Gray wolves (Canis lupus) in parts of the United States and Europe live in networks of disjunct populations, many of which are close to human settlement. Because wolf management goals include sustaining disjunct populations, it is important to ask what types of areas and protections are needed for population survival. To predict the effects of different levels of human‐caused mortality, we created a simulation model for a disjunct wolf population living in a semi‐wild landscape with abundant, well distributed prey. The landscape included a maximum of 16 territories divided into core and peripheral range. The mortality rate in the core range was 20%, whereas the mortality rate in peripheral range (40%) was higher because of human‐caused deaths. We examined the relationship between the proportions of core and peripheral range and the 50‐year occupancy of that range by wolf packs, given different assumptions about pup and dispersal mortality and immigration. Simulations showed that occupancy increased as the number of core sites increased, but curve location depended on parameter assumptions. With pup and dispersal mortality rates consistent with those for disease‐free and legally protected populations, wolves saturated a 16‐territory cluster with as few as two core sites, regardless of immigration rate. When populations had high pup or dispersal mortality, as few as two immigrants per year helped maintain high (>80%) site occupancy in clusters with four or more core sites. Small numbers of immigrants were also important for sustaining colonizing populations and buffering the negative effects of increased environmental variation. The simulations supported the claim that wolves can survive in disjunct populations provided that wolves can move between populations, human persecution is not excessive, and prey is abundant.


When managing patients with skin disease it is important not to overlook associated ocular conditions or side effects of dermatological therapies, which may result in blindness or permanent sight impairment if not managed promptly and appropriately. This chapter focuses on conditions that commonly occur in clinical practice and that present a management problem, including rosacea/blepharitis, allergic eye disease, cicatrizing conjunctivitis, infections and eyelid tumours. Conditions that could threaten visual acuity and require urgent referral to an ophthalmologist are highlighted. Finally, systemic diseases affecting both the skin and eyes, in which ophthalmic assessment can help to make the diagnosis, are outlined.

Keywords:

rosacea;
blepharitis;
ocular allergy;
atopy;
cicatrizing conjunctivitis;
eyelid tumour;
eye infection


This note provides an update on Bank of Canada staff's assessment of the Canadian neutral rate. The neutral rate is the policy rate needed to keep output at its potential level and inflation at target once the effects of any cyclical shocks have dissipated. This medium- to long-run concept serves as a benchmark for gauging the degree of monetary stimulus provided by a given policy setting. Staff's overall assessment, which is based on the combined output of a suite of four distinct approaches, is that the Canadian neutral rate likely lies in a range of 2.25 to 3.25 per cent in nominal terms, lower than the range of 2.5 to 3.5 per cent reported at the time of the last update in April 2018. Although this downward shift stems mainly from a lower assessed global neutral rate, the overall assessment also reflects some improved modelling techniques enabling staff to better capture the medium- to long-run impact of macroeconomic risk on the level of the neutral rate. Moreover, while staff's assessed range for the neutral rate captures important sources of uncertainty, it should not be interpreted as reflecting the full extent of the uncertainties surrounding the neutral rate.


Background It is unknown whether the risk of preterm birth (PTB) is elevated for forced (refugee) international migrants and whether prolonged displacement amplifies risk. While voluntary migrants who arrive from a country other than their country of birth (ie, secondary migrants) have favourable birth outcomes compared with those who migrated directly from their country of birth (ie, primary migrants), secondary migration may be detrimental for refugees who experience distinct challenges in transition countries. Our objectives were (1) to determine whether refugee status was associated with PTB and (2) whether the relation between refugee status and PTB differed between secondary and primary migrants. Methods We conducted a retrospective population-based cohort study. Ontario immigration (2002–2010) and hospitalisation data (2002–2010) were linked to estimate adjusted cumulative odds ratios (ACOR) of PTB (22–31, 32–36, 37–41 weeks of gestation), with 95% CIs (95% CI) comparing refugees with non-refugees. We further included a product term between refugee status and secondary migration. Results Overall, refugees (N=12 913) had 17% greater cumulative odds of short gestation (ACOR=1.17, 95% CI 1.07 to 1.28) compared with non-refugees (N=110 640). Secondary migration modified the association between refugee status and PTB (p=0.007). Secondary refugees had 58% greater cumulative odds of short gestation (ACOR=1.58, 95% CI 1.25 to 2.00) than secondary non-refugees, while primary refugees had 12% greater cumulative odds of short gestation (ACOR=1.12, 95% CI 1.02 to 1.23) than primary non-refugee immigrants. Conclusions Refugee status, jointly with secondary migration, influences PTB among migrants.


Modelling of screw compressors using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) offers better insight into the working chamber of twin screw machines when compared with chamber models. As shown by authors in earlier publications, CFD models predict performance of dry gas and refrigeration compressors fairly accurately. However numerical flow models used for modelling of oil flooded twin screw compressors are still at the development stage. This is mainly due to the lack of understanding of the flow complexity and the techniques used for solving coupled equations that represent interactions between the gas and the oil in such machines. This paper presents the modelling approach used for calculation of the performance of an oil flooded screw compressor. It requires a structured numerical mesh which can represent all moving parts of the compressor in a single numerical domain. Such mesh is generated by SCORGTM using novel boundary distribution technique called casing-to-rotor conformal boundary mapping. A test oil injected twin screw compressor with rotor configuration 4/5 and 127 mm main rotor diameter was measured in the compressor rig of the Centre for Compressor Technology at City University London. Measurements of the chamber pressure history and integral parameters of the compressor such as mass flow rate of gas and oil, indicated power and temperatures are used for the comparison with CFD results. The analysis showed a close match in the prediction of the mass flow rates of gas. The indicated power obtained by CFD predictions matched well with the measured shaft power. The model provided an exceptional visualization of the interaction of gas and oil inside the compression chamber. The mixing of the phases, distribution of oil, heat transfer between gas and oil and also effects on sealing due to high oil concentration in leakage gaps were well captured.


Prior work established that exercise alleviates muscle function loss in a clinically relevant rodent model mimicking the clinical sequelae of severely burned patients. On the basis of these data, we posit that pharmacologic treatment with insulin combined with exercise further mitigates loss of muscle function following severe burn with immobilization. Twenty‐four Sprague–Dawley rats were assessed and trained to complete a climbing exercise. All rats followed a standardized protocol to mimic severe burn patients (40% total body surface area scald burn); all rats were immediately placed into a hindlimb unloading apparatus to simulate bedrest. The rats were then randomly assigned to four treatment groups: saline vehicle injection without exercise (VEH/NEX), insulin (5 U/kg) injection without exercise (INS/NEX), saline vehicle with daily exercise (VEH/EX), and insulin with daily exercise (INS/EX). The animals were assessed for 14 days following injury. The groups were compared for multiple variables. Isometric tetanic (Po) and twitch (Pt) forces were significantly elevated in the plantaris and soleus muscles of the INS/EX rats (P < 0.05). Genomic analysis revealed mechanistic causes with specific candidate changes. Molecular analysis of INS/EX rats revealed Akt phosphorylated by PDPK1 was increased with this treatment, and it further activated downstream signals mTOR, eEF2, and GSK3‐β (P < 0.05). Furthermore, muscle RING‐finger protein‐1 (MuRF‐1), an E3 ubiquitin ligase, was reduced in the INS/EX group (P < 0.05). Insulin and resistance exercise have a positive combined effect on the muscle function recovery in this clinically relevant rodent model of severe burn. Both treatments altered signaling pathways of increasing protein synthesis and decreasing protein degradation.


Olmesartan medoxomil (OLM) is a lipophilic (log P = 4.31) antihypertensive drug suffering from limited oral bioavailability in humans (26%) due to its low aqueous solubility, uncontrolled enzymatic conversion to the active metabolite (olmesartan; OL) and efflux by drug resistance pumps. Surmounting such limitations via incorporation of OLM into self-nanoemulsifying drug delivery systems (SNEDDS). Based on OLM-equilibrium solubility studies in various oils, surfactants and co-surfactants, Capmul® MCM, Tween® 20, Cremophor® EL and polyethylene glycol-400 (PEG) were combined in different ratios to plot ternary phase diagrams. OLM-loaded SENDDS were developed and evaluated for particle size, polydispersity index (PDI), zeta potential, self-emulsification time, morphology, drug released percentages after 5-min (Q5min%), 1-hour (Q1h%) and dissolution efficiency percentages (DE1h%). The OL pharmacokinetics from SNEDDS (F6) and Benicar® tablets were evaluated (LC-MS/MS) in rabbits. Spherical OLM-loaded SNEDDS were developed. The best-achieved SNEDDS (F6) showed short emulsification time (13 s), fine droplet size (60.00 nm), low PDI (0.25), negative zeta potential (-14.4 mV), promising dissolution parameters; Q5min% (29.78%), Q1h% (66.69%) and DE1h%(47.96%) and enhanced in vivo absorption characteristics; shorter Tmax, higher Cmax and larger AUC(0−48h; suggesting its potential for the enhancement of the oral absorption of practically insoluble drugs; like OLM.


