The mean residual life function is a key functional for a survival distribution. It has practically useful interpretation as the expected remaining lifetime given survival up to a particular time point, and it also characterizes the survival distribution. However, it has received limited attention in terms of inference methods under a probabilistic modeling framework. In this paper, we seek to provide general inference methodology for mean residual life regression. Survival data often include a set of predictor variables for the survival response distribution, and in many cases it is natural to include the covariates as random variables into the modeling. We thus propose a Dirichlet process mixture modeling approach for the joint stochastic mechanism of the covariates and survival responses. This approach implies a flexible model structure for the mean residual life of the conditional response distribution, allowing general shapes for mean residual life as a function of covariates given a specific time point, as well as a function of time given particular values of the covariate vector. To expand the scope of the modeling framework, we extend the mixture model to incorporate dependence across experimental groups, such as treatment and control groups. This extension is built from a dependent Dirichlet process prior for the group-specific mixing distributions, with common locations and weights that vary across groups through latent bivariate beta distributed random variables. We develop properties of the proposed regression models, and discuss methods for prior specification and posterior inference. The different components of the methodology are illustrated with simulated data sets. Moreover, the modeling approach is applied to a data set comprising right censored survival times of patients with small cell lung cancer.


Abstract Many statistical agencies face the challenge of maintaining the confidentiality of respondents while providing as much analytical value as possible from their data. Datasets relating to businesses present particular difficulties because they are likely to contain information about large enterprises that dominate industries and may be more easily identified. Agencies therefore tend to take a cautious approach to releasing business data (e.g., trusted access, remote access and synthetic data). The Australian Bureau of Statistics has developed a remote server, called TableBuilder, which has the capability to allow users to specify and request tables created from business microdata. The tables are confidentialised automatically by perturbing cell values, and the results are returned quickly to the users. The perturbation method is designed to protect against attacks, which are attempts to undo the confidentialisation, such as the well-known differencing attack. This paper considers the risk and utility trade-off when releasing three Australian Bureau of Statistics business collections via its TableBuilder product.


Among the most important recent questions under the Religion Clauses has been whether and when government programs that support private activities, such as education or social services, may exclude religious institutions or activities that include religious content. Nelson Tebbe's article, Excluding Religion, argues that government should have "considerable latitude" to make such exclusions, even though he concedes they will discourage citizens from choosing religious options. In this response, published in PENNumbra (the University of Pennsylvania Law Review's online companion), I argue that Tebbe's justifications for excluding religion fail if the protection of citizens' religious choices against government influence is a central purpose of the Religion Clauses. I then turn to the key question whether preserving religious choice is indeed central, and I argue that it is, based on precedent, on traditions and concepts associated with the Religion Clauses, and on the fact that they are counter-majoritarian while Tebbe's position gives majorities great discretion over religious matters.


The title of the creative work is 'Ugly Lovely'. The 20,000 word critical discussion of the creative piece has no title, other than that it offers a critical consideration of the relationship between the literary composition and contemporary or traditional achievements in the genre.

The creative work concerns a taxi driver named Don, living in the south Wales port of Swansea. He finds his life and culture unsatisfying, but is unable, because of his own lack of will and energy, to leave. His passengers, some of whose lives have an orbit beyond the small-ish Welsh city, bring his sense of dissatisfaction into focus. The work follows a sequence of episodes during which the driver meets and reflects on the remarks and actions of subsequent passengers, and considers his own family and life.
Structurally, the work takes the form of a story-cycle concerning or emanating from Don or from the passengers in his taxi. The passenger narratives sometimes present complete stories or self-contained episodes, sometimes broken or partial narratives. All episodes stand in relief against the other fractured narrative running through the work, the driver's self-reflection and re-evaluation of the family life and up-bringing. Thus:

1) Taxi stories – involve the characters who step in and out of the taxi. These stories centre upon a cast of characters who enter the driver's working world, but also present to reader the a secondary cast of characters introduced by the passengers, through the stories they tell. The role and status of the driver shifts as the work progresses. At the close of the work, though the driver's future, like the futures of his town and nation, remains unassigned, he approaches it with a firmer sense of purpose (if not direction).

2) Connected family narratives - gradually present fragments from the history and lives of the main figures in the driver's family. Through these frequently conflicting and contesting narratives, the work delivers a number of perspectives on the history of the town in which the family lived and through which the taxi stories now move. These separate narratives are arranged out of linear sequence, in an order which has greater correspondence to their emotional importance, and in response to triggers set within the various passenger narratives. The contesting nature of the family stories raises questions in the reader's mind about which narratives are privileged, and which reliable. As the work progresses, the realisation comes that none of the narratives is privileged, that all may be unreliable and all contest for dominance and primacy in the driver's mind.

The critical element
In providing a 'critical consideration of the relationship between the literary composition and contemporary or traditional achievements in the genre', this commentary will present
I. a general introduction to the creative work,
II. discussion of the narrative form and organisation of the work, comprising:
a. consideration of the ways that the work is shaped by modernist concerns and structures, particularly those of the modernist 'city novel',
b. consideration of the way that the work is structured to present a collection of linked and inter-related narratives, broadly referred to as a short-story sequence

III. discussion of the extent to which the work can be placed within the canon of Welsh writing in English; in particular:
a. the ways in which the work constitutes a recognisable piece of Welsh writing in English and the extent to which it treats the concerns of one of the national literatures
b. the ways in which the work makes considered and constructive use of its setting in Swansea.


Africa lacks the vital knowledge necessary to establish a creative and innovative society capable of fostering economic development. Entrepreneurship knowledge is said to be the strength of economic development; it empowers and encourages people to start economic development activities. Presently, many educated Africans are those that do white collar jobs that produce very little economic developmental results. Africa needs people with entrepreneurship knowledge to enable them think creatively and be innovative. Such knowledge will enable a learning process that encourages engagement in economic development activities. People can only carry out economic development activities if they are educated to understand the factors that bring about such development. Economic development theories designed to help Africa economic development is unlikely to achieve that objective as long as the continent holds only to primary goods production. Porter (1998) in analysing the diamond of national competitiveness claims, natural resources is the only resource Africa has. From this perspective, Africa needs necessary knowledge that enables the production of finished goods. The objective of this study is to critically examine the role of entrepreneurship knowledge in economic development and how it orientates people to become creative, and innovative. Entrepreneurship's knowledge is believed to enlighten individuals and a society at large on what is needed for economic development to occur. Considering the view that developing entrepreneurs in the classroom is about developing an enterprising environments and approaches to learning in which entrepreneurial aptitudes and capabilities can flourish alongside business acumen and understanding, data is collected from management students in two universities in Cameroon and one university in Nigeria. The result is that Africa needs an entrepreneurial based that enlightens people to understand entrepreneurship and its role in economic development. The implication is that the study empowers people with knowledge required for business opportunity identification, creativity and innovation. The conclusion is that entrepreneurship should be taught at all school levels.


Simply put, a multiagent system can be understood as a collection of autonomous agents able to accomplish as a whole goals beyond the capabilities of any of its members. The traditional example depicts a heavy armchair that can be easily lifted by coordinating the effort of a group of persons despite that none of them would have been able to pick it up alone. Thus, one might argue that precisely the agent interaction is boosting the system performance. Since this interaction comes in several flavors, the literature has already explored notions such as agent coordination, cooperation, and collaboration in the context of multiagent systems. This extended abstract outlines our own understanding on this matter, summarizing the evolution of an abstract model for the particular kind of agent interaction known as deliberation. A group of agents deliberate whenever they need to come to a mutually accepted position about some issue. This interaction among agents has drawn our attention given its ubiquity: we believe that complex interactions such as coordination or cooperation might be attained as a result of accruing one or more deliberations. Our proposal is inspired after the novel trend of reinterpreting agent interaction as if it were the result of an argumentation process. For instance, several authors [2, 3, 5, 13, 14] have recently considered reformulating the main aspects of multiagent negotiation in terms of defeasible argumentation. We follow a like approach in developing our model after a set of dialectical concepts borrowed from that same area. Our approach also strives for generality, mainly after Dung's ample success with his notion of argumentative framework due to its abstract nature. In consequence, we too have decided to pursue an abstract model.


One of two major essays in the two volume catalogue of the recent work of the Belgian artist Jan de Cock. It makes a study of the large installations at Tate Modern, summer 2005 using the Freudian concept of object-cathexis in order to analyse the work's libidinous and aggressive attachment to the museum as an institution and as a specific set of spaces. It compares de Cock's strategies to those of Donald Judd and Marcel Broodthers.

This essay is significant for showing how the concept of cathexis can be widely applied across architecture and sculpture. It is original in the sense that it is the only existing analysis of de Cock's work to use a psychoanalytic methodology. It is executed with rigour in that the essay stems from discussions between the author and the artist that were modelled on clinical psychoanalytic practice. There is also a high degree of originality through input from the author and the artist, particularly in the way in which the text is located throughout the book as an 'unconscious text', that appears in all the other texts on de Cock's work, and then wraps around the cover of the book to name it, before returning to the status of subtext (thus the 127 pages).

