– The purposes of this paper are to develop a more complete understanding both of the characteristics of innovation within retail firms and of the ways in which retailers perceive innovation and measure its effectiveness. Whilst there is a broad consensus that innovation is an application of new ideas that stimulate economic performance, the term attracts a wide range of interpretations that are largely contingent upon the context within which innovation occurs. , – These aims are achieved through analysis at the level of the firm by means of qualitative research in the form of a series of in-depth interviews with more than 50 senior retail executives and other industry experts internationally. , – The research results show that whilst retailers clearly recognise the important role of innovation for successful business performance, innovation in retailing nevertheless possesses a range of sector-specific meanings and measurement approaches that are distinct from more generic understandings of the phenomenon. , – Whilst the paper summarises relevant literatures and presents the results of the primary research it also sets out a number of novel conceptual frameworks, which seek better to categorise the perceived meanings of retail innovation and the measurement tools most frequently employed to determine innovation effectiveness in retail firms. The proposed frameworks facilitate future scholarly exploration but are also of use to practitioners as a means of better understanding the nature of innovation within their businesses.


KIM or Group of Society Information is a public organization which creates and builds by, from and for the society, especially as an information service to development issues, according to their desire. Until early 2007, Batu City has 14 village or areas which build KIM. This research is important because Batu City recently has organization in information division; though information ownership is require having by people. This research is also important to do, because the result can be basic critics or recommendation for the leading sector of KIM, is Information Communication and Library Office of Batu City, to take the development policies according to people desire in field. The aim of this research is to describe effectively extension from Information Communication and Library Office of Batu City to KIM, looking from communicator aspect, message aspect and process communication aspect. Effectively extension is the activity which giving a lot of additional knowledge and information to large of people, in this case is member of KIM who lack of information and knowing how to manage it. Rogers and Shoemaker explain that diffusion innovation is communication role widely change society through diffusion of ideas or new other things (Zulkarimein). Extension or extension agents are holding the important role to spread out the information interconnected with an innovation / knowledge which related with innovation. KIM is also as a public relation for its society, especially being bridge / link between Government policy and society desire. This research is using a qualitative approachment and emic perspective, which the data explanation from the respondent detailed and fairly. After researcher make the criteria of respondent, the conclusion that the person who same with criteria?s 38 person. Then the researcher is doing interview activity to find the answer of this research from one by one respondent, until there?s no new information anymore (Snowball Sampling). Saturation information happened when she doing interview to the 15th respondent. Then when the interview continue to the 16th, 17th until 38th respondent, saturation information also happened and she didn?t find the new answer. Finally she concludes that the respondent of this research are 14 people. Successive approximation by W. Lawrence Neumann used to analyze data. The results of this research are the description of research location, profile of respondent and description about effectively extension looking form communicator aspect, message aspect and process communication aspect. Society also enjoys the benefit of extension. These cases we can look from increasing prosperity the member of KIM. They are, information ownership, the organizational of KIM, economy, the relation with Government, social and also awareness to access information. The conclusion from the effectively extension to KIM, show that extension agent have many experiences to send the message to the member of KIM and can make the extension atmosphere conducive. Also the language is easy to understand by another people. The message is Government development policy in all aspect of society and according to society desire. Place, time and problem in extension from KIM or Government also clear enough to explain. The member of KIM is hoping that the infrastructure of KIM can be fulfilled by Government. The change which people can enjoy it including the conducive environment atmosphere, access to the Government become faster than before, improvement of information ownership, improvement of member KIM prosperity and access of information is also increase. The suggestions for the leading sector of KIM are they can hear the aspiration or ideas from member of KIM, making the policy about KIM clearly and stronger, make the extension quality better than before, optimizing the time and personnel management, making relationship with another office in Batu City Governmental for KIM, held the job evaluation to increasing KIM. The suggestions to KIM are they can understand the Government interest and not always depend on Government. The most important is they keep socializing KIM to another people in their areas and can take the right policy or decision about KIM fast to spread out the information. Keyword : Penyuluhan; Kelompok Informasi Masyarakat Link terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/271/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2008-amaliafebr-13542-PENDAHUL-N.pdf


Title of thesis: UTILIZING NARRATIVE TO UNDERSTAND ACTIVISM: A CASE STUDY OF INVISIBLE CHILDREN Stephanie Lynne Madden, Master of Arts, 2011 Thesis directed by: Professor Elizabeth Toth Department of Communication The purpose of this study was to understand how active and inactive publics made meaning of narrative discourse from the organization Invisible Children. Individual interviews were conducted with activists from across the country who demonstrated a high involvement with the organization. Qualitative focus groups were conducted with inactive publics at a large university to understand their meaning making of the narrative from the organization. Findings revealed that active and inactive publics made meaning of the narrative in similar and different ways. Findings also suggested that the narrative of the organization itself was important for involvement with the organization, contributing to activism and identity with the organization. Additionally, the concept of an activist storytelling organization was introduced and a new definition of activist was proposed. Practical implications include a better understanding of how narrative discourse can be utilized for activist organizations' messaging strategies for both active and inactive publics.


The main purpose of this paper is to discuss the basic understanding of power quality in relation to the distributed generation and renewable based distribution generation Due to considerable overlap between two technologies, disturbances affecting the power quality, which are mainly cause by the addition of Distributed Generation on the existing power system network. Injection of the DG into an electric power grid can affect the voltage quality. Distributed generation of different voltage levels when connected to the power system network could influence the voltage regulation, sustained interruptions, harmonics, sags, swells, etc. The role of CPDs in enhancing the integration of renewable and providing quality power through customs power park are described.


The observed near-surface circulation in the Santa Barbara Channel indicates in particular two patterns: a dominant cyclonic circulation mode and a less frequent upwelling flow mode. To explain the dynamics that may govern these two flow regimes, momentum balance from a hindcast model of currents in the channel, forced by observed hourly winds and hydrographic data, was calculated. The along-channel balance was found to be between wind, which was eastward (i.e., equatorward), sea level tilt, which was westward (i.e., poleward), and Coriolis, which was westward if the wind was (1) intense west and east of the channel and was eastward if the wind was (2) weaker in the east. Wind condition 1 produced southward cross-channel flow in the midchannel, connected by eastward currents upstream (downstream) along the northern (southern) coast of the channel, while wind condition 2 produced northward cross-channel flow connected by cyclonic recirculation in the west and westward inflow in the east. It is suggested that the former corresponds to the dynamical balance that may occur in the upwelling flow mode, while the latter corresponds to the cyclonic circulation mode.


Artificial
neural networks, including deep neural networks, play a central role in data-driven
science due to their superior learning capacity and adaptability to different
tasks and data structures. However, although quantitative uncertainty analysis
is essential for training and deploying reliable data-driven models, the
uncertainties in neural networks are often overlooked or underestimated in many
studies, mainly due to the lack of a high-fidelity and computationally
efficient uncertainty quantification approach. In this work, a novel
uncertainty analysis scheme is developed. The Gaussian mixture model is used to
characterize the probability distributions of uncertainties in arbitrary forms,
which yields higher fidelity than the presumed distribution forms, like
Gaussian, when the underlying uncertainty is multimodal, and is more compact
and efficient than large-scale Monte Carlo sampling. The fidelity of the
Gaussian mixture is refined through adaptive scheduling of the width of each
Gaussian component based on the active assessment of the factors that could
deteriorate the uncertainty representation quality, such as the nonlinearity of
activation functions in the neural network.

Following
this idea, an adaptive Gaussian mixture scheme of nonlinear uncertainty
propagation is proposed to effectively propagate the probability distributions of
uncertainties through layers in deep neural networks or through time in
recurrent neural networks. An adaptive Gaussian mixture filter (AGMF) is then designed
based on this uncertainty propagation scheme. By approximating the dynamics of
a highly nonlinear system with a feedforward neural network, the adaptive Gaussian
mixture refinement is applied at both the state prediction and Bayesian update
steps to closely track the distribution of unmeasurable states. As a result,
this new AGMF exhibits state-of-the-art accuracy with a reasonable
computational cost on highly nonlinear state estimation problems subject to
high magnitudes of uncertainties. Next, a probabilistic neural network with
Gaussian-mixture-distributed parameters (GM-PNN) is developed. The adaptive
Gaussian mixture scheme is extended to refine intermediate layer states and
ensure the fidelity of both linear and nonlinear transformations within the
network so that the predictive distribution of output target can be inferred
directly without sampling or approximation of integration. The derivatives of the
loss function with respect to all the probabilistic parameters in this network
are derived explicitly, and therefore, the GM-PNN can be easily trained with
any backpropagation method to address practical data-driven problems subject to
uncertainties.

