With reference to the turn to the self in contemporary Western societies, this study assesses the significance of emotional competence as a means of improving subjective wellbeing. It delineates the key components of the subjective turn and specifies the main outcome as emotional competence, achieved through increased self-reflection and self-awareness. The efficacy of mindfulness practice as a method for improving emotional competence is examined and a programme of mindfulness-based emotional development (MBED) devised, informed by a substantial body of empirical research. Prior to working with thirty-five participants in six discrete groups from a range of work-related contexts, extensive participant observation was undertaken through attendance in a broad range of mindfulness retreats, training, courses and conferences. The resultant one-day course was used to assess the outcomes of participation for the co-researchers. The therapeutic effects are reported quantitatively in terms of psychological wellbeing, physical health and productivity at work, and qualitatively using data from the co-researcher 'diary' accounts. In addition, an autoethnographical account of the researcher's longitudinal experience is elucidated as a method of assessing the significance of the practice for emotional management using a three-fold typology of the sacred, the mundane and the profane. The thesis culminates in a four-phase model of personal development that examines the application of MBED as a means of facilitating eudaemonic wellbeing, through improved intrapersonal and interpersonal communication.


Although collective turnover is widespread, its consequences have seldom been studied. We focus on an extreme case - collective turnover after a merger between privately held firms, and argue that a cascade of exits triggers a loss of confidence in the firm, leading to subsequent exits. We show that it is not the loss of proficient talent that is a key signal of the loss of confidence, instead, it is the polarization of exits between the employees of the acquiring and acquired firm that signals uncertainty and jumpstarts other exits. We suggest that the momentum of 'news' after a merger affects confidence in the firm, and distinguish between the momentum of 'bad news' and the momentum of 'good news. We fin d that the momentum of bad news intensifies the effect of polarization in prior exits.


RAID-6 is widely used to tolerate concurrent failures of any two disks to provide a higher level of reliability with the support of erasure codes. Among many implementations, one class of codes called Maximum Distance Separable (MDS) codes aims to offer data protection against disk failures with optimal storage efficiency. Typical MDS codes contain horizontal and vertical codes.
However, because of the limitation of horizontal parity or diagonal/anti-diagonal parities used in MDS codes, existing RAID-6 systems suffer several important problems on performance and scalability, such as low write performance, unbalanced I/O, and high migration cost in the scaling process.
To address these problems, in this dissertation, we design techniques for high performance and scalable RAID-6 systems. It includes high performance and load balancing erasure codes (H-Code and HDP Code), and Stripe-based Data Migration (SDM) scheme. We also propose a flexible MDS Scaling Framework (MDS-Frame), which can integrate H-Code, HDP Code and SDM scheme together. Detailed evaluation results are also given in this dissertation.


In this article, I offer a critique of contemporary trends in "pro-minority" criminalization policy, defined as criminal offenses that are specifically designed to protect women and minorities. I show that, in the late 1970s, a new paradigm emerged for thinking about the role of criminalization in minimizing patterns of social inequality. I trace the historical processes that led to the emergence of this new paradigm and discuss its inherent limitations in meeting its stated aims. The discussion shows that these limitations are rooted in the embedding of contemporary "pro-minority" criminalization policy within the broader frameworks of neoliberal policymaking, and in the inherent flaws of the new vision of citizenship upon which these models rest. I argue that the potential contribution of criminalization to the alleviation of social inequalities can only be realized within a vision of citizenship that is radically different from the one endorsed by neoliberal governments over the last three decades.


It sounded a noble aim, for New Labour to prioritise education, education, education. The method they chose since coming to power was a relentless attempt to raise standards by an obsession with tests and exams in every school, almost at every age level. (Ages 5, 7, 11, 14, 16, 17 and 18.) By using these scores to hold schools to account as never before, they planned to focus attention on each pupil's progress and thereby raise total standards. However well intentioned, it has become clear that these tests also have damaging side effects, as teachers are forced to adopt shortcuts to improve statistics, whether or not they are in the pupil's best interest. The tests may be good for government, but they do not produce a rounded child, and standards do not rise as hoped for. Warwick Mansell, a journalist with the TES, is the only journalist researching the subject in detail, and reveals how intention and practice widely differ so widely.


We examined problem-solving in nuclear science by gifted junior high school students, senior high school students, first year undergraduates, undergraduate physics majors, and graduate teaching assistants. The first study examined dif ferences between "expert" and "novice" approaches, whereas the second study investigated the learning of problem-solving skills with a pre- and post-test. The results showed that with increased experience or expertise, students tended to solve the problems using higher levels of Bloom's (1956) taxonomy. Junior high school students' performance improved signifi cantly after a week-long hands-on nuclear physics class. How ever, when solving a more conceptual nuclear physics prob lem, there were no significant differences in the pre- and post-tests of the gifted students at the same grade level. These studies suggest that gifted junior high school students have comparable cognitive abilities to older students, but that they lack the necessary knowledge base, that they use problem solving strategies that are "lower" on Bloom's tax onomy, and that they focus on memorization rather than methods which are evaluative or synthetic.


External state pressure is understood to have played a causally significant role in democratic breakthrough in Taiwan and South Korea during the 1980s. This article problematizes the international dimensions of democratization in Taiwan and South Korea by first providing a revisionist account of external agency which involved complex networks of transnational nonstate and substate actors. These included human rights activists, Christian churches and related ecumenical organizations, members of the Taiwanese and Korean diaspora communities in the US, academics and students, foreign journalists, and members of the US Congress. In forming a transnational "protection regime" during the 1970s and 1980s to protect the political opposition from repressive governments, they contributed to the development of effective democratic movements. The case studies provide us with a more comprehensive view of the international dimensions of democratization, speaking to both the country specific and general theoretical literatures on democratization at the same time.


A primary goal of congressional elections is to create a link between constituent opinion and representative behavior. Explanations of congressional campaign agendas, however, have focused on national measures of issue salience and ownership, ignoring opinion within districts. Moreover, no study has systematically assessed the relative influence of issue salience and ownership. This article seeks to address these gaps using several public opinion surveys and a content analysis of 2010 House campaign websites. The analysis demonstrates significant across-district variation in citizens' priorities and preferences, yet finds no discernible relationship between district opinion and campaign issue agendas. In contrast, the analysis suggests that campaign issue emphasis is positively associated with the issue's national salience and party ownership, but salience appears to be the stronger predictor. Together, the results suggest that the 2010 candidates used their campaign issue agendas to forge a national strategy, rather than emphasize identification with their constituents.


Symbolic substitution logic is based on optical pattern transformations. This space-invariant mechanism is shown to be capable of supporting space-variant operations. An optical implementation is proposed. It is based on splitting an image, shifting the split images, superimposing the results, regenerating the superimposed image with an optical logic array, splitting the regenerated image, shifting the resulting images, and superimposing the shifted images. Experimental results are presented. Examples demonstrate how symbolic substitution logic can be used to implement Boolean logic, binary arithmetic, cellular logic, and Turing machines.


This work focuses on the prediction of the two main nitrogenous variables that describe the water quality at the effluent of a Wastewater Treatment Plant. We have developed two kind of Neural Networks architectures based on considering only one output or, in the other hand, the usual five effluent variables that define the water quality: suspended solids, biochemical organic matter, chemical organic matter, total nitrogen and total Kjedhal nitrogen. Two learning techniques based on a classical adaptative gradient and a Kalman filter have been implemented. In order to try to improve generalization and performance we have selected variables by means genetic algorithms and fuzzy systems. The training, testing and validation sets show that the final networks are able to learn enough well the simulated available data specially for the total nitrogen.


Context. Globular clusters (GCs) are established emitters of high-energy (HE, 100 MeV 100 GeV) gamma-ray regime, judging from the recent detection of a signal from the direction of Terzan 5 with the H.E.S.S. telescope array. Aims. To search for VHE gamma-ray sources associated with other GCs, and to put constraints on leptonic emission models, we systematically analyzed the observations towards 15 GCs taken with the H. E. S. S. array of imaging atmospheric Cherenkov telescopes. Methods. We searched for point-like and extended VHE gamma-ray emission from each GC in our sample and also performed a stacking analysis combining the data from all GCs to investigate the hypothesis of a population of faint emitters. Assuming IC emission as the origin of the VHE gamma-ray signal from the direction of Terzan 5, we calculated the expected gamma-ray flux from each of the 15 GCs, based on their number of millisecond pulsars, their optical brightness and the energy density of background photon fields. Results. We did not detect significant VHE gamma-ray emission from any of the 15 GCs in either of the two analyses. Given the uncertainties related to the parameter determinations, the obtained flux upper limits allow to rule out the simple IC/msPSR scaling model for NGC6388 and NGC7078. The upper limits derived from the stacking analyses are factors between 2 and 50 below the flux predicted by the simple leptonic scaling model, depending on the assumed source extent and the dominant target photon fields. Therefore, Terzan 5 still remains exceptional among all GCs, as the VHE gamma-ray emission either arises from extra-ordinarily efficient leptonic processes, or from a recent catastrophic event, or is even unrelated to the GC itself.


As the technology is progressing to a new level year by year, our reliance on wireless technology has increased. This is because communication between any two or more devices using a wireless medium is currently the cheapest, fastest, easy and thus, the most widely used technology for communication. Antenna plays an important role in wireless communication systems. This paper briefs about the basics of antenna, the various terminologies used in antenna, its various types available and the role each antenna plays in today's world.


