Twenty-two twin pregnancies were subjected to second-trimester genetic amniocentesis. Arguments for and against tapping both sacs were discussed. Nineteen of the 22 patients studied underwent amniocentesis because of advanced maternal age (35 years or greater). The remaining indications included previous omphalocele, previous Down's syndrome, and previous neural tube defect. Except for one instance, amniotic fluid was obtained from both sacs. There were no other adverse sequelae other than transient leakage of fluid in one case. Two sets of twins were stillborn; in neither case was there a temporal relationship between the procedure and the fetal loss. Furthermore, there was no clinical or postmortem evidence that in any way could implicate the procedure as the cause of the fetal death. Based on literature review and the cases cited in the present investigation, it is the opinion of the authors that these procedures are safe when performed by experienced personnel under ultrasonic guidance.


Accurate simulation performs a crucial role in the design and development of new modern internal combustion engines. In the case of piston rings, simulations are used to effectively predict generated friction and power loss of proposed designs. These are consequences of viscous shear of a thin lubricant film, likewise boundary friction caused by direct interaction of piston rings with the cylinder liner/bore surface. The most commonly used model for determining boundary friction is that of Greenwood and Tripp. The model requires the pressure coefficient of boundary shear strength of asperities from the softer of the contacting surfaces as an input. This parameter needs to be measured. The paper describes the process of measurement using an Atomic Force Microscope (AFM), both for a dry surface and that wetted by the presence of a lubricant layer. For realistic results, the investigated specimen is a used, tested engine cylinder liner where boundary active lubricant additives are bonded to its surface as well as combustion products. This approach is as opposed to the previously reported works using new flat surfaces with base oil or partially formulated lubricants, and has not previously been reported in literature. The results show that for used cylinder liners, the measured boundary shear strength of asperities varies according to location along the stroke. Results are reported for the Top Dead Centre, Mid-stroke and Bottom Dead Centre locations. The measurements are subsequently used with 2D Reynolds Solution for a top compression ring-liner contact, where it is found that accurate localised predictions of generated friction and power loss can be made instead of the usual average value approach reported in literature.


Bio-carriers are an important component of integrated fixed-film activated sludge (IFAS) processes. In this study, the capability of cigarette filter rods (CFRs) as a bio-carrier in IFAS processes was evaluated. Two similar laboratory-scale IFAS systems were operated over a 4-month period using Kaldnes-K3 and CFRs as IFAS media. The process performance was studied by using chemical oxygen demand (COD). The organic loading rate was in the range 0.5-2.8 kgCOD/(m(3)·d). The COD average removal efficiencies were 89.3 and 93.9% for Kaldnes-K3 (reactor A) and cigarette filters (reactor B), respectively. The results demonstrate that the performance of the IFAS reactor containing CFRs was comparable to the reactor using Kaldnes. The CFRs, which have a high porous surface area and entrapment ability for microbial cells, could be successfully used in biofilm reactors as a bio-carrier.


This guide is a starting point for research in the field of Computer Science. Resources include database recommendations, reference selections, catalog search tips, and internet resources.


In the twenty-first century, the main factors affecting hotel services success are globalization, technological developments, and changes in customers' preferences, differences in competition among hotels, horizontal and vertical integration and legal applications. Responding to the phenomena, electronic reservations for hotel services have been introduced and widely implemented throughout the world. The main purposes of electronic reservations services include transferring a portion of the accommodation agency sales, rife with commissions and segment reservations fees, to direct reservations channels. Through electronic reservations services, customer services are enhanced, information is personalized and other accommodation
information is integrated. In Malaysia, the growth of electronic reservations services have been enormous over the last few years as the service offers many advantages to the involved parties especially customers and retailers. Responding to the phenomena, this study was conducted to gain deeper understanding regarding the
service. The study comprised of customers side, retailers side and web observation.
Through the study, customers and retailers perception towards electronic reservation are gathered and analyzed using eleven dimensions of electronic service quality.
Besides that, customers and retailers suggestions and recommendations in enhancing the service quality are also identified. Furthermore, web observations are carried out
to assess the state of electronic reservation service using 42 features of E-CRM. From the study results, a framework of electronic reservation for hotel services is developed.


Islamic organisations' role in improving women's position in society is often dismissed. Instead, they are believed to be devoted to charitable work and entrench patriarchal structures in line with traditional religious norms rather than challenge them. This brief nuances this picture, and describes some of the goals and activities of Islamic women's organisations on the West Bank. In addition, the brief highlights factors that challenge the allegations that Islamic women's organisations are affiliated with Hamas. Islamic women's organisations provide more than charity. They provide a public space for women, and "educate the whole person for the future". Four years of Fatah-Hamas infighting, however, have removed this important public space for the West Bank Islamic women's organisations.


The Industrial Revolution of the late 18th – 19th C coincided with art's Romantic period and its depiction of the 'great person' theory. Here, the Romanticists' solitary creator and autographic distinction were the highest forms of originality in art. When considering the artistic compatibility of a process such as printmaking, that was predominantly mechanically assisted and reproductive in its design, one became aware of its initial rejection as a valid art medium during this time.

Despite these contradictory factors concerning the realisation of original artworks, the development of print as an artistic medium began to present qualities that were unique to printmaking. Coupled with the proliferation and economic potential of the process, artists such as Picasso also acknowledged the pragmatic utilisation of a Master Craftsman in the work.

Producing works of art using the print medium can often involve a certain amount of logistical and technical knowledge. In some instances, depending on the complexity of a project or the specialist equipment that may be needed to realise a fine art print, an artist may often consider consulting a Master Printer. The main premise for utilising such an individual allows the artist to traverse much of the technical and laborious components of the print process. This partnership between printer and artist offers a generalised description as to what an artist will benefit from in such a venture.

However the mediation of a fine art print is not always that straightforward, if one considers previous definitions that have existed concerning this type of collaboration.

Historically, the Master Printer's contribution to the field of fine art print has required various levels of involvement towards the realisation of many prestigious artists' prints. Despite the technical affiliation of the printer, there is potentially a wealth of other factors that an artist will be introducing to the work when collaborating in this manner. If one considers the holistic nature of printmaking then associative contexts from the Atelier practice begin to present themselves. For example, parameters such as a 'house style', and the printers' collaborative philosophies, begin to offer an insight as to how and why a fine art print may be conceived in a particular way. Thus one may deduce that the printing of one work by two different Ateliers could result in two very different looking prints.

Digital print technology within the field of Fine art Printmaking is relatively new when compared to the more established traditional print processes such lithography, screen-print and etching. The subsequent adoption and development of digital technology through the traditionally defined concepts of the Atelier and Master Printer model are equally still in their infancy.

The situation of previously defined printmaking concepts and practices (obtained through mechanical print technologies) has essentially been migrated into a digital printmaking equivalent, but to what effect?

In comparing both analogue and digital print practices we need to consider the migration process of what may become obsolete, and what possibly needs redefining in the printmaking field. This presentation will therefore provide an overview of how digital technology has begun to inform what an Atelier and Master Printer might be today.


Tribology is the science of friction, wear, and lubrication; the interaction of surfaces in relative motion. The tribological conditions in sheet metal forming influences the flow of material in forming operations, the strain distributions of sheet material, extent of wear, and thereby the quality of products. The purpose of the thesis is to increase the knowledge of why and how sheet surface topography influence the frictional response in stamping, to characterise the geometrical properties, and make results applicable for industry. The frictional response of different surface topographies have been measured in a Bending Under Tension test under mixed lubricated conditions. The studied materials have been stainless steel sheets and uncoated and coated carbon steel sheets. The results did show the influence of roughness, skewness, and anisotropy of surface topography. The findings could be explained by the theory of pad bearings. A new functional 3D parameter (Sq>0) was developed for pressing performance that is sensitive to the effects of roughness and skewness. The texture-aspect ratio parameter (Str) was found to be correlated to the anisotropical behaviour of the frictional response. The results are very tangible and mean increased control of stamping operations. An initial step was taken to introduce more advanced tribological models in FE simulation of sheet metal forming operations. The aim is to decrease the trial-and-error time in the design process of dies and tools. A friction model considering surface topography (Sq>0), sliding velocity, lubricant viscosity, and apparent pressure, was successfully implemented. Simulations of a part were evaluated with real stamping tryouts. The results did show the potential of improving the precision in forming simulations with more advanced tribological models. Finally, theory and characterisation methods of active micro-oil pockets in the contact zone of tool and sheet were investigated. The real contact area was shown to be the critical feature to determine. Therefore, two topographical methods and one microscope-imaging processing technique were studied, but no method was found to be viable. However, the experimental results did not confirm the importance of microoil pockets in mixed lubricated regime.


Background: Malnutrition is one of the most common causes of morbidity and mortality among children throughout the world, more so in developing nations. Malnutrition among urban poor children is worse than in rural areas. Children living in the urban slums are exposed to risks of infectious diseases, malnutrition and possibly impaired cognitive development. Aim: To know the prevalence of malnutrition and its factors among under five children of an urban slum Material & Methods: Community based cross-sectional study was carried out in an urban slum area of Vadodara city, Gujarat (population = 7000). Total 395 children of 0-5 years of age were enrolled in the study. Equal numbers of children were selected from each of the five Anganwadi area of that urban slum. All mothers or primary care takers of the children were interviewed and weight and height of the children was recorded. Results: Prevalence of underweight, stunting and wasting was 32.4%, 46.1% and 17.2% respectively. Mother's literacy, low birth weight and morbidities like diarrhoea, fever and cough in previous fifteen days were significantly associated with malnutrition. Conclusion: chronic malnutrition was more prevalent in this area. No child was found to be overweight or obese. Mother's literacy had a much higher impact on better nutritional status of children. Low birth weight was found to have adverse effect on nutritional status of children. Morbidities like diarrhoea, fever and cough had made the children nutritionally vulnerable as malnutrition was higher in those children.