The
GM-PNN is applied to two data-driven condition monitoring schemes of
manufacturing processes. For tool wear monitoring in the turning process, a
systematic feature normalization and selection scheme is proposed for the
engineering of optimal feature sets extracted from sensor signals. The
predictive tool wear models are established using two methods, one is a type-2
fuzzy network for interval-type uncertainty quantification and the other is the
GM-PNN for probabilistic uncertainty quantification. For porosity monitoring in
laser additive manufacturing processes, convolutional neural network (CNN) is
used to directly learn patterns from melt-pool patterns to predict porosity.
The classical CNN models without consideration of uncertainty are compared with
the CNN models in which GM-PNN is embedded as an uncertainty quantification
module. For both monitoring schemes, experimental results show that the GM-PNN
not only achieves higher prediction accuracies of process conditions than the
classical models but also provides more effective uncertainty quantification to
facilitate the process-level decision-making in the manufacturing environment.Based
on the developed uncertainty analysis methods and their proven successes in
practical applications, some directions for future studies are suggested.
Closed-loop control systems may be synthesized by combining the AGMF with
data-driven controller design. The AGMF can also be extended from a state estimator
to the parameter estimation problems in data-driven models. In addition, the
GM-PNN scheme may be expanded to directly build more complicated models like
convolutional or recurrent neural networks.


Homogeneous Charge Compression Ignition (HCCI) combustion is a promising research subject
due to its characteristics of high efficiency and low emissions. These are highly desirable,
given the global picture of increased energy requirements coupled with serious environmental
implications. However, one of the main considerations of HCCI implementation is its control
strategies which are not straightforward as in conventional Spark Ignition (SI) or Compression
Ignition (Cl) engines.
In order for closed loop control strategies to be successful, appropriate signals must be selected.
In this research, experimental in-cylinder signals have been collected for pressure and ion
current. These have been processed and evaluated as regards their suitability for HCCI control.
During this process, physical based models have been developed both for treating experimental
data as well as simulating theoretical cases. Using these tools, the behaviour of unstable HCCI
operation has also been explored.


This dissertation explores the use and dissemination of Aristotelian political theory in Italian literature from the late medieval period, when the first fragments of Aristotle's political thought appeared in the West, to the sixteenth century, when vernacular Aristotelian literature flourished. I show how late medieval and Renaissance authors employed Aristotle's Politics in various ways, according to their political background and allegiances, their approach to the text and their intended audience. I also demonstrate how, reciprocally, the vocabulary and classifications in the Politics shaped their understanding of their own political context.

The thesis is divided into six chapters. The first chapter offers an overview, for comparative purposes, of the Latin and Greek reception of the Politics in Western Europe. The remaining chapters proceed chronologically. Chapter Two explores the place of the Politics in Italian vernacular literature of the late thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries. Chapter Three does the same for the fifteenth century, as well as considering the impact of Neo-Platonism and the 'questione della lingua'on vernacular political Aristotelianism.

The three remaining chapters cover the sixteenth century. Chapter Four concerns Antonio Brucioli, who composed a series of Aristotelian political dialogues in the 1520s and in 1547 produced the first vernacular translation of the Politics. The subject of Chapter Five is Bernardo Segni, whose translation of the Politics, accompanied by the first full vernacular commentary, was published in 1549. Chapter Six deals with a representative selection of the wide-ranging vernacular material written on the Politics in the second half of the sixteenth century.

The dissertation concludes with an evaluation of the changing uses of the Politics in Italy from the late thirteenth century to the end of the sixteenth, examining the different ways in which the treatise served as a key to understanding politics and political reality.


With the expansion of Web sites to include business functions, a user interfaces with e-businesses through an interactive and multistep process, which is often time-consuming. For mobile users accessing the Web over digital cellular networks, the failure of the wireless link, a frequent occurrence, can result in the loss of work accomplished prior to the disruption. This work must then be repeated upon subsequent reconnection - often at significant cost in time and computation. This "disconnection-reconnection-repeat work" cycle may cause mobile clients to incur substantial monetary as well as resource (such as battery power) costs. In this paper, we propose a protocol for "recovering" a user to an appropriate recent interaction state after such a failure. The objective is to minimize the amount of work that needs to be redone upon restart after failure. Whereas classical database recovery focuses on recovering the system, i.e., all transactions, our work considers the problem of recovering a particular user interaction with the system. This recovery problem encompasses several interesting subproblems: (1) modeling user interaction in a way that is useful for recovery, (2) characterizing a user's "recovery state", (3) determining the state to which a user should be recovered, and (4) defining a recovery mechanism. We describe the user interaction with one or more Web sites using intuitive and familiar concepts from database transactions. We call this interaction an Internet transaction (iTX), distinguish this notion from extant transaction models, and develop a model for it, as well as for a user's state on a Web site. Based on the twin foundations of our iTX and state models, we finally describe an effective protocol for recovering users to valid states in Internet interactions.


Traditional medicine is the sum total of knowledge, skills and practices based on the theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to different cultures that are used to maintain health, as well as to prevent, diagnose, improve or treat physical and mental illnesses. This paper explores the challenges of African traditional healing system and the implications for the development of indigenous psychotherapy. Previous studies show that about 80% of the population in Asian, African and some developed countries depend on traditional medicine for primary health care. Rate of acceptability, use, confidence in and efficacy of traditional healing system is increasing in Nigeria. Some indigenous traditional healing methods include herbalism, therapeutic dieting, and hydrotherapy and spirituality (divination). Notable challenges include international diversity, national policy and regulation, perceived safety, effectiveness and quality, knowledge and sustainability, patient safety and use. This study recommends that more research be carried out on African traditional healing, that the religious and metaphysical elements be separated from the physical matter, commitment of more resources to test and promote the use of safe and efficacious traditional medicines, practicing traditional healers should adhere to standardized norms and qualifications. There is need for speedy passing of the traditional health practitioners' bill.


Abstract
 Virulence, the amount of harm a parasite inflicts on its host, is integral to elucidating the evolution of obligate avian brood parasitism. However, we lack information regarding how relatedness is linked to changes in behavior and the degree of harm that brood parasites cause to their hosts (i.e., virulence). The kin competition hypothesis combines theory from offspring signaling and parasite virulence models and states that the begging intensity of co-infecting parasites is driven by their relatedness, with concomitant changes in the degree of virulence expressed by parasitic young. We tested this hypothesis using the Brown-headed Cowbird Molothrus ater, an obligate brood parasitic bird whose virulence at the nestling stage is mediated by vigorous begging displays that are used to outcompete host young during feeding bouts. We found support for both predictions of the kin competition hypothesis: first, the begging intensity of cowbirds was greater in a population where cowbirds typically competed against unrelated host nestmates, relative to a population where they often competed against kin. Second, the greater intensity of begging in cowbirds was positively associated with decreased growth in host offspring during the developmental period. Given the dearth of studies on virulence in avian brood parasites, our results notably extend our understanding of how relatedness is linked to parasite behavior and virulence, and they highlight how spatially-isolated host populations can harbor different levels of virulence that are driven by competitive interactions between co-infecting parasites.


Numerous physiological and morphological adaptations were achieved during the transition to lungless respiration following evolutionary lung loss in plethodontid salamanders, including those that enable efficient gas exchange across extrapulmonary tissue. However, the molecular basis of these adaptations is unknown. Here we show that lungless salamanders express in the skin and buccal cavity—the principal sites of respiratory gas exchange in these species—a novel paralog of the gene Surfactant-Associated Protein C (SFTPC), which is a critical component of pulmonary surfactant expressed exclusively in the lung in other vertebrates. The paralogous gene appears to be found only in salamanders, but, similar to SFTPC, in lunged salamanders it is expressed only in the lung. This heterotopic gene expression, combined with predictions from structural modeling and respiratory tissue ultrastructure, suggest that lungless salamanders produce pulmonary surfactant-like secretions outside the lungs and that the novel paralog of SFTPC might facilitate extrapulmonary respiration in the absence of lungs. Heterotopic expression of the SFTPC paralog may have contributed to the remarkable evolutionary radiation of lungless salamanders, which account for more than two thirds of urodele species alive today.


The main objective of the work presented in this thesis is to investigate the two sides of the flute, the face and the heel of a twist drill. The flute face was designed to yield straight diametral lips which could be extended to eliminate the chisel edge, and consequently a single cutting edge will be obtained. Since drill rigidity and space for chip conveyance have to be a compromise a theoretical expression is deduced which enables optimum chip disposal capacity to be described in terms of drill parameters. This expression is used to describe the flute heel side. Another main objective is to study the effect on drill performance of changing the conventional drill flute. Drills were manufactured according to the new flute design. Tests were run in order to compare the performance of a conventional flute drill and non conventional design put forward. The results showed that 50% reduction in thrust force and approximately 18% reduction in torque were attained for the new design. The flank wear was measured at the outer corner and found to be less for the new design drill than for the conventional one in the majority of cases. Hole quality, roundness, size and roughness were also considered as a further aspect of drill performance. Improvement in hole quality is shown to arise under certain cutting conditions. Accordingly it might be possible to use a hole which is produced in one pass of the new drill which previously would have required a drilled and reamed hole. A subsidiary objective is to design the form milling cutter that should be employed for milling the foregoing special flute from drill blank allowing for the interference effect. A mathematical analysis in conjunction with computing technique and computers is used. To control the grinding parameter, a prototype drill grinder was designed and built upon the framework of an existing cincinnati cutter grinder. The design and build of the new grinder is based on a computer aided drill point geometry analysis. In addition to the conical grinding concept, the new grinder is also used to produce spherical point utilizing a computer aided drill point geometry analysis.