In recent years, commons communities, such as Wikipedia and free or open source software communities, have received extensive attention from academia. Conventional wisdom holds that these communities have produced information across boundaries, rendering formal organizations obsolete. Nonetheless, this article demonstrates that nonprofit organizations (NPOs) are actually playing a vital role in the digital commons production process.This conclusion is based on current commons and NPO scholarship and a series of in-depth, semistructured interviews with officers of NPOs and for-profit organizations associated with commons communities. NPOs' function for those communities in managing property rights, transacting with other entities, protecting individuals from potential liabilities, and institutionalizing various decision-making and standard-setting processes. The unique organizational structures of NPOs, associated with a "nondis-tribution constraint," have provided indispensable trust for community members. This article proposes that the commons environment has provided an "environmental niche" in which NPOs thrive. That is, the nature of NPOs is more consistent with commons-environment culture than is the nature of for-profit enterprises or governmental units.


This article explains the positions taken by national political parties on the issue of European integration over the period 1984–96. Based on the theory of party systems developed by Lipset and Rokkan, we develop a cleavage account of party response to new political issues. We hypothesize that European integration is assimilated into pre-existing ideologies of party leaders, activists and constituencies that reflect long-standing commitments on fundamental domestic issues.


The grey level profiles of adjacent image regions tend to be different, whilst the 'hidden' physical parameters associated with these regions (e.g. surface depth, edge orientation) tend to have similar values. We demonstrate that a network in which adjacent units receive inputs from adjacent image regions learns to code for hidden parameters. The learning rule takes advantage of the spatial smoothness of physical parameters in general to discover particular parameters embedded in grey level profiles which vary rapidly across an input image. We provide examples in which networks discover stereo disparity and feature orientation as invariances underlying image data.


We introduce a new generative block model for graphs. Vertices (nodes) have mixed memberships in margin components, and edges arise from a multinomial defined over the cartesian product of the margin components. The model is able to represent block structures of "non-community" type, that is, it is able to model linkage between margin components. Compared to earlier mixed membership stochastic blockmodels which have a Bernoulli parameterization for the generation of links between each margin component pair, in the new model collapsed Gibbs samplers need to represent only those interactions with realized data in them, making possible large and sparse block models.


Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to gain a better understanding of the types of relationships that exist along the supply chain and the capabilities that are needed to manage them effectively. ----------

Design/methodology/approach: This is exploratory research as there has been little empirical research into this area. Quantitative data were gathered by using a self-administered questionnaire, using the Australian road freight industry as the context. There were 132 usable responses. Inferential and descriptive analysis, including factor analysis, confirmatory factor and regression analysis was used to examine the predictive power of relational factors in inter-firm relationships. ----------

Findings: Three factors were identified as having significant influence on relationships: sharing, power and interdependency. "Sharing" is the willingness of the organisation to share resources with other members of the supply chain. "Power" relates to exercising control based on experience, knowledge and position in the supply chain. "Interdependency" is the relative levels of dependency along the supply chain. ----------

Research limitations/implications: The research only looks at the Australian road freight industry; a wider sample including other industries would help to strengthen the generalisability of the findings. ----------

Practical implications: When these factors are correlated to the types of relationship, arm's length, cooperation, collaboration and alliances, managerial implications can be identified. The more road freight businesses place importance on power, the less they will cooperate. The greater the importance of sharing and interdependency, the greater is the likelihood of arm's length relationships. ----------

Originality/value: This paper makes a contribution by describing empirical work conducted in an under-researched but important area – supply chain relationships in the Australian road freight industry.


The probe absorption spectrum of a four-level atom embedded in a double-band photonic crystal is discussed in this paper. The double V-type transitions from the two upper levels to the two lower levels interact with the free vacuum modes and the photonic band gap (PBG) modes synchronously. We investigate the quantum interferences in the probe absorption spectrum. And the new features of transparency are also predicted.


The liverwort flora of the Faeroe Isles is presented with distribution maps of the approximately 132 taxa recorded from the islands. The flora is the result of a climate with high yearly precipitation, relatively mild winters, and rainy summers, comparable to the Queen Charlotte Islands. The distribution and phytogeography of some Faeroese liverworts are discussed. Many taxa have an Atlantic or subatlantic distribution, probably indicating the route invading species took at the end of Pleistocene. Some taxonomic notes and annotations pertinent to Faeroese liverworts are included. Calypogeia paludosa Warnst. is reinterpreted as a variety of C. fissa (L.) Raddi.


[1] The future size of the terrestrial methane (CH4) sink of upland soils remains uncertain, along with potential feedbacks to global warming. Much of the uncertainty lies in our lack of knowledge about potential interactive effects of multiple simultaneous global environmental changes. Field CH4 fluxes and laboratory soil CH4 consumption were measured five times during 3 consecutive years in a California annual grassland exposed to 8 years of the full factorial combination of ambient and elevated levels of precipitation, temperature, atmospheric CO2 concentration, and N deposition. Across all sampling dates and treatments, increased precipitation caused a 61% reduction in field CH4 uptake. However, this reduction depended quantitatively on other global change factors. Higher precipitation reduced CH4 uptake when temperature or N deposition (but not both) increased, and under elevated CO2 but only late in the growing season. Warming alone also decreased CH4 uptake early in the growing season, which was partly explained by a decrease in laboratory soil CH4 consumption. Atmospheric CH4 models likely need to incorporate nonadditive interactions, seasonal interactions, and interactions between methanotrophy and methanogenesis. Despite the complexity of interactions we observed in this multifactor experiment, the outcome agrees with results from single-factor experiments: an increased terrestrial CH4 sink appears less likely than a reduced one.


The parasitic weed Striga has given up the secret of its key receptor. The noxious weed Striga can take down an entire crop. Fields in Africa are particularly susceptible to the devastation it can cause. Striga seeds germinate in response to faint traces of the hormone strigolactone released by its targets. Tsuchiya et al. designed a mimic of strigolactone that, when cleaved by the Striga receptor, generates a fluorescent end product. This photogenic mimic lit up Striga seeds upon germination and led to the identification of its strigolactone receptor. Abolishing the activity of this receptor could be an effective defensive strategy. Y. Tsuchiya, M. Yoshimura, Y. Sato, K. Kuwata, S. Toh, D. Holbrook-Smith, H. Zhang, P. McCourt, K. Itami, T. Kinoshita, S. Hagihara, Probing strigolactone receptors in Striga hermonthica with fluorescence. Science 349, 864–868 (2015). [Abstract][Full Text]


Background: AML is one of the most common and acute diseases among the types of leukaemia. The treatment costs for AML/APML are considerably high as it involves the use of expensive treatments (such as stem cell transplantation). Over the past 20 years, the topic has attracted the interest of an increasing number of economic evaluation researchers, with the goal of reducing the related costs without compromising the quality of care and the clinical outcomes. However, no relevant overall/lifetime treatment cost study has been carried out yet, mainly due to UK data availability constraints. Taking the above into consideration, the aim of the study was to calculate the overall/lifetime
treatment costs by applying the bottom-up method.

 Methods: In order to obtain overall/lifetime cost for AML/APML treatments, an innovative three-phase costing study was conducted on 239 newly diagnosed (during September 2004 to September 2006) adult AML/APML patients in Haematological Malignancy Research Network (HMRN). The study employed the bottom-up costing method and the retrospective treatment pathway. The involved patients were followed from diagnosis
date onwards, until death or cure. Treatment pathways, and all the relevant clinical information (including treatments, tests, and duration) were extracted from patients' medical notes on a regular basis by well trained research nurses. Unit costs were determined from various sources, including the British National Formulary and the unit costs of health and social care from the Personal Social Services Research Unit (PSSRU). Finally, an exploratory analysis was carried out on the obtained cost results in order to uncover potential cost predictors.

 Results: The average overall treatment cost per patient was found to be £27290. This cost was mainly the result of the first-line treatment cost and the number of AML recurrences.
The major cost driver throughout all disease phases was hospitalization, followed by drug and complication treatment. Age, death or not, number of treatments, type of
primary induction treatment, and response to induction treatment were found to be highly associated with overall treatment costs.

Conclusion: The results of the current study showed that the lifetime/overall costs of AML/APML treatments was considerably high (although variance between patients was high as well), and uncovered the potential existence of a number of cost predictors. It is expected that
these findings could help to bridge the gap between the actual cost and the NHS reference costs, while the potential cost predictors could assist decision makers in relation to health policy or clinical guideline issues.