One of the main purposes of deep metric learning is to construct an embedding space that has well-generalized embeddings on both seen (training) classes and unseen (test) classes. Most existing works have tried to achieve this using different types of metric objectives and hard sample mining strategies with given training data. However, learning with only the training data can be overfitted to the seen classes, leading to the lack of generalization capability on unseen classes. To address this problem, we propose a simple regularizer called Proxy Synthesis that exploits synthetic classes for stronger generalization in deep metric learning. The proposed method generates synthetic embeddings and proxies that work as synthetic classes, and they mimic unseen classes when computing proxy-based losses. Proxy Synthesis derives an embedding space considering class relations and smooth decision boundaries for robustness on unseen classes. Our method is applicable to any proxy-based losses, including softmax and its variants. Extensive experiments on four famous benchmarks in image retrieval tasks demonstrate that Proxy Synthesis significantly boosts the performance of proxy-based losses and achieves state-of-the-art performance. Our implementation is available at github.com/navervision/proxy-synthesis.


This paper discusses the efficacy of applying a framework of universal human rights to resolve heritage conflicts. It considers the pitfalls and potentials in particular heritage settings for both archaeologists and the constituencies we seek to represent. A distinction is made throughout the paper between invoking universal human rights, as opposed to other rights or claims more broadly. Specifically, I ask what does the mantle of universal human rights bring to heritage? What additional work might it perform, and who wins and loses when archaeologists elevate cultural heritage to this arena of urgency? If archaeologists want to pursue this route, what steps might they take to be conversant with human rights and, more importantly, effective in practically implementing that knowledge? I then describe the situation in post-apartheid South Africa—a nation that has arguably crafted the world's most liberal constitution, yet in reality faces numerous challenges to instrumentalizing human rights. In terms of South African heritage rights, the archaeological site of Thulamela is offered as an example of conflict resolution at the local level by briefly examining the role of archaeologists and several connected communities each vying for access and ownership of the site. Following Amartya Sen and Martha Nussbaum I suggest that heritage practitioners might be more effective and ethically responsible by being attendant to pragmatic approaches that enhance human capabilities and human flourishing.


Several recent investigations suggest that portions of the Earth's upper mantle behave anisotropically to seismic wave propagation. Since several types of anisotropy can produce azimuthal variations in Pnvelocities, it is of particular geophysical interest to provide a framework for the recognition of the form or forms of anisotropy most likely to be manifest in the upper mantle. In this paper upper mantle material is assumed to possess the elastic properties of transversely isotropic media. Equations are presented which relate azimuthal variations in Pn velocities to the direction and angle of tilt of the symmetry axis of a transversely isotropic upper mantle. It is shown that the velocity data of Raitt and Shor taken near the Mendocino and Molokai fracture zones can be adequately explained by the assumption of transverse isotropy with a nearly horizontal symmetry axis.


It is well established that the glass transition temperature (Tg) is a sensitive measure of cure in neat thermosets. As cure advances, network mobility declines and the Tg rises in a systematic fashion. This study sought to determine if such a relationship exists for polymeric isocyanate adhesives (pMDI) cured in the presence of wood. Yellow-poplar (Liriodendron tulipifera) specimens were impregnated with neat pMDI and then isothermally cured for various periods in two different differential scanning calorimeters (DSCs). After this isothermal cure period, the Tg and residual heat of cure were determined. These thermal scans were performed using either constant (conventional) or modulated (MDSC) heating rates. For both methods, the degree of resin cure varied significantly under identical isothermal curing conditions; nevertheless a strong relationship was found between the degree of resin cure and the associated Tg. While the conventional DSC method yielded slightly improved sensitivity and reproducibility, results from both methods compared favorably.


A new average annual thunder day map for Saudi Arabia is presented. Based on this map, the distribution of thunderstorms over Saudi Arabia is analysed in terms of the factors related to the lightning performance of transmission lines such as thunderstorm days per year (Td/yr). Lightning activity continues for the present to be represented by thunderstorm frequency, which is routinely recorded at meteorological observation sites. Thunderstorm occurrence at a particular location is usually expressed as the number of days in a calendar year when thunder was heard, averaged over several years. This paper examines thunderstorm days in different areas of Saudi Arabia and specifically those areas where lightning strikes are more frequent; for this purpose, the software ArcGIS is used to produce contour maps which demonstrate areas of concern in Saudi Arabia in the period 1985–2003. Establishing the annual and seasonal Td/yr for Saudi Arabia enables transmission and distribution line engineers to calculate and better design a lightning protection system. Maps of thunder days/year (Td/yr) were constructed on the basis of the database records available on lightning incidence in Saudi Arabia at the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment (PME) (http://www.pme.gov.sa/). Annual thunderstorms are most frequent over the southwestern parts of the country, and generally decrease towards the west and east. Due to its low latitude and less temporal change, the west coast of the Red Sea recorded the lowest Td/yr. A secondary maximum Td/yr is apparent in the southeast to central part of the country. Thunderstorm frequency does not, in general, appear to vary in any consistent way with rainfall. There appears to be no evidence of any widespread temporal trend in thunderstorm frequency. The southern region in general, and especially the cities of Abha, Taif and Al-Baha, has shown greater numbers of thunderstorm days all year round. Similarly, this variation did show higher frequency throughout the year. The development of lightning incidence and the counting of Td/yr, as well as the establishment of annual and seasonal lightning maps of Saudi Arabia, are initiating a new era of producing and archiving thunderstorm maps and data records which serve the PME, the utilities, industry and the public.


Supreme Court decisions limiting citizen suit standing are commonly viewed as a threat to environmental protection. Lujan v. Defenders of Wildlife, Steel Co. v. Citizens for a Better Environment, and other cases are portrayed as attacks on environmental activists' ability to safeguard the public from pollution while decisions which expand citizen-suit standing, such as Friends of the Earth v. Laidlaw, are seen as victories for environmental protection. The underlying premise of these charges is that citizen suits play an important role in safeguarding environmental values. From this standpoint, legal doctrine which curtails citizen suits is, by implication, "anti-environmental." At first blush, this view seems eminently reasonable and intuitive. Citizen suits, insofar as they enhance governmental enforcement of environmental laws and prompt cleanup, should be environmentally beneficial. But is this necessarily so? Do liberalized standing rules, such as those embraced in Laidlaw, maximize environmental protection, or would the ecology be better off with a set of standing rules more focused on a demonstration of environmental harm? This paper argues that liberalized standing rules, insofar as they do not make standing contingent upon any tangible, identifiable environmental harm, cannot be assumed to enhance environmental quality. It further presents evidence that expansive citizen suit litigation may even make some environmental problems worse by exacerbating the perverse incentives created by existing regulations. It concludes by suggesting an alternative approach to citizen-based environmental protection that replaces conventional citizen suit provisions with property rights in environmental resources and explains why such an approach may better serve environmental goals.


Selective transport of proteins is a major mechanism by which biochemical differences are maintained between the cytoplasm and nucleus. To begin to investigate the molecular mechanism of nuclear transport, we used an in vitro transport system composed of a Xenopus egg extract, rat liver nuclei, and a fluorescently labeled nuclear protein, nucleoplasmin. With this system, we screened for inhibitors of transport. We found that the lectin, wheat germ agglutinin (WGA), completely inhibits the nuclear transport of fluorescently labeled nucleoplasmin. No other lectin tested affected nuclear transport. The inhibition by WGA was not seen when N-acetylglucosamine was present and was reversible by subsequent addition of sugar. When rat liver nuclei that had been incubated with ferritin-labeled WGA were examined by electron microscopy, multiple molecules of WGA were found bound to the cytoplasmic face of each nuclear pore. Gel electrophoresis and nitrocellulose transfer identified one major and several minor nuclear protein bands as binding 125I-labeled WGA. The most abundant protein of these, a 63-65-kD glycoprotein, is a candidate for the inhibitory site of action of WGA on nuclear protein transport. WGA is the first identified inhibitor of nuclear protein transport and interacts directly with the nuclear pore.


