulated, and the modeled regional patterns associated with continental vapor recycling over Europe and vertical gradients agree well with observations. In GENESIS a more sophisticated parameterization of interactions between precipitation and atmospheric vapor contributes to a better simulation of isotopic variations in dry climates. The standard model underestimates the global mean deuterium excess (δD-8δ18O) in precipitation, although a heuristic sensitivity test suggests this may be remedied by accounting for nonneutral stratification in isotopic evaporative fractionation over ocean. Errors in simulated isotopic fields are analyzed to determine whether they are caused by local climatic biases in the GCM or by inaccurate parameterizations of isotope physics. Using the results of sensitivity experiments and comparisons with other isotopic GCM results, we identify key isotopic and climatic processes at the origin of the main errors and suggest additional studies to improve isotope simulations.


This study is the first faunistic inventory of a zooplankton community from an open, karstic and oligotrophic aquatic sinkhole in the south of the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico), we describe the richness of the zooplankton collected with the combination of plankton nets and light traps of our own design, using morphological and molecular characters to identify the species and demonstrate the effectiveness of only one set of primers to sequence all taxa. Recently, it has been demonstrated that different sampling methods can increase the number of zooplankton species from tropical and temperate systems dramatically. These more effective methods together with DNA barcoding can give a new and more realistic picture of the species dwelling in a freshwater system. In total, we sequenced 268 specimens, and the list of species known in this sinkhole increased from 13 to 77 taxa, with a projection of 87 in total, including cladocerans, copepods, ostracods, fish larvae, tadpoles, rotifers, chironomids, water mites, among others. From the 77 taxa identified by us, 72 BINS (Barcode Index Numbers, equivalent to putative species) were assigned by the BOLD Database (boldsystems.org), and 30 of them are new records for both, BOLD and GenBank (www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov). There was an essential difference in the number of taxa collected with the plankton nets and the light traps. Only 23 taxa were registered in the nets, representing between 28 and 29% of the total richness, while 67 were present in the light traps representing 87% of the species found. From these, 46 taxa were exclusive to this sampling method. Light traps are an effective method for rapid evaluation of zooplankton. In the future, combining DNA barcoding and high-throughput sequencing methods with more  efficient collecting will enable us to perform quick and precise biomonitoring of any aquatic ecosystem, enabling the detection of changes in zooplankton composition resulting from climate change and anthropogenic disturbances. Nevertheless, as a first step it is fundamental to establish a baseline of DNA barcodes for the species in these ecosystems.


Alternative energy technologies are greatly hindered by significant limitations in materials science. From low activity to poor stability, and from mineral scarcity to high cost, the current materials are not able to cope with the significant challenges of clean energy technologies. However, recent advances in the preparation of nanomaterials, porous solids, and nanostructured solids are providing hope in the race for a better, cleaner energy production. The present contribution critically reviews the development and role of mesoporosity in a wide range of technologies, as this provides for critical improvements in accessibility, the dispersion of the active phase and a higher surface area. Relevant examples of the development of mesoporosity by a wide range of techniques are provided, including the preparation of hierarchical structures with pore systems in different scale ranges. Mesoporosity plays a significant role in catalysis, especially in the most challenging processes where bulky molecules, like those obtained from biomass or highly unreactive species, such as CO2 should be transformed into most valuable products. Furthermore, mesoporous materials also play a significant role as electrodes in fuel and solar cells and in thermoelectric devices, technologies which are benefiting from improved accessibility and a better dispersion of materials with controlled porosity.


[Abstract]This study examines how preventable delay could be identified and minimised by using adapted lean thinking within the Operating Theatre Management Process (OTMP). The study uses the operating theatre of a regional hospital in Toowoomba (Queensland, Australia) as a case study. The theoretical framework for this study comprised socio-technical system theory and coordination theory. From the perspective of socio-technical system theory, each activity within the OTMP has two types of elements: social elements and technical elements. Coordination theory, on the other hand, considers the coordination between various elements of the activities. Time and motion study has been employed to analyse activities in terms of operation, transportation, delay and monitoring within the operating rooms. Subsequently, adapted lean thinking has been employed as an integrating approach to identify preventable delay and disruption within both value added and non-value added activities. Identifying preventable delay within the value added activities inside the operating room is one of the most important contributions of this study.

This research uses an exploratory qualitative case study. The focus of this research is to study activities inside the operating rooms, rather than the whole OTMP. Notwithstanding the limited time available to the researcher within a Masters degree, the study sought to establish the direct link of the activities inside the operating rooms with patients' waiting time.

Data were collected from 22 surgery cases through direct observations. In each surgery, the research team followed patient progress from the pre-operative holding area through to discharge. The researcher observed and recorded the timing of all the activities inside the operating rooms. As much detail as possible was observed and recorded to capture sufficient details to allow identification of problems. Moreover, initial observation results were verified and additional information was collected as necessary through communications and interviews with medical staff (surgeons, scrub nurses, technicians etc.) and review of documents.