The aim of this study was to three-dimensional reconstruction of cervical part of the spinal cord of a thoroughbred horse using its histological sections with the help of 3d reconstruction module of stereo investigator. Scanned images using Office flatbed scanner were opened as image stacks in stereo investigator. Considering real measurements of the segments, borders of the gray and white matter and central canal were drawn by planimetric methods. This procedure was performed on all consecutive sections. All drawn lines of segments were matched to each other using mentioned software. Finally, three-dimensional reconstruction of segments was obtained using 3D reconstruction module. Surface area, cross-sectional area and volume of the segments were cal-culated by Neurolucida explorer software. Obtained results from 3D models were given in tabular form. It is thought that obtained three-dimensional models possessed real measurements of the segments contribute to anatomy of region of interest, can be used as digital education materials and obtaining solid materials exporting three-dimensional models to 3D printers improve the quality of education and training in anatomy


Children's access to many sports is restricted because of social and equipment costs,
in addition the equipment is not frequently designed to suit a child's physique and
capabilities. Generally the design of sports equipment for children proceeds by taking
adult equipment and scaling it down. Unfortunately this often means that the range of
equipment is limited for a population whose dimensions are constantly changing and
whose strength to size ratio does not vary linearly (Beak et al. 2000). The use of
inappropriate equipment can significantly affect learning skills and cause the
development of bad habits which may take years to correct and can be a major
detractor to further participation (Sleap 1981 ). It is apparent that little science has
been applied to equipment design for children and if wider participation is to be
encouraged then well-designed and manufactured equipment that matches child
development and growth rates needs to be produced.
The intentions of this study were:
• To determine the effect of equipment properties on children's, aged between
7 and I 0 years old, ability to generate effective strokes in two example sports:
golf and tennis.
• To determine whether any relationships existed between children's physical
characteristics (e.g. height, strength etc ), equipment properties and
performance.
• To apply any fitting guidelines established to a group of subject to test their
validity.
In each sport 3 major equipment properties were examined and a sample of30
children, aged between 7 and I 0 years old of varying ability, were tested in each of
the studies. Sixteen anthropometric measures, age, experience and grip strength were
taken from each child. This information was examined with the performance data
using multiple regression methods to determine whether any fitting relationships
existed between child characteristics, performance and club or racket properties.
In golf it was found that the club head mass, shaft flexibility and shaft length all
significantly affected the distance achieved with 7 -iron clubs, whilst in tennis the
racket length, mass and balance all had a significant effect on the power and
placement of forehand tennis strokes.
Nomograms were constructed for the tennis and golf fitting equations to provide a
graphical representation of the fitting so that manufacturers, tennis coaches, club
fitters and professional golfers can quickly determine correct club or racket
characteristics for a child.
The main conclusion of this study is that children should be considered as individuals
instead ofbeing grouped into age or height categories. Children should be fitted to
equipment in terms of their size, strength and ability if effective equipment that is
more suited to their needs can be constructed.


PŘIBILOVÁ MAGDALENA, HORKÝ PAVEL, NEVRKLA PAVEL, SKLÁDANKA JIŘÍ. 2018. Elimination the Impact of Heat Stress By Supplementation of Antioxidants Into Diet of Duroc Boars. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 66(1): 161 – 169. The aim of this experiment was to find out, if is it possible to eliminate the impact of heat stress on quality of Duroc boar ejaculate by the addition of complex of antioxidants (Selenium, Zinc, Vit. C and Vit. E) into the basic diet. The experiment was carried out at the station of insemination in Velke Mezirici (Czech Republic) from May to September. For the study were chosen 12 Duroc boars, of approximately the same age and weight, and were divided into two groups. The control group (n = 6) was fed only by basic diet, the experimental group (n = 6) was fed by basic diet with the supplementation of antioxidants in amount: 0.5 mg selenium (seleno-methionine), 70 mg zinc (zinc-methionine), 70 mg vit. E (alpha-tocopherol) and 350 mg vit. C (L-ascorbic acid) per kilogram of basic diet. Monitored parameters of ejaculate was volume of ejaculate (ml), concentration of sperm (106 / ml), total rate of sperm (109), motility of sperm (%) and amount of morphologically abnormal sperm (%). The control group reported slight increase in volume of ejaculate (of 19 %), which is common in summer months. At the same time was the concentration of sperm unstable, during August there was an increase of 15 %, but during September concentration decreased below the initial amount. Motility was around 69 % during whole experiment. There was an increase (of 15 %) in amount of morphologically abnormal sperm, but the result was insignificant. The experimental group had a higher volume of ejaculate, but the diagram of volume of ejaculate was almost the same with the control group. Concentration of sperm increased after the supplementation of antioxidants (of 23 %) and during the experiment decreased only slightly. Motility was about average amount 70 % and was not various during the experiment. In amount of morphologically abnormal sperm there was an increase about 12 %. According to the results, the supplementation of antioxidants had no significant effect on improving of semen quality. But the addition could have a positive effect to stable the parameters of ejaculate.


This essay, part of the 2010 Wiley A. Branton Symposium at Howard Law School, addresses some of the practicalities of making the Supreme Court's decision in Padilla v. Kentucky, 130 S. Ct. 1473 (2010) an operational reality. Padilla held that defense counsel have an ethical obligation to advise their clients of the possibility of deportation when pleading guilty. The inescapable logic of Padilla is that counsel's duty will extend to warning about other serious collateral consequences as well. Putting more demands on overburdened defense counsel raises a number of issues. First, how can public defenders, who are already challenged in providing basic representation add more to their duties? Second, how can defense counsel, who are not specialists in collateral consequences, be aware of the hundreds or thousands of potential collateral consequences which could apply in any given case? This essay proposes that the standards of competent representation should continue to develop even if they are not always met because of governmental funding choices. In addition, introducing collateral consequences into plea negotiation will sometimes facilitate a better disposition of the criminal case. Although Padilla means more work for defense attorneys, it also promises better outcomes for clients. The essay also makes some suggestions about ways of identifying the most common and most serious collateral consequences in each state, to simplify the process of advising clients.


This thesis is concerned with the constitution of pupil identities within the school context. My central goal is to offer an enhanced understanding of the processes through which inequities within the context of secondary education come to pivot around biographical, cultural and learner identities.
The thesis examines existing school ethnography concerned with pupil identities and maps key theoretical movements within the social sciences and humanities concerned with the subject and identity. I suggest that school ethnography has only recently begun to explore fully the interactions of multiple identity categories and the implications of these interactions. I also suggest that the utility of recent theorisations of power and the subject for understanding school-level practices remains under-developed.
My analyses of empirical data generated through an ethnography in one London Secondary School offers a response to these limitations. Drawing on the theoretical contributions of Michel Foucault, Pierre Bourdieu, Judith Butler, Jacques Derrida and Robert Connell, my analyses show how the citationallinguistic, bodily, and textual practices of pupils and teachers contribute to the performative constitution of intelligible selves and others. I suggest that while performatively constituted subjects have discursive agency, the intelligibility of performative constitutions is constrained by the historicity of discourse. I demonstrate the significance of the discursive intersections and interactions of identity categories and suggest that identities can best be understood as and in constellations. These constellations open up and close down the possibilities for identities to both become traps and be reinscribed again differently. These analyses add depth to existing understandings of the ways in which identities are constituted, the significance of constellations of identity categories, and the processes whereby educational inequities are sustained.


Even skilled salespeople buckle in tough selling situations—getting defensive with prospects who challenge them on price or too quickly caving to discount pressure. Those are examples the fight-or-flight response—something salespeople learn to avoid when they build their emotional intelligence.

 Studies have shown that emotional intelligence (EI) is a strong indicator of success. In Emotional Intelligence for Sales Success, sales trainer and expert Colleen Stanley shows how closely EI is tied to sales performance and how salespeople can sharpen their skills to maximize results. Readers will discover:

 • How to increase impulse control for better questioning and listening

 • The EI skills related to likability and trust

 • How empathy leads to bigger sales conversations and more effective solutions

 • How emotional intelligence can improve prospecting efforts

 • The EI skills shared by top sales producers

 • And much more

 Emotional intelligence plays a vital role at every stage of the sales process, from business development to closing the deal. When customers can get product information and price comparisons online, the true differentiator is the ability to deftly solve problems and build relationships—EI territory!


The ester carbonyl stretch frequencies of complexes of the macrotetrolide nonactin with Na+, K+, Rb+, Cs+, Tl+, NH4+, NH3OH+, and (NH2)2CNH2+ have been measured. For the larger alkali cations and the polyatomic cations, the ester carbonyl stretch frequency is linearly proportional to the cation-ester carbonyl electrostatic interaction energy. This constitutes direct evidence that the cation-nonactin interaction is primarily electrostatic, rather than mechanical (steric).


The present study aimed to determine the toxic effects of chromium (Cr) on cabbage (Brassica oleracea), cucumber (Cucumis sativus), lettuce (Lactuca sativa), wheat (Triticum aestivum), and corn (Zea mays), and identify the sensitive plant species and appropriate bioassays for potential use in phytotoxicity assessment of Cr in soil. Results showed that seed germination might not be a sensitive assay for assessing Cr toxicity because at most of the Cr levels there were no toxic effects. Root elongation was more sensitive to Cr than seed germination. The lowest concentration of adverse effect (LOAEC) of lettuce was 20 mg Cr/kg−1 soil, and that of the other 4 species was 50 mg Cr/kg−1 soil. The mitotic index fluctuated with increasing Cr concentration, thus it was insufficient to assess toxicity of Cr in soil. However, micronucleus assay showed that 5 mg Cr/kg−1 soil caused a significant increase in micronucleus frequency in cabbage, cucumber, and lettuce. For wheat and corn, however, the LOAEC was 20 and 50 mg/Cr/kg−1 soil, respectively. Furthermore, the analysis of Cr accumulation showed that lettuce significantly accumulated Cr for all the tested concentrations. However, corn and wheat significantly accumulated Cr only with the highest tested dose. This may explain the higher inhibitory effects of Cr on root growth. It can be concluded that root elongation and micronucleus assay are good indicators to assess the phytotoxicity of Cr in soil. Lettuce is the most sensitive species for indicating the toxicity of Cr in soil. Environ Toxicol Chem 2014;33:671–676. © 2013 SETAC


Considering the importance of K+ channels in controlling the crucial K+ gradient across the plasma membranes of all living cells, it comes as no surprise that, besides being present in every eukaryotic cell, these integral membrane proteins have recently also been identified in prokaryotes. Today, approximately a dozen successfully completed and many more ongoing sequencing projects permit a search for genes related to K+ channels in the genomes of both eubacteria and archaea. The coding regions of homologues show a remarkable variety in primary structure. They predict membrane proteins with one, two, three and six hydrophobic segments surrounding a putative K(+)-selective pore (H5) and the presence or absence of a cytosolic putative NAD(+)-binding domain (PNBD) that probably senses the reducing power of the cell. The analysis of kinships on the basis of phylogenetic algorithms identifies sequences closely related to eukaryotic voltage-dependent Kv channels, but also defines members of a primordial class of prokaryotic K+ channel (containing the 2TMS/PNBD motif). Considering the unique mechanisms that may account for the assembly of modern proteins from different ancestral genes, and with more primary sequence data soon to appear, a scheme for the evolutionary origin of K+ channels comes within reach.