Inclusion is a model where students with disabilities spend most/all of their time in an educational setting with non-disabled students. This model has led many countries to pass laws requiring disabled students be educated in the least restrictive environment: they should be educated with students without disabilities to the maximum extent possible. However, this model ignores the very nature of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The autistic brain is different in both function and structure, making deficits in social interaction, inherent and appropriate for their development. This paper explores research on the autistic brain, comorbidities, child development, and trauma associated with forced inclusion for this population. Research on brain function indicates inclusion can be very stressful and can produce anxiety and post-traumatic stress in children with ASD.


Background: Neuroimaging can help to determine whether a seizure in a patient results from a structural abnormality of the brain or its surroundings. It is useful in a variety of clinical settings. The present study was undertaken to find the role of computed tomography (CT) scan in patients of seizure disorders. Materials and Methods: This was a prospective study of 2 years duration. The sample size was 100. Nonenhanced CT (NECT) scan was performed in all patients on single slice helical CT scanner. All patients with history of seizures were included in the study. Any patient with evidence of biochemical or metabolic abnormality was excluded. Results: The mean age of patients was 27.47 ± 19.82 years. The sensitivity of NECT was 49%. Following contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) study, the overall sensitivity came to be 51%. Also, the scans in which NECT was unable to provide a conclusive diagnosis, CECT provided a confirmatory diagnosis in most of them (34 patients, 69.38% of 49 patients). Space-occupying lesions were the most common finding and were more commonly associated with simple seizures with or without generalization. Conclusion: CT scan plays a very important role as a preliminary tool in radiological assessment of patients presenting with seizure. In about half of the seizure patients, it is able to diagnose or suggest the abnormality. It is valuable in making a diagnosis particulary in Indian subcontinent, where infective causes in form of space occupying lesions and infections are most important cause of seizure.


The recent growth of e-commerce and the consumer's increasing interest in purchasing over the net have significantly changed the landscape of Indian retail market. Today customers are inclined to accept the changes and keep their eyes on the benefits they can obtain from online retailers. The recent example of changing consumer purchase pattern is the flipkart's 'Big Billion day' Sale. The growth in online sales can be partially attributed to the Internet's advantages of providing large amounts of information quickly and inexpensively and it's growing accessibility. Yet, to reach its full potential, business owners who use ecommerce as a distribution channel need a clearer understanding of who buys online, what they buy online, why they buy online and how the non-Internet buyer can be transformed into an online buyer in order to increase online sales. The purpose of this study is to understand and analyze the factors effecting online purchase decisions of Indian customer. The paper attempts to identify the determinants of online purchase intentions of youths in Indian context. Based on extensive literature review, factors effecting online purchase intentions, antecedents of service quality and consumer attitudes were identified and a structured-non-disguised questionnaire was prepared. The data was collected through survey of 200 students of graduation and post-graduation courses in Moradabad region of Uttar Pradesh. The questionnaire contained questions about consumer demographics, security and privacy concerns, technological familiarity, past online shopping experiences and intentions to buy various types of products through internet in future. The findings of the study indicate that customer online purchase intentions are significantly related to their gender, education, age, security concern, technological familiarity and past online purchase frequency. Consumer buying behavior is also affected by product type, purchase frequency and expensiveness. Their purchase decisions are also found to be related with the online retailer's services like return, refund and delivery services. The framework of the research enhances understanding of the factors affecting customer online shopping behaviour, helps in profiling typical Indian online shoppers and may help e-marketers developing more specific marketing strategies to increase e-commerce sales.


The creation of a National Spatial Data Infrastructure (NSDI) is of growing interest in Rwanda. The importance of NSDI in facilitating access to and use of geospatial data to support decision-making is recognised. Numerous government ministries and institutions in Rwanda produce geospatial datasets of different themes. It is challenging to know what datasets exist and how to access them. Since geospatial data is costly to produce, it is expedient to reuse data in different applications. Realizing that geospatial metadata are needed to properly manage and maximize data use, a metadata portal was developed. The aim is to ease the discovery of existing geospatial datasets on Rwanda. This paper describes the procedure utilised in compiling and creating metadata, presents an overview of the portal and discusses challenges faced in its development. The information will be particularly useful for those wanting to establish or already working on metadata in similar less economically developed context as ours.


The optical microscope measurement of small objects, 0.5 to 10 μm in diameter, is complicated by the apparent change in the dimension of the object with a change in the spatial coherence of the illumination. Coherent edge-detection methods have been developed for the measurement of line objects on integrated-circuit photo masks and wafers. A generalization is presented of the coherent threshold equation that permits the extension to any state of partial coherence of the illumination as well as extension to the measurement of nonplanar objects. In the latter case, a waveguide model is developed for imaging of lines patterned in thick layers and is compared with experimental data.


The use of transgenic plants for production and oral delivery of vaccines has been shown effective in animal trials and Phase I human clinical testing. The use of edible plants for production of vaccines represents an interesting intersection between medical treatments and the use of genetically modified (GM) food crops. Public acceptance of GM foods is highly variable on a global scale, and similar issues of social acceptance will influence the commercial feasibility of a plant-made vaccine. The recipient of a plant-made vaccine may have to weigh the perceived benefits of vaccination against the perceived risks associated with consumption of GM plant materials. A public opinion survey of 706 respondents was conducted to gain an indication of the prospects for public acceptance of this technology and demonstrated strong potential support for a plant-made vaccine.


The Sophomore Engineering Clinic at Rowan University is a two-semester sequence intended to teach engineering design and communication. Historically, the course has been taught with semester-long projects, one in the fall and one in the spring. An example from the fall 2003 and 2004 semesters was the Hoistinator project. Student teams of 4-5 were challenged to build a crane that could lift at least 420 pounds, using no more than 75 cubic inches of aluminum and 50 cubic inches of plastic. Teams would receive a score that was directly proportional to the amount of weight lifted, and inversely proportional to the amount of material used. The project was successful in many respects but there was room for improvement in the student's overall approach to the design problem. Students were generally successful at using statics to predict their crane's performance, but the cranes they designed and built were generally not well optimized. Many student teams chose a basic design quickly and after investigating few, if any, alternatives, and in many cases important decisions were made without a quantitative analysis. During the fall of 2005, the faculty team addressed this shortcoming by 1) establishing a sequence of design projects that increases in complexity, and 2) presenting a convergingdiverging approach to design, modeled after a paper by Dym, et. al. Rather than a semesterlong project, the faculty provided a four week project on designing bottle rockets followed by a 10-week version of the Hoistinator project. Students were required to document their approach to these problems in detail, showing specific evidence of divergent design and convergent design and specific rationale for the final decisions resulting from these processes. A comparative assessment demonstrated that the new approach had a substantial and lasting impact on student design skills: fall 2005 students not only performed better on the Hoistinator project than earlier cohorts, but also performed significantly better on a spring 2006 Sophomore Engineering Clinic project that was essentially unmodified from previous years. This paper will explain the convergent-divergent design model, provide a description of the design projects, and present in detail the comparative assessments of the effectiveness of this approach compared to prior offerings of Sophomore Engineering Clinic that did not explicitly incorporate the convergingdiverging design model.


I. INTRODUCTIONIn August of 2010, the Storyteller's Cafe in Disney's Grand Californian Hotel & Spa repeatedly sent a hostess home without pay. Her offense was her refusal to remove her hijab, a head scarf worn by some Muslim women. Eventually Disney maintaining that her hijab was not appropriate for the image of the themed restaurant in which she worked. When the Storyteller's Cafe dress policy was challenged on religious grounds, Disney stated that it had offered the employee several reasonable accommodations, all of which she refused. The employee charged that her employer's actions amounted to blatant religious discrimination and that she refused all the attempts at accommodation because they were "unacceptable" to her religious practices and rights as a citizen.This article investigates the issue of religious accommodation in the workplace arising from disputes over employee appearance policies imposed on those workers whose primary duties require them to interact with customers as a condition of employment. Though federal courts have recognized the importance employee appearance plays in advancing a desired organizational image, they have also acknowledged that employers have an obligation to make reasonable accommodation for an employee's sincerely held religious beliefs, provided such accommodations do not create an undue hardship on the employer. This article also examines the clash between employer's dress codes and an employee's right to religious observance at work. In examining federal obligations to make religious accommodations, the criteria used in determining whether making a requested accommodation imposes an undue hardship on the employer is also reviewed. Finally, the likelihood of more such challenges resulting from advocacy groups willing to support litigation initiated by aggrieved employees will be addressed.II. BACKGROUND ON ISLAMIC DRESS REQUIREMENTSIslamic dress requirements are often a function of the specific Islamic sect or tradition to which an individual belongs. There are varying requirements for both men and women depending upon the sect's interpretation of shari 'ah. Shari'ah is loosely interpreted by westerners to be Islamic law, though Islamic law also includes the Qu 'ran. Shari'ah deals with prescribing appropriate religious rituals, religious doctrine, and business transactions, punishments for offenders, morals, and manners.1Many Americans are under the assumption that the word hijab refers only to the headscarf worn by Muslim women. Actually, hijab has two meanings. First, it is a general term denoting all religiously proper clothing which covers a woman's body. Both the Qur'an 2 and shari'ah require that once a female reaches puberty, she must, for modesty's sake, keep her body covered from neck to ankle.3 What is an acceptable body covering and how much of the body must be covered may differ among the different Islamic traditions. Second, the term also refers to a particular head covering for women's dress, usually a scarf worn over the head with an open face. But, there are several types of head covers for Muslim women in addition to the hijab. The shayla, for example, is similar to the hijab but is bigger in size and reaches below the wearer's bust level. Another head covering worn by some Muslim women is the niqab, a veil which, unlike the hijab and the shayla, covers the face. A khimar is also used as a name for the garment with which women cover their heads and usually flows below the woman's hips.Religious head coverings are not just prescribed for women. The taqiyyah (also called the kufi in the United States and Europe) is the original skull cap worn by Muslim men as a sign of humility and respect.4 In the Middle East, the kufi is worn beneath the shemagh (the long scarf seen frequently in Saudi Arabia) or under a wrapped scarf, the turban.5 In India, Bangledesh and Indonesia (the most populous Muslim nation in the world) the men wear a cap called the khadi or peci. …