The study indicates that coordination, motion economy, consent form, protocol policy, and surgeon preference sheets were the major areas impacting on preventable delay in the operating theatre suite activities. With the application of lean thinking, the results suggest that preventable delay and disruption within both value added and non-value added activities could be eliminated or minimized through better work organization, motion economy training and better coordination of tasks.

For further study, a benchmarking based study could be conducted to see if similar sets of preventable delay are observed in other healthcare institutions. In addition, examination of other related sections in a hospital is highly desirable to identify the wide range of preventable delay within the OTMP. This, in turn, will help to improve OTMP efficiency and, accordingly, reduce the waiting time of waiting lists.


This paper discusses the accuracy of commercially available flow hoods for residential applications. Results of laboratory and field tests indicate these hoods can be inadequate to measure airflows in residential systems, and there can be large measurement discrepancies between different flow hoods. The errors are due to poor calibrations, sensitivity of the hoods to grille airflow non-uniformities, and flow changes from added flow resistance. It is possible to obtain reasonable results using some flow hoods if the field tests are carefully done, the grilles are appropriate, and grille location does not restrict flow hood placement. We also evaluated several simple flow capture techniques for measuring grille airflows that could be adopted by the HVAC industry and homeowners as simple diagnostics. These simple techniques can be as accurate as commercially available devices. Our test results also show that current calibration procedures for flow hoods do not account for field application problems. As a result, agencies such as ASHRAE or ASTM need to develop a new standard for flow hood calibration, along with a new measurement standard to address field use of flow capture techniques.


In the literature several authors argue that there is a need for a new generation of logistics management since the business environment has changed. This new management philosophy identifies consumers and their requirements as starting point for all supply chain activities and has more properly been termed Demand Chain Management (DCM). The purpose of this paper is to analyze if DCM should be regarded as the next generation of logistics management and furthermore to illustrate its usefulness in practice through case study of Swedish appliance manufacturer. Literature review and case study findings show that DCM is not merely a development of the logistics principles, but rather an integration of marketing and supply chain operations. It is needed in volatile and consumer-oriented environments, which require higher levels of customized products, faster product development and commercialization together with supply, manufacturing and distribution on demand.


A newly constructed code family named two-dimensional diluted perfect difference codes (2-D DPD codes) and a corresponding architecture for the optical code division multiple access (OCDMA) system are proposed in this paper. The 2-D DPD codes are derived based on the perfect difference set and the dilution method for the spectral and spatial coding application. The 2-D DPD codes have the multiuser interference (MUI) cancellation and the phase-induced intensity noise (PIIN) suppression properties. In comparison with the other 2-D codes, such as the modified quadratic congruence codes (MQC codes), the maximal-area matrices codes (M-matrices codes), or the 2-D perfect difference codes (2-D PD codes), the analytical calculation and the simulation results show that the systems with the 2-D DPD codes have better performance. The proposed system can accommodate much more total number of simultaneous users at the same bit error rate.


Abstract. The occurrence of dry periods on the Wupper catchment has increased in the last decades in conjunction with the shifting of the precipitation regime. In the frame of the Horizon 2020 project BINGO (Bringing INnovation to onGOing water management), the effects of climate change scenarios on the water cycle in the Wupper catchment area were investigated. To quantify these effects, a set of hydrological models (NASIM and SWAT) has been set-up, calibrated, and validated for the upper part of the Dhünn River catchment area – Wupper River's main tributary. This sub-catchment corresponds to one of the inflows to the Große Dhünn Reservoir (GDR), the second largest drinking water reservoir in Germany. Both models were driven with climate data from decadal predictions, which have been selected instead of IPCC-RCP scenarios, as they provide a more realistic assumption of climate variability for the next 10 years. Ten decadal members based on the MiKlip (Mittelfristige Klimaprognose – medium-term climate prediction) framework have been prepared for the time span of 2015 to 2024. Additionally, a simulation with TALSIM-NG (a reservoir-oriented hydrological model) was carried out to obtain future reservoir storage. Special focus was given to identify observed trends and compare them to future trends. Past hydro-meteorological extreme dry periods were evaluated based on observed data. Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI), Standardized Precipitation-Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI), and Standardized Runoff Index (SRI) were estimated for different seasons to determine if they were abnormally dry or wet. SPI, SPEI, and SRI were also calculated with decadal predictions to evaluate future extreme dry periods. Uncertainties in climate data predictions are one of the greatest challenges. Observed and forecast time series were compared by means of statistical tests in order to assess uncertainties in climate data predictions. Also, the application of two hydrological models aims to determine potential uncertainties, so that predictions are more reliable. Results indicate that SRI might be more appropriate to estimate drought periods for the study area in the frame of reservoir management – where inflow rates are of crucial importance – as this index quantifies losses in runoff formation processes. In terms of inflow rates to GDR, future changes indicate a reduction in runoff for the spring season, while an increment during winter. On the other hand, a clear change in pattern for fall and summer seasons remains uncertain. Simulations of GDR reservoir volume with different climate scenarios show that water stress by the end of 2024 is not unlikely, so sustainable adaptation measures should be further considered. Effectively managing the GDR will become consequently more complex.


