John Rawls famously argued that citizens in a just democracy have a moral duty to ensure that "the principles and policies they advocate and vote for can be supported by the political values of public reason." This so-called "duty of civility" obligates us to cast our votes on "constitutional questions and matters of basic justice" for reasons that we can explain in terms of the public good and the "ideals and principles expressed by society's conception of political justice." Rawls contrasts these public reasons with "nonpublic reasons" - such as "comprehensive religious and philosophical doctrines" - which he claims cannot legitimize acts of political coercion. And yet our Constitution singles out and protects certain paradigmatic kinds of nonpublic reasoning, at least in the private sphere (the Free Exercise Clause), and, arguably, in the political sphere as well (the Test Oath Clause). This paper attempts to justify these constitutional protections by offering a structural account of the essential role that nonpublic reasons play in the progress and evolution of a liberal democratic state. Many thoughtful and influential scholars - Charles Taylor, Alasdair MacIntyre, Michael Walzer, and Michael Sandel, to name a few - have written on the place of nonpublic reasons in democratic debate, and Kent Greenawalt has devoted two entire books to the subject. To my knowledge, however, none of them have advanced, at least directly, the thesis I present here. I suggest that, within the processes of democratic evolution, nonpublic reasoning can function in much the same way that the phenomenon of mutation does in the evolution of species. That is, nonpublic reasoning can be a source of diverse, nonconformist, and nonlinear thinking; it may produce ideas that are true Kuhnian paradigm shifts, and thus cannot be explained or justified in terms of the existing framework of public reasons. Seen in this light, Rawls's moral "duty of civility" - while it promotes discourse and tolerance - may also stunt the kinds of deep innovation necessary to keep a democratic state vital and responsive to an evolving civic and moral culture. In the hope that a short case study might better illustrate my argument, I present a brief account of the New York Catholic School controversy in the early 1840s. In particular, I focus on Archbishop John Hughes's efforts to mobilize a Catholic voting coalition, which threat led directly to the destruction of the New York Public School Society, and paved the way (eventually) for the transition from nonsectarian to secularized public schooling. While we might easily justify secular schooling in terms of the public reasons our modern conceptions of political justice provide, many of those conceptions were not broadly available in 1840. Only when confronted with the Catholic remonstrance did New York, and eventually the nation, refine and clarify its political values in ways that made this particular democratic evolution possible. There are other notable illustrations of this phenomenon - black churches and the Civil Rights Movement, for example - which I mention, but do not explore. In concluding, I suggest that thinking about the religion clauses in these terms may ultimately give us greater insight into the constitutional value of nonpublic reasons, which, in turn, may help us better understand the structural dimensions (as distinct from the human rights dimensions) of the freedom of conscience.


Title of Document: ADDRESSING NEW STORMWATER POLICIES IN THE REDESIGN OF THE NATIONAL GROVE OF STATE TREES AT THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL ARBORETUM Kory A. Kreiseder, MLA 2012 Directed By: David N. Myers, PhD. PLA, ASLA, Department of Plant Sciences and Landscape Architecture The National Grove of State Trees at the United States National Arboretum is in need of redesign to meet ecological and social needs. The Grove serves as a scientific and cultural landscape and can be repurposed to serve the public as an ecological demonstration for contemporary environmental issues. In an intensive effort to clean up the local rivers of the District of Columbia and the Chesapeake Bay, the two agencies of the District Department of the Environment and DC Water have enacted stormwater runoff fees, based on impervious surface fees, on all property owners located in the District of Columbia. The redesign of the Grove is compounded by the Arboretum's need to add more parking to the area where the Grove is currently located. The objective of this thesis is to reimagine the design and interpretation of the Grove as well as address the impervious area charge assessments. ADDRESSING NEW STORMWATER POLICIES IN THE REDESIGN OF THE NATIONAL GROVE OF STATE TREES AT THE UNITED STATES NATIONAL ARBORETUM


Explanations are integrated into recommender systems to give users an insight into the recommendation generation process. Compared to single-user recommender systems, explanations in group recommender systems have further goals. Examples thereof are fairness, which helps to take into account as much as possible group members' preferences and consensus, which persuades group members to agree on a decision. In this paper, we proposed different types of explanations and found the most effective ones in terms of increasing the fairness perception, consensus perception and satisfaction of group members with regard to group recommendations. We conducted a user study to evaluate the proposed explanations. The results show that explanations which consider the preferences of all or the majority of group members achieve the best results in terms of the mentioned dimensions. Besides, we discovered positive correlations among these aspects. In the context of repeated decisions, group members' satisfaction from previous decisions are helpful to improve the fairness perception of users concerning group recommendations and speed up the group decision-making process. Furthermore, we found out that gender diversity does influence the perception of users regarding the mentioned dimensions of the explanations. Although the proposed explanations were analyzed in group decision scenarios for non-configurable (no-attribute) items, there exist potential possibilities to apply them to explanations for configurable items.


Today's virtual reality (VR) systems offer chaperone rendering techniques that prevent the user from colliding with physical objects. Without a detailed geometric model of the physical world, these techniques offer limited possibility for more advanced compositing between the real world and the virtual. We explore this using a realtime 3D reconstruction of the real world that can be combined with a virtual environment. RealityCheck allows users to freely move, manipulate, observe, and communicate with people and objects situated in their physical space without losing the sense of immersion or presence inside their virtual world. We demonstrate RealityCheck with seven existing VR titles, and describe compositing approaches that address the potential conflicts when rendering the real world and a virtual environment together. A study with frequent VR users demonstrate the affordances provided by our system and how it can be used to enhance current VR experiences.


Educating Medical-Surgical/Staff Nurses to Improve Nursing Knowledge of Patient Education, Focusing on Health Literacy by Justin T. Loew MS, Cleveland State University, 2004 BS, Cleveland State University, 2007 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University December 2015 Abstract A primary problem faced by a majority of medical-surgical nurses is a lack of knowledge and skills necessary to improve health literacy among patients. This inadequacy among medical-surgical nurses is often linked to insufficient training on how to identify and interact with patients with lower health literacy. Improvement of patient health literacy can be realized through proper training, education, and a better application ofA primary problem faced by a majority of medical-surgical nurses is a lack of knowledge and skills necessary to improve health literacy among patients. This inadequacy among medical-surgical nurses is often linked to insufficient training on how to identify and interact with patients with lower health literacy. Improvement of patient health literacy can be realized through proper training, education, and a better application of communication strategies. The aim of this project was to improve current medicalsurgical nurses' practice guidelines via the use of educational programs. The project developed pilot protocols and policies in order to improve its practical applications. The project was achieved in 6 steps: (a) assembling an interdisciplinary team, (b) reviewing literature and evidence, (c) developing policy and practice guidelines, (d) content validation, (e) creating an implementation and (f) evaluation plan. The team delivered the new policy and guidelines and observed the medical surgical nurses. During the month-long review, nurses who applied guidelines that they had been equipped with were deemed competent. Conversely, nurses who did not show competency were given onthe-spot education and were observed to make sure that they learned the necessary guidelines and practices. These instances were recorded and collected for review. The interdisciplinary team's positive evaluation of the project indicated a potential positive social impact for the 59% of elderly population in need of this specialized care as well as the estimated 36% of American adults who have limited health literacy. Equipping medical-surgical nurses with strategies for effective communication and health literacy when working with either population could help to minimize the readmission rates of patients, and overall number of Emergency Room visitations due to low health literacy. Educating Medical-Surgical/Staff Nurses to Improve Nursing Knowledge of Patient Education, Focusing on Health Literacy by Justin T. Loew MS, Cleveland State University, 2004 BS, Cleveland State University, 2007 Project Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Nursing Practice Walden University December 2015


Abstract Climate change and its severity play an important role in forest fire regime. Analysing the forest fires events becomes a prerequisite for safeguarding the forest from further damage. We have made an assessment of the long-term forest fire events at the district level in India and identified the forest fire hotspot districts. The spatial seasonal (January to June) district wise pattern and forest fire trend were analysed. In the second part of the study area (central part of India), we have evaluated the forest fire events in grid format with respect to the climatic/weather datasets, and the statistical analysis Cramer V coefficient (CVC) was performed to understand its association/relationship with forest fire events. The study revealed that Karbi Anglong and North Cachar Hills districts of Assam of India have the highest forest fire percent among all districts equivalent to 3.4 and 3.2% respectively. Dantewada district of Chhattisgarh and Garhchiroli district of Maharashtra of India occupied 3rd and 4th rank with value 3.1 and 3.0% respectively. The grid-based evaluation (local scale) revealed that most of the fire equivalent of 80% was found in the month of March and April. Forest fire frequency of the month of April is spread over 88 % of the grids over the study area. The 11 years average seasonal month-wise (February to June) maximum temperature, wind velocity, relative humidity, and solar radiation were found in the range of (25.9 to 40.6), (1.69 to 2.7), (0.301 to 0.736) and (14.21 to 22.98) respectively. The percentage increase (in the month of March) of maximum temperature, wind velocity, and solar radiation were 36, 39 and 62% respectively, when compared with the preceding month; whereas, a 60% decrease to relative humidity that was observed in the same month is usually the major cause of forest fire events in the month of March onwards. The evaluation of Cramer V coefficient (CVC) values of rainfall, relative humidity, potential evapotranspiration, maximum temperature, wind velocity, and solar radiation were in decreasing order and in the range of 0.778 to 0.293. The highest value of rainfall (0.778) showed its strongest association with the forest fire events. In the month of June, these areas receive adequate rainfall, which leads to an increase in the soil moisture and a reduction in forest fuel burning capacity by absorbing the moisture and it is a strong reason for less forest fire events during this month. Geospatial technology provides an opportunity to evaluate large datasets over various spatial and temporal scales and help in decision making/formulating various policies.