The book is a unique and highly creative encounter between author and artists that initiates new forms of expression and dialogue to graphically and temporally capture the 'pulsation of the unconscious' (Lacan, Four Fundamentals of Psychoanalysis). This process opens up the text to visual and spatial displacements that act as homologues to the functioning of the conscious and unconscious ambitions of the artist.
Winner of the Plantin Moretus Prize in the category of 'Best Art Book', 2007.


– I – Lauded and glorified art Thou, O Lord, my God! How can I make mention of Thee, assured as I am that no tongue, however deep its wisdom, can befittingly magnify Thy name, nor can the bird of the human heart, however great its longing, ever hope to ascend into the heaven of Thy majesty and knowledge. If I describe Thee, O my God, as Him Who is the All-Perceiving, I find myself compelled to admit that They Who are the highest Embodiments of perception have been created by virtue of Thy behest. And if I extol Thee as Him Who is the All-Wise, I, likewise, am forced to recognize that the Wellsprings of wisdom have themselves been generated through the operation of Thy Will. And if I proclaim Thee as the Incomparable One, I soon discover that they Who are the inmost essence of oneness have been sent down by Thee and are but the evidences of Thine handiwork. And if I acclaim Thee as the Knower of all things, I must confess that they Who are the Quintessence of knowledge are but the creation and instruments of Thy Purpose. Exalted, immeasurably exalted, art Thou above the strivings of mortal man to unravel Thy mystery, to describe Thy glory, or even to hint at the nature of Thine Essence. For whatever such strivings may accomplish, they never can hope to transcend the limitations imposed upon Thy creatures, inasmuch as these efforts are actuated by Thy decree, and are begotten of Thine invention. The loftiest sentiments which the holiest of saints can express in praise of Thee, and the deepest wisdom which the most learned of men can utter in their attempts to comprehend Thy nature, all revolve around that Center Which is wholly subjected to Thy sovereignty, Which adoreth Thy Beauty, and is propelled through the movement of Thy Pen. Nay, forbid it, O my God, that I should have uttered such words as must of necessity imply the existence of any direct relationship between the Pen of Thy Revelation and the essence of all created things. Far, far are They Who are related to Thee above the conception of such relationship! All comparisons and likenesses fail to do justice to the Tree of Thy Revelation, and every way is barred to the comprehension of the Manifestation of Thy Self and the Dayspring of Thy Beauty. Far, far from Thy glory be what mortal man can affirm of Thee, or attribute unto Thee, or the praise with which he can glorify Thee! Whatever duty Thou hast prescribed unto Thy servants of extolling to the utmost Thy majesty and glory is but a token of Thy grace unto them, that they may be enabled to ascend unto the station conferred upon their own inmost being, the station of the knowledge of their own selves. No one else besides Thee hath, at any time, been able to fathom Thy mystery, or befittingly to extol Thy greatness. Unsearchable and high above the praise of men wilt Thou remain forever. There is none other God but Thee, the Inaccessible, the Omnipotent, the Omniscient, the Holy of Holies.


The goal of this study is to develop signal processing methods that can be used to enhance visualization and feature extraction of EEG signals for use in developing brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) for patients with spinal-cord injury (SCI). In this work, a method to represent EEG signals in the time-frequency domain by designing an optimal kernel function which allows for the extraction of maximum possible time-frequency information. The study is based on EEG data recorded from 3 SCI patients attempting to perform 30sec periods of sustained voluntary contractions of the muscles affected by the SCI. Testing protocols were approved by a local Ethics Committee. 30 channels of EEG were recorded together with wrist and ankle muscle EMG when the patient was relaxed and during periods when the patient attempted to generate a sustained wrist extension or ankle dorsi-flexion. Data was collected from each patient on two separate occasions at a minimum interval of 10 weeks. The method we propose here is based on Wigner-Ville distribution which has proved superior to short-time Fourier and Wavelet transforms in visualizing the energy distribution in time-frequency domain. From the time-frequency representation proposed, we extracted information such as moments and marginals and identified the number of elementary sources contributing to the EEG signal during the attempted movement. For each subject, estimated moments and marginals were similar for each test day. This is interpreted as an indication that the extracted signal associated with the performance of an attempted voluntary contraction is relatively stable and can be considered independent of any spatio-temporal reorganization that may have happened in the motor system in response to a spinal lesion in the interval between test sessions. We conclude that this information may potentially be considered as salient features in developing non-invasive BCI applications for SCI patients.


Today, large-scale scientific applications are both data driven and distributed. To support the scale and inherent distribution of these applications, significant heterogeneous and geographically distributed resources are required over long periods of time to ensure adequate performance. Furthermore, the behavior of these applications depends on a large number of factors related to the application, the system software, the underlying hardware, and other running applications, as well as potential interactions among these factors.
Most Grid application users are primarily concerned with obtaining the result of the application as fast as possible, without worrying about the details involved in monitoring and understanding factors affecting application performance. In this work, we aim to provide the application users with a simple and intuitive performance evaluation mechanism during the execution time of their long-running Grid applications or workflows. Our performance evaluation mechanism provides a qualitative and periodic assessment of the application's behavior by informing the user whether the application's performance is expected or unexpected. Furthermore, it can help improve overall application performance by informing and guiding fault-tolerance services when the application exhibits persistent unexpected performance behaviors.
This thesis addresses the hypotheses that in order to qualitatively assess application behavioral states in long-running scientific Grid applications: (1) it is necessary to extract temporal information in performance time series data, and that (2) it is sufficient to extract variance and pattern as specific examples of temporal information. Evidence supporting these hypotheses can lead to the ability to qualitatively assess the overall behavior of the application and, if needed, to offer a most likely diagnostic of the underlying problem.
To test the stated hypotheses, we develop and evaluate a general qualitative performance analysis framework that incorporates (a) techniques from time series analysis and machine learning to extract and learn from data, structural and temporal features associated with application performance in order to reach a qualitative interpretation of the application's behavior, and (b) mechanisms and policies to reason over time and across the distributed resource space about the behavior of the application.
Experiments with two scientific applications from meteorology and astronomy comparing signatures generated from instantaneous values of performance data versus those generated from temporal characteristics support the former hypothesis that temporal information is necessary to extract from performance time series data to be able to accurately interpret the behavior of these applications. Furthermore, temporal signatures incorporating variance and pattern information generated for these applications reveal signatures that have distinct characteristics during well-performing versus poor-performing executions. This leads to the framework's accurate classification of instances of similar behaviors, which represents supporting evidence for the latter hypothesis. The proposed framework's ability to generate a qualitative assessment of performance behavior for scientific applications using temporal information present in performance time series data represents a step towards simplifying and improving the quality of service for Grid applications.


MicroRNA-155 (miR-155) has emerged as a critical regulator of immune cell development, function, and disease. However, the mechanistic basis for its impact on the hematopoietic system remains largely unresolved. Because miRNAs function by repressing specific mRNAs through direct 3′UTR interactions, we have searched for targets of miR-155 implicated in the regulation of hematopoiesis. In the present study, we identify Src homology-2 domain-containing inositol 5-phosphatase 1 (SHIP1) as a direct target of miR-155, and, using gain and loss of function approaches, show that miR-155 represses SHIP1 through direct 3′UTR interactions that have been highly conserved throughout evolution. Repression of endogenous SHIP1 by miR-155 occurred following sustained over-expression of miR-155 in hematopoietic cells both in vitro and in vivo, and resulted in increased activation of the kinase Akt during the cellular response to LPS. Furthermore, SHIP1 was also repressed by physiologically regulated miR-155, which was observed in LPS-treated WT versus miR-155−/− primary macrophages. In mice, specific knockdown of SHIP1 in the hematopoietic system following retroviral delivery of a miR-155-formatted siRNA against SHIP1 resulted in a myeloproliferative disorder, with striking similarities to that observed in miR-155-expressing mice. Our study unveils a molecular link between miR-155 and SHIP1 and provides evidence that repression of SHIP1 is an important component of miR-155 biology.


Connors provides a history of composition and its pedagogical approaches to form, genre, and correctness. He shows where many of the today s practices and assumptions about writing come from, and he translates what our techniques and theories of teaching have said over time about our attitudes toward students, language and life.Connors locates the beginning of a new rhetorical tradition in the mid-nineteenth century, and from there, he discusses the theoretical and pedagogical innovations of the last two centuries as the result of historical forces, social needs, and cultural shifts.This important book proves that American composition-rhetoric is a genuine, rhetorical tradition with its own evolving theria and praxis. As such it is an essential reference for all teachers of English and students of American education."


Peroxisomes are essential intracellular organelles that involve many metabolic processes, such as β-oxidation of very long-chain fatty acids and synthesis of plasmalogen and bile acids as well as generation and degradation of hydrogen peroxide. These peroxisomal functions are fulfilled by strictly and spatiotemporally regulated compartmentation of the proteins catalysing these reactions. Defects in peroxisomal protein import results in inherited peroxisome biogenesis disorders in humans. Peroxisomal matrix and membrane proteins are synthesised on free ribosomes but transported into peroxisomes by distinct pathways determined by specific targeting signals and their receptors. The mechanism by which this is achieved has been clarified by identification of many PEX genes and the products named peroxins, the essential factors for peroxisome biogenesis. This article introduces several basic methods to investigate protein import into peroxisomes.