Innovative uses of global and local networks of linked computers make new ways of collaborative working, learning, and acting possible. In Group Cognition Gerry Stahl explores the technological and social reconfigurations that are needed to achieve computer-supported collaborative knowledge building--group cognition that transcends the limits of individual cognition. Computers can provide active media for social group cognition where ideas grow through the interactions within groups of people; software functionality can manage group discourse that results in shared understandings, new meanings, and collaborative learning. Stahl offers software design prototypes, analyzes empirical instances of collaboration, and elaborates a theory of collaboration that takes the group, rather than the individual, as the unit of analysis.Stahl's design studies concentrate on mechanisms to support group formation, multiple interpretive perspectives, and the negotiation of group knowledge in applications as varied as collaborative curriculum development by teachers, writing summaries by students, and designing space voyages by NASA engineers. His empirical analysis shows how, in small-group collaborations, the group constructs intersubjective knowledge that emerges from and appears in the discourse itself. This discovery of group meaning becomes the springboard for Stahl's outline of a social theory of collaborative knowing. Stahl also discusses such related issues as the distinction between meaning making at the group level and interpretation at the individual level, appropriate research methodology, philosophical directions for group cognition theory, and suggestions for further empirical work.


In recent years, 3D acquisition methods involving different types of scanners have undergone a phenomenal technological growth. Nowadays, mobile acquisition devices are popular because of their ease of use and their fairly competitive cost. Static scanners provide higher accuracy and more detail, but the acquisition time required with these systems is higher than with mobile systems. Mobile scanners are known for their high acquisition speed but lower point density and accuracy. Until now, the choice of the type of system to use was dependent on the geometry of the study area and the required accuracy. This research aims to find a way to optimize the survey by finding a compromise between the two types of devices, in order to take advantage of both systems for the same acquisition campaign. The first objective is to study the minimum number of static positions required for respecting the required accuracy. A solution is also proposed for compensating the drift of the mobile device. Secondly, the pertinence to use static stations for the principal loop and mobile system for adjoining rooms is investigated. The datasets chosen allow, on the one side, to quantify the limits of the mobile system for the acquisition of indoor buildings and, on the other side, to give recommendations regarding the configuration of static stations as a reference for mobile point clouds. Based on these experiments, a methodology is proposed for indoor environments to combine the use of the two acquisition systems and thus to save time in the field while still providing a good registration quality.


The Hepatitis B Virus (HBV) affects mainly to the liver, infecting the hepatocytes, and it can be either acute or chronic. Globally, it is estimated that 2 billion of people are infected with HBV and 350-400 million people suffer chronic infection. Furthermore, more than 600.000 HBV carriers die every year from end-stage liver diseases including fulminant hepatitis, cirrhosis or hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) caused by HBV infection and hence it represents a major global health problem. HBV prevalence is higher in low-income countries including Africa, the middleeast and Asia than in western world, where horizontal transmission of HBV is the most common route. Conversely, in western countries, sexual and parenteral (intravenous
drug used) are the main routes of transmission. Furthermore, as HBV shares the routes of infection with Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), co-infection is relatively frequent. Among 36 million people living with HIV worldwide and approximately 4 million people (~10%) are chronically co-infected with HBV. Similarly, the prevalence of this coinfection is higher in Africa and Asia (up to 20% in some regions) than in western countries (<10%). HBV is characterized by an extraordinary genetic variability mainly due to its reverse transcriptase, which lacks of proof-reading activity producing a high mutation rate. The high genetic variability allows HBV the ability to develop drug resistance mutations to evade pharmacological pressure.
Additionally to Interferon α, there are 5 nucleoside/nucleotide analogues approved for HBV treatment (lamivudine, telvibudine, entecavir, adefovir, and tenofovir). Nowadays, tenofovir (TDF) is one of the most widely nucleotide analogue used for the treatment of HBV infection, which is also active against HIV and is commonly used in western countries for the treatment of HIV/HBV co-infected patients due to its high antiviral efficacy and high genetic barrier for resistance. However, in low-income countries, the use of this drug is still restricted because its high cost and lamivudine (3TC) is still the most nucleoside analogue used against HBV infection included within the HIV antiretroviral therapy because is cheaper and also active against HIV. As consequence of this regimen, HBV drug resistance is expected among these patients since the long-term exposure to 3TC monotherapies is associated with high rates of HBV drug resistance in both HBV monoinfected and HIV/HBV co-infected patients. HIV/HBV co-infected patients show higher HBV DNA levels and lower serum alanine aminotransferase (ALT) levels than those infected with HBV alone. Moreover, liver fibrosis tends to be more advance and the risk of end-stage liver disease is increased. Nevertheless, there is scarce information regarding how HIV could drive the HBV genetic evolution. In this thesis, two HIV/HBV co-infected cohorts under 3TCbased treatment have been studied from two different endemic countries, Ghana and Malawi. The genetic variability within the genes that encodes the polymerase and the Hepatitis B Surface Antigen (HBsAg) was assessed. The Ghana cohort was under longterm treatment and three clinically different cohorts were evaluated at genetic level to evaluate how HIV drives HBV evolution (HIV/HBsAg positive, HIV/HBsAg negative and HBV monoinfected). In Malawi, the rates and predictors of virological responses in HIV/HBV co-infected patients under 3TC-based regimens were evaluated after 48 weeks of 3TC-based therapy. Additionally, the genetic evolution of both polymerase and HBsAg were also assessed