We describe tree‐ring reconstructions of spring (May‐June) precipitation and spring‐summer (May‐August) streamflow for north‐western Turkey, both beginning in AD 1650. These are among the first such reconstructions for the region, and the streamflow reconstruction is among the first of its kind for Turkey and the entire Middle East. The reconstructions, which both emphasize high‐frequency variations, account for 34 and 53% of their respective instrumental variance. Comparison to precipitation and runoff data provides some means of verification for the instrumental streamflow record, which is very short (30 years). Drought and flood events in the reconstructions are compared to historical archives and other tree‐ring reconstructions for Turkey. The results reveal common climatic extremes over much of the country. Many of these events have had profound impacts on the peoples of Turkey over the past several centuries. Copyright © 2007 Royal Meteorological Society


Reproductive biotechnology has contributed significantly towards increasing the livestock production in various developed countries. To maximize the productivity, reproductive potential of animals of economic importance in these countries has been fully exploited through the use of technologies such as artificial insemination, superovulation, embryo transfer, crossbreeding, oestrus synchronization, in vitro embryo production, cryopreservation of embryos and sperm, sexing of embryos, nuclear transfer, transgenesis and cloning. These technological developments have helped these countries immensely, to achieve self-sufficiency in animal products such as meat, milk and other by-products, and also in creating surpluses that bring revenues through exports. In addition, these technologies have also helped in conserving some of the endangered species of animals and in preserving the ecological balance. Unfortunately, the area of animal reproductive biotechnology has not been given due attention in South East Asian countries in developing livestock production and as a result the productivity of animals is low. This has led to a situation where most of these countries are not in a position to meet the local demands of animal food products and have to rely on imports. With the ever increasing population in these countries the impact of this deficit will be grave unless some serious measures are taken to increase animal productivity through the use of reproductive technologies. To investigate into the causes of low animal productivity in South East Asian countries this study was undertaken to review the scope and application of reproductive technologies. Unfortunately, reports on animal reproductive biotechnology are scarce and not readily available. Reports on some countries such as Brunei, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Singapore could not be included in this study due to difficulty in obtaining the required information. Reproductive technologies such as artificial insemination, synchronization of oestrus, crossbreeding and embryo transfer, were introduced in these countries approximately 30 to 40 years ago for the improvement of indigenous livestock; however, the results have not been encouraging and most of these technologies are still at the infancy stages. Several constraints comprising of technical, physical, geographical, socioeconomic factors and policy related decision-making resulted in the unsatisfactory development of animal production. In order to uplift the status of reproductive biotechnology in South East Asian countries, it is imperative that these obstacles ought to be overcome first. Although in some of these countries, measures have already been taken by the respective governments and research organizations to develop good infrastructure and conduct research on reproductive technologies, such as in vitro production of embryos, micro manipulation of embryos and molecular studies. Still a lot has to be done before these countries can make real advancements on technology and economic fronts. This would only be possible by developing a large well-trained human resource and with mutual and international cooperation. In rapidly changing global scenario, South East Asian countries need to put lots of efforts to improve and increase their animal wealth and productivity through the use of latest reproductive biotechnology so as to reduce this gap with the developed nations. This would lead to a prosperous, economically independent, peaceful and stable future for the people of these countries.


In a country such as China, with abundant consumer products and the inevitability of product defects, claims for punitive damages are sure to arise under Article 47 of the new Chinese Tort Law. Article 47 provides that "(w)hereany producer or seller knowingly produces or sells defective products, causing death or serious damage to the health of others, the injured party may request appropriate punitive damages." As Chinese jurists and scholars interpret Article 47, they may wish to consider whether lessons can be drawn from the American experience. During the past two decades, few areas of American law have changed more radically than the law on punitive damages. While there were once few restraints on the ability of a judge or jury to impose punitive damages in a case involving egregious conduct, today there are a host of limitations embodied in American state and federal law. In many American states, statutes or judicial decisions restrict the ability of a court to award punitive damages by narrowly defining the types of conduct that will justify a punitive award, raising the standard of proof, capping the amount of punitive damages, requiring a portion of a punitive award to be forfeited to the state, or limiting vicarious liability for punitive damages. In addition, under federal constitutional law, the principle of due process limits the imposition of punitive damages by scrutinizing the ratio between compensatory and punitive damages and prohibiting an award to be based on harm to persons other than the plaintiff. An examination of these developments from a comparative law perspective may prove useful to the implementation of Article 47.


Teacher Education programs worldwide strive to guarantee high quality standards in the pre service teaching preparation by including both research and practical contents in their syllabi. However some research works have demonstrated that Student Teachers show limitations to fully understand and react to real situations in the school settings. In this paper we present some of the results from a European Project (ACTTEA 2012-2015) which foremost purpose is to know how pre-service teachers learn from their practicum experience, that is to say, what kind of practical knowledge they activate when they engage in practical teaching situations. Eighty seven Student Teachers participated in this study for Spain. Similar samples were gathered in the other partner countries: Finland, The Netherlands and Estonia. The task to be performed consisted in planning a lesson; delivering it and record it; watch the video-recording within two days; selecting two critical incidents (one positive and one negative) that could summarize the most important events of the lesson; and reflect over the incidents. For this last (analytical phase) three conditions were used: a. Individual reflection on action; b. peer reflection, and c. mentoring guided reflection. Participants were equally distributed to the conditions (27, 30 and 30 respectively). Topical analysis was used to identify the emergent themes in the reflective dialogues. Kappa reliability tests confirmed the replicability of the analysis followed. Six categories were used to identify practical knowledge in the topics: recalls and appraisals (narrative knowledge), rules and artifacts (inferential knowledge) and practical reasoning and theoretical reasoning (explicative knowledge). Main results indicate that the three conditions generated similar numbers of reflective comments (37.54% for individual reflection; and 31.22% for peer reflection and mentor reflection) however the type of knowledge followed a particular distribution: Narrative knowledge was significantly higher (203; 71.22%) than the other main two groups: explicative knowledge (70; 24.55%) or inferential knowledge (12; 4.2%). The implication out of it is that learning complex and generalizable practical knowledge (inferential knowledge) is more difficult to naturally prompt in reflective dialogues. Furthermore, it is even more difficult for Student Teachers to think of the ways the own-experience (practical reasoning) or educational theories (theoretical reasoning) can justify the actions performed in classroom.


Turkey lies in a critical region that is projected to be one of the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change in the Mediterranean region. In this study, climatic zones of Turkey were classified with respect to their climatic and meteorological characteristics. The Thornthwaite precipitation efficiency index was used to identify aridity and humidity characteristics. The index values were mapped to determine climate zones and associated climate classes and to evaluate change in time and space. Two distinct periods (1950–1980 and 1981–2010) were used to assess climatic conditions and evaluate historical changes. The Thornthwaite index indicated significant spatial variations of climate parameters across Turkey with varying degrees of vulnerability. The results indicate that during the 60 year time frame, no arid zones had been experienced in Turkey. On the other hand, an increase of semi-dry and dry humid zones and a decrease of semi-dry–less humid, semi-humid and humid zones had been experienced. In this context, it is important to note that semi-arid zones have increased substantially (approximately 14%) between the two thirty-year periods.


The goals of this study are the surface modification of chemically inert polydimethyl siloxane (PDMS) simultaneously with acrylic acid (AAc) and 2-hydroxyethyl methacrylate (HEMA) using a method namely "two-step plasma treatment (TSPT)"; and immobilization of collagen onto this new surface. In the first step of TSPT, the films were pre-treated with oxygen plasma and immersed in the aqueous monomer solution of HEMA/ AAc mixture. Next, the second step was carried out by plasma copolymerizing of pre-adsorbed reactive monomers on the surfaces of dried pre-treated films. Then, type I collagen was linked to the carboxylic group of grafted copolymer. The films were characterized by attenuated total reflection Furrier transformer infrared (ATR-FTIR) spectroscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), atomic force microscopy (AFM), zeta potential, and water contact angle measurements. The results of in vitro assays indicated a significant increase in the number of attached and proliferated cells onto modified PDMS in comparison with unmodified PDMS.


Disclaimer This article may be used for research, teaching and study purposes, as long as it is properly referred to. The Rowaq Arabi editors make every effort to ensure the accuracy of all the information contained in the journal. However, the editors and the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies make no representations or warranties whatsoever as to the accuracy, completeness or suitability for any purpose of the content. Any views expressed in this publication are the views of the authors and not necessarily the views of the editors of Rowaq Arabi or the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies.