This thesis is constructed around the topic of thermal transport in nanofluids, with special emphasis of boiling heat transfer. Nanofluids boiling, as it is popularly known, have been researched nearly for two decades. While some controversies surrounding the boiling mechanisms had been sorted out, others still remained. The aim of this thesis is to address the remaining concerns. For the best treatment of the research problem, the experimental work was divided into three segments.

Time-resolved small angle x-ray scattering studies of nanofluids were focused to examine the nanoparticle aggregation in liquid media. These were conducted at two national synchrotron facilities located at Daresbury Laboratory and Diamond Light source in Oxford, UK. In-situ experiments were conducted with static and convective nanofluidic samples. Types of nanofluids and the experimental conditions were chosen to cover a broad range of practical applications. Water based nanofluids of spherical particles of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) and titanium dioxide (TiO2) and acicular particles of aluminium oxide (Al2O3) were exposed to 1Ă wavelength x-ray beam for varying duration of times at a frame rate of 10miliseconds. Data analysis was conducted using the Dream and SAXS Utilities software. Signs of change in particle size were discovered with the near-IEP nanofluids. For further clarification of these SAXS observations, microscopic and photography studies were conducted in the laboratory. SEM studies were supported by optical microscopy. It helped to estimate the aggregate sizes and porosity within aggregates. The settling rates were determined by still photography, which were subsequently compared with the prediction of Stoke's settling theory. At the end of data and image analysis, it was discovered that the x-ray beam had successfully predicted the settling rates of nanoparticle aggregates. Although SAXS has long been used to analyse particulate systems, for the best of the knowledge of this author, this is the first time its capability as a tool to estimate particle settling rates in nanofluids has been showcased. Furthermore, by fine tuning the present methodology, it seems possible to determine the nanoparticle aggregation rates in a nanofluid.

Saturated pool boiling of nanofluids was experimentally investigated under the atmospheric pressure. A boiling test rig was designed and constructed for this purpose in the Leeds University. Water based and water-ethylene glycol (WEG) based nanofluids were examined for boiling heat transfer on flat copper substrates. The substrates were resistively heated from the bottom, providing surface heat fluxes up to 189kW/m2. Boiling heat transfer coefficients were calculated using the measured temperature differences between substrate and the boiling liquid at each surface heat flux. All nanofluids in general displayed deterioration in boiling heat transfer. Moreover all substrates were found fouled with nanoparticles after boiling. SEM observation on fouled substrates revealed the presence of structures consisting of sub-micron size cavities and pores, which are possibly interconnected by sub-surface network of channels. By measuring their surface roughness, it was further understood that the degree of change of roughness due to boiling depended upon its initial roughness, the particle concentration in the nanofluid, as well as the shape of nanoparticles. This study also points to an interval of roughnesses that gives optimum boiling heat transfer performance. Further experiments are recommended to focus on this aspect. Also to avoid in future is the bubble nucleation in the periphery of the copper substrates that became a major obstacle to visualise bubbles in the middle.

The need to explore the bubble nucleation phenomena on at sub-micron size cavities was inspired by the presence of such cavities on nanofouled substrates. Moreover in literature sometimes the inconsistencies on the degree of enhancement or deterioration were attributed to hitherto-unknown boiling phenomena at these length scales. Two key challenges were to create very small cavities on a smooth substrate and to conduct phenomenally clean boiling experiments on them. In principle there should not be a foreign particle inside the boiler which is larger than the cavity mouth. The biggest challenge however was to find a technique to measure the temperature of the liquid layer on top of the cavities. The infrared thermometry facility at the Nuclear Science and Engineering Department of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) was used as a part of research collaboration. Tiny cavities were machined on ultra smooth silicon substrate using the focus ion beam (FIB) technology at the University of Leeds and at Harvard Centre for Nanoscale Systems. The mouth diameters of conical cavities were ranging from 0.6µm to 4.5µm. A boiling test rig was simultaneously developed at MIT. Heating to the liquid was provided by a halogen spot heater. The cleanliness of the test rig was successfully proved by reaching the heterogeneous nucleation superheat of liquid methanol on a silicon wafer. Water and a water based dilute SiO2 nanofluid were boiled in this novel test rig. Temperature profiles of bubble evolution were captured using the IR thermometry. Also the superheated liquid layer temperatures were measured. It was found that the measured values were in good agreement with Young-Laplace theory. Moreover the SiO2 0.01wt%-water nanofluid in most cases demonstrated boiling heat transfer enhancement up to 40% above water. With this work, for the first time the classical Young-Laplace theory was proved for sub-micron cavities. It further removed the suspicion that there might be a different phenomenon governing the bubble nucleation on nanofouled substrates.


Renewable energy industry has been booming since 8 years ago and has been growing exponentially since 2010 since the production costs of PV systems have greatly reduced due to technological advancements. Balance Utility Solutions (BUS) was established in 2011 to cope with the growing market for embedded generation. BUS has completed multiple energy generation projects over Australia and Asia over 2013.

BUS is a member of the Balance Services Group, alongside with our client Barclay Engineering (BE), the client for the 9.04kWp grid-connected PV install.

The initial aim of the project was to acquire the related system approvals, design and procurement and implement the system before the end of the contract. This would serve not only as a investment to our client, but also a facility to train BUS personnel for rack assembly and also serve as a test facility for future developments. Along the way 2 minor projects were also undertaken and included as minor projects.

It was later discovered that alongside the 4kW of PV modules that BE had also bought battery banks, a standalone inverter its associated balance of system which could then be implemented and designed to operate like dedicated UPS systems that are available on the market. Fundamental operational specification also documented as part of the future plans for the project.

Minor project 1 was an involvement in other document preparation including a tender document for a 150kWp PV system for a wastewater plant. This involved planning and documenting the project delivery; acquiring quotes for components and understanding and complying with the scope that is required by the client. PV systems above 100kW are uncommon in WA, and require protection relays to be integrated and approved by Western Power.

Minor project 2 was the small test of the Sun Power PV modules and their degradation when modules are operational for two years and stored for an additional year. Results were then used to locate the module that has suffered the most degradation and omit it from the design. Results are discussed in section 12.


BACKGROUND: Miners work in highly hazardous environments, but surprisingly, there are more fatalities from occupational diseases, including cancers, than from fatalities from injuries. Over the last few decades, the mining environment has become safer with fewer injuries and less exposure to the toxins that lead to occupational disease. There have been improvements in working conditions, and a reduction in the number of workers exposed, together with an overall improvement in the health of miners. OBJECTIVES: This study attempted to gain a deeper understanding of the impetus for change to reduce occupational exposures or toxins at the industry level. It focuses on one mining community in Sudbury, Ontario, with a high cancer rate, and its reduction in occupational exposures. It explored the level of awareness of occupational exposures from the perspective of industry and worker representatives in some of the deepest mines in the world. Although awareness may be necessary, it is often not a sufficient impetus for change, and it is this gap between awareness and change that this study explored. It examined the awareness of occupational disease as an impetus to reducing toxic exposures in the mining sector, and explores other forces of change at the industrial and global levels that have led to an impact on occupational exposures in mining. METHODS: From 2014 and 2016, 60 interviews were conducted with individuals who were part of, or witness to the changes in mining in Sudbury. From these, 12 labour and 10 industry interviews and four focus groups were chosen for further analysis to gain a deeper understanding of industry and labour's views on the changes in mining and the impact on miners' health from occupational exposures. The results from this subsection of the data is the focus for this paper. RESULTS: The themes that emerged told a story about Sudbury. There is awareness of occupational exposures, but this awareness is dwarfed in comparison to the attention that is given to the tragic fatal injuries from injuries and accidents. The mines are now owned by foreign multinationals with a change from an engaged, albeit paternalistic sense of responsibility for the health of the miners, to a less responsive or sympathetic workplace culture. Modernization has led to the elimination, substitution, or reduction of some of the worst toxins, and hence present-day miners are less exposed to hazards that lead to occupational disease than they were in the past. However, modernization and the drop in the price of nickel has also led to a precipitous reduction in the number of unionized miners, a decline in union power, a decline in the monitoring of present-day exposures, and an increase in non-unionized contract workers. The impact has been that miners have lost their solidarity and power to investigate, monitor or object to present-day exposures. CONCLUSIONS: Although an increase in the awareness of occupational hazards has made a contribution to the reduction in occupational exposures, the improvement in health of miners may be considered more as a "collateral benefit" of the changes in the mining sector. Multiple forces at the industrial and global level have differentially led to an improvement in the working and living environment. However, with the loss of union power, the miners have lost their major advocate for miner health.


Shanker & King's (S&K's) dynamic systems approach converges with developments in social anthropological studies of communication which were long ago anticipated in the writings of Volosinov and Schutz. Following a review of these writings, this commentary suggests that a dynamic systems approach should distinguish communion from communication. It concludes with a remark on the evolutionary implications of the approach.