Acid sphingomyelinase (ASM)‐deficient Niemann–Pick disease is an autosomal recessive lysosomal storage disorder caused by biallelic mutations in the SMPD1 gene. To date, around 185 mutations have been reported in patients with ASM‐deficient NPD world‐wide, but the mutation spectrum of this disease in India has not yet been reported. The aim of this study was to ascertain the mutation profile in Indian patients with ASM‐deficient NPD. We sequenced SMPD1 in 60 unrelated families affected with ASM‐deficient NPD. A total of 45 distinct pathogenic sequence variants were found, of which 14 were known and 31 were novel. The variants included 30 missense, 4 nonsense, and 9 frameshift (7 single base deletions and 2 single base insertions) mutations, 1 indel, and 1 intronic duplication. The pathogenicity of the novel mutations was inferred with the help of the mutation prediction software MutationTaster, SIFT, Polyphen‐2, PROVEAN, and HANSA. The effects of the identified sequence variants on the protein structure were studied using the structure modeled with the help of the SWISS‐MODEL workspace program. The p. (Arg542*) (c.1624C>T) mutation was the most commonly identified mutation, found in 22% (26 out of 120) of the alleles tested, but haplotype analysis for this mutation did not identify a founder effect for the Indian population. To the best of our knowledge, this is the largest study on mutation analysis of patients with ASM‐deficient Niemann–Pick disease reported in literature and also the first study on the SMPD1 gene mutation spectrum in India. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


In this paper we develop a novel probabilistic generalization bound for learning the kernel problem. First, we show that the generalization analysis of the regularized kernel learning system reduces to investigation of the suprema of the Rademacher chaos process of order two over candidate kernels, which we refer to as Rademacher chaos complexity. Next, we show how to estimate the empirical Rademacher chaos complexity by well-established metric entropy integrals and pseudo-dimension of the set of candidate kernels. Our new methodology mainly depends on the principal theory of Uprocesses. Finally, we establish satisfactory excess generalization bounds and misclassification error rates for learning Gaussian kernels and general radial basis kernels.


No doubt, across the world, advantages of critical thinking in education motivated educators focus on developing the critical thinking ability and traits among students more than ever before, yet ample evidence from literature has shown the lack of critical thinking skills among students at all level. The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of two teaching strategies questioning and role playing the development of critical thinking attitude among elementary students. This article offers critical thinking as a prelude to developing attitude among students by using case study method and design based approach. Two groups each with 15 students were made using purposive and convenience sampling method. Evidence was collected in a usual classroom context in the form of pre and post questionnaire data. The focus was evaluated through the indirect evidence of its effects on students' critical thinking attitude by using Paul's intellectual traits model. Findings suggest that critical thinking is a viable tool in influencing critical thinking attitudes of students in Pakistani context.


Previous work has shown that accumulations of macroalgae have been associated with the loss of seagrasses in Oyster Harbour, near Albany in Western Australia (Bastyan, 1986; Kirkman, 1987). This observation prompted further studies into the water quality, seagrasses and macroalgae of the harbour, including an intensive sampling program in February 1988 to determine the size of the nutrient pools in water, sediments and plants (Hillman et al, 1990).

The year preceding the 1988 sampling program had the lowest rainfall in sixteen years, and this would have resulted in low runoff and low stream nutrient loading. However, the next winter (1988) was the wettest in ten years, with consequent increased river flow. It was suggested that macroalgal biomass might have increased in summer 1988/1989, in response to a presumably increased nutrient load. A survey was therefore carried out in March 1989 to check this hypothesis, using the same techniques as those employed in the previous summer.


In this dissertation, The History of the Victors, the question of how history is used to create meaning, provide orientation in the present and indicate desirable alternative actions for the future is examined. Using a number of Swedish examples from the years 1939 to 1953, the dissertation investigates how history is used for moral, political and existential aims, with focus given to the Swedish political scientist and writer Hebert Tingsten (1896-1973).Like a large number of European intellectuals, Tingsten wrestled with questions about history, progress and Western culture in various efforts to adress 20th century crises and wartime experiences during this period.I argue that Tingsten's critique of ideological uses of history incorporates his own interpretation of history with its own moral, political and existential implications. Furthermore, I argue that Tingsten's critique of various philosophies of history is in itself one particular form of use of history; history placed in the service of life, ethics and politics, as much as it is a critique of certain epistemological doctrines about the methodolocal problems of history.