During smart water injection into carbonates, wettability alteration is subjected to be the main mechanism contributing to incremental oil recovery. Apart from the smart water composition, level of dilution, and the underlying mechanisms, "injection scheme" is of a great importance when developing a field scale flooding project. The pivotal target of this paper is to evaluate the efficiency of smart water injection by deploying tertiary smart water "shock slug" injection within the periods of water flooding.
 At the first stage, genuine reservoir brine was 10 times diluted. Ion Chromatography analysis was utilized to optimize the composition by adding 2.65 g/ml of MgSO4.7H2O. Core samples were initially flooded by the original high salinity water to reach the residual oil saturation. Smart water shock slugs were chosen in various volumes including, .75, 1, 1.5, and 2 PV. Subsequently, smart water was injected for the selected shock slug sizes. At this stage the procedure was stopped for 12 hours in order to let the smart water interact with rock sample. Afterward the process was followed by the high salinity water injection. To have a comprehensive perspective of the procedure, production data was recorded at all stages of the injection. Also, the contact angle was measured under standard condition by generating a sessile drop of oil on the carbonate surface submerged in the brine environment. The pH of the injection fluids was also measured during contact angle and core flood tests. X-Ray Diffraction inspection was utilized to analyze the mineralogy of the core samples.
 Evaluating the results of the contact angle measurements, it was obtained that smart water was capable of altering the wettability towards more water wet. pH of smart water was increased after it was kept in contact with the oil-aged rock for two weeks. Core flooding results indicated that the tertiary injection of the smart water as shock slug leads to a considerable amount of incremental oil recovery at tertiary mode and changes the wettability towards more water wet. This is mainly due to the effective ionic exchange which leads to the favorable wettability alteration during smart water injection.
 This study showed that smaller sizes of smart water shock slug can increase the incremental recovery as effective as larger sizes of smart water shock slug in analogues situation. Hence, the asserted method can be a good alternative for conventional low salinity water flooding due to being less time-consuming and cost-effective.


Background Case management, particularly in intensive form, has been widely introduced for the treatment of severe mental illness. However, the optimal intensity of case management has not been determined. Aims We aimed to assess whether intensive case management (small case load) reduces hospitalisation and costs compared with standard case management. Method Development and rationale of a large randomised controlled trial comparing intensive case management (case load per worker? 15 patients) with standard case management (case load 30–35 patients) Results Two-year outcome data will be obtained on patients representative of the seriously mentally ill in inner-city mental health services. Conclusions The study planned with 700 patients should be sufficient to detect small differences in the readmission of patients to hospital (10%), the number of days spent in hospital over a two-year period (10 days) and the average weekly cost of care per patient. The sample is large enough to compare the cost-effectiveness of intensive and standard case management in mild and severe disability and in people of African–Caribbean origin and White Caucasians.


Culturally diverse teams provide the opportunity for a greater number of cross-cultural interactions and, are proposed to present a number of benefits for teams including increased innovation, creativity and problem solving capabilities. At the same time, however, they also provide opportunity for greater miscommunication and misunderstanding, which can impede the social and task-related functions of the team. Consequently, cultural diversity itself will not generate benefits in teams, rather it is learning to work with cultural diversity effectively that will allow a team to realise these benefits. We discuss the essential intercultural competencies identified in the literature and provide recommendations that will aid practitioners in implementing these competencies in their teams. We show that, if the potential synergies available from cultural diversity are to be realised, organisational and team members need to be interculturally competent, involving not only an ability to understand differences, but also to continue to communicate effectively and integrate across these differences.


This study seeks to increase understanding of organisational learning by researching actual learning processes in public healthcare organisations to enhance understanding of how the multi-levels of individual and team learning interact. A preliminary conceptual framework is developed, drawing upon the multi-levels of learning within organisational learning and the Crossan et al. (1999) 4I framework. A single interpretive case study in the public health service in Ireland is carried out, involving three rounds of semi-structured interviews with Non-Consultant Hospital Doctors (NCHDs), supported by a review of relevant professional documentation and researcher reflective log entries.
The findings suggest a greater proportion of individual and team learning occurs in informal settings where interpreting and developing understanding takes place either in dyads, small groups, or with the whole team. The willingness and confidence to share insights, intuitions and to ask questions are triggers for learning. This learning occurs in a public healthcare context where an experience hierarchy, interpersonal relationships and social dynamics form the backdrop to all learning interactions. The training received by NCHDs may vary depending on how effectively they build interpersonal relationships, take advantage of informal spontaneous learning opportunities and manage the social dynamics within their team. A revised learning framework is presented which provides greater insight into how the multi-levels of individual and team learning interact in public healthcare organisations, thereby extending organisational learning theory in the public healthcare setting. The findings have practical relevance to those interested in the effectiveness of post-graduate training and learning of NCHDs in the public healthcare system. They also have practical relevance for enhancing the effectiveness of teamwork and learning interactions, contributing to high quality safe healthcare and responsiveness to change. While the study was carried out in the public hospital system, it may also have relevance within the private hospital sector, community healthcare settings and potentially other contexts. Including other members of the multi-disciplinary team (MDT) within future studies could also help to enrich understanding of how the interaction of individual and team learning occurs within teams.


These experiments examine changes in the agonist-induced conductance that occur when the agonist-receptor complex is perturbed. Voltage- clamped Electrophorus electroplaques are exposed to the photoisomerizable agonist trans-Bis-Q. A 1-microsecond laser flash photoisomerizes some trans-Bis-Q molecules bound to receptors; because the cis configuration is not an agonist, receptor channels close within a few hundred microseconds. This effect is called phase 1. We compare (a) the fraction of channels that close during phase 1 with (b) the fraction of trans-Bis-Q molecules that undergo trans leads to cis photoisomerization. Parameter a is measured as the fractional diminution in voltage-clamp currents during phase 1. Parameter b is measured by changes in the optical spectra of Bis-Q solutions caused by flashes. At low flash intensities, a is twice b, which shows that the channel can be closed by photoisomerizing either of two bound agonist molecules. Conventional dose-response studies with trans-Bis-Q also give a Hill coefficient of two. As a partial control for changes in the photochemistry caused by binding of Bis-Q to receptors, spectral measurements are performed on the photoisomerizable agonist QBr, covalently bound to solubilized acetylcholine receptors from Torpedo. The bound and free agonist molecules have the same photoisomerization properties. These results verify the concept that the open state of the acetylcholine receptor channel is much more likely to be associated with the presence of two bound agonist molecules than with a single such molecule.


The high-resolution x-ray crystal structures of the murine major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecule, I-Ek, occupied by either of two antigenic peptides were determined. They reveal the structural basis for the I-Ek peptide binding motif and suggest general principles for additional alleles. A buried cluster of acidic amino acids in the binding groove predicted to be conserved among all murine I-E and human DR MHC class II molecules suggests how pH may influence MHC binding or exchange of peptides. These structures also complement mutational studies on the importance of individual peptide residues to T cell receptor recognition.


A neuronal G protein–coupled receptor can stimulate the generation of the Aβ peptide implicated in Alzheimer's disease. Accumulation of the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) is thought to represent a central problem in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease. Aside from the two proteases responsible for the generation of this peptide, few additional potential drug targets for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease have emerged. Thathiah et al. describe an extensive high-throughput screen that sought to identify modulators of Aβ production. This functional genomics effort identified the G protein–coupled receptor GPR3 as a modulator of Aβ production. GPR3 has been mapped to a chromosomal locus associated with increased risk for Alzheimer's disease; is highly expressed in hippocampus and cortex, regions of the brain that strongly correlate with Alzheimer's disease progression; and thus represents an attractive drug target. A. Thathiah, K. Spittaels, M. Hoffmann, M. Staes, A. Cohen, K. Horré, M. Vanbrabant, F. Coun, V. Baekelandt, A. Delacourte, D. F. Fischer, D. Pollet, B. De Strooper, P. Merchiers, The orphan G protein–coupled receptor 3 modulates amyloid-beta peptide generation in neurons. Science 323, 946–951 (2009). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Abstract Insulin resistance (IR) plays a pivotal role in PCOS. Insulin-sensitizer agents such as metformin and inositols have been shown to improve the endocrine and metabolic aspects of PCOS. The purpose of this study is to compare their effects on the clinical and metabolic features of the women with PCOS. Fifty PCOS women with IR and/or hyperinsulinemia were randomized to treatment with metformin (1500 mg/day) or myo-inositol (4 g/day). IR was defined as HOMA-IR >2.5, while hyperinsulinemia was defined as a value of AUC for insulin after a glucose load over the cutoff of our laboratory obtained in normal women. The Matsusa Index has been calculated. The women have been evaluated for insulin secretion, BMI, menstrual cycle length, acne and hirsutism, at baseline and after 6 months of therapy. The results obtained in both groups were similar. The insulin sensitivity improved in both treatment groups. The BMI significantly decreased and the menstrual cycle was normalized in about 50% of the women. No significant changes in acne and hirsutism were observed. The two insulin-sensitizers, metformin and myo-inositol, show to be useful in PCOS women in lowering BMI and ameliorating insulin sensitivity, and improving menstrual cycle without significant differences between the two treatments.