Key Concepts

Peroxisome plays an essential role in various metabolic pathways.
Deficiency of peroxisomes in human causes severe foetal genetic diseases, peroxisome-deficient disorders.
Functions and the integrity of peroxisomes are archived by proper import of both matrix and membrane proteins into peroxisomes.
Peroxisomal proteins are encoded by nuclear DNA, synthesised in cytosolic free ribosomes and post-translationally imported into pre-existing peroxisomes.
Peroxisomal matrix and membrane proteins are translocated into peroxisomes via different pathways in a manner dependent on their distinct targeting signals.
Many of peroxins encoded by PEX genes are responsible factors for peroxisome biogenesis and are involved in the import of peroxisomal proteins.
Various experimental approaches have elucidated the molecular mechanisms underlying peroxisome biogenesis.
Post-translational import of peroxisomal proteins into isolated peroxisomes can be reproduced in vitro.
Semi-permeabilised cells, in which only the plasma membrane is selectively permeabilised, are used to investigate peroxisomal protein import, as with living cells.

Keywords:

peroxisomes;
protein translocation;
peroxisome targeting signals;
import receptors;
PEX genes;
peroxins;
peroxisome biogenesis disorders


National estimates of students' writing abilities in the United States indicate that in 2002, 72% of elementary-aged students were unable to write with grade-level proficiency (Persky, Daane, & Jin, 2003). Although performance feedback is one type of intervention that improves students' writing skills, no study to date has examined the generalization and maintenance of writing fluency improvements developed through these interventions. The primary goal of this study was to determine whether elementary-aged students assigned to a performance feedback intervention condition demonstrated evidence of greater immediate treatment effects, generalization, and maintenance than students assigned to a practice-only condition. Results revealed that in comparison with the practice-only condition (n = 52), students assigned to the performance feedback condition (n = 51) demonstrated significantly greater immediate and generalized writing fluency improvements. However, evidence of maintenance of intervention effects was limited. These findings suggest that, in isolation, performance feedback may produce short-term desired effects on students' writing fluency growth, but that explicit programming of generality may be required to produce long-term achievement gains.


This article analyses problematic aspects of human resource development in municipalities and discusses the concept of human resource development, the model of a learning organisation and their interrelation. Models of employee professional development and of human resource development in municipalities are analysed. The results of the research show that employee professional development in Lithuanian municipalities is related to qualification furthering outside the organisation rather than in-service training and learning at the workplace. Poor integration of education into municipality's work environment leads to unfavourable conditions for the development of employees' competence. In pursuit of qualitative changes, it is advisable to gradually create an enabling environment for learning and training in municipalities and adapt the model of human resource development.


Intermediate and advanced coverage of Visual Basic 2010 and .NET 4 for professional developers If you've already covered the basics and want to dive deep into VB and .NET topics that professional programmers use most, this is your book. You'll find a quick review of introductory topics-always helpful-before the author team of experts moves you quickly into such topics as data access with ADO.NET, Language Integrated Query (LINQ), security, ASP.NET web programming with Visual Basic, Windows workflow, threading, and more. You'll explore all the new features of Visual Basic 2010 as well as all the essential functions that you need, including .NET features such as LINQ to SQL, LINQ to XML, WCF, and more. Plus, you'll examine exception handling and debugging, Visual Studio features, and ASP.NET web programming. Expert author team helps you master the tools and techniques you need most for professional programming Reviews why Visual Basic 2010 will be synonymous with writing code in Visual Studio 2010 Focuses on .NET features such as LINQ, LINQ to SQL, LINQ to XML, WPF, workflow, and more Discusses exception handling and debugging, data access with ADO.NET, Visual Studio features for Visual Basic developers, Windows programming with Windows Forms, ASP.NET web programming with VB, communication interfaces, Windows workflow, and threading This Wrox guide presents you with updated coverage on topics you need to know now.


The demanding literacy levels required of senior secondary students are widely acknowledged, yet the area of literacy in the senior secondary high school remains relatively under researched. In particular, there is a lack of detailed studies which aim to differentiate the literacy expectations of different subject areas. A first step in this process is to differentiate the underlying objectives stated for different subjects. This paper will report on preliminary research into the rationales and values statements contained in the Stage 6 Modern and Ancient History syllabi carried out as part of a larger research project investigating the literacy demands of Stage 6 Humanities Subjects in NSW. An Appraisal analysis of these syllabi shows how these subjects argue quite differently for their importance in terms of relevance to and skill building for students. The analysis will indicate how a complex interplay of judgement and appreciation is constructed in these documents and contribute to understandings of difference within the discipline of history in the senior high school.


A fundamental result of scattering theory, the so-called optical theorem, applies to situations where the field incident on the scatterer is a monochromatic plane wave and the scatterer is deterministic. We present generalizations of the theorem to situations where either the incident field or the scatterer or both are spatially random. By using these generalizations we demonstrate the possibility of determining the structure of some random scatterers from the knowledge of the power absorbed from two plane waves incident on it.


Background: Glomus tumors present as painful lesions, most commonly in the fingertips. These can present to outpatient clinics of multiple specialties. Materials and Methods: Retrospective review was performed of 37 patients diagnosed as having glomus tumor in the thumb or fingertips over a 10-year period. The data collected included demographics, presenting symptoms, duration, previous treatment history, physical examination, treatment, and recurrence. The data were presented by means of descriptive statistics. Results: The mean duration of symptoms before presentation was 3.8 years (range 2 to 12 years). The mean age at presentation was 38 years (range 16 to 62 years), and female to male ratio was 21:16. Twenty-two patients had left-hand involvement; thumb 8, index finger 5, middle finger 5, ring finger 14, and little finger 5. Clinical and radiological assessments were made preoperatively. At presentation, 18 cases had nail changes, whereas 19 had no obvious nail changes – out of these, 4 had pulp involvement. The lesion involved the subungual region in 33 cases. The mean size of the lesion was 3.8 mm (range 2 to 10 mm). Thirty-six patients were found to have histopathologically proven glomus tumors, whereas in one no specific lesion was found on histopathological examination; this patient returned with recurrence of symptoms at 2-month follow-up. There was no other patient experienced recurrence of symptoms. Conclusion: Early diagnosis of glomus tumors is important to avoid lengthy treatment delays, chronic pain, disuse syndromes, and psychiatric misdiagnoses.


Homo sapiens and Neanderthals (Homo neanderthalensis) evolved from Homo heidelbergensis in the last 300 000 years. H. sapiens subsequently spread throughout the world; all other hominins disappeared. The Out of Africa and multiregional models offer different explanations for this pattern.

Keywords:

Homo sapiens;
Neanderthals;
Homo erectus;
Out of Africa model;
multiregional evolution


Reliable evaluation benchmarks designed for replicability and comprehensiveness have driven progress in machine learning. Due to the lack of a multilingual benchmark, however, vision-and-language research has mostly focused on English language tasks. To fill this gap, we introduce the Image-Grounded Language Understanding Evaluation benchmark. IGLUE brings together - by both aggregating pre-existing datasets and creating new ones - visual question answering, cross-modal retrieval, grounded reasoning, and grounded entailment tasks across 20 diverse languages. Our benchmark enables the evaluation of multilingual multimodal models for transfer learning, not only in a zero-shot setting, but also in newly defined few-shot learning setups. Based on the evaluation of the available state-of-the-art models, we find that translate-test transfer is superior to zero-shot transfer and that few-shot learning is hard to harness for many tasks. Moreover, downstream performance is partially explained by the amount of available unlabelled textual data for pretraining, and only weakly by the typological distance of target-source languages. We hope to encourage future research efforts in this area by releasing the benchmark to the community.


The ability to automatically detect eye center locations in video images allows for estimating gaze direction. This, in turn, facilitates the study of human-computer interaction and behavioral analyses of social interactions. We propose an improved eye center localization method based on the Hough transform, called Circle-based Eye Center Localization (CECL) that is simple, robust, and achieves accuracy at a par with typically more complex state-of-the-art methods. The CECL method relies on color and shape cues that distinguish the iris from other facial structures. The circle enclosing the iris is localized by means of the Hough transform and the center of the iris is determined using the intensity level within the detected circle. The accuracy of the CECL method is demonstrated through a comparison with 15 state-of-the-art eye center localization methods against five error thresholds, as reported in the literature. The CECL method achieved an accuracy of 80.8% to 99.4% and ranked first for 2 of the 5 thresholds. It is concluded that the CECL method offers an attractive alternative to existing methods for automatic eye center localization.


We consider the problem of sampling at unknown locations. We prove that, in this setting, if we take arbitrarily many samples of a polynomial or real bandlimited signal, it is possible to find another function in the same class, arbitrarily far away from the original, that could have generated the same samples. In other words, the error can be arbitrarily large. Motivated by this, we prove that, for polynomials, if the sample positions are constrained such that they can be described by an unknown rational function, uniqueness can be achieved. In addition to our theoretical results, we show that, in 1-D, the problem of recovering a painted surface from a single image exactly fits this framework. Furthermore, we propose a simple iterative algorithm for recovering both the surface and the texture and test it with simple simulations.