A Relay Station (RS) uses a buffer to store and process the received data packets before forwarding them. Recently, the buffer has been exploited in one-way relaying to opportunistically schedule the two different links according to their channel quality. The intuition is that, if the channel to the destination is poor, then RS stores more data from the source, in order to use it when the channel to the destination is good. We apply this intuition to the case of half-duplex two-way relaying, where the interactions among the buffers and links become more complex. We investigate the sum-rate maximization problem in the Time Division Broadcast (TDBC): the users send signals to the RS in different time slots, the RS decodes and stores messages in the buffers. For downlink transmission, the RS re-encodes and sends using the optimal broadcast strategy. The operation in each time slot is not determined in advance, but depends on the channel state information (CSI). We derive the decision function for adaptive link selection with respect to CSI using the Karush-Kuhn-Tucker (KKT) conditions. The thresholds of the decision function are obtained under Rayleigh fading channel conditions. The numerical results show that the sum-rate of the adaptive link selection protocol with buffering is significantly larger compared to the reference protocol with fixed transmission schedule.


The concerns of this study are the effects of soil and water conservation measures on a salmonid habitat for an agricultural watershed. The study includes an economic analysis in accordance with the principles and guidelines of the Water Resources Council (WRC). The models adapted or developed for the study are: instream water temperature, water yield, sediment yield, sediment intrusion into the substrate, dissolved oxygen transport & consumption, embryo survival & fry emergence, total lifestage salmonid survival model that includes estimates of commercial & recreational catch using optimal fisheries management, and net the salmonid economic model that reflects changes in the commercial and recreational harvest of salmonids.


"This is a valuable project. The editors are excellent, well-known scholars, and activists in the academy." Darlene Clark Hine"After looking carefully at Traps selections, I have to confess that I m both excited and satisfied by what Rudolph Byrd and Beverly Guy-Sheftall have assembled here from the 19th century to the present. Educators genuinely need a text like this for opening their classroom to critical discussions on the well-worn subjects of race and gender." Charles JohnsonTraps is the first anthology of writings by 19th- and 20th-century African American men on the overlapping categories of race, gender, and sexuality. The selections on gender in Sections I and II reveal what some may view as the unexpected commitment of African American men to feminism. Included here are critiques of the subordinate social, economic, and political position of black women. Sections III and IV analyze the taboos and myths in which black sexuality is enmeshed. These essays also stress the importance of rejecting homophobia and the need to contest the predominance of a heterosexual paradigm. Monolithic constructions of gender and sexuality, reinforced by sexism and historically sanctioned homophobia, are the "traps" that give this book its focus and its title."


I. INTRODUCTION The advent of e-commerce has forever changed how business is done. Internet operations have launched even the smallest of undertakings into global markets and have made them part of an important industry with enormous potential. Such potential has led to enormous success: in 2008, despite the recession, online retail sales in the United States alone reached $133.6 billion, (1) up from overall sales of $22 billion in 1998. (2) Governments throughout the world and relevant international organizations have recognized that if e-commerce remains beyond the purview of tax authorities, it will present a significant problem for public finances. (3) In the face of aging populations and their strain on national pension systems, lost tax revenue from e-commerce is not just another tax leak that budgets can afford. However, "the application of today's taxing regimes to the contemporary world of telecommunications and electronic commerce is uncertain, inconsistent, and complex." (4) The challenge for governments is to design a tax regime fit for this new cross-jurisdictional electronic environment. The power to tax is one of the most fundamental prerogatives of every sovereign state. Raising tax revenue is a state's powerful instrument of macroeconomic management. Taxation affects legal, economic, social, political and fiscal conditions in any country. Therefore, it is not surprising that e-commerce was quick to appear on governments' tax radars. However, the world's governments have been guarded in their reactions to suggested changes in their tax systems, as well as in the existing system of international taxation. (5) As more and more businesses and individuals rely on the Internet as their primary source of revenue, tax authorities around the world are seeking a uniform solution for taxing e-commerce. The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), the European Union (EU), and the U.S., Australian, and Canadian governments, among others, have issued reports identifying the critical tax issues raised by the advent of e-commerce. (6) Unfortunately, the current position of governments worldwide can best be characterized as "wait and see." (7) Despite a number of forums convened, commissions appointed and white papers issued, there remains little international accord, national legislation, or case law on the taxation of e-commerce. In the United States, Congress continues to ignore the Supreme Court's invitation in Quill v. North Dakota to legislate on the sales/use tax issue (8) and continues to extend the moratorium on new Internet access taxes, which was originally imposed in 1998. (9) The World Trade Organization (WTO) has also maintained its own moratorium on customs duties on e-commerce, (l0) introduced as early as 1998. (11) Similarly, academia addressed various issues of taxing Internet business with great enthusiasm in the early days of e-commerce, but now seems to be losing interest in the issue. (12) Since governments and relevant international organizations are not taking action on Internet taxation, academics are writing less on the subject. At the same time, "[w]hile talk about e-commerce tax issues has decreased in the past few years, the existence, and perhaps extent, of such issues has not decreased." (13) What is more, "[t]he Internet continues to grow, sales continue to increase, and consequently [one] must implement the solution now or risk repairing havoc later." (14) This is exactly why inquiries into the tax aspects of doing business online should continue. This article reflects on the past decade of debate regarding the proper design of an international taxation regime that would fully reflect the new economic realities brought about by e-commerce. It starts with both challenging and confirming some presumptions about contemporary e-commerce taxation and then offers a set of guidelines for reforming the international taxation regime. …


Aerosol optical depth (AOD) measurements were acquired at six Arctic sunphotometer sites during the ARCTAS‐A (April, 2008) campaign. Numerous smoke events were identified and related to extensive forest and agricultural fires in eastern Russia and northern Kazakhstan/southwestern Russia respectively. An analysis of the fine (sub‐micron) optical depths from the six stations indicated the presence of underlying low frequency trends which were coherent with general meteorological considerations, source information, model estimates and remote sensing information. Low frequency (diurnal) coarse‐mode optical depth events were observed at a number of the stations; these singular events are likely due to ice particles whose nucleation may have been associated with the presence of smoke, or possibly dust.