The Chrysanthemum and the Song: Music, Memory and Identity in the South American Japanese Diaspora. By Dale A. Olsen. Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2004. [xxviii, 342 p. ISBN 0-8130-2764-0. $65.] Illustrations, notes, appendices, glossary, bibliography, index. When thinking about immigrants, we in the United States tend to think first about Europeans migrating to North America. Dale Olsen's new book shows that the immigrant experience applies equally as well to the Japanese of South America. Olsen, a distinguished ethnomusicologist, has given us a detailed musical ethnography of the South American Japanese diaspora, showing how music has been a central force for creating and sustaining their ethnic identity. The UtIe of this book is a variation on the tide of Ruth Benedict's seminal ethnography, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1946). The chrysanthemum, found in the Japanese imperial crest, symbolizes the "rough" aspects of Japanese immigrant life; the hard, mostly agricultural labor they endured. Song and music in general symbolize the "gentle" aspects of immigrant life; those diversions providing a means of expressing spirit and pride in their ethnic heritage. There are very few studies in ethnomusicology that cover an entire region of the world, or that compare the same ethnic group across several countries. Olsen's study accomplishes both, while also tackling the complex issues of identity, cultural memory, and ethnicity. Olsen paints with the broadest possible brush. He looks at all the Japanese immigrants in the region, through multiple generations, with all their varieties of music. This undertaking is extremely complex. He uses the term NiMei, to denote all people of Japanese heritage outside Japan. The Nikkei in South America are of at least two varieties: the Naichi, or people from the main Japanese island group, and the Okinawans, who are culturally distinct. In addition to this there are the various generations of Nikkei, the issei, the first generation, or those who actually immigrated, the nisei, second generation, or Nikkei born in South America, the sansei, third generation, and so on. Olsen uses these, and many other Japanese terms with precision throughout the text. For those of us with only a cursory knowledge of Japan and its musical traditions, there is a handy glossary of these terms near the end of the book. Since Japanese identity could be formed from any combination of political, cultural or racial identification, Olsen uses the term "Japaneseness" to refer to a general identification with Japan as a whole (p. 10). The text is carefully written in such a way that a complex topic becomes understandable. The early chapters lay the groundwork for the ethnography that follows. Olsen gives a highly detailed review of the current scholarly literature on ethnicity and ethnic identity. A central concept is that of memory, which can be communicative memory shaped by the formal organizations and associations within an ethnic group, or cultural memory of an idealized past cultivated though individual efforts, such as learning, performing, or listening to the music of the ethnic group. The second chapter provides an excellent brief history of Japanese emigration in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as Japanese class structure and the various genres of music associated with each of these classes. He also covers the general genres of Okinawan music and Japanese popular music. The next five chapters present a detailed ethnography of Japanese music in five countries: Peru, Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, and Bolivia. These countries appear in the order of their history of Japanese immigration. Nearly 1.5 million Nikkei live in these countries, with the majority of them (1.3 million) in Brazil. Each chapter follows a similar pattern: a brief history of Nikkei immigration in that county, associations and music clubs, religious music, Naichi and Okinawan musical activities (including their classical music, folk music and traditional dance), visiting artists, electronic media, music at celebrations (such as the emperor's birthday, anniversaries of Japanese immigration and associations, celebratory concerts, and festivals), Nikkei involvement in the Western art music and the traditional music of the host country, and finally Nikkei musical understanding. …


At 3:56 p.m. on Sunday, October 14, 1973, a fire in an abandoned warehouse was sighted which would eventually destroy 18 city blocks and damage 12 others in
Chelsea, Massachusetts, a city of around 32,000 people and an industrial satellite of Boston. At its height, this conflagration was thought to be a "fire storm" with the smoke of the blaze visible from as far as 50 miles away. Because of the
large area affected, and the number of fire departments involved in controlling
this conflagration, the Disaster Research Center took this opportunity to study the organized response to a relatively rare phenomena in present day American cities,a massive fire situation. A two-person research team was sent to Chelsea, Massachusetts, staying two days, October 16 and 17. Their focus was primarily on the mobilization and coordination of the various fire departments involved, as well as some of the supporting organizations' activities.
The following general questions were asked to obtain the information: (1) Who took charge of the fire departments' response to the fire? (2) What organizations (fire departments, police departments, National Guard, etc.) were involved in the emergency period? (3) How were the various emergency organizations mobilized? And how were they then coordinated? (4) What were the problems confronted in this massive fire situation? (5) What role did the local civil defense organization play in the coordination of activities?


In the last decade, advances in high-throughput technologies, growth of clinical data warehouses, and rapid accumulation of biomedical knowledge provided unprecedented opportunities and challenges to researchers in biomedical informatics. One distinct solution, to efficiently conduct big data analytics for biomedical problems, is the application of matrix computation and factorization methods such as non-negative matrix factorization, joint matrix factorization, tensor factorization. Compared to probabilistic and information theoretic approaches, matrix-based methods are fast, easy to understand and implement. In this tutorial, we provide a review of recent advances in algorithms and methods using matrix and their potential applications in biomedical informatics. We survey various related articles from data mining venues as well as from biomedical informatics venues to share with the audience key problems and trends in matrix computation research, with different novel applications such as drug repositioning, personalized medicine, and electronic phenotyping.


Until 1993, when the second Slovak Republic came into existence, Slovaks faced not just a question of survival but also one of identity. It was not that they did not know who they were, or that they did not understand their history, but rather that the rest of the world knew precious little about them.(f.1) They had inhabited states that challenged their existence as a nation. When the century began, they lived in Hungary, their land was called Felvidek (Upper Hungary), and their population was subjected to an assimilation process known as Magyarization. Less than two decades later, in 1918, as a result of the Great War and the breakup of Austria-Hungary, they became part of a new state called Czecho-Slovakia. The spelling with the hyphen is important because it recognized their national existence. However, within two years the hyphen had disappeared,(f.2) and most citizens of the country were identified as Czechs. (Czechoslovaks was also used but far less often than the abbreviated form.) For many Slovaks, this was a subtle way of denying their nationhood. Thus, for the better part of the 20th century, they felt that they were still engaged in a struggle for survival and national identity.The situation of the Slovaks today is very different from what it was when the century began: they no longer share a state and a name with another nation; they have full self-government; the Slovak flag flies at United Nations headquarters in New York and elsewhere around the world; and the Slovak national anthem resounds when the country's athletes win international sports events. Independence, it would appear, solved the problems of the past. But the challenges of post-communism also left the country with a confused sense of direction both in domestic politics and in foreign policy. A change of government in September 1998 indicates that this situation may finally be in the process of being resolved.The historical legacyTheir history makes it very clear that the Slovaks have always belonged to Western European civilization, contributed to its development, and have taken part in the various intellectual and artistic movements that define its culture. Until the Second World War, they did not belong to that half of Europe defined as eastern Europe,(f.3) although they were always in contact with it. Inclusion in the Soviet bloc in 1948 was imposed upon them; they did not choose it. Since the fall of communism, they have again sought identity with Europe, and T-shirts sold today in Bratislava describe Slovakia as 'the centre of Europe.' From a cultural and economic point of view, one can also say that Slovaks live at the crossroads of central Europe.(f.4)Its geographic location and the size of its population(f.5) explain why, until recently, Slovakia needed allies in its search for political solutions that would give it self-government and ensure its development. Although surrounded by many neighbours -- Poles to the north, Ukrainians and Russians to the east, Hungarians and Austrians to the south, and Czechs to the west -- Slovaks had only two options: to find a protector or to link up with another nation in a common state. The first option was proposed in the nineteenth century when it seemed that there was no other way to extricate the nation from Budapest's policy of Magyarization. Ludovit Stur,(f.6) a Slovak political leader during the revolutionary years of 1848-9, advocated panslavism and Russian intervention after it became clear that Slovak objectives could not be achieved in Hungary, at that time part of the Habsburg Empire. Until 1918, many Slovak political leaders in the central Slovak town of Turciansky Svaty Martin (Martin today) advocated a pro-Russian policy. However, what was never a viable option (Russian interest in the Slovaks was virtually non-existent) disappeared from Slovak politics with the creation of Czecho-Slovakia. It reappeared briefly during the Second World War when Slovak communists proposed that Slovakia be incorporated in the Soviet Union as a Soviet Socialist Republic. …


Ozdagli, Ali Irmak Ph.D., Purdue University, May 2015. Distributed Real-time Hybrid Simulation: Modeling, Development and Experimental Validation. Major Professor: Shirley J. Dyke. Real-time hybrid simulation (RTHS) has become a recognized methodology for isolating and evaluating performance of critical structural components under potentially catastrophic events such as earthquakes. Although RTHS is efficient in its utilization of equipment and space compared to traditional testing methods such as shake table testing, laboratory resources may not always be available in one location to conduct appropriate large-scale experiments. Consequently, distributed systems, capable of connecting multiple RTHS setups located at numerous geographically distributed facilities through information exchange, become essential. This dissertation focuses on the development, evaluation and validation of a new distributed RTHS (dRTHS) platform enabling integration of physical and numerical components of RTHS in geographically distributed locations over the Internet. One significant challenge for conducting successful dRTHS over the Internet is sustaining real-time communication between test sites. The network is not consistent and variations in the Quality of Service (QoS) are expected. Since dRTHS is delaysensitive by nature, a fixed transmission rate with minimum jitter and latency in the network traffic should be maintained during an experiment. A Smith predictor can compensate network delays, but requires use of a known dead time for optimal operation. The platform proposed herein is developed to mitigate the aforementioned challenge. An easily programmable environment is provided based on MATLAB/xPC. In this method, (i) a buffer is added to the simulation loop to minimize network jitter and stabilize the transmission rate, and (ii) a routine is implemented to estimate the network time delay on-the-fly for the optimal operation of the Smith predictor. xvii The performance of the proposed platform is investigated through a series of numerical and experimental studies. An illustrative demonstration is conducted using a three story structure equipped with an MR damper. The structure is tested on the shake table and its global responses are compared to RTHS and dRTHS configurations where the physical MR damper and numerical structural model are tested in local and geographically distributed laboratories. The main contributions of this research are twofold: (1) dRTHS is validated as a feasible testing methodology, alternative to traditional and modern testing techniques such as shake table testing and RTHS, and (ii) the proposed platform serves as a viable environment for researchers to develop, evaluate and validate their own tools, investigate new methods to conduct dRTHS and advance the research in this area to the limits.