In this article, we explore the grounds on which world anthropologies can be differentiated and how this can be discussed without reproducing the internal hierarchies of a discipline that has at least four names (social anthropology, cultural anthropology, ethnology, ethnography). We suggest that ethnographic research (rather than national intellectual traditions) can be used as the criterion to differentiate between world anthropologies. In doing so, we discuss whether the production of anthropological knowledge is affected by the model of ethnographic fieldwork employed, by focusing on two methodologies: the "extended stay" model and the "back-and-forth" model. We also consider how methodologies may be discussed, given that the extended stay and back-and-forth fieldwork designs exist within anthropological-ethnological communities in unequal power positions. On the basis of an anthropological conference, Anthropology Otherwise, organised in Valjevo, Serbia, in 2011, which used consensus-based decision making as an organisational technique, we suggest that encounters of people who practice ethnography in various ways may unsettle existing hierarchies within the discipline if organised through experimental academic conference formats.


AIM
In metabolomics research, the use of different blood collection methods may influence endogenous metabolites.

MATERIALS & METHODS
Ultra HPLC coupled with MS/MS was applied together with multivariate statistics to investigate metabolomics differences in serum and plasma samples handled by different anticoagulants. A total of 135 known representative metabolites were assessed for comprehensive evaluation of the effects of anticoagulants.

RESULTS
Exogenous factors, including separation gel ingredients from the serum collection tubes and the anticoagulants, affected mass spectrometer detection. Heparin plasma yielded the best detection of different functional groups and is therefore the optimal blood specimen for metabolomics research, followed by potassium oxalate plasma.


Neural population activity is theorized to reflect an underlying dynamical structure. This structure can be accurately captured using state space models with explicit dynamics, such as those based on recurrent neural networks (RNNs). However, using recurrence to explicitly model dynamics necessitates sequential processing of data, slowing real-time applications such as brain-computer interfaces. Here we introduce the Neural Data Transformer (NDT), a non-recurrent alternative. We test the NDT's ability to capture autonomous dynamical systems by applying it to synthetic datasets with known dynamics and data from monkey motor cortex during a reaching task well-modeled by RNNs. The NDT models these datasets as well as state-of-the-art recurrent models. Further, its non-recurrence enables 3.9ms inference, well within the loop time of real-time applications and more than 6 times faster than recurrent baselines on the monkey reaching dataset. These results suggest that an explicit dynamics model is not necessary to model autonomous neural population dynamics. Code github.com/snel-repo/neural-data-transformers.


Cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) has been the main agronomic crop in northeast Louisiana for many years. However, intensive agricultural production paired with mono-cropping has resulted in decreased productivity and declining soil quality. The implementation of best management practices has the potential to alleviate many of these problems. Information is limited on the benefit of these conservation practices on these highly degraded soils. Therefore, a field trial to evaluate the effect of poultry-litter applications on cotton production and the environment was established. Trials were conducted at the Macon Ridge Research Station in Winnsboro, LA from 2008 to 2011. Poultry litter was applied at the rate of 0, 3.3, and 6.7 mg ha -1 . The effect of litter applications was evaluated over both conservation and conventional tillage systems with and without a winter cover crop. Additionally, to simulate traditional production practices, an inorganic fertilizer treatment was included. Cotton lint yields of the poultry-litter treatments were significantly (P < 0.05) higher than those that received inorganic fertilizers, yielding 231, 175, 392, and 330 kg lint ha -1 more for poultrylitter applied plots compared to inorganic fertilizers in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012, respectively. However, the application of 6.7 mg ha -1 did not significantly improve yields over the 3.3 mg ha -1 rate. A significant buildup of Mehlich-3 extractable, soil test P level was found when poultry litter was applied compared to inorganic fertilizers, with increased soil test P levels of 26 mg P kg -1 by the end of the trial. Overall, poultry litter can be used as a soil amendment in northeast Louisiana; nonetheless, management that enhances yield benefits while minimizing soil accumulation needs to be emphasized to minimize increased soil P buildup.


OBJECTIVE
To assess attitudes to breastfeeding among children in primary education and to evaluate the influence of educational lectures on their knowledge.

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional study of 503 students of both sexes from the fourth to the eighth grades of five different schools. The children were divided into two groups: control (n = 215) and intervention (n = 288) in order to evaluate the influence of educational lectures. A questionnaire containing 30 questions about different features of breastfeeding was used for data collection. The intervention took the form of a 30-minute lecture, given at the schools.

RESULTS
The lecture increased the number of schoolchildren who answered that breastmilk is most beneficial for infants (p < 0.05) and that breastfeeding is the most practical way of feeding babies (p < 0.05). There was a reduction in the number who would give supplementary feeding during the first month of life (p < 0.05) and also in how many would give a baby a pacifier (p < 0.05). After the intervention less than half of the girls would chose to breastfeed for 1 year or more (39.1% in the control group vs. 43.2% in the intervention group); while the opposite was true of the males (54.7% in the control group vs. 51.7% in the intervention group). More of the boys (37.1%) were able to cite specific advantages for mothers from breastfeeding when compared to the females (19.9%).

CONCLUSIONS
The results indicate that lectures on health education, presented at schools, have a beneficial effect on breastfeeding knowledge, awareness and attitudes.


We investigate the influence of noise on a graph state generation scheme which exploits a mirror inverting spin chain. Within this scheme the spin chain is used repeatedly as an entanglement bus (EB) to create multi-partite entanglement. The noise model we consider comprises of each spin of this EB being exposed to independent local noise which degrades the capabilities of the EB. Here we concentrate on quantifying its performance as a single-qubit channel and as a mediator of a two-qubit entangling gate, since these are basic operations necessary for graph state generation using the EB. In particular, for the single-qubit case we numerically calculate the average channel fidelity and whether the channel becomes entanglement breaking, i.e. expunges any entanglement the transferred qubit may have with other external qubits. We find that neither local decay nor dephasing noise cause entanglement breaking. This is in contrast to local thermal and depolarizing noise where we determine a critical length and critical noise coupling, respectively, at which entanglement breaking occurs. The critical noise coupling for local depolarizing noise is found to exhibit a power-law dependence on the chain length. For two-qubits we similarly compute the average gate fidelity and whether the ability for this gate to create entanglement is maintained. The concatenation of these noisy gates for the construction of a five-qubit linear cluster state and a Greenberger–Horne–Zeilinger state indicates that the level of noise that can be tolerated for graph state generation is tightly constrained.


The performance of bus, ring, star, and tree network topologies is investigated for 10 Gbits/s differential-phase-shift-keying signals in the presence of optimized semiconductor optical amplifiers. By considering the signal quality factor and received power, the maximum number of users supported is calculated for different signal input powers. For all topologies, the performance is evaluated in terms of the number of users supported at the minimum signal input power of -40 dBm. The number of users supported depends upon the number of semiconductor optical amplifiers and optical couplers in all topologies.


Around 2.3 billion people in developing countries still lack access to improved sanitation facilities and almost one billion practice open defecation (OD). The Community-Led Total Sanitation (CLTS) has recently become a particularly popular approach used in more than 60 countries. CLTS is a behavior-change approach that aims to ignite community action and make OD socially unacceptable without providing any external financial or material support to individual households. CLTS is sometimes perceived as a revolutionary approach that has proven to be highly cost-effective in abolishing OD. However, it has been criticized for its use of unethical practices and questioned with respect to the sustainability of its outcomes and the limited health benefits it can generate. Based on semi-structured interviews with development workers experienced in the implementation of CLTS in 14 different countries, this paper seeks to examine practical views on the issues surrounding this approach. We found that despite acknowledging some of the controversies and the possibly limited sustainability of results, CLTS is generally considered an effective and satisfactory tool for improving sanitation conditions. Practitioners first of all accentuate the normative importance of the elimination of OD attained through CLTS without weighting on (the absence of) evidence on the longer term effects or impacts on health. However, a need for various modifications of CLTS according to local social and natural environments was strongly expressed, including changes that go against the core principles of CLTS like no subsidies and no technical assistance principles.


Objectives Determine how general practitioners (GPs) manage patients with cancer symptoms. Design GPs reviewed 24 video-vignettes and case notes on patients with cancer symptoms and indicated whether they would refer the patient and/or prescribe medication, and/or undertake further investigation. According to available guidelines, all cases warranted a referral to a specialist or further investigations. Setting Australian primary care sector. Participants 102 practising GPs participated in this study, including trainees. Interventions The research was part of a larger randomised controlled trial testing a referral pro forma; however, this paper reports on management decisions made throughout the study. Primary and secondary outcome measures This paper reports on how the participants would manage the patients depicted in each vignette. Results In more than one-in-eight cases, the patient was not investigated or referred. Patient management varied significantly by cancer type (p<0.001). For two key reasons, colorectal cancer was the chosen referent category. First, it represents a prevalent type of cancer. Second, in this study, colorectal cancer symptoms were managed in a similar proportion of options—that is, prescription, referral or investigation. Compared with vignettes featuring colorectal cancer participants were less likely to manage breast, bladder, endometrial, and lung cancers with a 'prescription only' or 'referral only' option. They were less likely to manage prostate cancer with a 'prescription only', yet more likely to manage it with a 'referral with investigation'. With regard to pancreatic and cervical cancers, participants were more likely to manage these with a 'referral only' or a 'referral with investigation'. Conclusions Some patients may receive a delayed cancer diagnosis, even when they present with typical cancer symptoms to a GP who can access relevant diagnostic tests. Trial registration number ACTRN12611000760976.