We present a method for hiding images in synthetic videos and reveal them by temporal averaging. The main challenge is to develop a visual masking method that hides the input image both spatially and temporally. Our masking approach consists of temporal and spatial pixel by pixel variations of the frequency band coefficients representing the image to be hidden. These variations ensure that the target image remains invisible both in the spatial and the temporal domains. In addition, by applying a temporal masking function derived from a dither matrix, we allow the video to carry a visible message that is different from the hidden image. The image hidden in the video can be revealed by software averaging, or with a camera, by long-exposure photography. The presented work may find applications in the secure transmission of digital information.


The paper presents a rule based implicative rating measure to calculate the ratings of users on items. The paper also presents a new model using the ruleset with the rule length of 2 and the proposed measure to suggest to users the list of items with the highest ratings. The new model is compared to the three existing models that use items (such as the popular items, the items with highest similarities, and the items with strong relationships) to make the suggestion. The experiments on the MSWeb dataset and the MovieLens dataset indicate that the proposed recommendation model has the higher performace (via the Precision - Recall and the ROC curves) than the compared models for most of the given.


We investigate ways to improve recognition accuracy on spoken corrections. We show that a variety of simple techniques can greatly improve the accuracy on corrections. We further develop a flexible merge model that improves accuracy by combining information from the original recognition and the spoken correction. Our merge model operates on word confusion networks and can easily incorporate prior beliefs about the recognition events (e.g. which words are likely correct or incorrect). By combining all of our techniques, the percentage of correctly recognized spoken corrections increased from 21% to 53%.


D reconstruction from visual hulls is a well established technique for camera based reconstruction of 3D objects in computer graphics. We propose in this paper to employ visual hull techniques to quantify the volume of diffusely defined gaseous structures. In our evaluation, visual quality of the 3D reconstructions is secondary. Instead, using synthetic ground truth data, we determine the number of independent silhouette images needed to achieve a stable volume estimate. We also estimate the influence of different segmentation results of the silhouette images on final volume estimates. Our results show that comparably few camera views yield to convergent volume estimates. For the type of 3D data studied, visual hull reconstructions overestimate actual volumes with about 50%. This proportion seems to be consistent for different data sets tested and may serve for re-calibration of volume estimation of gaseous structures.


This paper applies revealed preference theory to the nonparametric statistical analysis of consumer demand. Knowledge of expansion paths is shown to improve the power of nonparametric tests of revealed preference. The tightest bounds on indifference surfaces and welfare measures are derived using an algorithm for which revealed preference conditions are shown to guarantee convergence. Nonparametric Engel curves are used to estimate expansion paths and provide a stochastic structure within which to examine the consistency of household level data and revealed preference theory. An application is made to a long time series of repeated cross-sections from the Family Expenditure Survey for Britain. The consistency of these data with revealed preference theory is examined. For periods of consistency with revealed preference, tight bounds are placed on true cost of living indices.


This paper reports on the energy implications of HVAC system configuration by analyzing the energy balance and psychrometrics of typical and innovative systems. Three criteria were shown to be significant: (1) the ability to minimize outside air load, (2) the ability to eliminate simultaneous cooling and heating and use mixing effectively, and (3) the availability of interzonal airflow. Configurations that meet these criteria would be able to deliver the desired indoor air quality with reduced energy consumption. The performance of ten two-zone system configurations, including single-duct, dual-duct, fan-coil-based variations, and other specialized systems in the literature, were analyzed for a number of operational conditions. The results confirmed that fan-coil-based configurations with interzonal airflow paths perform better than other configurations. The conclusion of this study may be used as a guideline for multi-zone system designs.


Disconnection of open magnetic flux by reconnection is required to balance the injection of open flux by coronal mass ejections and other eruptive events. Making use of recent advances in heliospheric background subtraction, we have imaged many abrupt disconnection events. These events produce dense plasma clouds whose distinctive shape can now be traced from the corona across the inner solar system via heliospheric imaging. The morphology of each initial event is characteristic of magnetic reconnection across a current sheet, and the newly disconnected flux takes the form of a "U-"shaped loop that moves outward, accreting coronal and solar wind material. We analyzed one such event on 2008 December 18 as it formed and accelerated at 20 m s−2 to 320 km s−1, thereafter expanding self-similarly until it exited our field of view 1.2 AU from the Sun. From acceleration and photometric mass estimates we derive the coronal magnetic field strength to be 8 μT, 6 R☉ above the photosphere, and the entrained flux to be 1.6 × 1011 Wb (1.6 × 1019 Mx). We model the feature's propagation by balancing inferred magnetic tension force against accretion drag. This model is consistent with the feature's behavior and accepted solar wind parameters. By counting events over a 36 day window, we estimate a global event rate of 1 day−1 and a global solar minimum unsigned flux disconnection rate of 6 × 1013 Wb yr−1 (6 × 1021 Mx yr−1) by this mechanism. That rate corresponds to ∼ − 0.2 nT yr−1 change in the radial heliospheric field at 1 AU, indicating that the mechanism is important to the heliospheric flux balance.