In the present study, we apply a combination of Sr-isotope whole-rock analyses and LA-ICP-MS U-Pb zircon dating to understand the magmatic evolution of the igneous rocks in the Ruen Zone, western Bulgaria, and bracket the time of their formation. This approach reveals a general interval of magmatic activity from 35.57 ± 0.27 Ма (Pishtilski volcanics) to 28.63 ± 0.58 Ма (cross-cutting dykes in the Osogovo Mountain). The volcanic rocks from the Prekolnitsa Graben are formed with significant (50%) crustal contamination/assimilation. Three major sources of crustal rocks can be outlined, with Triassic, Ordovician and Cambrian age, respectively. For the subvolcanic to plutonic magmatic rocks of the Osogovo Mountain, we suggest maturation and zircon crystallization over 2–4 Ma. The magma was generated dominantly in the continental crust and evolved through mainly fractional crystallization (FC) in the upper crustal chamber, whereas the evolution of the Osogovo dykes requires additional involvement of AFC (Assimilation and Fractional Crystallization) and contamination processes.


The unemployment rate among the age group 15 to 34 in South Africa has been growing over the past three years. This is reminiscent of global trends in youth unemployment. Youth unemployment has become a topical issue in many countries in the world as the figures soar. This trend may be ascribed to the impact of the world recession on output growth and employment, to structural changes in production as well as to the diminishing marginal utility of labour as a result of cost pressures. In 2003, males and females aged between 15 and 24 years accounted for about 41% of the world's unemployed, or an estimated 74 million people (World Bank 2003).
The youth unemployment challenges in South Africa are closely related to the inability of young people to obtain employment owing to their lack of experience, which is all too often compounded by a lack of skills. The result is a growing cohort of young people with severely limited access to formal sector employment, and limited means to do anything about this. This article investigates the various factors that may play a role in the high unemployment rate among young people in South Africa, such as skills levels, age, population group and economic environment.
Interventions to address youth unemployment depend on combining the efforts of all stakeholders and should focus on education and training, job readiness and experience as well as the creation of jobs in all geographical areas of South Africa


The age spectra of detrital zircons in meta-sediments from Palawan Island, Mindoro Island, Tablas, and the Buruanga Peninsula of Panay Island in the Central Philippines provide evidence for the provenance of these zircons in the northern part of the Cathaysia Block, SE China. These islands form the western part of the Philippine archipelago and are part of the Palawan Continental Terrane (PCT), which is considered to be a rifted fragment of the continental margin of SE China which moved south from its original location as a consequence of the opening of the South China Sea (SCS). This rifted fragment contains records of the history of the continental margin of SE China. In this study, we present Hf isotopic compositions of previously dated zircon grains by U-Pb dating technique, in meta-sediments from PCT. The results indicate that for several age groups, in particular those of 80 93, 245 270, and 400 465 Ma, εHf(T) of the zircons from the PCT is higher than in corresponding zircons from mainland SE China implying greater contributions from the mantle to the magmas from which these zircons crystallized. This suggests that most of the zircons found in the PCT were not transported over long distances from the interior of the SE Chinese cratons but are derived from regional sources, which are represented by the Camarong Gneiss and the rhyolite in Mindoro. Article history: Received 15 January 2017 Revised 6 February 2018 Accepted 23 February 2018


One of the most frequent techniques of a DoS attack is to exhaust available resources (memory, CPU cycles, and bandwidth) on the host server. A SOAP message can be affected by a DoS attack if the incoming message has been either created or modified maliciously. Resources available in the server (memory and CPU cycles) of the provider can be drastically reduced or exhausted while a malicious SOAP message is being parsed. This article presents a solution based on an adaptive solution for dealing with DoS attacks in Web service environments. The solution proposes a multi-agent hierarchical architecture that implements a classification mechanism in two phases. Each phase incorporates a special type of CBR-BDI agent that functions as a classifier. In the first phase, a case-based reasoning (CBR) engine utilizes a decision tree to carry out an initial filter, and in the second phase, a CBR engine incorporates a neural network to complete the classification mechanism. A prototype of the architecture was developed and the results obtained are presented in this study.


Federated learning poses new statistical and systems challenges in training machine learning models over distributed networks of devices. In this work, we show that multi-task learning is naturally suited to handle the statistical challenges of this setting, and propose a novel systems-aware optimization method, MOCHA, that is robust to practical systems issues. Our method and theory for the first time consider issues of high communication cost, stragglers, and fault tolerance for distributed multi-task learning. The resulting method achieves significant speedups compared to alternatives in the federated setting, as we demonstrate through simulations on real-world federated datasets.


The performance of scale-out and online transaction processing workloads, often found in modern datacenters, suffer from high instruction cache miss rates. These are caused by large instruction working sets and irregular, nonsequential execution flow patterns that are typical for these applications. Past research has suggested many approaches to reduce instruction cache miss rates. However, most existing solutions are either implemented in hardware or require special compiler or operating system support. In this work, we present Call Graph Prefetching on Precompiled Executables (CGPoPE) as a system to reduce instruction cache misses caused by function calls. CGPoPE builds the call graph of an application by intercepting and recording function calls. It then extracts the most frequent callee of each function and injects prefetch instructions into the ordinarily compiled binary of the application. The mechanism we use to inject prefetch instructions can be applied to insert arbitrary instructions into the machine code of an application. This design enables the implementation of live patching via the operating system, which is able to perform the binary augmentation automatically when restarting an application. We evaluate CGPoPE using a prototypical implementation for ELF files and the x86 architecture. Although we find that CGPoPE does not improve the performance of our benchmarks, we show that all injected prefetches are effective. Our analysis also reveals that the injection of instructions into unmodified binaries does not cause significant additional run time overhead, and that the effectivity of CGPoPE can likely be increased by more aggressive prefetching.


Software Programmable Memories, or SPMs, are raw on-chip memories that are not implicitly managed by the processor hardware, but explicitly by software. For example, while caches fetch data from memories automatically and maintain coherence with other caches, SPMs explicitly manage data movement between memories and other SPMs through software instructions. SPMs make the design of on-chip memories simpler, more scalable, and power efficient, but also place additional burden for programming of SPM-based processors. Traditionally, SPMs have been utilised in embedded systems, especially multimedia and gaming systems, but recently research on SPM-based systems has seen increased interest as a means to solve the memory scaling challenges of many-core architectures. This study presents an overview of the state-of-the-art in SPM management techniques in many-core processors, summarises some recent research on SPM-based systems, and outlines future research directions in this field.


The Pseudo-Bonaventuran Meditationes vitae Christi is one of the most influential devotional narratives of the late middle ages. It was written in Tuscany in the early fourteenth century and survived in several Latin and vernacular manuscripts and early prints. An extensive discussion has engaged the scholars, especially about the issue of the first linguistic version of the text. Even if the Latin version seems to be the original text, the vernacular manuscript Paris, BnF, it. 115 stays as one of the most important and interesting witnesses of the work. One of the earliest surviving codices, it conserves the first Italian translation (penned in the Pisan area) of the text, enriched by a wonderful set of illustration. The present volume, which is the outcome of an international and interdisciplinary collaboration, offers the first critical edition of the text, the reproduction of all images, the edition of the instructions given to the artist, accompanied by detailed philological and art-historical commentaries, glossaries, and seven interdisciplinary introductory essays.


The paper shows how production, marketing and uses of wool changed in colonial India (1858-1947). The changes involved location, products, people, and nature of the firm, and were induced by two circumstances, one arising from the raw material side, and the other from the consumption side. There were limitations on access to common grazing lands, a theme that takes us to those of herding, customary rights, and the economics of wool production. The economic character of weaving was bound with that of wool production. The nature of that bond changed in the colonial period. On the consumption side, imported garments altered tastes and introduced new standards. This latter process encouraged standardization, larger scale, and urban production, and in a more limited way diversification and technological change. Power-looms, hosiery, and worsted were the outcomes of the last process.


We examine the implications of evaluating data analysis processes and information visualization tools in a large company setting. While several researchers have addressed the difficulties of evaluating information visualizations with regards to changing data, tasks, and visual encodings, considerably less work has been published on the difficulties of evaluation within specific work contexts. We specifically focus on the challenges, which arise in the context of large companies with several thousand employees. Based on our own experience from a 3.5-year collaboration within a large automotive company, we first present a collection of nine information visualization evaluation challenges. We then discuss these challenges by means of two concrete visualization case studies from our own work. We finally derive a set of 16 recommendations for planning and conducting evaluations in large company settings. The set of challenges and recommendations and the discussion of our experience are meant to provide practical guidance to other researchers and practitioners, who plan to study information visualization in large company settings.


A plastic bag clip was incidentally found anchored in the mucosa of a partial colectomy specimen 2.6 cm proximal to a ruptured diverticulum for which the patient, a mentally retarded, diabetic, 58-year-old man, underwent surgery. Over 20 cases of accidental ingestion of plastic bag clips have been published. Known complications include small bowel perforation, obstruction, dysphagia, gastrointestinal bleeding and colonic impaction. Preoperative diagnosis of plastic clips lodged in the gastrointestinal tract is frustrated due to radiographic translucency. This occult threat could likely be prevented by the design of gastrointestinally safe, plastic-bag-sealing devices. Presented here is a morphologically based classification of bag clips as a possible guide for determining the most hazardous varieties and to aid further discussions of their impact on health.