This study was conducted in Paga to assess the spatial distribution and operations of petrol stations and the associated health and safety hazards. Coordinates of the stations and the distances between them and the nearest residences were elicited and analysed using a GPS and ArcGIS software. Distances between fuel stations' boundaries and the middle of the N10 highway and the distances between filling stations' underground tanks and the nearest houses/institutions were determined using the same technique. Qualitative data were derived using structured questionnaires and semi structured interviews to provide information on perceptions of residents on the potential dangers associated with the presence of filling stations to assess the extent to which the location and operations of the stations conformed with government policy and guidelines. The study revealed that the inventoried filling stations were all located along the highway and distributed across both sides. The ratio of the total number of filling stations to the stretch of the highway (km) was 4:1. The study also showed that the guidelines for siting filling stations were not adhered to by most of the stations in the area. This posed a serious threat to the health and safety of the locals; more so, as they were predominantly sited close to residences and places of public assembly. The study also revealed that albeit there was good level of public awareness and knowledge amongst the locals of issues relating to hazards associated with the presence of the filling stations in the area, no action was undertaken by the people to draw the attention of local authorities to the problem, and prompt them to remedy it. The study therefore recommended the need for the regulatory agencies to take immediate remedial actions in response to the haphazard siting of filling stations in the area, and the country as a whole.

 Key words: Petrol stations, hazards, government policy and guidelines, perception, township.


Public displays and mobile phones are ubiquitous technologies that are already weaving themselves into the everyday life of urban citizens. The combination of the two enables new and novel possibilities, such as interaction with displays that are not physically accessible, extending screen real estate for mobile phones or transferring user content to and from public displays. However, current usability evaluations of prototype systems have explored only a small part of this design space, as usage of such systems is deeply embedded in and dependent on social and everyday context. In order to investigate issues surrounding appropriation and real use in social context field studies are necessary. In this paper we present our experiences with field deployments in a continuum between exploratory prototypes and technology probes. We present benefits and drawbacks of different evaluation methods, and provide a number of validated lessons from our deployments.


We pursue a comparative analysis of employers' age management practices in Britain and Germany, asking how valid 'convergence' and 'Varieties of Capitalism' theories are. After rejecting the convergence verdict, we proceed to ask how far 'path dependence' helps explain inter-country differences. Through 19 interviews with British and German experts, we find that firms have reacted in different ways to promptings from the EU and the two states. Change has been modest and a rhetoric-reality gap exists in firms as they seek to hedge. We point to continuities in German institutional methods of developing new initiatives, and the emerging role of British NGOs in helping firms and the state develop new options. We argue that 'path dependence' offers insight into the national comparison, but also advance the idea of national modes of firm option-exploration as an important way of conceptualizing the processes involved.


The distinction between permanent and transitory earnings is important when using accounting earnings to predict future dividends. To the extent that net income includes transitory items, it is less useful in predicting future dividends, and thus, less useful in valuing the firm. If comprehensive income includes more transitory items than net income, it is less useful than net income in valuing the firm. This study contributes to the literature in two ways. First, a definition of permanent earnings is developed that is based on the relation between earnings and expected future dividends. The study illustrates the relation between permanent, transitory, and unexpected earnings, and demonstrates the consequences o f using unexpected earnings instead of the change in permanent earnings when regressing stock returns on an earnings measure. Second, the study provides evidence as to the relative usefulness of net income and comprehensive income in modeling firm value by testing whether items o f other comprehensive income (OCI) as defined under SFAS No. 130, Reporting Comprehensive Income, are related to firm value. Data for the study are hand gathered from 126 firms over 11 years (19861996). The results show that items of OCI are not related to firm value, as measured by annual returns. The results are robust to all model specifications and econometric methods used. Further, items of OCI are found to exhibit small positive autocorrelation and have zero mean. This is consistent with the prediction that items of OCI are transitory.


We use Bayesian convolutional neural networks and a novel generative model of Galaxy Zoo volunteer responses to infer posteriors for the visual morphology of galaxies. Bayesian CNN can learn from galaxy images with uncertain labels and then, for previously unlabelled galaxies, predict the probability of each possible label. Our posteriors are well-calibrated (e.g. for predicting bars, we achieve coverage errors of 11.8 per cent within a vote fraction deviation of 0.2) and hence are reliable for practical use. Further, using our posteriors, we apply the active learning strategy BALD to request volunteer responses for the subset of galaxies which, if labelled, would be most informative for training our network. We show that training our Bayesian CNNs using active learning requires up to 35–60 per cent fewer labelled galaxies, depending on the morphological feature being classified. By combining human and machine intelligence, Galaxy zoo will be able to classify surveys of any conceivable scale on a time-scale of weeks, providing massive and detailed morphology catalogues to support research into galaxy evolution.


This thesis discusses for the first time the reception of higher level Greek
in everyday prose in second- to sixth-century Egypt. It offers insights into the
strategies of composition in stylistically ambitious non-literary sources, and investigates
the use of select high-level language varieties. It thus contributes to research on stylistic
registers in post-classical Greek.
In Chapter One, the objectives of thesis are set out, and the methodologies
used in assessing evidence are outlined. Chapter Two explores competence as a
prerequisite for good performance. The linguistic characteristics of grammar as taught
in contemporary schools are analysed in detail to determine the constituents of
language competence of educated individuals. Greek theories of the epistolary style are
discussed at length to define the normative stylistic context within which well-educated
individuals produced their correspondence.
Chapter Three examines the impact of two high-level language varieties,
viz. purism and poetic language. The phenomenon of severe puristic intervention is
explored by analysing two test cases. The interaction between attitudes to extreme
puristic variants and the weighting of non-puristic elements is discussed, and the
existence of widely varied puristic profiles is demonstrated within each genre. Loans
from poetic language are shown to be equally subject to various patterns of usage,
depending upon either external determinants such as context or the writer's particular
psychological motivations.
Focusing on private correspondence, Chapter Four illustrates the main
strategies of stylistic refinement from a selection of contemporary letters. The capacity
of handling the tools of high level Greek is occasionally inferior to the writers'
ambitions, and the selected strategies of refinement differed in conformity with the
rhetorical norms proposed by known epistolary theorists. Compositional choices
disagreeing with these seem to depend partly on rhetorically-motivated acts, partly on
sheer ignorance of the requirements of rhetoric.


In 2006 the Petroleum Safety Authority Norway (PSA) performed a well integrity survey. The survey indicated that about 20 % of wells on the Norwegian Continental shelf (NCS) may suffer from well integrity issues. Most of the problems were related to deficiency in annulus safety valve, tubing, cement and casing. Pressure build-up in annulus, i.e. sustained casing pressure, is one of the main indicators of a significant well integrity problem. Increased understanding on the field may help engineers to design wells with better integrity in the future. This thesis describes SCP and its most common causes with emphasis on the relation between casing shoe setting depth and the occurrence of SCP. Primary and secondary barrier is described together with the common practice of choosing casing shoe depth. Formation strength and its impact on setting depth is explained together with a brief introduction of the different formation integrity tests. Generic cases have been studied to determine the relation between unfavorable casing shoe setting depth and the occurrence of SCP. For each case there is a suggestion as how the well may be redesigned so that the risk of SCP is reduced. Information on the theme has been acquired through studying and comparing different papers, booklets, previous reports and reviews concerning the subject. The Norsok standard D-010 and 117 – OLF recommended guidelines for well integrity have also been very informative during the study. To be able to avoid SCP and at the same time improve well design, it is important to properly understand how SCP arises. Changing the casing shoe setting depth to a more suited depth or formation cannot alone eliminate SCP. To eliminate SCP a good conversion between Top of Cement (TOC) and setting depth of the previous casing shoe is required. The best way of avoiding SCP because of casing shoe setting depth is to make a thorough investigation of the underground and carefully choose the setting depth.


This memo defines a portion of the Management Information Base (MIB) for use with network management protocols in the Internet community. In particular, it defines objects for monitoring and controlling network devices with APPN (Advanced Peer-to-Peer Network) EBN (Extended Border Node) capabilities. This memo identifies managed objects for the EBN architecture. Table of


Social media are part of the fabric of today's world, from which health care is not excluded. Based on its distribution capacity, a single individual can cause an amount of damage to an institution that only a few decades ago required access to a mainstream news media outlet. Despite the obvious parallels in professional standards in the medical and dental communities, the scholarly activity and resulting collegial discourse observed among medical professionals remain unmatched in the dental education literature. As a result, a rigorous research agenda on the topic is indicated. Once these results are evaluated and thoroughly vetted, actions should be tailored to address the needs, minimize the threats, and maximize the opportunities that have been already noted by the medical profession. Regardless of input, albeit internal or external, a cadre of individuals who are willing to develop philosophy, policy, and procedure related to the use of social media policies in dental education can then be identified to evaluate the issues unique to the institution and perhaps the profession.