We propose a new type of nonlinear photonic crystal with the lattice representing a harmonic function of the propagation coordinate. This type of spatial modulation of the quadratic nonlinearity is implemented to enhance the second-harmonic generation (SHG) efficiency. The process resembles that realized in periodic nonlinear photonic crystals with rectangular nonlinearity modulation under quasi-phase-matching. Residual periodic oscillations of the second-harmonic intensity were found. Comparison of the unipolar and bipolar modulations showed that they are equivalent with regard to the oscillations. The SHG efficiency in the harmonic lattices is 1.6 times lower compared with the efficiency corresponding to the quasi-phase-matching in periodic nonlinear photonic crystals with rectangular lattices.


Argumentum Ornithologicum. I close my eyes and see a flock of birds. The vision lasts a second, or perhaps less; I am not sure how many birds I saw. Was the number of birds definite or indefinite? The problem involves the existence of God. If God exists, the number is definite, because God knows how many birds I saw. If God does not exist, then the number is indefinite, because no one can have counted. In this case I saw fewer than ten birds (let us say) and more than one, but did not see nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three or two birds. I saw a number between ten and one, which was not nine, eight, seven, six, five, etc. That integer—not-nine, not-eight, not-seven, not-six, not-five, etc.—is inconceivable. Ergo, God exists. –Jorge Luis Borges (1960/1999, p. 299)


Seasonal cold hardiness of red raspberry ( Rubus idaeus L.) canes was measured by freeze-induced electrolyte leakage test and visual rating of injury. Leakage data were transformed to percentage-adjusted injury values and related to lethal temperature by graphical interpolation and by the midpoint (T 50) and inflection point (T max) estimates derived from three sigmoid (the logistic, Richards, and Gompertz) functions. T max estimates produced by Richards and Gompertz functions were corrected further using two different procedures. The 10 leakage-based hardiness indices, thus derived, were compared to lethal-temperature estimates based on visual rating. Graphical interpolation and T max of the logistic or T50 of the Gompertz function yielded lethal-temperature estimates closest to those obtained visually. Also, T max values of the Gompertz function were well correlated with visual hardiness indices. The Richards function yielded hardiness estimates deviating largely from visual rating. In addition, the Richards function displayed a considerable lack of fit in several data sets. The Gompertz function was preferred to the logistic one as it allows for asymmetry in leakage response. Percentage-adjusted injury data transformation facilitated curve-fitting and enabled calculation of T 50 estimates.


The evolution of coastal foredunes is largely controlled by sediment exchanges between the geomorphic sub-units of the nearshore, beach, foredune and dune field. Although blowouts are widely recognised as efficient sediment transport pathways, both event-scale and meso-scale quantification of their utility in transferring beach sediments landwards is limited. Foredunes characterised by multiple blowouts may be more susceptible to coastline retreat through the enhanced landwards transport of beach or foredune sediments. To date, a key constraint for investigations of such scenarios has been the absence of accurate blowout sediment transport records.
Here we use the Sefton coast in north-west England as a study area where an unprecedented temporal coverage of LIDAR data is available between 1999 and 2015. Additionally, an extensive set of aerial photography also exists, dating back to 1945 allowing comparison of blowout frequency and magnitude together with the alongshore limits of coastline retreat. Digital terrain models are derived for each year that LIDAR data is available. Informed by LIDAR based topography and areas of bare sand (aerial photos) terrain models have been created containing individual blowouts.
Differentials in 'z' values between each terrain model of each available year has identified topographic change and total levels of transport. Preliminary results have confirmed the importance of blowouts in transporting beach or foredune sediment landwards and thus potentially promoting coastline retreat. Repetition of processes across a larger number of blowout topographies will allow better identification of individual blowouts for 'event' scale field investigations to examine spatial and temporal variability of beach sediment transport via blowouts routes.


We discuss a balance scheme for handling variable-speed gaits that was implemented on an experimental biped at the University of New Hampshire. The control scheme uses preplanned but adaptive motion sequences in combination with closed-loop reactive control. CMAC neural networks are responsible for the adaptive control of side-to-side and front-to-back balance. The biped is able to walk with variable-speed gaits and to change gait speeds on the fly. The slower gait speeds require statically balanced walking, while the faster speeds require dynamically balanced walking. It is not necessary to distinguish between the two balance modes within the controller. Following training, the biped is able to walk on flat, nonslippery surfaces at forward velocities in the range of 21 cm/min to 72 cm/min, with an average stride length of 6.5 cm.