State-of-the-art approaches to causal discovery usually assume a fixed underlying causal model. However, it is often the case that causal models vary across domains or subjects, due to possibly omitted factors that affect the quantitative causal effects. As a typical example, causal connectivity in the brain network has been reported to vary across individuals, with significant differences across groups of people, such as autistics and typical controls. In this paper, we develop a unified framework for causal discovery and mechanism-based group identification. In particular, we propose a specific and shared causal model (SSCM), which takes into account the variabilities of causal relations across individuals/groups and leverages their commonalities to achieve statistically reliable estimation. The learned SSCM gives the specific causal knowledge for each individual as well as the general trend over the population. In addition, the estimated model directly provides the group information of each individual. Experimental results on synthetic and real-world data demonstrate the efficacy of the proposed method.


Bases on narratives about education by young and adults, this text discuss the idea of  understanding drop out as another form of the use of the school more than just a give up or abandonment. Our reflection hypothesis is that these students, which abdicate of giving a continuance of their education, can be leaving school in  EJA  modality by choice of life, with the rights that they possess of using the school on their own way and to their own benefit, choosing to be in it when there are specific interests on what it can offer, and not to be in it when there are other interests that superpose, without prejudices to their rights to have a good life, in the cognitive justice perspective, where the relationships between the knowledge are horizontal and non hierarchic, evidencing a dialog and an organization of network that do not necessarily privilege the formal knowledge, establishing as an ecological relation, of complementary and interdependence between the school knowledge and the knowledges learnt in everyday life. We think, either,  these choices can be understood like ways of exercising the right to learn for life from the point of goals and hierarchy of values to beyond of hegemony, , because it is based on recognition, on validity and by the importance of differents knowledge and values.


Like in many developing countries, diarrheal diseases remain a top cause of child mortality and morbidity in the Philippines. Partly to address this problem, the government has undertaken programs to expand access to safe water and sanitation facilities, especially among poor households. To assess the impact of such interventions on child health, we apply propensity score matching technique on the pooled data from the last five rounds of the National Demographic and Health Survey. We find that improved water and improved sanitation each reduced the probability of child diarrhea in 1993-2008 by around two percentage points. In 2013, improved water reduced the probability by about 7 percentage points, while improved sanitation do not seem to have statistically significant effect. These results lend support to the government's programs to widen access to safe water and sanitation facilities as measures to improve child health. JEL Codes : I12, I18, O53


Foreign trade enables a nation to consume a different mix of goods and services than it produces, so to measure real gross domestic income (GDI) for an open economy, we must deflate by an index of the prices of the things that this income is used to buy, not the price index for GDP. The differences between these two indexes come from the export and import components of GDP, and are measured by the trading gains index. Fisher indexes are a natural way to estimate the conceptual economic indexes of trading gains and real GDI because they are averages of the theoretical upper and lower bounds of the economic indexes. They can be decomposed in a way that permits analyses of the factors driving changes in trading gains, such as changes in the terms of trade and in the relative price of tradables, or changes in the prices of particular commodities. Applying these methods to the United States, we find that trading gains have a median absolute effect on U.S. real GDI of 0.2 percentage points in annual data. The petroleum price shocks that occurred in late 1973 and in 1980 subtracted more than a full percentage point from the annual growth of real GDI, and in the first half of 2008 price increases in petroleum and other imported commodities subtracted 2 percentage points from the annual rate of growth of real GDI, making it negative despite the steady growth of real GDP. On the other hand, with petroleum prices excluded, U.S. terms of trade begin to improve steadily starting in 1995 and the relative price of tradables falls. These effects increase the growth rate of U.S. real GDI by 0.15 percent per year on average.


Abstract. Building boundary lines are important spatial features that characterize the topographic maps and three-dimensional (3D) city models. Airborne LiDAR Point clouds provide adequate 3D spatial information for building boundary mapping. However, information of boundary features contained in point clouds is implicit. This study focuses on developing an automatic algorithm of building boundary line extraction from airborne LiDAR data. In an airborne LiDAR dataset, top surfaces of buildings, such as roofs, tend to have densely distributed points, but vertical surfaces, such as walls, usually have sparsely distributed points or even no points. The intersection lines of roof and wall planes are, therefore, not clearly defined in point clouds. This paper proposes a novel method to extract those boundary lines of building edges. The extracted line features can be used as fundamental data to generate topographic maps of 3D city model for an urban area. The proposed method includes two major process steps. The first step is to extract building boundary points from point clouds. Then the second step is followed to form building boundary line features based on the extracted boundary points. In this step, a line fitting algorithm is developed to improve the edge extraction from LiDAR data. Eight test objects, including 4 simple low buildings and 4 complicated tall buildings, were selected from the buildings in NCKU campus. The test results demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed method in extracting complicate building boundary lines. Some results which are not as good as expected suggest the need of further improvement of the method.


The "elephantine mass of asbestos cases... defies customary judicial administration" (Ortiz v. Fibreboard Corp., 527 U.S. 815, 821 (1999)) and US courts have been forced to create novel handling techniques. This Note deals with two under-appreciated but dramatic accommodations US courts have made to causation doctrine in the asbestos area which are extraordinary to foreign eyes. Both stem from the decision in Borel v. Fibreboard Paper Prods. Corp., 493 F.2d 1076 (5th Cir. 1973), cert. denied, 419 U.S. 869 (1974). First, US courts since Borel have not generally made any distinction between the causal issue in asbestosis and in mesothelioma claims: regardless of which condition has been contracted, a US asbestos plaintiff is entitled to get to the jury on the issue of factual cause merely by showing a suitable exposure to asbestos by the defendant. As applied to mesothelioma and other asbestos cancers this "substantial factor" approach rests on the radical fiction that asbestos cancers have a threshold contraction mechanism. This extraordinary fiction has gone virtually unremarked: astonishingly even the Reporters of Restatement (Third) of Torts: Products Liability sanguinely state, with no reference to Borel's case or even to asbestos, that "traditional notions of causation retain their vitality in products liability" (88 Geo.L.J. 659). Even when it is acknowledged, as in Rutherford v. Owens-Illinois, Inc. 941 P.2d 1203 (Cal. 1997), little if any rationale for its adoption is provided. Under the second fiction the cumulative asbestos disease of asbestosis is treated as if it were dose-independent and accordingly the liability of asbestos defendants is held to be in solidum. For example, in Norfolk & Western Ry. Co. v. Ayers, 538 U.S. 135 at 143 (2003) one asbestosis plaintiff had been exposed by the defendant for only three months and had worked with asbestos elsewhere as a pipe fitter for 33 years. The defendant was held liable for his total condition. This is in stark contrast to the approach of the United Kingdom: see Holtby v. Brigham & Cowan (Hull) Ltd. [2000] 3 All ER 421 (CA). The Note then speculates about the reasons for the extreme departures from orthodoxy represented by the twin asbestos fictions in the US: their creation, their apparent continuing acceptance even by beleaguered defendants, the uncertainty of their boundaries and their general neglect by academic commentators.


Harvesting rubber latex is rather labour intensive since trees are traditionally tapped half spiral, once in two days (S/2 d2) resulting in unnecessary waste of tree bark. High cost of production, shortage of harvesters and reduced economic lifespan are the key issues in rubber plantations related to harvesting. Low intensity harvesting (LIH) systems (i.e. either reduction in harvesting frequency and/or tapping cut length) of rubber appear to be a practical solution to these issues by bringing down the labour requirement and the cost of production. Of these, only the reduction in harvesting frequency has been tried in Sri Lanka. Hence, the present study was aimed to develop new LIH systems with shorter tapping cuts. This study comprised two stage stimulant (Ethephon) based field trials to evaluate a wide range of LIH systems. The overall yield given by traditional S/2 d2 was used as the standard in evaluation. Stimulation protocols of different harvesting systems were adjusted from time to time to achieve this standard. In addition, growth and physiological parameters of latex and the financial viability of the principal system were also assessed. Among the LIH systems tested, S/4 d3 (tapping quarter spiral once in three days) was successful in providing benefits, such as increase in both overall profits and harvesters' income and reduction in harvesting cost and overall cost of production. The overall bark consumption was also greatly reduced. Above all, it allows tapping the virgin bark of base panels for over 24 years. Popularization of this approach is proposed after large scale commercial testing. Doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.4038/jnsfsr.v40i4.5042 J.Natn.Sci.Foundation Sri Lanka 2012 40 (4):283-291


Transposons are discrete segments of DNA that have the distinctive ability to move and replicate within genomes across the tree of life. 'Cut and paste' DNA transposition involves excision from a donor locus and reintegration into a new locus in the genome. We studied molecular events following the excision steps of two eukaryotic DNA transposons, Sleeping Beauty (SB) and piggyBac (PB) that are widely used for genome manipulation in vertebrate species. SB originates from fish and PB from insects; thus, by introducing these transposons to human cells we aimed to monitor the process of establishing a transposon-host relationship in a naïve cellular environment. Similarly to retroviruses, neither SB nor PB is capable of self-avoidance because a significant portion of the excised transposons integrated back into its own genome in a suicidal process called autointegration. Barrier-to-autointegration factor (BANF1), a cellular co-factor of certain retroviruses, inhibited transposon autointegration, and was detected in higher-order protein complexes containing the SB transposase. Increasing size sensitized transposition for autointegration, consistent with elevated vulnerability of larger transposons. Both SB and PB were affected similarly by the size of the transposon in three different assays: excision, autointegration and productive transposition. Prior to reintegration, SB is completely separated from the donor molecule and followed an unbiased autointegration pattern, not associated with local hopping. Self-disruptive autointegration occurred at similar frequency for both transposons, while aberrant, pseudo-transposition events were more frequently observed for PB.