The Northumbrian people were subject to two different conversions within the space of a single generation. The former was Gregorian in origin, headed by Bishop Paulinus and the latter was lonan, being led by Bishop Aidan. The result was that the Northumbrian church became a melting pot where these two traditions met. The aim of this study is to look again at the early days of the Northumbrian church; however, this study does so by considering the styles of episcopacy employed by the missionary bishops. This thesis attempts to get behind the hagiographical and historical sources to determine how the bishops themselves understood their role. The thesis begins by considering the Gregorian and Irish background to the two missions and looks at how bishops Paulinus and Aidan sought the conversion of the people of Northumbria, thereby demonstrating the differences in their styles of episcopal oversight. Following their legacies growing tensions between the two groups resulted in the Synod of Whitby where King Oswiu ruled in favour of following Roman customs. The episcopate of Wilfrid, a controversial and complex figure, followed the synod. I examine the claim, made by his biographer Stephen, that Wilfrid was metropoUtan bishop of York and demonstrate that Wilfrid is likely to have seen himself as a metropolitan bishop. The figure of Wilfrid contrasts well with Bishop Cuthbert, to whom the Venerable Bede devotes a lot of his historic and hagiographic writings. The thesis discusses what Bede's own theology of the episcopate was and relates this to his portrayal of Bishop Cuthbert. The thesis concludes by discussing the events that resulted in Bishop Egbert of York receiving the pallium from Pope Gregory HI, confirming the position of York as the head of a Northumbrian province in 735.


Digit serial multipliers are used extensively in hardware implementations of elliptic and hyperelliptic curve cryptography. This contribution shows different architectural enhancements in least significant digit (LSD) multiplier for binary fields GF(2m). We propose two different architectures, the double accumulator multiplier (DAM) and N-accumulator multiplier (NAM), which are both faster compared to traditional LSD multipliers. Our evaluation of the multipliers for different digit sizes gives optimum choices and shows that currently used digit sizes are the worst possible choices. Hence, one of the most important results of this contribution is that digit sizes of the form 2l - 1, where l is an integer, are preferable for the digit multipliers. Furthermore, one should always use the NAM architecture to get the best timings. Considering the time area product DAM or NAM gives the best performance depending on the digit size


Satellite remote sensing can provide information on plant status for large regions with high temporal resolution and proved as a potential tool for decision support. It allows accounting for spatial and temporal variations of state and driving variables, influencing crop growth and development, without extensive ground surveys. The crop phenological development and condition can be monitored through multi-temporal reflectance profiles or multi-temporal vegetation indices (VI), such as the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and Normalized Difference Water Index (NDWI). At the same time, Process based dynamic crop growth simulation models are useful tools for estimating crop growth condition and yield on large spatial domains if their parameters and initial conditions are known for each point. Therefore, combined approaches integrating remote sensing and dynamic crop growth models for regional yield prediction have been developed in several studies. In these models the vegetation state variables, e.g., development phase, dry mass, LAI are linked to driving variables, e.g., weather condition, nutrient availability and management practices. Output of these models is usually final yield or accumulated biomass. The model outputs are a summary containing an overview of the main development events, water and nitrogen variables, yield and yield components. In the present work, IRS P6 AWiFS derived vegetation indices like NDVI and NDWI are computed to study the growth profile of wheat crop in Sirsa district of Haryana along with crop growth simulation model DSSAT-CERES from 2008-09 to 2012-13.several iteration of wheat crop simulation are carried out with four sowing dates and four soil types varying with respect to the fertility parameters to represent the average simulation environment of Sirsa district in Haryana state of India. Four years time series NDVI and NDWI are used to establish the correlation between the spectral vegetation indices and simulated wheat yield attributes at critical growth stages of wheat. This work is a basic investigation towards assimilation of remote sensing derived state variables in to the crop growth model.


Abstract Mitral Valve Interstitial Cells (MVICs) are distributed throughout the valve leaflets. It is predicted that some cells exist under hypoxic conditions. Hypoxia is an important stimulus for signalling pathways that affect cell growth differentiation and function. This study examines the effect of various degrees of hypoxia on MVICs growth, survival, morphological and phenotypic behaviour. Porcine MVICs were primarily isolated and incubated under atmospheric control (20% O2), mild hypoxia (5% O2), moderate (2% O2) and severe (0.5% O2) for 1 and 3 days. Cell proliferation and cell death were assessed using biochemical assays. Cell morphology was assessed by immunofluorescence staining. Cells were also stained for phenotypic expression of endothelial, myofibroblastic and smooth muscle markers. After 24 hours incubation at the different O2 concentrations there was no significant difference in cell growth or death. After 3 days incubation cells under atmospheric O2 (150±8%*) and 5% (124±5%), 2% (146±8%*) and 0.5% (161±8%*) all showed increase in cell number compared to start of the experiment (*=P<0.05).However, there was no significant difference between each of the groups. Cell death was significantly reduced under hypoxia (atmospheric O2 (10.65%±1.72) and 5% (8.5%±1.0%), 2% (6.25%±0.24%*) and 0.5% (4.02±0.45%*) O2 (*=P<0.05). Cells were significantly bigger at 3 days under hypoxic conditions but retained the same shape. MVICs continued to express similar levels of myofibroblastic markers αSMA and Vimentin under hypoxic conditions after 3 days but showed weak expression of smooth muscle cell markers. This study serves to define the role of hypoxia in VICs in terms of cell growth, death, morphology and phenotype. These properties further highlight the specialised function of cells that reside in heart valves and have important relevance to heart valve tissue engineering.


Abstract In the northern part of the Varandey–Adzva zone carbonate reservoirs have developed that have porosity favourable for oil and gas accumulations. The void space in these reservoirs, besides primary porosity, is associated with fracturing, giving rise to good reservoir potential in both the onshore and offshore parts of the Varandey–Adzva zone. The similarity of today's structure and the development during the main stages of geological history for offshore and onshore parts, the availability in the section of productive oil- and gas-bearing reservoirs, the high capacity of the reservoirs, the uniformity of lithofacial composition of the productive intervals and the uniqueness of the deposits structure – all these features contribute to the oil and gas potential of the Pechora Sea structures. Supplementary material: Supplementary Tables 14.1–14.7 are available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18473.


Oestrogens have numerous effects on the brain, beginning during gestation and continuing on into adulthood. Many of these actions involve areas of the brain that are not primarily involved in reproduction, such as the basal forebrain, hippocampus, caudate putamen, midbrain raphe and brainstem locus coeruleus. This paper describes three actions of oestrogens that are especially relevant to brain mechanisms involved in memory processes and their alterations during ageing and neurodegenerative diseases: (1) the regulation of cholinergic neurons by oestradiol in the rat basal forebrain, involving induction of choline acetyltransferase and acetylcholinesterase according to a sexually dimorphic pattern; (2) the regulation of synaptogenesis in the CA1 region of the hippocampus by oestrogens and progestins during the four- to five-day oestrus cycle of the female rat. Formation of new excitatory synapses is induced by oestradiol and involves N-methyl-D-aspartate receptors; removal of these synapses involves intracellular progestin receptors; (3) sex differences in hippocampal structure, which may help to explain differences in the strategies that male and female rats use to solve spatial navigation problems. During the period of development when testosterone is elevated in the male, aromatase and oestrogen receptors are also elevated, making it likely that this pathway is involved in the masculinization of hippocampal structure.


This paper sought to dissect the role of indigenous African languages in South African institutions. It attempted to prove and argue, through research, that indigenous African languages are not fully and professionally utilized by the South African institutions. The roles of these languages were interrogated so that their functional viability could be determined. To do that a research was conducted using interviews, observations and questionnaires. Individuals, groups and institutions were sampled to be used as population. An important finding was that indigenous African languages are not functionally viable and are not used optimally by education, financial, business and legal institutions, and even government. The government only uses them as a marketing ploy or gimmick. Conclusions paint a very bleak picture about the functionality and development of indigenous African Languages. Government, business and education still use English instead of indigenous African languages, for debates, business and tuition, respectively.


This chapter draws attention to the health-related legislation emanating from the national and provincial legislatures in 2000. It also looks more broadly at other legislation passed this year that has an impact either on the health of individuals or communities or on the way that the health system operates. New national legislation discussed includes the Pharmacy Amendment Act, the two Chiropractors, Homeopaths and Allied Health Service Professions Amendment Acts, the National Health Laboratory Services Bill and the Council for Medical Schemes Levies Bill. The recent laws of broader impact are the Public Finance Management Act, the Skills Development Act and Skills Development Levies Act, the Promotion of Access to Information Act, the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act and the Local Government: Municipal Structures Amendment Act. In addition, regulations to and interpretations of earlier legislation (descriptionbed in previous editions of the Health Review) are outlined. The efforts of provincial legislatures to produce laws that define the operation of the health system are descriptionbed. Finally, the chapter reviews important Constitutional Court rulings with health implications, these being the SAMMDRA, Hoffman and Grootboom decisions.