Non-durable and semi-durable flame retardants based mostly on phosphate or phosphonate salts continue to be used on infrequently washed or disposable goods, and recent improvements have been made to impart better `hand' or some limited wash resistance. Backcoating with insoluble ammonium polyphosphate, usually with additives and binders to provide intumescence, has been found effective on charrable fabrics. However, the leading backcoating effective on a wider range of fabrics, including synthetics and blends, is decabromodiphenyl ether plus antimony oxide. Newer candidates in development for textile coating are polymers and copolymers of pentabromobenzyl acrylate. The leading durable finish for cellulosic fibers, in use for about 50 years, continues to be based on tetrakis(hydroxymethyl)phosphonium salts reacted with urea and cured with gaseous ammonia. Softer versions have been recently developed using chemical or process modifications, or using selected fiber blends. Somewhat less durable phosphonic ester methylolamide finishes, not requiring gaseous curing, are used on cellulosic fabrics, especially overseas. Other competitive wash-durable phosphorus-based finishes for cellulosics and blends are in development. Polyesters continue to be flame retarded using a phosphonate or hexabromocyclododecane in a `thermosol' process. Polyesters with built-in phosphinate structures are available as specialty fabrics. A dialkylphosphinate salt has been recently introduced as a melt spinning additive in polyester. A tribromoneopentyl phosphate melt spinning additive has been developed for polypropylene fiber. A number of inherently flame retardant synthetic fibers recently achieving increased usage include melamine-based fiber, viscose rayon containing silicic acid, aramides, oxidized polyacrylonitrile, and polyphenylene sulfide fibers. Some of these are used in protective clothing. The recent California and Federal mattress open-flame test standards have brought barrier fabrics into prominence. Some of these barriers use boric acid on cotton batting, others are proprietary composites and blends, both woven and nonwoven, comprising inherently flame retarded fibers combined with lower cost non-flame-retardant fibers. Upholstered furniture open-flame standards are pending.


Latin America has gone through a major transformation in the past two decades. According to the United Nations, with the discovery of new oil and mineral deposits and increases in energy exports, manufacturing and tourism, Latin America's economic growth and development will only continue, foreign investment will increase, and the region's global influence will become greater and greater.This is an historic opportunity for Latin America. Yet, as Stanford economist and former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo points out in his new book, The Shared Society, social strife threatens to undermine its recent economic and political progress. The specter of unsustainable growth and greed threatens to compromise the environment. Economic growth rates could slow and democracy could deteriorate into familiar forms of authoritarian populism.In The Shared Society, Toledo, whose tenure as president of Peru helped spur its economic renaissance, develops a plan for a future Latin America in which its population is not only much better off economically than today, but in which the vast 40 percent of Latin America's poor and marginalized are incorporated into a rising middle class, democratic institutions work more effectively, and the extraordinary ecosystem of Latin America is preserved. This is Toledo's vision for a just, sustainable, and prosperous shared society.To achieve this, Toledo lays out a set of principles and concrete, implementable ideas with which Latin Americans can reinvent themselves as a leading force for change in a continuously globalizing society beset by inequalities and global problems such as climate change and shortages of clean drinkable water, food security, human rights violations and weak democratic institutions. Toledo argues that only extraordinary efforts of vision, determination, courage and inspired leadership will set Latin America on the path to inclusive development, and this book provides a visionary manifesto and blueprint for creating that ideal shared society.


This study paper portrays a fresh approach for a course and laboratory design to establish low cost prototypes and other entrenched devices that accentuate virtual programmable logic device (VPLD), object oriented java and real time processing tactics. JAVA is used for software development. The study encompasses the use of host and node application. A high performance, low power AVR with high endurance non-volatile memory segments and with an advance RISC structure is used to construct prototypes. The paperwork deals with the VPLD board which is capable to work as corresponding digital logic analyzer, equation parser, standard digital IC and design wave studio. Keywords— virtual programmable logic devices(VPLD), real time processing tactics, JAVA, entrenched system, AVR, RISC, TTL/CMOS.


This paper outlines the next major evolution of the Internet architecture, where support for mobility is not the exception but the typical case. We show which parts of the Internet architecture needs to be extended, how they interact, and why they are needed. We point out the suitability of especially license free radio access equipment not only technically, but as a well harmonizing piece in the non-centralized and distributed way that Internet grows.We show that a wired Internet supporting mobility drastically changes the market situation in the mobile and wireless sector, possibly to a level where special mobile operators are not needed. We show that this leads to a situation where wireless and mobile access is just as inexpensive as its wired counterpart.The plans outlined here are pursued at the Center for Distance-spanning technology within the project called The RadioSphere.


A simplified liquid–liquid micro-extraction (LLME) GC/MS/MS method was developed for the determination of 18 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in surface water. This method utilizes a pseudo multiple reaction monitoring (PMRM) mode, a technique in which the third quadrupole monitors the same m/z as for the first quadrupole precursor ion. The use of helium as the only collision gas improved the sensitivity by significantly reducing both PAH compound fragmentation and baseline noise. For PAH determination, the PMRM approach proved superior to the classical quadrupole MRM technique in terms of enhanced sensitivity. With observed improvements in sensitivity, micro-extraction using only 4 mL of a novel binary solvent became possible, with corresponding reduction in time consuming sample preparation procedures and toxic solvent usage. Quantifying and qualifying ions, in addition to retention times, were used to verify trace level PAHs. During method validation, the limit of quantitation (LOQ) in surface water was observed to be 10 ng L−1 for the target PAHs. The recovery of individual PAHs was in the range of 80 to 114% from a water matrix, with a corresponding precision between 1.4 and 4.8% RSD. The robustness and accuracy of this method was demonstrated by its success in repeated proficiency test studies. The procedure has been successful during routine use in environmental sample testing and analysis of chemically enhanced water accommodated fraction (CEWAF) samples from toxicological LC50 (50% lethal concentration) bioassays, showing its applicability to situations in which both crude oil and oil spill dispersants are present.


Contemporary artists easily slip between emerging technologies, traditional hand crafted practices, the world of fashion and wearable arts, painting, sculpture, performance, live action role playing and networked environments. As forms of practice blur and intertwine, how do we approach the outcomes; how are they exhibited; and must we find new languages to engage with them?

Dr Melinda Rackham is a pioneering networked artist, critic, curator, consultant and cultural producer. Melinda was the first Curator of Networked Media at ACMI, and established -empyre-, one of the world's leading online media arts critical theory forums. Recently as Director of ANAT she lead Australia's foremost emerging art and technologies organisation to new levels of public engagement. Currently Adjunct Professor at RMIT University, her focus is curating and writing on electronic art and cultures manifested in networked, virtual, responsive, biological, wearable and distributed practices and environments. Her most recent project is curating a large outdoor screen exhibition of Australian Moving Image work in Beijing in late 2010.


The mutual fund industry manages about a quarter of the assets in the U.S. stock market and thus plays an important role in the U.S. economy. The question of how much control is concentrated in the hands of the largest players can be quantitatively discussed in terms of the tail behavior of the mutual fund size distribution. We study the distribution empirically and show that the tail is better described by a log-normal than a power law, indicating less concentration than, for example, personal wealth. We postulate that the reasons for this stem from market eciency and the stochastic nature of fund returns; they
otherwise have very little to do with investor choice. To demonstrate this we study mutual fund entry, exit and growth empirically and develop a stochastic model. Under simplifying assumptions we obtain a time-dependent analytic solution. The distribution evolves from a log-normal into a power law only over long time scales, suggesting that
log-normality comes about because the industry is still young. Numerical solutions under more realistic conditions support this conclusion and give good agreement with the data. Our study shows that, while mutual funds behave in many respects like other rms, there some respects
in which they are quite unusual. Surprisingly, it appears that transaction costs and investor choice play only a minor role in determining fund size.


Breast cancer is the most common female malignancy, affecting 1 in 8 women. Resistance to the antiestrogen tamoxifen (TAM), whether de novo or acquired, is a major clinical obstacle. Although recent clinical trials have demonstrated the efficacy of 17β-estradiol (E2) following exhaustive use of antiestrogens, E2 treatment is associated with major side effects such as an increased risk of other gynecological cancers, deterring the clinical community from adopting it as a treatment strategy. Our lab has previously shown that Protein kinase C alpha (PKCα) overexpression predicts TAM resistance in the clinic. Further, the ectopic overexpression of PKCα in T47D breast cancer cells, led to a TAM-resistant, E2-inhibited phenotype in vivo. Here we show that PKCα may be a biomarker for E2-induced growth inhibition. PKCα is overexpressed in a panel of cell lines inhibited by E2 and PKCα knockdown reversed the effects of E2 on cell viability. In addition we sought to identify novel selective estrogen mimics (SEMs), which could achieve the positive therapeutic effects of E2 treatment in TAM-resistant breast cancers, while minimizing the side effects. In vitro screening identified two SEMs, BTC and TTC-352, which displayed estrogenic activity in breast cancer cell lines. BTC and TTC-352 treatment resulted in significant tumor regression in two xenograft models of TAM-resistant, PKCα-overexpressing breast cancer. Interestingly, ERα translocates from the nucleus to the extranuclear sites upon E2 and SEM-induced tumor regression in our T47D:A18/PKCα preclinical TAM-resistant model. SEM treatment, however, did not result in growth of parental, TAM-sensitive xenograft tumors. Endometrial thickening, caused by both E2 and TAM, is directly associated with gynecological carcinogenesis and uterine cancer. Interestingly, SEM treatment did not increase uterine weight in mice suggesting negligible hormonal stimulation in gynecological tissues. Both BTC and TTC-352 resulted in regression of TAM-resistant breast cancer models, while displaying enhanced safety compared to E2 and TAM. These findings suggest the further development of SEMs as a feasible therapeutic strategy for the treatment of TAM-resistant, PKCα overexpressing breast cancer without the side effects associated with E2.