"There are writers--Tolstoy and Henry James to name two--whom we hold in awe, writers--Turgenev and Chekhov--for whom we feel a personal affection, other writers whom we respect--Conrad for example--but who hold us at a long arm's length with their 'courtly foreign grace.' Narayan (whom I don't hesitate to name in such a context) more than any of them wakes in me a spring of gratitude, for he has offered me a second home. Without him I could never have known what it is like to be Indian."--Graham Greene Offering rare insight into the complexities of Indian middle-class society, R. K. Narayan traces life in the fictional town of Malgudi. The Dark Room is a searching look at a difficult marriage and a woman who eventually rebels against the demands of being a good and obedient wife. In Mr. Sampath, a newspaper man tries to keep his paper afloat in the face of social and economic changes sweeping India. Narayan writes of youth and young adulthood in the semiautobiographical Swami and Friends and The Bachelor of Arts. Although the ordinary tensions of maturing are heightened by the particular circumstances of pre-partition India, Narayan provides a universal vision of childhood, early love and grief. "The experience of reading one of his novels is ...comparable to one's first reaction to the great Russian novels: the fresh realization of the common humanity of all peoples, underlain by a simultaneous sense of strangeness--like one's own reflection seen in a green twilight."--Margaret Parton, New York Herald Tribune


In his 2006 paper, Jin proves that Kalantari's bounds on polynomial zeros, indexed by $m \leq 2$ and called $L_m$ and $U_m$ respectively, become sharp as $m\rightarrow\infty$. That is, given a degree $n$ polynomial $p(z)$ not vanishing at the origin and an error tolerance $\epsilon > 0$, Jin proves that there exists an $m$ such that $\frac{L_m}{\rho_{min}} > 1-\epsilon$, where $\rho_{min} := \min_{\rho:p(\rho) = 0} \left|\rho\right|$. In this paper we derive a formula that yields such an $m$, thereby constructively proving Jin's theorem. In fact, we prove the stronger theorem that this convergence is uniform in a sense, its rate depending only on $n$ and a few other parameters. We also give experimental results that suggest an optimal m of (asymptotically) $O\left(\frac{1}{\epsilon^d}\right)$ for some $d \ll 2$. A proof of these results would show that Jin's method runs in $O\left(\frac{n}{\epsilon^d}\right)$ time, making it efficient for isolating polynomial zeros of high degree.


In what ways do health behaviors and societal mechanisms help or discourage individuals in assuming responsibility for their health? Highly-esteemed and diverse contributors examine the health behaviors of older adults and the ways in which these behaviors are affected by societal trends. The volume begins with a discussion of the personal attributes affecting health behaviors and responsible health care choices in older adults. Additional topics explored include: psychosocial factors in the prevention of cardiovascular disease; behavioral interventions such as the role of exercise in preventing chronic illness; and how societal structures such as reimbursement patterns and changes in health insurance affect initiation, change, and maintenance of health behaviors. This is a valuable resource for professionals and students interested in individual development, the study of health behavior and chronic disease, health economics, and social policy.


Purpose of the article: The purpose of this article is to summarize the approaches used to research the development of business angels activities and venture capital investments according to the development of macroeconomic variables and then consider the possibility of their use in this research in the Czech Republic.
Scientific aim: Based on the experience of foreign studies and research the paper explores the possible relationship between venture capital investments and the development of key macroeconomic variables in the Czech Republic.
Methodology/methods: To assess the relationship between the level of venture capital investment and macroeconomic variables in the Czech Republic are used statistics of the European Private Equity & Venture Capital Association on investment activity in the Czech Republic, macroeconomic data (the annual change in real GDP, the annual change in real expenditure on gross capital formation, the annual change in real expenditure on fixed capital formation, the ratio of the current account deficit to GDP at current prices and the ratio of financial account balance to GDP at current prices) of the Czech Statistical Office. As a statistical method is used Spearman's rank correlation coefficient.
Findings: There was found no significant statistical relationship between selected macroeconomic variables and the level of venture capital activity in the Czech Republic.
Conclusions (limits, implications etc): Results are strongly influenced by a small number of values in the statistics EVCA. For more relevant results of the relationship between the level of business angel and venture capital activities and macroeconomic variables in the Czech Republic would be appropriate to provide statistics on the larger set of investments depicting the venture capital activity in the country. For further research of the creation of venture capital and the business angel activity it seems appropriate to pay attention to the legal and institutional environment of the business angles and venture capital activities and compare them with the results of studies in this field abroad.


This article uses data from Thomson Reuters Web of Science to map and analyse the scientific landscape for synthetic biology. The article draws on recent advances in data visualisation and analytics with the aim of informing upcoming international policy debates on the governance of synthetic biology by the Subsidiary Body on Scientific, Technical and Technological Advice (SBSTTA) of the United Nations Convention on Biological Diversity. We use mapping techniques to identify how synthetic biology can best be understood and the range of institutions, researchers and funding agencies involved. Debates under the Convention are likely to focus on a possible moratorium on the field release of synthetic organisms, cells or genomes. Based on the empirical evidence we propose that guidance could be provided to funding agencies to respect the letter and spirit of the Convention on Biological Diversity in making research investments. Building on the recommendations of the United States Presidential Commission for the Study of Bioethical Issues we demonstrate that it is possible to promote independent and transparent monitoring of developments in synthetic biology using modern information tools. In particular, public and policy understanding and engagement with synthetic biology can be enhanced through the use of online interactive tools. As a step forward in this process we make existing data on the scientific literature on synthetic biology available in an online interactive workbook so that researchers, policy makers and civil society can explore the data and draw conclusions for themselves.


Much has been said about the institutional determinants of transitional justice (TJ), yet scholars still know little about the determinants of citizens' attitudes toward restorative policies aimed at addressing human rights violations of the past. This article draws on an original survey of a representative sample of Spanish citizens conducted in 2008. One year earlier, the Spanish socialist government had approved the so-called Law of Historical Memory, aimed at providing restitution for victims of the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939) and the Francoist dictatorship (1939-1975). We analyze individual-level attitudes toward a set of TJ policies (i.e., truth commissions, trials, and symbolic reparations) in a comprehensive overview of the field. We study the effects of different sets of variables: individual sociodemographic and ideological factors, family and socialization variables, and context-related factors. Individual ideology, family victimization during the dictatorship, and regional context appear highly relevant in explaining individual attitudes toward TJ policies.


"Kuklick has inquired into the files of private correspondence of Harvard's philosophers and traced their enthusiasms, animosities, and philosophical careers from the post-Civil War years through the post-World War I era. His book is probably the most thorough history of an American academic department that has ever been written." -Lewis S. Feuer, The Chronicle of Higher Education "Absolutely first class...It is a fascinating book, for the ideas themselves, for its extraordinary figures (Peirce, James, Royce, Whitehead, C. I. Lewis), but most of all for the story it tells." -The New Republic "One of the more analytically rigorous, historically sensitive and well-integrated books ever addressed to American philosophy." -Journal of American History


We revisit the concept of scalar gravity ano- maly determination by an airborne strapdown INS - GNSS system. We built on the previously investigated concepts (mainly within 1995-2005 period) while trying to decrease the error spectrum of the system caused by accelerometer biases at lower frequencies and GNSS- position/velocity noise at shorter wavelengths. We claim that the determination of the random long-term ac- celerometer bias is possible through combination of - GRACE + GOCE data that provide an unbiased field with 80 km resolution while the decrease in velocity noise is expected by precise-point-positioning (PPP) method that merges satellite-phase observations from GPS and Galileo. In the absence of Galileo constellation we focus our practical demonstration on the gravity- anomaly determination via INS/GNSS data filtering. We present first the modeling of an extended Kalman filter/smoother that determines the gravity anomaly to- gether with the trajectory, which is a preferred method over the cascade determination (i.e. separate estima- tion of trajectory and specific forces, GNSS acceleration and low-pass filtering of the merged signal). Second, we show how to incorporate the same modeling within the concept of dynamic networks. This approach al- lows imposing cross-over conditions on the state of grav- ity anomaly at trajectory intersections while estimating the sensor and trajectory errors at the same time. This is indeed rigorous formulation of the problem that is expected to surpass the conditioning via cross-over ad- justment that in previous investigations followed the fil- tering/smoothing. Despite the remaining challenges of the method of dynamic network caused by large num- ber of parameters (i.e. > 106), we present first practical results obtained within European FP7 GAL project.


Malaysia has emerged into the world of World Wide Web thus having to obtain every
single update through the Internet. People these days demand transactions to be done fast
and save. Having to fill in forms and wait for deliveries can cause inconvenience to the
customers. Having to write down their credit card number on a piece of order form and
through the Internet is also quite unsafe. Malaysian Airlines Golden Boutique Sdn. Bhd.
is a wholly owned subsidiary of Malaysian Airlines and a full-fledged independent
retailer whose retailing activities extend from ground retailing and in the fliture, virtual
shopping on the Internet. The MAS Golden Boutique's website is developed mainly for
the international travelers, as these people are the ones who want to keep up with time
and usually demands transactions to be done there and then fast and safe. The
development of this website also aims to make MAS Golden Boutique a leading world
class retailer as it continues to uphold the high standards established and meet customer
satisfaction in the air and ground. The methodology used upon developing this website
would be the web development steps adapted from the Waterfall Model for system
development. Among the services provided through this website would be information
retrieval, product transactions and administration site. The website aims to give fast
access of current information on Golden Boutique, easy on-line application for the
international travelers, provide products ordering services and minimizing customer's
dissatisfaction of unavailable items. All in all, the homepage can be considered as a great
investment towards promoting MAS Golden Boutique and also gain interest to the
viewers especially the international travelers.