Since the summer of 2009, the ancient site of Gabii has been the focus of excavations conducted by the University of Michigan. Stratigraphic investigations near the urban core are revealing the complex sequence of occupation in this Latin city, which emerged in the Early Iron Age. The spatial distribution of intramural burials of the Orientalizing and Archaic periods shows that the settlement was initially organized in separate habitation clusters. The city was provided with monumental fortifications by the late seventh or early sixth century B.C.E., but its layout was radically modified in the fifth century B.C.E., and a uniform orthogonal plan was imposed across the entire site. Three domestic structures dating to the Middle Republican period have been identified in two of the city blocks. Significant modifications of this sector of Gabii are attested from the first century B.C.E. Excavation data confirm that the city began to decline dramatically at this time. Areas in the upper part of the site were taken up for industrial activities or transformed into burial grounds and were finally abandoned in the Late Imperial period. These preliminary results document how ancient cities in the region developed and decayed; the findings have also provided the basis for further research on-site in 2012–2014.


Abstract Monitoring the spatial and temporal changes in soil organic carbon (SOC) brought about by climate change and agricultural practices is challenging because existing SOC monitoring methods are very time and resource consuming. This study examined the use of visible near-infrared spectroscopy (Vis-NIR) as a speedy method to predict SOC and to monitor spatial and temporal changes in SOC compared with labor-intensive traditional laboratory (TL) measurements. For SOC prediction, topsoil (0–25 cm) and subsoil (25–50 cm) samples in the Danish soil spectral library for the years 1986 and 2009 were used. Empirical Bayesian Kriging was used to map SOC. The Vis-NIR predictions indicated that average topsoil and subsoil SOC had decreased slightly in Denmark from 1986 to 2009, and this was confirmed by TL measurements of SOC. In East Denmark, Vis-NIR predictions differed significantly from the measured SOC values. For subsoil samples, the ability of Vis-NIR to predict SOC levels varied. In West Jutland, Central Jutland, North Jutland, and Thy, Vis-NIR–predicted SOC levels did not differ from TL-measured levels, showing good predictive ability. For topsoil samples, the spatial pattern of change in TL-measured and predicted SOC was consistent during the 23-year study period, but there were significant discrepancies in the corresponding SOC change patterns for subsoil samples. To conclude, Vis-NIR is a promising method for monitoring spatial and temporal changes in SOC at the national scale, especially in the topsoil. Some difficulties can arise in low SOC subsoils, so more systematic work is needed to improve the method for practical applications.


Several lines of evidence (morphological, karyological and molecular) support the exclusion of both Sebaea madagascariensis Klack. and S. condensata Klack. from Sebaea Sol. ex. R. Br. (Gentianaceae - Exaceae), resulting in the establishment of a new genus Klackenbergia Kissling and two new species combinations: K. stricta (Schinz) Kissling (= S. madagascariensis) and K. condensata (Klack.) Kissling. Klackenbergia is endemic to Madagascar and is morphologically recognized by its inflorescence with long bracts and bracteoles and subsessile flowers arranged in axillary fascicules at each node. Affinities with the other genera of the tribe Exaceae (Exacum, Gentianothamnus, Ornichia, Sebaea, Tachiadenus) are discussed.


The hubris over the "rise of Asia" obscures the complexities, contradictions, and struggles that actually characterize the region. Given the economic tumult that has enveloped the West, it is not surprising that we find politicians, pundits, and market players enamored with Asia as a source of economic growth. However, this skewed reading of the region, which regularly dovetails neatly with self-interest and resurgent forms of nationalism, belies material realities. On this count, the region remains home to the majority of the world's poor, increasing levels of inequality and vulnerability (even within "the success stories"), social, political, and racial intolerance, and massive environmental degradation. Moreover, Asia's much-vaunted "charm" (often shorthand for the region's cultural, historical, and natural allure) has been seriously threatened by the accumulation at all costs of late capitalism. The author's photographic work over the past decade has attempted to grapple with and communicate some of these realities—a humble intervention to bring down to earth perceptions of the region in which he lives.


Changes in the impedance at the electrode-skin interface of SEMG electrodes on the tibialis anterior were assessed in nine subjects. SEMG signals were recorded using a bipolar electrode configuration that conformed to the SENIAM recommendations for SEMG data collection. Impedance measurements were made between a pair of bipolar electrodes using a custom-built device consisting of a PC and an impedance conversion circuit. The impedance device enabled the simultaneous application and recording of a waveform constructed of a known combination of sinusoids passed between the two electrodes. SEMG recordings at 10% of each subject's maximal voluntary force during ankle dorsiflexion were made for a 30-s period every 15-min over a two hour period. Impedance was measured immediately before and after each SEMG recording. All subjects gave their written informed consent.


Aromatic amines (AAs) and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) are carcinogens present in tobacco smoke and functional polymorphisms in NAT2 and GSTM1 metabolizing genes are associated with increased bladder cancer risk. We evaluated whether genetic variation in other candidate metabolizing genes are also associated with risk. Candidates included genes that control the transcription of metabolizing genes [aryl hydrocarbon receptor (AHR), AHRR and aryl hydrocarbon nuclear translocator (ARNT)] and genes that activate/detoxify AA or PAH (AKR1C3, CYP1A1, CYP1A2, CYP1B1, CYP3A4, EPHX1, EPHX2, NQO1, MPO, UGT1A4, SULT1A1 and SULT1A2). Using genotype data from 1150 cases of urothelial carcinomas and 1149 controls from the Spanish Bladder Cancer Study, we estimated odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) adjusting for age, gender, region and smoking status. Based on a test for trend, we observed 10 non-redundant single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in five genes (AKR1C3, ARNT, CYP1A1, CYP1B1 and SULT1A2) significantly associated with bladder cancer risk. We observed an inverse association with risk for the AKR1C3 promoter SNP rs1937845 [OR (95% CI) for heterozygote and homozygote variant compared with common homozygote genotype were 0.86 (0.70-1.06) and 0.74 (0.57-0.96), respectively; P for trend = 0.02]. Interestingly, genetic variation in this region has been associated with lung, non-Hodgkin lymphoma and prostate cancer risk. Analysis of additional SNPs to capture most (approximately 90%) of common genetic variation in AKR1C3 and haplotype walking analyses based on all AKR1C3 SNPs (n = 25) suggest two separate regions associated with bladder cancer risk. These results indicate that genetic variation in carcinogen-metabolizing genes, particularly AKR1C3, could be associated with bladder cancer risk.


A comprehensive theoretical study of the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) over B,N‐codoped graphene has been carried out in the framework of DFT using two different approaches based on periodic or cluster models. The comparison and integration of the information provided by the two approaches allow achieving a more complete description of the studied phenomena, combining the advantages of both models. On one hand, the analysis of the structure, stability, and electronic properties of this catalyst permits to identify and characterize the active sites and provides insights into the origin of its high catalytic activity that should be found in the synergistic coupling of the opposite effects of the two B and N heteroatoms used as dopants. On the other hand, the study of the reaction mechanisms evidences that the process is thermodynamically favorable due to the overall high exothermicity, and that the 4e– transfer is the favorite ORR pathway, being the OH hydrogenation the rate‐determining step. Overall, all the reported results clearly underline the superior catalytic activity of B,N‐codoped graphene toward this reaction. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The Androgen-binding protein (Abp) region of the mouse genome contains 30 Abpa genes encoding alpha subunits and 34 Abpbg genes encoding betagamma subunits, their products forming dimers composed of an alpha and a betagamma subunit. We endeavored to determine how many Abp genes are expressed as proteins in tears and saliva, and as transcripts in the exocrine glands producing them. Using standard PCR, we amplified Abp transcripts from cDNA libraries of C57BL/6 mice and found fifteen Abp gene transcripts in the lacrimal gland and five in the submandibular gland. Proteomic analyses identified proteins corresponding to eleven of the lacrimal gland transcripts, all of them different from the three salivary ABPs reported previously. Our qPCR results showed that five of the six transcripts that lacked corresponding proteins are expressed at very low levels compared to those transcripts with proteins. We found 1) no overlap in the repertoires of expressed Abp paralogs in lacrimal gland/tears and salivary glands/saliva; 2) substantial sex-limited expression of lacrimal gland/tear expressed-paralogs in males but no sex-limited expression in females; and 3) that the lacrimal gland/tear expressed-paralogs are found exclusively in ancestral clades 1, 2 and 3 of the five clades described previously while the salivary glands/saliva expressed-paralogs are found only in clade 5. The number of instances of extremely low levels of transcription without corresponding protein production in paralogs specific to tears and saliva suggested the role of subfunctionalization, a derived condition wherein genes that may have been expressed highly in both glands ancestrally were down-regulated subsequent to duplication. Thus, evidence for subfunctionalization can be seen in our data and we argue that the partitioning of paralog expression between lacrimal and salivary glands that we report here occurred as the result of adaptive evolution.