Shearer's inequality bounds the sum of joint entropies of random variables in terms of the total joint entropy. We give another lower bound for the same sum in terms of the individual entropies when the variables are functions of independent random seeds. The inequality involves a constant characterizing the expansion properties of the system.
Our results generalize to entropy inequalities used in recent work in invariant settings, including the edge-vertex inequality for factor-of-IID processes, Bowen's entropy inequalities, and Bollobas's entropy bounds in random regular graphs.
The proof method yields inequalities for other measures of randomness, including covariance.
As an application, we give upper bounds for independent sets in both finite and infinite graphs.


Deformable template representations of observed imagery model the variability of target pose via the actions of the matrix Lie groups on rigid templates. In this paper, we study the construction of minimum mean squared error estimators on the special orthogonal group, SO(n), for pose estimation. Due to the nonflat geometry of SO(n), the standard Bayesian formulation of optimal estimators and their characteristics requires modifications. By utilizing Hilbert-Schmidt metric defined on GL(n), a larger group containing SO(n), a mean squared criterion is defined on SO(n). The Hilbert-Schmidt estimate (HSE) is defined to be a minimum mean squared error estimator, restricted to SO(n). The expected error associated with the HSE is shown to be a lower bound, called the Hilbert-Schmidt bound (HSB), on the error incurred by any other estimator. Analysis and algorithms are presented for evaluating the HSE and the HSB in cases of both ground-based and airborne targets.


The current study of wireless local area networks (WLAN) adoption in educational institutions is motivated by three reasons. First, most students are exposed to information technology when they are at K-12 schools. Indeed, educational institutions represent the largest segment in the WLAN market in the United States in terms of the number of adopters. Second, WLAN requires a substantial financial investment before it can enable an "anytime, anywhere" learning environment, and may thereby aggravate the digital divide between rich and poor schools. Third, although WLAN is infrastructure technology, it has different characteristics compared to other infrastructure information technologies; traditional infrastructure information technologies are mostly located such that they are transparent to the users, whereas WLAN is close to end users, so that they directly experience benefits related to mobility and convenience, which eventually impacts organization boundary and business processes. Recognizing the importance of WLAN and its difference from traditional infrastructure information technologies, this dissertation examines how WLAN adoption (i.e., whether or not to adopt WLAN) and deployment (i.e., the extent to which WLAN is used) are influenced by technological, environmental, organizational factors, socio-economic, and policy-related factors. It is based on an online survey of principals of 435 K-12 elementary, middle, and high schools in Missouri, including 190 adopters of WLAN and 245 schools that have not adopted WLAN. The results indicate that perceived benefit is not a significant predictor of WLAN adoption. Unlike previous research, satisfaction with current wired system positively affects WLAN adoption. Some of socio-economic variables also affect adoption of WLAN. Schools near urbanized areas are more likely to adopt WLAN than the schools near rural areas. Furthermore, the government and state subsidy E-rate positively affect WLAN adoption. When examining the determinants of WLAN deployment, perceived benefits of using WLAN significantly affect WLAN usage. Moreover, perceived benefits and barriers strongly affect satisfaction with WLAN, which in turn affects WLAN usage. Satisfaction from using Kang, Sang-Baek (Chris), 2007, UMSL, p.6 WLAN significantly mediates the effect of various antecedent factors on WLAN usage. Implications of the results for IS researchers, practitioners, marketers, and policy makers are discussed and future avenues of the study are examined. Kang, Sang-Baek (Chris), 2007, UMSL, p.7 <TABLE OF CONTENTS> ABSTRACT..................................................................................................................................... 5


Russia's approach to alignment and regional integration has evolved dramatically—from a focus on the West and disinterest and neglect of regional integration in the 1990s, to vigorous efforts to reintegrate the post-Soviet space under Russian leadership in the period between 2009 and 2014, to forming a "Greater Eurasia" that transcends the post-Soviet space and includes China and other non-Western powers (such as Turkey, India, and Iran) today. Status concerns are key to understanding this evolution in policy and vision as a declining Russia struggles to avoid losing great power status. Russia initially eschewed its relationships with post-Soviet states in favor of integration with Europe and the West, which seemed to offer greater status gains. When Russia failed to find a place in the Western liberal order and "Greater Europe" commensurate with its status aspirations, it shifted its attention to regional integration of the post-Soviet space, believing this would make Russia, in the words of President Putin, "one of the poles in a future multipolar world." However, integrating the post-Soviet space proved to be an arduous task (that failed miserably in Ukraine) and did not yield the status gains Russia hoped for. The scope of Eurasian integration has now shifted to the formation of a "Greater Eurasia," as Russia looks to gain status through its association with more dynamic rising and emerging powers.


Current technology provides researchers' the capability to collect high-density/high-definition data. However, the potential of such capabilities is diminished without the availability of objective analyses. For example, techniques to objectively compare two complete behavioral routines, two subsections within the same routine, or two subsections between two different routines have been elusive. The capability to objectively compare interactive routines of behavior will enable researchers to study the adoption and evolution of such routines. In this paper a technique is proposed to objectively compare behavioral routines, whether the data are obtained from a human or embodied computational model. This technique offers the promise of solving what Anderson (2002) regarded as the non-determinism problem of modeling behavior at the 100-ms level of behavior. The technique is housed within a software tool for integrating and analyzing fixed-location and movement data collected from eyes and cursors, simultaneously (Myers & Schoelles, in press).


Expenditure on endangered species management is increasing greatly, on a global basis. Managers need tools to evaluate the performance of endangered species programmes because there will always be more demand for resources than there are available. Cost Effectiveness Analysis (CEA) is used here to evaluate the performance of the kokako (Callaeas cinerea) recovery programme. This species is being managed at a number of sites in New Zealand and analysis shows a large variation in costs and effectiveness between these sites. Cost Effectiveness Analysis provides a tool to allow managers to better predict where resources should be invested to most cost-effectively achieve their conservation targets, in this case recovery of an endangered species. Issues of lack of reliable cost data and ongoing policy problems limit the potential of economics to contribute to improved conservation management of threatened species in New Zealand. ____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________


Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) profiling was used to evaluate the distribution of phenotypically indistinguishable, but genetically distinct, amongCampylobacter concisus strains from South Africa. A Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay described for identifying strains belonging to Genomospecies 1 and 2 was appliedin this study. Forty-seven C. concisus strains were studied in total, of which 42 were of South African origin. Forty of the South African isolates were assigned to the major existing genomospecies typified by the type strain of oral origin (GS1), and reference strains from bloody diarrhoea (GS2). Eighteen South African isolates were distributed in the GS1 cluster including two oral strains. Twenty-two faecal South African isolates clustered with reference GS2 strains. Two novel genomospecies (GS 5 and 6) were inferred by their AFLP profile characteristics. Use of an existing PCR assay first described for identification of GS1 and GS2 strains generally indicated that the tool was accurate, although the novel genomospecies described here yielded an amplicon in the GS2 assay. No consistent clinical pattern among the diarrhoea South African strains could be discerned. The study extends the known genetic diversity among C. concisus, elucidates the presence of multiple genomospecies in South Africa, and confirms for the first time an association of GS1 with diarrhoea as well as the utility (with caveats) of a PCR assay for identifying GS1 and GS2 strains.

 Key words: AFLP, Campylobacter concisus strains, bloody diarrhoea, genomospecies, PCR

 .


In this study a solution procedure is developed for a class of industrial investment planning models which incorporates the following features: economies-of-scale in production, intermediate input-output relationships among production activities, and joint production of different products having common processing requirements (capacity sharing). The model is formulated as a mixed integer programming problem. It is single-period and disregards spatial considerations. The choice is between domestic production and imports (make-buy) to satisfy exogenously stated demands for a given set of interrelated products.

A two-stage solution procedure was developed and specialized to various specifications of the planning model. At the first stage simple sufficiency conditions for import and for domestic production of a given product are systematically applied in an attempt to reduce the size of the problem. At the second stage (solution stage) an LP-based branch-and-bound (B-B) algorithm is used.

Data from the mechanical engineering (metal working) sector of the Republic of Korea was used to implement the proposed two-stage solution procedure. The results from 25 test problems generated from the Korean data provide strong evidence of the efficiency of the approach. Moreover, computational experience with the B-B stage alone indicates that very large problems can be efficiently solved without dependence on the success of any form of problem reduction attempt.