This research aims to develop user-focused design principles for energy-efficient office renovations. The goal of this is to improve the quality and comfort of workspaces without compromising on energy-saving goals. Due to increasing sustainability requirements, new ways of working and changing office user preferences, there is a growing need for office renovations that not only deal with the energy performance and the replacement of building facilities, but also the occupants' health and well-being. The renovation of office buildings can substantially reduce energy demand and improve building performance. For this reason, most studies regarding office renovations have focused on achieving better energy performance and indoor environmental quality. Also, several studies have investigated employee satisfaction in the work environment. However, the users are only considered after the buildings have been built and taken into use (e.g., postoccupancy evaluation), but not in the early stage of the design phase. Although there are building regulations and norms regarding indoor comfort, no clear design principles or guidelines considering users have been developed for office renovations. Therefore, it is necessary to explore how office users can be included in the early design stage of office renovations to improve their comfort and satisfaction. This led to the following main research question to be answered in this thesis:

How can design principles for energy efficient office renovation be developed, based on the evaluation of user satisfaction?

To answer to this question, field studies were conducted in 5 office buildings in the Netherlands. The cases consist of four renovated offices and one non-renovated office, originally built in 1960s to 70s. Before conducting empirical studies, a literature was conducted that is implemented in the theoretical framework. Ten parameters for satisfaction, such as thermal comfort, air quality, light, noise, personal control, privacy, concentration, communication, social contact, and territoriality, were defined and were classified based on the findings from 124 items of studies focussing on physical and psychological satisfaction in the work environment. Each chapter and several sub-research questions address these parameters. Based on the findings, a classification of user satisfaction parameters is proposed, including a discussion about an hierarchy of ten parameters. This hierarchy is structured based on theoretical definitions of parameters and its physical, functional, and psychological influences.

 For the empirical studies, a multidisciplinary methodology was applied to prioritise the important aspects of office renovations. The various methods for data collection and analyses included examining energy use and the quality of indoor climate after renovation, and investigating the impact of design factors on user satisfaction with thermal, visual, and psychological comfort. The design factors in this research are influential design factors on user satisfaction. These are office layout, orientation, window-to-wall ratio, and desk location. The empirical studies are structured in four parts.

Energy consumption

As a preliminary study, architects and facility managers were interviewed to identify the building characteristics of renovated offices and energy consumption. Henceforth, the five case studies were conducted. A cross-case-analysis was used to compare the building characteristics of the five case studies. The energy consumption of renovated and non-renovated offices were compared by different energy matrix. In addition, the limitations that hinder the achievement of better energy performance, were described.

Indoor climate and users' thermal comfort

Indoor temperature and humidity were measured by using data loggers to identify the condition of the indoor climate for users' thermal comfort after renovation. A questionnaire, including thermal sensation, preference, and satisfaction, was distributed among the building users. The monitored climate data of the thermal conditions were evaluated based on the Dutch building norms and users' responses.

Personal control

This part aims to identify the relationship between the degree of personal control over indoor environmental conditions (e.g., temperature, ventilation, light) and user satisfaction with thermal and visual comfort. This study investigated the impact of personal control on user satisfaction through user surveys and statistical analyses. The results present that higher controllability leads to more satisfaction in terms of thermal and visual comfort. It also reveals the psychological impact of personal control on user satisfaction by showing differences in perceived satisfaction according to 'no control' and 'do not have'. These findings provide support to workplace management and the design of personal environmental control systems.

User satisfaction with thermal, visual, and psychological comfort

Together with the indoor climate conditions of workspaces, 579 office users from the five cases were studied. The responses of the users were collected and analysed through statistical analyses. This study phase demonstrates the results of the impact of influential office design factors on user satisfaction with thermal, visual, and psychological comfort. It also contributes to predicting which design variables may bring better user satisfaction.

After the empirical studies, the conceptual study was conducted through energy simulation to evaluate the impact of the combination of design factors on the energy demand. Twenty-four office model variants were created based on the combination of design factors, which are consisted of 3 or 4 variables. The energy demand is predicted according to the office model variants. As a next step, the design principles were developed by incorporating the previous findings and various perspectives of energy-efficient office renovation. An overview of the predicted user satisfaction and energy demand is graphically provided in this research.

Based hereupon, a flow chart is created for applying the principles to the renovation process. First, the most influential design factors on thermal, visual, and psychological satisfaction are suggested in the design principles. Next, the values of predicted user satisfaction and energy demand can be evaluated by following the flow chart, to find the optimal renovation plan. In this step renovation alternatives are suggested in terms of office variants to create a balance between user satisfaction and energy efficiency. Last, if design limitations occur, the degree of personal control should be included to increase user satisfaction. The comprehensive design principles can help architects, designers, and facility managers to make design decisions in an early stage of office renovations.

To summarise, this research demonstrates the relationship between design factors, indoor climate and user satisfaction, without neglecting the fundamental goal of office renovation: reducing the energy demand, upgrading facilities, and improving building performance. It also contributes to developing design principles for office renovations with integrated user perspectives, that improve users' satisfaction and comfort, as well as energy efficiency. Although users' individual control over the indoor environment has a significant impact on satisfaction, it needs to be explored further. In addition, it is important to mention that other variables such as building elements and various façade configurations need to be included in further research. In conclusion, design principles considering both energy efficiency and user satisfaction will not only contribute to an increase in the value of a building, but also serve as a stepping stone for user-focused office designs or user-related aspects of the built environment.


This essay ponders notions of child psychoanalysis and relates them to the phenomenology of the quotidian and the phenomenology of ordinary adult-child relationships. The notions are: body image (Francoise Dolto, 1984) and the feeling of real (Donald Woods Winnicott, 1982; 1990). Dolto presents us the genesis of the child's body concretude, naming the erotic zones as "places of the body" and revealing the human capacity for fantasizing. Meanwhile, Winnicott states that the feeling of real is something to be experienced, built and maintained alive by a fluxus of continuous care caring and relationships as well as the supply, on the part of the adult community, in providing "total experiences" in the child's daily life. Searching for a hybrid theoretical vision between psychoanalysis and phenomenology, the author entwines the concepts in the light of the Sorbonne Courses, taught by Maurice Merleau Ponty in the mid 20th century. In this way, a third way forward may be engendered: a poetic-existential perspective for a child being, presented as something plural, which considers ways of being and inhabiting the space own body and surrounding space. This is a phenomenological comprehension of childhood – presented particularly in the reading of the dyad adultchild relations, in dialogue with Merleau-Ponty's works about the human early life (The Sorbonne Lectures). This has led to relational attitudes, in which the adult develops his listening and acceptance towards the ways of being of a child, gives positive values to the phenomena of childhood and harmonizes with something that Winnicott has defined as a concomitant "presence and absence" state of mind. It is necessary to be there when it is needed, as well as to be gradually absent, so that the child can find out, on her own ways and rhythm: herself, the others and the things of the world, acting according to Winnicott's conception called "the free and creative playing".


There is an emerging field in the design and development of complex systems, where systems are built upon components which in themselves are large scale systems – system of systems. Among other things, the system of systems viewpoint emphasises on open complex systems. In this thesis, the model of open computational systems is used to convey the constituents, dependencies, and interactions of such complex distributed systems. These open complex systems are exposed to critical events, occurring in the systems execution environment. Moreover, these events may have negative effects on the system at hand, resulting in system behaviour diverging from intended. Also, to take all possible affecting events in consideration when designing the system is impossible. By being able to instrument the system at hand in real time, i.e. online, one may be able to compensate the effects caused by critical events. However, to enable online instrumentation, one needs a supporting methodology which handles issues of an online nature and supporting technologies. In this thesis, this support is enabled by the methodology of online engineering and the technology of visualization. Furthermore, these instrumentations can be performed by cognitive agents – both human and software – which may explore and refine a specific system in conformance with their own, or cooperative, agendas and qualitative goals. To be able to perform the instrumentation, the cognitive agents need to be able to observe the phenomenon at hand to gain situation awareness, which in itself lies as a foundation for the decision process, carried out during the instrumentation phase. With this in mind, one quickly realizes the importance of enabling observation of open computational systems for both human and software cognitive agents. If human cognitive agents are involved in applying the methodology; the requirements on how the system is represented for the observing human agent – how the system is visualized – grows even more important. In this thesis, we emphasise visualization technology as a supporting technology for human cognitive agents in their observation process. By providing human cognitive agents with visualization technology, we may enhance the result of their observation process and thereby also increase the possibility to reach their qualitative goals. Hence, visualization of open computational systems affects a human cognitive agent's situation awareness, which in itself lies as the foundation for the decision making process on instrumentation of the specific system at hand in conformance with the agent's qualitative goals. This thesis will present an evaluation of a supporting tool for visualization of systemic qualities in open computational systems. Such tool must supply functions which convey the set of requirements put forward by the selected model, method, and technology. Moreover, the evaluation will be accompanied by appropriate recommendations for improvement of such a tool.