Educators and administrators often use sub-scores derived from state accountability assessments to diagnose learning/instruction and inform curriculum planning. However, there are several psychometric limitations of observed sub-scores, two of which were the focus of the present study: (1) limited reliabilities due to short lengths, and (2) little distinct information in sub-scores for most existing assessments. The present study was conducted to evaluate the extent to which these limitations might be overcome by incorporating collateral information into sub-score estimation. The three sources of collateral information under investigation included (1) information from other sub-scores, (2) schools that students attended, and (3) school-level scores on the same test taken by previous cohorts of students in that school. Kelley's and Shin's methods were implemented in a fully Bayesian framework and were adapted to incorporate differing levels of collateral information. Results were evaluated in light of three comparison criteria, i.e., signal noise ratio, standard error of estimate, and sub-score separation index. The data came from state accountability assessments. Consistent with the literature, using information from other sub-scores produced sub-scores with enhanced precision but reduced profile variability. This finding suggests that using collateral information internal to the test has the capability of enhancing subscore reliability, but at the expense of losing the distinctness of each individual sub-score. Using information indicating the schools that students attended led to a small gain in subscore precision without losing sub-score distinctness. Furthermore, using such information was found to have the potential to improve sub-score validity by addressing Simpson's paradox when sub-score correlations were not invariant across schools. Using previous-year school-level sub-score information was found to have the potential to enhance both precision and distinctness for school-level sub-scores, although not for student-level sub-scores. School-level sub-scores were found to exhibit satisfactory


I Hate the Lake District offers a different vision of the rural environment from those found in much contemporary nature writing. Based on the author's trips around North West England, the book engages with nuclear power and nuclear war, slavery, imperialism, ghosts, love, God, cockroaches, and the sheer violence and contingency of "nature" itself--of which the human presence is merely a part. Each chapter starts with an account of a visit to a place in this remote part of England, the deep north, but digresses and wanders through multifarious themes and subjects. Among the sites Gere visits are the defunct nuclear power station at Sellafield, home of all British nuclear waste; Lake Coniston, where Donald Campbell died trying to break the water speed record; Hadrian's Wall, furthermost reach of the Roman Empire; the mysterious and deathly Morecambe Bay; sites of slavery in the North West; places where UFOs have been sighted, avant-garde artists created work, and Islamic terrorists trained; shantytowns where the navvies who built the railways lived with their families; and even the remains of Blobbyland in Morecambe. In I Hate the Lake District, Gere challenges the bourgeois pastoralism of popular nature writing and reveals the landscape of North West England as profoundly unnatural and strange.


Sequential optimal design methods hold great promise for improving the efficiency of neurophysiology experiments. However, previous methods for optimal experimental design have incorporated only weak prior information about the underlying neural system (e.g., the sparseness or smoothness of the receptive field). Here we describe how to use stronger prior information, in the form of parametric models of the receptive field, in order to construct optimal stimuli and further improve the efficiency of our experiments. For example, if we believe that the receptive field is well-approximated by a Gabor function, then our method constructs stimuli that optimally constrain the Gabor parameters (orientation, spatial frequency, etc.) using as few experimental trials as possible. More generally, we may believe a priori that the receptive field lies near a known sub-manifold of the full parameter space; in this case, our method chooses stimuli in order to reduce the uncertainty along the tangent space of this sub-manifold as rapidly as possible. Applications to simulated and real data indicate that these methods may in many cases improve the experimental efficiency.


The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is the United States' chief consumer protection agency. Through its mandate to prevent unfair and deceptive trade practices, it both regulates surveillance and creates cybersecurity law. This chapter details how the FTC regulates private-sector surveillance and elucidates several emergent properties of the agency's activities. First, private-sector surveillance shapes individuals' reasonable expectations of privacy, and thus regulation of the private-sector has effects on the government as surveillant. The FTC's activities not only serve dignity interests in avoiding commercial inference in one's life, they also affect citizens' civil liberties posture with the state. Second, surveillance can make companies directly liable (for intrusive web monitoring, for tracking people offline, and for installing malware) or indirectly liable (for creating insecure systems, for using deception to investigate, and for mediating the surveillance of others) under the FTC Act. Third, the FTC's actions substitute plaintiffs' litigation for privacy, as the class action is burdened in novel ways. Fourth, the FTC's actions increase the quality of consent necessary to engage in surveillance, and in so doing, the FTC has made some kinds of surveillance practically impossible to implement legally. Finally, the FTC's actions make companies more responsible for their surveillance technologies in several ways—by making software vendors liable for users' activities, by imposing substantive security duties, and by narrowing internet intermediary immunity.


This thought-provoking examination of The Matrix explores the technological challenges, religious symbolism, and philosophical dilemmas the film presents. Essays by renowned scientists, technologists, philosophers, scholars, social commentators, and science fiction authors provide engaging and provocative perspectives. Explored in a highly accessible fashion are issues such as the future of artificial intelligence and virtual reality. The symbolism hidden throughout The Matrix and a few glitches in the film are revealed. Discussions include "Finding God in The Matrix," "The Reality Paradox in The Matrix," and "Was Cypher Right?: Why We Stay in Our Matrix." The fascinating issues posed by the film are handled in an intelligent but nonacademic fashion.


This paper points out that even distinct patterns in financial time series, which persist over long periods of time, cannot immediately be taken as genuine. In view of the large number of possible patterns, the only way to avoid any data- snooping bias is to use a formal statistical test, which has not been tailored to the specific patterns present in the data. Adopting a universal frequency domain test for the detection of synchronous cycles, we find clear evidence for within-month patterns in daily returns on the S&P 500 index, which corroborates earlier findings obtained simply by comparing different days of the month.


This paper describes an end-to-end solution for the relationship prediction task in heterogeneous, multi-relational graphs. We particularly address two building blocks in the pipeline, namely heterogeneous graph representation learning and negative sampling. Existing message passing-based graph neural networks use edges either for graph traversal and/or selection of message encoding functions. Ignoring the edge semantics could have severe repercussions on the quality of embeddings, especially when dealing with two nodes having multiple relations. Furthermore, the expressivity of the learned representation depends on the quality of negative samples used during training. Although existing hard negative sampling techniques can identify challenging negative relationships for optimization, new techniques are required to control false negatives during training as false negatives could corrupt the learning process. To address these issues, first, we propose RelGNN -- a message passing-based heterogeneous graph attention model. In particular, RelGNN generates the states of different relations and leverages them along with the node states to weigh the messages. RelGNN also adopts a self-attention mechanism to balance the importance of attribute features and topological features for generating the final entity embeddings. Second, we introduce a parameter free negative sampling technique -- adaptive self-adversarial (ASA) negative sampling. ASA reduces the false negative rate by leveraging positive relationships to effectively guide the identification of true negative samples. Our experimental evaluation demonstrates that RelGNN optimized by ASA for relationship prediction improves state-of-the-art performance across established benchmarks as well as on a real industrial dataset.


In this study, we aimed to determine factors affecting the success rate of percutaneous nephrolithotomy (PNL) in children. The series consisted of 41 consecutive children operated on by the same surgical team for renal calculi with PNL between June 2002 and May 2015 in our institution. A single calyx or pelvic stone was described as simple, while calculi located in more than one location (calyx and pelvis or more than one calices) or staghorn stones were described as complex. The procedure was deemed successful if the patient was completely stone-free (SF) or had residual fragments <4 mm. Thirty-four patients were found to be SF or had residual fragments <4 mm on the postoperative first day, thus the success rate was 82.9%. In complex stones, the success rate was significantly lower (45.5%) than simple stones (96.7%) (p < 0.001). The grade of hydronephrosis (Grade 0–1 vs. Grade 2–3) also had a negative impact on the success, with rates of 92.6% vs. 64.3%, respectively (p = 0.022). Previous urological procedure history on the same side yielded a success rate of 58.3%, whereas the success rate in the primary patients was 93.1% (p < 0.001). The localization of the stone (complex vs. simple), degree of hydronephrosis, and history of previous urological procedures were found to be the factors that affected the success of the paediatric PNL.


The determined global direction towards the development of organic farming has come to gain its support in each country. Ukraine is no exception here as the country which has chosen for itself the course on European integration and therefore it has taken on certain responsibilities. Among these issues it is possible to determine the ways to harmonization of national legislation. That process should be taken through careful study of European legal regulation as well as the practice in its application and the current positive or negative aspects, gaps, etc. Such a systematic approach will provide the opportunity to develop new laws to ammend the current legal acts that will maximally regulate the relevant social relations. The reason for the chosen direction of scientific research is that it is often dificult, and sometimes impossible, to combine organic production and activities with the use of genetically modified organisms. The research paper focuses on detailed characteristic of European legislation in the sphere of genetically modified organisms and analysing the general EU legal acts in the sphere of organic production. There are established the present provitions of national legislation and it is determined the structure of actions in order to support the development and spreading of organic farming in Ukraine. Keywords: organic production, organic farming, genetically modified organisms, unification, national legislation, European legal framework, scietific doctrine


Heading – abstract) Given the wide recognition of business intelligence (BI) over the last 20 years, we performed a literature review on the concept from a managerial perspective. We analysed 103 articles related to BI in the period 1990 to 2010. We found that BI is defined as a process, a product, and as a set of technologies, or a combination of these, which involves data, information, knowledge, decision making, related processes and technologies that support them. Our findings show that the literature focuses mostly on data and information, and less on knowledge and decision making. Moreover, in relation to the processes there is a substantial amount of literature about gathering and storing data and information, but less about analysing and using information and knowledge, and almost nothing about acting (making decisions) based on intelligence. The research literature has mainly focused on technologies and neglecting the role of the decision maker. We conclude by synthesizing a unified definition of BI and identifying possible future research streams.