Tactical crew planning problem at Turkish State Railways (TCDD) involves finding the minimum crew capacity in a crew region required to operate a predetermined set of train duties assigned to the region by the headquarters. The problem is to be solved for each crew region by satisfying various rules and constraints associated with the requirements of the company. One of the most important constraints is the day-off requirement which makes the problem computationally intractable. In this study, we use a space-time network flow representation to solve the tactical capacity planning problem with day-off requirement. To solve the problem, we develop two solution approaches: the sequential approach and the integrated approach. In the sequential approach we mimic the current practice at TCDD and solve the problem in two stages. In the first stage, we solve a minimum flow problem over a space-time network by relaxing the day-off requirement. After obtaining the tentative schedules of crew members, we solve an assignment problem to fill-in the days-off in the tentative schedules by using additional substitute crew members. In the integrated approach, we solve a minimum flow problem with side constraints using a layered space-time network representation of the problem. We present the computational study on a real-life data set acquired from TCDD. We, then, study a higher level crew capacity planning problem. In this tactical-to-strategic level capacity planning problem, we minimize the total crew capacity of all regions by simultaneously considering multiple regions. We do this by re-assigning duties to different regions or allowing two neighboring crew regions share the train duties in different settings. For tactical-to-strategic capacity planning problem, we present the mathematical formulation of single-region and two-region models with various crew exchange policies. Given the large scale of the search space, we choose to employ a neighborhood search heuristic in order to solve the problem. The neighborhood search heuristic uses the minimum flow problem in the sequential approach as a subprocedure. We present the computational study again for the TCDD data set.


The study explores the process of the introduction of computers into education as an
educational innovation.
The thesis distinguishes two fundamental categories of computer use in schools (IT and
ITE), and identifies the different rationales for their initiation at a national level, and the different
objectives they reflect at the school level. It also provides a conceptual framework to explore the
process of the innovation. It identifies the value that the computer use represents and the
complexity it involves as the main factors that influence its initiation into education. Moreover, it
explores the ways in which the meaning of the computer use as well as the context of its
implementation influence the computer use. The cases of England and Germany illustrate the
theoretical considerations of the thesis.
The case study of the introduction of computers into Greek general education attempts to
capture the complexity of the process as shaped by the characteristics of computer use and by the
specific Greek context. The Greek case study confirms that the value and the complexity of
computer use influence its initiation. However, it shows that their codification depends on the
specific characteristics of an educational system, the priorities of a country, and its infrastructure. It
indicates that the interrelations of these factors at particular points in time, is more important than
the factors themselves. It stresses the high levels of technical complexity of the particular
innovation. It indicates, however, that a highly centralised bureaucratic educational system can not
easily cope with this issue, while more flexible schemata are needed to combine local initiatives with
centralised support.
Next, it shows that the meaning of computer use is perceived differently by participants and
is shaped in the transition from policy to implementation. It demonstrates how policy documents are
often contradictory to each other, creating a lack of clarity about the meaning of the attempted
computer use. Additionally, the study illustrates that the proposed computer use is not always
implemented the way its initiators envisaged it. It suggests that the reasons for discrepancies may
differ among educational systems. In the Greek case study discrepancies were due to a lack of
clarity in meaning, as well as to a lack of resources. Moreover, the infrastructure provided by the
Greek prescriptive educational system to support the implementation of IT did not encourage
initiatives on behalf of the teachers.
Finally, the case study points that although the fast evolution of technology requires flexible
procedures to keep up with change, it also stresses the importance of continuity. Therefore, flexible
management structures need to co-exist with long term plans.


The significance of online communities (Muniz and O'Guinn, 2001) has spawned new lines of academic research across social sciences. Academic research on e-communities have found that they are (i) creating a parallel source of information for customers and (ii) more credible than the marketers' message being supported by what is called "the wisdom of the crowd", i.e beyond the control of the firm. Much less theoretical attention has been given to understanding the practices associated with travel blogs (Pan et al., 2007; Akehurst, 2009). A specific gap in the literature appears regarding the under-developed appreciation of the changing market conditions and ascendance of new or different institutional actors – the blogs- in the provision of travel information. Through these online communities, users and new institutional actors are gaining power (Newell, 2003) and could become key in shaping the decision process by challenging and contesting established travel institutions (e.g. travel agents and guide books) (Haugtvedt et al., 2005). These online communities represent a key transformation in the market but also great opportunities to challenge traditional conventions providing a novel basis for judging the (in)appropriateness of acts by self and other and most of all for judging the inertia inherently present in this 'old' institutionalised industry. Still it is important to note that these changes are not uncontested with controversy and contention over information legitimacy, bitter rivalry over the dominant logic and entrenched market conventions (e.g see the airline industry -disclaimers, insurance, quality standards -) present in many key areas of the industry such as seen with the debate associated with low cost airline and landing rights (Brown (1991), Barkin et al. (1995), Graham and Volwes (2006) and Jarach, 2002).
The context chosen for this paper is travel social networks and in particular the Peer-to-Peer virtual communities such as blogs and forums. Virtual communities have been the object of quite a few studies and are defined by a gathering of people linked by common interests and using online technology to communicate (Rheingold, 1994). The quick development of such communities, have has been found to provide members with (i) the opportunity to dialogue (Casalo et al. 2008), (ii) share knowledge with each other (Hsu et al., 2007) and (iii) provide a flow of constant updated information free of market driven strategies (Biggart and Blemish, 2003). As Such, knowledge sharing has been defined by Usoro et al. (2007) as the process of communication between two or more participants involving the provision and acquisition of knowledge. The literature identified various antecedents for knowledge sharing: personal interests (the Economic Exchange Theory), individual characteristics such as propensity to trust (Hsu et al., 2007), relational capital i.e. members' commitment and reciprocity in the sharing (Casalo et al., 2008), desire of reputation (Wasko and Faraj, 2005; Kwok and Gao, 2004; Lee et al., 2006; Hendriks, 1999) and mere enjoyment of doing it (Hsu and Lin, 2008). Among all these antecedents, trust is the most important one because it can overcome the barriers to knowledge sharing such as the fear of no reciprocity, the fear of losing face or one's low self-confidence in the quality of one's knowledge. Blogs in that sense provide the distinction between prescriptive knowledge found in books and institutions' manuals/strategies documents and knowing through real experience.


Accessibility and Acceptability in Technical Manuals is written for an audience with a general interest in readability studies, linguistics and technical writing. With the main emphasis on technical manuals the book is primarily targeted at those who have a special interest in the design and use of utility texts and how these texts are received and understood by a multifaceted audience. Accessibility is not a new research area and many explanations have been offered over the past years as to why non-experts often have difficulties in comprehending texts written by technological experts. This book offers a new approach to accessibility studies by exploring not only style, but also attitudes to style, by asking text consumers which style they prefer for different parts of the manual. A key role is played by the Systemic Functional Linguistics' notion of grammatical metaphor, a stylistic choice that is commonly used in technical literature. Grammatical metaphor — although apparently obstructing the comprehension process of some readers — is a common element in the preferred style that separates the 'insiders' from the 'outsiders'.
An explanation of this rather surprising result is offered by resorting to Critical Discourse Analysis.


The intracellular bacteria Wolbachia infect up to 40% of all insect species, including the vectors of prevalent infectious diseases such as Dengue and malaria. Even though Wolbachia infections are the largest pandemic on this planet, the cellular and molecular mechanisms for bacterial spreading in nature are still unknown. Wolbachia are mainly vertically transmitted through the egg cytoplasm, however there is also evidence of extensive horizontal transmission. We have found that Wolbachia target the stem cell niches in the Drosophila ovary to enhance germline colonization and subsequent vertical transmission. This tropism is pervasive across the Drosophila genus, with the pattern of targeting being evolutionarily conserved. Phylogenetic analyses, confirmed by hybrid introgression and transinfection experiments, demonstrate that bacterial factors are the major determinants of differential patterns of niche tropism. Furthermore, bacterial load is increased in germline cells passing through infected niches, supporting previous findings suggesting a contribution of Wolbachia from stem cell niches towards vertical transmission. viii If niche tropism is important for Wolbachia transmission through the germline, evolutionary theory predicts that there should be no selective pressure to maintain niche tropism in males. Indeed, we have found that tropism to the stem cell niche in the testis, known as the hub, is not evolutionarily conserved. Towards identifying the cellular and molecular mechanisms of stem cell niche tropism, we investigated hub targeting of closely related Wolbachia strains (wMel-like strains: wMel, wMel2, and wMel3; wMelCS-like strains: wMelCS, wMelCS2, and wMelPop). wMel-like and wMelCS-like Wolbachia strains differ in their frequencies and densities of hub infection. The targeting differences of these strains of Wolbachia indicate that this phenotype is rapidly evolving, as they shared a common ancestor only 8,000 years ago. With the plethora of tools available in D. melanogaster, a candidate gene approach was used to target host proteins enriched in the stem cell niche in the testis for RNAi mediated gene knockdown in the hub. We have identified Drosophila stem cell related signaling pathways that promote Wolbachia accumulation. Unraveling the cellular and molecular bases of tissue tropism is fundamental to understanding Wolbachia-host interactions.


One of the main disadvantages of fractal image data compression is a loss time in the process of image compression (encoding) and conversion into a system of iterated functions (IFS). In this paper, the idea of the inverse problem of fixed point is introduced. This inverse problem is based on collage theorem which is the cornerstone of the mathematical idea of fractal image compression. Then this idea is applied by iterated function system, iterative system functions and grayscale iterated function system down to general transformation. Mathematical formulation form is also provided on the digital image space, which deals with the computer. Next, this process has been revised to reduce the time required for image compression by excluding some parts of the image that have a specific milestone. The neural network algorithms have been applied on the process of compression (encryption). The experimental results are presented and the performance of the proposed algorithm is discussed. Finally, the comparison between filtered ranges method and self-organizing method is introduced.