The official data on registered crimes or criminal offenders is one of the sources on criminological information. For various reasons, not all of the offences become known to law enforcement authorities. The authorities may not qualify the offences properly. Therefore, there is the unknown, "invisible" side of the criminality, i.e. unregistered part of this phenomenon. The ratio of latent criminality to registered criminality is also uncertain at a particular point in time. Likewise, the fluctuation of this ratio time-wise or structure-wise is uncertain, therefore, it may be concluded that the instability of this ratio could have a negative impact to the error margin associated with the results of the analysis of criminological indicators. The above-mentioned ratio is compound and one of its elements is the dynamically shifting time-lag between the commitment of criminal offences and their official registration. The first part of the article is dedicated to the analysis of the impact of this ratio to the bias associated with the results of the analysis of criminological indicators as well as to describing the model, which helps to minimize these error margins. Unfortunately, the described method requires that rigorous initial conditions are satisfied, otherwise the obtained results can not be considered reliable, i.e. this method is not suitable when the structure of data varies due to internal or external reasons or when the amount of criminal activity to be analyzed is nil, or when the criminal offence is retried under a different article of the Criminal Code during the pre-trial investigation. Therefore, the mathematical model used to minimize the margin of error encountered due to distortion of statistical data caused by variable time-shift between the commitment of criminal act and their registration is to be improved. While a certain part of the above-mentioned issues may be solved by using statistical data in respect of criminal acts in respect of which the court has already convicted the suspect or by simply prolonging the time-period of the analysis, the remaining issues can be solved only by revising the described model. The article proposes several modifications, which allow to eliminate the disadvantages of the original method, because they require application of less stringent conditions,thus enabling application thereof in volatile conditions of social reality more flexibly. Using these variations of the model should assist in fine-tuning of the assessment of distribution or structure of criminality as well as other criminological indicators, allowing obtaining more reliable criminological results.gative


The approach to the metallic phase of molten Kx(KCl)1 − x mixtures is studied using ab initio molecular dynamics based on finite-temperature density functional theory. The finite electronic temperature is found to result in new and unexpected effects. In particular, we observe a thermally induced lowering of the predicted DC conductivity, which greatly improves the agreement with the experiment, and a widening of the HOMO-LUMO energy gap. We expect that these are genuinely new physical effects which could be observed also in other systems.


The Landscape Model of text comprehension was extended to the comprehension of audiovisual discourse from text and video TV news stories. Concepts from the story were coded for activation after each sequence, creating a matrix of activations that was reduced to a vector of the degree of total activation for each concept. In Study 1, the degree vector correlated well with participants' ratings of how much the sequence made them think of each concept. In Study 2, the degree vector, vectors based on the number of activations, and the degree of co-activation were used to predict participants' recall. The model predicted recall for the text version well, but only moderately well for the video version. The Landscape Model was modified using Dual Code Theory by coding and analyzing audio and visual information as separate components. It predicted students' recall well, indicating its robustness as a model of discourse processing.


Business Process Compliance are three words which scholars use to describe what happens, or should happen, when two very di erent worlds collide. The first world is meant to represent enterprises and how they do what they do or, more simply, which procedures and processes they adopt to o er improved products to their customers. Scholars of the field refer to the Business Process Management as a "process optimisation process" and they study approaches, methodologies, and formal languages to describe and improve what they esteem as the heart of every organisation, the business process. A business process can be visualised as a self-contained, temporal, and logical order in which a set of activities (tasks) are executed to achieve some business objectives. Within a business process, much information is available: The control flow describes what can be done and when, while the relevant data clarify what needs to be work on as well as which actors will do the work. The second world is the world of governments, of consortia, of all those entities which have enough power to create regulations, norms, and policies which directly impact organisations. Such entities state the boundaries of legality by imposing which actions can be considered legal to be performed within the aforementioned business processes, and which actions should be avoided in order not to incur severe sanctions. Business Process Compliance is the research field where scholars try to understand how organisations should behave in order to continue o ering good products while respecting a set of regulations which strictly a ect their processes. In general, a compliance regimen must include three interrelated but distinct perspectives of compliance: Corrective, detective, and preventative measures. While the first two measures try to mitigate or intervene after compliance breaches are detected, the preventative focus assumes a completely di erent perspective by stating that "compliance should be embedded into the business practice, rather than be seen as a distinct activity, (...) thus achieving compliance by design" [Sadiq and Governatori, 2015]. An issue of great importance is that of devising automated tools which are able to create an entirely new, compliant process starting from a fully declarative description of both the organisation and the environment it is acting in. Such a description include: (i) A set of business objectives to be reached, (ii) The specifications of a process, (iii) The norms ruling the organisational environment. This doctorate dissertation will confront this problem by following two sequential research paths. First things first, we need a formalism able to state, given a particular context, which norms are in force, which objectives are desirable and which objectives are feasible, in order for the organisation to decide which objectives to commit to. Thus, we liken organisations to agents and, accordingly, refer to the literature of BDI (Belief-Desire-Intention) agents. The BDI architecture addresses how agents try to fulfil their goals based on the knowledge of the environment and a collection of plans. We shall analyse di erent notions of the concept of goal starting from the idea of sequences of "alternative acceptable outcomes". We shall study the relationships between goals and concepts like agent's beliefs, norms and desires, and propose a computationally oriented formalisation using a variant of Defeasible Logic extended with modal operators that will provide a suitable approach. The resulting system, being able to capture various nuances of the notion of goal, is of interest for business enterprises, for which the right decision is not only context-dependent but one which should be chosen from a preferably large pool of alternatives. Finally, we shall propose algorithms to compute all provable and refutable conclusions of the modal defeasible theory, and we shall prove their soundness and computational complexity. At the end of the aforementioned phase, the system (organisation) knows whether courses of action exist (in term of logical derivations) which lead to norm and outcome compliant situations. The second question then being how to determine which legitimate courses of action the agent may commit to, and how to transform them into a business process-like graphic notation. We therefore shall propose algorithms which (i) Construct a graph by navigating backwards the derivation trees from the "compliant" outcomes up to the facts of the theory, and (ii) Transform such a graph by recognising JOIN and SPLIT patterns typical of process model notation. And, as stated before, we shall end the section by presenting a computational analysis. Statement of Originality This work has been submitted to both the Institute for Integrated and Intelligent Systems, Gri th Science Group Gri th University and the Department of Computer Science University of Verona in accordance to the joint doctorate program between the two universities. Other than that, this work has not previously been submitted for a degree or diploma in any other university. To the best of my knowledge and belief, the thesis contains no material previously published or written by a third person except where due reference is made in the thesis itself. Doctoral Student: FRANCESCO OLIVIERI Signature: ________________________


The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) contains substantial new requirements aimed at increasing rates of health insurance coverage. Because many of these provisions impose additional costs on the states, officials need reliable estimates of the likely impact of the ACA in their state. To demonstrate the usefulness of modeling for state-level decisionmaking, RAND undertook a preliminary analysis of the impact of the ACA on five states-California, Connecticut, Illinois, Montana, and Texas-using the RAND COMPARE microsimulation model. For Texas, the model predicts that, in 2016 (the year that all of the provisions in the ACA related to coverage expansion will be fully implemented), the uninsured rate in Texas will fall to 6 percent; without the law, it would remain at 28 percent, the highest in the nation. The model projects that total state government spending on health care will be 10 percent higher for the combined 2011-2020 period because of the ACA.


Like the practices of drag itself, this workshop essay has been produced in and with community, geared towards many audiences and reliant on the expertise and creative intelligence of these communities and audiences. The Internet of Bawdies is the Internet of too much body. My working description of the Internet of Bawdies is, the (forced) digitization and onlining (publication, connectivity, searchability) of previously non-digital/not-onlined (Cowan & Rault 2018) ephemera of trans- feminist and queer (TFQ) community-based expressive cultures, including but not limited to drag, burlesque, kink shows, porn and erotica across medium, spoken word, slam and other text-based performance forms, and cabaret, whether is explicitly sexual or not, as well as the internet of sex work and other modes of consentual, adult online embodiment that exceed, transgress, resist or transform heteronormative, monogamous, reproductive bodies. While there are many sexes, genders and orientations in the Internet of Bawdies, here I focus on the ethics of TFQ digitization in this context. "Transmedial drag" is what I have identified as a method of study, knowledge production and citational practice developed on/in/of/with the Internet of Bawdies in mind. Transmedial drag are the processes involved in moving across media/mediums (for example: from live performance, to video documentation, to digital archive to online platform), which creates a sort of pastiche of the 'original,' denaturalizing its status as 'originary' and teaching us something new about the excesses and limitations of each media form. In particular, transmedial drag is a method for ethical engagements that researchers working with TFQ in the online environment, especially re-mediating materials to an online environment, might find they are already doing. There is a story in the moving across media, and transmedial drag is set of practices to tell those stories.


This dissertation explores the overlooked contributions of women in country music to the study of rhetoric. While women have participated as writers and performers since country music's infancy, this contribution is rarely recognized as politically or rhetorically significant. Because country music is a conservative space that upholds and preserves traditionalist white masculinity, women in country music have had to cultivate and hone rhetorical strategies in order to sustain careers. More specifically, legendary women in country music from the 1960s had to negotiate institutional oppressions, in the form of censorship and sexist male gatekeepers, in light of the changing political landscape incited by the second wave of feminism, which rendered women a threat to the status quo. In four case studies, I examine the possibilities and pitfalls of these women's rhetorical strategies, some recognized and some I have named, which reveal larger cultural implications that are largely relevant today. The first case study explores singer Patsy Cline's pop career and its inconsistencies with her now mythic posthumous public memory as a country star. Cline's visual legacy is used in a variety of ways, most notably as an ageless rhetorical "eye-con," embedded in the reemergence of white Americana. The second case study explores how Bobbie Gentry's strategic silences, in the forms of an elusive persona and Southern Gothic storytelling, challenge and contribute to feminist discourse on "voice." While Gentry's sexualization often overshadowed her talents, her enduring legacy reveals striking rhetorical impact. Rarely seen as "too much," Dolly Parton successfully negotiates binds through her use of camp performance. By employing markers of respectability to temper her gender expression, Parton appeals to disparate audiences and highlights the importance of camp as a resource for marginalized groups. Loretta Lynn mobilized a career that attended to political shifts and reflected her own growth as a woman and performer. As an exemplar of the comic frame and feminine style, her empowering lyrics and public discourse generated loyal identifications among disenfranchised, rural women. In conclusion, this dissertation briefly looks at today's country music and its changing landscape, which reveals cultural anxieties as well as robust political potential.