Today - six years after it was created in a Harvard dorm room - over 500 million people use Facebook regularly, in just about every country on earth. That a company this powerful and influential was started as a lark by a couple of 19-year-olds makes it a fascinating and surprising tale. That one of them, the visionary Mark Zuckerberg, had the maturity, strategic smarts and luck to keep his company ahead of its rivals anchors the tale. With exclusive inside access to all the company's leaders David Kirkpatrick tells of the vision, the tenacity, the refusal to compromise, and the vision Zuckerberg has to remake the internet. A brilliant and fascinating cast of characters created Facebook and Kirkpatrick has interviewed all of them. Never before have Zuckerberg and his closest colleagues told what really happened as they built their dynamo while eating fast food, staying up all night, and thumbing their noses at how things are usually done.


Facilities Management (FM) and Building Information Modelling (BIM) are comparatively new concepts emerged in late 20th and early 21st centuries therefore, limited in theoretical knowledge. Knowledge generation in such immature subject areas have constantly faced with the lack of theoretical groundings hence, proposals and suggestions made for efficient and effective applications are being superseded in a fast phase. In identifying this gap in knowledge, this research makes a significant contribution to the theory in Building Information Modelling and Facilities Management by studying the implications on each other by taking a multi-disciplinary perspective. There is a complex information flow in FM. The late involvement of facility managers has made this complexity more exposed. An effective information management system is considered as a significant driver for FM to enhance the capabilities of built environments in long run. However, this leaves with lack of understanding over FM needs for an information system. On the other hand, BIM is a novel method, recently introduced to the construction industry as a means of providing rich information. A growing demand for through-life BIM application in construction is identified. Although, the application of BIM in design and construction phases is commonly seen, its application in FM is seemingly poor. Multiple reasons for this situation are being suggested by the existing research however, the gap in theoretical grounding leave it vulnerable to interpretation. Therefore, this study aims to bridge the gap by developing a BIM value model for FM to present the theoretical groundings between two concepts. A qualitative multi methodology is being followed to explain the social phenomenon based on critical realist ontological and epistemological assumptions. The study is structured under three phases; the first phase is focused on a deeper understanding of the problem, the second phase – is the development of the solution and final phase is dedicated to the verification of the research output. Two rounds of interviews and focus groups were used as data collection methods while data was analysed using Constant Comparative Method staying true to the Grounded Theory research strategy. The research brings together scholarly work on FM and BIM while interrogating different value theories to develop a unique understanding on BIM acceptance in FM. Value as the main dependent variable in social science brought rich understanding of the phenomenon. The findings reveal how value is represented through barriers and benefits and possibilities of value enhancement through adopting BIM in FM. This leads to a new perspective by identifying barriers of adopting BIM as unfulfilled expectations of users therefore, act as recommendations for improvements required in BIM to help promote the best practice. Finally, the research contributes to the knowledge with a value model which represents relationships discovered during the study and a value principle abstracting the findings. This will guide the client and contractors on identifying BIM requirements and match the competencies of the supply chain to bring the best outcome.


Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) is a unique pancreatic neoplasm developing in the ductal system. Two major histologic subtypes have been reported, that is the gastric type and the intestinal type. However, their histopathologic features, especially those of the gastric type, have not been fully described. To evaluate the features of these two types and refine their differences, we analyzed 80 IPMNs including 50 cases of the gastric type and 30 cases of the intestinal type with mucin immunohistochemistry. By defining a main duct-type lesion as predominantly involving the main pancreatic duct with or without branch ducts, and a branch duct-type lesion as exclusively centered on branch ducts or consisting of a collection of small cystic lesions, gastric-type IPMNs were mostly branch duct-type lesions (98%), whereas the intestinal-type IPMNs were usually main duct type (73%). The histologic grade of the intestinal type was generally higher than that of the gastric type. The intestinal type was also characterized by frequent intraluminal nodular growth, and severe atrophy and fibrosis of the surrounding parenchyma with mucous lake formation. In contrast, pyloric glandlike structures at the base of the papillae and pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN)-like complexes were more frequently observed in the gastric type. A significant difference was observed between the gastric type and the intestinal type with regard to all the above features (P<0.05). Seven cases (23%) of the intestinal type were associated with an invasive adenocarcinoma (6 mucinous and 1 ductal), versus only 1 case (2%) of the gastric type (invasive ductal carcinoma). All cases of both gastric and intestinal types expressed MUC5AC; however, high immunolabeling scores for MUC2 were mostly observed in the intestinal type (P<0.05). In conclusion, gastric and intestinal types of IPMNs have distinct histopathologic features and mucin profiles, suggesting that they may follow different biologic pathways.


Molecular gut-content analysis has revolutionized the study of food webs and feeding interactions, allowing the detection of prey DNA within the gut of many organisms. However, successful prey detection is a challenging procedure in which many factors affect every step, starting from the DNA extraction process. Spiders are liquid feeders with branched gut diverticula extending into their legs and throughout the prosoma, thus digestion takes places in different parts of the body and simple gut dissection is not possible. In this study, we investigated differences in prey detectability in DNA extracts from different parts of the spider´s body: legs, prosoma and opisthosoma, using prey-specific PCR and metabarcoding approaches. We performed feeding trials with the woodlouse hunter spider Dysdera verneaui Simon, 1883 (Dysderidae) to estimate the time at which prey DNA is detectable within the predator after feeding. Although we found that all parts of the spider body are suitable for gut-content analysis when using prey-specific PCR approach, results based on metabarcoding suggested the opisthosoma is optimal for detection of predation in spiders because it contained the highest concentration of prey DNA for longer post feeding periods. Other spiders may show different results compared to D. verneaui, but given similarities in the physiology and digestion in different families, it is reasonable to assume this to be common across species and this approach having broad utility across spiders.


Why do individuals come to live (to move) together, to organize? Here, we propose that organization is a reflection of the physics reality (bio and nonbio) that it takes less power (useful energy, fuel, food, and exergy) to move 1 unit of mass in bulk than to move 1 unit individually. The objective of this work is to establish the connection between energy engineering and social organization and to bring social organization under the big tent of physics. We illustrate the predictability of organization and its evolution with 2 simple models of movement on an area, one inanimate (river basins, generated by several rules of construction) and the other animate (distribution of heated water for use in human settlements). The 2 models lead to the same conclusion: The movement becomes more hierarchical as the size and complexity of the architecture increase. The distribution can be made more uniform (more equal) by imposing identical channels distributed uniformly over the area. The flow architecture becomes a grid instead of a tree; yet, even in designs with imposed equality, the hierarchy persists. This theoretical framework also reveals the physical meaning of innovation: It is a local design change that liberates the flow over the entire territory inhabited by the organized movers.


This paper presents a stock-flow-consistent agent-based model calibrated on Japanese data. The goal is to investigate the effects on the joint dynamics aggregate demand and price of the use by Japanese firms of secondary employees (temporary, part-time, or agency). Empirical evidence point to financial distress and market uncertainty as factors affecting firms' hiring decisions, but their connections with inflation and its sensitivity to employment and output are still under-investigated. In particular, the hiring of secondary workers with lower wages can result in sluggish inflation even during boom periods. The paper aims to provide three main contributions. The first is to identify and test a possible cause of deflation, which is related to firm-level financial distress and uncertain business environment. The study of firms' hiring policies can also shed light on the modifications in the relationship between wage and employment dynamics testified by the flattening of the Phillips curve. The second contribution is the analysis of a range of possible countervailing policies, alternative or complementary to the conventional interest rate policy pursued by the monetary authority. Finally, the paper contributes to the recent developments in the estimation of agent-based models by presenting an original technique, which relies on the identification and optimization of meta-models. The numerical results of the model are quantitatively comparable to the main features of the Japanese economy in the last twenty years. The flattening of the Phillips curve appears to be mostly due to the use of secondary employment as a buffer to reduce financial distress in an uncertain business climate. In terms of policy indications, a strong indexation of minimum wage emerges as the most effective policy to increase inflation. The sensitivity analysis also sheds light on possible reasons why monetary policy may have uncertain effects on inflation.


Microorganisms and drops are ubiquitous in nature: while drops can be found in sneezes, ink-jet printers, oceans etc, microorganisms are present in our stomach, intestine, soil, oceans etc. In most situations they are present in complex conditions: drop spreading on a rigid or soft substrate, drop covered with impurities that act as surfactants, marine microbe approaching a surfactant laden drop in density stratified oceanic waters in the event of an oil spill etc. In this thesis, we extract the physics underlying the influence of two such complicated effects (surfactant redistribution and density-stratification) on the motion of drops and swimming microorganisms when they are in isolation or in the vicinity of each other. This thesis is relevant in understanding the bioremediation of oil spill by marine microbes.We divide this thesis into two themes. In the first theme, we analyze the motion of motile microorganisms near a surfactant-laden interface in homogeneous fluids. We begin by calculating the translational and angular velocities of a swimming microorganism outside a surfactant-laden drop by assuming the surfactant is insoluble, incompressible, and non-diffusing, as such system is relevant in the context of bioremediation of oil spill. We then study the motion of swimming microorganism lying inside a surfactant-laden drop by assuming the surfactant is insoluble, compressible, and has large surface diffusivity. This system is ideal for exploring the nonlinearities associated with the surfactant transport phenomena and is relevant in the context of targeted drug delivery systems wherein one uses synthetic swimmers to transport the drops containing drug. We then analyze the motion of a swimming organism in a liquid film covered with surfactant without making any assumptions about the surfactant and this system is relevant in the case of free-standing films containing swimming organisms as well as in the initial stages of the biofilm formation. In the second theme, we consider a density-stratified background fluid without any surfactants. In this theme, we examine separately a towed drop and a swimming microorganism, and find the drag acting on the drop, drop deformation, and the drift volume induced by the drop as well as the motility of the swimming microorganism.