This paper suggests that the current uncertainty hovering over the property industry is not simply the result of an internal economic dynamic, dooming the industry to damaging booms and slumps. Rather, the novel sense of 'risk' colouring contemporary development activities is the consequence of wider cultural, technical and commercial shifts from which property development is not immune. The current supply-oriented interests of property research, predominantly concerned with the collection and analysis of statistical data, are unable to respond to these wider questions. Simply creating more 'data banks' will not help. The paper argues that in order to understand the shifting nature of demand, property research needs to complement econometric modelling with a more occupier-focused 'marketing research'—one that is sensitive to the dynamics of the 'risk society' we now inhabit. Accordingly, the paper provides a detailed account of structured market research, which should form part of a broader property research agenda. In particular, structured demand analysis is shown to provide a framework for understanding the complex dynamics of the demand market, so demonstrating how the supply industry can improve its efficiency. The paper suggests that the scale of the latest property crash offers an opportunity for the industry to improve the efficiency of supply by blending intimate knowledge of changing market demand with established dynamics of provision. Such a research strategy may provide the key to a more stable, mutually profitable property business, appropriate to a rapidly changing world economy of risk.


This corpus-based study examines the principles of mood selection in Spanish preposed complement clauses. It tries to prove that the relevant factor for mood selection is not the informational status of the preposed complement clause but its semantic nature or, more precisely, the contrast between intensional and referential readings. This contrast constitutes a specific principle of the Spanish (and that of Romance in general) mood system which comes to bear whenever the subordinate complement clause is not under the scope of a modal operator. This article also shows how the speakers exploit this specific mood contrast in order to produce certain pragmatic and/or stylistic effects.


This thesis investigates, theoretically and empirically, the relationship among economic growth, financial liberalisation and poverty reduction in Pakistan, between 1970' and 2000, with the aid of a rigorous co-integration analysis. A literature review provides an account of the existing models and other poverty reduction strategies in Pakistan. An analysis of poverty trends (1970-2000) in Pakistan shows large variations in poverty indices during all three decades under observation, at both provincial and intra -provincial levels. Ruman development indices show that poverty is highly concentrated in rural areas. Among provinces, the rural areas of Sindh and Balochistan provinces are worst affected. The trend of poverty shows a high rise during the 1990s, a decade of slow economic growth in Pakistan. The rural poverty nexus is correlated to the agricultural land reforms and weak institutional mechanism. Ineffective public services delivery to the poor has been the result of weak institutional response. The gender poverty is also all pervasive in Pakistan, as rural women are found to be more vulnerable to poverty shocks. Institutional failure has been found to be the main cause of the rising poverty in Pakistan. To analyse the relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction in Pakistan, we used the Dollar and Kraay model (2000) that predicts that economic growth reduces poverty. Using annual data sets for Pakistan from 1970 to 2000, our results show a positive relationship between economic growth and poverty reduction in Pakistan. We also tested the impact of financial development and growth in Pakistan. The McKinnon-Shaw hypothesis (1973) implies that increase in real rate of interest will increase savings and investment, which will lead to higher economic growth. The co-integration tests of the McKinnon-Shaw model (1970-2000) for Pakistan could not substantiate the prediction of the model. With a significant increase in savings over the period under observation, investment failed to rise. However, overall financial intermediation plays a significant and positive role in boosting economic growth. Authoritarian governments and the nationalisation policies are largely responsible for the inability to transform savings into investment.


In GAMMA 10, Alfvén-ion-cyclotron (AIC) waves are spontaneously excited because of the perpendicular ions heating with ion cyclotron range of frequency waves. High-energy ions are transported to axial direction with pitch angle scattering owing to the AIC waves. In the high-energy ion signal detected with a semiconductor detector, the fluctuations with the differential frequencies between discrete peaks of the AIC waves are clearly observed. Recently, a microwave reflectometer detected the AIC mode in the anchor cell. The high-energy ions signal in the axial direction also increases when the AIC mode is excited.


This thesis addresses the problem of feature selection in pattern recognition. A detailed analysis and an experimental comparison of various search strategies for selecting a feature set of size d from D available measurements are presented. For a realistic problem, optimal search, even if performed using the branch and bound search method, is computationally prohibitive. The alternative is to use suboptimal search methods. Of these, there are four methods, namely the sequential forward selection (SFS), sequential backward selection (SBS), sequential forward floating selection (SFFS), and sequential backward floating selection (SBFS), which are relatively simple and require little computational time. It is suggested that the SFS method should be employed in the case of limited training sample size. Although the decision about including a particular measurements in the SFS method is made on the basis of statistical dependencies among features in spaces of monotonically increasing dimensionality, the approach has proved in practice to be more reliable. This is because the algorithm utilizes at the beginning only less complex mutual relations which using small sample sets are determined more reliably than the statistics required by the SBS method. Because both the SFS and SBS methods suffer from the nesting effect, if better solution is required then the SFFS and SBFS should be employed. As the first of the two main issues of the thesis, the possibility of developing feature selection techniques which rely only on the merit of individual features as well as pairs of features is investigated. This issue is considered very important because the computational advantage of such an algorithm exploiting only at most pairwise interactions of measurements would be very useful for solving feature selection problems of very high dimensionality. For this reason, a potentially very promising search method known as the Max-Min method is investigated. By means of a detailed analysis of the heuristic reasoning behind the method its weaknesses are identified. The first weakness is due to the use of upper limit on the error bound as a measure of effectiveness of a candidate feature. This strategy does not guarantee that selecting a candidate feature with the highest upper bound will yield the highest actual amount of additional information. The second weakness is that the method does not distinguish between a strong unconditional dependence and a poor performance of a feature which both manifest themselves by a near zero additional discriminatory information. Modifications aimed at overcoming the latter by favouring features which exhibit conditional dependence and on the other hand suppressing features which exhibit strong unconditional dependence have been proposed and tested but only with a limited success. For this reason the Max-Min method is subjected to a detailed theoretical analysis. It is found that the key assumption underlying the whole Max-Min algorithm is not justified and the algorithm itself is ill-founded, i.e. the actual increment of the criterion value (or decrease of the probability of error) can be bigger than the minimum of pairwise error probability reductions assumed by the Max-Min method. A necessary condition for invalidity of the key assumption of the Max-Min algorithm is derived, and a counter-example proving the lack of justification for the algorithm is presented. The second main issue of the thesis is the development of a new feature selection method for non-normal class conditional densities. For a given dimensionality the subset of selected features minimizes the Kullback-Leibler distance between the true and postulated class conditional densities. The algorithm is based on approximating unknown class conditional densities by a finite mixture of densities of a special type using the maximum likelihood approach. After the optimization ends, the optimal feature subset of required dimensionality is obtained immediately without the necessity to employ any search procedure. Successful experiments with both simulated and real data are also carried out to validate the proposed method.


IPTV or Internet Protocol Television is a system where digital television is delivered to the end user using the Internet Protocol. It relies on the same technologies that are used for computer networks and adds new possibilities, such as video on demand, on top of the traditionally broadcasted TV. Video content for IPTV is typically compressed using a MPEG-2 or H.264 (MPEG-4 part 10) compression and sent in an MPEG-2 transport stream over IP. Since TV is a "real time service" packets are delivered using a simple unreliable transmission model and packets may arrive out of order or be lost. Lost packets are normally not re-transmitted since they anyhow would arrive too late to be useful and packet loss will thus decrease perceived quality for the end user. The Master thesis is an investigation of the parameters that affect the perceived quality in MPEG-2 Transport Stream (TS). The aim of the thesis is to develop an objective parametric model1 that can estimate the perceived quality at transport layer. The thesis work includes experimentation performed on High Definition (HD) video sequences with various bit rates and packet loss ratios (PLR).


This article explores how global social policy can be implemented in the local context by examining the policy process undertaken for the conditional cash transfer program (CCT) in the Philippines. It first takes into consideration how they select CCT as flagship social protection program. It, furthermore, takes an in-depth look at the policy implementation process to find out how the Philippines overcomes institutional constraints where clientelism is prevalent and administrative capacity is inadequate. It shows that CCT could be implemented by centralising targeting and delivery system, investing financial resources with political commitment of national government, and rearranging responsible department based upon inter-ministerial cooperation. Even though administrative set-up has been singled out as the principal obstacle hindering necessary policy change in developing countries, this article maintains that the administrative capability can be enhanced in the process of implementing social protection programs.


This paper studies the forecasting properties of linear GARCH models for closing-day futures prices on crude oil, first position, traded in the New York Mercantile Exchange from January 1995 to November 2005. In order to account for fat tails in the empirical distribution of the series, we compare models based on the normal, Student's t and Generalized Exponential distribution. We focus on out-of-sample predictability by ranking the models according to a large array of statistical loss functions. The results from the tests for predictive ability show that the GARCH-G model fares best for short horizons from one to three days ahead. For horizons from one week ahead, no superior model can be identified. We also consider out-ofsample loss functions based on Value-at-Risk that mimic portfolio managers and regulators' preferences. EGARCH models display the best performance in this case.