Abstract. Aerosols have important impacts on air quality and climate, but the processes affecting their removal from the atmosphere are not fully understood and are poorly constrained by observations. This makes modelled aerosol lifetimes uncertain. In this study, we make use of an observational constraint on aerosol lifetimes provided by radionuclide measurements and investigate the causes of differences within a set of global models. During the Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant accident of March 2011, the radioactive isotopes cesium-137 (137Cs) and xenon-133 (133Xe) were released in large quantities. Cesium attached to particles in the ambient air, approximately according to their available aerosol surface area. 137Cs size distribution measurements taken close to the power plant suggested that accumulation-mode (AM) sulfate aerosols were the main carriers of cesium. Hence, 137Cs can be used as a proxy tracer for the AM sulfate aerosol's fate in the atmosphere. In contrast, the noble gas 133Xe behaves almost like a passive transport tracer. Global surface measurements of the two radioactive isotopes taken over several months after the release allow the derivation of a lifetime of the carrier aerosol. We compare this to the lifetimes simulated by 19 different atmospheric transport models initialized with identical emissions of 137Cs that were assigned to an aerosol tracer with each model's default properties of AM sulfate, and 133Xe emissions that were assigned to a passive tracer. We investigate to what extent the modelled sulfate tracer can reproduce the measurements, especially with respect to the observed loss of aerosol mass with time. Modelled 137Cs and 133Xe concentrations sampled at the same location and times as station measurements allow a direct comparison between measured and modelled aerosol lifetime. The e-folding lifetime τe, calculated from station measurement data taken between 2 and 9 weeks after the start of the emissions, is 14.3 days (95 % confidence interval 13.1–15.7 days). The equivalent modelled τe lifetimes have a large spread, varying between 4.8 and 26.7 days with a model median of 9.4 ± 2.3 days, indicating too fast a removal in most models. Because sufficient measurement data were only available from about 2 weeks after the release, the estimated lifetimes apply to aerosols that have undergone long-range transport, i.e. not for freshly emitted aerosol. However, modelled instantaneous lifetimes show that the initial removal in the first 2 weeks was quicker (lifetimes between 1 and 5 days) due to the emissions occurring at low altitudes and co-location of the fresh plume with strong precipitation. Deviations between measured and modelled aerosol lifetimes are largest for the northernmost stations and at later time periods, suggesting that models do not transport enough of the aerosol towards the Arctic. The models underestimate passive tracer (133Xe) concentrations in the Arctic as well but to a smaller extent than for the aerosol (137Cs) tracer. This indicates that in addition to too fast an aerosol removal in the models, errors in simulated atmospheric transport towards the Arctic in most models also contribute to the underestimation of the Arctic aerosol concentrations.


An enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was developed to detect and quantify Edwardsiella ictaluri in asymptomatic carrier channel catfish Ictaluruspunctatus and was compared to conventional culture on agar. Tissue homogenization, using 0.5% Triton X-100 in 0 05 M phosphate buffered saline (pH 7.2), clarified tissue slurries, improved filterability and permitted live bacteria to be filtered from 1 g or more of channel catfish organ tissue. Treatment of tissues with Tween 20 or trypsin did not allow improved filtration or bacterial counts. Bacteria captured on 0.45 pm nitrocellulose membrane filters were cultured on E. ictaluri medium agar Bacterial colonies on the filters were tagged with a monoclonal antibody to E. ictaluri on which an ELISA was performed. The ELlSA substrate 3,3'diaminobenzidine facilitated rapid bacterial colony forming unit (CFU) counts without magnification, permitted semipermanent records of isolations, and enabled microscopic confirmation following mounting with Permount. Assay sensitivity was less than 10 CFU g-l of tissue. Conventional bacterial isolation and filter ELISA screening of 98 channel catfish from a population experienc~ng an outbreak of enteric septicemia of catfish (ESC) showed an infection prevalence of 24 TO by standard bacterial isolation techniques and 80% by filter ELISA in asymptomat~c fish.


Background The skew in distribution of handedness is a uniquely human trait, and has fascinated researchers for centuries. The heritability of handedness is estimated at 25%, but defining genetic variants contributing to this trait has so far proved elusive. Methods We performed GWAS of self-reported handedness in UK Biobank, a prospective cohort study of ∼500,000 individuals. Furthermore, we investigated correlations between our associated SNPs and brain imaging-derived phenotypes (IDPs) from >9,000 individuals in UK Biobank, as well as between self-reported handedness and IDPs. Results Our association study of 38,322 left-handers vs 356,567 right-handers (excluding ambidextrous participants) revealed three genome-wide significant loci (rs199512, 17q21.31, p=4.1x10−9; rs45608532, 22q11.22, p=1.4x10−8; rs13017199, 2q34, p=3.3x10−8). In the imaging study, we found strong associations between rs199512 and diffusion MRI measures mainly in white matter tracts connecting language-related brain regions (p<2.0x10−6). Direct investigation between handedness and IDPs revealed numerous associations with functional connectivity between the same language-related areas of the brain. A second GWAS of non-right handers (n=44,631) vs right-handers (n=356,567) revealed an additional locus: rs3094128, 6p21.33, p=2.9x10−8. Three of the four associated loci (2q34, 17q21.31, 6p21.33) contain genes that encode microtubule-related proteins that are highly expressed in the brain: MAP2, MAPT and TUBB. These genes are strongly implicated in the pathogenesis of diseases that are known to affect an excess of left-handed people, including schizophrenia. Conclusions This is the first GWAS to identify genome-wide significant loci for human handedness in the general population, and the genes at these loci have biological plausibility in contributing to neurodevelopmental lateralization of brain organisation, which appears to predispose both to left-handedness and to certain neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases.


The Rockall Trough is a large, lightly explored, deep water basin offshore West of Britain. Only the 132/15-1 well has penetrated Mesozoic section within the Rockall Trough encountering a syn-rift section, interpreted on seismic reflection data, of early Cretaceous age (Hauterivian-Cenomanian) lying directly on crystalline basement. Older rift events have been proposed in the Rockall Trough to explain the extensive crustal thinning (Beta = 3 to 5) and because of the presence of older rifts on adjacent basins. Although the evidence is not conclusive, analysis of seismic reflection data within the Rockall Trough and of rift system trends on an early Cretaceous plate reconstruction do not require or suggest older than Cretaceous rifts in the Rockall Trough but also do not preclude them. Structurally, the Cretaceous rifting is highly assymetric being dominated by faults downthrowing to the southeast. A model of a reactivated Caledonian foreland thrust belt is proposed similar to that reported on the adjacent Hebridean shelf.


Lending practices of commercial banks in Afghanistan were analyzed using CAMEL ratings. Statistically significant correlations were found: Banks with worse ratings (a) had more lending to domestic clients and (b) paid less tax. There was no statistically significant relationship between profits and total assets or between lending/assets versus profit/assets. Interviews of senior management of 8 banks accounting for about 90 percent of the commercial banking system corroborated evidence that poorly rated banks lend to domestic clients, whereas highly rated banks do not lend. Banks that lend extensively domestically engage in extra-judicial, non-traditional contract enforcement.


In this paper, we show that in a multi-camera context, we can effectively handle occlusions at each time frame independently, even when the only available data comes from the binary output of a fairly primitive motion detector. We start from occupancy probability estimates in a top view and rely on a generative model to yield probability images to be compared with the actual input images. We then refine the estimates so that the probability images match the binary input images as well as possible. We demonstrate the quality of our results on several sequences involving complex occlusions.


We present here a low-temperature thermochronological study that combines the apatite fission-track and (U + Th)/He dating methods with a pseudo-vertical sampling approach to generate continuous and well-constrained temperature–time histories from the onshore Irish Atlantic margin. The apatite fission-track and (U + Th)/He ages range from the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous and the mean track lengths are relatively short. Thermal histories derived from inverse modelling show that following post-orogenic exhumation the sample profiles cooled to c. 75 °C. A rapid cooling event to surface temperatures occurred during the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous and was diachronous from north to south. It was most probably caused by c. 2.5 km of rift-shoulder related exhumation and can be temporally linked to the main stage of Mesozoic rifting in the offshore basins. A slow phase of reheating during the Late Cretaceous and Early Cenozoic is attributed to the deposition of a thick sedimentary sequence that resulted in c. 1.5 km of burial. Our data imply a final pulse of exhumation in Neogene times, probably related to compression of the margin. However, it is possible that an Early Cenozoic cooling event, compatible with our data but not seen in our inverse models, accounts for part of the Cenozoic exhumation. Supplementary material: Details on the apatite fission-track and (U + Th)/He methods are available at www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18765.


The paper describes the initiatives of the University of Ghana Library System (UGLS) in the development of subject librarianship programme in the University of Ghana in the context of roles, competencies/skills, communication, training, collaboration, time and information and communication technologies. The goal of the programme is to provide information or communication link to and between academic departments/units about library services, collection development and instruction and any other developmental issues relevant to the academic departments in the course of their teaching, learming, and research. The paper is largely based on the programme's development and the preparations that have been made to launch the programme. Lessons to be learnt are derived from literature to ensure the success and sustainability of the project. The indications are that a lot of fruitful preparations were undertaken and the literature has also thrown more light on issues that can be adopted in furtherance and sustenance of the programme. The paper presents information on issues to be considered as this concept is being implemented in the developing world.