Wheat is a critical food source globally. Food security is an increasing concern; current production levels are not expected to keep pace with global demand. New technologies have provided a vast array of wheat genetic data; however, best use of this data requires placing it within a framework in which the various genes, pathways and interactions can be examined. Here we present the first systematic comparison of the global transcriptomes of the aleurone and starchy endosperm of the developing wheat seed (Triticum aestivum), at time points critical to the development of the aleurone layer; 6-, 9- and 14-day post-anthesis. Illumina sequencing gave 25-55 million sequence reads per tissue, of the trimmed reads, 70%-81% mapped to reference expressed sequence transcripts. Transcript abundance was analysed by performing RNA-Seq normalization to generate reads per kilobase of exon model per million mapped reads values, and these were used in comparative analyses between the tissues at each time point using Kal's Z-test. This identified 9414-13 202 highly differentially expressed transcripts that were categorized on the basis of tissue and time point expression and functionally analysed revealing two very distinct tissues. The results demonstrate the fundamental biological reprogramming of the two major biologically and economically significant tissues of the wheat seed over this time course. Understanding these changes in gene expression profiles is essential to mining the potential these tissues hold for human nutrition and contributing to the systems biology of this important crop plant.


Tavares Filho, Sérgio Paramedia: thresholds of the social text Jyväskylä: University of Jyväskylä, 2017, 76 p. (Jyväskylä Studies in Humanities ISSN 1459-4323; 332 (print) ISSN 1459-4331; 332 (PDF)) ISBN 978-951-39-7194-6 (print) ISBN 978-951-39-7195-3 (PDF) This work is an adaptation of Gerard Genette's theory of paratexts to social media. Paratexts are information surrounding texts, and usually helping the user to decide whether or not to consume a text. In social media, a plurality of new information surrounds texts we read every day. They are dynamic by nature and have different authors: the social platforms, like Facebook or YouTube; the authors of texts, and the users who comment and share them. This collection of four articles will debate the ethos in social media, what is an author in social media, what are the identified paratexts in selected social media websites and the limits of interpretation of paratexts in contemporary Brazilian literature cases. The relation between text and paratext is more complex than it seems, as paratexts can be charged with information that sparks controversy, such as debates on race, gender, social class, territorialism and others. The work opens the discussion on how paratextual elements can influence what we write and consume in social media, by analyzing how this surrounding information can be attached to texts by authors, by other users, by algorithms and other actors. In addition to the analysis, the work proposes a framework that breaks down paratexts into three main categories: the author's paratexts, the audience's paratexts and the network's paratexts. Those unfold in numerous subcategories, based on the interfaces of numerous user-generated content websites. Lastly, the research analyzes the main differences between the original paratext concept by Gerard Genette, conceived with print media in mind, and the new landscape of digital media. By careful comparison and contrast, the work proposes a new term, paramedia, to define the information that surrounds usergenerated texts in social media. One of the conclusions, as well, is that readers now have a new role in creating text affiliations. Social media users are logs of "watched videos" or "liked posts", and those influence which paratexts will be shown when they navigate these networks. Paramedia is heavily based on user data and textual data, and this new way of reading, writing and existing in media must be


Amino acid modulation of Ca2+ signaling guides growth of plant pollen tubes. Plant genes that encode proteins similar to mammalian glutamate receptors, which are critical to neuronal function, were identified some time ago, but the function of these proteins in plants has been a mystery. Now, Michard et al. examined two Arabidopsis glutamate receptor–like channels (GLRs) that are expressed in pollen and affect pollen tube growth. The unusual amino acid D-Ser produced by target female tissues activated GLRs in the apical region of pollen tubes, allowing Ca2+ permeation into the cytoplasm, and promoted pollen tube growth. This modulation of function by an amino acid signal suggests how pollen tube growth may be coordinated with signals from the tissues that they must grow through. E. Michard, P. T. Lima, F. Borges, A. C. Silva, M. T. Portes, J. E. Carvalho, M. Gilliham, L.-H. Liu, G. Obermeyer, J. A. Feijó, Glutamate receptor–like genes form Ca2+ channels in pollen tubes and are regulated by pistil D-serine. Science 332, 434–437 (2011). [Abstract] [Full Text]


In this paper we will discuss for the first time the use of the new "gas foil rotation" technology for growth in a low pressure reactor. InP, GalnAs and GalnAsP layers grown on 2" substrates applying this substrate rotation show film thickness variations less than 2% over the entire wafer. Also resistivity measurements on doped binary layers showed variations below 2%. The lattice mismatch variation of ternary and quaternary layers was smaller than 5x10-4. The electrical properties of GalnAs and InP as residual carrier concentration and electron mobility in undoped layers were identical to those measured on reference layers grown in the same reactor on a static susceptor. Growth parameters had not to be modified when using this technique.


Rationale: The number of obese older adults with diabetes type 2 is increasing worldwide. Weight loss treatment in this group seems beneficial for cardio-metabolic and other health outcomes, but it might reduce muscle mass and bone mineral density (BMD). The association between obesity and BMD is controversial, and the role of muscle mass and dietary protein intake is not fully clear. This study explores the association between body weight, muscle mass, dietary protein intake, and physical activity level on BMD in obese older adults with diabetes type 2. Methods: For this cross-sectional analysis we used baseline data of a 13-week randomized trial evaluating the effect of a multi-modal intervention on muscle preservation and insulin sensitivity during a weight loss program in obese older adults (55-80y) with diabetes type 2 (PROBE). Body weight was measured using a calibrated scale (Life Measurement), appendicular lean mass (ALM) was used as a proxy for muscle mass and was measured by dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA, Hologic Discovery A), dietary protein intake was estimated by a 3-day food record, Physical Activity Level (PAL) was estimated by a 3-day activity record, and hip BMD was assessed by DXA. After determination of Pearson's correlation coefficients for body weight, ALM, protein intake, and PAL with BMD, linear regression analysis was performed with significantly correlating determinants (body weight [kg], ALM [kg], protein intake [g/kg/d], and/or PAL [-]) and hip BMD (g/cm2) as outcome variable. Results: Mean age of the 122 included subjects was 67±6y, with a BMI of 33±4kg/m2. 65% of subjects were male. Body weight and ALM correlated significantly with BMD (r=0.34, p<0.001; r=0.43, p<0.001) whereas protein intake and PAL did not (r=0.02, p=0.84; r=0.005, p=0.95). Linear regression analysis with the two determinants body weight and ALM identified ALM as being significantly associated with BMD, whereas body weight was not. Beta for ALM was +0.011 g/cm2 (95% CI: 0.004 – 0.017; p<0.01), meaning that a 1 kg increase in ALM is associated with a +0.011 g/cm2 increase in BMD. Conclusion: In this explorative cross-sectional analysis appendicular muscle mass is positively associated with BMD, rather than body weight, protein intake, and physical activity level.


The goal of this article is to explore the degree of
homogeneity among three generations of Czech journalists
working (or intending to work) in the Czech media. We have
defined three generations as follows: pretransitive, transitive
and post-transitive. Using a secondary analysis of data from
two independent studies, which focused on describing
professional attitudes of Czech journalists and journalism
students, we are trying to ascertain the existence of the
so-called "generational effect". Quantitative analysis
including cluster analysis indicates no major attitudinal
differences between all compared generations, in spite of
radical socio-political and media system changes after 1989. In
general, the comparison of the selected attributes shows
striking homogeneity in all three journalistic generations that
especially share their professional and political values. The
key to a weak differentiation between the generations in
question is their distinctive similarity in their acceptance of
liberal right-wing ideology and high socio-economic capital,
which interconnects all hypothetically constructed professional
groups. There are also some partial differences, especially the
low level acceptance of the predominance of market logic by the
youngest post-transitional generation in the news media.


Objective: To investigate efficacy of pulmonary surfactant in the treatment of Adult Respiratory Distress Syndrome (ARDS).
Methods: From April 21, 2016 to April 21, 2017 100 cases of adult respiratory distress syndrome treated in our hospital were divided into the observation group and the control group with 50 cases in each. Patients in the control group were treated with conventional mechanical ventilation while those in the observation group were given pulmonary surfactant.
Results: Compared with the control group, the observation group has better performance in terms of PaO2/FiO2 (115.68 ± 13.48), PaCO2 (40.63 ± 11.58), PaO2 (64.23 ± 5.69), time span of oxygenation (102.48 ± 12.69 h), high concentration oxygen duration (3.45 ± 0.22 h), mechanical ventilation time (82.36 ± 3.47 h), total incidence of complications (2%) and total effective rate (98%) of statistical significance, (P<0.05).
Conclusion: Pulmonary surfactant is effective and safe in the treatment of adult respiratory distress syndrome.