Laser-induced fluorescence of a fuel tracer is a very sensitive technique to image in-cylinder liquid fuel films, but quantification of the measured film thickness has proven difficult so far. This article describes improvements in the quantification procedure and presents an example application in a motored, optically accessible spark-ignition engine with direct injection. We designed a calibration tool that could be pressurized and heated, allowing investigation of the laser-induced fluorescence intensities at temperatures exceeding the liquid's standard-pressure boiling point. The fluorescence intensity of liquid toluene and 3-Pentanone dissolved in isooctane upon excitation with a pulsed laser at 266 nm was investigated as a function of temperature and pressure. Consistent with the literature results on gas-phase laser-induced fluorescence, the signal from toluene was much stronger than from 3-Pentanone, about two orders of magnitude for films thinner than 50 μm. Laser-induced fluorescence from both tracers decreased with increasing temperature but that of toluene significantly more. The response to pressure was less pronounced. For imaging across a large field of view, the spatial non-uniformity of laser excitation and detection efficiency was taken into account using a solid fluorescing substrate, an inexpensive Schott-glass WG280 filter. Isooctane with 0.5 vol.% toluene was used for application in the motored engine, imaging the liquid film on the piston-top window after direct injection from a central multi-hole injector. Air as a bulk gas was found to be advantageous over nitrogen in that gas-phase fluorescence was quenched by oxygen. The imaged film distributions and thicknesses and the derived total fuel film mass were physically plausible. Consistent with the recent literature results from a constant pressure vessel, increasing injection pressure from 50 to 100 bar did not decrease wall wetting but further increase to 200 bar did.


After a decade of rapid economic growth, the Dominican Republic entered a downward spiral in 2003. The economy shrank for the first time since 1990, the inflation rate quadrupled, the Dominican peso collapsed, government debt more than doubled, interest rates soared, and the central bank incurred large losses. That cascade of bad economic news followed a botched bank bailout. What had started as a garden-variety lender-of-lastresort operation ended with the central bank taking over the second-largest private bank in the Dominican Republic. That move decapitalized the central bank in one stroke and directly cost the Dominicans about 15 percent of GDP. The public has lost confidence in the government and the central bank. To turn the economy around, president-elect Leonel Fernandez must embrace a bold set of confidence-enhancing reforms. The centerpiece of those reforms must be a new Dominican monetary regime that will produce stable money. The country should choose one of three monetary reform options: a currency board, a dollarized system, and a free banking regime. Each is feasible and would restore confidence in the Dominican Republic. In addition to a monetary reform, the Dominican Republic must implement a bold tax reform that encourages legal work in the formal economy, savings, and investment. A flat-tax system set at 15 percent of in-come is recommended. July 20, 2004


Wide angle and deep surveys, regardless of their primary purpose, always sample a large number of stars in the Galaxy and in its satellite system. Here we make a forecast of the expected stellar sample resulting from the Dark Energy Survey (DES) and the perspectives that it will open for studies of Galactic structure and resolved stellar populations in general. An estimated 1.2 × 108 stars will be sampled in DES grizY filters in the southern equatorial hemisphere. This roughly corresponds to 20% of all DES sources. Most of these stars belong to the stellar thick disk and halo of the Galaxy. DES will probe low-mass stellar and sub-stellar objects at depths from three to eight times larger than those in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS). The faint end of the main sequence (MS) will be densely sampled beyond 10 kpc. The slope of the low mass end of the stellar initial mass function (IMF) will be constrained to within a few hundredths of dex, even in the thick disk and halo. In the sub-stellar mass regime, the IMF slope will be potentially constrained to within dlog ϕ(m)/dlog m ≃ 0.1. About 3 × 104 brown dwarf candidates and at least 7.6 × 105 white dwarf candidates will be selected, the latter embedded into the thick disk and halo, for future follow-up. The stellar halo flattening will also be constrained to within a few percent. DES will probe the MS of new Milky Way satellites and halo clusters for distances out to ≃ 120 kpc, therefore yielding stellar surface density contrasts 1.6–1.7 times larger than those attainable with SDSS. It will also allow detection of these objects in the far reaches of the stellar halo, substantially increasing the number and quality of probes to the Galactic potential. Combined with northern samples, such as the SDSS, the DES stellar sample will yield constraints on the structure and stellar populations of Galactic components in unprecedented detail. In particular, the combined sample from both hemispheres will allow detailed studies of halo and thick disk asymmetries and triaxiality.


Engineering construction dates from the dawn of civilization. Although both geology and civil engineering have existed in a reasonably modern form for only about 250 years, for thousands of years some individuals with an awareness of rock and soil conditions offered counsel on excavations, site conditions, and construction materials. The closeness of partnerships between geologists and engineers has varied over time and reflects a natural tension between the inductive approach of geological investigations and the deductive approach of engineering design. Both science and engineering have periods in which their governing paradigms, the generally accepted set of practices that define a discipline during a particular period of time, are subject to rapid change. Some of these 'paradigm shifts' have fostered closer collaborations between geologists and engineers; others have resulted in a weakening of such interactions. Society now demands that both geologists and engineers increasingly undertake complex predictions. Engineering projects have become much more complex; bridges and tunnels have become longer and larger, and high-speed transportation links have become common. Population growth has pushed developments into more complex geological locations where site conditions are less than optimal and geohazards more likely. New and ever more challenging environmental and economic issues make the design of new facilities increasingly dependent on accurate predictions of geological conditions. Decision-making under uncertainty (prediction) requires an increasingly multi-disciplinary approach, and thus continued close interactions between geologists and civil engineers.


Commercialization of academic research is considered as main tool of trade and industry growth in developed and developing countries. The growth of third mission activities in higher education institutions mainly aims at commercialization of academic research and entrepreneurial platform creation, in order to bridge the gaps between industry and academia. Innovation is the first commercial application of academic research commercialization. The purpose of this paper is to identify the current challenges and barriers that Pakistan's Higher Education Institutions are facing in commercialization activities. In this present study Delphi method is used to find out the main challenges and solutions for academic research commercialization in Pakistan. Analysis has been constructed according to the current situation of the issue. Finally, the paper concludes with the discussion of research findings.


Objectives In Western countries, lower socioeconomic status is associated with a higher risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and premature mortality. These associations may plausibly differ in Asian populations, but data are scarce and direct comparisons between the two regions are lacking. We, thus, aimed to compare such associations between Asian and Western populations in a large collaborative study, using the highest level of education attained as our measure of social status. Setting Cohort studies in general populations conducted in Asia or Australasia. Participants 303 036 people (71% from Asia) from 24 studies in the Asia Pacific Cohort Studies Collaboration. Studies had to have a prospective cohort study design, have accumulated at least 5000 person-years of follow-up, recorded date of birth (or age), sex and blood pressure at baseline and date of, or age at, death during follow-up. Outcome measures We used Cox regression models to estimate relationships between educational attainment and CVD (fatal or non-fatal), as well as all-cause, cardiovascular and cancer mortality. Results During more than two million person-years of follow-up, 11 065 deaths (3655 from CVD and 4313 from cancer) and 1809 CVD non-fatal events were recorded. Adjusting for classical CVD risk factors and alcohol drinking, hazard ratios (95% CIs) for primary relative to tertiary education in Asia (Australasia) were 1.81 (1.38, 2.36) (1.10 (0.99, 1.22)) for all-cause mortality, 2.47(1.47, 4.17) (1.24 (1.02, 1.51)) for CVD mortality, 1.66 (1.00, 2.78) (1.01 (0.87, 1.17)) for cancer mortality and 2.09 (1.34, 3.26) (1.23 (1.04, 1.46)) for all CVD. Conclusions Lower educational attainment is associated with a higher risk of CVD or premature mortality in Asia, to a degree exceeding that in the Western populations of Australasia.


INTRODUCTION Security at major international airports (USA, UK, Germany, France, Japan, India, and Singapore etc) has embarked upon installation and testing of new security methods especially after 9/11 terrorist attacks on USA. Some of the examples of the new security methods include: new baggage-screening machines, controlling, controlling departure terminal entry and doubling federal security personnel in dozens of airports. The high-tech baggage screeners with advanced X-ray capabilities cost up to $1 million each. Additionally, the expense of airport security personnel is being increased as airport security personnel are being added to the federal employment rolls. The U.S. Congress believes airport security personnel will be better trained and supervised as a federal force. There have been many arguments over whether such increased security equipment or the presence of a federal airport security operation would have precluded or had any effect on the events of September 11. While that debate continues, it does offer the opportunity to apply a well-known Planning/Operations Management technique to assessing the problem by using a reverse-evaluation/ engineering approach. LITERATURE REVIEW The reverse engineering application of fishbone analysis (FA) to solve product-related problems and develop end-of-life product strategies is supported by several studies (Barr, Schmidt, Krueger & Twu, 2000; Ishii & Lee, 1996; Lee, Rhee, & Ishii, 1997; Otto & Wood, 1996; Rose & Ishii, 1999). The fishbone diagram has also been utilized to evaluate health care services; first, in a hospital setting to assess and reduce delays in the treatment of patients receiving coronary thrombolytic therapy (Bonetti, 2000) and to identify improvement strategies and training needs for physicians, nurses and other caregivers (Cohen, 2002). The cause and effect value of FA is demonstrated in studies conducted by Yu (1998) and Constantinides (1999) to identify root causes for software coding faults, and to categorize different causes of software communication failure. Finally, the effectiveness of FA used as a planning tool to improve quality processes and increase revenues is demonstrated by Lore (1998), Geerts & McCarthy (2000), Wilcox & Discenza (1994), and Clark (2000). In the present paper we propose to provide two examples of application of fishbone diagram to (i) Airport security, and (ii) Network security. THE APPLICATION OF FISHBONE DIAGRAM TO AIRPORT SECURITY The application of a Fishbone (Ishikawa, 1996) diagram to the problem of "how a passenger can board a plane with a weapon" reveals six potential categories of possible causes (Figure 1).These are Method, People, Equipment, Material, Environment, and Measurement. A Responsibility Matrix (2) is then constructed to identify who has ownership of the causes and what action should be taken (Table 1). [FIGURE 1 OMITTED] Next, an Action Planning Matrix (Table 2) begins with the actions to be taken as identified by the Responsibility Matrix, and further identifies needed resources to support actions, and an expected time frame for results. Each category is presented and discussed in the following. RESPONSIBILITY AND ACTION PLANNING MATRICES Method The Method Category of the Fishbone diagram represents the methods of enforcing security at the airport that could be the possible causes of security breaches. The four possible causes for the passenger boarding the plane with a weapon are Electronic Search Techniques, Ineffective Sampling Methods, Baggage viewing, and Physical Search. Electronic Search Techniques Electronic Search Techniques may be ineffective if the equipment is poorly designed or incapable of detecting all possible type of weapons. To ensure efficiency, the equipment should be maintained and calibrated at regular time intervals. This same reasoning applies to all checked baggage. …