Noctuidae is one of the largest lepidopteran families, encompassing about 20 000 species (Holloway 1998). Some 157 described species of Noctuidae are known to be cereal stem borers in the Afrotropical region (Moyal 2006) and the most economically important of these belong to the genera Busseola and Sesamia. Accurate identification of pest species is the first and most fundamental step to developing sound pest management strategies (Szalanski et al. 2003). However, many of these closely related stem borers are difficult to distinguish from each other morphologically, and no key is available to cover all noctuid stem borers (Holloway 1998).


We introduce a new objective function for pool-based Bayesian active learning with probabilistic hypotheses. This objective function, called the policy Gibbs error, is the expected error rate of a random classifier drawn from the prior distribution on the examples adaptively selected by the active learning policy. Exact maximization of the policy Gibbs error is hard, so we propose a greedy strategy that maximizes the Gibbs error at each iteration, where the Gibbs error on an instance is the expected error of a random classifier selected from the posterior label distribution on that instance. We apply this maximum Gibbs error criterion to three active learning scenarios: non-adaptive, adaptive, and batch active learning. In each scenario, we prove that the criterion achieves near-maximal policy Gibbs error when constrained to a fixed budget. For practical implementations, we provide approximations to the maximum Gibbs error criterion for Bayesian conditional random fields and transductive Naive Bayes. Our experimental results on a named entity recognition task and a text classification task show that the maximum Gibbs error criterion is an effective active learning criterion for noisy models.


Aims: To determine visual function in drivers who had cataract surgery 5 years previously, and to analyse longitudinal data, by comparing preoperative and postoperative changes in subjective driving ability and objective visual function. Methods: All patients (810) who underwent cataract surgery, during a 1 year period, were prospectively studied. Data regarding present driving status were collected from self administered questionnaires and visual acuity (VA) data were measured before and after surgery. All patients who were alive 5 years later were invited to participate with a new eye examination and questionnaire. Results: Before surgery 36 active drivers (16%) did not fulfil the visual requirements for driving; with improved glasses this number could be reduced to 24 (11%). 5 years after surgery, the corresponding figures were 5% and 3% (5/174), respectively. Before surgery 50% stated visual difficulties while driving in daylight and 79% in darkness. A few months and 5 years after surgery the corresponding figures were 6% and 5%, respectively, for daytime driving and 34% and 44%, respectively, for night-time driving. Conclusions: Long term results regarding cataract surgery in car drivers are beneficial. 5 years after surgery only a few patients drove not fulfilling the requirements, but there were a larger proportion of patients with problems driving in darkness compared with a few months after surgery.


The assessment and prediction of mine water rebound has become increasingly important for the gold mining industry in South Africa. The cessation of mine dewatering has led to large volumes of contaminated discharges in the western parts of the Witwatersrand Basin. Towards the eastern extremity of the Basin, the detached Evander Goldfield has been mined since the early 1950s at depths of between 400 m and 2 000 m below ground level, while overlain by shallower coal mining operations. The hydrogeology of the Evander Basin can be categorised by a shallow weathered-fractured rock aquifer comprising of the glacial and deltaic sediments of the Karoo Supergroup, while the deeper historically confined fractured bedrock aquifer consists predominantly of quartzite with subordinate lava, shale and conglomerate of the Witwatersrand Supergroup. The deep Witwatersrand aquifer has been actively dewatered for the past 60 years at a peak rate of 60 ML/d in the mid-to-late 1960s. Modelling the impacts of mine dewatering and flooding on a regional scale as for the Evander Goldfield presents many challenges including the appropriate discretisation of mine voids and the accurate modelling of layered aquifer systems. To predict the environmental impacts of both the historic and future deep-mining operations at Shaft 6, a detailed conceptual model of the aquifer systems and a 3-dimensional model of the mine voids were incorporated into a numerical groundwater model. This model was used to simulate the dewatering and post-closure rebound of the water tables in the vicinity of the mine. This model could serve as an example for the successful modelling of mine dewatering and flooding scenarios for other parts of the Witwatersrand Basin.


Agency and state grant funding should be disseminated in ways so it will result in better management of household hazardous waste (HHW) and environmental sustainability. Since location seems to matter in HHW collection activities, it is important to consider pro-environmental spatial spillovers that occur, based on agency actions and waste collection behavior taking place in other locations. These may influence HHW-related practices in close-by regions. Using a county-level spatio-temporal dataset that consists of economic, demographic, and HHW data in California from 2004 to 2015, we evaluate the impact of HHW grants on HHW collection activities while considering pro-environmental spillovers. We employ a research design that controls for confounding factors across the North, Central and South Regions, and over time. The research models assess causal relationships using a random effects panel data model with instrumental variables to estimate the grants' influences, while considering spatial effects and unobservable bias. Several findings were obtained: (1) HHW grants had positive effects on waste collection in a consistent way across multiple models that we tested; (2) positive spatial spillover effects occurred for HHW collection activities due to the pro-environmental activities of nearby counties. This research contributes to the growing body of research on geospatial policy analytics, ways to establish the basis for causal inference, and the use of robustness checks to develop a deeper understanding of how to make waste management grant programs more effective in the regions where they are implemented.


Britain has one of the oldest and most developed democracies on earth. It is admired and copied the world over. Yet at home British politics is frequently viewed with a mixture of derision and contempt. Why? Our democratic system may be mature but the politicians we elect and the media we rely on to tell us what they are up to often behave like difficult teenagers, calling each other names, arguing for the sake of argument and pointing the finger of blame rather than accepting responsibility. Little wonder that the public switches off, tired of all the racket and fed up with the lot of them. How did we get into this sorry state, or was it ever thus? With first-hand experience of the worlds of both journalism and politics, Lance Price looks back over almost a century of battles between the media and our political leaders to find out who is to blame. He exposes liars in Downing Street and scoundrels in Fleet Street, bullies and megalomaniacs in both. There are many wiser heads, too, who see the madness and try to find a better way of doing things. Yet are all in pursuit of the same objective? Power. They want power over each other and power over the rest of us. It is a battle without end and too often the truth is the first casualty. Where Power Lies is the story of how powerful men and women have tried for generations to twist the facts to their own ends. It puts the struggle for supremacy between journalists and politicians into perspective. And it offers a glimmer of hope for a future in which both sides grow up, learn to respect each other and trust the rest of us with that most precious of all commodities, the truth.


This article examines how "irregular" migrants from West and Central
Africa make sense of their trapped mobility in Morocco: for many, crossing into Europe has become almost impossible, returning to home countries "empty-handed" a shameful option, and staying very difficult in the face of repeated infringement of their rights. I explore the limits of contemporary depictions of a "migration crisis" that portray migrants south of the Mediterranean Sea as simply en route to Europe and fail to engage with (post)colonial entanglements. The article recalibrates the examinationof migrants' lived experiences of stasis and mobility by exploring the emic notion of "adventure" among migrants "looking for their lives." A focus on how migrants articulate
their own (im)mobility further exposes and defies the pitfalls of abstract concepts such as "transit migration," which is misleading in its implication of a fixed destination.


The interest in studying multiplayer video game play has been growing since the mid-2000s. This is in part due to growing interest in games that are part of eSports settings such as Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CS:GO), which is one of the main games within eSports, and is the video game that is studied in this paper. Studies of multiplayer video game play from a conversation analysis (CA) participant perspective appear to be scarce, although they are steadily becoming a legitimate topic in ethnomethodological conversation analytical (EMCA) studies. EMCA studies have mostly focused on aspects around the screen, and on how physically present players interact and draw upon resources both on- and off-screen. Some studies have taken the CA perspective further and blur the on-/off-screen dichotomy to better understand on-screen actions as social actions worthy of study. The aim of this article is to describe and gain new understanding of how participants socially organize their game play with a focus on sequentiality and accountability connected to "kills" (K) and "deaths" (D) in CS:GO. The social organizational structure of game play connected to K- and D-events in CS:GO can be described as a set of "rules" that participants orient to. In short, these rules appear to encompass communication efficiency: K-events are more often other-topicalized, and D-events are more often self-topicalized; spectating provides more sequential and temporal space for topicalization; and D-events are oriented to as more problematic events in need of further negotiation. In-and-through describing the social organization connected to K- and D-events from a participant's perspective, it becomes evident that "killing" and "dying" in-game is not oriented to in a literal fashion. They are oriented to as frequent events that are basic parts of the game's mechanics and of playing the game to win or lose.


This work examines the precipitation of PCC – pulp composite fillers with varying crystal habits and their effects on the papermaking properties of printing and writing paper. Colloidal (c-PCC), rhombohedral (r-PCC), and scalenohedral types (s-PCC) of composite PCCs were produced and compared with commercial reference PCCs. Scanning electron micros-copy showed the c-PCC to be a high-surface-area nano-structured PCC. The rhombohedral composite was formed in clusters like a spider-web structure. Under similar experimental conditions, composite PCC was formed as individual ellipsoidal crystals and some of the particles had malformed structure, in contrast to the structured reference s-PCC. The co-precipitation and the structure of PCC significantly influence the forming, consolidation, and properties of paper, as well as its perform-ance in printing.