Access obstruction in conflict settings has emerged as a critical operational and policy concern across the humanitarian sector, but there remains a dearth of analysis regarding the ways in which humanitarian organizations perpetuate self-inflicted access obstacles. Drawing on qualitative interviews conducted with local and international actors negotiating frontline humanitarian access in Somalia, this paper will examine the ways in which this context elucidates this phenomenon. Toward this end, this paper examines two dimensions of humanitarian access obstruction in this context. The first set of dynamics consists of externally imposed obstacles that stem from governmental actors, Al-Shabaab, access "gatekeepers" motivated by financial gain, and the insecure nature of the environment. The second set of dynamics consists of self-inflicted dimensions of access obstruction that emanate from decisions that international humanitarian organizations (IHOs) have made at the strategic or policy level. These issues include the physical "bunkerization" of IHOs, programmatic shortcomings, the discounting of local humanitarian actors' agency, and the ways that IHOs exhibit programmatic partiality in response to donors' interests and counterterrorism legislation. Through examining these issues, this paper highlights fact that, although the discourse on humanitarian access obstruction tends to emphasize difficulties arising from externally imposed obstacles, it is also important to interrogate the value and methods of humanitarian programming itself.


The internet and world wide web are generating radical changes in the way we are able to communicate. Our ability to engage communities and individuals in designing their environment is also beginning to change as new digital media provide ways in which individuals and groups can interact with planners and politicians in exploring their future. This paper tells the story of how the residents of one of the most disadvantaged communities in Britain – the Woodberry Down Estate in the London borough of Hackney – have begun to use an online system which delivers everything from routine services about their housing to ideas about options for their future. Woodberry Down is one of the biggest regeneration projects in Western Europe. It will take at least 10 years, probably much longer, to complete, at a cost of over £150 million. Online participation is one of the many ways in which this community is being engaged but as we will show, it is beginning to act as a catalyst. The kinds of networks which are evolving around systems like these will change the nature of participation itself, the ways we need to think about it, and the ways we need to respond. Before the experiment is described, we set the context by describing the wide range of digital media for communicating plans and planning which suggests a new typology for web participation consistent with this fast emerging network culture.


Field and laboratory tracer experiments were conducted to investigate the extent of tracer imbibition and penetration into unsaturated, fractured rock matrix at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. Field experiments were carried out in the Exploratory Studies Facility (ESF), an underground tunnel at Yucca Mountain. Water containing dye was released into horizontal boreholes drilled into the wall of the ESF main drift. The region was then mined to observe the flow pathways and to collect dye‐stained rock samples for subsequent laboratory quantification. Dye concentration profiles in the rock, measured using a newly developed sampling technique, showed that liquid flowing through the fractures penetrated into the matrix to a depth of several millimeters. Laboratory studies of tracer penetration into the rock matrix were conducted using tracer‐free rock samples, collected from the same hydrogeologic unit and machined into cylindrical cores. Tracer‐imbibition tests were performed on cores at two different initial water saturations with both sorbing (dyes) and nonsorbing tracers. The travel distance for sorbing dyes was a few millimeters after ∼16 to 20 h, similar to the extent measured in samples from the field test. The nonsorbing bromide front coincided with the wetting front in the rock core at the initial water saturation of 12%, and the imbibition depth agreed very well with the prediction, using independently measured properties. At the high initial water saturation of 76%, the bromide front lagged significantly behind the wetting front. Sorption coefficients for the dyes in the partially saturated core samples were calculated using two independent approaches, based on tracer travel‐distance and mass‐distribution calculations, and were found to yield comparable results. Utilization of nonsorbing tracers with different molecular sizes helped to identify the effects of pore‐size restriction on tracer transport during imbibition. The results from this work have a direct application to radionuclide transport at Yucca Mountain, and the methods presented are broadly applicable to the investigation of water and solute transport in unsaturated rock.


This article is the author's trial lecture for appointment as Reader in practical theology, held on 3 November 2016. The article is based on the author's own research and practical work with funerals for more than thirty years, but also on secondary research. The article shows the interplay between micro rituals, interpretations of faith, and interpretations of life. The article briefly discusses how micro rituals are established and investigates lines of influence between culture and religion. Furthermore, the article says something about how practical-theological research can contribute to the Church's self-reflection. When people participate in a macro ritual, e.g. a funeral service, and within the framework of this ritual create and conduct their own micro rituals, there is a correlation between the interpretations of the macro and micro rituals that can lead to certain life interpretations among those who participate. The article discusses how people use the funeral ritual to interpret their lives. The official ritual, the macro ritual, is used to perform micro rituals, i.e. private or personal rituals. Such micro rituals may, for example, be used in the framework of the funeral service by placing candles in the candle holder, decorating and putting items beside and on the coffin, as well as closing and locking the coffin. These micro rituals often have the dual function of personalizing the dead as well as helping friends and relatives in their mourning process.


Abstract. Instrumental equipment unsuitable or unavailable for fieldwork as well as lack of ship space can necessitate the preservation of seawater samples prior to analysis in a shore-based laboratory. Mercuric chloride (HgCl2) is routinely used for such preservation, but its handling and subsequent disposal incur environmental risks and significant expense. There is therefore a strong motivation to find less hazardous alternatives. Benzalkonium chloride (BAC) has been used previously as microbial inhibitor for freshwater samples. Here, we assess the use of BAC for marine samples prior to the measurement of oxygen-to-argon (O2 / Ar) ratios, as used for the determination of biological net community production. BAC at a concentration of 50 mg dm−3 inhibited microbial activity for at least 3 days in samples tested with chlorophyll a (Chl a) concentrations up to 1 mg m−3. BAC concentrations of 100 and 200 mg dm−3 were no more effective than 50 mg dm−3. With fewer risks to human health and the environment, and no requirement for expensive waste disposal, BAC could be a viable alternative to HgCl2 for short-term preservation of seawater samples, but is not a replacement for HgCl2 in the case of oxygen triple isotope analysis, which requires storage over weeks to months. In any event, further tests on a case-by-case basis should be undertaken if use of BAC was considered, since its inhibitory activity may depend on concentration and composition of the microbial community.


Upper Cretaceous shallow-marine sediments from Vega Island, Antarctica, contain five major authigenic phases; glauconite, pyrite, a zeolite mineral of the clinoptilolite-heulandite group, chlorite, and calcite. The framework sediment composition changes from quartzose at the base of the measured succession to volcaniclastic at the top. The petrogenesis of individual samples reflects the local controls on diagenesis of depositional environment and sediment composition, combined with the effects of burial to no more than 1 km. Calcite cements are the most abundant precipitates. Marine carbonate cements include acicular and other fringing cements that commonly are present within bioclasts. Early-burial micritic to sparry calcite cements include both concretionary and nonconcretionary forms. Burial calcites occlude residual porosity, replace detrital grains and form veins with fibrous and cone-in-cone textures. The stable-isotope composition of the carbonate cements is very variable, with delta 18 O ranging from 0.60 per thousand to - 19.93 per thousand PDB and delta 13 C of - 1.33 per thousand to - 28.09 per thousand PDB. The stable-isotope data reflect the initial conditions of mineral precipitation in oxic and anoxic marine pore waters, together with the effects of subsequent fluid/rock interaction through both recrystallization and cementation. The latest precipitates, thought to have been formed during over pressuring, define a vertical field for burial calcite on an isotope cross plot, suggesting that late fluids responsible for cementation and alteration of earlier precipitates had negative delta 18 O and contained carbon with variable delta 13 C. The oxygen values are compatible with either influx of high-latitude meteoric water or intense fluid-rock interaction with reactive volcanic detritus, or a combination of the two processes. The very variable carbon signatures probably reflect dissolution of bioclasts and earlier diagenetic precipitates. Only by identifying possible end-member compositions for both early and late diagenetic precipitates can most of the isotopic data be interpreted correctly.


Modular multiplication of long integers is an important building block for cryptographic algorithms. Although several FPGA accelerators have been proposed for large modular multiplication, previous systems have been based on $O(N^2)$ algorithms. In this paper, we present a Montgomery multiplier that incorporates the more efficient Karatsuba algorithm which is $O(N^{(\log 3/\log 2)})$. This system is parameterizable to different bit-widths and makes excellent use of both embedded multipliers and fine-grained logic. The design has significantly lower LUT-delay product and multiplier-delay product compared with previous designs. Initial testing on a Virtex-6 FPGA showed that it is 60-190 times faster than an optimized multi-threaded software implementation running on an Intel Xeon 2.5 GHz CPU. The proposed multiplier system is also estimated to be 95-189 times more energy efficient than the software-based implementation. This high performance and energy efficiency makes it suitable for server-side applications running in a datacenter environment.