1. A concept and design of polycentric knee arthroplasty based on the biomechanics of normal knee movement is presented. The diseased articular surfaces of the femoral condyles and tibial plateaus are replaced separately by prosthetic implants secured with cement. The collateral and cruciate ligaments are retained to maintain joint stability. 2. The early results from this arthroplasty in twenty-two knees are assessed. The operation gave relief of pain in twenty-two, a range of movement greater than 90 degrees in thirteen, no lateral instability in sixteen of twenty-two knees and an increased degree of mobility for nineteen of twenty individuals (two bilateral arthroplasties). 3. Operative complications consisted of delayed wound healing in four knees and common peroneal nerve palsy in one. One knee was subsequently arthrodesed for lack of functional improvement.


This book is for all those taking the Masters in Teaching and Learning (MTL). The contents reflect the units of this new qualification, building on Initial Teacher Training, deepening and broadening professional understanding and skills while addressing individual teacher needs. Chapters cover core topics such as developing pedagogy, assessment for learning, special educational needs and behaviour. The book provides invaluable support for beginning teachers as they manage their professionally based, postgraduate learning, including guidance on critical thinking, reflective practice and research skills, and is clearly linked to the newly developed framework of Professional Standards for Teachers.


We present the first polynomial time algorithm for computing Walrasian equilibrium in an economywith indivisible goods and general buyer valuations having only access to an aggregate demand oracle, i.e., an oracle that given prices on all goods, returns the aggregated demand over the entire population of buyers. For the important special case of gross substitute valuations, our algorithm queries the aggregate demand oracle ̃ O(n) times and takes  ̃ O(n3) time, where n is the number of goods and the  ̃ O(·) notation denotes an asymptotic bound up to polylogarithmic factors. Both algorithms are randomized. At the heart of our solution is a method for exactly minimizing certain convex functions which cannot be evaluated but for which the subgradients can be computed. We also give the fastest known algorithm for computing Walrasian equilibrium for gross substitute valuations in the value oracle model. Our algorithm has running time  ̃ O((mn + n)TV ) where TV is the cost of querying the value oracle. A key technical ingredient is to regularize a convex programming formulation of the problem in a way that subgradients are cheap to compute. En route, we give necessary and sufficient conditions for the existence of robust Walrasian prices, i.e., prices for which each agent has a unique demanded bundle and the demanded bundles clear the market. When such prices exist, the market can be perfectly coordinated by solely using prices.


This thesis is an investigation into the implementation of computer-based office information systems in organizations. The research methods employed are both qualitative and quantitative, and include fifteen case studies and a postal survey. A review of the literature and the case study research indicated that organizations are taking advantage of the integrative capacity of new technology in order to implement integrated office systems, but generally with little strategic focus or organizational change. A framework for the identification of strategic uses, based on information-processing theory, is presented, together with a discussion of their implications for organizational change.Implementation is both a rational and a political process. The thesis covers both aspects, reviewing the literature on the relationship between information technology and organizations to show that many of the consequences of implementation for the organization are non-deterministic and emerge fromn the process itself. Structuration theory is shown to be a means of unifying rational and interpretative perspectives on implementation. This analysis indicates the nature of the managerial problem and forms the basis for assessing prescriptive approaches to implementing office systems and managing change. An implementation strategy for integrated office systems is outlined, and the use of IT and office systems to design new organizations and the use of new approaches to implementing second- and third-order change are flagged up as areas requiring further empirical research.


In recent decades, many Assistive Technologies (ATs) have been developed to promote independence among people with dementia (PWD). Although there is a high rate of AT abandonment, only a handful of studies have focused on AT usability evaluation from the user point of view. The aim of this thesis is to empirically investigate the usability of ATs from the PWD and to measure its impacts on their lives. Following the Multi-methods research approach, the first part of the thesis uses secondary research methods including literature review and systematic mapping studies. The second part uses primary research methods including interviews (N=20) and questionnaire (N=327) based surveys for data collection and requirements elicitation. The third part is based on the design, development, and testing of an assistive software application through case studies (N=8). The first mapping study categorised existing general ATs into five major categories: robotics, monitoring, reminders, communication, and software. The second mapping study categorised software-based ATs into nine categories: cognitive help, reminders, health/activity monitoring, socialization, leisure, travel help, dementia detection, dementia prevention, and rehabilitation. The qualitative results showed that most of the PWD use ATs for socialization, and highlighted user interface efficacy, tailoring individual needs, and simplified functions as the major limitations of existing ATs. The quantitative results identified eleven factors for ATs usage: operational support, physical support, psychological support, social support, cultural match, reduced external help, affordability, travel help, compatibility, effectiveness, and retention. The statistical analysis showed that improved (social, psychological and travel) support and reduced need of external help for operating ATs, greatly impact AT effectiveness and retention. Based on PWD requirements, an assistive software application named E-Community for Dementia (ECD) was developed and tested through case studies involving 8 PWD and 40 volunteers. The participants were able to get their daily needed items in less time and with a friendlier manner through the help of their neighbours. The involvement of the caregivers for medication, meals, prayers etc. reduced significantly. The painting function helped evoke their memories, and encouraged them to perform activities from their youth. The news and weather functions kept them updated about the world around them. The travel tutor guided them in safe travel outside home and made sure that they got back home independently. The enhanced interaction between the PWD and their neighbours significantly reduced their social isolation. The results support the idea to create dementia-friendly communities at street levels, which is a cost-effective and reliable solution. The major outcomes from this thesis are AT categorization, evaluation of user experiences, factor identification and ranking, user requirements elicitation, assistive software application development, and case studies. This thesis helps considerably towards empirical investigation of the impact of ATs in supporting the PWD. The implementation of the ECD contributes towards the wellbeing of the PWD and saves costs spent on caregivers and carer companies. In future, the same study could be conducted in other settings to analyse the role of culture in AT acceptance.


The enhanced abilities of online retailers to learn about their customers' shopping behaviors have increased fears of dynamic pricing, a practice in which a seller sets prices based on the estimated buyer's willingness-to-pay. However, among online retailers, a deviation from a one-price-for-all policy is the exception. When price discrimination is observed, it is often in the context of customer outrage about unfair pricing.

One setting where pricing varies is the name-your-own-price (NYOP) mechanism. In contrast to a typical retail setting, in NYOP markets, it is the buyer who places an initial offer. This offer is accepted if it is above some threshold price set by the seller. If the initial offer is rejected, the buyer can update her offer in subsequent rounds. By design, the final purchase price is opaque to the public; the price paid depends on the individual buyer's willingness-to-pay and offer strategy. Further, most forms of NYOP employ a fixed threshold price policy.

In this paper, we compare a fixed threshold price setting with an adaptive threshold price setting. A seller who considers an adaptive threshold price has to weigh potentially greater profits against customer objections about the perceived fairness of such a policy. We first derive the optimal strategy for the seller. We analyze the effectiveness of an adaptive threshold price vis-a-vis a fixed threshold price on seller profit and customer satisfaction. Further, we evaluate the moderating effect of revealing the threshold price policy (adaptive versus fixed) to buyers. We test our model in a series of laboratory experiments and in a large field experiment at a prominent NYOP seller involving real purchases. Our results show that revealing the usage of an adaptive mechanism yields higher profits and more transactions than not revealing this information. In the field experiment, we find that applying a revealed adaptive threshold price can increase profits by over 20 percent without lowering customer satisfaction.