Composite c-PCC showed the highest retention during forming. At higher filler contents, dewatering was reduced significantly with handsheets containing s- and r-PCC composite fillers. Colloidal composite hand-sheets showed the lowest tensile index and internal bond strength, while the rhombohedral composite gave the highest z-directional bond strength. Compared with the traditional reference samples containing commercial PCCs, paper with s- and r-composites had significantly higher density but similar light scattering ability. Addition of fibrillar fines to fine paper increased print rub fastness significantly in both laser and inkjet printed samples.


Neurons are among the most highly polarized cells in the human body. This polarization allows the neuron to participate in the transfer of chemical and electrical signals which are crucial to the survival of the organism. As part of polarization, each neuron develops a dendritic arbor and an axon. To ensure the survival of the cell, materials synthesized in the cell body must be trafficked through the axon for delivery throughout ultimately ending at the synaptic termini. The bulk of this cargo transport is microtubule-based fast axonal transport which is molecular motor mediated and tightly regulated though many pathways. Motor based transport is established early in development and maintained for the life of the cell. The kinesin motor protein family plays an integral role in fast axonal transport and the regulation of these motors is essential to proper cargo delivery. Regulation occurs through auto-inhibition, motor interactions with microtubule associated proteins (MAPs) and complex signaling pathways which control the post-translational modification of MAPs, the microtubule track and the motors. The disruption of cargo transport is linked to neurodegeneration and disease state development. Of particular interest in this process is the MAP Tau which has been implicated in a number of neurodegenerative diseases including Alzheimer's Disease. Tau is expressed at all stages of neural development and has been shown to participate in signaling cascades, modulate microtubule dynamics and preferentially inhibit kinesin-1 motility. Though Tau is involved in these processes, the non-disease state regulation of this MAP and it's inhibition of kinesin-1 is not well understood. Tau has been shown to bind the microtubule surface in a static-diffusive state equilibrium which differs with isoform and lattice. Previous work demonstrates that the static state is more inhibitory to kinesin-1 than the diffusive state. These different binding behaviors with their different effects on kinesin-1 motility, suggest that cellular regulation of Tau's static-diffusive binding equilibrium may control inhibition of kinesin-1 and that structural changes may underlie Tau binding to the microtubule surface. Cellular regulation of Tau's structure and therefore its behavior on the microtubule surface points to a means by which Tau is regulated in the non-disease state. Additionally, this would highlight how early changes lead to disease state development. Using a combination of molecular biology, biochemical techniques and imaging strategies including Total Internal Reflection Fluorescence, single molecule Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer (smFRET) and Alternating Laser Excitation, we show that Tau's static-diffusive state equilibrium is regulated by non-disease state phosphorylation at tyrosine 18. Phospho-mimetics are shifted towards diffusive binding and have decreased affinity for the microtubule surface which in turn reduces inhibition of kinesin1 motility. These results further demonstrate that Tau undergoes long range structural change while bound to the microtubule surface. We performed smFRET assays and found that Tau binds the microtubule surface in distinct conformations which underlie static and diffusive binding. This work ties the regulation of Tau's structure and binding behavior to its function and paves the way for our understanding of how cellular regulation acts on multiple levels to fine tune axonal transport.


Pipes are widely used in infrastructures for delivering water, chemical and gas. These pipes are partially either covered by concrete or buried in ground. Due to humidity in the atmosphere, they are prone to developing corrosion. However, the early detection of corrosion on the sections that are covered by concrete or soils is nearly impossible. If severe corrosion is allowed to continually occur, it may cause pipe rapture. Consequently, train service will be interrupted and unexpected accidents may occur. To facilitate early detection of corrosion occurring in these partially covered pipes, we investigated the capability of guided waves (GWs) in detecting defects through analyzing the received GWs' signals that were reflected by various defects. Although GW had found to be effective in locating defects and estimating the extent of corrosion, a proper signal processing tool must be used to extract defects related features from blurred signals due to noise and undesired GWs mode conversion. This paper reports the use of GWs-based method to detect the defects and Continuous Wavelet Transform (CWT) to recover vital defect related features from corrupted GWs signals. To ensure the relevant GW signals can be observed, the signal of emitted tone-burst signal was used as the mother wavelet of the CWT rather than the conventional Morlet wavelet. With the help of such mother wavelet, the CWT can effectively minimize the noise and irrelevant signals. Real in-service pipes were used to verify the effectiveness of such CWT. After its application, the entry and the exit sections of the pipes that are covered by concrete wall can be identified. Most importantly, the defects located within the concrete covered section can also be revealed. The on-site tests prove that the GWs inspection method and the CWT that is using the tone-burst signal as the mother wavelet of CWT can efficiently detect corroded areas even they are covered by concrete wall.


I will try to extrapolate the changes in the dissemination of time and frequency information that have taken place during the last 25 years to predict the future developments both in the methods of disseminating time and frequency and in the kinds of customers we will be asked to serve. Two important developments are likely to play pivotal roles in driving the evolution of dissemination. The first is the commercial availability of very high quality clocks -- devices whose performance may eventually rival that of the current generation of primary frequency standards. The widespread use of these devices may blur the traditional distinction between client and server, and may replace it with a more symmetrical interchange of data among peers. The second is the increasing demand for digital time and frequency information driven by the increasing sophistication of everything from traffic lights to electric power meters. The needs of these individual users may not tax the state of the art of primary frequency standards in principle, but their large numbers and wide geographical distribution present a technological challenge that is difficult to meet at a reasonable price using existing methods. Some of these problems may be solved (or at least addressed) using developments in communications and consumer electronics such as the increasing use of fiber-optic telephone circuits and the increasing bandwidth and sophistication of the cable network used to transmit television pictures. To be useful, these advances in hardware must stimulate parallel advances in software algorithms and methods. These advances are more difficult to predict with great confidence, but the developments of the last few years will be examined to provide some indications of the future.


To elucidate the structures of orgamc molecules in solution using pulse FT NMR, heteronuclear pulse sequence experiments to probe carbon-13 (13C) and proton (1H) spin systems are invaluable. The one-dimensional insensitive nucleus detected PENDANT experiment finds popular use for structure determination via one-bond 13C-1H scalar couplings. PENDANT facilitates the desired increase in 13C signal-to-noise ratio, and unlike many other pulse sequence experiments (e.g., refocused INEPT and DEPT), allows the simultaneous detection of 13C quaternary nuclei. The tlrst chapter herein details the characterisation of PENDANT and the successful rectification of spectral anomalies that occur when it is used without proton broadband decoupling. Multiple-bond (long-range) l3C-1H scalar coupling correlations can yield important bonding information. When the molecule under scrutiny is devoid of proton spectral crowding, and more sensitive 'inverse' pulse sequence experiments are not available, one may use insensitive nucleus detected long-range selective one-dimensional correlation methods, rather than more time consuming and insensitive multidimensional analogues. To this end a novel long-range selective one-dimensional correlation pulse sequence experiment has been invented. Based on PENDANT, the new experiment is shown to rival the popular selective INEPT technique because it can determine the same correlations while simultaneously detecting isolated 13C quaternary nuclei. INEPT cannot facilitate this, potentially leaving other important quaternary nuclei undetected. The novel sequence has been modified further to yield a second novel experiment that simultaneously yields selective 13C transient nOe data. Consequently, the need to perform the two experiments back-to-back is conveniently removed, and the experimental time reduced. Finally, the SNARE pulse sequence was further developed. SNARE facilitates the reduction of experimental time by accelerating the relaxation of protons upon which pulse sequences, to which SNARE is appended, relies. It is shown, contrary to the original publication, that reiaxation time savings can be derived from negative nOes.


The street lights are actually consuming huge amounts of electrical energy throughout the world.With the Internet of things gradually entering into our daily lives and solar panels witch convert sun's energy to electrical ,energy consumption becomes more efficiently, The main purpose of the system is to monitor the solar panel and battery status live online and The system also detects fault in the system and indicates it using GSM(Global System for Mobile communication) technology by sending SMS to the maintainer to look the maintenance. The system with the motion sensor to turn on and off the light by motion detection in night time. The system light will be off during the day time. This essay briefly describes the solar led street lighting system. It uses the solar radiation energy to charge the battery with the solar panel during day time, and offer energy to the LED(Light Dependent Resistor) light equipment at night. This system has a double advantage in both utilization of new energy and energy-saving. This project provides an efficient transmission and intelligent synthesis of Internet of Things, the system can obtain real-time information about energy from Battery and solar voltage then be transmitted. Keywords— IOT, Smart Street Lights, solar panel, GSM, NodeMCU.


Optimal Transport (OT) distances such as Wasserstein have been used in several areas such as GANs and domain adaptation. OT, however, is very sensitive to outliers (samples with large noise) in the data since in its objective function, every sample, including outliers, is weighed similarly due to the marginal constraints. To remedy this issue, robust formulations of OT with unbalanced marginal constraints have previously been proposed. However, employing these methods in deep learning problems such as GANs and domain adaptation is challenging due to the instability of their dual optimization solvers. In this paper, we resolve these issues by deriving a computationally-efficient dual form of the robust OT optimization that is amenable to modern deep learning applications. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our formulation in two applications of GANs and domain adaptation. Our approach can train state-of-the-art GAN models on noisy datasets corrupted with outlier distributions. In particular, our optimization computes weights for training samples reflecting how difficult it is for those samples to be generated in the model. In domain adaptation, our robust OT formulation leads to improved accuracy compared to the standard adversarial adaptation methods. Our code is available at this https URL.