Oil-derived plastics have become well established as a packaging material over the past 75 years due to their many technical and commercial advantages. However, the disposal of plastic packaging waste, a large proportion of which still goes to landfill, continues to raise increasing environmental concerns. Meanwhile, the price of oil continues to rise as demand outstrips supply. In response, biodegradable polymers made from renewable resources have risen to greater prominence, with a variety of materials currently being developed from plant starch, cellulose, sugars and proteins. Whilst the polymer science continues apace, the real ecological impacts and benefits of these materials remain uncertain. Although life cycle assessment (LCA) has been used to provide comparisons with oil-derived plastics, published studies are often limited in scope, allowing the validity of their conclusions to be challenged. The literature appears to support the popular assumption that the end-of-life management of these materials requires little consideration, since their biodegradable properties provide inherent ecological benefits. Opportunities for conserving resources through the recycling of biopolymers are rarely addressed. Through a review of current academic, industrial and commercial progress in the field of biopolymers, a number of LCA case studies are proposed which will address this weakness in existing research, related to the recycling of biopolymers. These, or similar, studies are required to provide a more complete picture of the potential effects of a transition from non-renewable to renewable polymers, thus allowing material selection decisions to be made with greater confidence throughout the packaging supply chain.


– The objective of this exploratory study was to identify the content of preservice teachers' practical knowledge and the influence of their acculturation experiences on their practical knowledge. Informed by teacher occupational socialisation theory, a mixed method design was used to examine 20 first-year preservice physical education and health (PEH) teachers' practical knowledge construction during their first PEH course. Data collection included a written assignment in which the preservice teachers, based on their learning experiences during the PEH course, were asked to describe 10 significant didactical milestones (DMs) that would guide their future teaching in PEH. The early stage of teacher socialisation, their acculturation phase, was examined and analysed by using questionnaire gathering information about their background and previous experiences. Results showed that the content of these preservice PEH teachers' practical knowledge was mainly pedagogical and focused most often on instructional strategies. The preservice teachers showed a relative lack of focus on knowledge concerning curriculum aims and contextual issues related to school and society. Furthermore, the results showed significant individual differences in the content of their practical knowledge. Consequently, we must acknowledge that acculturation and professional socialisation of individual preservice teachers will not be similar and that there is fundamentally multifaceted interaction between the structure of teacher education, different stages, and content. Teacher educators need to consider the complexity between individual learning experiences and the importance of how the content is organised in a differentiated approach.


This paper presents a set of full-resolution lossy image compression methods based on neural networks. Each of the architectures we describe can provide variable compression rates during deployment without requiring retraining of the network: each network need only be trained once. All of our architectures consist of a recurrent neural network (RNN)-based encoder and decoder, a binarizer, and a neural network for entropy coding. We compare RNN types (LSTM, associative LSTM) and introduce a new hybrid of GRU and ResNet. We also study one-shot versus additive reconstruction architectures and introduce a new scaled-additive framework. We compare to previous work, showing improvements of 4.3%–8.8% AUC (area under the rate-distortion curve), depending on the perceptual metric used. As far as we know, this is the first neural network architecture that is able to outperform JPEG at image compression across most bitrates on the rate-distortion curve on the Kodak dataset images, with and without the aid of entropy coding.


The
aim of the study is to determine the perception of workload of primary and
secondary school teachers in Turkey in accordance with teachers' opinion. The
research data were collected using phenomenological pattern which is one of
qualitative research methods, and analysis of documents was made. The research
was made on 72 Primary and Secondary school teachers who have at least three
years seniority working in 24 schools subordinate of Directorate of Istanbul
Provincial Education. Data were collected through semi-structured interviews.
The analysis of the resulting data was conducted by inductive content analysis.
In the study, teachers generally state that security duties of teachers should
be transferred to the security companies, and teachers should not interfere to
the duty of collecting money from students in no way under any intentions.
Again, according to the findings of the research, the most fatiguing, puzzling
and time consuming issues as for teachers should be reduced which are,
documents and correspondences, student tracking and control, disciplinary
procedures, administrative meetings, collection of dues, ceremonies and
celebrations, home visits and development of material as well. Questions of
survey related to special education and guidance and counseling services should
be asked by experts of this section and related ones since the related
questions include very special subjects for children; as for data entries, they
must be done by the school officers. The results are significant due to the
fact that they offer a sight for the stakeholders about the works stated in
teachers' job description and the perception of the teachers themselves related
to their workload.


We study how different social learning strategies, composed of cognitively plausible rules that guide information search, stopping search and decision making, affect population-level performance in a collective problem-solving task. We show that different social learning strategies lead to remarkably different outcomes and demonstrate how these outcomes are affected by the communication networks agents are embedded in. We argue that understanding how communication networks affect collective performance requires taking into consideration the individual strategies used by agents. To illustrate this point we show how our findings can reconcile contradictory results in the literature on network structure and collective problem solving.


In order to change the low-quality forest stands into qualified forest stands with desirable productivity and other ecological benefits, it is necessary to adjust the stand structure and functions. In this study, a low-quality forest stand after strip clearcutting in the Lesser Khingan Range of China was investigated, and the principal component analysis and membership functions were combined to evaluate the integrated soil fertility in different experimental strips (horizontal strips: S1-6 m×100 m, S2-8 m×100 m, S3-10 m×100 m, S4- 15m×100 m; Vertical strips: H1-6 m×100 m, H2-8 m×100 m, H3-10m×100 m, H4-15 m×100 m). Results showed that most soil fertility indexes of the experimental strips showed moderate variation over time, the variation coefficient of soil pH was relatively smaller, and that of total phosphorus was the largest. The integrated soil fertility index (IFI) of different strips generally decreased at the initial period and then increased over time with the lowest value appeared after planting for 3 years. After afforestation for 7 years, the order of the IFI for the horizontal clearcutting strips is: S2>S3>S4>S1, while thatof the vertical clearcutting strips is H1>H2>H4>H3. The integrated soil fertility index of S2 was the highest, which was also significantly higher than that of the year of harvest, showing the best effect. The soil fertility of some experimental strips (S2, S3, H1) was improved, however most of the clearcutting strips were remained at moderate level. Compared to vertical strips, the horizontal clearcutting strips showed better improvement in soil fertility. It is recommended that the 8 m×100 m horizontal clearcutting strip can be applied in forestry practice due to the significant improvement in soil fertility. However, soil fertility change is a long-term process, therefore long-term and consecutive observation in combination with scientific and effective study methods is still needed in order to accurately assess the changes of soil fertility in the clearcutting strips.


Social accounts are essentially quantitative frameworks for analyzing economic cycles and trends. A number of years ago such measures as national income accounts, inter-industry tables, and money flow accounts, although differing in format, were constructed for subnational regions in a manner that was analogous to accounts at the national level. This is the first book to deal with regional social accounting in an advanced manner. It proposes to use these systems partly as a device for measuring change, partly as a system for forecasting, but mainly as a framework for policy analysis. The authors tackle major problems that confront regional economists, regional scientists, and public officials, such as how to study impacts of regional development programs, and how to evaluate alternative regional development policies within both a national and multiregional structure.At the national level social accounts are used primarily for analyzing short-term cyclical movements; they do not include detailed information on stocks of human and physical capital. At the regional level, however, it is necessary to analyze policies for building various facilities and improving human resources, and to develop regional accounts systems that can be made consistent and comparable and that can be expanded to include physical and human capital. The authors of this study have attempted to identify and discuss the various issues involved in building such systems, to describe the theoretical difficulties and data collection problems that would arise, and how these might be resolved. The book does not blueprint an actual project; instead it is a handbook of regional accounting principles that could well be used to prepare an operating manual for the building of regional accounts by a wide variety of agencies and individuals.Concern for the regional dimensions of economic development can be generated effectively by overt and purposeful national policies; however, in the absence of a unified national approach, many groups will be building systems for particular regions. This book spans the needs of a wide array of these groups: the economic analysis and data collection parts of federal agencies engaged in regional development as well as regional, state, and local planning agencies; scholars whose work on the regional development process would be served very importantly by construction of the kind of system the book describes; and finally, as the work is sufficiently general, those foreign groups that are involved in building analytical systems and providing information for regional development policy.This is the ninth volume in the M.I.T. Regional Science Studies Series.


This essay explores the way that digital media helps us think differently about how we practice history. Digital media can raise two issues about how our current practices can offer new ways to explore the current state of historiography. First, the more one is immersed in digital tools, they make us question first principles, the various practices and assumptions of modern history itself. Second, it offers ways of communicating the past that do not hide the process of "doing" history. In this article I will draw on my project, 1884 Japan, to raise questions about data or the fact. By using recorded happenings, I plan to explore the distancing of fact from the context in which it was embedded. Recorded happenings exist prior to the filtering of importance. It enables us to first recover the heterogeneity of pasts and recover the stories and experiences of a variety of people who have usually been written out of Japanese history. Second, by presenting this material I will suggest a layered, multitemporal history that combines the narrative of national becoming with the experiences of others.


This book challenges, with several powerful arguments, some of our deepest beliefs about rationality, morality, and personal identity. The author claims that we have a false view of our own nature; that it is often rational to act against our own best interests; that most of us have moral views that are directly self-defeating; and that, when we consider future generations the conclusions will often be disturbing. He concludes that moral non-religious moral philosophy is a young subject, with a promising but unpredictable future.