Practical advice on how to thrive in the second half of your life, based on scientific studies. The sixth book in the bestselling 100 Simple Secrets series. What do people who relish the second half of their lives do differently than those who dread getting older? Sociologists, therapists and psychiatrists have spent entire careers investigating the ins and outs of successful aging, yet their findings are inaccessible to ordinary people, hidden in obscure journals to be shared with other experts. Now the international bestselling author of The 100 Simple Secrets series has collected the most current and significant data from more than a thousand of the best scientific studies on the second half of life. These findings have been boiled down to one hundred essential ways to find and maintain joy, health, and satisfaction every day of your life. Each one is accompanied by a true story showing the results in action. The Baby Boomers are hitting retirement age. This upbeat, light approach will appeal to the enormous market of citizens grappling with the effects of becoming 'senior', looking to discover the positive benefits of aging beyond discount tickets at the movie theatre. Books about aging well continue to sell year in and year out. The Simple Secrets approach will stand out among the heavier self-help/psychology titles and will without a doubt become an affordable impulse and gifty mainstay in this category. A good inexpensive gift for parents and grandparents.


The adoption of smart phones and the usages of mobile applications are increasing rapidly. Consequently, within limited time-range, mobile Internet usages have managed to take over the desktop usages particularly since the first smart phone-touched application released by iPhone in 2007. This paper is proposed to provide solution and answer the most demandable questions related to mobile application automated and manual testing limitations. Moreover, Mobile application testing requires agility and physically testing. Agile testing is to detect bugs through automated tools, whereas the compatibility testing is more to ensure that the apps operates on mobile OS (Operation Systems) as well as on the different real devices. Moreover, we have managed to answer automated or manual questions through two mobile application case studies MES (Mobile Exam System) and MLM (Mobile Lab Mate) by creating test scripts for both case studies and our experiment results have been discussed and evaluated on whether to adopt test on real devices or on emulators? In addition to this, we have introduced new mobile application testing matrix for the testers and some enterprises to obtain knowledge from.


Molten salt technology represents nowadays the most cost-effective technology for electricity generation for stand-alone solar power plants. Although this technology can be applied to both concentrating technologies, parabolic through and central receiver systems (CRSs), CRS technology can take advantages from its higher concentration, allowing to work at higher temperatures and therefore with a reduction in the size and cost of the storage system. The receiver system is the "door" for which the energy passes from the field collector to the thermal-electric cycle; it represents, therefore, the core of the CRS and its performance directly affects plant production. Starting from the published lessons from SOLAR TWO receiver technology, the validation of an improved receiver for molten salt technology was assumed as part of the SOLAR TRES solar thermal power commercial plant development. Main challenges for the new receiver were to increase its allowable peak flux up to 1 MW/m 2 in order to maximize the thermal efficiency of the CRS solar power plant, and to improve its safe life without limiting the incident fluxes that the field of heliostats is able to deliver with an optimized pointing strategy. Several advanced features in geometric and thermodynamic aspects and in its material selection have been implemented on the receiver With the results of a sensitivity analysis carried out with an own code developed by SENER (SENREC), a prototype receiver panel was designed, fabricated, and installed in a proper test bed at the PSA. Test validation on this panel was carried out in 2007. The initial test results show a very good behavior of the prototype receiver, which allows to anticipate that the objectives of its design can be fulfilled. SENER and CIEMAT have joined forces to face up the challenge of sizing and designing a new molten salt receiver of high thermal efficiency, able to operate at high fluxes without compromising its durability (at least 25 years). Main challenges for the new receiver design were to optimize the receiver dimensions and receiver tube sizes and material selection to surpass the operating conditions in the new plants with respect to SOLAR TWO.


In the vast Low Nutrient Low‐Chlorophyll (LNLC) Ocean, the vertical nutrient supply from the subsurface to the sunlit surface waters is low, and atmospheric contribution of nutrients may be one order of magnitude greater over short timescales. The short turnover time of atmospheric Fe and N supply (<1 month for nitrate) further supports deposition being an important source of nutrients in LNLC regions. Yet, the extent to which atmospheric inputs are impacting biological activity and modifying the carbon balance in oligotrophic environments has not been constrained. Here, we quantify and compare the biogeochemical impacts of atmospheric deposition in LNLC regions using both a compilation of experimental data and model outputs. A metadata‐analysis of recently conducted field and laboratory bioassay experiments reveals complex responses, and the overall impact is not a simple "fertilization effect of increasing phytoplankton biomass" as observed in HNLC regions. Although phytoplankton growth may be enhanced, increases in bacterial activity and respiration result in weakening of biological carbon sequestration. The application of models using climatological or time‐averaged non‐synoptic deposition rates produced responses that were generally much lower than observed in the bioassay experiments. We demonstrate that experimental data and model outputs show better agreement on short timescale (days to weeks) when strong synoptic pulse of aerosols deposition, similar in magnitude to those observed in the field and introduced in bioassay experiments, is superimposed over the mean atmospheric deposition fields. These results suggest that atmospheric impacts in LNLC regions have been underestimated by models, at least at daily to weekly timescales, as they typically overlook large synoptic variations in atmospheric deposition and associated nutrient and particle inputs. Inclusion of the large synoptic variability of atmospheric input, and improved representation and parameterization of key processes that respond to atmospheric deposition, is required to better constrain impacts in ocean biogeochemical models. This is critical for understanding and prediction of current and future functioning of LNLC regions and their contribution to the global carbon cycle.


There s more to cookies than initially meets the eye. A cookie is actually a delicious blank canvas for hungry kids, cookie swap participants and aspiring confectionary artists alike. This revised edition of"The Art of the Cookie" is jam packed with delicious cookies recipes, which were selected for their visual appeal as much as their flavor, and top tips for cookie decoration. A beautifully crafted cookie is a work of art and beloved by all. Still-warm cookies fresh from the oven are irresistibly enticing but decorating the treats doubles the fun. Whether it's a cookie exchange, holiday gathering, or Mother's Day tea, these cookies promise exceptional flavor and a stunning visual that will be a memorable addition to any occasion. "The Art of the Cookie"presents over 40 delectable recipes and inspiring decorating ideas. Rather than focusing on the techniques of baking cookies, this book focuses on transforming a simple cookie into a masterpiece. Roll, cut, repeat then get to work. This first chapter offers classic yet versatile roll-and-cut dough recipes, such as brown sugar cookies and gingerbread. The cookies may be ready to go but the decorations are not. Find clever, yet simple ideas for decorating any type of roll-and-cut: vibrant vanilla-sugar flowers; alphabet shapes flooded with icing and sprinkled with colorful sugars; and petits fours stacked to resemble a miniature wedding cake. Extravagant made easy. The second chapter includes classics with a modern twist, such as sparkly macaroons; wreath-shaped sugar cookies baked with lemon and thyme. Decoration and filling ideas include icing ornaments and striped cookies that taste and look like peppermint sticks. With gorgeous, colorful photographs throughout this book has all the encouragement and know-how you'll need to create artful cookies that look as if they were purchased from a pastry shop and taste like it too."


This article looks at trends and developments in New Zealand's currency over the year to June 2012. The total value of currency in circulation has continued to grow, as it has over the past several years. Every denomination of banknote and coin has seen increases, although at varying rates. The Reserve Bank undertakes note processing to maintain a high quality of notes in circulation. New Zealand has a low rate of counterfeiting by international standards, and the level of counterfeiting has fallen this year.


Plaintiffs commonly bring two distinct types of claims under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934: 1) claims of material misrepresentations or omissions; and 2) claims of trade-based market manipulation. Despite the distinctive features of the two types of claims, courts have tended to treat them identically when applying the "fraud on the market" doctrine. In particular, courts have required both types of plaintiffs to make identical showings that the relevant security traded in an "efficient market" in order to gain a presumption of reliance. The reasons for requiring such a showing by plaintiffs in a misrepresentation case are, however, inapplicable in market manipulation cases. Plaintiffs alleging market manipulation should not be required to demonstrate an efficient market in order to benefit from the fraud on the market doctrine's presumption of reliance. If plaintiffs are made to make any showing at all, it should be a showing of loss causation.


The terrorist attacks of September 11, perpetrated by Islamic extremists from foreign lands, have branded American consciousness perhaps even more deeply than any other tragedy to befall the nation. The first foreign attack on the mainland United States in nearly 200 years, September 11 has been burned into the body politic and represents a visible threat to our security and to our way of life. Americans naturally have demanded immediate measures to apprehend those responsible and to insure that similar attacks may not happen again. Governmental officials responded frenetically to September 11. Among other things, federal authorities immediately questioned and detained hundreds of immigrants from Islamic countries, and Congress rushed to pass the Patriot Act in such a short time that not only did our representatives little debate the bill, but few had time to read the "complex, far reaching anti-terrorism [and anti-immigrant] legislation" in its entirety. Following the aftermath of September 11, policies and practices against the foreign born have continued. Aside from President Bush's authorizing military tribunals to try only foreigners, not American citizens; both the state and federal governments, often with the help of private citizens, have engaged in unprecedented racial profiling of innocent South Asians, Arabs and Muslims living in this country. Although understandable given the authors of September 11 and the awesome magnitude of the attacks, the government's policy of racial profiling Arabs and Muslims is likely to contribute to anti-American attitudes both here and abroad, to discourage Arabs and Muslims from cooperating with the United States police and military officials, and to weaken moderate elements of Arab and Muslim societies while strengthening the extremist elements both domestically and internationally. Additionally, racial profiling is morally wrong. Racial profiling generally constitutes discrimination — using a person's race or religion as a substitute for evidence of wrongdoing. We are more true to ourselves and can better protect our society by adopting more measured investigative approaches and by doing the hard but time tested methods of investigation, with the aid of the Muslim and Arab communities and in cooperation with our allies throughout the world.