Background: The workplace plays an important role in workers' performances, but most workplaces have not been designed and equipped in keeping with primary ergonomic principles. Ignoring these principles can cause ergonomic risk factors, difficulties for workers, and damage to workers' health. The aim of this study was to identify acceptable ergonomic properties in workplaces in order to determine and investigate the aspects of workstations that cause occupational discomfort. To accomplish this aim, we used the Finish method to evaluate workstations in an electricity distribution company in Tehran. Methods: This cross sectional study was conducted for all of the workstations in an electrical power distribution company using the census method. The desired information was collected through objective observation using the Finish checklist of ergonomic issues in the workplace. Then, we used SPSS version 16 to analyze the information. Results: In 11.2% of the workstations, none of the ergonomic principles was considered, so workers' bodied were not situated appropriately while they were working. In 31% of the cases, lighting ranged between 10% and 50% of the recommended amount, and some of the workers appeared to be in a slight daze. In 42.3% of the cases, the temperature in the workplace was in the range of 25 to 27°C. In 42.3 and 52.3% of the cases, ratings of noise were 2 and 3, respectively, indicating that the noise levels were 60–70 dB and 70–80 dB, respectively. Conclusion: The findings of this study can be used to determine ergonomic deficiencies in workstations so they can be resolved. Based on our investigation, it was found that the workstations, first and foremost, had significant defects in terms of work components. Furthermore, there were some irritating problems concerning noise and concerning comfort levels related to the high temperature.


Title IV of the 1990 Clean Air Act Amendments initiated a dramatic reduction in emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides by electric power plants. This paper presents the results of an integrated assessment of the benefits and costs of the program, using the Tracking and Analysis Framework (TAF) developed for the National Acid Precipitation Assessment Program (NAPAP). Although dramatic uncertainties characterize our estimates especially with respect to the benefits of the program, many of which we have modeled explicitly, we find that the benefits can be expected to substantially outweigh the costs of the emission reductions. The lion's share of benefits result from reduced risk of premature mortality, especially through reduced exposure to sulfates, and these expected benefits measure several times the expected costs of the program. Significant benefits are also estimated for improvements in health morbidity, recreational visibility and residential visibility, each of which measures approximately equal to costs. In contrast, areas that were the focus of attention in the 1980s including effects to soils, forests and aquatic systems still have not been modeled comprehensively, but evidence suggests benefits in these areas to be relatively small, at least with respect to "use values" for the environmental assets that are affected.


We have identified and characterized a 3.0 kilobase (kb) mRNA containing coding sequences of the herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) glycoprotein D (gD) gene. The synthesis of this 3.0 kb mRNA was unaffected by the presence of cytosine arabinoside, but was made in greatly reduced amounts in cells infected with HSV-1 in the presence of cycloheximide: it was, therefore, classified as an early mRNA. By nuclease protection experiments, it was found that the 3.0 kb mRNA is unspliced and, further, that it is 3' co-terminal with a smaller 1.6 kb early mRNA which is transcribed from a DNA sequence 3' to the gD coding sequence. We describe the use of the Xenopus laevis oocyte system to produce HSV-1 gD in vitro. Oocytes injected with mRNA isolated from HSV-1-infected Vero cells synthesized gD, which was identified by immunoprecipitation. Injection of a plasmid clone containing the HSV-1 BamHI J fragment (0.89 to 0.93 map units) into the nuclei of Xenopus oocytes also resulted in synthesis of gD.


Much of contemporary torts scholarship has been devoted to determining who should bear the costs of unintended injury, that is, whether and when defendants should be strictly liable for the harm caused by their activities, as opposed to limiting plaintiffs to recovery when they can prove that the defendant's conduct was negligent. Comparatively little scholarship has explored the appropriate distinction between the intentional torts and the non-intentional torts, such as negligence or strict liability. Recently, torts scholars have begun to explore some interesting and unresolved questions surrounding the intentional torts, particularly battery, stemming in part from the completion of various stages of the Restatement (Third) of Torts and the current position of the ALI that it will not attempt a restatement of the non-economic intentional torts that were addressed in great detail in the Restatement (Second) on the grounds that intentional tort doctrine is clear and that the Restatement (Second) provisions have been widely adopted. This article joins the work of several torts scholars who have recently questioned the clarity of intentional tort law doctrine. These scholars have focused on the ambiguity of the Restatement's provisions with respect to the intent to cause a harmful or offensive bodily contact, that is, whether these provisions require both intent to cause bodily contact and intent to cause harm or offense (dual intent) or whether it is sufficient that the defendant intends a bodily contact that turns out to be either harmful or offensive (single intent). Some of these scholars have also suggested that the essence of battery is not the intent to cause a harmful or offensive contact, but rather the intent to cause an unpermitted contact. This article demonstrates that the current confusion and controversy over battery law doctrine is far more extensive than even these recent torts scholars have demonstrated. It extends beyond the element of intent and includes uncertainty concerning the role of the plaintiff's lack of actual or apparent consent - that is, whether consent is an affirmative defense or whether lack of consent is an element of the plaintiff's prima facie case - and the relationship between intent and lack of consent. Moreover, this confusion and controversy is reflected not only in modern battery court opinions, but also in the cursory and contradictory treatment given to battery law in most torts casebooks and treatises. Finally, despite the ALI's assumption that the Restatement provisions have been widely adopted, there are many jurisdictions where courts are formulating battery doctrine using terminology that departs significantly from the Restatement provisions. Part I of this article gives a detailed account of the current confusion and controversy in battery doctrine. Part II provides a brief account of the historical development of the modern tort of battery, which is necessary to understanding why it is that so many courts do not follow the Restatement's formulations and how it is that they came to adopt a variety of different and sometimes contradictory formulations. Part III analyzes the ambiguity of the relevant Restatement provisions, rejecting the argument of some tort scholars that only the single intent rule can explain the apparently uniform results in certain kinds of cases, such as those involving practical jokers and those involving physicians and other persons whose purpose is to help, not to harm or offend. This part argues that these cases are better explained by acknowledging that certain medical procedures, such as operations, necessarily involve harmful contacts (even when ultimately beneficial) and that physicians and others often know that, in the absence of consent, certain bodily touchings will be offensive. By clearly separating the elements of intent and absence of consent, satisfaction of the intent element of battery is easily explained under both single and dual intent rules, thereby leaving resolution of these cases to a determination whether the defendant will be relieved of liability on the ground of actual or apparent consent. Part IV of the article confronts the relevant policy considerations in choosing between single and dual intent, considerations that necessarily involve the appropriate distinctions between intentional and non-intentional torts. It concludes that there is no justification for preferring the single intent rule and thereby departing from the moral fault principle that underlies much of modern tort law. It also rejects the argument from some recent tort scholars that the principle of "bodily integrity" demands fuller protection than that afforded under the dual intent rule. Part V addresses the special problem of consent in medical cases where the physician honestly but mistakenly believes that the patient has consented to the treatment provided. It agrees that physicians should not be liable in battery (as opposed to negligence) unless they knowingly depart from the patient's wishes, but then argues that this result is a clear departure from traditional consent doctrine and should, for the most part, be limited to medical cases. Part V concludes by proposing, at least in concept, how the Restatement (Third) might best reformulate intentional tort doctrine in cases involving either harmful or offensive battery.


In this study, a 2‐D self‐consistent hybrid gyrofluid‐kinetic electron model is used to investigate Alfvén wave propagation along dipolar magnetic field lines for a range of ion to electron temperature ratios. The focus of the investigation is on understanding the role of these effects on electron trapping in kinetic Alfvén waves sourced in the plasma sheet and the role of this trapping in contributing to the overall electron energization at the ionosphere. This work also builds on our previous effort by considering a similar system in the limit of fixed initial parallel current, rather than fixed initial perpendicular electric field. It is found that the effects of particle trapping are strongest in the cold ion limit and the kinetic Alfvén wave is able to carry trapped electrons a large distance along the field line yielding a relatively large net energization of the trapped electron population as the phase speed of the wave is increased. However, as the ion temperature is increased, the ability of the kinetic Alfvén wave to carry and energize trapped electrons is reduced by more significant wave energy dispersion perpendicular to the ambient magnetic field which reduces the amplitude of the wave. This reduction of wave amplitude in turn reduces both the parallel current and the extent of the high‐energy tails evident in the energized electron populations at the ionospheric boundary (which may serve to explain the limited extent of the broadband electron energization seen in observations). Even in the cold ion limit, trapping effects in kinetic Alfvén waves lead to only modest electron energization for the parameters considered (on the order of tens of eV) and the primary energization of electrons to keV levels coincides with the arrival of the wave at the ionospheric boundary.


Contact sports may lead to dental trauma, which often can be reduced with appropriate preventive measures. While numerous studies exist on this topic for several countries throughout the world, there is a lack of comprehensive descriptive studies in Turkey. The purpose of this study was to investigate the incidence and type of dental injuries associated with three different sports among Turkish elite athletes, who do not contact (volleyball), contact directly (taekwondo) or indirectly (handball) with competition rivals. Additionally, awareness and use of mouthguards were also compared. Thus, during the 2003 and 2004 Turkish National Championships in three sports, 50 taekwondo, 62 handball and 50 volleyball male athletes were interviewed by questionnaire. Results showed that taekwondo and handball athletes experienced significantly more dental trauma than volleyball athletes (P < 0.05). Twelve of the taekwondo (24%), 16 of the handball (26%) and four of the volleyball athletes (8%) experienced at least one type of dental injury. Awareness of mouthguards as a preventive measure against dental trauma was significantly higher among taekwondo and handball athletes (P < 0.05), although a very small percentage in either of these sports actually wore a mouthguard (10 and 0%, respectively). Trauma incidence between direct contact with rival competitors and indirect contact with rival competitors was not significantly different. The incidence of dental trauma in contact sports shows that the awareness and use of mouthguards must be intensified. Mouthguard use should be made compulsory, especially in those sports with high risk for dental trauma.