In a partially observable Markov decision process (POMDP), an agent typically uses a representation of the past to approximate the underlying MDP. We propose to utilize a frozen Pretrained Language Transformer (PLT) for history representation and compression to improve sample efficiency. To avoid training of the Transformer, we introduce FrozenHopfield, which automatically associates observations with pretrained token embeddings. To form these associations, a modern Hopfield network stores these token embeddings, which are retrieved by queries that are obtained by a random but fixed projection of observations. Our new method, HELM, enables actor-critic network architectures that contain a pretrained language Transformer for history representation as a memory module. Since a representation of the past need not be learned, HELM is much more sample efficient than competitors. On Minigrid and Procgen environments HELM achieves new state-of-the-art results. Our code is available at https://github.com/ml-jku/helm.


Although the genome of Trypanosoma cruzi, the causative agent of Chagas disease, was first made available in 2005, with additional strains reported later, the intrinsic genome complexity of this parasite (abundance of repetitive sequences and genes organized in tandem) has traditionally hindered high-quality genome assembly and annotation. This also limits diverse types of analyses that require high degree of precision. Long reads generated by third-generation sequencing technologies are particularly suitable to address the challenges associated with T. cruzi´s genome since they permit directly determining the full sequence of large clusters of repetitive sequences without collapsing them. This, in turn, allows not only accurate estimation of gene copy numbers but also circumvents assembly fragmentation. Here, we present the analysis of the genome sequences of two T. cruzi clones: the hybrid TCC (DTU TcVI) and the non-hybrid Dm28c (DTU TcI), determined by PacBio SMRT technology. The improved assemblies herein obtained permitted us to accurately estimate gene copy numbers, abundance and distribution of repetitive sequences (including satellites and retroelements). We found that the genome of T. cruzi is composed of a "core compartment" and a "disruptive compartment" which exhibit opposite gene and GC content composition. New tandem and disperse repetitive sequences were identified, including some located inside coding sequences. Additionally, homologous chromosomes were separately assembled, allowing us to retrieve haplotypes as separate contigs instead of a unique mosaic sequence. Finally, manual annotation of surface multigene families MUC and trans-sialidases allows now a better overview of these complex groups of genes.


Effective collaborative creativity is crucial to contemporary professionals who have to continuously produce innovative products and services. The technological nature and complexity of the innovations require team work, among specialists from different disciplines. Often these teams work in a distributed fashion, across boundaries of time and place. Therefore, they need electronic |spaces| that support (|afford|) their creative collaboration. Co-creativity support is not only a matter of making appropriate groupware spaces available but also of providing concurrent support in all these dimensions. These considerations inspired the development of the idSpace platform. idSpace is a collaboration platform integrating a variety of creativity tools with pedagogy-based guidance. It aims to optimise both the use of creativity techniques themselves and of the supporting processes of team collaboration and knowledge creation. In this paper, we zoom in on knowledge-sharing strategies for collaborative creativity (KS4CC). We show how collaborative creativity can be enhanced via integration of pattern-based pedagogical flow support, including suggestions of optimal use of creativity techniques. The KS4CC strategies consist of a merger of learning and collaboration flow patterns with support for the application of creative techniques.


Small size scale and high resolutions in force and displacement measurements make MEMS actuators appropriate for micromechanical testing. In this paper, for the first time, we present methodologies for uniaxial tensile and cantilever bending testing of both micrometer- and submicrometer-scale freestanding specimens using MEMS actuators. We also introduce dry fabrication processes for the specimens. The methodologies allow freestanding single or multilayered thin-film specimens to be fabricated separately from the MEMS actuators. For the uniaxial tension test, tensile forces are applied by lateral comb drive actuators capable of generating a total load of 383 /spl mu/N at 40 V with resolutions on the order of 3 nN. A similar actuator is used in the bending test, with load resolution of 58 nN and spring constant of 0.78 N/m. The tensile testing methodology is demonstrated with the testing of a 110-nm-thick freestanding aluminum specimen. The cantilever bending experiment is performed on a 100-nm-thick aluminum specimen. The experimental setups can be mounted in a SEM (and also in a TEM after modifications for tensile testing) for in situ observation of materials behavior under different environmental conditions. Remarkable strengthening is observed in all the specimens tested compared to their bulk counterparts in both tensile and bending experiments. Experimental results highlight the potential of MEMS actuators as a new tool for materials research.


Brands have always been associated with cruise and line voyage operations, but the branding concept has taken on new meaning in the modern cruise industry. In the consolidation of cruise lines under a few major corporate structure today, the acquiring entity has most often chosen to invest in lines acquired under their existing names, retaining separate brand identity. The author summarizes industry experiences with the acquisition and management of multiple brands under a single corporate structure, together with the rationale and advantages, this article is an updated and expanded version of that first given at the Seatrade Cruise Shipping Convention March 11, 1999.


First described over 25 years ago, epidural lysis of adhesions (LOA) involves the mechanical dissolution of epidural scar tissue, which may directly alleviate pain and facilitate the spread of analgesic substances to area(s) of pain generation. Although it most commonly performed for lumbar failed back surgery syndrome, there is a growing body of evidence that suggests it may be effective for spinal stenosis and radicular pain stemming from a herniated disc. There is weak positive evidence that LOA is more effective than conventional caudal epidural steroid injections for failed back surgery syndrome and spinal stenosis, and that LOA is more effective than sham adhesiolysis and conservative management for lumbosacral radiculopathy. For cervical disc herniation and spinal stenosis, there is only anecdotal evidence suggesting effectiveness and safety. Factors that may contribute to the enhanced efficacy compared to traditional epidural steroid administration include the high volume administered, the use of hypertonic saline, and to a lesser extent the use of hyaluronidase and a navigable catheter to mechanically disrupt scar tissue and guide medication administration. Although LOA is widely considered a safe intervention, the complication rates are higher than for conventional epidural steroid injection.


warmly welcomes the researchers and developers, professionals who are studying or analysing in the fields of Stem Cell, Genetics, Regenerative Medicine, Cell Biology, etc., and other associated organizations to participate in the event and grasp knowledge about the recent researches regarding stem cell and regenerative medicine and their analysis. This conference will consist of the keynote talks, session talks, oral presentations, poster presentations, B2B networking etc. The aim of this global conference is to promote the recent advances in Stem Cell Therapy Research with its applications as well as the cell and gene therapy which stands as the new therapeutic approaches. The conference will also support and motivate the young researches in the fields of Stem Cells and Genetics Research to meet the new advancements.


INTRODUCTION
Head and Neck Cancers constitute around 30% of cancers occurring in India and majority of cases present with locoregionally advanced disease. Cisplatin based concurrent chemoradiation is the most common modality of definitive treatment in these advanced cases. However, it is unclear regarding priority of weekly versus three weekly cisplatin based concurrent chemoradiation schedule in treatment of such advanced diseases.

AIM
To evaluate the efficacy in terms of response, locoregional control, and disease status in both the arms, and to compare the acute and late toxicity in both arms.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Thirty untreated patients of locally advanced Squamous Cell Carcinoma of head and neck were randomized into two arms: Arm A (n=15) patients received injection cisplatin 30 mg/m2 weekly along with radiation; Arm B (n=15) patients received injection cisplatin 100 mg/m2 on a three weekly basis along with radiation. Radiotherapy was delivered to a total dose of 66 Gy in conventional fractionation schedule in telecobalt machine.

RESULTS
Major toxicities included mucositis, dermatitis, vomiting, neutropenia, and anaemia. There was a trend towards increase in grade-III leukopenia and grade-III dermatitis in arm A compared to arm B, and increase in grade-III mucositis and grade-III vomiting in arm B in comparison to arm A although statistically not significant. Within a median follow-up of seven months, in arm A complete response was 73.33% (11/15) and partial response was 26.67%; whereas in arm B complete response was 85.71% (12/14) and partial response was 14.29%, which was not statistically significant. However, there was a trend towards better efficacy in arm B.

CONCLUSION
We conclude that, weekly cisplatin arm is as good as three weekly cisplatin arms. But efficacy is not statistically significant. However, there was a trend of three weekly cisplatin arms towards better efficacy, with comparable haematological and mucosal toxicities.


Calameuta middlekauffi, n. sp., is described from southern Oregon and California. It is the second species of Calameuta in North America and is differentiated from C. clavata (Norton) by head shape and coloration. Illustrations, descriptions, and a key are given to separate the two species. The food plant is unknown, but Palearctic species of Calameuta are known to feed in grass stems.


The arrival of farming in Europe around 8,500 years ago necessitated adaptation to new environments, pathogens, diets, and social organizations. While indirect evidence of adaptation can be detected in patterns of genetic variation in present-day people, ancient DNA makes it possible to witness selection directly by analyzing samples from populations before, during and after adaptation events. Here we report the first genome-wide scan for selection using ancient DNA, capitalizing on the largest genome-wide dataset yet assembled: 230 West Eurasians dating to between 6500 and 1000 BCE, including 163 with newly reported data. The new samples include the first genome-wide data from the Anatolian Neolithic culture, who we show were members of the population that was the source of Europe's first farmers, and whose genetic material we extracted by focusing on the DNA-rich petrous bone. We identify genome-wide significant signatures of selection at loci associated with diet, pigmentation and immunity, and two independent episodes of selection on height.