Excerpt] Despite almost 20 years of experience with a variety of alternative techniques in collective bargaining in education, there is no summary of the research on negotiation practices or survey of practice variations in use. The parties in negotiations have little to guide them in their investigation of the utility of what are commonly referred to as Interest-Based Bargaining (IBB) strategies. In order to give negotiators tools with which they can make choices appropriate to their needs based on current knowledge and practice, this report offers an informed discussion of the utility of various bargaining models. It provides: ◗ A summary of the research on the use of IBB techniques in educational collective bargaining; ◗ An overview of the current practice of IBB in education; ◗ Examples of IBB in practice in education. A survey of the literature on IBB practice and outcomes, including empirical, theoretical, and qualitative research, as well as case descriptions during the period of 1985-2002 on the use of IBB in educational, public sector, or industrial settings identified approximately 100 journal articles, dissertations, and cases in practitioner publications. The majority of the empirical research reviewed was too limited in scope and methodology to provide evidence that could be cited in this report. The analysis of the literature provided a set of internal and external factors affecting the use and utility of IBB, which were used to frame questions for facilitators and bargainers on current practice in IBB. A second goal of this report was to describe the current state of IBB practice, including its method and rate of diffusion, variations in practice, and factors motivating and supporting the use of IBB in educational settings. Given the absence of empirical data, practitioners providing IBB training and facilitation were identified as primary sources of information on current practice. Trainers/facilitators possess diverse and broad perspectives because of their interactions with multiple sites, their participation in professional associations or networks, and their (often) institutional affiliations with unions, employers, school boards, and state or federal employment relations agencies, and the variable IBB practices they employ. Seven practitioners who provide training and facilitation were interviewed: three staff members of NEA state affiliates, two FMCS commissioners, one practitioner in private practice, and one staff member of a state school board association. Among them, they have had direct experience facilitating more than 200 negotiations using IBB over viii NEA Collective Bargaining & Member Advocacy the past 10 years, in states with a variety of collective bargaining laws, as well as states without collective bargaining laws. These interviews provided detailed information on the IBB models in current use, which was used to create a matrix of variations in practices. The practitioner interviews also provided experience-based perceptions of the factors identified in the research as motivating IBB use and those supporting or suppressing bargaining team successes with IBB. While it cannot be claimed to represent a complete description of current practice, this summary provides a snapshot of the existing range of experience. In pursuit of sources of data on current IBB awareness and use in educational bargaining, 34 NEA state associations were contacted for information on IBB practice in their state. These contacts helped to identify sources of IBB training and facilitation and to give a rough depiction of the state of training activities and providers nationally. Based on the review of the research and interviews with facilitators, criteria were identified for choosing case studies to represent a crosssection of IBB experience. The three sites selected represent variation in state collective bargaining laws, the type of IBB model in use, geography, size of district, length of experience with IBB, the role and methods of the facilitator, and types and numbers of bargaining units and constituents participating in IBB. For each case, the primary negotiator for the union and the district were interviewed, and pertinent documents describing the process or outcomes of IBB were requested. Finally, based on practitioner reports, case studies, and the literature, a set of questions were developed for bargainers to discuss when considering the use of IBB and assessing the likelihood of its effectiveness in specific circumstances. This article is available at DigitalCommons@ILR: http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/16


Neutrophils express pattern recognition receptors (PRRs) and regulate immune responses via PRR‐dependent cytokine production. An emerging theme is that neutrophil PRRs often exhibit cell type‐specific adaptations in their signalling pathways. This prompted us to examine inflammasome signalling by the PRR NLRP3 in murine neutrophils, in comparison to well‐established NLRP3 signalling pathways in macrophages. Here, we demonstrate that while murine neutrophils can indeed signal via the NLRP3 inflammasome, neutrophil NLRP3 selectively responds to soluble agonists but not to the particulate/crystalline agonists that trigger NLRP3 activation in macrophages via phagolysosomal rupture. In keeping with this, alum did not trigger IL‐1β production from human PMN, and the lysosomotropic peptide Leu‐Leu‐OMe stimulated only weak NLRP3‐dependent IL‐1β production from murine neutrophils, suggesting that lysosomal rupture is not a strong stimulus for NLRP3 activation in neutrophils. We validated our in vitro findings for poor neutrophil NLRP3 responses to particles in vivo, where we demonstrated that neutrophils do not significantly contribute to alum‐induced IL‐1β production in mice. In all, our studies highlight that myeloid cell identity and the nature of the danger signal can strongly influence signalling by a single PRR, thus shaping the nature of the resultant immune response.


An important obstacle to the development of a generalized sump design is the variability of flow conditions in approach areas. The geometry and alignment of the areas immediately upstream of the sumps are so closely tied to the requirements of the specific site that it is virtually impossible to standardize their design. Flow conditions in approach areas, therefore, have to be evaluated on a case by case basis to determine their impact on the hydraulic performance of the respective pump sumps. This paper presents a case study of one particular sump design, developed through hydraulic model testing, which was highly dependent on approach flow conditions. The case study illustrates the effect on hydraulic performance and sump configuration of several design features and site constraints prevalent in approach areas. The study concludes that significant deviations from current design practices will be required to attain a generalized sump design.


This paper proposes a new algorithmic paradigm — k-level asynchronous (KLA) — that bridges level-synchronous and asynchronous paradigms for processing graphs. The KLA paradigm enables the level of asynchrony in parallel graph algorithms to be parametrically varied from none (level-synchronous) to full (asynchronous). The motivation is to improve execution times through an appropriate trade-off between the use of fewer, but more expensive global synchronizations, as in level-synchronous algorithms, and more, but less expensive local synchronizations (and perhaps also redundant work), as in asynchronous algorithms. We show how common patterns in graph algorithms can be expressed in the KLA pardigm and provide techniques for determining k, the number of asynchronous steps allowed between global synchronizations. Results of an implementation of KLA in the STAPL Graph Library show excellent scalability on up to 96K cores and improvements of 10× or more over level-synchronous and asynchronous versions for graph algorithms such as breadth-first search, PageRank, k-core decomposition and others on certain classes of real-world graphs.


A discrete-time decentralised detection problem is considered where the data generating processes are represented by state-variable random process models. The optimum detector is constructed by the computation of the local likelihood ratios at each sensor in real time, and the subsequent transmission of these ratios to the fusion centre. Decentralised detection based on the fusion of the likelihood ratios is expected to perform as well as centralised detection, because there is no information loss due to intermediate decision making


LANDSAT-l and -2 multispectral scanner (MSS) data from six overpass dates (April 2, May 17, June 4, July 10, October 17. and December 10, 1975) showed that MSS digital data for bare soil. cloud tops. and cloud shadows followed a highly predictable linear relation (soil background line) for MSS bands 5 and 7 (r2 = 0.974). Increasing vegetation development. documented by leaf area index measurements. for 1973 grain sorghum fields. ~a~ associated with displacement of sorghum MSS d~g~ tal counts away from the soil background line. The LANDSAT data space surrounding the soil background line for MSS5 and MSS7 was divided into 10 decision regions corresponding to water; cloud shadow; low. medium. and high reflecting soil; cloud tops; low. medium. and dense plant cover; and a threshold region into which no LANDSAT data are expected to fall. We demonstrated that. using a table look-up procedure. based on these 10 decision regions, LANDSAT scenes could be classified into meaningful vegetation density levels. soil brightness levels. and water from the raw satellite data without prior knowledge of local crop and soil conditions. These procedures used deviate from current pattern recognition and remote sensing practice but should lead to faster and more automated machine processing of satellite MSS data for monitoring crop development. and for associating vegetation vigor and yield in large area crop yield prediction efforts. For these purposes. the procedures can be used with ancillary meteorological and crop calendar·information as part of a decision tree analysis for rapid classification of vegetation. soil. or water conditions.


Effective teamwork is becoming increasingly important to organizational success. Advances in network and communication technology have allowed companies to widen their potential team member base, however we still need to better understand how to structure top-performing teams. This paper proposes forming teams based on their cognitive style, rather than personality, within a process framework. An experiment was conducted to investigate the innovative performance of problem solving groups with three different blends of cognitive styles. As predicted, groups with a heterogeneous blend of styles outperformed groups with completely or partially homogeneous blends. On the other hand, team members' satisfaction scores were lower for heterogeneous teams than either the completely or partially homogeneous teams. There was preliminary evidence that among groups with heterogeneous blends, those with smaller style dispersions might be expected to outperform those with larger style dispersions. There was also room for some speculation that a curvilinear relationship might exist for team members' satisfaction as a function of diversity in team member cognitive style. Implications of these finding are discussed.


Observers note a trend of shareholder lawsuits migrating out of Delaware. This trend is a manifestation of a litigation strategy by plaintiffs' counsel to avoid Delaware's aggressive policing of agency costs in acquisition-related shareholder litigation and to gain control over such litigation by bringing these cases outside of Delaware. To the extent agency costs drive acquisition-related litigation, such litigation can be costly to shareholders without much by way of tangible benefits to them. In addition to being potentially wasteful for shareholders, a sustained outward migration of cases from Delaware to other venues may threaten Delaware's ability to maintain and develop its own corporate law. For these reasons, various stakeholders including shareholders, the judiciary, and policymakers, have an incentive to consider the implications of these multiforum litigation strategies and formulate a response. Some commentators have proposed that firms adopt forum selection provisions in their corporate charters and bylaws as a way of reducing incentives for shareholder plaintiffs to engage in wasteful lawsuits or forum shopping. Notwithstanding the fact that incorporators are free to contract around default rules and adopt innovative self-help provisions, few firms have taken that step. This Article argues that insights from behavioral economics can provide some understanding of why this may be the case. In particular, status quo bias in contracting reduces incentives for incorporators to pursue more creative approaches to drafting the corporate contract. However, status quo bias may be overcome through the use of opt-in menus, which have been useful in increasing contractual flexibility in other contexts in corporate law and may prove helpful in overcoming cognitive constraints to innovation. By increasing flexibility in corporate contracts, shareholders should be able to moderate the effects of status quo bias and develop charter terms more likely to reflect their true preferences. Properly structured exclusive forum provisions will reduce incentives to bring wasteful litigation while leaving open opportunities for shareholders to bring valuable lawsuits.


This article highlights a growing gap in the Canadian nursing workforce, specifically in nursing leadership. Black nurses are significantly underrepresented in nursing and even more so as nurse leaders. This commentary will provide a brief background related to Black nurses in healthcare, a description of nursing leadership, the significance of having Black nurses in leadership positions and finally how to move towards increasing the representation and visibility of Black nurse leaders. This commentary is timely and necessary, as it will describe how Black nurse leaders can enrich the nursing profession as well as the lives of Black individuals, families and communities.


Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) are envisioned to become one of the new types of fifth/sixth generation (5G/6G) network users. To support advanced services for UAVs such as video monitoring, one of the prospective options is to utilize recently standardized New Radio (NR) technology operating in the millimeter-wave (mmWave) frequency band. However, blockage of propagation paths between NR base stations (BS) and UAV by buildings may lead to frequent outage situations. In our study, we use the tools of integral geometry to characterize connectivity properties of UAVs in terrestrial urban deployments of mmWave NR systems using UAV line-of-sight (LoS) blockage probability as the main metric of interest. As opposed to other studies, the use of the proposed approach allows us to get closed-form approximation for LoS blockage probability as a function of city and network deployment parameters. As one of the options to improve connectivity we also consider rooftop-mounted mmWave BSs. Our results illustrate that the proposed model provides an upper bound on UAV LoS blockage probability, and this bound becomes more accurate as the density of mmWave BS in the area increases. The closed-form structure allows for identifying of the street width, building block and BS heights, and UAV altitude as the parameters providing the most impact on the considered metric. We show that rooftop-mounted mmWave BSs allow for the drastic improvement of LoS blockage probability, i.e., depending on the system parameters the use of one rooftop-mounted mmWave BS is equivalent to 6–12 ground-mounted mmWave BSs. Out of all considered deployment parameters the street width is the one most heavily affecting the UAV LoS blockage probability. Specifically, the deployment with street width of 20 m is characterized by 50% lower UAV LoS blockage probability as compared to the one with 10 m street width.


Title of dissertation: RADIO FREQUENCY SUPERCONDUCTING QUANTUM INTERFERENCE DEVICE META-ATOMS AND METAMATERIALS: EXPERIMENT, THEORY AND ANALYSIS Daimeng Zhang, Doctor of Philosophy, 2016 Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Dissertation directed by: Professor Steven M. Anlage Department of Physics Metamamterials are 1D, 2D or 3D arrays of artificial atoms. The artificial atoms, called "meta-atoms", can be any component with tailorable electromagnetic properties, such as resonators, LC circuits, nano particles, and so on. By designing the properties of individual meta-atoms and the interaction created by putting them in a lattice, one can create a metamaterial with intriguing properties not found in nature. This thesis examines the meta-atoms based on radio frequency superconducting quantum interference devices (rf-SQUIDs); their tunability with dc magnetic field, rf magnetic field, and temperature are studied. The rf-SQUIDs are superconducting split ring resonators in which the usual capacitance is supplemented with a Josephson junction, which introduces strong nonlinearity in the rf properties. At relatively low rf magnetic field, a magnetic field tunability of the resonant frequency of up to 80 THz/gauss by dc magnetic field is observed, and a total frequency tunability of 100% is achieved. The macroscopic quantum superconducting metamaterial also shows manipulable self-induced broadband transparency due to a qualitatively novel nonlinear mechanism that is different from conventional electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT) or its classical analogs. A near complete disappearance of resonant absorption under a range of applied rf flux is observed experimentally and explained theoretically. The transparency comes from the intrinsic bi-stability and can be tuned on/ off easily by altering rf and dc magnetic fields, temperature and history. Hysteretic in situ 100% tunability of transparency paves the way for auto-cloaking metamaterials, intensity dependent filters, and fast-tunable power limiters. An rfSQUID metamaterial is shown to have qualitatively the same behavior as a single rf-SQUID with regards to dc flux, rf flux and temperature tuning. The two-tone response of self-resonant rf-SQUID meta-atoms and metamaterials is then studied here via intermodulation (IM) measurement over a broad range of tone frequencies and tone powers. A sharp onset followed by a surprising strongly suppressed IM region near the resonance is observed. This behavior can be understood employing methods in nonlinear dynamics; the sharp onset, and the gap of IM, are due to sudden state jumps during a beat of the two-tone sum input signal. The theory predicts that the IM can be manipulated with tone power, center frequency, frequency difference between the two tones, and temperature. This quantitative understanding potentially allows for the design of rf-SQUID metamaterials with either very low or very high IM response. RADIO FREQUENCY SUPERCONDUCTING QUANTUM INTERFERENCE DEVICE META-ATOMS AND METAMATERIALS : EXPERIMENT, THEORY AND ANALYSIS


In this study the problems of satellite orbit design and simulation are tackled and an object oriented satellite tool OOST is developed. The tool with its three main modules enables the user to plan and design different satellite missions. It performs all orbital calculations needed, simulates the target orbit and performs analysis on the current active satellite(s). The simulation module of OOST has been used to provide orbit design and satellite simulation for all geocentric orbits using an interactive world map that is synchronized with simulation time. OOST uses a predefined library of orbital mechanics functions to perform the required calculations. Also it allows users to call the library in their own external programs. A satellite database, containing data from more than 900 active satellites, has been linked to OOST in order to allow comparisons of different satellites. A Data Mining technique is applied to the satellite data. The technique as such relies upon the Decision Tree. It leads to discover valuable data related to classifying satellites and defining the trends of their owners. This classification is based on classifying satellite orbits into two trends, one representing the majority of owners and the other represents special cases. These orbits have been analyzed using different simulation capabilities of the Ground Track Module. The applications that have been studied in this study are communication, remote sensing and military missions.


The level set method (LSM) has attracted much attention as a method that realizes a topology free active contour modeling. This method utilizes an implicit representation of a contour to be tracked, and is able to handle the topological change of the contour intrinsically. Various applications including motion tracking and 3D geometrical modeling have been proposed so far. However, the calculation cost of reinitialization and updating of the implicit function is considerably expensive as compared with conventional active contour models such as"Snakes". To overcome this problem, we have proposed an efficient algorithm of the LSM named the Fast Level Set Method (FLSM) . This paper presents a 3D simultaneous motion tracking system of multiple targets using the FLSM, and shows a series of experimental results to verify the effectiveness of the system even in the event of occlusion. Characteristics of this system are as follows: (i) Topologically free, (ii) Robustness for self and mutual occlusion, (iii) Ease to calibrate several stereo cameras using ICP algorithm. In this paper, we present a robust 3D motion tracking system for target occlusion using the FLSM, and show some experimental results of tracking of multiple targets.


Abstract Weathering profiles developed on the top surface of a bentonite (containing Al-Mg montmorillonite) and a K-bentonite (containing mixed-layer illite-smectite (I-S)) under Central European temperate conditions were studied by XRD, HRTEM, FTIR, K-Ar and chemical analyses. Weathering of montmorillonite results in the decrease of cation exchange capacity (CEC), total surface area and Mg content. The process is interpreted as montmorillonite dissolution and precipitation of amorphous SiO2. Weathering of I-S produces an increase in CEC and total surface area The XRD data suggest dissolution of I-S and appearance of smectite as a separate phase at intermediate depths. The fixation of ammonium is documented in the topmost sample. In both profiles, abundant aeolian contaminants, including mica, were identified and their migration was traced using K-Ar dating.


We propose a novel approach for class incremental online learning in a limited data setting. This problem setting is challenging because of the following constraints: (1) Classes are given incrementally, which necessitates a class incremental learning approach; (2) Data for each class is given in an online fashion, i.e., each training example is seen only once during training; (3) Each class has very few training examples; and (4) We do not use or assume access to any replay/memory to store data from previous classes. Therefore, in this setting, we have to handle twofold problems of catastrophic forgetting and overfitting. In our approach, we learn robust representations that are generalizable across tasks without suffering from the problems of catastrophic forgetting and overfitting to accommodate future classes with limited samples. Our proposed method leverages the meta-learning framework with knowledge consolidation. The meta-learning framework helps the model for rapid learning when samples appear in an online fashion. Simultaneously, knowledge consolidation helps to learn a robust representation against forgetting under online updates to facilitate future learning. Our approach significantly outperforms other methods on several benchmarks.


Digital Humanities BeNeLux is a grass roots initiative to foster knowledge networking and dissemination in digital humanities in Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg. This special issue highlights a selection of the work that was presented at the DHBenelux 2015 Conference by way of anthology for the digital humanities currently being done in the Benelux area and beyond. The introduction describes why this grass roots initiative came about and how DHBenelux is currently supporting community building and knowledge exchange for digital humanities in the Benelux area and how this is integrating regional digital humanities in the larger international digital humanities environment.


Since the emergence of Bitcoin in 2009, the number of cryptocurrencies, their applications and market value grew significantly. There is a surge in the number of businesses, financial institutions and authorities, investors and governments interested in the adaptation of the cryptocurrencies and/or blockchain technology. In this report, we aim to provide an overview of the economic benefits and risks of cryptocurrencies for researchers and students in economics, finance, mathematics and computer science. The report offers the summary of the academic and non-academic literature concerning this topic published to this day as well as the list of future research perspectives, review of Bank of England research on cryptocurrencies, and contributions from University of Manchester researchers specialising in various academic fields.
Among the economic benefits, we discuss the defining characteristics of cryptocurrency users and the potential benefits for small and large businesses and the society as a whole. We also focus on the new, low-cost and unregulated form of early-stage company financing which was propagated by some of the blockchain start-ups, the Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs). Subsequently, we acknowledge the risks posed by the adaptation of cryptocurrencies, analyse their efficiency and stability issues. We also address the problem of illegal activities benefiting from the anonymity offered by the system, focusing predominantly on tax evasion, money laundering, the economy of dark markets and terrorism financing. The report also covers the responses of governments and central banks to this phenomenon and the current state of legal definitions of cryptocurrencies in chosen countries.