This essay considers the Hampshire Chronicle, and the provincial newspaper in general, as a context for reading Austen. If the provincial newspaper would appear to afford a sharper framework for the historical interpretation of Austen's novels, the Hampshire Chronicle and the history of the provincial press instead raise larger questions about the constitution of 'the local' in the early nineteenth century and suggest a different basis for understanding the significance of Austen's focus on everyday life.


Abstract: It is usually considered that after the extinction of the Devonian tree Archaeopteris, no new arborescent lignophytes were established before the late Tournaisian. A reassessment of this pattern is presented here based on a three-fold approach: a re-evaluation of the taxic diversity of Tournaisian lignophyte trees based on descriptions of new plants from palaeotropical latitudes, a study of the patterns of phenotypic changes occurring among early lignophytes using a principal coordinate analysis and a phylogenetic analysis of the affinities of the arborescent taxa. The best supported results indicate that a substantial taxonomic and phenotypic diversity of arborescent lignophytes was already established in the first part of the Tournaisian, including some taxa that persisted until the Serpukhovian. Two genera may have originated in the Late Devonian and crossed the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary. Fewer originations and a decrease in phenotypic diversity occurred in the Viséan. The phenotypic distinctiveness of tree stems compared with those of other growth forms in the lignophytes is assessed. We propose a scenario in which the presence of lignophyte trees is continuous across the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary, with arborescent taxa distinct from Archaeopteris already present in the latest Devonian, possibly in upland floras, and diversifying significantly soon after the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary. Supplementary material: A list of taxa, characters and matrices used in the principal coordinate analysis and phylogenetic analysis is available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18447.


The first examples of ferrocene containing catenanes, in solution and assembled on a surface are described. Chloride anion templation is exploited to synthesize redox-active [2]- and [3]-catenanes via Grubbs' ring closing metathesis, utilizing a novel ferrocene-appended isophthalamide macrocycle. X-ray crystal structures of both catenanes were determined. The ability of the [2]catenane to selectively bind and characteristically sense its chloride anion template is demonstrated by use of 1H NMR and electrochemical voltammetric techniques. Self-assembled monolayers of analogous surface-confined catenanes have been prepared on gold. In addition to being characterized by cyclic voltammetry and ellipsometry, detailed information regarding the structure of the catenane monolayers has been provided by use of angle integrated high resolution X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy.


Climate change mitigation is a cross-cutting policy issue that requires coordination between policy departments and different levels of governance. However, the constitutional division of responsibilities (polity) and changing political constellations in government and society (politics) are constraining factors for achieving a horizontal climate policy integration and vertical coherence. This is especially the case in the federal system of Germany which is characterized by high degree of independence of departments and interdependence of the federal and subnational level. In recent years, integrated climate mitigation strategies were increasingly employed as a new governance mechanism to cope with the challenges of climate policy integration, coherence and long-term planning. This paper analyses and assesses the impact of three integrated climate mitigation strategies in Germany, namely the 2007 federal government's "Integrated Energy and Climate Program" as well as regional strategies from BadenWuerttemberg and Hamburg. It shows that existing approaches especially at federal level so far lack important strategic elements that would ensure long-term impacts. BadenWuerttemberg's recently initiated strategy process might serve as a role model for other entities because it combines clear objectives and targets with institutional innovations, legal codification and broad participation. The case studies demonstrate that effective strategies not only require ambitious and targets and measures, but also a continuous process and dedicated strategic capacities. However, the impacts of strategies on actual policy development are hard to attribute.


After phagocytosis by macrophages, Staphylococcus aureus evades killing in an a-toxin-dependent manner, and then prevents apoptosis of infected cells by upregulating expression of antiapoptotic genes like MCL-1 (myeloid cell leukemia-1). Here, using purified a-toxin and a set of hla-deficient strains, we show that a-toxin is critical for the induction of MCL-1 expression and the cytoprotection of infected macrophages. Extracellular or intracellular treatment of macrophages with a-toxin alone did not induce cytoprotection conferred by increased Mcl-1, suggesting that the process is dependent on the production of a-toxin by intracellular bacteria. The increased expression of MCL-1 in infected cells was associated with enhanced NFκB activation, and subsequent IL-6 secretion. This effect was only partially inhibited by blocking TLR2, which suggests the participation of intracellular receptors in the specific recognition of S. aureus strains secreting a-toxin. Thus, S. aureus recognition by intracellular receptors and/or activation of downstream pathways leading to Mcl-1 expression is facilitated by a-toxin released by intracellular bacteria which permeabilize phagosomes, ensuring pathogen access to the cytoplasmatic compartment. Given that the intracellular survival of S. aureus depends on a-toxin, we propose a novel role for this agent in the protection of the intracellular niche, and further dissemination of staphylococci by infected macrophages.


More than a century ago, Congress enacted the modern estate tax to help pay for World War I. Unlike previous iterations of the estate tax, though, this one outlived the war and accumulated additional goals beyond merely raising revenue. The estate tax helped ensure the progressivity of the tax system as a whole, and it limited the hereditary ability to accumulate wealth.

This modern estate tax almost instantly met with opposition, though. The opposition has never been sufficient to entirely eliminate the estate tax, but it has severely weakened its ability to raise revenue and to prevent the accumulation of wealth. As a result, today's estate tax is functionally a zombie: it accounts for less than one percent of federal revenues and does little to prevent the accumulation of wealth among a small group of citizens. The estate tax largely serves to evoke fear and costly tax planning, but it only manages to bite the largest and slowest estates.

Although the estate tax has proven hard to kill, it is time for Congress to end it definitively, and transfer its functions as revenue-raiser and impediment to wealth accumulation to the income tax. To effect that transfer, Congress needs to do three things: first, it should treat death as a realization event, and tax estates on their assets' unrealized appreciation. Second, it should treat the receipt of an inheritance as gross income in the hands of heirs, thereby requiring heirs to pay income tax on their inheritance. Third, Congress should eliminate the step-up in basis, and instead assign basis to inherited property under ordinary basis rules. By making these three changes, Congress can put to rest the zombie estate tax, while, at the same time, revivifying taxation at death.


[Purpose] The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of aquatic dual-task training on balance and gait in stroke patients. [Subjects and Methods] Twenty stroke patients were divided into the experimental (n=10) and control (n=10) groups. Both groups underwent neurodevelopmental treatment. The experimental group additionally underwent aquatic dual-task training for 30 minutes a day, 5 days a week, for 6 weeks. Balance was measured using the Berg balance scale, Five Times Sit-to Stand Test, and Functional Reach Test. Gait was measured using the 10-Meter Walk Test, Timed Up and Go Test, and Functional Gait Assessment. [Results] For intragroup comparison, the experimental group showed a significant change after the experiment in all balance and gait assessment tests. For intergroup comparison, the experimental group showed relatively more significant change after the experiment in all balance and gait assessment tests. [Conclusion] Our results showed that aquatic dual-task training has a positive effect on balance and gait in stroke patients.


Purpose: To report an idiopathic retinal vasculitis, aneurysm, neuroretinitis (IRVAN) case treated with one session of panretinal photocoagulation (PRP) and intravitreal bevacizumab (Avastin) Case report: A 13-year-old boy was diagnosed as an IRVAN syndrome. Systemic examination, fundus angiography, brain MRI were performed to evaluate the patient. Treatment with one session of PRP, retinopexy and 3 consecutive monthly intravitreal injection of 1.25 mg Bevacizumab was performed. After the second Bevacizumab injection, complete regression of neovascularizations and improvement of visual acuity (VA) to 3/10 for right eye and 6/10 for left eye was noted. By the other 2 additional monthly intravitreal injection of Bevacizumab, VA improved to 6/10 and 8/10 for right and left eye. The Aneurysms became smaller. After 6 months of his treatment, his VA was remained stable. Conclusion: We reported a successful treatment effect of Bevacizumab as an adjunctive therapy in combination with PRP and retinopexy, for stage 3 IRVAN. Bevacizumab seems to have promising effects in the treatment of IRVAN.


We identify a set of "rules of thumb" that characterise economic, financial and structural conditions preceding the onset of banking and currency crises in 36 advanced economies over 1970–2010. We use the Classification and Regression Tree methodology (CART) and its Random Forest (RF) extension, which permits the detection of key variables driving binary crisis outcomes, allows for interactions among key variables and determines critical tipping points. We distinguish between basic country conditions, country structural characteristics and international developments. We find that crises are more varied than they are similar. For banking crises we find that low net interest rate spreads in the banking sector and a shallow or inverted yield curve are their most important forerunners in the short term, whereas in the longer term it is high house price inflation. For currency crises, high domestic short-term rates coupled with overvalued exchange rates are the most powerful short-term predictors. We find that both country structural characteristics and international developments are relevant banking crisis predictors. Currency crises, however, seem to be driven more by country idiosyncratic, short-term developments. We find that some variables, such as the domestic credit gap, provide important unconditional signals, but it is difficult to use them as conditional signals and, more importantly, to find relevant threshold values.