Zeolites are crystalline microporous aluminosilicates, one of the most versatile and widely used class of materials.The unique physico-chemical properties of zeolites are found to be irreplaceable in many industrial processes such as separation, adsorption and catalysis. To exploit their full potential and optimize their properties for specific applications, zeolites are often subjected to several post-synthesis modifications. The work presented in this thesis aims to provide a deeper understanding of the nanostructure of zeolite Y crystals and their modifications and shaping into an industrially relevant metal supported catalyst body. Advanced electron microscopy techniques, with focus on electron tomography (ET) and image analysis, enabled identification of hidden structural features and quantitative analysis of important zeolite Y properties at the nanoscale. The recent advances in electron tomography and image analysis for structural characterization of various catalytic materials (metal loaded - zeolites, silicas, carbon) were reviewed. The progress towards obtaining reliable and unique quantitative information of nanoscale catalysts' features through image analysis, the development of faster reconstruction algorithms and atomic scale ET, is highlighted through a number of examples. The leading role of zeolite Y in oil refining processes and in petrochemistry stems from its acidic nature, its crystalline structure composed of micropores (ca. 1nm diameter), and its pronounced stability under harsh reaction conditions. By introducing mesopores into microporous zeolite Y mass transfer of molecules throughout the crystals is facilitated which is beneficial for catalyst performance. A new approach for obtaining a hierarchical mesopore system in zeolite Y was developed. By submitting the commercially available steamed and acid leached zeolite Y to base leaching, an additional network of small mesopores was created next to zeolite Y micropores (from zeolite synthesis) and larger mesopores (from steaming and acid leaching). The hierarchical nature of the trimodal porosity proved beneficial for hydrocracking performance of this material. 3D imaging of zeolite crystals using electron tomography was crucial to unfold the true nature of this complex mesopore network. A deeper understanding of the structure of large mesopores (introduced after steaming and acid leaching) through quantitative assessment of properties unavailable to techniques other than ET was obtained. Image analysis of electron tomograms enabled differentiation and quantification of open, closed and constricted mesopores, calculation of mesopore tortuosity as well as the size of intact microporous domains, which are considered to limit mass transport through zeolite crystals. The nanostructure of the bifunctional Pt/zeolite Y catalyst was studied in depth. Semi-automated image analysis enabled measurement of size distributions and Pt particle-particle distances in 3D, and revealed large variations in Pt loading between individual zeolite crystals, up to a factor of 35. This discovery calls for re-evaluation of catalyst preparation methods and suggests potential for lowering the nominal loading with noble metals. Structural characterization of the bifunctional Pt/zeolite Y catalyst in its 'final' industrially applied form, where Pt particles are supported on extrudates composed of zeolite Y and alumina binder was carried out. Preliminary results of the method designed to controllably deposit Pt particles on either zeolite or alumina phase are presented.


Revised in 2006 for its twenty-fifth anniversary, this best-selling book is the "bible" for families caring for people with Alzheimer disease, offering comfort and support to millions worldwide. In addition to the practical and compassionate guidance that have made The 36-Hour Day invaluable to caregivers, the fourth edition is the only edition currently available that includes new information on medical research and the delivery of care. The new edition includes: -new information on diagnostic evaluation-resources for families and adult children who care for people with dementia-updated legal and financial information-the latest information on nursing homes and other communal living arrangements-new information on research, medications, and the biological causes and effects of dementia Also available in a large print edition


In both developing and developed countries, health ministries closely examine use of so-called nudges to promote population health and welfare. Cass Sunstein and Richard Thaler, who developed the concept, define a nudge as "any aspect of the choice architecture that alters people's behavior in a predictable way without forbidding any options or significantly changing their economic incentives. To count as a nudge, the intervention must be easy and cheap to avoid. Nudges are not mandates" (1).


This short paper introduces a novel use of timeline-based planning as the core element of a dynamic training environment for crisis managers called PANDORA. A trainer is provided with a combination of planning and execution functions that allow him/her to maintain and adapt a "lesson plan" as the basis for the interaction between the trainer and a class of trainees. The training session is based on the concept of Scenario, that is a set of events and alternatives deployed on a timeline-based system, that shapes an abstract plan proposed to trainees. Throughout a training session a continuous planning, execution, re-planning loop takes place, based around trainer observation of trainees and self-reporting by trainees, which provides analysis of both their behavioral and psychological changes. These, combined with the trainee decisions about what actions to take to manage the crisis, are used to maintain an updated model of each user. In addition the trainer has the ability to directly intervene in a training session to, for example, interject new scenario events. The training session is therefore managed through a combination of automated analysis of trainee behaviour and decisions, coupled with trainer input and direction.


We consider the problem of reconstructing near-perfect phylogenetic trees using binary character states (referred to as BNPP). A perfect phylogeny assumes that every character mutates at most once in the evolutionary tree, yielding an algorithm for binary character states that is computationally efficient but not robust to imperfections in real data. A near-perfect phylogeny relaxes the perfect phylogeny assumption by allowing at most a constant number of additional mutations. We develop two algorithms for constructing optimal near-perfect phylogenies and provide empirical evidence of their performance. The first simple algorithm is fixed-parameter tractable when the number of additional mutations and the number of characters that share four gametes with some other character are constants. The second, more involved, algorithm for the problem is fixed-parameter tractable when only the number of additional mutations is fixed. We have implemented both algorithms and have shown them to be extremely efficient in practice on biologically significant data sets. This work proves that the BNPP problem is fixed-parameter tractable and provides the first practical phylogenetic tree reconstruction algorithms that find guaranteed optimal solutions while being easily implemented and computationally feasible for data sets of biologically meaningful size and complexity.


This paper deals with the potential effects on the profitability of Canary Islands' farms due to the Special National Insurance System for Agricultural Workers Reform which was put in place in 2009 by the Spanish Government Ministry of Labour and Immigration. The effect on the employers' National Insurance contributions per working day is analysed. Based on this analysis, the impact on costs and benefits in several farms which cultivate bananas, tomatoes or flowers is evaluated. According to the results, it is concluded that these farms cannot afford the costs' increase derived from the reform if profitability per product unit or per surface should be maintained. On the other hand, the effect of changes in the contribution basis is softened to a great extent by the application of compensatory deductions, which are likely to disappear on the long term.


Electronic Government (E-Government) has become very important in recent years. It can be described as a system of digital interaction between a government and other parties, such as citizens, companies, employees, ministries and other government organisations. One of the most important elements of implementing E-Government systems is the interaction between users and E-Government systems, specifically the adoption and utilisation by those users, who are the main target of such systems. However, e-Government systems are still in the early stages in most developing countries including Saudi Arabia, and face many issues related to adoption, implementation and utilisation. Moreover, there is a lack of studies that investigate and analyse users' adoption and utilisation from different perspectives and also a lack of comprehensive frameworks specifically developed for such analysis. Thus, this research aims to investigate, analyse and understand the key factors that influence users' adoption and utilisation of e-Government systems and services in Saudi Arabia with a holistic approach. This could be used to enhance the current acceptance and use level and also would contribute to providing a user-centred path for designing and implementing new e-Services and government electronic systems. This study also aims to fill the knowledge gap in current e-Government literature about what might constitute a comprehensive framework on which to base such investigations.

In order to achieve the research objectives, a comprehensive conceptual framework, namely, E-Government Adoption and Utilisation Model (EGAUM), was developed from a critical evaluation of several common models and theories related to technology acceptance and usage, in conjunction with a review of e-Government adoption literature. The developed model was then utilised to investigate and understand the influential factors on the adoption and utilisation of different types of users; namely, citizens, government employees and users from the business sector. A multiple method was employed in this research which includes a quantitative approach (as a main method) and a qualitative approach (as a supportive method). Several analysis procedures were employed, including descriptive and statistical analysis to validate the research model and to determine the significant influential factors.

The results revealed that the user's Education Level, Perceived Benefits and implementing Regulations and Policies related to the e-Usage are common significant factors for the adoption and utilisation by all types of users. Moreover, the Functional Quality of Service/System, Perceived Simplicity and Socio-Cultural factors were found to be significant for the adoption and use of government employees and citizens. It was also found that Awareness plays a significant role in enhancing the adoption and use of public employees and users from the business sector.

As a result of these findings, the research developed number of recommendations that can serve as guidelines for successful implementation of e-Government systems and services based on users' perceptions, attitude, beliefs, needs and choices.


Health insurance in the United States for the working age population has traditionally been provided in the form of employer-sponsored health insurance (ESHI). If employers offered ESHI to their employees, they also typically extended coverage to their spouse and dependents. Provisions in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) significantly alter the incentive for firms to offer insurance to the spouses of employees. We evaluate the long-run impact of the ACA on firms' insurance offerings and on household outcomes by developing and estimating an equilibrium job search model in which multiple household members are searching for jobs. The distribution of job offers is determined endogenously, with compensation packages consisting of a wage and menu of insurance offerings (premiums and coverage) that workers select from. Using our estimated model we find that households' valuation of employer-sponsored spousal health insurance is significantly reduced under the ACA, and with an "employee-only" health insurance contract emerging among low productivity firms. We relate these outcomes to the specific provisions in the ACA.