The problem of political instability is neglected in the literature on security communities. In this article I argue that domestic stability, defined as the absence of large-scale violence in a country, is a necessary condition of these communities. Domestic violence precludes the existence of security communities because it renders people and states insecure; it creates the risk of cross-border destabilization and violence; and it generates uncertainty and tension among states, inhibiting trust and a sense of collective identity. I conclude that the benchmark of a security community—dependable expectations of peaceful change—should apply as much within states as between them. This is consistent with the work of Karl Deutsch, whose pioneering concept of a security community is widely understood to mean the absence of interstate war. Deutsch, in fact, was equally concerned with large-scale internal violence.


Film-cooling effectiveness is measured on a rotating turbine blade platform for coolant injection through discrete holes using pressure sensitive paint technique. Most of the existing literatures provide information only for stationary endwalls. The effects of rotation on the platform film-cooling effectiveness are not well documented. Hence, the existing three-stage turbine research facility at the Turbomachinery and Flow Performance Laboratory, Texas A&M University was redesigned and installed to enable coolant gas injection on the first stage rotor platform. Two distinct coolant supply loops were incorporated into the rotor to facilitate separate feeds for upstream cooling using stator-rotor gap purge flow and downstream discrete-hole film cooling. As a continuation of the previously published work involving stator-rotor gap purge cooling, this study investigates film-cooling effectiveness on the first stage rotor platform due to coolant gas injection through nine discrete holes located downstream within the passage region. Film-cooling effectiveness is measured for turbine rotor frequencies of 2400 rpm, 2550 rpm, and 3000 rpm corresponding to rotation numbers of Ro=0.18, 0.19, and 0.23, respectively. For each of the turbine rotational frequencies, film-cooling effectiveness is determined for average film-hole blowing ratios of Mholes=0.5, 0.75, 1.0, 1.25, 1.5, and 2.0. To provide a complete picture of hub cooling under rotating conditions, simultaneous injection of coolant gas through upstream stator-rotor purge gap and downstream discrete film-hole is also studied. The combined tests are conducted for gap purge flow corresponding to coolant to mainstream mass flow ratio of MFR=1% with three downstream film-hole blowing ratios of Mholes=0.75, 1.0, and 1.25 for each of the three turbine speeds. The results for combined upstream stator-rotor gap purge flow and downstream discrete holes provide information about the optimum purge flow coolant mass, average coolant hole blowing ratios for each rotational speed, and coolant injection location along the passage to obtain efficient platform film cooling.


Recent developments in crystallographic error analysis are described. This report provides an introduction to more-formal work, originally published in Ref. (Haestier, J., J. Appl. Cryst. 2009, 42, 798). Prior to the main discussion, a brief overview of the normal distribution and error-propagation is provided, with some simplified examples to demonstrate the effects of covariance terms on error calculations. A new method is described for absorbing the cell-parameter errors into the variance–covariance matrix of the refined parameters. Problems occur for monoclinic and triclinic cell settings as the crystallographer must 'choose' how errors on the cell angles affect the coordinates. The choice has no effect on error-calculations on the internal geometry (bond-lengths, angles and torsion angles) of the structure, but may introduce a bias if the errors are used as weights.


Crusade Propaganda and Ideology: Model Sermons for the Preaching of the Cross. By Christoph T Maier. (NewYork: Cambridge University Press. 2000. Po. viii, 280.$59.95.) Sermon literature presents difficult problems to the historian. Even though sermons are among the most abundant of medieval sources, only a small amount of this vast literature has found its way into print. This is even more true for the sermones ad status, which deal with specific groups of people, for example, women, merchants, crusaders, etc. Until now, the most accessible crusade sermons were those edited by Penny J. Cole in her fine monograph, The Preaching of the Crusades to the Holy Land, 1095-1270, which contained editions of four crusade sermons. Christoph T Maier, already known for his Preaching the Crusades: Mendicant Friars and the Cross in the Thirteenth Century, has now edited and translated seventeen model sermons by such important figures as James of Vitry, Eudes of Chateauroux, and Humbert of Romans. He has also written a lengthy introduction, which will prove very helpful to students and others new to crusade sermons who use this collection. What is especially important to note is that sermons were seldom written down as they were delivered. The term "model sermons" used here refers to the practice of editing sermons so that they could be made available to other preachers, and not even only to those who were going to preach on the same topic. Thus the first sermon of Eudes of Chateauroux bears the title: "Sermo in conversione Sancti Pauli et exhortatio ad assumendam crucem." This sermon was designed to be preached on the feast of the Conversion of St. Paul or to those about to take the cross. Of course, the two events might occur together. The preacher wove the two concepts, conversion and crusading, together. Some of these sermons are directed to recruiting participants in the crusades; others were designed to confirm recruits in their decision. But students must exercise great care in using sermons in their research. They are seldom of much use for factual information, though there are occasional nuggets. In the present collection, for example, there are few references to specific points. But, in his first sermon, Eudes of Chateauroux is critical of those who ridiculed the poor and unarmed who took the cross on the grounds that they would merely use up supplies. He argues that they can make a valuable contribution. His sermon also notes that the pope wants the incomes of churches to be used to support clerics on the crusade for a period up to three years. …