Objective To model the cost-effectiveness impact of routine use of an antimicrobial chlorhexidine gluconate-containing securement dressing compared to non-antimicrobial transparent dressings for the protection of central vascular lines in intensive care unit patients. Design This study uses a novel health economic model to estimate the cost-effectiveness of using the chlorhexidine gluconate dressing versus transparent dressings in a French intensive care unit scenario. The 30-day time non-homogeneous markovian model comprises eight health states. The probabilities of events derive from a multicentre (12 French intensive care units) randomized controlled trial. 1,000 Monte Carlo simulations of 1,000 patients per dressing strategy are used for probabilistic sensitivity analysis and 95% confidence intervals calculations. The outcome is the number of catheter-related bloodstream infections avoided. Costs of intensive care unit stay are based on a recent French multicentre study and the cost-effectiveness criterion is the cost per catheter-related bloodstream infections avoided. The incremental net monetary benefit per patient is also estimated. Patients 1000 patients per group simulated based on the source randomized controlled trial involving 1,879 adults expected to require intravascular catheterization for 48 hours. Intervention Chlorhexidine Gluconate-containing securement dressing compared to non-antimicrobial transparent dressings. Results The chlorhexidine gluconate dressing prevents 11.8 infections /1,000 patients (95% confidence interval: [3.85; 19.64]) with a number needed to treat of 85 patients. The mean cost difference per patient of €141 is not statistically significant (95% confidence interval: [€-975; €1,258]). The incremental cost-effectiveness ratio is of €12,046 per catheter-related bloodstream infection prevented, and the incremental net monetary benefit per patient is of €344.88. Conclusions According to the base case scenario, the chlorhexidine gluconate dressing is more cost-effective than the reference dressing. Trial Registration This model is based on the data from the RCT registered with www.clinicaltrials.gov (NCT01189682).


Sorting database tables before compressing them improves the compression rate. Can we do better than the lexicographical order? For minimizing the number of runs in a run-length encoding compression scheme, the best approaches to row-ordering are derived from traveling salesman heuristics, although there is a significant trade-off between running time and compression. A new heuristic, Multiple Lists, which is a variant on Nearest Neighbor that trades off compression for a major running-time speedup, is a good option for very large tables. However, for some compression schemes, it is more important to generate long runs rather than few runs. For this case, another novel heuristic, Vortex, is promising. We find that we can improve run-length encoding up to a factor of 3 whereas we can improve prefix coding by up to 80%: these gains are on top of the gains due to lexicographically sorting the table. We prove that the new row reordering is optimal (within 10%) at minimizing the runs of identical values within columns, in a few cases.


Aluminium based metal matrix composites find varied applications in aerospace, defense, automobile, sports equipment and electronics due to their favourable properties viz. light weight, high strength and coefficient of thermal expansion. The commercial Al–Zn–Mg–Cu (7075) alloy is used extensively in the aerospace industry for the fabrication of structural components. In the present work, Al 7075 Reinforced with 2,4 & 6 wt% of Grey Cast Iron & 2 wt% of Fly Ash are manufactured using stir casting technique. Specimens are prepared as per the international standards and tensile, hardness, impact, wear tests are conducted. It was concluded that Fly ash and cast iron powder up to 6% can be added to Al successfully by stir casting route to produce a hybrid composite. The hardness and tensile strength increased with the increase in concentration of cast iron powder. The wear and frictional force decreased with the increase in concentration of cast iron powder in the aluminium matrix. Impact strength variation is marginal with the increase in wt% of Grey Cast Iron.


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42 Management Today July 2005
Great stories:
stories that inspire greatness in business
Lorinda Ellis is director of Learning
Resources Video.
Storytelling - the language art that predates
written history is still man's favourite
way to learn. Before the advent of writing,
culture and heritage were passed from
generation to generation through the oral
tradition of storytelling.
Storytelling is a powerful medium because
the human mind remembers and
identifies with stories. As times changed
storytelling migrated to the written word
and in the early part of this century to film.
Today film is a powerful and most used
visual ..


Using lessons from idealised predictability experiments, we discuss some issues and perspectives on the design of operational seasonal to inter‐annual Arctic sea‐ice prediction systems. We first review the opportunities to use a hierarchy of different types of experiment to learn about the predictability of Arctic climate. We also examine key issues for ensemble system design, such as measuring skill, the role of ensemble size and generation of ensemble members. When assessing the potential skill of a set of prediction experiments, using more than one metric is essential as different choices can significantly alter conclusions about the presence or lack of skill. We find that increasing both the number of hindcasts and ensemble size is important for reliably assessing the correlation and expected error in forecasts. For other metrics, such as dispersion, increasing ensemble size is most important. Probabilistic measures of skill can also provide useful information about the reliability of forecasts. In addition, various methods for generating the different ensemble members are tested. The range of techniques can produce surprisingly different ensemble spread characteristics. The lessons learnt should help inform the design of future operational prediction systems.


Fluid transportation systems are among the high energy consumers in different industries such as water distribution systems. It is, therefore, important to study their optimized performance as regards their energy consumption. The fluid behavior in these systems under different operational conditions is actually dynamic, or time-dependent; the study of these systems by a dynamic model, hence, allows system performance to be evaluated more accurately. In this paper, a dynamic model is presented for a fluid transportation system consisting of a pumping station, a pipeline, and a reservoir tank. Sample calculations of energy consumption for a pumping station are presented. The results obtained from this study can be used for formulating recommendations on energy consumption estimation of pumping stations based on their operational conditions and control method used.


At the Olympic level, differences in performance are typically less than 0.5%. This helps explain why many contemporary elite endurance athletes in summer and winter sport incorporate some form of altitude/hypoxic training within their year-round training plan, believing that it will provide the "competitive edge" to succeed at the Olympic level. The purpose of this paper is to describe the practical application of altitude/hypoxic training as used by elite athletes. Within the general framework of the paper, both anecdotal and scientific evidence will be presented relative to the efficacy of several contemporary altitude/hypoxic training models and devices currently used by Olympic-level athletes for the purpose of legally enhancing performance. These include the three primary altitude/hypoxic training models: 1) live high+train high (LH+TH), 2) live high+train low (LH+TL), and 3) live low+train high (LL+TH). The LH+TL model will be examined in detail and will include its various modifications: natural/terrestrial altitude, simulated altitude via nitrogen dilution or oxygen filtration, and hypobaric normoxia via supplemental oxygen. A somewhat opposite approach to LH+TL is the altitude/hypoxic training strategy of LL+TH, and data regarding its efficacy will be presented. Recently, several of these altitude/hypoxic training strategies and devices underwent critical review by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) for the purpose of potentially banning them as illegal performance-enhancing substances/methods. This paper will conclude with an update on the most recent statement from WADA regarding the use of simulated altitude devices.


Safety analysis is recognized as a fundamental problem in access control. It has been studied for various access control schemes in the literature. Recent work has proposed an administrative model for Temporal Role-Based Access Control (TRBAC) policies called Administrative TRBAC (ATRBAC). We address ATRBAC-safety. We first identify that the problem is PSPACE-Complete. This is a much tighter identification of the computational complexity of the problem than prior work, which shows only that the problem is decidable. With this result as the basis, we propose an approach that leverages an existing open-source software tool called Mohawk to address ATRBAC-safety. Our approach is to efficiently reduce ATRBAC-safety to ARBAC-safety, and then use Mohawk. We have conducted a thorough empirical assessment. In the course of our assessment, we came up with a "reduction toolkit," which allows us to reduce Mohawk+T input instances to instances that existing tools support. Our results suggest that there are some input classes for which Mohawk+T outperforms existing tools, and others for which existing tools outperform Mohawk+T. The source code for Mohawk+T is available for public download.


The paper presents study the factors that can improve the performance of an activated carbon/methanol intermittent solar adsorption icemarker. That uses an adsorption tube collector for cooling, in which solar energy can be directly absorbed. Effect of some important parameters, such as amount 8of methanol, condenser temperat., initial and peak collector temperat., on the system performances were investigated. The amount of activated carbon is fixed and is equal to (4 kg) for all the experiments that have been performed. Several quantities of Methanol were tested (650 g, 750g, 900g) to get the best system performance. The experimental test rig of present work was designed to produce 2 kg of ice by using Activated Carbon in a concentration of 0.28 kg Methanol/kg Activated Carbon. The shape of the flat plate type adsorber/collector was parallelogram with dimensions (110 cm× 67 cm×8 cm). The results show that the coefficient of performance of the unit decreases with increase the condenser and evaporator temperat.. The new in this paper that the maximum average of COP was 0.49 but the minimum was 0.4 that agree with literat. experiments in this field.


It is very common in an enterprise daily operation to solve Container Loading Problem (CLP). Especially, it is an important issue in the logistic management. The problem aims to determine the arrangement of objects with the best utilization ratio in a container. It belongs to the combinatorial optimization problem. In this paper, a two-phased method focusing on the improvement of the efficiency and on the reducing of the problem size is proposed. In the first phase, a constructive method incorporated with a decision rule borrowing from ant colony optimization is used to construct tower set. The pheromone updating mechanism is useful in choosing proper object while constructing tower using decision rule. In the second phase, an improvement method based on genetic algorithm is used. First, the method sorts the towers by the utilization ratio and then assigns a number to each tower accordingly. The chromosome is a sequence of tower numbers which represents the arrangement of towers in the container's bottom plane. The fitness function is defined as the utilization ratio. A new structure to store the pheromone is proposed which can help the ant in choosing the appropriate object while constructing tower. In this way, the efficiency of the method and the utilization of the container are improved.